SPECIAL REPORT Informed Perspective Yeti DNA Not a a Skeptic’S Prehistoric Bear Near-Death Experience Do We Really Want INTRODUCTORY PRICE U.S

Balles Prizes | FDA Homeopathy Hearing | UFO Conspiracies | Clever Hans | Skeptical Curse Removal

the Magazine for Science and Reason Vol. 39 No. 4 | July/August 2015

ADVERLYING: Disliking Advertising from an SPECIAL REPORT Informed Perspective Yeti DNA Not a A Skeptic’s Prehistoric Bear Near-Death Experience Do We Really Want INTRODUCTORY PRICE U.S. and Canada $5.99 to Believe in UFOs?

Scott Joplin’s

Published by the Center for Inquiry in association with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Skeptical Black Opera Ronald A. Lindsay, President and CEO Massimo Polidoro, Research Fellow Bar ry Karr, Ex ec u tive Di rect or Benjamin Radford, Research Fellow Joe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow Richard Wiseman, Research Fellow

Fellows www.csicop.org

James E. Al cock*, psy chol o gist, York Univ., Tor on to Mur ray Gell-Mann, pro fes sor of phys ics, San ta Fe In sti tute; James E. Oberg, sci ence writer Mar cia An gell, MD, former ed i tor-in-chief, No bel lau re ate Irm gard Oe pen, pro fes sor of med i cine (re tired), New Eng land Jour nal of Med i cine Thom as Gi lov ich, psy chol o gist, Cor nell Univ. Mar burg, Ger ma ny Kimball Atwood IV, MD, physician; author; David H. Gorski, cancer surgeon and re searcher at Barbara Lor en Pan kratz, psy chol o gist, Or e gon Health Newton, MA Ann Kar manos Cancer Institute and chief of breast surgery Sci en ces Univ. Steph en Bar rett, MD, psy chi a trist; au thor; con sum er ad vo cate, section, Wayne State University School of Medicine. Robert L. Park, professor of physics, Univ. of Maryland Al len town, PA Wendy M. Grossman, writer; founder and first editor, Jay M. Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Willem Betz, MD, professor of medicine, Univ. of Brussels The Skeptic magazine (UK) Astronomy and director of the Hopkins Ir ving Bie der man, psy chol o gist, Univ. of South ern CA Sus an Haack, Coop er Sen ior Schol ar in Arts and Observatory, Williams College Sandra Blakeslee, science writer; author; New York Times Sci en ces, professor of phi los o phy and professor John Pau los, math e ma ti cian, Tem ple Univ. science correspondent of Law, Univ. of Mi ami Clifford A. Pickover, scientist, au thor, editor, IBM T.J. Watson Sus an Black more, vis it ing lec tur er, Univ. of the West of Eng- Harriet Hall*, MD, physician; investigator, Puyallup, WA Re search Center. land, Bris tol David J. Helfand, professor of astronomy, Massimo Pigliucci, professor of philosophy, Mark Boslough, physicist, Sandia National Laboratories, Columbia Univ. City Univ. of New York–Lehman College Albuquerque, NM Terence M. Hines, prof. of psychology, Pace Univ., Stev en Pink er, cog ni tive sci en tist, Harvard Univ. Hen ri Broch, phys i cist, Univ. of Nice, France Pleasantville, NY. Mas si mo Pol id oro, sci ence writer; au thor; ex ec u tive Jan Har old Brun vand, folk lor ist; pro fes sor emer i tus Doug las R. Hof stad ter, pro fes sor of hu man di rect or of CI CAP, It a ly of Eng lish, Univ. of Utah un der stand ing and cog ni tive sci ence, In di ana Univ. Anthony R. Pratkanis, professor of psychology, Univ. of CA, Mar io Bunge, phi los o pher, McGill Univ., Montreal Ger ald Hol ton, Mal linc krodt Pro fes sor of Phys ics and pro fes sor Santa Cruz Robert T. Carroll, emeritus professor of philosophy, of his to ry of sci ence, Har vard Univ. Benjamin Radford, investigator; research fellow, Committee Sacramento City College; writer Ray Hy man*, psy chol o gist, Univ. of Or e gon for Skeptical Inquiry Sean B. Carroll, molecular geneticist; vice president for science Stuart D. Jordan, NASA astrophysicist emeritus; James “The Amazing” Randi, magician; CSICOP founding education, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Madison, WI science advisor to Center for Inquiry Office of Public member; founder, James Randi Educational Foundation Thomas R. Casten, energy expert; founder and chairman, Policy, Washington, DC Mil ton Ro sen berg, psy chol o gist, Univ. of Chic a go Recycled Energy Development, Westmont, IL Barry Karr, executive director, Committee for Wal la ce Sam pson, MD, clin i cal pro fes sor of med i cine, Stan ford John R. Cole, an thro pol o gist; ed i tor, Na tion al Skeptical Inquiry, Amherst, New York Univ.; ed i tor, Sci en tif ic Re view of Al ter na tive Med i cine Cen ter for Sci ence Ed u ca tion Law rence M. Krauss, foundation professor, School Am ar deo Sar ma*, chairman, GWUP, Ger ma ny K.C. Cole, science writer; author; professor, of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics Dept.; Richard Saunders, president, Australian Skeptics; educator; Univ. of Southern California’s Annenberg director, Origins Initiative, Arizona State Univ. investigator; podcaster; Sydney, Australia School of Journalism Harry Kroto, professor of chemistry and Joe Schwarcz, director, McGill Office for Science and Society Fred er ick Crews, lit er ary and cul tur al crit ic; pro fes sor emer i tus biochemistry, Florida State Univ.; Nobel laureate of Eng lish, Univ. of CA, Berke ley Eu ge nie C. Scott*, phys i cal an thro pol o gist; chair, advisory Ed win C. Krupp, as tron o mer; di rect or, council , Na tion al Cen ter for Sci ence Ed u ca tion Rich ard Dawk ins, zo ol o gist, Ox ford Univ. Grif fith Ob ser va to ry, Los Angeles, CA Rob ert Sheaf fer, sci ence writer Ge of frey Dean, tech ni cal ed i tor, Perth, Aus tral ia Law rence Kusche, sci ence writer Seth Shostak, senior astronomer, SETI Institute, Cor nel is de Ja ger, pro fes sor of as tro phys ics, Univ. of Utrecht, Le on Le der man, emer i tus di rect or, Fer mi lab; Mountain View, CA the Neth er lands No bel lau re ate in phys ics Simon Singh, science writer; broadcaster; UK Dan i el C. Den nett, Aus tin B. Fletch er Pro fes sor Scott O. Lil i en feld*, psy chol o gist, Emory Univ., Dick Smith, entrepreneur, publisher, aviator, adventurer, of Phi los o phy and di rect or of Cen ter for Cog ni tive Stud ies, Atlanta, GA Terrey Hills, N.S.W., Australia Tufts Uni v. Lin Zix in, former ed i tor, Sci ence and Keith E. Stanovich, cognitive psychologist; professor of Ann Druyan, writer and producer; CEO, Cosmos Studios, Tech nol o gy Dai ly (Chi na) human development and applied psychology, Uni v. of Ithaca, NY Je re Lipps, Mu se um of Pa le on tol o gy, Univ. of CA, Toronto Sanal Edamaruku, president, Indian Rationalist Berke ley Karen Stollznow*, linguist; skeptical investigator; writer; Association and Rationalist International Eliz a beth Loft us*, pro fes sor of psy chol o gy, podcaster Edzard Ernst, professor, Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Univ. of CA, Ir vine Jill Cor nell Tar ter, as tron o mer, SE TI In sti tute, Moun tain View, CA Medical School, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, Da vid Marks, psy chol o gist, City Univ., Lon don Car ol Tav ris, psy chol o gist and au thor, Los Ange les, CA Exeter, UK Mar io Men dez-Acos ta, jour nal ist and sci ence writer, Mex i co City Da vid E. Thom as*, phys i cist and math e ma ti cian, Socorro, NM Ken neth Fed er, pro fes sor of an thro pol o gy, Cen tral Con nec ti cut State Univ. Kenneth R. Miller, professor of biology, Neil de Gras se Ty son, as tro phys i cist and di rect or, Brown Univ. Hay den Plan e tar i um, New York City Barbara Forrest, professor of philosophy, SE Louisiana Univ. Marv in Min sky, pro fes sor of me dia arts and sci en ces, M.I.T. Indre Viskontas, cognitive neuroscientist, tv and podcast host, An drew Fra knoi, as tron o mer, Foot hill Col lege, Los Al tos Hills, CA Da vid Mor ri son, space sci en tist, NA SA Ames Re search Cen ter and opera singer, San Francisco, CA Kend rick Fra zi er*, sci ence writer; ed i tor, Ma ri lyn vos Sa vant, Pa rade mag a zine con trib ut ing ed i tor S I Rich ard A. Mul ler, pro fes sor of phys ics, Univ. of CA, Berke ley Joe Nick ell, sen ior re search fel low, CSI Stev en Wein berg, pro fes sor of phys ics and as tron o my, Univ. of Christopher C. French, professor, Department Tex as at Aus tin; No bel lau re ate of Psychology, and head of the Anomalistic Psychology Jan Willem Nienhuys, mathematician, Waalre, Research Unit, Goldsmiths The Netherlands E.O. Wil son, Univ. pro fes sor emer i tus, organismic and evolu- College, Univ. of London Lee Nis bet, phi los o pher, Med aille Col lege tionary biology, Har vard Univ. Luigi Garlaschelli, chemist, Università di Pavia (Italy); Steven Novella*, MD, assistant professor Rich ard Wis e man, psy chol o gist, Univ. of Hert ford shire, England research fellow of CICAP, the Italian skeptics group of neurology, Yale Univ. School of Medicine Benjamin Wolozin, professor, Department of Pharmacology, Maryanne Garry, professor, School of Psychology, Victoria Bill Nye, sci ence ed u ca tor and tel e vi sion host, Boston Univ. School of Medicine Univ. of Wellington, New Zealand Nye Labs Marv in Zel en, stat is ti cian, Har vard Univ.

* Mem ber, CSI Ex ec u tive Coun cil (Af fil i a tions giv en for iden ti fi ca tion on ly.)

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COLUMNS 34 FROM THE EDITOR SPECIAL ISSUE A Brief History Today’s Celebrity Scientists ...... 4 MEDICAL MISINFORMATION of Scientiﬁc Celebrity DECLAN FAHY NEWS AND COMMENT Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and Joe Schwarcz Win CSI’s Balles Prizes in 40 Critical Thinking / CFI Testimony Urges Covert Cognition: My So-Called FDA to Regulate Homeopathic Products / Marble-Playing Ghost or Flawed Sta- Near-Death Experience tistics? / The Latest Oz Affair: Doctors’ STEPHANIE SAVAGE Demand That Columbia Fire Him Creates a Firestorm of Reaction / Bioscientist 44 and CSI Fellow Elie A. Shneour Dies at ADVERLYING: Eighty-Nine / U.K. Efforts to End Sex Trafficking in Africa Enlist Witchcraft / A Disliking Advertising from ‘Taking Back Skepticism’ Campaign and an Informed Perspective Online Course ...... 5 STEVE CUNO INVES TI GA TIVE FILES Dillinger’s Ghost 50 JOE NICK ELL ...... 14 Do We Really Want to PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS Believe in UFOs? UFO Conspiracies at the KLAUS BRASCH UFO Congress ROBERT SHEAFFER ...... 18 53 NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD Treemonisha: Scott Joplin’s The Mystery of TJIPETIR Skeptical Black Opera MASSIMO POLIDORO ...... 21 BRUCE A. THYER SCIENCE WATCH Diet-Heart: A Hypothesis in Crisis? Part 3: The Modern Macronutrient 29 War Rages On SPECIAL REPORT KENNETH W. KRAUSE...... 23 No Reason to Believe SKEPTICAL INQUIREE That Sykes’s Yeti-Bear A Skeptic’s Guide to Ethical and Cryptid Exists Effective Curse Removal BENJAMIN RADFORD ...... 26 RONALD H. PINE AND ELIÉCER E. GUTIÉRREZ NEW AND NOTABLE ...... 56 32 LET TERS TO THE ED I TOR ...... 63 COMMENTARY Homeopathy ‘Unsupported, THE LAST LAUGH ...... 66 Ineffective, Dangerous’: CFI Testimony to FDA Testimony of Michael De Dora Psychology and Psychotherapy: How Much Is Evidence-Based? REVIEWS HARRIET HALL ...... 59 The Return of Facilitated Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Side Communication Skepticism through Stick Figures of Science and Therapy by Tomasz Witkowski and Maciej TERENCE HINES ...... 55 RUSS DOBLER ...... 58 Zatonski The Horse That Won’t Go Away: Clever Hans, What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Facilitated Communication, and the Need Absurd Hypothetical Questions At Last a Photo of the Soul? for Clear Thinking by Randall Munroe JOE NICKELL ...... 61 by Thomas E. Heinzen, Scott O. Lilienfeld, and Susan A. Nolan Image of a Spirit by Paul Williams Committee for Skeptical Inquiry ™ “... promotes scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use Skep ti cal In quir er of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims.” THE MAG A ZINE FOR SCI ENCE AND REA SON EDI TOR Kend rick Fra zi er DEPUTY EDI TOR Ben ja min Rad ford MANA GING EDI TOR Julia Lavarnway [ FROM THE EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR Nicole Scott ART DIRECT OR Chri sto pher Fix

PRODUC TION Paul E. Loynes WEBMASTER Matthew Licata Today’s Celebrity Scientists PUBLISH ER’S REPRE SENT A TIVE Bar ry Karr

EDI TO RI AL BOARD James E. Al cock, Harriet Hall, Ray Hy man, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Elizabeth Loftus, Joe e live in a celebrity-drenched age. We may lament that fact; too often Nickell, Steven Novella, Am ar deo Sar ma, Eugenie C. Scott, Karen Stollznow, David E. Thomas, the focus is on personalities and trivialities. But not all celebrities are Leonard Tramiel in show business. Science has its celebrities too. And just as many W CONSULT ING EDI TORS Sus an J. Black more, show-business celebrities use their platforms to promote good causes, so too do Ken neth L. Fed er, Barry Karr, E.C. Krupp, Jay M. Pasachoff, Rich ard Wis e man scientist celebrities—among them, the cause of science itself. CONTRIB UT ING EDI TORS D.J. Grothe, Harriet Hall, In this issue, we present an article excerpted by American University com- Kenneth W. Krause, David Morrison, James E. Oberg, munications researcher Declan Fahy from his new book The New Celebrity Massimo Pigliucci, Rob ert Sheaf fer, David E. Thomas Scientists. (I thank Matt Nisbet for alerting me to it.) As Fahy says, a handful of Published in association with publicly visible scientists represent science to the public. They are media-savvy. They personify science to the layman. They stimulate new thinking, drive sci- CHAIR Edward Tabash Ronald A. Lindsay entific controversies, mobilize social movements, and shape policy. CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Barry Karr I’ve been intrigued by this approach to examining ways the public learns CORPO RATE COUNSEL Brenton N. VerPloeg, about science since my Science News days. Back then Rae Goodell, then at Nicholas J. Little MIT, published her book The Visible Scientists , based on her Stanford PhD BUSINESS MANA GER Pa tri cia Beau champ dissertation. It charmed me so much I wrote a feature article about it in Science FISCAL OFFI CER Paul Pau lin SUBSCRIPTION DATA MANAGER Jacalyn Mohr News. I was pleased to learn from Fahy that Goodell’s book had inspired him. COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Paul Fidalgo Scientist celebrities are nothing new. Fahy begins with Darwin, but before DIRECT OR OF LIBRAR IES Tim o thy S. Binga that Benjamin Franklin was a true international scientist celebrity. His elec- DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Martina Fern trical experiments and invention of the lightning rod made him a famous and DIRECTOR, COUNCIL FOR SECULAR HUMANISM Tom Flynn venerated figure on both sides of the Atlantic. Einstein is perhaps the leading DIRECTOR, CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMS celebrity scientist of all time; his reputation is still secure among both scientists Debbie Goddard and the public. In the latter half of the twentieth century, Goodell’s book pro- DIRECTOR, SECULAR ORGANIZATIONS FOR SOBRIETY Jim Christopher filed scientist celebrities such as Margaret Mead, Linus Pauling, Paul Ehrlich, DIRECTOR, AFRICAN AMERICANS FOR HUMANISM B.F. Skinner, Barry Commoner, and Carl Sagan. Fahy profiles Stephen Hawk- Debbie Goddard ing, Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, Susan Greenfield, Stephen Jay Gould, BOARD OF DIRECTORS R. Elisabeth Cornwell, Kendrick Frazier, Barry A. Kosmin, Hector Sierra, James Lovelock, Brian Greene, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. You can probably Edward Tabash (chair), Leonard Tramiel, Judith Walker, think of a few others you could add. Lawrence Krauss (honorary) What is the connection to scientific skepticism? Well, note that four of Fahy’s subjects are fellows of our Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Sagan and Skinner were as well. We have always drawn to us the noteworthy scientists who are also great communicators and public educators. They not only tell us of the wonders of science but also show us the qualities of science—including both imagination and skepticism—that lead to our ability to winnow out great truths about nature. * * * How many times have we heard dramatic near-death experience (NDE) stories from those who say they returned from The Other Side? What happens when a skeptic has an NDE? Stephanie Savage is just that person. She recovered after six weeks in a coma. She describes her long “coma-dream” and her soap-opera- like “Brain TV.” There were some similarities with typical NDEs but many more differences. She saw not Jesus and heaven but The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Daw- the Galaxy. Since her recovery, she has learned a lot about the neuroscience of kins, Steven Pinker, and Susan Greenfield are among NDEs and shares that here. She also provides a perhaps more sympathetic view today’s scientists who have achieved celebrity status. Celebrity scientists like them (and Darwin, Einstein, and toward coma-sufferers than you have heard before. Sagan before them) are the public face of science. They help shape the image of science, stimulate public ap- preciation of science, and mobilize social movements. —K F See page 34.

[ NEWS AND COMMENT

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and Joe Schwarcz Win CSI’s Balles Prizes in Critical Thinking

entirely different scope, but one no less crucial in its aims. Dr. Joe Schwarcz has long been among the best science communicators, as director of McGill University’s Office for Science & So- ciety, author of a wide range of books and articles, host of The Dr. Joe Show on Canadian radio, and a frequently sought science expert for the media. He is honored this year for his latest People behind Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: (from left) Executive Producer/Director Brannon book, Is That a Fact?, which arrives just Braga, Executive Producer Mitchell Cannold, Host Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Executive Producer/ in time to take on what often feels like Director/Writer Ann Druyan. a tsunami of anti-science and pseudo- Each year the Committee for Skeptical scientific claims in politics, the media, Inquiry awards the Robert P. Balles and popular culture. The anti-vac- Annual Prize in Critical Thinking to cine movement, the pushback against the person, publication, or production It may be another GMOs, the marketing of homeopathic that has done the most outstanding generation before we products as medicine, the preponder- work in promoting science and reason ance of popular gurus such as Dr. Oz to the general public. Given the size and know the full scope of and Kevin Trudeau making extraordi- enthusiastic response of its audience, the nary claims about our health without herculean effort undertaken to bring it the effect Cosmos: A extraordinary evidence to back them up—all of these things are beginning to to life, and the way it so celebrates and Spacetime Odyssey suffer and wilt under the light of public advocates for science and reason, one of scrutiny. the two Balles Prizes for 2014 goes to has had on the minds the creators, producers, and writers of and hearts of people Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Building on the groundbreaking around the world. series created by Ann Druyan, Steven Soter, and the late Carl Sagan in 1980, the new Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, aired Cosmos opened the eyes of a new on multiple channels in the fall of 2014 generation to humanity’s triumphs, its and took tens of millions of people on mistakes, and its astounding potential an incredible voyage through the won- to reach unimagined heights. It hon- ders of the universe. Cosmos celebrated ored the legacy of Carl Sagan and the the discoveries of science and the people first Cosmos series of the 1980s, while responsible for them. It also firmly po- breaking new ground with a style all its sitioned itself as a champion of critical, own that resonates with the audience of evidence-based thinking. Without ever the 2010s. It may be another generation before we know the full scope of the disrespecting viewers who might hold Joe Schwarcz opinions contrary to scientific consen- effect Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey has sus, Cosmos deftly and eloquently tack- had on the minds and hearts of people Joe Schwarcz’s book Is That a Fact? led hot-button scientific issues such as around the world, but we can be sure unflinchingly takes on all kinds of pop- climate change and evolution, while also that its impact, like that of the first Cos- ular misinformation (or as he calls it, addressing our species’ history of reli- mos, will be felt generations from now. “scientifically bankrupt slop”) and gives gious persecution and gender discrimi- The second Balles Prize for 2014 clear, friendly guidance that the general nation. goes to the author of a project of an reader can use to better sniff out the

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 5 factual from the fantastic. It is a book This is the tenth year the Robert P. Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, that could not have come at a better Balles Prize has been presented. Previ- Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our time: when the pseudoscientific noise ous winners are: Lives level is high, and the public is primed • 2008: Leonard Mlodinow, physicist, • 2013: Paul Offit for his book Do and hungry for the truth. author, and Caltech professor, for You Believe in Magic? The Sense and his book The Drunkard’s Walk: How Nonsense of Alternative Medicine * * * Randomness Rules Our Lives • 2012: Steven Salzberg for his “Fighting • 2007: Natalie Angier, New York Times The Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in Pseudoscience” column in Forbes; and science writer, for her book The Canon: Critical Thinking is a $2,500 award Joe Nickell, for his book The Science A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics given to the author of the published of Ghosts—Searching for Spirits of the of Science work that best exemplifies healthy Dead • 2006: Ben Goldacre for his weekly col- skepticism, logical analysis, or empiri- • 2011: Richard Wiseman, psychol- umn, “Bad Science,” published in The cal science. Each year, the Committee ogist and entertainer, for his book Guardian newspaper (United Kingdom) for Skeptical Inquiry, a program of the Paranormality: Why We See What Isn’t • 2005: Shared by Andrew Skolnick, Ray Center for Inquiry, which publishes There Hyman, and Joe Nickell for their series the S I, selects the • 2010: Steven Novella for his tre- of articles in the S I paper, article, book, or other publication mendous body of work, including on “Testing ‘The Girl with X-Ray that has the greatest potential to create the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, Eyes’” positive reader awareness of important Science-Based Medicine, Neurologica, scientific issues. S I column “The This prize was established through Science of Medicine,” and his tireless Call for Nominations: There’s amazing the generosity of Robert P. Balles, a travel and lecture schedule on behalf work being produced in 2015, with longtime supporter of CSI and a prac- of skepticism much more on the way. If you’d like to ticing Christian, along with the Robert • 2009: Michael Specter, New Yorker vouch for the author you think deserves P. Balles Endowed Memorial Fund, staff writer and former foreign corre- the 2015 Balles Prize, contact CSI a permanent endowment fund for the spondent for The New York Times, for Executive Director Barry Karr at bkarr@ benefit of CSI. his book Denialism: How Irrational centerforinquiry.net.

CFI Testimony Urges FDA to Regulate Homeopathic Products

K F

invited testimony at an FDA hearing on homeopathic product regulation on April 20. “Homeopathy is unsupported by scientific evidence, ineffective in treating illness, and, when relied upon instead of actual medicine, dangerous and even deadly,” the CFI testimony concluded. Michael De Dora, head of CFI’s Office of Public Policy in Washington, PQ D.C., delivered the testimony the first morning of the two-day hearing, April 20–21, at FDA’s White Oak campus Homeopathy is “at complete odds with should invoke “strict guidelines requir- in Silver Spring, Maryland. The FDA our modern understanding of biol- ing homeopathic products meet the streamed the testimony live on a web- ogy, chemistry, and physics,” and the same standards as non-homeopathic cast. U.S. Food and Drug Administration drugs,” the Center for Inquiry said in De Dora noted that the CFI testi-

6 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT

mony was given not only on behalf of at the time. “We intend to stand up for which states: the product’s claimed ac- the organization but also on behalf of consumers and their right to be told the tive ingredients in plain English; and “dozens of doctors and scientists associ- truth about the medicines they spend that the product has not been evaluated ated with CFI and its affiliate program, their hard-earned money on. We will by the FDA for safety or effectiveness. the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, take the fight to the perpetrators of ho- The American public deserves as much with whom we work on these matters.” meopathic fraud in the media, in legis- from the agency tasked with protecting In his answers to questions after- latures, and yes, in the courts.” them.” ward, De Dora mentioned articles In his testimony at the April 2015 What the outcome of the hearings critically examining homeopathy in hearing, CFI’s De Dora applauded the may be won’t be known for a long time. the S I, CSI’s maga- FDA for holding the hearing and said Nothing ever happens quickly or easily zine. (The most recent two are “An In- a reassessment of the FDA’s regulation in Washington. CFI’s testimony fol- troduction to Homeopathy” by Harriet of homeopathic products is clearly war- lowed that of leadoff presenter Adriane Hall, September/October 2014, and ranted. He briefly reviewed the scien- Fugh-Berman of the Georgetown Uni- “Homeopathy: A Critique of Current tific evidence showing that “aside from versity Medical Center. Author of two Research,” by Edzard Ernst, Novem- books on complementary medicine, ber/December 2012. See also Steven De Dora’s CFI testimony she said the evidence of homeopathy’s Novella’s column “It’s Time for Sci- effectiveness is “scant or nil,” “the dan- ence-Based Medicine” and other arti- concluded: “…The FDA gers of homeopathy are obvious,” and cles in SI’s “Medical Misinformation” should rely on its it is misleading to sell homeopathic special issue, May/June 2015.) products alongside conventional over- The full text of De Dora’s testimony well-established the-counter drugs that have met FDA appears as a Commentary on page 32 regulatory system scrutiny. But De Dora was followed of this issue. by Wayne Jonas, former head of the The FDA announced in March it to require homeopathic National Center for Complementary was holding a public hearing to “ob- products to meet and Alternative Medicine, who gave tain information and comments from a discursive talk seeming to contend stakeholders” about the use of products the same standards that meta-analyses can’t really answer labeled as homeopathic as well as the as non-homeopathic whether homeopathy works and claim- agency’s regulatory framework about ing that “people do seem to get better” them. Although the FDA has the au- drugs…” after taking homeopathic products. thority to require homeopathic drugs Jonas was followed by a litany of other undergo testing for effectiveness, to the placebo effect, homeopathic prod- pro-homeopathy stakeholders, includ- date it has declined to do so. ucts have no effect in treating illnesses.” ing representatives of the Homeopathic CFI had been urging the FDA for He noted that a large meta-study re- Academy of Naturopathic Physicians years to no longer exempt homeopathy leased in March by the Australian Na- and various other homeopathic orga- products from the same requirements tional Health and Medical Research nizations. Whatever happens, the hoof proven safety and efficacy that main- Council concluded, “There are no meopaths won’t be able to claim they stream drugs are required to meet. In health conditions for which there is didn’t get their say. August 2011, for instance, CFI peti- reliable evidence that homeopathy is Science-based medicine did have tioned the FDA to institute regulations effective.” its proponents at the hearings, notably that would require homeopathic prod- As for the harm homeopathy does, CFI. But the FDA panel will have to ucts to meet the same standards of ef- De Dora gave four specific examples sift through a lot of pseudoscientific fectiveness as conventional drugs. One but said the greatest harm is when peo- assertions and squishy self-serving ra- can assume that petition helped lead ple rely on homeopathic products to the tionalizations from homeopathy sup- to these hearings. And in April 2012, exclusion of proven scientific remedies. porters if it is to come to a consum- CFI announced it was willing to assist De Dora’s CFI testimony con- er-protecting, scientifically reasonable individuals who believe they have been cluded: “To ensure the protection of the decision to institute efficacy testing, harmed or defrauded through homeop- American public, the FDA should rely labeling, and warnings. athy marketing. on its well-established regulatory sys- The hearing was a necessary—and “People are unconscionably being tem to require homeopathic products big—first step. misled in their time of greatest vulner- to meet the same standards as non-ho- ability: when they’re sick,” Ron Lind- meopathic drugs, or at the least man- Kendrick Frazier is the editor of the S - say, president and CEO of CFI, said date labeling for homeopathic products I.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 7 Marble-Playing Ghost or Flawed Statistics?

D M. S

The feature article in the March 2015 all come across at least one marble in a issue of the Society for Scientific six-month period. However, it is likely Exploration’s EdgeScience was “Does that Urheber’s preaching about the Con sciousness Continue Beyond wonders of marbles that have been lost Death? A Search for Certainty” by but now are found were not confined Michael Urheber with Rhonda Drake. to an audience of the seventeen people Urheber’s friend Frank Bava used to who reported finding miraculous mar- carry a lucky marble around with him bles; he probably reached a wider audi- before he died of a heart attack (as well ence. If his appeal for marble sightings as long after that event, as we shall see). reached forty people, then the probabil- The morning of Bava’s funeral, Urheber ity of getting seventeen or more marble woke up realizing that Bava had loaned finds is 0.382, which falls well short of the lucky marble to him the weekend statistical significance. To achieve the before the funeral (in retrospect, possi- traditional 0.01 level of significance, bly a bad decision on Bava’s part). twenty-four or more sightings of possibly paranormally transported marbles would be required. It is of course absurd It is of course absurd to compute statistical significance levels for the to compute statistical miraculousness of ostensible marble significance levels for teleportations or materializations, even the miraculousness of if we disregard the fact that the telekinetic subject is well past the stage of ostensible marble rigor mortis and is likely to have poor teleportations or pectedly had a close encounter of the muscle tone for chucking marbles. materializations, even if agate kind (i.e., they had come across a Urheber’s coauthor Rhonda Drake we disregard the fact that marble). Based on a series of entertain- teaches college level statistics, so she ing assumptions, Urheber and Drake should know better. Actually, judging the telekinetic subject is computed the probability of a person from the cautionary remarks that have well past the stage of finding at least one marble in a six- been sprinkled throughout the article, rigor mortis and is likely month period as 0.3901. Taking this to she does know better and has appar- the seventeenth power, they computed ently tried her damnedest to commu- to have poor muscle tone the probability that seventeen people nicate adequate statistical methodology for chucking marbles. will all come across a marble in a six- to her seemingly clueless coauthor, but month period as 1 in 8.9 million. On to no avail. Urheber’s academic training this basis, Urheber proclaimed that was in music. these results achieve a high level of sta- Let’s be clear about one thing. All tistical significance, proving that there this study has found is that when an au- Urheber decided to return the mar- is indeed an afterlife. Yes, Virginia dience is told to be on the lookout for ble to the deceased, but not before there is a Santa Claus, or at least some- marbles, some of them will find marbles wrapping it in a note that read “Please one who teleports marble gifts to mere (unless they restrict their search to the toss this back if you’re ever around.” mortals, and his name is Frank Bava, interior of the researcher’s cranium). Surely this would be a daunting task but his cheeks may not be so rosy. for a man as dead as Frank Bava was. It is fairly easy to show that the Douglas M. Stokes is the author of Re- Urheber put said note and marble in claim of statistical significance is com- imagining the Soul (McFarland, 2014) the corpse’s suit pocket before burial. pletely unwarranted. Urheber has and the chapter “The Case Against Psi,” Over the next six months, seventeen computed the probability that a prese- in Parapsychology: A Handbook for the people told Urheber that they unex- lected group of seventeen people will 21st Century (McFarland, in press).

8 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT

The Latest Oz Affair: Doctors’ Demand That Columbia Fire Him Creates a Firestorm of Reaction

K F

It was another bad week for Dr. Oz. Oz is more than just a faculty mem- The last time we had occasion to ber at Columbia. He is a cardiothoracic report on daytime television host Meh- surgeon and vice chair of the Depart- met Oz (“Dr. Oz” as he’s better known) ment of Surgery. came after he got a public lambasting The call brought a quick and pre- in June of last year from Sen. Claire dictable response from Columbia in- McCaskill (D-Missouri) in a Senate voking academic freedom: “Colum- subcommittee hearing on protecting bia is committed to the principle of consumers from false and deceptive ad- academic freedom and to upholding vertising. faculty members’ freedom of expres- McCaskill upbraided Oz for pro- sion for statements they make in pub- moting green coffee extract, raspberry lic discussion,” said Doug Levy, chief ketone, and garcinia cambogia, among communications officer for Columbia’s other dubious supplements. “I don’t medical center to Henry I. Miller, the know why you need to say this stuff, Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific because you know it’s not true. . . . Philosophy & Public Policy at Stan- Why would you cheapen your show by ford’s Hoover Institution, who spear- saying things like that?” she asked him. headed the letter. (See David H. Gorski, “The Great and Even though CSI Miller responded to Levy that “free- Powerful Oz Humbled in Senate Hear- physicians and medical doms end where patient safety begins, ing,” SI, September/October 2014.) and Oz’s promotion of worthless prod- Oz seemed a bit chastened and scientists have criticized ucts that might have side effects and promised to use less “flowery” language Oz for exactly the same that delay patients seeking safe and in the future. reasons stated in the effective therapies threatens public Then in December, a study pub- safety.” lished in the British Medical Journal letter, going after None of the ten signers of the letter concluded that less than one-third of someone’s job or are directly associated with the Com- claims made on The Dr. Oz Show have academic position mittee for Skeptical Inquiry or the support in the medical literature and 40 S I. Even though percent of them can’t be backed up at is not usually the CSI physicians and medical scientists all. best strategy. have criticized Oz for exactly the same In April 2015, Oz found himself reasons stated in the letter, going after under attack from still another quarter: someone’s job or academic position is a group of ten doctors from Stanford not usually the best strategy. In aca- University, University of California demia, it always brings forth the de- at San Diego, and other mostly West fense of academic freedom, which is said the letter. “Dr. Oz has repeatedly Coast universities and institutions. considered sacrosanct. Furthermore, They called on Columbia University’s sown disdain for science and for evi- trying to get someone fired can cause College of Physicians and Surgeons dence-based medicine. Worst of all, he those who would otherwise join in the to discontinue its relationship with has manifested an egregious lack of in- criticism to rally to the person’s defense. Oz. The reasons were the same—Oz’s tegrity by promoting quack treatments In his classic essay “Proper Criti- regular on-air promotion of dubious and cures in the interest of financial cism” (SI, July/August 2001, available remedies—but the requested remedy, gain. on our website at http://www.csicop. essentially his firing, came just short of “Whatever the nature of his pathol- org/si/show/proper_criticism/), Ray calling on his show to be canceled. ogy, members of the public are being Hyman writes, “Avoid, at all costs, cre- “Dr. Oz is guilty of either outra- misled and endangered, which makes ating the impression that you are trying geous conflicts of interest or flawed Dr. Oz’s presence on the faculty of a to interfere with someone’s civil liber- judgments about what constitutes ap- prestigious medical institution unac- ties. Do not try to get someone fired propriate medical treatments, or both,” ceptable.” from his or her job.”

