The Myth of the Million Dollar Psychic Challenge

For ten years, the modern skeptical movement has wielded a cudgel against claims of the paranormal: the James Randi Million Dollar Challenge. In many debates over the possibility of psi abilities, the Challenge provides a final word for one side... "has so-and-so applied for the Challenge?"

The financial reward offered by the James Randi Educational Foundation is seen by many skeptics as providing an irresistible motivation for anybody with paranormal ability - after all, if someone could genuinely exhibit such powers, surely they would step forward to take the million?

However, after ten years, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) says nobody has even got past their preliminary testing. Furthermore, none of the 'big fish' - medium John Edward, spoon-bender Uri Geller, psychic Sylvia Browne - have applied. And now, perhaps as a result of that fact, James Randi has announced that the Challenge will come to an end in two years, on March 6th, 2010.

But does the challenge really make a statement about the existence of the paranormal and/or psi abilities? According to paranormal investigator Loyd Auerbach (who, like Randi, is a member of the magic fraternity):

The suggestion that ending the Challenge after 10 years supports any statement that psi does not exist or someone would have won the challenge, is absurd on many levels."

The procedures for the Challenge included several hurdles in favor of, and multiple "outs" for Randi and the JREF that any discerning individual capable of any kind of extraordinary human performance would think twice about (and here I'm not just referring to psychics and the like).

What are these hurdles that Auerbach refers to?

Chances, of Anything...

First, and perhaps the most important, is the effect size required to win the challenge. While the JREF says that "all tests are designed with the participation and approval of the applicant", this does not mean that the tests are fair scientific tests.

The JREF need to protect a very large amount of money from possible "long-range shots", and as such they ask for extremely significant results before paying out - much higher than are generally accepted in scientific research (and if you don’t agree to terms, your application is rejected). In the case of parapsychological research, however, where effect size is often small (though apparently robust), this means most researchers would have to go to extraordinary lengths to win the million dollars. As one psi researcher pointed out to me:

In the ganzfeld telepathy test the meta-analytic hit rate with unselected subjects is 32% where chance expectation is 25%. If that 32% hit rate is the "real" telepathy effect, then for us to have a 99% chance of getting a significant effect at p <>

Furthermore, applicants must first pass a 'preliminary test', before they are allowed to progress to the actual 'formal' test which pays the million dollars. So an applicant must first show positive results in a preliminary test (yielding results against chance of at least 1000 to 1, apparently), then once through to the next stage they would then have to show positive results against much higher odds to claim the prize (by all reports, at odds of around 1 million to 1). Failure in either test means no cash prize, and a fail beside their name. It many respects it would be like telling a professional golfer to shoot 63 around Augusta National, then come back and shoot 59, to prove that he can play golf. In the words of Chris Carter, author of Parapsychology and the Skeptics:

If Randi were genuinely interested in testing unusual claims, then he would also not insist upon odds of at least one million to one against chance for the results. Anyone familiar with scientific studies will be aware that experimental results against chance of say, 800,000 to one would be considered extraordinary; but results this high would be, according to Randi, a “failure.”

Dr Michael Sudduth of San Francisco State University also pointed out to me a wonderful irony in one of the rules. Challenge rule #3 states: "We have no interest in theories nor explanations of how the claimed powers might work." As Sudduth puts it: “Curiously, Randi's challenge itself is saddled with assumptions of this very kind. The challenge makes little sense unless we assume that psi is the sort of thing that, if genuine, can be produced on demand, or at least is likely to manifest itself in some perspicuous manner under the conditions specified by the challenge.”

Warrent Buffet - Emotional IQ just as important as brainpower

To the legions of wannabes hoping to replicate, or at least aspire to, Warren Buffett's success as the world's greatest stock market investor, it's a depressing thought, indeed.

What if the Oracle of Omaha's brain is simply a freak of nature—a wondrous but ultimately inimitable web of neurons that somehow allows him to deduce profits like no one else? What if Buffett's $52 billion fortune is all thanks to a rarefied double helix strung with the genes of the resolute Scandinavian forebears on his dad's side and the brainy Estonians and arithmetically inclined Iberians on his mom's?

Consider Buffett's typical day at the offices of Berkshire Hathaway, the company he has run for the past 42 years, and you might throw in the towel right now. The spry 76-year-old arrives on the early side—usually about 8:30 a.m.—not to prepare for meetings (he rarely takes them) or check his E-mail (he has no work computer) or even to tally his stock portfolio (there's no Bloomberg terminal or even a calculator on his desk). He doesn't read progress reports from his managers (he discourages them) or study the latest research from the top stock market analysts (he shuns them completely). He doesn't even talk on the phone much, save for the occasional call to his stockbroker, when he might give the nod to buy tens of millions of a company's shares in a single day—all without pumping its CEO for information or getting approval from Berkshire's directors or from anyone else except, maybe, a few words from his longtime confidant and Berkshire vice chairman, Charles Munger.

