DOCSLIB.ORG

John Edward: Hustling the Bereaved

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
John Edward: Hustling the Bereaved INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL John Edward: Hustling the Bereaved uperstar "psychic medium" John by a local printer. He visited dieir spook The great magician Harry Houdini Edward is a stand-up guy. Unlike show and volunteered as part of an audi- (1874—1926) crusaded against phony the spiritualists of yore, who typi- ence committee to help secure the two spiritualists, seeking out elderly mediums S mediums. He took that opportunity to who taught him the tricks of die trade. cally plied their trade in dark-room seances, Edward and his ilk often per- secretly place some printer's ink on the For example, while sitters touched hands form before live audiences and even neck of a violin, and after the seance one around die seance table, mediums had under the glare of TV lights. Indeed, of the duo had his shoulder smeared with clever ways of gaining die use of one Edward (a pseudonym: he was born John the black substance (Nickell 1999). hand. (One method was to slowly move MaGee Jr.) has his own popular show on the hands close togedier so diat die fin- die SciFi channel called Crossing Over, gers of one could be substituted for those "which has gone into national syndication JOHN EDWARD of die other.) This allowed die production (Barrett 2001; Mui 2001). I was asked by of special effects, such as causing a tin television newsmagazine Dateline NBC trumpet to appear to be levitating. to study Edward's act: was he really talk- Houdini gave public demonstrations of ing to the dead? HI the deceptions. "Do Spirits Return?" asked one of his posters. "Houdini Says The Old Spiritualism The No—and Proves It" (Gibson 1977, 157). Todays spiritualism traces its roots to Continuing die tradition, I have inves- 1848 and the schoolgirl antics of the Stories tigated various mediums, sometimes Fox sisters, Maggie and Katie. They Behind attending seances undercover and once seemed to communicate with the ghost obtaining police warrants against a fraud- of a murdered peddler by means of mys- the ulent medium from die notorious Camp terious rapping sounds. Four decades Stories Chesterfield spiritualist center in Indiana later the foxy sisters confessed how diey (Nickell 1998). The camp is the subject of had produced the noises by trickery die book Tlje Psychic Mafia, written by a (Nickell 1994), but meanwhile others former medium who recanted and discovered they too could be "mediums" revealed the tricks of floating trumpets (those who supposedly communicate (with disembodied voices), ghostly appari- with the dead). tions, materializing "apports," and odier The "spiritualism" craze spread across In Boston, while photographer fake phenomena (Keene 1976)—some of the United States, Europe, and beyond. William H. Mumler was recycling some which I have also witnessed firsthand. In darkened seance rooms, lecture halls, glass photographic plates, he acciden- and theaters, various "spirit" phenomena tally obtained faint images of previous Mental Mediumship occurred. The Davenport Brothers con- sitters. He soon adapted the technique The new breed of spiritualists—like jured up spirit entities to play musical in- to producing "spirit extras" in photo- Edward, James Van Praagh, Rosemary struments while the two mediums were, graphs of his clients. But Mumler's scam apparently, securely tied in a special was revealed when some of his ethereal Joe Nickell is author of many books on the "spirit cabinet." Unfortunately the Dav- entities were recognized as living Boston paranormal, including Entities: Angels, enports were exposed many times, once residents (Nickell 1994). Spirits, Demons, and Other Alien Beings. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2001 19 Altea, Sylvia Browne, and George Margie, or some M-G-sounding name," dead rather than the living. Eventually he Anderson—avoid the physical approach and yet again heard from "either Ellen or changed his billing from "psychic" to with its risks of exposure and possible Helen, or Eleanore—it's like an Ellen- "psychic medium" (Edward 1999). The criminal charges. Instead they opt for sounding name." Gone is the clear- revised approach set him on the road to the comparatively safe "mental medi- speaking eloquence of yore; the dead stardom. In addition to his TV show, he umship" which involves the purported now seem to mumble. now commands hundreds of dollars for a use of psychic ability to obtain