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 9 Take action with us.

You can help promote science, reason, and secular values. Imagine a world where religion and pseudoscience do not influence public policy—a world where religion no longer enjoys a privileged position. The Center for Inquiry is working toward these goals and educating the public to use science, reason, and secular values rather than religion and pseudoscience to establish public policy. The Center for Inquiry advances its mission through advocacy, education, and outreach programs. No other organizations advance science and secularism on as many fronts as CFI and its affiliates, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and the Council for Secular Humanism.

Donate today. When you make a donation to CFI, you become a member of a worldwide movement of humanists, skeptics, atheists, and freethinkers—all working together to promote the secular worldview and give voice to your values. Our major goals include: I Protecting the rights of nonbelievers I Advocating for science-based medicine I Sustaining and expanding the secular movement Make your most generous gift today, or request information on planned giving or making a bequest. To receive a brochure elaborating on what we are doing to achieve our important goals and how you can help, please complete and return the attached card or contact us at: Center for Inquiry Development Office PO Box 741 Amherst, NY 14226 1.800.818.7071 [email protected] www.centerforinquiry.net/donate [ NEWS AND COMMENT

Nevertheless, the call brought enor- “freedom of speech” card repeatedly science-based critics are not likely to mous public attention to the letter and (demonstrating again why calling for ease up on their criticisms of his show’s to scientists’ longtime criticisms of Oz someone’s firing can backfire). He said continuing promotion of miraculous for being a shill on his show for dubious he “‘would not be silenced.” and dubious remedies. products. It made network television In an interview with NBC, he curi- The next day, April 24, Michael news broadcasts that evening and the ously claimed his show “is not a medical Rosenbaum, Dana March, and six next morning and provoked news arti- show,” as though a program featuring other Columbia Medical Center faculty cles everywhere, and even an editorial members published an op-ed in USA cartoon or two. Today. They defended Oz’s work as a For his part, Oz initially stated For his part, Oz initially Columbia physician but gently rebuked lamely that he offers “multiple points stated lamely that he their fellow faculty member for touting of view” on his show about health-re- untested remedies on his TV show. Al- lated issues and said he offers his opin- offers “multiple points of though Columbia should not terminate ions “without conflict of interest.” He view” on his show about Oz, procedures about “broadcast medi- indicated he would address the claims health-related issues. cine” need to be re-evaluated, they said. on his show the next week. “A scientist presenting clinical trial re- He did so at length on his show that sults at an academic conference is re- aired April 23. But instead of address- quired to distinguish evidence-based ing the quackery accusations, he spent from hypothetical applications. Don’t medical advice from a prominent Co- most of his time attacking his accus- virtual patients deserve similar considers—an effective, if intellectually ques- lumbia University physician who goes eration?” They added, “Non-evidence tionable, tactic. He asserted that they by “Dr. Oz” and whose show is titled based medical recommendations pre- had conflicts of interest themselves. The Dr. Oz Show can really be con- sented without caveats are costly and He defended the advice he gives. He sidered to be about something other potentially harmful.” again referred to “multiple points of than medicine and health. His defense view; diverse opinions.” He played the probably satisfied his ardent fans, but —K F

THE 16TH EUROPEAN SKEPTICS CONGRESS LONDON 2015 11th - 13th September

The 16th European Skeptics Congress will be held at Goldsmiths College, University of London, from September 11 to 13, 2015. The Congress is jointly organized by the Association for Skeptical Enquiry (ASKE) and Goldsmith College’s Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit (APRU). Events will include keynote addresses by distinguished speakers, formal presentations, debates, and poster presentations, plus a pre-congress session and Skeptics in the Pub meetings in the evenings. A section of the Congress will cover research at APRU. Visit the Congress website below for up-to-date information concerning the www.euroscepticscon.org program, registration and accommodations.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 11 U.K. Efforts to End Sex Bioscientist and CSI Fellow Elie A. Shneour Dies at Eighty-Nine K F Trafficking in Africa Enlist Witchcraft Elie A. Shneour, a tenth anniversary issue (Summer 1986). neurochemist and bio- In it he called science “the most power- B R physicist and a long- ful tool ever devised by the mind of man time fellow of the Com- for the control of his destiny” and wrote, The British government is using a power- mittee for Skeptical “The honest and simple application of ful new tool in its efforts to end sex traf- Inquiry, died April 14. Occam’s Razor to paranormal claims ficking and slavery in Africa: witchcraft— He was eighty-nine. would quickly consign most of them or at least belief in magic. The Independent Shneour was presi- to oblivion.” He concluded: “Any ratio- newspaper journalist Paul Peachy reported dent and research director of Biosystems nal being is welcome to join the cause on an innovative method to help West Research Institute in La Jolla, California, of science. There are no statements of African women who have been forced into which provided consulting services to belief to execute, only the demonstrable sex trafficking: industry and government. Born in Paris application of reason.” Britain’s anti-slavery commissioner is in 1925, he escaped Nazi-occupied examining radical new plans to pros- France with his family and got to the ecute sex traffickers by “reversing” the United States in 1941. He served in the juju spells that terrorize many of their U.S. Army, became a naturalized U.S. victims into staying silent. More than citizen, and was educated at Bard Col- “He was a true 100 Nigerian women were identified last lege (which later gave him an honorary year as having been trafficked into sexual Renaissance man.” slavery with their obedience ensured by doctorate), Berkeley, and UCLA (where magic rituals that threaten them with he got his PhD in biological chemistry). infertility or death if they reveal what has He always had wide-ranging scien- happened to them. tific and intellectual interests. He partic- According to the newspaper’s February ipated in a study titled “Biology and the Another notable SI article was 15 issue, “The level of terror instilled by juju Exploration of Mars” conducted by the “Planting a Seed of Doubt” (July/Au- National Academy of Sciences’ Space gust 1998), available online: “Skeptics led British police to spend two years trying Science Board in 1964–1965 and was should forego any thought of convincing to dispel the fears of women so they could give evidence in the first case of its kind in lead editor of its Extraterrestrial Life: An the unconvinced that we hold the torch Anthology and Bibliography . He and of truth illuminating the darkness. A Europe, in 2011.” The victims are often Samuel Moffat also edited the 1966 more modest, realistic and achievable reluctant to testify in court against those who abducted and forced them into pros- book Life Beyond the Earth, published goal is to encourage the idea that we by the National Science Teachers Asso- may be mistaken. Doubt is humbling titution, in part because of fear of magical ciation, with an epilogue by Nobel laure- and constructive.” retribution. Kevin Hyland, England’s first ate biologist Joshua Lederberg. He later More recently, he wrote “Obfuscat ing anti-slavery commissioner, has been in con- wrote the book The Malnourished Mind . Biological Evolution” (November/De- tact with anti-trafficking officials in Nigeria Shneour served on many other na- cember 2005), “The Ongoing Decline of who have located witch doctors believed to tional and international science advi- Religion” (May/June 2012), and “When have placed curses on the victims and forced sory bodies and was a member of the Does Human Life Begin?” (January/Feb- them to remove the curse or face criminal American Chemical Society, the Ameri- ruary 2014), which stimulated a flood prosecution. can Society of Biological Chemists, the of letters. Just a month before his death Using magic (or, more accurately, belief American Society for Biochemistry and he submitted to us a short essay he had in magic) as a way to stem human traffick- Molecular Biology, the International So- been working on for months titled “The ing is not only a novel idea but likely a very ciety for Neurochemistry, Sigma Xi, and God of the Big Bang” but then imme- effective one. Belief in the power of magic is several other scientific organizations. He diately decided it was not yet ready for very strong throughout much of sub-Saha- was also a longtime scientific advisor to publication and withdrew it. ran Africa, and many live under the (real or the Cousteau Society. “He was a unique and brilliant man perceived) threat of magical retribution and Shneour was a charter member of . . . with the beautiful touch of the ro- the fear that witch doctors—or those who the San Diego Association for Rational mantic . . . ,” one of his friends wrote his hire them—have power over their fortunes, Inquiry and a strong supporter of the son Mark upon news of his death. “Elie health, and lives. Skeptical Inquirer and CSICOP (now was so informed and could speak bril- Measures that fail to address the vic- Committee for Skeptical Inquiry). Over liantly about many topics: science, med- tims’ underlying belief system are unlikely the years, he wrote a number of provoc- icine, art, food, history. He was a man of to be successful because to the extent that ative articles for SI. An early one was another time to be sure. He was a true a problem is psychosomatic, the root of the “Occam’s Razor,” the lead essay in our Renaissance man.” problem will be ignored. It is not helpful

12 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT for a psychologist to simply tell an someone A ‘Taking Back Skepticism’ with obsessive-compulsive disorder, for example, that he doesn’t have to open and close Campaign and Online Course his front door seven times before entering his home; he will still feel the compulsion to do J C so regardless of any arguments or evidence that it’s unnecessary. Disordered thoughts Skepticism is at the heart of the The science of science denial is and compulsions can be dampened by medi- scientific method. However, the unpacked in the upcoming Mas- cation, but at the end of the day what’s needed word skeptic has been appropriated sive Online Open Course (MOOC) to address the root of the problem is a new by people who deny climate sci- Making Sense of Climate Sci- way of framing or understanding the issue. If ence. A growing body of research ence Denial by the University of the Nigerian women truly believe that they shows that political ideology is the Queensland and EdX. It examines have been cursed, no amount of denying or dominant driver of climate science the psychology driving the rejection debunking (especially by foreign British doc- denial. Those ideologically predis- of climate science. It explains how tors) will convince them otherwise; you have biased thinking leads to the fallacies to fight fire with fire, or magic with magic. posed to reject climate change resort within the myths that distort climate Belief in the power of curses is a form of to cherry picking, logical fallacies, science. Finally, it outlines the psy- the placebo effect, which works only if the and conspiracy theories to dismiss chological research into the most patient believes it is effective. The power of climate science. Science denial is the effective ways to respond to science the placebo is strong indeed. It can give pain antithesis of skepticism. denial. This free MOOC equips medications a boost and even enhance ath- people with the knowledge and crit- letic performance; recent research revealed ical thinking skills to discern and re- that runners who (wrongly) believed that they The public has come to spond to climate science denial. were performing with doped blood ran faster associate skepticism with I proposed a “Taking Back Skep- than they thought they could. the anti-science rhetoric ticism” campaign, with endorse- While the idea of curses may seem anti- ment from skeptical societies and quated or confined to the poor and supersti- of climate science denial. advocates of rational inquiry across tious Third World, it is not the case. Plenty They need to understand the world. The campaign highlights of wealthy and educated Americans believe that skepticism embraces the values of genuine skepticism and in curses, and in fact it is not unusual for distinguishes them from the char- self-proclaimed psychics to con their clients the values of rational, acteristics of science denial. The into believing that a curse has been placed evidence-based inquiry. campaign launched April 28 when upon them and that the psychic can help re- Making Sense of Climate Science move the curse—for a fee, of course. It often Denial was released, making the begins with a typical psychic reading, when a person goes to a fortuneteller or “intuitive” free MOOC content available for The skeptic community needs people wishing to learn more and seeking advice or insight. In the course of the to take back the word skeptic. The reading, the psychic may ask if the client has equip themselves to respond to cli- statement “Deniers Are Not Skep- had any bad luck, accidents, struggles, health mate science denial. For more in- tics” signed in December by more problems, or other misfortunes; like most of formation, see https://www.edx. than fifty Committee for Skeptical us, some recent examples will come to mind org/course/making-sense-climate- Inquiry fellows (SI, March/April and the psychic may then claim that these science-denial-uqx-denial101x. 2015, online at http://www.csicop. bad things were not simply random chance A longer version of this article org/news/show/deniers_are_not_ but harmful acts intentionally caused by an appears on csicop.org. skeptics) and later by thousands of enemy—a curse in other words. It doesn’t al- others was a good start. John Cook is the Climate Com- ways happen, and the clients don’t always fall The public has come to associ- munication Fellow for the Global for this scam, but many do, and it is common ate skepticism with the anti-science Change Institute at the University enough that psychics are routinely arrested rhetoric of climate science denial. of Queensland, Australia. He created and charged with fraud across the United They need to understand that skep- and maintains the Skeptical Science States for this ancient curse-removal scheme. ticism embraces the values of ratio- website (what peer-reviewed science Belief in some form of magic is universal; if nal, evidence-based inquiry. They says about global warming), and is that belief can be used to help stop sex traf- coauthor of Climate Change Denial ficking, then so much the better. also need to recognize the tell-tale characteristics of denial in order to (2011) and the 2013 college textbook Benjamin Radford is the deputy editor of the distinguish it from genuine skepti- Climate Change Science: A Modern S I. cism. Synthesis.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 13 [ INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Joe Nickell, PhD, is CSI’s senior research fellow. A former stage magician and private detective, he has—since 1969—investi- gated numerous cases of alleged ghosts, poltergeists, and demons from a scientific perspective.

Dillinger’s Ghost and Hoover’s Vendetta against G-Man Purvis

ot since Jesse James had a bank Dillinger to fend for himself. Although stepped on the gas and sped them to robber attained such a Robin both were soon arrested, the latter safety. Dillinger had another close call NHood image. Although there was sentenced to just two years, while one night a month later in the infamous were other “public enemies” of the Dillinger drew a prison term of ten to affair at Wisconsin’s Little Bohemia Depression Era—such as “Pretty Boy twenty years. Freed in 1933, after only Lodge. FBI agents led by Melvin Purvis Floyd” and “Baby Face” Nelson—John nine years, he was rearrested while still approached the lodge but were forced Dillinger had daring and style to spare. on parole as the leader of a new band of to dive for cover from machine-gun But so did a tenacious G-man named bank robbers (Girardin 1994, 10–32). fire. Three non-gangsters, who jumped Melvin Purvis (Figure 1), an agent so After some of his old prison buddies in a car and failed to stop when ordered effective and so adored by the public escaped, they raided the jail in Lima, to, were shot by Purvis’s men, one fa- and press that his boss, Federal Bureau Ohio, where Dillinger had been lodged, tally, and Dillinger, Nelson, and others of Investigation Director J. Edgar freeing him but accidentally killing the escaped (Girardin 1994, 113–156; Pur- Hoover, seethed with jealousy. Well, sheriff in the process. Over the next few vis 1936, 21). I’m getting ahead of a most frightening months, the gang committed a series of Dillinger underwent plastic surgery story in the annals of crime fighting, bold bank heists, although probably to alter his appearance and damage and I don’t mean the tale of Dillinger’s not the more than thirty credited to his fingerprints. Neither attempt was ghost. them. Then, in January 1934, police very successful. Billie having been ar- in Tucson, Arizona, arrested Dillinger rested, Dillinger had taken up with a Dillinger and most of his gang. Sent to an “es- waitress who shared an apartment with cape-proof” jail in Indiana, he was soon a Romanian woman, Ana Cumpanas, The biography of John Herbert escaping—using a pistol he suddenly a brothel owner known as Anna Sage. Dillinger (1903–1934) begins with an brandished. Legend says the pistol was She recognized Dillinger and tipped endearing story of him at age three, a dummy that Dillinger carved from off police who passed her on to Melvin dragging a chair to the side of his wood and blackened with shoe polish, Purvis. Sage later informed Purvis that mother’s coffin, climbing up, and try- while a conspiracy theory holds that a Dillinger was to take her and his girl- ing to shake her awake. It is tempered bribed judge smuggled in a real pistol friend to a movie, and that she could be by the account of a moonshine-in- (Girardin 1994, 32–108; Toland 1963). identified by her attire. She would be- toxicated punk of twenty-one, who Dillinger assembled another gang, come forever known as “the woman in teamed up with a more seasoned thug, this time including the infamous red,” although she actually wore an or- attempting to rob an elderly grocer of George “Baby Face” Nelson. Two rob- ange skirt and white blouse that night. his weekend receipts. As they beat the beries later, the FBI got the drop on John Dillinger was soon dead in a hail struggling old man, Dillinger’s revolver Dillinger in St. Paul, but he escaped of gunfire outside Chicago’s Biograph went off and the pair fled, the accom- with only a gunshot to the leg as his Theater (Girardin 1994, 169–173, plice driving off and leaving young girlfriend, Evelyn “Billie” Frechette, 217–230).

14 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Melvin Purvis dying. “Later after leaving this scene,” man who would become “the nation’s Dillinger’s nemesis was the FBI’s Purvis wrote, “I tried to button up my top cop,” had parlayed his Master Melvin Purvis (1903–1960) who coat and found both buttons gone. of Laws degree into a job with the became a special agent in 1927 and Apparently I had grabbed for my gun Department of Justice in 1917. Thus soon headed investigative offices in without thinking, and I am frank to say escaping the draft, he pursued draft Cincinnati, Washington, Oklahoma that I do not know how it came into my evaders, suspected German partisans, City, and Birmingham before taking hand” (Purvis 1936, 275–277). and communists on the home front. A charge of the Bureau’s most high-pro- Purvis’s self-effacement notwith- biographer (Hack 2004, 54) observed: file office in Chicago in 1932. In standing, he gained tremendous noto- The fledging civil servant had devel- just eight years, he captured more riety for his lead role in bringing down oped an unpopular habit of ridi- FBI-designated public enemies than John Dillinger, and—three months culing those who dared to disagree any agent in the history of the FBI later—Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, with his interpretation of the law, (“Melvin Purvis” 2014). dismissing them with a flutter of the killed in an Ohio farm field. J. Edgar hand as if clearing the air of annoy- Standing just five feet nine inches Hoover steamed at the attention given ing cobwebs. and weighing only 140 pounds, Pur- Purvis. He wanted his brave agents to vis appeared an unlikely hero, and remain faceless so he would get credit It was a sign of things to come. the newspapers sometimes called him for their achievements. So it was that Working twelve-hour days every day “Little Mel.” They also dubbed him Hoover maneuvered behind the scenes of the week, Hoover received promo- “Nervous Purvis”—especially after he tions for his industry. He lobbied for, admitted that the cigar shook in his and obtained, the job of assistant chief mouth that fateful night when he lit of the Bureau of Investigation, and, it to signal agents that he had identi- in 1924, became director, charged by fied Dillinger. Purvis would later write, Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone with the candor of a man of integrity: with implementing a laundry list of ethical reforms. After minor name The romantic newspaper writers have, on occasion, pictured me in their changes, it became the Federal Bureau deathless prose as a combination of of Investigation in 1935. Meanwhile, Wild Bill Hickok, Nick Carter and Hoover sought to improve efficiency Frank Merriwell. Nothing could be and obtain laws permitting agents to farther from the truth; I am not a gun make arrests and carry guns, as well as fighter; I am not a wily sleuth; and I am not a Fearless Frank. To tell the making the slaying of a special agent a truth, I was thoroughly frightened federal offense. And he allowed Charles every time it fell to my lot to carry a Appel—an accountant as well as a doc- gun on a foray of any kind. ument examiner—to found the Bu- There were men who served with reau’s now-famous crime laboratory, me who never knew the emotion of fear. They belonged to the glory com- beginning with a borrowed microscope pany of history, those joyous daredevils (Gentry 1991, 124–148). who, from time immemorial, have In 1927, a handsome young law- been vainly waiting for a commander Figure 1. Melvin Purvis autographed photo (to close yer named Clyde Tolson caught to order a charge on the gateways of friend James McLeod) courtesy of McLeod’s daughter Hoover’s eye, and in just two years he hell. I admire them, but my nervous Florrie Ervin; copy photo by Joe Nickell. system is not built that way. I never led would become in rapid succession an a raid without apprehension, and only agent, a staff supervisor, special agent the knowledge that there was a job to keep Purvis from the next target, in charge of the Buffalo office, and fi- there to do kept me functioning in the George “Baby Face” Nelson (real name nally assistant director! Thus began a death-haunted sectors where bullets friendship—some say a romantic liai- were flying. Lester Gillis). When Nelson shot agent Sam Cowley (after Nelson turned a car son—that lasted until Hoover’s death. Purvis added, “A sense of responsibility chase into a trap), a scheming Hoover Neither married, and the two dined to- is often an effective substitute for cour- ordered Purvis to stay at the hospital gether, spent weekends together, took age” (Purvis 1936, 246–247). vacations together, albeit while keeping with Cowley while urgently scrambling So, as he and other agents moved in separate residences; Hoover lived with less experienced agents to pursue Nel- on Dillinger, on the sidewalk outside his mother until her death in 1938. son. When, as Cowley lay dying, Purvis the theater, Purvis would later admit, Hoover’s sexual orientation has been vowed to a Chicago American reporter “I was very nervous; it must have been a made an issue due to his public crusade that he would get Nelson, Hoover had squeaky voice that called out, ‘Stick ’em against homosexuals—his professed had enough (Purvis 2005, 259–260). up Johnny, we have you surrounded.’” contempt of them being second only Dillinger drew his automatic pistol, but to his hatred of Communists. Hoover it never fired. Public Enemy Number Hoover refused to allow gays into the FBI, One was shot by Purvis’s men and lay John Edgar Hoover (1895–1972), the subverted their positions elsewhere,

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 15 [ INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL

and sometimes blackmailed them into promotion for the FBI, Hoover never- veillance of Martin Bormann, helped becoming informants (Hack 2004, theless tried to find a pretext for chal- organize a War Crimes Office, inves- 281–282; Gentry 1991, 90; 307–310, lenging the little toy badges. He had tigated the report of Hitler’s death, and 412–413). to content himself with getting Post assisted with the Nuremburg trials. Un- Hoover also took an interest in an- Toasties to remove any mention of the fortunately, Colonel Purvis’s service records were destroyed in a fire, so crucial details are lacking, but he served with distinction (Purvis 2005, 260–313). Hoover secretly demoted Purvis—one of the great- Months after Purvis had resigned est G-men of all time—and began to load him with from the FBI, Hoover had been hu- miliated at a senate subcommittee demeaning assignments and to rewrite history, hearing on appropriations when a sen- omitting Purvis’s name from the Dillinger saga. ator pressed him on whether Ameri- ca’s top cop had ever made an arrest. Hoover was forced to reply—four times—that he never had, that he was a desk-bound administrator. He prob- other young lawyer, the dashing Mel- ably never in his life wished more for vin Purvis to whom the Bureau di- credentials like Purvis’s. The very next rector wrote (April 3, 1934), “. . . get morning Hoover ordered his agents to Dillinger for me and the world is yours” notify him immediately when targeted (Summers 1993, 70). Things soured gangster Alvin Karpis was about to be with the shootout-turned-fiasco at Bo- arrested. Three weeks later, Hoover ar- hemia Lodge, and Hoover sent agent ranged to be on scene, kept safely out of Sam Cowley to assist. When Purvis did harm while brave agents pulled in front succeed against Public Enemy Number of Karpis’s car and arrested him with One, Hoover briefly feted Purvis and drawn guns. But in the official version, Cowley in Washington, privately prais- it was Hoover who lunged at Karpis ing Purvis for “almost unimaginable and grabbed him before he could reach daring” (Summers 1993, 72). Unfortu- his weapon. (Actually Karpis’s two ri- nately, the press kept referring to Pur- fles were in the trunk.) “Karpis Cap- vis—not Hoover—as “The Man Who tured in New Orleans by Hoover Him- Got Dillinger,” and when Purvis also self,” headlined the New York Times. brought down Pretty Boy Floyd and Years later, in an autobiography, Karpis became a media sensation, Hoover’s would make fun of these lies (Gentry jealous anger finally boiled over. 1991, 182–195). John Dillinger Hoover secretly demoted Pur- Purvis committed suicide on Feb- vis—one of the greatest G-men of all ruary 29, 1960.1 After Purvis’s funeral, time—and began to load him with de- his widow gathered her three sons and FBI in their Junior G-Man promotion meaning assignments and to rewrite sent a terse telegram to Hoover: “We (Purvis 2005, 283–284, 295). history, omitting Purvis’s name from are honored that you ignored Melvin’s the Dillinger saga. An early example of While pretending to be friendly death. Your jealousy hurt him very Hoover’s spite came following Purvis’s with Purvis, Hoover in fact launched an much but until the end I think he loved telegraphed resignation in 1935, when unrelenting sneak crusade against him, you.” Hoover did not respond (Purvis he accepted a lucrative offer from Post sabotaging Purvis’s career opportunities 2005, 329). (In 2004, I spent most of Toasties cereal. Comic strips featured whenever possible, spreading rumors, a week in Florence, South Carolina, Purvis’s exploits and promoted the and encouraging agents to look for where Melvin Purvis—after resign- Melvin Purvis Junior G-Man Club, anything negative about this principled ing from the FBI—had raised a fam- which offered—in exchange for cereal American hero. Although successful in ily and died. From March 27 to 31, I box tops—such items as a fingerprint blocking his appointment as a federal visited his former home, talked with kit, code wheel, invisible ink and de- judge, undermining Hollywood of- people who had known him, made a veloper, and a Secret Operator’s Man- fers, and the like, Hoover was unable pilgrimage to his grave, and conducted ual, plus Junior G-Man badges and to thwart Purvis’s appointment to the research at both the county library and Secret Operator badges for girls as well Military Intelligence Division during courthouse—being permitted at the as boys. Although this was wonderful World War II. Purvis instigated sur- coroner’s office to make a supervised

16 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer JOE NICKELL INVESTIGATIVE FILES]

examination of the file on Purvis’s But did these paranormal reenact- immediately determined that he had death. I obtained a copy of the Coro- ments actually occur? Ogden is contra- no other weapons. We spoke to him, but he couldn’t speak. An ambulance ner’s Inquest report [1960], and I held dicted by another writer, Ursula Bielski was called. in my hand the bullet that killed the (1998, 134), who insists: great G-man.) In light of the mania following So the alleyway ghost is a figment, Dillinger’s death, it seems almost obviously based on misreports of Dil- Dillinger’s Ghost? unbelievable that no unusual phe- linger’s slaying. Besides, “In recent nomena were reported at the shoot- years . . . paranormal tales of that al- Some conspiracy theorists maintain ing site in the immediate months leyway have lapsed . . .” (Bielski 1998, that it was not Dillinger who died and years that followed. In fact, it 134). Let us hope that Dillinger’s imag- near the Biograph Theater. Rumors was not until the 1970s that pass- ined ghost now rests in peace, and let circulated after his death that the ersby on north Lincoln Avenue began to spot a bluish figure running us remember Purvis and Hoover in the FBI shot down the wrong man. They I down the alley, stumbling, falling, contrasting ways that each deserves. cite discrepancies in the description and disappearing. of Dillinger versus the autopsy that Note “point to Dillinger’s permanent escape Hauck (1996, 154) repeats claims that Dillinger’s ghost “has been seen racing 1. A longer, online version of this article dis- and disappearance” (Nash 1978, 394). cusses the controversy over Purvis’s death and is Some have postulated that the FBI had down the alley.” available on csicop.org. actually killed a small-time hoodlum In fact, however, the reported References ghostly reenactments are no such thing, by the name of Jimmy Lawrence “and Bielski, Ursula. 1998. Chicago Haunts: Ghostlore was covering up its tracks” (Ogden since Dillinger never ran and was never of the Windy City. Chicago: Lake Claremont 2009, 117). This is a familiar type of in the alley. For these facts, we turn to Press. the first-hand account of his death by Coroner’s Inquest: The State of South Carolina conspiracy claim (Nickell 1993). vs. The Dead Body of Melvin Purvis. 1960. In fact, Dillinger’s body was iden- Melvin Purvis, leader of the team of Inquest held April 13. (Table of contents, p. tified by his own father—once he had G-men who brought down John Dil- a; report, pp. 1–57.) Gentry, Curt. 1991. J. Edgar Hoover: The Man looked past the minor plastic surgery— linger. As Purvis wrote in his American and the Secrets. New York: W.W. Norton & and he had his son’s coffin covered with Company. three feet of concrete to keep the curi- Agent (1936, 275–276), “I was about Girardin, G. Russell, with William J. Helmer. 1994. Dillinger: The Untold Story. ous from digging it up (Ogden 2009, three feet to the left of him,” when agents closed in on Dillinger. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 117). A death photo leaves little doubt Hack, Richard. 2004. Puppetmaster: The Secret the corpse was indeed Dillinger’s, and I had to give the signal to close in Life of J. Edgar Hoover. Beverly Hills, CA: then because I had seen the woman New Millennium Press. fingerprints left no doubt at all: The Hauck, Dennis William. 1996. Haunted Places: tiny scars that obliterated his prints’ at his right [his current girlfriend] tug at his shirt in a furtive sort of The National Directory. New York: Penguin major pattern features (called “cores” Books. way as if to warn him that all was Kurland, Michael. 1994. A Gallery of Rogues. and “deltas”) did not prevent com- not well. I had seen him reach for New York: Prentice Hall. parison, and the postmortem prints his right-hand pocket and give it a “Melvin Purvis.” 2014. Online at https://en. unquestionably match those of Dil- slight jerk as if in an effort to draw wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Purvis; accessed linger on his FBI wanted poster. As to a gun. When I called out to him he February 11, 2014. drew his .380 automatic pistol, but Nash, Jay Robert. 1978. Among the Missing: “Jimmy Lawrence,” that was simply the he never fired it. He dropped to the An Anecdotal History of Missing Persons from alias Dillinger was using at the time of ground; he had been shot. 1800 to the Present. New York: Simon and his death (Kurland 1994, 101–108; Gi- Schuster. Purvis continued, making clear that Nickell, Joe. 1993. “Outlaw Impostors,” in Stein rardin 1994, 220; Gentry 1991, 173). 1993, 112–113. Now that we know “Dillinger” was Dillinger never ran or even entered Ogden, Tom. 2009. Haunted Theaters: Playhouse the alley: Phantoms, Opera House Horrors, and Backstage indeed Dillinger, we need not be mis- Banshees. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press. taken as to just whose ghost allegedly He had made a long stride toward Purvis, Alston, with Alex Tresniowski. 2005. visits Dillinger’s death site. According the entrance to an alley at the end The Vendetta: Special Agent Melvin Purvis, to ghost raconteur Tom Ogden (2009, of which were some of our men. I John Dillinger, and Hoover’s FBI in the Age of am glad he didn’t get into the alley, Gangsters. New York: Public Affairs. 117): “Within months of Dillinger’s as there might have been a cross fire, Purvis, Melvin. 1936. American Agent. Garden death, people began to report seeing a although we had planned to avoid City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co. misty male form floating down the alley this as in all cases. Dillinger fell with Stein, Gordon. 1993. Encyclopedia of Hoaxes. Detroit, MI: Gale Research. his head in the alley and his feet on where he died. Sometimes it would Summers, Anthony. 1993. Official and pull a gun before it fell to the ground the sidewalk. In his right hand was Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar his gun, and as he fell the elbow hit and faded away.” In other words, the Hoover. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. first, causing a sort of bounce. When Toland, John. 1963. The Dillinger Days. New alleged ghostly drama simply repeated his hand bounced up I took the York: Random House; cited in Kurland the drama people had read about. gun from it. Turning him over, we 1994, 105–106.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 17 [ PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS ROBERT SHEAFFER Sheaffer’s “Psychic Vibrations” column has appeared in the S I for nearly forty years; its highlights have now been published as a book (Create Space, 2011). Sheaffer blogs at www.BadUFOs.com, and his website is www.debunker.com.

