Whether you believe or not in the existence of psychic powers, paranormal experiences, or ESP, we cannot deny that there are certain things that, as of yet, we do not have the capability or technology to explain.
Many people claim to have supernatural abilities or encounters, and we generally dismiss them as being insane or fraudulent. Certainly, we have come to the belief that anything which cannot be scientifically proven or tested, must be fake, a hoax, or nonexistent. And that's just the effect of culture veering away from the mythical to the natural.
But there are people out there who are determined to unravel the truth behind these claims through scientific methods and rigorous experimentation. If those who claim to have psi abilities vehemently stress the reality of such paranormal events, then there must be some way of finding out the truth behind it.
Scientific research is often characterized by three things. They have to be observable, measurable, and replicable. It's the foundation of empirical methods which is what modern science is founded on. And with regard to parapsychology and the supernatural, some scientists have focused on designing methods and experiments that can truly test such claims from psychics, mediums, and espers.
People like Professors Dick Bierman and Suitbert Ertel have worked on the fields of physics and psychology, respectively, for most of their lives and have also looked into the subject of parapsychology and psi phenomena.
And they have approached James Randi, the stage magician and skeptic who was famous for his Million Dollar Challenge which aimed to test the claims of psi-gifted people, as Ertel calls them. Dr. Dean Radin, an educational psychologist and investigator of parapsychological phenomena, also applied for the challenge.
Much controversy has surrounded James Randi's Million Dollar Challenge as well as the organization that conducts it, the JREF (James Randi Educational Foundation), as many who have looked at the rules of the challenge point out that the rules are heavily disadvantageous to applicants, and can be seen as a crusade and polemic against the subject of parapsychology and any who seriously research it.
Instead of a sincere curiosity and interest in learning about the truth of the matter, and looking for scientific analysis of robust data and rigorous experiments that can advance such efforts, proponents say that James Randi's challenge is simply designed to ensure that any applicants fail in order to protect the prize money. It's no earnest quest of testing whether there is some truth to the claims of the existence of psi phenomena.
In this, Mitch Horowitz, a historian and writer of metaphysical themes, criticizes James Randi's brand of skepticism, citing sociologist Marcello Truzzi who called it a form of pseudoskepticism, the objective of which is to lambaste any serious attempt at a scientific inquiry of psi phenomena.
Though there are con artists and frauds who claim they can see the future or communicate through telepathy, there are those with more valid claims and are willing to undergo experimentation to prove them. The research of people such as Radin, Ertel, Schwartz, and Bierman, aim to understand the true nature of these claims, what their connections are to reality, and whether they are replicable.
It has been three years since the death of James Randi, and the Million Dollar Challenge was discontinued in 2015. But as Horowitz says, in today's world, there is a need for healthy skepticism and for the restoration of sound practices when it comes to dealing with contentious topics in science or any field. - via The Daily Grail
(Image credit: James Randi Education Foundation/Wikimedia Commons)