[ NEWS AND COMMENT

Burzynski Update: Publications, Clinical Trials, and More Charges

ROBERT BLASKIEWICZ

Earlier this year SKEPTICAL INQUIRER probable predatory scholarly open-ac- devoted two full-length articles to the cess publishers,” and the paper, which case of Stanislaw Burzynski, who has is deeply flawed, cannot be considered a treated cancer patients for decades quality peer-reviewed publication. with an unproven chemotherapy he In late June, the FDA announced calls “antineoplastons,” under the aus- that it would allow the antineoplas- pices of FDA clinical trials (SI, March/ ton studies to continue, saying that April 2014). The efforts of skeptics and Burzynski had addressed “common and alarmed medical professionals culmi- serious (and in some cases fatal) adverse nated in an exposé of Burzynski on the drug reactions, as well as accurate in- front page of USA Today in November formation on how often tumors shrink 2013. The Burzynski Clinic was then after treatment with antineoplastons.” on the receiving end of a rapid series of (In the spring of 2013, the FDA had censures and legal actions, including an observed that two-thirds of his reported FDA warning letter and new charges outcomes were inflated and that there that Burzynski had engaged in false had been more than a hundred over- advertising. doses on the treatment with no evi- At the beginning of the year, dence that the principal investigator Burzynski’s supporters established a had altered the protocol to prevent fur- new group, the ANP Coalition, to ther adverse events.) Furthermore, on promote Burzynski’s cause. Using the The efforts of skeptics June 23 the clinic announced that phase tactics (and same lobbyist) that got III trials were in the pipeline. Burzynski’s still-unpublished clinical and alarmed medical On the same day that the phase III trials opened in the 1990s, the ANP professionals culminated trials were announced, Terry Bennett, Coalition lobbied their representatives a New Hampshire physician who had in Washington to pressure the FDA in an exposé of Burzynski agreed to sponsor a special exemption into releasing the clinical hold on behalf on the front page of USA for a young cancer patient, McKenzie of eight brain tumor patients. In late Lowe, and to treat her for free (assum- March, the FDA caved and announced Today in November 2013. ing Burzynski was doing the same), that the partial clinical hold on the clin- reported to a regional newspaper that ic’s antineoplaston trials would be lifted the Burzynski Clinic approached him to allow patients to receive the drug patients of a larger clinical trial. When for money to pay for McKenzie’s treat- under what is known as compassionate skeptics asked the editor about this, he ment. In Bennett’s words: “I’m sup- access. The FDA stipulated that the reported, “I have invited eminent neuro- posed to be the bag man for all of this. treatments had to be administered by oncologists to write a comment to be They want me to collect the 30 grand a physician other than Burzynski and added to the articles. Unfortunately the for the family and send it to Burzynski.” that the single patient protocols had to reviewers of the journal failed to provide He also opined, “It meets all the criteria be approved by an outside institutional their promised evaluation so that after for a bait and switch operation.” review board. According to the clinic’s several months there were ‘no negative In response, Ronald A. Lindsay and lawyer, Richard Jaffe, the antineoplas- comments’ to justify rejection.” Michael De Dora of the Center for In- tons would be provided for free. On June 6, the ANP Coalition an- quiry wrote a letter to the FDA express- On April 15, the ANP Coalition nounced that another Burzynski paper, ing dismay at the FDA’s actions: “Even announced that Burzynski was pub- “A Phase II Study of Antineoplastons under the prior restrictions placed upon lishing “The Response and Survival A10 and AS2-1 in Children with High Dr. Burzynski by the FDA—by which of Children with Recurrent Diffuse Grade Glioma. Final Report (Protocol only other, independent physicians Intrinsic Pontine Glioma Based on BT-06), and Review of Recent Tri- were able to treat new patients using Phase II Study of Antineoplastons A10 als,” had been accepted for publication Dr. Burzynski’s experimental antineo- and AS2-1 in Patients with Brainstem in the Journal of Cancer Therapy. The plastons—patients have reported suf- Glioma” in the journal Child’s Nervous publisher of this journal is flagged on fering the unethical profiteering that System, which presented a subset of Beall’s List of “Potential, possible, or constitutes the BRI business model.”

