James Randi challenges “psychic” Sally Morgan to a test of her ability to speak to the dead on Halloween. According to the The Guardian:
A celebrity psychic who claims to speak with the dead in sellout shows across the country has been challenged by sceptics to prove her supernatural powers. They have invited TV “star psychic” Sally Morgan to demonstrate her ability to connect with the spirit world in a specially designed test in Liverpool on Monday.
The Halloween challenge is backed by the US paranormal investigatorJames Randi, and qualifies as the first step towards claiming a million-dollar prize established by the James Randi Educational Foundation for any psychic who can prove their “gift” to be real.
Who says Halloween is just for kids?
As a follow-up, it only took two days for Sally Morgan to back out of the challenge.
From the Guardian:
Lawyers for psychic performer Sally Morgan have said she will not take the scientific test scheduled to coincide with Halloween
Simon Singh, who organised the test of Sally Morgan’s powers, said the Halloween challenge would become an annual event. Photograph: Richard Smith/Corbis
Sally Morgan, the TV clairvoyant who styles herself as “Britain’s best-loved psychic”, has turned down an invitation to prove her supernatural powers on Monday.Morgan, who claims to converse with the spirit world in sellout shows across the country, was asked to demonstrate her abilities in a Halloween challenge laid down by sceptics in Liverpool.
Morgan’s lawyers, Atkins Thomson, emailed the science writer Simon Singh, who organised the scientific test of her powers, to make clear that she would not take up the challenge.
The email, from Graham Atkins, requests that Singh does not contact Morgan or her office again, and states: “You well know that we all have far more important things to do than take part in this or any other ‘test’ at this point. She will not attend at Liverpool or at any other time.”
I actually hope that she will win the bet. I believe that there are powers at play in the world beyond our regular senses…not sure if they are “ghosts”, but……
It would be very interesting for science if she did win. Imagine the grant money one could get for studying her gift!
There is a reson there is a $1mm prize for this. No one will ever win it. I hope she makes a fool of herself. All she is is a (not so) sophisticated con artist. The dead are gone, and this woman preys on the unsuspecting and uses their grief to make money. What a parasite.
I bet she’s ‘psychic’ enough to get a message in her head that advises her to avoid the challenge
The Amazing Randi has been offering this prize for quite a while. Not sure if there’s even been any takers willing to even venture a try. Good friend of Randi, Johnny Carson, embarrassed the pants off of once-famous “psychic” Uri Geller on national television; history has a nasty habit of repeating itself.
James Randi versus Uri Geller
http://youtu.be/vJQBljC5RIo
Good ole’ Nova
Let the crazies attack NPR, but keep their dirty fingers off my PBS. Thanks for linking this. By the way, I happened upon your small gem of a forum from a Daily Hitchens post. You’ve got a few fans over there, including this guy!
Thanks, Andrew! I’ll be posting more content soon. Right now I am still pretty busy with formatting. Went out last night and bought two books on CSS! Please send your comments and suggestions!