JREF - Million Dollar Challenge

[cmac]

Re: JREF - Million Dollar Challenge

Good post Keroscene. Heck, I tell a lot of people that I'm a skeptic. I want to get to the truth of the matter, whatever the subject is. I'm also not going to ride the fence all my life on a majority of subjects, and only believe what the school books tell me.

I've had a lot of weird experiences in my life, I continue to have pretty much everyday, I will just leave it at that. Science and society likes to tell us they can't happen, I can tell you, they do. Will you or others believe me, doesn't matter. I live it. I've tried to rationalize it, I've questioned it every possible way. People have witnessed it, many times.

Until someone has experienced these things, they have no way to understand. If these things hadn't happened in my life, I probably would be very skeptical of anything outside of what science tells us is possible. Even still I'm skeptical and look to understand things. Something stares you in the face over and over, you finally have to look at it as being real. I'm not trying to tell people what to think, I'm just saying keep an open mind, cause the human mind is capable of a lot more than science would make us believe.

 

[Harte]

Re: JREF - Million Dollar Challenge

"All tests must be designed in such a way that the results are self-evident, so that no judging or voting process is required." Self-evident, huh, seems more than a little subjective. Yeah, never mind a judging by your peers, a democratic vote, so who does decide? Let me guess, someone who is a member of JREF.

You are far more closed-minded than anyone you rail against in this forum.

The test is designed by, and agreed upon by, BOTH parties, dude.

How is this unfair?

You are under a false impression here. The JREF reward was created to provide "famous" psychics (Sylvia Browne, Uri Gellar) the opportunity to put up or shut up. You expect JREF to test every single individual that comes their way?

The expense of that would soon outpace the reward itself.

Look, if you can really bend spoons with your mind (for example,) then you can easily get yourself a media presence. Gellar did. On top of that, you aren't going to need the JREF reward money anyway.

If a claimant doesn't like the test that is being designed, he can make changes to it as long as the test provides for results that are self-evident. In other words, not opinion-based.

How can you object so vehemently to this, yet claim that Randi will "rig" the process so he can insert his opinion into the judging?

You are as crazy as a dog chasing his tail. Crazier, I'd say, because the dog no doubt realizes that it is his own tail that he chases!

Harte

 

[DoctorZ]

Re: JREF - Million Dollar Challenge

Maybe Harte is Jref , we dont know much about him and maybe hes really really old and has nothing better to do than argue for aboslutly no reason , or even worst maybe harte is rainmantime , woauh this would explain so much why he take himself so seriously , , he'S not much od an enterntainer ,lol

 

[dimensiongoblinking]

Re: JREF - Million Dollar Challenge

Wow it looks as if my conspiracy theory of Harte being involved with JREF may not be to far off! It makes us ask, "Who is Harte really?" and "Why and the hell is he on this website with a bunch of believers?"

 

[Keroscene]

Re: JREF - Million Dollar Challenge

Wow it looks as if my conspiracy theory of Harte being involved with JREF may not be to far off! It makes us ask, "Who is Harte really?" and "Why and the hell is he on this website with a bunch of believers?"

You must have missed the post where Harte calls James Randi an asshole. Nothing says "job security" quite like calling your boss an asshole on a public forum.

 

[Harte]

Re: JREF - Million Dollar Challenge

Wow it looks as if my conspiracy theory of Harte being involved with JREF may not be to far off! It makes us ask, "Who is Harte really?" and "Why and the hell is he on this website with a bunch of believers?"

I am here in the (probably vain) hope of causing someone to think.

Harte

 

[DoctorZ]

Re: JREF - Million Dollar Challenge

Most people would die sooner than think;
dont take this bad but the avearage american dont like to think
most people here are trying to learn and observe silently, and if they can contribute

if you want to cause something why not coming with a theory how to make time travel possible , or this is not your field of expertise , so leave this to people who actually done something about it .i know i that i know how to do it and will do it again

 

[Keroscene]

Re: JREF - Million Dollar Challenge

I am here in the (probably vain) hope of causing someone to think.

Harte

 

[cmac]

Re: JREF - Million Dollar Challenge

The other day I came across a guy online that stated he spoke directly to James Randi. Randi said apparently that he had no worries of ever paying the money out, because if someone did happen to pass all the tests, then it wouldn't be paranormal anymore, so therefore he still wouldn't pay. This JREF contest thing is a total joke, just like I said from the start. After reading the ridiculous application, that is even more evident. Seems pretty obvious to me when you use some intelligence to think about the process of application and testing. Either that or people can refuse to see what is stated and implied, and think it is legit. I guess it is all in ones perception. I see a bunch of crap written into that application, it is seriously laughable, and seems from what I have heard about this contest over the years that it is a joke to people. Often when it is mentioned, people laugh about it, and call it a joke. The mere fact that it is James Randi's foundation makes it laughable alone. If you don't believe me watch some of his videos, and read his statements to people, unless you turn a blind eye, you will likely see what I mean. I've told people that are kind of on the fence on believing or not in the paranormal, and they watched Randi for a few minutes and couldn't believe the statements the guy makes.

The application process and the testing is ripe for corruption from the skeptics, and likely in reality, that is what happens for each and every applicant. I feel for anyone who takes this thing on. They obviously don't understand what they are getting themselves into. Maybe they should have looked a little deeper into the application alone, to see it.

Oh, Harte, in reply to your statement about it being set up by both parties, yes, but it is judged by only JREF, no one else. It is their limited opinion, their subjective opinion that determines whether someone passes or fails, not a jury of average citizens, peers, and so on. And it also seems in reading about people who tried to enter the contest that Randi and his minions made the testing pretty much up to their standards, almost completely. They often refuse testing that seems adequate, no, that won't be enough, let the hoops begin. Gotta narrow there chance to almost nill. Sounds like every possible monkey wrench is thrown in to keep the chances of passing extremely low for the applicant. I think that is pretty obvious as well. If it isn't, maybe you should go over the rules for the contest again. It looks like it is completely up to the JREF whether or not the person demonstrated a paranormal event.

I mean seriously, you have to jump through so many hoops just to get a preliminary test, which is judged by one skeptic from JREF. If he deems for any reason that you didn't pass the prelim, you have to wait 1 year before you can even apply again. What is that for, so the JREF, has a year to plan things to make it nearly impossible for that person to win the money? A year? That is way out there. That is open for serious corruption. Say someone shows something incredible, if they don't want him to have a chance to win the money, then they can easily say that he failed the prelim, whether he should have or not. It is up to the skeptic from JREF to be the judge. Who does he likely care more for, the JREF that he represents, and the skeptical society that he represents, or the guy who might just take the million dollar challenge and win the money? Put some thought into this guys, cause you are missing a lot apparently. Not everyone is missing it, because it is pretty obvious. It is all through this application process, and throughout the testing.

I can't believe the JREF wasn't more careful about their wording in the application itself. I would have seriously guessed they would have done much better than that. There are a lot better ways to hide what you are up to. But I guess they are arrogant enough not to care about that. Plus the hoops and safety measures are lined up one by one to make this contest impossible.

Randi, apparently said himself that no one will win, pretty much no matter what. Which is exactly what I would expect Randi to say after seeing and hearing his statements over the years.

 

[DoctorZ]

Re: JREF - Million Dollar Challenge

If your not gonna post positive comments or reply keep them to yourself because your stopping a lot of people who would wish to post reply but are afraid to do so in fear of trolling .