SKEPTICAL INQUIRER

Neural Organization Technique Treatment or Torture?

Motion! *

The Spooks of Quantum Mechanics Crookes: His Science and His Foibles The 'N' Machine / Biological Cycles 1990 CSICOP Conference

i fori THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is the official journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Editor Kendrick Frazier. Editorial Board James E. Alcock, Martin Gardner, Ray Hyman, Philip J. Klass, Paul Kurtz, James Randi. Consulting Editors Isaac Asimov, William Sims Bainbridge, John R. Cole, Kenneth L. Feder, C. E. M. Hansel, E. C. Krupp, David F. Marks, Andrew Neher, James E. Oberg, Robert Sheaffer, Steven N. Shore. Managing Editor Doris Hawley Doyle. Contributing Editor Lys Ann Shore. Business Manager Mary Rose Hays. Assistant Editor Andrea Szalanski. Art Valerie Ferenti-Cognetto. Chief Data Officer Richard Seymour. Computer Assistant Michael Cione. Typesetting Paul E. Loynes. Audio Technician Vance Vigrass. Librarian, Ranjit Sandhu. Staff Lynda Harwood (Asst. Public Relations Director), Kimberly Gallo, Leland Harrington, Sandra Lesniak, Alfreda Pidgeon, Kathy Reeves. Cartoonist Rob Pudim.

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Paul Kurtz, Chairman; philosopher, State University of New York at Buffalo. Barry Karr, Executive Director and Public Relations Director. Lee Nisbet, Special Projects Director. Fellows of the Committee (partial list) James E. Alcock, psychologist, York Univ., Toronto; Eduardo Amaldi, physicist, University of Rome, Italy; Isaac Asimov, biochemist, author; Irving Biederman, psychologist, University of Minnesota; Susan Blackmore, psychologist, Brain Perception Laboratory, University of Bristol, England; Henri Broch, physicist, University of Nice, France; Mario Bunge, philosopher, McGill University; John R. Cole, anthropologist. Institute for the Study of Human Issues; F. H. C. Crick, biophysicist, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, Calif.; L. Sprague de Camp, author, engineer; Bernard Dixon, science writer, London, U.K.: Paul Edwards, philosopher. Editor, Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Antony Flew, philosopher, Reading Univ., U.K.; Andrew Fraknoi, astronomer, executive officer, Astronomical Society of the Pacific; editor of Mercury; Kendrick Frazier, science writer, Editor, THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER; Yves Galifret, Exec. Secretary, l'Union Rationaliste; Martin Gardner, author, critic; Murray Gell-Mann, professor of physics, California Institute of Technology; Henry Gordon, magician, columnist, broadcaster, Toronto; Stephen Jay Gould, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard Univ.; C. E. M. Hansel, psychologist, Univ. of Wales; AI Hibbs, scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Douglas Hofstadter, professor of human understanding and cognitive science, Indiana University; Ray Hyman, psychologist, Univ. of Oregon; Leon Jaroff, sciences editor, Time; Lawrence Jerome, science writer, engineer; Philip J. Klass, science writer, engineer; Edwin C. Krupp, astronomer, director, Griffith Observatory; Paul Kurtz, chairman, CSICOP, Buffalo, N.Y.; Lawrence Kusche, science writer; Paul MacCready, scientist/engineer, AeroVironment, Inc., Monrovia, Calif.; David Marks, psychologist, Middlesex Polytech, England; David Morrison, space scientist, NASA Ames Research Center; Richard A. Muller, professor of physics, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley; H. Narasimhaiah, physicist, president, Bangalore Science Forum, India; Dorothy Nelkin, sociologist, Cornell University. Joe Nickell, author, technical writing instructor. University of Kentucky; Lee Nisbet, philosopher, Medaille College; James E. Oberg, science writer; John Paulos, mathematician. Temple University; Mark Plummer, lawyer, Australia; W. V. Quine, philosopher, Harvard Univ.; James Randi, magician, author; Milton Rosenberg, psychologist. University of Chicago; Carl Sagan, astronomer, Cornell Univ.; Evry Schatzman, President, French Physics Association; Eugenie Scott, physical anthropologist, executive director, National Center for Science Education, Inc.; Thomas A. Sebeok, anthropologist, linguist, Indiana University; Robert Sheaffer, science writer; B. F. Skinner, psychologist. Harvard Univ.; Dick Smith, film producer, publisher, Terrey Hills, N.S.W., Australia; Robert Steiner, magician, author, El Cerrito, California; Carol Tavris, psychologist, UCLA; Stephen Toulmin, professor of philosophy, Northwestern Univ.; Marvin Zelen, statistician, Harvard Univ. (Affiliations given for identification only.)

Manuscripts, letters, books for review, and editorial inquiries should be addressed to Kendrick Frazier, Editor, THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 3025 Palo Alto Dr., N.E., Albuquerque, NM 87111. Subscriptions, change of address, and advertising should be addressed to: THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. Old address as well as new are necessary for change of subscriber's address, with six weeks advance notice. Subscribers to THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER may not speak on behalf of CSICOP or THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Inquiries from the media and the public about the work of the Committee should be made to Paul Kurtz, Chairman, CSICOP, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. Tel.: (716) 834-3222. FAX: (716)-834-0841. Articles, reports, reviews, and letters published in THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER represent the views and work of individual authors. Their publication does not necessarily constitute an endorsement by CSICOP or its members unless so stated. Copyright ©1989 by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, 3159 Bailey Ave., Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. All rights reserved. Subscription Rates: Individuals, libraries, and institutions, $25.00 a year; back issues, $6.25 each. Postmaster: THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is published quarterly. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Printed in the U.S.A. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, New York, and additional mailing offices. Send changes of address to THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Vol. 15, No. 1, Fall 1990 I I ISSN 0194-6730 Journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal

I I 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE 3 Skepticism in the Light of Scientific Literacy / Animal Rights /Public Policy and the Paranormal / John's Anomalies Research

I I ARTICLES Neural Organization Technique: Treatment or Torture? Russell S. Worrall 40 The Spooks of Quantum Mechanics Victor J. Stenger 51 Science and Sir William Crookes Steven Hoffmaster 62 The 'N' Machine Duncan G. Cummlng 71 Biological Cycles and Rhythms Vs. Biorhythms Anthony Wheeler 75 I I NEWS AND COMMENT 19 Teachers in science courses / Horoscopes in newspapers / Nicholas Sanduleak / Channeler in Rhode Island / The paranormal in the USSR / Physics in Karate / Fortune­ tellers in Connecticut / Anti-health-fraud group in UK. / CSICOP lectures in colleges / Firewalk in New Zealand

I I NOTES OF A FRINGE-WATCHER 30 The Mysterious Finger-Lift Levitation Martin Gardner I I PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS 36 l~ I BOOK REVIEWS Stephen Jay Gould. Wonderful Life (Paul T. Riddell) 83 James E. Alcock, Science and Supemature (Robert A Baker) 85 Kenneth L Feder,Frauds, Myths and Mysteries (Gordon Stein) 88 Fred Fedler, Media Hoaxes (Roger Klare) 89 SOME RECENT BOOKS 92

ARTICLES OF NOTE 93

] LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 99

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LYS ANN SHORE

hen it comes to challenging extraordi­ nary claims, incredulity isn't enough. WWhat's required is a sufficient back­ ground and knowledge to grasp the nature and extent of the claim, and to examine its elements critically. Today, when pseudoscience and fringe-science borrow the concepts and vocab­ ^ ulary of science, it takes a measure of scientific literacy to analyze and evaluate their claims The 1990 CSICOP properly. That was the chief message of this conference year's CSICOP conference, held in Washington, D.C., March 30-April 1, 1990, and devoted to examined scientific the theme of "Critical Thinking and Scientific literacy, science Literacy"—arguably the most important issue education, and CSICOP could address. Two conference sessions illuminated the critical thinking. theme: "Scientific Literacy" and "Critical Thinking in Public Education." Several other sessions focused on traditional areas of skeptics' concerns: astronomy and pseudoscience, psychic phenomena and the laws of physics, and UFOs. This article will be devoted to the theme sessions, and to the controversial session on animal rights (see p. 12), which opened a new direction for CSICOP. CSICOP Chairman Paul Kurtz, professor of philosophy at SUNY-Buffalo, set the tone of the conference in his opening remarks on Friday

Fall 1990 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON morning by emphasizing the urgency critical thinking not only as an anti­ of the topic. Citing examples of the dote to nonsense and pseudoscience scientific and mathematical illiteracy but as a positive instrument for the of many American students today, improvement of human society. Kurtz advocated that "at least a rudimentary understanding of nature Scientific Literacy and of the place of the human species within it be conveyed to the student The opening session demonstrated population" at all levels of the U.S. how far most Americans fall short of educational system. He also empha­ achieving scientific literacy. Michael sized the importance of the general Zimmerman, a professor of biology at public's being able to appreciate the Oberlin College, undertook to show scientific picture of the universe. the boundaries and some of the Recitation of scientific facts is not consequences of problems associated the way to reach this goal; what is with scientific illiteracy. He presented necessary, Kurtz said, is the under­ a selection of results from his surveys standing that science consists of a measuring the pseudoscientific beliefs method—critical thinking—and not of elected officials, newspaper editors, just a body of knowledge. He iden­ school board presidents, and high tified six key aspects of critical school biology teachers. This included thinking: surveys of groups not covered in his article in the Winter 1990 SI. Zimmer­ • Problems must be carefully ana­ man's primary emphasis was on the lyzed and clarified before they can. creation-evolution controversy, one begin to be solved. of his longstanding interests as an • Beliefs must be recognized as ten­ evolutionary biologist—but he also tative hypotheses unless and until considered such subjects as commun­ they are confirmed. ication with the dead, extraterrestrials • Evidence is central to judging and and ancient monuments, psychic testing hypotheses. predictions, and astrology. He • Ideas are analyzed using the expressed his results in a double- methods of logical analysis and negative form, citing "those who did evaluated by whether or not they not disagree strongly" with a given contradict other, well-established statement. His reason: "I think these findings. are issues on which people ought to disagree strongly." The responses to • The quest for absolute certainty the various surveys showed that must be recognized as alien to the substantial minorities, and in some scientific attitude, since scientific cases majorities, of these groups knowledge is fallible, tentative, and expressed some degree of acceptance open to revision and modification. of these beliefs. • An open mind, willing to consider daring and novel departures in Zimmerman believes the responses thought, is required. to his surveys should "give us great fear over the kinds of scientific and As our society changes, so do the technological decisions our elected issues that citizens must address with officials are making." For example, if critical thinking. What is enduring, public officials believe the earth was Kurtz concluded, is the need to apply created in 4004 B.C., they're likely

4 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON to dismiss any concern about a world­ wide temperature increase of a few degrees, because after the cataclysmic events of Noah's flood, a mere rise in temperature seems insignificant. Zimmerman surveyed both elected officials in Washington (members of Congress) and Ohio state legislators; while the rates of response were low (about 18 percent for federal officials, 30 percent for state legislators), the results showed an interesting contrast on the issue of creationism. State-level legislators showed much higher levels of acceptance of creationism than did members of Congress, a difference that Zimmerman attributes to the well-attested interest of creationists in activity at the state and local levels, rather than nationally. Zimmerman also contends that "the consequences of scientific illiter­ John Paulos. author of Innumeracy. acy fall disproportionately on minor­ ities." For example, the pattern of well-educated and precise individuals, Ph.D. degrees awarded in 1988 shows including "those who would cringe if that 800 mathematics degrees were anyone were to confuse imply and awarded nationwide; of these, only infer." Paulos, known for his recent four went to black Americans and only best-selling book Innumeracy, defined five to Hispanic Americans. Other innumeracy as the mathematical studies have indicated that race is the analogue of illiteracy. Unlike illiter­ primary factor determining the loca­ ates, however, those afflicted with tion of toxic waste dumps in the innumeracy often seem to take a United States. Zimmerman believes perverse pride in their ignorance of that "scientific knowledge empowers mathematics. Yet the consequences of people." He maintains that this dis­ innumeracy are serious; they include crepancy in scientific literacy among muddled personal decisions, muddled U.S. minority communities is grow­ government policies, and an increased ing. "We absolutely need to do some­ susceptibility to pseudoscience. thing about that. We must reach out Paulos points to number and chance beyond the middle class and the well as the two key elements of numeracy. educated," he concluded. It is important for people to develop John Paulos, the session's second an appreciation of what kinds of speaker, is a mathematician (Temple quantities are appropriate in various University) who is embarrassed about contexts and an understanding of other people's lack of embarrassment some basic probabilities. "Without at what he calls "even the most some feel for certain common egregious mathematical solecisms." numbers, and some rudimentary It's a foible found even in otherwise arithmetic skills, it's hard to react

Fall 1990 5 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON

appropriately to certain terrifying "warmly rational" approach that statistics we hear repeated,' Paulos would help people use mathematical says. Consider, for example, the concepts appropriately in everyday comparative probabilities of dying in life. It's important, he said, to show a plane crash as the result of a terrorist students how mathematics arises attack—a risk that many Americans naturally in ordinary contexts. "Math take seriously enough to cancel their is too far divorced from their daily European vacation plans in the wake lives and the rest of the curriculum, of such an incident—and of dying in and is too frequently identified with a car accident, the possibility of which rote repetition, authoritarian meth­ does not lead many people to give up ods, and rigid rules." While math drill driving or riding in cars. Yet the true is important, math education needs to probability of the former is only about focus on higher-level skills, such as 1 in 1.6 million, and of the latter, 1 interpreting graphical and statistical in 5,300. information; modeling situations Paulos recommends that people mathematically; estimating and com­ make up their own sets of large paring magnitudes; proving and numbers for comparison, to enable manipulating; heuristic problem- them to make informal but vivid solving; and developing a certain quantitative comparisons. He used the critical distance and skepticism toward example of seconds as a way to handily mathematical matters. remember the vast difference The popularity of Paulos's book has between a million, billion, or trillion gone some way toward raising the of something: a million seconds tick public consciousness about the prob­ by in 11 and a half days, while a billion lem of innumeracy, especially in the seconds make up 32 years, and a current climate of concern over the trillion seconds equal 32,000 years. By American educational system. None­ keeping that comparison in mind, for theless, Paulos believes the United instance, people would be less likely States, in spite of its critical depend­ to panic when they find that the fruit ence on math, remains "largely indif­ they've been feeding to their baby ferent to the innumeracy of some of contains a few parts per billion of some its brightest citizens." substance that might pose a risk at The session's final speaker, philos­ the level of a few parts per million. opher Robert Crease, took the discus­ Why is innumeracy currently so sion of scientific literacy to a different widespread in the United States? level: the understanding of the nature Paulos points first to the misconcep­ of science, or scientific literacy, among tion that "math = computation." In philosophers. Crease, who is a histo­ fact, he says, "math has as much to rian at Brookhaven National Labor­ do with computation as literature does atory as well as a philosophy professor with typing." Other factors are poor at SUNY-Stony Brook, pointed out mathematics education; prevailing that in philosophy of science, very cultural attitudes to mathematics, little attention has been given to the such as pride in ignorance and the actual workings of science, as seen in concept of "math anxiety"; and the the laboratory. Thus, he said, philos­ lack of good math teachers. ophers have inadvertently contributed Paulos advocates developing a to a "mythic picture of science," in "quantitative perspective" and a which science is seen as a matter of

6 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON

"theory making," while experimenta­ permanent value. According to the tion is viewed merely as "theory latter, science is a human product testing." arising from a historical and cultural In Crease's view, this lack of context. probing beneath the myth can be Crease believes the challenge to called "scientific illiteracy among philosophers is to show how science philosophers." In fact, the mythic view can be affected by historical, cultural, of science has become so prevalent and social pressures and still contrib­ that "scientists themselves under­ ute to the discovery of truth. "Science stand and interpret their work in is undoubtedly affected by forces— terms of the myth even when they economic, historical, cultural, political, suspect its mythic aspects." Philos­ and psychological—but it does not ophers are the ones who should reduce to these. It still discovers truths examine rigorously the mythic about nature, not only in spite of but account of science because of their thanks to these influences." "professional charge to study the The absence of a comprehensive nature and practice of human activ­ and philosophically adequate account ities from a critical perspective." of science has important consequen­ Crease identified two schools of ces, Crease believes. One of these philosophy that have examined involves distinguishing scientific science: logical positivism and social fraud from human error and self- constructivism. According to the deception. If science is viewed as an former, science discovers unchanging impersonal discovery of larger truths, valid truths, and its findings have then mistakes are likely to be viewed

Fall 1990 7 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON

CSICOP 1990 Awards Critical Thinking in Public Education The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Para­ Introducing the session on critical normal presented three awards at thinking in schools, moderator Paul its 1990 conference in Washington, MacCready of AeroVironment, Inc., D.C., March 30-April 1. emphasized the importance of what Gerard Piel, chairman emeritus he calls "stirring the pot" in public of Scientific American, was pre­ education. "I'm always looking for sented the "In Praise of Reason ways to get things going in public Award," given "in recognition of his education that can further the devel­ distinguished contributions to the opment of critical thinking skills," he use of critical inquiry, scientific said. evidence, and reason in evaluating Anton Lawson, a zoologist at claims to knowledge." Piel also Arizona State University and director delivered the conference Keynote of Arizona's Program for the Address. Enhancement of Biology Teaching, Richard Berendzen, astronomer outlined a teaching method designed and educator, received the "Public to help students develop the critical- Education in Science Award," given thinking skills they need to evaluate "in recognition of his distinguished competing explanations. Recent stud­ contribution to the testing of ies show that students who lack scientific principles and to the critical-thinking skills are not only public understanding of science." more likely to hold scientific miscon­ Stephen K. Doig, science editor, ceptions but also less likely to discard Miami Herald, received the their misconceptions as a consequence "Responsibility in Journalism of instruction. Award," given "in recognition of This new method, called the "learn­ his outstanding contributions to ing cycle," was designed as an alter­ fair and balanced reporting of para­ native to the traditional method of normal claims." science teaching. Lawson illustrated the contrast by asking the audience to pick out patterns in an array of as fraud. If science is seen as a human imaginary creatures, called skints and activity, then human error becomes mellinarks, shown on a slide. He a possibility. Another consequence is described the traditional method as that misconceptions about the aims one in which the teacher introduces and practices of science influence the a term, gives students examples and public perception of science and nonexamples of the term, then tests scientists. the students. Lawson pointed out that In Crease's view, a crucial element this method does lead to acquisition in scientific literacy is a better under­ of a concept, but it also encourages standing by philosophers of the nature students to rely on teachers to impart of science, and this would go a long knowledge. In the learning-cycle way toward improving scientific method, on the other hand, students literacy on other levels as well. first have the chance to examine and

8 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON

BELlEFS TENATIVE HEED EM PENCE, use LOGIC

. .- •* I -

explore data and to identify a pattern. Richard Schrock of Emporia State The teacher then introduces a term University, Kansas, took a different and links it to the pattern students view. He sees the current emphasis have observed, and finally students on critical thinking in the schools as apply the concept. Thus, students a fad that in a few years will give way learn a concept, just as in the tradi­ to the next trend. His main criticism tional method; the key difference is of critical thinking curricula is that that they rely on themselves to most attempt to teach critical thinking acquire this new knowledge, rather through the question-and-answer than looking to the teacher as an technique and textbooks alone. But in authority. Schrock's view, contact with the real Lawson has found the learning- world is a fundamental element of cycle method to be a highly successful scientific investigation that must not way to foster students' critical think­ be neglected in science education. ing skills. Developing these skills is Instruction in critical thinking that crucial, he believes, in order for keeps students focused on textbooks students to become able to recognize, can have important negative conse­ examine, and replace "personally con­ quences. Since critical thinking curric­ structed beliefs" that happen to be ula often promote "equal time" for the "counter to scientific knowledge." different sides of controversial issues, In a lively talk called "Why Critical these "pro and con" discussions may Thinking Often Isn't," biologist lead students to develop wrong

Fall 1990 9 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON answers. Worse, students are likely to physics classes, Hoffmaster pointed feel a sense of ownership in the out, but it also can be polarizing, incorrect explanations they have confrontational, and counterproduc­ developed. The key in developing tive. Students may become alienated, critical thinking is for students to use and they may perceive the method as their new knowledge in the real world. involving a choice between different Reality holds several advantages as and equal systems. a test of students' new knowledge: The softball method is one of small- they experience a genuine rather than group discussion, based on the notion a contrived interaction; they can test that, as it is often expressed, "we all truthfulness; and the experience has have something important to share." real consequences. Schrock is acutely However, such discussions are fre­ aware of the glib distortions of fact quently dominated by one or two that can creep into textbook and class­ voices; these tend to be the voices of room explanations that remain un­ students who have preconceived checked against the reality of actual notions on the subject. The discussion experience. He believes that "real lab method downplays facts and coher­ and field experiences are being des­ ence by taking all opinions seriously perately eroded" in science curricula. and treating them as equally valid. Schrock points to several additional What Hoffmaster called the "New Age factors that contribute to poor science approach" takes this method to the education: reduction of science teach­ extreme by encouraging students to ers' preparation, development of make a free choice among alternatives. "noncontent" curricula, and reduction In the compromise method, an in technical vocabulary. As for critical instructor's perceived attitude is half thinking, it is crucial to recognize that the battle. It involves a lighter "the only valid critical thinking strate­ approach on the part of the instructor, gies are those that allow students to one that is "entertaining but informa­ confront real-world phenomena tive." Applying this technique to his directly." own course on the paranormal, Hoff­ Steven Hoffmaster, a physics pro­ master finds that it allows him to fessor at Gonzaga University and "treat drivel as it deserves, without chairman of CSICOP's Education appearing to proselytize." He begins Subcommittee, believes that "no one by lecturing on a few popular para­ approach to an issue as complicated normal topics and debunking them. as teaching can possibly work." He He then picks out common themes, outlined several models of classroom such as errors in reasoning. A discus­ style and presentation in teaching sion of scientific concepts, such as the critical thinking. Dubbing these "hard­ conservation of energy, follows. He ball," "softball," and "compromise" then proceeds to more problematic or approaches, he followed with a des­ sensitive paranormal topics, and to cription of his own teaching technique concepts like chance and probability. in his course on the paranormal. Hoffmaster expressed some reser­ The hardball approach is the tra­ vations about instruction in critical ditional model of the teacher-lecturer, thinking. First, it implies validation of in which the teacher dispenses knowl­ the scientific viewpoint—a value edge to (presumably eager) students. judgment that may not be universally This model works particularly well in shared. Second, it depends heavily on

10 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON

internalization by students, which in turn depends on students' initiative. Third, it may simply shift the level at which the students do not understand the process. Fourth, it holds the danger of providing a set of steps to be done by rote under the name of critical thinking.

A Challenge to the Academic Community

Gerard Piel began his keynote address on Friday evening by referring to CSICOP as "the first line of environ­ mental protection." He explained that if discourse can't be kept unpolluted, we can't go on with other aspects of Gerard Piel. recipient of CSICOP's 1990 In self-government. Piel, the chairman Praise of Reason Award. (Photo by Donal emeritus of Scientific American and F. Holway) recipient of CSICOP's 1990 "In Praise improve the state of science education. of Reason Award," went on to issue Drawing on his four decades of a rousing challenge to university experience with Scientific American, he professors to make a serious and cited the example of an earlier cur­ continuing effort to reform the riculum reform movement. In the lamentable situation of science edu­ post-Sputnik era, passage of the cation in the United States. National Defense Education Act gave At the elementary school level, it a mandate to professors to improve isn't science that's taught, Piel said, science curricula. The "New Math" but rather the revelation of facts. Yet was just one of the products of that "students need to find their way as reform movement. early as possible to the grounds of The experience of the 1950s and knowledge—to know how we know 1960s curriculum reform movement what we know—and the way lies shows that the university professor­ straighter in the natural sciences than iate couldn't solve the problem with in other areas, such as the humanities, a one-time intervention. What's which are full of ambiguities that needed, Piel believes, is a continuing demand mature judgment." effort of reform that would embody The science education that Amer­ "the liberating objective of the teach­ ican students receive falls far short of ing of math and science." this ideal, Piel said. Science is taught from textbooks; teacher training is inadequate; and education funding goes more for overhead than for books The speakers who addressed the and teaching materials. Piel believes theme of this CSICOP conference university professors can help to were unanimous in their portrayal of

Fall 1990 11 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON the grim scene of science education special projects director and a profes­ in the United States today. What was sor of philosophy at Medaille College. less clear, however, is what steps could He identified the focus of the session be most immediately effective in as ethical issues in animal experimen­ improving the situation. Certainly, in tation. "Is the use of living animals evaluating pseudoscientific claims, in experiments ethical? That depends such as those of "scientific" creation­ on the answers to several other ists, or fringe-science claims, such as questions," he said. These questions those of some animal language pro­ include: ponents, scientific literacy is a pre­ requisite for critical thinking. Given • Is the use of animals necessary, or CSICOP's strong stand and long are replacements available? history in promoting critical thinking, • If use of animals is necessary, can there can be no doubt that scientific their numbers be decreased? literacy must also be a key concern. • If use of animals is necessary, and On the basis of the information pre­ the numbers cannot be decreased, sented at the conference, the next step what are the implications? must be to take these twin concerns • Are animal subjects treated into the classroom. CSICOP's unique humanely? What guidelines and blend of critical and scientific expertise regulations exist? should permit it to assume a leading • What groups are best qualified to role in this effort. make decisions in this area? • Is the issue solely contemporary, or is it also a historical issue?

Animal Rights: Leading off the session was Larry Horton, vice-president of public CSICOP Takes a affairs at Stanford University, who New Direction noted that the debate over animal experimentation goes back over a century "and has seen no fresh he discussions that broke out in arguments in the past 50 years." He the hallway following Saturday's identified two main lines of argument, Tsession on "Animal Rights and moral and utilitarian. The former says Scientific Research" centered as much that animal experimentation is mor­ on the appropriateness of the topic for ally wrong, the latter that it is bad a CSICOP conference as on the ethical science. In Horton's view, it is the issues involved in animal experimen­ moral argument that gives the animal tation. There's no doubt that the rights cause its fervor, but the argu­ session was the liveliest one of the ment generally used is the utilitarian entire conference. The session pres­ one. ented a full range of opinion, from the Horton claims that the biomedical views of a physiologist who conducts community occupies a moderate posi­ research using animal subjects to tion in the controversy. He explains those of an officer of the Anti- that alternative methods are preferred Vivisection Society. by scientists wherever possible, but in The session was organized and most cases these alternatives cannot chaired by Lee Nisbet, CSICOP's provide the data needed. Horton

12 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON believes that the ultimate victory in but highly media-worthy element." In the controversy will fall "to those who fact, he noted, concern over animal stake out and hold the moderate protection is a grass-roots movement ground. If one side really holds a of millions of people. centrist position, then the other side Concern over the use of animals is verifiably extreme." in research, Lockwood said, is part of Next up was Randall Lockwood, a a much larger public concern over the vice-president of the Humane Society scientific enterprise as a whole. "The of the United States and an officer of American public has become critical, the National Capital Area Skeptics. even skeptical, consumers of scientific Can one be an advocate both of animal claims and promises, and is increas­ protection and of skeptical, rational ingly unwilling to entrust scientists inquiry? His answer was a decided yes. and technocrats with making moral Lockwood pointed out that critics of and ethical decisions about how these animal experimentation are often advances are to be obtained or ap­ characterized as anti-science, anti- plied." Changes are needed in science intellectual, and anti-human. In real­ itself, and in science education. This ity, he said, the distribution of opinion means, Lockwood said, that scientists is broad, and "as with any such must address "the hard questions" and distribution, the extremes do stand listen to the concerns of other groups. out, and they are minority positions. As a veterinarian and dean of the The caricature of the typical animal School of Veterinary Medicine at activist as a lab-trashing anarchist is Tufts University, Franklin Loew really a straw man based on a small identified animal welfare as the issue

Fall 1990 13 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON that "most of all puts vets in the middle because sometimes only by applying among opposing groups." Whose side pressure at the extremes can you is veterinary medicine on? "First, cause any change to occur in the animals are our patients. But, also, middle." veterinary medicine has long, strong In Barnes's view, the animal-rights ties to agriculture, so it needs to be issue is essentially a matter of ethics. sensitive to agriculture's needs and The ethic of animal rights opened up concerns." for him "a world where I don't have Loew sees the key issue as the to crush the worm on the sidewalk, changing moral status of animals. and where I can't just leave the bird Americans, he said, are as ambivalent with the broken wing." about what animals are as about what Barnes maintains that extrapola­ research is. Loew believes that the tion between species ("a dog is a rat existing regulatory system is effective is a pig is a boy") is invalid. He also and that lab animals have never been believes that nonanimal alternatives treated better than they are today. At are available for much of the research the same time, polls show that Amer­ that now uses animal subjects. In cases icans want the stakes to be high when where alternatives are not available, animals are used in research. "Today, what is needed is evaluation of the it's not just an issue of whether pain research itself. "We don't need alter­ is involved, but of whether animals natives for nonsensical experiments. should be used in research at all." We need to reevaluate and get these There's a kind of cognitive dissonance people out of the lab who are doing about animals in U.S. society, epitom­ these nonsensical projects." ized in the despised and feared street To physiologist Richard L. Malvin, rat on one side of a wall, while on the the issue of animal rights has a very other side is a member of the same personal aspect. "Accusations of being genus and species, carefully caged, and a torturer, a murderer, and one who fully protected by governmental and does it all for no purpose are hard to institutional regulations. take. And to have to stand here and Donald J. Barnes has seen both apologize to you for my whole adult sides of the animal experimentation life would also be hard to take," he issue. As a researcher in psychology began. A professor of physiology at working for the U.S. Navy, Barnes the University of Michigan, Malvin was involved in research on the effects makes use of animal subjects in his of radiation on rhesus monkeys. This research. He is also involved in issues experience led him to the conviction of ethics and animal care in laboratory that much scientific research involv­ research, through professional groups ing animals is unnecessary. Today, and university committees. Barnes is director of the Washington Malvin noted that scientists whose office of the Anti-Vivisection Society. research involves animals are subject He points out that the animal- to intense and effective scrutiny in the advocacy movement has already form of institutional and governmen­ brought about some salutary changes, tal regulations and peer reviews. Each such as the inclusion of ethical issues step in conducting a research pro­ in scientific training, and says that gram, from the initial proposal and "the movement will continue to push grant application to research protocol in what may seem an extreme way, and publication of results, involves

14 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON consideration of humane treatment of evening, citing his wife's broken foot, animal subjects as well as scientific said CSICOP conference organizer merit. Laboratories are open settings, Lee Nisbet. Nisbet said verbal assur­ he emphasizes, traversed by col­ ances had been given by Pell's office leagues, students, administrative the previous June and reconfirmed workers, and others, in which it would only a month before the conference. be virtually impossible to conceal Pell and Jones have both been shoddiness and abuse. outspoken supporters of the para­ "Extraordinary claims require normal. extraordinary proof," he concluded, Last October news media reported "and extraordinary claims have been that Pell is the only member of made: that my colleagues and I are Congress to have an assistant different from you, that we're not assigned solely to paranormal humane, that we do terrible things. research. The reports said the aide, I would urge you, please, be cautious— Jones, is paid $48,853 a year to keep be skeptics." up with the latest developments in telepathy, UFOs, and ESP. —Lys Ann Shore Nisbet and CSICOP Chairman Paul Kurtz both said they were Lys Ann Shore, Ph.D., is a writer and disappointed at Pell's inability to editor in Washington, D.C., and a participate as scheduled. "We were SKEPTICAL INQUIRER contributing looking forward to hearing from him editor. and understanding the reasons for his deep interest in the paranormal," Nisbet said. There was unresolved speculation Pell Parries Panel whether a Jack Anderson/Dale Van on Public Policy Atta syndicated column, headlined "Rhode Island's New Age Senator," in and Paranormal the March 20 Washington Post—only 10 days before the CSICOP confer­ ence—had anything to do with Pell's he most visible voices of support and Jones's decisions not to for U.S. government involvement participate. Tin paranormal studies were no­ The column said the 71-year-old where to be heard at the CSICOP Pell, "with a long and distinguished conference session "Public Policy and career behind him," is now the subject the Paranormal." U.S. Senator Clai­ of talk among Senate colleagues about borne Pell was scheduled to speak, but whether he is "past his prime." It on the Monday night before the referred to him as a "gentle if some­ conference began his office said what odd aristocrat and an earnest Senate time pressures would prevent politician," but added: "There is him from taking part. another side that his fellow Demo­ Pell's aide on matters of the para­ crats don't know what to think normal, C. B. Scott Jones, had earlier about—the new-age Pell who agreed to substitute for Pell if the befriends psychics and spoon benders, senator was unable to come, but he who is fascinated by mind-reading and too backed out on the same Monday psychic phenomena, and who thinks

Fall 1990 15 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON the country would be better off if "impressed by some qualitative expe­ senators meditated regularly." As an riences, who strongly promote their example of his "offbeat" interests, [paranormal] point of view. . . . There Anderson's column cited Pell's 1988 are people out there in the govern­ bill that would have set up a national ment, like Pell and some people in the human resources commission (see 51, CIA, who are pushing very hard. They Winter 1989, p. 126) and described it don't look at scientific evidence at all. as a "sort of new-age approach to They know nothing of the psi labor­ solving the ills of the world through atory. They've been convinced by a vague mission to help people achieve powerful subjective experiences. But 'full human potential.' " In a hearing, having a compelling personal expe­ "Pell trotted out experts in Zen, yoga, rience is not the same as seeing and transcendental meditation." The reality." bill is languishing in the Senate. The kinds of claims bandied The rest of the column dealt with about—without empirical support, the prospects of a tough reelection Hyman said—typically involve such campaign for Pell, unless he retires to things as having "a psychic look at a pursue his personal interests. photograph of an automobile and A news article in the Providence telling what's going on inside, who's Journal-Bulletin about Pell's decision saying what . . . , even flattening a not to appear said his office had issued tire remotely with a pin." a statement about the senator's lack "Some things are probably true," of time for the CSICOP conference, said Hyman. "There was created a but quoted Pell as saying, "An 'First Earth Battalion' " that would exchange [with the critics] would be seek to develop and use paranormal helpful. I would hope they would abilities. "What's happening," says extend me an invitation to next year's Hyman, "is a lot of lieutenant colonels, conference." (Next year's CSICOP retired, push ideas as consultants to conference will be in northern Cali­ government agencies they used to fornia, not Washington, D.C.) The work for." Some of this is going on article also pointed out that Pell's regularly, but "no one knows how interest in the supernatural "has much—not even in the government, become a source of ribbing by the at any level." The projects typically go media" and referred to the Jack by code names and avoid reference to Anderson column. the paranormal. Psychologist Ray Hyman told the Said Hyman, "A lot of pressure to conference session about his experi­ do these kinds of things comes from ences and conclusions in working on the outside, for example, Congress." the National Research Council's Com­ He referred to a recent U.S. News mittee on Techniques for the survey that found 20 percent of Enhancement of Human Performance Congressmen openly favored the (SI, Fall 1988). As chairman of a paranormal. subcommittee that evaluated parapsy­ As for the NRC report, with its chology, Hyman and his colleagues generally negative conclusions about examined claims about secret govern­ paranormal phenomena—"In the ment support of a paranormal project. Committee's view the best scientific Hyman said there are "a small evidence does not support the view number of people" in the government that ESP . . . exists"—Hyman noted