More than luck. Despite—or, quite possibly, thanks to—the dearth of input, Buffett's results are as impressive as they are his alone. His stock picks beat the Standard & Poor's 500 index in 20 out of 24 years, according to one recent study, and by a margin so wide that its authors conclude that even the rarest of lucky streaks can't explain how $1,000 invested with Buffett in 1956 was worth $27.6 million at the end of 2006.

So what can? To be sure, Buffett possesses one of the keenest intellects in business, with a knack for crunching numbers in his head. "His neurons are really good at thinking in a purely abstract, rational way," says law professor Lawrence Cunningham, author of How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett. "It's a way of thinking in terms of calculations, of instantly recognizing if a company generates profits at a given cost over time. It's something businessmen learn to do before making a capital allocation. But for him, it's an innate apparatus."

Cunningham and other Buffettologists nonetheless doubt that the superinvestor possesses some sort of superhuman intelligence. "If you think he's got different chemicals flowing around in his cranium, you've got it all wrong," says journalist Roger Lowenstein, author of Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, in which he makes the case that it's Buffett's strength of character, as much as his smarts, that has made him so successful. "It's a combination of hard work and good judgment, and having the disposition to go with your call whether it's popular or not."

The 3 Simple, Yet Critical, Steps to a Millionaire Mindset

1. The first step towards gaining a millionaire mindset is realizing that you have the absolute right to be successful. If you think you don’t deserve wealth and money and abundance then you will never have it! You must realize your worth and realize that you are capable of anything that you set your mind to.

If you think of yourself as a victim or think the world owes you something then you will never have anything more than you have now.

Victims always remain victims.

The world will give you anything you want, you just have to go out and get it…victims don’t do this, they are far happier complaining about what they don’t have than actively searching for a solution to their problems.

Just wanting something enough and realizing that you are worth everything you want is the first step to your new wealth attraction mindset.

2. People often assume that if you want money then you are greedy!

They are Wrong!

It means that you have ambition and seek change. If you didn’t have ambition then you would be happy making a pittance in any mind-numbing dead-end job.

Imagine the people you could help if you had enough money. Imagine the charities you could support, or even start! You could help out your parent’s, your siblings, the poor, and the destitute, and the hungry! So really you’re being mighty selfish if you don’t strive to make the most money you can, to be the best person you can be.

When you think these ways you are charging the idea of money with positive energy. You are subconsciously saying ‘I have to make lots of money so I can help my mother, so I can donate to the Red Cross, and the children of Africa.’ Therefore making money and being rich isn’t bad at all, it is vital!

The second step towards your millionaire mindset is to actively change your thinking from ‘negative’ to ‘positive’. Our subconscious mind is one of the most powerful things in the universe and negative thoughts affect the running of this great machine. They clog it up with self doubt, self pity, and guilt, and they ruin any chance of wealth attraction.

Many people often destroy their chances of wealth creation because even before they begin they are subconsciously thinking, ‘It will be too hard’, ‘I could never possibly do that’ and ‘I’m scared of the consequences’.

These secret thoughts ruin any possibility of success. You need to constantly be programming your mind with positive affirmations and thoughts to propel you along the road to sustainable wealth creation. Repeating positive statements will verify in your own mind that you are on a constructive and worthwhile quest for riches.

So thoughts like ‘I will make it, it’s not too difficult, and I am an amazing individual who deserves wealth and abundance in everything I do’ will energize your mind and keep you optimistic and pointing in the right direction.

3. The final step you must take to accumulate wealth and own your millionaire mindset is education! You must study the strategies of those already rich; they are the ones with the answers. You must understand how to put in place different plans to make the most possible money you can, you must be a smart investor and smart investors invest in their own education before anything else.

Find mentors that will teach you, attend seminars that will encourage you, read books that are suggested and recommended.

You need to start associating with people who have either already gained a millionaire mindset or with those who are on the same road to riches you are on. It may seem mean or harsh but it is crucial to drop any person that does not enrich your life. This doesn’t have to be done in a hasty or spiteful way but it must be done.

It doesn’t matter if they are the life of the party, if you do not benefit from your relationship you must move on from them, otherwise you will grow stagnant and lose sight of the road to wealth.

The further you tread the path to wealth the more you will realize that you only want to hang out with like minded individuals, ones with positive energy and open minds, ones who will take a well thought out chance.

Ones who are not afraid to face up to life and demand what they want. Ones, whom you will continually learn from, and don’t worry about being a user and taking too much from these people, for they in turn will learn from you. As much as you seem to take, you won’t be able to do anything else but give it back.

So these three steps:

• Realisation,
• Active positive thinking, and
• Education.

Are the crucial steps that you need to start you on your wealth creation way. They are the baby steps that you must take before you can begin striding down, and eventually sprinting down, the road to wealth creation, abundance and a better lifestyle for you and all those you love.

About The Author

Laurence D’Ambrosio is an active seeker of wealth. He graduated from Jamie McIntyre’s Internet Marketing Homestudy program; the tactics he learned from Jamie allowed him to cut down his 9-5 job to 3 days a week.