Answer: Paranormal Abilities/Phenomenon

James Randi is a magician and life-long skeptic responsible for founding the James Randi Educational Foundation–an organization with a focus on educating the public on the dangers of accepting unproven claims and the harm caused by con artists and scammers who rely on the willingness of the public to accept these claims.

In 1964 Randi was challenged, during a radio interview, to put his money where his mouth is. The institute initially offered a prize of $1,000, which grew to $10,000 and then via donations (predominantly from Lexington Broadcasting and Internet pioneer Rick Adams) the prize grew to its present million dollar amount. The premise of the challenge and the prize is simple: if an individual can demonstrate evidence of the paranormal–be that evidence psychic abilities, speaking with ghosts, or the like–under scientifically controlled circumstances, they are free to claim the prize.

Thousands of people have attempted to claim the prize in the intervening decades but none have been able to successfully demonstrate any scientific evidence of paranormal abilities. Randi remains confident the prize will never be collected.