16 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON

that the Parapsychological Association introduced Robert Jahn. Jahn, dean was very upset with it. The PA, some emeritus of the School of Engineering individual psi researchers, and even a at Princeton University, is the latest one-sided government hearing organ­ in a long line of physical scientists who ized by Pell and Jones have attacked have tried to demonstrate definitive it strongly. Commented Hyman: "I evidence for some form of extrasen­ thought it was very fair." sory abilities, in this case psychokine­ sis (PK). —Kendrick Frazier It was the first opportunity Jahn has had to present some of his Kendrick Frazier is editor of the SKEPTICAL evidence to a CSICOP conference. INQUIRER. Jahn, an invited speaker, said he hoped such discussions would not be seen as "skeptics versus advocates." There are a few people "in the middle, Jahn Describes His . . . who are just trying objectively to • PK Anomalies Research make sense out of the subject." Using modern instrumentation that enables millions of trials, his \\ I lis research is probably the Princeton Engineering Anomalies |™™1 best in the world," is how Research Program "gets more data I psychologist James Alcock points in one afternoon than J. B. (York University, Toronto), modera­ Rhine got in his entire career," Jahn tor of the session on "Psychic Phe­ said. nomena and the Laws of Physics," The laboratory experiments involve output from an electronic noise circuit that is sampled about a thousand times a second to produce a series of single binary digits. The test subject attempts, by some mental process, to alter the series of random outputs, and to aim for either a high score or a low score. There are also baseline runs where the subject is to make no attempt to influence the outcome. Jahn showed graph after graph of data from test runs using this"tripolar protocol" indicating small (about 1 bit in 1,000) cumulative deviations from chance, in the positive direction when that outcome was being attempted and in the negative when that out­ come was sought. Attempts in the baseline condition showed no signif­ icant deviations from chance, he said. Robert John is attempting to demonstrate psychokinesis at Princeton (Photo by The effect is operator-specific to a Robert P. Matthews) degree but not very machine-specific,

Fall 1990 I- 1990 CSICOP CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON he said. Nevertheless, in answer to normal possibilities imposed by the one of the numerous questions about laws of physics, as in his article in the the experiments from the audience, Fall 1989 SI, and Victor J. Stenger, on Jahn said, "There really are no super­ "The Spooks of Quantum Mechanics"; stars. . . . The operators are nonpaid see Stenger's article in this issue.) and anonymous volunteers. None Rather, the talk provided the oppor­ claims special talents." He said they tunity for a CSICOP session to hear produce effects that are admittedly Jahn present some of his data and small and marginal but replicable to answer questions—of which there a considerable order. were many. He and many in the In response to another question, audience seemed to find the exchange Jahn acknowledged that "one of our worthwhile. operators contributed 20 percent of As yet, there has been very little the data base," but he said "that independent evaluation of Jahn's operator was not the highest effect- work. (For a brief one see Alcock's size operator." discussion in his new book, Science and "The operator specificity has some Supernature, Prometheus 1990, pp. implications for scientific replicabil- 104-110.) Critics intimately knowl­ ity," said Jahn. "It also bears on our edgeable about Jahn's research pro­ comprehension of what's going on." gram say it has many problems. They No attempt had been made to also emphasize that until the results arrange for a speaker who could have been replicated independently, provide an evaluation of Jahn's exper­ by other experimenters in other iments. (The other panel members laboratories, there is little to take note were physicists Milton Rothman, who of scientifically. spoke on the constraints on para­ —K.F.

ir^OpVlOUSYOU DON'T \

18 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 News and Comment

Science Teachers Confront J Pseudoscience

hat should science teachers astrology and psychic detection. The do about the epidemic of lecture also listed the differences Wpseudoscience in the every­ between science and pseudoscience day life of their students? We put this and recommended the use of such question to 270 Virginia middle and tools as "Extraordinary claims require high school science teachers enrolled extraordinary proofs." Our definition in a 1990 television physical-science of pseudoscience applied only to course broadcast from the University subjective claims that try to usurp the of Virginia's electronic classroom. role of the scientific method in de­ We opened the subject in an hour- scribing the natural world yet pretend long lecture dealing with some of the to be scientific. most popular pseudosciences, such as Finally, we gave each teacher a copy

\ THAT'S WHAT <& HAPPEMSTO-Y0U ///"I WHEN WOO GROW f^S

Fall 1990 19 of an article from the local paper titled Others would set up a debate between "Woman Claims Skull Has Mystical those who accepted the article and Powers." This article touted a local those who doubted, urging them to display (admission $5 a head) by Anna state their arguments pro and con. In Mitchell-Hedges of the crystal skull the end the class would decide which she claims to have found in a Maya arguments were more scientific. temple. "It's a skull of love, of healing," A number of teachers reported she asserts. (See Chapter 3 of Joe actually giving the article to their Nickell's Secrets of the Supernatural, students as an opening wedge in reviewed in this issue.) As homework, teaching the nature of science. They we asked each teacher to write an found this item useful in getting account of how he or she would students to think. A couple of teachers respond if a student brought this let grade-school kids have a go at it. article to the classroom. Their comments were among the The following week the teachers most skeptical. Maybe pseudoscience read and discussed their papers with lacks appeal before adolescence. small groups of their cohorts at the We also learned that a few teachers eight downlink classrooms around the shy away from pseudoscientific topics. state. Then the papers were sent to Some feel that their duty lies in the members of the university physics teaching science—period. They feel it and chemistry faculty offering the is wrong to invade areas of belief. We course. We hoped teachers would not received letters from three teachers only spot the conflict between the protesting the mention of pseudo- claims made for the skull and the science in the course. Despite the scientific principles they were teach­ careful wording of our definition of ing but also devise a strategy for pseudoscience, they viewed this topic handling like claims in the future. as an attack on religious belief. In our All but a half-dozen of the 270 personal response to them, we drew teachers saw at once that the claims the line between beliefs arising from in the article violated the laws of heat inner experience and claims about the flow and conservation of energy. They natural world that fail to meet the knew that science finds no evidence standards of scientific evidence. At the for the skull's origin, and they judged time we did not have Pope John Paul the owner's account of finding the II's recent statement on Galileo (see skull dubious. SI, Spring 1990:239) recognizing the But the majority also saw the scientific method as "the path toward human angle in dealing with a student the knowledge of the world of nature" who brought in such an article. They to quote to those teachers in a Catholic would be careful to avoid ridicule or school, but we feel all teachers should outright rejection of beliefs in which keep those words handy. others have emotional investment. The most expert teachers would try —Frances Martin first to find out what the student thought about the article's claims. If Frances Martin is a consultant to the the student or other class members Center for the Liberal Arts at the tended to believe the claims, the University of Virginia. The Center teacher would open an inquiry pro­ sponsored the television course described cess. Some would pose key questions in this report as part of its efforts to link or ask students to critique the claims faculty members with schoolteachers in using tools of science already learned. Virginia.

20 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Astrology Disclaimer News, no longer does so. An inquiry from SI brought the response from D Now in 33 Newspapers Robert D. Ingle, executive editor, that the newspaper dropped the disclaimer when it moved the e recently listed 28 daily daily horoscope from the news pages newspapers in the U.S. and to the comics page. "It is our feeling WCanada that now publish a that the placement now clearly indi­ disclaimer with their astrology cates that . . . the horoscope is for columns (SI, Spring 1990, pp. 230- entertainment value only. ... I wish 231). As a result of that article, we to assure you there has been no received reports of six other dailies change in our attitude about the that should be added to this list: validity of astrological advice," Ingle said. Tucson Citizen (Ariz.) So the number of U.S. and Cana­ Hillsdale Daily News (Mich.) dian daily newspapers known to carry Rochester Post-Bulletin (Minn.) a disclaimer is now 33. We would Kansas City Star (Mo.) appreciate reports from readers about Manchester Union-Leader (N.H.) any further additions. Indiana Gazette (Pa.) In addition to these North Amer­ ican newspapers, the largest news­ Several of these newspapers have paper in Iceland, Morgunblaoio, has been carrying a disclaimer for some begun carrying a disclaimer with its time; for others it is a new departure. astrology column. Thorsteinn Sae- The Hillsdale Daily News began pub­ mundsson, of the Science Institute, lishing a disclaimer on April 17, 1990, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, after a local reader discussed the reports that the newspaper intro­ matter with the managing editor and duced the disclaimer after he had a brought supporting material, in­ conversation with the editor. cluding our Spring article, to his "My reason for calling the editor attention. was not just to complain about the The disclaimers printed vary. Some paper's astrology column (I had done newspapers use the exact text pro­ that many times before), but to posed by the Committee for the criticize the paper for a recent report Scientific Investigation of Claims of about an astrologer in Denmark." The the Paranormal (CSICOP): "The astrologer had been forecasting a following astrological forecasts should volcanic eruption in Iceland, and the be read for entertainment value only. newspaper had taken the story so Such predictions have no reliable basis seriously that they had telephoned in scientific fact." The Kansas City Denmark to get further details. "After Star's reads, "Note: Horoscopes have a heated discussion, the editor finally no basis in scientific fact and should agreed that the paper had shown a be read for entertainment, not guid­ certain lack of judgment. . . , thereby ance." The Tucson Citizen's reads: lending respectability to the practice "Astrological forecasts should be read of astrology. Following this, the board for their entertainment value only. of editors decided that the form of the They have no basis in fact." paper's astrology column would be One daily newspaper that had changed and a disclaimer added, based carried a disclaimer and was included on a copy of the CSICOP text which on our earlier list, the San ]ose Mercury I sent them. There have already been

Fall 1990 21 favorable comments from some read­ Nick lived almost his entire life in ers who, like myself, take a dim view and around Cleveland, Ohio, and of this astrology business." spent the largest part of his profes­ Not surprisingly, the low-key sional career at Case Western Reserve effort to encourage newspapers to University, where he first enrolled as carry these disclaimers is not popular an undergraduate. He later became a with astrologers, especially those who senior research associate in astronomy write syndicated horoscope columns. at the Warner and Swasey Observa­ The Wall Street Journal, which is one tory there. of the very few newspapers that has Nick displayed talents for science no astrology column, wrote about the while in high school and entered Case disclaimer campaign in a light-hearted Institute of Technology as a physics column May 3, 1990. The brief story, and astronomy student. Following "Honestly Now, They Can't Tell Us graduation in 1957, during military That They Didn't See It Coming," service, he participated in Werner von included the reactions of several Braun's team at the Redstone Arsenal, horoscope columnists, among them the team that designed and eventually Sydney Omarr, who found the dis­ launched the first American satellite, claimer trend menacing. "Once you Explorer 1. But his real devotion was permit this kind of thought control to astronomy, and he returned to Case and prejudice, it will go into other immediately after being discharged to areas. ... Tomorrow it'll be the bridge continue his studies. His Ph.D. thesis column, then the financial column." broke new ground in the study of the As for the newspapers that carry distribution of the low-mass compo­ the disclaimers, Jim Creighton, the nent of the stellar population of the features editor of one of them, the St. galaxy. His conclusion that the low- Louis Post-Dispatch, said simply, "I mass stars are probably able to ac­ don't think we should encourage count for most of the local mass people to think they're getting the observed in the disk of the galaxy scoop on their future." earned him titular membership in a group dubbed by one astronomer, —Kendrick Frazier "The Messiahs of the Missing Mass." After completing his doctorate, Nick joined the staff of the newly formed Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in Chile. It was during Nicholas Sanduleak, his stay at CTIO that he completed Astronomer, Gentle some of his most important and enduring work. He catalogued and Critic described the brightest stars in the two satellite galaxies to ours, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. icholas Sanduleak, astronomer One of the stars in this catalogue, Sk- and skeptic, died of heart fail­ 69°202, proved in 1987 to be the N ure on May 8, 1990, at age 56. progenitor of Supernova 1987A. He With his death, the scientific commun­ often joked later that now he would ity has lost a true master of obser­ have to recall all copies of the work vational technique and the skeptical and change them to remove this star. community one of its most insightful, It was also during this period that he and gentlest, critics of hokum. studied the atmospheric changes

22 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 caused by a volcanic eruption in South take up the cause of public skepticism. America and performed observations He was a charter subscriber to of the infrared emission from the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER and attended Moon during a lunar eclipse. This nearly every CSICOP conference. latter study was his first brush with Though by nature retiring in unfamil­ pseudoscience, since it was later iar company, Nick began to take a misquoted by creationists in support more visible role in the skeptical of the youth of the moon. movement during the past 15 years. In 1968, he returned to Cleveland, He became involved in field investi­ and he remained on the staff of the gations, most notably the "Columbus Warner and Swasey Observatory for Poltergeist" case (which he dubbed the the rest of his life. There he and "Olentangy Horror"). He was a found­ colleague C. Bruce Stephenson com­ ing member, with Page Stephens, of pleted a massive survey of emission the South Shore Skeptics and often line stars in the southern Milky Way, spoke before this group and wrote for a survey that yielded among other its newsletter. treasures the enigmatic object known Nick is perhaps best known to as SS433. Nick was never given to readers of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER for small projects or fast results. The his definitive study of the lunar effect corpus of his scientific work is remark­ ("The Moon Is Acquitted of Murder able for the depth and completeness in Cleveland," SI, Spring 1985). In this of his approach. Unlike many obser­ massive study, conducted exactly in vational astronomers, Nick was never the same fashion as his astronomical one to publish quick conclusions or work, Nick examined a decade of incomplete results. Instead, he murder cases in the city of Cleveland, pursued his quarry, the luminous using a more complete database than objects of the universe, with the zeal the one cited in Lieber's original book of a field taxonomist. He was inter­ on the effect. His conclusions, backed ested in all of the physical things by solid and precise statistical argu­ around him, on the terrestrial and ments, form the best counterexample cosmic scales. He wanted to describe yet assembled for the lunar effect and them, and to observe how they fit have been cited many times. together to form a complete reality. Nick was a member of the Astrol­ His observational work gradually ogy Subcommittee of CSICOP and, in widened in scope, eventually extend­ this capacity, frequently participated ing to cosmological studies with Peter in debates with Ohio paranormalists. Pesch in the Case Northern Survey, a He appeared many times on Cleveland search for active galaxies and quasars area radio and television programs and near the north galactic pole. True to was always willing and eager to speak form, Nick also noted and described to school and civic groups and to give every interesting object that he public lectures. He established a observed in the course of searching tradition of delivering talks on the photographic plate material for these paranormal as part of the Warner and distant galaxies. The first 12 install­ Swasey Observatory public nights ments of this catalogue have appeared program, reaching and educating an and form a permanent monument to audience normally not exposed to such his work. questions. After the publication of Objections To the end of his life, Nick was an to Astrology by the newly formed empiricist and an existentialist. He CSICOP, Nick was one of the first to deeply believed in the ability of the

Fall 1990 23 human mind to encompass the phe­ Trance Channeler." nomena of the universe. One of his How did Aria's New Age fans react favorite theatrical moments was from to his confessions? the film of Brecht's play Galileo. In it, Xavier said some believed his advice Gassendi enters Galileo's chambers to was sound and didn't care where it view for himself the moons of Jupiter. came from. Some were angry at him His clerical colleagues wait expec­ because they felt he had kicked Aria tantly outside the chamber for his out of his mind. And a third group triumphant appearance and word was convinced that Aria was there all that he has disproved Galileo's claims. along, but that the spirit had simply When he appears, Gassendi merely abandoned Xavier. looks at the assembly and says, Apparently none of Xavier's cus­ "He's right," letting the evidence speak tomers has tried to get their money for itself, and exits. So was Nick back. Sanduleak's way. He will be deeply missed. —C. Eugene Emery }r.

—Steven N. Shore

Steven N. Shore is an astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Soviet Interest in Greenbelt, Maryland. He is an SI con­ Countering Paranormal sulting editor. J Pandemonium

t seems the recent wave of para­ G Channeler Confesses normal belief sweeping the Soviet I Union (SI, Spring 1990) has not gone unnoticed by a number of con­ Providence, R.I., "psychic" who cerned scientists and science writers traveled as far as Japan as a in the USSR. Achanneler for the seventh- Indrek Rohtmets, editor-in-chief of dimensional being named "Aria," has the Estonian-language popular- a new message: There is no Aria. science magazine Horisont (Horizon), "I wouldn't use the word 'sham,' " recently wrote to CSICOP Chairman said Stephen Xavier, who offered New Paul Kurtz stating: "Removing many Age advice with a soothing Hindu/ old taboos, glasnost and perestroika Shakespearian accent. "What was have triggered a boom in the paran­ being done was always done with the ormal, too. UFOs, afterlife—almost best of intentions." everything that was forbidden ear­ Xavier told Providence Journal lier—are now freely discussed. But columnist Maria Miro Johnson that it usually from a viewpoint we cannot suddenly dawned on him one day that completely agree with." the advice was coming from him, not "The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER has from a ghost. aroused great interest among our Xavier subsequently got a man­ staff," Rohtmets said. He expressed a ager, made plans to write a book about desire to translate articles skeptical of his experience, and began giving the paranormal into Estonian to lectures on "Confessions of a Former "introduce our readers to scientifically

24 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 correct opinions." CSICOP wrote to hits with a force of about four times Horisont (readership 150,000) granting his or her body weight. Black-belt them permission to do so. experts punch with a speed of about It is hoped that through the ar­ 25 MPH and strike with a force of about rangement with Horisont and the seven times their own weight. But the previously announced agreements real reason these punches are so with the USSR's Science and Religion powerful is that they are aimed at an (readership 750,000) and the Perspec- imaginary point slightly behind the tiva Scientific Center in Kiev, skeptical material will soon help temper the "paranormal pandemonium" in the Soviet Union.

—Barry Karr

Barry Karr is executive director of CSICOP.

The Fiercest Punch: The Physics of a J Karate Strike

Copyright ®1990. American Institute of Physics n dojos across the land, students of all ages and both genders practice target. Walker offers this explanation. I the forward Karate strike, thrust­ "You want to touch an opponent ing with clenched fist and a vocal when your arm is at maximum veloc­ "Kiaa." What they may not realize is ity. That's going to be one or two that they are using the laws of physics centimeters just before the arm is fully in a highly sophisticated, efficient extended. If you aim behind the target, manner. your fist will reach maximum velocity, "The forward strike and virtually and most power, at the target itself. everything in karate is about the most This occurs just before the arm's efficient way you can fight. I'm maximum extension." amazed that it is so scientific," states The laws of physics also apply to Jearl Walker, a member of the Amer­ other aspects of the sport. At any ican Physical Society, the largest karate demonstration it's almost professional group of physicists in the obligatory for a black-belt to smash country. Walker should know. He's a through a stack of boards with the karate black-belt and a physicist who's edge of his hand. This blow would devoted some time to analyzing the have no effect on one thick board. Yet, sport. several thinner boards split apart The power delivered by a karate dramatically. There's a good scientific punch is tremendous. According to reason for this, states Walker. Walker, who teaches at Cleveland "The expert actually sends a shock State University, a beginner's forward wave through the boards. That shock strike travels from 12 to 15 MPH and wave does the snapping for him. The

Fall 1990 25 boards split progressively, one board When the Ephraims cracked open the at a time. That's why a stack of thin egg, what looked like little green boards will split while one thick board snakes emerged, indicating that the won't." problem was the work of evil spirits. Romano was then told to take $13,000 —American Institute of Physics in $100 bills and mold the money into Science Report the shape of a cross, which he de­ livered to the Ephraims. He next was instructed to deliver money and goods to the Ephraims as part of their payment for disposing of the evil Long Prison Terms spirits that were afflicting him and his wife. Among the items delivered to For Fortune-Tellers the Ephraims were two Lincoln Town In Connecticut Case Cars (rentals), a gift certificate from Sears, bottles of whisky, steaks, hams, shrimp, macaroni salad, paper cups or the first time in the state and, of course, cash. The total cost to of Connecticut—and perhaps Romano: $32,000. He worked two Fnationally—two Gypsy fortune­ jobs to pay off these expenses. tellers were arrested, charged, tried, • Robert Knight paid the Ephraims convicted, and sentenced under state more than $87,000 in cash to ward anti-racketeering laws. The case is an off an evil curse imposed, according instructive one, particularly for those to the fortune-tellers, by his in-laws, who argue that spiritualism and who, they asserted, were members of fortune-telling represent "victimless an evil cult. The Ephraims pulled the crimes" that the state has no business snakes-in-the-egg gambit on Knight, protecting people from. who was so terrified he took out a In the trial, six persons testified second and then a third mortgage on against a mother-daughter team of his house to pay the demands of the spiritualists—Gardenia and Mary Ann spiritualists. Ephraim. It is unknown how many • Seventy-year-old Luigi Mancini other people were exploited by the handed over some $68,000 to the Ephraims but were too embarrassed Ephraims—his entire savings for to come forward. The newspaper retirement. There were two install­ account of the trial as presented in the ments of $26,000. Again, the money Hartford Courant is an incredibly sad was to be shaped into a cross. He was story of frightened, confused, and told evil spirits and the devil himself troubled people who in their despair were after his wife. She would die, turned to the Ephraims. Consider the the Ephraims told Mancini, if he following: refused to provide the money. He, too, became convinced when he saw an evil • Joseph Romano and his wife substance emerge from an egg he had wanted children. She had suffered rubbed over his body. three miscarriages, and he had become • Harris Sanders wanted to impotent. The Romanos went to the remove a curse the Ephraims diag­ Ephraims seeking a spiritual solution nosed as the cause of a failed romantic to their medical maladies. The relationship. He paid some $80,000, fortune-tellers gave Romano an egg in cash, checks, and apparently in and told him to rub it over his body. truckloads of groceries. Sanders was

26 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 arrested for writing more than 100 During the investigation, the West bad checks to pay for goods he Hartford Police Department obtained delivered to the Ephraims. He ended a warrant to search the Ephraims' up in a shelter for the homeless. house. They found five eggs with • Robin Jones was told her jewelry holes that had been plugged with wax. contained evil because she had worn They videotaped the opening of one it in a car accident. Also, evil spirits of the eggs (the tape was played at were the cause of family illnesses. She the trial). Inside they found a green, handed the jewelry over to the Eph­ foul-smelling substance. The Eph­ raims so it could be blessed to prevent raims admitted the eggs were a trick another accident. The Ephraims to make their clients "feel better." The returned only some of it. Jones also court decided another way to make provided the Ephraims with cash and those who were the victims, not of gift certificates she obtained by bor­ evil spirits, but of rapacious fortune­ rowing money from friends and tellers, "feel better." Gardenia and bouncing checks. The Ephraims Mary Ann Ephraim were found guilty hounded Jones about the cash settle­ of a substantial number of counts of ment from the car accident; it was first- and second-degree larceny, necessary, they told her, to give them conspiracy, and racketeering. They the money to be blessed. In one received prison sentences of 20 and instance Jones accompanied the girl­ 15 years, respectively. The sentences friend of Gardenia Ephraim's son to are being appealed. a clothing store. Jones paid $700 for a suit she was told was needed to —Ken Feder "dress the saints." The total amount Jones provided to the Ephraims is Ken Feder is professor of anthropology at estimated at $18,000. Central Connecticut State University and • When Girsete Vila was told by an SI consulting editor. the Ephraims that evil was causing her goddaughter's arthritis, she paid them $375. When she refused to pay any more than that, the Ephraims told Vila that her goddaughter would die, possibly on that very day. Anti-Health-Fraud In the trial record, it was testified Group Formed that the Ephraims explained their need for money from their clients by in Britain stating that "evil follows money and the devil follows money." The Eph­ raims claimed in their testimony that he U.K. now has its own Cam­ once the evil had followed the money paign Against Health Fraud, famil­ away from the afflicted, the cash Tiarly known as "Quackbusters." would be returned. Their assertion Founded in the spring of 1989, the seems disingenuous—over a two-year group aims to promote good research period the Ephraims purchased a practices, consumer protection, and $73,000 Porsche, a Ford Bronco, a public understanding of the impor­ Chevrolet Blazer, and two Corvettes. tance of clinical trials. Further, it will In all, the six witnesses for the propose that patients not be charged prosecution were bilked out of more for unproved procedures or mislead­ than a quarter of a million dollars. ing or false diagnoses, and opposes the

Fall 1990 27 use or promotion of treatments that ship, which entitles you to receive "may be fraudulent, unnecessary, their quarterly newsletter, is £12, plus unduly dangerous, involve needless an extra £4 airmail postage if you live expense, or prevent patients from outside of Britain. receiving the best care." The founding group of doctors, — Wendy M. Grossman lawyers, journalists, and others includes physician, author, and tele­ vision journalist Jonathan Miller; Nick Beard, a doctor and computer scient­ ist; and Caroline Richmond. Rich­ mond wrote an article in 1989 alleging CSlCOP's Campus that textile manufacturers were using Lecture Series dangerous chemicals to add unneces­ sary color to clothes, endangering the public's health and emptying their ome years ago the Southern pockets. She recommended wearing California Skeptics initiated a only unbleached muslin. The article Slecture series at various univer­ was a spoof, but many people wrote sity campuses in their area. These to her thanking her for changing their series are surprisingly popular, and lives and clearing up health problems include such well-known figures as due to the unsuspected hazard. Steve Allen and Jonathan Miller. The CAHF recently came in for CSICOP Chairman Paul Kurtz some criticism in the press. Claims wanted to encourage similar series at were made in the London Sunday Times other campuses throughout North and the satiric magazine Private Eye America, and asked me to initiate one that the group was in the pay of drug in the Western New York area. Since companies. Meanwhile, some skeptics our population base is much smaller, were dismayed that the group chose I planned something on a more to support the British Chiropractic modest scale. For the 1989/90 aca­ Association's efforts to set up state demic year, we planned lectures, registration for its members. The cosponsored by various depart­ CAHF defended its decision on the ments at the State University of New grounds that the BCA runs independ­ York (SUNY) at Brockport, SUNY at ently assessed training courses and is Buffalo, and the SUNY College at participating in clinical trials. Further, Buffalo. Caroline Richmond argued in the We started in September 1989 with CAHF newsletter, "the public are two basic introductory talks, and then entitled to be able to believe that if moved on to more specific paranor­ they go to a chiropractor they are mal, occult, and philosophy-of-science going to one who is properly quali­ topics. The first was by Ray Hyman, fied and registered. At present anyone professor of psychology at the Uni­ can put up a sign saying they are a versity of Oregon, who gave a talk chiropractor even if they don't know and demonstration on "How We Are a jot about it." Fooled." The next day Phillips Stevens, The CAHF and skeptics have Jr., associate professor of anthropol­ agreed to cooperate where possible. ogy at SUNY at Buffalo, spoke on The Campaign Against Health "Occult Beliefs Today: Social Imped­ Fraud can be reached at: Box CAHF, iments to Critical Thinking." In London WClN 3XX, U.K. Member­ October, Robert Basil, editor of Not

28 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Necessarily the New Age, spoke on Carlson, physicist at Lawrence Berke­ "Whither the New Age Movement?" ley Laboratory, lectured on "Astrol­ and James E. Alcock, professor of ogy" at SUNY Buffalo. Also in April, psychology at York University, Daryl Bern, professor of psychology Toronto, presented his ideas on at Cornell University, spoke on "ESP: "Standards of Proof in Parapsychol­ What Do We Really Know?" discuss­ ogy." In November Sherman F. Kan- ing the problems of interpreting agy II, assistant professor of physics anomalous data in everyday life. and astronomy at Purdue University, CSICOP's goal now is to move discussed the differences between beyond Western New York and science and scientism in a talk titled encourage skeptics' groups and other "Is Science a Religion?" interested parties to initiate public In February, CSICOP, the Buffalo lecture series in their own areas. We Museum of Science, and the Western have received enthusiastic letters New York Skeptics co-sponsored a from a number of subscribers request­ lecture by Michael Ruse, professor of ing information about starting their zoology, history, and philosophy at the own series, and we are happy to say University of Guelph, Ontario, on the that the first CSICOP Speakers claims made for creationism. In Directory will be available later this March, Steve Shaw, who was one of year. the two "Project Alpha" hoaxers at the now defunct McDonnell Laboratory, —Ranjit Sandhu explained the tricks he used to con­ vince researchers at the lab of his Ranjit Sandhu is a member of the "psychic powers." In April, Shawn CSICOP staff in Buffalo.

Science Walks the Hot Coals

John A Campbell, senior lec­ turer in physics at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, leads the firewalk at New Zealand Skeptics' Fourth Annual Convention. More than 80 people followed him over 12 feet of hot coals. Camp­ bell says the mathematical equation on the sign he carries describes the diffusion of heat through solids. (Photo courtesy Community Newspapers, Christ- church) V "

Fall 1990 2Q Notes of a Fringe-Watcher

MARTIN GARDNER

he Mysterious T Finger-Lift Levitation

or centuries, throughout the same person are in contact. Everyone world, it has been the custom of presses down for a short time. After Fsome children to amuse them­ this is done, the four fingers are placed selves with the following seemingly under the subject's knees and armpits. paranormal stunt. You may recall Someone counts from 1 to 3. On the participating in such a feat yourself count of 3, the lifters hold their breath when you were young. The stunt can and lift. Up goes the subject. Indeed, take numerous forms, but usually the lift seems so easy that there is a goes like this. strong feeling on the part of lifters A heavy person, say an adult male, that the subject's weight has somehow is seated on a chair or stool. We will miraculously decreased. call him the "subject." Two children Although the stunt works as des­ stand behind him, and two on either cribed, the lift is much easier if each side of his knees. One of the children lifter uses both hands. The two in back puts an index finger under the forefingers go side by side, palms subject's left armpit. The second child down, the rest of the fingers closed in back puts an index finger under the in a fist. Since both arms now share right armpit. The third child puts a in the lift, the weight of a 200-lb. finger under the subject's left knee, person is divided eight ways, so each and the fourth puts his or her finger arm lifts a mere 25 pounds. under the right knee. Years ago someone told me that the An effort is made to lift the subject, stunt is described by Samuel Pepys in but he is much too heavy. The lift is his famous diary, but it was not until now repeated, but not until a ritual this year that 1 learned from physicist of some sort has been performed. This Donald W. Olson, at Southwest Texas ritual can take many forms. Among State University, in San Marcos, and American children, a common practice his wife Marilynn, who teaches Eng­ is for one child to put a hand palm lish at the same university, where in down on the subject's head. A second the diary the trick is described. It oc­ child puts a hand on the first hand. curs in Pepys's entry for July 31,1665: This continues until all eight hands have formed a tower, with the proviso This evening with Mr. Brisband, that no two hands belonging to the speaking of enchantments and

30 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 spells, I telling him some of my Here is a dead body, charms; he told me this of his owne Stiff as a stick, knowledge, at Bourdeaux, in Cold as marble, France. The words these: Light as a spirit. We lift you in the name of Jesus Voyci un Corps mort, Christ. Royde come un Baston, Froid comme Marbre, The Olsons also sent me pages Leger come un esprit, from The Lore and Language of School­ Levons te au nom de Jesus children, by lona and Peter Opie Christ. (1959). After quoting from Pepys's diary, the Opies give another descrip­ He saw four little girles, very young tion of the feat by a correspondent ones, all kneeling, each of them, upon one knee; and one begun the who was at a school in Bath in the first line, whispering in the eare of 1940s: the next, and the second to the third, and the third to the fourth, The queerest happening I know of and she to the first. Then the first I have on my own memory. Some begun the second line, and so round of my form-mates one day resolved quite through, and, putting each to try a trick they had heard of, in one finger only to a boy that lay which one person sat in a chair, and flat upon his back on the ground, several others (I think four) stood as if he was dead; at the end of the round, with some part of their words, they did with their four hands pressed on the victim's fingers raise this boy as high as head—I think it was their thumbs. they could reach, and he [Mr. The idea was to continue this in an Brisband] being there, and wonder­ atmosphere of intense concentra­ ing at it, as also being afeard to see tion by all (no talking or giggles) for it, for they would have had him to a few minutes, after which it was have bore a part in saying the words, supposed that the person sitting, in the roome of one of the little contrary to all the laws of nature, girles that was so young that they would actually become lighter and could hardly make her learn to could be lifted by the others as easily repeat the words, did, for feare as if she were a cushion. This there might be some sleight used experiment was watched with keen in it by the boy, or that the boy interest by the form, and seemed might be light, call the cook of the to have a curiously uncanny effect. house, a very lusty fellow, as Sir G. Whether by self-hypnotism or not Carteret's cook, who is very big, and I do not know, but the lifters, with they did raise him in just the same a few fingers only under arm-pits manner. This is one of the strangest and knees, certainly lifted the seated things I ever heard, but he tells it one with ease and grace into the air, me of his owne knowledge, and I and put her down in the same do heartily believe it to be true. I manner. It was more like real magic enquired of him whether they were than anything else I have seen. Protestant or Catholique girles; and he told me they were Protestant, which made it the more strange to The Opies continue: me. We may add that when we were young we, too, practised this trick, James Randi provided the following three ways being known to us. In translation of the verse recited by the the first, the subject lay down and, French girls: if we recollect rightly, there were

Fall 1990 31 four raisers using one finger each; takes hold of the body as before, and in the second, the subject was seated the person to be lifted gives two and there were two raisers using a signals by clapping his hands. At the finger of each hand; in the third, first signal he himself and the four which was the most spectacular, the lifters begin to draw a long and full subject stood on a book with his breath, and when the inhalation is heels and toes jutting over so that completed, or the lungs filled, the fingers could be placed underneath, second signal is given, for raising and he went up vertically. In this the person from the chair. To his last instance the child had to be own surprise and that of his bearers, smaller than the operators or they he rises with the greatest facility, could not reach the top of his head as if he were no heavier than a to press upon. With us it was feather. On several occasions I have considered necessary for everyone observed that when one of the taking part to hold his breath bearers performs his part ill, by throughout the operation. One making the inhalation out of time, person counted to ten while all the part of the body which he tries pressed downwards, then everyone to raise is left as it were behind. As swiftly changed to the lifting you have repeatedly seen this exper­ position. iment, and have performed the part both of the load and of the bearer, you can testify how remarkable the David Brewster, in his Letters on effects appear to all parties, and how Natural Magic (1862), gives a curiously complete is the conviction, either different version of the lift: that the load has been lightened, or the bearer strengthened by the One of the most remarkable and prescribed process. inexplicable experiments relative to At Venice the experiment was the strength of the human frame, performed in a much more imposing which you have yourself seen and manner. The heaviest man in the admired, is that in which a heavy party was raised and sustained upon man is raised with the greatest the points of the fore-fingers of six facility, when he is lifted up the persons. Major H. declared that the instant that his own lungs and those experiment would not succeed if the of the persons who raise him are person lifted were placed upon a inflated with air. This experiment board, and the strength of the was, I believe, first shown in Eng­ individuals applied to the board. He land a few years ago by Major H., conceived it necessary that the who saw it performed in a large bearers should communicate party at Venice under the direction directly with the body to be raised. of an officer of the American Navy. I have not had an opportunity of As Major H. performed it more than making any experiments relative to once in my presence, I shall describe these curious facts; but whether the as nearly as possible the method general effect is an illusion, or the which he prescribed. The heaviest result of known or of new princi­ person in the party lies down upon ples, the subject merits a careful two chairs, his legs being supported investigation. by the one and his back by the other. Four persons, one at each leg, and one at each shoulder, then try to Gaston Tissandier, in Popular Scientific raise him, and they find his dead Recreations (Paris, 1881), has the weight to be very great, from the subject standing. Two lifters each put difficulty they experience in sup­ a finger under his shoes, two more porting him. When he is replaced under his bent elbows, and a fifth puts in the chair, each of the four persons a finger under the chin. The illustra-