Skeptical Inquirer | November/December 2014 5 In mid-July, the Texas Medical in the fight continue to make sure that Truth and Myth behind Board (TMB) released 202 pages of the various agencies are talking to one in the Moonlight expanded charges against Burzynski. another and to press their federal repre- In addition to the false advertising sentatives to investigate how Burzynski charges filed in January, the TMB al- not only got his clinical trials back but BENJAMIN RADFORD leged a host of dubious activities, in- advanced to phase III trials. In June, cluding using antineoplastons to attract skeptics visited Sen. Claire McCaskill’s In the new Woody Allen film Magic in patients who he knew were ineligible St. Louis office and had an hour-long the Moonlight , Colin Firth ( Apartment for the clinical trials, charging them re- meeting about the issue. McCaskill is Zero, The King’s Speech) plays a master tainers before revealing that they were chair of the Senate Subcommittee on magician named Stanley who is asked ineligible for the antineoplastons they Consumer Protection, Safety, and In- by a friend to join him in the French wanted (essentially a bait and switch), surance. They encourage other skeptics Riviera to investigate a fetching young exacting “exorbitant charges” from pa- to visit their representatives’ district of- woman named Sophie (Emma Stone), tients for services, and tricking patients fices, brief them, and put the staff in who claims to have psychic powers, into accepting care from unlicensed contact with McCaskill’s office about including prophecy and speaking to staff whom he misrepresented as li- this important issue. the dead. Sophie may or may not be censed physicians. These allegations truly psychic, but Stanley has a secret Robert Blaskiewicz wrote the article recur throughout the cases mentioned of his own: he performs as a Chinese “Skeptic Activists Fighting for Burzynski in the charges, and they were reported magician named Wei Ling Soo, and Cancer Patients” in our March/April in USA Today . no one knows of his alter ego. (See p. 2014 issue. He teaches writing and liter- It is clear that Burzynski’s medical 63 for a brief review.) ature in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and has license is on the line again and skeptics Writer/director Allen has done his written widely on skeptical topics, in- have every reason to believe that the homework, and many of the details in cluding conspiracy theories, alternative Texas Medical Board is throwing every- the film, especially about the role of medicine, and critical thinking. thing that it has at the clinic. Skeptics magicians in investigating—and often

Bigfoot DNA Data Disappoints and Reveals Surprise

S HARON HILL A paper published in a prestigious journal an- of the DNA was used—the ribosomal mito- all matched 100 percent, and there were no nounced the highest-quality data so far aimed chondrial DNA 12S fragment—for comparison “unknowns.” Only one of the samples, from to answer the question, “What is the Yeti?” to sequences in the worldwide genetic data- Texas, was found to be human. That only The highly anticipated paper from genetics re- base GenBank. one matched with humans is a testament to searcher Bryan Sykes of the University of Ox- A total of fifty-seven samples were received the rigorous cleaning method that removed ford regarding the DNA testing of anomalous by Sykes and his team. Two samples were ac- ubiquitous contamination. In the paper, primates was published in early July 2014 in tually not animal hair: one was plant material, Sykes noted that human contamination often the Proceedings of the Royal Academy B the other was glass fiber. Thirty-seven of the “confounds the analysis of old material and and made freely accessible to the public. samples were selected for genetic analysis. may lead to misinterpretation of a sample as In 2012, a team from the University of Eighteen were from eight U.S. states: Arizona, human or even as an unlikely and unknown Oxford and Lausanne’s Cantonal Museum of California, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas, and human x mammalian hybrid” (in reference Zoology put out a general call for samples Washington—believed to be the prime habitat to the Melba Ketchum et al. study that was of suspected anomalous primates—Yeti, Big- of Bigfoot/Sasquatch. Eight samples were an- roundly discredited). While the Sykes et al. foot/Sasquatch, Almasty, Orang-pendek. The ticipated to be the Almasty (a hairy wild man paper lists Ketchum as a reference, it is only samples, if acceptable for analysis, would be creature) from Russia. Three samples were to cite it as a poor study, not within the valid genetically tested using a cleaning method, collected in the Himalayan region of Asia; one body of scientific literature, with misinterpreted previously vetted in the Journal of Forensic from Sumatra, supposedly representing the results. The Sykes et al. study is regarded as Science , that removes all traces of surface Orang-pendek. the first serious study regarding anomalous contaminants (most likely human) to get to Unfortunately, there were no anomalous primate DNA. the original DNA sequence. A specific portion primates in the lot of results. The sequences All the U.S. samples turned out to be not