messages The spirits also seemingly commu- private reading and is booked two years from the spirit realm. nicate to Edward et al. as if they were in advance (Mui 2001). This is not a new approach, since engaging in pantomime. As Edward mediums have long done readings for said of one alleged spirit communi- "Hot Reading" their credulous clients. In the early days cant, in a Dateline session: "He's point- Although cold reading is the main tech- they exhibited "the classic form of ing to his head; something had to nique of the new spiritualists, they can trance mediumship, as practiced by affect the mind or the head, from what also employ "hot" reading on occasion. shamans and oracles," giving spoken he's showing me." No longer, appar- Houdini (1924) exposed many of these "'spirit messages' that ranged all the way ently, can the dead speak in flowing information-gathering techniques in- from personal (and sometimes strik- Victorian sentences, but instead are cluding using planted microphones to ingly accurate) trivia to hours-long pub- reduced to gestures, as if playing a listen in on clients as they gathered in lic trance-lectures on subjects of the game of charades. the mediums' anterooms—a technique deepest philosophical and religious One suspects, of course, that it is not Houdini himself used to impress visi- import" (McHargue 1972). the imagined spirits who have changed tors with his "telepathy" (Gibson 1976, Some mediums produced "automat- but rather the approach today's medi- 13). Reformed medium M. Lamar ic" or "trance" or "spirit" writing, which ums have chosen to employ. It is, Keene's The Psychic Mafia (1976) the entities supposedly dictated to the indeed, a shrewd technique known as describes such methods as conducting medium or produced by guiding his or "cold reading"—so named because the advance research on clients, sharing her hand. Such writings could be in subject walks in "cold"; that is, the other mediums' files (what Keene terms flowery language indeed, as in this medium lacks advance information "mediumistic espionage"), noting excerpt from one spirit writing in my about the person (Gresham 1953). It is casual remarks made in conversation collection: an artful method of gleaning informa- before a reading, and so on. Oh my Brother—I am so glad to be tion from the sitter, then feeding it back An article in Time magazine suggest- able to come here with you and hold as mystical revelation. ed John Edward may have used just such sweet communion for it has been a The "psychic" can obtain clues by chicanery. One subject, a marketing long time since I have controlled this observing dress and body language (not- manager named Michael O'Neill had medium but I remember how well used I had become to her magne- ing expressions that indicate when one is received apparent messages from his tism!, | but we will soon get accus- on or off track), asking questions (which dead grandfather but, when his segment tomed to her again and then renew if cotrect will appear as "hits" but other- aired, he noted that it had been the pleasant times we used to have. I wise will seem innocent queries), and in- improved through editing. Accotding to want to assure you (hat we are all here with you this afternoon!—|Father[,] viting the subject to interpret the vague Time's Leon Jaroff (2001): Mother],| little Alice!—land so glad statements offered. For example, nearly Now suspicious, O'Neill recalled that to find it so well with you and we anyone can respond to die mention of a while the audience was waiting to be hope and feel dear Brother that you common object (like a ring or watch) seated, Edward's aides were scurrying have seen the darkest part of life and with a personal recollection that can seem about, striking up conversations and that times are not with you now as getting people to fill out cards with they have been .... to transform the mention into a hit. (For their name, family tree and other facts. more on cold reading see Gresham 1953; Once inside the auditorium, where and so on in this talkative fashion. Hyman 1977; Nickell 2000.) each family was directed to prcassigned scats, more than an hour passed before It should not be surprising that show time while "technical difficulties" "Cold Reading" Edward is skilled at cold reading, an old backstage were corrected. By contrast, today's spirits—whom John fortunetelling technique. His mother was Edward and his fellow mediums suppos- a "psychic junkie" who threw for- Edward has a policy of not respond- edly contact—seem to have