32 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 tion shown here is from an English translation of Tissandier's book. I found still another description in The Beautiful, the Wonderful, and the Wise, edited by L. N. Chapin (rev. ed., Philadelphia, 1886): (Ywfe A correspondent of the Scientific k^. American gives the following, which is vouched for by plenty of good TA rl/VR rA authorities: "I am glad to see the ^s w y I 'buzzing up' process again brought F*lv to notice. Fifty years ago the oper­ ation was to me a pastime, bewitch­ ySjrJ 1 \ l\ ing and unaccountable as now. It is I not (?) animal magnetism; I know K v\ as much about that as anybody,— MJL which is very little. I will explain the method of performing this most wonderful feat. A lies on his back V) ra=^ on a floor, ground, or an open lounge. B and C (two are as good as four) place their forefingers G'LOC^T under the shoulders and hips of A. They breathe in concert by finger A man held up by five fingers. (From signals from A. At the first inha­ Tissandier's Popular Scientific Recreations, lation B and C lift, but they don't 1881) lift; the least effort or grunt breaks the spell, and you begin anew. Thus his enormous bulk. He was 5 feet, 11 A is breathed up, the breath lasting, inches tall, and weighed 739 pounds if you are adroit, till you raise him as high as you can reach, when you when he died. Lambert's name became must catch him, to prevent a fall. a popular synonym for immensity. The head should be the high test, London is the "Daniel Lambert of and then he will come down on his cities," wrote George Meredith, and feet. He will feel that the gravitation Herbert Spencer once called a man a is out of him; B and C lift only the "Daniel Lambert of Learning." clothing. He feels—have you ever Why does the lift work? When four dreamed of flying? That is it exactly. lifters are involved, the weight is No need of a close or still room. It distributed four ways. If the subject can be done out of doors, in a gale as well as in a closet. When you get weighs 200 pounds, each lifter has to the knack of it,—and it has once cost raise a mere 50 pounds—40 pounds me three hours to teach a class,— if there are five lifters. At the first any two of twelve or fifteen years attempt, lifters do not start hoisting can toss up a Daniel Lambert like at the same instant, and the subject's a feather. I do not know that any weight is unevenly distributed. He will science can come out of it, but as tilt to one side, putting a heavier an amusement, it is the richest thing burden on certain lifters. The ritual, I ever knew." and the lift at the end of a count, ensures coordination on the second I should explain the reference to try. The ritual also induces everyone Daniel Lambert. He was an English­ to try harder. man (1770-1809), world famous for Holding the breath may also con-

Fall 1990 33 tribute to the lift. Most people stop ably fails. Before the second try, Uri's breathing when they try to lift a heavy ritual is the usual stacking of hands object. It has also been suggested that on the subject's head. Colin Wilson, if the lifters press down for a while England's top journalist of the occult, on the subject's head, this may make tells of being lifted this way in his book their arms feel lighter when they The Geller Phenomenon (1976). The make the lift. (There is another old lifters were Uri, his old buddy Shipi, children's stunt in which you stand in and two of his ladyfriends. The book's a doorway and press the backs of your photos show four stages of this great hands against the sides of the opening event. The third photo graces the for a minute or two. When you step front cover of When the Impossible away, your arms seem to float upward Happens, a volume in a series called in the air of their own accord.) The Unexplained (London, 1982). It is It is hard to believe, but a few one of many predecessors of the parapsychologists suspect something current Time-Life series of shameful paranormal is responsible for this old books promoting the paranormal. stunt. Thelma Moss, for example, in The subject need not be a person. The Probability of the Impossible (1975), In Shivpuri, a village near Poona, in takes this view. The British occult western India, there is a famous journalist John Randall, in Psychokine­ mausoleum containing the remains of sis (1982), writes: "No physicist has Kamarali Darvesh, a Muslim saint. On ever given a 'normal' explanation of the ground outside the entrance sits this phenomenon." In The Story of a large stone ball, 14 inches in diameter Psychic Science (1930), the American and weighing about 140 pounds. Any psychic investigator Hereward Car- odd number of men, usually five or rington reports on experiments he seven, stand around the ball and touch made with the lift. He had five men it with a forefinger at spots on the perform the levitation on a large ball's equator or below. After they platform that registered weight. recite in unison "Kamarali Darvesh," According to Carrington, the total an attendant gives the signal to lift. weight before the lift was 712 pounds. The ball slowly rises. Devout Muslims During the lift the scale registered a believe this to be a miracle of Allah's. weight loss of 60 pounds. "I have no (For a picture of the ball being raised, theory to offer as to these observa­ see the SI, Spring-Summer 1978.) tions," he writes, "which I cannot fully Trying to explain to Muslim fun­ explain." damentalists that with five lifters each In recent years the lift has been man has to raise only 28 pounds, and routinely demonstrated by Uri Geller with seven lifters, each hoists only 20 in his stage shows. Uri invites on the pounds, is as fruitless as trying to stage the heaviest person he sees in convince many top psychical re­ the audience, along with three others searchers that levitations are not com­ to assist. The first lift attempt invari­ monplace psychic phenomena. •

34 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Center for Inquiry Debuts on Electronic Media

SICOP and the SKEPTICAL • Thomas McDonough of the INQUIRER are participating in Planetary Society on the search for Cthe Center for Inquiry, a new extraterrestrial intelligence. project to bring skepticism more • Ray Hyman's thumbnail sketch forcefully into the electronic media. of the skeptical worldview. It will serve as an in-house audio­ Now in pre-production is a train­ visual resource center and produce ing video introducing the essentials radio, video, and television program of skeptical inquiry. Future plans materials on science, skepticism, and include TV-public service announce­ related themes. ments, documentaries, and educa­ The Center's pilot project, a radio tional programs. public-service announcement fea­ I have been named director of the turing Steve Allen speaking on the Center for Inquiry; and at the importance of critical thinking, is moment I am the only full-time staff already on national release. member. Until joining the Center for The first seven installments of a Inquiry I worked for advertising more ambitious radio project, "The agencies and video production Voice of Inquiry," will soon begin houses as a writer and director, test airings around the country. Each producing about a hundred training program is in a half-hour radio news tapes, corporate videos, sales promo­ magazine format, loosely based on tion videos, and TV spots and audio the successful National Public Radio pieces on subjects ranging from program "All Things Considered." healthcare to high-tech engineering. Skeptically oriented stories include: We have installed complete audio • Detailed coverage of CSICOP's and video duplicating systems, recent Washington conference, fea­ equipment for audio mixing and turing James Randi, Penn Jillette, editing, a high-quality system for re­ Ray Hyman, James Alcock, Bill Nye cording telephone interviews for air, "The Science Guy," and many four-track audio production capabil­ others. ity, and other basics at minimal • Shawn Carlson, Andrew Frak- expense. We have also been success­ noi, and Paul Kurtz on astrology; and ful in identifying low- or no-cost Henry Gordon, Steve Shaw, Bob sources of essential video production Steiner, and Jamie Swiss on magic services (i.e., studios, field recording and deception. equipment and editing suites). • David Morrison and James Funding: Donations to the Center Oberg on the New Catastrophism. for Inquiry are sorely needed to • Joe Nickell on spontaneous defray operating costs and costs of human combustion. program production. Please make • Ivan Kelly, Jim Rotton, Roger checks payable to CSICOP with a Culver, and the late Nick Sanduleak note indicating that your gift be on the effect of lunar phase on directed to the Center for Inquiry. human behavior. Such gifts are tax-deductible. • Susan Blackmore on out-of- body experiences. —Tom Flynn Psychic Vibrations i

ROBERT SHEAFFER

ust when it seems that things "evidence disintegrates as close exam­ might finally be looking up for the ination occurs." J human race, Satan and his min­ In the very forefront of the war ions have started turning up every­ against Satan are the followers of where. The San Francisco Chronicle political extremist Lyndon LaRouche, reports that Pope John Paul II had to who is now serving a 15-year sentence appoint six additional exorcists last for conspiracy and mail fraud. A year for the Diocese of Turin, which LaRouchite review of the skeptical seems to be having more diabolical book Satanism in America, by Shawn goings-on than anyplace in Italy. Carlson and Gerald Larue, proclaims Monsignor Corrado Balducci, the that "Satan's army's generals expose Vatican's chief expert on demonology, themselves in (this) recruitment says that out of every 1,000 persons manual." Calling the book "a satanic who believe themselves to be pos­ manifesto," the Executive Intelligence sessed by devils, only 5 actually are. Review claims that the authors "openly The other 995 are suffering from adopt the cause of satanism." Accord­ mental aberrations. Telling which is ing to LaRouchite thinking, anyone which can sometimes be a problem, who openly questions the reality of he admits. "Devils are individuals. No a vast satanic conspiracy must surely two are the same." be a part of that conspiracy them­ Well-known evangelists, including selves. The E1R specifically names Jerry Falwell and James Dobson, have among "the soldier's of Satan's army" recently warned parents to be on the CSICOP's chairman Paul Kurtz and lookout for telltale signs that their Henry Kissinger, who masquerade as children are slipping into the clutches a "professor" and a "political consul­ of satanic worship—for instance, they tant," respectively. should watch for the letters "NATAS," which is "SATAN" spelled backward. Similarly, Cardinal John J. O'Connor of New York in a widely Once again, another dramatic break­ noted sermon linked the excesses of through advances the art of palmistry some rock groups to Satanism. Yet in by leaps and bounds! And readers of spite of all the alarm in certain this column are among the first to religious circles, most serious scholars know. In the Summer 1989 issue of remain unconvinced that any real this journal I noted how the National network of Satanists exists; sociolo­ Enquirer had succeeded in a daring and gist David Bromley of Virginia Com­ unprecedented undertaking: reading monwealth University noted that the palms of George Bush and Dan

36 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Quayle from an old campaign photo touted as evidence for the creationist showing them waving to crowds. claim that geological time scales are Then, in the Spring 1990 issue I wrote unreliable. Geologist Ian Plimer of Steve MacDonald, the Mensa reports to the Australian Skeptics that chiromancer who does palm readings he anonymously sent to the Creation over the telephone, but only for young Science Foundation in Australia a ladies who are charming, gifted, and specimen suggested to be "paper in gullible. rock." In reality, it was a clay mineral Now, the Third Wave of palmistry known as attapulgite. The director of has taken off: fortunes are now being the Creation Science Foundation then told (and probably made) from pho­ wrote an article in his newsletter tocopies of people's palms! An outfit about this "paper in rock," noting that in San Jose calling itself "Lifelines evolutionary geologists ignore such Hand Analysis" will rush you a alleged anomalies, because "the rock "personalized hand analysis" a mere is supposed to be more than 200 four to six weeks after you send them million years old." Of course the a check, money order, or credit card creationists "know" that it, like draft for $19.90. "Announcing a everything else, is at most a few revolutionary new service that will thousand years old. Plimer observed, change the way you think about "It is clear that at no time was any Palmistry. . . . Simply send us a real research carried out on the rock photocopy of each palm (including 1" sample. A simple test would have of each wrist), and Lifelines Hand revealed that [it] was not paper." Analysis will provide you with a Noting that attapulgite is used as kitty completely personalized reading." Ah, litter, Plimer concludes, "It would be the wonders of modern technology! tempting to write that the creationists are up to their necks in it." Elsewhere in Creationdom, Russell Humphreys is crowing about the alleged verification of a prediction he made by data from Voyager II. In his article "Beyond Neptune: Voyager II Supports Creation," published by the Institute for Creation Research, Hum­ phreys observes that the magnetic fields measured for Uranus and Nep­ tune agree tolerably well with the estimates he had made in 1984 in the Creation Research Society Quarterly, which he calls "a peer-review creation­ Who will be the first to capitalize on ist scientific journal." (Pravda may like­ what will likely be the next Great Leap wise be said to be "peer-reviewed," for for Palmkind?: "Fax Us Your Palm." the same reasons.) He based his esti­ mates on two assumptions: (a) "the raw material of creation was water (based on 2 Peter 3:5, 'the earth was We've all heard about supposedly "out- formed out of water and by water')," of-place" objects—such as human and (b) "at the instant God created the artifacts in strata of rock said to be water molecules, the spins of the hy­ millions of years old—that have been drogen nuclei were all pointing in a

Fall 1990 37 particular direction." (Of course Gen- little heat outflow to keep a dynamo esis 1:2 says the universe was "with- action going. He admits, however, out form and void," which would im- that neither the creationists nor the ply a random orientation of hydrogen long-age scientists predicted the nuclei early in the creation process.) strong tilt of Uranus's and Neptune's Taking the age of the universe as magnetic fields from their axes of being 6,000 years, Humphreys argues rotation. Each will presumably have that if the planets were much older to do a little more work in that area, than this, Uranus's magnetic fields (Now, which biblical verse was it that would have already decayed to a talks about the magnetic axes of the smaller value, since that planet has * planets?)

±JMM

Make plans now to join us at the 1991 CSICOP Conference at the Claremont Hotel Berkeley / Oakland Hills, California Friday, Saturday, and Sunday May 3, 4, 5, 1991

Tentative topics: The Schools of Psychotherapy Hypnosis Controversies in Astronomy Urban Legends Self-Improvement and Pseudoscience

Accommodations at the Claremont: Single $99, double $99 (The hotel will arrange shared doubles upon request.) Facilities include an olympic-sized heated swimming pool; whirlpool spa; saunas; jogging course; ten day/night tennis courts (complimentary to guests); four restaurants and a terrace bar. A detailed program will appear in the next issue of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, and will be mailed to all subscribers. Call or write to Mary Rose Hays at the CSICOP office if you have any questions: CSICOP, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215 / Telephone 716-834-3222.

38 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Announcing the newest workshop in the Center for Inquiry Institute Seminar Series The UFO Workshop is the second skeptics workshop in the Center for Inquiry Institute Seminar Series. These workshops are led by knowledgeable faculty and specialists in the area being studied. The first seminar in the series was held at the State University of New York at Buffalo, titled 'The Role of the Skeptic," and was conducted jointly by James Alcock, professor of psychology, York University, Toronto, and Ray Hyman, professor of psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene. The next seminar in the series, "Investigative Techniques," will be held at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, from Friday through Sunday, April 19-21, 1991, and will be led by Joe Nickell, a longtime investigator of the "unexplained," and Robert A. Baker, professor of psychology, both at the University of Kentucky. Skeptics workshops are coordinated by CSICOP. For details, write to Barry Karr, Executive Director, CSICOP, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215, or call him at 716-834-3222. Center for Inquiry Institute UFO Workshop Friday to Sunday, November 16-18,1990 at the Ramada Inn Airport Hotel, Tucson, Arizona With lames MaGaha, Major, USAF, Chairman Tucson Skeptical Society; Robert A Baker, professor of psychology, Univ. of Kentucky, author of They Call It Hypnosis; and Robert Sheaffer, author of The UFO Verdict Seminar Schedule Friday, November 16 2:00 P.M.-5:00 P.M.: Session I: "Background of the Phenomenon" 5:00 P.M.-7:00 P.M.: DINNER BREAK 7:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M.: Trip to Grasslands Observatory Saturday, November 17 9:00 A.M.- 12 NOON: Session II: "Factors Resisting Skepticism" 12:00 P.M.-2:00 P.M.: LUNCHEON BREAK 2:00 P.M.:-5:00 P.M.: Session III: "IFOs and UFOs: What Causes the Sightings 7:00 P.M.:-9:00 P.M.: BANQUET (optional) $15, $1 7.50, or $20 (see registration form below). Sunday, November 22 9:00 A.M.-12 NOON: Session IV: "Claims of UFO Crashes and Abductions 12:00 NOON-3:00 P.M.: Trip to Air Museum (optional) Registration fee $125.00 (prepayment required). Meals and accommodations not included. a YES, l(we) would like to attend the UFO Workshop. $125 ea. person o YES, l(we) plan to attend the Banquet on Saturday evening. Make your choice. D Prime Rib $20 o Baked Chicken w/Apple Dressing $17.50 Q Vegetarian Platter $15 Check enclosed o Charge my MasterCard • or Visa o Total $ Acct 8 Exp. date Accommodations Ramada Inn Airport Hotel, 5251 South Julian Dr., Tucson, Arizona 85706. Tel. (602) 294-5250. Rates: Single, $55, Double $65. Please identify yourself as being with CSICOP for these special rates. Please make your own hotel arrangements. (If you would like to share a room, but need a roommate, please notify the hotel.)

Name

Address

City State Zip Please return this form to Barry Karr, CSICOP, Box 229, Buffalo, N.Y. 14215-0229 Neural Organization Technique Treatment or Torture? i RUSSELL S.WORRALL

yslexia, learning disability (LD), minimal brain dysfunction, and the myriad other Dlabels used to describe kids who are not coping in the classroom carry an emotional charge beyond their literal meaning. Students frustrated by repeated failure and parents desperate for a cure are vulnerable to the promises of dubious practitioners offering an easy diagnosis and a quick cure. Professionals, A controversial including teachers, and in some cases entire study raises school districts, are not immune to the lure of complex scientific, the sophisticated quack, as the following account clearly demonstrates. ethical, and social questions and The Del Norte Study illustrates the In the spirit of open-minded inquiry, the Del confusion that Norte Unified School District in northern arises when the California during the spring of 1987 elected to distinction between participate in a study titled "Efficacy of Correction, and Reliability of Clinical Evaluation science and of Neurologic Reflex Disorganization and pseudoscience is Sphenoid Bone Imbalance, Using Applied Kinesiology (Ferreri Technique) (AK/F) in Grade blurred. School Children with Learning Disability: A Multiple Baseline Across Groups Study" (Cooke 1988). The decision to participate in this impressively titled project has had ramifications for the students, parents, and professionals involved far beyond those originally anticipated by the principal investigators and district staff. A critical look at this project can provide a practical example of the problems associated with the treatment of learning disabilities. The following chronology was compiled from

40 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 \ Vv / newspaper reports, videotape of the more than 3,500 patients from around presentation made to parents, and the world, his technique had not been firsthand accounts from parents and subjected to a formal clinical study. teachers.1 Following the seminar, Ferreri, the Through seminars, an article, and district psychologist, and a California a book, Carl A. Ferreri, a New York chiropractor explored the possibility chiropractor, promotes the use of of pursuing a study within the Del applied kinesiology (AK) and a proce­ Norte District. They held a meeting dure he calls the Neural Organization with the special-education staff to Technique (NOT) for numerous con­ present their ideas in early 1986. The ditions, including various forms of district psychologist made a formal learning and neurological disorders presentation to the school board, and (Ferreri and Wainwright 1985; Ferreri the project was approved in April 1984a; ACLD 1987). The theory is 1986. The district was to provide based on the assumption that such access to the special-education stu­ disorders are caused by the misalign­ dents, fund travel and other miscel­ ment of certain bones of the skull and laneous expenses, and provide staff that this may be corrected by manip­ for on-site administration, testing, ulation. In response to the intriguing and data collection. The chiropractors promise of these claims, a psychologist would waive their normal fee for with the Del Norte Unified School treating learning-disabled patients, District attended a seminar given by which averages more than $3,500 per Ferreri in November 1985 in San patient. Francisco. In May 1986, Ferreri came to Although Ferreri claimed to have Crescent City from New York to make trained more than 600 practitioners a formal presentation and to answer in the NOT procedures and treated questions from the community and

Fall 1990 41 the school staff. During this meeting mately no treatment is withheld from he claimed that he could cure dyslexia any subject." At this meeting and and such conditions as enuresis (bed- through home visits with parents the wetting) and Down's syndrome. The district psychologist enrolled 48 stu­ general attitude following this meet­ dents in the project ranging in age ing seemed to be one of tacit approval from 4 to 16. by all except one special-education The Del Norte study was begun in teacher, who questioned the rationale February 1987 with the consultant of the study but was ignored by the named as principal investigator, the district administration. A California- district psychologist serving as the on- based research consultant specializing site project director and co- in alternative and holistic approaches investigator, and a California chiro­ to health care was retained to design practor and Ferreri named as co- the study. investigators. The district psycholo­ The AK/NOT project resurfaced in gist and staff collected pre- January 1987 with a meeting for the intervention data with intelligence, parents of learning-disabled students neurological, and academic tests. The in the district. At this informational treatment phase conducted by the meeting, the Ferreri program was chiropractors ended in early May, and presented as a form of treatment for the post-intervention assessments by learning disabilities and other devel­ district staff were completed by June. opmental disabilities. Parents were Longterm followup continued into the encouraged to complete the next year. "informed-consent form" and to enroll While vacationing in Utah in their children in the study. In describ­ August 1987, a kindergarten teacher ing the possible risks, the consent from the Del Norte District learned form stated: "There are no reasonably of a court action restraining a Utah foreseeable risks to you involved as chiropractor from promoting the a result of this research project. treatment of learning disorders with Depending on the corrective proce­ the AK/NOT program (Russan 1987). dures recommended . . . you may A defendant in the Utah court action experience some momentary and had recently had his Texas chiroprac­ temporary discomfort and/or pain tic license suspended for five years for during the actual procedures." With practicing the AK/NOT methods respect to potential benefits, the (Hartung 1987). In September, these consent form stated: "Specifically, you concerns were presented to the Del may experience some positive behav­ Norte school superintendent and to ioral and personality changes, involv­ the school board, but because the ing a sense of better orientation and evidence was considered inconclusive greater awareness, improved abilities and not relevant to the present study in school, maturation or even accel­ they were dismissed. erated maturation and personality In October, four parents of child­ development." All parents were as­ ren in the study made complaints sured of having their children receive before the school board, and several the NOT procedures during the study, teachers presented a formal statement as explained in the consent form: questioning the validity of the study "Because of ethical considerations in and the district's continued support of working with children, a so-called 'sin­ the project. Following the district's gle system' multiple baseline type of lack of response, 17 formal complaints research design is used, so that ulti­ (representing 35 percent of the sub-

42 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 jects in the study) were filed with the California Board of Chiropractic Examiners by parents and teachers "Applied kinesiology has who felt that some children had suffered emotional and physical harm. been used by chiropractors This action prompted an investigation and other practitioners for by the California Department of Consumer Affairs, which culminated more than 20 years. It has in the Del Norte district attorney filing been incorporated as a civil and criminal actions, including charges of "consumer fraud," and diagnostic tool into several seeking more than $200,000 in dam­ questionable health ages. In addition, civil suits for unspec­ ified damages are pending on behalf practices." of seven children who were subjects in the experiment, naming the chiro­ and staff time to those research and practors, the research consultant, the clinical studies that offer the highest district psychologist, and the school potential. When considering a new district as defendants. On March 8, treatment for research, the RP 1988, three members of the school Foundation asks: (1) Does the board and the district superintendent treatment have a logical rationale? (2) were defeated in a recall election. Is there objective preliminary evidence of the treatment's effectiveness? (3) What Can We Learn? Is there a controlled plan of study? The first two, requiring a logical There were many reasons for the rationale and objective evidence, apply controversy that developed in Del at the consumer level. They simply Norte County as the AK/NOT study demand that the treatment meet progressed. The study raised complex commonsense standards. scientific, ethical, and social questions and provided an example of the AK/NOT: Logical Rationale and confusion that can arise when the Objective Evidence? distinction between science and pseu- doscience is blurred. An examination Because there are many factors of the Del Norte study and the AK/ related specifically to learning NOT theories can be instructive on disorders, education and health several levels. science professionals are interested in The decision to purchase profes­ this special population of sional services or to participate in schoolchildren. Theories about causes research involving new therapies is a of learning disabilities are abundant. common problem faced by institutions These theoretical models attempt to as well as individuals. An excellent explain behavioral patterns found standard to employ in this decision­ among these children. Most are based making process was succinctly stated on a logical rationale and draw from by Jeanette Felix (1987), director of a broad base of experimental evidence science for the Retinitis Pigmentosa developed by diverse disciplines, Foundation. Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) including anatomy, physiology, is a degenerative eye disease with no genetics, psychology, and education. known cure, and the RP Foundation Though drawing from vastly different must carefully allocate limited funding approaches, such papers as Alkon's

Fall 1990 43 (1983) study of the electrophysiology ... a confused thought pattern with of learning in a marine snail and reversals of the information fed into Vellutino's (1987) linguistic deficit it via eyes, ears, etc." behavioral model of dyslexia, are The theoretical model Ferreri pro­ consistent with the framework of poses is vacuous, making it difficult known facts. However, theories that to critique constructively. The sup­ offer a simple explanation and a quick posedly faulty motion of cranial bones cure, such as NOT, must be examined does not offer a logical working model carefully before being accepted as or explanation of any behavioral viable alternatives to existing theories. characteristics seen in learning disor­ The theoretical model for learning dered and retarded populations. Fer­ disorders proposed by Ferreri in reri does not address the specific Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities Cured action of these "motions" on the (1984a), and further described in anatomy and physiology of the cortex Breakthrough [or Dyslexia and Learning of the brain in any of his published Disabilities (Ferreri and Wainwright works. The theory is strikingly incon­ 1985), describes three aspects of the sistent with well-established bodies of learning disorder question: a theoret­ knowledge, such as anatomy and ical model, diagnostic procedures, and physiology. Citations supporting the a treatment regimen. movement of cranial bones or the The Ferreri Theory. According to existence of the various "locks" and Ferreri and Wainwright (1985:74) the "reflexes" described by Ferreri are bones of the skull move with respira­ conspicuous by their absence in the tion through a complicated arrange­ scientific literature. His observations ment of connective-tissue bands. of the "facts" of dyslexia (e.g., crossed Ferreri proposes that the "mechanism dominance, postural stability, etc.) are in dyslexia is in the faulty motion in anachronistic and inconsistent with three of the four motions of the current behavioral observations (e.g., sphenoid bone (the center bone of the Brown et al. 1985; Benton and Pearl skull) and at least one of the temporal 1978; Vellutino 1987). bones. . . . The learning disabled, on To date, Ferreri has failed to the other hand, only have two sphe­ quantitatively demonstrate the noid motions in fault, usually no motion of the cranial bones or any temporal bone fault, and a cross- other of the more complex aspects of energy pattern." Misalignment of the his theory. His published works do not bones of the skull can also result in cite details of studies or references. "ocular lock," making print difficult to A literature search has failed to read (Ferreri and Wainwright uncover any published material that 1985:79). The authors describe a provides data to support any aspect "disequilibrium" involving a dysfunc­ of Ferreri's theory. tion in something they call the "cloacal An example of the quality of reflexes" located in the pelvis, which Ferreri's approach to scholarly re­ coordinate with the visual and laby­ search appears in the reference list rinthine righting systems. accompanying a series of papers he Ferreri also lists some of the authored on "Basic Neural Organiza­ attributes he sees in dyslexia, includ­ tion" (Ferreri 1984b). The complete ing "a confusion in the -nervous list of references follows: system, so there is no right brain-left brain coordination; right or left 1. George Goodheart—research man­ dominance (usually cross dominance), uals and seminar presentations.

44 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 2. David Walther—Applied Kinesiol­ therapy and Touch for Health (Marks ogy, Vol. 1 and seminar presen­ 1981; Dennison 1982), which also tations. claim to treat learning disorders. 3. Major Dejarnette—S.O.T. and J. Lubecki, a California chiroprac­ cranial seminars and manuals. tor, describes the diagnostic process: 4. Playboy series on human sexu­ "If a person touches a certain area of ality. his body, or of someone else's body, 5. Craniosacral Therapy- Upledger. where there is something wrong, his 6. Miscellaneous information. muscles immediately test noticeably 7. Personal research. weaker. For example, because mis-

This list is worthless to anyone I I seriously interested in researching the subject, since dates, publishers, etc., "He wrote several words on a are absent. "Miscellaneous informa­ tion," "Personal research," and a piece of paper and placed it in reference to a Playboy article are the hoy's left hand. Testing remarkable only for their banality. the leg strength, he found it The NOT theory and supporting literature are not representative of a to be weak and declared that rational, scientific approach to any of the boy had dyslexia." the subjects presented, including the area of learning disorders, and they simply do not meet commonsense alignments of the skull are so com­ standards. mon, most people have several areas Diagnosis by Applied Kinesiology. on their heads which, when tested, The diagnosis or subgrouping of cause the person who touches these learning disorders is not a simple task areas to become weak" (Lubecki (Kavele and Forness 1987; Fisk and 1982:4). One method used by Ferreri Rourke 1983). Many diagnostic mod­ (1984a) has the subject lie down and, els have been proposed and demon­ while the subject touches various strated on the clinical level, such as places on his head with his hand, brain electrical activity mapping (e.g., attempt to push one leg out to the Duffy et al. 1979), regional cerebral side against resistance provided by the blood flow studies (e.g., Hynd et al. testor. The testor then makes an 1987), eye movement studies (e.g., estimate of the relative weakening Pavlidis 1985), and behavioral mea­ produced by touching each location on sures (e.g., Kirk and Kirk 1976; Myers the skull. If the patient is incapable and Hammill 1982). Ferreri claims that of cooperating (e.g., in mental "using special testing techniques from retardation) a surrogate may place a the relatively new science of Applied hand on the subject's head and the Kinesiology, a differential diagnosis is strength estimation can be carried out possible within minutes." Applied on the surrogate (Lubecki 1982:12). A kinesiology (AK) has been used by parent (Reitterer) described how this chiropractors and other practitioners technique was used in the Del Norte for more than 20 years (Goodheart study: 1976; ICAK 1983; Walther 1981, 1986). It has been incorporated as a During the evaluation, a procedure diagnostic tool into several question­ was used that was very strange to able health practices, such as zone me. Keelenna, age four, was ner-

Fall 1990 45 vous about being handled, so the diagnosis presents a perplexing array doctor used me as a surrogate. I lay of approaches. Some have broad on the table on my back and Kee- application, but many are effective for lenna was placed on me, also on her select subgroups of learning disorders. back. He applied pressure to my The Neural Organization Tech­ raised arms and legs while I resisted. nique model advocates the manual He was able to evaluate Keelenna manipulation of the cranial bones, through my body. including the bone to which the eye Ferreri also demonstrated a curious muscles attach, and manipulation of method for diagnosing dyslexia, a the pelvis and lower back for all types severe reading disorder, during his of learning disorders, cranial injuries, presentation to parents. He tested the and cases of retardation, such as leg strength of a young boy and found Down's syndrome. For example, Fer­ it to be normal. He then wrote several reri states that "the ocular righting words on a piece of paper and placed reflex is corrected by contacting the it in the boy's left hand. Again testing mitopic suture of the frontal bone the leg strength, he found it to be with the heel of the hand, while the weak and declared that the boy had fingers contact the lateral aspect of the dyslexia. Somehow the presence of frontal bone, and lifting with an the paper with words on it induced inhalation assist" (Ferreri 1984b:52). a weakening of the subject's leg A more graphic example of the ther­ muscles! apy is offered by the parent (Eber- wein) of a six-year-old patient with The "in principle" mechanism for a speech delay: this process is a vaguely defined and yet-to-be-discovered energy transfer possibly related to the energy flows Two doctors worked on him very of acupuncture theory (Lubecki intently as I sat across his legs to 1982:5). help hold him down. They focused Although the applied kinesiology their attention on his head and (AK) diagnostic system has been mouth areas. They were applying such tremendous pressure to promoted for more than 20 years, Donald's skull and the roof of his there exists no published evidence to mouth that they would break into support its clinical efficacy or to a sweat and their bodies would just elucidate the underlying mechanism shake with the force of their exer­ for muscle weakening. Either the tion. All during this so-called treat­ evidence is anecdotal or authoritative ment Donald was screaming and statements are presented without struggling to get away from these references. Two published reports of doctors. masked controlled studies appear to reject the hypothesis that there is any These procedures are claimed to statistically significant relationship "organize the central nervous system, between specific muscle strength and establish right-brain, left-brain coor­ organic disorders (Friedman and dination, establish an intact cloacal Weisberg 1981; Triano 1982). These reflex system, stablilize the gait authors suggest that simple subject mechanism, establish normal cranial suggestion and bias on the part of the function and reset the proper eye clinician are the only effects operating muscle function with body and hand during the AK process. coordination" (Ferreri 1984a:74). The Ferreri NOT Treatment. Ther­ Ferreri boasts that his "cure" is apy for learning disorders, like their "simple, inexpensive, uses no drugs,

46 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 and is almost instant" (Ferreri 1984a:74). These are extraordinary claims requiring extraordinary evi­ "They were applying such dence. However, the literature on learning disabilities and related dis­ tremendous pressure to orders is devoid of citations of the Donald's skull that their bodies work of Ferreri or the Neural Organ­ ization Technique. In fact, proponents would just shake with the force provide no evidence to support the of the exertion. All during this safety and efficacy of NOT therapy from any sources other than Ferreri's so-called treatment Donald was undocumented claim of having cured screaming and struggling." more than 3,500 patients at his NOT Center (Ferreri 1988). After reviewing study design is suspect on at least two the case reports presented in Ferreri's counts: setting ineffective controls on book (Ferreri and Wainwright 1985), the study population variables and the Utah Chiropractic Association's observer bias. Ethics Committee noted: "In the Defining the study population. As entirety, we found no true case discussed above, the difficulties histories except for fifteen summaries inherent in identifying subgroups of what may have been case histories within the general learning-disorder found in Chapter 6. The case histories population for treatment or research contained no evidence of physical purposes are substantial. Experi­ examination, diagnosis, prognosis, mental designs must be carefully and follow-up." The Ethics Commit­ conceived and executed to ensure that tee likened the Neural Organization a specific target population is Technique model to a "one cause, one represented in the sample groups and cure theory of disease which is so that matched control groups (e.g., for inimitable to hucksterism in the health age, IQ, sex, etc.) are properly selected. care field" (Jarvis 1987). In a related The Del Norte study failed on all matter involving the same Utah counts. It made no attempt to identify chiropractor, a Third Judicial District and limit subjects to any particular Court judge issued a restraining order subgroup of learning disorders. In barring AK/NOT-trained chiroprac­ fact, it included a wide spectrum of tors from promoting or using the conditions, including children with techniques for the treatment of Down's syndrome, cerebral palsy, and learning disorders (Russan 1987). epilepsy. This, along with the failure of the study design to include a control Del Norte Study: A Controlled Plan?grou p receiving a placebo therapy, made it virtually impossible to make To ensure reliable, reproducible statistical comparisons to determine results in clinical experiments and the effectiveness of the AK diagnostic studies, a control group is selected. and NOT intervention procedures for Controls remove, to the extent pos­ various subtypes of learning sible, the inevitable bias of both the disorders. subject and the investigator, isolate Observer bias. In the design of a the procedure or medication, and study of this type, pre- and post-test provide carefully defined subject measures of the variables (e.g., groups of adequate size to make reading level, neurological integrity, statistical comparisons. The Del Norte etc.) predicted to change as a result

