So tomorrow I'll be attending my very first skeptical challenge, held at IIG West in Hollywood. If you don't know what a skeptical challenge is, read on for a basic explanation.
The most well-known challenge is the Million-Dollar Challenge by the James Randi Educational Foundation. The principle is simply that if someone with paranormal abilities can prove themselves to the judges of the challenge, they win a million dollars. The IIG challenge I'll be witnessing tomorrow is for "only" $50,000, which would certainly pay off my debt and give me more money each month to spend on enjoying myself, so you can see the appeal in applying.
Thing is, though, not that many people apply. Certainly not the big fish, like the television psychics, or the people who push their books and videos and such in infomercials and online, or hold live events. People like John Edwards, or Sylvia Browne, or Uri Gellar are all held in such high regard by their believers, and claim without a shadow of a doubt that they're the real deal, really knowing things they shouldn't be able to know, talking to the dead, telekinetically affecting the world around them, etc., and yet they all avoid these challenges. When asked, they'll make up excuses such as, "I don't need the money" (bet you a charity could use a donation in your name if you're really that rich), "I know what I can do and my followers know what I can do, so I don't need to prove it to anyone else" (imagine how many MORE followers you'd have to pay for your services if you did prove it), or "the challenge is rigged to prevent a person from winning because all the skeptics really want to do is disprove your abilities." And THAT's the sticking point I want to discuss in this post.
This isn't an uncommon belief, and I suppose I can see where it's coming from. It's hard to believe anyone would actually want to fork over a million dollars, and when the people doing so have spent their entire careers consistently disproving supernatural phenomena, it's easy to assume that's all they do, that's their focus and goal. But it's actually not entirely true. Yes, one of our main angles as skeptics is to help prevent the public from being hurt by hucksters, scam artists, thieves, and charlatans who are out to take their money in exchange for false promises. We expose lies in alternative medicine to prevent people from avoiding REAL medicine that could actually solve their problems. We expose people who will do anything to separate you from your money and give you nothing in return. But that's not all we do, and it's not the entire purpose of the challenges.
See, deep down inside, many skeptics WANT to believe. I know, this seems contrary to everything I've said above as well as our image, but bear with me for a minute here. Skeptics are people just like everyone else, with interests and hobbies and fascinations, one of which happens to be an intent focus on scientific exploration of the world, and making decisions based upon that. But something that goes alongside a love of science is that most of us tend to be geeks to some degree or another (the cool, lovable modern geeks, that is). And as geeks, we tend to have certain specific interests, although they're slowly becoming more mainstream. Things like speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy), horror, magic, comic books, and science are all part of the stereotype. And the stereotype has some truth to it. No, this doesn't fit each and every individual in the group, but each of these concepts is much more popular among the geek segment, and likely among the skeptical circles. So what's my point?
Having grown up with these concepts and loves, us geeks spent much of our lives, and probably still do, fantasizing about a world where these things were all real. We've dreamed, we've written stories, we've wished and hoped that some of these things might actually exist out there. Sure many of us have grown jaded as we've gotten older and accepted that they don't, but that doesn't stop us from wanting them to. And every last one of us would be excited beyond belief to discover that just one of these loves was actually true.
Sci-fi geeks would kill to find out that quantum mechanics allows for technology beyond our dreams that defies the laws of physics. Fantasy dwellers would love to find out that mythological creatures really do exist and are hiding in the world among us. Horror aficionados disappointed by the lack of dark corners in our world to be freaked out by would go ga-ga to learn that ghosts and hauntings are real. Magic nuts would trip out if a magician came about who did tricks that had no grounding in sleight of hand, but really were beyond a normal person's abilities. Comic book-lovers would kill to find out superheroes really exist among us, with crazy abilities that they have to hide from the world. And scientists dream of discovering new principles beyond the current rules of science that could open up entire fields to explore and research, also opening up research funds, Nobel prizes, and the like.
See, all of these types of people would love to find out that our world encompasses these very things we geek out over in a very real sense. And if there's even a slim chance they could exist, we want to find them. And THAT's another place these challenges come into play, as a tool to find the unknown.
Currently our world is full of the liars I mentioned earlier, and they ruin our chance of finding anyone who might really, truly have something to show us that fits the bill of an amazing discovery. They distract us with their tricks and hoaxes, and take up valuable time that could be spent researching the real deal, if it so happens to exist. So if we just opened up a center of sorts to look at anyone who claimed they had special abilities, we'd get pretty much only people wasting our time. But the challenge acts as a filter. We're willing to put up the money if you're willing to meet the rules to PROVE you can do what you say you can do. The liars and cheats look at this, read the rules, and realize there's no way they're getting that money, and they walk away. This leaves only the people who actually BELIEVE they can do what they say they can do. And this is a much, much smaller group, making it a lot easier to weed through them to possibly find something promising.
Another question asked is why would we WANT to give up the money? Even if they had the abilities, and assuming we genuinely DO want to find those abilities, isn't it still in our best interest to cover it up so as not to have to shell out a large amount of money? Who's got $50,000/$1,000,000 to just give away? Well, there's a simple answer to this one, too: Those dollar figures are PEANUTS compared to the money that could be made promoting someone who passed the challenge. If you found the first person truly proven to have supernatural abilities, can't you imagine all the ways in which you could make a fortune off of it? There'd be tours, talk shows, book deals, television appearances, advertising, and more. Not to mention likely awards (Nobel being one of many possibilities), positions involved in further testing of the ability and the scientific research that would go into it, etc. There would be far more money, fame, notoriety and excitement to be had from awarding the prize than ever to continuously turn it down.
Now I'm not going to lie and tell you there isn't a certain expectation that the people participating in the challenge are going to fail. Let's face it, nobody's ever passed, we have a pretty darn good understanding of the laws that govern our world, and the pattern's pretty firmly fixed. Nobody's surprised when someone fails because the reality is that's exactly what's expected. But my point here is to explain that despite that expectation, despite that assumption that there is nothing supernatural in this world and nobody's going to win that prize, that doesn't stop us from wanting it to happen. As skeptics we're not immune to excitement, and it's not our goal to pee in people's cornflakes. We just value honesty and reality more than lies and cons and self-delusion. But like everyone else, we root for the underdog, and we all hope to be involved in an incredible discovery that changes the world. And that's one of the opportunities these challenges provide, and it's one I'm going to try to keep in mind tomorrow. Regardless of what I expect to happen, I WANT the person being tested to truly be someone special, and it would be a hell of an experience to get to tell my grandkids about in the off-chance it happens. So I'll go in tomorrow as open-minded as I always am and root for the underdog, all while carefully paying attention to reality and preventing myself being fooled. Either way, I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun.
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