poor memo- tunetelling "house parties," one of the ing to criticism, but the executive pro- ries and difficulty communicating. For alleged clairvoyants advising die then- ducer of Crossing Over insists: "No example, in one of his on-air stances (on fifteen-year-old that he had "wonderful information is given to John Edward Larry King Live, June 19, 1998), Edward psychic abilities." He began doing card about the members of the audience with said: "I feel like there's a J- or G-sound- readings for friends and family, dien pro- whom he talks. There is no eavesdrop- ing name attached to this." He also per- gressed to psychic fairs where he soon ping on gallery conversations, and there ceived "Linda or Lindy or Leslie; who's learned that names and other "validating are no 'tricks' to feed information to this L name?" Again, he got a "Maggie or information" sometimes applied to the John." He labeled the Time article "a 2 0 November/December 2001 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER mix of erroneous observations and base- through, what I see, hear and feel.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 20 Chapter Source Notes
    20. Saul Among The Prophets 1. pages 375-377. Atlantic City, New Jersey...finally contacted him. Our recreation was composited from several accounts including Harry Houdini, A Magician Among The Spirits (New York : Arno Press, 1972), 149-158; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Edge Of The Unknown (New York : G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1930), 33-36; and “Editorial Notes” by Houdini, MUM, May, 1923, p.165. 2. page 379. Arthur Conan Doyle was born.... Details on Conan Doyle’s early life as it relates to spiritualism can be found in Kelvin I. Jones, Conan Doyle And The Spirits (England: The Aquarian Press, 1989) and Bernard M.L. Ernst and Hereward Carrington, Houdini And Conan Doyle (New York : Albert and Charles Boni, Inc., 1932). 3. page 379. “showed me at last…” Doyle 1887 letter to spiritualist journal Light, cited in “The Man Who Believed In Fairies”, by Tom Huntington, Smithsonian, clipping in the archives of James Randi. 4. page 379. Lord Kitchener... Kelvin I. Jones, Conan Doyle And The Spirits (England: The Aquarian Press, 1989), 110. 5. page 379. It was his book...knighthood in 1902. Ibid, 95. 6. page 379. revived him when...collaboration between the two men. “Conan Doyle’s Collaborator”, The Washington Post, April 10, 1902. 7. page 380. died after a long bout of tuberculosis... Kelvin I. Jones, Conan Doyle And The Spirits (England : The Aquarian Press, 1989), 100. 8. page 380. married Jean Leckie... Ibid. 9. page 380. Jean’s friend Lily Loder-Symonds... Ibid, 110-112. 10. page 380. “Where were they?…signals.” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The New Revelation, 1917, 10-11.
    [Show full text]
  • June 12-13, 2015 • at Auction Haversat & Ewing Galleries, LLC
    June 12-13, 2015 • At Auction haversat & ewing galleries, LLC. Magicfrom the ED HILL COLLECTION Rare Books Houdini Ephemera haversat Photographs Apparatus • Postcards &Ewing Unique Correspondence haversat Galleries, LLC. &Ewing PO Box 1078 - Yardley, PA 19067-3434 Galleries, LLC. www.haversatewing.com Auction Catalog: www.haversatewing.com haversat Haversat & Ewing Galleries, LLC. &Ewing Galleries,Magic Collectibles Auction LLC. AUCTION Saturday, November 15, 2014 -11:00 AM AuctionSign-up to bid June at: www.haversatewing.com 12-13, 2015 Active bidding on all lots begin at 11:00 AM EST- Friday, June 12, 2015 First lot closes Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 PM EST. Sign-up to bid at: www.haversatewing.com HAVERSAT & EWING GALLERIES, LLC PO POBox BOX 1078 1078 - Yardley,- YARDLEY, PA PA 19067-3434 19067-3434 www.haversatewing.comWWW.HAVERSATEWING.COM A True Story: Back when Ed started collecting he befriended H. Adrian Smith, then current Dean of the Society of American Magicians. At the time, Harold as he was known to his friends, had the largest magic library in the world. Often Harold was a dinner guest at our house and as usual after our meal “the boys” would discuss magic and collecting. Harold’s plan for his books and ephemera was to donate it all to his alma mater, Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. As we all know that’s what happened to his collection. Ed on the other hand disagreed with Harold’s plan and said that when the time came for him to dissolve his library he wanted everything to be sold; so that other collectors could enjoy what he had amassed.
