Randi's Challenge and Precognition

Question: Randi's Challenge and Precognition

In a comment to a Paranormal Answer Man question and answer about precognition, reader Scott says the following:

"The Amazing Randi had a million dollars on the table for anyone that can prove they have ESP or any other paranormal...and no one won it. They gave up in 2010 after 10 years of looking because they had to waste so much time on all the crackpots and frauds out there."

Answer:

Scott, although I agree that there certainly are crackpots and frauds out there, the fact that no one was able to claim The Amazing Randi's million dollars does not disprove the reality of psychic phenomena, it only means that no one proved it under Randi's test conditions.

One of the reasons for this is that psychic phenomena, especially something like precognition, is not an ability that can be brought into a lab and performed on demand. It happens when it wants to happen, apparently. Those who experience precognition -- and again thousands of instances have been documented -- have no control over when and how it happens. How then could they possibly prove it to Randi?

Here's an analogy that might help prove my point:

Let's say a man claims that for no particular reason he thought about Lindsay Lohan 20 times last Tuesday. Now this is something that is not paranormal in any way and would not really be considered unusual for some guys. But Randi says to him: "That's ridiculous! Prove it! If you can prove to me right now that you thought about Lindsay Lohan 20 times last Tuesday, I'll award you one million dollars! In fact, if you can prove to me that you thought about her five times -- even one time last Tuesday -- I'll give you the million dollars!"

Well, of course the guy cannot prove it. He didn't happen to tell anyone and he didn't write it down. How can he possibly prove that he thought about something? Yet, in reality Lindsay Lohan, for some reason, did pop into his head 20 times last Tuesday. Does his inability to meet Randi's challenge disprove his experience? No, and it's not something that is even paranormal; it's something that happens to us all the time: stuff pops into our heads.

The analogy isn't a perfect one, but I think the point is clear: Some things cannot be proved on demand under test conditions or by scientific means. Many types of psychic phenomena, to the frustration of us all, are some of those things. They are as ephemeral and fleeting as thoughts. Yet the abundance of experiential anecdotes is strongly suggestive that these phenomena exist, even if we do not fully understand how they work or why they occur.

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