THE MAGAZINE FOR SCIENCE AND REASON SKEPTICAL

Vol. 19, No. 4 July/August 1995 U.S. $4.95 Can. S5.95

HOW TO SELL A PSEUDOSCIENCE ANTHONY PRATKANIS

RUMORS, SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECIES, AND NATIONAL OBSESSIONS JOHN ALLEN PAULOS

ROSE MACKENBERG: CRUSADER AGAINST SPIRITUALIST FRAUD LOREN PANKRATZ MOON, PLANETS AND DISASTERS RICHARD L. BRANHAM, JR.

ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGES MARTIN GARDNER SPECIAL REPORT RECOLLECTIONS OF PROJECT MOGUL

TRYPTOPHAN DISASTER PROBABILITY SLIDE FLOWER REMEDIES Stephen Barrett Clifford A. Pickover Lynn McCutcheon

PUBLISHED BY THE COMMITTEE FOR THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF CLAIMS OF THE PARANORMAL THE COMMITTEE FOR THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF CLAIMS OF THE PARANORMAL

AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

Paul Kurtz, Chairman; professor emeritus of philosophy. State University of New York at Buffalo Barry Karr, Executive Director and Public Relations Director Lee Nisbet, Special Projects Director FELLOWS

James E. Alcock," psychologist, York Univ., Murray Gell-Mann, professor of physics, Santa Joe Nickell," author, technical writing instructor, Toronto Fe Institute Univ. of Kentucky Jerry Andrus, magician and inventor, Albany, Thomas Gilovich, psychologist, Cornell Univ. Lee Nisbet," philosopher, Medaille College Oregon Henry Gordon, magician, columnist, Toronto James E. Oberg, science writer Robert A Baker, psychologist, Univ. of Stephen Jay Gould, Museum of Comparative Loren Pankratz, psychologist, Oregon Health Kentucky Zoology, Harvard Univ. Sciences Univ. Stephen Barrett, M.D., psychiatrist, author, con­ C. E. M. Hansel, psychologist, Univ. of Wales John Paulos, mathematician, Temple Univ. sumer advocate, Allentown, Pa. Al Hibbs, scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mark Plummer, lawyer, Australia Barry Beyerstein," biopsychologist, Simon Fraser Univ., Vancouver, B.C., Canada Douglas Hofstadter, professor of human under­ W. V. Quine philosopher. Harvard Univ. standing and cognitive science. Indiana Univ. Irving Biederman, psychologist, Univ. of Milton Rosenberg, psychologist, Univ. of Chicago Gerald Holton, Mallinckrodt Professor of Southern California Carl Sagan, astronomer, Cornell Univ. Physics and Professor of History of Science, Susan Blackmore," psychologist, Univ. of the Harvard Univ. Wallace Sampson, M.D.. clinical professor of West of England, Bristol medicine, Stanford Univ. Ray Hyman," psychologist. Univ. of Oregon Henri Broch, physicist, Univ. of Nice, France Leon Jaroff, sciences editor, Time Evry Schatzman, President, French Physics Jan Harold Brunvand, folklorist, professor of Association English, Univ. of Utah Sergei Kapitza, editor. Russian edition. Scientific American Eugenie Scott, physical anthropologist, executive Vern Bullough, Distinguished Professor, State director. National Center for Science Univ. of New York Philip J. Klass," aerospace writer, engineer Education Marvin Kohl, professor of philosophy, SUNY at Mario Bunge, philosopher, McGill University Glenn T. Seaborg, University Professor of Fredonia John R Cole, anthropologist, Inst, for the Study Chemistry. Univ. of California, Berkeley Edwin C. Krupp, astronomer, director, Griffith of Human Issues Thomas A. Sebeok, anthropologist, linguist. Observatory F, H. C. Crick, biophysicist, Salk Inst, for Indiana Univ. Paul Kurtz," chairman. CSICOP Biological Studies, La Jolla, Calif. Robert Sheaffer, science writer Lawrence Kusche, science writer Richard Dawkins, zoologist, Oxford Univ. Dick Smith, film producer, publisher. Terrey Elizabeth Loft us, professor of psychology, Univ. Hills. N.S.W., Australia L. Sprague de Camp, author, engineer of Washington Cornells de Jager, professor of astrophysics, Robert Steiner, magician, author. El Cerrito Calif. Paul MacCready, scientist/engineer. Univ. of Utrecht, the Netherlands AcroVironment, Inc., Monrovia, Calif. Jill Cornell Tarter, SETI Institute Carol Tavris, psychologist and author. Los Bernard Dixon, science writer, London, U.K. David Marks, psychologist, Middlesex Polytech, Angeles. Calif Paul Edwards, philosopher, Editor. Encyclopedia England of Philosophy Stephen Toulmin, professor of philosophy, Marvin Minsky, professor of Media Arts and University of Southern California Antony Flew, philosopher, Reading Univ., U.K. Sciences, M.I.T Andrew Fraknoi, astronomer, Foothill College, Steven Weinberg, professor of physics and David Morrison, space scientist. NASA Ames astronomy, University of Texas at Austin. Los Altos Hills, Calif. Research Center Marvin Zelen, statistician, Harvard Univ. Kendrick Frazier," science writer. Editor, Richard A. Muller, professor of physics, Univ. of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Calif., Berkeley Lin Zixin, former editor, Science and Technology Daily (China) Yves Galifret, Exec. Secretary. 1'Union H. Narasimhaiah, physicist, president, Bangalore Rationalistc Science Forum. India "Member. CSICOP Executive Council Martin Gardner," author, critic Dorothy Nelkin, sociologist New York Univ. (Affiliations given for identification only.)

The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER (ISSN 0194-6730) is published bimonthly by the resent the views and work of individual authors. Their publication does not neces­ Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, 3965 sarily constitute an endorsement by CSICOP or its members unless so stated. Rensch Rd., Amherst, NY 14228-2743. Printed in U.S. A. Second-class Copyright ©1995 by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of postage paid at Amherst. New York, and additional mailing offices. Claims of the Paranormal. All rights reserved. The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is Subscription prices: one year (six issues). $29.50; two years. $49.00; three available on 16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm, and 105mm microfiche years, $69.00; single issue, $4.95. from University Microfilms International and is indexed in the Reader's Guide Inquiries from the media and the public about the work of the to Periodical literature. Committee should be made to Paul Kurtz, Chairman. CSICOP. Box 703, Subscriptions, change of address, and advertising should be addressed to: Amherst. NY 14226-0703- Tel.: (716) 636-1425. FAX: 716-636-1733. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Box 703. Amherst, NY 14226-0703. Old address as Manuscripts, letters, books for review, and editorial inquiries should be well as new are necessary for change of subscriber's address, with six weeks addressed to Kendrick Frazier. Editor, SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. 944 Deer Drive advance notice. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER subscribers may not speak on behalf of NE. Albuquerque NM 87122-1306. FAX 505-828-2080. For Guide for CSICOP or the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Authors, fax request to the Editor or see May-June 1995 issue, page 63. Postmaster: Send changes of address to SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Box 703, Arrides, reports, reviews, and letters published in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER rep­ Amherst, NY 14226-0703. SPECIAL REPORT 15 The Roswell Incident and Project Mogul SKEPTICAL INQUIRER DAVE THOMAS July/August 1995 A Project Mogul scientist provides important new evidence of links. Vol. 19 No. 4 ARTICLES 19 How to Sell a Pseudoscience ANTHONY PRATKANIS Want your own pseudoscience? Here are nine effective persuasion tactics for selling all sorts of flimflam. 26 Rumors, Self-Fulfllllng Prophecies, and National Obsessions JOHN ALLEN PAULOS When facts are missing from news reports, individuals and societies fill in the gaps with their own fantasies. 28 Rose Mackenberg: Crusader Against Spiritualistic Fraud LOREN PANKRATZ A remarkable woman joined forces this Houdini in exposing psychic frauds. After his death she carried on the campaign for another 20 years. 30 Did the Moon Sink the Titanic? RICHARD L. BRANHAM, JR. Do certain planetary alignments induce maritime disasters? Does the moon play a nefarious role? It seems not. 33 Bach Flower Remedies: Time to Stop Smelling the Flowers? LYNN McCUTCHEON Are the flower remedies for psychological ailments real, or are they nothing more than pretty placebos? 36 Slides in Hell CLIFFORD A. PICKOVER An instructive yet diabolical exercise in probability—for students, teachers, and skeptics of all ages. Try it at your own risk. BOOK REVIEWS Camera Clues by Joe Nickell ROBERT BAKER 40 CAMERA The Myth of Repressed Memory by Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham MARK W. DURM 41 Making Monsters by Richard Ofshe and Ethan Watters KEN KURSON 42 The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry LISA SHEPHERD 43 Hidden Memories by Robert A. Baker TERENCE HINES 44 NEW BOOKS 47 ARTICLES OF NOTE 48 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR /k « a NOTES OF A FRINGE-WATCHER Klingon and Other Artificial Languages MARTIN GARDNER v wans HEALTH WATCH Notes on the Tryptophan Disaster STEPHEN BARRETT \ PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS Recovered Memories Cross the Oceans ROBERT SHEAFFER MEDIA WATCH A Psychologist Studies the TV Talk Shows C. EUGENE EMERY, JR FOLLOW-UP •Si Is the Skeptical Position Plausible? Beloff Replies to His Critics JOHN BELOFF 50 FORUM Artificial Lanlanguage s 3 Lighting Candles, Cursing Darkness RALPH ESTLING 52 CSICOP NEWS ON THE COVER Nickell Joins CSICOP Staff/ SI Editor Receives Humanist Award Illustration by Brad Marshall European Skeptics Meet in Germany 54 if^Effl&k Letters to the Editor tone* Kendrick Frazier [DIIOI1A1 »OA10 James E. Alcock Barry Beyerstein Susan J. Blackmore Martin Gardner Antiscience in Acidemia: Ray Hyman "Knocking Science Philip J. Klass Paul Kurtz for Fun and Profit" Joe Nickell Lee Nisbet The criticisms of "Antiscience in Academia" Bela Scheiber by Paul R. Gross, Norman Levin, and CONSULTING EDITORS Noretta Koertge in the Match/April 1995 SI Robert A. Baker are perceptive, but far too kind. They should John R. Cole Kenneth L. Feder have referred to The Open Society and Its C. E. M. Hansel Enemies (Princeton University Press, 1962) E. C Krupp by one of our greatest modern philosophers, David F. Marks the late Karl Popper. In Chapter 24, Andrew Neher James E. Oberg "Oracular Philosophy and the Revolt Against Robert Sheaffer Reason," they would have noted: Steven N. Shore MANAGING EDITOR Like Hegel's doctrine that our ideas are Doris Hawley Doyle determined by national interests and tra­ ASSISTANT ionon ditions, Marx's doctrine tended to under­ Marsha Carlin Thomas C. Genoni. Jr. mine the rationalist belief in reason. Thus threatened both from the right and from continuing editor I was very pleased to learn of the book by Lys Ann Shore the left, a rationalist attitude to social and Gross and Levitt and to see that these care­ PRODUCTION economic questions could hardly resist ful scholars have exposed the abuse of sci­ Paul Loynes when historicist prophecy and oracular ence by left-wing academia. Not because I CARTOONIST irrationalism made a frontal attack on it. believe the truth is halfway between the Rob Pudim This is why the conflict between ratio­ extremes, but because I believe serious nalism and irrationalism has become die abuse of science exists on both wings of the PUBLISHER'S •REPRESENTATIVE most important issue of our time. Barry Karr political spectrum, I would also like to see a systematic exposure of right-wing irra­ BUSINESS MANAGER Mary Rose Hays And this was written in 1943. tionality. Some of the typical right-wing ASSISTANT BUSINESS MANAGER Poppers fine logic and reason go further aberrations are: a flirtation (in some cases, Sandra Lesniak than this, but it should suffice to note that even a torrid affair) with creationism; a CHIEF DATA OFFICER Marxism and its modem pseudoscientific dogmatic belief in the truth of Aristotle's Richard Seymour derivatives, can never be anything but antisci- metaphysical views, in some cases, leading FULFILLMENT MANAGE* enrific. They are based on a Christian antira- to the hubris/chutzpah of articles in the Michael Cione tional millennialism. Marxism hides this American Spectator challenging the theory STAT* Elizabeth Begley under a pseudoscientific patina, but Popper of relativity-, acceptance of a host of free- Kevin Iuzzini tore this cover off and labeled it "historicism." market economic doctrines with a confi­ Diana Picciano Marxism and all its pretentious descendants dence that goes far beyond what any his­ Alfreda Pidgeon torical facts will support. The first of these Etienne C. Rios are based on a carefully disguised Christian Ranjit Sandhu millennialism masked under the preten­ seems to have captured a large segment of Sharon Sikora sions of opposition to religion. the working-class right wing and is espe­ Vance Vigrass Leftist academic antiscientism and cially prevalent among Protestants; the sec­ corporate counsel ond seems to have a great deal of appeal for Brenton N. VerPloeg right-wing Christian assaults on reason are the disciples of Mortimer Adler and fetch­ mounrr MEDIA PRODUCTIONS thus cousins under the skin. One is posing Thomas Flynn as the word of god, the other as the word es a considerable number of Catholic intel­ of Marx, Marxism's surrogate for god. We lectuals; the third (the murkiest area in which to argue) usually turns out to be the The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is the must not let these two assaults on reason official journal of the Committee destroy science in America. result of raising a trite doctrine—that for the Scientific Investigation income should not be redistributed from of Claims of the Paranormal. an international organization. George Rowell New York, N.Y. Letters continued on page 57

2 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 Notes of a Fringe-Watcher

Klingon and Other artificial Languages you speak Esperanto? ike a native!