    [Show full text]
  • {PDF EPUB} Astrology Through a Psychic's Eyes by Sylvia Browne Browne, Sylvia
    Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Astrology Through a Psychic's Eyes by Sylvia Browne Browne, Sylvia. American professional psychic, gifted all her life and founder of Nirvana Foundation for Psychic Research in 1974. In her interesting autobiography, Sylvia tells of her lifelong association with her spirit guide, Francine, a South American Indian entity who first took over the girl's body when she was eight. Born with a caul over her face and head, Sylvia came naturally into her gift from a family background of prescience. When she was three, she informed her folks that her sister would be born in three years (as she was) and at five, began to foresee deaths and events that were frightening to a child. Her grandmother, Ada Coil, reassured her that it was a natural gift, and taught her psychic etiquette, such as not babbling inappropriately that her dad was going out to see a girlfriend. At eight, Sylvia became clairvoyant and clairaudient, seeing Francine, and becoming prophetic about future events. She learned to tell people of their mission and soul-work, themes and patterns, but was never able to see her own future. Often flip, funny and down to earth, the sparkling redhead learned to be an entertaining lecturer and was a popular TV guest, a particular favorite of Montel Williams. On 7/13/1954, her beloved Grandma Ada died, followed a few days later by her uncle. Sylvia went to college, majoring in education and planning to teach. She was engaged for four years but at 19, crashed into love with a man who did not mention his wife and two kids.
    [Show full text]
  • The Heritage of Non-Theistic Belief in China
    The Heritage of Non-theistic Belief in China Joseph A. Adler Kenyon College Presented to the international conference, "Toward a Reasonable World: The Heritage of Western Humanism, Skepticism, and Freethought" (San Diego, September 2011) Naturalism and humanism have long histories in China, side-by-side with a long history of theistic belief. In this paper I will first sketch the early naturalistic and humanistic traditions in Chinese thought. I will then focus on the synthesis of these perspectives in Neo-Confucian religious thought. I will argue that these forms of non-theistic belief should be considered aspects of Chinese religion, not a separate realm of philosophy. Confucianism, in other words, is a fully religious humanism, not a "secular humanism." The religion of China has traditionally been characterized as having three major strands, the "three religions" (literally "three teachings" or san jiao) of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Buddhism, of course, originated in India in the 5th century BCE and first began to take root in China in the 1st century CE, so in terms of early Chinese thought it is something of a latecomer. Confucianism and Daoism began to take shape between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE. But these traditions developed in the context of Chinese "popular religion" (also called folk religion or local religion), which may be considered a fourth strand of Chinese religion. And until the early 20th century there was yet a fifth: state religion, or the "state cult," which had close relations very early with both Daoism and Confucianism, but after the 2nd century BCE became associated primarily (but loosely) with Confucianism.
    [Show full text]
  • Psychic’ Sally Morgan Scuffles with Toward a Cognitive Psychology U.K
    Science & Skepticism | Randi’s Escape Part II | Martin Gardner | Monster Catfish? | Trent UFO Photos the Magazine for Science and Reason Vol. 39 No. 1 | January/February 2015 Why the Supernatural? Why Conspiracy Ideas? Modern Geocentrism: Pseudoscience in Astronomy Flaw and Order: Criminal Profiling Sylvia Browne’s Art and Science FBI File More Witch Hunt Murders INTRODUCTORY PRICE U.S. and Canada $4.95 Published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry C I 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 www.csicop.org James E. Al cock*, psy chol o gist, York Univ., Tor on to David H. Gorski, cancer surgeon and re searcher at Astronomy and director of the Hopkins Mar cia An gell, MD, former ed i tor-in-chief, Barbara Ann Kar manos Cancer Institute and chief Observatory, Williams College New Eng land Jour nal of Med i cine of breast surgery section, Wayne State University John Pau los, math e ma ti cian, Tem ple Univ. School of Medicine. Kimball Atwood IV, MD, physician; author; Clifford A. Pickover, scientist, au thor, editor, Newton, MA Wendy M. Grossman, writer; founder and first editor, IBM T.J. Watson Re search Center. Steph en Bar rett, MD, psy chi a trist; au thor; con sum er The Skeptic magazine (UK) Massimo Pigliucci, professor of philosophy, ad vo cate, Al len town, PA Sus an Haack, Coop er Sen ior Schol ar in Arts and City Univ.
