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The Prize

The James Randi Educational Foundation Closed Its Challenge in 2015

A million-dollar prize, a formal protocol, and a decision to stop — the JREF challenge ran for decades before its administrators concluded it had proved its point.

A hand signs a document with a pen above the printed word "signature"
The Randi challenge closed in 2015 without a claimant, after running on signed testing protocols for over a decade.Photo: Pixabay / Pexels

What the Challenge Was and Why It Ended

The James Randi Educational Foundation's Million Dollar Challenge was, for much of its existence, the most prominent standing offer of its kind in the world. Randi, the Canadian-American magician and investigator, had offered a prize for demonstrated paranormal ability since 1964; the JREF formalised and raised the sum to one million US dollars. Applicants submitted a preliminary application, agreed a testing protocol with foundation staff, and underwent a preliminary test before any formal challenge was attempted. No applicant reached the formal stage and passed.

The JREF announced the closure of the challenge in 2015. Randi's stated reasoning, given in foundation communications at the time, was that the exercise had accomplished what it set out to do: the protocol itself — applicant-agreed, double-blind, independently witnessed — was the demonstration, and forty-plus years without a successful claimant was the result. Continuing to administer it, the foundation concluded, was no longer the best use of resources.

A hand fills out a family therapy referral form on a clipboard
The challenge is administered as paperwork: an application, an agreed protocol, and a test both parties sign off before it runs.Photo: Pavel Danilyuk / Pexels
Close-up of a tarnished silver spoon's bowl and part of its curved handle
Elsewhere in The Prize: The Bent Spoon Has Been Awarded Every Year Since 1982.Photo: Irina P / Pexels

The challenge differed structurally from the Australian Skeptics Inc. $100,000 prize, which remains open. The JREF operated a centralised, foundation-staffed process from the United States, with Randi and colleagues directly involved in protocol negotiation. Australian Skeptics runs a decentralised model through its network of state branches, with a smaller prize pool and a different administrative history. Both prizes require applicants to agree testing conditions in advance; neither has paid out.

Researchers including Richard Wiseman ↗ and Chris French, who have published peer-reviewed work on the psychology of anomalous experience, have noted that the value of such challenges lies less in the prize itself than in the protocol: structured, pre-agreed testing that removes post-hoc rationalisation from the result. The suggestion effect — whereby participants in a primed environment report experiences consistent with prior expectation — is well documented in the experimental literature, and controlled testing is specifically designed to isolate it.

The JREF itself closed as an operating foundation in 2015, the same year the challenge ended. Randi died in October 2020. The challenge has not been revived under any successor body, though the Australian Skeptics' prize continues under its own terms, independently administered.

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