Not unlike most things, Randi’s million dollar challenge was as legit or illegit as one needed it to be. Or wanted it to be.
I’m not arguing that the shit isn’t real. I’m making the distinction [the one I always make] between those who believe it is real “in their head” and those who are able to demonstrate that all rational men and women are obligated to believe the same.
This little old lady is either willing to do this or she isn’t. Same with all the other true believers. It’s not unlike the discussions here that revolve around the belief in God. It’s a demonstrable fact that some do believe that He does exist, and some do not. But is it a demonstrable fact in turn that these Gods actually do exist?
From my frame of mind, psychic abilities are often intertwined in a belief in the supernatural. And once you are able to convince yourself that the supernatural exists, this somehow becomes intertwined as well in a belief in immortality and one or another rendition of salvation.
But then it still comes down to the extent to which this is more or less a psychological contraption designed [consciously or otherwise] to comfort and console you, or is in fact in sync with a reality that is true for all of us.
And I still reckon that if there are folks out there able to take their demonstrable abilities beyond the family, the neighborhood, the community and the local news, they would be known by now. They would have demonstrated beyond all doubt that they do have these abilities to, among others, the skeptics in the scientific community.
And then once these folks confirm it, the folks in the philosophical and theological communities could discuss and debate the ontological/teleological implications of it for the “human condition”.