6 Volume 38 Issue 6 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT

exposing—fraudulent mediums are dler was gone, but many of his items exactly correct. The film is set in the were now in use in the Bells’ kitchen. 1920s when séances were often held The maid thought little of it until she by fashionable (and wealthy) families; began experiencing strange, ghostly boards, three-legged tables, can- phenomena, and found out from the dles, and other accoutrements were peddler’s ghost that he had in fact been used to try to contact the dead. Usu- murdered in her absence. ally the communication took the form At least that was the story told by of knocks or raps heard in response to two sisters named Maggie and Katie questions from mediums in darkened Fox, who claimed to communicate rooms (typically one thump meant yes with the peddler’s ghost through taps and two thumps meant no). and knocks. The became fa- American belief in communication mous across the country and in Europe with the dead rose dramatically in the for their ability to communicate with 1800s, and the notion of spirits rapping spirits of the dead, drawing enthusi- out communication in telegraph style astic crowds for decades. Years later, dates back to at least the mid-1800s. however, the sisters admitted it had all In the early 1840s in Hydesville, New been a hoax. There was no murdered York, a young peddler arrived at the peddler, and the spirit communications home of a Mr. and Mrs. Bell to sell had been faked. The girls—who few his housewares. He was invited into suspected of trickery—had created hid- the home by the Bells’ housekeeper Fraud or no, the sisters had den knocks with their feet. Fraud or no, and stayed for some days. The maid inadvertently founded a the sisters had inadvertently founded was shortly dismissed from service but a religion called , which abruptly rehired a week later. The ped- religion called Spiritualism. is still practiced today. Decades later

anomalous but instead extant animals such netic sample of Ursus martimus, a polar bear Many Yeti enthusiasts were dismayed at as cow, horse, black bear, dog/wolf, sheep, of the Pleistocene era, 40,000 years old. There Sykes’s results. While one paper will not kill raccoon, porcupine, or deer. The Russian was not a match with the modern species of the enthusiasm of anomalous hominid hunt- samples were also disappointing in that they polar bear. Thus, the study actually did reveal ers, the main thrust of this paper hits the gut did not reveal a unique Almasty signature. an unexpected anomaly. Future research will of cryptozoology. As it is practiced today by Samples of raccoon and American black bear continue to look for more evidence of the rep- amateur Bigfoot hunters and monster trackers, were among the Russian samples indicating resentative animal, hopefully a living one. it is not science. Sykes told NBC News that either a mistake in the location of the sam- Is the Yeti a bear? This previously unknown the work of American Bigfooters was inade- ples or that individuals of these animals were hybrid bear may contribute to the Yeti legend. quate: “It just wasn’t science. A lot of Bigfoot imported to Russia at some point and their The look and behavior are reportedly differ- enthusiasts thought that this was how science samples left behind. ent from the other native bears. Yeti is a very worked, [but] it was dreadful.” Sykes’s paper Sadly, the Orang-pendek sample from Su- general term and its description varies across represents science. It’s a high bar. This project matra turned out to be from a Malaysian tapir. the huge expanse of the world where it is re- was a fine example of amateurs working with The Orang-pendek is considered to be a plau- ported to exist. It may not be just one animal. professionals—exactly what needs to be done sible cryptid—likely a new species of primate. It is feasible that this new bear, if confirmed, to make real discoveries. Sykes plans to re- However, this test failed to provide support for constitutes one version of the Yeti. Sykes has lease a book on the project in the near future that idea. been open in stating that it does not mean a and organize an expedition to the Himalayas The Nepal sample turned out to be a native primate version of the Yeti is not out there. It next year to look for a live specimen of the goat, a serow. However, the other two Hima- just means this result was not supportive of anomalous bear. layan samples were the most interesting of all. that idea. Yet, the evidence continues to point Not one but two samples, those from Ladakh, to less extraordinary conclusions than an un- Sharon Hill is the editor of India, and Bhutan, matched a fossilized ge- known primate. DoubtfulNews.com.