UFO Conspiracies at the UFO Congress

gain this year, I attended the largest UFO conference in the world, Athe International UFO Congress Conference and Film Festival near Phoenix, Arizona. Unlike previous years, I was not able to attend all five days. I won’t try to summarize each talk, and space only permits a few highlights, but there was obviously a lot going on—most of UFOlogy’s “heavy hitters” were present. The first thing to catch my eye was People crowd in to check out the “wishing machine” of Joshua P. Warren. the display in several places of what appeared to be almost the same plastic aliens photographed by Boyd Bush- man, supposedly at Area 51 (see this column, March/April 2015). These cheerful fellows were fifty-four inches tall and the work of Australian artist Alan Groves, who claims to have had alien experiences. He said that he did these sculptures over the past two years. I asked him, “So these are not the same plastic aliens that Boyd Bushman pho-

tographed?” “Not the same ones,” he Photos by Robert Sheaffer replied. “Mine are much better.” They A small army of plastic aliens seems to be guarding the premises. are being sold at www.Zetan.net for $488.00 each. seat of a car, abducting the driver. He sick soon afterward then died. (The dog Speaker Derrell Sims calls himself showed some bad alien photos as well as ate my alien DNA?) “the Alien Hunter.” He claims to have photos of some bruises caused by alien Sims told scary, home-style stories worked for the CIA, but he doesn’t hands on people’s bodies. When UFOs in which the alien agenda is always have any proof. Sims had been lying in photos have blurry edges, he said it hostile. Aliens sometimes masquerade somewhat low in UFOlogy after some means they are “in transit” (whatever as angels but never vice versa. In fact, earlier controversies but is now boldly that means) and those with sharp edges aliens flee when angels appear, accord- moving into the territory recently oc- are “probes.” “MIB Sperm Detection” ing to Sims. cupied by his former colleague, the late (whatever that is) provides documenta- Joshua P. Warren spoke on the Dr. Roger Leir. He talked about alien tion of alien sexual assault. One woman Brown Mountain lights. He has made implants galore, adding that doctors was forced to copulate with a creature extraordinary claims on just about every often steal the alien implants after the looking like a pig. One of his abductees paranormal-themed cable TV show surgery to remove them. assaulted his captor with a sword. In there is. He mentioned the United Sims said that recently a red-light the morning, he found a lump of alien States Geological Survey (USGS) in- camera in Los Angeles supposedly cap- DNA on the floor. Unfortunately, it vestigations of the alleged lights, and tured the image of an alien in the back was eaten by the dog, which became just about everything he said about

18 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer that was counter-factual. The USGS was among the few speakers to actually for his business, but he implied that he could, and did, explain the lights and allow time for a real Q&A), Freidman was disappointed in what he actually this has been known for decades (see, laid down the gauntlet: this was “effec- received. for example, http://skeptoid.com/epi- tive propaganda,” he said, and asked In Lazar’s previous home in New sodes/4226). Pilkington “Who are you working for?” Mexico, he had a thirty-foot particle Warren thinks that the lights are You, Friedman said, might be part of accelerator. It was not explained what naturally produced plasmas and that the government’s disinformation cam- he did with such a thing, but appar- reports of strange military activity in paign (whether on behalf of the U.K. or ently he claimed to be using it to derive the area means that the military wants U.S. government, he did not specify). hydrogen fuel to power automobiles. to study the lights. (He apparently be- Friedman said he is fully recovered from Referring obliquely to questions about lieves the military would bring in hun- the heart attack he suffered last year, his credentials, he said people told him dreds of soldiers to study the lights in- which is very good news. UFO sympo- “you don’t act like a physicist.” (One stead of a few physicists.) He showed sia are much more interesting when the of the principal charges is that Lazar’s a couple videos of insect “UFOs,” then eighty-year-old Friedman is there. claimed education as a physicist is en- talked about the “Wishing Machine” In the opinion of many people, the tirely fabricated; Lazar replied that he is selling, which operates using the most significant event of the UFO government agents erased all records “Law of Attraction.” He also teaches an Congress was the first public appear- of his graduate work at MIT and Cal expensive seminar on how to use that ance in many years of Bob Lazar, fa- Tech.) He decried the kind of pomp- machine. mous for his wild claims about alien ous physicists you meet at Los Alamos Mark Pilkington from the United saucers and Area 51. George Knapp, and other places, implying “I’m not like Kingdom, whose book (now also a a well-known television journalist in them, even though I am educated.” movie) Mirage Men purports to show how military and intelligence opera- tors have shaped and exploited belief in Darrell Sims told scary, home-style stories in UFOs, called his talk “The Abuses of which the alien agenda is always hostile. Enchantment.” While I can agree that such involvement has been shown to Aliens sometimes masquerade as angels but happen a few times, most of them out- never vice versa. In fact, aliens flee when angels side the United States, I don’t see how this has any real significance for our appear, according to Sims. understanding of the UFO circus. For example, Pilkington cited a Rand Cor- poration paper on the potential value Las Vegas, gave an introductory speech Lazar threw some barbs at John Lear of exploiting local superstitions but did in which he told a lot of alien jokes who also tells stories about saucers at not show that this ever had been done. that were mostly pretty funny. Knapp Area 51. Lear, Lazar suggested, is not I had a brief opportunity to speak to is certainly a good entertainer. Back telling the truth. (Apparently the two him afterward. I said I didn’t think such in 1989, he was the first to interview of them have made up mutually incon- instances were of much significance to Bob Lazar—whom he now compares sistent fables about Area 51 and thus the UFO scenario as a whole, and he to Edward Snowden, the NSA whis- cannot be reconciled.) agreed. I think what he was saying was tle-blower. Knapp says that the com- Lazar drew an illustration of a sup- that military and intelligence involve- parison is valid. He defended Lazar’s posed saucer hangar at Area 51, along ment was responsible for shaping the reputation against supposedly “unfair” with several other illustrations, on an public perception of a UFO cover-up, charges. Knapp says he knows of doz- easel. These were all ARVs, Alien Re- which is at least partly true. Pilkington ens of Area 51 veterans who confirm production Vehicles. He talked about is not a man who gets directly to the Lazar’s descriptions at least in part. “gravity amplifiers.” They run on ele- point, but if you can figure out what Knapp’s talk was followed by a spe- ment 115 (Lazarium?), of which there he means he seems to be pretty skep- cial Q&A session with Bob Lazar and were reportedly 500 pounds at Area 51. tical. Somebody asked him about crop George Knapp. Questions for Lazar The craft distorts space-time and thus circles—are there any that are not of had to be submitted in advance at the pushes itself along. Since Lazar first human origin? Pilkington’s answer: No, registration desk, for Knapp to select told his fable about element 115, scien- except for a few simple ones that may which ones to ask him. Asked what tists have actually synthesized that ele- be of meteorological origin. (Thus none he is currently doing, Lazar explained ment, albeit for an infinitesimally brief are made by aliens.) that he is basically in the business of period of time. It did not turn out to However, good old Stanton Fried- selling radioactive and otherwise dan- be a stable element, as Lazar claimed it man, who calls himself the Flying Sau- gerous stuff. He said, “I unfortunately would be, but decayed in a tiny fraction cer physicist, wasn’t having any of this. live in Michigan.” He says he moved of a microsecond. During the Q&A period (Pilkington there because the state promised aid Perhaps the most significant thing

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 19 [ PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS ROBERT SHEAFFER

Lazar said, which apparently slipped by passing a police polygraph test. Surely pare) but then failed one on the 2008 without much notice, is that he has noth- they would not all conspire together in TV show Moment of Truth. In reality, if ing more to say. Lazar emphasized that such a hoax? But this is not as significant someone is anticipating taking a poly- he has already spilled all of the beans he as they would make it, because the ques- graph exam, and practices for it, they has; in the future he might conceivably tions asked were primarily to determine have a very good chance of fooling the repeat his story, but he has nothing to whether Walton (still “missing”) was examiner. I have summarized the skep- add to it. On a UFO panel the follow- murdered and his body dumped in the tic’s case against the Walton “abduction” ing day, Freidman vociferously attacked woods. Most likely only Walton and his at http://www.debunker.com/texts/ another panelist, Jeremy Corbell, who buddy Mike Rogers (driving the truck) walton.html. was defending Lazar’s claims; this re- were “in on” the hoax—the other five The movie Travis clearly displays sulted in a lot of fireworks. woodcutters had no idea what was going Philip J. Klass Derangement Syndrome, Awards were given out at the Sat- on. Hence they could truthfully say that spending about ten minutes raving urday evening banquet. A “lifetime they didn’t murder Walton, and they about the late dean of UFO skeptics achievement award” honored the late saw an unknown object in the woods. and denouncing him (the Walton camp Dr. Roger Leir, a California podiatrist At least one other person needed to be hates Klass because he blew the whistle who would remove what were claimed in the woods to work the light show. on Walton’s polygraph failure and other to be “alien implants” in people. The However, the movie completely con- Film Festival award for best documen- cealed the fact that Walton had flunked facts that they concealed). They make tary went to the movie Travis, which a polygraph examination paid for by the much of the unfounded claim that Klass tells the story of the alleged UFO ab- National Enquirer and administered by tried to bribe Steve Pierce with $10,000 duction of Travis Walton in 1975 (as the most experienced examiner in the to say that the Walton “abduction” was does the 1993 Hollywood film Fire in state of Arizona, who concluded that a hoax. (I have already shown that ar- the Sky, which Walton says is less ac- Walton was practicing “gross decep- chive documents support Klass’s version curate in depicting the “facts”). The tion.” The then-influential UFO group of events at http://goo.gl/Gc84vW.) movie is well made, telling the story of APRO (which was promoting Walton’s Walton is planning a big shindig this the alleged abduction, albeit by a highly story) and the National Enquirer con- November in his hometown of Snow- selective presentation of events. Much cealed this embarrassing fact. Walton flake, Arizona, to commemorate the is made of the six woodcutters, five of later passed a different polygraph test fortieth anniversary of aliens allegedly I whom barely knew Walton at the time, (for which he had adequate time to pre- snatching him up.

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20 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD MASSIMO POLIDORO Massimo Polidoro is an investigator of the paranormal, lecturer, and cofounder and head of CICAP, the Italian skeptics group. His website is at www.massimopolidoro.com.

The Mystery of TJIPETIR

ysterious rectangular rubber-like blocks, with the enigmatic word MTJIPETIR engraved into them, have been washing up for the past few years on the beaches of northern Europe. Over a century old, it has been suggested that the blocks could have come from the site of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic. But reality usually has a way of turning up stranger than fiction. This is a mystery that for a long time has left anyone finding such blocks puzzled, whether they were located in France, Spain, or Germany. What are these strange rubber-like tablets? And

what does the word TJIPETIR mean? Credit: Williams/Tjipetir Quinn Courtesy Tom of Mystery Facebook page One morning in 2012, a British woman, Tracey Williams, took her dog for a walk around her property on a tree found in Malaysia used in the Thanks to an Internet search, she a beach in Newquay, Cornwall, and nineteenth and early twentieth centu- found that several years earlier a Jap- found a black block just washed ashore ries to insulate telegraph cables on the anese ship had come across very rough by the sea. It reminded her of a chop- seabed and to make golf balls, teddy seas and had spilled some of its cargo ping board, but it had that inexplica- bear noses, picture frames, and many made of LEGO bricks. So she set up ble word engraved at the center. She other things. a Facebook page titled “Lego Lost at decided to take it home with her as a Williams was not new to unusual Sea” and started to receive reports from strange souvenir from the sea. discoveries on the beach. “We used to other people who had found similar Things took a different turn when, have beach combing expeditions,” she bricks, and was thus able to create a a few weeks later, Williams found an- said, “and we’d always have treasure map of how the LEGO wrecks had other block on another beach alongside hunts,” Williams told Public Radio distributed themselves along the coast. bales of rubber. “Finding one was in- International (PRI). Several years With the two blocks of TJIPETIR, teresting,” said Williams, “but finding ago, Williams began to find pieces Williams decided to follow the same two was rather odd.” The coincidence of LEGO on the beaches of South road. She created another Facebook piqued her curiosity, and the woman Devon. Not having access to the In- page devoted to the new mystery and started to investigate the nature and ternet at the time, she failed to under- wondered if others had found similar origin of the mysterious blocks. stand their origin. Then, in 2010, she boards. The answers started to arrive The first thing she realized was that moved to Cornwall and was amazed to quickly. Others had found the TJIPE- the blocks were not technically rubber discover similar LEGOs showing up on TIR blocks on other coasts of Britain, but instead gutta-percha, the gum of the shore there. but also in France, Holland, Germany,

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 21 [ NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD MASSIMO POLIDORO

and bales of rubber. “I’m not saying waters—also said it is most likely the that these blocks come from the Ti- blocks are indeed cargo from that ship. The Real Wreck tanic,” François Galgani, a researcher “When we are made aware of wreck- of the Titanic for IFREMER, the French company age we conduct research to find the that had contributed to the discovery of owner,” she said. The sinking of the Titanic, which the wreck of the Titanic in 1986, said at We look at the age of the items, took place in the North Atlantic on the time, “but there is nothing allowing where they could have come from, April 15, 1912, was considered us to discard this possibility.” and examine any markings. Our at the time the greatest maritime The idea began to take shape. Since findings with these particular items disaster in history. Of the 2,200 pointed towards that particular gutta-percha blocks disintegrate soon wreck. So although we have not people on board only 700 were after being exposed to light, their antiq- confirmed it, the Miyazaki Maru is saved. In the weeks after the uity suggested that they had remained our favored possibility as the source sinking, the ships that crossed hidden for a long time, for example in- of the washed-up blocks. the Titanic’s route found dozens side the bowels of a ship. The Titanic, However, according to oceanogra- of frozen bodies still floating, which has been lying on the ocean floor pher Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who special- clinging to the wreckage of the for 103 years now, is falling apart, and ship or lifesavers. Some of those izes in tracking flotsam, the TJIPETIR the dissolution of a wall might have blocks may have been washing up on objects—panels, pillars, lifeboats, caused the blocks to resurface. “It was and other artifacts—were recov- beaches for centuries. Ebbesmeyer told like a big jigsaw with lots of pieces the BBC: ered and soon became collector missing,” said Williams, who was also items. Then in 1986 when the fascinated by the Titanic hypothesis. Based on the findings so far, they are clearly being fed into the hemi- ship wreck was located on the However, the turning point came in the ocean floor, operations began spheric ocean circulation. It only summer of 2013, moving the lost trans- takes 25 years for flotsam to go almost immediately, more or less atlantic vessel out of the way for good. around the world, and they’ve prob- authorized, for the recovery of Williams was approached by two ably been around long enough to go around the world three times. objects. A French company, the people who wanted to remain anon- They’re still in good condition after IFREMER, brought to light more ymous but offered an explanation for than 1,800 artifacts, including all these years, which is unusual. the blocks: They were released during They’re probably one of the great a porthole, a couple of taps, a a salvage operation on the wreck of a pieces of flotsam that people may be crane, pans, dishes, and more. To Japanese ship, the Miyazaki Maru, a finding 100 years from now. date, 5,500 objects—including passenger ship that was sunk during a section of the hull twenty-six Several people also reported finding World War I. meters long and weighing seven- TJIPETIR blocks back in 2008, before In May 1917, the ship was 150 miles teen tons—have been recovered. the current salvage operation is thought from the Isles of Scilly, southwest of However, many people, such as to have begun on the Miyazaki Maru. England. German submarine U-88, the wreck’s discoverer, Robert One person has come forward to say captained by Walther Schwieger, who Ballard, believe that the ocean he found a block more than thirty years was one of Germany’s most successful floor should have been preserved ago and used it as a chopping board to as a museum. U-boat aces, hit the Miyazaki Maru gut fish on his fishing boat. with a torpedo. Only two years earlier, But what does that mysterious in- the same Schwieger had sunk the RMS scription, TJIPETIR, mean? This turns Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Often Lusitania, a liner bound for Liverpool, out to be the name of a rubber planta- the blocks included bales and rolls of causing the death of 1,100 people, in- tion in West Java, Indonesia, which op- rubber. “The TJIPETIR story really cluding more than 100 Americans, an erated in the late nineteenth and early episode that is thought to have has- did intrigue me. I have been fasci- twentieth centuries. The gutta-percha tened America’s entry into the war. nated,” she said. “And it has taken over was a rubber-like substance that was in When Miyazaki Maru sank, it took fact found in the Malay Peninsula and my life slightly in recent years,” Wil- with it eight victims and a cargo that in Malaysia, and it was used before the liams told PRI. included blocks of gutta-percha. A invention of plastic. It was at this point that some began salvage operation in 2008 probably re- “The important thing is, for me, that to speculate that the gutta-percha leased the rubber blocks, which started the story’s only just beginning,” con- could have come from the Titanic. The to float on the waters of the Atlantic. cluded Tracey Williams to PRI. “We French newspaper Le Figaro did an Even Alison Kentuck, the British gov- might know the name of the ship, but investigation and discovered that the ernment’s Receiver of the Wreck—the there are the stories of everybody on ship’s manifest showed that the Titanic official who administers wreck and board that ship, and what happened to I had indeed been carrying gutta-percha salvage laws within U.K. territorial it. And I want to find out.”

22 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer MEDICAL MISINFORMATION

[ SCIENCE WATCH KENNETH W. KRAUSE Kenneth W. Krause is a contributing editor and “Science Watch” columnist for the S I. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Diet-Heart: A Hypothesis in Crisis? Part 3: The Macronutrient Wars Rage On

ontroversy has beset the diet- So, while the majority continues cause mortality, cardiovascular death, heart hypothesis (D-Hh) from its to condemn the saturated fatty acids and death from coronary heart dis- Cvery inception. Throughout the typically found in animal products ease” (Ramsden et al. 2013). Swedish 1950s and 1960s, the idea’s founder, and tropical oils, the minority has in- researcher Uffe Ravnskov concurred, Ancel Keys, was accused of “cherry stead begun to impugn carbohydrates, emphasizing studies associating con- picking” evidence to advance his career. particularly the refined variety favored sumption of PUFA with inflammation, If the Maasai tribe of Kenya and by Western palates. Most researchers immune system suppression, decreased Tanzania can subsist healthfully on raw agree that excess energy from whatever high-density lipoprotein cholesterol milk, meat, and blood, the detractors sources leads to obesity, diabetes, and (HDL-C) levels, and an increased risk prodded, why should Westerners shun heart disease. But authors of the official of many cancers (Ravnskov et al. 2014). butter, omelets, and cheeseburgers?1 guidelines spurn minority influences At that point, CVD researcher (and Since then, every official recommenda- and continue to recommend replace- Ravnskov coauthor) James DiNicol- tion urging Americans to consume less ment of saturated fatty acids with their antonio stepped in to summarize the cholesterol and saturated fatty acids polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) detractors’ position. He stressed first (SFAs) to reduce their risks of coronary counterparts. that the current outbreak of West- heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascu- In response, indignant writers have ern diabetes and obesity derives from lar disease (CVD) has suffered inces- pummeled the professional literature overconsumption of carbohydrates, not sant criticism. with papers hostile to official policies. saturated fatty acids. Second, the re- In recent months the attacks have Following a meta-analysis of twelve placement of SFAs with carbohydrates only intensified. Cardiologist Aseem studies involving 7,150 participants, (CHO) only increases small, dense Malhotra scolded researchers for their Austrian nutritionist Lukas Schwing- LDL particles and shifts the overall allegedly outdated obsession over the shackl argued that replacing saturated lipid profile toward decreased HDL-C, link between saturated fatty acids and fatty acids with PUFA “showed no elevated triglycerides, and an increase low-density lipoprotein cholesterol significant benefit in the secondary in the apolipoprotein B-to-apolipopro- (LDL-C). Yes, consumption of SFAs prevention of coronary heart disease” tein A-1 ratio (ApoB/ApoA-1). Third, tends to elevate blood LDL-C levels, he (Schwingshackl and Hoffmann 2014). the substitution of saturated fatty acids conceded. But that increase “seems to be National Institutes of Health bio- with n-6 PUFA only reduces HDL-C specific to large, buoyant (type A) LDL chemist Christopher Ramsden raised and raises the risk of cancer, CHD, particles,” and not the “small, dense the stakes after examining newly recov- and overall mortality. Finally, he ar- (type B) particles” implicated in cardio- ered data from the Sydney Diet Heart gued, the PREDIMED and Lyon Di- vascular disease (Malhotra 2013). More Study. He decided not only that linoleic et-Heart studies showed that Mediter- dangerous type B particles are actually acid (LA), a common omega-6 (n-6) ranean-style diets reduce cardiovascular “responsive to carbohydrate intake,” PUFA, “did not provide the intended events, cardiovascular mortality, and Malhotra insisted. Indeed, “saturated fat benefits,” but also that its substitution all-cause mortality relative to either has been found to be protective.” for saturated fatty acids “increased all- low-fat diets or the American Heart

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 23 [ SCIENCE WATCH KENNETH W. KRAUSE

Association’s “prudent” diet. Thus, The majority’s response was immedi- coauthor and Harvard colleague— DiNicolantonio concluded, those re- ate. Harvard University nutritionist accused Chowdhury of committing sponsible for the official guidelines Maryam Farvid performed her own “multiple serious errors and omissions” “should assess the totality of evidence systematic review and meta-analysis of and creating unnecessary confusion. and strongly reconsider their recom- prospective cohort studies to examine When saturated fatty acids are replaced mendations” (DiNicolantonio 2014). the effect of increased LA consump- with PUFA or MUFA in the form of When interviewed, DiNicolanto- tion by healthy subjects. Contrary to olive oil, nuts, and other plant oils, he nio maintained that the D-Hh “has Ramsden’s and Chowdhury’s findings, disputed, “we have much evidence that never been proven.” Saturated fatty Farvid revealed a linear inverse asso- risk will be reduced” (Willet 2014). acids might raise LDL-C levels, he ciation between the predominant n-6 The Bazzano study’s relevance to advised, but an increased risk of heart PUFA and heart disease. Linoleic ac- the D-Hh and the guidelines are less disease simply doesn’t follow. Small, id’s “cardio-protective effects,” she ar- clear than many imagine. Although dense LDL particles are more athero- gued, included a “9% lower risk of total some news media seized on the results genic, or “more capable of penetrat- CHD and 13% lower risk of CHD to extol the virtues of bacon and eggs ing a damaged endothelium”—which deaths” with a “5% increase in energy breakfasts, for example, Bazzano had likely results from a “high refined carb/ from LA, replacing SFA” (Farvid et al. actually urged subjects in both the low- sugar diet,” among other things. To 2014). fat and low-carbohydrates intervention groups to consume less saturated fatty acids and more unsaturated fat (ABC Although some news media seized on the study News 2014). Further, the low-fat co- results to extol the virtues of bacon and eggs hort was advised merely to diminish overall fat intake to 30 percent of total breakfasts, Lydia Bazzano had actually urged calories, which is “hardly low,” as New subjects in both the low-fat and low-carbohydrates York University professor of nutrition Marion Nestle reminded me. intervention groups to consume less saturated An interesting variation on the fatty acids and more unsaturated fat. minority theme alleges that saturated fatty acids consumed in the diet do not affect saturated fatty acids levels in the contrary, he argued, the saturated While acknowledging Ramsden’s the blood, and that excessive intake of fatty acids found in whole, unprocessed and Ravnskov’s concerns relating to refined carbohydrates does raise either foods like red meat can provide im- LA, Farvid nevertheless resolved that SFA or palmitoleic MUFA plasma lev- mune-boosting properties and stability such fears remained unsupported by els via de novo lipogenesis in the liver, against oxidation. both prospective studies and random- thereby increasing the risk of heart Meanwhile, minority support ized controlled feeding trials. Even disease (Kuipers et al. 2011; Volk et mounted. In his meta-analysis of so, she conceded, “the effects of LA al. 2014). But James Kenney, nutri- forty-nine observational studies and on heart disease risks are difficult to tion researcher at the low-fat advocacy twenty-seven randomized controlled predict,” and diets high in linoleic acid Pritikin Longevity Center, judges this trials, Cambridge University epidemi- may increase lipid oxidation and “play argument a “gross over-interpreta- ologist Rajiv Chowdhury found null a role in the pathogenesis of cancer.” tion of the data.” Yes, the liver will associations between coronary risk and Farvid also distinguished her anal- convert sugar to both saturated fatty both total saturated fatty acids and ysis from those of her minority pre- acids and MUFA when its glycogen monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), decessors. Ramsden, she noted, based stores are maximized. Nonetheless, along with a statistically non-signifi- his results primarily on one short- Kenney told me, mere trivial portions cant association between coronary risk term trial from the 1960s restricted of ingested carbohydrates will be con- and PUFA supplementation (Chow- to a small sample of unhealthy men. verted, and only when consumed far dhury et al. 2014). Likewise, Tu- And because partial hydrogenation of in excess of energy needs. Regardless, lane University epidemiologist Lydia vegetable oils was then common, she he added, “low-fat/high-CHO diets Bazzano conducted a twelve-month suggested Ramsden’s findings might composed of vegetables, whole-grains, randomized, parallel-group diet inter- have been confounded by the trans-fats and fruit decrease total cholesterol and vention trial of 148 healthy men and found in margarines high in lineolic ApoB-containing lipoproteins, reduce women and found that participants acid. Chowdhury, on the other hand, inflammation, and may actually reverse who completed the low-carbohydrate based his analysis on a limited number atherosclerosis.” regime lost more weight and had fewer of studies and was unable to compare So where does the D-Hh stand at heart-disease risk factors compared to linoleic acid with saturated fatty acids the dawn of 2015? My conversations subjects who completed the low-fat or any other macronutrient. In a sepa- with the experts could not have yielded program (Bazzano et al. 2014). rate critique, Walter Willet—Farvid’s more starkly conflicting opinions. Ac- 24 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer cording to Ravnskov, for example, “the tifactorial etiology is a knotty problem cardiovascular disease. Netherlands Journal of Medicine 69(9): 372–378. diet-heart idea is the greatest medi- at best. And because people consume Malhotra, A. 2013. Saturated fat is not the major cal scandal in modern time.” By con- foods rather than mere nutrients, intake issue: Let’s bust the myth of its role in heart trast, Tufts University researcher Alice itself complicates the issue. High-fat disease. British Medical Journal 347: f6340. Lichtenstein—instrumental in generat- diets, for example, might be loaded Ramsden, C.E., D. Zamora, L. Boonseng, et al. 2013. Use of dietary linoleic acid for second- ing the American Heart Association’s with sugar too, and they are often low ary prevention of coronary heart disease and most recent guidelines—wouldn’t dig- in fiber, antioxidants, flavonoids, folate, death: Evaluation of recovered data from nify minority rhetoric with a response. and carotenes. Study methodologies the Sydney Diet Heart Study and updated She maintains that “the observational vary considerably as well, and partic- meta-analysis. British Medical Journal 346: e8707. and intervention data are entirely ipant behaviors often render findings Ravnskov, U., J. DiNicolantonio, Z. Harcombe, consistent” and “support substituting non-replicable and scientifically sus- et al. 2014. The questionable benefits of PUFA for saturated fat to decrease the pect. Finally, given the establishment exchanging saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat. Mayo Clinic Proceedings 89(4): risk of CVD.” Kenney was less reluc- of a paradigm like the D-Hh, ethical 41–53. tant to characterize minority views as considerations often make meaningful Schwingshackl, L., and G. Hoffmann. 2014. “fringe” and “pseudoscientific.” test conditions impossible. Dietary fatty acids in the secondary preven- Neither faction is likely to abandon But diet and daily behaviors are tion of coronary heart disease: A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression. its position soon, so the general public paramount if you want to be healthy. British Medical Journal Open 4: e004487. is left shrugging its collective shoulders. First, ignore popular media, since some Scientific Report of the 2015 DGAC. Nonetheless, important inferences can truths don’t sell advertising. Second, 2015. Online at http://www.health.gov/ dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/ be drawn from a century’s worth of di- eliminate trans-fats unceremoniously. PDFs/Scientific-Report-of-the-2015- et-heart literature. With respect to bio- Otherwise, focus on foods over fatty Dietary-Guidelines-Advisory-Committee. markers, we might reconsider our pre- acids and remember that humans never pdf. occupations with LDL-C and HDL-C evolved to consume refined fats and Volk, B.M., L.J. Kunces, D.J. Freidenreich, et al. 2014. Effects of step-wise increases in dietary per se. Non-HDL-C (total cholesterol oils. Third, learn to prepare and spice carbohydrates on circulating saturated fatty minus HDL-C) and apolipoprotein B lean, unprocessed meats and fresh veg- acids and palmitoleic acid in adults with met- are more revealing indicators of risk and, etables to otherwise unembellished sat- abolic syndrome. PLOS ONE DOI:10.1371/ journal.pone.0113605. correspondingly, particle quantity is more isfaction. Add a little fruit and exclude Willet, W. 2014. Dietary fat and heart dis- critical than size. Concern also grows that, everything else—especially refined ease study is seriously misleading. Online while saturated fatty acids and monoun- sugars and starches. Finally, exercise at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutrition- saturated fatty acids increase HDL-C, regularly, avoid excess adiposity, and source/2014/03/19/dietary-fat-and-heart- disease-study-is-seriously-misleading/ much of that HDL-C can be dysfunc- don’t smoke. With that, what within I (posted March 19, 2014). tional and actually pro-atherogenic. our control could possibly go wrong? As intense friction between research communities continues to mount, the Note USDA Dietary Guidelines Advisory 1. Indeed, Maasai serum cholesterol levels Acronyms in This Article Committee (DGAC) has proposed were minimal. Their autopsies, however, later revealed severe atherosclerotic lesions. meaningful revisions for 2015 (Scien- CHD Coronary heart disease References tific Report of the 2015 DGAC 2015). CHO Carbohydrates Recommended ceilings for the con- ABC News. 2014. Low-carb diet trumps low-fat sumption of dietary cholesterol—cur- diet in weight-loss study. Online at http:// CVD Cardiovascular disease rently set at 300 milligrams per day— abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/low-carb- diet-trumps-low-fat-weight-loss-25211617 will likely be rescinded, overturning (posted September 2, 2014). D-Hh Diet-heart hypothesis forty years of advisory precedent. Fur- Bazzano, L.A., T. Hu, K. Reynolds, et al. 2014. HDL-C High-density ther restriction of refined sugars was Effects of low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets: A randomized trial. Annals of Internal lipoprotein cholesterol also advised. On the other hand, the Medicine 161(5): 309–318. Committee apparently remains com- Chowdhury, R., S. Warnakula, S. Kunutsor, et LA Linoleic acid mitted to the D-Hh and long-standing al. 2014. Association of dietary, circulating, and supplement fatty acids with coronary recommendations to reduce intake of risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis. LDL-C Low-density lipoprotein SFA, though not total fat. Annals of Internal Medicine 160: 398–406. (LDL) cholesterol Beyond that, the inherent limita- DiNicolantonio, J. 2014. The cardiometabolic consequences of replacing saturated fats with MUFA Monounsaturated tions of nutrition science tend to frus- carbohydrates or Ω-6 polyunsaturated fats: trate the public’s demand for concrete Do the dietary guidelines have it wrong? fatty acid conclusions. Confounding factors, in- Open Heart 1:e000032. Farvid, M.S., D. Ming, P. An, et al. 2014. PUFA Polyunsaturated cluding genetics, are difficult to both Dietary linoleic acid and risk of coronary fatty acid identify and account for, especially in heart disease: A systematic review and cross-sectional observational studies. meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Circulation 130: 1568–1578. SFA Saturated fatty acid Assessing the significance of any single Kuipers, R.S., D.J. de Graff, M.F. Luxwolda, risk factor for a chronic disease of mul- et al. 2011. Saturated fat, carbohydrates and Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 25 [ SKEPTICAL INQUIREE BENJAMIN RADFORD Benjamin Radford is a research fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and author or coauthor of seven books, including Mysterious New Mexico: Miracles, Magic, and Monsters in the Land of Enchantment.

A Skeptic’s Guide to Ethical and Effective Curse Removal

My name is Chelsea. I have a curse that was cast on me, my son, and my boyfriend. Would you know of anyone that can help us with this situation? It’s only getting worse as the days go by; : it is frustrating, very stressful, and affecting our lives in major ways. I’ve had ten or more different psychic readings and was told by all that someone has been working against me. They all Q gave the same exact stories of whom and what has been happening. I have witnessed all the changes: the distance between us, confusions, arguments, and tears in all who are involved. We were very close and happy, and now fights out of nowhere just keep popping up. Also our happiness only lasts for forty-eight hours each time then the fights start again.

I get emails like this a few we can—about psychology, science, I didn’t know exactly why Chel- times a year, and they are skepticism, confirmation bias, critical sea believed she was cursed, but I’ve : among the most difficult thinking, and so on—but also to help spoken with others like her and I can and heartbreaking pieces people. imagine how genuinely terrifying A of correspondence I see. People who are scared and desperate it must be to perceive any accident, These requests for help (to find or contact missing loved ones, discord, or bad luck is a malicious require a delicate balance of several in grief, etc.) often seek out psychics sign of evil intent, a reminder that factors. I’ve struggled with these cases for comfort and information. These you are powerless in the face of an for years: What should I do? Reply people don’t need didactic discourse unseen supernatural force capable of with a polite email saying, in effect, on skepticism or logical fallacies. They tearing apart your family, harming “Curses don’t exist, don’t worry about don’t need scorn, mocking, or conde- your health or sanity, or even killing it”? Reply with something along the scending comments about the absur- you. I have an unwritten personal lines of “I’m glad you reached out to dity of believing in psychics; they need and professional obligation to help me; I have greater magic than the per- sensitivity, compassion, and help. if I can. I responded to Chelsea later son who cursed you. I will remove the My main job is an editor, writer, that day with the following response. curse: just light three candles in your and investigator, not a psychologist. A one-page email is no substitute for bedroom window an hour before bed But as an investigative skeptic with a a family counselor, and I can’t solve and in the morning you’ll be fine”? background in psychology and years all her problems, but I could do my In theory either of these approaches of experience in dealing with others best to address her immediate situa- could conceivably work; in practice in similar situations, the truth is that I tion and offer a skeptical framework neither is likely to help Chelsea or her can often help. I can’t justify donating for understanding her situation based family. As skeptics we often deal with and devoting many hours of my time to not on fear or magical thinking but people who hold false beliefs, and one any stranger seeking assistance. I also on science and psychology. For more of the most important lessons is that don’t feel it is ethical to simply ignore a on the sometimes delicate balance be- usually they are not stupid or crazy but plea for help from someone in genuine tween strict skepticism and offering merely human, succumbing to cogni- distress nor is a short boilerplate email psychological help to people in need, tive and perceptual errors (or simply with links to information on curses see my article “Playing Witch Doctor: incomplete information) that plague and psychics on the CSI website or Hidden Ethics in Skeptical Ghost In- us all. Our main goal as skeptics, as I Bob Carroll’s SkepticsDictionary.com vestigations,” in the Fall 2014 Skepti- see it, is to educate the public where going to help this woman. cal Briefs newsletter.

