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From: JamesRandiFoundation
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  • @jojoinhere that is your opinion.. I believe many things others' have captured to be factual. It is all opinion. Much like religion. The only proven fact is Science. Intuition is a Scientific fact. Psychics just take this to a whole other ball park.

  • Why does she have to use a scissors? Is it to humilate her to open like this?

  • people ever wonder in this day of age Not a single paranormal event or ghost have been caught on video and camera and pass as valid?

  • In Part 1, I remember her saying "you WILL be surprised".

    Sorry, Connie but the result of the test was exactly what I predicted when you said that...You FAIL.

    Guess that makes me psychic. When do I get my cheque?

    Still, she had a 1 in 1000 shot of winning a million bucks. Better odds by far than most, if not all, lotteries. Hmmmm, maybe she isn't as dumb as she seems.

  • @tvsinesperanto she didnt have 1 in 1000 shot of winning a million , she had 1 in 1000 shot of passing the prelimanary and going to the second stage of testing ,which the odds of passing are impossible without said phychic abilities..so shes dumb

  • @shawndawg18 Yeah, I realise that. I was using comedic license. Tone is sometimes hard to convey over text so I understand how you may have thought I was serious.

    I agree, she is dumb. Actually, I did have some respect for her when I saw how maturely she handled her failure... until I heard that she later claimed that she was cheated. After that, as far as I am concerned, she dropped herself right back down into the cesspool of other morons who have made similar claims.

  • Sonne finally broke down and accused the JREF of cheating. So predictable.

    I do think it is a mistake to have a seasoned professional magician do this. People will always be suspicious of potential slight of hand. And I believe completely that Banachek is totally honest. Why not have Alison Smith perform this test to erase even the accusation?

  • this is like watching a spelling bee, except the contestant has to spell the word on their head, and the word is 'dumbass.'

  • I have a question.. How can we trust a magician? Maybe some psychics were correct and James Randi and/or his staff performed their tricks changing cards or items, etc...we'll never know. I'm skeptical even with those "skeptics". Honestly, I don't think James Randi & Company have been 100% honest. If Im wrong, my apologies tho.

  • @fkoff99 Yet you have no shred of evidence to suggest they've ever tampered with anything.

  • @alfproperjohn

    Yawwwnnnn

  • @alfproperjohn When was the last time you had sex? lol

  • @fkoff99 Three months ago, you?

  • @alfproperjohn I'm sure your months=years.

  • @fkoff99 meh, hadn't been laid yet three years ago.

    Anyway, this strengthens your conspiracy bullshit argument how?

    I'm guessing the 99 in fkoff99 is your birth year.

  • @alfproperjohn Sure bitter impotent ass. lol.

  • @fkoff99 Still not convinced.

  • What if the guy was a slight of hand magician himself? I found it odd that he did not open the smaller envelopes to show they were empty like he did the larger envelopes. Camera angle sucked too, should have been overhead like in a casino. I know they are trying to make it so that she doesn't cheat, but what about them? They have a million dollars they collect 40k from in interest every year! Just being skeptical of the skeptics. I really don't she has powers though.

  • aha! i was just looking at the press conference, and apparently the guy dealing is a magician! I figured as much since JR is one as well. I guess i just find it odd for people to allow known magicians to run the test. They almost made it too complicated for what was necessary, which makes me think all the tapping, and the showing of the big envelopes and not the small odd to me. Again, i don't think she has powers, but, i've never heard of her before either. She could be part of the scam

  • @CluppHead -Well it's a given to have the testers be magicians. If Sonne or anyone else was to try to cheat during the test, magicians would be able to spot it easily. They could of cheated the process but I think the protocol is legite and fair.

  • @CluppHead 1) He tapped the envelopes to get the card to the bottom so the card didn't get cut off. 2) ...why would they need to use tricks to make someone fail one of these tests? She's a charlatan, she doesn't have any "powers". All they need to do is to test her normally and they'll have proven her wrong.

