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CAMERON JOHNSON, Carolina Moonshot

KRAMER

Former challenge facilitator
K
Joined
Apr 15, 2004
Messages
1,434
The first communication we received from Mr. Johnson came without an application in May 2004.

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I will demonstrate the form of telepathy in case useing another person. Then will I inform a person in another room the aspects of what I'm doing or holding or thinking reading or feeling in the room I'm in or in another case this person could be on the moon for that matter Ill use thelepathy for a better word describe to that person of my doings for 20 years Ive had this gift with no financial means of securing a positive way of furthering my abalities to see the reaction of the world. For instances in a case Ive went to a home for blind people werein the waves and smiles and the handshakes I was greeted by the blind occupants I was confronted with or watching TV or live broadcast Its like being there at a baseball game basketball or seeing the players react to my yeahs or boos insync I would sit back play some music were clapping and playing to the music together in a way I thought I might help find missing people or runaways by looking at all the photos waiting home or in office looking for the call to come in saying I see that person. If theres in ways for it to be said or explained Im sure the demonstration will bring a positive and profound affect for everyone involved I await the challenge.

Truly yours, Cameron Johnson

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You just can't make this stuff up.

I wrote to advise him to send an application if he wanted to become a Challenge applicant, and asked him to be as clear as he could in his claim letter.

A few weeks later I received a notarized application and claim letter. The application itself had the following words scrawled upon it:

Im attempting use of telepathy with a partner from different rooms I will be the sender partner reciever to recieve Items or thoughts from me.

The claim letter is as follows:

I Cameron Johnson will attempt to take the Challange by useing a partner. Will deliver objects put forth to me to be shared by my partner who will be in another room telepathicaly. A card placed in my view will be read by me and focused to my partner by no wires phones or devices. Then can I be told some-thing that may be transferd to my partner or can taste smell feel objects then focus to my partner to be translated the same as I have been previewd. Should I be blind folded or the use of headphones from hearing to focus to target the same level of instadinces. To were a target can be written or announced my partner will retrive the course of my prelimanary testing to sum or to the full affect of one way telepathy. Im the sender the partner the reciever from near or far to say the least mind reading in question iof the great kreskin back in the early 70's. I should say this should have a great signifigance over all to put forth this challenge.

-Cameron Johnson

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Just because someone cannot spell or even compose a proper sentence doesn't mean that he cannot succeed in demonstrating his paranormal claim, so I waded through the huge subsequent email exchange and was finally convinced that this applicant just might agree to a test protocol.

I should also state that I ignored the applicant's Kreskin reference, and declined to lecture him on how impossible it would be to fool Randi with Kreskinesque mentalism tricks. None of his correspondence indicated that he possessed any ability in this field, so I assumed that he simply believed that Kreskin DID use ESP rather than trickery.

As I was preparing to contact our investigator in his vicinity, Mr. Eric Carlson, formerly of the now-defunct Carolina Skeptics, I received this email from Mr. Johnson:

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hi mr kramer cameron here you should have the information notarized and signed by now i would like for you to email ecarlson to let him know i have passed the first step and that my papers are in order so we can see him for the testing i will sure thank you for your reply.

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Apparently Mr. Johnson knew Mr Carlson already.

My reply from Eric Carlson indicated two things; firstly that Mr. Johnson had been tested by him before, and secondly (and most bizarrely) that Eric was quite willing to test him again.

Hello Cameron,

I have just received a reply from Eric Carlson, who is now awaiting your forthcoming email and looks forward to testing you once again.

-Kramer, JREF
 
From Eric Carlson

Hello Kramer,

Thought I would let you know that Mr. Johnson is coming here to perform the test again this Thursday. The way I will do it is as before. I will take ten cards, ace through ten of hearts. I'll put Mr. Johnson with me and someone else in another room. Then I'll mix up the cards. At a specified time (governed by stop watches) I will turn over the cards one at a time for Mr. Johnson. He will attempt to send them to his partner, the receiver. They will write down what they think he is transmitting, as I record the actual card. After ten minutes, we will get together, and I'll check how many are correct. In the past, I believe as success is 10/10 correct (probabilitiy of about one in 3.6 million). I'll leave it the same unless you wish me to do otherwise.

-E. Carlson

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A few days later I got this:

Kramer,

Today at about 11:30am, Mr. Johnson showed up with three friends to perform another preliminary test.

The procedure I described before was followed, but I was unable to get anyone to help me. I told Mr. Johnson that he would be transmitting from my office, and that none of his friends could be with him during the transmission process. The other three were not in the office during the test. I had set them up down the hall in another room. Ms. Sharlene Burnette acted as receiver. They were unsupervised at the receiving end.

During the process of testing, Mr. Johnson gets rather nervous. In previous tests,. I noticed that he tends to make small talk, mostly mumbling (I have had difficulty understanding him). During this test Mr. Johnson did the same, but he also recited the list of cards that had come up so far ALOUD, not mumbling. Although my room is fairly soundproof, I cannot swear that someone just outside the door would not have been able to hear what he said. However, such could only be possible if someone were deliberately trying to circumvent the system.

From the room where I left his friends, no one could have heard him.

After ten minutes I had Mr. Johnson sign his sheet the receiver signed her sheet, and I signed both sheets. These signatures indicated that the test was conductyed fairly, and no attempt to cheat was made. We then compared the results.

In going through ten randomized cards, the receiver failed to get any matches. Below is the list of cards sent and cards received:

SENT: 4 8 2 A 6 10 7 3 5 9
REC'D: 5 2 7 10 8 2 4 9 3 A

If you would like the originals or photocopies of these sheets, let me know.