26 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Feedback 1. I wanted to sympathize and assure her that I’m Dear Chelsea, concerned about their welfare and her as a per- I’m sorry to hear about your troubles.1 Obviously there is something son. 2 going on, but I’m not sure that the psychics are correct that someone 2. I wanted to validate her interpretation that has placed a curse on you. What might have happened is that the psy- some thing is going on, though I carefully chics you spoke to gave you some information and someone brought avoided confirming that a curse is causing up the idea of a curse, and you (not they) suggested who it might be, disruption in her life. Any overt attempt to tell and they agreed with it and said you were right about the details and her that she was not experiencing a curse would the person who is out to get you. 3 likely have been met with resistance. Obviously I wasn’t there, and so I don’t know what did or didn’t 3. Here I addressed (and undermined) one of the happen,4 but I can tell you that you should be very careful because key pieces of experiential evidence she inter- some psychics will tell a person who is having personal, financial, or preted as confirming the curse: the psychics’ relationship troubles that there is a curse on them, and offer to remove validation of her information. By planting a seed the curse for money. This is a scam, and many smart-but-desperate of doubt and offering an alternate, non-threat- people have been conned out of money, and the psychics sent to jail. ening explanation for what she experienced, I Like I said, I don’t know if that is what is going on in your case but it hoped to subtly suggest that her interpretation of might be, so please watch out for that and call the police if someone other curse-related phenomena might also have another rational explanation. tries to do that because they are not trying to help you; they are trying to scam you. 5 Some psychics are sincerely trying to help but some aren’t, 4. I wanted to demonstrate open-mindedness and you often can’t tell the difference. about her situation, and not be aggressively I have studied and researched both psychics and curses, and one skeptical or dismissive. Telling her “there’s no thing I can tell you for certain is that the power of curse is proportional such thing as curses, it’s all in your head” would come off as rude and dismissive, and not be to your belief in the curse.6 This is the same whether it’s a voodoo curse, 7 helpful to her. A psychologist must understand a Gypsy curse, an African curse, or any other kind : the more you believe the worldview of the person he or she is trying to in its power over you, the more power it has over you. I’ve spoken to counsel and adapt their information and advice people whose lives have really been turned upside down by this sort of to best suit them. thing, but it was not so much the curse itself but the person’s belief in 5. Here I gave her accurate information about psy- the power of the curse. This is proven science and psychology (in addi- chic scams and left the door open for her belief tion to my books I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a mas- in psychics; if she has contacted ten or more 8 ter’s degree in science education, so I know what I’m talking about). psychics she believes in them, and this is not the I obviously don’t know all the details about what’s going on in your situation for a dismissive or academic debunk- specific case, 9 but from what you’ve told me it sounds very similar to ing of psychics or a discussion of cold reading others I’ve dealt with in the past, and I can tell you what has helped techniques. I specifically described her as smart, those people.10 Here is what you need to do: building her self-esteem a bit and reminding her that even smart people can misunderstand 1. Stop going to psychics. They are not helping your situation. If consult- situations. ing psychics or getting their information solved the problem, then you 6. My goal here was to establish my bona fides as wouldn’t be dealing with this right now. If you have been to at least ten an expert on the subject. If I want her to believe different psychics so far, then you could go to ten or twenty more and what I’m telling her and accept my advice to there is no logical reason to think that they will help you or resolve the resolve this, she must find me credible. This is matter. All you are doing is spending your money and wasting your time not a time for me to be wishy-washy or modest; (and probably making it worse).11 This is an issue that you can, and will it’s a time for clear authority. Instead of directly need to, resolve by yourself. You are a strong and smart woman; I know debunking the existence of curses, I focused on that because you took the time and effort to find me and write to me. the psychology of curse beliefs and tell her that You can do this—in fact you’re the only person who can.12 she has power over the curse. 2. Remember that everyone has some of the troubles you’re experienc- 7. Chelsea didn’t tell me why she believed she was ing some of the time. People have confusions, fights, arguments, and cursed, or by whom, or what type of curse it was. all that whether they are cursed or not; it’s just part of life. Sometimes By casting a wide net and explaining that all things are good, sometimes things are bad, but either way you need curses are fundamentally the same, I’ve covered to try to address the root of the problem. A curse can make a prob- my bases and assured that she will believe my lem much worse, from a psychological perspective, but it is not the advice applies to her situation. cause of the fighting—that may be due to relationship issues, money 8. Again, I’m establishing my bona fides as an problems, personality conflicts, or any number of other things.13 There authority on the subjects of curses, psychology, may be some difficult dynamics between your son and your boyfriend, and science. I could have included folklore, or you and your boyfriend that affect your son. . . . I don’t know what of course, which would have been even more relevant, but it would not have carried the same

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 27 [ SKEPTICAL INQUIREE BENJAMIN RADFORD

they might be, but please look at those first; maybe doesn’t exist, because if she is a strong believer in psychics then even a friend or counselor might help. Fights and any statements I made to that effect would put me (and therefore conflicts are caused by people, and they can be the perceived credibility of my advice) in conflict with her beliefs. solved by people.14 Instead, I took a different path and gave her a simple, practical reason not to continue seeing psychics: they all failed to help so 3. Try not to focus on the negative things, which far, which she could not deny. can bring negativity into your life and make the problem worse.15 You said that your happiness only 12. I wanted to empower her to help herself and encourage her to lasts forty-eight hours, but don’t get it in your head see herself as the catalyst for change—not me, not psychics, and that that’s part of a curse.16 There’s nothing magical certainly not whoever she believed had cursed her. about forty-eight hours; it’s just a pattern you’ve 13. I tried to frame the curse, or at least the harm that a curse can noticed. If you’re doing okay for two days and then do, within the context of her belief system and a “psychological forty-eight hours approaches, you may start to look perspective” without flat-out denying the existence of a curse or for things to go wrong. Every day has good and bad malicious magic. If her email had suggested that she had some doubt that she really was the victim of a curse, I would have been things in them, and if you focus on the bad things, more skeptical about questioning that premise. Ridiculing or dis- or let yourself magnify them, then you are creating missing the idea that a curse may exist would have diminished my your own self-defeating thought patterns, what in credibility in her eyes, and therefore sown doubt that I understood psychology is called a self-fulfilling prophecy. You the situation and could resolve it through her. need to avoid that. Focus on the good things in your 14. Here and elsewhere I personalized my advice as much as I life, the things that are going well.17 could so that she would recognize how my directions and counsel It won’t happen overnight, but from my experi- applied to her and her specific relationship situation. ence this is what’s needed to solve your situation. 15. I almost rewrote this sentence, not wanting to invoke or give It’s not like suddenly everything is perfect, but what authority to the widely popular (and widely discredited) “law of will happen is that if you follow these instructions attraction” as promoted in The Secret and elsewhere. However, I and you are patient, forty-eight hours without a huge decided that the statement was quite true from a psychological fight will stretch into three days, and then three days point of view, and in any event, if Chelsea did happen to be an will become a week, and after a week or two it will adherent to the law of attraction ideology, I could use that to my be gone. Of course, like I said, we all have fights advantage by pitting one blinkered worldview against a less toxic one. and conflicts, so if something comes up, it’s not a setback; it doesn’t mean it’s not working. It just 16. This is the last time in my response to Chelsea that I refer to a means that you’re human! I know these steps are curse; by the end of the letter I want her focusing on the ways in difficult and easier said than done,18 but if you want which she can fix the problem through logic and psychology, not to break free from this, this is what you should do. I through consulting psychics or thinking of ways to remove a magical curse. hope this helps, and please get in touch with me in a few weeks to tell me how it’s going.19 17. I’m trying to give her some simple but sensible insight into the psychology of her beliefs and confirmation bias. All best, 18. Here I tried to guard against the expectation that my advice Ben Radford will magically fix the situation immediately, and I caution that it Research Fellow, Center for Inquiry will be a gradual process. 19. I close by reminding her that I am concerned about her, trying to help her, and offering sympathy and compassion. significance. I remind her that she is not helpless but can play an active role in removing the curse and improving her life. 9. Again, I’m demonstrating open-mindedness about her situation, trying not to overreach or to suggest that I know all about her or her situation. By admitting I’m fallible and limited by the infor- Conclusion mation she gave me, it allows her to forgive any minor errors or I’m sure other skeptics may have handled the situation mistakes that don’t apply to her. It’s similar to when a psychic reminds her audience that she’s only human and not 100 per- differently or better than I did. I’m not suggesting that cent perfect. this was the only, or the best, way to handle this situation, but I did the best I could under the circumstances. 10. I’m establishing my experience on the subjects of curses. My I did indeed get a reply back from Chelsea: “Hi Mr. message to her is: I understand your situation, I have experience in helping resolve it with other people, and I’m going to tell you Radford, Thank you so much for that advice, maybe that how to address this. is what I needed and you are absolutely right! I will definitely work on that and get back to you with an update. 11. It was clear that psychics were only exacerbating her problem; Best advice I’ve gotten yet. I feel better already! Thanks note that, as with curses, I avoided telling her that psychic power I again. Best regards, Chelsea.”

28 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer SPECIALMEDICAL MISINFORMATION REPORT]

No Reason to Believe That Sykes’s Yeti-Bear Cryptid Exists

RONALD H. PINE and ELIÉCER E. GUTIÉRREZ

n the November/December 2014 S I, Sharon Hill (in her of Himalayan Brown Bears and se- article “Bigfoot DNA Data Disappoints and Reveals Surprise”) reported on quenced their DNA—a task that could Ithe results of a study by Bryan Sykes, of the firm Oxford Ancestors Ltd., and be easily accomplished—to see if any four others, which was published in 2014 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B of them might match those that they (Sykes et al. 2014). The study consisted of DNA analysis of thirty hair samples attributed to an “anomalous” bear. We that the authors had been told were thought to be from “anomalous primates,” also wondered why going to the trouble that is, from Bigfoot, Yeti, and the like. The authors concluded that all but two of mounting an expedition to the Hi- of these samples came from known domestic and wild animals and from one malayas was contemplated when such human. museum specimens are readily available The two exceptions were represented bear might have been, at least in part, for analysis. In addition, the scope of to the authors as being from the Hima- responsible for the Yeti legends, “espe- their analysis seemed insufficient. layas and from Yetis. Sykes and com- cially if, as reported by the hunter […], pany claimed that these samples were they behave more aggressively towards genetically identical, at least in the very humans than known indigenous bear short mitochondrial DNA sequence species.” In various statements to the they analyzed, with the sequence from media, Sykes emphasized that he a 40,000-year-old Polar Bear. This intended to mount an expedition convinced them that the Himalayan to the Himalayas in search of the samples must have come from a type of newly minted cryptid and to write bear unknown to science, although they a book about his investigations in admitted that the genetic makeup of cryptozoology. Himalayan bears of known species was When we became aware of undocumented. One of these samples Sykes et al.’s conclusions, we were was said to have come from an animal immediately skeptical because— shot by a hunter very familiar with the for all they or anyone else knew— Brown Bear. This hunter had suppos- the ordinary Brown Bears of the edly claimed that the behavior of this Himalayas might, on occasion, animal was very different from that of or regularly, have the same very ordinary Brown Bears. If this hunter short DNA sequence as at least was so familiar with Brown Bears, some Polar Bears, past and/or though, it seems odd that he would not present. The two are, after realize that the animal he’d shot was a all, each other’s closest rel- bear of some sort and not a Yeti. Sykes atives. We also thought it et al. do not explain this hunter’s con- strange that Sykes et al. fusion in this regard. They suggested had not acquired samples that this supposed unknown type of of museum specimens Then Ceiridwen Edwards and Ross DNA sequence of Brown Bears is suf- sample from Bhutan, which he can- Barnett (2014) published a paper in ficiently variable that it overlaps with not identify at all, although it seems to which they stated that the supposed that of Polar Bears and so they cannot us that it should be easily identifiable cryptid samples were old samples that be told apart on that basis (Gutiérrez through DNA analysis at least to bio- might have undergone degradation, and Pine 2015). Thus there is no reason logical family. But perhaps he has now thus causing them to be misidenti- to believe that Sykes et al.’s two sam- managed to identify it in time for this fied. They also pointed out that these ples came from anything but ordinary to have enlivened his book. According samples matched a specimen of a pres- Brown Bears. to Mullis, another TV series is also in ent-day Polar Bear, not a fossilized one, The press for the most part misin- the works, featuring DNA analyses of terpreted our research, often stating presumptive Bigfoot tissues. As team that we had shown that Yetis were just geneticist, Sykes will presumably be bears, among other errors. Sykes has involved in this series. All things con- been quoted as saying that we had just sidered, Sykes, named “Cryptozoologist used “statistics” in our analysis, as if sta- of the Year 2013” according to the blog tistics were not an acceptable pathway CryptoZooNews, seems to be gaining to scientific conclusions, and, further, more and more prominence and respect that he has disdain for genetics research among cryptozoologists. However, cer- that heavily involves mathematics (the tain of his pronouncements seem highly Sykes has been quoted modern field of bioinformatics). He has dubious to his fellow scientists; he has as saying that we had also suggested that we, as “desk-bound reached some embarrassingly incorrect just used “statistics” in molecular taxonomists” should be “get- conclusions, and a number of his state- our analysis, as if statistics ting off [our] butt” and doing field- ments as to his credentials are thought to work. Those familiar with our careers, be misleading. As a result of this, he has were not an acceptable of course, know of our extensive field lately come under criticism in the press, pathway to scientific experience, which has even taken one various blogs, and social networks. His conclusions. of us (Pine) to the Himalayas, where hypothesis that Zana, a woman who Sykes’s Yeti-bear cryptid is supposed had entered cryptozoological lore as a to live. potential “ape-person” of some sort, was The second author of the Sykes et a survivor of a hitherto unknown early al. paper was Rhettman A. Mullis Jr., hominid migration out of Africa is an president and chairman of the board example of a dubious hypothesis; his of the Bigfootology organization. This genetic sequencing of the Mesolithic organization’s “creed” affirms the exis- “Cheddar Man” has been questioned; tence of Bigfoot. It also, less formally, and his now-refuted identification of a affirms the existence of Yetis, which Floridian as a descendant of Genghis as Sykes et al. had claimed. Then Sykes it says are related animals. Its website Khan is an example of a demonstrably and two of his colleagues (Melton et lists Sykes as the organization’s official false conclusion, while his representing al. 2014) vouched for the non-degra- United Kingdom Representative and of himself as a current professor at Ox- dation of their samples and reaffirmed Team Geneticist, and the “top genet- ford and a member of a (nonexistent) the supposed need to get a sample or icist in the world.” Mullis states he was research institute is regarded as mis- samples from the Himalayas, seem- with Sykes when “[…] an experience leading. ingly trusting their two old, supposedly […] caused [Sykes] to lose his objec- The latest development is that, as of cryptid samples but still not trusting tivity for a while and [he] went from this writing, Sykes’s book has just now museum-derived samples, some of skeptic to believer [in Bigfoot].” Mullis been published, although it is not yet which might be younger. It may be says that he promised not to discuss the available, either in print or electroni- that Sykes’s partiality for mounting an nature of this experience, so that Sykes cally, outside of the United Kingdom. expedition is related to perceived news- could reveal it in his then forthcom- In the publisher’s current online teaser worthiness and associated book and TV ing book (The Nature of the Beast: The (www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1444791257/ series opportunities. First Scientific Evidence on the Survival ref=rdr_ext_tmb) about this work, one The analyses that we then conducted of Apemen into Modern Times). Sykes can see that one of the chapters is titled and published showed that the relevant also claims to have a mysterious hair “The Snow Bear,” presumably Sykes’s

30 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer SPECIAL REPORT ]

Ronald H. Pine is an name for the Himalayan cryptid that repeats a portion of the account by adjunct research as- he and his coauthors created. In an Slavomir Rawicz of his supposedly sociate of the Natu- excerpt, including the entire first chap- watching Yetis for two hours during ral History Museum ter, we learn of the experience that, ac- Rawicz’s supposed four-thousand-mile and Biodiversity Re- cording to Mullis, turned Sykes into a trek across Asia after escape from a So- search Center of the “believer” of sorts in Bigfoot. The late viet prison camp, and as described in University of Kansas, Donald Wallace, according to Sykes, his ghostwritten book The Long Walk. and research associ- engaged in work on a family of Bigfoot Sykes treats this journey as history, at ate of the Museum of in the Cascade Mountains and got to least up to where his text in the teaser Texas Tech University. He has conducted know one named the “Big Guy.” This leaves off, although the consensus is fieldwork in twenty countries on five con- individual supposedly resides in a cav- that Rawicz’s story is a hoax. A later tinents and a number of islands, and he I has been the leader of various scientific ity under a very large fir tree and is so chapter is titled “Zana.” expeditions. His research deals primar- depicted in a drawing at the beginning References ily with the classification of mammals of of the chapter. Sykes and Mullis were Mexico, Central America, and South Amer- led to the site by Wallace’s daughter, Edwards, C.J., and R. Barnett. 2014. Himalayan ‘yeti’ DNA: Polar bear or DNA degradation? ica, and he has discovered and named Lori Simmons. Sykes could discover no A comment on ‘Genetic analysis of hair several new species. entry to the supposed cavity but, when samples attributed to Yeti’ by Sykes et al. Simmons stamped on the ground, (2014). Proceedings of the Royal Society B 282: Eliécer E. Gutiérrez 20141712. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1712. holds the Peter Buck eventually six knocks were heard, per- Gutiérrez, Eliécer E., and Ronald H. Pine. ceived by Sykes to have come from 2015. No need to replace an “anomalous” Postdoctoral Fellow- under the tree and said by Simmons primate (Primates) with an “anomalous” ship of the National bear (Carnivora, Ursidae). ZooKeys 487: Museum of Natural to be the preferred method of com- 141–154. doi: 10. 3897/zookeys.487.9176. munication by this Bigfoot, which she History, Smithsonian Online at http://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles. Institution. He has states has amorous intentions toward php?id=4885. conducted extensive her. (Claims of knocking communi- Melton, Terry W., Michel Sartori, and Bryan C. Sykes. 2014. Response to Edward [sic] and fieldwork in Venezu- cation are common in Bigfoot lore Barnett. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 282: ela, his home coun- and reports. Knocking was also often 20142434. doi: 10. 1098/rspb.2014.2434. try; named various involved in séances during the heyday Sykes, Bryan C., Rhettman A. Mullis, Christopher Hagenmuller, et al. 2014. Genetic analysis new species and subgenera of mammals; of Spiritualism, probably for the same of hair samples attributed to yeti, bigfoot assessed evolutionary relationships be- reasons.) Sykes says that he found the and other anomalous primates. Proceedings tween different categories of mammals; whole experience to be profoundly dis- of the Royal Society B 281: 20140161. doi: and developed a new explanation of how 10. 1098/rspb.2014.0161. Online at http:// turbing and a true mystery. rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/ interactions between kinds can lead to In the lead-in to Chapter 2, Sykes 281/1789/20140161.full.pdf+html. isolation and new species.

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Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 31 [COMMENTARY

Homeopathy ‘Unsupported, Ineffective, Dangerous’: CFI Testimony to FDA Here is the full text of invited testimony by the Center for Inquiry at the April 20, 2015, hearing of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on “Homeopathic Product Regulation: Evaluating the FDA’s Regulatory Framework After a Quarter-Century.” The testimony was delivered by Michael De Dora, director of CFI’s Of ce of Public Policy in Washington, D.C. (See also News and Comment, p. 6.)

Testifier: MICHAEL DE DORA

speak today as director of public policy for the Center for Inquiry (CFI), an edu- through its various consumer warnings cational and advocacy organization that promotes reason and scientific integrity about the health risks of relying on ho- Iin public affairs. My testimony, however, is not only on behalf of our organization, meopathic products to treat medical its employees, and its members, but also on behalf of dozens of doctors and scien- conditions. This includes the FDA’s tists associated with CFI and its affiliate program, the Committee for Skeptical March 19, 2015, warning against using Inquiry, with whom we work on these matters. Neither I nor the Center for Inquiry homeopathic products that claim to has any financial interests relevant to this meeting. treat asthma, an often life-threatening We applaud the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for holding this import- condition.3 ant hearing. Given the tremendous growth in the sale of homeopathic products in recent decades, a reassessment of the FDA’s regulation of these products is clearly II. The Harm Caused by Homeopathy warranted. Our goal is to briefly review the scientific evidence that shows homeop- Despite substantial empirical evidence athy is an ineffective method to treat illnesses; illustrate the harm caused by reliance to the contrary, companies persist in on homeopathy instead of actual medicine; and propose actions the FDA should marketing ineffective homeopathic take to hold homeopathic products to the same standards as non-homeopathic drugs products as drugs that can effectively in order to fulfill its mandate to protect the American public. treat illnesses, and consumers continue to spend upwards of billions of dollars I. The Empirical Evidence cebo effect, and significantly do not and each year believing that they will be We could spend hours discussing the cannot explain if and how homeopathy helped—and worse, that even if these extensive, decades-long scientific exam- has treated the illness. Further, these products might not be effective, they ination of homeopathy, but suffice to say studies must be seen within the broader are at least not harmful. This should the empirical evidence against homeop- context of hundreds of studies that have deeply concern the agency charged with athy is overwhelming: aside from a pla- found homeopathy ineffective. protecting public health, especially as cebo effect, homeopathic products have Of course, this all makes sense: by the problem is in part caused by said no effect in treating illnesses. its own definition, homeopathy cannot agency’s failure to regulate homeopathic Consider the most recent findings, work. Its centuries-old pseudoscientific products. released last month by the Australian principles sit at complete odds with Despite what many consumers be- National Health and Medical Research our modern understanding of biology, lieve, homeopathic products can directly Council (NHMRC). This group con- chemistry, and physics—the bodies of cause harm. Sadly, children often bear ducted a meta-study thoroughly assess- accepted scientific knowledge that form the brunt of this harm. For instance, in ing more than 1,800 papers on home- the basis of modern medicine. its 2012 report, the American Associ- opathy, 225 of which met the criteria Again, we need not spend much ation of Poison Control Center noted for inclusion. It concluded that: time on this, as the federal government that there were a whopping 10,311 re- is well aware of the scientific evidence ported cases of poison exposure related “There are no health conditions for to “homeopathic agents,” with 8,788 which there is reliable evidence that against homeopathy. As the National homeopathy is effective.”1 Center for Complementary and Inte- of those reported cases attributed to grative Medicine states on its website: children five years of age or younger. Of Proponents of homeopathy will sug- the 10,311 reported cases, 697 required gest that there are studies which show “There is little evidence to support treatment in a health care facility.4 homeopathy as an effective treat- homeopathy is effective. It is true you 2 Still, perhaps the greatest harm ment for any specific condition.” can find studies that suggest homeopa- caused by homeopathy is not necessar- thy has brought about a positive result. Further, the FDA itself has recog- ily caused by the products themselves— Yet these studies have found only a pla- nized that homeopathy is not effective which, when properly prepared, rarely 32 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer contain anything other than water and that homeopathic products should be the lack of public knowledge on inactive ingredients such as sugars and available because individuals have the homeopathy, we urge the FDA to binding agents—but by the fact that right to freedom of choice. We fully make such announcements on a regular basis, especially, but not only, people often rely on homeopathic prod- support the right to freedom of choice. during times of illness outbreaks and ucts to the exclusion of proven scientific However, we also believe that true free- public health crises. remedies. As the Australian NHMRC dom of choice is impossible unless one study states: is fully informed on the choices. In fact, In summary, homeopathy is unsupported by scientific evidence, ineffec- “People who choose homeopathy this is one of the fundamental prin- may put their health at risk if they ciples justifying FDA regulation: the tive in treating illness, and, when relied reject or delay treatments for which public needs the guidance of an expert upon instead of actual medicine, dan- there is good evidence for safety and gerous and even deadly. To ensure the 1 agency when it comes to buying drugs. effectiveness.” Accordingly, we propose the FDA protection of the American public, the The website What’s the Harm details announce and implement strict guide- FDA should rely on its well-established many such cases.5 I will highlight just lines that require all homeopathic regulatory system to require homeo- a few. products meet the same standards as pathic products to meet the same stan- non-homeopathic drugs. In particular, dards as non-homeopathic drugs, or at Lucille Craven of New Hampshire was diagnosed in 1997 with a small, we suggest the FDA take three steps: the least mandate labeling for homeo- pea-sized carcinomatous breast Testing for homeopathic products. pathic products which states: the prod- tumor. Although her doctor rec- As the FDA recognizes, the federal uct’s claimed active ingredients in plain ommended mastectomy and lymph- Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act does English; and that the product has not ectomy, Lucille treated her cancer not exempt homeopathic products been evaluated by the FDA for safety or with homeopathy. She died less than from meeting the same standards 6 thirty-six months later. of safety and efficacy as non-ho- effectiveness. The American public de- Diane Picha of Wisconsin was diag- meopathic drugs. Nor does this Act serves as much from the agency tasked prevent the FDA from enforcing with protecting them. nosed in late 1998 with lung cancer. I After successful surgery to remove these standards. In order to protect Thank you. her tumor, her cancer grew back. public health, we urge the FDA to mandate that all homeopathic Picha visited a homeopathic clinic, Notes where she was advised to halt fur- products on the market pass safety 1. “NHMRC releases statement and advice on ther medical treatments. She died in and efficacy tests equivalent to those 7 required of non-homeopathic drugs homeopathy.” NHMRC. March 11, 2015. Online at April 2000. http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/media/releases/2015/nhm- on the market. rc-releases-statement-and-advice-homeopathy. Katie Ross of Nevada was diag- Labeling for homeopathic prod- 2.“Homeopathy: An Introduction.” NCCIH. nosed with ulcerative colitis; doc- Online at https://nccih.nih.gov/health/homeopathy. tors recommended she have her ucts. Labeling on homeopathic 3. “Over-the-Counter Asthma Products colon removed. Her mother instead products needs to improve; this is Labeled as Homeopathic: FDA Statement - pursued homeopathic treatments. especially true if the FDA does not Consumer Warning About Potential Health Risks.” Katie dwindled from ninety to fifty require they be tested for safety and FDA. March 19, 2015. Online at http://www. efficacy, as this would allow danger- fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/ pounds and nearly died when her SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm colon perforated, but survived when ous homeopathic products to remain 439014.htm; also see: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/ her mother finally approved surgery on the market without warning, MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlerts at the doctor’s pleading.8 marketed to a public that is unaware forHumanMedicalProducts/ucm230764.htm. homeopathic products are differ- 4. “2012 Annual Report of the American Isabella Denley of Melbourne, ent in kind from non-homeopathic Association of Poison Control Centers’ National Australia, was an epileptic toddler Poison Data System.” AAPCC. Online at https:// drugs. Currently many homeopathic aapcc.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/annual_reports/2012_ prescribed anti-convulsant medica- products boast that they are regu- NPDS_Annual_Report.pdf. tion by her neurologist. Her parents, lated by the FDA without explaining 5. What’s the Harm. Online at http://whats however, treated her with exclusively they are not subject to testing. This theharm.net/homeopathy.html. homeopathic products. She died at is seriously misleading. We therefore 6. “My Wife’s Death from Cancer.” Quackwatch. just thirteen months old.9 February 27, 2002. Online at http://www. urge the FDA to ensure that all quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/ homeopathic products prominently Victims/craven.html. These examples clearly illustrate the state two things: 7. “Woman files suit against homeo- public’s lack of knowledge regarding pathic business.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 1) The product’s claimed active homeopathy, the danger of homeo- June 15, 2001. Online at https://news.google.com/ ingredients in plain English, and; newspapers?nid=1683&dat=20010615&id=G- pathic products, and thus the need for 2) That the product has not been sAaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XjAEAAAAIBAJ&pg= the FDA to take an active approach in evaluated by the FDA for either 6844,4774757&hl=en. 8. “Doctors back Ohrenschall on treatment” Las promoting accurate knowledge on ho- safety or effectiveness. Vegas Sun. February 12, 1998. Online at http://lasve- meopathy. Regular consumer warnings. We gassun.com/news/1998/feb/12/doctors-back-ohren- have been encouraged by the FDA’s schall-on-treatment/. 9. “Inquest told parents ‘rejected advice.’” III. Proposed Regulations recent announcements warning con- The Age. November 26, 2003. Online at http:// sumers that homeopathic products www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/25/ Proponents of homeopathy often argue will not treat their illnesses. Given 1069522605256.html.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 33 This is an edited excerpt from The New Celebrity Scientists: Out of the Lab and into the Limelight by Declan Fahy, published by Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, and published here by permission of the publisher and author.

Science is personified by a handful of articulate, media-savvy scientists who stimulate new thinking, drive scientific controversies, enhance public understanding, mobilize social movements, and shape policy. To millions, these scientific celebrities are the public face of science. DECLAN FAHY

Caricaturists and cartoonists, for ex- Charles Darwin was a ample, drew Darwin’s head—with its master of public relations. While The distinctive long beard and large dome Origin of Species swept through nine- of his skull—on the body of an ape. teenth-century culture, shattering the Darwin became public property. “Deep prevailing religious orthodoxy about down,” wrote historian of science Janet the dawn of human life, Darwin culti- Browne, “Darwin’s sons and daughters vated his popular image. He distributed were forced to accept that he was not mass-produced photographs, signed just their father. He belonged to every- autographs, collected songs and poems body.” In his time, he was a scientific about himself, responded to his volu- celebrity. minous mail with pre-printed cards, The great naturalist showed that refused most interviews, and avoided fame, lasting fame, is never just the in- speaking before crowds where ques- evitable consequence of great achieve- tions might catch him off-guard. He ment, even one as seismic as The Origin met author George Eliot and received of Species. The world must hear about an inscribed copy of Das Kapital from the achievement. Karl Marx. Nowhere is this more clear than in The theory of evolution by natural the case of the twentieth century’s most selection he outlined in his 1859 book iconic scientist—physicist Albert Ein- coursed through Victorian society, stein. He personified science in mass spreading far beyond learned journals culture, and he became a global symbol and professional societies. The general for the mind’s phenomenal power. He public could buy a low-cost edition of exploded into popular consciousness in The Origin of Species. Magazines spread 1919 after his general theory of relativ- his image and ideas through popular ity, which was nothing less than a new culture, sometimes in strange ways. way of viewing the physics of the uni-

34 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer verse, was confirmed by two indepen- the film’s star, Charlie Chaplin. Abra- science, shaping the discovery of new dent experiments during a solar eclipse. ham Pais, one of Einstein’s former col- knowledge about our natural world. Afterward, Einstein received significant leagues and a historian of science, later Because of their profound ability to journalistic attention—“Revolution in wrote: “Einstein, creator of some of the influence public life and professional Science. New Theory of the Universe,” best science of all time, is himself a cre- research, the celebrity scientists consti- reported The Times—but he vaulted to ation of the media in so far as he is and tute a new scientific elite. global celebrity two years later when he remains a public figure.” visited the United States to raise money Since Einstein penetrated deep into FRED HOYLE AND CARL SAGAN: and public awareness for Zionist causes. popular culture in the early twentieth cen- MASS MEDIA STARS The two-month visit in 1921 tury, the mass media expanded dramati- In 1950, British astronomer Fred sparked a frenzy of public and media cally. At the end of the century, the media Hoyle became an emblematic figure interest. The New York Times described were a center of public life and had enor- in this new media age of science. That a “man in a faded grey rain coat and mous power. For most adults, the media year, he delivered a series of BBC a flopping black felt hat that nearly were the source of most ideas and infor- radio lectures on “The Nature of the concealed the grey hair that strag- mation about science and issues affected Universe” that were so successful that gled over his ears . . . But underneath by science. In their myriad forms, the listeners voted him Britain’s most pop- his shaggy locks was a scientific mind media disseminated information, shaped ular broadcaster. In his soft Yorkshire whose deductions have staggered the public opinion, conveyed ideas about how accent, he clearly explained cosmology ablest intellects of Europe.” The New the world works, how the world can be and evoked familiar domestic scenes to York Evening Post described Einstein’s experienced, how society is organized, and make complex science part of listen- Berlin home, and detailed his love of what issues matter for citizens and how ers’ everyday worlds. Even professional Dostoyevsky, his working methods— these topics come to be viewed and un- physicists stopped work and tuned in. lost in intense concentration in his derstood in broad culture. The lectures were subsequently printed room alone for three or four days—and The media also focused overwhelm- as The Nature of the Universe, which his fondness for cigars. The American ingly on individuals, leading to our per- sold 77,000 copies in just six months, press, wrote scholar Marshall Missner, vasive celebrity culture where fame has making it an early scientific best seller. was “the instrument that made Einstein become the most powerful way of un- Hoyle’s rise to stardom occured right into a celebrity.” derstanding ideas in a complex world. at the beginning of a period historian of On the back of his coverage, as rela- Within this culture, a new type of sci- science Jon Agar called “the long six- tivity matched the mood of uncertainty entist came out of the lab and into the ties.” This era spanned roughly 1955 to that followed the savagery of World limelight—the celebrity scientist. 1975, and it featured a dramatic clash War I, Einstein became a global star. These scientific stars gripped the of ideas that transformed politics, di- The London Palladium asked him to public imagination, using their vast vided society, and overhauled scientific put on his own show. Girls in Geneva influence to stimulate new thinking, life so radically that scholars called it a mobbed him. One tried to cut off a drive scientific controversies, enhance second scientific revolution, after the lock of his hair. Telescopes and tow- public understanding, mobilize social first in the sixteenth and seventeenth ers were named in his honor, as were movements, and shape policy. In ce- centuries that gave birth to the modern children and cigars. When he and his lebrity culture, they spoke for science in scientific enterprise. wife, Elsa, attended the 1931 premiere public. But more than that, their fame Beginning in 1970, the amount of of City Lights, photographers snapped gave them power within science. Their science reported in the media exploded. their picture on the red carpet alongside stardom affected the inner workings of In the United States, the 1970s and

Since Einstein penetrated deep into popular culture in the early twentieth century, the mass media expanded dramatically. At the end of the century, the media were a center of public life and had enormous power.

