The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge is offered by the James Randi Educational

[TheDarkenedOne]

I didn't want to do it but after reading this thread I'm going to have to be "that guy".

 

So I just read their FAQ. Did you know this competition has been around since 1964 and no one has won yet. In fact no one has ever made it past the preliminary test.

 

The site exists primarily to prove to people that paranormal things don't exist.

Now that that's out of the way.

 

Suppose for some reason he accepts tulpas as paranormal (even though 5 minutes reading on here would show that it most likely wasn't.) they only test individuals that are willing in person and have some type of media coverage.

The Tulpamancer also has to go see a psychiatrist before hand to make sure they arent just crazy.

Also, that person has to pay the expense of the organizations travel. Assuming this all happens successfully (highly unlikely) the person who has a tulpa has to provide proof that they exist.

 

Now maybe you could recite a whole book to them or something from memory. They would probably just regard it that as something pyschological (which it is) not paranormal.

 

So I don't know about you guys but I'm not so sure we could actually win. Not trying to sound like a jerk or anything just stating some stuff that hasn't been considered.

 

Good luck to anyone entering though.

[Dr. Faust]

I didn't want to do it but after reading this thread I'm going to have to be "that guy".

 

You're not going to be just "that guy." You're going to be one of "those guys." You are at least in good company because you join the better posters in the community by stating your skepticism and it's not as if the skepticism is unwarranted. This topic needs skepticism to better show where this plan can fail and where it can succeed.

 

However, you also have to admit, that many of our shortcomings can be compensated for.

 

Tulpae are paranormal but they aren't that paranormal or supernatural. Today's technology to a person born in the 15th, 16th, or 17th century would be paranormal (or supernatural) simply because they couldn't imagine what makes our gadgets work. Even if we understand the phenomenon because of our personal involvement with it, not everyone will.

 

It is true that Randi has seen a lot of weird shit in his life and this might not be the weirdest but he knows what will look weird to a stage audience. A second consciousness within us is a very weird concept and almost occult (because evocation for most people – summoning entities – is something that wizards and necromancers do).

 

When everyone else presents why Tulpae won't win the challenge, it's simply because the merit of the idea as it is put forward on this website wouldn't withstand Randi's famous scrutiny. If you dressed the tulpa concept up a bit, called it evocation, had your ducks in a row with psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists who are already working with you, presented it to Randi in a way that made an airtight case, and already had public opinion on your side (from books or media coverage) then I think Tulpa could win the challenge.

 

Like I've said before, Tulpa are just paranormal enough (I don't feel like linking the post, it's at the top of the third page, a few posts above this one). They can either be confirmed or denied on a whim by the JREF.

 

Also, in case you can't tell, there still is no reply email.

 

In any case, I say we see if the community could at least write a group PDF, standardize it's forcing methods and create a turing test (to test the sentience of Tulpa). From there we could look to publish, get media attention, and just see if we could attract a little revenue to keep the site afloat (though seemingly Pleeb has members with deep enough pockets for that already). By that point, we might be able to attract attention of a few psychologists and psychiatrists. Then we just refine our information a bit using their help and SUPRISE! We meet the requirements to formally apply to the challenge and no one will have to read another word I write about how Tulpa could win this challenge because we'll settle the matter.

[Sands]

Except the dude wants someone to prove something paranormal (or basically prove that paranormal doesn't exist because no one has beaten the challenge and most likely, never will) and there's nothing a tupper or a person with a tupper could do that someone else without one couldn't do. A person with a voice in their head isn't paranormal. A person with a really good memory isn't paranormal. He asks for something that is psychic, supernatural or paranormal. A tupper doesn't belong to any of those groups. Hard to say how perfectly natural or normal it is, but it definitely isn't supernatural or paranormal. And not exactly psychic unless you can suddenly know what is happening in another room without you seeing or hearing it, in which case you wouldn't even prove it was the tuppers that did it but you'd prove that it is possible and walk away with the money.

 

How this all relates to tuppers, none of those tl;drs has made it clear. A tupper doesn't fit the criteria. At its best or worst, it's seen as either a hallucination or a mental disorder. Again, that doesn't fit in this challenge. Just having a tupper isn't enough, you'd have to do something with it. But seeing how dead set you are, nothing will change your mind. Unless the dude actually mails you back and tells you this doesn't really work. And how many do you even think would want to prove tuppers as something supernatural here? Remember, for science? "Prove" or try to prove this as something paranormal and that just fucks our community even more, rather we distance ourselves from that so we can get some actual shit done instead of stupid hocus pocus pretend. I don't know why you are trying to get this kind of attention, unless you somehow managed to win this thing and prove paranormal shit exists and then try to turn the shit around to use the prize money to fund actual research on tuppers?