MARTIN GARDNER

ccording to Genesis there orig­ Why God and the angels would gripped the minds of hundreds of lin­ inally was only one human find this curse amusing is hard to fath­ guistic cranks, who during the next Alanguage, the tongue spoken om. At any rate, who can doubt that three centuries proposed more than by Adam and Eve. Why did Adam the multiplicity of world languages is three hundred artificial or semi-artifi­ name the elephant an elephant? an enormous barrier to world peace. cial tongues. Because, goes an old joke, it looked like Clearly world unity would be greatly The first major effort was the 600- an elephant. Then a terrible tragedy augmented if somehow the babble of page Essay Towards a Real Character occurred. The Hebrews tried to scale tongues could be replaced by a single and Philosophic Language (London, the heavens by building the Tower of language. 1688), by John Wilkins, Bishop of Babel. God was so offended by this In ancient times Greek, Latin, and Chester. His book was greatly admired hubris that he said: Arabic served as universal languages for by Leibniz. All of Wilkins's words are large clusters of nations. French was self-defining in the sense that they con­ Behold, the people is one, and they once Europe's international diplomatic vey their triple classification as to have all one language . . . and now language, and for centuries Latin was genus, species, and subspecies. For nothing shall be restrained from the favored language of scientists and example, his word for salmon is them.... Go to, let us go down, and scholars. Around Mediterranean ports zana—za for fish, n for scaly, and a for there confound their language, that they may not understand one anoth­ lingua franca, Italian mixed with other red. The language was spoken and also er's speech. So the Lord scattered tongues, became a common form of written with symbols resembling mod­ them abroad from thence upon the communication. Swahili, a Bantu ern shorthand. The Bishop wrote other face of all the earth. (Gen. 11:6-8) speech mixed with Arabic, has long eccentric works, including one arguing been the lingua franca of East Africa. that the moon was inhabited by intelli­ In Paradise Lost (Book 12) Milton Today, for better or worse, the new gent creatures. His philosophic lan­ described it this way: international language is English. In a guage was caricatured by the French few years there will be more non-native writer Gabriel dc Foigny as an To sow a jangling noise of words speakers of English than native ones! Australian tongue in his novel The unknown: Only France is trying desperately to Adventures of Jacques Saleur (1676). Forthwith a hideous gabble rises keep its fingers in the dike. The Encyclopaedia Britannica (14th loud In the seventeenth century, among edition) lists the following other totally Among the Builders; each to other calls such philosophers as Descartes and synthetic languages: Solresol (1817), Not understood, till hoarse, and all Leibniz, and the Scotsman George Lingualumina (1875), Blaia Zimondal in rage. Delgarno, the notion arose that per­ (1884), Cabe aban (1887). and As mockt they storm; great laughter haps a completely artificial language, Zahlensprache (1901). Ro, invented in was in Heav'n based on logic, with simplified gram­ 1904 by Edward P. Foster, an American And looking down, to sec die hubbub strange mar and spelling, might serve to unify clergyman, had a monthly periodical And hear the din. nations. This grandiose dream quickly called Roia. Solresol, created by musi-

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 3 cian Jean Francois Sudre, combined the syllables of the music scale {do, re, mi, . . .) to produce some 12,000 words. The plan was to send messages by playing a tune. The Britannica does not mention Spokil, perpetrated in France by A. Nicolas in 1887, or Alwato, the creation of Stephen Pearl Andrews, a nineteenth- century American attorney and aboli­ tionist. Alwato was part of Andrews's 761-page crank work The Basic Outline of Universology (1872), and he elaborated on it in other books. All his nouns ended in o. A human is ho, the body is hobo, the head is hobado, and society is homabo. A vegetable is zho, an animal is zo, a dead animal is zobo, and a live one is zovo. Because no completely synthetic lan­ guage has yet obtained much of a fol­ lowing, one might suppose that efforts of this sort have ceased. Not so! The TV series "Star Trek" has spawned a gutteral extraterrestrial language spoken by the warriors of the Klingon empire. It was invented in 1984 for the film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, by Marc Okrand. (He has a doctorate in linguis­ tics.) Poetry has been written and wed­ dings performed in Klingon. "Star Trek" fans are rapidly mastering the language, much to Okrand's amazement, because he does not speak it. He designed the language as a joke—its word for "love" words for such concepts as God, holy, adverbs in e. A j at the end of a word is "bang"—but now his peculiar lan­ atonement, forgiveness, compassion, indicates a plural. For example, gradaj guage has developed a life of its own. or mercy. Is all this a put-on? The hundoj means "big dogs." There are newsletters in Klingon and an answer (in Klingon) is HISlaH (yes). More than 30,000 books, including audiotape on conversational Klingon On a more useful level than totally Shakespeare, Dante, the Bible, and the spoken by Michael Dorn, who plays a contrived languages are the semi- Koran have been translated into Klingon, Lieutenant Commander Worf, artificial ones based on a blend of nat­ Esperanto. A recent translation of chief of security on the United ural tongues. Of these, by tar the most Lewis Carroll's Alice books calls Federation of Planets starship Enterprise, successful has been Esperanto, the Humpy Dumpy Homito Omleto, in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," brainchild of Lazarus Ludwig meaning Little-Man Egg. Some hun­ the second "Star Trek" television series. Zamenhof, a Warsaw eye doctor. His dred periodicals around the world have The Klingon Language Institute, first book about it, Lingvo Internacia been written in Esperanto, one of the headed by Lawrence Schoen, a psy­ (1887) bore the pseudonym of Dr. oldest issued by the Vatican. Reader's chologist at Chestnut Hill College, Esperanto. The word means "one who Digest publishes an Esperanto edition. Philadelphia, is said to be working on a hopes." It expressed Zamenhof's Here is the Lord's Prayer in translation into Klingon of Shake­ quixotic desire that Esperanto would Esperanto: speare and the Bible.* The Bible will become the world's second language. Patro nia kiu estas en la cielo, not be easy, because Klingons have no Based on Europe's major tongues, sankta estu via nomo; venu regeco The Institute publishes a quarterly journal Esperanto's 16 simple grammatical via; estu volo via, kiel en la cielo, tiel called HolQeD (horn "Hoi," meaning language, rules have no exceptions. Spelling, ankau sut la tero. Panon nian ciuta- and "QeD." meaning science). It recently spon­ using 28 letters, is uniform and pho­ gan donu al ni hodiau; kaj patdonu sored a contest for palindromes written in al ni suldojn niajn, kiel ni ankau netic. As in Alwato, all nouns end in o. Klingon. For information, send an SASE to KLI, patdonas al niaj suldantoj; kaj ne Box 634, Flourtown, PA 19031-0534. Adjectives end in a, verbs in as, and knoduku nia en tenton, sed libetigu

4 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 nin de la malbono. priest.* It uses 27 letters, accents all And if you've decern luck. words on die last syllable, and adds The ultimate residuum You'll find is Volapuk! The movement peaked in the "ik" to all adjectives. The "iks" give it a 1920s, especially among one-worlders, strong icky sound. Some notion of its but even today about two million peo­ ugliness can be gained from Volapuk's Many short-lived attempts from ple read and speak Esperanto. wording of the Lord's Prayer: 1900 to the late fifties were made to Enthusiasts hold conventions here and improve Esperanto. They have such there, and when traveling identify O fat obas, kel binol in siils, paisalu- names as Perio, Ulla, Mondlingvo, themselves to one another by green domdz nem ola! Komomod Romanizat, Europeo, Nepo, Neo, monargan ola! Jenomoz vil olik, as lapel pins shaped like stars. The move­ Espido, Esperantuisho, Globaqo, and a in siil, i su tal! Bodo obsik, vadeliki raft of others. The most successful of ment continues to be popular in givolos obcs adelo! E pardolos obes Europe, but in the United States it is debis obsik as id obs aipardobs dcbe- these reform efforts was Ido—in now at a low ebb. In 1991 the Modern Ics obas. E no obis nindukolos in Esperanto it means "offspring"— tentadi; sod aidalivolos obis de bad. Language Association sponsored a invented in 1907 by the French phi­ Jenosod! losopher Louis Couterat. A monthly seminar on Esperanto at its annual titled Progreso was written in Ido. convention. No one showed up. Couterat regarded all Espcrantists as Perhaps the main reason for its decline In France and Germany the depraved. In the first volume of his here is the inexorable rise of English as Volapuk cult gained a following of autobiography Bernard Russell recalls an international second language. In more than a million, with some two Couterat complaining that Ido had no The Shape of Thing to Come (Book 5, hundred Volapuk societies meeting word similar to "Esperantist." "I sug­ section 7), H. G. Wells predicts that around the globe. After its third con­ gested 'Idiot,'" Russell adds, "but he Basic English (the 850 words selected gress, in Paris in 1899, its leaders began was not quite pleased." by C. K. Ogden) will "spread like wild­ quarreling over how to improve the fire" and that by die year 2020 "hardly language. This bickering created rival Tinkerers with Ido, like the anyone" in the world will not speak versions with such names as Balta, Esperanto tinkerers, soon splintered and understand it. Spelin, Dil, Veltpail, Dilpok, Ilingua the movement into variant languages. The philosopher Rudolf Carnap "J learned to speak Esperanto fluently. In 'More than 30,000 books, including his autobiography (in The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap) he says that Esperanto Shakespeare, Dante, the Bible, and the became for him a "living language." He Koran, have been translated into Esperanto.rt cannot take seriously "the arguments of those who assert that an international European, and others. The movement These included Dutalingue, Italico, auxiliary language might be suitable for finally evaporated to be replaced by Adjuvilo, Etem, Unesal, Esperido, business affairs and perhaps for natural Esperanto. Cosman, Novam, Mundial, Sinestal, science, but could not possibly serve as I found the following anonymous Intal, Kosmolinguo, and more. an adequate means of communication doggerel in an old scrapbook: Here are a few other semi-artificial in personal affairs, for discussions in the languages developed from the 1880s to social sciences and the humanities, let Take a reaspoonful of English, the early decades of this century: alone for fiction and drama. I have A modicum of Dutch, Weltsprache, Spelin, Blue, Anglo- found that most of those who make Of Italian just a trifle, franca, Mundolingue, Lingua komun, And of Gaelic not too much; these assertions have no practical expe­ Idiom neutral, Reform neutral, rience with such a language." Latinesce, Nov-Latin, Monario, Some of Russian and Egyptian To his surprise and dismay Carnap Add them unto the whole, Occidental, Europan, Optez, and found that Ludwig Wittgenstein was With just enough to flavor, Roman al. violently opposed to any form of lan­ Of the lingo of the Pole. Intelingua is of special interest guage that had not "grown organically." because it was the creation of the great Some Singhalese and Hottentot, The most popular semi-artificial Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano. A soupcon, too, of French, language preceding Esperanto was Of native Scandinavian It, too, gave rise to dozens of rival vari­ Volapiik—the word means "world A pretty thorough drench; ants, such as Simplo, Latinulus, speech"—invented in 1879 by Johann Intcrlatino, Panlingua, and others. In Martin Schleyer, a German Catholic Hungarian and Syrian, the mid-1920s Wilfred Stevens devel­ A pinch of Japanese, oped Euphony, a language that com­ With just as much Ojibway "Volapuk turns up in James Joyce's Finnegans bined words from 30 natural languages. Wtkt as Vollapuck (p. 34. line 5 from bottom), And Turkish as you please. Volapuke (p.40. line 4). and Volapucky (p. 116, Klingon continued on page 55 line 6 from bottom). Now stir it gently, boil it well,

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 5 Health Watch

Notes on the Tryptophan Disaster

STEPHEN BARRETT

uring the closing days of the building blocks of proteins. Individual effective enough to be marketed as a last Congressional session, a amino acids are worthless for supple­ drug. But supplement companies Dbill was passed to prevent the menting a person's diet because dietary began marketing L-tryptophan as a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deficiency of single amino acids does "dietary supplement." from banning the sale of several cate­ not occur. (Most Americans eat consid­ Until 1973, L-tryptophan and other gories of "dietary supplement" prod­ erably more protein than they need. amino acids were included on a list of ucts. Passage of this bill capped an People who are grossly malnourished food substances generally recognized as aggressive three-year lobbying cam­ develop multiple shortages that should safe (GRAS) for use as dietary supple­ paign intended by the health-food be remedied with foods, not individual ments. In 1973, the FDA revoked this industry to cripple FDA regulation of amino acids.) Moreover, the use of sin­ GRAS status and stated that amino its products. Senator Orrin Hatch gle- or multiple-ingredient amino acid acids could not be marketed without (R-Utah) championed die bill, an early products is based on unsubstantiated approval as food additives. Since no version of which was described by the beliefs that they are safe and beneficial approval was sought, the agency initi­ New York Times as the * 1993 Snake Oil as drugs or athletic enhancers. This ated seizure actions against two manu­ Protection Act." article illustrates why amino acids facturers of L-tryptophan products. The new law, called the Dietary should be regulated more tightly. The first case was dismissed because Supplement and Health Education L-tryptophan had been accidentally Act, defines dietary supplements to included on a GRAS list published in Regulation Fails include vitamins, minerals, herbal 1977. The second case was withdrawn products, amino acids, other dietary During the early 1970s, Richard J. before a verdict was rendered, because substances, and products derived from Wurtman, M.D., professor of neuro- the FDA believed that the judge was any of these substances. Even if a prod­ science at M.I.T and Harvard Medical inclined to favor the manufacturer. uct or ingredient has no practical value School, and his colleagues discovered The FDA also felt constrained by the in supplementing the diet, the FDA that tryptophan levels normally con­ Proxmire Amendment, a law passed in may not object to its sale unless it pre­ trol the production of serotonin, a 1976 that curbed its ability to regulate sents a "significant and unreasonable brain chemical involved in sleep, vitamin dosage. Although amino acids risk of illness or injury" or poses an mood, and appetite. At the time, he were not included under this law, the imminent safety hazard. Prior to pas­ thought that tryptophan might agency took its passage as a signal that sage of this Act, die FDA was able to become a legitimate drug that could Congress did not want supplement ban many types of worthless "dietary help people sleep, diminish pain, and products regulated without serious supplements" by designating them control mood and appetite. Pharma­ indications of danger to health. "unapproved food additives." ceutical companies were unwilling to Unhampered by the FDA, the Permitting amino acids to be sold as invest the money necessary to do safe­ health-food industry stepped up its "dietary supplements" is a great disser­ ty and efficacy studies to determine marketing of L-tryptophan. Books, vice to consumers. Amino acids arc the whether L-tryptophan was safe and magazine articles, and many manufac-

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 turers promoted it with claims that it (or their survivors) filed was useful against insomnia, pain, lawsuits or entered nego­ depression, premenstrual syndrome, tiations without suing. and overweight, even though it had Most cases have generat­ not been proved safe and effective for ed little publicity because any of these purposes. they were settled out of court with an agreement not to disclose the settle- Disaster Strikes ment terms. However, In 1989, an outbreak of cosinophilia- the total amount paid by myalgia syndrome (EMS) occurred Showa Denko is known among L-tryptophan users. A hitherto to approximate $1 bil­ rare disorder, EMS is a debilitating dis­ lion. ease characterized by severe muscle and joint pain, weakness, swelling of the arms and legs, fever, skin rash, and an Responsibility increase of eosinophils (certain white Denied blood cells) in the blood. Over the next Since General Nutrition year, more than 1,500 cases and 28 Corporation (GNC) was deaths were reported to the U.S. named as a codefendant Centers for Disease Control and Pre­ in many of the lawsuits, vention. The actual toll probably was Brosnahan's steering com­ more than 5,000 people, many of mittee investigated its whom suffered for years and are still marketing practices. In disabled. When the link between EMS August 1992, Brosnahan's and L-tryptophan became apparent, partner David L. Suggs the FDA quickly banned its sale. deposed GNC board chairman Jerry D. Horn. The EMS outbreak was traced to After asking Horn about the presence of an impurity in the L- 25 government enforce­ tryptophan produced by Showa Denko In 1991, the chairwoman of a Congressional sub­ ment actions that had committee said that the tryptophan tragedy K.K., a Japanese wholesaler that was been taken against the would not have occurred if the FDA had done the major supplier to American manu­ more to stop its sale. Yet in 1994, Congress passed company between 1969 facturers. Showa Denko realized that it a law weakening the FDA's regulatory powers. and 1989, Suggs queried: would not only be liable for damages to L-tryptophan victims but would probably be forced to reimburse Q. Is it your testimony that . . . it's per­ We are not compelled to do that. American manufacturers for the costs fectly okay for GNC to put prod­ Q. So far as you're concerned, and . . . of legal actions against them. Rather ucts on its shelves, to sell pills to speaking as the chairman of the than working at cross-purposes with people if those pills have no benefit? board of GNC, it's perfectly all right the manufacturers, Showa Denko for GNC to sell people pills to take agreed to shoulder all the expenses A. We make the assumption that they even if those pills have no benefit involved. make the decision based on some whatsoever, there's no scientific ben­ Minneapolis attorney Roger P. perceived benefit. efit. Is that correct? Brosnahan, who chaired the steering Q. Isn't it a fact that. . . whether or not A. That's not what I said. committee for all plaintiffs who it is going to benefit your body is a Q. Well, arc you saying, then, that there brought cases in federal court, estimates question of science and a question of should be a benefit? that about 2,000 L-tryptophan victims fact? A. The benefit to them is from their A. Limited science. perception, their need, their diet, Stephen Barrett, M.D., a retired psychi­ Q. Don't you think that GNC, before it how they're trying to supplement. atrist and nationally known consumer sells pills for people to take, ought to We don't know each individual's advocate, is coauthor!editor of 36 books make some evaluation of the science supplement needs to their diet, if on health topics. His most recent work is and the facts to . . . determine any. The Vitamin Pushers: How the whether there is in fact some benefit Q. So in other words, it's OK for GNC "Health Food" Industry Is Selling in people taking those pills into to sell pills for people to take them America a Bill of Goods (Prometheus, their bodies? into their bodies ... as long as some 1994). A. No. I would say no, we should not. customer is under the belief or per-

