Preface
What you are about to read has been known to only a handful of select individuals.
It may be one of the world's best kept secrets.
This will enrage literally hundreds of thousands of people and exposes a hoax
that may have knowingly deceived both its opponents and supporters.
For this reason, I have chosen to remain anonymous. I am sure there are people in the
skeptical community worldwide who will not react well to what you are about to read.
Some skeptics will claim that my refusal to identify myself in some way negates what follows. Nothing could be further from the truth. Consider the facts presented below.
You can check every detail without anyone else telling you whether or not it is true.
The Genie is out of the bottle, is angry and is not going back anytime soon.
Million Dollar Challenge May Be a Hoax!
The Million Dollar Challenge was devised by magician and debunker James Randi, and is now used by skeptics worldwide as a tool to challenge any claims of supernatural power in general and psychic claims in particular. In the 1980s, Randi recruited Steven Shaw a.k.a. Banachek to purposely deceive parapsychologists then working at the McDonnell Laboratory at Washington University in Missouri. Randi wanted to show the world that scientists could be deceived by tricksters. Banachek is skilled in the art of deception.
When James Randi announced he intended to withdraw the challenge a few years ago,
skeptics all over the world complained this would "rob them of one of their most powerful weapons against their opponents" (that is a quote from an online skeptical forum).
For some time, there have been criticisms of the Challenge and of James Randi himself.
His foundation and his own personal credibility have been questioned. However, to date,
the Million Dollar Challenge has been accepted by many people as a valid test of claimed
psychic ability. That acceptance may be naive.
The Million Dollar Challenge has always been clothed in some secrecy. No one can talk about what happens during the tests, and we have to trust the people who run the tests to be honest and fair. No one can bring witnesses or video tape. Normally no materials used during the tests can be seen by the public.
In August 2011, ABC News Primetime Nightline presented a program on psychics in their
Beyond Belief series. As part of this program a series of so-called "tests" were presented.
These demonstrations were conducted by skeptic and mentalist Banachek.
Three demonstrations were arranged to show the public the true nature of the well-known Million Dollar Challenge. This was highly unusual. The skeptics probably believed this would finally draw aside the curtain and remove any questions of propriety in the testing process, but the plan backfired. Because now, under scrutiny, it is clear how and why the test is conducted. And the results are not good for the skeptics.
These demonstrations were examples of the Million Dollar Challenge. James Randi appeared on the special and his name and the name of his foundation were associated with the demonstrations. It was said many times that anyone who was successful in one of these demonstrations would win the million dollars. Since these were Million Dollar Challenges, it makes sense to use them to discover the truth. The challenge is usually conducted in phases. This was apparently waived for the ABC News Primetime Nightline program.
Until now, no one has been able to actually see the Challenges. The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) says the tests are scientific, fair and unbiased. Now for the first time we can discover if this is really true.
There have been many comments from other critics that these tests present subjects with incredibly high odds against success. Other critics have said the tests don't always match a person's skills or that the tests may be improperly designed. I am going to focus only on one thing: is there any evidence of deception on the part of those giving the tests?
Why would anyone be concerned about experimenter deception? One reason is that person giving the tests on ABC Primetime Nightline tests is an accomplished magician and mentalist; he is in the business of fooling people. And he is affiliated with James Randi. He has run the Million Dollar Challenge for JREF. He certainly has the skills required.
Why would anyone engage in deception like this? A million dollars, the embarrassment to James Randi, his foundation and organized skepticism in general. There is certainly the ability to perform the deceptions and a good reason to do so. But was it possible in these tests? That is what we are going to find out.
A real scientific test guards against two kinds of deception: deception by the subject being tested, and deception on the part of the people conducting the test. Both safeguards must be present, you can't call a test "scientific" if either or both are missing. So that is the sole criterion by which we will measure the Million Dollar Challenge.
One last thing before we start. We cannot prove any of what is about to described actually happened. Only the people who conducted the tests know that for certain. What we can do is show that an opportunity existed and tell you why experimenter deception may have been in play.
First, we'll examine the three tests shown on ABC Primetime Nightline.
The first person to be tested was a stock broker named Jesse. Jesse claimed to be able
to speak to the dead; in other words, Jesse claimed to be a "medium".
For Jesse's test, each of 12 photos was placed in its own opaque envelope. One of the photos was of a deceased person, Elvis Presley. The other 11 photos were of living ordinary people. Jesse was to locate the envelope containing the photo of the deceased person at least 9 out of 12 times. The odds against success are very high. The test is about finding hidden things, but Jesse doesn't claim this so Jesse wasn't really tested properly.
There is no evidence in the ABC program to suggest that any precaution was taken to keep Banachek, the "experimenter" in these tests, from deception. So it was possible. But what exactly did he do?
Since I am a magician, I don't want to reveal precisely what I think was done even though you need to know it was simple. You could do it if you knew how. I'll just say it has to do with how Banachek handled the photos and envelopes. Here's a hint: there is an extra photo. I can't say there was any experimenter deception. Just that nothing in the test prevented it.
