One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge

From TinWiki.org

The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge is a challenge put out by the James Randi Educational Foundation that will give one million dollars to anyone who can produce scientific evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event. So far the million dollars has not been claimed. To date, no one has even passed the preliminary tests.

1 Challenge Issues
2 Claimed Winners Who Have Not Received The Prize
3 Public Figures Who Are Trying (Or Have Tried) To Win The One Million Dollars
4 External Links
5 Relevant Discussion Threads

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Challenge Issues

It is said the no one can win the million dollar reward. It is suspicious that the James Randi Educational Foundation is clear to point out that nobody has passed the preliminary test. The Challenge was issued in 1987 and not a single applicant has passed the preliminary test. JREF's website states that the preliminary test is to determine if the applicant is likely to perform as promised during a formal test. Applicants may re-apply, but re-application can take place only after 12 months have elapsed since the preliminary test. Most applicants never agree to a proper test protocol, so most are never tested. Before the a challenger attempts to try out he must first fall into a catagory of supernatural power that the James Randi Foundation is willing to test. This is taken out of a FAQ written by James Randi

"There are some claims that are far too implausible to warrant any serious examination, such as the "Breatharian" claims in which the applicant states that he can survive without food or water. Science conclusively tells us all we need to know about such matters, and the JREF feels no obligation to engage applicants in such delusions.... Other claims, such as "Crop Circles" and UFO's are rejected because they have been definitively proven to be the result of hoaxes or mass hysteria. Claims involving "Cloud-Busting", for example, are rejected because Science (along with keen observation) tells us conclusively that clouds will move and disperse despite the efforts of humankind to move them according to their wishes. The phenomenon behind Oujia boards, for example, is attributed to ideomotor reflexes, and not to anything paranormal. Claims of psychic healing border on the miraculous, and the JREF declines to investigate them unless extraordinary proof (in the form of actual medical documentation of the disease, "pre" & "post" psychic treatment) is submitted along with your application. Of course, when confronted with a particularly incredible claim like "remote viewing" (the current version of "clairvoyance") we can easily stop short and ask ourselves just why we are involved with such obvious nonsense.While you may be neither mistaken nor a cheater, the JREF will always assume that you are one or the other."

The terms and conditions of the formal test are not made available to the public but one can only guess the standards must be high if nobody has attempted one, not even for a million dollars

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Claimed Winners Who Have Not Received The Prize

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Public Figures Who Are Trying (Or Have Tried) To Win The One Million Dollars

Sylvia Browne. A well-known claimed psychic medium and author of numerous books on spirituality. On September 3, 2001, Sylvia Browne accepted the specific protocol for a definitive test for the JREF million-dollar challenge, on Larry King Live.
Prophet Yahweh (Ramon Watkins) the UFO caller has applied for the million dollar challenge.

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