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James Randi Educational Foundation
(JREF)
Psychic Challenge
Last update June 23, 2000
© 1999-2000 John R. Benneth
All rights reserved
Wesley Thuro, a.k.a.. Happy Dog, Randi's erstwhile familiar and magician's assistant, offers to pay thousands of dollars in expenses and legal fees if John Benneth will just tell him the method which he will use to win the Challenge. He also states that he has no interest in winning the Challenge for himself, a claim he is soon to contradict.
Feeling he is being stonewalled by James Randi from being given a fair trial in application to the claim, Benneth suddenly reveals a method authored by Rolland Conte, a controversial French homeopathy researcher, by which anyone can develop a homeoatphic test. This is a perfect science fair project for kids and can provide ample evidence that hoemoapthy is for real. Do it yourself, prove the Benneth Claim for yourself and become a part of history. Submit your results to gian@cyberhighway.net..
Happy Dog suddenly declares his intent to use the revealed method to apply for and win the test writing, " . . . your method looks very promising. We're preparing ourselves to beat you to the prize and then use the money to suppress more alternative modalities." By now Randi has withdrawn from corresponding with Benneth.
Famous late night talk show host Art bell challenges Randi to come on his program and face America's questions about the Challenge. Randi responds with silence.
Dan Kettler of Psi Counsel reveals some interesting information about Randi's history on previous Challenges revealing a pattern of behavior. Visit his web page and see for yourself.
Dr. Randi writes, "get on with it!" while John Benneth asks for a schedule of time and place to get on with it with. Finally, renowned Swiss homeopath Alain Jean-Mairet proposes a settlement. Benneth has a week to come up with a protocol and Randi has a week to propose three dates for a trial. Benneth posts the protocol, and as of April 18th, 1999, Randi has yet to respond, except to indicate, we infer, that the issue will be put aside
Dr. Randi has always demanded a "protocol" for a test. He claims that he must design one in mutual cooperation with the applicant. His "rules" state that the protocol be mutually accepted for a trial. Yet a protocol, as of April 14th, has never been suggested by Dr. Randi in regard to this test. So John Benneth wrote one independently of Randi. Here it is, a procedure by which to conduct a double-blind, public trial of homeopathy, a method to prove what has become a major medical doctrine in the world today, something that should have been overdue 200 years ago.
Swiss mathematician Italo Vecchi provides statistical analysis of the chances for the Benneth protocol of winning by random luck.
Is Randi consistently
victimizing an entire doctrine of science to the detriment of Mankind?
Is he specifically victimizing individuals as well? Is the Challenge a
fraudulent offer? Is it rigged for the purpose of self aggrandizement and
to avoid paying taxes on a million dollars? Judge the evidence for yourself.
The Challenge states that anecdotal
evidence is not acceptable proof for homeopathy, but JREF has yet to show
us any records of one fair and impartial test conducted by neutral observers
of any applicant to the JREF Challenge. In other words, all we see is anecdotal
evidence supporting Randi's claims that all applicants did not demonstrate
anything worth testing in a formal trial. So in rebuttal that homeopathy
lacks sufficient evidence to be regarded as valid, here, in addition to
the methodology being produced by the Benneth Claim, is overwhelming
evidence, perhaps the greatest collection of references
supporting the validity of homeopathy, and yes, even double blind studies,
all pointing to the same conclusion, that homeopathy is indeed real. Is
this not preliminary evidence that the Benneth Claim contains enough potential
validity for it to be tested by fair and impartial observers?
Here's the best reason to date for Randi, JREF and the
detractors of homeopathy to be dodging the Benneth Claim, a test so obvious
we have to ask why no one suggested it before. In an April 18th, 1999 letter
to Italo Vecchi, Benneth reveals a checkmate for a final argument
to provide irrefutable proof for the homeopathic doctrine. By using a substance
we're all somewhat familiar with, this is easiest way understand what homeopathy
is, and how the Challenge can be won in theory and fact, a method that
is sure to stick in your mind. If you agree, send Randi an email at randi@randi.org
and ask him, "Where's John's prize? Let's get on with it!"
The Traversal Randi announces that he is putting off the Benneth Claim for six weeks, and that a man named "Andrew Harter" will be handling his e-mail. Meanwhile, he says, he's going to be entertaining a test of a claim by Nobel Laureate Brian Josephson that the homeopathic signal can be transmitted . . . by wire.