Abraham Kovoor's challenge
Encyclopedia
Abraham Kovoor
declared, in 1963, an award of Rs. 100, 000/- (Sri Lanka
n Rupee
s) for anyone who could demonstrate supernatural
or miraculous powers under fool-proof and fraud-proof conditions.
Godmen
, saint
s, yogi
s, and siddha
s who claim that they acquired miraculous powers through spiritual exercises and divine boons win this award if they can perform any of the following "miracle
s"
I invite miracle performers like Satya Sai Baba, Pandrimalai Swamigal, Neelakanta Tathaji, Nirmala Devi Srivastava, Pujya Dadaji, Dattabal, Triprayar Yogini, Gtirudev Anandamurthi, Kamubhai, Chinmayanand, Acharya Rajneesh
, Muktanand, Swami Rama, Swami Haridas, Sivabalayogi, Bhagavan Gnanananda, Gurumaharaj-ji, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
, Hazarath Ali, Dr. Vadlaimudi, C. S. Teerthangar, R.P.Tiwari, Uri Geller
, Ne1iya Michailova, Jeane Dixon
, Sybil Leek
and the numerous "professors" of astrology and palmistry, in India and numerous other guru
s, swamijis, mahants, acharyas, andas, babas and bhagavans who have found fresh pastures and wealthier gullibles in Western Countries, to take up my challenge and prove to skeptic
s like me that they are not hoaxers.
continued his challenge by offering Rs.100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Indian Rupees) to any person who will demonstrate any psychic
, supernatural
or paranormal
ability of any kind under satisfactory observing conditions.
A similar challenge from James Randi
of James Randi Educational Foundation
also is in force offering a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.
(Sri Lanka
) Sunday Times published an article by Dr. Kovoor entitled, "Is There Life After Death?". In this article, Dr. Kovoor maintained that life
is merely a complex chemical activity and that the soul cannot survive death
, since there is no soul. This article led to a heated debate, both in the Sunday Times and in correspondence between Kovoor and Hansadutta Swami. Hansadutta Swami challenged Kovoor, offering a Rs. 500,000 award, to create a living organism like a mosquito or a bedbug from chemicals.
However, Kovoor's initial letter answers the questions of Hansadutta.
Abraham Kovoor
Abraham Thomas Kovoor was an Indian professor and rationalist who gained prominence after retirement for his campaign to expose as frauds various Indian and Sri Lankan "god-men" and so-called paranormal phenomena...
declared, in 1963, an award of Rs. 100, 000/- (Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
n Rupee
Rupee
The rupee is the common name for the monetary unit of account in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, and formerly in Burma, and Afghanistan. Historically, the first currency called "rupee" was introduced in the 16th century...
s) for anyone who could demonstrate supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
or miraculous powers under fool-proof and fraud-proof conditions.
The challenge
- I, Abraham T. Kovoor of "Tiruvalla", Pamankada Lane, Colombo-6 do hereby state that l am prepared to pay an award of 100, 000 Sri LankaSri LankaSri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
n rupees to any one from any part of the world who can demonstrate supernatural or miraculous powers under fool-proof and fraud-proof conditions. This offer will remain open till my death or till I find the first winner.
Godmen
Godman (Hindu ascetic)
A godman is a colloquial name for a particular type of charismatic guru who has a high-profile presence, is capable of attracting attention and support from Indian society, and makes claims of spiritual attainments...
, saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s, yogi
Yogi
A Yogi is a practitioner of Yoga. The word is also used to refer to ascetic practitioners of meditation in a number of South Asian Religions including Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.-Etymology:...
s, and siddha
Siddha
A Siddha सिद्ध in Sanskrit means "one who is accomplished" and refers to perfected masters who, according to Hindu belief, have transcended the ahamkara , have subdued their minds to be subservient to their Awareness, and have transformed their bodies into a different kind of body dominated by...
s who claim that they acquired miraculous powers through spiritual exercises and divine boons win this award if they can perform any of the following "miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s"
- Read the serial number of a sealed up currency note.
- Produce an exact replica of a currency note.
- Stand stationary on burning cinders for half a minute without blistering the feet.
- Materialise from nothing an object I ask.
- Move or bend a solid object using psychokinetic power.
- Read the thought of another person using telepathic powers.
- Make an amputated limb grow even one inch by prayer, spiritual or faith healingFaith healingFaith healing is healing through spiritual means. The healing of a person is brought about by religious faith through prayer and/or rituals that, according to adherents, stimulate a divine presence and power toward correcting disease and disability. Belief in divine intervention in illness or...
powers, LourdesLourdesLourdes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France.Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous...
water, holy ash, blessing etc. - Levitate in the air by yogic power.
- Stop the heart-beat for five minutes by yogi power.