Fall 1990 47 of the intervention phase must be rubbing, and should be clockwise or uniformly applied under standard across, but not counter clockwise rub" procedures. An important aspect of (Ferreri 1984b:35). It is obvious that the data-gathering process is that the this does not represent a rational, investigator making the post- proved approach for controlling sub­ assessment evaluations be unaware of ject or investigator bias. the intervention given to each study subject. It has been repeatedly shown Science or Quackery? that there is a natural, subconscious tendency for an investigator to bias Given all the factors discussed, the Del the subject's response or his own Norte study and the AK/NOT treat­ interpretation of the response when ment procedures are seriously flawed. he has prior knowledge of the subject In my opinion, the study will never and the intervention given (Ballintine be accepted for publication in a 1975). In the Del Norte study, for refereed journal; but, unfortunately, example, one measure to be used to the Del Norte School District and this gauge the NOT treatment's effective­ study itself will be cited by promoters ness was a pre- and post-intervention of the AK/NOT program throughout neurological screening conducted by the world to support the marketing the school nurse. Since the nurse was of this questionable approach to the aware of the student's therapy during treatment of learning disorders and the study, her bias (positive or neg­ neurological disease. ative) will make the neurological data Frank Young (1988), Commis­ suspect. On other data sheets, such sioner of the U.S. Food and Drug as the Visual-Auditory Digit Span Administration (FDA), defines test, the district psychologist (and quackery as "the commercialization of project director) is identified as the unproven, often worthless, and some­ examiner in both February and June. times dangerous health products and Ferreri proposes a curious method procedures" (p. 12). In my opinion the for neutralizing investigator and Neural Organization Technique, ap­ subject bias and offers the following plied kinesiology and craniopathy all directions: "First, the testing doctor meet these criteria. The current status should be in neutral mentally and of the AK/NOT model was succinctly physically (that is, with no presump­ stated by a state licensing board that tion as to the outcome of any test suspended the license of an AK/NOT- procedure), and breathing normally. trained chiropractor for five years: He/she should be unswitched. Always "[The] Texas Board of Chiropractic test your own K.27 switching circuit!" Examiners cannot condone claims (Ferreri 1984b:32). For those not dyslexia can be effectively cured familiar with this "switch," he explains through NOT or other unproven that the K.27 is "the master anterior techniques. These claims are beyond switch on the body. This is the that which is reasonable and commen­ meeting point of all the associated surate with the documentation avail­ (spinal) points of the Acupuncture able" (Hartung 1987). meridians and the meeting of Yin and Yang; this can be done with the Is the Del Norte experience an umbilicus for specific side of fault, but isolated case of naivete on the part of works just as well using only both parents and a school district? K27s." Ferreri continues: "All Although statistics are not available switches are fixed with a heavy on the extent of education-related health fraud, in a national survey com-

48 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 missioned by the U.S. Food and Drug Treatment or Torture? Administration in 1986, Louis Harris Associates found that 1 in 4 Amer­ Linda Renau, a parent, vividly recalls icans use questionable treatments and her son's last treatment. In a letter the majority of them have at least to the California Board of Chiropractic some college education (Young 1988). Examiners she says: "My heart is In fact, college graduates were the ripped into pieces" and goes on to subgroup most likely to rely on describe how the doctor "was pushing questionable therapies. This trans­ in Victor's eye sockets when suddenly lates into 46 million people. According my son (who had never had a seizure to Commissioner Young of the FDA, before) had some type of seizure. His that figure may seriously underesti­ right arm went out of control up into mate the full extent of the health- the air and in a circular type motion fraud problem. Parents agonizing over fell limply hanging off the table. At a child's struggle with the educational the same instant, his eyes rolled up process often abandon reason and and back into their sockets." Another turn to questionable practitioners. As mother, Jeannie Reitterer, who had one parent (Eberwein) recalls, she two children in the Del Norte study, signed the Del Norte Study consent states: "My kids were guinea pigs in form when school officials told her the a torture chamber. And all 1 feel now Ferreri treatment had cured other is guilt." dyslexic children with minimal pain. "Naturally, as any desperate parent would do, I leapt at the chance to do something that could possibly benefit Note my son." 1. Much of the background information Research involving subject groups and firsthand accounts incorporated into this paper were provided by Joan Hayes, a special- drawn from school settings is essential education teacher, Don Major, a substitute for the meaningful investigation of teacher, and Theda Major, a kindergarten learning disorders. A human subjects teacher, of the Del Norte Unified School committee serving a school district has District in Northern California, and parents Mary Eberwein, Linda Reneau, and Jeannie a special public trust to ensure that Reitterer. proposed research involving children is safe and represents a reasonable, rational approach to the problem in References question. By learning from the exam­ ple of the AK/NOT study and the ACDL Editors. 1988. The proposed chiro­ application of the simple, common- practic cure. Association for Children with sense guidelines presented here and Learning Disabilities News Briefs, January/ in other publications dealing with the February (no. 168):13-14. Alkon, D. L. 1983. Learning in the marine subject of questionable health practi­ snail. Scientific American, July:70-83. ces in education (Silver 1987; Worrall Ballintine, J. E. 1975. Objective measure­ 1989, 1990) parents and school dis­ ments and the double-masked procedure. tricts can ensure that their limited American Journal of Ophthalmology, resources are judiciously utilized to 79(5):763-767. Benton, A. L., and D. Pearle. 1978. Dyslexia: advance our understanding of the An Appraisal of Current Knowledge. New learning process. They provide par­ York: Oxford University Press. ents and schools with the essential Brown, B., G. Haegerstrom-Portnoy, J. tools to evaluate alternative theories Herron, D. Galin, C. D. Yingling, and M. and therapies. Marcus. 1985. Static postural stability is normal in dyslexia children, journal of

Fall 1990 49 Learning Disabilities, 18(l):31-34. far side of heterogeneity: A critical Cook, P. 1988. The Crescent City cure. analysis of empirical subtyping research Hippocrates. November/December: 60-70. in learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Dennison, P. 1982. TFH and Dyslexia. Disabilities, 20(6):374-382. Glendale, Calif.: Valley Remedial Group. Kirk, A. K„ and W. Kirk. 1976. Psycholin- Duffy, F. H., M. B. Denckla, P. H. Bartels, guistic Learning Disabilities Diagnosis and G. Sandini, and L. S. Kiessling. 1979. Remediation. Chicago: University of Dyslexia: Automated diagnosis by com­ Illinois Press. puterized classification of brain electrical Lubecki, J. 1982. Better Health Through Body activity. Annals of Neurology, 7(5):421- Balancing. Fair Oaks, Calif.: Lubecki. 428. Marks, M., ed. 1981. Touch for Health: Felix, J. S. 1987. Research update. Fighting Instructor Training Manual. Pasadena, Blindness News (1401 Mt. Royal Ave., Calif.: Touch for Health Foundation. Baltimore, Md.), Summer: 4. Myers, P. I., and D. D. Hammill. 1982. Ferreri, C. A. 1984a. Dyslexia and learning Learning Disabilities: Basic Concepts, disabilities cured. Digest of Chiropractic Assessment Practices, and Instructional Economics, 25:74-75. Strategies. Austin, Tex.: Pro-Ed. . 1984b. Basic neural organization. In Pavilidis, G. T. 1985. Eye movements in Collected papers of the Members of the dyslexia: Their diagnostic significance. International College of Applied Kinesiology. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 18(l):42- Shawnee Mission, Kans.: ICAK, 50. December. Russan, L. (Judge). 1987. Civil No. C87-2868. . 1988. Letter to the Editor, Del Norte Third Judicial District Court in and for Triplicate (Crescent City, Calif.), Salt Lake County, State of Utah. unpublished. Silver, L. B. 1987. The "magic cure": A review Ferreri, C. A., and R. B. Wainwright. 1985. of the current controversial approaches Breakthrough for Dyslexia and Learning for treating learning disabilities. Journal Disabilities. Pompano Beach, Fla.: Expo­ of Learning Disabilities, 20(8):498-504. sition Press. Triano, J. J. 1982. Muscle strength testing Fisk, J. L., and B. P. Rourke. 1983. Neuro­ as a diagnostic screen for supplemental psychological subtyping of learning nutrition therapy: A blind study. Journal disabled children: History, methods, of Manipulative and Physiological Thera­ implications, journal of Learning Disabil­ peutics, 5(4):170-182. ities, 16(9):529-533. Vellutino, F. R. 1987. Dyslexia. Scientific Friedman, M. H., and J. Weisberg. 1981. American, 256(3):34-41. Applied kinesiology—Double blind pilot Walther, D. 1981. Applied Kenisiology, vol. study. Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry, 1. Pueblo, Colo.: Systems DC Publishers. 45(3):321-323. . 1986. Enhancement of the growth Goodheart, G. J. 1976. Kinesiology and and development of applied kinesiology. dentistry. Journal of the American Society Synectics, 3(5):17-19, May. of Preventive Dentistry, 6:16. Worrall, R. 1989. Cures for LD Kids: If It Hartung, R. 1987. July 30-August J, 1987 Sounds Too Good to Be True It Probably Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law & Is. CASP Today, 14 (November/ Ruling Regarding Enforcement Hearing on December):15, 25. Dr. Joe T. Boyd, D.C. Texas Board of . 1990. Detecting health fraud in the Chiropractic Examiners, p. 31, August. field of learning disabilities. Journal of Hynd, G. W., C. R. Hynd, H. G. Sullivan, Learning Disabilities, April. and H. G. Kingsbury. 1987. Regional Young, F. E. 1988. Allies in the war against cerebral blood flow (RCBF) in develop­ health fraud. FDA Consumer, March, pp. mental dyslexia: Activation during read­ 11-13. ing in a surface and deep dyslexic. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 20(5):294-300. Russell S. Worrall, O.D., is Assistant ICAK Executive Board. 1983. Applied kine­ siology—Adopted status statement of the Clinical Professor, School of Optometry, ICAK. Digest of Chiropractic Economics, University of California, Berkeley, CA November/December: 49, 51. 94720, and also has a private practice Jarvis, K. B. 1987. Report of Ethics Committee in Colfax, California. He is current for State of Utah Department of Business chairman of the Vision Fraud Task Force Regulation (Box 45802, Salt Lake City), May. for the National Council Against Health Kavale, K. A., and S. R. Forness. 1987. The Fraud.

50 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 The Spooks Of Quantum Mechanics

VICTOR J. STENGER

I cannot seriously believe in [the quantum theory] because it cannot he reconciled with the idea that physics should represent a reality in time and space, free from spooky actions at a distance.

—Albert Einstein

he "spooky actions at a distance" that so disturbed Einstein about quantum mechan­ Tics have provided comfort to those who seek a scientific basis for spooky things like telepathy and faster-than-light communication. For some, they have also confirmed the holistic notion that ^ everything that happens in the universe is simultaneously connected to everything else. Quantum effects Do paranormalists and holists have a right are indeed weird to be comforted, or are they just whistling in and spooky, but the graveyard? I'm afraid that they would have been better off if things had turned out not do they provide quite so spooky. As we will see, the conventional any mechanism interpretation of quantum mechanics, disputed by Einstein but triumphantly confirmed by for simultaneous experiment, provides no mechanism for psychic connection phenomena or simultaneous connections between events. On the contrary, paranormal between events phenomena violate the foundational principles or for extrasensory of twentieth-century physics—relativity and quantum mechanics. These principles are channels of confirmed by countless empirical tests, having communication? withstood every challenge scientists and pseudoscientists have been able to mount. Einstein's unhappiness with quantum mechanics is legendary, though his photon theory of light contributed mightily to the quantum revolution. In the seventeenth cen­ tury, Isaac Newton proposed that light was

Fall 1990 material, or "corporeal," in nature. By positivism," school that had been the nineteenth century, however, the developing in philosophy at about the wavelike behavior of light led scient­ same time. Positivism held that the ists to largely dismiss Newton's only reality was empirical observation. corpuscular theory in favor of the Metaphysical notions were nonsense, wave theory first proposed by his since they dealt with concepts that had contemporary Christian Huygens no empirical content and so could not (1629-1695). be tested observationally. In 1905 Einstein built on Max Today logical positivism is out of Planck's five-year-old idea that light fashion, but any new philosophical occurs in discrete bundles, or system must still confront the ques­ "quanta," and resurrected the corpus­ tion of how to make meaningful cular theory in an updated form. He statements about the universe that proposed that light was composed of are not directly related to empirical localizable particles he called "phot­ facts. ons." Today it is unquestioned that Although Einstein had provided light consists of discrete quanta—a the greatest impetus to the positivist fact daily confirmed in thousands of view of nature, he later backed off laboratories. considerably, insisting that physical Empirically, light exhibits the properties must have an intrinsic discrete and local properties associated reality beyond their mere measure­ with particles. But the wave charac­ ment. This change of heart was the teristics of light, such as its apparent result of his development of the ability to pass simultaneously through general theory of relativity, first several openings separated in space, appearing in 1916, in which space and are also confirmed. time seem to have intrinsic holistic This type of schizophrenic behav­ reality. ior is not confined to photons alone. Electrons, neutrons, and other entities The Copenhagen Interpretation that normally appear as localized particles also can't seem to decide Positivism in physics was instead whether they are really particles or championed by Niels Bohr, Max Born, waves. It all depends on what you try and others of the Copenhagen School. to measure. If you look for localized The Copenhagen Interpretation of electrons, neutrons, or photons, you quantum mechanics, which is widely find them. If, on the other hand, you accepted by most physicists today, set up an experiment designed to holds that an object does not even measure wave properties, you find possess certain properties until those these too. This wave-particle duality, properties are measured. exhibited by normal matter as well as When we observe anything in the light, is precisely what gives quantum universe, we must interact with the mechanics its spooky nature. object being observed, disturbing it in In his 1905 special theory of rela­ some way. This presents no problem tivity, Einstein emphasized a feature for large objects, like the moon and of scientific method that was to most bodies in our everyday experi­ become a key to the development of ence, which hardly recoil under the quantum mechanics: physical quanti­ action of the photons we bounce off ties are defined by the way they are them from the sun or artificial lights. measured. This reliance on measure­ However, at the atomic and subatomic ment was consistent with the "logical level, photons can wreak havoc with

52 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 the system being observed. For exam­ Copenhagen Interpretation of quan­ ple, since the position of the electron tum mechanics is that the equations inside an atom cannot be measured of physics do not allow you to predict without destroying the atom, the the movement of an object from one Copenhagen Interpretation holds that place to another with complete cer­ an electron has no definite position in tainty—only the probability of this an atom. movement. This probability is ex­ Extending this idea to all other pressed in terms of a purely mathe­ physical quantities, we conclude that matical quantity called the "wave- they become real only upon their function." being measured. Now this may sound The idea that the motion of indi­ like ancient Hindu idealism, with vidual bodies is at least partially unde­ everything in our heads, or the New termined by what happened before Age: "Reality is whatever you want contradicted the assertion of New­ it to be." The fact that reality rarely tonian mechanics that all motion is in is what you want it to be is the best principle completely predictable, pro­ evidence that a world beyond our vided you have sufficient information heads does indeed exist! to make the calculation. By contrast, However, the reality that concerns the equations of quantum mechanics me here is specifically that of physical only allow you to predict the average quantities: variables used in describing behavior of similarly prepared systems, observations, such as space, time, not the exact behavior of the individ­ mass, and temperature. According to ual systems themselves. the Copenhagen Interpretation, these Shortly after the development of are simply human inventions — quantum mechanics, the discoverer of defined according to the way they are the wave-particle duality, Louis de measured. Broglie, proposed that particles were Another important element of the guided by pilot waves and that these

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Fall 1990 53 were responsible for the observed "EPR Paradox" (Einstein, Podolsky, wavelike behavior of electrons and and Rosen 1935). other particles (de Broglie 1930). He Two basic concepts must be under­ associated the quantum mechanical stood before we can come to grips with wavefunctions with his pilot waves. the EPR Paradox: (1) reality and In his 1951 book Quantum Theory, (2) locality. Here's how Einstein and David Bohm developed the de Broglie his colleagues defined reality for the idea further, proposing that some purposes of their discussion: "If, form of hidden variables may exist without in any way disturbing a that provide for a more complete system, we can predict with certainty description of nature than conven­ (i.e., with probability equal to unity) tional quantum mechanics—more the value of a physical quantity, then complete in the sense that the statis­ there exists an element of physical tical nature of quantum mechanics is reality corresponding to this physical replaced by underlying deterministic quantity." principles. The hidden variables would Clearly, the concrete objects of our be analogous to the forces and poten­ everyday experience contain this tials of classical physics that are property of reality—predictability. If responsible for the motion of bodies we look away from a tree, we can (Bohm 1951; Bohm, Hiley, and predict with great certainty that it will Kaloyerou 1987). still be there when we look in that direction a few moments later. The EPR Paradox Dreams and fantasies do not exhibit predictability. Back in 1935, Einstein and two junior To explain the EPR Paradox, we colleagues, Boris Podolsky and Nathan also have to define precisely what Rosen, had written a paper arguing we mean when we say that two events that quantum mechanics must be are local. This can occur even when "incomplete" in its description of real­ the events are separated in space. If ity. They argued that certain quan­ we can find another reference frame, tum systems, such as those composed any reference frame, in which the of two particles, can be prepared in two events occur at the same place, such a way that the result of a we are forced to conclude that the measurement of one particle fixes the events are local since our descriptions result of a measurement of the cannot depend on any one point of second—before the second measure­ view. In this case, no "action at a ment is performed. This can happen distance" between events has taken after the particles are so separated in place. space that communication between Before Einstein and relativity, them would require a signal traveling scientists believed that no limit existed faster than light. on the speed of bodies. Thus, what­ Einstein and his colleagues con­ ever the separation of two events in cluded that either particles intrinsi­ space and time, it was always possible cally possessed certain properties be­ to find a reference frame in which the fore they were measured—in contrast events were local. to the quantum idea that the act of However, if Einstein is correct, measurement brings that property then there must exist certain events into existence—or a nonlocal "spooky that cannot be made local in any action at a distance" force was in reference frame—because any signal effect. This has become known as the passing between them must exceed

54 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Light Cone Event inside light cone

SIP'GJ'S^

Event here and now

Simultaneous event at different place

FIGURE 1. Representation of events in space and time. For illustration, space is indicated as a two-dimensional plane, with the time axis vertical. An event occurring "here" and "now" is indicated at the base of the time axis. It can only be causally connected to events inside the light cone. To reach an event outside the light cone, a signal must travel faster than the speed of light. Simultaneous events at different places cannot be connected, since they lie outside the light cone. the speed of light. In relativity jargon, This is a point that hardly anyone, such events are said to be "outside the and not many scientists, recognize: light cone." (See Figure 1.) Holism violates Einstein's relativity. If The "spooky actions at a distance" simultaneous holistic connections that concerned Einstein were appar­ between separated events exist, then ent causal connections between either the whole foundation of events that lay outside the light cone. twentieth-century physics must be According to relativity, there must destroyed or these connections must exist phenomena in the universe that be supernatural—they must be are independent of one another— miracles. namely, those events that are outside In his 1951 book, David Bohm the light cone. No interaction between speculated that "no theory of mechan­ these events can take place. An ically determined hidden variables can important special set of events outside lead to all of the results of quantum the light cone are those occurring theory." He proposed an EPR-type simultaneously at different places. experiment involving electron spins Simultaneous events that are separ­ that would much later provide the ated in space cannot affect one conclusive test (Bohm 1951). another in any way. (See Figure 1.) Bohm's proposal exploited the

Fall 1990 55 remarkable properties of the elemen­ mass and electric charge. However, tary quantity called spin: the intrinsic conventional quantum mechanics says angular momentum of a particle. Spin that only one spin component can be is a vector with components along real at any given time, specifically, the each of the three axes of space: x, y, last one measured. and z. According to quantum rules, In the case of the Bohm experi­ however, only one of its three com­ ment, the experimenter at the end of ponents can be measured at a given one electron beam measures the spin time. component along some arbitrary axis. Measuring a second component of This act determines, with 100 percent spin results in a change in a subse­ certainty, the outcome of the mea­ quent measurement of the first. It's surement of the spin component along as if you measured the height of a the same axis at the end of the other woman and found it to be 5 feet, 4 beam. The two measurements could inches, then measured her waistline, happen at a sufficiently large separa­ and then went back and measured her tion and small time interval to be height again and found it to be 4 feet, outside the light cone. Somehow the 5 inches. information that the first electron's Bohm suggested the following spin has been measured is transmitted experiment: Suppose you start out instantaneously to the second. Thus, with two electrons in a certain state Bohm's experiment seems to demon­ in which the total spin is zero, the so- strate Einstein's "spooky action at a called singlet state. Then let the distance." electrons go off in opposite directions. One point should be filed away for (See Figure 2.) After they have separ­ future reference: Note that the second ated some distance, measure the spin measurement must be along the same component of one electron along a axis as the first. Measurements of the particular axis, say the z-axis. Since spin along any other axis are not total angular momentum is conserved, predictable with 100 percent certainty, the total spin of the two-particle so the second observer must know system must remain zero, even as the ahead of time what axis to use. particles become separated. Several types of hidden variables As a result, the measurement of the are possible, but let me focus on the z-component of the spin of electron type that is consistent with our own A immediately fixes the z-component intuitions carried over from classical of the spin of electron B. And so, in physics: hidden variables that are both the EPR sense, the z-component of real and local. spin corresponds to "an element of Real, local hidden variables (l) con­ physical reality," since you can predict nect events in space only within the with absolute certainty the outcome light cone and (2) have intrinsic reality of a measurement of electron B. that we can take to be defined in the But what about the x- and y- EPR sense. If the three components components of the electron's spin? In of spin are all real, then at least two classical physics, all three components of them must be hidden variables, are intrinsically real, as presumably since all three cannot be simultane­ are the three components of the ously measured. In conventional angular momentum of the earth. The quantum mechanics, they are not electron simply carries along these hidden; rather, they are not real, properties as it moves from the source because only measurement makes a to the detector, just as it carries its variable real.

56 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Spin Analyzing Spin Analyzing Magnet A Magnet B

/ U" 1 Singlet Q TH component yr ^ 1 Source >i :—I determined Spin component measured

FIGURE 2. The EPR Paradox experiment proposed by David Bohm. Electrons from an initial singlet (total spin zero) state are analyzed by magnets that are oriented to deflect the particles one way when they are spinning along a particular axis, and the opposite way when they are spinning opposite. Once the spin component at one end is measured, the component at the other end is determined. In conventional quantum mechanics, spin components do not exist until they are measured.

The hidden variable interpretation Aspect and his collaborators at the implements the traditional notion that Institute for Applied Optics of the reality goes beyond measurement. University of Paris, Orsay, France Which interpretation do you prefer? (Aspect, Grangier, and Gerard 1982). The spooky one of Bohr and Born or Bohm's proposed experiment the sensible one of Einstein, de involved electrons, but photons pro­ Broglie, and Bohm? How can we vide an equally powerful test since decide? The same way we decide they too have spin. In the Orsay anything in science—by experiment. experiments, a singlet (spin zero) atomic source emits pairs of photons Bell's Theorem in opposite directions. Thus, when one photon is later measured to have a spin In 1964, John S. Bell analyzed Bohm's component along a particular axis, the proposed experiment and was able to other photon will have the opposite prove that it provided a practical spin component. Conceptually, the means for distinguishing conventional experiment is similar to the simple one quantum mechanics from real, local illustrated in Figure 3. hidden variables theories. Basically, Each beam passes through polar­ Bell showed that the quantitative izers of variable orientation around correlation between measured spin the beam line, and then into photo- components of the two electrons from multiplier tubes capable of counting a singlet source, as computed from individual photons. A different polar­ quantum mechanics, is greater than izer orientation is randomly chosen would be possible in any theory of real, for each pair emitted from the source. local hidden variables (Bell 1964; In an advanced version of the exper­ Clauser and Shimony 1978; d'Espag- iment, the Orsay experimenters nat 1979; Redhead 1987). arranged it so the choice of polarizer At least a dozen experiments have orientation was made after the pho­ been developed to perform the tests tons left the source. This provided an provided by Bell's theorem. The unambiguous test of Einsteinian definitive series was done by Alain locality, since in this case no signal

Fall 1990 57 PMT A PMT B

Mirror Polarizer Polarizer A B

FIGURE 3. Conceptual equivalent of Aspect experiment. The mirror splits a light beam into two right circularly polarized beams. The beams pass through polarizers before being detected by photomultiplier tubes (PMT). could pass between the ends of the of light. Is this a possible mechanism beams without traveling faster than for ESP and other psychic effects? the speed of light. Some have claimed so (Sarfati 1977; Using photomultiplier tube detec­ Herbert 1985; Targ and Puthoff tors, the experiment counted the 1977). number of photons for each relative Let us see if an EPR device could orientation of the polarizers at the be built to provide a means of superlu- ends of the two beams. From these minal signaling. Suppose we have a counts, the experimenters could singlet source that sends the photons determine the amount of correlation of each pair in opposite directions, as between the settings at the end of one in Figure 3. At the end of both beam beam and the other. lines we have photomultiplier tubes The results of the Aspect exper­ that can count the photons emerging iment showed greater correlations with polarizations at any angle in a between polarizer orientations than plane perpendicular to the beam lines, were possible if all three components as determined by the polarizer rota­ of the spin of each photon were tion angles about the beam axes. intrinsically real, as defined by the EPR When the settings at both ends are criterion. This empirically demon­ the same, the spin component at one strated that the spin components of end is completely determined by the photons cannot be both local and real. setting at the other. Thus it seems that Furthermore, the measured, quantit­ we should be able to use this fact to ative correlation agreed precisely, signal from one end of the beam to within very small experimental errors, the other, instantaneously over great with that calculated using conven­ distances. tional quantum mechanics. Quantum But it turns out we can't! In order mechanics emerged triumphant. to communicate information from one But this also meant that we still point to another, a series of bits had spooky action at a distance. encoding a nonrandom message must Measurements at the end of one beam be transmitted. Leaving both polariz­ seem to determine measurements at ers at the same angle provides for no the other, within time intervals so information transfer. The photomul­ small that any signals between the two tiplier will simply find half of the would have had to exceed the speed photons polarized in the selected

58 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 direction, and half in the opposite Einsteinian locality or certain com- direction, in random distribution. monsense notions of reality must be To encode and decode messages, discarded. There is no third alterna­ the polarizer angles of both sender and tive. receiver must be changed. Now the Most popular writers prefer to observer at the end of the receiving discard locality rather than reality beam line cannot know ahead of time (see, for example, Herbert 1985). They what angle to use—that information cannot understand why physicists are must be contained in the coded so unwilling to give up locality. My message the observer would receive. answer is simple. We have no reason— So the receiver would have to ran­ indeed, no right—to do so. Einsteinian domly change the polarizer angle and locality is completely consistent with then try to extract the message from everything we know about the empir­ the number of received hits at each ical world, from the nineteenth- angle. century experiments that failed to find One might be inclined to think that the ether to the tests of Bell's inequal­ this is possible, given the fact that the ity. We have just seen that the measurement of a photon or electron apparent spooky action at a distance at one end determines the outcome of quantum mechanics does not of a measurement of the other provide for superluminal transfer of member of a singlet pair. But it simply signals, and so does not violate Ein­ does not work out that way. steinian locality. The only violation of Remember, 100 percent certainty only locality occurs within the imaginary occurs when the axes used at both framework of our own descriptions of ends are the same. the observations. The wavefunction is With each angle setting of one nonlocal, but it is also nonreal. polarizer, a specific, calculable distri­ Abiding by Occam's Razor, the bution of photons will be found for more economical hypothesis is to deny each setting of the other. In fact, the the intrinsic reality of physical obser- relative numbers of photons observed vables. Now, at first blush, this may at each setting will exactly trace the not seem very economical. I appear to intensity patterns calculated from be making the most drastic of hy­ classical optics for an experiment with potheses. This guy is doing away with circular polarized light, obeying reality! Malus's law discovered two centuries But actually I am being completely ago! It follows that the bit sequence economical. I have, in fact, introduced formed by the individual photon no new hypotheses beyond those counts at the receiving end will have already implicit in relativity and no information content. As in the case quantum mechanics. To toss out of fixed predetermined settings, the locality and demand reality, we make bit pattern will be purely random. No two unacceptable and unnecessary, signal transmission is possible. (For a drastic hypotheses: that the two pillars more detailed analysis of the informa­ of twentieth-century physics, relativ­ tion transferred in an EPR apparatus, ity and quantum mechanics, as con­ see Mermin 1985.) ventionally interpreted, are wrong. I The experimental violation of Bell's would rather assume they are right, inequality leads to a clear and unequiv­ since they have been confirmed ocal conclusion: nature cannot be repeatedly, including by the experi­ described in terms of hidden variables mental tests of Bell's theorem. that are both local and real. Either I am not denying the existence of

Fall 1990 59 an underlying reality. I agree that the interpretation of quantum mechanics, moon is there when no one is looking with the nonlocal and nonreal wave- at it. I simply argue that the true function describing ensembles rather reality of the universe is not neces­ than individual particles. sarily manifested by objects possess­ Quantum effects are certainly ing attributes, such as position and beyond normal experience. They are mass, that we assign them in the weird. But it does not follow that process of doing physics. These var­ every weird idea is consistent with iables, after all, are human inventions quantum mechanics. with no precisely definable meaning beyond their measurements as per­ Further Reading formed with specific instruments like clocks and meter sticks. An excellent lay discussion of EPR, Describing nature in terms of Bell's theorem, and the experiments physical variables is like sketching or designed to test them can be found photographing an object. Isn't it rather in the Scientific American article by foolish to equate images on a piece of d'Espagnat (1979). I also recommend paper with the real thing? We laugh Mermin's article in Physics Today at those ignorant and superstitious (1985). A more rigorous and very people who stick pins in dolls and think complete review is given in the that this will harm the person repre­ Physical Review paper by Clauser and sented. Yet even the most sophisti­ Shimony (1978). A full philosophical cated physicists ascribe a kind of discussion of these issues can be found voodoo reality to their own mathe­ in the book by Redhead (1987), and matical images. Quantum mechanics the opinions on the subject of many is not voodoo, despite what books on prominent people have been collected the occult shelves of bookstores say. by Davies and Brown (1986). An English translation of d'Espagnat's No Support for the Paranormal Reality and the Physicist has just become available (1989). Other skeptical Paranormalists are dead wrong when critiques of paranormal applications of they claim that modern physics sup­ quantum theory have been given by ports their proposal of extrasensory Shore (1984) and Gardner (1983, channels in some kind of underlying 1985). ethereal reality. The opposite is true. Einstein's relativity destroyed the References continuous ether and the instantane­ ous connection between events. Aspect, Alain, Phillippe Grangier, and Roger Quantum mechanics destroyed the Gerard. 1982. Experimental realization of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm Gedan- notion of continuous matter and kenexperiment: A new violation of Bell's energy. Twentieth-century science inequalities. Physical Review Letters, 49:91; provides a picture of a universe of Experimental tests of Bell's inequalities discrete material objects, interacting using time-varying analyzers. Ibid., p. with each other within the light cone, 1804. Bell, J. S. 1964. Physics, 1:195. with nothing further required by any Bohm, David. 1951. Quantum Theory. New existing data. York: Prentice-Hall. Quantum mechanics does not . 1952. A suggested interpretation of quantum theory in terms of "hidden provide a mechanism for supersen- variables," I and II. Physical Review, sory phenomena. Experiments fully 85:166. support the conventional statistical Bohm, D., B. Hiley, and P. N. Kaloyerou.

60 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 1987. An ontological basis for quantum in A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology, theory. Physics Reports, 144(6):321. edited by Paul Kurtz. Buffalo: Prome­ Bohr, N. 1934. Atomic Theory and the theus Books, 1985. Description of Nature. Cambridge: Cam­ Herbert, Nick. 1985. Quantum Reality. New bridge University Press. York: Anchor/Doubleday. Clauser, John F., and Abner Shimony. 1978. Mermin, N. David. 1985. Is the Moon There Bell's theorem: Experimental tests and When Nobody Looks? Reality and the implications. Rep. Prog. Phys., 41:1881. Quantum Theory. Physics Today, 38:38. Davies, P. C, and J. R. Brown, eds. 1986. Sarfati, J. 1977. The case for superluminal The Ghost in the Atom. Cambridge: information transfer. MIT Technological Cambridge University Press. Review, 79(5). de Broglie, L. 1930. An Introduction to the Shore, Steven N. 1984. Quantum theory and Study of Wave Mechanics. New York: the paranormal: The misuse of science. E. P. Dutton. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 9:24. d'Espagnat, Bernard. 1979. The quantum Redhead, Michael. 1987. Incompleteness, theory and reality. Scientific American, Nonlocality and Realism. Oxford: November: 128. Clarendon. . 1989. Reality and the Physicist: Knowl­ Targ, R., and H. Puthoff. 1977. Mind-Reach. edge, Duration and the Quantum World. New York: Delacorte Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Victor ). Stenger is professor of physics Einstein, A. 1948. Letters to D. S. Mackey, as quoted in "The Shaky Game: Einstein and astronomy at the University of Realism and the Quantum Theory," by Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, and depu­ Arthur Fine, in Science and Its Conceptual ty director of the Deep Underwater Muon Foundations, ed. by David L. Hull (Chi­ and Neutrino Detector (DUMAND) pro­ cago: University of Chicago Press), April ject, which plans to place a very high 26 and May 28. Einstein, A., B. Podolsky, and N. Rosen. 1935. energy neutrino telescope on the bottom Can the quantum-mechanical description of the ocean off the island of Hawaii. He of physical reality be considered com­ is the author of Physics and Psychics: plete? Physical Review, 47:777. The Search for a World Beyond the Gardner, Martin. 1983. Parapsychology and Senses (1990) and Not By Design: The quantum mechanics. In Science and the Paranormal, ed. by George O. Abell and Origin of the Universe (both Prome­ Barry Singer. New York: Scribner's; also theus Books).

E6K-'10mkvi/Pir

Fall 1990 61 Science and Sir William Crookes

STEVEN HOFFMASTER

ne of the current arguments being waged among those who teach physics Ois that of content versus process. This is not a new debate. In fact, it reappears every 20 to 25 years. In essence, one side says that it is more important to know how to think and reason scientifically than to have one's mind cluttered with excessive minor laws and physical principles. It is necessary to know examples of the major laws, but we need not know tens or ^ hundreds of examples of them. Through The psychic analogy we can infer behavior from one field into another. For example, knowledge of adventures of on electromagnetism leads to an understanding of eminent scientist optics, and if we know elementary mechanics, fluids need not be covered in exhaustive detail. reveal some of The other side counters that we cannot the processes and understand process without some background limitations of and knowledge to draw on. First you have to know the facts, and only after that can you make science as well as useful analogies and inferences. Without this its human side, background knowledge, we are playing games in the dark. Process is nice, but it cannot be foibles and all. done in a vacuum. Such a tension typically exists in all of the sciences. Clearly both sides have merit. I offer here a partial solution to this dilemma. In so doing, I hope to demonstrate an effective way to convey the thought processes of science and at the same time to present the human side, foibles and all, of science and scientists. It is often said that we learn from our mistakes. As a corollary, it could be argued that we might be able to learn a great deal about science by observing what it is not. We might learn process in science by looking at pseudo- science. There are many possibilities here. I will limit myself to just one example, Sir William Crookes.