  • @Adkit2 the simple fact that they have a vested interest in proving her wrong should disqualify them from performing the test. They should have chosen an outside source to do so. James Randi was given the million dollars in a bank, and was only to give that money to someone who was able to prove paranormal activity. The person who donated that money told them they could keep the interest that million made in the bank. 40k or more a year. 40 thousand reasons to make someone fail

  • @CluppHead Again: why would they "make" anyone fail? The reason why they do this at all is because every single claim for the money in all of their history have been proven wrong. Not because they "faked" it but because the people they've tested are trying to fool them.

    James Randi is one of the most un-biased people around, he WOULD change his mind if someone proved something unnatural to be true. He WOULD give them the million dollars.

  • @Adkit2 I agree with you about James Randi, and putting more thought into it, he really doesn't have much longer to live to make much use of the money. I guess I just find it hard to believe that people that knew they were faking would try to pull a fast one on him. Maybe they thought they could actually win the million out of luck. Which could happen...hell...people still win the lottery! I wonder if your odds are better doing the tests than winning the lottery...

  • @Adkit2 Basically, as long as they keep proving people wrong, the longer they get to collect interest from that million dollars. If they let it sit for 5 yrs, that's 220k, 10 yrs 490k, and 20 yrs over a million dollars.

  • On the issue of the Ace at 7:20, you'll notice that he opens the top of the packet, bows it away from himself, and only then begins to say that it is the ace of spades. As he removes it, you see that the face of the card was towards him. If you imagine yourself under the same circumstances, it is very easy to glimpse the face of the card before it's removed.

  • Eithr she was honestly self-deluded, having unconsciously "manufactured" success in uncontrolld settings, or shes a run-o-th-mill trickster who figured, "Might as well try my luck for a million dollars."

    Most tricksters run for th hills, once careful controls are suggested.

  • that's just embarassing. wonder what made her think she could do it in the first place?

  • The best part is how she has to go through the agonizing part of opening each envelope after knowing she already lost ;-)

  • OMG I Can not believe she failed... i am sooo disappointed,,,

  • you actually thought she would win?

  • They even made the test easy on her by telling her which suits are where.

    Randi's website said qigong was aloud, did any shaolin monks take the challange?

  • Verdruc, the test was fair. Sonne failed. Get over it. It's in justifying these charlatans by people like you that these frauds continue to rip people off.

    We should have more investigators like James Randi in the world to keep these woo-woo artists honest. It's a shame how people "shoot" down the investigators rather than the charlatans. Where are your priorities?!

  • At 7:20... how does he know that it's the Ace of Spades before taking it out of the envelope? Or did he get a chance to see it? The video isn't very clear. I think this is what Sonne is using as "evidence" of cheating.

  • @Verdruc, after the envelope is cut he can see the top of the card, knowing the suit and seeing the ace would be my guess as to how he knew it.

  • I hope to see more of these soon.

  • failblog, the movie length episode

  • Was anyone really surprised with the ending???

  • Please tell me you guys fast forwarded this and didn't sit through all this nonsense.

  • scam artist exposed. Don't give your money to these people.

  • she sure took a long time to fail !!! uhauhauh

  • She's got some guts to get in front of an audience to do that with a large probability of failure. I think the audience is to be commended for the respect they showed to the entire process as well as Sonne.

  • @outlawlaw

    Yeah. But on the other hand, as an earlier commenter pointed out, had she simply tried some legit blind tests previously, she never would have gotten in front of an audience to begin with (the two sides of the old "guts versus stupidity" coin).

  • I think that ANY protocol outside of having the cards face up for her to see them would have yielded similar results.

  • Thats why these things are rigged. You saw her dowse for the Jack in the beginning and got it right... So why even continue on with the test? She got it right at the beginning. (kidding)

  • I don't really like that protocol. I would rather have her find each number A thru 10 one at a time and then compare that with the dice being rolled to predict the numbers.  Then compare the dice accuracy with her accuracy to see if she's any better than a random distribution. I'd be happy with even a consistent increase above random chance.

  • No need to roll a dice, statistics does a much better job. You can CALCULATE the probability of getting 1, 2, 3, 4... cards right as well as the cumulative probability of getting 1 or more right, 2 or more etc. This is clearly more useful than rolling a die which doesn't tell you how likely you would be to get a result "as good as" the one you got by chance.

  • pfff I would have found those cards!!

  • It was great that she guessed all of them wrong, because if she had guessed correctly on one or two she would have said something like: "You see, my psychic powers worked some of the time!" Hehe, they are actually like that, those charlatans!: )

  • The woman was obviously a looney toon.

  • Oh wow she almost got it!... Not

    You know I would just do the test just for the random chance that I could actually do it. 1000 chance isn't that hard. Bettery than most lotteries.

  • That's just the preliminary test, moron. She'd have to do it again under even more controlled circumstances, making the chances 1000x1000=1000000.

  • lol im sorry that im stupid. can you forgive me pleaaaase?

    It was a joke....

  • richo you're a bloddy little cunt

  • "Bloddy"? What language is that?

  • Bloddy, english, slang for: "when a girl cuts a males penis and balls off and performs cunnilingus on the newly alternated male."

    Now you know ;)

  • God that was boring. Cool exciting stuff like explosions were created by science, science FTW!

  • @JewTube001 She forgot to tell them her powers work best when she's naked.

  • @JewTube001 I found it quite a zen meditative experience. Cut the envelope , read the card, Cut the envelope, read the card. I feel strangely calm and relaxed.

  • It is to prove that they did not switch the envelopes and all the cards are accounted for.

  • yeah, it sucks she failes miserably and then she still has to STAND there and wallow in embarrassent in front of the audience

  • if she hadnt LIED about her powers she could have STOOD there as a winner... but she didnt. so there

  • in order to remove any chance of anyone having any kind of problem with the protocol of the experiment, showing that indeed every card represented in the protocal was present for the live experiement the envelopes must be cut open and each card shown to all parties present.

    a side effect of this may be a form of humiliation but is not the intended purpose for the process and certainly not done on purpose.

  • They wasted A LOT of their time preparing this test. Why not waste hers by going through this? Seems very reasonable imho.

  • If thats how you feel, then you totally missed the point. Did you even watch the other videos? Do you understand what she claims to be able to do and how this experiment is designed to prove it based on specifically what she says she can do? When there's 1 million dollars at stake, I think both sides want to be sure there was no deception.

  • I fear that theyre are just following protocol. In my opinion the audience shouldve been rofl at her while she was forced to eat the remaining cards. That mightve been a nice reality check for her. Unfortunately I'm sure she went home and is still trying to convince ppl she has paranormal powers. The only paranormal about her is extremely low IQ and the extremely high belt thats keeping her tits from sagging to her waist.

  • you're an idiot

  • Steve Shaw was amazing in that one.

    Anyway, I can't believe she would go on stage like that and embarrass herself.

    Idk what's wrong with those people, it's either they're cons or really do believe they have special powers.

    For her sake I hope she's a con, otherwise I hope she gets help.

  • I feel bad for her, even tho i have none whatsoever respect for these con artists.

  • its pretty boting

  • EPIC FAIL!

  • They should have made her repeat the experiment 1000 times for wasting everybody's time with deluded ideas and paranormal bullshit. Also the audience should have gone: haha, in your face.

  • She is Very, Very, Funny Lady and to think for over 30 years idiots have been paying money to the disturbed, irrational, lying cow of a woman, who is so sadly deluded she really blames (and believes) it was the testing method that was at fault. Not the plain simple fact-She is a raving Lunitic, perhaps I am being a little too hard unlike Christians she is at least willing to put her beliefs (no matter how wacko) to the test

  • Over 30 years? According to her intro video, she claimed to only have discovered her alleged ability to dowse a couple of years ago.

  • My bad: 1 year, 8 months.

  • 7:45 to skip the cutting

  • Maybe She should have used a quiji board.

  • lol major failure

  • What a HUGE waste of time. They should've just had Banachek perform magic tricks. That would've been WAY more entertaining.

  • I don't know, failing that badly was a pretty decent trick.

  • What I don't understand is: why don't these people that make these claims try to test their powers at home with comparable odds (1/1000) to get everything right? What is stopping them from just showing to themselves whether they are legit or not and thus saving themselves the embarrassment?

