Sceptic Offers Psychics $1million To Find Madeleine McCann
CAN psychics find Madeleine McCann? The James Randi Educational Foundation has issued a challenge: anyone who can prove their skills in a controlled experiment will get $1million.
James Randi, founder of the JREF, says:
“James Van Praagh and Allison DuBois have turned the huckster art of ‘cold reading’ into a multi-million-dollar industry, preying on families’ deepest fears and regrets.”
A mentalist named Banachek adds:
“We’re issuing a challenge: If one of you can demonstrate your ‘psychic’ abilities on randomly chosen strangers — not celebrities — under mutually-agreed conditions, without relying on known cold-reading techniques such as fishing around with vague questions, and without just using Google — we will donate our million dollars to you or to the charity of your choice.”
Benjamin Radford opines:
Psychics have reason to be cautious about putting their abilities to the test. The track record of psychics is abysmal, for example when it comes to helping police find missing persons. Despite claims to the contrary, there is not a single documented case of a missing person being found or recovered due to psychic information.
The fact that psychics have failed to find high-profile missing persons cannot be denied, and is there for all to see: Countless missing people, including Natalee Holloway, Laci Peterson, Madeleine McCann, Chandra Levy, Sandra Cantu, Caylee Anthony, Elizabeth Smart, Jaycee Dugard, and so on, either remain missing to this day or were found accidentally by strangers or in the course of normal police searches.
In each case hundreds of psychics gave information about the person’s location while they were missing — and every single psychic turned out to be wrong. (SEE HERE.)
Add to that lit Kyron Horman.
Of course, this is a spot of PR for James Rani. It would take real idiot to accept the challenge to be psychic-on-demand – and idiocy is the one thing Randi says these star psychics are not.
Forget the magick – Lee Rainbow has science…
Posted: 23rd, August 2011 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
