For information, here are the recommendations given to the candidates with the registration form.

Recommendations to the candidates

The claims are numerous and diversified (examples: - the evaluation of the live or dead condition of a subject by the analysis by pendulum of a photography - modification of the preservation of fruits by the magnetic power of the hand - trip over obstacles through "paroptic vision" - clairvoyance of cards - water divining with a rod or a pendulum - telepathy under hypnosis - ...,...)

During the period of examination of the proposals (mid-February to mid-May), the jury regrets but it cannot reply immediately to any request of a candidate who has not yet established, even in a global or "rough" fashion, the simple reality of the manifestation of his powers.

When we talk of reality, it does not imply the correctness of the paranormal explanation but the "materiality" of facts, that is to say the simple objective report of their existence.
It is true that quite often claimants request us to recognize their power... even before one has been able to verify the existence of the action.

Before one tries to explain an "extra - ordinary" phenomenon, it is necessary first to evidence the reality of this phenomenon independently of testimony(ies) and various preconceived ideas.
It is the first step of any experiment that the Zetetics Lab can undertake. And quite some time would be saved if this necessary first step was already well "roughed out" by the pretenders themselves.

Consequently, it is suggested to the claimants to undertake, before registering their candidacy for the "Broch-Majax-Theodor Challenge-Prize ", one or several tests allowing them to evidence:
a) the reality of facts they describe and the reality of how they can be produced,
b) that an apparently clear cause-effect relationship exists between their intervention and the obtained result.

It is equally suggested to claimants, before they register, to ask to one or two persons of their surrounding to make a rapid critical analysis of their results. This to check that some simple parameter has not been omitted.

We hope that these sugestions will lead to sufficiently clear proposals of an experimentation in view of a protocol to be rapidly defined and accepted by the two parties.

It is also clear that we desire the experiments to take place in simple but serious conditions (having nothing to do with the lamentable folklore to which we have sadly been accustomed by many parapsychologists). It does not exclude some cordiality and some relaxation in medium-experimenter contacts.

On the contrary, if the protocol is sufficiently simple and rigorous for pretenders and scientists not to be concerned by a potential flaw, the contacts will automatically be more relaxed and the experiment will then take place in the best of conditions.

See you later.

Zetetics laboratory, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis