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QUESTIONING PSEUDOSCIENCE
website:
www.randi.org
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who: the James Randi Educational Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 1996. Located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Foundation is funded through member contributions, grants, sales of books and videos, seminars, and conferences.
James Randi has an international reputation as a magician and escape artist, but today he is best known as the world's most tireless investigator and demystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims: "Acceptance of nonsense as a harmless aberration can be dangerous to all of us," declares Randi. "We live in a society that is enlarging the boundaries of knowledge at an unprecedented rate, and we cannot keep up with much more than a small portion of what is made available to us. To mix that knowledge with childish notions of magic and fantasy is to cripple our perception of the world around us. We must reach for the truth, not for the ghosts of dead absurdities."
why: the Foundation aims to promote critical thinking by reaching out to the public and media with reliable information about paranormal and supernatural ideas so widespread in our society today. It aims to create a new generation of critical thinkers through lively classroom demonstrations and by reaching out to the next generation in the form of scholarships and awards.
how: the promoted ideas (the consequences of accepting paranormal and supernatural claims without questioning) are spread through educational seminars. The James Randi Educational Foundation supports and conducts research into paranormal claims through well-designed experiments utilising the scientific method and by publishing the findings in the JREF official newsletter, Swift, and other periodicals. The organisation owns library of books, videos, journals, and archival resources open to the public; at the same time it provides assistance for those who are being attacked as a result of their investigations and criticism of people who make paranormal claims, by maintaining a legal defence fund available to assist these individuals.
the prize: to raise public awareness of these issues, the Foundation offers one million dollar prize to any person (or group) who can demonstrate any psychic, supernatural or paranormal ability of any kind under mutually agreed upon scientific conditions. This prize money is held in a special account, which cannot be accessed for any purpose other than the awarding of the prize.
critical thinking: on television, a magnetized bracelet containing copper, endorsed by a motorcycle daredevil and Senior PGA golfers, is supposed to help relieve arthritis and muscular pain. Those same golf pros invest in a magic metal stick that is ‘tuned’ to find lost golf balls. Magnets imbedded in shoe inserts are said to attract the iron in the blood, bringing about better circulation. We strap bags of herbs to our bodies. And we are sold custom-made charts and diagrams that predict the future for us, or so we're told. We are all potential victims of scam-artists… In his provocative lectures, James Randi shows us how we can be made more aware of how we are liable to be taken in, by the millions, every year.
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contacts
The James Randi Educational Foundation 201 S.E. 12th St. (E. Davie Blvd.) Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316-1815 - USA ph 954 467 1112 fax 954 467 1660
jref@randi.org
randi@randi.org
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