A $1000 counterchallenge to James Randi's psychic challenge

Post by **Winston** » October 8th, 2008, 10:13 am

My friend John Benneth is offering a $1000 Skeptic challenge to anyone who can prove that Randi's million dollar psychic challenge is for real. Details on his blog here:

http://johnbenneth.wordpress.com/

You may also leave your comments on the Benneth Skeptic Challenge at the blog link above.

He also put up a video about his "Skeptic Challenge" here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE_UzmtUH7g

I'm not sure if Benneth is serious about this or if it's just a satire though. This guy is quite a character. And as you can see in the way he put together his video, he is quite erratic and loves to act "unusual".

Also, in response to Randi's debunking of homeopathy, Benneth has put up this interesting and creative Youtube video. It also contains a plethora of scientific and historic evidence supporting the validity of homeopathy, and is presented in a creative and comical manner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJpcpubw ... re=related

Incidentally, Benneth and I go way back. We used to do a magic and mentalist show together in Nevada back in 2001, which paying tourists came to see and often left marveled. Here is a picture of both of us in our costumes: (I sometimes either wore this 19th century tuxedo or a blue kung fu outfit)

http://www.happierabroad.com/Winston_and_Benneth.jpg

Regards,
Winston

Post by **Winston** » October 8th, 2008, 10:15 am

BTW, the Randi million dollar psychic challenge will be ending March 6, 2010:

http://www.randi.org/joom/swift/swift-j ... 08.html#i4

What's odd is that he says his JREF will be using those funds for their projects. However, the people who pledged those funds supposedly did so for the challenge, not for Randi to use for personal purposes.

apaq · Post by **apaq** » October 14th, 2008, 9:55 am

How about a ten buck challenge? Or maybe a two-bit challenge? Or a plugged nickel challenge? The amount doesn't matter, it's just a trophy anyway, so make it something so cheap that no one would have anything to gain by withholding the prize. In Randi's case, if he'd made it the plugged nickel challenge, that would have weeded out the pretenders far more effectively than his complicated rules.

AP