62 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 By analyzing the scientific ventures of Crookes as well as his sojourn into the paranormal, I believe we can see many things that have relevance to us today. We can learn scientific process by observing where Crookes might have gone wrong. We can learn the human side of science by looking at why and how he went wrong. And we can, by analogy, develop a system that will allow us to, at least initially, sift through many of the seemingly scientific claims that bombard us today. And we can accomplish this without attacking strongly held cur­ rent beliefs or lifestyles. Contempor­ ary pseudosciences can be evaluated by analogy with Crookes's efforts and results. I shall not dwell on the life and accomplishments of Crookes. Nor will I spend much time on his paranormal The chemist and physicist Sir William adventures. My purpose is to empha­ Crookes circa 1900 (sketch, from photo­ size the contemporary lessons to be graph, by Tim Harris). learned from his life. However, some background will be necessary to clarify bright green line that would eventu­ and justify the conclusions. ally lead to his isolation and identi­ fication of the element thallium in Crookes as Scientist 1861. In the 1870s Crookes both built and did extensive research on radi­ William Crookes was born in London ometers, devices that rotate in a sealed in 1832 into a middle-class family. He container when illuminated. Also in was his parents' first child and would the 1870s Crookes began studies in eventually have 15 brothers and the field of low-pressure (vacuum) sisters. At the age of 16, after what physics. He would couple this with can best be described as an irregular investigations of radiation. Together education, he attended A. W. Hoff­ these would lead to the building of a man's Royal College of Chemistry, in cathode-ray tube, more often simply London. There he was Hoffman's called a Crookes tube, which for all personal assistant for four years and practical purposes is still the prototype was introduced to a number of well- for modern-day creation of X-rays. known scientists. Chief among them His studies of radioactivity would was Michael Faraday, the experimen­ continue, productively, into the 1900s. tal physicist. Crookes himself would Largely because of his scientific become a premier experimental chem­ accomplishments, Crookes was ist and physicist and an excellent knighted in 1897. His entrepreneurial lecturer, and yet he would remain skills enabled him to be reasonably rather naive mathematically. well off financially his entire life. Hence he was able to function much In analyzing the spectrum of more independently of the demands impure selenium, Crookes saw a

Fall 1990 63 of organized scholarship and academic Crookes included D. D. Home, Flor­ bureaucracy than many other scien­ ence Cook, Kate Fox, and Eva Fay. tists of the time (d'Albe 1923). When Crookes felt that he had been deceived, his criticism was merciless. Experiments with Home and Cook He was equally adamant, at least initially, about those mediums he felt Although his scientific accomplish­ to be genuine. Home and Cook are ments were exceptional, Crookes the two best examples of the latter would not be nearly as well known group. today if it were not for his efforts Daniel Dunglas Home was the outside traditional chemistry and most successful of the British medi­ physics. It is difficult to date exactly ums. He was never caught red-handed when Crookes's interest in Spiritual­ in an overt deception. Crookes con­ ism began, but it is certain that by ducted a series of investigations on 1867 (when his brother Philip died) Home in 1870 and 1871. Any sum­ he was active in such matters. Spir­ mary of these experiments unfortu­ itualism in England had been estab­ nately of necessity would leave out lished by 1860 as an alternative to many interesting details. I hope that fundamentalist Christianity (Gauld mine is, at least, representative of 1968). Many others in the scientific what transpired between Crookes and community showed interest in the Home. movement. Their number included An example of one of the early Faraday, Lodge, Wallace, and Ray- experiments is shown in Figure 1. This leigh. Here we will concentrate on the involved Home being requested to years 1870 to 1874, when Crookes have the "spirits" play an accordion. entered the world of psychical As the figure shows, Home held an research full time, with his typical accordion inside a basket that was dedication to experimental detail. placed almost completely under a There have been many excellent table. There was only enough room summaries of Crookes's efforts dur­ between the basket and the table for ing these years (Brandon 1983; Home's arm. Associates of Crookes Hyman 1985). I will describe only a "monitored" Home's feet and his other few of his experiments to show their hand. Part of the report on this general tone and scope. (For more experiment went as follows: detail, an excellent source is Crookes's own summary of these ventures ... The accordion was seen by those [Crookes 1874, 1904]. It is fascinating on either side of Mr. Home to move to see what Crookes mentions and about, oscillating and going round what he omits in his summaries of the and round the cage, and playing at experiments.) the same time. Dr. Huggins [a With his usual tenacity Crookes scientific associate of Crookes] now decided that he would provide the looked under the table, and said that conclusive proof of the existence of Mr. Home's hand appeared quite still whilst the accordion was mov­ spiritualist phenomena. He would do ing about emitting distinct sounds. this experimentally and he would of Mr. Home still holding the accor­ course be meticulous and thorough. dion in the usual manner in the cage, The best mediums would be examined his feet held by those next to him, as they held their seances, and the and his other hand resting on the experimental results would speak for table, we heard distinct and separate themselves. The mediums studied by notes sounded in succession, and

64 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 •

FIGURE 1. The accordion experiment with D. D. Home (sketch, from photograph, by Tim Harris).

then a simple air was played. As the spirits might move. Excruciating such a result could only have been detail is usually provided. produced by the various keys of the The experiments with the medium instrument being acted upon in Florence Cook were decidedly less harmonious succession, this was controlled than those with Home. A considered by those present to be representative of Florence Cook con­ a crucial experiment. . . . (Crookes 1874) tacted Crookes in 1874 and requested that he "investigate" Cook and her It might be mentioned at this point psychic abilities. It is interesting to that the experiment described appar­ note that in late 1873 she was involved ently took place in Crookes's home. in a rather unpleasant situation. While And although much of the informa­ she was holding a seance, a spirit, tion given by Crookes is useful, some "Katie King," materialized and was of it is vague (the room was illu­ moving about in the seance room. minated by gas—how well?) and some "Katie" was seized by a Mr. Volkmann, is irrelevant (the temperature fluctu­ and it turned out that she was a very ated between 68 and 70 degrees substantial entity with a remarkable Fahrenheit). There were many subse­ resemblance to Cook. Because of this quent tests of Home. Some of the best impropriety, Volkmann was attacked electrical equipment of the day was and unceremoniously removed from used in an effort to monitor Home's the seance room (Brandon 1983). movements. Reasonably elaborate However, the reputation of Flor­ springs and lever systems were set up ence Cook was seriously impaired and to measure forces on any object that a quick fix was needed. Enter William

Fall 1990 65 Crookes. One of Crookes's major community has been able to counter­ efforts was to show that there were attack reasonably effectively (Med- two entities, Cook and King, and that hurst and Goldney 1964). It might also they were distinct. His evidence be of interest to the reader to know included foot measurements, photo­ that Florence Cook was 18 or 19 (not graphs, height measurements, facial 15), married, and being rather aggres­ marks, and hair color (Crookes 1874). sively promoted by her husband and In particular the photographs are mother. unconvincing. In some of the pictures With this summary in mind, what of the spirit, one can see under her might we learn from Crookes's para­ white clothing the darker clothing of normal exploits that has current the medium. relevancy? How might we use his After this rather brief summary let career as a scientist to better explain us move to Crookes's conclusion: scientific process; to show more effectively what science can do and, . . . The almost daily seances with perhaps, what it should not attempt? which Miss Cook has lately favored There are two general observations me have proved a severe tax upon that I wish to make. They are to a her strength, and I wish to make certain degree intertwined and involve the most public acknowledgement the interaction between science and of the obligations I am under to her the paranormal. They also illustrate for her readiness to assist me in my experiments. Every test that I have mistakes or misconceptions relating to proposed she has at once agreed to the current perception of both science submit to with the utmost willing­ and pseudoscience. ness: she is open and straightfor­ ward in speech, and I have never Transfer of Expertise seen anything approaching the slightest symptom of a wish to To what degree is knowledge in one deceive. Indeed, I do not believe she field of any value in making reasonable could carry on a deception if she judgments in another? Can an organic were to try, and if she did she would certainly be found out very quickly, chemist realistically be expected to for such a line of action is altogether comment on developments in particle foreign to her nature. And to physics? Both areas are certainly in imagine that an innocent school girl the physical sciences. In the ever­ of fifteen should be able to conceive more-narrow specialization of today's ... so gigantic an imposture . . . science, I suspect that it would be a does more violence to one's reason rare individual who could do more than to believe her to be what she than superficially comment on both of affirms herself. (Crookes 1874) these fields. This, of course, does not stop us This is certainly an interesting from doing it. From my own experi­ conclusion on Crookes's part, partic­ ence, I know that one of the most ularly considering the debatable qual­ irritating personal traits of many ity of the evidence. More than one scientists is that they feel their associate of Crookes questioned his training and education permits them motives and objectivity in the Cook to expound on many and varied topics. investigation (Hall 1963). Trevor Hall And to a certain degree this is true. has proposed a convincing case for a Scientific analysis usually provides an romantic interlude between Crookes excellent framework to begin analysis and Cook, while the paranormal of most problems. However, in fields

66 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 where human interactions and per­ times he or she may even be worse ceptions are involved, the knowledge off. This usually occurs when the of a natural scientist frequently has success of past scientific efforts builds to be supplemented rather extensively up an arrogance or blindness that by information from other areas. prohibits seeing inconsistencies or Often the scientist will quickly be no outright errors in current research. better off than the untrained. Some­ The psychic researches of William

FIGURE 2. Spirit photography (1916). Is this really a picture of Sir William Crookes with his deceased wife? (Sketch, from photograph, by Tim Harris.)

Fall 1990 o7 Crookes show this beautifully. By all nature of the spirit world(s). standards Crookes was a superior Lodge was not alone in his use of experimentalist. However, this exper­ Crookes's research. It is the rule tise did him little good when he rather than the exception to cite the investigated the likes of Home or work of Crookes as a validation of the Cook. He was very much aware of the phenomenon. This seems even more possibility of fraud. But he was not unusual in view of the fact that most very well trained to seek and identify modern researchers in the paranormal it. Probably with Home, and most will admit that Crookes's research was certainly with Cook, he was wrong. seriously flawed. What one sees here Crookes should have been alerted by is a classic example of the pseudo- Florence Cook's recent problems to sciences' failure to revise in light of look for fraud more closely. He was key criticism (Radner and Radner not. 1982). The flawed investigations of The readers of the SKEPTICAL Crookes should be used as an inter­ INQUIRER are quite familiar with the esting historical reference. However, general inability of scientists to detect many still cite them as valid scientific fraud. Recently, however, I was research, something they clearly are attending a presentation by a noted not. chemist in which he ridiculed the The performance of William participation of James Randi in the Crookes in paranormal research can Benveniste homeopathy investigation show quite clearly that there are in France. He further argued that only limitations on both science and scien­ scientists should be involved with tists. An explicit statement of this scientific matters, even fringe science. somewhere in one's education should Most experience, on the other hand, not do irreparable harm. shows that the presence of a good magician can never hurt (Gardner Microcosm of the Scientific Method 1981; Houdini 1924; Randi 1982). Crookes was the first scientist to One of the toughest parts of an intro­ give a considerable amount of his time ductory science course is teaching the to serious scientific investigation of scientific method. If presented in all spiritualism. And he came out, at least its detail, it can be quite laborious for in part, in favor of its validity. His both instructor and student. Add a favorable conclusion was subse­ few examples of Galileo rolling balls quently used as a background for the down ramps and even the best of research of others. overachievers is hard put to maintain An excellent example is that of any interest. Perhaps just a few case Oliver Lodge, another physicist, who studies would more quickly and effec­ in the late 1890s and early 1900s wrote tively demonstrate the scientific extensively on spiritualist matters. method. Lodge would consistently avoid scien­ The psychic experiments of Wil­ tific tests of mediums and seance- liam Crookes are one such useful related affairs, claiming that Crookes example. They represent a scientific had conclusively demonstrated their approach to a field that is at best existence and that it would be need­ marginally scientific. Because of this lessly repetitive for him to do likewise they also indicate some of the basic (Hoffmaster 1984). Lodge concen­ assumptions and limitations of scien­ trated on more philosophical matters, tific investigation. such as a mind-matter duality and the First, Crookes as a physical scien-

68 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 tist was operating within a fairly more than most others do. Sometimes structured set of guidelines. His work they see them even if they are not was expected to conform to previous there. Scientists are notoriously easily laws and principles developed within fooled by sleight of hand. the fields of chemistry and physics. A scientist usually assumes that Paramount among these were the nature, although at times very subtle conservation principles and Newton's and intricate, is not devious and laws of motion. Things just do not deceitful. Crookes brought his atti­ move by themselves. There should be tude with him. He knew of the an expenditure of energy and the probability of fraud, but he did not presence of forces. have the training to adequately pre­ Much of Crookes's work was an vent or recognize it. Science generally attempt to measure the presence and assumes that nature is not out to play size of these forces. The elaborate tricks. It also assumes of nature a levers he used at the Home experi­ regular and benign behavior. These ments were ultimately attached to assumptions are not warranted in calibrated springs to determine the paranormal investigation. size of applied forces. Behind his work was an assumption of an orderly and Conclusion consistent universe. In addition to the principles assumed above, his electri­ As Lewis Jones pointed out in a recent cal experiments with Eva Fay and article in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Florence Cook showed a belief that the (Jones 1989), not all scientists think accepted principles of electromagnet- scientifically. Part of the reason for ism applied to spirit investigation. this is the way we train our scientists. Lodge would later attempt to make a In many courses a memorization and case that the spirit world was beyond regurgitation of facts is all that is physical investigation, that the mind- needed. Science ought to be much matter link transcended the mere more than this. It is a way to analyze banalities of the material world (Lodge the world around us and is not limited 1929; 1930). to molecules and blocks on planes. It Crookes in the early 1870s was not is not restricted to those with graduate ready to make a similar statement. science degrees. Although he was aware of the pos­ Education is more than rote learn­ sibility of deception, he felt that his ing in a classroom, which is necessary precautions were adequate. He had but not sufficient. Many times what detected fraud in the investigations of is missing, particularly in traditional Fox and Fay, but not in those of Home science courses, is an exposure to the and Cook. He was then in a dilemma. process of scientific thinking and Here were some valid observations analysis. All too often if this is learned, that contradicted the conservation it is through some sort of osmotic laws. At this point, he introduced the process. idea of guidance without expenditure To my mind, the efforts of William of energy. Crookes, more than a century ago, can In my opinion Crookes had his effectively be used as an example to perceptions affected by his prior convey scientific process and analysis training. Because of their inclinations in a way that more actively captures and education, physical scientists tend the student's interest. The experi­ to see the world differently. They look ences of Crookes fairly clearly show for patterns and causal relationships that science is a human endeavor with

Fall 1990 69 its associated strengths and weak­ Story of Florence Cook and William Crookes. nesses. This is a valuable lesson, one New York: Garrett. (Reprinted as The often overlooked or underempha- Medium and the Scientist, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, N.Y., 1984.) sized. Science is also exciting and Hoffmaster, Steven. 1984. Sir Oliver Lodge rewarding. It is up to those of us who and the spiritualists. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, are interested in science to see that 8: 334-343. the message is conveyed. The psychic Houdini, Harry. 1924. A Magician Among the Spirits. New York: Harper. adventures of Sir William Crookes are Hyman, Ray. 1985. A critical historical an effective and interesting way to do overview of parapsychology. In A Skeptics this. Handbook of Parapsychology, ed. by Paul Kurtz. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. Jones, Lewis. 1989. The two cultures: A References resurrection. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 14:57- 64. d'Albe, E. E. Fournier. 1923. The Life of Sir Lodge, Oliver. 1929. Phantom Wall. London: William Crookes. London: T. Fisher Hodden and Stoughton. Unwin Ltd. . 1930. Beyond Physics. London: Allen Brandon, Ruth. 1983. The Spiritualists. New and Unwin. York: Alfred A. Knopf. Medhurst, R. G., and K. M. Goldney. 1964. Crookes, William. 1874. Researches in the William Crookes and the psychical phe­ Phenomena of Spiritualism. London: nomena of mediumship. Proceedings of the Quarterly Journal of Science Reprints. Society for Psychical Research. . 1904. Researches in Spiritualism. Radner, Michael, and Daisie Radner. 1982. Rochester: Austin. Science and Unreason. Belmont, Calif.: -. 1912. In Presidential Addresses to the Wadsworth. Society for Psychical Research 1882-1971. Randi, James. 1982. Flim-Flam. Buffalo: Glasgow: Robert Maclehose and Co. Prometheus Books. Gardner, Martin. 1981. Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus. Buffalo: Prometheus. Gauld, Alan. 1968. The Founders of Psychical Steven Hoffmaster is in the Physics Research. New York: Schocken. Department at Gonzaga University, Hall, Trevor H. 1963. The Spiritualists: The Spokane, WA 99258.

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70 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 The *N Machine' A Perpetual Motion Notion

DUNCAN G. CUMMING

According to present scientific theory, the ^^perpetual-motion, or "free energy," I \ machine is flatly impossible. Any number of such devices have been presented to the world in the past, but not one has really worked. In every case, the inventors either have been honestly mistaken or were knowingly perpetrat­ ing hoaxes. But supposing that a new source of energy were, in fact, to be discovered by an individual inventor, would the "orthodox c ^ scientific establishment" suppress the idea? A perpetual The answer to this question is a resounding no. Far from being suppressed, the new principle motion would be enthusiastically investigated, tamed, controversy and exploited. Even in the unlikely event that the government tried to suppress such an reported by an invention, it would probably be no more emeritus professor successful than it has been in trying to suppress such things as nuclear energy secrets. at Stanford is In this article I describe investigations of a resolved by a new possible new energy source, politely named the experiment. "Presumed Latent Spatial Energy Field." The device to use this purported energy, known as an "N Machine," was invented by an MIT graduate, Bruce De Palma (Electrical Engineer­ ing, 1958). Some nonscientists will be surprised that the scientific community displayed such interest in a concept that most physicists and engineers would reject out of hand. In order to test an electrical machine, it is necessary to measure power levels accurately. The definition of a perpetual-motion machine requires simply that the output power exceed the input power. The scientific techniques for measuring power are well established; so it is no surprise that, when apparent power gains are reported, since the inventors usually have no formal scientific training they neglect to measure one or more factors. I have found that

Fall 1990 the most usually neglected items are input by a factor of four. What was the power factor and the crest factor, going on? both critical to the measurement of I examined Kincheloe's test data to power. Joe Newman's device is a see what kind of errors might have typical example of the latter. Ignoring been introduced. The input power had the crest factor, he greatly under­ not been measured in the usual way estimates the input power to his with a dynamometer, but instead the machine, giving an apparent efficiency electrical input to the drive motor had greater than 100 percent. The been measured. This was a much less National Bureau of Standards also accurate technique. Also, the gener­ made some measurements on his ator was coupled to the drive motor machine. They, of course, did take the by means of a belt drive, introducing crest factor into account and found further unknown errors. Even more true efficiencies well below 100 per­ serious was the considerable brush cent {SI, 11:114-116; see also SI, friction in the generator itself. In fact, 14:226-228). Thus Newman's "energy the various losses amounted to several machine," once correct testing proce­ times the generated power under dures were used, was shown to most conditions. To get around this consume energy rather than produce problem, two measurements had been it. made, one with and one without the The "N Machine" is a device that load. The increase in input power was seems to generate more power than then compared with the increase in it consumes when the power measure­ output power. However, this created ments are made by a trained scientist "ill conditioned" data and was an who does not neglect any obvious inaccurate technique. factors. It is an electrical generator Could any conclusions be drawn first invented by Faraday in 1825, but from these data in spite of the possible neglected since then. Technically, it is inaccuracies? I felt that Kincheloe's known as a "one-piece homopolar experiment was inconclusive regard­ generator." Faraday himself never ing the "incremental power gain." measured the efficiency of such a However, there had been another machine, being more concerned with spectacular discovery. At top speed, the basic principles of electromagnet- the electrical output was about equal ism. De Palma decided to build such to the drive motor power, in spite of a machine and found, to his delight, the high brush-friction losses. This that the efficiency appeared to exceed implied that if the friction were 100 percent. reduced by better design, then the Another scientist, Robert Kinche- output power would increase to the loe, was intrigued by De Palma's point where it exceeded input power. results and decided to repeat the Could De Palma's speculations about experiment. Kincheloe is emeritus latent spatial energy be correct? professor of electrical engineering at In December 1987 I decided to do Stanford University. He found that some experiments myself to investi­ De Palma had made the classical error gate this phenomenon further. I did of not accounting properly for the not want to go to the enormous power factor in the drive motor, so trouble and expense of constructing he replaced it with a DC motor, which a high-efficiency homopolar machine, is not subject to this error. Astonish­ and in any case it would be difficult ingly, Kincheloe still found that the to account accurately for all the losses power output exceeded the power in such a machine. I needed to measure

72 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 i 1 I 1 <-m

,.v. • i Ml •j»; *%, Mb

The "Sunburst N Machine" with its inventor, Bruce De Palma (right), and its investigator, Robert Kincheloe. the input power and the output linear, as predicted by theory. power, and see if they were equal, as I measured the torque at various predicted by established theory, or dif­ currents by suspending the model ferent, as claimed by the inventor of from a thin metal strip and measuring the N Machine. Experimental consid­ the angle through which the model erations made direct measurement of rotated. (Electrical connection was power very difficult in this type of made through a conducting liquid.) I machine. However, by making separ­ calculated the torque from the angle ate measurements of torque versus of rotation and found it to be both current and voltage versus speed, both consistent and linear. input power and output power could My own measurements indicated be calculated accurately without that the output power was equal to errors due to friction and other losses. the input power, as predicted by the It was this dramatic improvement in law of conservation of energy. From experimental accuracy that permitted the measurements on the model, I was the first definitive evaluation of the able to calculate what the input power N Machine concept. (The full exper­ and the output power would have imental report is available from the been in an actual machine. They author.) agreed within 20 percent over the I first built a scale model of the N entire range of speeds. Furthermore, Machine from a ceramic bar magnet most of the experimental error came with a brass disc attached to one end. from a known source in the particular While rotating this at various speeds apparatus I used. This is a far cry from in a lathe, I measured the generated the reports on the N Machine that voltages. I found that the results were indicated an output power four times both consistent from run to run and as great as the input power. It certainly

Fall 1990 73 casts doubt on the incremental power a high crest factor are of no interest measurements of the N Machine, but if the crest factor is not even mea­ does not explain the remarkable total sured, particularly in view of the easy power output results. To investigate availability of instruments for the these, I discussed my results with purpose. Also, a single data point is Kincheloe himself. of limited interest. A credible scientific I spoke with Kincheloe on the experiment should produce a series of telephone to see if he could shed any measurements over a range of con­ further light on his remarkable ditions (such as angular velocity, results. He acknowledged that his excitation, voltage, etc.). If such experiments were done on a ranch in measurements are carefully per­ Nevada in a remote location, with formed and indicate a new source of limited time, and using apparatus energy, I guarantee that the scientific provided by De Palma. Furthermore, community will be interested. As in he had not personally calibrated a the case of the N Machine, somebody shunt, one of the key components in will be inspired to repeat the exper­ the experimental setup. He admitted iment and refine the measurements. the possibility that the (unpublished) It is true that if the results even­ measurements were in error, and had tually prove to be negative, they will asked the inventor about the possi­ probably not be published in the bility of conducting further tests at mainstream scientific literature. This Kincheloe's home. He had received no simply reflects the adage that extraor­ reply to this request, and meanwhile dinary claims require extraordinary De Palma had moved on to the proof. If the proof is not forthcoming, construction of a yet larger and more then there is little point in publish­ sophisticated N Machine. I am told ing the claim. But the interest is that the new machine, built at con­ definitely there, and I am confident siderable expense, is superbly crafted that if a new energy source were to and contains some 200 pounds of rare be discovered today it would be earth magnets. recognized and exploited with re­ What can be learned from this? I markable speed. think the most important lesson is that there are many scientists with Duncan Camming is a private consultant. sufficient interest to investigate new His background is in electronic engineer­ energy ideas. Scientific laws are not ing (Ph.D., Cambridge University, legislated, so attempts to pass special England), and he has worked for the bills in Congress, as Newman is Hughes Aircraft Company on electron attempting, are futile. What is needed beam lithography. He has long been to interest a scientist is a series of interested in perpetual-motion machines. reproducible measurements. Mea­ Address: P.O. Box 2876, Torrance, CA surements on a machine running at 90509-2876.

74 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Biological Cycles and Rhythms Vs. Biorhythms i

ANTHONY WHEELER

iological cycles are an exciting frontier in current research. We now understand Bbiological cycles and rhythms quite well. However, there is still much to discover. The word biorhythms sounds much like "biological rhythms." Some may think it is just a shorter version with the same meaning. Indeed, an entry in the card index in my local library gives the direction: "Biorhythms.. . . See Biological Rhythms." Biorhythms are the fixed ^% 23-, 28-, 33-day cycles said by some to pervade all life—the supposed cyclic variations in the Biological cycles physical (male), emotional (female, sensitivity), and rhythms ore and intellectual attributes that determine the daily fluctuations in our moods, interests, well established. abilities, and accident susceptibility. Where do So where do biorhythms fit into our knowl­ edge of biological cycles and rhythms? Are they 'biorhythms' fit in? synonymous? Are biorhythms a real part of biological science or just a pseudoscience of no value? I will give the general characteristics of biological cycles and rhythms and describe some typical ones to suggest how physiologists approach, study, and understand them. A com­ parison of physiologically based biological cycles and rhythms with biorhythms shows that biorhythms are, to say the least, in a class apart.

Cycles and Rhythms The difference between "cycles" and "rhythms" is more than just etymological; the distinction is real and useful. A "cycle" is an endless series, a repeating sequence of events, where each event is the consequence of the preceding events

Fall 1990 75 and the cause of the succeeding events resumes, and the electrical polariza­ (like the rotating wheel, or cycle). tion again decays. This is the cycle of One biological cycle is the electrical activity within the sino-atrial node. activity of the sino-atrial node of our Each event in the sequence is the hearts. Sodium ions (Na+) diffuse into consequence of the preceding events the cardiac cell, and potassium ions and, in turn, causes the succeeding (K+) diffuse out through pores in the events. leaky cell membrane.1 This migration We can readily monitor the sino­ reduces the normal degree of electrical atrial node cycle in an experimental polarization across the cell membrane animal by recording the aggregate from -70 millivolts (mV). When this electrical de- and re-polarizations of polarization has "decayed" to -60 mV, the cell membranes. With somewhat depolarization is triggered. This is the more effort we can measure the rapid free diffusion of sodium ions into changing electrical potential across the the cell (potassium, chloride, and membrane of individual sino-atrial calcium ions are involved too), with node cells, or the influx and eflux of the result that the electrical potential sodium and potassium ions. falls rapidly to zero and overshoots "Rhythms," on the other hand, are beyond to -60 mV. series of events. Each event is caused This loss of the electrical polariza­ by a preceding event, but each series tion of the cell membrane triggers the does not cause the succeeding series. free diffusion of ions through the Often obvious rhythms are being adjacent areas of the heart cell mem­ triggered by inconspicuous cycles. brane, the consequent loss of electrical The muscle in the atria and ven­ polarization in that area, and the same tricles of the heart display rhythmic sequence of events in progressively activity. Each receives a wave of further adjacent areas. And so the membrane depolarization (an action wave of ionic diffusion and electrical potential) originating in the cyclic depolarization, a self-sustaining action activity of the sino-atrial node. This potential, propagates through the cell causes the cell membranes to depo­ membrane throughout the heart, larize, calcium ions to flow, and triggering muscle contraction as it muscles to contract. And this increases passes. the pressure within each chamber and Meanwhile, back at the sino-atrial pumps the blood. node, the cell membrane resumes Each series of events within the restricting the diffusion of the Na+ atria and ventricles is triggered by the and K+, and complex proteins em­ membrane depolarization that origi­ bedded in the membrane sequentially nates in the sino-atrial node; each attract Na+ and K+, move the ions series is relatively unaffected by across the membrane, and release preceding series and has little (if any) them, thereby pumping the Na+ back effect on succeeding series or the cyclic outside the cell and the K+ in. This activity of the sino-atrial node. The is the energy-consuming sodium- sino-atrial node can be separated from potassium pump, and the ionic imbal­ the rest of the heart (an analogous ance it produces regenerates the experiment can easily be performed on electrical polarization of -70 mV inside the intact toad heart); the sino-atrial the cell. node continues its cyclic activity No sooner have the Na+ and K+ oblivious of the quiescent atria and concentrations been restored than dif­ ventricles (one ventricle in the toad). fusion through the membrane pores Another easy experiment in the toad

76 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Electrocardiogram (ECG)

FIGURE 1: The Electrocardiogram. Electrodes placed on each of the four limbs and the chest allow the rhythmic net electrical activity of the heart to be recorded as the electrocardiogram (ECG). Since all the atrial cells depolarize synchronously and the ventricular cells depolarize and repolarize synchronously, the electrical changes generated are in phase and contribute to the identifiable net signals. (This is actually recorded in an anesthetized cat, hence the 156/minute, while the resting human heart rate is typically about 70/minute). is to cool the sino-atrial node and slow time for growth before the rigors of its cyclic activity; consequently there the next winter. Lambs will survive is a greater interval between succes­ only if they are born as a result of sive contractions of the ventricle. a mating period of a few weeks in However, cooling the ventricle has no autumn; consequently, the sheep has effect on the sino-atrial node's activity evolved a restricted and carefully or the rhythm it generates; the timed breeding season. ventricle continues to contract at the How does the sheep know what the same rate. The cyclic activity of the conditions of the pastures will be in sino-atrial node sets the rhythm for five months time? Fortunately plant the whole heart; hence its popular growth is determined by the weather, name "the pacemaker." and the seasonal changes in the weather are repetitive. The most Reasons and Causes (Why and How) reliable indicator of the time of the year, and therefore of the weather five Biological cycles and rhythms are not or more months later, is the changing random; they occur for a reason and day-length. have definite causes. The ventricles of The changing reproductive status the heart contract rhythmically to of the sheep as the breeding season pump our blood; the cause of the approaches can be observed. The contractions is the successive waves increasing diameters of the ram's of membrane depolarization. Identify­ testes can be measured. Surgery on ing the reason (the need for blood to the ewe's ovaries reveals the growth be circulated) is important since this of follicles and ovulation. Introducing explains the timing of the immediate the ram to the flock will identify the cause. The reason is the result of ewes in heat (estrus) as they stand to evolution; the cause, the result of his mounting. (Nonestrous ewes are biochemistry. not attractive; and if the ram did try Sheep are sexually active in the mounting, they would run away autumn. The reason is that pregnancy vigorously!) lasts five months, and lambs must be The cause (the "how") of the sheep- born late enough for there to be breeding season is of great interest to sufficient grass to sustain the ewe scientists. Light stimulates nonvisual through the nutritional demands of photoreceptors in the retina. The late pregnancy and lactation, yet early sensory nerves bypass the visual enough for the lamb to have sufficient centers in the brain to trigger the

Fall 1990 77 suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypo­ back sensitivity of the hypothalamic- thalamus. Here action potentials are pituitary axis to gonadal steroids; generated in sympathetic nerves that consequently greater secretion of are routed down the spinal cord in the gonadotrophic hormones stimulates neck and back up to innervate and the ovaries and testes (in different inhibit the pineal gland. A remnant of animals) and the breeding season "the third eye" (it still exists in fish starts. and amphibia)—Rene Descartes's The pineal-melatonin system is one "seat of our rational souls"— the line of research that has had great pineal secretes a number of chemicals. success in recent years and is still being Best understood so far is the associ­ investigated. Both the reason (the ation of darkness with the pineal's coordination of the needs of the enzymes and its synthesis and secre­ mother and the lamb for food with tion of the hormone melatonin. As plant growth) and the cause (light, well as blanching the skin of tadpoles, pineal melatonin, sensitivity to ste­ melatonin can stimulate or inhibit roids) are well understood. reproductive activity, depending on the species. During the lengthening Biological Clocks nights of autumn the melatonin secreted in sheep during the hours of Many biological rhythms are triggered darkness decreases the negative feed­ by environmental changes. The tim-

Basal Electrical Rhythm.- duodenum 15/min

FIGURE 2: Electrical and Muscular Rhythms in the Gut. Fine wire electrodes sewn through the longitudinal muscle in the wall of the stomach or small intestine allow electrical activity to be recorded. This reveals the Basal Electrical Rhythm (BER)—a wave of partial depolar­ ization of the muscle cell membranes that propagates through the gut (the top trace). In the stomach this rhythm originates in a "pacemaker" located at the entry of the esophagus, and in the small intestine one "pacemaker" is found near the entry of the bile duct into the duodenum with another two or three pacemakers further down in the jejunum and ileum. The BER oscillates at 3 cycles/minute in the stomach and 9 to 12 cycles/minute in the small intestine and propagates through the longitudinal muscle at 5 to 40 and 200 mm/second, respectively. (These are the figures for the human. This recording was made in an anesthetized cat, which may explain the greater frequency (15/minute) of the duodenal BER.)

