Viewing Single Post From: The Myth of the JREF $$ Challenge

Viewing Single Post From: The Myth of the JREF $$ Challenge
Reddawn	Mar 10 2008, 11:45 AM
Posts: 57 Group: Members Member #39 Joined: 01/15/08	Here is an interesting letter from Randi's "Swift" newsletter from just last Friday. He puts the newsletter out every week and the archives makes for some fascinating reading. A HAPPY CONVERT Mr. Sam Opuku, an applicant for the JREF prize, had the chance to ponder further on the matter, on the JREF and its employees, and on his real reasons for believing he had supernatural powers that could capture the prize. After his epiphany, he agreed to prepare the following document for use here on SWIFT: In Pursuit of the James Randi Educational Foundation Million Dollar Challenge Many who profess psychic or other powers say they've felt that they were “special” since childhood. I also thought I had a “sense” of how those sorts of things worked. I would find out that my childhood imaginations had carried themselves into adulthood and that I started to value the illusions as part of how I saw reality and myself. Once I realized this, I was able to start letting them go and see things more as they are. These revelations came through my pursuit of the JREF Challenge, an experience for which I am incredibly grateful. I learned about myself, how I was seeing things, and got started on a “rehab” for my incorrect perceptions. Although I’d looked into many different “metaphysical” things before I started after the JREF Challenge, I'd never done it with any focus, I never had a purpose for it. This allowed me to look at things in ways that confirmed my beliefs and to ignore those things that were in opposition. If something didn't work as advertised, it was a minor footnote or user error; if it did, it was a big discovery. Of course any explanation of a successful result outside the metaphysical was unheard of. I had a blind spot that meant reason and metaphysics would never meet in my head, even worse I didn't know I had one. However, a showdown between reason and metaphysics would happen with the JREF Challenge. I don't remember exactly how I became aware of the challenge, only that once I did I thought it'd be easy. I allowed myself excuses for the challenge going unanswered for so long. I thought with all the psychics and mystics out there who made books, videos, or audio courses, and had financial success, something had to work. I saw things work, so why had no one ever succeeded? I created all sorts of theories as to why the Challenge persisted: • JREF was unreasonable about the test to make sure it failed • JREF was being deceitful in some way or rude to discourage valid claimants and only allowed sure failures to apply • “Other people” didn't know what they were doing (of course I would...) …and so the list goes on. I thought of more excuses than I can list in anything less than an encyclopedia-sized volume of text. No matter what the reasons were, I committed myself to overcome all roadblocks and either succeed or prove JREF fraudulent. This attitude persisted until I met that insurmountable roadblock to the challenge called REALITY. Once I'd decided to pursue the prize I set about investigation and research into the challenge itself. I joined the JREF forum to get a look inside, username “Mente” – if you're curious, I never posted, just lurked and gathered intel. I'm a Mensan, so I was able to join the Mensan group for parapsychology where I met a few others who'd pursued the Challenge and confirmed my theory that JREF was unreasonable and intentionally difficult. I searched online and found a few who tried to answer the challenge and blogged about it. I listened to all the Randi lectures I could find. I watched video of him debunking Lydick and others. I read his biography and the history of the Challenge. While I was doing this investigation I was working on a paranormal device I came up with in college based on several other devices I'd observed in books or other places. After some testing at home to come up with the sort of experimental terms I'd agree to, I filled out an application, got it notarized, and sent it in. This brought me into contact with Jeff Wagg, who turned out to be the first step in my re-examining what I believed. I was prepared for rudeness, to be ignored, to be deceived, or even insulted but Jeff was exactly the opposite. At worst Jeff was strictly polite but most of the time he was cordial or outright friendly. I even shared a joke with him via email during our correspondence as we worked out what the test would be. We got to a point where it would be up to Randi himself to accept the terms. At some point Jeff put my name in as someone who could potentially be tested on Japanese TV. Being unable to settle testing criteria on TV with Randi, it never happened, but the TV crew did come to my apartment to film me and my device for footage later. They even paid me for my time and trouble. After that experience, I decided that one of my other theories was right: JREF was a bit too stringent. Despite that validation, I was left with an experience that was in opposition to something else I thought about JREF. It was the first contradiction I acknowledged, everyone I interacted with was absolutely reasonable. I could not find fault with any part of their professionalism. This was disconcerting as it upset my earlier perceptions. Always on the look out for information I asked the film crew from Japan about James Randi and they spoke of him as a nice, kind person. Despite this information, by now I not only wanted to answer the challenge for the money and fame, but also to validate what I believed about myself. Reality was less important to me at that point than what I wanted to believe. Not to be stopped in the action I’d committed to, I decided I would pursue the challenge through affiliates of JREF. I started to speak to affiliates of JREF, if I had a success with one of them it was agreed they'd work with JREF to get a formal test. I started to seek advocates, like college professors, who could vouch for the validity of my claim. At some point, an I'm not sure what it was but the evidence against my claim reached a threshold where I was forced to reexamine everything and stop pursuing the prize altogether. I mulled over all the strange questions I found through the whole process: • If JREF was so unreasonable how could it be filled with professionalism and reasonable people? • If my claim was so valid why did my criteria have to be so specific? (Maybe I was the one who was being too strict?) • If it was that easy to come up with a claim and JREF couldn't be blamed, why was the Challenge unanswered? • Why didn't any of the professional psychics seek the easy money? …and on and on and on... One easy answer to all the questions and more: I was wrong. A very tough pill to swallow. Once I fully admitted it to myself, I devoted the same determination I used to pursue the JREF Challenge to finding out why. I researched “psychics” and “mystics,” especially the "greats" like Geller, I learned a few magician’s tricks and how to make tricks, I looked into scams of all sorts and the psychology of how you are fooled and how you fool yourself, all of which was VERY educational. This knowledge in hand, I looked at everything surrounding my claim and the prize, again. If I was someone else looking at what I did, I would have been amused. The JREF Challenge has helped me realize limitations in thinking I didn't know I had. In one sense, the challenge has served as an incredible educational tool. I was sorry to hear the challenge is expiring. I've been honored to have been educated by it and JREF as a whole. I'm not completely purged of spurious beliefs/perspective but I am on the road to recovery. To the Amazing James Randi, Jeff Wagg, and all of JREF – Thank you. http://www.randi.org/joom/content/view/172/27/ Edited by Reddawn, Mar 10 2008, 11:47 AM.
Posts: 57 Group: Members Member #39 Joined: 01/15/08

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