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 7 Leon Jaroff. Fellow of CSICOP and science editor emeritus of Time. will join entertainer Steve Allen, Nobel laureate in Chemistry Herbert Hauptman, and eight members of the CSICOP Executive Council in dedicating the Center for Inquiry, Phase II new head­ quarters of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Leon Jaroff, Steve Allen, Claims of the Paranormal. Ceremonies will be held on Herbert Hauptman, many others Friday. June 9, 1995. to dedicate new The Hon. Stan Lundine, former Lieutenant Governor of the State CSICOP Headquarters June 9 of New York, will dedicate the structure. Herbert Hauptman, a professor of biochemistry at the Reader Support Needed to Close State University of New York at Final Construction Cash Gap Buffalo, will present a keynote address, "Defending Reason in an Irrational World." Steve Allen, legendary creator of the original The Center for Inquiry is a 15,000-square-foot educational and administrative center "Tonight Show" and "Meeting located adjacent to the State University of New York at Buffalo's Amherst Campus, of Minds," will present a gala performance at the State the largest campus of the nation's largest state university system. The building will University of New York's Center house all of CSICOP's Western New York editorial, administrative, and warehouse for the Performing Arts. CSICOP operations on a single compact and efficient campus. More important, the skeptical Executive Council members James Alcock, Barry Beyerstein, movement will benefit from an impressive headquarters institution that includes a Ray Hyman, Philip J. Klass, Joe 50,000-volume capacity library complex, meeting and seminar rooms for up to 200 Nickell. Lee Nisbet. Bela Scheiber, and Carol Tavris will present a people, audio and video production spaces, and other vitally needed capabilities. workshop titled "Skepticism: An Agenda for the Future " Famed writer and critic Martin Gardner chaired CSICOP's portion of a $3.9 million capital drive to construct and endow the new Center. The "Price of Reason" Capital Also participating will be Paul Fund Drive was the most ambitious fundraising project in the history of the world Kurtz, chairman of CSICOP; Kendrick Frazier, Editor of the skeptical movement. By one measure it has significantly exceeded its goal. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, and representa­ tives of national skeptical organi­ YOUR GIFT IS STILL NEEDED TO CLOSE CONSTRUCTION CASH GAP zations from Germany and Mexico. A higher-than-expected proportion of "Price of Reason" giving took the form of deferred gifts. As a result, even though the drive exceeded its target, CSICOP remains At press time, a limited number $135,000 short of the cash it needs on hand right now to pay for construction and of registrations were still avail­ equipment. A line of credit has been established to assure that CSICOP meets all its able for this once-in-a-lifetime milestone for the skeptical move­ debts in a timely manner. But borrowing means paying interest, consuming funds ment, call (716)636-1425 for rim might otherwise go to publish the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER and support growth of information. the skeptical movement.

Reader support has been outstanding. But we need one final effort to reduce or eliminate borrowing. If you have not yet made your commitment to the "Price of Reason" campaign, your gift will never mean more than right now. Please make a three-year pledge, or a gift of securities or cash today. A pledge card is bound into this maga­ zine for your convenience.

"All skeptics can take pride in the Center for Inquiry," said CSICOP Chairman Paul Kurtz. "After we conquer the last remaining hurdle—our construction cash gap—we can look forward to a bright At press time, the new Center for Inquiry was almost complete. new future for the skeptics movement nationally and worldwide." ception that they're going to Details of L-Trp. Health Food in U.S.A. get some benefit? . . . A. I'm telling you that it's up to How L-Trp Health Food is used in U.S.A., from the literature. the individual. . . . They Appeal as Natural Tranquilizer or Anti-Depressant (some sleeping make the decision how they effect) want to supplement their diet. • calms down nervous or stressed people •Revives spirits of depressed people - Induces sleep There is no side effect, no addiction, no withdrawal distress. When an excessive amount is taken, it will be naturally excreted Q. Would you agree that your out of the system (same as Vitamin C). company has an obligation to test . . . products before Examples of health food application they're sold for human con­ 1) People who don't have appetitappetitee in the naming, and who sumption to determine can't sleep well at night whether they are in fact ben­ 2) Athletes who are feeling stressestressedd before big sporting 1 eficial? events 3) Children who are troubled with teenage problems and A. No more than a grocery studies1 1 store does foods coming in. <) Businessmen who are working on a big project People who are getting nervous with business interviews1 We're a retailer. 5) 1 6) Students who are cramming before an examination People who have various worries1 Q. You also manufacture prod­ 7) 1 ucts, don't you? 8) Travelers who are troubled with jet lag 9) People whose biorhythm is disturbed due to the change of A. We manufacture a portion an environment1 1 of our line. 10) Insomnia patient 11) Manic-depressive patient' Q. Well, with respect to the 12) Stressed patient' products that you manufac­ ture, would you agree that 'Semi-healthy people GNC has an obligation to "The sick test those products to make Portion of translated internal memo indicating that Showa Denko knew that L-tryp­ sure they are in fact benefi­ tophan was being used for pharmacologic purposes in the United States. cial? A. You can't test whether an • A 1984 memo stated: "If you take means of biotechnology. (Bacteria were apple a day really keeps the doctor a look at each company which consti­ used to synthesize the L-tryptophan.) away. There's no way to test that I tute the [nutritional supplement] mar­ Showa Denko did not notify the FDA know of. ket, they are positioned ambiguously about the impurities or its modifica­ in between medical and food manufac­ tion of the manufacturing process. Nor turers/distributors. They get around did the company test the newly made the restrictions on 'Drugs' and sell product for safety in humans, even Q. Have you ever heard of things like 'food supplements.'" though the FDA had previously cau­ safety studies or toxicology studies • An undated internal memo tioned that biotechnologically modi­ or . . . clinical studies? . . . (shown above) contained a long list of fied products should be thoroughly A. Some. other reasons why "semi-healthy peo­ tested before public distribution. In Q. And what do those terms relate to? ple" and "the sick" might purchase L- fact, instead of increasing filtration to A. I believe to the drug industry. . . . tryptophan products. remove the impurities, which would We're not in the drug business, we're • An undated brochure stated that decrease the amount of L-tryptophan in the food business as defined by L-tryptophan "has antistress function produced, Showa Denko continued the FDA. and minor tranquilizer effect" and had full-speed production to meet high pharmaceutical application as a "sleep market demand. inducer" and "antidepressant." The tryptophan tragedy would not More Mischief Revealed Other documents revealed that in have occurred if the FDA had been Showa Denko also maintained that its 1988 Showa Denko became aware that able to ban these products or prose­ L-tryptophan had been marketed as a its L-tryptophan contained impurities cute manufacturers who marketed "dietary supplement." However, com­ that were unidentified and therefore them improperly. But Congress, in its pany documents gathered by Bros- potentially harmful. The company infinite wisdom, has given the health- nahan and his colleagues indicate then began using a new strain of bac­ food industry more freedom instead of otherwise: teria modified from previous strains by less. •

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 9 Psychic Vibrations

recovered Memories Cross the Oceans

ROBERT SHEAFFER

he American practice of "recov­ Primary Cause Analysis. According to in fact, being orchestrated by the ering memories" of all manner an article last year in London's Sunday Masons. Stephen Kent, of the Tof unspeakable abuse has leaped Times, this group, which "has been Department of Sociology at the the Atlantic, and the Pacific as well. In secretly training hypnotherapists in University of Alberta, told CBQ-Radio Britain a new group called Accuracy Britain," claims that virtually everyone that, according to some of the accounts, About Abuse has been formed to pro­ has been sexually abused as a child. the abuse seems "to have taken place in mote belief in "recovered memories." According to Primary Cause Analysis, buildings which sound like they were Its founder is Marjorie Orr, a Jungian there are 39 kinds of child sexual abuse lodges. Moreover, a lot of these psychiatrist and professional astrologer that were performed openly as rituals accounts involve group abuse, and who writes horoscopes for the Daily until 2800 B.C., when society—pre­ some people have very strong suspi­ Express and Woman's Journal sumably every society at once—banned cions that the network in which their, them. Practically all of the problems Replying to skeptical members of in most cases, fathers allegedly moved that cause people to seek therapy are the False Memory Syndrome Society were Masonic networks. So a lor of the result of repressed memories of over die Internet, Orr explained how people believe that other alleged abuse at the hands of mothers and "serious astrology is a reef which the abusers were also Freemasons." He has­ fathers, as are many other conditions, high and mighty of the scientific estab­ tened to explain, however: "I'm sure including acne, alcoholism, asthma, lishment have come to grief on before. autism, backache, conjunctivitis, dia­ that ordinary Masons would be ... 1 would not volunteer it but since betes, halitosis, hay fever, and myopia, appalled to hear the kind of stories that you raise the question—a personal to name a few. The group's founder, the I havlatee Jameheards . BennetIn not wayof ,Ne evew nZealand in a , birth chart will certainly show up clear­ taught that 98 percent of infant crib worst-case scenario in which some of ly and in some detail the psychological deaths were the result of sexual abuse. these accounts would be more or less dysfunctions which would indicate that Therapists who are trained in Primary true, in no way would I suspect that the someone was likely to abuse or had Cause Analysis are required to sign a mainstream Masonic organization been abused." If this is correct, then a statement promising to keep secret the would in any way be involved in these lawyer might successfully argue: "My group's teachings about sexual abuse. things." client cannot be held accountable for Peter Toohey, a Thunder Bay Mason these acts, since his moon is in Leo, in and former police officer, was furious at conjunction with Neptune." Orr also noted: "As Liz Greene, the British psy­ Back in North America, the Ontario being excluded from a taxpayer-funded chological astrologer, also an analyst, provincial government contributed conference that purported to discuss remarked—the astrology is like die $15,000 to a "Surviving Ritual Abuse" "Masonic ritual torture." He has road map. The therapy is the hard work conference held last January in protested to local elected officials and of walking that road." Thunder Bay. Organized by a "sur­ says he is considering legal action for vivors" group called Stone Angels, the slander against the group, stating that Yet another group probing deeply conference revealed to die world how the Masonic order contributes more into the British psyche calls itself the epidemic of Satanic molestations is. than $545 million dollars a year to

10 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 charitable organizations. In Chicago, Kimball Ladien, a psy­ chiatrist who once sat on the Illinois State Task Force on Ritualistic Abuse, ran for mayor in the Republican pri­ mary as die "Anti-Cult Candidate." According to a story in die February 17 Chicago Reader, Ladien helped draft recently passed anti-ritual-abuse legis­ lation that makes it a felony to place "a living child into a coffin or open grave containing a human corpse or remains." Ladien and several of his colleagues at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center are being sued by a woman whose story is told, under die pseudo­ nym "Anne Stone," in the book Making Monsters, by Richard Ofshe and Ethan Waiters. She alleges that she was per­ suaded by therapists at that institution that she had been "the High Priestess of an international Satanic order," in which her family had participated for 400 years. Her complaint against Ladien alleges that his "hypnotic ses­ sions" helped persuade her that "she had over 300 alternate personalities as a result of extended and repeated sexual and other traumatic abuse as a child, including the participation in ritual murders, cannibalism, satan worship, and torture by members of her family."

Ladien regrets die suit. "I feel some­ what betrayed," he said. "I spent a lot of personal time with [Anne] and die strict attention paid to education, caste, Govi Buddhist parents seek English family doing my utmost to help them." and dowry, it appears that perhaps die educated businessman/professional of good background 36-46 years for It would seem, however, that the fami­ most important factor of all is one's their attractive educated daughter ly docs not view its ordeal involving natal horoscope: (36) 5'4" holding prestigious aca­ extended psychiatric hospitalization demic position receiving substantia) Durawe [caste] Buddhist parents and accusations of ritual cannibalism salary possessing fixed deposits, jew­ seek professionally qualified partner and torture as being "helpful." As if this ellery etc. worth over seven lakhs. late 30s for Accountant daughter Caste immaterial if horoscope back­ were not bad enough, the anti-cult can­ owning car Colombo residential ground exceptionally compatible. didate was handily defeated in die pri­ property other assets caste immaterial. mary election by Ray Wardingley, for- Horoscope required. meriy known professionally as Sparky Respectable Kandyan Govi Buddhist die Clown. Buddhist parents seek a pretty part­ parents invite proposal for pretty ner for their son 34 years 5'6" bride of similar status for son height, an Executive in an airline. Executive in a prestigious firm fair Horoscope essential. slim 5'4", 28, Saturn 8th house.

A correspondent in Sri Lanka sent us Brother seeks a suitable partner for a copies of the "Marriage Proposals" Canadian citizen Tamil Hindu sister Meanwhile, here in North America pages from die Sunday Observer, the 31 fair, pretty, 5'1" B.Sc holding a we choose marriage partners on die basis major English-language newspaper good position in Canada. Caste of something at least as elusive as astrolo­ there. In that country, where marriages creed and religion immaterial. Full gy, "love." It is not always dear which typically are arranged by families with details and horoscope please. approach is die more irrational.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 11 Media Watch

A Psychologist Studies 'Shameless' Talk Shows, d She's Angry

C. EUGENE EMERY, JR.

/ dated Siamese twins. can worry about your diet," said Abr. shows work. I slept with Bigfoot, too. She discovered it was no fluke. She She tried to do something. Abr wrote a two-page letter to Raphael Get me on Salty Jessy. concluded that talk shows: "outlining exactly what was wrong with Put me on Donahue. • Consistently play up the freakish what she was doing and how dangerous nature of human existence, giving it 'Cause I wanna tell the world about it it was." Abr never got a response. Right now.' national prominence and desensitizing Talk-show hosts like to say they get viewers to its social implications. As icki Abr vividly recalls the first viewers interested in important issues long as they are willing to talk, child time she tuned in to the "Sally facing society. Raphael's show did molesters, people with sexual quirks, VJessy Raphael" talk show. Abr exactly that. Abr, who studies how folks with criminal records become found the hostess warning viewers that moral principals are shaped by society recast on these shows as "victims," who her program that day was not for the and the media, got interested in can instantly amend for their sins by squeamish. Abr, a not-so-squeamish Raphael and her ilk. publicly confessing and apologizing to social psychologist at Penn State their victims. University, stuck around. My dog's a narcoleptic. • Provide a voyeuristic look at the "As I'm watching, she's showing a My mom's a circus freak. deepest personal secrets of dysfunction­ videotape of a murder," said Abr. "The I gotta get a spot on al relationships or criminal acts, often kid was taped to a pole, they were Geraldo's show this week. without giving viewers the opportunity shooting him, they tortured him, and 'Cause I wanna tell the world about it or a feeling of obligation to help. While they shot him to death. The second Right now. some talk-show hosts passionately time they shot him, he moaned and I argue that they improve society by forc­ knew it was real. 1 freaked out. I was Using that two-page letter to Raphael ing the public to confront uncomfort­ screaming. I was crying. I said, 'I can't as an outline, Abr began a content analy­ able issues that should be tackled, Abr says the argument is shallow and self- believe that she's showing mis. What is sis of 60 hours of television talk shows. serving. Real-life problems are solved the point of this?" The result was "The Shameless World of when flesh-and-blood people (who The more Abr thought about it— Phil, Sally and Oprah: Television Talk can't escape a problem by changing not just the violent images but the Shows and the Deconstructing of channels) get involved in the solution. absence of a constructive motive for Society," an essay written with Penn "The abstract concept of altruism is showing the tape—the angrier she State colleague Md Seesholtz and now grounded either in experiences that became. "It gets people upset, but it published in the Journal of Popular evoke empathy or in real physical con­ doesn't tell them what to do pro- Culture, 28(no. 1), Summer 1994. sequences. Television talk shows create socially afterwards, except to turn to a "I thought maybe this (the Raphael an ersatz community, without any of commercial for Nutri/System so you show) was a fluke," said Abr, who also the social and personal responsibilities looked at how such hosts manipulate that are attached to real life." •Song lyrics by "Weird AT Yankovic. their audiences and how they make the