    If I thought I had these powers, I would be the very first to happily test them against astronomical odds.

  • well I know I don't have any of these powers, but I wouldn't mind testing lol. You see it's like lottery, there is allways a chance to succeed. So I think this might answer you question. People like lottery, so people will go for a test when there is a chance to win a million dollars. :)

  • No it's not like lottery.. If you listen to the press conference they explain that they have the preliminary test to aviod opportunists. If you pass the preliminary by freak change you then prepare for a much more secure test (without members of the JRef present for instance, and presumable with a 3rd party preparing the materials).

  • so you are saying there is no chance of passing by chance what so ever? I thought so. So my point still stands!

  • That's why it's a preliminary test. It's also very unlikely and you do have to draw a line as to what constitutes verification.

    All scientific tests can only disprove a claim, they can never 100% prove a claim.

  • The problem is that the general population do not understand what a control test is and how to carry it. It is very possible to test yourself and still come out on top because the test is not as control as as one might think.

  • I think they know, deep down, that they don't have any special powers. If they were to test themselves and be wrong, then they would have to come face to face with the fact that they've been lying to themselves for so long.

    For some people, anyway.

  • When facing the truth about their ability they can either realize that they've been wrong all over those years (,which is really, really hard if you try to look at the situation from their point of view), or play a little psychological game called cognitive dissonance reduction which means they try to find some external thing to blame their failure on. In this case she was trying to blame the whole thing on Banachek, claiming that he was cheating, which is a lot easier than facing the truth.

  • Unsurprisingly, reality remains just that.

  • poor woman.

  • Exactly.. Maybe it'll teach her not to "douse" her brain at her age..

  • lol

  • Fail, DIF you stupid bitch

  • Not ONE right...haahaa. FAIL!

  • It seems that FAILURE is an option! - 'I'm sorry! You Lose! Thanks for playing! BYe-bye! So long! NEXT CONTESTANT PLEASE! (cue ending trombone - WAH, WAh, wah, waaawaaawaawaaaah) - LOL

  • what i wanna know is how come we cant have a camera record the cards on the table?

  • wouldn't matter if we did see it because the testor is presenting the cards to her she has agreed under the conditions and has failed.

  • so,, a woman claims to have paranormal abillities, builds something of a following,, invests her time and a lil money no doubt,, and gets totally embarassed infront of an audience,, then you hand her a pair of scissors and have her stand on a stage in embarassment for a half hour or so,,, sounds like a tragedy waiting to happen,, surprised she didnt stab sean astin in his friggin eye...............

  • sean astin lol. he looks like michael ball the singer too

  • Yeah, but she signed the agreement. ;)

  • you missed the point,,, i'm not sympathizing with her,, i'm saying it might not be such a great idea to publicly embarass someone who claims paranormal abillity's = half wacked in the head,, and then hand her a pair of scissors,,, kinda seems like a recipe for disaster.

  • Not a one single card. Total fail.

  • It seems harsh to drag her through this 40 envelopes in a row. But I guess the only fair way really is to have her open them all herself and see every single card, so she knows nothing has been tampered with.

  • its also nice because it is making sit through her failure.

  • She has a nice sexy body.

  • 7;19 he is squeezing the envelope to reveal the card....

  • @Rhino:

    She has a 1/10 chance of getting a card right each time. Probability of getting them all right randomly is 1/10 * 1/10 * 1/10 which is of course 1/1000.

  • Pity she wasn't able to get a single one right, but exactly what I expected. Atleast she tried with honest intentions. A shame that she is so delussional to point fingers at the JREF afterwards, but it is something we have come to expect from these types of people. They really think it works. You've got to wonder if she tested herself before doing all this.

  • She can't point fingers, but she did. She agreed to the way it was done, and no cheating took part on the event coordinaters. Another fraud exposed.

  • Looks very transparent to me. I think it would be wonderful is someone could demonstrate paranormal phenomena, because it would provide new ground for scientists to explore, but I must say that the lack of evidence isn't very promising.

