this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
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I could show quite a few unflattering articles about Randi's controversies but I feel his supporters insist that the fact that the challenge existed was the end all be all. In and of itself.
When one must realize that Randi's big claim to fame was the million dollar challenge and without that he had nothing.
Critical thinking should tell you quite simply that JREF's donations required appealing to skeptics. If Randi went to bat for anything that seemed supernatural his fans would turn on him, and if his big claim to fame was an unwinnable contest then his bread and butter demanded that he never allowed the contest to be won.
It's that simple.
Now one could say that he'd get famous and rich for confirming Magick exists but.. why would he? The papers would talk about the psychic not the foundation and further studies couldn't be done at JREF because it wasn't a scientific research facility and James had no training in science at all...
It merely had people who were trained to look out for things like cold reading and the like.
There's nothing to gain and everything to lose and the fact that 99% of people who applied to challenge were turned down and 0% of those who did even got past so much as a preliminary round. Well it's a little sus.
Now I'm not saying magic is out there and JREF is hiding it. If it were then JREF wouldn't have the means to hide it.
What I am saying is JREF and James Randi were not scientists they were showmen and that's very important to keep in mind.
Sharing The idea that you can debunk a phenomenon by yelling "FAKE!" And doing a smug dance is something that offers more harm than good imho. Especially when you get people like Anti-Vaxxers who Mimic this behavior though rallying against medicine instead of faith and folklore.
Indeed. Randi said that a lot himself. He wasn't a scientist, but a magician. Magicians figure out how something seems to work, scientists work out how somehow works. He explained numerous times that those are very much not the same.
He didn't do that. He said "show me. Ok, now show me under controlled conditions".
Except no he didn't. The challenge was heavily criticized for among other things, having overly strict standards (moreso than most studies reasonably have), Randi himself having final say (no impartial judge), faking his own research, and him downright refusing any participants that weren't using the same three stage tricks he debunked again and again.
I am not saying Psi is real or anything of the sort. I am saying that those who promote themselves as skeptics must be willing to be scientific or they're just kooks working "for the other team"
To pretend Randi was scientific about his approach in the slightest is an insult to the the scientific method itself.
While I do not endorse the views and research of parapsychologist Rupert Sheldrake, he was asked about why he didn't take on the challenge and what he had to say was deeply informative.
https://youtu.be/LLjUTvaKgdQ?
Now I'm not saying Sheldrake is anything amazing. I'm asking... why do we have a quack like Sheldrake sticking to the scientific method better than Randi? Why is Sheldrake the guy claiming dogs are psychic coming off as the guy talking sense?
How much ammo does that give woo peddlers?
It's not enough to yell "FAKE!" As loud as you can and talk like you're writing a rational wiki article. You need to actually stand for science and the scientific method otherwise you send horrible messages about what is and isn't evidence and give New Age whackjobs the floor to say "Well if Randi has to fake studies, something Sheldrake caught him doing, to debunk psychic powers, why are we still questioning psychic powers?"