Fred Hoyle and Carl Sagan

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 35 BBC series The Ascent of Man told a and human history. His spin-off book science-based story of human history. of the series, Cosmos, spent more than Broadcast in Britain and the United seventy weeks on The New York Times States in the early 1970s, it was hosted best seller list and earned him more by mathematician and intellectual than a million dollars in royalties. Time Jacob Bronowski, who had written and in 1980 featured Sagan on its cover and spoken about science to wide audiences called him a “Showman of Science,” in magazines and on television long be- “the prince of popularizers,” “the na- fore the show granted him international tion’s scientific mentor to the masses,” prominence. During the same decade, and “America’s most effective salesman across the Atlantic, a planetary scientist of science.” was proving himself an engaging media A biographer of Sagan noted that presence, a scientist who would became the producer of Cosmos, Adrian Malone, his era’s best-known public scientist: vowed to “make Carl a star.” And in- Carl Sagan. deed the show led to a surge in media Sagan symbolized an era when the and public attention to Sagan. Journal- television age met the space age. He ists reported on his personal life, writ- was a planetary scientist at a time when Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man ing about his trademark turtlenecks and space became a proxy battleground for his distinctive orange Porsche 914 with rival Cold War superpowers. He was its license plate, PHOBOS, one of the 1980s saw the creation of science sec- telegenic at a point where it was clear moons of Mars. He had to cope with tions in dozens of newspapers across that television favored personalities, the women who appeared at studios de- the country, the launch of multiple like him, who were articulate, attrac- manding to see him, convinced he spoke glossy popular science magazines, and tive, eloquent, and enthusiastic. He directly to them through their television the inauguration of a new weekly tele- was already well known at the end of screens. He sometimes sat facing the vision series—Nova—devoted to sci- the 1970s as a Pulitzer Prize–winning wall in restaurants to avoid the stream ence. Popular science books reached a popular science writer who regularly of autograph hunters and well-wishers. significant point in the mid-1970s. Be- explained astronomy to the hundreds His celebrity brought lucrative re- fore then, there were rarely more than of thousands of nightly viewers of The wards. As his biographers noted, the ten science titles on the New York Times Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. $2 million he received for Contact, his best seller list each year. But afterward, But when he unveiled the universe to 1985 novel about the scientific search there were rarely fewer than ten science half a billion viewers in the 1980 tele- for extraterrestrial life, was, at the titles each year. The situation in Brit- vision series Cosmos, he was propelled time, the largest advance ever given ain was similar. Science flowed through to unprecedented global fame. Viewers by a publisher for a work not yet in popular culture. in sixty nations followed the planetary manuscript form. It also brought him Television allowed scientists to scientist on his thirteen-part personal influence, granting him a public plat- speak to vast numbers of citizens. The odyssey through eons of cosmological form for his anti-nuclear advocacy, as he warned political leaders about the devastation that would occur in the radiation-soaked darkness of a global nuclear winter. Students who watched Cosmos wanted to become scientists. No modern scientist had yet achieved such reach, renown, and reputation. But his fame damaged Sagan’s standing in the scientific world. Har- vard denied his bid for tenure, a lifetime appointment that a university awards to accomplished scholars. The nation’s most prestigious scientific society, the National Academy of Sciences, rejected the possibility of his becoming a member. A number of influential peers dismissed him as a mere popu- larizer and not a real scientist, someone Carl Sagan often appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. who spent too much time on The To-

36 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer night Show and too little time engaged The more and better their research, popular culture, moreover, have defined in the painstaking grind of observing the more their reputation grew and the celebrity in a technical sense. Celebrity the planets. greater their status in science became. is a phenomenon formed as a result of He came to starkly illustrate a fea- The ultimat e accolade was the Nobel three interconnected processes. The ture of modern scientific fame, a feature Prize, the public symbol of scientific first process can be seen when some- that Michael Shermer later called the excellence, a public award bestowed one is portrayed in media coverage as a “Sagan Effect”: the perception among on those researchers deemed to have distinctive individual whose public and researchers that the level of a scientist’s produced the world’s best science. But private lives merge. (When Sagan died, public fame is in direct opposition to Sagan and other visible scientists had The Australian said he had the good the quality of their research work. Pop- a reputation that was in part created luck to have “a compelling presence” ular scientists, in effect, were not seen outside science. As well as scientific cre- and “good looks.”) as strong scientists. Before his media dentials, what also mattered was how career, however, Sagan established he or she communicated, how engag- a sound reputation as a researcher, ing they were, how their science tied to As media personali- known for his path-breaking work that public issues, and how interesting they showed Venus was boiling hot and vi- were as personalities. ties, the visible olent windstorms raged across the sur- scientists were early face of Mars. He accumulated 500 total A NEW CELEBRITY CULTURE career publications—an astonishing actors in what has rate of productivity that averaged one As media personalities, the visible sci- become a pervasive entists were early actors in what has published academic paper each month. celebrity culture. The Sagan Effect, for Sagan, was false. become a pervasive celebrity culture. Not that Sagan was the only scien- Today the media concentrate on per- Today the media tist to spot the media’s enhanced power. sonalities, representing complex events concentrate on He was one of several scientists in U.S. and issues through the prism of per- public life in the sixties and seventies sonalities. As cultural historian Leo personalities, who saw the media as a way to influ- Braudy noted in his history of fame, representing complex ence public and political attitudes to- The Frenzy of Renown, in our celebrity events and issues ward science. Rae Goodell wrote about culture “human faces are plastered on these figures—such as anthropologist every idea and event” and “complex through the prism Margaret Mead, biologist Paul Ehrlich, phenomena wear the reduced features of personalities. and chemist Linus Pauling—in her 1977 of emblematic individuals.” Critics and book The Visible Scientists. She described commentators have lamented this shift how they broke with conventional ways in culture, viewing the media’s obses- to shape science policy. They bypassed sion with celebrity as the triumph of The second is when a person be- the traditional ways that experts gave be- the trivial, the elevation of the inane, comes a cultural commodity, used to hind-the-scenes advice to policymakers. the proof of a debased and dumb- sell his or her own work, but also po- They went directly to the public instead, ed-down culture. tentially as a way to advertise other using the mass media to put science on But there is a more positive view cultural products. (The New York Times the public agenda and therefore shape of fame, one that sees great power said Cosmos focused so intensely on its citizen attitudes and, as a result, affect and importance that celebrities hold charismatic host that the show could science policy. They showed that the in our media-saturated public life. have been subtitled: “The Selling of individual scientist working in a cut- For Braudy, fame “sits at the cross- Carl Sagan.”) ting-edge area of science, once they were roads of the familiar and the unprec- The third—and most complex but sufficiently articulate, controversial, and edented, where personal psychology, arguably central—process concerns the distinctive, could attract and hold the social context, and historical tradition way the person comes to represent and meet.” Celebrities have power because media spotlight. embody ideas, ideologies, and processes. These visible scientists ruptured the they vividly represent ideas, issues, and Sagan embodied for many the idea of conventional ways researchers earned ideologies, allowing people to visualize the scientist, the heroic seeker after truth scientific and public attention. As de- and make sense of abstract concepts. As scribed by a founding father of the so- the author David Foster Wallace wrote who sought to overthrow ignorance and ciology of science, Robert K. Merton, about sports stars, “Great athletes are superstition with rationality, showing an individual scientist’s reputation was profundity in motion. They enable ab- how science was, in his words, a candle traditionally established exclusively stractions like power and grace and con- in a demon-haunted world. (When he within science. A scientist gained rec- trol to become not only incarnate but died, The Atlanta Journal and Constitu- ognition only after their published televisable.” tion said: “For the common man, his was research was validated by their peers. Scholars of communication and the face of science.”)

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 37 THE NEW CELEBRITY SCIENTISTS By the time Sagan passed away in 1996, scientists were described in the media using the language of celebrity. In 1997, Vogue magazine said serious science had become glamorous, and Current Biology said scientists were portrayed as “stylish and even sexy.” The Independent later argued that the turn of the twenty-first century saw science dominated by its “media superstars.” In this cultural atmosphere, where celebrity became cultural currency, a small handful of North American and British scientists came to dominate public discussion of science, publishing best-selling titles, receiving six-figure advances for books about esoteric topics like quantum physics, producing science documentaries, contributing to late night talk shows, appearing in glossy magazines, being photographed by celebrity photographers, and lobbying parliaments. Among the star scientists who emerged in this period were:

STEPHEN HAWKING RICHARD DAWKINS NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON STEPHEN JAY GOULD The cosmologist Called “Mr. Public The director of the The late paleontologist, became the world’s Science himself,” Hayden Planetarium in who one critic described best-known contempo- “Professor Evolution,” New York became the as a “learned Harvard rary scientific celebrity and “Professor contemporary heir to professor and base- after the success of A Science,” the evolu- Carl Sagan and is the ball-loving everyman,” Brief History of Time, tionist and writer fash- United States’s unoffi- enthused millions about first published in 1988, ioned his fame over cial chief public spokes- evolution, battled cre- brought cosmology his decades-long pub- man for science and ationism, and tried to to millions of readers lic career as strident space science, shaping reconcile science and worldwide. But his sub- advocate of evolution, public attitudes, sci- religion. sequent public career combative defender of ence policy, and the has been marked by a science, and relentless future of his field. succession of private critic of religion. revelations, recycled versions of his best-selling popular book, and often-caustic public evaluations of his scientific reputation.

These selected scientists exploited and advantages for raising the public profile scientific research, to influence public managed their fame in different ways. and reputations of scientists. Lovelock understanding, scientific debate, and Dawkins used his fame to move far from reluctantly embraced stardom after he public policy. the laboratory and become the head of was shut out of mainstream science. Together they are emblems of a new a new social movement of atheists. Greene uses his fame as a passport to era of science, one embedded in the dy- Pinker and Gould managed the difficult move seamlessly between the worlds of namics of the media, the demands of task of being famous public intellectuals science and entertainment, while Tyson celebrity culture, and the vicissitudes and prolific university-based research- shows the power of a public scientist, of public life. They vividly embody the I ers. Greenfield embraced fame and its one who has not got a strong record of new era of the celebrity scientist.

38 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer STEVEN PINKER BRIAN GREENE SUSAN GREENFIELD JAMES LOVELOCK Once described as The physicist is the The former Oxford pro- Called the “intellectual “famously rock’n’roll public face of string fessor of pharmacology guru of the environ- with his long, curly hair theory, the novel branch and member of the U.K. mental movement,” the and his cowboy boots,” of physics that captured House of Lords demon- independent scientist the Harvard cognitive the turn-of-the-century strates the contentious worked for decades in scientist explained the scientific and public portrayal of female sci- two isolated English biological roots of lan- imaginations, and the entists—she has been farmhouses, and guage and argued con- scientist who can move called a “mini-skirted showed with his contro- troversially that biology seamlessly between media celebrity”—and versial Gaia theory of plays a major role in speaking at academic the ability of famous the living earth that a molding not just human conferences and star- scientists to raise popular science book behavior but human ring in The Big Bang and discuss uncertain can not only influence society and culture. Theory, without losing science-based social science but can also his scientific status. problems, such as the spark an entire belief claimed harmful effects system and come to that screen technolo- powerfully symbolize gies have on children. the current climate crisis.

Declan Fahy is an assistant professor in the School of Communication, American University, Washington, D.C. He holds a doctorate in communication from Dublin City University, and he has published scholarly papers in a number of journalism, science, and communications journals. The New Celebrity Scientists is his first book. This article is an author-edited excerpt from his book The New Celebrity Scientists: Out of the Lab and into the Limelight, published by Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD, and London, UK, 2015.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 39 Covert Cognition: My So-Called Near-Death Experience A skeptic sees no light at the end of the tunnel when she falls into a six-week coma and nearly dies.

STEPHANIE SAVAGE

e often see and hear dramatic accounts of near- joked about my case of “Mussolini’s Revenge,” but it was far more serious death experiences (NDEs) in books, in films, and than that. A few days after we returned Won television. But where are the stories from skep- home, he rushed me to the emergency room. I was so delirious that when he tics who “returned” but not from The Other Side? After asked why I hadn’t turned on the air all, NDEs are generally accepted as a neurological phe- conditioning, I said, “I like the heat.” It nomenon. Well, most people who have NDEs actually die. was 105° that day, and I hate the heat. Most of the victims at the Legion- Among the survivors, many are severely brain-damaged. naires’ convention were elderly. I caught Of those who do recover, most are believers. As for the the disease because my immune system was weakened by prednisone, which I skeptical ones, how many of them are writers? Not many, was taking for an obscure autoimmune probably, but I am one. disease called dermatomyositis. It’s un- common enough that I’ve often seen “It’s the profound brain damage who had visited daily, noticed signs the dermatomyositis Wikipedia page again,” has become a running joke of my increasing awareness, but their on the computer screen when seeing a whenever I say something stupid, a observations were disregarded by the new specialist. And, yes, it is disturbing fairly common occurrence long before doctors. that medical professionals are using a the strokes that caused my coma. This When I finally awoke, I thought, questionable information source popu- wouldn’t be very funny if I weren’t fully “Goddammit, I just fell back asleep.” lar with schoolchildren. conscious now—excluding mornings. That’s when my mother told me I had Though the doctors continued to I’m writing this article not long after actually been sleeping for six weeks, on dismiss suggestions of my improving the first anniversary of my awakening. the brink of death. I was shocked. “Se- wakefulness, much of what was going My boyfriend calls it Coma Day, and riously?” I mouthed. I had a tracheos- on around me was filtering into my co- he’s never forgotten the date. I’ve never tomy, so I couldn’t speak—a fate worse ma-dream. I wasn’t aware that I was in forgotten that first conscious moment. than death for me. a vegetative state, but I knew I had a I thought I was suffering through a However, the doctors’ conclusions “trach,” a term I had previously heard miserably sleepless night, a recurring weren’t groundless. My MRI showed only in medical dramas. Encouraged theme in what I call my coma-dream. that I had suffered a series of strokes by an imaginary doctor, I blew large Every time I finally managed to drop on both sides of my brain when my bubbles out of my nose—as if I’d been off, something would wake me up blood pressure plummeted from sep- snorting bubblegum—when I had a again. Whenever doctors shined lights tic shock. The sepsis was triggered by sinus infection from my feeding tube. in my eyes looking for signs of con- Legionnaires’ disease, a rare form of The constant thrumming was the ma- sciousness, I would grumpily ask them severe pneumonia discovered when it chinery keeping me alive. to leave me alone so I could get back sickened attendees at a Legionnaires’ Near death isn’t required for a near- to sleep . . . in the coma-dream. My convention. death experience. They can be triggered lack of response in the real world only In the waning days of a vacation in by severe illness and even fainting (from added to their conviction that my brain Sicily with my boyfriend, Keith, I came lack of oxygen to the brain). Though my was, as they said, profoundly damaged. down with what we thought was noth- coma-dream shared many similarities My mother, boyfriend, and his mother, ing more than a nasty chest cold. We with typical NDEs, my experience was

40 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer different because I’m a skeptic. The rea- TV had a DVR. tance to return from The Other Side. son I didn’t see dead relatives is I don’t Ah, so that’s why they kept asking Using Occam’s razor, which is more believe in life after death. Likewise, I me to stop biting the hose delivering likely to be true? didn’t see Jesus’s rainbow-hued horse be- Hi-C to my mouth as if from a beer If I had been a New Ager, seeing cause I’m Jewish and not a four-year-old hat. They weren’t risking cavities by myself being turned over to prevent imagining Jesus with a gay Little Pony. giving me a sugary fruit-flavored drink; bedsores would’ve seemed like an out- I did, however, dream of ice cream. In- they were preventing them by clean- of-body experience (OBE). But how deed, while my life didn’t flash before ing my mouth with a citrus-flavored many times have I watched myself from my eyes, childhood elements figured swab. If I had stopped biting the swab, outside my body in an ordinary dream? prominently in the revolving segments I wouldn’t have had so much plaque Oh, wait—some people believe those of the coma-dream. On my Brain TV, on my teeth, the reason I was running are OBEs too. I once dreamed that a some shows were repeats, while others my tongue over my teeth in both the Author Stepahanie Savage while in her six-week coma. had advancing plots like soap operas. I coma-dream and in reality. I couldn’t had a lot of time to kill. understand how my teeth could’ve got- One serial featured a low Big ten that coated overnight. But then, the Wheel–like kid’s tricycle that churned tooth-licking was one of the signs of re- ice cream in a cart attached to the back covering awareness that gave my loved as it was peddled. Actually, burning ones hope, even if the doctors wouldn’t the calories you’re about to consume acknowledge it as such. isn’t such a bad idea. Sometimes when And my new boyfriend in the dream, I peddled this ice cream–making Big the one who looked and sounded ex- Wheel, I was an anthropomorphic actly like Keith in every way except polar bear cub. While I saw no reli- his beard, actually was Keith, who had gious figures, I imagined miniaturized grown a full beard while I was in the zoo animals right out of a 1950s sci-fi coma. I wondered why his glasses had film. They were having a tea party, like poker-playing dogs except with tiny been repaired with the same kludge china cups. You can see why I call this Keith devised in Sicily—with the sticky a coma-dream. These surreal images part of a clear Band-Aid. What a weird may be akin to the spirits believers see in their NDEs. After the awakening, I felt like Dor- After the awakening, I felt like Dorothy waking up in othy waking up in bed after her jour- bed after her journey down the Yellow Brick Road. ney down the Yellow Brick Road. So many of the things in the coma-dream So many of the things in the coma-dream suddenly made suddenly made sense—except for the sense—except for the cub-powered ice cream Big Wheel cub-powered ice cream Big Wheel and toy-sized elephant. The pachyderm and toy-sized elephant. held the teapot with its trunk. Oh, that’s the reason snippets of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, one of my favorite books, kept wafting into coincidence. Since this was a form of unrelated storylines. My boyfriend had lion put its paw on my hand, only to read to me from the book, while my dream, that wasn’t a tipoff, even when wake up with my cat’s paw on my hand. mother had played the original BBC I slipped and called him Keith. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that radio series. I don’t believe the incur- But for most people in a vegetative one out. There’s nothing supernatural sions always occurred when I heard state, they’re more likely to hear prayers about that; it’s just sensory informa- them, though. My mother also used and the Bible than Hitchhiker’s Guide. tion mixed with imagination. Besides, her e-reader to play some recent David That must affect what they visualize my eyes were sometimes open, so my Attenborough nature documentaries, in their NDEs. Indeed, the content perceptions weren’t always imaginary. including one on Charles Darwin. (As of NDEs varies among cultures. I was That’s how I knew Keith had grown a a former future-paleontologist, evo- raised without religion, but the disem- full beard. lution has long been a special interest bodied voices I heard were not unlike According to the Merck Manual: spirit voices. My brain didn’t supply of mine.) Sometimes sections would A vegetative state is absence of repeat. I thought I was rewinding the images of the afterlife because I believe responsiveness and awareness due program because my mind wandered life after death is a fantasy. Resistance to overwhelming dysfunction of the (something I do frequently). My Brain to being awakened is similar to reluc- cerebral hemispheres, with sufficient

Skeptical Inquirer | July/AugustJuly/August 2015 41 sparing of the diencephalon and ice cream—another serialized dream also In my case, the minute the doctors brain stem to preserve autonomic involved ice cream—is probably because I saw the stroke damage they assumed I and motor reflexes and sleep-wake was left uncovered in a frigid room. was beyond hope. The Glasgow Coma cycles. Patients may have complex reflexes, including eye movements, Now at Canada’s Western University, Scale wasn’t even performed, and it’s yawning, and involuntary move- Dr. Owen and his team recently con- just a low-tech behavioral checklist. I ments to noxious stimuli, but show ducted an fMRI study in which a man was in a state-of-the-art hospital; imag- no awareness of self or environment. who had been vegetative for sixteen years ine a patient in a less advanced facility. (Maiese 2014) responded with nearly identical brain My neurologist told me that the Yet, there is growing empirical ev- patterns as the study’s healthy controls reasons I’ve recovered so well are that idence of covert cognition in people while watching “Bang! You’re Dead,” an I was younger than the average stroke who have been in a persistent vegetative episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (Naci victim and most of my brain damage state (PVS) for years. Using functional et al. 2014). This indicated that he was was in the watershed areas. Watershed magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), following the suspenseful plot. Regarding areas lie between two major arteries. By which determines brain activity by dis- the subject, Jeff Tremblay, Dr. Naci said, the time blood reaches these sections, playing blood-flow patterns, research- “For the first time, we show that a patient there’s less oxygen in it. It’s a bit like a ers from Cambridge University, includ- with unknown levels of consciousness can wetland fed by two trickling tributar- ing pioneering researcher Dr. Adrian monitor and analyze information from ies. Together, they provide just enough Owen, were able to communicate with their environment, in the same way as water, but when the flow diminishes, five patients with consciousness disor- healthy individuals. We already know the land between the tributaries dries ders by asking them to imagine one of that up to one in five of these patients up. As she explained, watershed areas two activities (Owen et al. 2006). In are misdiagnosed as being unconscious don’t generally control vital functions. They die more quickly than more important regions, but they also spring back faster after damage has occurred. I used to feel sorry for people clinging to the desperate hope Ain’t evolution grand? that their vegetative loved ones would recover. I still feel The “string of pearls” pattern of sorry for them, but their hope no longer seems so hopeless my watershed-area stroke damage should’ve been obvious to the neu- to me. I worry that life-and-death decisions are being made rologists examining my MRI. I can’t based on inadequate testing and incomplete knowledge. say why they didn’t add that evidence to my relative youth when predicting my chance of recovery. They did perform an electroencephalogram (EEG), which showed, not surprisingly, that I the motor task, they were instructed to and this new technique may reveal that still had brain activity. Again, I don’t imagine playing tennis. In the spatial that number is even higher.” Since the know why that didn’t figure into their task, they were asked to navigate famil- Hitchcock experiment, they have tested evaluation. Perhaps they didn’t con- iar locations. The images lit up differ- patients using Charlie Chaplin’s Modern sider the mounting evidence that there ent brain regions. Four patients were Times and The Lion’s Cage, which, ac- is more awareness in the comatose and able to answer yes or no questions with cording to Dr. Naci, have shown similar nearly—but not most sincerely—dead this technique (Monti et al. 2010). One results. than previously realized. answered five of six correctly. His “do If Mr. Tremblay is watching his Regarding the tennis study, “In the not resuscitate” order was rescinded. own Brain TV, is he now seeing im- Blink of the Mind’s Eye” states, “This The results were repeatable and corre- ages of a little boy with a gun? Are the technology does more than open up sponded closely to those of the healthy subjects of the Chaplin study imagining the possibility of communicating with controls. themselves caught in the cogs of a giant people thought to be unconscious and Kate Bainbridge, the first vegetative machine? Perhaps someday, through unreachable. It also suggests that neu- person Dr. Owen tested with positron fMRI or emerging treatments, they roimaging must eventually be inte- emission tomography (PET), eventually will be able to tell us. When that day grated into the clinical assessment of recovered her mental faculties. “I was un- comes, what are the odds that they will many patients who are vegetative or responsive and looked hopeless,” she later report seeing the afterlife after all those minimally conscious. This is a dramatic told him in a note, “but the scan showed years? You’d think their dead relatives finding and a potential game-changer people I was in there. It was like magic, it would eventually return to the light so for clinical practice” (Finns and Schiff found me.” Today, she’s angry at the doc- they can find something better to do. 2010). If that happens, there will be tors who ignored her discomfort because Though many of these patients are fewer seemingly miraculous recoveries they assumed she wasn’t feeling any- misdiagnosed, without proper screen- because they won’t be such a surprise. thing. The reason I was dreaming about ing it’s impossible to know which ones. The perceptions of stricken brains

42 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer are hardly inexplicable if awareness coma when I regained consciousness. viously grateful. But maybe we should is more like a dimmer than an on/off The comatose don’t have sleep-wake be giving more respect to the amazing switch. Moreover, NDEs can’t be proof cycles, which is why their eyes remain resilience of the human brain and be of mind/brain separation if the brains of closed. So, I was vegetative, but not more humble about the limits of our those experiencing them are still active. under the restrictive Merck Manual knowledge about it. And while we’re at Covert cognition fills many blanks. definition. Ms. Bainbridge wasn’t mis- it, let’s not underestimate the bound- My OBEs felt like imagined per- diagnosed; she fit the criteria for PVS. less powers of imagination, where polar spective shifts, but the sensation of It’s the term that needs revision. bear cubs churn ice cream with Big floating outside your body can be elec- I used to feel sorry for people cling- Wheels and where flying somewhere trically stimulated in the brain (Blanke ing to the desperate hope that their veg- over the rainbow doesn’t require an I and Arzy 2005). Furthermore, REM etative loved ones would recover. I still out-of-body experience. intrusion, which causes blended dream feel sorry for them, but their hope no References states like lucid dreaming, may be re- longer seems so hopeless to me. I worry sponsible for the fantastical qualities that life-and-death decisions are being Blanke, Olaf, and Shahar Arzy. 2005. The out-of-body experience: Disturbed self-proof NDEs (Nelson et al. 2006). “I see made based on inadequate testing and cessing at the temporo-parietal junction. it [the NDE] as an activation of cer- incomplete knowledge. Ms. Bainbridge Neuroscientist 11(1): 16–24. tain brain regions that are also active and others who were in the same situ- Finns, Joseph J., and Nicolas D. Schiff. 2010. In the blink of the mind’s eye. Hastings Center during the dream state,” said Nelson. ation have expressed similar concerns. Report 40(3): 21–23. The study adds, “Under circumstances Nurses gently suggested to my mother Maiese, Kenneth. 2014. Vegetative state and of peril, an NDE is more likely in those that my quality of life was poor, which minimally conscious state. Merck Manual Professional Version. Online at http://www. with previous REM intrusion.” I some- she took as a hint that I should eventu- merckmanuals.com/professional/neurolog- times lucid dream spontaneously, as I ally be taken off life support. ic-disorders/coma-and-impaired-conscious- did in the coma-dream. The hallucina- Vegetables rarely write articles, how- ness/vegetative-state-and-minimally-conscious-state. tions James Randi has reported seeing ever. My recovery is still ongoing—I was Monti, Martin M., Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, while awakening from surgery were so deconditioned after the long period Martin R. Coleman, et al. 2010. Willful probably due to REM intrusion. of complete inactivity I could barely lift modulation of brain activity in disorders of consciousness. New England Journal of While I was comatose, Keith told my head—but my quality of life is excel- Medicine 362: 579–589. me about his future plans for us, most lent. In fact, I feel an increased sense of Naci, Lorina, Rhondri Cusack, Mimma Anello, of which I remembered when I awoke. purpose and self-confidence. Though I et al. 2014. A common neural code for similar conscious experiences in different indi- He would start telling them again, and don’t believe my recovery was a gift from viduals. Proceedings of the National Academy I would say, basically, “Been there; God, I do view my second chance as a of Sciences of the United States of America heard that,” albeit through his doppel- gift. 111(39): 14277–14282. Nelson, Kevin R., Michelle Mattingly, Sherman ganger. Yet, at the same time Keith And speaking of gifts, last Christ- A. Lee, et al. 2006. Does the arousal sys- was telling me these things, the doctors mas, Keith and I walked into the ICU tem contribute to near death experience? were advising him to give up hope that with a gift basket to thank the medical Neurology 66(7): 1003–1009. Owen, Adrian M., Martin R. Coleman, M. I would ever fully recover. Indeed, they personnel who saved my life. Some of said rehabilitation of any sort would be them didn’t recognize me upright. On futile, despite the fact that every time I the basket, we taped a collage of pic- Stephanie Savage’s experienced a new stimulus my wake- tures taken during our strength-build- first published work fulness improved. I can’t help wonder- ing walks. Many of the ICU workers appeared in American ing if medically supervised stimulation cried; some said my recovery was a Atheist Magazine. might have helped me emerge from miracle. But it was no act of God that Though this is her first the PVS sooner—as happened with saved my life—it was science. Massive feature article, she’s Kate Bainbridge after she was “found.” doses of antibiotics scrubbed the Legio- published many short It would’ve certainly shortened my re- nella from my system like an antivirus stories, usually hu- covery. Instead, I was written off as program (or should I say antibacterial morous and often fan- a basket case after the MRI, which, program?), halting my septic shock. A tastical. Her recent experience inspired ironically, may have jumpstarted my respirator and dialysis bought my failing her to tell her own absurd and unlikely awareness like a dead car battery. It’s organs time, and they gradually came tale. “Without a Prayer of a Chance,” an the earliest event that appeared in the back online. And, after six weeks, my essay about believers’ reaction to her coma-dream, and after the stress of the brain finally rebooted. The human body “miraculous” recovery, will appear in a fu- scan, I displayed new hints of arousal. is a marvelously evolved machine, even ture issue of Free Inquiry magazine. She Today, I have no signs of cognitive though, with my bad back, I often won- regularly writes about covert cognition in impairment, nor have I since that first der if bipedalism was such a good idea. her recovery blog at http://www.comach- conscious moment. How embarrass- The doctors and nurses taking care ameleon.com. She can be reached at coming for the doctors who wrote me off. of me were responsible for giving me [email protected]. Indeed, I don’t believe I was even in a this second chance, and for that I’m ob-

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 43 ADVERLYING: Disliking Advertising from an Informed Perspective Some accusations levied against advertising are undeserved. But then, some are deserved, though perhaps not in ways you may have heard or assumed. Meanwhile, not a few bad apples engage in a heinous advertising tactic that goes largely unnoticed.

STEVE CUNO

uelle surprise. In yet another poll, 36 percent of re- spondents rated the “honesty and ethical standards” Qof advertising people “low/very low.”1 It’s a wonder Gallup bothers asking anymore. I’d take umbrage at the public’s dim view of my profession were it not for one sticking point. Namely, that it isn’t entirely unwarranted.