- Stop breathing for thirty minutes by yogi power.
- Walk on water.
- Leave the body in one place and reappear in another place.
- Predict a future event.
- Develop creative intelligence or get enlightened through transcendentalTranscendence (philosophy)In philosophy, the adjective transcendental and the noun transcendence convey the basic ground concept from the word's literal meaning , of climbing or going beyond, albeit with varying connotations in its different historical and cultural stages...
or yogic meditationMeditationMeditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
. - Speak or understand an unknown language as a result of rebirthReincarnationReincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
or by being possessed by a spiritSpiritThe English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
, holy or evil. - Produce a spirit or ghost to be photographed.
- Disappear from the negative when photographed.
- Get out of a locked room by spiritual power.
- Increase the quantity by weight of a substance by divine power.
- Detect a hidden object.
- Convert water into petrol or wine.
- Convert wine into blood.
- AstrologerAstrologerAn astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an...
s and palmists, who hoodwink the gullible by saying that astrologyAstrologyAstrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
and palmistry are perfectly "Scientific", can win my award if they can pick out correctly—within a margin of five percent error—those of males, females, and living and the dead from a set of ten palm prints or astrological charts giving the exact time of birth correct to the minute, and places of birth with their latitudes and longitudes.
I invite miracle performers like Satya Sai Baba, Pandrimalai Swamigal, Neelakanta Tathaji, Nirmala Devi Srivastava, Pujya Dadaji, Dattabal, Triprayar Yogini, Gtirudev Anandamurthi, Kamubhai, Chinmayanand, Acharya Rajneesh
Rajneesh
Osho , born Chandra Mohan Jain , and also known as Acharya Rajneesh from the 1960s onwards, as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh during the 1970s and 1980s and as Osho from 1989, was an Indian mystic, guru, and spiritual teacher who garnered an international following.A professor of philosophy, he travelled...
, Muktanand, Swami Rama, Swami Haridas, Sivabalayogi, Bhagavan Gnanananda, Gurumaharaj-ji, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...
, Hazarath Ali, Dr. Vadlaimudi, C. S. Teerthangar, R.P.Tiwari, Uri Geller
Uri Geller
Uri Geller is a self-proclaimed psychic known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other supposed psychic effects. Throughout the years, Geller has been accused of using simple conjuring tricks to achieve the effects of psychokinesis and telepathy...
, Ne1iya Michailova, Jeane Dixon
Jeane Dixon
Jeane L. Dixon was one of the best-known American astrologers and psychics of the 20th century, due to her syndicated newspaper astrology column, some well-publicized predictions, and a best-selling biography....
, Sybil Leek
Sybil Leek
Sybil Leek was an English witch, astrologer, psychic, and occult author. She wrote more than sixty books on occult and esoteric subjects...
and the numerous "professors" of astrology and palmistry, in India and numerous other guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
s, swamijis, mahants, acharyas, andas, babas and bhagavans who have found fresh pastures and wealthier gullibles in Western Countries, to take up my challenge and prove to skeptic
Scientific skepticism
Scientific skepticism is the practice of questioning the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence or reproducibility, as part of a methodological norm pursuing "the extension of certified knowledge". For example, Robert K...
s like me that they are not hoaxers.
The challenge today
Dr. Kovoor died in the year 1978. Until his death none could claim the award amount. Some fraudsters who sought publicity by taking on his challenge had to forfeit the initial deposit. After the death of Dr. Kovoor, Basava PremanandBasava Premanand
Basava Premanand was an eminent skeptic and rationalist from Kerala, India.-History:Premanand was born on 17 February 1930 in Kozhikode, Kerala. His parents were followers of the Theosophical movement....
continued his challenge by offering Rs.100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Indian Rupees) to any person who will demonstrate any psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
, supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
or paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
ability of any kind under satisfactory observing conditions.
A similar challenge from James Randi
James Randi
James Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
of James Randi Educational Foundation
James Randi Educational Foundation
The James Randi Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 by magician and skeptic James Randi. The JREF's mission includes educating the public and the media on the dangers of accepting unproven claims, and to support research into paranormal claims in controlled...
also is in force offering a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.
Kovoor challenged
On August 14, 1977, the ColomboColombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
(Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
) Sunday Times published an article by Dr. Kovoor entitled, "Is There Life After Death?". In this article, Dr. Kovoor maintained that life
Life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...
is merely a complex chemical activity and that the soul cannot survive death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
, since there is no soul. This article led to a heated debate, both in the Sunday Times and in correspondence between Kovoor and Hansadutta Swami. Hansadutta Swami challenged Kovoor, offering a Rs. 500,000 award, to create a living organism like a mosquito or a bedbug from chemicals.
However, Kovoor's initial letter answers the questions of Hansadutta.