Offering someone a million dollars to prove their psychic or can speak with the dead might be great for headlines, but is it effective at promoting skepticism?

And as you may have guessed, it's complicated.

We'll explain right now on Skeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid.

I'm Jeff Wag, guest hosting for Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

Are one million dollar paranormal challenges effective?

Welcome to the show that separates fact from fiction, science from pseudoscience,

real history from fake history, and helps us all make better life decisions by knowing

what's real and what's not.

I worked for the James Randy Educational Foundation from 2005 until 2010. Those were exciting times,

and one of my roles was to administer the $1 million paranormal challenge, which promised that

sum to anyone who could demonstrate a supernatural or paranormal ability under agreed-upon

scientific testing criteria.

While this challenge is the most well known in recent memory, it wasn't the first.

The first paranormal challenge was offered by none other than performer Eric Weiss,

more commonly known as Houdini.

By 1913, Houdini was a world-renowned magician and escape artist.

Stricken with grief at his mother's death that year, Houdini turned to spiritualism,

hoping for one last conversation with his most ardent supporter.

He visited with several well-known mediums, including Marjorie Crandon, William Hope,

and Eusapia Palladino, only to see through the parlatrix they passed off as a door

to the spirit world.

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