12 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 • Provide little or no reliable information to help viewers put what they are seeing into a rational, intellectually honest context, a con­ clusion that will come as no surprise to SKEPTI­ CAL INQUIRER readers concerned about the way the talk shows favor pseudoscience over seri­ ous research. (See my column in the May- June issue, and Paul Kurtz's column in the January-February issue, for example.) In a pro­ gram featuring "skin­ heads," she wrote, "No one seriously attempted ing social barriers, inhibitions and cul­ argued that "people watch TV with a to correct their inaccurate rendering of tural distinctions," she said in the open­ built-in moral sense"), and groups of historical events, or challenge their ing paragraph of her essay. viewers from San Francisco, Atlanta, and reliance on pseudo-biology during their It was a powerful, topical, contro­ Boston. Members of Oprah's Chicago diatribes against Jews and other, un­ versial attack on some of the nation's audience alone had collectively watched related minority groups." best-known celebrities and the role 647 hours of talk shows in one week. Thus, Abr warned, talk shows are they play in society. It wasn't surprising Some audience members said they helping to misshape our culture by that Abr would be invited to get a first­ simply watch such shows to be enter­ misleading viewers. hand look at life on a talk show. tained. Others said they liked the pro­ "Television talk shows create audi­ grams because they believe the shows ences by breaking cultural rules, by My wife ran off with Elvis. provide important information. managed shocks, by shifting our con­ My boss shaved off my hair. One teenager who expressed the lat­ ceptions of what is acceptable, by trans­ I've got a thing for poodles ter view went on to criticize how the forming our ideas about what is possi­ And rubber underwear. shows portray teenagers as "all drug ble, by undermining the bases for cul­ And I wanna tell the world about it addicts, dropouts, pregnant, or what tural judgment, by redefining deviance Right now. have you." It didn't seem to dawn on her and appropriate reactions to it, by erod- that if talk shows distort reality in an Abr knew better than to expect a area where she has some personal expe­ Gene Emery is the science writer for the reserved, thoughtful debate of the rience, the genre might be giving unre­ Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., issues between the experts when she liable information in other areas as well. Providence, Rl 02902. "Talk Soup" lyrics agreed to discuss the points she raised With Abr pressing for talk shows to are from the "Weird Al" Yankovic album on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." She feature more debates among experts who "Alapalooza" and are reprinted with per­ wasn't mistaken. actually know what they're talking mission. Abr's essay in the Journal of Instead of an intellectual dialogue, about, and Shales saying he'd "like to see Popular Culture (28, no. 1, Summer Oprah turned the program into the typ­ more smart people on TV, fewer ordi­ 1994) is available for$10 from Bowling ical talk-show spectacle, with too many nary people and more extraordinary Green State University Popular Press, guests and too little time for them to people," Winfrey closed the show by Bowling Green, OH 43403. Transcripts provide anything more than soundbites. lamenting that "a lot of times when it of the September 12 and 13, 1994, Joining Abr for the two-hour show, comes down to what people actually Oprah Winfrey shows and the February aired September 12 and 13, 1994, were watch, the very programs they criticize 7, 1995, Jerry Springer show are avail­ Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales are the ones that get the highest ratings." able from Burrelle's Transcripts at 1-800- (who called talk shows "the new pornog­ 777-TEXT. A transcript of the Sep­ raphy of our time" because they turn the / had a close encounter. tember 16, 1994, '20/20' program is audience into voyeurs), People magazine 1 never chew my food available from Journal Graphics at TV critic David Hiltbrand (who called 1 got eleven nose jobs. 1-800-825-5746. Abr's conclusions "preposterous" and I yodel in the nude.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 13 And I wanna tell the world about it usually get to tell their stories on these any responsibility for Amedure's death. Right now. shows with a minimum of criticism. The program never aired. For example, hostess and fitness The murder may make talk-show Abr has not been alone in her criti­ guru Susan Powter spent part of hosts and their producers reexamine cisms. February fawning over the "psychic" what they're doing, but probably not When "20/20" took a behind-the- Chat, showing how a box of burning for long. scenes look at talk shows, the ABC-TV herbs placed on the abdomen can help Jones's program began getting good news magazine (aired September 16, premenstrual syndrome sufferers, and ratings only after she began trying to 1994) revealed how one couple, trying to scare parents away from get­ shock viewers and guests. The lesson Jennifer and Uriel Soto, managed to get ting their children vaccinated. isn't lost on the industry, which seems on three different shows with three dif­ In another case, talkmeister Jerry ready to do almost anything to raise the ferent stories in a matter of weeks. On Springer brought a woman named level of sensationalism in hopes of "The Ricki Lake Show," they lied by Shannon onto his show so her husband attracting a bigger share of the audience. billing themselves as married cousins. could shock her on national TV with With 15 talk shows already on the Jennifer Soto said the show's producers the news that he had a long-standing air, television executives hawking new never asked any questions. affair with the baby-sitter of the cou­ programs are promising even more The "20/20" show also featured ple's two children. Then, with Shan­ sensational fare when the new season three men who had pretended to be a non already weeping, Springer brought begins in September. gay love triangle during a different Lake on Cindy, the baby-sitter, who went "There are going to be 20 or so new show. They alleged that a producer fed into further detail about her ongoing shows that are worse than the ones I them titillating lines to use on the pro­ relationship with Shannon's husband. was criticizing," says Abr. "These days, gram, a claim the show denies. But Shannon, her husband, and the saying you had sex with your father gets Even when the shows have reason to babysitter turned out to be three almost no reaction. Now you have to suspect that a guest is lying, it doesn't Toronto-based comedians who re­ have had sex with three fathers. I think matter. On "The Montel Williams ported that "The Jerry Springer Show" the public thinks these shows are telling Show," Jerome Stanfield, a man who had misled Shannon in an effort to them something relevant, but the audi­ later claimed that a producer for the humiliate her on national television. ence has been so brutalized, they need show had encouraged him to lie, told Then a Springer spokeswoman had the more and more to get outraged." Williams that he was a serial rapist. nerve to threaten to sue the comics for "The reason these talk shows are so Although police were unable to confirm breaking a written promise to tell the popular is you don't have to educate Stanfield's story, Williams aired the truth on the program. people to be voyeurs, you don't have to show anyway. He billed it as an "exclu­ "If I had really been this woman," educate people to love gossip, to like sive," explaining to his audience that, Suzanne "Shannon" Muir told the freak shows," comments Abr, adding although questions had been raised Toronto Star, "they would have ruined that the same thing holds true for pro­ about the honesty of the guest, "we have my life." grams featuring psychics, UFO no information at this time that leads us And in a case that brought haunting abductees, and the like. to believe he is not telling the truth. And echoes of the video that originally In the end, it's more than the fault because of that we feel it is our duty and prompted Abr to examine what talk of the producers and hosts. The prob­ our responsibility to broadcast the pro­ shows do to society, police in Michigan lem lies with the people who choose to gram out of concern for public safety." charged Jonathan Schmitz with murder watch and believe such shows. after "The Jenny Jones Show" brought "Oprah's argument to me was that / have no genitalia. Schmitz, 24, on the program and told every time she does a public-interest I sold my kids for cheese. him he would get the chance to meet a show, her ratings go down the toilet. I love my blow-up doll so secret admirer on national TV. She's certainly right. But that doesn't Bring out those cameras, please. The secret admirer of Schmitz, a excuse it," says Abr. "You can also 'Cause I wanna tell the world about it heterosexual, turned out to be a man— make a lot of money selling crack Right now. 32-year-old Scon Amedure. As the cocaine, but I don't do it." show was being taped, Schmitz was Despite the criticisms and the stunned to learn that he was the object I'm just a cross-dressin exposes of the way these programs of a homosexual crush. alcoholic neo-Nazi stretch the truth, there's little evidence Three days later, after also report­ Porno star, as you may have guessed that things have changed in the trashy edly receiving an anonymous sexually And I'm really gonna feel world of TV talk shows. suggestive note, Schmitz bought a shot­ a whole lot better Self-proclaimed psychics, promot­ gun, went to Amedure's house, and If you let me get this thing off my chest. ers of quacky medical treatments, mir­ shot him twice, according to police. Talk Soup. Talk Soup. acle mongers, and UFO enthusiasts Jones and her organization have denied Listen to me, listen to me, listen to me.

14 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 Special Report

The Roswell Incident and Project Mogul Scientist Participant Supports Direct Links

DAVE THOMAS

s reported in the January- physics at New Mexico Institute of Moore makes a strong case for the February 1995 SKEPTICAL Mining and Technology in Socorro, hypothesis that NYU Flight #4, which A INQUIRER, a September 1994 was a graduate student working for he helped launch on June 4, 1947, was Air Force report strongly supported the NYU back in 1947. The Mogul project the source of the debris Brazel found theory that the "UFO" debris found by was so classified and compartmental­ on the Foster ranch, and therefore the rancher Mac Brazel in 1947 northwest ized that even Moore didn't know the source of die "Roswell Incident" itself. of Roswell, New Mexico, was in fact a project's name until Robert Todd Many of the materials used in Flight 4 remnant of a balloon flight launched as informed him of it a couple of years bear striking similarities to pieces of parr of a top-secret program called ago. The unclassified purpose of the the Roswell debris. A diagram of an Project Mogul. The possible connec­ project was to develop constant-level earlier, similar flight. Flight #2 tion between the Roswell Incident and balloons for meteorological purposes. (launched April 18, 1947, from Beth­ Mogul was first realized by researcher Its classified purpose was to try to lehem, Pennsylvania) appears in Figure Robert G. Todd, and independently by develop a way to monitor possible 1. No such diagram is available for Karl T. Pflock. Soviet nuclear detonations with the use Flight 4; since no altitude data were Recently, Charles B. Moore, one of of low-frequency acoustic microphones obtained for it, it was not included in three surviving Project Mogul scien­ placed at high altitudes. No other formal NYU reports. However, Moore tists identified in and interviewed for means of monitoring the nuclear activ­ says die configuration for Flight 4 was the Air Force report, spoke to the New ities of a closed country like the USSR quite similar to that shown. The large Mexicans for Science and Reason was yet available, and the project was octahedral objects at top left and bot­ (NMSR) in Albuquerque. He dis­ given a high priority. One of the NYU tom middle are radar reflectors, which cussed the background of the project, tasks was the development of constant- were used for tracking. Several small the New York University (NYU) bal­ level balloons for placing die acoustic aluminum rings for handling the lines loon flights, and the Roswell connec­ microphones aloft. After some prelim­ are indicated; the "payload" (a tion. He provided new details that inary flights in Bethlehem, Penn­ sonobuoy) was supported by slightly would appear to virtually clinch the sylvania, in April 1947, which failed larger rings. The cluster of neoprene idea that the debris Brazel found was due to high winds, die project moved sounding balloons extended for hun­ indeed from one of the Project Mogul to New Mexico. dreds of feet in flight. flights that Moore helped launch. In June and early July 1947, numer­ The debris Brazel picked up—and What follows is based on Moore's ous NYU balloon flights were which was later taken to Fort Worth, presentation, his answers to audience launched (torn Alamogordo Army Air Texas, for inspection by Brigadier questions, subsequent meetings and Field in New Mexico. Some of these General Roger Ramey. die Air Force discussions with him, documents he flights consisted of very long trains commander there—matches NYU provided, and a monograph he is containing up to two dozen neoprene Flight 4 in several different ways. Some preparing on these flights. sounding balloons, having a total of the debris consisted of patches of a Moore, professor emeritus of length of more than 600 feet. smelly, smoky gray, rubber-like material.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRE* • JULY/AUGUST J 995 15 a major named John Peterson, laughed . . . and said 'What do you expect when you get your targets made by a toy factory?'" Figure 2 shows a dia­ gram of Moore's recollection of the flowery design. The radar targets contained small eyelets. Moore showed the NMSR audience a similar target with die eye­ lets (Figure 3). In an article in the Roswell Daily Record on July 9, 1947, rancher Brazel described the debris as having no strings or wire, but as having eyelets for some sort of attachment. While many UFO proponents claim the wreckage shown in General Ramey's office was just a weather bal­ loon switched for the "real debris," Moore pointed out that the radar tar­ gets used by NYU were unlike any­ thing flown in New Mexico before and that "they were not available in Fort Worth to be substituted for the debris in General Ramey's office." Warrant Officer Newton was able to recognize the debris in General Ramey's office because he happened to have used an early version of die same targets while serving as a weatherman in Okinawa. The earlier-model targets Newton used did not have the reinforcing tape with the pinkish-purple flower designs. Brazel's daughter, Bessie Brazel Schreiber, in a 1979 interview conduct­ ed by author William Moore (no rela­ tion to Charles B. Moore), described FIGURE 1. Diagram of balloon train for NYU Flight #2. Charles B. Moore says some aluminum ring-shaped objects in the configuration for Flight #4 was quite similar. the debris that looked like pipe intake which is consistent with the neoprene out that die Ramey photographs show collars or the necks of balloons. (The balloons used in NYU Flight 4. Much parts of more man one reflector; Flight mention of the rings appears in of the Roswell debris—sticks, metallic 4 contained three Signal Corps ML- William Moore's transcript of the inter­ paper, and strangely marked tape—is 307B RAWIN targets. view, but was not included in his book similar to material used for die radar Many witnesses of the debris The Roswell Incident.) She estimated that theywer e about 4 inches around, reflectors. When Warrant Officer described tape with flower designs or and said she could put her hand Irving Newton saw the debris in hieroglyphics on it. Moore recalls that through diem. Charles Moore points General Ramey's office, he recognized it the reinforcing tape used on NYU tar­ out that Flight 4 carried several 3-inch- as pieces of a radar target. Moore points gets had curious markings. "There diameter aluminum rings for assisting this the launching of die balloon train, were about four of us who were as well as larger rings used to hold die Dave Thomas is a physics and mathe­ involved in this, and all remember that sonobuoys. These were cut from cylin­ matics graduate of New Mexico Institute our targets had sort of a stylized, flow- drical tubing stock, and then cham­ of Mining and Technology, and is cur­ crlike design. 1 have prepared, in my fered to prevent damage to die ropes. rently a senior scientist at Quatro life, probably more than a hundred of Corporation in Albuquerque, New these targets for flight. And every time Mexico. He is vice president and com­ I have prepared one of these targets, I Sheridan Cavitt, the CIC (Counter­ munications officer of New Mexicans for have always wondered what the pur­ intelligence Corps) officer who accom­ Science and Reason. pose of mat tape marking was. But. .. panied Major Jesse Marcel to the debris