Skeptical Inquirer | November/December 2014 7 As for why Woody Allen chose this subject, the press notes explain: “Allen has been fascinated with magic since he started performing tricks as a teen- ager, and since then magic and magi- cians have often made appearances in his work. . . . Spiritual mediums were all the rage during the 1920s, when Magic in the Moonlight is set. ‘At the time much was made of it,’ says Allen. ‘Very renowned people like [Sher- lock Holmes creator] took it very seriously. There were all kinds of incidents like spirit photographs that people were won- dering about. Séances were very com- mon.’ The greatest magician of that era, , attended many Emma Stone portrays a psychic medium in Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight. séances, debunking every clairvoyant he encountered. Interestingly, Houdini many self-proclaimed psychic mediums wasn’t motivated by a desire to expose would continue the practice, pretend- con artists, but by his sincere longing to ing that knocks in darkened séance discover that communicating with the rooms came from the spirit world in- For well over a century dead was possible. Finding so much stead of from the medium or his or her many mediums have been fraud was a disappointment to him, but employees. at the time of his death, he still held out For well over a century many me- caught faking spirit hope for an afterlife.” diums have been caught faking spirit communication, often Like Houdini (and the fictional communication, often by magicians— by magicians—who, Stanley Crawford), William Robinson who, unlike laypeople and scientists, actually did go undercover to séances to were ideally suited to spot trickery, unlike laypeople and investigate and reveal trickery in claims being well-versed in techniques of dis- scientists, were ideally of talking to the dead. They did not traction and illusion. In fact, Harry suited to spot trickery, debunk the fake psychics merely for Houdini exposed many psychics as being well-versed in the sake of debunking, but because the frauds who used trickery to make vul- mediums would often exploit grieving nerable people believe in the reality of techniques of families who truly believed that they spirit messages. (For more on this, see distraction and illusion. were communicating with their dead ’s 2001 book Final loved ones. Some would ask high fees Séance.) Many psychic mediums were to conduct the séances; others would exposed as frauds, including Eusapia merely ask their wealthy patrons for Palladino, Mina “Margery” Crandon, “donations” or introductions to other Anna Eve Fay, the , prominent people. As Magic in the , the , Soo, never spoke English and even had Moonlight shows, in many ways both and others. a person interpret for him during press the mediums and the magicians who Again, Allen did his research; Firth’s conferences to take reporters’ questions. exposed them were in the same busi- n character, Stanley Crawford/Wei Ling The illusion tricked the public, and very ness: creating illusions for pay. Soo is a composite of several real his- few people knew that Chung Ling Soo torical figures, including Houdini and was an elaborate hoax—until one day in Benjamin Radford is author, coauthor, or William Ellsworth Robinson, an En- 1918 when a bullet-catching trick went contributor to twenty books, including glishman who adopted a Chinese per- awry and the magician was fatally shot his latest, Mysterious New Mexico: Mira- sona and the stage name Chung Ling onstage. He died at the hospital soon cles, Magic, and Monsters in the Land of Soo to capitalize on the popularity of after, and that’s when Robinson’s great- Enchantment (University of New Mexico Orientalism at the time. Robinson, as est secret was revealed. Press, 2014).

