James Randi

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Though I do believe in "Psychics" and such so to speak, Randi is a very smart man great at debunking fakes and delusionals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YJDh1xj ... 0D&index=4

The Amazing Randi's website can be found at:

www.randi.org

he is one of my favourite dudes. rational but not over-zealous. I wish he would keep that challenge going though...

I believe that what "psychic" really is, is a great sense of empathy and intuition. Most people have the sense of empathy/intuition to varying degrees but people like sylvia brown and john edwards who claim to have these extreme supernatural powers are full of crap.

Why keep it going? There is no paranormal, psychic, or magical "ability" that can withstand examination by scientists, stage magicians, and reformed con artists, because there is no paranormal, psychic, or magical "ability" at all!

Does anyone here know a Tim? Oh yes, you over there. Oh Tim didn't die in a car accident? Then I guess I had the wrong person, oh wait, but your sister Dorthy died in a car accident? Oh yes that's right! It was Dorthy's spirit I had.

It's amazing how people can buy into this crap.

Me too, I think that the longest time the challenge goes the most accurate an statement regarding the paranormal would be, I mean, it could be argued that a short period of time to be not enough to come up with a conclusion, other than just giving it up and keep up with the only valuable approach, that of skepticism, without a definitive answer, IMO. I can get that for others that would be a waste of time, from both sides.

I agree with greenblue above, but also I'm concerned that some conspiracy theory might spring up among the people who believe in the psychic stuff about the "real reasons" for why he took the challenge down... those people have some crazy ideas... I think it should stay on forever, just to show that a possibility of it ever being won shouldn't even be considered a possibility...

Maybe someone else or a group will start a similar challenge, rather like the highly successful "The probably isn't a God" publicity campaign by atheists.

Ugh, I hate how it's "by atheists" because I'm included there, although I'm completely against the campaign because it makes us look like an organization.

I know that this is a little off topic, but I just visited Randi's website for the first time. Some of the people who have entered the 1 million dollar challenge are hilarious! I spent most of the day reading about them. There's the guy who thinks he can move clouds with his mind, a woman who thinks she can make people pee themselves , and a guy who sent in a video of his basement that was supposed to be haunted by aliens.

My favorite has to be the guy who had a "magical" dog. If he had a stopped up toilet, he would shut his magical dog in the bathroom, go to another part of the house, and come back to the bathroom later. And voila! All the floating turds were gone! He claimed it was a paranormal event that he caused. When he was denied the 1 million dollar prize, He claimed it was because of his race!