In the second and third tests, each person tested was asked to match biographies taken from volunteers. Each person tested had to match at least 9 out of 12 biographies with the correct volunteer to win the challenge. Neither person succeeded; each matched 1 volunteer. The odds against success were high and both ladies tested reported they were not allowed to use their talents as they normally would.
But we don't care about that here, all we want to know is if there was an opportunity for experimenter deception. Just like in the first test, there were no obvious precautions taken to guard against Banachek deceiving us. I won't reveal exactly what I think was done but I will point to what was being manipulated.
One clue is actually on the ABC footage of the third experiment. In the first shot coming back from break we see 12 people seated in chairs all in one row. Each is wearing huge gloves on their hands.
This is a scene you cannot miss, and you find yourself wondering why. Banachek says the reason for the gloves is to prevent the third person tested from seeing the hands and fingernails. But the second person tested was allowed to see the participants' hands.
So what is Banachek really up to? Why this difference?
Ask magicians and they will tell you it is a misdirection. Banachek doesn't want you focusing on something. And that something is not the participants. It is something common to both the second and third tests - it was the biographies Banachek wanted you to forget.
A bit later in the same segment Banachek is sitting at the table with Georgia, the third person tested. He has just handed her the biographies. She is looking through them and comments that there is not much information in the biographies. At this point, in one camera shot, Banachek glances nervously over Georgia's right shoulder at a fellow magician sitting behind her.
This is very subtle, but it does happen. Psychologists call this a "tell". Banachek seemed concerned that Georgia had noticed something wasn't right with the biographies and called attention to them. The very thing he hadn't wanted. Fortunately for him, and for skeptics everywhere, Georgia said nothing more and proceeded to fail the test.
What had Banachek done to the biographies? Here is a hint: What happens if you're walking down a hall carrying some books and you collide with someone else doing the same thing? What might happen to the books?
Banachek had the chance to cheat in all three tests shown on ABC Primetime Nightline.
He had the ability and good reason to do so. We don't know and cannot say that he did though. Some might say that things look suspicious because of editing by ABC. Fair enough, let's look at another example of the JREF Million Dollar Challenge that was not done for broadcast.
The fourth test was done in the U.K. by Dr. Richard Wiseman and Professor Chris French. Both men are skeptical academic psychologists. They tested Mrs. Patricia Putts, who claimed to be a medium. Ten participants were recruited as sitters. Mrs. Putts faced the sitters in a room and proceeded to write her impressions about each on separate sheets of paper. She handed the completed sheets to the person running the test as she completed each one. Afterwards the sitters were asked to pick the reading that best applied to them.
Not one of the sitters identified any of the readings as theirs. It appeared a complete defeat for Mrs. Putts. She couldn't believe she had been so wrong, but at the time accepted the test findings. But what really happened?
In a report on this test, published by Wiseman and French, there is no mention of any safeguard against experimenter deception. As in the ABC Primetime Nightline tests, there seems to be an assumption the testers are not under any suspicion. In actual fact, the sitters in this test were hooded during the readings. This purportedly was done to prevent Mrs. Putts from seeing the sitters' faces.
But they could have simply turned Mrs. Putts around and accomplished the same thing. While Mrs. Putts couldn't see the sitters' faces, something else was also true. The sitters couldn't see what was happening in the room. And that is the open door for experimenter deception.
Although we can't prove it happened, the tester may have switched the readings produced by Mrs. Putts for ten others written in advance that matched none of the sitters. This would produce an identical outcome and Mrs. Putts would fail miserably. There is no indication whatsoever that any safeguards were in place to prevent this from happening. In fact, just the reverse was true: the experimental design allowed for it.
It seems the Million Dollar challenge may be neither scientific nor a test, but instead simply a series of magic tricks. This might explain a few other things.
People have long wondered why certain otherwise legitimate claimants are not tested by JREF. It is almost as if there is a category of people or claims JREF refuses to test. Putting aside people who are genuinely daft, why would this be the case? If the test is fair and unbiased, any legitimate applicant should be tested.
This happened with a group of Greek Homeopathic physicians. They and Randi negotiated over a period of many years. Randi walked away twice and finally declared the rules had changed and they had to reapply. Shortly thereafter Randi publicly claimed the Greeks had withdrawn and therefore had failed. In fact, the Greeks had never withdrawn.
The likely reason Randi was stalling was that he could not determine how to control the blue-ribbon panel of judges the Greeks had convened to examine the results.
The Challenge may not be able to survive scrutiny because it may involve deception!
This is potentially devastating to the skeptical community. First, they say there is no proof of psychic phenomena in the laboratory (as did Banachek during the ABC broadcast). In fact academic parapsychologists have demonstrated psi for decades in experiments worldwide.
Then the skeptics call into question the credentials and sophistication of responsible scientists who do in fact conduct fair and valuable parapsychology experiments. The skeptics imply that somehow they can do better. They say the Million Dollar Challenge is that better, fairer and more acceptable test. And now, in front of millions of television viewers, they show this so-called "test" for what it is: A magic trick!
In light of this potential expose of the Challenge, we must wonder what else has been left unsaid and, most importantly, the real and perhaps hidden agenda of organized skepticism.
Bottom Line: The Million Dollar Challenge may be a hoax. Can skeptics even be trusted?
There is certainly have reason to wonder!