8 Volume 38 Issue 6 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT

Victor Stenger, Physicist, Prolific Author of Books on Naturalism, 1935–2014

KENDRICK FRAZIER

Victor J. Stenger, physicist and pro- several criticisms and said believers lific author of books on both science should be reassured by his insistence and atheism, died August 27, 2014, in that “scientists are not dogmatically Hawaii. He was seventy-nine. His wife opposed to God. Instead scientists are of more than fifty years, Phyllis, said required by the very nature of science the cause of death was an aneurysm to go wherever the data lead.” next to his heart. But Stenger’s books also covered a He was a longtime fellow of the wide range of scientific topics in phys- Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. ics and cosmology, and as a scientific Stenger was perhaps best known skeptic he was active in explaining and for his best-selling 2007 book God: debunking a variety of misconceptions Victor J. Stenger The Failed Hypothesis, which addressed regarding such things as the anthropic the question of the existence of God principle, the “fine-tuning” argument, very-high-energy gamma ray and neu- head-on from a scientific perspective. and misunderstandings about and mys- trino astronomy. His last research col- With it he joined that small group of tical interpretations of quantum me- laboration before retiring involved the authors who some call “the new athe- chanics. underground experiment that showed ists.” In the foreword to the paperback Stenger was emeritus professor of neutrinos have mass. edition (2008), Christopher Hitchens physics at the University of Hawaii called it “a marvelous book” and wel- and an adjunct professor of philoso- In recent years Stenger had produced comed the case Stenger makes “that the phy at the University of Colorado. His a steady output of books of direct rele- god hypothesis has actually been con- research career spanned the period in vance to both the skeptic and humanist clusively discredited.” In a postscript, particle physics in which the so-called communities. His new book G od and Stenger said some of the book’s success standard model came to the fore. He the Multiverse: Humanity’s Expanding was “good timing,” appearing just when participated in experiments that helped View of the Cosmos (see New and No- “the public was becoming aware of the establish the properties of strange par- table, p. 60), was published Septem- corrosive effects extremist religion has ticles, quarks, gluons, and neutrinos ber 9, just two weeks after his death. had” in recent years. He responded to and also helped pioneer the fields of He had been actively promoting it. It

Skeptical Inquirer | November/December 2014 9 [ NEWS AND COMMENT

was preceded by God and the Atom: that current scientific hypotheses Four Emmy Awards to Cosmos From Democritus to the Higgs Boson about the material nature of reality

(2013), The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning: are all that’s needed to explain the We noted in our last issue’s cover arti- Why the Universe Is Not Made for available evidence and that mystical cle, which featured two interviews with Us (2011), Quantum Gods (2009), notions tell us more about human Ann Druyan, that her new Cosmos: A and The New Atheism (also 2009). needs to believe in something than Spacetime Odyssey television series had All were published by Prometheus anything about the outside world. garnered twelve nominations for Emmy Books. The latter book, subtitled Timeless Reality, which dealt with awards. “taking a stand for science and rea- symmetry, simplicity, and his first The award ceremony for the Creative son,” he dedicated to Paul Kurtz, look at the idea of multiple uni- Arts Emmys was held in August, and the verses, came in 2000. Cosmos series, hosted by Neil deGrasse Ronald A. Lindsay, president Tyson and shown on Fox and National and CEO of the Center for Inquiry Geographic channels, received four and the Committee for Skeptical Emmy trophies. “One thing I liked about Inquiry, issued this statement: Vic was his lack of With Vic Stenger’s death, the pretense and posturing. secular and skeptic communities He didn’t trim his have lost an articulate, knowl- edgeable, and relentless defender arguments—or his of the naturalistic, scientific worldview. Vic’s intellectual beard—to please others. output was prodigious, espe- He was interested in cially in the last decade, when he turned out book after book determining the truth. hammering away at fallacious Period. What others arguments for God’s existence, such as the notorious “fine-tun- thought of his occasion- ing” argument. Vic’s background as a physicist made him a formi- ally rumpled look or his dable advocate for naturalism: refusal to soft-pedal his he could quickly spot flaws in his opponent’s arguments and arguments was a matter then specify precisely where his of indifference to him.” opponent had erred . Vic had a long association with the Center for Inquiry family of organizations. He was —Ronald A. Lindsay a fellow of both the Center for President, Center for Inquiry Inquiry and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry; he was also a frequent contributor to our mag- azines, Free Inquiry and SKEP- TICAL INQUIRER, and spoke at many of our conferences. One thing I liked about Vic Ann Druyan accepts her Emmy. “who has contributed more to the was his lack of pretense and advance of science and reason than posturing. He didn’t trim his any other of his generation.” arguments—or his beard—to Ann Druyan and Steven Soter were His 1995 book The Unconscious please others. He was interested awarded the Emmy for Outstanding in determining the truth. Period. Quantum took readers through Writing for Nonfiction Programming. What others thought of his oc- Alan Silvestri won one Emmy for his the development and paradoxes of casionally rumpled look or his Cosmos music score and another for his quantum mechanics and criticized refusal to soft-pedal his argu- original main title theme music. The metaphysical fads popularized by ments was a matter of indiffer- ence to him. series, executive produced by Seth Mc- authors such as Deepak Chopra We’ll miss both his intellect Farlane, also received the Outstanding n and Fritjof Capra. Here, and in and his intellectual integrity. Sound Editing Emmy for Nonfiction his later books, he emphasized Programming for the episode “Standing Up in the Milky Way.”