16 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 FIGURE 2. "Abstract flower-like designs" on NYU radar targets field, described a black box in die the summer months blow toward the more, the debris was strewn along the wreckage. Moore says the NYU crew west, while those in the transition ground at a southwest-to-northeast routinely packed batteries for the region just above the tropopause blew angle (as reported by Major Jesse acoustic equipment in black boxes. toward the northwest during the early Marcel); this angle is entirely consis­ There has been some speculation that part of June 1947. For example, Flight tent with Moore's analysis. the black box might have been a 5 proceeded mainly east as it rose Charles B. Moore has been repeat­ radiosonde, but Moore pointed out through the troposphere; when it edly criticized in the UFO literature for that radiosondes are usually white to entered the stratosphere, however, it changing some of his earlier statements. prevent absorption of heat. was carried to the northwest. After He was interviewed for William On June 4, 1947, Flight 4 was some balloons burst and Flight 5 Moore's book on the Roswell Incident. descended, it again headed in an east­ launched, and tracked as far as Arabela, After hearing Bill Moore's description erly direction until it landed. New Mexico, only 17 miles from the of the wreckage (including details of location of the debris field on the When Moore used the Weather supposed 10-inch furrows running Foster ranch. Flight 4 was still aloft Service wind data and NYU altitude some 500 feet), Charlie Moore when the batteries tan down, and con­ information to simulate the probable responded by saying: "Based on the tact was lost. Brazel reported that he paths of the flights with recorded description you gave me, I think that could not have been our balloon." found the debris on the ranch on June ground tracks (Flights 5 and 6), his Balloon trains like Flight 4 were far too 14, 1947, although most UFO propo­ results agreed quite reasonably with the light to make large furrows in the nents put the time of this discovery as measured balloon paths—Flight 5 ground. The issue is not that Charles a few weeks later, in early July. Brazel drifted mainly to the east, landing near didn't take the debris into Roswell until July 7, 1947, by his own account; this "Moore makes a strong case for the hypothesis that date is disputed as well. NYU Flight #4 . .. was the source of the debris Recently, Charles Moore has devel­ oped a brand-new line of evidence Brazel found on the foster ranch, and therefore the even further supporting a link between source of the Roswell Incident' Itself." the Roswell Incident and Project Mogul. UFO researcher Kevin Randle Roswell, while Flight 6 took a more Moore said the wreckage couldn't have recently provided Moore with National southwesterly route. Moore then ex­ been a balloon—it's that he said his Weather Service wind data for early tended his analysis to Flight 4, the flights couldn't have plowed the alleged June 1947. Moore, who has lived and Roswell candidate. He used the wind "furrows." On another note, Moore breathed atmospheric physics most of data for June 4, 1947, and assumed the and other Mogul participants originally his adult life, analyzed this data in flight reached altitudes comparable to thought the debris Brazel found must detail. His analysis deals with three those of die subsequent two flights have been from one of NYU's polyeth­ NYU flights: Flight 4 (June 4, 1947), (which were made with very similar ylene balloon flights from early July Flight 5 (June 5), and Flight 6 (June balloon trains). 1947. He held this opinion until just a 7). The Weather Service wind data are Moore's analysis indicates that after couple of years ago. These large, trans­ compatible with what is called a baro- Flight 4 lifted off from Alamogordo, it parent polyethylene balloons were used clinic weather system moving through probably ascended while traveling for the first time ever in the summer of the area. As this "trough aloft" slowly northeast (toward Arabela), then 1947 and would have looked strange passes by, the winds aloft will shift turned toward the northwest during its even to experienced balloon watchers. from blowing toward the northeast, passage through the stratosphere, and However, after seeing the reports and then toward the east, and men toward then descended back to earth in a gen­ photographs from 1947 for the first the southeast. At very high altitudes, erally northeast direction. Moore's cal­ time, Charles Moore realized that however, this type of system produces culated balloon path is quite consistent Flight 4 was a much better candidate high-level winds in the upper tropos­ with a landing at the Foster ranch, for the Foster ranch debris than a poly­ phere at cross directions to those at approximately 85 miles northeast of ethylene balloon. So he has changed his lower levels. Furthermore, the prevail­ the Alamogordo launch site and 60 opinions on the incident, but only ing winds in the stratosphere during miles northwest of Roswell. Further- because better data became available.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRE* • JULY/AUGUST 1995 17 coast) in April 1948. While UFO pro­ ponents allege a lack of contemporary references to "Project Mogul Balloon Flights," Moore says the project was so compartmentalized that such refer­ ences simply may not exist. Any men­ tion of these flights will instead be labeled as NYU constant-level balloon research. Several UFO authors claim that the wreckage, and possibly alien bodies as well, were secretly flown to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio for analysis. By coinci­ dence, Moore says he and the rest of the NYU balloon crew stayed over at Wright Field the evening of July 8, 1947, en route back to New Jersey, just as the Roswell story was breaking. Moore says they first learned of the inci­ dent while in Dayton, and figured that it was probably caused by one of their recent polyethylene balloon flights. The September 1994 Air Force report indicates that the Brazel debris also made its way to Wright Field. During an Air Force interview of Mogul participant Colonel Albert C. Trakowski, he recalled a July 1947 tele phone call from Colonel Marcellus Duffy, who was stationed at Wright Field and was intimately knowledge­ Photos: Dave Thomas able about both Project Mogul and FIGURE 3. Atmospheric physi­ military weather equipment. Duffy cist Charles B. Moore dis­ plays a radar reflector simi­ told Trakowski that a fellow from New lar to those carried aloft on Mexico came to Dayton, woke him up trains of balloons in Project in the middle of the night, and showed Mogul experiments he him the debris. Colonel Duffy told the helped launch from Alamo- gordo Army Air Field in fellow, "It looks like some of die stuff New Mexico in June and you've been launching at Alamogordo." early July 1947. New York What is the bottom line on the University Flight #4 carried Roswell Incident, NYU, and Project three of these reflectors and before being lost was Mogul? In Moore's words, "When the tracked to within 17 miles wind information is coupled this the of the spot where rancher similarities in die debris described by Mac Brazel later recovered the eyewitnesses—die balsa sticks, the debris that prompted the famous "Roswell Incident" 'tinfoil,' the tape this pastel, pinkish- case. purple flowers, the smoky gray balloon rubber with a burnt odor, the eyelets, the tough paper, the four-inch-diame­ Moore's presentation included fasci­ sound waves produced by die volcanic ter aluminum pieces and the black nating details on the background of explosion of Krakatoa in 1883. In one box—to the materials used in our bal­ Project Mogul. He noted that die dis­ of their flights, he said the NYU crew loon flight trains, it appears to me that covery of the acoustic "duct" between attempted (without success) to detect it would be difficult to exclude NYU the troposphere and the stratosphere explosions from the British destruction Flight 4 as a likely source of the debris came about as a result of a World War of German installations on the island that W W Brazel found on the Foster II era analysis of globally propagated of Helgoland (off the north German ranch in 1947." •

18 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 How to Sell a Pseudoscience

ANTHONY R. PRATKANIS

very time I read the reports of new pseudo-

sciences in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER or Ewatch the latest "In Search Of"-style televi­ sion show I have one cognitive response, "Holy cow, how

can anyone believe that?" Some recent examples include:

"Holy cow, why do people spend $3.95 a minute to talk

Want your own pseudo- on the telephone with a 'psychic' who has never foretold science? Here are nine die future?" "Holy cow, why do people believe that an effective persuasion tactics for selling all sorts all uncooked vegan diet is natural and therefore nutri­ of flimflam. tious?" "Holy cow, why would two state troopers chase

the planet Venus across state lines thinking it was an

alien spacecraft?" "Holy cow, why do people spend mil­

lions of dollars each year on subliminal tapes that just

don't work?"

There are, of course, many different answers to these

"holy cow" questions. Conjurers can duplicate pseudo-

scientific feats and thus show us how sleights of hand

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 19 and misdirections can mislead (e.g., Randi 1982a, 1982b, 1989). Soci­ ologists can point to social conditions that increase the prevalence of pseudo- scientific beliefs (e.g., Lett 1992; Padgett and Jorgenson 1982; Victor 1993). Natural scientists can describe the physical properties of objects to show that what may appear to be supernatural is natural (e.g., Culver and Ianna 1988; Nickell 1983, 1993). Cognitive psychologists have identified common mental biases that often lead us to misinterpret social reality and to conclude in favor of supernatural phe­ nomena (e.g., Blackmore 1992; Gilovich 1991; Hines 1988). These perspectives are useful in addressing the "holy cow" question; all give us a piece of the puzzle in unraveling this mystery. I will describe how a social psychol­ ogist answers the holy cow question. Social psychology is die study of social influence—how human beings and their institutions influence and affect each other (see Aronson 1992; Aronson and Pratkanis 1993). For the past seven decades, social psychologists have been developing theories of social influence and have been testing the effectiveness of various persuasion tac­ tics in their labs (see Cialdini 1984; Pratkanis and Aronson, 1992). It is my thesis that many persuasion tactics discovered by social psychologists are used every day, perhaps not totally consciously, by the promoters of pseu- doscience (see Feynman 1985 or Hines 1988 for a definition of pseudo- science). To see how these tactics can be used to sell flimflam, let's pretend for a moment that we wish to have our very own pseudoscience. Here are nine common propaganda tactics that should result in success.

Anthony R. Pratkanis is associate profes­ Gerald Fried sor of psychology. University of 1. Create a Phantom die right amount of money, but in real­ California, Santa, Cruz, CA 95064. ity it can't be obtained. Most pseudo- This article is based on a paper presented The first thing we need to do is to cre­ sciences are based on belief in a distant at the conference of the Committee for ate a phantom—an unavailable goal or phantom goal. Some examples of the Scientific Investigation of Claims of that looks real and possible; it looks as pseudoscience phantoms: meeting a the Paranormal, June 23-26, 1994, in if it might be obtained with just the space alien, contacting a dead relative Seattle, Washington. right effort, just the right belief, or just at a seance, receiving die wisdom of die

20 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 universe from a channeled dolphin, the inside it seems natural. Jones began believe. For example, practitioners of and improving one's bowling game or by having his followers make easy com­ alternative medicine often have overcoming the trauma of rape with a mitments (a gift to the church, attend­ "degrees" as chiropractors or in home­ subliminal tape. ing Wednesday night service) and then opathy. Subliminal tape sellers claim Phantoms can serve as effective increased the level of commitment— specialized knowledge and training in propaganda devices (Pratkanis and more tithes, more time in service, loy­ such arts as hypnosis. Advocates of Farquhar 1992). If I don't have a desired alty oaths, public admission of sins and UFO sightings often become directors phantom, I feel deprived and somehow punishment, selling of homes, forced of "research centers." "Psychic detec­ less of a person. A pseudoscientist can sex, moving to Guyana, and then the tives" come with long resumes of police take advantage of these feelings of infe­ suicide. Each step was really a small service. Prophets claim past successes. riority by appearing to offer a means to one. Outsiders saw the strange end- For example, most of us "know" that obtain that goal. In a rush to enhance product; insiders experienced an ever Jeane Dixon predicted the assassination self-esteem, we suspend better judg­ increasing spiral of escalating commit­ of President Kennedy but probably ment and readily accept the offering of ment. (See Pratkanis and Aronson don't know that she also predicted a the pseudoscience. 1992 for other tactics used by Jones.) Nixon win in 1960. As modern public relations has shown us, credibility is The trick, of course, is to get the This is a dramatic example, but not easier to manufacture than we might new seeker to believe that die phantom all belief in pseudoscience is so normally think (see Ailes 1988; Dilen- is possible. Often the mere mention of extreme. For example, there are those schneider 1990). the delights of a phantom will be who occasionally consult a psychic or enough to dazzle the new pseudo- listen to a subliminal tape. In such Source credibility is an effective science recruit (sec Lund's 1925 discus­ cases, commitment can be secured by propaganda device for at least two rea­ sion of wishful thinking). After all, who what social psychologists call the foot- sons. First, we often process persuasive wouldn't want a better sex life, better in-the-door technique (Freedman and messages in a half-mindless state— health, and peace of mind, all from a Fraser 1966). It works this way: You either because we are not motivated to $ 14.95 subliminal tape? The fear of loss start with a small request, such as think, don't have the time to consider, of a phantom also can motivate us to accepting a free chiropractic spine or lack the abilities to understand the accept it as real. The thought that I will exam (Barrett 1993a), taking a sample issues (Petty and Cacioppo 1986). In never speak again to a cherished but of vitamins, or completing a free per­ such cases, the presence of a credible dead loved one or that next month I sonality inventory. Then a larger source can lead one to quickly infer may die of cancer can be so painful as request follows—a $1,000 chiropractic that the message has merit and should to cause me to suspend my better judg­ realignment, a vitamin regime, or an be accepted. ment and hold out hope against hope expensive seminar series. The first that the medium can contact the dead small request sets the commitment: Second, source credibility can stop or that Laetrile works. But at times the Why did you get that bone exam, take questioning (Kramer and Alstad sell is harder, and that calls for our next those vitamins, or complete that test if 1993). After all, what gives you the set of persuasion tactics. you weren't interested and didn't think right to question a guru, a prophet, the there might be something to it? An all image of the Mother Mary, or a sincere too common response, "Well gosh, I seeker of life's hidden potentials? I'll clarify this point with an example. 2. Set a Rationalization Trap guess I am interested." The rationaliza­ tion trap is sprung. Suppose I told you that the following The rationalization trap is based on the statement is a prediction of the premise: Get the person committed to Now that we have secured the tar­ development of the atomic bomb and the cause as soon as possible. Once a get's commitment to a phantom goal, the fighter aircraft (see Hines 1988): commitment is made, the nature of we need some social support for the thought changes. The committed heart newfound pseudoscientific beliefs. They will think they have seen the is not so much interested in a careful The next tactics are designed to bolster Sun at night those beliefs. When they will see the pig half- evaluation of the merits of a course of man: action but in proving that he or she is Noise, song, battle fighting in the right. sky perceived. 3. Manufacture Source To see how commitment to a pseu­ And one will hear brute beasts Credibility and Sincerity doscience can be established, let's look talking. at a bizarre case—mass suicides at the Our third tactic is to manufacture direction of cult leader Jim Jones. This source credibility and sincerity. In other You probably would respond: "Huh? is the ultimate "holy cow" question: words, create a guru, leader, mystic, I don't see how you get the atomic "Why kill yourself and your children lord, or other generally likable and bomb from that. This could just as on another's command?" From outside powerful authority, one who people well be a prediction of an in-flight the cult, it appears strange, but from would be just plain nuts if they didn't showing of the Dr. Doolittle movie or

