Category 1 – Scientist • 1979 –
William A. Tiller, who said that although the evidence for psychic events was very shaky and originates with persons of doubtful credibility, it should be taken seriously
because there is so much of it. • 1980 –
Isaac Bashevis Singer, for declaring a belief in
demons. • 1981 –
Charles Tart, for discovering that the further in the future events are, the more difficult it is to predict them. • 1996 – Scientist/physicist
Ed May, who headed the
CIA "remote viewing" project. • 1999 – The
Kansas State Board of Education for removing the teaching of
evolution from the state's educational agenda. • 2001 – University of Arizona Psychology professor
Gary Schwartz for studies in parapsychology. • 2003 – South African Minister of Health
Manto Tshabala-Msimang for endorsing
alternative medicine for treating
AIDS. • 2004 – Rogerio Lobo, professor/chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University who co-signed a paper titled
Does Prayer Influence the Success of in Vitro Fertilization-Embryo Transfer? • 2005 – Brenda Dunne,
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab manager, for the
doublespeak of promoting studies whose "experimental results display increases in information content that can only be attributed to the influence of the consciousness of the human operator", while simultaneously insisting that PEAR is "not in the business of demonstrating '
paranormal' abilities". • 2006 – Biologist
Rupert Sheldrake for research funded by
Trinity College, Cambridge on his theory of "telephone telepathy", supposed precognition experienced by the recipients of telephone calls and e-mails, (i.e. knowing who is calling before picking up the phone or viewing the caller ID.) • 2007 – Intelligent Design promoter and professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University
Michael Behe for his book
The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism. • 2008 –
Colin A. Ross, for claiming that he can shoot
electromagnetic radiation from his
eyes. • 2009 –
Mehmet Oz, for his promotion of energy therapies such as
Reiki. • 2010 – NASA engineer
Richard B. Hoover and the
Journal of Cosmology; Hoover for claiming unfounded evidence for microscopic life found on meteorites and the
Journal of Cosmology for publishing articles advancing the scientifically unsupported idea that life began before the first stars formed and was spread throughout the early universe on meteors. • 2011 –
Daryl Bem, for his shoddy research that has been discredited on many accounts by prominent critics, such as Drs.
Richard Wiseman,
Steven Novella, and
Chris French. • 2013 –
Stanislaw Burzynski, for "[selling] expensive cancer cures by administering ‘antineoplastons’, costing his customers tens of thousands of dollars, and which have never been shown to be efficacious in controlled trials."
Category 2 – Funding • 1979 – The
McDonnell Foundation, who gave $500,000 to
Washington University in St. Louis to study
spoon-bending children. (See
Project Alpha) • 1980 – The Millennium Foundation for giving $1 million to parapsychological research. (The award was withdrawn in 1982 when the foundation decided, instead, to invest the million dollars in a "psychically discovered" oil site, which turned out to be dry.) • 1981 –
The Pentagon for spending $6 million to determine whether or not burning a photograph of a Soviet missile would destroy the missile. • 1996 –
Robert Bigelow for funding
John E. Mack and
Budd Hopkins, and for purchasing the so-called
Skinwalker Ranch in
Utah known for alleged
UFO attacks, "interdimensional portals", and
cattle mutilations. • 2005 – City Council of
Auckland,
New Zealand, for a NZ$2,500 (US$1,800) grant to the Foundation For Spiritualist Mediums "to teach people to communicate with the dead". • 2006 –
Templeton Foundation for spending US$2.4 million and ten years research on a study researching the effectiveness of prayer. • 2011 –
Syracuse University, for their continuing promotion and support of
facilitated communication. • 2011 –
TLC, for airing a collection of shows that promote belief in the paranormal. • 2012 –
Syfy, for promoting paranormal fringe-belief through various shows on its network.
Category 4 – Performer • 1979 – Philip Jordan, who was hired by
Tioga County, New York, Public Defender R. L. Miller to assist in choosing jurors by their "
auras". • 1980 –
Dorothy Allison, a psychic housewife who was called upon to solve a series of murders in
Atlanta, Georgia. She failed to do anything but give the police
42 different names for the murderer. • 1981 –
Tamara Rand, professional psychic, who claimed she had predicted an assassination attempt on
Ronald Reagan months before the incident when she actually did it a day
after the event. • 1996 –
Sheldan Nidle, who predicted the end of the world on December 17, 1996, then explained that it came, but we were all unaware of it. • 1999 –
Nostradamus • 2001 –
John Edward • 2003 and 2004 –
Sylvia Browne • 2005 –
Allison DuBois, inspiration of NBC TV show
Medium. • 2006 –
Uri Geller • 2007 – Swiss performer
Vincent Raven for his tricks on
The Next Uri Geller program. • 2008 –
Jenny McCarthy, for being a spokesperson for the
anti-vaccination movement. • 2009 –
Chip Coffey, for his television show
Psychic Kids. • 2010 – Televangelist
Peter Popoff, for offering "supernatural debt relief". • 2011 –
Theresa Caputo, for "engaging in utter nonsense". • 2012 –
Alex Jones, for his continued promotion of medical
quackery and unfounded conspiracy theories on his radio show.
Category 5 – Refusal to face reality • 2005 –
Journal of Reproductive Medicine, for refusal to denounce the now-discredited Cha/Wirth paper,
Does Prayer Influence the Success of in Vitro Fertilization-Embryo Transfer, that
JRM published. (Paper co-signer Rogerio Lobo won the 2004 Pigasus Scientist award.) • 2008 –
Kevin Trudeau • 2009 –
Scientologists • 2010 –
Andrew Wakefield, the researcher who launched the modern anti-vaccine panic with unfounded statements linking the MMR vaccine with autism that were not borne out by any research. • 2011 –
James Van Praagh, who pushes theories about ghosts despite being debunked by Randi several times. • 2012 –
Mehmet Oz, for his continued promotion of quack medical practices, paranormal belief, and pseudoscience. == See also ==