Proof of the money

[caniswalensis]

[derrida]

i am pretty sure you are right

just one thing
craig bills himself as a psychic entertainer
he doesnt do disclaimers when he starts with the magic tricks not before, not after
he wants people to believe he is the real deal
thats why he attacks the rational thinking movement

[Arouet]

[Craig Browning]

[caniswalensis]

Well, the phrase "reap what you sow" comes to mind here.

[derrida]

relax craig
my name comes from a french philosopher which you are obviously not familiar with.

lets say i was a dowser
if i knew i had that ability i would show it to the world
to tell those horrible rational thinkers cult followers that I WAS RIGHT
but nah.. i wont do it.. i think is way better to ramble on paranormal forums and accuse those truth seekers of being a religion.. yeah.. i think ill do that. thats way smarter.

dont you see how funny that is?

what is cultish or religious about asking for just one guy to prove to the world they can do what they say they can do under proper conditions?... explain to me, why i am so wrong to ask for that and not to believe every elvis is alive story?
can you offer anything else than a story?

[Craig Browning]

You're missing out on one constant in the world when it comes to the majority of folks that have a knack for dowsing, doing Readings, Healings, etc. and that is the fact that they see it from a spiritual perspective not something to exploit to build name & reputation. This has been a constant throughout history just as we've seen the glory chasers generation after generation, be it the Jim Jones/David Korish types or my favorite phony Sylvia Brown... in fact, she's a perfect example as to the sort most folks in the "spirituality" culture, reject out right because she has exploited her abilities for the sake of fortune and fame... a very big taboo in that world... always has been.

Sylvia's accuracy on her Readings went into a massive decline a good two years before the whole Randi thing, because she had deliberately betrayed her "gift" as they say.

As I've pointed out numerous times on this board, most of those that are genuine and exceptional HIDE... they live well outside the major cities (because the chaos makes the ill) and typically, this live rather austere life styles, never making money off their abilities unless they are in a personal position of urgency and choose to do Reading. Even when that happens few of them ever see more than a $35,000.00 annual gross vs. the hundreds of thousands seen by egos like Ms. Brown and her $700.00 + 15 minute sessions.

If you need a Readings, call me... I only charge $40.00 for 20 minutes

[derrida]

craig, i believe you are worth those 40dollars and more
i prefer to pay you a guy that actually read the systems and have developed several
than to pay whatever amount sylvia is asking
i am pretty sure your readings are really interesting a are worth of studying

i am just questioning the whole ¨those people exist but if they come out they will lose their talents¨..
and those that come out are just phonies, talentless and have been proven to be fakes.
that just so convenient.. isnt?..

[NinjaPuppy]

[Craig Browning]

[really?]

[derrida]

yeah i know...

is obvious that the problem
is that because they cant find ONE person to come out and show us wrong
they have to rely in talking trash about critical thinking
such a shame..

[mr. mike]

Getting back to the money, I thought it was proven that the million dollars was in bonds, so that if anybody ever defeats Randi's system and proves their abilities, they have to deal with the various bond-holders to get the cash.

On the cult thing, I would say that there was a lot of veneration of the man at the last TAM; even Stephen Fry was bowing and scraping in his presence, and Fry has a university degree, while Randi got into magic after dropping out of high school. JREF does remind me of Scientology only in its certainty that it is right, everybody else is wrong and that its paradigm of reality is the one true way.

Finally I wish that Randi would go back to deunking the faith healers. He earned a lot of credability proving that Peter Popoff was a fraud, and Popoff is back. Heck Robert "Pastor Gas" Tilton has re-emerged to stink up BET at 2am. There are also new guys, like Kearney "The Screaming Preacher" Thomas, and Benny Hinn, which Randi never went after. If Randi wants to look good, nailing these guys, if even for his YouTube channel, would be the easiest thing because their cons are child's play. I know that there are guys like DPRJones on YouTube that have done great debunking jobs of Popoff's scams; but they don't have the media connections Randi does.

[derrida]

[quote="mr. mike" ]

On the cult thing, I would say that there was a lot of veneration of the man at the last TAM; even Stephen Fry was bowing and scraping in his presence, and Fry has a university degree, while Randi got into magic after dropping out of high school. JREF does remind me of Scientology only in its certainty that it is right, everybody else is wrong and that its paradigm of reality is the one true way.

[/quote]


thats a really bad comparison
cults arent open to debate, skeptics are
skeptics are open to debate.. why do you think there´s so many of them here? (im not including myself, i am a cynic)

and yeah.. randi drop out of highschool.. does it really matter?
he has said many times his field of study is way narrow.. he only cares about deceiving people and how people deceive themselves.. so a magician seems quite proper.. (a psychologist way better.. but we got wiseman for that).
then again..
like i said.. it only takes one guy to humilliate randi and proove him wrong.. but believers havent got it yet.. so their resource is to attack randi..

[mr. mike]

It does matter that JREF fosters a cult-like atmosphere because then it stops being a forum where things can be debated and devolves into a propaganda outfit. The same thing happened to CSICOP in the late 1970s and they have done no major investigatory work since. It also makes skepticism look bad if the group says "we are for expanding human knowledge" and yet they are unwilling to investigate or discuss paranormal things. I believe that the paranormal should be investigated scientifically, not quickly debunked and then ignored.

Yes, in working around the paranormal a college degree (preferrably one in the sciences) is a necessity. Randi may know how to defeat slight-of-hand tricks, but could he figure out how to debunk Zero Point Energy, Cold Fusion, or something more esoteric? I don't know. What I do know is that the guy is so dismissive of any claims he calls them "woo-woo", much like how Dr. Edwin U. Condon called UFOlogy "UFoology" (i.e. he considered it a waste of time.) As for the humiliation, Randi sometimes brings that on himself, as seen by the alleged "sex tapes" which I won't discuss because I don't care.

I don't hate James Randi; I just feel his personality gets in the way of his skepticism, so he moves goalposts, uses straw men, etc.