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 21 the advent of night baseball at Wrigley Ned? The group believes it is Uncle Ned. more sweetbreads (veal and beef organ field." However, attribute the state­ Rocking the boat would be impolite. meats) by having them form groups to ment to Nostradamus and the dynam­ Besides, 1 came here to be a seeker." discuss how they could persuade others ics change. Nostradamus was a man Essential to the success of the gran­ to eat sweetbreads. who supposedly cured plague victims, falloon tactic is the creation of a shared Retailers selling so-called nutri­ predicted who would be pope, fore­ social identity. In creating this iden­ tional products have discovered this told the future of kings and queens, tity, here are some things you might technique by turning customers into and even found a poor dog lost by the want to include: salespersons (Jarvis and Barrett 1993). king's page (Randi 1993). Such a great (a) rituals and symbols (e.g., a dows­ To create a multilevel sales organiza­ seer and prophet can't be wrong. The er's rod, secret symbols, and special tion, the "nutrition" retailer recruits implied message: The problem is with ways of preparing food): these not only customers (who recruit still more cus­ you; instead of questioning, why don't create an identity, but provide items for tomers) to serve as sales agents for the you suspend your faulty, linear mind sale at a profit. product. Customers are recruited as a until you gain the needed insight? (b) jargon and beliefs that only the test of their belief in the product or in-group understands and accepts (e.g., with the hope of making lots of money thetans are impeded by engrams, you (often to buy more products). By try­ 4. Establish a Granfalloon are on a cusp with Jupiter rising): jar­ ing to sell the product, the customer- Where would a leader be without gon is an effective means of social con­ turned-salesperson becomes more con­ something to lead? Our next tactic trol since it can be used to frame the vinced of its worth. One multilevel supplies the answer: Establish what interpretation of events. leader tells his new sales agents to Kurt Vonnegut (1976) terms a "gran­ (c) shared goals (e.g., to end all war, "answer all objections with testimoni­ falloon," a proud and meaningless to sell the faith and related products, or als. That's the secret to motivating peo­ association of human beings. One of to realize one's human potential): such ple" (Jarvis and Barrett 1993), and it is social psychology's most remarkable goals not only define the group, but also the secret to convincing yourself. findings is the ease with which granfal- motivate action as believers attempt to loons can be created. For example, the reach them. 6. Construct Vivid Appeals social psychologist Henri Tajfel merely (d) shared feelings (e.g., the excite­ brought subjects into his lab, flipped a ment of a prophecy that might appear Joseph Stalin once remarked: "The coin, and randomly assigned them to to be true or the collective rationaliza­ death of a single Russian soldier is a be labeled either Xs or Ws (Tajfel tion of strange beliefs to others): shared tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic." 1981; Turner 1987). At the end of the feelings aid in the we feeling. (See Nisbett and Ross 1980.) In other study, total strangers were acting as if (e) specialized information (e.g., the words, a vividly presented case study or those in their granfalloon were their U.S. government is in a conspiracy to example can make a lasting impression. close kin and those in the other group were their worst enemies. cover up UFOs): this helps the target For example, the pseudosciences are feel special because he or she is "in the replete with graphic stories of ships Granfalloons are powerful propa­ know." and planes caught in the Bermuda ganda devices because they are easy to (f) enemies (e.g., alternative medi­ Triangle, space aliens examining the create and, once established, die gran­ cine opposing the AMA and the FDA, sexual parts of humans, weird goings- falloon defines social reality and main­ subliminal-tape companies spurning on in Borley Rectory or Amityville, tains social identities. Information is academic psychologists, and spiritual­ New York, and psychic surgeons re­ dependent on the granfalloon. Since ists condemning Randi and other moving cancerous tumors, most granfalloons quickly develop out- investigators): enemies are very impor­ A vivid presentation is likely to be groups, criticisms can be attributed to tant because you as a pseudoscientist very memorable and hard to refute. those "evil ones" outside the group, will need scapegoats to blame for your No matter how many logical argu­ who are thus stifled. To maintain a problems and failures. ments can be mustered to counter the desired social identity, such as that of a pseudoscience claim, there remains seeker or a New Age rebel, one must that one graphic incident that comes obey the dictates of the granfalloon 5. Use Self-Generated Persuasion quickly to mind to prompt the and its leaders. Another tactic for promoting pseudo- response: "Yeah, but what about that The classic seance can be viewed as science and one of the most powerful haunted house in New York? Hard to an ad-hoc granfalloon. Note what hap­ tactics identified by social psycholo­ explain that." By the way, one of the pens as you sit in the dark and hear a gists is self-generated persuasion—the best ways to counter a vivid appeal is thud. You are dependent on the group subtle design of the situation so that with an equally vivid counter appeal. led by a medium for the interpretation the targets persuade themselves. For example, to counter stories about of this sound. "What is it? A knee During World War II, Kurt Lewin psychic surgeons in the Philippines, against the table or my long lost Uncle (1947) was able to get Americans to eat Randi (1982a) tells an equally vivid

22 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 story of a psychic surgeon palming lead people to think that subliminal because politicians are corrupt (assum­ chicken guts and then pretending to tapes work when in fact they do not ing political corruption is a widely remove diem from a sick and now less (Greenwald, Spangenberg, Pratkanis, accepted belief). Heuristics and com­ wealthy patient. and Eskenazi 1991; Pratkanis, monplaces gain their power because they are widely accepted and thus Eskenazi, and Greenwald 1994; for a induce little thought about whether summary see Pratkanis 1992). In our the rule or argument is appropriate. 7. Use Pre-persuasion study, expectations were established by Pre-persuasion is defining the situation mislabeling half the tapes (e.g., some To sell a pseudoscience, liberally or setting the stage so you win, and subjects thought they had a subliminal sprinkle your appeal this heuristics sometimes without raising so much as tape to improve memory but really had and commonplaces. Here are some a valid argument. How does one do one designed to increase self-esteem). common examples. The results showed that about half the this? At least three steps are important. (a) The scarcity heuristic, or if it is subjects thought they improved First, establish the nature of die rare it is valuable. The Psychic Friends (though they did not) based on how issue. For example, to avoid the wrath Network costs a pricey $3-95 a minute the tape was labeled (and not the actual of die FDA, advocates of alternative and therefore must be valuable. On the content). The label led them to inter­ medicine define the issue as health other hand, an average University of pret their behavior in support of expec­ California professor goes for about 27 freedom (you should have the right to tations, or what we termed an "illusory cents per minute and is thus of little value.' the health alternative of your choice) as placebo" effect. opposed to consumer protection or quality care. If die issue is defined as A third way to pre-persuade is to (b) The consensus or bandwagon freedom, the alternative medicine specify the decision criteria. For exam­ heuristic, or if everyone agrees it must advocate will win because "Who is ple, psychic supporters have developed be true. Subliminal tapes, psychic opposed to freedom?" Another exam­ guidelines on what should be viewed as phone ads, and quack medicine (Jarvis ple of this technique is to create a prob­ acceptable evidence for paranormal and Barrett 1993) feature testimonials lem or disease, such as reactive hypo­ abilities—such as using personal expe­ of people who have found what they glycemia or yeast allergy, that then just riences as data, placing the burden of are looking for (see Hyman 1993 for a happens to be "curable" with whatever proof on the critic and not the claimant critique of this practice). quackery you have to sell (Jarvis and Barrett 1993). "Source credibility tan stop questioning. Another way to define an issue is After all, what gives you the right to question a through differentiation. Subliminal- tape companies use product differenti­ guru, a prophet, the Image of the Mother Mary, ation to respond to negative sublimi­ or a sincere seeker of life's hidden potentials?" nal-tape studies. The claim: "Our tapes have a special technique that makes (sec Beloff 1985), and above all else (c) The message length heuristic, or them superior to other tapes that have keeping James Randi and other psi- if die message is long it is strong. been used in studies that failed to show inhibitors out of the testing room. Subliminal-tape brochures often list the therapeutic value of subliminal Accept these criteria and one must con­ hundreds of subliminal studies in sup­ tapes." Thus, null results are used to clude that psi is a reality. The collabora­ port of their claims. Yet most of these make a given subliminal tape look tion of Hyman and Honorton is one studies do not deal with subliminal superior. The psychic network has positive attempt to establish a fair play­ influence and thus are irrelevant. An taken a similar approach—"Tired of ing field (Hyman and Honorton 1986). uninformed observer would be im­ those phoney psychics? Ours are certi­ pressed by the weight of the evidence. (d) The representative heuristic or if an fied," says the advertisement. 8. Frequently Use Heuristics object resembles another (on some salient Second, set expectations. Expec­ and Commonplaces tations can lead us to interpret ambigu­ dimension) then they act similarly. For ous information in a way that supports My next recommendation to the example, in folk medicines die cure an original hypothesis (Greenwald, would-be pseudoscientist is to use often resembles die apparent cause of die Pratkanis, Leippe, and Baumgardner heuristics and commonplaces. Heur­ disease. Homeopathy is based on die 1986). For example, a belief in the istics are simple if-then rules or norms notion that small amounts of substances that can cause a diseases symptoms will Bermuda Triangle may lead us to inter­ that are widely accepted; for example, cure the disease (Barrett 1993b). The pret a plane crash off the coast of New if it costs more it must be more valu­ Chinese Doctrine of Signatures claims York City as evidence for the Triangle's able. Commonplaces arc widely that similarity of shape and form deter­ sinister effects (Kusche 1986; Randi accepted beliefs that can serve as the mine therapeutic value; thus rhinoceros 1982a). We recently conducted a study basis of an appeal; for example, govern­ horns, deer antlers, and ginseng root that showed how an expectation can ment health-reform should be rejected

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 23 look phallic and supposedly improve out should science fail to promote the of Uri Geller as "a powerful psychic vitality (Tyler 1993). pseudoscience. trying to convince the world that such (e) The natural commonplace, or powers don't exist so he can take the what is natural is good and what is lead role in the psychic world" (Hines 9. Attack Opponents made by humans is bad. Alternative 1988: 91). Through Innuendo and medicines are promoted with the word Why is innuendo such a powerful Character Assassination "natural." Psychic abilities are por­ propaganda device? Social psycholo­ trayed as natural, but lost, abilities. Finally, you would like your pseudo- gists point to three classes of answers. Organic food is natural. Of course science to be safe from harm and exter­ First, innuendoes change the agenda of mistletoe berries are natural too, and I nal attack. Given that die best defense discussion. Note the "new" discussion don't recommend a steady diet of these is a good offense, I offer the advice of on subliminal tapes isn't about whether morsels. Cicero: "If you don't have a good argu­ these tapes are worth your money or (f) The goddess-within common­ ment, attack the plaintiff." not. Instead, we are discussing whether place, or humans have a spiritual side Let me give a personal example of I am ethical or not, whether I am a that is neglected by modern materialis­ this tactic in action. After our research competent researcher, and whether I tic science. This commonplace stems showing that subliminal tapes have no even did the research. from the medieval notion of the soul, therapeutic value was reported, my co­ Second, innuendoes raise a glimmer which was modernized by Mesmer as authors, Tony Greenwald, Eric Span- of doubt about the character of the per­ animal magnetism and then converted genberg, and Jay Eskenazi, and I were son under attack. That doubt can be by psychoanalysis into the powerful, die target of many innuendoes. One especially powerful when there is little other information on which to base a hidden unconscious (see Fuller 1982, subliminal newsletter edited by Eldon judgment. For example, the average 1986). Pseudoscience plays to this Taylor, Michael Urban, and others (see reader of the subliminal newsletter I commonplace by offering ways to tap the International Society of Peripheral quoted probably knows little about the unconscious, such as subliminal Learning Specialist! Newsletter, August me—knows little about the research tapes, to prove this hidden power exists 1991) claimed that our research was a and little about die peer review process through extrasensory perception (ESP) marketing study designed not to test that evaluated it, and doesn't know that and psi, or to talk with the remnants of die tapes but to "demonstrate the I make my living from teaching college this hidden spirituality through chan­ influence of marketing practices on and not from die sale of subliminal neling and the stance. consumer perceptions." The article tapes. This average reader is left with (g) The science commonplaces. points out that the entire body of data the impression of an unethical and Pseudosciences use the word "science" presented by Greenwald represents a incompetent scientist who is out of in a contradictory manner. On the one marketing dissertation by Spangenberg control. Who in their right mind would hand, the word "science" is sprinkled and questions why Greenwald is even accept what that person has to say? liberally throughout most pseudo- an author. The newsletter makes other sciences: subliminal tapes make use of attacks as well, claiming that our Finally, innuendoes can have a chill­ die "latest scientific technology"; psy­ research design lacked a control group, ing effect (Kurtz 1992). The recipient chics are "scientifically tested"; health that we really found significant effects begins to wonder about his or her rep­ fads are "on the cutting edge of sci­ of the tapes, that we violated American utation and whether the fight is worth ence." On the other hand, science is Psychological Association ethics with a it. The frivolous lawsuit is an effective often portrayed as limited. For exam­ hint that an investigation would fol­ way to magnify this chilling effect. ple, one article in 5^f magazine (Sharp low, dial we prematurely reported our 1993) reported our subliminal-tapes findings in a manner similar to those Can Science Be Sold studies (Greenwald et al. 1992; who prematurely announced cold with Propaganda? Pratkanis et al. 1994) showing no evi­ fusion, and that we were conducting a dence that the tapes worked and then "Willistatede Horton"-styl: "Tape makere smeas disputr campaige the objecn ­ I would be remiss if I didn't address tivity of the studies. They also point against those who seek to help one more issue: Can we sell science out that science can't always explain the Americans achieve their personal goals. with the persuasion tactics of pseudo- results of mainstream medicine either" Many skeptics can point to similar science? Let's be honest; science some­ (p. 194). In each case a commonplace types of attacks. In the fourteenth cen­ times uses these tactics. For example, I about science is used: (1) "Science is tury, Bishop Pierre d'Arcis, one of the carry in my wallet a membership card powerful" and (2) "Science is limited first to contest die authenticity of the to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with a and can't replace the personal." The Shroud of Turin, was accused by picture of the cutest little otter you'll selective use of these commonplaces shroud promoters as being motivated ever see. I am in the otter granfalloon. allows a pseudoscience to claim the by jealousy and a desire to possess the On some occasions skeptics have power of science but have a convenient shroud (Nickell 1983: 15). Today, played a little loose with their argu­ James Randi is described by supporters ments and their name-calling. As just