Skeptical Inquirer | November/December 2014 11 10,000 Hours Practice? Not the Key than had been suggested. Here are their to Expert Performance as Contended specific results: Deliberate practice ex- plained 26 percent of the variance in performance for games (chess, etc.), 21 KENDRICK FRAZIER percent for music, 18 percent for sports, 4 percent for education, and less than 1 Does expert performance in games, tablish that a great deal of practice is percent for professions. music, and sports depend largely on sufficient for great performance or that In other words, factors other than thousands of hours of practice? Are the innate talent doesn’t play a large role. amount of practice account for the ma- differences between high performers Others suggested that more talented jority of the variance in performance, and ordinary ones explained by that people practice more; lesser talents stop and that is true for each domain stud- amount of practice? practicing, realizing they aren’t improv- ied. Starting two decades ago, psychol- ing. Thus practice is important—but not To answer the key question, three ogist K. Anders Ericsson and his col- nearly as important as the promoters academic psychologists have now com- leagues published the first of several of the 10,000-hour effect suggest. The pleted and published a meta-analysis influential studies that showed the cu- psychologists summarized the findings covering all major domains in which mulative amount of deliberate practice this way: “We conclude that amount of deliberate practice has been investi- deliberate practice—although unques- gated: music, games, sports, profes- tionably important as a predictor of sions, and education. It is the first individual differences in performance “Many people really formal meta-analysis addressing the from both a statistical and a practical like the idea that with relationships. perspective—is not as important as Er- practice anyone can The new study was conducted by icsson and his colleagues have argued.” Brooke Macnamara of Princeton Uni- “There have been reactions to this accomplish anything versity (now at Case Western Re- paper,” lead author Brooke Macnamara and do not want to believe serve University), David Hambrick told the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. “Many anything different.” of Michigan State University, and people really like the idea that with Frederick Oswald of Rice University practice anyone can accomplish any- and published in July in the respected thing and do not want to believe any- journal Psychological Science (“Deliberate thing different,” she said. “Our results Practice and Performance in Music, suggest that practice, while undeniably Games, Sports, Professions, and Edu- important, is not enough to largely for musicians was much higher for the ca tion: A Meta-Analysis,” Psychological account for the differences in perfor- most-accomplished groups than for the Science, 25: 1608–1618, 2014). mance among individuals. We have less-accomplished ones. By age twenty, They sought to answer a specific made all of our data publicly available the “best” violinists, for instance, had question: How much of the total vari- so that anyone can see the data, repli- practiced for 10,000 hours. The figure ance in performance is explained by cate our meta-analysis, or conduct their for “good” violinists was 7,800 hours, the accumulated amount of deliberate own analyses.” and for the least-accomplished ones it practice? What does account for the larger was 4,600 hours. Macnamara and colleagues used part of the variations in performance? Science writers such as Malcolm agreed-upon criteria for meta-analyses Their research doesn’t address that, Gladwell in his 2008 best-selling book (studies of studies). They set up system- but possible factors include starting Outliers popularized this view that atic criteria for assessing performance age (evidence suggests that there may 10,000 hours of practice was what sep- and estimating hours of deliberate prac- be an optimal development period for arated top-performing groups from tice (from interviews, questionnaires, acquiring complex skills, just as for ac- lesser ones (among his memorable and logs) and did a comprehensive quiring language); general intelligence; case studies were The Beatles and Bill search of the research literature. working memory capacity; and specific Gates). Other books as well have been They found 9,331 potentially rele- (innate?) abilities. A fertile area for re- inspired by what Gladwell called the vant articles, and from those identified search lies ahead. In the meantime, a “10,000-hour rule.” eighty-eight studies that met all the in- proposition that seemed to be gaining But is this view supported by em- clusion criteria. They involved a total of almost mythlike acceptance has suf- pirical evidence? There is considerable 11,135 participants. fered a considerable empirical setback. reason for skepticism. Psychologists They found that there was a cor- and others have criticized the idea. relation between deliberate practice Kendrick Frazier is editor of the Skepti- Some said the studies didn’t really es- and performance, but it was far smaller cal Inquirer.