But it isn’t entirely warranted, either, ond, Vicary had flashed “Hungry? and it seems to me that if you’re going Eat popcorn” and “Drink Coca-Cola” to dislike what I do for a living, you onscreen during showings of the movie may as well dislike it from an informed Picnic. The flash was too brief for the perspective. Space and lethargy do not conscious mind to register, but not for permit addressing every abuse laid to the subconscious. Over a six-week trial, advertising’s charge, so I shall deal Coke sales rose 18.1 percent. Popcorn with three that I hear most often: that sales rose 57.7 percent. So great was advertising controls behavior; short of public outrage that hardly anyone controlling, that advertising manipu- noticed when, five years later, Vicary lates by unfair means; and that adver- admitted to having made the whole tising lies at the root of many a societal thing up (Subliminal advertising 2003). ill. Conveniently published the same Then I shall wrap up with a look at year Vicary held his press conference, an advertising abuse that I think could Vance Packard’s bestseller The Hidden do with more outcry than it receives. Persuaders (1957) fanned the flame. Often deferring to Vicary’s alleged ex- pertise, the book served up terrifying Claim: Advertising Controls Behavior gems like this: In 1957, marketing researcher James Housewives consistently report that one of the most pleasurable tasks of Vicary held reporters rapt with results the home is making a cake . . . James from an advertising experiment. Every Vicary made a study of cake symbol- five seconds for one-3000th of a sec- ism and came up with the conclusion

44 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer that “baking a cake traditionally is No less than advertising indus- advertising business would not have acting out the birth of a child” so try icon David Ogilvy jumped on the produced market failures like the fol- that when a woman bakes a cake for mind-control bandwagon in 1983: lowing, which I swear I’m not making her family she is symbolically presenting the family with a new baby, I once myself came near to doing up: Colgate frozen dinners, Bic dispos- an idea she likes very much. something so diabolical that I hes- able underwear, Cosmopolitan magazine itate to confess it even now, 30 yogurt, McDonald’s clothing, Ben-Gay Or this: years later. Suspecting that hypnotism aspirin, Smith & Wesson bicycles, Life Mr. Vicary set up his cameras and might be an element in successful advertising, I engaged a professional Saver’s soda, Frito-Lay lemonade, started following the ladies as they Harley-Davidson eau de toilette, New entered the store. The results were hypnotist to make a commercial. When I saw it in the projection Coke, and even the popular Taco Bell startling, even to him. . . . The ladies 5 fell into what Mr. Vicary calls a hyp- room, it was so powerful that I had Chihuahua. noidal trance, a light kind of trance visions of millions of suggestible Despite ample debunking and no that, he explains, is the first stage consumers getting up from their 6 armchairs and rushing like zombies evidence of effectiveness, subliminal of hypnosis . . . the main cause of advertising allegations persist.7 The the trance is that the supermarket is through the traffic on their way to packed with products that in former buy the product at the nearest store. reality is that if advertisers can control years would have been items that Had I invented the ultimate adver- minds, they hide it well. only kings and queens could afford, tisement? I burned it, and never told and here in this fairyland they were my client how close I had come to landing him in a national scandal. Laboratories, Sex, and Other Delights available. (Ogilvy 1983) Some mind-control scares come out of Those damnable advertisers! Women Evidence for hypnotism as a means laboratories. Subjects view ads, com- who thought they were buying cake of mind control is as lacking (Randi mercials, or web pages while hidden mixes were but sating an innate baby 8 2007) as evidence for Ogilvy’s tale. He devices track their eye movements, an lust while lost in a hypnoidal2 trance. gave no account of testing the com- fMRI looks for brain areas to light up, Such nonsense hasn’t gone away. mercial’s zombification power, only of or a machine measures their galvanic The 2004 PBS documentary The being a horrified focus group of one. responses. Should eyes fixate or move, Persuaders shows child-psychiatrist- We cannot test the commercial for our- brain areas light up, pupils dilate, or turned-marketing-consultant Clotaire selves, because he allegedly put a match skin temperatures change, the lab’s PR Rapaille advising a French company to the only copy. No writer, director, department sends out a press release. to sell cheese in America in resealable plastic pouches. The idea was not new. Rapaille could have advised his client, “Do what U.S. cheese marketers do, Despite ample debunking and no evidence of duh.” Instead he produced a convoluted metaphor perhaps worthier of his hefty effectiveness, subliminal advertising allegations consulting fee: persist.The reality is that if advertisers can control . . . in America the cheese is dead, which means is pasteurized, which minds, they hide it well. means legally dead and scientifically dead … plastic is a body bag . . . the fridge is the morgue; that’s where you put the dead bodies . . . in France the cheese is alive . . . you never put the cheese in the refrigerator, actor, lighting technician, editor, or But there is a problem in leaping because you don’t put your cat in the even the hypnotist ever came forth. No from “had an effect in a lab” to “made refrigerator. . . . (Rapaille 2003) raw footage or script ever surfaced. This you buy in a marketplace.” Early in my Those damnable cheese marketers! Just anecdote smells of self-promotion à la career, I took over advertising for a 3,4 as 1950s women could not resist birthing Vicary. company that marketed to the trucking cakes, modern Americans cannot resist If you wonder why an industry in industry. My predecessor had adorned snacking on well-preserved corpses. the business of creating positive im- ads with half-dressed women. I per- Journalism professor Wilson Bryan ages would promote myths harmful suaded the company to let me substi- Key rekindled subliminal advertising to its own, consider that advertising tute photos of trucks, combined with fears in the 1970s. Key claimed that agencies needn’t appeal to consumers. straight talk about the product. I sus- sexual images hidden in photos of ev- Worse things could happen to an ad pect my predecessor’s campaign would erything from ice cubes to fried clams agency than for a client to believe it has have produced more dilation, fixation, made consumers buy against their will magic powers. Yet if advertising really galvanic responses, and brain light- (Key 1974; 1980). had such power, the best minds in the ups than mine. But in the real world,

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 45 truckers quit hanging our ads on garage study did not demonstrate that the false With no evidence to support the al- walls. Oh, and sales quadrupled. memory made anyone buy anything. leged power of subliminal or hypnotic The case is anecdotal, but its basis is Given the poor track record of other advertising, and no evidence suggesting not. I happened to know that the leg- laboratory findings in the real world, I that laboratory tests are predictive, you endary John Caples, who built his ca- have my doubts. It is easier to induce a may think that charges of mind-con- reer on controlled advertising tests, had response in a lab than to make someone trolling advertising look somewhat like written this: rise from a chair and head to a store. garden-variety conspiracy theories. You may be on to something.

Claim: Advertising Manipulates Behavior Use manipulate if you like, but I think a more apt term is influence. Advertising With no evidence to support the alleged power of pleads guilty. This is not a little circular, subliminal or hypnotic advertising… you may think since to influence is pretty much the that charges of mind-controlling advertising look point of advertising. But of course the real question is whether advertising somewhat like garden-variety conspiracy theories. goes about said task unfairly. You may be on to something. Let’s start with the basic way advertising can influence. If you need new tires and see a tire dealer’s flyer, you might visit that dealer. If you dropped your smart phone in the toilet, an ad for a waterproof phone might win your Before the widespread use of reader- attention. If you’re allergic to your eye- ship surveys, some ad men believed liner, an ad for a hypoallergenic one that the way to stop a male reader might attract you. I hope you’ll agree was to show a picture of bathing that influence of that sort is benign, beauty. Apparently this technique possibly even useful. But then, those are may create desire for the girl, but it does not seem to create desire products you might want. Advertising for the product being advertised. . . . that influences you to buy products that One interesting observation that has you don’t want is quite another matter. come out of readership surveys is Isn’t it a given that slicker, smoother, that men tend to look at ads contain- glitzier, better designed, more entering pictures of men and that women tend to look at ads containing pic- taining, and more memorable adver- tures of women. . . . A man figures tising can lodge itself in your mind so that an ad containing a picture of a you’ll reach for the advertised brand, man is likely to be an ad for a man’s want it or not, without knowing why? product and that an ad containing a One reason laboratory tests tend Why else would advertising agencies picture of a woman is likely to be for boast of work that is creative, origi- a woman’s product. (Caples 1932) not to prove predictive is that people do not experience advertising in a lab nal, memorable, and likable? Why else The point is not to address whether sex the way they do at home. In a lab, par- would clients keep spending big money 9 sells, but to illustrate that a laboratory ticipants know they are being observed, on slick, creative ads? response is a far cry from an actual which affects behavior. Moreover, they Beware assuming that advertising purchase. focus on the commercial or ad they are people make rational decisions. Adver- A 2011 study gained some attention shown. At home, no one is observing tisers tend to deem a campaign success- among skeptics (Skeptics’ Guide to the them, and commercials and ads com- ful if it “tested well” in a focus group, Universe 2011). Priyali Rajagopal from pete for attention with bathroom trips, was recalled by a respectable percentage Southern Methodist University and phone calls, texting, tweeting, Mine- of a target market, won awards, or coin- Nicole Votolato Montgomery from craft, magazines, in-person conversa- cided with a sales increase. That focus College of William and Mary found tion, muted sound, Facebook, scratch- groups are not predictive, remembered that advertising could convince people ing, channel surfing, web surfing, campaigns fail and not-remembered they had sampled popcorn that in fact napping—you name it. Nor do families ones succeed, awards have no bear- they had not (Rajagopal and Votolato gather at the tube. The same household ing, and “correlation does not mean Montgomery 2011). If creating a false may have multiple TVs tuned to dif- causation” should make sense to most memory constitutes mind control, then ferent stations or streaming commer- skeptics, but it does not to many an ad- there you have it. But note that the cial-free content. vertiser.

46 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Claim: Advertising Contributes to Social An exception is direct response ad- health, foster unwise debt, play upon Ills vertising, a subset that concerns itself greed, and more. less with brand recognition and more There is an abundance of inoffensive These are all valid charges, leaving with measured actions. More than a advertising, but good apples do not the advertising in question no place to century of controlled direct response preclude the existence of bad. One hide. But here’s a disturbing reminder: tests have revealed consistencies in mar- would be hard-pressed to name a soci- Greed, racism, sexism, cruel stereo- ketplace behaviors. Want more people etal ill that advertising hasn’t promoted, types, and other forms of marginaliz- to click a link? Spell out, “click here piggybacked on, or tacitly endorsed. ing existed long before the first ad was to. . . .”10 Want to increase readership? Circa 1907, a logo for Bluthenthal & penned. Advertising picks up, capital- Avoid light type on a dark background Bickart’s Alligator Bait whiskey fea- izes on, and spreads ills, but it rarely au- (Bodian 1995). Want more people to tured a naked African American child thors them. When consciousness rises, open your snail mail? Use an unusual tromping through a bayou. In 1957, advertising eventually follows.16 This is envelope (Rosenspan 2011). Want Clairol began promoting hair coloring in no way a defense. When advertising more people to call a number on the products with “Does she or doesn’t perpetuates and, worse, promotes social TV? Avoid Prime Time (Eicoff 1982). she?” In 1965, “Mrs. Olson” began ills, it deserves to be called on the car- Want more people to take action? prescribing Folgers Coffee to women pet. But there is value in remembering Offer a freebie for a limited time.11 Di- as a cure for the complaining husband. that purging advertising of social ills rect response advertising has thousands In 1967, Fritos introduced the Frito begins with purging society of them. of such “rules.” Bandito, an animated Mexican thief As it is naive to pretend that adver- Do not be misled. Like spelling out voiced by Mel Blanc whose mission tising causes no harm, it is equally naive “click here,” most direct response rules in life was to steal your corn cheeps. to pretend that it does no good. Adver- do not so much win buyers as avoid los- In 2007, commercials for Haggar tising helps build and strengthen econ- ing them. And “more people” typically Clothing Company featured a pair of omies. If you have a job, it is thanks refers to incremental gains. It is not white, male, middle-aged spokesbrutes to people handing over dollars to your unusual for a direct response advertiser reveling in intolerance, bullying, van- company, which is thanks to someone to celebrate when 1 percent of a target dalism, personal violence, and sexual who persuaded them to do so, whether market takes a desired action. Boasts of harassment. In a 2008 TV commercial through an online banner, Twitter or “doubling sales” can mean going from aired in the United Kingdom, Mr. T Facebook mention, billboard, radio “99 percent didn’t buy” to “98 percent fired Snickers bars at a speed-walker to spot, brochure, magazine ad, or word- didn’t buy.” Response rates of 2, 3, or make him run “like a real man,” closing of-mouth. Mass advertising enables more percent are not unheard-of, but with the tagline, “Get some nuts.” Just mass production, which lowers costs so every uptick waxes increasingly aspira- last year, DC Metro created posters that products can be made affordable 12 tional. This is a poor showing indeed suggesting that women would rather and available where they wouldn’t oth- for a would-be manipulator. talk about shoes than think. Not to be erwise. Trade, of which advertising and Equally telling is that direct mar- overlooked are ads promoting products marketing are an integral part, helps keters achieve their greatest gains by that harm the environment, threaten keep nations from warring with one fine-tuning reaching the right audience and offering the right gift incentive. Fine-tuning creative work, the alleged stuff of manipulation, receives lowest priority. Many direct marketers hold One would be hard-pressed that creative work accounts for only 20 to name a societal ill that 13 percent of results. advertising hasn’t promoted, If you worry about the extent of direct response knowledge, take heart. piggybacked on, or tacitly Brand advertising, which is most ad- endorsed … In 1967, Fritos vertising you see, tends to disdain and introduced the Frito Bandito, ignore it. Why would make an article in its own right. an animated Mexican thief Advertising seeks to persuade. Di- voiced by Mel Blanc whose rect response advertising does its best to mission in life was to play to proclivities. But neither can sub- vert will.14,15 None of this should sur- steal your corn cheeps. prise skeptics, who would likely scoff at a stage hypnotist making similar claims of mind control and manipulation.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 47 another (Pinker 2011). And, though that Keebler employs elves, Red Bull is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure I cannot speak for you, I am grateful enables flight, and women cannot resist or prevent any disease.”18 that advertising has sometimes pushed a man drenched in Axe. You may differ, Last on the list is out-and-out lying. what was once considered needless, but I find puffery of that sort arguably There is nothing legal about it. How like toothbrushes, daily bathing, and harmless. Yet when Kellogg’s puffed do no-goodniks get away with it? Some deodorant. in the 1960s that Apple Jacks cereal operate from a country that provides I would love to believe that intrin- sanctuary. Some rightly expect regula- “keeps the bullies away,” I wonder how 19 sic morality would prevent most ad- many kids consumed a bowl and went tory bodies to be slow to action. Some vertising people from manipulating or looking for trouble. And I disagree with keep operations local, knowing that the Federal Trade Commission pur- controlling minds were such possible. a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rul- sues only interstate cases. Some hide Having seen many a lofty ideal dis- ing that allowed as puffery Papa John’s their identity and close shop or move patched where dollars were involved, I Pizza’s line, “better ingredients, better before the law catches up. Some count know better. So perhaps the most per- pizza,”17 especially since the company’s on projected profits to be greater than projected fines.20 Wink or not at harmless puffery, but do not sit still for over-the-line puffery, weaseling, and out-and-out lying. I would love to believe that intrinsic morality would Withhold your business. Warn friends. Blog. Send the offending advertiser prevent most advertising people from manipulating angry mail. Write editors. Write legis- or controlling minds were such possible. Having seen latures. Make a public stink. Fair being fair, I’d also suggest re- many a lofty ideal dispatched where dollars were warding honest advertisers with your involved, I know better. So perhaps the most persuasive business and public praise. There is nothing an illicit advertiser debunking of unfair persuasion techniques is that would like better than to keep on bilk- ing people under our noses while we tilt most practitioners do not bother with them. I at mind-control windmills. Let’s not.

Notes 1. Car salespeople and members of Congress fared worse. See http://www.gallup.com/ poll/159035/congress-retains-low-honesty-rat- ing.aspx. suasive debunking of unfair persuasion 2. Vicary had no more compunction about website (www.papajohns.com/about/) making up words like hypnoidal than about mak- techniques is that most practitioners do calls the cagily incomplete comparative ing up marketing tests. not bother with them. Equally telling a “brand promise.” 3. Did Ogilvy know better? Maybe not. He championed scientifically tested advertising, but is that, unlike consumer publications, The other legally permissible lie he also resorted to graphology when evaluating advertising trade journals and how-to is the weasel, and I have no tolerance job applicants. books do not bother with them, either. 4. Ogilvy On Advertising and Ogilvy’s prior for it. A weasel is technically true but book, Confessions of An Advertising Man, were designed to mislead. Fad diets weasel advertising feats in their own right, at once best Not That You Asked, but Here Is What I when they trumpet miracles disclaimed sellers and book-length advertisements for his Dislike in Advertising agency. The occasional tall tale notwithstanding, in tiny type as “not typical.” So do both contain a good deal of sound advice for Crowing about nonexistent abuses may multi-level companies that imply but anyone who wants to create advertising. do not explicitly claim that distributors 5. I attended a presentation by Taco Bell’s blind us to an abuse that is real and advertising head, who detailed how sales plum- pervasive. I refer to a tactic that I con- are a few weeks from untold riches. So meted even as awareness and popularity of the sider immoral and at times dangerous. do natural and organic products that Chihuahua soared. Sales recovered after Taco Bell retired the doggy and returned to close-ups It is often overlooked, perhaps because capitalize on the appeal to nature fal- of food. it lacks sensationalistic appeal. It is lacy. So do so-called alternative medi- 6. Including by S I. See cines, whose large type claim treatment Pratkanis, Anthony R., The Cargo-Cult Science called lying. I wish to draw attention to of Subliminal Persuasion, Volume 16(3), Spring three kinds: two of them legal, one not. and prevention while the small type 1992, and Moore, Timothy E. Subliminal Puffery is an exaggerated boast pre- offers the legally prescribed weasels: Perception: Facts and Fallacies, Volume 16(3), Spring 1992. sumably understood not to be taken “These statements have not been eval- 7. Google it if you don’t believe me. seriously. Surely few consumers believe uated by the FDA” and “This product 8. This is old news with new toys. When

48 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer I was a college student, we studied how eyes not everyone is middle class and white, and writ- web.archive.org/web/20130514085208/ scanned printed pages. Most American readers ers that not every shopper is “she.” Some resent http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/hypno- look first at the upper left quadrant of a page, it. Tough. I’m their boss. tism_hypnosis.html. scan to the right, zig to the lower left, and then 17. Pizza Hut brought the suit. http://small- Rajagopal, Priyali, and Nicole Votolato scan right again. Our professor told us to keep business.chron.co/difference-between-false-ad- Montgomery. 2011. I imagine, I experience, that in mind when designing a page. I thought, vertising-puffery-66945.html. I like: The false experience effect. Journal of We need a test to tell us that Americans read left-to- 18. Senator Orrin Hatch, who represents Consumer Research 38(3)(October): 578–594. right and top-to-bottom? my home state of Utah, is largely responsible for Rapaille, Clotaire. 2003. Interview with 9. Usually, sex sells only when sex is relevant, that. Don’t look at me. Every six years, I vote for Frontline. Online at http://www.pbs.org/ such as a perfume ad using sensuous images and his opponent. wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/ situations. 19. Competitors bring false advertising interviews/rapaille.html. 10. That is, as of this writing. What works actions more often than regulatory bodies do. Rosenspan, Alan. 2011. Envelope testing (blog online has been known to change overnight. 20. The makers of Airborne survived com- post). Improve Your Response with Alan 11. Industry standard. I have validated it with bined fines of $53 million, and Kevin Trudeau’s Rosenspan. Online at http://improveresponse. books continue selling, earning him royalties my own testing over a range of products, prices, blogspot.com/2011/03/envelope-testing. while he serves prison time. and markets. Clients are often surprised to learn html. that the power of the free incentive offer, far Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe. 2011. Podcast#307. from preying on the less sophisticated, tends to References Online at http://www.theskepticsguide.org/ increase with the education and income level of podcast/sgu/307. the target market. Bodian, Nat G. 1995. Direct Marketing Rules of Subliminal advertising. 2003. Ad Age Encyclo- 12. The response rate to expect varies by Thumb. New York: McGraw Hill. pedia. Online at http://adage.com/article/ product. Sometimes one-half of 1 percent is Caples, John. 1932. Tested Advertising Methods. adage-encyclopedia/subliminal-advertis- asking a lot. On rare occasions, 10 percent or Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ing/98895/. more may be attainable. The desired action also Eicoff, Alvin. 1982. Or Your Money Back. New matters. Responses tend to be higher when the York: Crown. Steve Cuno is the market is asked not to buy but only to inquire. Key, Wilson Bryan. 1974. Subliminal Seduction: 13. Direct response advertisers call this “The Are You Being Sexually Aroused By This president of RE- Law of 40 40 20.” As far as I have been able to Picture? Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- SPONSE Agency, determine, the percentages come from thin air, Hall. Inc., in Salt Lake but the importance of targeting and incentives ———. 1980. The Clam-Plate Orgy: And Other over creative work is well established. My own Subliminals the Media Use to Manipulate Your City. He is the au- testing has borne this out as well. Behavior. New York: Signet. thor of Prove It Be- 14. Else, S I would have Ogilvy, David. 1983. Ogilvy On Advertising. fore You Promote a lot more subscribers. All I know so far is that New York: Crown Publishers. Version B of this past year’s mailer won more Packard, Vance. 1957. The Hidden Persuaders. It: How to Take the subscribers than Version A. If I cancel A and New York: David McKay Company. Guesswork Out of Advertising, and, just continue with B, is that unfair manipulation? Pinker, Steven. 2011. The Better Angels of Our to mix things up, the as-told-to author 15. Let’s not get into the Dennett-Harris Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. New debate on free will here. York: Penguin. of “It’s Not About the Sex” My Ass: Con- 16. Albeit sluggishly, grudgingly, and some- Randi, James. 2007. Hypnotism/hypnosis. An fessions of an Ex-Mormon, Ex-Polyga- times kicking and screaming. Even today I must Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of mist, Ex-Wife by Joanne Hanks. remind art directors setting up photo shoots that the Occult and Supernatural. Online at https://

For in-depth interviews with the most fascinating minds in science, religion, and politics, join Point of Inquiry cohosts Lindsay Beyerstein and Josh Zepps at pointofinquiry.org. JOSH ZEPPS LINDSAY BEYERSTEIN

Josh Zepps (cohost) is a new media Lindsay Beyerstein (cohost) is an pioneer; a journalist serving as a found- award-winning investigative journalist ing host and producer at the online talk and staff writer for In These Times. Her network HuffPost Live, following hosting work has appeared in places such as stints with such outlets as Bloomberg The New Republic, Reuters, Slate, Salon, TV, the Discovery Channel, and as an an- Ms. Magazine, and The New York Press. chor for CBS’s Peabody Award-winning Wait to see what stories she tells with Channel One News. her guests on Point of Inquiry.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 49 Do We Really Want to Believe in UFOs? Is belief in UFOs reassuring to those who fear we might be alone in an otherwise godless or purposeless universe?

KLAUS BRASCH

he July/August 2014 issue of the S I, life elsewhere is a legitimate and serious scientific endeavor, there is in fact which focused on science and religion, underscores no convincing or verifiable evidence Tonce again the common threads among unquestioned that we have been visited by extraterrestrials now or in recorded history. I faith, pseudoscience, and putative extraterrestrial influences provided numerous examples of mis- on humanity. identification, natural phenomena, and outright hoaxes. I also pointed out that It stands to reason that early humans if there is no obvious order, we invent thousands of professional and amateur were greatly affected by astronomical it (as in the case of intelligent design). astronomers worldwide scan and image events. They could observe them but Second, pattern-seeking evolved as a the skies constantly looking for comets, not comprehend them. Celestial phe- survival mechanism in humans, help- asteroids, space debris, and supernovae, nomena like eclipses and comets, for ing us recognize potential predators or but they never seem to see any alien instance, were not just far removed enemies in the environment. By exten- spaceships. from the physical world our ancestors sion our ancestors sought patterns ev- What struck me as particularly tell- inhabited but also mystifying and often erywhere in nature, leading to animism ing during follow-up question periods fearsome. Consequently associating and spirits, mythological figures in the was how much people really want to them with gods, bad omens, angels, sky, and eventually to supreme beings believe there is some form of alien in- and demons was a natural leap of faith. that created and ruled the world. A telligence out there, especially one more The question now is why does this dominant solar deity, for example, is advanced than us that can provide guid- mindset still persist today? Apart from found in virtually all ancient religions. ance and wisdom to humanity. When I science-adverse fundamentalist sects in I would place belief in UFOs and asked the audience of some 150 about traditional religions, why have unlikely alien visitations into similar categories. that, most hands went up. A staunch beliefs like Raelism, Heaven’s Gate, These have taken on a quasi-religious minority simply did not accept my con- Scientology, and others arisen in mod- aura among staunch adherents, and tention that the bulk of UFO reports ern times? Why are they uncritically ac- no amount of rational evidence to the can be dismissed as mistakes, hoaxes, cepted—often by intelligent, educated contrary will dissuade them. This was or natural phenomena, maintaining in- followers? brought home to me recently after I stead that governments are hiding the These are not new questions of gave a series of public talks at Lowell “truth” from us, and that since I was a course; they have been widely addressed Observatory on the search for life in “government” scientist I was just toe- by many authors. There is general con- the universe. Topics included the his- ing the official line. A solid majority, sensus though (e.g., Dawkins 2006, tory of life on Earth, its possibility on though, while convinced by my skep- 190; Hunt 2003, 299; Shermer 2003, Mars and Europa, the SETI project, ticism about UFOs, also seemed gen- 32) that, among other factors, the or- and, lastly, a talk titled “UFOs: Fact or uinely saddened by that realization. igins of religious beliefs have deep bi- Fiction?” All were popular and well at- Some asked if I really thought it possi- ological roots. We are genetically and tended, but predictably, the UFO talk ble that we might be alone in this vast, psychologically predisposed that way attracted a packed house. My intent impersonal universe and why would because we seek order amid chaos, and was to show that while the search for God have done that? Surely there has

50 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer to be more to it and some reason or plan for our existence. That seems to be the crux of the issue for most people: the fear that we might be totally alone in a seemingly purposeless cosmos. Be- cause of that, many people don’t like what science tells them, as it implies a chaotic rather than an ordered universe, and the notion that other advanced civilizations exist “out there” provides a measure of reassurance that it isn’t so. While we can readily dismiss most UFO reports as nonsense, it’s important to appreciate that many ordinary citizens, including police, professionals, and experienced pilots, are genuinely convinced they have seen unexplainable objects in the sky. It also explains why polls and surveys consistently show that a considerable percentage of Americans believe we have been visited by aliens. This stems in part from a general ignorance about the sky and things astro- That seems to be the crux of the issue for nomical—e.g., fireballs, Venus, bright satellites, and the like—but does not most people: the fear that we might be totally make their observations any less real to them. alone in a seemingly purposeless cosmos. By way of example, I can recall three initially quite compelling sightings in my life. The first was as a teenager in Toronto in the mid-1950s, at the height of the “Flying Saucer” craze. entist in me thought the latter was the followers ascribed to alien visitations. Some friends and I were playing ball more likely explanation, but of course The first quotation is from a foreword on a foggy fall evening, when we noted I was secretly hoping they were actu- by Charlotte Blodget, described as Mr. two brilliant oval-shaped disks in the ally flying saucers. The bubble burst a Adamski’s literary aide in writing this sky, apparently flying in formation. few minutes later. First we heard the book: There was no sound, just an eerie si- engines and then saw the huge military The fact that Adamski possesses lence, muffled no doubt by the trans- transport plane with dazzling landing more wisdom than formal education lucent fog all around us. Naturally, we lights fly over us toward the airport. is, in his case, an asset, leaving him Had we not stuck around, however, all free of the fetters which too often were mesmerized. I had just finished shackle the academic mind. At the reading Desmond Leslie and George of us would have gone home that night same time, he is amazingly well Adam ski’s titillating book Flying convinced we had seen two of Adams- informed on most subjects, including Saucers Have Landed, complete with ki’s Venusian “scout” ships! world events and the causes that lie Adamski’s supposed photographs of Sadly, despite overwhelming evi- behind them. Perhaps it is partly dence that Adamski’s photos were fakes owing to this that he is something them. Our two objects looked uncan- of a prophet. nily like those photographs. To add to and that his alleged visits to Venus the drama, the disks veered sharply and and other planets were pure fantasy The second quote is from a letter Ad- then “flew” directly north at incredible (see, for example, http://www.skeptic amski wrote to Blodget: speed. We were convinced that either report.com/sr/?p=101), a dedicated Perhaps the Brothers from other they were alien spaceships or—as was web site for his claims persists. Adamski planets are waiting until the inner rumored at the time and later proven published his Inside the Spaceships in being of men on Earth stirs ever true—the Canadian and American 1955, and among the most revealing so slightly toward a wakening stage, with desire for a better liv- governments were experimenting with aspects of this book are the following ing amongst his fellowmen. Perhaps saucer shaped aircrafts at the Avro fa- quotes, both indicative of the messianic faith is of paramount importance; cility near Toronto. The emerging sci- or prophet-like aspirations he and his not blind faith, but that knowing

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 51 faith which comes only from within seemed to me ‘not so much a film as an son. They hovered for a few minutes and cannot be swerved from what it event in the history of faith.’” In 1988, and then descended again. Amid ner- knows to be true. comparing Close Encounters and Spiel- vous laughter, someone shouted “Real My second UFO “encounter” took berg’s movie E.T., Kauffmann wrote: UFOs, perhaps?” I quickly turned a place in 1980 during a visit to Arizona Hope for communication between telescope toward the mysterious lights and New Mexico. My sister and I were our planet and other places—thus, and discovered they were flares carried driving east on I-40 from Flagstaff to by extension, hope for continuance by helicopters! Only then did it dawn Gallup just after sunset when we saw a and nature of the human race—lies on us that we were witnessing night more in feeling (the openness of circle of flashing red lights slowly mov- maneuvers at the 29 Palms U.S. Marine the child) than in intellect (the grim Corps base located about thirty miles ing along the eastern horizon. At that efficiencies of the adult). The visi- moment, we were passed by speeding tors from Out There are assumed south of us. I wonder, though, what we police cruisers and an ambulance with to have higher intelligence, if only would have thought had we not had ac- sirens blaring, all heading toward the because they got here and we didn’t cess to a powerful telescope. If a group get There; but we are happy to be circle of light. We next passed a small of scientists was almost fooled, how their inferiors. In a way it’s a relief to might a less skeptical audience have off-highway community with peo- relegate adulthood to them, to keep ple looking and pointing eastward as ourselves children, free for fuller reacted? well. The UFO looked straight out of feeling. (http://www.newrepublic. What can be learned from all this? the movie Close Encounters of the Third com/article/film/76829/the-gos- Are humans primed to believe in a pel-according-st-steven) Kind, which we had both seen recently. higher order or purpose, be that gods, intelligent design, or extraterrestrials? Nervously, my sister reached for binoc- In both movies, the allusion to ad- Does our tendency to “connect the ulars on the back seat to look at what vanced aliens descending from on high dots” and seek patterns facilitate that? we were chasing. Finally, just as the as potential saviors of humanity seems Do even rational people suspend disbe- UFO was about to land, she said “Oh, clear. lief when applied to improbable notions like UFOs if they really want to believe? There is certainly much evidence indi- cating the answer to these questions is yes (see Denzel 2002, 50; Sharp 2014, I Our natural inclination was to connect the dots: 52; Shermer 2003, 172). strange lights in the sky, cars racing toward them, References Adamski, G. 1955. Inside the Space Ships. New people pointing; it must be a genuine UFO. York: Abeland-Schuman. Dawkins, R. 2006. The God Delusion. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. Denzel, B. 2002. Ufology, God-talk and theology. Skeptic 9(3): 50–59. Hunt, M. 2003. The biological roots of religion. In Religion and Science, P. Kurtz ed. crap,” and told me what she had seen. My third UFO sighting occurred in Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. José Ortega’s Gift shop, it turned out, the late 1990s at the California State Leslie, D., and Adamski, G. 1955. Flying Saucers was advertising via flashing lights on University Desert Study Center, where Have Landed. New York: British Book Center Publishing. the wings of a small plane. So much I was hosting the annual science dean’s Sharp, M.J. 2014. UFOs and cognitive science: for close encounters of the third kind! retreat. As an astronomy aficionado, I A case study. S I 38(3): Once again, however, how easily we organized a star party for my dozen or 52–55. might have been fooled. Our natural so guests under the very dark Mojave Klaus Brasch is emer- inclination was to connect the dots: skies and showed them various celestial itus professor of biol- strange lights in the sky, cars racing to- objects at the Center’s observatory. It ogy at California State ward them, people pointing; it must be was an exceptionally clear night, and University, San Ber- a genuine UFO. naturally the conversation soon turned nardino, where he had “Did Spielberg’s ‘Close Encounters’ to questions about life on other plan- also served as dean of herald the advent of a new religion?” ets and the possibility that SETI might the College of Natural asked Gabriel Sanders in Tablet Mag- succeed in making contact with other Sciences and chair azine some thirty-four years later. He technologically advanced civilizations. of the Department of Biology. He is now quotes film critic Stanley Kauffmann As if on cue, someone spotted an or- a lecturer and docent in the public pro- from a piece titled “The Gospel Ac- ange light due south of us. In total gram at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, cording to St. Stephen” in The New silence, the light slowly rose in the Arizona. A lifelong amateur astronomer, Republic (December 10, 1977): “Close sky and was followed by another and he helped develop and teach courses on Encounters of the Third Kind ... another, all moving upward in uni- astrobiology.

52 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Treemonisha: Scott Joplin’s Skeptical Black Opera More than a century ago, this now-famous American composer wrote an opera promoting education and the value of a skeptical perspective on superstition and supernatural claims.

BRUCE A. THYER

An’ it won’t be long he American composer Scott Joplin (1867–1917) is ’Fore I’ll make you from me run. deservedly famous for his many musical accomplish- I has dese bags o’ luck, ’tis true, So take care, gal, I’ll send bad luck to ments, which culminated in a posthumous Pulitzer you. Prize in 1976. An African American, Joplin is perhaps best Remus, a friend of Treemonisha’s T remonstrates: known for his many ragtime compositions such as the “Ma- pleleaf Rag,” the theme song to the popular movie The Sting. Shut up old man, enough you’ve said; You can’t fool Treemonisha—she has a Less well known are Joplin’s operas. The first, called A Guest level head. She is the only educated person of our of Honor, appeared in 1903, and his second, Treemonisha, race, was begun in 1907 and completed in 1910. For many long miles away from this place. The score of Treemonisha received less. He exits the scene and the eigh- She’ll break the spell of superstition in a positive review in the American Mu- teen-year-old Treemonisha enters and the neighborhood. sician and Art Journal in 1910 but the admonishes the conjuror: Zodzetrick leaves, and the scene only partial performance Joplin heard You have lived without working for changes to a later harvest dance. Lucy, was a self-funded 1915 concert read- many years. another friend of Treemonisha’s, through at the Lincoln Center in Har- All by your tricks of conjury. appears bound and gagged, having lem, New York. One ballet from Act II You have caused superstition and many escaped from being kidnapped (along was publically performed in 1915, after sad tears. You should stop, you are doing great with Treemonisha by Zodzetrick and which the score was lost. Rediscovered injury. his band of conjurors). The latter are in 1970, the world premier of Treemon- angry with Treemonisha, fearful that Offended, Zodzetrick replies: isha occurred in 1972, arranged jointly her open skepticism of their magical by the Atlanta Symphonic Orchestra You ’cuse me wrong powers will interfere with their ability and Morehouse College. Since then, For injury I’se not done, to defraud the community. it has enjoyed good runs, including sixty-five shows on Broadway in New York City and performances in Lon- don; Paris; Washington, D.C.; Hous- ton; San Francisco; and Berlin. The plot of Treemonisha will meet with approval from readers of the S I. The opera takes place on a plantation in Arkansas in 1884 where a band of traveling conjurors try to sell Monisha (Treemonisha’s mother) a good luck charm. The magician Zodzetrick claims the charm will keep away enemies, bring good luck, drive away the blues, and keep Mon- isha’s husband from drinking booze. Monisha’s husband, Ned, angrily intervenes, saying the charm bag is use-

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 53 Luddud [a conjuror]: Dis here gal and Remus safely make their way home Joplin deserves a great deal of credit for don’t believe in superstition. later that evening. Other friends arrive, composing, over 100 years ago, a genu- with Zodzetrick and Luddud as prison- ine opera centered on skeptical themes. Zodzetrick: Dat’s de truth. ers, and the neighbors all wish to punish Copies of the libretto to Treemonisha are available online, and portions of the ac- Luddud: She don’t believe in conjury. them with a serious beating. Treemoni- sha intervenes, saying that the conjurors tual performance, libretto, score, dance, Zodzetrick: Dat’s de truth. should only be severely lectured. Tree- and songs can be watched on YouTube. A two-CD performance and book on monisha gives a speech on the value of I Luddud: She’s been tellin’ de people doing right, never wrong. In the end, Treemonisha is also now available. dat dey should throw away their bags the neighbors agree with Treemonisha’s For Further Reading o’ luck. Now, how are you goin’ to get request to forgive the conjurors, to shake food to eat, When you can’t sell yo’ bags Berlin, E.A. 2013. A review of Scott Joplin. o’ luck? their hands, and set them free. The Treemonisha. Paragon Ragtime Orchestra community elects Treemonisha as their and Singers. Journal of the Society for American Simon [another conjuror]: Food will leader because of her evident wisdom. Music, 7: 112–115. Carlin, F. 2010. Treemonisha. Financial Times be hard to get, If we can’t sell our bags Treemonisha presents a number of (April 6). London, UK. p. 11. of luck. laudable themes including the value As Treemonisha’s friends organize of education, the fraudulent nature of to rescue her, Zodzetrick and his men charms and spells, and the value of a plan to throw her into a wasp’s nest, skeptical perspective on supernatural Bruce A. Thyer, PhD, is not quite certain he is where she will be stung to death. While claims, especially those requiring the a professor of social the conjurors lead Treemonisha to the gullible to pay large sums of money to work at Florida State wasp’s nest, Remus, a friend of Tree- con men preying on their superstitious University in Tallahas- monisha’s dressed in a scarecrow’s cos- beliefs. There is also recognition that see, Florida. He can be tume, approaches in the night, and the sometimes seemingly harmless practices contacted at bthyer@ frightened conjurors flee, thinking the such as buying a good luck charm can fsu.edu. devil is coming after them. Treemonisha become associated with genuine harm.