24 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 one example, see George Prices (1955) Books. paranormal. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 16, 381- Science article attacking Rhine's and . 1993b. "Homeopathy: Is it Medicine?" 388. In The Health Robbers, ed. by S. Barren and Lewin, K. 1947. "Group Decision and Social Sods work on ESP—an attack that W. T. Jarvis, 191-202. Buffalo, N.Y.: Change." In Readings in Social Psychology ed. went well beyond the then available Prometheus Books. by T. M. Newcomb and E. L Hartley, 330- data. (See Hyman's [1985] discussion.) Beloff J. 1985. "What Is Your Counter-expla­ 344. New York: Holt. I can somewhat understand the use nation? A Plea to Skeptics to Think Again." Lund, F. H. 1925. The psychology of belief. In A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology, ed. of such tactics. If a cute otter can Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 20: by P. Kurtz, 359-377. Buffalo. N.Y.: Pro­ 63-81. 174-196. inspire a young child to seek to under­ metheus Books. Nickell. J. 1983. Inquest on the Shroud of Turin. stand nature, then so be it. But we Blackmore, S. 1992. Psychic experiences: Buffalo, N.Y: Prometheus Books. should remember that such tactics can Psychic illusions. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 16: . 1993- Looking for a Miracle. Buffalo, be ineffective in promoting science if 367-376. N.Y: Prometheus Books. Cialdini, R. B. 1984. Influence. New York: they are not followed up by involve­ Nisberr, R., and L. Ross. 1980. Human William Morrow. Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of ment in the process of science—the Culver, R. B., and P A. lanna. 1988. Astrology: Social Judgment. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: process of questioning and discovering. True or False! Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Prentice-Hall. And we should be mindful that the use Books. Padgett, V. R., and D. O. Jorgenson. 1982. of propaganda techniques has its costs. Dilcnschneider. R. L. 1990. Power and Influence. Superstition and economic threat: Germany If we base our claims on cheap propa­ New York: Prentice-Hall. 1918-1940. Personality and Social Psychology Feynman, R. P. 1985. Surely You're Joking Mr. ganda tactics, then it is an easy task for Bulletin.*. 736-741. Feynman. New York: Bantam Books. Petty, R. E.. and J. T. Cacioppo. 1986. Com­ the pseudoscientist to develop even Freedman, J., and S. Fraser. 1966. Compliance munication and Persuasion: Central and more effective propaganda tactics and without pressure: The foot-in-the-door tech­ Peripheral Routes to Altitude Change. New carry the day. nique. Journal of Personality and Social York: Springer-Verlag. Psychology, 4: 195-202. Pratkanis, A. R. 1992. The cargo-cult science of More fundamentally, propaganda Fuller, R. C. 1982. Mesmerism and the American subliminal persuasion. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, works best when we are half mindless, Cure of Souls. Philadelphia: University of 16: 260-272. simplistic thinkers trying to rationalize Pennsylvania Press. Pratkanis, A. R-, and E. Aronson. 1992. Age of our behavior and beliefs to ourselves . 1986. Americans and the Unconscious. Propaganda: Everyday Use and Abuse of New York: Oxford University Press. Persuasion. New York: W H. Freeman. and others. Science works best when we Gilovich, T. 1991. How We Know What Isn't So. Pratkanis, A. R . J. Eskenazi, and A. G. Greenwald. 1994. What you expect is what you are thoughtful and critical and scruti­ New York: Free Press. believe (but not necessarily what you get): A nize claims carefully. Our job should be Greenwald. A. G., E. R. Spangenberg, A. R. test of the effectiveness of subliminal self- Pratkanis, and J. Eskenazi. 1991. Double- to promote such thought and scrutiny. help audiotapes. Basic and Applied Social blind tests of subliminal self-help audiotapes. We should be careful to select our per­ Psychology 15:251-276. Psychological Science. 2: 119-122. suasion strategies to be consistent with Greenwald, A. G., A. R. Pratkanis, M. R. Leippe, Pratkanis. A. R-, and P. H. Farquhar. 1992. A that god. and M. H. Baumgardner. 1986. Under what brief history of research on phantom alterna­ conditions docs theory obstruct research tives: Evidence for seven empirical general­ progress? Psychological Review. 93: 216-229. izations about phantoms. Basic and Applied Notes Hines, T. 1988. Pseudoscience and the Para­ Social Psychology 13: 103-122. normal. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. Price, G. R. 1955. Science and the supernatural. I thank Craig Abbott, Elizabeth A. Turner, and Hyman. R. 1985. "A Critical Historical Over­ Science. 122:359-367. Marlene E. Turner for helpful comments on an view of Parapsychology." In A Skeptic's Randi. J. 1982a. Flim-Flam! Buffalo, N.Y.: earlier draft of this article. Handbook of Parapsychology, ed. by P. Kurtz. Prometheus Books. 3-96. Buffalo. N.Y.: Prometheus Books. I. Based on 50 weeks a year a! an average . 1982b. The Truth About Uri Geller. salary of $49,000 and a work week of 61 hours . 1993. Occult health practices. In The Buffalo, N.Y: Prometheus Books. (as reported in recent surveys of the average UC Health Robbers, ed. by S. Barrett and W. T. . 1989. The Faith Healers. Buffalo. N.Y: faculty work load). Assuming a work week of 40 Jarvis. 55-66. Buffalo, N.Y: Prometheus Prometheus Books. hours, the average faculty makes 41 cents a Books. . 1993. The Mask of Nostradamus. minute. Hyman, R., and C. Honorton. 1986. A joint Buffalo, N.Y: Prometheus Books. communique: The Psi Ganzfeld controversy. Sharp, K. 1993- The new hidden persuaders. Journal of Parapsychology. 56: 351-364. Self, March, pp. 174-175, 194. References Jarvis, W. T. and S. Barren. 1993. "How Tajfel, H. 1981. Human Groups and Social Quackery Sells." In The Health Robbers, cd. Categories. Cambridge. U.K.: Cambridge Ailes. R. 1988. You Are the Mesu^. New York; by S. Barrett and W. T Jarvis. 1-22. Buffalo, University Press. Doubleday. N.Y.: Prometheus Books. Turner. J. C. 1987. Rediscovering the Social Aronson, E. 1992. The Social Ammal 6th cd. Kramer, J., and D. Alstad. 1993. The Guru Group. New York: Blackwell. New York: W. H. Freeman. Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power. Tyler. V. E. 1993- "The Overselling of Herbs." In Aronson. E, and A. R. Pratkanis. 1993. "What Berkeley. Calif.: North Atlantic Books/ Tie Health Robbers, ed. by S. Barrett and Is Social Psychology?" In Socio! Psychology. Frog Ltd. W T. Jarvis. 213-224. Buffalo. NY: Pro­ vol. 1. ed. by E Aronson and A. R. Pratkanis, Kurtz, P 1992. On being sued: The chilling of metheus Books. xiii-xx. Cheltenham. Gloucestershire: freedom of expression. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Victor. J. S. 1993. Satanic Panic: The Creation Edward Elgar Publishing. 16: 114-117. of a Contemporary Legend. Chicago. III.: Barren. S. 1993a "The Spine Salesmen." In The Kusche. L 1986. The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Open Court. Health Robbers, ed. by S. Barrett and W. T. Solved Buffalo. N.Y.: Prometheus Books. Vonnegut, K. 1976. Wampeters. Foma, and Jarvis. 161-190. Buffalo. N.Y.: Prometheus Lett. J. 1992. The persistent popularity of the Granfalloons New York: Dell. D

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 25 Rumors, self-fulfilling Prophecies and National Obsessions

JOHN ALLEN PAULOS

athematical naivete can put readers at

a disadvantage in thinking about Mmany issues in the news that may seem on the surface not to involve mathematics at all. I

investigate the mathematical angles of some of these in

my new book, A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

When tacts are missing (Basic Books, New York, 1995). from news reports, The book demonstrates how the notions of probabil­ individuals and societies fill in the gaps with their ity and randomness can enhance articles on crime, health own fantasies. risks, and racial or ethnic bias; how logic and self-refer­

ence may help to clarify die hazards of celebrity and

spin-doctoring; how simple arithmetic is sufficient to

point up consumer fallacies and sports myths; how chaos

and nonlinear dynamics underline how difficult and fre­

quently worthless economic and environmental predic­

tion is; and how mathematically pertinent notions from

philosophy and psychology provide perspective on a

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 variety of public issues from abortion you might want to play if you have a inane I Ching sayings and ambiguous to gun control. friend you'd like to shed, one person is horoscopes seem to many to be so apt. But what about the specific con­ selected from the group and asked to Their aptness is self-provided. In effect, cerns of the Committee for the leave the room. He (or she) is told that their cryptic obscurity provides a ran­ Scientific Investigation of Claims of the in his absence one of the other parry- dom set of "answers" that the devotee Paranormal? One of these is certainly goers will relate a recent dream to the fabricates into something seemingly an uncritical receptivity to the mean­ party. The person selected then returns appropriate and useful. With perhaps a ingless coincidences and incongruities to the parry and, through a sequence of bit more justification, psychologists that permeate any newspaper. Related yes-or-no questions directed to the count on the amorphousness of is a tendency to impose order and group, attempts to accomplish two Rorschach inkblots to elicit evidence of a person's core concerns. meaning where there is none, to see evi­ things: reconstruct the dream and dence for preconceived biases where identify whose dream it was. At the risk of stretching the point, I tiiere is none. The O.J. saga is an obvi­ The punch line is that no one has suppose that a phenomenon some­ ous example. So is the case of the "toxic related any dream. The party-goers thing like the one above takes place for lady." Another possible instance is the agree to respond either yes or no to the larger groups of people as well. Florida dentist who allegedly infected victim's questions according to some Societies do not possess minds, of six of his patients with HIV. An inves­ arbitrary rule. Dennett suggests having course, but in times of crisis—war, tigation of the story by Stephen Barr in their answers be determined by stock frenzy, pestilence, riot—they do Lear's magazine and an excerpt in a develop a primitive sort of cohesive- New York Times Op-Ed in March 1994 whether the last letter in the last word of the question is from the beginning ness, a quasi-consciousness approach­ revealed a number of lacunae in the ing, perhaps, that of a mentally handi­ or the end of the alphabet. Any rule case against the dentist. It appears that capped person in a deep drug-induced will do, however, and may be supple­ some, if not all, of the victims had other stupor. Because of the stress on it, such mented by a noncontradiction clause risk factors that might have exposed a society will have indefinite fears, stipulating that no answer directly con­ them to the virus. And the test used to hopes, and anxieties, but its contact tradict an earlier one. determine if two strains of the virus are the same is still controversial and witnoth reality will be quite tenuous. widely accepted. Furthermore, the rate The surprising result is that the vic­ of HIV infection among the dentist's tim, impelled by his own obsessions, Reporting during a war or other cri­ thousands of patients was only slightly often constructs an outlandish and sis is, for a variety of reasons, higher than the rate in the two counties obscene dream in response to the ran­ deplorably shoddy. For this reason, the from which the patients came. The dom answers he elicits. He may also news the society does get is vague and dentist, in fact, may have been a victim think he knows whose dream it was, but generic and allows ample room for the of the unreasoning fear induced by the then the ruse is revealed to him. societal analogue of dreams and hallu­ AIDS epidemic. Technically the dream has no author, cinations to develop. Societies without but in a sense it is the victim himself. His a free press and a literate population are especially vulnerable. A recent preoccupations dictate his questions, example is Guatemala, where peasants Whether so or not, philosopher which, even if answered negatively at have seriously injured Western women Daniel C. Dennett, in his book first, will frequently receive a positive thought to be kidnapping their babies. Consciousness Explained, describes a response in later reformulations. These Another is Rwanda, where terrifying party game that I believe provides a positive responses are then pursued. somewhat unusual slant on this and rumors and radio broadcasts inflamed There is a body of experiment that and exacerbated an already terrifying other cases in which there is an element seems to support the thesis that dreams of self-fulfilling prophecy. (Dennett situation. And the O.J. spectacle must and hallucinations can be explained in be mentioned again; even in this coun­ uses it to bolster his theory of mind.) A part by a variant of this party game. In familiar variant of the game requires try and in the glare of almost unprece­ both phenomena, a person's hypothe­ that one try to determine by means of dented public scrutiny, it has inspired sis-generating ability is intact, but the yes-or-no questions an arbitrary num­ countless unfounded rumors. ability to test or falsify these hypothe­ ber between one and one million. In ses is impaired by drugs, sensory depri­ Ambiguity, randomness, and lack of this more interesting version, which vation, or unconsciousness. The result information in response to obsessive is a more or less random sequence of questions and concerns can, on a group John Allen Paulos. professor of mathe­ "answers" to the questions posed level, breed delusions and mirages in matics at Temple University and a implicitly during the dream or halluci­ the same way that the party game Fellow of CSICOP. is the author of the nation. Unencumbered by any critical induces the victim to concoct his own best-seller Innumeracy and of the newly reality checks, this random set of chimerical fantasy. Unfortunately, published A Mathematician Reads the answers allows the dreamer or halluci- informative, skeptical, fastidious reporting is most needed when it's least Newspaper (Basic Boob, New York), nator to fashion his own construction. likely to be forthcoming. • from which this article was adapted A similar argument helps clarify why

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 27 Rose Mackenberg: Crusader Against Spiritualist Fraud

LOREN PANKRATZ

nadvertently I discovered an article clipped from

an Australian magazine about Rose Mackenberg. IThe article stated that Mackenberg once worked for Houdini. Following his death she pursued fraudulent

mediums for more than 20 years. It occurred to me that

A remarkable woman I had never seen an expose1 of psychic fraud by a woman.

joined forces with I searched my library on spiritualism and found only the Houdini in exposing writings of Amy Tanner, who had worked as an assistant psychic frauds. After his death she carried on the to psychologist G. Stanley Hall. Her Studies in Spiritism campaign for another (recently reprinted by Prometheus) exposed spirit medi­

20 years. um Leonora Piper.

To find more on Rose Mackenberg, I consulted my

favorite guide to the psychic underworld, Joseph Rinn's

Sixty Years of Psychical Research (1950). Sure enough,

there she was. However, I was surprised to discover how

little attention he gave her, considering they were both

involved in the same campaign. Her work is also men-

28 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 The levitation of a table is one of the oldest, yet one of The trumpet hangs miraculously in space—with an assist the most effective, devices of the fraudulent spiritualist's from the medium's accomplice—and spirit voices fill the spooky routine. Note the stick in Rose Mackenberg's air. Mackenberg's altered voice through her cupped hand glove, which is the gimmick of the trick. completes this illusion. tioned in other books on Houdini—S. challenged by spiritualist Lerty After Houdini's death, Mackenberg Frikell's Spirit Mediums Exposed (1930) Leveyne and her son, but they refused decided to carry on the campaign and Milbourne Christophers Houdini: to come on stage. After some vigorous alone. She began a lecture tour, The Untold Story (1969)—and she banter, Houdini called Rose to the demonstrating the tricks of mediums received considerable newspaper cover­ stage. She revealed that Leveyne had to service clubs and organizations. She age during her travels. produced a message for her from her floated trumpets, produced ectoplasm, In 1925 Rose Mackenberg was a departed husband and son. Unfor­ and read sealed messages. She showed young private detective in New York. A tunately, Rose had never married. the advertisements for luminous paint banker sought her services after he Then she showed her own charter for a in the trade magazines of spiritualists. invested institutional money in worth­ Spiritualist Church, which she had As Mackenberg became well known less stocks on the advice of a medium. purchased from the Massachusetts among spiritualists, she resorted to an Mackenberg boldly consulted Harry State Association for $ 13. Members of impressive array of disguises: sorrowing Houdini, who at the time was con­ Houdini's staff nicknamed Rose "The widow, farmer's wife, domestic servant, ducting crusades against false medi­ Rev," because she had so many minis­ and wealthy eccentric. She once de­ ums. He gave her die advice she need­ terial credentials from spiritualist clared that marriages must be made in ed to trap and convict the woman. churches ("Some Recollections of heaven because she had received mes­ Houdini was impressed with Houdini," Mystifier, 3[3]:2-4, 1993). sages from 1,500 departed "husbands." Mackenberg, and he persuaded her to In 1926 Mackenberg testified with She mused ironically that not one spir­ join forces with him. Mackenberg trav­ Houdini before a Congressional com­ it ever whispered to a medium: "Psst! eled with his troupe, visiting psychics mittee that was considering a bill to That woman is Rose Mackenberg, the in the cities where he performed. prohibit fortune-telling for fees in the debunker of our business!" Sometimes she had help from District of Columbia. Mackenberg In the course of her career Houdini's young niece and secretary, described many sordid experiences Mackenberg investigated psychics for Julia Sawyer. The two of them were a with mediums, including a diagnosis police, private agencies, and insurance convincing pair. of cancer, sexual improprieties, and companies. She appeared in court on Houdini's stage performances were encouragement to invest in worthless scores of occasions as an expert witness usually concluded with exposures of stocks. She said that Jane Coates, a in criminal and civil lawsuits. Her cre­ fraudulent spiritualists. As a typical medium, had declared that table-tip­ dentials were impressive. She had grad­ example, in Worcester, Massachusetts, ping stances were held in the uated from schools for mediums and he had given $10,000 in bonds to the Coolidge White House and that she was ordained in spiritualist churches. mayor as a prize for any medium who (Coates) was consulted by senators for "They asked me no questions as to could produce a single genuine mani­ readings. Coates interrupted the pro­ whether I was sincere or not. All they festation. One night he was verbally ceedings with shrill denials. A shout­ were interested in was the amount of ing match broke out, with Houdini in money I could pay them," she said. Loren Pankratz is a consultation psychol­ the middle of the hordes of mediums The findings of Rose Mackenberg ogist at the Veterans Administration and clairvoyants. Finally, when fist have strengthened my opinion that Medical Center, Portland OR 97207. fights erupted the police were called spiritualism was not merely a silly fad. and a professor. Departments of Psy­ ("Under the Shadow of the White Most spiritualist practitioners were chiatry and Medical Psychology, Oregon House," New York Times, May 19, morally corrupt and based their pre­ Health Sciences University 1926, p. 26). sentations on fraud.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 29 Did the Moon Sink the Titanic? Astrology, Lunar Phases, and Maritime Disasters

RICHARD L. BRANHAM, JR.

hat celestial bodies are related to earthly

affairs constitutes the central thesis of Tastrology. That celestial influences exist cannot be doubted; one only need consider the tides.

