On James Randi’s web site it says:
James Randi has an international reputation as a magician and escape artist, but today he is best known as the world’s most tireless investigator and demystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.
In 1996, the James Randi Education Foundation was established to further Randi’s work. Randi’s long-standing challenge to psychics now stands as a$1,000,000 prize administered by the Foundation. It remains unclaimed.
Well, now that we know that, the Million Dollar Challenge by Randi was
a) not really a million dollar offer but was just an offer of a dubious bond
and
b) that a serious demonstration of homeopathy’s effectiveness would be delayed and delayed and not be allowed to proceed by this magician Randi and cohorts. You have to ask the question: was this simply a bullshit offer and a marketing ploy?
It got him a lot of air time and his followers continue to quote this offer as if it still being on the table is a reason why we should not believe that alternative health modalities or energy medicine works, But has the granddaddie of all skeptics and a magician presented another of his illusory tricks?
First- the fact that this was a bond and in the current financial crisis is most likely worthless:
The prize isn’t cash. The prize is bonds that are WORTH a million dollars. So, there are a lot of Bob’s Baker people running around with the money, and they all gave Randi an IOU. And all these IOU’s total to a million dollars.
Since the prize money is in the form of bonds, then it is possible that the bonds are worthless. For example, maybe a lot of the bonds are from corporations that are on the verge of going bankrupt? Or maybe the corporations don’t have to pay off the bonds for another 40 years? In our example, Bob had to pay everything back in 24 months… this is called the “maturity” of the bond. Some bonds don’t mature for a few years, others don’t mature for a few decades. If Randi awards the prize of a bond that doesn’t mature for 40 years, then legally I do have a million dollars… but I can’t USE the million dollars until the bonds mature! As you can see, there are a lot of different scenarios where the bonds could be LEGALLY worth a million dollars, but in reality they could be worthless.
And then George Vithoulkas a Greek homeopath along with “a group of international scientists” came up with an experiment that the Great Randi the magician initially approved. After much delay and when Randi thought it was possibly a good one, suddenly he withdraws his initial go ahead.
From Natural News:
A group of homeopaths led by the renowned Greek homeopath George Vithoulkas began the process of attempting to win Randi`s one million dollars in 2003. Vithoulkas was largely responsible for the resurgence of interest in classical homeopathy in the 1970s and 1980s . He had been upset by what he considered to be badly constructed experiments previously carried out in the hope of demonstrating the validity of Homeopathy. One of these failed experiments, involving James Randi, was broadcast on BBC television in 2003. It was one of the main impetuses behind Vithoulkas` decision to devote his 40 years of Homeopathic experience to putting the record straight.
A team of skeptics was set up to represent Randi. This team, and the group of homeopaths led by George Vithoulkas, started conducting preparatory work to the trial in 2003. A protocol was devised by a group of international scientists and the experiment was to take place in a hospital in Athens. The experiment involved homeopaths, under Vithoulkas` supervision, prescribing individualized remedies to a number of patients in a double blind fashion with half of the patients receiving placebo, and the other half a real remedy.
All seemed to be going well when in August 2006, Vithoulkas received a signed agreement from Randi in which he stated that he was satisfied with the suggested protocol. He also waived the need for a preliminary test – the part of the process that had foiled every applicant up to that point. However Randi then delayed the start of the experiment owing to health problems and lack of sufficient funding. Apparently Randi was asked by Vithoulkas to assign a representative in his absence while funding was being sought but Randi refused to do so. He also told the homeopaths that he needed 6 months to recuperate from his unspecified health problems.
This 6 month period, according to Vithoulkas, was critical. It coincided with the appointment of a new Mayor of Athens who installed a new chairman of the scientific committee and a new president of the hospital that was to be used for the experiment. Vithoulkas claims that Randi knew of theses impending changes and was looking for a way of getting out of the challenge. It certainly was the most rigorous and well organized attempt to win the one million dollars that had ever been attempted. The Homeopaths believe that Randi got cold feet for this reason.
After a further 2 years of negotiating with the new authorities, the Homeopaths finally got the go ahead in Athens and started putting the final touches to the arrangements. In September 2008, a two day meeting was held in Greece between two of Randi`s representatives, plus Dr. Menachem Oberbaum, principal investigator of the experiment, and George Vithoulkas.
After this meeting the homeopaths thought everything was ready to go ahead but they were in for a rude surprise. In October 2008, one month after the meeting, they received the following communication from Randi:
“Forget all previous correspondence exchanged on the subject. What appears here is the current status. First, we require that George Vithoulkas submit a regular, properly-filled-out application and submit it just as we require everyone to do. After that has been received, we`ll go ahead as with any regular applicant – with the arrangements, including the requirement for the preliminary stage”.
Randi’s escape artist experience came in handy. What an artful magic scam by Randi. Offering money you maybe don’t have, while stopping legitimate studies and from all this activity making much money from the publicity.
RANDI’S GREAT DECEPTION HAS A TERRIBLE AND DISGUSTING ENDING… CLICK HERE TO FIND IT…(ADDED)
For more see also George Vithoulkas’ web site.
I have to half agree and half disagree.
First, I think Randi is a pompous jerk for backtracking on the Vithoulkas test without much public explanation (he has a vague blog post in which he seems proud to be refusing to say much). I quote Randi, “These 300 words constitute my entire commentary on the matter.” It’s an insult to his readers to basically say “you don’t need to know exactly what happened”. And in fact, he didn’t even give 300 words as a reason for changing his mind. Only one generalized and rude sentence he offered came anywhere near explaining why he quit.
But second, the article you linked to is completely confused about a common use of a “bond” to hold and transfer money. The bond is already paid for (according to them–I am not saying I know they are telling the truth, I am only saying that the bond criticism is flawed conceptually).
It is not a bond issued by Randi (as is implied by the article you linked to). It is a bond for which they already paid $1,000,000 to a bank and is being held by a bank. Whoever wrote that article about the “bond” not being money probably just saw the word “bond”, read the dictionary definition, and made a big and wrong guess about how that applied. If Randi were issuing his own bonds, THEN that article would be correct.
Bonds are commonly used as a way to transfer money back and forth, and are not necessarily just IOUs to make up for debt. There are a bunch of reasons, and no financial advisors would suggest keeping that much money sitting in a regular old checking account for several decades.
Note that the same things could be said about the check. Checks are not money, and even worse, a check itself does not even certify that it is any good. It’s just a paper saying you can be paid money currently in the possession of neither person.
The $10,000 check is even less reliable than the bond (for both parties), but he carries it around for drama. He started with a $10,000 “prize” back in the 1980s and carried the check around to look impressive on TV shows. He has a bigger prize now, but obviously he likes the check gimmick and stuck with it.
But someone would have to be an absolute fool if they think anyone is going to make a $1,000,000 payment in physical greenbacks. It is too risky to transport and you get no evidence of transfer.