  • well if I had a 1 in 1000 chance of winning one million dollars I really dont think I would mind that humiliation

  • she knows she's full of shit

  • This test might have been a 1 in 1000 chance, but wouldn't she have had to pass a second stage to get the million?

  • oh yeah, thats true.

  • You are correct. This was only the preliminary.

  • Much greater than 1 in 1000 odds on this test. Not that it matters. And im sure the second stage would've had even greater odds. Trying to make sure they can't luckily guess their way to 1 million dollars.

  • why would TAM waste their time 'testing' a psychic, aren't there more real topics to discuss? The audience isn't your regular primetime watching believe-anything layman. we watch this because we look for some sort of enlightenment, not because we wish to see some hack get embarassed, no doubt every single person expected that to happen. More James Randi lecturing would be infinitely better than this.

  • They test because there's always the chance there's someone who's real. They've never found anyone, and I doubt they ever will, but the chance is still there.

  • no, no there isnt.

  • One, don't call her a dumb bitch. She might be deluded, but that's no reason for namecalling.

    Two, he was holding the envelopes in a way that made it hard for her to cut them sitting down. She tried sitting for the first couple, then eventually stood. He should have held them differently so she didn't have to stand up, but that still doesn't change the results.

  • One, I'll call her whatever the hell I want, sure as I'll call you a fuckwit.

    Two, I don't care what angle he holds it at, I still guarantee I would be able to cut it open with a scissors sitting down.

  • YEAH I watched this live and i was wondering why she didn't just turn the scissors the other way. Anyway it doesn't matter..

  • Not that it matters AT ALL, but she also could've tried facing the scissors the other way when cutting, she only tried cutting with her right hand with the scissors facing right, which is awkard, she coulda tried them facing left. She is clearly a bit stupid, at least by my standards. But I wouldn't blame it on him for holding it akwardly, id say he was holding it there for cameras sake.

  • aww, mommy didn't rub your belly when you were sick?

  • So Connie is claiming that she was tricked by B - he knows the ace of spades is in the envelope before he pulls out the card (at appx. 7:15). It seems to me that he glances into the envelope after it was cut (and so sees the ace before it is pulled out which does not invalidate the test of course) but hard to tell... She is going to play this one to the hilt, is my guess. *sigh*

  • Regarding Connie Sonne's post on JREF forum: The JREF errored by choosing Banachek to administer the test. He is honorable of course, but his sleight-of-hand abilities give the subject grounds for false accusation. Lesson learned: Even if the protocol is water tight the slightest anomaly can be seized upon in desperation by a disgraced psychic. In this case it's almost impossible to think that anyone would take Connie's accusation seriously but you can be sure that someone will.

  • At least she had the guts to take the test.

  • I'm not sure how much bravery she really needed for this. If you think about it she was playing the lottery with slightly better odds than usual.  Instead of a scratch off ticket in the privacy of her own home, she lost in front of a huge crowd. O.K. that takes a little bravery.

    Although it's not like she'll lose her scamming business due to this anyway. Have a great day.

  • Yes ok she was palying a lottery, I am aware of that. I had a feeling she would fail as I'm a skeptic myself.

    The reason why I say she had guts is because you hear so many so called "psychics" giving pathetic excuses for not taking the challenge. She was willing to stand up and put her beliefs on the line. Remember some people genuinely believe they have powers. They may be misguided but there are not out and out frauds.

  • I would also like to add that I made my comment to provide some balance. Some peoples remarks were just plain abuse.

    As skeptics we should not Hope people fail the challenge or take pleasure if they do. This affects our ability to be open minded.

  • I agree with your statement. I am surprised she actually would take a test like this in front of so many people. I think some of these claimants may need meds. I don't mean that in a derogatory way either.

  • I agree except I dont think meds will help, they just need psychological help. They need to embrace reality. But they ARE sick in the head for sure!

  • i bet i can do better yet i don't even believe in that shit

  • Connie Sonne, enjoy your hot cup of FAIL.

  • hahahaahahahahah, wow, you are so cool.

  • That sucks to know you failed miserably (not EVEN 1!) and then they make you continue cutting the envelopes so you can continue to relive ur failure. It's HILARIOUS though!

