Million Dollar Challenge Winner Proclaims James Randi Fraud For years the Randi organization has pretended to offer a bogus million dollar reward to any person who can successfully demonstrate any psychic, supernatural or paranormal ability. This has naturally generated a lot of publicity and profit for the lead charlatan of the Randi organization, former sleigh of hand con artist James Randi. That is until the Yellow Bamboo organization from Bali INDONESIA called his bluff and actually demonstrated paranormal ability in front of scores of independent witnesses and a media representative from the Radio Republik Indonesia broadcasting networkSingaraja, Bali, INDONESIA (PRWEB) February 24,2004--For years the Randi organization has pretended to offer a bogus million dollar reward to any person who can successfully demonstrate any psychic, supernatural or paranormal ability. This has naturally generated a lot of publicity and profit for the lead charlatan of the Randi organization, former sleigh of hand con artist James Randi. That is until the Yellow Bamboo organization from Bali INDONESIA called his bluff and actually demonstrated paranormal ability in front of scores of independent witnesses and a media representative from the Radio Republik Indonesia broadcasting network On 14 September 2003 Mr. Nyoman Serengen, the founder of Yellow Bamboo (with over 40,000 members) successfully slammed down, without touching, the Randi representative Mr. Joko Tri clearly demonstrating extraordinary paranormal ability. Once the demonstration was successfully carried out James Randi frantically scrambled to concoct a phony pretext not to pay.
For many years, Mr. James Randi has successfully scammed the public into believing he would actually pay one million dollars to anyone successfully demonstrating any psychic, supernatural or paranormal ability.
Once the Yellow Bamboo organization actually scientifically demonstrated paranormal ability Randi went into panic mode and was seen grasping at any straw available to induce his congregation not to realize he is a fraud. The fib he concocted was convincing at first but upon closer inspection is impossible to be true.
Con man Randi claimed he believed that Mr. Serengen used a taser or stun gun and successfully bamboozled his flock this was the pretext why he did not pay up as promised. Randi has no proof or witnesses but is just going on his “intuitionâ€. Pretty funny to be using intuitive powers for someone who claims to debunk intuitives. Maybe he should apply for his own challenge.
The Yellow Bamboo organization has researched the use of stun guns and tasers thoroughly (see http://home.howstuffworks.com/stun-gun.htm) and this specious theory is impossible to be true for a multitude of reasons including but not limited to:
1.Eyewitnesses and the independent journalist who were within 2 meters of the demonstration would have seen any stun gun or taser employed and would have seen on the video.
2.Taser guns shoot darts which would have left holes in shirt and the witnesses would have seen the wires.
3.Stun gun must have physical contact but the Randi representative Mr. Joko Tri never touched Mr. Serengen.
Immediately after Randi fabricated this falsehood he promised the Yellow Bamboo organization he would travel to Indonesia to personally conduct another test. So far he has failed to show up and the Yellow Bamboo organization is still waiting for him to arrive. But given his history of falsehoods they are not holding their breath
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Dr Alvin G Donovan III
Yellow Bamboo Organization
Intl + 62 812 365 2355 (best time 7PM to 11AM NY time)
www.YellowBamboo.com
Now, I'm not a fan of Randi, but the claims of the Yellow Bamboo organization don't seem very strong to me.
I disagree. If Randi has the ability to dismiss the results of his tests by merely showing how claimants *could* have cheated, what would prevent him from doing this if a claimant succeeded through truly paranormal means? Since Randi apparently takes no pains to ensure that his tests are properly controlled and conducted, plausible fraud scenarios will never be very difficult for him to come up with. Hence, even if the paranormal exists, his challenge will never be won.
Posted by: | November 18, 2005 at 09:15 AM
>Hence, even if the paranormal exists, his challenge will never be won.
I agree that the Challenge will never be won, and that Randi has stacked the deck in his favor. Personally I have no doubt that some paranormal phenomena are real. But they have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. In this case, Yellow Bamboo handled the preliminary test so poorly that I think Randi is justified in saying they've proved nothing.
Posted by: Michael Prescott | November 18, 2005 at 11:09 AM
But is his ability to dismiss tests justifiable? I don't think it is since, as I said previously, if Randi can do this to Yellow Bamboo, he can do it to any claimant who succeeds, regardless of whether fraud was actually used or not. To clarify: I don't think the Yellow Bamboo people have proven their claim, but I also don't think Randi is justified in being able to dismiss his test of it.
Posted by: | November 18, 2005 at 01:28 PM
>if Randi can do this to Yellow Bamboo, he can do it to any claimant who succeeds, regardless of whether fraud was actually used or not.
That's true, and it's one of several reasons why I think the Challenge is worthless.
For a good critique of the Challenge, see:
http://www.alternativescience.com/james-randi.htm
Posted by: Michael Prescott | November 20, 2005 at 10:41 AM
Having thought about this some more, I now agree with the commenter who wrote:
"If Randi has the ability to dismiss the results of his tests by merely showing how claimants *could* have cheated, what would prevent him from doing this if a claimant succeeded through truly paranormal means?"
This is true. Ex post facto explanations can be invented to "explain" anything. The bottom line is that Yellow Bamboo claimed they could knock a Randi representative to the ground without physical contact; the test was carried out; the rep was knocked to the ground and was unaware of any physical contact. (This is not to say that no contact occurred, only that he didn't perceive it.) Therefore Yellow Bamboo passed the preliminary test. It does no good to come up with ad hoc explanations after the fact. Randi should have invited Yellow Bamboo to Florida for a decisive test, rather than cavalierly dismissing their claim on the basis of a mere supposition.
Posted by: Michael Prescott | November 28, 2005 at 12:36 PM
I have fully followed the randi scam- no where in the agreement between yb and randi does it even SAY it has to be videod.
1. It was videod and it was getting dark because RANDIS person was late not yb.
2. Joko testified that he was knocked down and not know how it was done.
3. Randi has a journalist sitting 3 meters from the test- if anything was amiss we would have heard from the journalist.
Anyone is invited to go to bali to try it themselves. at yellowbamboo.info there is video fo people from all over the world doing the knocking down in bali
Posted by: mark dunn | December 02, 2005 at 11:30 PM