Based upon the poor performance, I would not recommend that JREF conduct a full-scale test at this time.

After the tes, Ms. Burnette, who seemed slightly puzzled at the procedure, indicated that it would have been a better test if she had acted as sender and Mr. Johnson had acted as receiver. I responded that this was the test that had been agreed upon; furthermore, Mr. Johnson's claimed ability was the ability to transmit thoughts, not receive them. She asked if a test going the other way could be performed. I responded that a reverse test could possibly be performed, but it would be considered a seperate test, and therefore Mr. Johnson would have to wait one year and re-submit his application. She then asked if she could have the test performed on her - in other words, test HER ability to act as sender. She asked whether I could perform a test on her immmediately. Basically, I said that if she or any of them wanted to perform an identical test with themselves acting as sender, I could do that, however, I was unwilling to perform an immediate test, and they would first have to submit an application to JREF.

In summary, I performed one test on Mr. Johnson, and declined to perform tests on any of the others. I COULD have performed tests on the others, but it would not have counted toward the JREF prize. Frankly, I didn't see the point. The one test on Mr. Johnson produced results that were not encouraging, and I therefore do not recommend further testing.

Eric Calrson

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Dear Eric,

I highly commend yuou on your ability to stick to the agreed upon protocol and not be swayed into compliance with requests outside the agreed upon circumstances. You did the right thing.
If they wish to be tested, the rules are entirely clear: Let them APPLY.

Thank you for your extrairdinary expenditures of time and effort on behalf of the JREF in once again conducting preliminary testing of Mr. Johnson. Your contribution has been invaluable.
 
Dear Mr. Johnson,

I am aware of the results of this morning's preliminary test of your claim as conducted by Mr. Eric Carlson, and of the documentation of your acceptance of the protocol prior to testing. I'm pleased to know that you agreed prior to testing that the method used was fair, and mutually arrived at.

As I am sure you must realize by now, you failed the preliminary test, which according to the JREF rules, requires of us that we now close your file. We regret that you did not acheive CLAIMANT status.

Please feel free to re-apply in 12 months.

-Kramer, JREF

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kramer cam here can you tell me if there are any more foundations or prizes i can win if so let me know then have those changes made where i can wait a year but saying i can try as many times as i can thank you

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Sorry, Cam, but I can only speak on behalf of JREF, and for that prize you'll just have to wait another year.

This is not to say that no other prizes exist, of course. You'll just have to do the legwork yourself in finding out.

-Kramer, JREF

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And that was the last I heard from Mr. Johnson, until this week.

Ms. Sharlene Burnette (who acted as Mr. Johnson's receiver in this test) has submitted a Challenge application which is now detailed in her Application thread, though it is clear that Mr. Johnson himself is still pulling the strings on this claim, as evidenced by his attempts to communicate with me on her behalf.
 
One More Time...

And now, for the 3rd time, Cameron Johnson has submitted an application for the JREF Paranormal Challenge. His claim is scrawled on the last page of the application, as follows:

I will perform an act of telepathy using a partner to recieve my thoughts of objects or signs my partner will retrieve these thoughts comprehend them and relate them as written or spoken by or from me. Partner and I will not have an physical contact or using any trickery or electronic devices. This should be witnessd or recorded for future purposes. If this should be attemted
maybe more than one partner involed maybe requested by me. Also this may be demonstated by clairvoyance.

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Dear Mr. Johnson,

Contrary to the Challenge rules, you have not provided us with the details of your proposed test, or the conditions under which it would be conducted, or the degree of success you claim to achieve. These are required in the Challenge rules, which I am sure you are familiar with, having applied for the Challenge twice before.

However, I will overlook this and suggest that we expedite matters, as follows;

As this is your 3rd submission of a JREF Challenge application, and as you failed to demonstrate any claimed power at the two previous tests conducted by our investigators at PhACT, we must now request that you provide us with three (3) notarized affidavits from three persons who have individually witnessed a successful demonstration of this claim. The requirements, and a description of the type of individuals from whom we would accept such affidavits, are spelled out in detail at our website in the Challenge FAQ (Section #4.8), and can be reviewed by following this link:

http://www.randi.org/research/faq.html#4.8

Once we have received those three notarized affidavits, we will review them and consider whether or not to accept your latest application.

Please be sure that each of these three individuals includes their email address and phone number, so that we may contact them to confirm the contents of the affidavits in an effort to verify your claim before asking PhACT to become involved again. We cannot in good conscience request PhACT's repeated participation in this matter before attempting to ensure that the possibility of your performing successfully is stronger now than it was during the previous two tests.

In other words, we need to see some preliminary evidence (in the form of three notarized affidavits from educated, professional individuals) that you have actually demonstrated the claimed ability successfully, before we can accept another Challenge application from you.

We hope you understand our position in this regard.

-Kramer, JREF Paranormal Claims Dept.
 
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Hello Cameron,

I couldn't help but notice that you neglected to respond to my previous email, regarding your 3rd application for the JREF Paranormal Challenge, and our subsequent request for 3 notarized affidavits from individuals who actually observed you successfully demonstrating your claim. That request was sent to you 6 weeks ago. We received no reply.

Do you intend to make all efforts to gather these 3 affidavits, or do you wish to withdraw your application at this time?

If I do not hear back from you within 4 weeks, I will assume that you are unwilling or unable to meet out requirements, and we will close your file.

Thanks for your continuous interest.
 
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