EDITOR'S NOTE TH[ MAGAZINE *OB SCIENCE AND REASON

EDITOR Kendrick Frazier The Face of Evil EDITORIAL BOARD James E. Akock Barry Beyerstein write only a week after the terrible terrorist attacks on the World Trade Thomas Casten Center towers and the Pentagon. The evil of these acts is almost too much Martin Gardner I Ray Hyman to comprehend. We deal in these pages regularly with, among other things, the Lawrence Jones by-products of unreason, irrationality, ignorance, intolerance, deceit, and dog­ Philip J. Klass Paul Kurtz matism. We occasionally examine issues surrounding extreme religious beliefs. Here all this and the worst political and cultural extremism were combined in Lee Nisbet Amardeo Sarma a violent mix of hatred and cold, calculated conception. Where can we find Bela Scheiber solace? In all the highest manifestations of the human spirit that we have since Eugenie Scott CONSULTING EDITORS seen demonstrated. Where can we find understanding? I don't know. I recall Robert A. Baker Jacob Bronowski, in The Ascent of Man, reaching into die mud and ashes of Susan J. Blackmore John R. Cole Auschwitz, where evil was manifest in die twentieth century, and telling us, Kenneth L. Feder "That was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. C. E. M. Hansel E. C. Krupp It was done by ignorance." And, in both cases too, it was done by hate. Scott O. Lilienfeld * * • David F. Marks James E. Oberg It may be awhile before the entertainment media and the promot­ Robert Sheaffer David E. Thomas ers get back to their old topics with the same force. But you can bet they will. Richard Wiseman One of die pre-attack hot topics was the and paranormal bunk of MANAGING EDnOR Benjamin Radford and other media-sawy people who claim they can communicate ART DIRECTOR with the dead. In this issue, we critique this modern-day mcdiumistic spiritu­ Lisa A. Hutter alism from two directions. PRODUCTION Paul Loynes One is a scientific critique by Richard Wiseman and Ciaran O'Keeffe of a Jason Mussachio widely reported published paper by Gary Schwartz and colleagues. Schwartz et CARTOONIST al. reported two studies this year they said showed that mediums appeared to Rob Pudim WEB PAGE DESIGNER produce accurate information about the deceased under conditions the authors Patrick Fitzgerald

said "eliminate the factors of fraud, error, and statistical coincidence." PUBLISHER S REPRESENTATIVE Wiseman and O'Keeffe find serious flaws in the experiments. The researchers did not employ blind judging, they used an inappropriate control group, and CORPORATE COUNSEL Brenton N. VerPloeg they did not have sufficient safeguards against sensory leakage. They say it is BUSINESS MANAGER impossible to use these studies as evidence of mediumistic ability. Sandra Lesniak The other is a fine report by our knowledgeable Investigative Files colum­ FISCAL OFFICER Paul Paulin nist Joe Nickell, "John Edward: Hustling the Bereaved." Joe shows how the CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER modern-day spiritualism of John Edward (one of the five mediums Schwartz Arthur Urrows DEVELOPMENT OFFICER et al. claimed fared well in their tests), , Sylvia Browne, and James Kimberly others compares with the long-discredited nineteenth century seance-type spir­ CHIEF DATA OFFICER itualists that Houdini and others exposed. Joe finds it very useful to show evi­ Michael Cione STAFF dence of the actual methods these modern-era TV mediums use. He describes Patricia Beauchamp some of their techniques, including , "hot reading" (getting infor­ Darlene Banks Jodi Chapman mation in advance), inflating "hits," ignoring or reinterpreting misses, and Allison Cossitt even browbeating sitters into dunking a miss is their fault. He also reports on Jennifer Miller Matthew Nisbet one clear example of out-and-out cheating. Heidi Sander Ranjit Sandhu Anthony Santa Lucia We conclude our 25th anniversary observance in this issue with articles by Lee John Sullivan Vance Vigrass Nisbet and Barry Karr and a selection of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER covers from this PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR fast-moving past quarter century. Kevin Christopher INQUIRY MEDIA PRODUCTIONS Thomas Flynn DIRECTOR OF UBRARIES Timothy S. Binga ^^-^X~~J4C The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is the official journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, an international organization.

4 November/December 2001 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER