How come Randi’s million hasn’t been won?

That’s what I was wondering this morning while reading this article about psychic powers:

More than half of Britons believe in psychic powers such as mind-reading and premonitions, a survey suggests.

Of 1,006 adults polled for Readers Digest Magazine, 43% reported reading others' thoughts or having theirs read.

More than half had had a dream or premonition of an event before it happened and 26% said they had sensed when a loved-one was ill or in trouble.

A fifth said they had seen a ghost and 29% believed near-death experiences were evidence there was an afterlife.

Of those questioned, 43% claimed to have tapped into other people's thoughts or to have had their own minds read by someone else.

Mind power

More than two-thirds said they could sense when someone was looking at them and 62% could tell who was ringing before they picked up the phone.

More than 10% thought they could influence machinery or electronic equipment using their minds.

One in 10 said something bad had happened to another person after they had wished for it to happen.

(My bold.)

With all those people who can tap into the minds of others, sense when someone was looking at them, or influence machinery with just their minds, it’s Amazing! (haha) that Randi still has his million. Think about it: surely at least one of these psychic prodigies would by now have applied for and easily won all that money?

Comments

[Neil]

I seem to remember a recent "Reader's Digest" poll on Easter, where a majority of UK respondents didn't know what Easter was celebrated for.

Now, personally, being an atheist I'd like to take that as a sign of the on-going secularisation of Britain, but I can't help but suspect that maybe it's simply because

A) British people as a whole are a bit thick, or

B) These Readers Digest polls actually only test Readers Digest readers, who, on the whole are a bit thick.

If B) is correct, as I suspect, I don't think foreign visitors need worry about giving away their bank details to mind-tapping Brits, and so on.

[Zeno]

Oh! I know the answer! It would be unworthy of a psychic to use God-bestowed spiritual powers in pursuit of such materialistic awards as money. No psychic would ever lower herself (or, less frequently, himself) to apply for Randi's million dollars, although of course it would be easy to win it with the help of God/Jesus/the Force/Buddha/Gaia/Mother Earth/Maitreya/the Space Brothers/the Spice Girls/Uri/Bozo the Clown/Ramtha/Deepak [pick at least one].

So shame on you, Skeptico, for asking so cynical a question! Shame!

[EoR]

Yet a Reader's Digest survey here in Australia (commented on by me at http://thesecondsight.blogspot.com/2006/05/whom-do-you-trust.html) showed psychics, as a profession, were right down the bottom on the trust scale, along with telemarketers. So that means half of people believe their own psychic skills, but distrust those of others?

[Hristina]

I recently posted this BBC article for comments on the Randi forum. It seems out of all people asked, only 9 percent ascribe their premonitions to supernatural causes. Otherwise thought reading and guessing the phone are not so rare- after all, people are pretty well equipped with empathy. Also, one seems to be able to guess the phone by simply tracking the highest probability for someone to call in the back of their minds.

So maybe the reason for brits to forego the million is that they simply don't think themselves psychic- but merely possessing a good horse-sense or whatever.

[Skeptico]

Perhaps the 62% who could tell who was ringing before they picked up the phone, are the ones with caller ID?

Evidence-free post deleted by Skeptico.

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