 

Well, that still won't happen, because there is nothing paranormal you can do or prove him. Might as well try to learn how to shit fire with the power of your mind and then use the money on something useful, because just supposedly having a tupper doesn't mean anything and no one has gained magical abilities from having a tupper, or they could easily beat this challenge.

[Dr. Faust]

Remember, for science? "Prove" or try to prove this as something paranormal and that just fucks our community even more, rather we distance ourselves from that so we can get some actual shit done instead of stupid hocus pocus pretend. I don't know why you are trying to get this kind of attention, unless you somehow managed to win this thing and prove paranormal shit exists and then try to turn the shit around to use the prize money to fund actual research on tuppers?

 

Well, that still won't happen, because there is nothing paranormal you can do or prove him. Might as well try to learn how to shit fire with the power of your mind and then use the money on something useful, because just supposedly having a tupper doesn't mean anything and no one has gained magical abilities from having a tupper, or they could easily beat this challenge.

 

 

Regardless, I hate to alienate some of the better among us by continually trying to argue my point. I rather have all of you (Sands, waffles, Shui, Antylamon, Zero, Trace, Xeare) as friends I can collaborate with rather than those I argue with for something that isn't likely to happen.

 

Besides, the whole point, as Sands mentioned, should be to advance research on tuppers. We can do that without the challenge. There is no reason why we can't start writing taking a more academic approach to the research and start standardizing the knowledge about tuppers as vast and as varied as this knowledge may be.

 

Please forgive my relentless arguing, I sometimes let my ambitions get the better of me. I just saw this opportunity to perhaps join or create a group of people who really wanted to research and advance the tulpa concept. If at a later date, I or anyone else should choose to pick this argument back up they can do that on their own time. I think any collaboration stemming towards tulpa research is the most important thing to gain from this topic (and if it helps anyone swallow the change in my argument and proceed with a collaboration, I wholly admit I have lost this argument and that Randi will not give us $1 million dollars).

[Zer0.iNSaNiTY]

I think people are getting too hung up on the actual challenge and how tulpas won't win or work or anything o^o As far as I'm concerned I just see this as a good excuse to get some actual work and research done so we can learn more about tulpas, so why not try to compete while we're at it? Long shot sure, but it doesn't hurt anything. Let's just get together and do some more research on tulpas. It'll be better for everyone.

 

I was talking to my friend just before about tulpas and DID. I know some tulpas say they've always been with the host and some don't, and that therapists sometimes 'induce' DID in patients and bring out alters, it just makes me wonder if these induced alters are just tulpas? I dunno, not really related to anything. I just kinda saw someone say mental illness and digressed.

 

Btw, call me Floree or Flo.

[Shui]

Now I'm not saying that there's no way to do something paranormal with a tulpa, just that I don't consider the idea of a tulpa paranormal. It could be possible that tulpas are capable of something ordinary people are not, and one of us might have a better chance on this challenge than anyone else. I just think it will take more than merely having a tulpa.

 

This actually reminds me of another community from many years ago: PsiPog. (Or maybe this is a better link.) Just like tulpa.info, they conducted research for many years on phenomena that many people didn't believe in. Just like tulpa.info, they were mostly in their teens and twenties, and experimented on themselves and each other.

 

In the final blog post, the site's creator explains why he decided to archive the site:

What changed it for me? The entire geiger counter experience. You can look back in this blog and see the change in me. Before the geiger counter, I was focused on this vision of the "perfect" PsiPog. Focused on programming, and doing tedious work. That was my excuse. Why wasn't PsiPog living up to the purpose I consciously believed it had (learning, teaching, sharing)? Because I had to finish this system! I had to make it better! Then it would work!

 

But what was really going on? I was just waiting for proof. There is always a way to make something better, and there are an unlimited number of ideas. To put all this emphasis on the programming was my way of excusing myself. There were no new articles, because there was nothing more I could write about that would bring about proof. We had everything we needed, but the proof wasn't coming. More articles wouldn't solve that.

 

Then the geiger counter proved it to me. That proved it, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the world is a mysterious place. That psionics is real, and psychic abilities are real. Without any doubt.

 

That's the sort of thing we need, and if it happens here, it will most likely happen in the metaphysics forum.

