When it comes to challenging psychic powers, one cannot help but think of James “The Amazing” Randi and his famous Million Dollar Challenge. Beginning in 1964, Randi “offered $1,000 of his own money to anyone who could read a mind or bend a spoon under controlled conditions.” The prize steadily grew until internet pioneer Rick Adams, who was a friend of Randi’s, donated $1,000,000 for the prize in 1996. Over a thousand applicants have tried the challenge, with a total success of zero. The challenge was finally retired in 2015.
Randi’s challenge was no doubt inspired by Harry Houdini’s psychic challenge, in which he offered $10,000 (of his own money) in bonds “if the spiritualists will produce a medium presenting any physical phenomena that he (Houdini) cannot reproduce or explain by natural means.” The conditions were simple, “The medium must present the manifestation three times in the presence of Houdini and the selected committee.” No medium ever won the prize.
In addition to the large scale, well-known challenges, there are a handful of individuals who take it upon themselves to challenge psychic powers and, like those big names that came before them, offer cash prizes from their own wallets. One such challenger is Dustin Dean, a professional mentalist and magician from New York, who has been entertaining audiences for the past decade.
Dean fell in love with magic early in his life. At sixteen, he was diagnosed with essential tremor disorder, a neurological disorder that causes your hands, head, trunk, voice, or legs to shake rhythmically. Although this would be a difficult obstacle when it came to performing sleight-of-hand magic, Dean was undeterred and eventually mastered the necessary skills. He then turned his attention to what he calls, “sleight of mind”—mentalism.
At twelve, Dean found inspiration while watching performances of Derren Brown, an English mentalist who began performing in 1992 and produced a popular television program titled Derren Brown: Mind Control in 2000. One of the first performances Dean saw involved Brown replicating the alleged powers of a psychic. The idea that Brown could replicate all these mind powers, yet openly admitted he was not a psychic, fascinated Dean. He dove headfirst into learning everything he could about the practice of mentalism.
Over the years, Dean has evolved into New York’s premier corporate, college, and event entertainer. He’s been featured on multiple ABC morning shows where he’s astounded staff and audiences with his “mind reading” abilities, all while making it perfectly clear he is not a psychic.
As his career really began to take off, the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a screeching halt. Businesses were shutting down, venues were cancelling events—something psychics, such as Thomas John, never saw coming. Like many of us, Dean began exploring online options where he could still perform magic to enthusiastic audiences. In addition to social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, Dean began experimenting with TikTok.
TikTok Magic
As his following grew on this new platform, the idea of a cash-prize challenge began to develop. Dean explains, “I wanted to bring James Randi’s challenge to the world of TikTok since I noticed many users spreading false information and making outrageous claims unchecked.” Dean originally offered the challenge in the form of a secret passphrase that he and a friend came up with. If either of them had passed away, they both agreed that if a medium would attempt to contact them, they would use this passphrase to let the other friend know it was really them. The passphrase is written in a sealed envelope Dean has in his possession. Much like Houdini’s secret code with his wife, Bess, this code was meant as a direct challenge to psychic mediums.
However, with so many people claiming supernatural abilities other than talking to the dead, Dean eventually opened the prize money to include any kind of alleged psychic power, such as energy manipulation, psychokinesis, telepathy, and more.
The challenge, which is exclusive to the TikTok platform, began with a $100 prize. There were no grants, donations, or silent partners. This was out of Dean’s own pocket—more specially, his part of the TikTok Creator Fund. This fund is for content creators who have reached at least 10k followers, have had at least 100k views in the past thirty days, and met a few other guidelines. As Dean earned more from views, the prize money steadily increased, stepping up the prize money to $500, then to $1,000.
Rather than waiting for people with metaphysical powers to come to him, Dean directly challenges psychics by responding to one of their videos that seemingly demonstrates supernatural abilities. On TikTok, “stitching” is an option where a creator can start with a section of your video, then add their own video content on the backend of the original video. This allows for a more expressive response than just typing a comment.
Although some viewers (mostly believers in psychic powers) find his approach aggressive, often calling him a bully, I disagree. Dean challenges psychic claims with an equal confidence as those claiming to possess these supernatural abilities. When he sees a trick being passed off as a genuine power and the trickster requests donations or outrageous fees, Dean speaks up and calls out the fraudulent methods in use. Dean is not a bully; he is an activist educating the public so we can be better prepared against con artists.
