James Randi, magician and respected skeptic, is hanging up the reigns: in two years, on its 12th anniversary, James Randi will officially end his million dollar challenge. For those unfamiliar, the million dollar challenge started back in 1964, when James Randi put up $1,000 of his own money to anyone who could prove the existence of the paranormal. The value amounts increased up until 1998, when the prize was bumped to 1 million dollars. Since beginning the challenge, Randi has received over a 1,000 applicants, none of which have been successful.

So has Randi finally been convinced of the paranormal or supernatural? No, far from it. Randi is discontinuing the prize because no one has even come near winning it. Randi will use the 1 million dollars to further the JREF, which promotes science and skeptic education.

It is unfortunate that the challenge will end. I’ll miss being able to dismiss quacks simply by telling them to take the million dollar challenge. It’ll also be interesting to see how the media handles paranormal and supernatural stories in the years to come. Could this lead to a whole new flock of Silva Browns?

Thankfully, the archive of applicants will remain for the ages. A quick recommendation: the case of Rosemary Hunter, the woman who claimed she could make people pee with her mind.

If you do in fact have magic powers, feel free to apply within the next two years and claim your prize. Check out the JREF website for details.

JREF Announcement
Applicant Archive

- Rob O’Reilly

Posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 2:56 pm in the category:Culture, Video. Comment RSS 2.0 feed. Comment it , or trackback this post.