A lot of people claim that I'm a cynic. That's really not true at all; I think of myself as a realist. Some people like to think of the glass as half full; some see it as half empty.

Me, I think it's time to order another round.

Let's take the psychic phenomenon so prevalent in our times. Fact of the matter is there has NEVER been a psychic that could produce their powers under laboratory conditions. The mediums so popular today are skilled (and some are not so skilled) at the process of cold reading; spoon bender Uri Geller actually sued James Randi for calling him a fraud and lost the case.

Then there are the so called "mysteries" of our universe. The Amityville Horror  was a hoax that went too far; investigation showed the events never happened, and the murderer's lawyers confessed that he and the Lutzes had "created this horror story over many bottles of wine."  Spiritualism began with the Fox sisters in 1848. The fact that they admitted it was a hoax 30 years later has done little to deter a slew of mediums that claim they can speak with the dead. King Tut's "curse" was a story  started after the tomb's discovery in 1922 by Howard Carter. In 1980 the tomb's former security officer admitted the story of the curse had been started to frighten away thieves. Ten years after the tomb was opened, all but one of the five who first entered it were still living, and Carter himself lived until 1939. Crop Circles are fakes;  two elderly men, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, demonstrated how they had made the first circles.

The list goes on and on, hoaxes that have become such a mark on our culture that people simply cannot let go. Even when the evidence is so overwhelming that any rational person would stop believing there are those that cling to the irrational. "The Roswell Incident" was nothing more than an experimental balloon (do a web search for "Project Mongul"). Psychic Networks, Piltdown "Missing Link", Dowsing, Psychic Healing, the list of fakes goes on for a very long time.

This is not to say that I'm not willing to be proven wrong. But I can say this: mediums never succeed. Dowsers never succeed. Clairvoyants, psychic networks, faith healers, astrologers NEVER succeed.

I'm sure to get a slew of mail on this, with each person pointing to his or her favorite psychic/healer/etc. and showing how it could not possibly have been faked. But it has, every time.

But if someone out there wants to prove me wrong I'd love to see it. Please, save your e-mails claiming that it has been proven time and again (it hasn't). Instead, tell me what your psychic ability is. Show me how it works in a double-blind test. Do it 5 times in a row. Then I'll believe.

And, by the way, you'll be rich. There is currently a $1 million dollar reward, available to anyone who can do what I just described. Keep in mind it will have to be done under controlled circumstances, and will be closely monitored by people familiar with frauds and charlatans.

I have this feeling the money  is pretty safe.

Let me know what you think, or head back to my main page or my other columns.