Goodyguy said:
Just to bump this topic since it was brought up.
I thought I would take the $1,000,000,00 challenge myself. However after reading the rules, especially the one that said you had to be some kind of a *media celebrity to qualify, it became clear they didn't want just any ordinary person who could dowse. They wanted a high profile person to discredit for their own reasons. Not just someone who could prove dowsing does work!
12. *This offer is not open to any and all persons. Before being considered as an applicant, the person applying must satisfy two conditions: First, he/she must have a “media presence,” which means having been published, written about, or known to the media in regard to his/her claimed abilities or powers. This can be established by producing articles, videos, books, or other published material that specifically addresses the person’s abilities. Second, he/she must produce at least one signed document from an academic who has witnessed the powers or abilities of the person, and will validate that these powers or abilities have been verified.
GG~
All they're trying to do with this disclaimer is to weed out folks that would end up being a drain of time. I'm not saying this applies to you, but they've has some real nuts submit applications, and if they had to go through all the steps with each individual they receive an application from they'd have no time to review all the cases.
That being said, you can't place any blame on the JREF. It's not as though they sprung this rule on you at the last second; they made it known up front what their criteria are.
And as far as the rule that you dislike so much, would it really be that difficult to get an article written up about you in the local paper? A short article would be the "published material" they want and, if you can dowse well enough to claim the million, you could find a whole slew of reports eager to write an article about you.