12 Volume 38 Issue 6 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT

Superstition May Have Caused Three-Car Accident

BENJAMIN RADFORD

the ground, not sleeping in an upper berth, and sitting backwards on a train, are in essence not far removed from the inexplicable forebodings which assailed early and ancient man when faced with a journey. These strange premonitions [stem] from a sense of insecurity, when no apparent danger exists.” Fear and insecurity are indeed closely tied to superstitions: fear of bad luck and insecurity in the future. Superstitions, of course, don’t need to be true to be widely believed. If a lucky penny or rabbit’s foot truly assured good luck or victory over adversity, then every gambler, inves- A man fainted while holding his tor, and athlete would be dripping breath as he drove through a tunnel with them. Though superstitions near Portland, Oregon, in late May are often harmless (there’s no danger 2014, causing a head-on collision in carrying a lucky penny or knock- that sent four people to the hospi- Fear and insecurity are ing on wood after saying something tal. The driver, Daniel Calhon, lost indeed closely tied to hopeful), under some circumstances the threat of danger is very real. consciousness and swerved his car superstitions: fear of into oncoming traffic. Calhon, his passenger, and two others sustained bad luck and insecurity non–life-threatening injuries; occu- in the future. pants in a third vehicle involved were not injured. Calhon was cited for reckless driving, reckless endangerment, and assault. He has not explained why he held his breath while driving through ited by Iona Opie and Moira Tatem, the tunnel, but police suggested that states that “An old superstition is if it was done as part of a superstitious you speak under a tunnel or bridge ritual. In many areas it’s a popular you must touch a green object or you LinkedIn Skeptics Group thing to do and is associated with will get bad luck. It is still believed A new LinkedIn discussion group good luck or a wish coming true. now.” There are many regional vari- specifically for skeptics has been CarMax, the auto sales giant, sent ations of such legends with elements recently formed. out an April 25, 2014, tweet inform- added or dropped from the story. In ing customers that “Holding your modern times successfully holding The group’s purpose is to discuss breath while driving though a tunnel one’s breath throughout a (hopefully issues raised and articles published is our favorite driving superstition.” brief) tunnel journey may be substi- in SKEPTICAL INQUIRER and other Other common travel superstitions tuted for touching a green object, for skeptical and humanist fora. include holding your breath while example. passing by a graveyard (lest you acci- Travel superstitions have ancient To join, enter “The Skeptics dentally inhale a lost soul) and step- roots. As folklorist Claudia de Lys Convention” in your LI search box ping onto a train or ship with the writes in her Giant Book of Supersti- and proceed to the group. right foot first. tions, “Modern travelling supersti- A Dictionary of Superstitions , ed- tions, such as not wanting to leave

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