78 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Sheep breeding seasons

Tasmanian merino

£i_

Scottish blackface

Finnish landrace

Vernal Summer Autumnal equinox solstice equinox

FIGURE 3: The Sheep Breeding Season. The timing of the onset of the sheep's breeding season is determined by the day-length. The breeding season consists of a series of ovarian cycles, each including waves of follicle growth, ovulation, luteal activity, luteal regression, and back to another wave of follicle growth. The ovarian cycle is controlled by ovarian steroid and gonadotrophic hormones. The ovarian follicular estrogen secreted in great quantities for the 12 hours before ovulation induces estrous activity. During estrus the ewe is attractive to the ram and will stand still to his mounting and intromission. Estrus synchronizes mating with ovulation, sex with fertility. In natural conditions the ewe would conceive during her first or second estrus. However, by using vasectomized rams we can observe successive estrous activities throughout the year without our ewes' getting pregnant and ceasing cycling. This exposes the duration and end of the breeding season, normally masked by pregnancy and lactation. The figure shows behavioral (estrus; light hatch) and ovarian activity (ovulation; dark hatch) during the year in three breeds of sheep in the same environment. The three breeds react differently to the same changing day-length, the Scottish blackface showing the "classic" short breeding season. ing of the sheep's breeding season is from our environment (the zeilgeber), determined by the decreasing day- taking those clues away reveals inher­ length of autumn. But supplement the ent "clocks." These biological clocks short days of winter with electric generally run a little slow, so that they lights and abbreviate the long days of initiate activity only if the normal summer with light-proof blinds so as environmental trigger is absent (sus­ to maintain a constant "day"-length, tained heavy cloud?). and the sheep-breeding season will In normal circumstances the activ­ still start at about the right time. While ity of our body follows a rhythm the timing of our cycles and rhythms appropriate to our changing needs. may be refined (entrainment) by clues Our body temperature is lowest in the

Fall 1990 79 morning and highest in the evening, Manipulation urine production by the kidneys decreases at night, tiredness and Take a jet plane on a trip east or west fatigue come over us late in the and you can rapidly cross several time evening, and so on. Remove all exter­ zones. On arrival you adapt your nal clues to the passage of time by behavior to the local pattern of housing volunteers in insulated, activity: sleeping at the new night­ isolated caves, and the same pattern time, getting up in the new morning, of activity is still apparent, except with working during the new day, seeking a slightly longer "day" of about 25 to entertainment during the new even­ 27 hours. (Many aspects of this ing, and so on. However, your body's variation, like body temperature in physiology is still on home time; you humans and activity in hamsters, are feel sleepy in the day, energetic in the easily measurable.) This is the circa- evening, and wide awake at night. dian rhythm. This is "jet lag." This is to be expected; what is surprising is that within only Synchrony five days your physiological rhythm adapts to your new behavioral Animals that live in shallow water rhythm. need to anticipate high and low tides; Round up a flock of sheep in Britain their behavior describes a 12.4-hour and ship them to South America, and circa-tidal rhythm. Animals living if you time it right they can have two higher up the beach are interested in breeding seasons within one calendar the timing of the highest (spring) and year. (This observation was one of the lowest (neap) high tides; their cycles earliest clues to physiologists that the are 14.8-days long (circa-semi-lunar). time of the sheep's breeding season All the animals in these populations is determined by the day-length.) follow the same pattern of behavior Injecting or feeding melatonin to ewes at the same time; their cycles are in the autumn will retard the start of synchronized. the breeding season. In artificially constant conditions Ride a bicycle vigorously and the these animals cannot keep their cycles parasympathetic nervous slowing of in step with their environmental the sino-atrial node cycle will decrease, trigger; the cycles "free-run" at 13 to allowing your heart rate to increase 14 hours and 15 to 17 days, respec­ from a typical 70 cycles per minute tively. It is only in these conditions to about 100 per minute. With further that the animals get out of step with exercise, sympathetic stimulation of each other and the population loses the sino-atrial node will increase its synchrony. The approximation of our cyclic activity and the heart rate will inherent clocks is insufficient, our increase to more than 200 cycles per endogenous rhythms are only approx­ minute. imate, hence the "circa" ("about") in All the biological cycles and circadian rhythms. The remarkable rhythms can be altered, or manipu­ synchrony in natural populations may lated. be either coincidental (as in the feeding activity of the fiddler crab) or the Biorhythms purpose of the cycle (as in the swarm­ ing of the grunion fish on California Biorhythms are another matter beaches on the crest of spring high entirely. Biorhythms are supposedly tides). three cycles of absolutely fixed periods

80 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 (23, 28, and 33 days); each of the three fooled; no environmental trigger, biorhythms is said to "start" ascending zeitgeber, or entrainment for them. from "0" at birth and continue unvar­ It is said you can measure the yingly until death. This is the same changing accident rate associated with for everyone irrespective of style of biorhythms; or relate sudden deaths "birth" (vaginal, planned [early] Cae­ and sporting performance to bio­ sarian, or unexpected [late] caesarian) rhythms. These are the claims. On or the physiological status of the baby investigation the evidence has proved at birth (premature, early, term, or to be surprisingly ephemeral. late). The history of biorhythms is Repeated studies have shown the described by Gardner (1966); why claims fail (Bainbridge 1978; Hines they supposedly start at "birth" is not 1979). We cannot measure these explained. mysterious biorhythms. There is no Journey on a jet plane, work night biochemical, neurological, or physio­ shifts, volunteer for experiments into logical variable or correlate that can prolonged sleeplessness, or take be monitored. As one popular book drugs; nothing will change your says: "Among our bodily rhythms are biorhythms. Live in a constant, uni­ three clearly defined cycles that affect form environment with no clocks, our behavior patterns but which have under your endogenous 26-hour no cause and effect as such: They are circadian rhythm, and your bio­ simply continuous physiological rhythms will nevertheless continue at changes" (West 1980:7). Biorhythms their 23, 28, and 33 24-hour "days." provide the physiologist with none of Biorhythms are presumably not easily the usual electrical, mechanical,

Sex-skin prominence during Baboon menstrual cycles

34 days 37 days 31 days 34 days 32days A it 1 A. A B 24 days * 39 days 32days 26days i 32 days

FIGURE 4: The Primate Menstrual Cycle. Cycles of ovarian activity in female nonpregnant primates produce sequentially estrogen and progesterone hormones that generate the changes associated with the menstrual cycle. Most obvious to humans is the blood lost at menstruation, though there are other aspects, such as edema (puffy swelling of the feet), tenderness of the breasts, and temperature changes. In the African baboon the estrogen secreted for two weeks by the growing follicles stimulates engorgement of the sex skin on the female's backside; the degree of engorgement and coloring (hatched areas) can be reliably subjectively assessed each morning. With ovulation the estrogen concentration decreases abruptly and the corpus luteum secretes progesterone for two weeks; these changes in turn cause an abrupt collapse and loss of color to the sex skin (detumescence). At the end of this period the corpus luteum regresses and the progesterone concentration falls; this stimulates menstruation (bars). The time between the start of one menstruation and the next is the length of the menstrual cycle; this averages about 32 days in the baboon.

Fall 1990 81 hydraulic, or biochemical variables to space than the text. Most of this material record and analyze. is likely to be found in any textbook on physiology (for example, Arthur C. Guyton, Biological cycles and rhythms are Textbook of Medical Physiology. Philadelphia: components of our complex and W. B. Saunders, 1986). harmonious biology. Biorhythms, on the other hand, are unrelated to any References other biological variable; they are apart and unconnected. Biorhythms Gardner, Martin. 1966. "Freud's friend are easy to explain and understand— William Fliess and his theory of male and female life cycles." Scientific American, but only because there are no phys­ 215(1): 108-112. iological changes to explain, no phy­ Bainbridge, William Sims. 1978. Biorhythms: siological consequences to under­ evaluating a pseudoscience." SKEPTICAL stand. Biological cycles and rhythms INQUIRER, 2(2):40-56. explain observations; periodic heart Hines, Terence M. 1979. Biorhythm theory: sounds, body temperature changes, A critical review. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 3(4):22-36. menstruation, and so on, all make West, Peter. 1980. Biorhythms: Your Daily sense as components of a more basic Guide to Achieving Potential. Welling­ rhythm. Biorhythms explain no such borough, Northamptonshire, U.K.: observations; there is no unexplained Thorsons. data in need of such a notion. Anthony Wheeler researches female reproduction and teaches physiology in the Note Department of Physiology and Pharma­ cology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia. He 1. Original references have not been provided for much of this information; wrote "Pitfalls of Perception" in our otherwise the references would occupy more Summer 1988 issue.

Y&W.' LOOK AT THIS Fl&R&ZMt&E. FROM A LITTLE

(GREAT R2AURS IN THE HISTORY OF MAGIC

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Book Reviews

The Burgess Shale and Scientific Revisionism Wonderful Life. By Stephen Jay Gould. W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1989. 346 pp. Cloth, $19.95.

PAUL T. RIDDELL

n 1909, Secretary of the Smith­ In his newest book, Wonderful Life, sonian Charles Doolittle Walcott Stephen Jay Gould illuminates the I discovered a small geological for­ Burgess Shale re-evaluation in his mation in the Canadian Rockies now usual style: willing to spend the time known as the Burgess Shale. Dating to explain matters of classification and from the beginning of the Cambrian anatomy to laypersons while not Period of the Paleozoic Era, some 530 insulting those who already are famil­ million years ago, the Burgess Shale iar with the matters at hand. In 346 contained fossils from the "Cambrian pages, Gould manages to dispel many explosion," when multicellular life of the myths of "scientific investiga­ filled the ancient seas covering our tion" while conducting a tour through planet. Upon Walcott's detailed exam­ the Burgess fauna and relating the ination of the fossils entrapped there­ personal stories of the paleontologists in, he claimed that all the fossils repre­ who prized answers from the speci­ sented orders already known to mens. In particular, he points out the modern taxonomy, a statement not importance of questioning "scientific challenged by paleontologists until fact" and rechecking information for 1971, when Harry Whittington at new truths, since the unconscious Cambridge published a paper on biases and incomplete knowledge of Marella, a small arthropod classified the investigator may conceal as much by Walcott as a trilobite. Whittington as they reveal. noted that not only was Marella not Heterodox hypotheses in paleon­ a trilobite, but it had no comparison tology are not exactly lacking at this to any other known arthropod and no time: Robert T. Bakker (The Dinosaur known descendants. From Marella, Heresies, 1986) caught public fancy Whittington, with the help of Simon and professional ire with his self- Conway Morris and Derek Briggs, termed heresies about dinosaur physi­ discovered several species that have ology and function, and Gould and no analogue to any other known life Niles Eldridge's theory of punctuated forms but were nevertheless classified equilibrium helped infuriate propo­ by Walcott as representative of known nents of evolutionary gradualism and animal groups. creationists as much as it stirred the

Fall 1990 83 imaginations of students and in­ was the aptly named Hallucinogenia formed laypersons. However, the the polychaete worm Walcott said it Burgess reinterpretations act on a was? (A similar case concerns the much deeper level than those: with the notorious "dinosaur" Aachenosaurus, wide variety of fauna present at described in 1887 as a duckbilled Burgess times, the chance is astro­ dinosaur on the basis of two chunks nomically insignificant that anything of "bone." In 1888, the "bone" turned resembling us would reappear if the out to be pieces of petrified wood.) entire flow of time were reversed and Finally, Gould allows the reader to allowed to run on an uninhibited view one of the most fantastic periods course. In fact, the entire cycle of life, of earthly life—right after the "Cam­ from the development of the eukary- brian explosion," when the variety and otic cell to the development of Homo oddness of life exceeded anything we sapiens as an intelligent species, counts know of today: Nedocaris, a species of as little more than lottery wins and unknown affiliation with features of crap shoots rather than an upward both arthropod and chordate; Dinomi- spiral toward mankind. Had not schus, a stalked animal with parallels certain accidents or opportunities to the crinoids in shape and possible occurred, any number of possibilities, habits; Anomalocaris, the largest from the algoid stromatolites' remain­ known predator of Burgess seas, with ing the dominant life form in our seas a nutcracker mouth resembling a to the dinosaurs' developing intelli­ pineapple slice; and Pikaia, the first gent forms, may have occurred, and known chordate, of which our own the "inevitability" of humanity would species claims relation. All descrip­ be relegated to the science fiction of tions of the animals come accompan­ whatever intelligent form evolved on ied with illustrations, as most have Earth, if any. such wildly diverse body plans that Another point Gould relates, as a description without pictures is wholly potential warning to both proponents inadequate to the purpose of illum­ and skeptics of particular theories, is inating these creatures. Best of all, that no matter the degree of expertise each description comes complete with a researcher attains, he or she may a view of the attendant investigation be wrong. Walcott's treatises on that unearthed (in some cases literally) Burgess life remained unchallenged the unique features of these extinct for decades, partly because of limita­ animals. tions in examining the fossils (most As usual, Gould shines in present­ of the Burgess specimens were housed ing scientific points that, to the lay­ in a building with no air conditioning, person, appear minor but help demon­ and the horrors of working in such strate greater wonders. At a time an environment in July were aggra­ when an asteroid-collision explanation vated by Walcott's reputation, both of the extinction of the dinosaurs rests before and after his death) and partly on everyone's lips, the even more because Walcott was, in his time, the fascinating view of the Burgess Shale preeminent expert on Cambrian fos­ and its implications for evolutionary sils. Therefore, nobody bothered to theory remains relatively obscure—a ask the impolite but important ques­ situation that this book will correct. tions: Was five-eyed and trunked Opabinia really a true arthropod, and Paul Riddell is a writer in Dallas, Texas.

84 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 The Challenge and Defeat of Supernature

Science and Supernature: A Critical Appraisal of Parapsychology. By James E. Alcock. Prometheus Books, Buffalo, N.Y., 1990. 186 pp. Cloth, $24.95.

ROBERT A. BAKER

or anyone seriously interested in parapsychology and its claims, FScience and Supernature is required reading. When I first learned of its impending publication I was some­ what baffled. How, I wondered, could James Alcock add anything new or improve upon what he accomplished earlier in his splendid and definitive Parapsychology: Science or Magic? (Pergamon, 1981) and his brilliant analysis of the parapsychologist's motives in his essay "Parapsychology as a 'Spiritual Science' " in Paul Kurtz's A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology (Prometheus Books, 1985). As soon as I opened Science and Supernature, however, the mystery was solved. Alcock's new work is primarily a critique of much of the best research parapsychology has produced, and the second half of the book examines in detail the psi research involving re­ research efforts." In toto, the book is mote viewing and the use of random- a valuable follow-up to his work for event generators. Contained here also the National Research Council's Com­ is the only in-depth, experiment-by- mittee on Techniques for the En­ experiment analysis of Helmut hancement of Human Performance Schmidt's research that has been and provides the "second opinion" re­ published. The first half of the book quested by the Army Research Insti­ is an expanded version of Alcock's tute on a set of experiments already relatively inaccessible paper "Science evaluated by the parapsychologist of the Anomalous or Search for the John Palmer. While Palmer concluded Soul?" which appeared in the journal that some evidence for "anomalous Behavioral and Brain Sciences in 1987. processes" exists, Alcock's conclusion The book also provides a specific after careful and extensive study was response to those critics who accused that the evidence from the "best cases" Alcock of "evaluating the parapsychol­ provided by Helmut Schmidt, Robert ogist's belief systems rather than their Jahn, and Russell Targ and Harold

Fall 1990 85 Puthoff was not persuasive. determined in the control trials—is Despite the 1988 conclusion of the seen by Alcock and others, as a fatal NRC committee that there is "no omission. A modification of this scientific justification from research procedure would also be advisable in conducted over a period of 130 years the Jahn studies. Similarly, more for the existence of parapsychological traditional control trials are also phenomena" and its strong recom­ needed in the remote-viewing mendation that the best work in the research. psi field continue to be monitored, Alcock justifiably asks, "Since rather than being encouraged by the psychological research is built on the latter remark the parapsychological cornerstone that compares experi­ community charged that the conclu­ mental and control conditions why sions were unwarranted and that the must we abandon this approach when authors of this report were biased— we investigate parapsychology?" The particularly Alcock and Ray Hyman. arguments that psi forces cannot be Later in the year at the instigation of turned off and that they equally affect Senator Claiborne Pell, a psi advocate, both experimental and control trials the Congressional Office of Technol­ Alcock regards as unacceptable. So do ogy Assessment (OTA) organized a 99 out of every 100 other psycholo­ workshop on experimental parapsy­ gists. In Alcock's words, "In the chology and assembled a number of absence of conclusive, or even persua­ investigators—primarily parapsychol- sive, evidence that psi exists, there is ogists—to take issue with the NRC no reason to suspend the very proce­ report and Alcock's background paper dure that could serve as our strongest specifically. Alcock rightly asks, bulwark against erroneous interpre­ "Given the weakness of the evidence tation of data. If the phenomenon accumulated over a century, the most disappears in such a case, then we interesting question must surely be, should bother no more about it." why does the pursuit endure?" While Part 2 of the book adequately Focusing specifically on the meets the challenge of the OTA Schmidt and Jahn random-event- workshop committee, Part 1 is a generator studies and the Targ and brilliant and succinct overview of the Puthoff remote-viewing work, Alcock current status of supernature, i.e., psi. was led to the "inescapable conclusion It provides as fair and evenhanded a that none of this research has served summary of psi's claims and counter to demonstrate the reality of psi claims as can be found. Alcock's phenomena." Alcock also adds that approach is to pose and answer seven serious design flaws and shortcomings definitive questions: (1) What is psi; must be eliminated before anyone can how is it defined? (2) Is psi possible? have confidence in their results. (3) If psi exists, how can it be detected? The most serious problems are (4) What is the evidence that psi found in the failure of the psi exists? (5) Does parapsychology fol­ researchers to provide proper control low the rules of science? (6) Are the groups or control trials. Failure to use critics fair? and (7) Is rapprochement the Hansel procedure in the Schmidt between psychology and parapsychol­ studies—to generate control group ogy possible? Although Alcock's argu­ data and thus allow a direct compar­ ments and answers make up the body ison of the "experimental" data with of Part 1 and should be carefully read the baseline, coincidental "back­ to be fully appreciated, we can sum­ ground" rate of scoring, as empirically marize a few of his more insightful

86 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 responses to these questions. 7. Although some writers call for 1. Psi phenomena, Alcock notes, a collective focus by skeptics and are defined in a negative manner; and, parapsychologists on finding explana­ if the current scientific world-view is tions for anomalous experiences, this, correct, psi phenomena are impossible. for most parapsychologists, is not 2. Because psi is a concept that what psi is all about. Instead, as Alcock would revolutionize science, most notes, parapsychology is, at base, the skeptics use the criterion of "beyond classical "search for the soul"—not the all reasonable doubt." soul as described in various religions, 3. Before personal experiences but the notion that the mind can demonstrated by "gifted" psychics or function separately from the physical results from laboratory experiments brain and the human personality is can be accepted, we have to look at something beyond the stuff of atoms "internal validity"—the degree to and molecules. Dualism, Alcock which the experiments are free from insists, is in any debate about para­ the influence of extraneous variables psychology the only issue on the that could provide alternative expla­ hidden agenda. nations for the results, a consistent Again, on all fronts Alcock has met, pattern of results across experiments, challenged, and defeated his adversar­ and the repeatability of individual ies. In a fascinating postscript, "A To- experiments by others. Do About Dualism," he deftly dis­ 4. Although many claims for the patches several of the most worrisome existence of psi have been made, carpers and critics. Despite the denials studies of out-of-body experiences, from several psi sources, the evidence the ganzfeld effect (reduced sensory is more than sufficient to support stimulation condition), remote- Alcock's insightful summary viewing studies, and random-event- statement: generator studies are plagued by methodological and statistical flaws Psi has been postulated not because that render such evidence question­ normal psychology is incapable of able. accounting for people's apparently 5. Several aspects of psi evidence psychic experience, nor because of run counter to the spirit of scientific inexplicable findings in physics or chemistry; nor is it the logical inquiry, including making the psi outgrowth of some compelling hypothesis unfalsifiable by explaining scientific theory. Rather, the search away null results and nonreplications, for psi is now, as it has been since engaging in wild "anything goes" the formal beginning of empirical speculation, and failing to establish parapsychology over a century ago, any overlap with other scientific the quest to establish the reality of disciplines. a nonmaterial aspect of human 6. Although some psi advocates existence—some form of secular­ accuse critics of ignoring the psi ized soul. literature, of being afraid of psi's implications, or of religious bias, none Perhaps in the century ahead we of these accusations are valid. Over will see an end to parapsychology's the years, on numerous occasions, material claims and its ambition to parapsychology has had its day in become a science as well as a more court, but "after a century of research open admission of the basically reli­ there is still nothing substantive to gious nature of its quest. Until that show." happy day arrives, poor psi is stuck

Fall 1990 87 with the same age-old challenge: all duce routinely and with ease. All that is needed to change the attitude psychologists as well as skeptics are of the scientific establishment is some in Alcock's debt, and those looking good, clear, substantive evidence of a for arguments to wield in the psychic truly psychic phenomenon. So far we debate owe him the most. Finally, haven't seen it. Without it, Alcock in the struggle between Science and insists, parapsychology can never Supernature, the smart money's become a science. on Science, just in case you didn't The book's two appendices contain know. a detailed critique of the Schmidt studies and serve as models for the Robert Baker is professor emeritus of sort of detailed and incisive evaluation psychology at the University of Kentucky, good experimental psychologists pro­ Lexington, KY 40506.

Mysteries, Myths, and Misconceptions

Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology. By Kenneth L. Feder. Mayfield Publishing Co., 1240 Villa St., Mountain View, CA 94041. 1990. 231 pp. Paper, $12.95.

GORDON STEIN

enneth L. Feder, an archaeolo­ Giant, the Piltdown Man, and the gist, has given us a much-needed possible visits to the earth by "ancient Kreview of many of the popular astronauts." While some of these (e.g., conceptions and misconceptions in Piltdown Man) have been covered by archaeology. He has done a great many previous authors, few have tried service to the future thinkers of the to use the tools of modern scientific world by preceding his main topics archaeology to show why probability with an introduction to science and is greatly against the authenticity of a distinction between science and the particular claim. Feder is especially pseudoscience. What's more, he actu­ good on the Mound Builders and other ally discusses how an investigator North American archaeological sites, comes to the conclusion that he or she including those attributed to Norse­ "knows" something is so or is not so. men, Irish monks, and lost Hebrew It is a brief introduction to the tribes. This is an area not often philosophy of science that is so often examined critically in the popular omitted in introductory science books. literature. There is also a useful Now students can at least understand chapter on "psychic" archaeology why scientists can be fairly confident (verdict "decidedly negative") and that some parts of popular archaeol­ dowsing. ogy are really only pseudoscience and Although they are briefly men­ not accepted by archaeologists. tioned, one would have liked to hear Among the topics covered are pre- more about Easter Island's statues, the Columbus visits to the New World by pyramids, the Kensington Rune non-Indians, Atlantis, the Cardiff Stone, and other artifacts that are

88 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 demonstrable frauds. It is not that command our attention and investi­ Feder doesn't want to discuss them, gation that it is foolish to cling to but more the fact that a second volume beliefs in things that are demonstrably would be required to cover all the not authentic. Why invent mysteries items that really need a full critical when there are so many real ones to examination. Let's be happy with examine? what is presented in this book, how­ Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries would ever. It's clearly written, well docu­ also make fine supplementary reading mented, and concludes with a fine in a college archaeology course. piece of advice to would-be scientists and the public at large: So many Dr. Stein is a physiologist and a CSICOP interesting things really do exist to consultant.

The Joke's on Us

Media Hoaxes. By Fred Fedler. Iowa State University Press, Ames, la., 1989. 266 pp. Cloth, $24,95.

ROGER KLARE

When the Martians came to astronomy and was aware of specu­ \i\i town in 1938, one million lation about life on the moon. Locke V "Americans listening on the began writing about some unbeliev­ radio thought it was no joke. On that able sights on Earth's closest neighbor, fateful night before Halloween, The crediting Sir John Herschel, the War of the Worlds ceased to be fiction. famous English astronomer, with the Orson Welles was baffled: despite discoveries. According to Locke, Her­ several program disclaimers, people schel used a powerful telescope to panicked. What was never intended as observe several life forms, including a deception became known as the most flowers, buffalolike animals, and famous radio hoax in history. batmen (and, of course, batwomen). The most famous hoax in American The moon story was very convin­ journalism, according to media histo­ cing. Before the last of six installments rian Fred Fedler, occurred one was published, the Sun had more hundred years earlier. In 1835, a series readers than any other newspaper in of unusual stories appeared in the New the world. The story then spread to York Sun. As in the radio broadcast, Europe and gained many believers, extraterrestrials were the main char­ some claiming it was true long after acters. This time it was batmen on the the Sun admitted it was a fabrication. moon causing the excitement on Herschel eventually heard about the Earth. Unlike the Martians, these hoax (he was making astronomical creatures were peaceful folks who had observations in South Africa) and took no need to leave their own world. it in good humor. But he was con­ A Cambridge-educated reporter cerned that the public found such named Richard Adams Locke created pseudo-discoveries more captivating the hoax. He had an interest in than his real science.

Fall 1990 89 Fedler points out why the hoax ers realized they could reach a larger succeeded: the public was receptive to audience by emphasizing sensational­ the idea of life on the moon, the story ist stories and humorous human- used scientific language and a famous interest articles, and by lowering the astronomer as the source, and readers price to a penny. Hoaxes became an did not expect to be fooled. This story acceptable part of the strategy to marked the beginning of an era of increase circulation. media hoaxes that lasted until 1924. As the power of the press grew, What are the special features of a the freedom of the press became a media hoax? Webster's New World license. The author discusses one Dictionary defines a hoax as "a trick editor whose actions demonstrated or fraud, especially one meant as a just how powerful the press had practical joke." A practical joke, in become. turn, is "a trick played on someone The editor was Wilbur Storey, meant in fun." The first feature of owner of the Chicago Times. In 1875, media hoaxes, Fedler explains, is that Storey ran an article about a horren­ most try to entertain and amuse the dous theater fire. He included eleven public. In his words, "Thus, the hoaxes headlines above the story, the last of are a form of practical joking, but on which identified it as a hoax. But few a grand scale." readers got that far—the rush to find The second feature of media the theater and its victims was on. hoaxes is that reporters often tell Some readers complained loudly readers the stories are fabricated. about the hoax. Storey defended his They may state this outright, or they actions by claiming that the spurious may drop hints. One such hint is the account would shock the public into appearance of Lirpa Loof and Isa Lyar seeing the real dangers in Chicago's in phony stories printed on April 1. unsafe theaters. Despite his defense, The author describes the final the story was still pure sensationalism. feature of media hoaxes: "Hoaxes His newspaper prospered as a result. broadcast by radio and television During the 1800s, the idealistic stations are sometimes unintentional. libertarian theory of the press—the The nation's broadcasters rarely try idea that truth emerges in the open to fool anyone, but the public is more marketplace of ideas—was turned on gullible than most people realize." its head. Continuing emphasis on Media Hoaxes is a fascinating sensationalistic stories eroded this history of journalistic deceptions. The ideal and replaced it with yellow styles range from the colonial satires journalism. This unflattering phrase of Ben Franklin, to the western humor first appeared in 1898, when it des­ of Mark Twain, to the urbane enter­ cribed stories in the New York Journal, tainment of H. L. Mencken. One a paper published by William Ran­ major issue the author addresses is dolph Hearst. why the nineteenth century was such As Fedler points out, journalism a particularly good time for hoaxes. began to change by 1924. In that year, In the 1800s newspapers reigned the New York Herald Tribune ran a as the sole mass medium. It was a time series of stories about a ship operating of press barons and of the penny press. as a floating cabaret just beyond U.S. Fedler explains that until the 1830s territorial waters. Since this was newspapers catered to an elite clien­ during Prohibition, the story attracted tele—and charged the hefty price of public interest and appeared to have six cents a copy. Enterprising publish­ some truth to it. Other newspapers,

90 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 the Coast Guard, and government form of entertainment for some officials also wanted to find the people. ship. Stories about alleged paranormal The joke had clearly gone too far. events, as reported in the mass media, When the guilty reporter confessed, are another legacy. The author dis­ the Tribune's editors responded in a cusses a few examples of paranormal novel way: they fired the reporter and stories that are obvious deceptions, printed a retraction. A new era of such as the Tamara Rand case of 1981 social responsibility had begun. (SI, 5[4]:6). He doesn't discuss possible A few reporters have concocted connections between media hoaxes hoaxes at times other than April Fool's and paranormal reporting in general. Day, but today this is rare. A bigger Nevertheless, media hoaxes and problem comes from another source. paranormal stories do have some Fedler explains: "Other hoaxes, per­ similarities. haps a majority of those now appear­ Just as most media hoaxes aim to ing in the media, are created by entertain and amuse, so do most nonjournalists, usually for fun or paranormal stories. Journalists often profit." The mass media are vulnerable treat the paranormal as a joke, and to such manipulation, primarily they expect their audience to do because journalists cannot check the likewise. Some reporters use a accuracy of every detail in every story, tongue-in-cheek style, a hint for and sometimes may not even check readers not to take the article too available facts. seriously. Media hoaxes have had disturbing The problem is that these "enter­ effects on some people. The author taining" stories are often reported as writes: "Some Americans seem to fact. Some people will therefore believe everything the media report. believe that what is written is what Some even verify the details. After actually occurred. This is not to say seeing a hoax, people swear that they that journalists concoct hoaxes when witnessed the events or possess reporting alleged paranormal events. evidence proving that the details are They often just leave out the truth true." Some hoaxes are remarkably or never pursue it. long-lived. H. L. Mencken's bogus Hence, there remains a need for bathtub history, originally published skeptics and responsible journalists to in 1917, continues to thrive despite nudge the media to a position of social efforts to subdue it. responsibility. Otherwise, the joke's Today's tabloids are a legacy of the on us. hoax era. Fedler notes that some tabloids bear a likeness to the earlier Roger Klare, a science writer and hoaxes. Moreover, tabloids provide a consultant, lives in Athens, Ohio.

Fall 1990 91 Some Recent Books

Listing here does not preclude review in a future issue.

Curses! Broiled Again! Jan Harold man is able to examine these practices Brunvand. Norton, New York, 1989. with the skill of an investigative 335 pp., index, $18.95, cloth. Professor journalist and the compassion of one Brunvand's books have brought the who has been there: he's a former study of urban folklore into public Christian Scientist, he's lived in a New prominence. By debunking such urban Age commune, and he once believed legends as poisoned Halloween candy in psychic surgery. A valuable exam­ (in this book) and the cement-filled car ination of cases that have resulted in (in The Vanishing Hitchhiker) he court trials over the issue of harm. reveals the truth and at the same time demonstrates our gullibility. This The Nature Fakers: Wildlife, Science collection features little on the para­ & Sentiment. Ralph H. Lutts. Fulcrum normal, although earlier books discuss Publishing, 350 Indiana St., #510, such items as satanic-cult rumors and, Golden, CO 80401, 1990, 256 pp., of course, the aforementioned ghostly index, $22.95, cloth. A very infesting hitchhiker. Brunvand's books are examination into the "nature fakers" funny and easy to read, but his controversy that began in 1903, when citations are scholarly. For the person the naturalist John Burroughs accused who thinks he or she can't be fooled, a number of prominent nature writers this book is an illuminating lesson in of fabricating natural history "facts" the need for skepticism.—Robert and overdramatizing animal life in the Lopresti field. The public debate lasted four years, and the final blow to the "nature Deadly Blessings: Faith Healing on fakers" came from Burroughs's ally, Trial. Richard L. Brenneman. Prome­ President Theodore Roosevelt, in theus Books, Buffalo, N.Y., 1990, 390 1907. Although the author, a museum pp., index, $21.95 cloth. An examina­ director in Massachusetts, deals tion of faith healing through three mainly with the history of this con­ controversial court cases: the prose­ troversy, he also draws parallels in an cution of Christian Scientist parents Afterword with "fakers" today, espe­ whose small child failed to get medical cially the issue of prominent book treatment and died of bacterial menin­ publishers' issuing works that claim gitis; a Filipino "psychic surgeon" to be fact but appear to be fiction. (Brother Joe), who claimed to have removed a cancerous lump without Physics and Psychics: The Search for breaking the skin; and a West Coast a World Beyond the Senses. Victor J. psychotherapist's practice involving Stenger. Prometheus Books, Buffalo, an array of drugs, New Age mysti­ N.Y., 1990, 323 pp., index, $22.95, cism, and mind control, including a cloth. A physicist critically examines bizarre "hot tub" treatment. Brenne­ theories of a transcendent reality in

92 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 terms of all that is currently known who has read the several past popular about nature at its most fundamental books about "mystical physics"—as level. An excursion that extends from well as all who have had claims from true scientific bizarre phenomena, these books presented to them as a such as supernovas, neutrinos, and new view of nature—should read this quantum physics, to claims of labor­ clear-thinking, authoritative appraisal atory parapsychology, New Age cos­ and counterbalance. mic mysticism, and thought waves and "energies of consciousness." Anyone —Kendrick Frazier

Articles Of Note

Bloch, Lawrence. "Stop Making Campbell, Steuart. "Film of a UFO or Sense." Writer's Digest. January 1990, Venus?" British Journal of Photography, pp. 59-60. Essay on how fiction May 3, 1990, pp. 24-26. Investigation writers distort reality by always indicates that the New Zealand UFO having characters' premonitions come shown on television news accounts true. "Fictional fortunetellers are worldwide January 3, 1979, was very always on the mark. Whatever the likely the planet Venus, seen under mode of divination . . . their predic­ unusual atmospheric optical tions always come true." However, "In conditions. Life As We know It, most fortune­ tellers are wrong most of the time. Cohen-Mansfield, Jiska, Marcia S. ... Predictors hardly ever get anything Marx, and Peria Werner. "Full Moon: right." Bloch says that "because we've Does It Influence Agitated Nursing come to know that all predictions and Home Residents?" Journal of Clinical premonitions come true in fiction," we Psychology, 45(4):611-613, July 1989. take them for "foreshadowing and The hypothesis that elderly nursing brace ourselves for their fulfillment." home residents become increasingly Says Bloch: "It never occurs to us to agitated during full moon was not regard this as unrealistic." supported by a study that recorded their behavior and the occurrence of Browne, Malcolm. W. "In Alchemist's full moon. In all analyses, agitation Notes, Clues to Modern Chemistry." was observed less often when the New York Times, April 10, 1990, B5, moon was full than during the other B9. Reports how modern historians three lunar phases, although the and scientists reexamining old alchem­ differences were not statistically ist documents "have begun to discern significant. kernels of genuine chemical insight suggesting that the science of chem­ Hautala, Earl. "Dandruff and Repro­ istry may have evolved from alchemy ducibility." Etc. A Review of General much earlier than hitherto believed." Semantics, 46(3):267-269, Fall 1989. A

Fall 1990 93 brief article on reproducibility as a "the tell-tale signs of a UFO partisan central concept in science. Hautala also at work," more particularly "a considers a critic's tendency to refer crashed-saucer zealot." They propose to science as a "religion." that motivations may have included silencing the skeptics and rejuvenating Holden, Constance. "Irrationality— belief among the crashed-saucer Skeptics Strike Back." Science, faithful. 248:165, April 13, 1990. News & Comment article reports on CSICOP Quinlan, Cheryl. "Ghost Tracks." Washington conference, with empha­ Customs Today, 25 (2): 33,1990. A brief sis on concerns about scientific literacy report on an unexplained happening and critical thinking, especially the near Riverside, California. Customs talks by John Paulos, Michael Zimmer­ agents spotted an aircraft on their man, and Andrew Fraknoi. radar at night and sent aircraft in pursuit. The chasers reported seeing Mapes, Mary. "Rating Problem? Let the vehicle come down at a well-lit Satan Help." Washington Journalism landing site. Patrolmen arriving on the Review, July/August 1989, p. 10. Two scene, however, found no lights, Seattle television stations competed vehicles, or footprints. for ratings in the May 1989 sweeps by searching for evidence of satanic Santino, Jack. "Occupational Ghost- cults in rural Washington. A Geraldo lore: Social Context and the Expres­ Rivera special had previously made sion of Belief." Journal of American claims of mass sacrifices in Mason Folklore, 101(400):207-218, April-June County. One station tried to link serial 1988. While investigating folklore of murderer Ted Bundy to the alleged the airline industry, Santino heard cults. several stories about the supposed ghost of a flight engineer—the origin Nickell, Joe, and John F. Fischer. "The of John G. Fuller's book The Ghost of Crashed-Saucer Forgeries." Interna­ Flight 401. Santino's focus is on how tional UFO Reporter, March/April people's willingness to acknowledge 1990, pp. 4-12. Report of a thorough, belief in the supernatural varies independent investigation by a former according to the situation. private detective and a forensic crime analyst into the claims of crashed Taubes, Gary. "Cold Fusion Conun­ flying saucers in New Mexico in 1947, drum at Texas A&M." Science, particularly the so-called Majestic-12 248:1299-1304, June 15, 1990. documents attesting to them. They Detailed investigative report on cold­ find many "anomalous and suspicious fusion experiments at the one labor­ elements" in the supposed Truman atory at Texas A&M (among three memo of Sept. 24, 1947, and the there that did experiments) where several other key MJ-12 papers. Their tritium was reported and used as two-year investigation strongly sup­ evidence in support of Utah cold­ ports Philip J. Klass's "smoking gun" fusion claims. Openly discusses for the evidence that shows the Truman first time questions that have been signature to be a photocopy of an raised about the possibility that the authentic signature affixed to a bogus tritium may have resulted from, if not document and recopied (SI, Spring inadvertent contamination, "some­ 1990). They furthermore say the thing more insidious." Reports that evidence suggests the forgeries show researchers both at A&M and else-

94 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 where have asked that questions calls. However, the study did find about "possible fraud" be resolved. that workers in the crisis center were The episode "has become a case study significantly more likely to believe in the damage done when questions in a lunar effect on the telephone calls of fraud, legitimately raised, are not received than a non-crisis-center seriously addressed by either the lab group, indicating they may tend to chief or his institution." construct illusory correlations."