54 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer REVIEWS ]

The Return of Facilitated Communication TERENCE HINES

t’s a cliché to say that good things The Horse That Won’t Go Away: Clever Hans, Facilitated come in small packages but in the Communication, and the Need for Clear Thinking. By Icase of this book (a mere 5.5 by Thomas E. Heinzen, Scott O. Lilienfeld, and Susan A. 7.2 inches), the cliché is true. The Nolan. Worth Publishers, New York, 2014. ISBN 13: 978- 136 pages contain only three chapters. 1-4641-4574-2. 136 pp. Paperback, $29.95. Kindle edi- But these chapters tell a story that is tion: ISBN 10: 1-4641-4574-1, $16.99. historically fascinating and of great importance. The first is a retelling of the case of Clever Hans, the German horse that convinced not only the general public but many, almost all in fact, quisitor, would look up or make some Communication Story.” This chapter professors of psychology and horse- other small and unnoticed movement highlights the similarities between the men that he had the intelligence of a that would cue Hans to stop tapping. naive realism that led von Osten to be- young boy. Hans, you see, could answer Pfungst revealed this by doing experi- lieve that Hans was intelligent and the questions put to him. Now, we’re not ments in which Hans was unable to ob- naive realism that led (and, sadly, still dealing with a Mr. Ed here. Hans didn’t serve his questioner. In this situation, leads) practitioners of facilitated com- speak. He tapped out his answers. You his responses were meaningless. munication (FC) to believe that their asked him what the square root of At first, von Osten accepted the fact students are really communicating. twenty-five was, and he tapped five that Hans was merely picking up subtle When doubts started to be raised about times. The authors go into detail about cues that caused him to stop tapping. the validity of FC, experiments were Hans’s “abilities” and the people he But that didn’t last for more than a conducted in which a facilitated child fooled. Readers with an interest in the day or two. Perhaps not surprisingly, and a facilitator were shown different history of psychology will especially von Osten promptly stopped any fur- objects and the child was to type out enjoy the rare original photos of Hans ther experiments that might challenge the name of the object he or she, not and his owner, Herr von Osten, in his belief in the horse’s intelligence. the facilitator, saw. In dozens of pub- action. This is, the authors point out, a case of lished experiments in every case, every A clever graduate student, Oskar “naive realism” in which seeing some- single one, the child always typed out Pfungst, discovered the explanation for thing results in a specific belief about its the name of the thing the facilitator saw Hans’s seemingly intellectual abilities. causes without any attempt to examine that the child could not see. The reac- Von Osten was, unconsciously, sig- whether or not the presumed cause is tion from the FC camp was to charge naling Hans when to stop tapping his actually causal. In other words, “seeing that these failures were due to having hoof. So, in the example above, when is believing.” to facilitate under stressful and unusual asked a question like the square root of Of course, this tale has been told conditions. However, many of these twenty-five, Hans would start slowly many times before. But here it is told studies were run by the same people tapping. When he got to the “correct” for a unique purpose. Chapter 2 is ti- who had previously facilitated with the answer, von Osten, or any other in- tled “Clever Hands: The Facilitated children. And, according to FC propo-

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 55 [ NEW AND NOTABLE Listing does not preclude future review.

ABOMINABLE SCIENCE! Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids. Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero. First paperback edition of this much-praised, award-winning scientific examination of cryptozoology nents, children had no problems facilitating in front and all the major monster myths, which our reviewer of of large audiences of strangers at FC conferences. The the original hardback, Sharon Hill, called “a sharp sword chapter also covers the horror that FC brought—the that cuts through the bogusness of popular monsterology” (November/December 2013). This is indeed a “definitive false claims of sexual abuse of children being facili- volume,” one book every skeptic should have. Like the tated. The claims arose in the head of the facilitator, hardback, the paperback is beautifully produced, with heavy enameled paper not the children. and eighty-eight color illustrations. Columbia University Press, 2015, 432 If you thought that FC was a thing of the past, pp., $19.95. you’d be very wrong. The latter part of chapter 2 documents its return like one of those horror movie ARRIVAL OF THE FITTEST: Solving Evolution’s Greatest monsters that just won’t stay dead. The use of the Puzzle. Andreas Wagner. An award-winning evolutionary biologist, Wagner has found that species can innovate technique, although rebranded as “supported typing” themselves far faster than scientists previously thought or “rapid prompting,” is “still prevalent in disability possible. In this well-written book about how innovations in service and educational settings” (J. Chen and K. nature occur, he shows how adaptions are driven not just Nankervis, “Stolen Voices: Facilitated Communica- by chance but rather by a set of laws that allow nature to tion Is an Abuse of Human Rights,” Evidence Based discover new molecules and mechanisms in a fraction of Communication Assessment and Intervention, 2015, in the time that random variation would take. Wagner is a professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at press). Douglas Biklen, who introduced FC to the the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and an external professor at the Santa United States, was promoted to the position of Dean Fe Institute. Current/Penguin Group, 2015, 280 pp., $27.95. of the School of Education at Syracuse University by University President Cantor, a psychologist who has EVERYONE IS AFRICAN: How Science Explodes the Myth an autistic child. He was even honored with a UN- of Race. Daniel J. Fairbanks. A research geneticist’s short, ESCO award for his work with the disabled. Scott useful book about the science of race, the genetic research that has demonstrated that the genetic variation associ- Lilienfeld, one of the authors of the book under re- ated with what most people perceive as race represents a view, has written an important paper on the return small proportion of overall genetic variation. This research of FC: “Persistence of Fad Interventions in the Face into what is often a misunderstood and sensitive topic is of Negative Scientific Evi dence: Facilitated Com- pure science, Fairbanks (dean of the College of Science and munication for Autism as a Case Example” in the Health at Utah Valley University) emphasizes, conducted journal Evidence Based Communication Assessment and without any political or social agenda. Rather than discrete genetic boundar- Intervention (2015, in press; see “Facilitated Com- ies, the science shows that the world’s human diversity consists of innumer- able genetic variations spread throughout the human population in a complex munication Has Returned from the Dead,” May/ set of multiple overlapping arrays. Fairbanks’s congenial writing style works June 2015 SI). Recognizing the importance of this well in this context as he straightforwardly addresses the topics in just seven paper, the journal’s publisher, Routledge, has made chapters: What is Race?; African Origins; Ancestry versus Race; ‘The Color of the paper freely available online at http://www.tand- Their Skin’; Human Diversity and Health; Human Diversity and Intelligence; fonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17489539.2014.97633 and The Perception of Race. Prometheus Books, 2015, 191 pp., $18. 2#.VNosKLvlJjQ. SCIENTIFIC CONTROVERSIES: A Socio-Historical Perspective The fact that the educational disabilities commu- on the Advancement of Science. Dominique Raynaud, with nity is deaf to the scientific reality that FC is not only a preface by Mario Bunge. Raynaud, a sociologist and invalid but robs disabled individuals of their basic science historian, shows how organized debates in the human rights by making the words and thoughts of sciences help us establish or verify our knowledge of the others appear to be theirs and preventing them from world. Through excruciatingly detailed examinations of expressing themselves as best they can (Chen and Na- socio-historic scientific controversies including Pasteur’s germ theory and Pouchet’s theory of spontaneous gener- kervis, cited above) is extremely disturbing. ation, vitalism, and the origins of relativism (the Duhem- Chapter 3, “The Clever Hans Effect in Everyday Quine problem), Raynaud advocates an incrementalist position about the Life,” shows how naive realism has spawned belief in advancement of science through scientific controversies. This exhaustively several phenomena where such belief can have neg- documented book contains four appendices (all in French), a bibliography, ative consequences. Most surprising to me was the and two indices. The book’s audience is primarily hardcore scholars of the finding that drug- and explosive-sniffing dogs do history of the philosophy of science; others beware. Transaction Publishers, 2015, 298 pp, $69.95. very poorly in actual tests where their handlers don’t know where the target materials are or are thought to be. Although the authors agree that more research is needed, the fact that such dogs will “alert” when

56 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer REVIEWS ]

THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture. Whitney Phillips. A Lecturer in the Department of Communications at Humboldt State University offers there’s nothing there is troubling. One study the a fascinating and insightful look at the phenomenon authors describe showed that out of 10,000 alerts, of online trolling—the abusive, often hateful and hate- there was a 74 percent false alarm rate. Naive real- filled posts and comments on social media intended to ism is also responsible for the incorrect beliefs that insult, rile, and offend. Skeptical of the common percep- intervention programs such as Scared Straight and tion that trolls are deviant anomalies in the online world, DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) work Phillips argues that they are in fact very much a part of, and product of, culturally sanctioned impulses. Phillips describes the relationship between when the data show clearly that they don’t. The controlling and sensationalist corporate media, noting that for trolls, exploita- sequences of such false beliefs are not trivial. The last tion is a fun pastime; for media, it’s a business strategy. Phillips offers an two mentioned programs have huge annual costs and incisive look at the culture and motivations of online trolls, a ubiquitous may even have effects opposite of those claimed, thus subject online but one that has received scant scholarly attention. The MIT doing more harm than simply doing nothing. Press, 2015, 248 pp., $24.95. The vastly exaggerated worry about “stranger TO EXPLAIN THE WORLD: The Discovery of Modern danger”—the fear that our children are in serious Science. Steven Weinberg. The Nobel laureate theoret- danger almost all the time from strangers waiting to ical physicist (and CSI fellow) Steven Weinberg’s latest abduct them—is another example of the pernicious book is the perspective of a modern working scientist on effects of naive realism discussed in chapter 3. In re- the science of the past. His focus is not solely on how we ality, stranger abductions are extremely, extremely came to learn various things about the world, but on how rare. For example, in 1999 115 children were taken we came to learn how to learn about the world. Weinberg says he considers it an irreverent history because he by strangers. But since there were 72 million kids in is not unwilling to criticize the methods and theories of the United States that year, the chance of such an the past from a modern viewpoint. While some historians of science “make event happening is 0.00000159 percent. In contrast, a shibboleth of not referring to present scientific knowledge in studying in the same year 4,564 children died in automobile the science of the past,” Weinberg instead makes a point of using present accidents. So the risk of such a death is almost forty knowledge to clarify past science. “I want to show how difficult was the discovery of modern science, how far from obvious are its practices and times greater. But that risk attracts far less panic than standards.” Harper, 2015, 416 pp., $28.99. stranger danger. There has been much discussion over the last few UNDENIABLE: Evolution and the Science of Creation. years in the skeptical community about what di- Bill Nye. Edited by Corey S. Powell. Sparked by his pub- rection skeptical activity should take in the future. lic debate with a creationist in 2014, the enthusiastic Should it continue to debunk the old standards like Bill Nye here sets off on an informal, personal, almost breezy campaign to spread awareness of evolution and UFOs, ESP, Bigfoot, and astrology, or move on to the powerful ways it shapes our lives. This might be the other topics? In my view, continued attention to most accessible entrance to understanding evolution the “old” topics will always be needed. But the book for the general reader, as Nye breaks the topic down into under review here shows how skepticism can have three dozen very short, lively chapters and throughout truly beneficial effects that go beyond the more fringe shows his uncanny ability to connect with the layperson while explaining “old” topics. Speaking out loudly and strongly against and strongly defending good science. An updated edition is due out soon. St. Martin’s Press, 2014, 309 pp., $25.99. quack treatments like facilitated communication that do real harm to thousands of people would seem to WHAT IS GOD? Can Religion Be Modeled? Thomas B. me to be an important goal for skepticism in the fu- Sheridan. This is certainly a new kind of take on the ture. The Horse that Won’t Go Away is an excellent step scientific examination of religion. This one is based on in this direction. modeling, which is widely employed in science, engi- It’s common to say that a book should be “required neering, medicine, business, and government. Sheridan is Ford Professor Emeritus of Engineering and Applied reading.” In my case, this won’t be just a cliché since I Psychology at MIT and a member of the National Academy will be assigning this book in every psychology course of Sciences (and also National Academy of Engineering). I teach from now on. It is very well written. It is never He finds parallels in how some people think of their com- boring or pedantic. It contains much excellent mate- puters almost as intelligent beings they don’t understand and how they rial for class discussion and written projects. n attribute these same properties to God. Sheridan shows that the abstract concept of God is not amenable to scientific modeling but the human practice of religion is. New Academia Publishing, 2014, 240 pp., $21.45. Terence Hines is professor of psychology at Pace Univer- sity and author of Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. He —Kendrick Frazier and Benjamin Radford is a CSI fellow.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 57 Skepticism through Stick Figures RUSS DOBLER

n September of 2005, when Randall Munroe launched xkcd, the web- What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypo- Icomic he’s become known for (as thetical Questions. By Randall Munroe. featured in the September/October New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing 2012 S I), he was Company, 2014. ISBN: 9780544272996. 320 pp. only twenty years old. The strip turned Hardcover, $24; Kindle, $6.99. into a full-time gig when Munroe’s robotics contract wasn’t renewed by NASA in 2006. The name “xkcd” is intentionally meaningless, a mishmash of letters designed to be inscrutable. For the past decade, the comic’s con- much). The topics are well researched tent, however, has humorously illumi- with wry footnotes1 and provide fea- nated its readers on the topics of love, sible descriptions of events that have programming, physics, Velociraptors, Munroe’s skepticism never actually happened. and even skepticism. is understated and Most of those consequences are Munroe’s skepticism is understated things the average person wouldn’t even and even-handed, gently lampooning even-handed, gently think of. The torrential atmosphere of classic cranks like psychics one day and lampooning classic the newly stationary Earth, for exam- needling Frank Drake about his fid- ple, would unexpectedly cause blooms dly alien life equation on another. His cranks like psychics of life near the ocean’s surface—below commitment to reason is most power- one day and needling the part that’s vaporized by the blast— fully shown not by belittling believers, and while everyone hopping together though, but through the personal nar- Frank Drake about his wouldn’t budge the planet, the hard- rative describing his then-fiancée’s star- fiddly alien life ships of getting all those people back to tling experience with stage three breast where they came from would likely take cancer. equation on another. a significant toll on human population The lack of cancer in the family his- numbers. tory of Munroe’s now-wife made the As fanciful as it all is, this is where diagnosis even stranger, but he never possibility. “What If?” is still updated What If? is valuable as a skeptical tool. expressed a “why us” attitude in xkcd. every week or so, and a compilation of By humorously learning the repercus- Instead, one strip asserted how they mostly new “serious scientific answers sions of unlikely physics, we can under- never searched for answers “beyond sci- to absurd hypothetical questions” was stand how a theoretical alien spaceship ence,” because it provides well-honed published in September 2014. in our atmosphere couldn’t turn on a tools and not just platitudes. Or, in lay- dime, as many UFO witnesses report, The offline version of What If? in- man’s terms, “It works, bitches.” without literal earth-shaking effects. If cludes the fan-favorite 0.9c pitch, along Munroe brought his stick figures that’s not enough to make you doubt with reasoned end results of other im- to the real world in July 2012 when he ET’s arrival, the section examining began to supplement the thrice-weekly probable things, like the global wind- a Cessna’s performance on different xkcd with answers to fan queries about storm that would be created if the planets goes a long way to show that science, in the column called “What if?” Earth suddenly stopped rotating (New- a vehicle designed for travel in one en- Well, that’s if you consider the conse- ton be damned), or what would happen vironment—whether it’s air or space— quences of a near–light speed fast- if everyone on the planet jumped in one doesn’t usually function all that well in ball as something within the realm of spot at the same time (spoiler alert: not others. 58 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer REVIEWS ]

The often counterintuitive realm of statistics is examined when Munroe an- Psychology and Psychotherapy: swers how (un)likely it would be to find your one true soul mate, if that concept How Much Is were genuine. He later shows that to call a random person and say “God bless Evidence-Based? you” right after they sneeze, you don’t HARRIET HALL have to be psychic, you just have to try it 40,000 times. The law of large numbers will be obvious to you, but man, will that guy be freaked out! Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Side of Science and What If? also excels at finding the Therapy. By Tomasz Witkowski and Maciej Zatonski. logical extents of seemingly simple Boca Raton, FL: BrownWalker Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1- ideas, like how a super-powerful hair 62734-528-6. 304 pp. Paperback, $25.95. dryer could destroy the world, or what would happen to the Moon when targeted by the biggest laser array imaginable. These are almost magical sce- narios with staggering, unanticipated consequences. One could easily draw a parallel with homeopathy, which starts with the idea that greatly diluting a espite all those Polish jokes, principles are based on myths, argue substance makes the resulting solution Poland has its share of good that psychotherapy is a business rather more effective, leading to the inescap- Dscientists and critical thinkers. than an effective evidence-based able (and ridiculous) conclusion that tap Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Side medical treatment, and question water should cure all disease. of Science and Therapy is a superb new whether psychotherapy should even The missteps in What If? are rare, book illustrating that fact in spades: exist—since in many cases it offers such as the discussion of a magnitude 15 Lead author Tomasz Witkowski is no advantage over talking to a friend earthquake that probably couldn’t hap- 2 a psychologist, science writer, and about one’s problems, and it can cause pen, but otherwise Munroe does a he- founder of the Polish Skeptics Club; harm. roic job of bringing sense to nonsense, coauthor Maciej Zatonski is a surgeon addressing questions other scientists and researcher known for debunking are too busy to answer, like a cartoon- Research ing Carl Sagan. While the book doesn’t The authors describe The authors describe how disasters tackle classic pseudoscience head on, of social control such as forced steril- putting a quirky spin on the painstaking how disasters of izations and uncritical application of process of teasing through a problem social control…were questionable IQ tests were instigated makes What If? an entertaining intro- instigated by psychol- by psychologists who relied on their duction to critical thinking for those own flawed thinking rather than on 3 who might find other volumes too dry. ogists who relied on empirical evidence from scientific studies. They tell horror stories about Notes their own flawed researchers who lied and plagiarized 1. Like this one! thinking. 2. According to the United States Geological and who distorted, falsified, or even Survey. Holy crap, a real citation! fabricated data, and got away with 3. Source: my opinion unscientific therapies and claims in committing outright fraud over and Russ Dobler is a geophysicist, journalist, clinical medicine. (They both have over again. In some cases, fraudu- and member of the New York City Skeptics. written for S I.) lent studies were accepted as gospel He writes about the intersection of sci- Together they turn a spotlight on and became the basis for ill-advised ence, skepticism, and pop culture for the research and treatment in the field of treatments. websites Adventures in Poor Taste! and psychology. Witkowski and Zatonski argue for the pulp press. You can follow him @russ- They uncover distressing flaws in transparency in research and show dobler46 for more on those topics or to find psychology research, show that many how difficult it is for others to obtain out what beer he’s been drinking lately. commonly accepted psychological the raw data from studies even when

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 59 the researchers say they are willing to hood experiences, mental disorders are and coping abilities replace the old provide it. They offer proposed solu- caused by early childhood experiences, pathogenic (illness-oriented) paradigm tions to increase transparency and pro- and effective psychotherapy depends on that focuses on what is wrong? Mental mote data sharing. They discuss prob- the reconstruction of childhood experi- health is characterized by commitment lems with peer review, editorial policy, ences. Delving into childhood memo- (a sense of purpose), by the belief that poor research design, non-publication ries often causes serious problems and you have some control over your life, of negative studies, and failure to rep- has in fact led to terrible abuses such as and by the understanding that change, licate positive studies. They show how the recovered memory movement. The not stability, is a natural element of re- these have created a situation where idea of repressed and recovered memo- ality. Hardiness is largely genetic but psychological theories are virtually un- ries is a creative invention of therapists. can be developed by exposure to stress. killable. Patients are easily duped because it provides a convenient scapegoat to explain Psychobusiness their problems and relieves them of Psychotherapy is more business than responsibility for their inability to cope medicine, and bogus therapies abound. Psychoanalysis, Tomasz with their lives. Academic psycholo- The authors devote two entire chap- gists bear much of the blame for fail- ters to neurolinguistic programming and Zatonski argue, is ing to subject pop trends to empirical (NLP), showing how it developed and a castle built on sand. verification and failing to speak out and flourished without any basis in reality, denounce false theories. how the scientific literature served as Witkowski and Zatonski also tackle theater decoration for a pseudoscien- the contentious issue of child sexual tific farce, how it infiltrated academia, abuse. The typical consequence of and how the scientific community irre- Psychotherapy childhood sexual abuse is not psycho- sponsibly failed to denounce it. Psychoanalysis, they argue, is a castle pathology but resilience. Studies have In another chapter, one of the au- built on sand. Investigation has shown found no correlation with adult mental thors describes how he perpetrated a that Freud falsified or fabricated the disorders, even when abuse is frequent psychological version of the infamous details of every case he used to build or extreme, and that less than 10 per- Sokal hoax. He got a bogus article his theories. His approach was not sci- cent of victims experienced the abuse published about a new therapy he in- entific. He never tested his ideas with as traumatic or shocking at the time it vented based on Rupert Sheldrake’s experiments that might have falsified occurred. Childhood sexual abuse is ab- pseudoscientific concept of “morpho- his beliefs, and he ignored facts that horrent enough in itself without tarring genetic fields.” He invented and pla- contradicted his beliefs. Many of his it with false claims that it causes adult giarized outrageously and offered clear supposed original ideas came from mental illnesses. And those who point hints about what he was doing, but the other authors. How did he “discover” out the research findings should not be editors didn’t notice. They had some the Oedipus complex when none of his accused of advocating crime. questions, but he made up nonsense patients ever suggested they had such Psychotherapeutic interventions, answers, and they bought his explana- a problem? The answer is in a letter he the authors note, in general have been tions. He accuses the editors of failing wrote to a friend saying, “I found in remarkably unsuccessful. Only one of in their responsibility to protect their myself a constant love for my mother, the many varieties of psychotherapy is readers from false information and and jealousy of my father. I now con- supported by acceptable evidence: cog- harmful recommendations. He consider this to be a universal event in nitive-behavioral therapy. There is no ducted a test by having 172 people read early childhood.” Talk about projection correlation between a therapist’s train- the article: 77 percent said they would and confirmation bias! ing or experience and patient outcomes. recommend the article to friends, and When tested, psychoanalysis was Amateurs get equal results. The bene- 61 percent would recommend the in- shown to be less effective than placebo. fits of psychotherapy may be no better vented therapy to a person struggling Its theories have been disproven, and than the benefits of talking to a friend; with psychological problems. It’s scary no reasonable scientist or practitioner in a sense, psychotherapists are paid to to think how easily he could have mar- takes it seriously today. Yet it persists in act as friends. keted his new therapy and become rich popular opinion as one of the primary Amid this sea of dubious evidence, at the expense of patients. In fact, after canons of practicing psychology. Witkowski and Zatonski raise the he disclosed that it was a hoax, he got Witkowski and Zatonski provide question of whether we can replace psy- a letter from a man who insisted that ample evidence to debunk myths about chotherapy with something else. Can a it was not a hoax; he said he had been childhood experiences, such as that new “salutogenic” health-oriented par- thinking along the same lines and had personality is formed by early child- adigm that focuses on human resilience reached the same conclusions.

60 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer REVIEWS ]

Reacting to Pseudoscience In the concluding chapter, Witkowski and At Last a Photo of the Soul? Zatonski describe strategies employed by JOE NICKELL scientists with regard to pseudoscience. They include remaining indifferent and keeping silent; playing down the problem; attacking critics by questioning their competence and even their mental health rather than by engaging with the evidence; talking and giving the illusion of action Image of a Spirit. By Paul Williams. Foreword by Gary E. without actually doing anything; passive Schwartz, PhD. Waterside Press, Charleston, SC, 2015. acceptance of criticism; arrogant hostility ISBN: 978-1-941768-39-6. 143 pp. Paperback, $35.00. (insulting pseudoscientific practitioners and using words like psychobabble, mum- bo-jumbo, quackery, and flimflam); and finally open, matter-of-fact criticism— the most fruitful strategy but the one least popular among psychologists. You may find some of these ideas questionable or unpalatable. If so, I hope you ome five years before he a Quantum Reality) and Loyd Au- will read the book and give the authors published his little 143-page erbach (author of ESP, Hauntings, a fair chance to explain their thinking. Sbook, Image of a Spirit, Paul and Poltergeists); and not to neglect This is a well-referenced, well-reasoned Williams was at the bedside of his mention of using “consciousness book chock-full of information about the his dying ninety-two-year-old expanding sacramental substances” state of psychology today. It exposes a lot mother, Mildred. Although she was (28) and taking the drug MDA with of dirty linen that would be of interest to a “rational” woman who “hated all Andrew Weil (88–89), the New any reader. I agree with CSI Fellow James things spiritual,” including “orga- Age doctor/guru (author of Sponta- Alcock, professor of psychology at York nized religion,” she appeared to neous Healing) who wrote a blurb for University, whose back-cover blurb says Williams to have had “a classic Williams’s book. it should be required reading for every Near Death Experience during Approximately an hour and for- psychologist and psychology student and her last two days.” He infers that ty-five minutes after his mother’s anyone contemplating psychotherapy. from her reaching with her frail death, while a Jamaican hospice I have only one criticism. English is not arms and smiling “for minutes on attendant and his lady friend Me- the authors’ native language, and it shows. end at something pleasant to her,” lissa cleaned and dressed the corpse, There are many infelicities of expression although she might only have had a Paul Williams decided to take some and even errors of grammar and usage. dying brain’s hallucination, waking photos with his Blackberry cell This does not interfere with understand- dream, or simple memory. phone. He saw nothing unusual, but ing what the authors meant, but a good Williams seems at pains to con- when he looked at the photos later editor could have done much to improve vert his mother posthumously from (emailed to his MacBook computer n their text. atheist to drum major for every- and “enlarged by the I-Photo pro- thing New Age. He touts his own gram”), he saw in the first picture a nine months of spiritual training in small humanoid-like figure. Harriet Hall, MD, a retired Air Force physi- 1972 called “alchemical transfor- He labels the image a “psi-photo” cian and flight surgeon, writes and edu- mation” (34); his screenplay based (psi referring to alleged psychic phe- cates about pseudoscientific and so-called on The Tibetan Book of the Dead; nomena) and again “this psi ghost alternative medicine. She is a contributing his interest in Kirlian photogra- photo, this ‘spirit picture’” (37, 47). editor and frequent contributor to the S - phy, psychic phenomena, eastern Gary E. Schwartz, a credulous pro- I, a CSI fellow, and a member mysticism, scrying experiences, and ponent of psi and author of books of the CSI Executive Council. She is also an visions; his references to “energy” such as The Afterlife Experiments, editor of the blog Science-Based Medicine and “other-dimensional” images wrote in the book’s foreword that and author of Women Aren’t Supposed to (33, 36); his consultations with a the photo could not possibly have Fly: Memoirs of a Female Flight Surgeon as “psychic”; his conversations with been faked (xiii–xiv). He cites a well as coauthor of the 2012 textbook Con- Dean Radin (author of Entangled professor of computer sciences at sumer Health: Guide to Intelligent Decisions. Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in Dartmouth, Harry Farid, who says

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 61 it passed his foolproof test for authen- mom” (70). Yet Gary Schwartz notes, shot is as unique as people quoted in ticity (his brief report is included in the “. . . the first thing that strikes many his book suggest—other photo ghosts book). However, that analysis would people is that the head looks more like being typically amorphous—are the only reveal that the photo had not a bird (or some other-worldly entity)” latter then all non-genuine? If there is “been altered from the time of its initial (xiv). Could it be a demon? An extra- no other such picture—as parapsychol- recording” (82–83). In other words, it terrestrial? ogists Radin (72) and Loyd Auerbach could detect a faked photo of a genuine Psychic O’Hara, looking further, (76) suggest—and therefore no known scene, but not a faked scene in a genu- even found she could see the faces of standard or exemplar for comparison, ine photo, and certainly not an illusion at least five people in the streaked and how do we determine that the picture or anomaly caused by, say, some play of spotty image: In addition to (1) Wil- is that of a spirit? The term energy is light or shadow. liams’s mother, there were supposedly (2) his father, (3–4) his mother’s par- used throughout the book, but no en- ents, and (5) a boy (whom Williams ergy known to science could both com- helpfully suggests may be an uncle who pletely leave a human body at death died young). and retain the body’s shape without However, Williams’s sister told him, dissipating over an hour and forty-five “That’s nothing. It’s a reflection.” Sev- minutes’ time. How would such an en- eral others agree with her. But a reflec- tity function without a brain? And why When proponents argue that no tion “Of what?” Williams challenges would it appear in only one of a series (48), apparently misunderstanding her of photos? imaginable glitch could produce point. He seems to think it would have such a glitchlike image, and When proponents argue that no to have been something of that qua- imaginable glitch could produce such then argue (or cleverly imply) si-figural shape that had been reflected, a glitchlike image, and then argue (or whereas a reflection could merely be it’s a ghost, they are committing cleverly imply) it’s a ghost, they are a chance pattern of reflected light. In committing a logical fallacy called an a logical fallacy called an any case, since we are not apprised of “argument from ignorance.” One can- “argument from ignorance.” details of the room—especially behind the photographer—we cannot say what not say, we don’t know what caused might have been there to affect the this, and then conclude, therefore, that scene. Therefore the photo is essen- we do know. That is especially true tially worthless as evidence of anything. when the reason we lack a complete an- Interestingly, the simulacrum ap- swer to the question of how the image pears against the dark background of formed is that the needed evidence is Melissa’s shirt, a “sequined tight black not at hand and may now be impossi- blouse” (22). Parapsychologist Dean ble to reconstruct with any precision. Williams’s alleged psi-image actually Radin is quick to dismiss the sequins Besides, postulating the supernatural looks like a simulacrum—a perceived because, he tells Williams, “There was is equivalent to invoking “X,” since sci- image (such as the “Face” on Mars no strong light in the somber room ence has never proven the existence of or the Man in the Moon) resulting where your mother died that could be the supernatural. from pareidolia, the mind’s tendency reflected by the sequins” (71). But that To argue against a photo glitch but to “recognize” common shapes (espe- is simply not true. Although Williams accept the alleged supernatural is (in a cially faces) in random patterns. Such says he “had the camera’s flash turned biblical expression) to “strain at a gnat, simulacra are often held to be para- off” (21), a light source clearly illumi- normal entities. Not surprisingly, the nated the scene, as shown by bright- and swallow a camel.” Despite attempts to switch the burden of proof, this case “psychic” he consults, Sandra O’Hara ness on the hospice worker’s cheek, n (who has some of the traits associated rubber-gloved hand, and soap bottle, as remains laughably unproved. with a fantasy-prone personality), says well as Melissa’s hair. Was it from an the image is Williams’s mother “leav- overhead light, a window, or something Joe Nickell, PhD, is CSI’s senior research ing her body”—“her soul”—except else? fellow and author of numerous books in- that “she’s gone back to maybe when Williams has backed away from cluding Camera Clues and The Science of she was in her thirties” (106), and Wil- calling the picture “the first photo of liams has described it as “the picture of the human spirit” (90). But if the snap- Ghosts.