  • It absolutely sounds like a good test. It is kind of sad she did not sucseed. Because it would be cool if paranomal stuff would be proven to be a siantivic fact. It will proably never hapen thoug...

  • Play her off, keyboard cat.

  • lol!

  • Thank you very, very much.

  • The guy on stage did a great job. I would have fell asleep a long time ago.

  • Cue the keyboard cat!

    Fail!

  • Clacking the envelope against the table is SO annoying.

    I agree with another person who commented, they should have used something that had a drawstring.

  • well it's vegas. those were probably the best odds for a million in the entire city.

  • Except they weren't.

  • Well the odds were good.

  • It was just a preliminary test though.

  • True, but dont let facts get in the way of a snappy comment :p

  • What is this challenge designed to bore people to death so that even if they win, they won't be able to collect because they'll be dead? So will all observers who watch and the win won't be verifiable. They could have made the preliminary test much simpler to weed out most people in a short time span.

  • I guess they leave the bullshit fireworks for the bullshit people.

  • So what would your test protocols entail? How would you control for every variable and still have the test double-blinded?

  • I'd tend to agree. The only changes I'd make in hindsight would be to use slightly larger envelopes of the type that have a rip-strip opening, so they can be sealed properly but opened quickly, and even that is only a concession to the fact that the test has an audience. For the normal test (which is an experiment, not a stage show), the procedure used was fine.

  • DrM-Or they could have used a letter opener instead of the scissors, or used the scissors as a letter opener to speed the process up. He wouldn't have had to tap the envelopes on the table each time that way. I think it would have halved the envelope opening time. The testing process worked from a scientific standpoint, but things like this could have been used to streamline the process. The test was good, the presentation seemed impromptu, awkward and not well thought out.

  • I suspect it's just as hard to open an envelope someone else is holding using a letter opener as scissors, and it is pretty apparent that part of the procedure was that the experimenter had to keep hold of the envelope to prevent the subject from being able to switch envelope or contents by sleight of hand.

  • I would do it. The odds were better than the lottery. 1/1000 is good odds for a free crack at flukeing $1m. The only price would be looking like an idiot which, lets face it, I do for free most of the time.

  • This is just the preliminary test. There are more later. So it is not 1/1000 chance but much lower.

  • Good thinking.Not that you believe in "superpowers" , its just cash that can be won :D I would do it for same reason!

  • bloody women, cant live with em, cant live without them..

  • This is the most humiliating thing I've ever seen. To stand there and have to cut open all those envelopes knowing you're a complete failure.

  • Nah, James Hydrick's humiliation was worse than this.

    "Lights.......Static........St­yrofoam.........Eleectricity..­.....Oh fuck...

  • I don't know...At least he didn't have to rip every page after to make sure it was a real phonebook....lol

  • With eyes wide open she comes screaming in from a great height and crashes and burns, on stage before a crowd. I believe that she believed in herself so what did the experience do to her self belief. I feel sorry for her because I've made a prat of myself before, who hasn't, but I suspect she'll carry on in her private life as if it proves nothing at all. The JR disciples in the audience were 99.9% sure of the result and knew why, but we'll never be able to reach people like that. So very Sad.

  • It would have been nice if they would have a camera focused on top of the table.

  • Don't be silly. A camera would interfere with her 'energy'. Everyone knows that. Tsk.

  • It was a bit boring to watch all of this. I agree with that other guy, they do need to have an over head camera.

    Also, can't they do something like on the show 24. Instead of cutting away to another camera, can't they use both clips from the camera in a frame?

  • what a shameless lady. lool she must have believed 100% that she is has paranormal to do this lol.

  • And the last I checked, she claimed to have been "cheated" on Randi's forums.

  • lol. she just signed. she cant do nothing about. lol. shame. bad to be her.

  • Why am i not surprised that she failed.

  • /victory dance

  • The problem is that most scientists want to try to detect the truth, but most scientific subjects aren't trying to deliberately fool the experimenters, so experiments in most areas are set up with an assumption that the subjects are honest. Ran