[Linkzelda]

I think people are getting too hung up on the actual challenge and how tulpas won't win or work or anything o^o As far as I'm concerned I just see this as a good excuse to get some actual work and research done so we can learn more about tulpas, so why not try to compete while we're at it? Long shot sure, but it doesn't hurt anything. Let's just get together and do some more research on tulpas. It'll be better for everyone.

I was talking to my friend just before about tulpas and DID. I know some tulpas say they've always been with the host and some don't, and that therapists sometimes 'induce' DID in patients and bring out alters, it just makes me wonder if these induced alters are just tulpas? I dunno, not really related to anything. I just kinda saw someone say mental illness and digressed.

Btw, call me Floree or Flo.

 

Firstly, check this out:

 

http://www.aamft.org/imis15/content/Consumer_Updates/Dissociative_Identity_Disorder.aspx

 

I strongly encourage you to check that out or any research site on what DID is. Now, when it's this nonsense of "induced" DID, you're not "inducing" it to get a "kinda DID," "sorta DID," "forced DID". It's most likely therapists using a type of hypnosis to get the person (of presumed DID/MPD) to bring out their alters, not inducing the disorder.

 

Now, for a person to "induce" Schizophrenia and/or MPD/DID, the logic behind that is that they're magically able to go through the disorder in its entirety (the symptoms and stages without it being just hypochondria).

 

Unless you actually go through those symptoms repeatedly, where you wake up in a constant frenzy with trying to string together a cohesive thought only to have fragments of thoughts that can't connect and such, and can't have a cohesive sense of your own identity, it's safe to presume that there's something different when the host makes intentions for better or worse with the tulpa phenomenon.

 

And if a person does have Schizophrenia or MPD/DID, whether or not they knew about the concept of tulpa, their situation is completely different from us. Although for this, it's based on anecdotal evidence, it's clear that they had a bit more difficulty, but they can work their way into making things less of a mess for them. It's not easy, (may be for some), but it's probable.

 

As for the alters being tulpa that were created based on mental disorder itself, yes, that's an obviously possibility, seeing how they'll be thought-forms within their perception of reality. The difference is with trying to make this phenomenon is bit more cohesive and less contradicting with "induced schizophrenia" of "induced DID" is seeing how we as host can still sustain our sense of identity while going through neurological reformatting of our minds when creating tulpa.

 

When the event occurs without us being consciously aware and being in full control over it, that's when it becomes difficult for the person that developed the disorder for whatever reason.

 

But for people who clearly didn't have the mental disorders from the start, whatever anxiety or fears that may make one have predispositions in them having the disorder is simply psychosomatic complaints. That's completely different from someone with diagnosed/actual schizophrenia or DID/MPD.

[Antylamon]

I think people are getting too hung up on the actual challenge and how tulpas won't win or work or anything o^o As far as I'm concerned I just see this as a good excuse to get some actual work and research done so we can learn more about tulpas, so why not try to compete while we're at it? Long shot sure, but it doesn't hurt anything. Let's just get together and do some more research on tulpas. It'll be better for everyone.

 

Ironically I never even had tulpas in mind until Dr. Faust brought it up. Once that happened, I adopted your exact mentality.

 

Whether tulpas are considered paranormal or not, as long as this can motivate some progress, I'll be happy.

[Sands]

I disagree, progress would be good as would be research, but with the idea of tuppers being paranormal lingering in the background? That's stupid and won't exactly get anyone the kind of attention you want. That's why I'm kinda confused why it's talked about in this thread, which is about a challenge to prove paranormal shit, which has nothing to do with tuppers or the future of tuppers.

 

It can hurt to try to compete in this challenge thing. If you fail to prove tuppers as paranormal when given the shot at competing, you might as well accidentally disprove tuppers because they look at it and go hurdur not real. And not just the paranormal aspects you failed to prove but tuppers themselves, because they just see your try and notice a big fat failure. That'll be hard to get rid of and no one's going to take tuppershit seriously. This site got this big because it was about a scientific way of looking at tuppers. Notice was, past tense, because come on. Tuppers are getting a bit of attention as something not paranormal, trying to pass them as something paranormal and then failing would do no good to us. Just snap us back to square one with even more pony waifus this time around.

 

This conversation itself isn't bad, just in the wrong thread and the topic goes too close to something that will never happen. Talking about funding that will also probably never happen might be a bit silly and overdone already (not to mention won't get us closer to that at all), but that funding for tupper research is closer than tuppers proving something paranormal and getting the prize money. That just is so far out there and I don't know what kind of happy rainbows and marshmallows world you're living in thinking that there's even a slight chance.

[Antylamon]

Wait, really? Funding?

 

Yeah that's going more than a bit overboard. Tulpas literally have no monetary value.