What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: Supernatural Prizes

According to a 2022 poll from YouGov, 39% of Americans believe they have some form of paranormal ability. About a quarter of that group think they can sense other people's auras or emotion; 15% say they can hear voices or sounds from ghosts; and about 13% think they can see events from the past or future.

This is a public service announcement to the nearly 13 million Americans who believe they have supernatural powers: You are leaving a lot of money on the table. Various groups of skeptics worldwide have put a total of $1,408,424 (and one goat) on the table, and all that filthy lucre is just waiting to be collected by anyone who can manifest paranormal power.

The specific kinds of powers you need to demonstrate to win the prizes run the gamut. Dutch organization Stichting Skepsis will shell out 12 grand to practitioners of some forms of alternative medicine who can demonstrate its effectiveness (so if you're into applied kinesiology, give 'em a shot), and you can get a free goat from Fayetteville Freethinkers for proving a "fulfilled Biblical prophecy." But whether you're able to see the future, move objects with your mind, or talk to spirits, there's a prize out there for you.

The history of paranormal prizes

The first monetary prize for proof of paranormal activity was offered by Scientific American in 1922. In the midst of the spiritualism movement, the publication offered $2,500 for anyone who could produce a "spirit photograph" (a photo that captures an image of a ghost) under controlled conditions, and $2,500 for anyone able to produce a "visible psychic manifestation."

Famous (at the time) medium George Valiantine gave it a shot and was able to create the illusion of a trumpet floating in the air in a dark room, but the test committee (which included Harry Houdini) had connected his chair to a light in an adjoining room, which lit up whenever Valiantine left his chair, which was also every time the trumpet appeared. Valiantine was proven a fraud, and Scientific American kept their cash.

The most famous bounty for psychic ability is the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge offered by the James Randi Educational Foundation. Randi, a magician turned professional skeptic, first offered a prize of $1,000 back in 1964, but the cash grew to a million by 1996. Between 1964 and 2015 when the prize was discontinued, over 1,000 people applied, but none were successful at demonstrating their supernatural power under controlled conditions. No remote viewers were able to remote view. No dowsers were able to find hidden objects. No mind reader was able to read minds.

How paranormal prizes can backfire

You'd think that a 100% failure rate might make people question the reality of psychic abilities, but for a lot of people, public failure can make psychic abilities seem more plausible. At least that's how it worked for Uri Geller. Geller, who's still around and still claiming supernatural power, began gaining attention in the early 1970s for his supposed ability to bend spoons with his mind.

While he never tried for James Randi's prize, the two had a famous run-in on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show that demonstrated the problems with disproving paranormal activity. Carson, who had been magician, was skeptical of Geller's claims, and brought him on his show and presented him with some tests that Randi helped develop.

If you want to see some uncomfortable TV, check it out:

If you don't have the 20 minutes to spare, Carson lets Geller take his time and try any of a series of test of his ability, but Geller can't. With Carson watching carefully and not allowing Geller control of any of the props, Geller can't bend a spoon with his mind; he can't determine whether a container holds water. He can't do anything.

You'd think a public failure this complete would have ended Geller's career, but it had the opposite effect. Geller blamed his failure on "not feeling strongly" and claimed he might have been "blocking himself" that night. Many apparently saw Geller's failure as proof that he was the real thing; after all, if he was a magician, the tricks would have worked. Geller then became a popular guest on other talk shows where he was able to perform his tricks successfully under less controlled conditions, and a star was born.

Why disproving anything is difficult

While Uri Geller and other high-profile psychics are performers and are no doubt aware of how they're achieving their results, the 13 million or so Americans who believe they possess special powers aren't being deceitful—it's just easy to believe in the supernatural. When something unusual happens, when a one-in-a-million occurrence occurs, it's easy to see that as proof of a mysterious, unexplainable something. If you're thinking about a friend and they text you that very minute, how can you not see that as evidence of some weird connection? But one-in-a-million events happen to over 300 people in America every single day, and there's no James Randi or Johnny Carson around to provide a controlled experiment to prove it's just a coincidence, to explain that you probably think of people all the time who don't text you that minute.

But maybe I'm wrong. If I am, there's over a million dollars and a goat out there waiting for the right person to come along and claim them.