Wilson, James E., II, and Jerome J. Young, Dwight L. "A More Perfect Tobacyk. "Lunar Phases and Crisis Human." Wilson Quarterly, 14(2): Center Telephone Calls." Journal of 120-127, Spring 1990. An article about Social Psychology, 131(1):47-51, Febru­ Orson Squire Fowler, an eccentric ary 1990. Analysis of 4,575 crisis architect and publisher who was a center telephone calls recorded over major promoters of phrenology in a six-month interval suggests that the early nineteenth century. A although day-of-the-week and reformer in many areas, he man­ monthly cycles account for some of aged to associate the study of head the variability in total crisis center calls shapes with such disparate fields as (2 percent and 3 percent of the education, women's suffrage, penol­ variance, respectively), the 28-day ogy, and diet. His revolutionary lunar cycle accounts for a negligible theories on sexuality led to eventual amount of the variance (less than 1 disgrace. percent). The results show no signif­ icant relationship between lunar —Kendrick Frazier and phases and frequency of crisis center Robert Lopresti

New Audio Cassettes! 1990 Conference in Washington, D.C. Complete Conference, Sessions I-VIII, $79.95, a saving of $15.25 • SESSION I: $11.90. Scientific Literacy (2 cassettes) D SESSION II: $11.90. Critical Thinking in Public Education (2 cassettes) • SESSION III: $17.85. (1) Public Policy and the Paranormal. (2) Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About UFOs But Were Afraid to Ask. (3 cassettes) D SESSION IV: $5.95. Keynote Address by Gerard Pie). (1 cassette) D SESSION V: $11.90. Astronomy and Pseudoscience (2 cassettes) D SESSION VI: $17.85. Psychic Phenomena and the Laws of Physics. (3 cassettes) D SESSION VII: $11.90. Animal Rights and Scientific Research. (2 cassettes) D SESSION VIII: $11.90. Awards Banquet. (2 cassettes) D Please send the complete set for $79.95 + $3.75 for 1st class p&h. Total $83.70. (When ordering individual sessions, please add $1.50 for 1st class postage and handling for each session, or $3.75 for 3 or more.) D Check or money order enclosed Total $ Charge my • Visa • MasterCard # Exp

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Fall 1990 95 Back Issues of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER 15% discount on orders of $100 or more ($6.25 for each copy. To order, use reply card insert.) SUMMER 1990 (vol. 14, no. 4): Ghosts make news: 'remembering water' controversy, Gardner and Randi: How four newspapers report psychic phenomena, Bibliographic guide to the 'dilution controversy.' Klare. Thinking critically and creatively, Wade and Pathologies of science, precognition, and modern Tavris. Police pursuit of satanic crime, Part 2, Hicks. psychophysics, Jensen. A reaction-time test of ESP and Order out of chaos in survival research, Berger. precognition, Hines and Dennison. Chinese psychic's pill- Piltdown, paradigms, and the paranormal, Feder. bottle demonstration, Wu Xiaoping. The Kirlian Auras: Searching for the light, Loftin. Biorhythms and technique, Watkins and Bickel. Certainty and proof in the timing of death, Lester. Relativism in science, creationist thought, Leferriere. Gardner. FALL 1988 (vol. 13, no. 1): Special report: Astrology SPRING 1990 (vol. 14, no. 3): Why we need to and the presidency, Kurtz and Boh. Improving Human understand science, Sagan. The crisis in pre-college Performance: What about parapsychology? Frazier. science and math education, Seaborg. Police pursuit of The China syndrome: Further reflections on the satanic crime. Part 1, Hicks. The spread of satanic- paranormal in China, Kurtz. Backward masking, cult rumors, Victor. Lying about polygraph tests, Mclver. The validity of graphological analysis, Furnham. Shneour. Worldwide disasters and moon phase, Kelly, The intellectual revolt against science, Grove. Reich Saklofske, and Culver. St. George and the dragon of the rainmaker, Gardner. creationism, Gardner. SUMMER 1988 (vol. 12, no. 4): Testing psi claims WINTER 1990 (vol. 14, no. 2): The new catastro- in China, Kurtz, Alcock, Frazier, Karr, Klass, and Randi. phism, Morrison and Chapman. A field guide to critical The appeal of the occult: Some thoughts on history, thinking, Lett. Cold fusion: A case history in 'wishful religion, and science, Stevens. Hypnosis and reincar­ science'? Rothman. The airship hysteria of 1896-97, nation, Venn. Pitfalls of perception, Wheeler. Wegener Bartholomew. Newspaper editors and the creation- and pseudoscience: Some misconceptions, Edelman. An evolution controversy, Zimmerman. Special report: investigation of psychic crime-busting, Emery. High­ New evidence of MJ-12 hoax, Klass. The great Urantia flying health quackery, Hines. The bar-code beast, mystery, Gardner. Keith. Occam's Razor and the nutshell earth, Gardner. FALL 1989 (vol. 14, no. 1): Myths about science, SPRING 1988 (vol. 12, no. 3): Neuropathology and Rothman. The relativity of wrong, Asimov. Richard the legacy of spiritual possession, Beyerstein. Varieties Feynman on fringe science. Luis Alvarez and the of alien experience, Ellis. Alien-abduction claims and explorer's quest, Muller. The two cultures, Jones. The standards of inquiry (excerpts from Milton Rosen­ 'top-secret UFO papers' NSA won't release, Klass. The berg's radio talk-show with guests Charles Gruder, metaphysics of Murphy's Law, Price. The Unicorn at Martin Orne, and Budd Hopkins). The MJ-12 Papers: large, Gardner. Part 2, Klass. Doomsday: The May 2000 prediction, SUMMER 1989 (vol. 13, no. 4): The New Age—An Meeus. My visit to the Nevada Clinic, Barrett. Morphic Examination: The New Age in perspective, Kurtz. A resonance in silicon chips, Varela and Letelier. Abigail's New Age reflection in the magic mirror of science, anomalous apparition, Durm. The riddle of the O'Hara. The New Age: The need for myth in an age Colorado ghost lights, Bunch and While. The obligation of science, Schultz. Channeling, Alcock. The psychology to disclose fraud, Gardner. of channeling, Reed, 'Entities' in the linguistic WINTER 1987-88 (vol. 12, no. 2): The MJ-12 papers: minefield, Thomason. Crystals, Lawrence. Consumer Part I, Philip J. Klass. The aliens among us: Hypnotic culture and the New Age, Rosen. The Shirley MacLaine regression revisited, Baker. The brain and conscious­ phenomenon, Gordon. Special report: California court ness: Implications for psi, Beyerstein. Past-life hypnotic jails psychic surgeon, Brenneman. regression, Spanos. Fantasizing under hypnosis, Reveen. SPRING 1989 (vol. 13, no. 3): High school biology The verdict on creationism, Gould. Irving Kristol and teachers and pseudoscientific belief. Eve and Dunn. the facts of life, Gardner. Evidence for Bigfoot? Dennett. Alleged pore structure FALL 1987 (vol. 12, no. 1): The burden of skepticism, in Sasquatch footprints, Freeland and Rome. The lore Sagan. Is there intelligent life on Earth? Kurtz. Medical of levitation, Stein. Levitation 'miracles' in India, Controversies: Chiropractic, Jarvis; Homeopathy, Premanand. Science, pseudoscience, and the cloth of Barrett, M.D.; Alternative therapies, Jones; Quackery, Turin, Nickell. Rather than just debunking, encourage Pepper. Catching Geller in the act, Emery. The third people to think, Seckel. MJ-12 papers 'authenticated? eye, Gardner. Special Report: CSICOP's 1987 Klass. A patently false patent myth, Sass. conference. WINTER 1989 (vol. 13, no. 2): Special report: The SUMMER 1987 (vol. 11, no. 4): Incredible cremations: Investigating combustion deaths, Nickell and Fischer. rational thought, Spangenburg and Moser. Psi Subliminal deception, Creed. Past tongues remem­ researchers' inattention to conjuring, Gardner. bered? Thomason. Is the universe improbable? Shotwell. FALL 1985 (vol. 10, no. 1): Investigations of fire- Psychics, computers, and psychic computers, Easton. walking, Leikind and McCarthy. Firewalking: reality or Pseudoscience and children's fantasies, Evans. illusion, Dennett. Myth of alpha consciousness, Thoughts on science and superstrings, Gardner. Special Beyerstein. Spirit-rapping unmasked, V. Bullough. The Reports: JAL pilot's UFO report, Klass; Unmasking Saguaro incident, Taylor and Dennett. The great stone psychic Jason Michaels, Busch. face, Gardner. SPRING 1987 (vol. 11, no. 3): The elusive open mind: SUMMER 1985 (vol. 9, no. 4): Guardian astrology Ten years of negative research in parapsychology, study, Dean, Kelly, Rotton, and Saklofske. Astrology and Blackmore. Does astrology need to be true? Part 2: The the commodity market, Rotton. "The hundredth answer is no. Dean. Magic, science, and metascience: monkey phenomenon, Amundson. Responsibilities of Some notes on perception, D. Sagan. Velikovsky's the media, Kurtz. 'Lucy' out of context, Albert. The interpretation of the evidence offered by China, Lo. debunking club, Gardner. Anomalies of Chip Arp, Gardner. SPRING 1985 (vol. 9, no. 3): Columbus poltergeist: WINTER 1986-87 (vol. 11, no. 2): Case study of West I, Randi. Moon and murder in Cleveland, Sanduleak. Pittston 'haunted' house, Kurtz. Science, creationism Image of Guadalupe, Nickell and Fischer. Radar UFOs, and the Supreme Court, Seckel, with statements by Klass. Phrenology, McCoy. Deception by patients, Ayala, Gould, and Gell-Mann. The great East Coast UFO Pankralz. Communication in nature, Orstan. Relevance of August 1986, Oberg. Does astrology need to be of belief systems, Gardner. true? Part 1, Dean. Homing abilities of bees, cats, and WINTER 1984-85 (vol. 9, no. 2): The muddled 'Mind people, Randi. The EPR paradox and Rupert Sheldrake, Race,' Hyman. Searches for the Loch Ness monster, Gardner. Followups: On fringe literature, Bauer; on Razdan and Kielar. Final interview with Milbourne Martin Gardner and Daniel Home, Beloff. Christopher, Dennett. Retest of astrologer John FALL 1986 (vol. 11, no. 1): The path ahead: Oppor­ McCall, lanna and Tolbert. 'Mind Race,' Gardner. tunities, challenges, and an expanded view, Frazier. FALL 1984 (vol. 9, no. 1): Quantum theory and the Exposing the faith-healers, Steiner. Was Antarctica paranormal, Shore. What is pseudoscience? Bunge. The mapped by the ancients? Jolly. Folk remedies and new philosophy of science and the 'paranormal,' human belief-systems, Reuter. Dentistry and pseudo- Toulmin. An eye-opening double encounter, Martin. science, Dodes. Atmospheric electricity, ions, and Similarities between identical twins and between pseudoscience, Dolezalek. Noah's ark and ancient unrelated people, Wyatt el al. Effectiveness of a reading astronauts, Harrold and Eve. The Woodbridge UFO program on paranormal belief, Woods, Pseudoscien- incident, Ridpath. How to bust a ghost, Baker. The tific beliefs of 6th-graders, A. S. and S. ). Adelman. unorthodox conjectures of Tommy Gold, Gardner. Koestler money down the psi-drain, Gardner. SUMMER 1986 (vol. 10, no. 4): Occam's razor, Shneour. SUMMER 1984 (vol. 8, no. 4): Parapsychology's past Clever Hans redivivus, Sebeok. Parapsychology eight years, Alcock. The evidence for ESP, C. E. M. miracles, and repeatability, Flew. The Condon UFO Hansel. $110,000 dowsing challenge, Randi. Sir Oliver study, Klass. Four decades of fringe literature, Dutch. Lodge and the spiritualists, Hoffmasler. Misperception, Some remote-viewing recollections, Weinberg. Science, folk belief, and the occult, Connor. Psychology and mysteries, and the quest for evidence, Gardner. UFOs, Simon. Freud and Fliess, Gardner. SPRING 1986 (vol. 10, no. 3): The perennial fringe, SPRING 1984 (vol. 8, no. 3): Belief in the paranormal Asimov. The uses of credulity, de Camp. Night walkers worldwide: Mexico, Mendez-Acosta; Netherlands, Hoe- and mystery mongers, Sagan. CSICOP after ten years, bens; U.K., Hutchinson; Australia, Smith; Canada, Gordon; Kurtz. Crash of the crashed-saucers claim, Klass. A France, Rouze. Debunking, neutrality, and skepticism study of the Kirlian effect, Watkins and Bickel. Ancient in science, Kurtz. University course reduces paranor­ tales and space-age myths of creationist evangelism, mal belief. Gray. The Gribbin effect, Roder. Proving McIver. Creationism's debt to George McCready Price, negatives, Pasquarello. MacLaine, McTaggart, and Gardner. McPherson, Gardner. WINTER 1985-86 (vol. 10, no. 2): The moon was full WINTER 1983-84 (vol. 8, no. 2): Sense and nonsense and nothing happened, Kelly, Rotton, and Culver. Psychic in parapsychology, Hoebens. Magicians, scientists, and studies: The Soviet dilemma. Ebon. The psycho- psychics, Ganoe and Kirwan. New dowsing experiment, pathology of fringe medicine, Sabbagh. Computers and Martin. The effect of TM on weather, Trumpy. The (continued on next page) Back issues (cont'd) haunting of the Ivan Vassilli, Sheaffer. Venus and Veli- FALL 1980 (vol. 5, no. 1): The Velikovsky affair — kovsky, Forrest. Magicians in the psi lab, Gardner. articles by Oberg, Bauer, Frazier. Academia and the FALL 1983 (vol. 8, no. 1): Creationist pseudoscience, occult, Greenwell. Belief in ESP among psychologists, Schadewald. Project Alpha: Part 2, Randi. Forecasting Padgett, Benassi, and Singer. Bigfoot on the loose, Kurtz. radio quality by the planets, Dean. Reduction in Parental expectations of miracles, Steiner. Downfall of paranormal belief in college course, Tobacyk. Huma­ a would-be psychic, McBurney and Greenberg. Para­ nistic astrology, Kelly and Krutzen. psychology research, Mishlove. SUMMER 1983 (vol. 7, no. 4): Project Alpha: Part SUMMER 1980 (vol. 4, no. 4): Superstitions, Bainbridge 1, Randi. Goodman's 'American Genesis,' Feder. Battling and Stark. Psychic archaeology, Feder. Voice stress on the airwaves, Slavsky. Rhode Island UFO film, Emery. analysis, Klass. Follow-up on the 'Mars effect,' Landmark PK hoax, Gardner. Evolution vs. creationism, and the Cottrell tests. SPRING 1983 (vol. 7, no. 3): Iridology, Worrall. The SPRING 1980 (vol. 4, no. 3): Belief in ESP, Morris. Nazca drawings revisited, Nickell. People's Almanac UFO hoax, Simpson. Don Juan vs. Piltdown man, de predictions, Donnelly. Test of numerology, Dlhopolsky. Mille. Tiptoeing beyond Darwin, Greenwell. Conjurors Pseudoscience in the name of the university, Lederer and the psi scene, Randi. Follow-up on the Cottrell and Singer. tests. WINTER 1982-83 (vol. 7, no. 2): Palmistry, Park. The WINTER 1979-80 (vol. 4, no. 2): The 'Mars effect' great SRI die mystery, Gardner. The 'monster' tree- — articles by Kurtz, Zelen, and Abell; Rawlins; Michel and trunk of Loch Ness, Campbell. UFOs and the not-so- Franchise Gauquelin. How I was debunked, Hoebens. The friendly skies, Klass. In defense of skepticism, Reber. metal bending of Professor Taylor, Gardner. Science, FALL 1982 (vol. 7, no. 1): The prophecies of Nostra­ intuition, and ESP, Bauslaugh. damus, Cazeau. Prophet of all seasons, James Randi. FALL 1979 (vol. 4, no. l): A test of dowsing, Randi. Revival of Nostradamitis, Hoebens. Unsolved mysteries Science and evolution, Godfrey. Television pseudo- and extraordinary phenomena, Gill. Clearing the air documentaries, Bainbridge. New disciples of the para­ about psi, Randi. A skotography scam, Randi. normal, Kurtz. UFO or UAA, Standen. The lost panda, SUMMER 1982 (vol. 6, no. 4): Remote-viewing, Marks. van Kampen. Edgar Cayce, Randi. Radio disturbances and planetary positions, Meeus. SUMMER 1979 (vol. 3, no. 4): The moon and the Divining in Australia, Smith. "Great Lakes Triangle," birthrate, Abell and Greenspan. Biorhythms, Hines. 'Cold Cena. Skepticism, closed-mindedness, and science fic­ reading,' Randi. Teacher, student, and the paranormal, tion, Beyerstein. Followup on ESP logic, Hardin and Morris Krai. Encounter with a sorcerer, Sack. and Gendin. SPRING 1979 (vol. 3, no. 3): Near-death experiences, SPRING 1982 (vol. 6, no. 3): The Shroud of Turin, Alcock. Television tests of Musuaki Kiyota, Scoff and Mueller. Shroud image, McCrone. Science, the public, Hutchinson. The conversion of J. Allen Hynek, Klass. and the Shroud, Schafersman. Zodiac and personality, Asimov's corollary, Asimov. Gauquelin. Followup on quantum PK, Hansel. WINTER 1978-79 (vol. 3, no. 2): Is parapsychology WINTER 1981-82 (vol. 6, no. 2): On coincidences, a science? Kurtz. Chariots of the gullible, Bainbridge. Ruma Falk. Croiset: Part 2, Hoebens. Scientific crea- The Tunguska event, Oberg. Space travel in Bronze tionism, Schadewald. Follow-up on 'Mars effect,' Rawlins, Age China, Keightley. responses by CSICOP Council and Abell and Kurtz. FALL 1978 (vol. 3, no. 1): An empirical test of astrol­ FALL 1981 (vol. 6, no. l): Gerard Croiset: Part 1, ogy, Bastedo. Astronauts and UFOs, Oberg. Sleight of Hoebens. Test of perceived horoscope accuracy, Lackey. tongue, Schwartz. The Sirius "mystery," Ridpath. Planetary positions and radio propagation, lanna and SPRING/SUMMER 1978 (vol. 2, no. 2): Tests of three Margolin. Bermuda Triangle, 1981, Dennett. Observa­ psychics, Randi. Biorhythms, Bainbridge. Plant percep­ tion of a psychic, Mclntyre. tion, Kmetz. Anthropology beyond the fringe, Cole. SUMMER 1981 (vol. 5, no. 4): Investigation of 'psy­ NASA and UFOs, Klass. A second Einstein ESP letter, chics,' Randi. ESP: A conceptual analysis, Gendin. The Gardner. extroversion-introversion astrological effect, Kelly and FALL/WINTER 1977 (vol. 2, no. 1): Von Daniken, Story, Saklofske. Art, science, and paranormalism, Habercom. The Bermuda Triangle, Kusche. Pseudoscience at Profitable nightmare, Wells. A Maltese cross in the Science Digest, Oberg and Sheaffer. Einstein and ESP, Aegean? Loftin. Gardner. N-rays and UFOs, Klass. Secrets of the SPRING 1981 (vol. 5, no. 3): Hypnosis and UFO psychics, Rawlins. abductions, Klass. Hypnosis not a truth serum, Hilgard. SPRING/SUMMER 1977 (vol. 1, no. 2): Uri Geller, H. Schmidt's PK experiments, Hansel. Further Marks and Kammann. Cold reading, Hyman. Tran­ comments on Schmidt's experiments, Hyman. Atlan- scendental Meditation, Woodrum. A statistical test of tean road, Randi. Deciphering ancient America, astrology, McGervey. Cattle mutilations, Stewart. McKusick. A sense of the ridiculous, Lord. FALL/WINTER 1976 (vol. 1, no. 1): Dianetics, Wallis. WINTER 1980-81 (vol. 5, no. 2): Fooling some people Psychics and clairvoyance, Fine. "Objections to all the time, Singer and Benassi. Recent perpetual motion Astrology," Westrum. Astronomers and astro­ developments, Schadewald. National Enquirer astrology physicists as astrology critics, Kurtz and Nisbet. study, Mechler, McDaniel, and Mulloy. Science and the Biorhythms and sports, Fix. Von Daniken's chariots, mountain peak, Asimov. Omohundro. Letters to the Editor

Police, media, and Satanism Michigan. Many had to be turned away. The event and its imagined implications Re Robert D. Hicks's connection were reported for a week thereafter on between the news media and the law- CNN, NBC, and other national televi­ enforcement model of cult activity sion networks. The central exhibit was ("Police Pursuit of Satanic Crime," Part a cat hung from the rafters of a barn. I, SI, Spring 1990): The impact upon the middle school During February 1989, Hillsdale students, whom I serve professionally, County, a rural area in south-central was the dramatic appearance of Satan Michigan, was replete with out-of-the- symbols on clothing and related graffiti ordinary occurrences ranging from a on school property where none had police presentation on Satan worship to existed before. Many youngsters prof­ sightings of alleged Bigfoot tracks. As fered mutilation stories, including a teacher-therapist for emotionally rumors of human corpses under bridges disturbed adolescents and a member of and police cover-ups. Among parents CSICOP's Education Subcommittee, I there was much hand-wringing and took special note of the etiology of these gnashing of teeth. events. In mid-March 1989, I was inter­ One of our city police officers had viewed by the Hillsdale Daily News to been sent to a seminar on Satanism a explain the psychodynamics of Febru­ la Hick's description. The result was that ary's events. The article was given page- he returned to Hillsdale committed to one exposure and served as a tonic to warning the vulnerable citizens of this recent distortions. impending scourge. A "seminar" was The very next day, in exactly the arranged for interested locals. Our same page-one space, the Hillsdale Daily county daily newspaper was alerted, and News headlined an article "Bigfoot the police/news-media team-up was a Hunters Scour County!" And so it goes. disaster. The educational session consisted of Lincoln C. Miller a few slides of mutilated domestic Hillsdale, Mich. animals, a moralistic lecture on the evils of heavy-metal rock and "Dungeons & Dragons," and intimation of trouble Kudos is due for Robert Hicks's article. with a capital "T" that rhymes with "P," In particular, he mentioned that the role- and that stands for paraphernalia. The playing game Dungeons & Dragons, focal point of the presentation was a which is based on fantasy fiction, is "documentary" on Satanism. Amaz­ unjustly linked to the occult and ingly, this cinematic production was the Satanism. Geraldo Rivera Halloween special. There are multiple claims against this The news media outdid the police in game: that it causes teen suicides, irresponsibility by turning this mis­ murders, violence, psychological prob­ guided pedagogical effort into a cause lems, lowered school grades, and even celebre. A score of television and print divorce! This is rich material for the true reporters converged on the area. A skeptic, although D&D is heard about meeting intended for 100 had to accom­ more often than seen, which was why modate ten times that many. People such claims were believed among the came from Ohio and Indiana as well as unwary.

Fall 1990 99 I am an actual fan of the three tions of the true causes (drugs, homo­ versions of the D&D game; we number sexual prostitution) to protect the boy. at .least five million on this continent D&D got blamed in place of more mundane, alone. However, fans of D&D and other understood causes. role-playing games are found mostly in Fact #3: This model of a "criminal individual groups, as isolated from one cause" was seized upon by Fundamen­ another as bridge players are. We were talist Christian groups, particularly quite bewildered with stories against since D&D was associated with teenag­ D&D; and because of the dispersion of ers, who are guilty of something by game fans, even some "gamers" believed definition. It is also a fact that the earliest them. However, if understanding were critic of D&D (Rev. John Torrell, more widespread, one could no more Sacramento) claimed as early as 1980 spread the stories than spread a claim that D&D players "can't tell the differ­ that bridge players are a worldwide neo- ence between fantasy and reality." This Nazi recruitment network. is ironic in view of Torrell's religious Very briefly, a role-playing game newsletter (The Dove), which details (RPG) is where, instead of playing what he calls the "five-year surrender pieces, players control imaginary char­ plan" of the U.S. to the Soviet Union acters set in some fantasy or science- (which began in 1986), and says George fiction story devised by a "game master." Bush has devoted his life to Satan! There is no competition; players act Fact #4: The "documented D&D cooperatively to resolve the plot of the suicides" of teens turn out to be mostly story and have their characters succeed. hoaxes. The parents of some teens cited, It is a purely verbal, adult form of such as Roland Cartier and the Erwin childhood "let's pretend" games and brothers of Colorado, bitterly resent the consists of books and printed charts, claims and provide the more likely with lengthy statistical rules to decide causes. There are parents, however, outcomes with dice rolls. who claim their offspring committed Dungeons & Dragons was one of the suicide because of D&D in order to mask earliest (TSR, Inc., 1973), and Advanced actual causes relating to family strife. Dungeons & Dragons has the longest In any case, suicide motives are anyone's set of rules (1.4 million words, or twice guess, and a look at figures even the size of the Bible) and is still the most suggests that D&D players are less likely popular RPG (it even has its own thick to commit suicide than their peers. monthly magazine, Dragon). Its topic is Anyone interested in this issue can generic fantasy fiction. write for more details to the Committee When the stories came out, I for the Advancement of Role-Playing at researched them and formed an infor­ the following address: In the U.S.: mative committee with other game fans William Flatt, 8032 Locust Ave., Miller, around the world. IN 46403. In Canada: Pierre Savoie, 22- Fact #1: D&D evolved from obscure B Harris Ave., Toronto, ON M4C 1P4. complex-game hobbyists and is based on Or to the Game Manufacturers Asso­ fantasy-fiction, which was also initially ciation: Greg Stafford, Chairperson, obscure. When the game became pop­ c/o Chaosium Inc., 950A 56th St., ular, there was no easy comparison or Oakland, CA 94608. basis to understand it. Fact #2: The earliest claim of an Pierre Savoie "incident" linked to D&D was the Toronto, Canada disappearance, retrieval, and later sui­ cide of young James Dallas Egbert III from the University of Michigan in 1979. Robert Hicks made some interesting The book The Dungeon Master, by points about the alleged cult epidemic detective William Dear (Ballantine, throughout the country. I've been 1984), explains the case, where the involved with many of these claims for detective purposefully delayed explana­ several years. In 1983, I wrote a three-

100 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 part series for my high school newspaper convictions for these crimes" smacks on the controversy surrounding the sadly of inadequate homework. game Dungeons & Dragons, and after Granting Hicks's theory that vari­ slogging through some of the most ous psychopaths may adopt Satanism poorly written and fully libelous liter­ or other cult beliefs as justification ature on the subject (or any subject) I for their own aberrant behavior, I have ever subjected my fragile psyche will pass over the numerous "self- to experience, I ran into many similar styled Satanists" currently serving time claims: Bob Larson, a radio evangelist for homicide and other crimes around in Denver, claiming that he heard a the country. In fact, elements of warlock proclaim that D&D was Satanism and/or voodoo have been designed as a training aid for Satanic uncovered in nearly 10 percent of initiates; Christian Life Ministries in American serial murders since 1969. Sacramento claiming that the game was Ironically, John Gacy—referred to by of either satanic or communist origin for Hicks as a "self-styled Satanist"—does the purpose of making impressionable not belong in this category. Gacy has young children question Christian never professed a belief in the occult, teachings; and Mel and Norma Gabler, nor has a cult connection been ad­ the Texas book censors, putting out vanced by any investigator close to his whole workbooks on the subject in order case. to inform the appropriate officials that one game of D&D caused good Christian Jack Buchanan teenagers to become screaming mother- Nashville, Ind. stabbing, father-raping Satanists bent upon the destruction of the civilized world and parts of Lewisville, Texas. We commend Robert Hicks for his article These people offered no proof of their deploring the hoopla and hysteria claims, either, but their propaganda was surrounding reports of satantic/cult/ enough to convince many toy and hobby occult crime. He does however, in a shops to stop carrying the game and its couple of instances, display a dangerous supplements because of its "occult ignorance in an area which, in stark influences." contrast to his main subject matter, is After spending nearly a year in fact "a problem of national researching my series (the advantages proportions." of being a high school student), I found The physical, sexual, and emotional that none of the opponents of the game abuse of children is epidemic in our had any verifiable proof of a connec­ society. When Hicks (p. 278) belittles tion between D&D and either cult "children's uncorroborated testimony activity or teen suicide. Nearly all of the [which] caused the indictments of many alleged proof was anecdotal or manu­ adults for sexual abuse," and then factured. strongly suggests that the lack of criminal convictions for these and other Paul T. Riddell crimes is evidence of their nonoccur­ Dallas, Tex. rence, he contributes to a hyperskeptical and complacent general mentality that We hope to have an article about the enables the abuse of children to Dungeons & Dragons controversy at some continue. time in the future.—ED. Joseph and Jennifer Giandalone Amherst, Mass. I have read with great interest the article on satanic crime. While Hicks must be Jennifer Giandalone is a member of the commended for his effort to bring light National Child Rights Alliance and out of darkness in this field, his errone­ managing editor of NCRA's quarterly ous reference to "the lack of criminal newsletter, The Freedom Voice.

Fall 1990 101 Congratulations on an excellent issue of Officers should properly investigate 51 (Spring 1990). As a practicing forensic crimes, not ideologies. In fact, some of the psychologist, as well as a concerned cases Buchanan offers as evidence of my parent, I found it invaluable. Occasion­ ignorance betray his own. For example, he ally I am asked by local media about cites the David Berkowitz "Son of Sam" "satanic" involvement in child sexual- killer for his involvement in a satanic cult. abuse cases with which I am involved. But the cult connection, much sensationalized In more than 300 such cases I have never in Maury Terry's The Ultimate Evil, rests encountered one with a "satanic" basis, on Terry's own tenuous speculations, but the thirst for this type of novelty criticized in Arthur Lyons's Satan Wants seems unabated. You, and in my own forthcoming book. Unassailable proof for "synchron- Buchanan also lakes the Matamoros icity" will be found in the fact that I have multiple murders as satanic (see my Part become involved in a mini-issue con­ 2, SI, Summer 1990, p. 384). cerning a collection of pseudoscientific Perhaps Buchanan will listen to Special books in our children's elementary Agent Kenneth Lanning of the FBI: "The school library. Three days earlier I had . . . investigator must objectively evaluate sent a letter to 51 inquiring about a list the legal significance of any criminal's of titles that would foster a more spiritual beliefs. In most cases, including skeptical approach to pseudoscience, one those involving Satanists, it will have little which would be suitable for younger or no legal significance. . . . The crime children—and voila, at the end of the is the same whether a child is abused or issue, in the Letters to the Editor section, murdered as part of a Christian, Hare I find at least four usable and appropriate Krishna, Muslim or any other belief system. titles. Crimes generally are not labeled with the Although I read every issue of SI with name of the perpetrator's religion. . . . If great interest, this one truly deserves criminals use a spiritual belief system to an Academy Award of some sort. rationalize and justify . . . their criminal activity, should the focus of law enforcement Gary W. Lea, Psy.D. be on the belief system or on the criminal Registered Psychologist activity?" (quoted in Police Chief, October Kelowna, B.C. 1989, p. 80). Buchanan should define Canada "cult" or "occult"' before applying the labels and evaluate their significance in the criminal process. Also, I mentioned ]John Robert D. Hicks replies: Wayne Gacy because he was offered as an example of a "self-styled Satanist" at a cult seminar 1 attended. Buchanan criticizes me for not doing my homework and lists several cases "where My article did not deal with child abuse, multiple cultists have been identified and/ yet the Giandalones take me to task for a or incarcerated." Unfortunately, the case complacent mentality about the problem. But citations he appended read like newspaper they argue apples and oranges. I'm well headlines, noting that so-and-so was aware of the estimated pervasiveness of child convicted of the "ritual/cannibal murder" abuse in the United Stales (and of the of another, for example. My point is that literature they cite) and support its rigorous the crime investigated and prosecuted was investigation, but here I allude to the murder. Until very recently, criminal laws sensational criminal cases of so-called in most states have not appended "ritual" ritualistic child abuse in day-care centers to such crimes. (Idaho and Illinois, for in which the focus on satanic or occult example, have recently added laws crimin­ elements ignored the possibility of actual alizing certain "ritualistic" or "occult" abuse. activities, legislation based almost entirely The FBI investigation into the conduct on the stories of cult survivors. We will of the Jordan, Minnesota, child abuse case, have to wait to evaluate the utility of such the conclusion of the jury in the McMartin legislation.) case in California, the California Attorney

102 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 General's investigation into the child-abuse publicity, which might lead him, and cases in Bakersfield, California, and the others, to think that he is better than reversal of convictions in the Michelle Noble average at sports. and Gayle Dove day-care case in El Paso, If the recommended reforms of Texas, all attest to the same investigative science instruction are implemented, as and prosecutorial problems: the focus on I hope they will be, I predict nevertheless bizarre elements rather than the alleged that there will be no major improvement crime and the conflation of therapeutic and in the nation's scientific literacy until law-enforcement goals and methods, which current attitudes are changed. If we in some cases resulted in concocted tales of attempt to teach all students a substan­ the occult told by children much prompted tial amount of science, as opposed to and coached. merely requiring them to be physically Ironically, through such cases the present in a classroom, the resulting methods of therapists, prosecutors, and the failure rate will not be tolerated by police have improved to meet legal require­ parents or by the educational establish­ ments and to avoid the possibility of ment. fabrication and the cross-germination of stories among children and investigators. If Daniel Shotwell we rely on children's testimony, then that Alpine, Tex. testimony should be free of taint. Unfor­ tunately, by voicing such a criticism, the Giandalones make me part of a problem The deplorable state of science education rather than the solution. Such a criticism is a common theme these days, and is usually leveled at those who criticize child- properly so. We hear regularly from abuse-case methods, but 1 insist that a physicists in particular about this, and professional dialogue on the topic is essen­ usually grand old physicists—statesmen tial. 1 invite the Giandalones to examine and administrators of the field—as well the detailed arguments about such cases as a blizzard of government reports. in my forthcoming book, In Pursuit of Institutes are set up, like that in honor Satan. of Ernest O. Lawrence and the new Seaborg Center, to provide curriculum materials and encouragement to Improving science education teachers and students. And, as the very figures cited in Seaborg's article prove, One major obstacle to the improvement they don't work either. of science education was not mentioned What to do? Apparently universities in the articles by Sagan and Seaborg {SI, don't have much trouble turning out Spring 1990): the ideology of egalitar- okay physicists. What universities have ianism that is dominant in our culture. that lower schools don't is live physicists It denies the existence of individual (or soon-to-be physicists) doing the variations in aptitude and disregards the teaching. Maybe that is the answer. fact that many people either cannot or In fact, if working physicists are as will not learn much science or mathe­ truly upset as they say they are, you matics no matter how much money we would expect a large percentage of them spend on the schools. The segregation to take the time to make regular weekly of students by ability, which could aid appearances in teacher's training col­ the more gifted by exposing them to leges—live resources, you might say— challenging and interesting material, is on a voluntary basis. Certainly this said to encourage "elitism." Strangely, would be a better way of inspiring and this argument is not applied to athletics. informing would-be science teachers We do not hear demands that every high than pontificating through mountains of school student be given a varsity letter paper and film strips from on high. regardless of his athletic performance. Yet the successful athlete is rewarded Jake Page by the esteem of his peers and by Corrales, N.M.