    [Show full text]
  • Gardner on Exorcisms • Creationism and 'Rare Earth' • When Scientific Evidence Is the Enemy
    GARDNER ON EXORCISMS • CREATIONISM AND 'RARE EARTH' • WHEN SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE IS THE ENEMY THE MAGAZINE FOR SCIENCE AND REASON Volume 25, No. 6 • November/December 2001 THE COMMITTEE FOR THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF CLAIMS OF THE PARANORMAL AT THE CENTER FOR INQUIRY-INTERNATIONAL (ADJACENT TO THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO) • AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION Paul Kurtz, Chairman; professor emeritus of philosophy. State University of New York at Buffalo Barry Karr, Executive Director Joe Nickell, Research Fellow Massimo Polidoro, Research Fellow Richard Wiseman, Research Fellow Lee Nisbet, Special Projects Director FELLOWS James E. Alcock,* psychologist. York Univ., Susan Haack, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts Loren Pankratz, psychologist. Oregon Health Toronto and Sciences, prof, of philosophy. University Sciences Univ. Jerry Andrus, magician and inventor, Albany, of Miami John Paulos, mathematician. Temple Univ. Oregon C. E. M. Hansel, psychologist. Univ. of Wales Steven Pinker, cognitive scientist. MIT Marcia Angell, M.D.. former editor-in-chief, Al Hibbs, scientist. Jet Propulsion Laboratory Massimo Polidoro, science writer, author, New England Journal of Medicine Douglas Hofstadter, professor of human under­ executive director CICAP, Italy Robert A. Baker, psychologist. Univ. of standing and cognitive science, Indiana Univ. Milton Rosenberg, psychologist, Univ. of Kentucky Gerald Holton, Mallinckrodt Professor of Chicago Stephen Barrett M.D., psychiatrist, author, Physics and professor of history of science. Wallace Sampson, M.D., clinical professor of consumer advocate, Allentown, Pa. Harvard Univ. Barry Beyerstein,* biopsychologist. Simon Ray Hyman,* psychologist. Univ. of Oregon medicine, Stanford Univ., editor. Scientific Fraser Univ.. Vancouver, B.C., Canada Leon Jaroff, sciences editor emeritus, Time Review of Alternative Medicine Irving Biederman, psychologist Univ.
    [Show full text]
  • [803632C] [PDF] the Other Side and Back: a Psychic's Guide to Our World and Beyond Sylvia Browne, Lindsay Harrison
    [PDF] The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Sylvia Browne, Lindsay Harrison - pdf free book Free Download The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Ebooks Sylvia Browne, Lindsay Harrison, Read Online The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond E-Books, PDF The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Free Download, Download Free The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Book, Download Online The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Book, Download PDF The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond, read online free The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond, by Sylvia Browne, Lindsay Harrison pdf The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond, the book The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond, Sylvia Browne, Lindsay Harrison ebook The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond, Download pdf The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond, Download The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond E-Books, Read Best Book The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Online, Read The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Books Online Free, Read The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Full Collection, Read The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Ebook Download, Free Download The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Best Book, The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Read Download, The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Full Download, Free Download The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Books [E-BOOK] The Other Side And Back: A Psychic's Guide To Our World And Beyond Full eBook, CLICK TO DOWNLOAD Keep on reading.
