It has been my long-held belief that science and spirituality will eventually end up in the same place. It has also long been my belief that legitimate psychics and mediums should, when asked and when it is appropriate, try and help advance the legitimate interests of science in anyway they can. Many psychics and mediums have assisted with the goal of advancing psi-research. In the early days, research consisted of seeing weather certain psychically gifted individuals could achieve higher than chance results in various card-guessing games. Today, the research is much more sophisticated.
Dean Radin*, Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, has moved psi research forward through his experiments designed to test the limits (or lack thereof) of human consciousness. Gary Schwartz, a Harvard educated scientist, and his colleague Julie Beischel, PhD, have worked to advance the afterlife hypothesis through their peer-reviewed work on psychic mediums.
There are hundreds of studies, in peer reviewed journals, providing evidence about the existence of psychic abilities and psi phenomena. Some of these studies follow the format put forth by the the aforementioned scientists, others follow completely different protocols. The point of this entry is not to belabor the point that there
is indeed some scientific evidence of psychic phenomena. Rather, the point of this entry is to expose the angry-skeptic Randi for what he is: an opportunistic fraud.
As many of you know, The Randi has offered a Million Dollars, "to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event." Many have questioned whether or not this money even exists. That's speculation for other blogs. For the purpose of this entry, we will assume that the money does indeed exist. It seems pretty clear that the man who has become a media whore by whoring out The Million Dollar Challenge would never award the money to anyway despite the production of positive results in any study.
For far to long, non-critical thinkers, have used Randi's (pseudo)Challenge to dismiss anyone who claims to have psychic abilities by exercising the quick gotcha strategy of saying, "Has this person applied to take Randi's challenge?" If the person has not, and believe me the psychics and mediums who undergo lab testing have legitimate reasons for not, are dismissed as loons or crackpots.
The effects of Randi's hateful brand of skepticism are dangerous and far-reaching. Randi abandons any type of civility in discussion for red-faced, spit-spewing, angry rants. These rants encourage critical thinkers to shut down and it encourages people being bullied into believing the Skeptics unbelievably simple explanation of the way the world operates. It prevents people from examining the nearly hundred years of scientific evidence related to psychic phenomena. It creates a belief that people who believe in psychic phenomena are stupid or uneducated. Randi is an expert at brandishing extreme-skeptic-rhetorical techniques to try and discredit psychic phenomena. Radin explains,
Extreme skeptics who believe that all psi experiments are flawed have used an effective bag of rhetorical tactics to try to convince others to dismiss the evidence. These include accusations that even if real, psi effects are so weak that they are trivial or uninteresting, statements of frank prejudice, long lists of common but scientifically invalid criticisms, and severely distorted descriptions of psi experiments which make psi researchers appear to be incompetent.
There are several problems with the (pseudo)Challenge itself.
Unrealistic Expectation of ResultsThe (pseudo)Challenge requires high correlative results in order to ever collect the money. A
fellow blogger explains,
First, and perhaps the most important, is the effect size required to win the challenge. While the JREF says that "all tests are designed with the participation and approval of the applicant", this does not mean that the tests are fair scientific tests. The JREF need to protect a very large amount of money from possible "long-range shots", and as such they ask for extremely significant results before paying out - much higher than are generally accepted in scientific research (and if you don’t agree to terms, your application is rejected). In the case of parapsychological research, however, where effect size is often small (though apparently robust), this means most researchers would have to go to extraordinary lengths to win the million dollars.
To further explain, Randi is not concerned with the way the scientific process works or in understanding what statistically significant result in a contemporary Psi study is. Instead, he is merely interested in safe-guarding his assets: All one million assets.
The previously quoted blogger goes on to quote Chris Carter, noted psi author, and I think it is worth re-quoting here because it explains the problem with Randi's unattainable expectations,
If Randi were genuinely interested in testing unusual claims, then he would also not insist upon odds of at least one million to one against chance for the results. Anyone familiar with scientific studies will be aware that experimental results against chance of say, 800,000 to one would be considered extraordinary; but results this high would be, according to Randi, a “failure.”
I understand that it is very much important for scientific advancement to have significant and repeatable results. Still, the field of cultural anthropology is not written off as crack-science or pseudo-science simply because some data may be anecdotal or because the conclusions we can draw from observation is not always immediately repeatable.
And it isn't as if Randi has the correct standard and every other peer reviewed journal has the wrong standard. The conventional wisdom, promoted by The Previously Amazing Randi, is that there are no scientific studies indicating the existence of psychic phenomena. As
Dean Radin points out,
Wrong. As we’ve seen, there are a half-dozen psi effects that have been replicated dozens to hundreds of times in laboratories around the world. As another example, conventional wisdom often assumes that professional magicians and conjurers “know better” than to accept that some psychic phenomena are real.
Easy TargetsRandi focuses mostly on easy and soft targets. He ignores most of the legitimate research on PSI and chooses to focus instead on many of the kooks that send him e-mails. He goes after big-named psychics because that is what is most likely to bring people to his website, get people to buy his book, and ensure that he continues to get booked as an expert (despite a lack of any scientific credentials) on major media programs. When asked by an interviewer about how he responds to people like Randi who claim all PSI research is crap Dean Radin
responded,
Either do that, or say to him, "yes, with the kind of people that you’re studying, I agree." There’s an awful lot of easy targets out there. But what you don’t find are detailed skeptical attacks against the best research, because then all that is displayed is ignorance and it is basically embarrassing for the people doing the attacks.
'
Randi's Credibility ProblemI am sure some people will call this section nothing more than a simple ad-hom attack against their hero. That is not the case. I believe that Randi has major credibility problems that would give anyone serious cause for concern when deciding whether they were comfortable working with him. Check out
"The Myth of the Million Dollar Challenge," in which Randi's multiple distortions and lies are exposed. Randi simply cherry-picks the information that will help promote his religious brand of skepticism and ignore any evidence that contradicts him.
Not to mention the fact that it is insane to think a former magician could produce a test that anyone in the scientific community
would take seriously.
Ironically, paranormal investigator Dr Stephen Braude agrees with Ray Hyman about the merits of the Challenge: “The very idea that there could be a conclusive demonstration to the scientific community of psychic functioning is fundamentally flawed, and the suggestion that a scientifically ignorant showman should decide the matter is simply hilarious.“
Additional Causes for ConcernRule #4 of the challenge states, "Applicant agrees that all data (photographic, recorded, written, etc.) gathered as a result of the setup, the protocol, and the actual testing, may be used freely by the JREF."
This is hardly typical for most scientific studies in which the identity of the participate is often heavily guarded. It appears, that instead of wanting to advance scientific inquiry Randi is more interested in playing GOTCHA with famous psychics and mediums. This rule is obviously a major cause of concern for anyone considering the challenge. Especially, if you believe, as I do, that Randi's interest lies in making money through personality assassination.
Rule #8 requires you to sign away your right to
any legal action against Randi even in the event of physical harm. Refusing to accept any legal liability raises serious questions about the types of tests Randi is prepared to engage in.
James Randi is doing nothing more than repeating age-old (and now disproved) skeptical adages. Unfortunately, many people are willing to listen to this man, which is depressing. As Dean Radin concludes,
Most of the commonly repeated skeptical reactions to psi research are extreme views, driven by the belief that psi is impossible. The effect of repeatedly seeing skeptical dismissals of the research, in college textbooks and in prominent scientific journals, has diminished mainstream academic interest in this topic. However, informed opinions, even among skeptics, shows that virtually all of the past skeptical arguments against psi have dissolved in the face of overwhelming positive evidence, or they are based on incredibly distorted versions of the actual research.
So what can we conclude?I would like to note that for anyone who wants to read a brilliant and in depth article about the fallacies employed by modern angry skeptics check out
Winston Wu Debunks the Skeptics.
The Randi is not the famed skeptic dedicated to improving our lives through exposing psychic frauds. Instead he is an opportunistic media whore who would do well to listen to the worlds of
Charles Honorton,
The distorted history, logical contradictions, and factual omissions exhibited in the arguments of the critics represent neither scholarly criticism nor skepticism, but rather counter-advocacy masquerading as skepticism. True skepticism involves the suspension of belief, not disbelief. In this context we would do well to recall the words of the great nineteenth century naturalist and skeptic, Thomas Huxley: “Sit down before fact like a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly to wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.”
*Check back for an entry that I am going to write about the Stupidity Hypothesis Check the
Facebook page for a video about the Stupidity Hypo from Dean Radin.