Over the past year that I’ve been following Dean, he’s issued challenges to people claiming a wide variety of superpowers, from causing a candle to spontaneously light simply by staring at it to moving object via telekinesis. In all these cases, Dean has first demonstrated that he was able to replicate the alleged psychic power and then provided the methods he used to accomplish the trick—and they’ve all been well-known tricks, if you’re a magician.
As you might expect, quite a few of Dean’s challenges go unanswered. In fact, most of them do. But occasionally, someone does accept the challenge, at least temporarily. Since the beginning of his challenge, a handful of psychics have agreed to have their abilities tested. Dean requests that the challenges be done during a livestream, where he’ll ask to inspect the challenger’s surroundings. This is to be sure there is not an accomplice standing by to help or any contraptions that may influence the testing conditions.
Once the area is clear from issues, Dean will ask for specific controls to be put into place. Next, Dean begins to request experimental controls specific to the claimed ability. Experimental controls are used in scientific experiments to prevent factors other than those being studied from affecting the outcome. Such controls are necessary to eliminate any alternate explanations for the results of the experiment.
A TikTok user named SimpleeChristy was the first Dean challenged directly with a cash prize. She was also the first person on TikTok to block him from further contact. Her claim was that she could straighten the smoke coming from an incense stick using only the power of her mind. Dean suggested she set up an incense stick and simply perform the straightening on his command within a two-minute time frame. He never heard from her again.
The trick used by SimpleeChristy came in two parts: one part science, one part editing. The first part is an effect called laminar-to-turbulent flow transition. “The rising convective plume of hot air and combustion products from the burning candle forms a laminar cylindrical flow for several centimeters. It then undergoes characteristic wave-like instabilities for another few centimeters before erupting into turbulence. This phenomenon is called laminar-to-turbulent-flow transition. It is one of most difficult phenomena in fluid mechanics to predict accurately.”
The second part of the smoke trick comes down to editing the video. Because the change in flow is unpredictable, one needs to perform the “mental powers stare” at the incense stick until the flow changes. Once it does, the person looks at the camera with a triumphant smile. Before posting the video, the user simply edits out the part of the video where nothing happens. The video now makes it appear as if the user mentally changed the flow of smoke.
The Psi Wheel
The first contestant to accept and follow through with the challenge was a gentleman who claimed he could move a folded piece of paper that was under a container. Jalen Tyree (@jalentyree7) had built what is commonly referred to as a “psi wheel” to demonstrate his alleged abilities.
According to Wikipedia, a psi wheel is a “pyramid-shaped top-like device consisting of a small piece of paper or foil balanced on the tip of a pointed object.” It was a popular tool in the 1980s and 1990s, used in attempts to prove telekinetic powers. One would attempt to rotate the wheel, claiming to use only psychokinetic energy. A glass bowl is often turned upside down over top on the wheel to prevent any movements caused by air currents. This “control” has been demonstrated repeatedly not to work, as the surface of the table (on which the psi wheel is placed) and the top edge of the overturned bowl are not completely flat, allowing air current to pass through the gaps.
Jalen Tyree was confident he could conquer the challenge and appeared on a livestream with Dean on December 14, 2020. Dean’s conditions were quite simple: the psi wheel was set on a book with a soft cover, and a drinking glass was placed over top on the wheel. This provided the best seal between the glass and book, preventing subtle air currents from passing between them. The final condition had Tyree getting the psi wheel to rotate once in a clockwise direction, then once in a counterclockwise direction, both within a thirty-minute time frame.
At just under the twenty-eight-minute mark, Tyree ended the challenge. He was unsuccessful at causing the psi wheel to move at all. To his credit, Tyree didn’t become angry or make excuses. He accepted Dean’s explanation of how the magic trick works. Although Tyree still believes in various other psychic powers, he has become one of Dean’s biggest fans.
Smoke and Mirrors
Another challenger, Gabriel Hex, claimed that he could influence the smoke trails coming from incense sticks using energy manipulation. Accepting the challenge ($500 at the time), Gabriel was instructed to set up two incense sticks side-by-side, about six inches apart. Dean’s conditions were simple: After the sticks were ignited, Dean would instruct Gabriel to straighten the smoke coming from either the left or right stick. If Gabriel could straighten one, then the other, then both—on command—within fifteen minutes, he would win the (at the time) $500 prize.
Although the test was to go on for fifteen minutes, it only took about six minutes for Gabriel to realize he was not manipulating any energy; rather, it was the effect known as laminar flow. When the smoke rises smoothly from the wick, there is a minimum disturbance of the air around it. This allows the smoke to move through it unhindered. When the surrounding air is disturbed, such as from subtle air currents or someone breathing nearby, the flow undergoes irregular fluctuation and then becomes turbulent flow. Gabriel accepted Dean’s explanation and declined to continue the test.
There have been several other livestream challenges involving more psi wheels, several smoke charmers, and one guy who claimed he could manipulate peanut butter jars to magically come back to him after rolling them on a kitchen counter (that was not level). No applicant has been able to demonstrate their alleged superpowers under Dean’s very simple, very straightforward conditions.
Eventually, well-known psychic medium Amie Balesky (@thebalesky) accepted Dean’s original “passphrase” challenge. Well, sort of. She responded to Dean saying, “Hey Booboo. I’m a medium. I talk to dead people professionally. And I love it (the challenge). I’ll send you instruction on how to prep for the reading, and just be there. Don’t say anything.” Balesky has over two million followers on her account, which makes her pretty popular.
As it turns out, it wasn’t as easy as just showing up and not saying anything. Balesky’s husband (and business partner) later contacted Dean, claiming he needed to first research Dean’s account and his challenge before allowing his wife to accept. The husband also stated his wife was not actually accepting the challenge but just wanted to do a reading. To me, this felt like Balesky was trying to work around the challenge; she could “test the waters” to see if she could score any hits while being unconcerned with failing the challenge. In this case, the hits could be emphasized, and she could walk away confident that she demonstrated mediumistic powers. If she didn’t get any hits, she could still walk away without failing the challenge she was originally confident in winning.
Dean did agree to a non-challenge live conversation with Balesky, which took place on June 7, 2021. I was in attendance for the majority of the one-hour-forty-minute livestream but was unimpressed with Balesky’s performance. At one point, she asked Dean for his birthdate so she could apply it to an astrology ready.
Dean declined to provide that information, suspecting that Balesky might use such information in the practice of hot reading: looking up details of a person’s life and repeating them as if the information were obtained from some mystical force. Obviously annoyed with Dean’s refusal, Balesky replied, “Ok, then don’t give it. There’s a lot of Taurus in you. You also have Cancer underneath it all and you’re partly a Gemini as well.” Balesky gave three astrology signs, which span ninety-four days between April 20 to July 22 (or one-fourth of the calendar year). Dean slowly smiled and responded, “So, those were all wrong.”
Over the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with Dean on several viral TikTok videos, mostly including alleged poltergeist activity and haunted objects. Most recently, we shared information on a “haunted” electronic cabbage patch doll that allegedly worked without batteries, in which each of us released videos recreating the doll’s actions. After posting his recreation video on TikTok, Dean found himself the target of a massive “reporting campaign,” resulting in Dean’s account, with almost half a million followers, permanently banned. It took several months (and Dean’s inclusion in a lawsuit from the American Atheist Organization against TikTok) to get his account reinstated.
Challenging paranormal claims is a difficult job. When one claims to have psychic powers, most people believe it without questioning. A Gallup survey in 2001 showed that 55 percent of Americans believe in psychic abilities, making it easy for someone to claim supernatural powers without needing to prove them under scientifically controlled conditions. This means it’s a constant uphill battle when challenging these claims, requiring more work on the part of the investigator (or challenger), rather than the one making the claim—a reversal of the burden of proof.
I’m grateful that there are organizations out there such as the Center for Inquiry Investigations Group (CFIIG), offering the $250K cash prize for a successful demonstration of superpowers. I’m also happy there are people such as Dustin Dean out there, in the trenches of various social media platforms, openly challenging psychics and other claims of metaphysical powers. He takes on the inevitable hate mail and abusive comments, often from hundreds of keyboard warriors, yet continues his work to expose charlatans and others who seek to exploit the public.
In September 2021, Dean announced on social media that he increased the cash prize of his psychic challenge from $1,000 to $10,000 (of his own money). The challenge is open to anyone who claims they can prove they have supernatural abilities, from energy manipulators and psychics to chi masters and mediums. I encourage anyone who believes they have special abilities to contact Dean and take up his challenge. Oh, and be sure to tell him I sent you.
Dustin Dean can be found on TikTok and all major social media sites under the name “Dustin Dean Mentalist,” as well as at MindReaderDD.com.