    [Show full text]
  • The Skeptic Contents Vol 25, No 1 Autumn 2005 ISSN 0726-9897 Regulars
    the Skeptic Contents Vol 25, No 1 Autumn 2005 ISSN 0726-9897 Regulars Editor ♦ 3 – Editorial — Who to Blame?— Barry Williams Barry Williams ♦ 4 – Around the Traps — Bunyip ♦ 63 – Letters Contributing Editors ♦ 66 - Notices Tim Mendham Steve Roberts Technology Consultant Features Richard Saunders ♦ 6 - Facing Disasters — Rob Hardy Chief Investigator ♦ 8 - Communication Failure — Peter Bowditch Ian Bryce ♦ 10 - Much Ado ... — Sir Jim R Wallaby ♦ 11 - Nutrition Myth: Artificial Sweeteners — Glenn Cardwell All correspondence to: ♦ 14 - The Psychic Skeptic Pt 2 — Karen Stollznow Australian Skeptics Inc ♦ 19 - Pestiferous Laws — Colin Keay PO Box 268 ♦ Roseville NSW 2069 21 - Sensing Nothing — Christopher Short Australia ♦ 23 - Psychics Dealt Out — Anon (ABN 90 613 095 379 ) ♦ 28 - One Strange Brotherhood — Brian Baxter ♦ 32 - The Skeptical Potter — Daniel Stewart Contact Details ♦ 36 - Escaping the Gravitational Pull of the Gospels — David Lewis Tel: (02) 9417 2071 ♦ Fax: (02) 9417 7930 40 - Resting on Shaky Ground — Sue-Ann Post new e-mail: [email protected] ♦ 43 - The Good Word: Language Lapses — Mark Newbrook ♦ 46 - Review: An Amazing Journey — Rob Hardy Web Pages ♦ 48 - Review: Where Do We Go From Here? — Martin Hadley Australian Skeptics ♦ 49 - Review: Memoirs of a Country Doctor — Ros Fekitoa www.skeptics.com.au ♦ No Answers in Genesis 50 - Literature v Literalism — Peter Bowditch http://home.austarnet.com.au/stear/default.htm ♦ 51 - Feedback: Self Help Books — John Malouf ♦ 52 - Feedback: Sex Drugs & Rock ‘n Roll — Loretta Marron the Skeptic is a journal of fact and opinion, ♦ 54 - Forum: When the Cheering Had to Stop published four times per year by Australian ♦ 58 - Forum: Society, Medicine & Alternative Medicine Skeptics Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bullet Catch: Murder by Misadventure
    The Bullet Catch: Murder by Misadventure Grades 5–9 This spellbinding novel chronicles the coming of age of a resourceful young man who must refashion his destiny amid murder and misadventure in the golden age of magic. When the orphanage he called home burns to the ground, fourteen-year- old Leo and his three friends turn to larceny to survive. Leo proves to be a most gifted pickpocket, but when he is cruelly betrayed by his gang, he abandons the life of crime to become the apprentice of a has-been magician named Barzini, who is staging a comeback using the bullet catch trick made famous by his archenemy. Barzini wants more than to just outshine his old rival; he is out for revenge. As Leo struggles to escape his dangerous past, he must confront the possibility that his new mentor may be even more dangerous. HC: 978-0-8234-2858-8 / E-book available Suggested Classroom Activities moment it seems necessary or a good idea? What about doing things that you know are wrong Vocabulary—Students may be unfamiliar with because of what someone else “made you do”? certain words in the story: alchemy, calliope, clairvoyant, concierge, conundrum, crypt, Bullying—There are many examples of bullying in entrepreneurial, fedoras, foyer, gramophone, jerky, the story—by the Mayor, by Barzini, and by others. muttonchops, newsreel, séance, shill, straitjacket, What do you think a person being bullied can do to suffragist, winch. For maximum understanding of the prevent it? If you have ever been bullied, how have story, discuss these terms and their meanings with the you reacted? Discuss what worked and what didn’t.
    [Show full text]
  • From Our Readers
    From Our Readers The letters column is a forum for views Over the years I have seen and talked to on matters raised in previous issues. "ghosts," been visited (though not yet Please try to keep letters to 300 words or abducted) by aliens, seen three-dimen­ less. They should be typed, preferably sional heads floating by my bed, heard double-spaced. Due to the volume of knocks on my door (when no one else letters, not all can be published. We was in the house), and was once attacked reserve the right to edit for space and by a glowing green Doberman. These clarity. Address them to Letters to the experiences seem as real as life. Editor, SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 3025 Palo I have never thought of these experi­ Alto Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111. ences as anything more than what they certainly are: my mind playing tricks on itself. The few other people I've known Hypnogogic hallucinations who have had similar experiences were all convinced that they were, in Baker's I would like to thank Robert A. Baker words, "incontrovertible proof of some for his article "The Aliens Among Us: sort of objective or consensual reality." Hypnotic Regression Revisited" (SI, These otherwise rational and intelligent Winter 1987-88). I have been plagued by people also believe that Uri Geller can hypnogogic hallucinations since child­ really bend spoons with his mind. Take hood, but until reading this article I didn't one hypnogogic hallucination and one know what they were called or even that fantasy-prone individual and you have other people had them.