Fall 1990 103 Carl Sagan writes: "Why in all America people from anywhere else. Wishful is there no TV drama that has as its thinking aside, studying science in hero someone devoted to figuring out school doesn't prevent it. Pre-Hitler how the universe works?" Such a TV Germany was perhaps far more drama, Probe, created by Isaac Asimov advanced than the U.S. in theoretical and myself, aired in the winter of 1987- science and math, but that didn't prevent 88 on ABC on Thursday nights. the National Socialists from coming to Although we made the mandatory power. concessions to character, plot, and action As for contemporary Japan, some of that television drama requires, our my students here were graduates of top scientist-protagonist, Austin James, was Japanese universities; their subject was nevertheless a no-nonsense scientific applied science—engineering. Yet sev­ investigator of natural and paranormal eral said with a straight face that UFOs mysteries. Episodes dealt with artificial could make high-speed 80 degree turns! intelligence, genetically altered viruses, I, a science illiterate—no, a science hypnotic suggestion, nuclear accidents, phobe—all through college, had to and murder by hologram. We even explain basic principles of physics to debunked alien visitations and witch­ bright young fellows with B.S. and M.S. craft. (Austin, in spirit, was a card- degrees. carrying member of CSICOP.) Sagan should come to high-tech Unfortunately, Probe did not last Japan sometime and visit typical Japa­ beyond the two-hour pilot and six nese high schools. Not as Carl Sagan, episodes. While it's true the network science genius, but under another name. relegated us to the "death slot" opposite If he goes as himself, the teachers will Bill Cosby (a sure indication that ABC coach the students with dozens of was not really keen on doing a science questions—in English, even!—and show) and that Universal Studios did not Sagan will return trumpeting the Jap­ provide us with the support necessary anese love of science. to do a show of Probe's complexity, I But if he were to go, say, as me, he believe the real reason the series did not would see how most of the students survive was the American television- mindlessly memorize facts in order to viewing audience's indifference to pass exams and how few really care anything involving science. about the beauty of the universe around us. Just like back home! Michael Wagner Lorimar Productions Monty Vierra Culver City, Calif. Hiroshima, Japan

Carl Sagan, long one of my heroes, Wisdom in science seems chauvinistic in talking about how poorly American young people are doing I was intrigued and appalled to read in math and science. I've lived in Europe letters (SI, Spring 1989)—some from and now I'm living in Japan. Perhaps teachers—finding fault with Isaac Asim- Sagan will tell us in which country there ov's excellent article, "The Relativity of is a television drama "that has as its hero Wrong" (SI, Fall 1989). It's no wonder someone devoted to figuring out how U.S. students fare poorly in science and the universe works." Japanese cartoons math when compared with students promote the same view of the mad educated in other countries. scientist as American cartoons do. David Carl Argall's letter, for in­ What's worse, some of the "mad scien­ stance, claims that scientific writings of tist" cartoons shown in America are 1880 would have no scientific value drawn in Japan! today. In fact, the writings of scientists Gosh, in Europe and in Japan people and engineers from Newton back are as apt to fall for pseudoscience as through Archimedes are in constant use

104 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 and of inestimable value. Even after grader who was chastised by his teacher 2,500 years, Archimedes is still right for insisting that Alpha Centauri is the about many things. His principles of nearest star. I read this letter with some buoyancy underlie my entire craft. All amazement, because the event described of Newton's physical laws remain happened to me 23 years ago as a first- completely intact—the foundation of grader in a school not far from where modern science and engineering. Fletcher lives. In my own field—the design of yachts - I still recall the event rather vividly. and small commercial vessels—one of I was so distraught and angered that I my most reliable references is Attwood's refused to go to school the next day. Theoretical Naval Architecture, printed in Fletcher may be interested to know that 1899. It is so old it uses a Monitor class as an adolescent I read literally every ship—as in the Civil War's Monitor and collection of Isaac Asimov's science Merrimac—as one of its examples. I prize essays and that I am now completing this book for its clarity and spare a Ph.D. in (of all things) astronomy. readable style. Although I must be And I still detest "trick questions." careful to cull out antiquated structural materials and building practices, the Tom Little physics and engineering principles have Hyattsville, Md. not changed one whit. In fact, the grandfather of naval architecture texts is Chapman's Architectura Navalis Mer- Editors and evolution catoria, published in 1768. A facsimile edition sits on my shelf and is also a Although newspaper editors may well valued reference. Though shipbuilding be poorly informed about the evolution- practice has certainly changed in the creation controversy, Michael Zimmer­ intervening years, again, every physics man's study (SI, Winter 1990) is difficult and engineering principle remains to interpret. Many of the questions, and sound. The drafting is so intricate, therefore the answers, are ambiguous. precise, and beautiful it is breathtaking. Part of the ambiguity appears to be Most amusing of all was Argall's rooted in a lack of understanding of the pride in being certain that he—and all practice of journalism. For example, the the rest of us—should have the wisdom survey asks editors where they would to know we know nothing. Specifically, run a well-written story on evolution he concludes, "Knowing that you know or creationism. Such a question is 'nothing' is a mark of wisdom." I hope confusing to a journalist, because the he is not a teacher, for then he would placement of a story in the paper have the "wisdom" to "know" that he depends upon how "newsworthy" it is cannot even know his own name. Of thought to be, not the skill with which course he does seem to know one thing it is written. A newsworthy story on with absolute certainty. (There, poor evolution or creationism would run in Isaac, there's hope for you yet.) Argall the news section; less important news knows, with total clarity and precision, stories would run in the science or that it is wise to know nothing, but then religion sections, along with feature he must "know" something, so he can't stories on those topics. An editor needs be very wise! far more information than "a well- written story on creation science" to give Dave Gerr an educated answer about its placement New York, N.Y. in the newspaper. Another source of ambiguity lies in interpreting the responses. For the first In your Spring 1990 issue you printed 22 statements, editors were asked if they a letter from John G. Fletcher of "strongly agree, mildly agree, no opin­ Pleasanton, California, in which he ion, mildly disagree, strongly disagree." relates the story of a precocious first- Zimmerman often looked at only the

Fall 1990 105 extreme responses in drawing conclu­ assumption doesn't stand up. The sions. For example, he said that "only teaching of creationism doesn't have to 42 percent of the editors agreed strongly mean teaching it to students as true. with the correct statement 'The Earth Surely the most effective way to is approximately 4-5 billion years old.' " acquaint students with that issue is to But what seems most striking to me present the factual evidence for both about the response is that only about creationism and evolution and trust the 5 percent of those polled (judging from students to make their own reasoned the graph) disagreed—strongly or judgments. mildly—with that statement. (A little By pointing out problems in this more than 20 percent didn't want to survey, I by no means wish to imply that venture a guess.) And only about 5 journalists are above reproach in hand­ percent agreed—strongly or mildly— ling evolution and creationism. Journal­ that the earth is 6,000 to 20,000 years ists often make errors in science old. As a former science editor, I must coverage. It seems to me, however, that admit that I was surprised to find that the principles journalists use in assessing my colleagues had such a good grasp of newsworthiness have more to do with the earth's age. those errors than their lack of knowl­ The editors did poorly in defining edge on any particular issue. Stories are evolution, according to Zimmerman. newsworthy if they are timely (have just Nearly half said that this statement— happened), involve prominent people, "Evolution involved a purposeful striv­ involve controversy or violence, affect ing towards 'higher' forms (that is, a or interest many people, are part of a steady progress from microbes to trend, or appeal to readers' emotions humans)"—best described evolution; (few stories will have all of these less than a third preferred the phrase qualities). While these principles serve "survival of the fittest." But is that really journalists well in the coverage of many a fair indication of scientific literacy? topics, they can be ill-suited to science The idea of directed progress in coverage. They may lead journalists to evolution is a semantic trap. In Won­ emphasize personalities or conflicts, and derful Life: The Burgess Shale and the they may discourage the coverage of Nature of History [see review in this intellectually important topics that issue], Stephen Jay Gould points out that aren't newsworthy in the traditional even scientists sometimes have trouble sense. steering away from language that The purpose of the survey was to find implies directed evolution. "The march out how much editors knew about of progress is the canonical representa­ evolution and creationism on the tion of evolution—the only picture assumption that such knowledge affects immediately grasped and viscerally coverage. But journalists do not have to understood by all," Gould says. While be (and, indeed, cannot be) walking his books are "dedicated to debunking encyclopedias to do their jobs well—they this picture of evolution," four transla­ need to know how to get the informa­ tions of his work have used jacket tion they require and how to evaluate illustrations (over which he has no sources of information. When journal­ control) showing the march of human ists are insecure about assessing the progress, he adds. Surely a newspaper validity of sources, they tend to write editor could be forgiven for an error stories that resemble a debate, with the often commited by scientists them­ writer as moderator. As long as contrary selves. opinions are roughly equal in validity, Another question that is hard to this strategy is a fair one. But when one interpret is the one on whether cre- position is much weaker than the other, ationism should be taught in public what appears to be a balanced approach schools. Although Zimmerman assumes actually gives undue weight to the that editors are anti-evolution if they weaker side. A survey aimed at finding favor the teaching of creationism, that out how comfortable editors are in

106 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 seeking and assessing science informa­ ited "energy machine," alleged to derive tion would tell us more about how well power from an imaginary particle that they are doing their jobs. Newman called a "gyron." Physicists have detected no such particle. Karen Freeman Any first-year electrical engineering Asst. Professor of Journalism student could have told Newman that Pennsylvania State University his Rube Goldberg AC generators would University Park, Pa. never in a thousand years repeal the laws of thermodynamics or conservation of energy, but he was apparently able to Newman the prophet dupe investors into pouring thousands of dollars into this worthless device. If Since you are keeping track of Joseph Newman takes his claim to the U.S. Newman's "energy generation system" Supreme Court he will only find that (51, Spring 1990), I thought you might the Court will defer to the NBS and its like to hear the latest from its inventor. findings that Joseph Newman had not On January 23,1990, Newman appeared been able to prove his claims. on a local television station (apparently One scientist, who has examined he purchased a half-hour) to tell the Newman's energy machine at close following things to the world: that all range, says that it is nothing more than of the world's major religions, as well a crude alternating current generator as Edgar Cayce, Nostradamus, and producing a "spike" AC output at each several other prophets, had predicted turn of the armature and requiring dry that shortly before the year 2000 God's or wet batteries for its field current and great prophet would come to the world rotating power. and that he, Joseph Newman, was that The intermittent power output prophet. He further claimed to have a makes it useless for any practical virgin birth, but two minutes later was application and even though Newman talking about how his older brother had has claimed an efficiency of from 100 not died but had been taken directly to percent to as high as 800 percent, the heaven by God to get Joe's attention in device actually wastes about 60 percent 1944. That this was from God was of its power input. supposedly authenticated by a halo around the sun on the same date. William H. Watkins The program ended with an appeal Williamsburg, Va. to send money.

Wayne D. Cowey Most Mensans critical thinkers Gulfport, Miss. I hope to correct a mistaken impression of Mensa, the high IQ society, that Newman's machine readers of Robert Sheaffer's Psychic Vibrations column (SI, Spring 1990) and I was pleased to read in the Spring 1990 of letters in earlier issues may have •issue that backyard inventor Joseph W. received. Newman has once again been thwarted While it is true that some Mensans in his constant attempts to bulldoze the are interested in, or involved with, U.S. Patent Office into granting him a psychic phenomena and the New Age, patent on a device that cannot possibly these members are in the minority. As accomplish what he claims for it. with the proponents of such beliefs in Your readers might remember that the general population, this minority Newman first claimed that God had receives far more than its fair share of appeared to him in a dream and given media attention. him alone the "secrets of the universe" Most members of Mensa are critical from which he then designed his unlim­ thinkers, many of us are trained scien-

Fall 1990 107 tists, quite a few are subscribers to the sentation of correlational findings as SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, and at least one causal, addiction to multiple sub­ prominant Mensan—Isaac Asimov—is a stances, and—most important—the Fellow of CSICOP. lack of control for environmental influence. Joan E. Bauman, Ph.D. I trust that SI readers are now curi­ Director of Science ous enough to investigate the claims and Education made in the name of science by American Mensa Ltd. those who believe in the disease model St. Louis, Mo. of alcoholism. The stakes are con­ siderably higher than Si's standard fare. Alcoholism, disease or not? Jeffrey A. Schaler The indignation expressed by critics Silver Spring, Md. of my book review and the good work of Professor Fingarette (SI, Winter 1990, pp. 198-201) comes as no surprise More good books for kids (Letters, SI, Summer 1990, pp. 440-442). Accusations regarding the merit of As a clinical psychologist who works research debunking the disease model with disturbed adolescents and as a of alcoholism (amid the ad hominem father of an eight-year-old, I am very attacks I consider unworthy of fur­ interested in good reading for children. ther response) are emotional and (See Letters, SI, Winter 1990, p. 334.) groundless. I have found some additional works For a review of "the controlled that I think are all good in their own drinking controversy," including the ways. Incidentally, The Magic Detectives, exoneration of Drs. Linda and Mark by Joe Nickell, is excellent, and my son Sobell, see G. Alan Marlatt's article of loves it. the same name in American Psychologist Osborne Publishing has a lot of (1983, vol. 38, pp. 1097-1110). For a good science-oriented books for kids critique of the alleged "clear" and and has a three-volume set that is "stunning" evidence of the heri- specifically for teaching rational, criti­ tability of alcoholism, see Professor cal thinking: All About Monsters, All of Biochemistry, Emeritus, David About Ghosts, and All About UFO's. Lester's article titled "The heritability of They use varying typefaces and color­ alcoholism: Science and social policy," ful pictures to capture kids' interest. in Drugs & Society (1989, vol. 3, How to Think Like a Scientist, by S. P. pp. 29-68). Kramer (Thomas Y. Crowell) is designed With regard to the recent study to teach children how to solve prob­ of the dopamine receptor gene and lems using the scientific method and alcoholism published in the journal of utilizes examples that will make sense the American Medical Association, as Paul to kids. Billings, of Harvard Medical School For younger children, the Berenstain and director of the Clinic for Inherited Bears series has great stories for teaching Disease at New England Deaconess kids about moral and social questions Hospital, says: "If this type of genetic (such as lying, peer pressure, junk food, analysis was carried out for a disease etc.) from a secular, rational perspective, or a behavior less attractive than and even has some nonreligious Christ­ alcoholism, it would never get pub­ mas stories. lished. It tells you nothing of signifi­ Let's support these publishers; they cance. The study is from the genetic are few and far between. dark ages." Errors in genetic studies on alcoholism include inaccurate defini­ Selmer E. Wathney tions of "alcoholic," the misrepre­ Sacramento, Calif.

108 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Murphy's law, Al's law, and Coleslaw

To clear up the confusion expressed appropriately be subsumed under the on the questionably related Murphy's rubric of Cole's Law (sometimes Law, the law of large numbers, Nap­ inappropriately rendered as Coleslaw) ier's Law, and Price's Law (Letters, SI, which stipulates that in any half-pound Spring 1990): In an attempt to either plastic container of coleslaw the per­ confirm or refute the law of large centage of slightly greenish cabbage- numbers I recently purchased an shavings will be less than the percen­ enormous canvas, a tall ladder, and tage of slightly whitish pieces. several buckets of paint. By means of While it is true that if one of these these three artifacts I was able to print slivers of cabbage falls to the floor it several numbers so large as to be more will be likely to land on the side most than 12 feet in height. The actual heavily covered with coleslaw goop, I numbers were, modestly enough, 17, fail to see the relevance of that to the 23 and 47. After several hours of this fact that not only was the rabbi in Frans I was apprehended by the law on the Kok's story funny but all the rabbis grounds of defacing property. about whom stories have been told for As for the assorted laws of Murphy, the past 3,000 years have been funny, Price, et al., I will say only first that whereas in reality all the rabbis I have I have always preferred Al's law. And ever met have been of astonishingly why Murphy never gave Al credit is sober mein. something that has never been clar­ ified, not to mention mentioned. Steve Allen All of these, it seems to me, may Van Nuys, Calif.

Fall 1990 109 Clarifying comment on Jahn Review first ran the ad for the chart, their readers were so incensed at the biases I was somewhat dismayed to find two in the chart that their protests to the letters in the Winter 1990 issue of the editor prompted BAR to print the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER suggesting that following disclaimer with the ad, which authors had missed the point of an continues to run in the magazine: earlier letter of mine commenting on the work of Schmidt and Jahn. This chart reflects the traditional To refresh readers' memories, I had Biblical time for the creation of the pointed out that dismissal of the exper­ world, the Flood, etc., as well as certain imenters' work because the result was historical events as documented in the "close to 50 percent" could not be Book of Mormon and other theologies. supported statistically as an event arising from chance. I suggested "that Scientific American ran the ad for the other mechanisms are represented in the chart several times in 1989 with no data." disclaimer. I do not think it has run in Scientific American in 1990; and, if not, It appears that both correspondents I wonder whether reader reaction had inferred from my comment that I had anything to do with the stoppage. And concluded the results supported some the ad is in the March/April 1990 issue form of paranormal event. of the journal Archaeology with no An earlier draft of my letter actually disclaimer. included the words "such as poor data or faulty experimental design"; however I deleted the phrase because I thought C. Leroy Ellenberger that was belaboring the obvious. St. Louis, Mo.

John R. Smyrk Collaroy Plateau, Australia The letters column is a forum for views on matters raised in previous issues. Please try to keep letters World History Chart to 300 words or less. They should be typed, preferably double-spaced. Due to the volume of I was glad to see your report on the letters, not all can be published. We reserve the World History Chart (Spring 1990, p. right to edit for space and clarity. Address them 315). to Letters to the Editor, SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, With respect to that chart, you might 3025 Palo Alto Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM be interested in the following back­ 87111. ground. When Biblical Archaeology

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110 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 15 Local, Regional, and National Organizations The organizations listed below have aims c/o Ho & Moss, Attorneys, 72 Kneeland similar to those of CSICOP and work in St., Boston, MA 02111. cooperation with CSICOP but are indepen­ MICHIGAN. MSU Proponents of Rational dent and autonomous. They are not affiliated Inquiry and the Scientific Method with CSICOP, and representatives of these (PRISM), Dave Marks, 221 Agriculture organizations cannot speak on behalf of Hall, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, CSICOP. MI 48824. Great Lakes Skeptics, Don Evans, Chairman, 6572 Helen, Garden UNITED STATES City, MI 48135. ALABAMA. Alabama Skeptics, Emory Kim- MINNESOTA. Minnesota Skeptics, Robert W. brough, 3550 Watermelon Road, Apt. McCoy, 549 Turnpike Rd., Golden Valley, 29A, Northport, AL 35476. MN 55416. St. Kloud ESP Teaching ARIZONA. Tucson Skeptical Society Investigation Committee (SKEPTIC), (TUSKS), James McGaha, Chairman, Jerry Mertens, Coordinator, Psychology 2509 N. Campbell Ave., Suite #16, Dept., St. Cloud State Univ., St. Cloud, Tucson, AZ 85719. Phoenix Skeptics, MN 56301. Michael Stackpole, Chairman, P.O. Box 62792, Phoenix, AZ 85082-2792. MISSOURI. Kansas City Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Verle Muhrer, Chair­ CALIFORNIA. Bay Area Skeptics, Rick Moen, man, 2658 East 7th, Kansas City, MO Secretary, 4030 Moraga, San Francisco, 64124. Gateway Skeptics, Chairperson, CA 94122-3928. Berkeley Skeptics, Steve Best, 6943 Amherst Ave., Univer­ Daniel Bain, Contact, U.C. Berkeley, 300 sity City, MO 63130. Eshleman Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720. East Bay Skeptics Society, Daniel Sabsay, NEW MEXICO. New Mexicans for Science & President, P.O. Box 20989, Oakland, CA Reason, John Geohegan, Chairman, 450 94620. Sacramento Skeptics Society, Bob Montclaire SE, Albuquerque, NM 87108; Lee, President, 1417 57th St., Sacramento, John Smallwood, 320 Abbott Road, Santa CA 95819. Southern California Skeptics, Fe, NM 87501. Susan Shaw, Secretary, P.O. Box 5523, NEW YORK. Finger Lakes Association for Pasadena, CA 91107; San Diego Coordi­ Critical Thought, Ken McCarthy, 107 nator, Ernie Ernissee, 5025 Mount Hay Williams St., Groton, NY 13073. New Drive, San Diego, CA 92117. York Area Skeptics (NYASk), William Wade, contact person, 97 Fort Hill Road, COLORADO and WYOMING. Rocky Mountain Huntington, NY 11743-2205. Western Skeptics, Bela Scheiber, President, P.O. New York Skeptics, Tim Madigan, Chair­ Box 7277, Boulder, CO 80306. man, 3159 Bailey Ave., Buffalo, NY 14215. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, DELAWARE, MARY­ NORTH CAROLINA. N.C. Skeptics, Michael LAND, and VIRGINIA. National Capital J. Marshall, Pres., 3318 Colony Dr., Area Skeptics, c/o D. W. "Chip" Denman, Jamestown, NC 27282. 8006 Valley Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910. OHIO. South Shore Skeptics, Page Stephens, Box 5083, Cleveland, OH 44101 FLORIDA. Tampa Bay Skeptics, Gary Posner, PENNYSYLVANIA. Paranormal Investigating 6219 Palma Blvd., #210, St. Petersburg, FL Committee of Pittsburgh (PICP), Richard 33715. Busch, Chairman, 5841 Morrowfield GEORGIA. Georgia Skeptics, Keith Blanton, Ave., #302, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Del­ Vice Pres., P.O. Box 654, Norcross, GA aware Valley Skeptics, Brian Siano, 30091. Secretary, Apt. 1-F, 4406 Walnut St., ILLINOIS. Midwest Committee for Rational Philadelphia, PA 19104. Inquiry, Ralph Blasko, Chairman, P.O. Box 2792, Des Plaines, IL 60017-2792. SOUTH CAROLINA. South Carolina Commit­ tee to Investigate Paranormal Claims, INDIANA. Indiana Skeptics, Robert Craig, John Safko, 3010 Amherst Ave., Colum­ Chairperson, 5401 Hedgerow Drive, bia, SC 29205. Indianapolis, IN 46226. KENTUCKY. Kentucky Assn. of Science TENNESEE. Tennessee Valley Skeptics, Educators and Skeptics (KASES), Chair­ Daniel O'Ryan, Secretary, P.O. Box man, Prof. Robert A. Baker, 3495 Cas- 50291, Knoxville, TN 37950. tleton Way North, Lexington, KY 40502. TEXAS. Austin Society to Oppose Pseudo- science (ASTOP), Lawrence Cranberg, LOUISIANA. Baton Rouge Proponents of President, P.O. Box 3446, Austin, TX Rational Inquiry and Scientific Methods 78764. Houston Association for Scientific (BR-PRISM), Henry Murry, Chairman, Thinking (HAST), Darrell Kachilla, P.O. P.O. Box 15594, Baton Rouge, LA 70895. Box 541314, Houston, TX 77254. North MASSACHUSETTS. Skeptical Inquirers of New England, Laurence Moss, Chairman, (continued on next page) Texas Skeptics, John Blanton, President, INDIA. B. Premanand, Chairman, 10, Chet- P.O. Box 111794, Carrollton, TX 75011- tipalayam Rd., Podanur 641-023 Coimba- 1794. West Texas Society to Advance tore Tamil nadu. For other Indian organ­ Rational Thought, Co-Chairmen: George izations contact B. Premanand for details. Robertson, 6500 Eastridge Rd., #73, IRELAND. Irish Skeptics, Peter Odessa, TX 79762-5219; Don Naylor, 404 0'Hara,Contact, Dept. of Psychiatry, N. Washington, Odessa, TX 79761. Airedale General Hospital, Steeton, WASHINGTON. Northwest Skeptics, Philip Keighly, West Yorkshire, UK BD20 6TD. Haldeman, Chairman, T.L.P.O. Box 8234, ITALY. Comitato Italiano per il Controllo Kirkland, WA 98034. delle Affermazioni sul Paranormale, WISCONSIN. Wisconsin Committee for Lorenzo Montali, Secretary, Via Ozanam Rational Inquiry, Mary Beth Emmericks, 3, 20129 Milano, Italy. Convenor, 8465 N. 51st St., Brown Deer, MALTA. Contact: Vanni Pule', "Kabbalah," WI 53223. 48 Sirti St., The Village, St. Julian's. MEXICO. Mexican Association for Skeptical AUSTRALIA. National: Australian Skeptics, Research (SOMIE), Mario Mendez- P.O. Box E 324 St. James, NSW 2000. Acosta, Chairman, Apartado Postal 19- Regional: Australian Capital Territory, 546, Mexico 03900, D.F. P.O. Box 555, Civic Square, 2608. New NETHERLANDS. Stichting Skepsis, Rob South Wales, Newcastle Skeptics. Chair­ Nanninga, Secretary, Westerkade 20, person, Colin Keay, Physics Dept., New­ 9718 AS Groningen. castle University 2308. Queensland, P.O. NEW ZEALAND. New Zealand Skeptics, Box 2180, Brisbane, 4001. South Austra­ Warwick Don, Dept. of Zoology, Univ. of lia, P.O. Box 91, Magill, S.A., 5072. Otago, Dunedin, NZ. Victoria, P.O. Box 1555P, Melbourne, NORWAY. NIVFO, K. Stenodegard, P.O. Vic, 3001. West Australia, 25 Headingly Box 2119, N-7001, Trondheim. Skepsis, Road, Kalamunda, W.A., 6076. Terje Emberland, Contact, P. B. 2943 BELGIUM. Committee Para, J. Dommanget, Toyen 0608, Oslo 6. Chairman, Observatoire Royal de Bel- SOUTH AFRICA. Assn. for the Rational gique, Avenue Circulaire 3, B-1180 Investigation of the Paranormal (ARIP), Brussels. SKEPP, Tim Trachet, Chairman, Marian Laserson, Secretary, 4 Wales St., de Smet de Naeyerlaan 167, 1090 Sandringham 2192. Brussels. SPAIN. Alternativa Racional a las Pseudo- CANADA. National: Chairman, James E. sciencias (ARP), Luis Miguel Ortega, Alcock, Glendon College, York Univ., Executive Director, P.O. Box 6.112, 2275 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario. Bilbao. Regional: Alberta Skeptics, Elizabeth SWEDEN. Vetenskap och folkbildning Anderson, P.O. Box 5571, Station A, (Science and People's Education), Sven Calgary, Alberta T2H 1X9. British Ove Hansson, Secretary, Sulite Imavagen Columbia Skeptics, Barry Beyerstein, 15, S-161 33 Bromma. Chairman, Box 86103, Main PO, North SWITZERLAND. Conradin M. Beeli, Con­ Vancouver, BC, V7L 4J5. Manitoba venor, Muhlemattstr. 20, CH-8903 Skeptics, Bill Henry, President, Box 92, Birmensdorf. St. Vital, Winnipeg, Man. R2M 4A5. UNITED KINGDOM. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Ontario Skeptics, Henry Gordon, Chair­ Representative, Michael J. Hutchinson, 10 man, P.O. Box 505, Station Z, Toronto, Crescent View, Loughton, Essex LG10 Ontario M5N 2Z6. Quebec Skeptics: Jean 4PZ. British & Irish Skeptic Magazine, Ouellette, C.P. 282, Repentigny Quebec, Editors, Toby Howard and Steve Don­ J6A 7C6. nelly, 49 Whitegate Park, Flixton, Man­ FINLAND. Skepsis, Matti Virtanen, Secre­ chester M31 3LN. London Student tary, Kuismakuja 1S18, SF-00720 Skeptics, Michael Howgate, President, 71 Helsinki. Hoppers Rd., Winchmore Hill, London FRANCE. Comite Francais pour l'Etude des N21 3LP. Manchester Skeptics, Toby Phenomenes Paranormaux, Claude Howard, 49 Whitegate Park, Flixton, Benski, Secretary-General, Merlin Gerin, Manchester M31 3LN. Wessex Skeptics, RGE/A2 38050 Grenoble Cedex. Robin Allen, Dept. of Physics, Southamp­ GERMANY. East German Skeptics, A. ton University, Highfield, Southampton Gertler, Chairman, Inst, for Forensic S09 5NH. West Country Skeptics, David Medicine, Humboldt Univ., Berlin 1040. Fisher, Convenor, 27 Elderberry Rd., Society for the Scientific Investigation of Cardiff CF3 3RG, Wales. Para-Science (GWUP), Amardeo Sarma, U.S.S.R. Edward Gevorkian, Science & Religion, Convenor, Postfach 1222, D-6101 Ulyanovskaya 43, Kor 4, 109004 Rossdorf. Moskova. The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Paul Kurtz, Chairman

Scientific and Technical Consultants (partial list) William Sims Bainbridge, professor of sociology, Illinois State University. Gary Bauslaugh, dean of technical and academic education and professor of chemistry, Malaspina College, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. Richard E. Berendzen, astronomer, Washington, D.C. Barry L. Beyerstein, professor of psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Martin Bridgstock, lecturer, School of Science, Griffith Observatory, Brisbane, Australia. Vern Bullough, dean of natural and social sciences, SUNY College at Buffalo. Richard Busch, magician, Pittsburgh, Pa. Shawn Carlson, physicist, Berkeley, Calif. Charles J. Cazeau, geologist, Tempe, Arizona. Ronald J. Crowley, professor of physics, California State University, Fullerton. Roger B. Culver, professor of astronomy, Colorado State Univ. J. Dath, professor of engineering, Ecole Royale Militaire, Brussels, Belgium. Felix Ares De Bias, professor of computer science, University of Basque, San Sebastian, Spain. Sid Deutsch, professor of bioengineering, Tel Aviv University, Israel. J. Dommanget, astronomer, Royale Observatory, Brussels, Belgium. Natham ]. Duker, assistant professor of pathology. Temple University. Barbara Eisenstadt, educator, Scotia, N.Y. Frederic A. Friedel, philosopher, Hamburg, West Germany. Robert E. Funk, anthropologist, New York State Museum & Science Service. Sylvio Garattini, director, Mario Negri Pharmacology Institute, Milan, Italy. Laurie Godfrey, anthropolo­ gist, University of Massachusetts. Gerald Goldin, mathematician, Rutgers University, New Jersey. Donald Goldsmith, astronomer; president. Interstellar Media. Clyde F. Herreid, professor of biology, SUNY, Buffalo. Philip A. Ianna, assoc. professor of astronomy, Univ. of Virginia. William Jarvis, chairman, Public Health Service, Loma Linda University, California. I. W. Kelly, professor of psychology. University of Saskatchewan. Richard H. Lange, chief of nuclear medicine, Ellis Hospital, Schenectady, New York. Gerald A. Larue, professor of biblical history and archaeology, University of So. California. Bernard J. Leikind, staff scientist, GA Technologies Inc., San Diego. Jeff Mayhew, computer consultant, Aloha, Oregon. Joel A. Moskowitz, director of medical psychiatry, Calabasas Mental Health Services, Los Angeles. Robert B. Painter, professor of microbiology. School of Medicine, University of California. John W. Patterson, professor of materials science and engineering, Iowa State University. Steven Pinker, assistant professor of psychology, MIT. James Pomerantz, professor of psychology, Rice University; Daisie Radner, professor of philosophy, SUNY, Buffalo. Michael Radner, professor of philosophy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Robert H. Romer, professor of physics, Amherst College. Milton A. Rothman, physicist, Philadelphia, Pa. Karl Sabbagh, journalist, Richmond, Surrey, England. Robert J. Samp, assistant professor of education and medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Steven D. Schafersman, geologist, Houston. Chris Scott, statistician, London, England. Stuart D. Scott, Jr., associate professor of anthropology, SUNY, Buffalo. Al Seckel, physicist, Pasadena, Calif. Erwin M. Segal, professor of psychology, SUNY, Buffalo. Elie A. Shneour, biochemist; director, Biosystems Research Institute, La Jolla, California. Steven N. Shore, astronomer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Md. Barry Singer, psychologist, Eugene, Oregon. Mark Slovak, astronomer. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Douglas Stalker, associate professor of philosophy. University of Delaware. Gordon Stein, physiologist, author; editor of the American Rationalist. Waclaw Szybalski, professor, McArdle Laboratory, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ernest H. Taves, psychoanalyst, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sarah G. Thomason, professor of linguistics. University of Pittsburgh, editor of Language.

Subcommittees Astrology Subcommittee: Chairman, I. W. Kelly, Dept. of Educational Psychology, University of Saskat­ chewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 0W0, Canada. College and University Lecture Series Subcommittee: Chairman, Paul Kurtz; Lecture Coordinator; Ranjit Sandhu, CSICOP, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. Education Subcommittee: Chairman, Steven Hoffmaster, Physics Dept., Gonzaga Univ., Spokane, WA 99258-0001; Secretary, Wayne Rowe, Education Dept., Univ. of Oklahoma, 820 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019. Electronics Communications Subcommittee: Chairman, Barry Beyerstein, Dept. of Psychology, Simon Fraser Univ., Burbaby, B.C. V5A 1S6 Canada; Secretary, Page Stevens, Box 5083, Cleveland, OH 44101. Legal and Consumer Protection Subcommittee: Chairman, Mark Plummer, do CSICOP, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. Paranormal Health Claims Subcommittee: Co-chairmen, William Jarvis, Professor of Health Education, Dept. of Preventive Medicine, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 93350, and Stephen Barrett, M.D., P.O. Box 1747, Allentown, PA 18105. Parapsychology Subcommittee: Chairman, Ray Hyman, Psychology Dept., Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97402. UFO Subcommittee: Chairman, Philip J. Klass, 404 "N" Street S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024. The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal attempts to encourage the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe- science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and to disseminate factual information about the results of such inquiries to the scientific community and the public. To carry out these objectives the Committee:

• Maintains a network of people inter­ • Convenes conferences and meetings. ested in critically examining claims of the paranormal. • Publishes articles, monographs, and books that examine claims of the • Prepares bibliographies of published paranormal. materials that carefully examine such claims. • Does not reject claims on a priori • Encourages and commissions research grounds, antecedent to inquiry, but by objective and impartial inquiry in rather examines them objectively and areas where it is needed. carefully. The Committee is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization. THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is its official journal.