62 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer INBOX ]

sential precautions of determin- tionists as engineers, musicians, As presented, the Reichardt-Saari ing what being “highly educated” and architects, than educated as- article makes no such distinction. consists of. I’m reasonably certain, tronomers, zoologists, geologists, It would be enlightening to study for example, that the alumni of etc. Maybe it’s not education per only students in both groups who Bob Jones University and Reed se that produces more “deniers,” attended only secular schools, de- College will differ considerably but the places where one does one’s gree of evolution education con- in their views on evolution. But, learning and what course selections trolled for. If, the divergent graph even within institutions, there one makes when moving on to a lines continued, as opposed to undoubtedly is a great deal of career goal. parallel lines (no statistical interac- self-sorting when it comes to mation), the mystery would continue. jors and what courses to take. John A. Broussard Thomas Janas I can speak from my own ex- Kamuela, Hawaii Chicopee, Massachusetts perience as a teacher at a commu- I would add one question to the nity college. When I was teaching study: Were you ever a Bible be- Why do college-educated Bible When Education Results physical anthropology, I warned liever? believers deviate more from scien- in Less Acceptance of my students at the outset that if I think the new results of the tific evidence? Perhaps in part be- they didn’t believe in evolution Evolution study would be: cause many Bible-believing high they would probably have difficul- school seniors go to Bible colleges. “When Don’t the Highly Edu- ties in mastering the subject. Since cated Believe in Evolution? The 1) Among Bible nonbelievers, If a student has attended a Bible I had a high dropout rate and did those more highly edu- Bible Believers Effect” by Charles college for four years and has not no follow-up research to ascertain cated are more likely to S. Reichardt and Ian A. Saari increased his commitment to which of the many reasons would believe in evolution. creationism or intelligent design, (March/April 2015) presents the 2) Among one-time Bible induce a student to quit my class, then he probably was not paying initially counterintuitive survey believers, those more evidence that while nonbelievers I obviously can’t claim that the highly educated are less attention in class and wasn’t so- increasingly accept evolution, anti-evolutionists simply went likely to remain Bible cializing with his fellow students. elsewhere—though I believe my believers, leaving a those who believe that the Bible Alice Anderson warning may have been influential shrunken sample purified is the word of God increasingly Las Cruces, New Mexico reject the scientific belief in evo- A further bit of evidence to of heathens and likely evolution believers. lution and other scientific beliefs that effect came from a promis- Not all college and graduate de- that contradict their faith the ing former student of mine who As people graduate from grees are equal, especially when it greater their educational level. came back to visit on campus a Sunday school and grow up, comes to scientific knowledge. A Several psychological explanations year or so after moving on to a they often change their religious PhD in biology and an MBA are are provided. four-year college. I had wondered knowledge and beliefs unrecog- both graduate degrees, but some- Perhaps a social evolutionary at the time why she had dropped nizably. As a Vietnam War dis- one who has achieved the former explanation might also be consid- my Philosophy 101 class, so I senter from a Repub lican home, is likely to have been much better ered. The educational environ- took this opportunity to ask her. I think it’s harder to shed one’s informed about evolution even ment, especially the higher one She said, “I was teaching Sunday familial politics, especially in a before entering college than some- goes, promotes scientific beliefs school at the time, and it became secular household. The initial one who holds the latter. At the and discourages unscientific reli- obvious that either it or your class connection of Republican brain same time, the first person is far gious beliefs. This results in those had to go.” and Bible believer brain might less likely to believe that the Bible with less strong religious beliefs But, back to evolution. A biol- be apples and oranges with Bible is the word of God than is the sec- becoming nonbelievers and more ogy teacher at the school dealt with belief not the truly independent ond person. accepting of counter-religious the issue in a very different man- variable we think at the start. David Dvorkin scientific beliefs as their educa- ner. On the first day of class he an- Thanks for the provocation. Denver, Colorado tion progresses. “Natural” selec- nounced, preemptively, “Anyone Frederick Cullison tion results in fewer and only the who doesn’t accept evolution as a Houston, Texas Regarding the observation that most adamant hard-shell believ- fact, leave right now.” I’m not sure the more educated some Bible ers surviving as believers with if he had any takers, but one of his A possible explanation for the sta- believers are the more likely they increasing education. students—a fundamentalist—who tistical interaction between Bible will deny the manmade cause of To test this hypothesis, one was one of my counselees, told me belief and education level lead- climate change and the existence would need a longitudinal study of confidentially that he was most ing to diverging beliefs in evolu- of evolution, I find the same beliefs as students progress in their definitely not a believer in evolution might be due to differential phenomenon can be applied to education. This would require tion but was going to stick with teaching of evolution in different the anti-vaxxers. Several reports considerably more effort and per- the class and implied that he was schools. Perhaps Bible nonbeliev- show that the parents who don’t sistence than a survey of beliefs. going to show the instructor just ers, due to their secularism, attend vaccinate their children tend to David W. Briggs how wrong he was. By the end of secular schools, where, in no uncer- be more highly educated with Marion, Massachusetts the quarter, the student came back tain terms, evolution is taught and post-secondary degrees. I also see to my office to tell me that he’d creationism is debunked. Among parallels in the potential explana- Not having access to the raw data, decided to major in biology and, Bible believers, their religiosity may tions for the Bible-believers effect I find it difficult to determine sheepishly, admitted that he no result in many of them attending suggested by the authors in the whether the authors of “When longer rejected evolution. religious schools, where evolution is mindset of the anti-vaxxers. Don’t the Highly Educated Be- So my guess is that we’ll find denied or possibly diluted with Strength of Religious Be liefs: lieve in Evolution” took the es- far more “educated” antievolu- creationism, i.e., “We teach both.” The latest report showed that pre-

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 63 senting scientific fact and evidence all know there is none. certainty to knowledge that some- so only the staunchest believers in of the benefit of vaccines has the thing is true. People in general are the Bible and creationism remain. Charles E. Orser, Jr., PhD opposite effect on the anti-vaxxers. naturally attracted to transcendent These explanations entail selection Nashville, Tennessee Their strongly held belief is akin propositions and to an immediate and survival mechanisms (selection to religious belief (I want to say Though it almost certainly apprehension or experience of of Bible believers into religiously cult, but it might be a little harsh). wasn’t intentional, the title, knowledge. We all at times wish affiliated institutions and survival Counterargument: Those “When Don’t the Highly Edu- we had and some (perhaps most) of only the staunchest Bible believ- anti-vaccine web pages of better cated Believe in Evolu tion?” is believe that we have some kind ers in higher education), which, quality are full of seemingly sci- misleading in the extreme, as ex- of extrasensory knowledge. This fittingly, are akin to selection and entific argument and results of emplified by my wife’s reaction. inner desire persists despite ev- survival mechanisms in Darwinian (fringe) studies. The better edu- She is a devout evangelical, and idence to the contrary. That de- evolution. cated anti-vaxxers are not ignorant when the title caught her eye, she sire may be inherent and comes Our article proposes four expla- of how the immune system works; exclaimed, “At last, someone who from a category of epistemology nations for the Bible-believers effect. therefore, they are better skilled in will tell the truth!” The misdirec- called gnosis. According to Gilles The two preceding explanations “self-serving assessments” of infor- tion could have been avoided by Quispel (2005), gnosis is the third from the letter writers fall under mation supporting their view. substituting the word “some” for component of the European cul- the rubric of our first explanation: Need for Consistency: They the word “the” in the title. tural traditions. We use three ways among Bible believers, those with display classic symptoms of cog- The condition “Bible Be- to understand and apprehend re- more education hold stronger re- nitive dissonance. The discomfort liever” is so inimical to the con- ality: gnosis, faith, and reason. ligious beliefs, which make them with the evidence of near elimi- dition “Believer in Human Evo- Gnosis may be the most prim- increasingly likely to deny scientific nation of contagious diseases over lution,” that it is no surprise that itive aspect of how we know in facts (such as human evolution) that several decades of vaccination could the latter group is a very small evolutionary terms. We can say conflict with their religious beliefs. be higher in the more educated an- percentage of the former group. that animals employ a form of The relationship between educa- ti-vaxxers, probably because they The thing that is missing from gnosis to respond to and sur- tion and strength of religious beliefs are more knowledgeable. Their the analysis is the fact that group vive in the environment. We use among Bible believers is strongly need to reconcile the inconsistency size diminishes rapidly as you words like instinct, genetic pro- evidenced in the General Social is likely higher and more moti- progress across the graph from gramming, and natural response Survey (GSS) data. The GSS data to explain how animals know how vated. least to most educated. The net also reveal a dramatically diminish- to behave. We tend not to project Over Confidence: In the an- result is that many will conclude ing proportion of Bible believers as faith and reason onto animals al- ti-vaxxers’ mind, because they are that increasing education leads to levels of education increase in accord though it appears that something highly educated therefore they can increased tendency to deny evolu- with Robnett’s comments and as like faith occurs when animals do their own research (Dr. Google tion, when it actually points to a predicted by the second of the letter “trust” a herd leader or in their gives all the answers you need!) and progressively smaller population writers’ explanations but not neces- ability to avoid a predator nearby. form their own opinion. They just who holds to the inconsistent be- sarily by the first. Unfortunately, the Also, it appears that animals can ignore the pitfalls of confirmation liefs that the Bible is the word of GSS data provide no more direct “figure something out” as when a bias. God and that evolution explains means to assess the two hypotheses raven or monkey employs a new What else can you do with from the letters. Nonetheless, we the origin of man. tool to retrieve food from a hole. people like that, other than exercis- wouldn’t be surprised if one or both Allen V. Robnett In this model, faith and reason ing “harm reduction” (such as no of these hypotheses were correct and Retired science and math were born of gnosis and no one exemption whatsoever except very provided mechanisms by which our teacher aspect can be independent of the strict medical reasons; unvaccinated explanation operates. In any case, Gallatin, Tennessee other. Of course, faith and reason children can’t go to school or par- in humans is dramatically more our article’s primary conclusion (that ticipate in any public activities), just it likely poses a greater challenge to The results of research that Bi- apparent and expressed. to protect the society from these alter belief in human evolution ble-believers with higher educa- people? Joe Szimhart among highly educated Bible believ- tion are more likely to not believe Birdsboro, Pennsylvania ers than among less highly educated Mio Sam Lao, PhD in evolution or global warming does not surprise me. My long Bible believers) still holds for all these Haymarket, Virginia Charles S. Reichardt and Ian A. experience conducting interven- explanations. Saari respond: I read with great interest “When tions with people in cults, sects, Broussard and Dvorkin give The letters thoughtfully forward Don’t the Highly Educated Be- and new religions since the early reasons why Bible nonbelievers in- two plausible explanations for the lieve in Evolution” by Reichardt 1980s reflects those results. Most creasingly accept human evolution Bible-believers effect. First, both and Saari. This is an important of my clients in cults over the with increasing education but don’t, line of research, and the authors decades have had higher than av- Anderson and Janas hypothesize by themselves, explain why Bible are to be commended for pursuing erage educations. Reichardt and that those who believe the Bible is believers decreasingly accept human it. My only point of contention is Saari offer standard explanations the word of God tend to matriculate evolution as education increases (ex- their use of the word believe. The for this effect including belief to religious schools more than to sec- cept to the extent their explanations scientific community, and espe- strength, confirmation bias, need ular schools that, as years of educa- incorporate something akin to An- cially SI, must be in the forefront for consistency, and over confi- tion increase, strengthen their beliefs derson’s and Janas’s—and that may of changing the language from dence. in both the Bible and creationism. be what they intend). “believe” to “accept.” Evolution is Lately, I have been reformu- Second, both Briggs and Cullison Szimhart suggests the Bible-be- not a belief system; it is a scientific lating what it is that draws people hypothesize that increasing years liever effect is the “result of social fact, and we must always present to absolute faith claims and I find of education in secular institutions influences surrounding the certainty it as such. Using “believe” allows that it is not faith at all. The Bi- causes the least committed Bible to knowledge that something is true.” room for the unscientific to “teach ble-believer’s effect is the result of believers to abandon their beliefs Given that the proportion of Bible the controversy,” even when we social influences surrounding the in both the Bible and creationism, believers shrinks dramatically with

64 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer education, perhaps shrinking group I consider myself so lucky for many reports in the national press questions are usually written by so- size increases group cohesion thereby knowing of such a great man, as- in India have mentioned his asso- called educators who don’t have increasing social influences within tronomer, and public person who ciation with CSI. a clue as to what’s being taught the group, which might explain the had so many skills . . . like Carl You might also be aware of at each grade level. Michigan, my Bible-believer effect. But we inter- Sagan. For me, Carl is my hero! similar deeds that have been per- home state, had a test known as pret Szimhart’s main point to be I have others: Richard Dawkins, petuated on Prof. Humayan Azad the MEAP. The science portion the interesting hypothesis that beliefs James Randi, Isaac Asimov, Mar- (2004) and Rajiib Haider (2013) of the test (the part I’m most fa- are particularly difficult to change tin Gardner, Victor J. Stenger, in Bangladesh. In February, miliar with) was written by the when they derive from gnosis, and Paul Kurtz, Steven Weinberg, closer to home, another atheist following: three college professors not just from faith or reason. That Stephen Jay Gould, Susan Black- named Govind Pansare was shot (sorry, I don’t remember the disci- most of Szimhart’s clients for inter- more, Daniel Dennett, Lawrence (he passed away a few days later) plines), three superintendents, five vention “have had higher than av- M. Krauss, Elizabeth Loftus, with his wife, much like the ratio- principals, three special education erage education” is consistent with Joe Nickell, Steven Novella, nalist Dr. Dabholkar. teachers, one Earth science teacher, our primary conclusion, assuming Phil Plait, Eugenie Scott, Seth After the latter incident, you one biology teacher, one chemistry those most likely to be the subject Shostak, Jill Tarter, E. O. Wilson were kind enough to feature teacher, and one physical science of outside interventions are those . . . and the list could go on—but my letter in SI questioning the teacher. I believe the idiom that whose beliefs are most difficult to my special one is still Carl. very concept and efficacy of the applies here is “too many chiefs change. So, thank you CSI! Thank World’s First Anti-Superstition and not enough Indians.” We are intrigued to learn from you skeptics, scientists, and phi- Law enacted in my state, featured At a meeting with one of the Lao that a Bible-believer type effect losophers. Thank you a lot for . . . with implied pride in SI. The directors of the program, I sug- might exist among those who deny everything! same state government today has gested that we canvas every teacher the efficacy of vaccines. But we got the assent from the president in the state at every grade level Dan Rãu of India, for a legislation banning don’t agree with Orser’s suggestion [email protected] (and discipline) to find out what that “accept” be substituted for “be- cow-slaughter in the state. An act is being taught. After these results brought about to pander to “sup- lieve” because we are skeptical such Africa’s Satanic Panic were correlated, we’d send out a a substitution would make human posed” Hindu theology. Consis- flyer to each teacher who partici- evolution any more acceptable to In reference to “Africa’s Satanic tency for any rational thought/ pated to ask them to come up with non-accepters. Panic” (March/April 2015), I action demonstrated more by its questions for the actual test and Even when we don’t completely draw your attention to a 2011 absence? send them to the MEAP at either All that has followed, in- agree, we found all the letters (both film called The Witches of Gam- $25 or $50 per question. Payment cluding Avijit’s assassination, published and unpublished) to be baga about women accused of would be made on a first-come, bears out my skeptical stance, ad- thought provoking, and we thank witchcraft and expelled from their first-served basis. Almost everyone mittedly on an anecdotal level, of their authors for sharing their views. communities. It is sensitively in the science department thought done and takes place in Ghana. any state legislation being an effi- it was a great idea. Two people They are women who are de- cacious avenue for treading on a did not: my department chair- nounced by rivals and driven out rational path. Every time all such Thank You, SI! man (who basically reamed out by force. Their families are un- acts, as well as equally deplorable First of all, I want to thank you able or unwilling to protect them. ones of rape, torture, and slavery, my derriere later) and the director for just being there and for stand- There is a town, Gambaga, that are followed by blandishments by of the program, who, basically, ing up when others just sit down. will take them in, which is said the State machinery (the police thought the idea was stupid. Until It’s a great pleasure to read to be protected from witchcraft, and the judiciary) saying they test makers start talking to people all your articles and get in touch but the leader of this community will not let the perpetrators get in the trenches, educational pro- with such great people who ad- makes a handsome profit by forc- away. The dismal apprehension grams/tests will be nothing more mire just nature (the universe) ing the women or their families and conviction rate in these and than a variation of the same. itself, the world as it is . . . and to pay rent or work for him, etc., all other cases in Indian courts in- Walter Duda not any “supernatural” things. for him to protect them. Not dicate an abject failure on the part Redford, Michigan Those who make things simpler all the chiefs buy into this logic, of the State to protect individuals, than trying to make them more nor does the narrator, but she specifically if their thinking falls complicated. points out that the women have outside the accepted norm. I had been a religious guy few means of protection. It’s an [FEEDBACK (praying before going to bed at excellent documentary for under- Aarmin Banaji night, going from time to time to graduates. Nagpur, India The letters column is a forum on mat- church . . .) until Friedrich Ni- ters raised in previous issues. Letters Carol Hayman etzsche made me became so criti- Educational Reforms should be no longer than 225 words. Professor of Anthropology cal about religious claims. Then I Due to the volume of letters we receive, Austin Community In regard to Dale DeBaksy’s arti- moved to UFOs, ETs, astrology, not all can be published. Send letters College cle “In Defense of Useless Math” telekinesis, telepathy, and many as email text (not attachments) to Austin, Texas (January/February 2015)—I’m [email protected]. In the subject line, other kinds of nonsense . . . I was a retired science/math teacher especially fascinated about the ET provide your surname and informative with thirty-three years of teaching identification, e.g.: “Smith Letter on idea—but just for a while because experience. I taught everything Jones evolution art icle.” In clude your something extraordinary had Murder of Avijit Roy from seventh grade remedial math name and ad dress at the end of the let- happened: Carl Sagan’s Broca’s through Advanced Placement ter. You may also mail your letter to the Brain came into my hands—and Through you I extend my con- physics. The problem with inno- editor to 944 Deer Dr. NE, Albuquerque, I have to say I didn’t stop read- dolences and sympathy to family, vative educational ideas (No Child NM 87122. ing until I finished it. That book friends, and associates of Avijit Left Behind, Common Core, changed me forever! Roy. After his despicable murder, etc.) is that the actual programs/ Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2015 65 [ THE LAST LAUGH BENJAMIN RADFORD, EDITOR

SKEPTICAL ANNIVERSARIES by Tim Farley

July 10–21, 1925: The Scopes “Monkey Trial” takes place in Dayton, Tennessee.

July 17, 1985: A judge voids a $39 million fraud verdict against Scientology after thousands of church members had protested outside the courthouse in Portland, Oregon.

July 29, 1955: Peter McNab shoots a photo of the Loch Ness monster near Urquhart Castle. It became well known but was later found to have been doctored.

August 7–11, 1995: Madelyne Tolentino reports the rst eyewitness sighting of a chupacabra in Puerto Rico. Ben Radford later showed she was remembering the creature from the movie Species, which she had recently seen.

August 9, 1890: An article titled “It Is Only Hypnotism” in the Chicago Daily Tribune describes what is now known as the Indian Rope Trick. The article was later admitted as a hoax, but the legend of the trick lives on.

August 10, 1950: At one of the rst large public demonstrations of Dianetics, the worlds rst “Clear” (Sonya Bianca) is unable to perform simple tests in front of an audience in Los Angeles.

August 11, 1920: Charles Ponzi’s fraudulent investment scheme crashes and he is arrested the next day. “Ponzi scheme” has been used as a synonym for pyramid scheme ever since.

August 11, 1980: TV host Don Lane storms o the set of his own program on Australian TV after getting angry at James Randi over the abilities of psychic Doris Stokes.

August 21, 1955: The Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter (aka the Hopkin Green Men case), an alleged close encounter with aliens, takes place in Kentucky.

August 24, 1930: After the birth of Princess Margaret, a London newspaper has an astrologer write her horoscope. It is so popular with readers it becomes a regular feature, and competing newspapers follow suit.

Tim Farley is the creator of the website whatstheharm.net and blogs at skeptools.com. He is a past fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation.

66 Volume 39 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Scientific and Technical Consultants CENTERS FOR INQUIRY www.centerforinquiry.net/about/branches Gary Bauslaugh, prof. of behavioral studies in Loma Linda Univ., School of Public Health Daisie Radner, writer and editor, education, Oklahoma City Univ. prof. of philosophy, SUNY Buffalo I.W. Kelly, Victoria, B.C., Canada TRANSNATIONAL John F. Fischer, prof. of psychology, Univ. of Saskatch ewan, Robert H. Romer, 3965 Rensch Road, Amherst, NY 14228 Richard E. Berendzen, forensic analyst, Orlando, FL Canada prof. of physics, Amherst College Tel.: (716) 636-4869 astronomer, Washington, DC Eileen Gambrill, Richard H. Lange, Karl Sabbagh, AUSTIN Martin Bridgstock, prof. of social welfare, MD, Mohawk Valley Physician journalist, Richmond, Surrey, England PO Box 202164, Austin, TX 78720-2164 senior lecturer, School of Science, Univ. of California at Berkeley Health Plan, Schenectady, NY Tel.: (512) 919-4115 Robert J. Samp, Griffith Univ., Brisbane, Australia CHICAGO Luis Alfonso Gámez, William M. London, assistant prof. of education and science journalist, Bilbao, Spain [email protected] Richard Busch, California State Univ., Los Angeles medicine, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison magician/mentalist, Pittsburgh, PA INDIANAPOLIS Sylvio Garattini, Rebecca Long, Steven D. Schafersman, 350 Canal Walk, Suite A, Indianapolis, IN 46202 Shawn Carlson, director, Mario Negri Pharma cology nuclear engineer, president of Geor gia asst. prof. of geology, Miami Univ., OH Society for Amateur Scientists, Institute, Milan, Italy Council Against Health Fraud, Atlanta, GA Tel.: (317) 423-0710 LOS ANGELES East Greenwich, RI Laurie Godfrey, Chris Scott, Thomas R. McDonough, 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90027 Roger B. Culver, anthropologist, Univ. of Massachusetts statistician, London, England astrophysicist, Pasadena, CA Tel.: (323) 666-9797 prof. of astronomy, Colorado State Univ. Stuart D. Scott Jr., Gerald Goldin, James E. McGaha, MICHIGAN associate prof. of anthropology, Felix Ares de Blas, mathematician, Rutgers Univ., NJ astronomer, USAF pilot (ret.) 3777 44th Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49512 prof. of computer science, SUNY Buffalo Donald Goldsmith, Joel A. Moskowitz, Tel.: (616) 698-2342 Univ. of Basque, San Sebastian, Spain astronomer; president, Interstellar Media director of medical psychiatry, Calabasas Erwin M. Segal, NEW YORK CITY J. Dommanget, Alan Hale, Mental Health Services, Los Angeles prof. of psychology, SUNY Buffalo 33-29 28th St. Astoria, NY 11106 astronomer, Royale Observatory, astronomer, Southwest Institute for Space Matthew C. Nisbet, Carla Selby, SAN FRANCISCO Brussels, Belgium Research, Alamogordo, NM associate professor of communication anthropologist /archaeologist email: [email protected] Nahum J. Duker, TAMPA BAY Clyde F. Herreid, studies, public policy, and urban affairs at Steven N. Shore, assistant prof. of pathology, Northeastern University 4011 S. Manhattan Ave. #139, Tampa, FL 33611-1277 prof. of biology, SUNY Buffalo prof. of astrophysics, Univ. of Pisa, Italy Temple Univ. Tel.: (813) 505-7013 Sharon Hill, John W. Patterson, Waclaw Szybalski, WASHINGTON, DC Taner Edis, geologist, writer, researcher, creator and prof. of materials science and professor, McArdle Laboratory, Univ. Division of Science/Physics editor of the Doubful News blog en gineering, Iowa State Univ. 1020 19th Street., NW, Suite 425 Truman State Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison Washington, DC 20036 Michael Hutchinson, James R. Pomerantz, Sarah G. Thomason, tel.: (202) 629-2403 Barbara Eisenstadt, author; SKEPTICAL INQUIRER prof. of psychology, Rice Univ. ARGENTINA psychologist, educator, clinician, prof. of linguistics, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA representative, Europe Gary P. Posner, East Greenbush, NY Buenos Aires, Argentina Philip A. Ianna, MD, Tampa, FL Tim Trachet, [email protected] William Evans, journalist and science writer, honorary assoc. prof. of astronomy, Tim Printy, www.cfiargentina.org prof. of communication, Univ. of Virginia chairman of SKEPP, Belgium amateur astronomer, UFO skeptic, former CANADA Center for Creative Media William Jarvis, Navy nuclear reactor operator/division chief, David Willey, 55 Eglinton Ave. East, Suite 307 Bryan Farha, prof. of health promotion and public health, Manchester, NH physics instructor, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA Toronto, Ontario, M4P 1G8, Canada CHINA China Research Institute for Science Popularization, NO. 86, Xueyuan Nanlu Haidian Dist., Beijing, 100081 China Affiliated Organizations | United States Tel.: +86-10-62170515 EGYPT 44 Gol Gamal St., Agouza, Giza, Egypt FRANCE ALABAMA CONNECTICUT MINNESOTA Cleveland Skeptics Joshua Hunt, Alabama Skeptics, Alabama. Emory New England Skeptical Society (NESS) St. Kloud Extraordinary Claim Psychic Co-Organizer, www.clevelandskeptics.org Dr. Henri Broch, Universite of Nice, Faculte des Kimbrough. Tel.: 205-759-2624. 3550 New England. Steven Novella M.D., Presi- Teaching Investigating Community Sciences, Parc Valrose, 06108, Nice cedex 2, South Shore Skeptics (SSS) Cleveland Water melon Road, Apt. 28A, Northport, dent. Tel.: 203-281-6277; Email: board@ (SKEPTIC) St. Cloud, Minne sota. Jerry France Tel.: +33-492-07-63-12 and counties. Jim Kutz. Tel.: 440 942- AL 35476 theness.com. 64 Cobblestone Dr., Ham- Mertens. Tel.: 320-255-2138; Email: GERMANY 5543; Email: [email protected]. PO den, CT 06518 www.theness.com [email protected]. Jerry Mer- Arheilger Weg 11, 64380 Rossdorf, Germany ARIZONA Box 5083, Cleveland, OH 44101 www. tens, Psychology Department, 720 4th Tucson Skeptics Inc. Tucson, AZ. James D.C./MARYLAND southshoreskeptics.org Tel.: +49-6154-695023 Ave. S, St. Cloud State Univ., St. Cloud, Mc Gaha. Email:[email protected]. National Capital Area Skeptics NCAS, INDIA MN 56301 Association for Rational Thought (ART) 5100 N. Sabino Foot hills Dr., Tucson, Maryland, D.C., Virginia. D.W. “Chip” 46 Masi garh, New Friends Colony Cincinnati. Roy Auerbach, president. AZ 85715 Denman. Tel.: (240) 670-6227. Email: MISSOURI New Delhi 110025 Tel: (513)-731-2774, Email: raa@cinci. [email protected]. PO Box 8461, Silver Spring, Skeptical Society of St. Louis (SSSL) Phoenix Area Skeptics Society (PASS) rr.com. PO Box 12896, Cin cinnati, OH Tel.: 91-9868010950 MD 20907-8428 http://www.ncas.org St. Louis, Missouri. Michael Blanford, http://phoenixskeptics.org 45212. www.cincinnati skeptics.org LONDON President. Email: [email protected]. Email: [email protected] FLORIDA Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, 2729 Ann Ave., St. Louis, MO 63104 OREGON Tampa Bay Skeptics (TBS) Tampa Bay, London WC1R 4RL, England Phoenix Skeptics, Phoenix, AZ. Michael www.skepticalstl.org Oregonians for Science and Reason Florida. Gary Posner, Executive Director. EPAL Stack pole, P.O. Box 60333, Phoenix, (O4SR) Oregon. Jeanine DeNoma, N Tel.: 813-505-7013; Email: St. Joseph Skeptics AZ 85082 president. Tel.: (541) 745-5026; Email: Humanist Association of Nepal, [email protected]. c/o O’Keefe, P.O. Box 8908 [email protected]; 39105 Military Rd., PO Box 5284, Kathmandu Nepal CALIFORNIA 4011 S. Manhattan Ave. #139, Tampa, St. Joseph MO, 64508-8908 Monmouth, OR 97361. www.04SR.org Tel.: +977-1-4413-345 Sacramento Organization for Rational FL 33611-1277. www.tampabayskept NEVADA NEW ZEALAND Thinking (SORT) Sacramento, CA. Ray PENNSYLVANIA ics.org Reno Skeptical Society, Inc., Spangenburg, co-founder. Tel.: 916-978- Philadelphia Association for Critical email: [email protected] ILLINOIS Brad Lutts, President. 0321; Email: [email protected]. PO Box Think ing (PhACT), Bob Glickman Pres- NIGERIA Rational Examination Association Tel.: (775) 335-5505; 2215, Carmichael, CA 95609-2215 http:// ident. 653 Garden Road Glenside PA PO Box 25269, Mapo, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria of Lincoln Land (REALL) Illinois. Bob Email: [email protected]. 18124 home.comcast.net/~kitray2/site/ 19038. 215-885-2089 E-mail: Presi- Tel.: +234-2-2313699 Ladendorf, Chairman. Tel.: 217-546- Wedge Parkway #1052 Reno, Nevada [email protected]. Website: www.phact.org Bay Area Skeptics (BAS) San Fran- 3475; Email: [email protected]. PO 89511. www.RenoSkeptics.org PERU cisco—Bay Area. Eugenie C. Scott, TENNESSEE D. Casanova 430, Lima 14, Peru Box 20302, Springfield, IL 62708 www. NEW MEXICO President. 1218 Miluia St., Berkeley, CA Rationalists of East Tennessee, East email: [email protected] reall.org New Mexicans for Science and Reason 94709. Email: [email protected]. www. Ten nessee. Carl Ledenbecker. Tel.: POLAND Chicago Skeptics Jennifer Newport, (NMSR) New Mexico. David E. Thomas, BASkeptics.org (865)-982-8687; Email: Aletall@aol. Lokal Biurowy No. 8, 8 Sapiezynska Sr., contact person. Email: chicagoskeptics@ President. Tel.: 505-869-9250; Email: com. 2123 Stony brook Rd., Louis ville, Independent Investigations Group (IIG), gmail.com. www.chicagoskeptics.com [email protected]. PO Box 1017, 00-215, Warsaw, Poland TN 37777 Center for Inquiry–Los Angeles, 4773 Peralta, NM 87042. www.nmsr.org ROMANIA LOUISIANA Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027. TEXAS Fundatia Centrul pentru Constiinta Critica Baton Rouge Proponents of Rational NEW YORK Tel.: 323-666-9797. www.iighq.com North Texas Skeptics NTS Dallas/Ft Tel.: (40)-(O)744-67-67-94 Inquiry and Scientific Methods New York City Skeptics Michael Feldman, Worth area, John Blanton, Secretary. The James Randi Educational (BR-PRISM) Louisiana. Marge Schroth. president. PO Box 5122 New York, NY email: [email protected] Tel.: (972)-306-3187; Email: skeptic@ Foun dation. James Randi, Director. Tel: Tel.: 225-766-4747. 425 Carriage Way, 10185. www.nycskeptics.org RUSSIA ntskeptics.org. PO Box 111794, Carroll- (213)293-3092; Email [email protected]. Baton Rouge, LA 70808 Dr. Valerii A. Kuvakin, 119899 Russia, Moscow, Vo- 7095 Hollywood Blvd. No.1170, Los Central New York Skeptics (CNY Skeptics) ton, TX 75011-1794. www.ntskeptics.org robevy Gory, Moscow State Univ., MICHIGAN Angeles, CA 90028. www.randi.org Syracuse. Lisa Goodlin, President. Tel: VIRGINIA Great Lakes Skeptics (GLS) SE Michi- Philosophy Department (315) 636-6533; Email: info@cnyskeptics. Science & Reason, Hampton Rds., Sacramento Skeptics Society, Sacra- gan. Lorna J. Simmons, Contact person. SENEGAL org, cnyskeptics.org PO Box 417, Fayett- Virginia. Lawrence Weinstein, Old mento. Terry Sandbek, President. 4300 Tel.: 734-525-5731; Email: Skeptic31 PO Box 15376, Dakar – Fann, Senegal ville, NY 13066 Dominion Univ.-Physics Dept., Norfolk, Auburn Blvd. Suite 206, Sacramento CA @aol.com. 31710 Cowan Road, Apt. Tel.: +221-501-13-00 VA 23529 95841. Tel.: 916 489-1774. Email: terry@ 103, West land, MI 48185-2366 OHIO sandbek.com Central Ohioans for Rational Inquiry WASHINGTON Tri-Cities Skeptics, Michi gan. Gary (CORI) Central Ohio. Charlie Hazlett, San Diego Asso ciation for Rational Inquiry Seattle Skeptics Barker. Tel.: 517-799-4502; Email: bark- President. Tel.: 614-878-2742; Email: (SDARI) President: Tom Pickett. Email: www.seattleskeptics.com [email protected]. 3596 Butternut St., [email protected]. PO Box 282069, [email protected]. Program/ Saginaw, MI 48604 Columbus, OH 43228 general information 619-421-5844. www.sdari.org. Postal ad dress: PO Box 623, La Jolla, CA 92038-0623

C Y E The organizations listed above have aims similar to those of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry but are independent and autonomous. N I R T U E Q Representatives of these organizations cannot speak on behalf of CSI. Please send updates to Barry Karr, P.O. Box 703, Amherst NY 14226-0703. R F O R I N International affiliated organizations listed at www.csicop.org.

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