    [Show full text]
  • Issue-05-9.Pdf
    THE COMMITTEE FOR THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION of Claims of the Paranormal AT THE CENTER FOR INQUIRY-INTERNATIONAL (ADJACENT TO THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO| • AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION Paul Kurtz, Chairman; professor emeritus of philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo Barry Karr, Executive Director Joe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow Massimo Polidoro, Research Fellow Richard Wiseman, Research Fellow Lee Nisbet, Special Projects Director FELLOWS James E. Alcock,* psychologist York Univ., Toronto Saul Green. PhD, biochemist president of ZOL James E- Oberg, science writer Jerry Andrus, magician and inventor, Albany, Consultants, New York. NY Irmgard Oepen, professor of medicine (retired). Oregon Susan Haack, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts Marburg, Germany Marcia Angell, M.D., former editor-in-chief, New and Sciences, prof, of philosophy, University Loren Pankratz. psychologist. Oregon Health England Journal of Medicine of Miami Sciences Univ. Robert A. Baker, psychologist. Univ. of Kentucky C. E. M. Hansel, psychologist. Univ. of Wales John Paulos, mathematician. Temple Univ. Stephen Barrett, M.D., psychiatrist, author, Al Hibbs, scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Steven Pinker, cognitive scientist. MIT consumer advocate, Allentown, Pa. Douglas Hofstadter, professor of human Massimo Polidoro. science writer, author, execu­ Barry Beyerstein,* biopsychologist. Simon Fraser understanding and cognitive science, tive director CICAP, Italy Univ., Vancouver, B.C.. Canada Indiana Univ. Milton Rosenberg, psychologist Univ. of Chicago Irving Biederman, psychologist, Univ. of Southern Gerald Holton, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics Wallace Sampson. M.D.. clinical professor of medi­ California and professor of history of science, Harvard Univ. cine. Stanford Univ.. editor, Scientific Review of Susan Blackmore, Visiting Lecturer, Univ. of the Ray Hyman,' psychologist.
    [Show full text]
  • Augustine Responds to the Editor
    LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 235 Augustine Responds To the Editor: Having presented a comprehensive three-part critique of survival- ist interpretations of near-death experiences (NDEs) and defended it against multiple commentators, I am generally inclined to allow readers of this Journal to reflect upon the entire exchange and take from it what they will without offering further comment. However, I feel compelled to point out a number of fallacies that Neal Grossman commits when, ironically, accusing me of fallacious reasoning. Although Grossman prefaces his letter with the disclaimer that it "will not be a response to anything [I] wrote," he explicitly implicates me along with "other debunkers" in customarily employing fallacious reasoning, and in any case there is no point in him bringing up errors "that Augustine and his fellow materialist ideologues frequently commit" if he does not mean to imply that my critique contains them. 236 JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES Right from the start, Grossman stereotypes those skeptical of survivalist interpretations of NDEs as ideologues plagued by "unwa- vering certainty" in a materialist faith. But his comments reveal his own "unwavering certainty" that NDEs and other phenomena represent a smoking-gun falsification of materialism. One wonders if any evidence could ever persuade Grossman of the truth of strict materialism or a related view, such as David Chalmers's property dualism, in which mental states are nonphysical properties of the physical brain and thus irreducible to brain states, but existentially dependent upon the properly functioning brain in which they inhere (Chalmers, 1996). Indeed, one wonders if Grossman thinks that it is possible for anyone to hold a materialist or similar position rationally on the basis of the empirical evidence.
    [Show full text]