The First Million is Always the Hardest

9 comments

There is a phrase that states the first Million is the hardest to get. Well, here I will give you a different way to win it!

Among my many defects, one of them is being too rational and skeptic. I do not believe in any superstition: I pass on the salt, don’t get mad if a black cat crosses my path or wear red wrist bands against envy..

My key test came about six years ago: I had to fly to Sao Paulo, Brazil, on one of those darned dawn flights. I went to bed feeling uneasy and I dreamt that I traveled and my plane came down. When my clock rang at 4:05AM I had to make a decision. I had had a premonition. Should I fly or not? I decided I would.

When I arrived in the airport, I went to the counter to do my check in. The lady gave me a seat in the 13th row. OK, this is it!!! Was all this purely random or was someone from the Underworld trying to tell me I should not fly or I would die??? Faced to this dilemma I thought: “Excellent! I will travel. If I do not die, I will know for the rest of my life that I should not worry about this stuff“. Needless to say, I am still alive. But after that day, more than ever, I am a skeptic.

As such, I find all attempts to debunk “supernatural events” and pseudoscience appealing. That is how I first heard about James Randi. James Randi, besides being a great magician, is one of the most important scientific skeptics. Among his many achievements, he was the one who unmasked Uri Geller, a person you probably remember if you are over 30 for bending spoons with his mind (there is a great video of this here).

James is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation, which in 1996 created the “Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge“, which pays that sum to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.

Of course, in over 10 years, no one has been able to claim the prize. And a little tired of dealing with frauds and charlatans, Randi decided that the Challenge will end on March 6, 2010.

If that does not discourage you, here is the way to make your first Million! No one said it would be easy!

Photo: a GENUINE (not false!) 100,000 dollar bill from 1934, obtained at Wikipedia.

Isil says:

August 29, 2008 at 4:24 pm

I wonder what Kuhn would say about “under proper observing conditions, evidence” and how it might configure an anti-paranormal paradigm, pretty much closing the so called challenge before it started.

Or not, heh, he was kinda square minded hmmm.

Why were you feeling uneasy before going to sleep? Worried about the trip´s outcome or something?

Great blog! (go 49ners!)

Nic R says:

August 29, 2008 at 6:03 pm

With fries indeed! (you understand)

Superstition was fairly big in my family, mainly because of my dad. I wasn’t allowed to have fish, we didn’t pass the salt hand-in-hand, etc. so I find this article pretty entertaining. I never really believed in those things, but I got used to them and I find them amusing.

Btw, nice picture of the dollar bill. It caught my eye that it’s the only bill I’ve seen with a young-looking president.

Flor Flor says:

August 30, 2008 at 8:30 am

Genial Santiago!!

Andy Freire says:

August 30, 2008 at 5:45 pm

Santi

I love your sense of humor but specially your skepticism. I remember our classes with Olasso talking about what being a skeptic meant. And I remember how we enjoyed challenging our class mates about this.

At the same time I decided to comment on this specific article because I do believe in paranormal energies and paranormal stuff in general. I have personally experienced several of them happenning around me in my life. And the more attention I play to this the more I see. I am really surprised no one ever claimed the 1M. Do you know if it hasn´t been claimed or if many people did but no one was sucessful proving their case (or maybe even more probably…..the judges never acknowledged what they saw…..?). I am sure those judges are not very open to seeing what they don´t want to see. There is a famous phrase I love that says “you cannot wake up someone that is pretending to be asleep……”

Diego Meller says:

September 1, 2008 at 2:09 am

Great

Funny you mention the seat on the 13th row. I was seated many times on the 13th row and couldn’t help having the same thoughts (although the combination with the dream would have scared the shit out of me) and always got to the same conclusion. If something went terribly wrong with the plane it would affect all seats and rows, not only the 13th so then why would “my” bad luck affect everybody else on the plane.

Anyway, I’m not superstitious cause it brings bad luck.

Steve - London says:

September 1, 2008 at 8:43 am

Love the blog Santi. I tend to agree with Andy that the judges probably didn’t want to acknowledge what they had seen. Weird stuff happens around me all the time - doors locking themselves from the inside (has happened loads of times, in fact twice last week), objects disappearing and then turning up in the most impossible places, heavy pots and pans being thrown across the kitchen floor (scared our dog to death and he won’t sleep in the kitchen any more). Even more spooky was Team GB coming 4th in the Olympics medals table but maybe that was the $450 million of lottery cash we poured into our Beijing efforts! Keep up the good work.

September 2, 2008 at 9:59 am

btw, why do we assume anyone with real paranormal powers would be interested in 1 million dollars? (plus media exposure, etc etc)

Santiago B. says:

September 2, 2008 at 10:02 am

Isil, you hit it right in the head on that one!!! I had never thought about that, but I just loved it. If someone had paranormal powers would probably not tell anyone and simply look like he is Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, right?

September 2, 2008 at 10:06 am

Andy, I am honored by your comment!

Many many people tried to claim it, but no one could replicate their “supernatural claims” under strict observation conditions. I don’t think the judges refused to acknowledge what they saw. If someone claims he/she can read minds, then he/she has to be able to tell with accuracy what someone else is thinking. If they can move object, then they have to move them. Someone who can “know things about you” would have to make very precise verifiable statements. Things like “Something happened to you when you was 5 years old” does not count. And future tellers, we would have to wait on that ones!

Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward - Trying to live a life out of the comfort zone