But that these influences include determining a person's Do certain planetary alignments induce character and fate and extend to such matters as disasters maritime disasters? is highly doubtful. The moon in particular has often

Does the moon play a been associated with abnormal behavior, of which were­ nefarious role? wolves represent an extreme, and various sorts of may­ These assumptions are tested against dates of hem; the very word lunatic derives from the supposed 1,457 marine disasters baleful effects of the moon.

from 1523 to 1976 Statistical tests have been applied to verify these asser­

tions, with predominantly negative results. The pages of

the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER and other journals contain

numerous articles demonstrating the falsity of astrology

and abnormal lunar influences. Kelly, Laverty, and

Saklofske (1990) found no evidence for a relationship

30 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 between 364 automobile disasters years represents one disaster worldwide over a 22-year period and every four months, but the the synodic lunar cycle, the distance of distribution of dates is far the moon from the earth, or the lunar- from uniform. Only 78 solar tidal pull. Similarly, Kelly, occurred before 1800, and Saklofske, and Culver (1990) found no the test afterwards. Taking correlation between lunar phase and this into account, the real various types of disasters worldwide. distribution is closer to one Their study, however, is somewhat lim­ disaster every month and a ited, as they admit, because of die rela­ half. A selection effect—bet­ tively small number of each type of ter reporting of disasters in disaster, such as 89 maritime disasters the modern era—rather than between 1854 and 1987. a genuine difference in the distribution most likely In this study, I investigated only explains the pre- and post- maritime disasters, but included a large 1800 variation. Spectral number. Nash (1976) has catalogued analysis is a powerful statisti­ disasters worldwide, where "disaster" is cal technique for detecting defined as an accident with 20 or more periodicities in data with fatalities. From his compendium, I errors. The density of disas­ selected 1,457 maritime disasters ters is too low to apply spec­ occurring between 1523 and 1976. tral analysis to find correla­ Wartime sinkings caused by enemy tions with lunar phase, but action were excluded because military more than sufficient to look operations are often planned with the for possible planetary corre­ effect of moonlight or tides in mind. lations. The attack on Pearl Harbor took place component of the spectrum, more when the moon was bright enough to According to astrology, certain than four times stronger than the allow nocturnal operations of the task planets induce malevolent effects and strongest of the secondary compo- force (Prange 1981). To include others induce beneficent wartime sinkings would introduce an ones. Uranus, for example, NUMBER Of DISASTERS obvious bias into die results. J6 is considered to be a malef­ The dates of 26 of the disasters had ic planet associated particu­ to be adjusted to allow for die differ­ larly with disasters (Heindel ence between the Julian and the 1928). A correlation with Gregorian calendars. All but one of the Uranus's orbital period of sinkings involved English or Spanish 84 years or synodic period vessels. Spain adopted the Gregorian of 367 days (the planet as calendar in 1582, England in 1752. All viewed from Earth returns dates prior to these were corrected. The to the same position with lone exception was a Dutch ship sunk respect to the sun) should J LI I II I I II I II 1lul1 11l1 L August 15, 1654. The Catholic states manifest itself. Certain con­ of Holland adopted the Gregorian cal­ figurations of the planets, YEARS 1B2S-T760 endar during 1582 and 1583; the called aspects, are also said NUMBER Of DISASTERS Protestant states, during 1700 and to be malefic or benefic. A 1701. I assumed that the date was conjunction, a malefic Julian and corrected it, although the aspect, of Saturn (another conclusions of the study are unaffected malefic planet) with by correcting or not correcting any of Uranus, a configuration these dates. Figure 1 shows the distrib­ that occurs roughly every ution of the disasters with time. 45 years, should be especial­ ly evident. A total of 1,457 disasters in 454 Unfortunately for astrol­ Richard L. Bran ham, Jr., is Head. ogy, the spectrum of the Mathematics Area, Regional Center for dates of maritime disasters YEARS ITH-IS7S Scientific and Technological Research shows no evidence of any FIGURE 1. Distribution of maritime disasters with (CRICYT). 5500 Mendoza, Argentina. periodicity. The principal time.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 31 POWER SPECTRUM cal details, often confusing between lunar phase and maritime dis­ and perhaps even boring to asters I associated the date of each dis­ the uninitiated, algorithms aster with the corresponding day of the for spectral analysis fall into synodic lunar cycle (the cycle of lunar various categories. The one phases) and performed a standard chi- I used is called the peri- square test. The mean synodic lunar odogram, or direct, cycle is 29.53 days, with a variation method. Other methods ate from 29.27 days to 29.83 days. For this available: correlation trans­ study I discretized the cycle as either form, fast Fourier transform exactly 29 days or 30 days, with day 0

40 SO [FFT], maximum entropy. I corresponding with the new moon. PERIOD IN YEARS also tried the correlation Figure 3 shows the frequency of disas­ Figure 2. Power spectrum of maritime disasters, transform and FFT meth­ ters with lunar phase. Of the 5,642 showing lack of periodicity in the data. ods. Regardless of the actual lunar cycles in the interval under study, method used, the conclu­ 2,650 are of 29 days and 2,992 are of sion remains that the prin­ 30 days. This must be taken into NUMBER OF DISASTERS 70 cipal component represents account when calculating the x2 statis­ white noise. Depending on tic over all lunar phases, otherwise day :\ the details of how the analy­ 29 of the lunar cycle contains too sis is done, anywhere from many disasters and day 30 too few. 55 percent to 70 percent of Because for many the supposed the spectrum—"power," in deleterious effects of the moon occur ao the terminology of spectral only near the full moon—were- analysis—falls into the wolfism, for example—the first \* only white noise component. considered the 11 days centered on full Aside from the component moon; the 5 days before the lunar 10 16 20 adjacent to the white noise DAY OF LUNAR CYCLE phase day of full moon, the day of full component, which receives moon, and the 5 days after the lunar Figure 3. Distribution of maritime disasters ver­ significant leakage from the phase day of full moon. With n = 436, sus lunar phase. Day 0 corresponds to new white noise—see Figure 2 moon and day 14 to full moon. What appears the calculated statistic is x = 7.48, p = to be a dip near full moon is only of marginal 2—none of the secondary 0.587, df (degrees of freedom) = 10. statistical significance. components, and none This affords no evidence that the full- associated with Saturn's moon day is associated with maritime

NUMBER OF DISASTERS period, Uranus's period, or disasters. the period of the Saturn- When all lunar phase days are taken Uranus conjunction, con­ into account, we find that with n = tains significant power. 1,457, x2 = 36.12,/) = 0.170, df = 28 Because the resolution of or 29. Although this represents a lower the analysis is two years, it probability for the distribution's being cannot detect a possible random, it nevertheless remains high correlation with Uranus's enough to reject the hypothesis of an synodic period. This possi­ association of the moon with maritime 10 ble correlation was checked disasters. (Deviations from random­ with a different test, men­ ness are in any event to be expected. 10 » 20 26 30 DAY OF ANOMALISTIC LUNAR CYCLE tioned below.) The lunar cycle has been taken as Unless we assume that the either 29 or 30 days, ship sinkings do Figure 4. Distribution of maritime disasters versus malevolent influences of the lunar anomalistic cycle. Day 0 corresponds to not take place at exactly noon or mid­ perigee. What appears to be a dip near day 2 is planets exclude maritime night, and moreover a selection effect statistically insignificant disasters, an assumption exists. These, and possibly other difficult to defend, we con­ effects, cause deviations from random­ nents, represents a constant ("white clude that no evidence to support ness.) noise" in the terminology of spectral astrology can be found in maritime dis­ These remarks notwithstanding, a analysis). None of the secondary com­ asters. Bad cosmic configurations were glance at Figure 3 indicates that fewer ponents exhibits even weak periodicity, not associated with the sinking of the disasters seem to occur near full moon. as one can appreciate by looking at Titanic. Figure 2. (Without going into techni­ To check for a possible correlation Moon continued on page 56

32 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 Bach Flower Remedies: Time to Stop Smelling the Flowers?

LYNN McCUTCHEON

hen I purchased a health-food

store several years ago, I left behind Wa career as a psychology professor that spanned 23 years and more than 60 publications—

or at least I thought I had. One of the things 1 "inherit­

ed" with the store was a small collection of Bach Flower

Are the flower remedies Remedies. These tiny dark bottles carried familiar for psychological names, such as walnut, vine, beach, and pine, as well as ailments real, or are they nothing more than the less familiar cerato, clematis, and mimulus. The bot­ pretty placebos? tles contained water supposedly collected from the dew

on certain flowers diluted in pure water to the point that

little or nothing of the flower remained. Each bottle also

contained about one-fourth alcohol. I didn't know what

these elixirs were supposed to do and I didn't think much

about them until recently, when I stumbled across a

paperback called Bach Flower Essences for the Family

(Wigmore 1993).

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 33 His eccentricities included the belief that heart disease is caused by the fail­ ure to develop love for humanity (Bach 1977a), the notion that bathing in hot water opens the skin and allows dirt in (Bach 1977a), and his warning that gland grafting is "ten thousand times worse than any plague" (Bach 1977a: 45). In the late 1920s he became con­ vinced that "sun warmed dew absorbs vital healing powers from plants" (Tyler 1993: 214). He spent the remaining years of his life identifying plants that he felt were capable of changing human behavior for the better. Conflicting information makes it difficult to identify the real Edward Bach. On the one hand we are told that he was always short of funds, but we are also told that he allowed the local football club to use his field next to his house and that he regularly bought drinks for everyone at the local pub (Weeks 1973). He was alleged to be a boxer as well as an oarsman, both of which demand excellent physical health, but was also described as being very sickly for long periods of time (Weeks 1973). His friends referred to him as a "leader of scientific research" (Weeks 1973: 42), yet he encouraged others to keep his work free from sci­ ence (Wheeler 1977). Bach (1977b) tells us that his system was "divinely revealed" to him, but one of his leading I have become accustomed to seeing tionship with others? No problem, just disciples claims that there was careful claims like "Vitamins A, C, and E will get out the water violet." I counted testing and that "plants producing side reduce your risk of heart problems" 238 psychological claims, an average of effects were quickly discarded" (Kasloff and "Garlic can lower your choles­ 6.26 for each of the 38 remedies. To 1988: 5). His intuition "always led him terol." In a health-food store most of become a marvelously well-adjusted aright" (Weeks 1973: 39), but he "saw" the claims are for physiological bene­ person just add a few drops a day to a the spirit of a drowned man hovering fits. But the flower-remedies booklet glass of water or juice. over the man's body and insisted that made psychological claims, often bold To understand how this bizarre sys­ artificial respiration be continued for and sweeping ones: "Mustard can tem "works" it is necessary to discuss eight hours. The man died anyway make you more cheerful." "Olive will the life of its founder, Edward Bach. (Weeks 1973). give you peace of mind." "Rock rose Bach was a British physician who even One fact that no one disputes is that will reduce night terrors in children." as a medical student "spent little time Bach died in 1936 at the age of 50, fol­ "Insomnia sufferers need only take ver­ with his books" (Weeks 1973.16) lowing a prolonged illness (Wigmore vain." "Got an addiction? Walnut will because he was convinced that his own 1993). If he really did know the disease take care of it." "Want a warmer rela- intuition was superior to the knowledge of the next patient, "hours before that found in print. After receiving his med­ patient reached his house" (Weeks Lynn McCutcheon taught psychology full- ical degree he practiced conventional 1973:116) and really did possess time for 23 years and currently teaches as medicine for a while, but his distaste for "miraculous" healing powers, as was an adjunct at Florida Southern College scientific methods coupled with his alleged, why was he so frequently ill Address: 240 Harbor Drive, Winter eccentric inclinations led him into con­ and why couldn't he heal himself? Garden, FL 34787. flict with the medical establishment. There are other logical problems

34 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 with his system. In spite of Bach's claim have been determined to be useful. Yet, "being sexuality," was not predicted by that he was divinely inspired, a close to the best of my knowledge Bach's fol­ Bach. The placebo group either did not look shows that one of his sources of lowers have never attempted to explain "win" or, if it did, it was not mentioned inspiration was an ancient false belief why their system still has found only in the abstract. Kaslof briefly men­ called the Doctrine of Signatures. 38 essences that have psychological tioned another study, but did not list it According to this doctrine the form and usefulness. Nor have they, as far as I in the references. It is so vaguely shape of a drug source determine its know, attempted to explain the coinci­ described that nothing can be conclud­ therapeutic benefit (Tyler 1993). Thus, dence that placed nearly all of these ed from it. I sent a stamped, self- in Bach's system, essence of die flower within a few miles of Bach's house. addressed envelope to Kaslof asking impatiens is prescribed for impatience, Logical inconsistencies are not the for a more detailed description, but oak and rock rose are given to those who only problem inherited by Bach's disci­ have received no reply. wish to be strong, water violet is offered ples. Many of them took too seriously It appears as though the only "evi­ to the aloof (shrinking violet?), and wild his advice to keep the remedies free dence" to support the many psycholog­ oat is just the thing for the unconven­ from science. I called two leading man­ ical claims made by Bach and his fol­ tional (sowing one's wild oats?). A few ufacturers of homeopathic products and lowers are testimonials or case histories hundred years ago the Doctrine of asked to speak with their research (Chancellor 1971; Weeks 1973; Signatures might have been appealing, experts. One had "no idea if it worked Wheeler 1977). For example: "I used but with the many advances in the sci­ or not," and he said that he was unaware to get these mysterious pains in my ence of psychology it seems as outdated of any relevant research. The other lower back. Nothing the doctor pre­ researcher didn't know of any studies today as the practice of chaining men­ scribed did me any good. Someone either, but opined that it might "work tally ill people to institutional walls. told me about the Bach Remedies and on the surface" (whatever that means). Bach wrote (1976:109): "As all these now 1 take one every time my back A recent search through Psychological starts acting up. Works like a charm." remedies are pure and harmless, there is Abstracts using "Bach" and "flower" as These kinds of accounts are easy to no fear of giving too much or too often. key words yielded nothing from 1963 to find in the books written by Bach's Nor can any remedy do harm should it 1993. Apparently, not one psychologist faithful. They are also easy to dismiss. prove not to be the one needed for the has seen fit to do any research on this case." Were it not for the high alcohol Testimonials should not be taken too content I would wholeheartedly agree with these statements—a placebo can't "Even if we assume every testimonial is do any harm. But if we suspend good judgment for a moment and assume legitimate, they should not be allowed as a that his remedies actually work, then substitute for scientific evidence." why wouldn't something that has the potential to heal also have the potential topic in the past 30 years. seriously. For one thing they are too eas­ to harm. For example, what if a person I believe there is little reason to con­ ily faked. But even if we assume that who is nearly without fear ingests tinue the literature search prior to every testimonial is strictly legitimate, mimulus? Couldn't she become so fear­ 1963, because only one of the books I they should not be allowed as substitutes less that she might attempt to stop an read by Bach or his disciples listed any for scientific evidence. For every person armed robbery? What about the person scientific research at all. Kaslof (1988) who claims that product X is marvelous, who already harbors few regrets? If he cited a dissertation written by Weisglas there may be ten who feel that it is cither takes honeysuckle, which supposedly re­ (1979). That study compared two worthless or nearly so. The company duces regretful feelings, might he not treatment groups and one placebo that manufactures product X is certainly increase the risk of developing into a group on each of about 300 dependent not going to publicize the stories of full-fledged psychopath? That which variables—so many that it would have those who felt that it was useless. But has the power to help also has the power been almost impossible not to find that even if they were completely unbiased in to harm. Why should the Bach Rower the remedies worked for something. By their publicity they would probably get Essences be any different in that respect analogy, try to imagine 300 different fewer complaints than compliments. from automobiles or nuclear power? lotteries in which each ticket has a one- Unless they feel the product is harmful, We are told that after discovering in-a-hundred chance to win. These consumers usually don't complain; they the thirty-eighth remedy Bach knew thereodd s arwere noe t noto omor goode discoverie, but supposs to eb e simply try something else. In other made (Weeks 1973). Nearly all had you had two tickets for each one. words, testimonials are useless because been found within a few miles of Under these conditions your chances we have no way of knowing how many Bach's living quarters. There are a huge of winning are twice as good. In fact, in people were not helped by a particular number of flowering plants in the Weisglas's lottery the Essences "won" product. Some of the people who were world, and since 1936 some of them five times. Ironically, one of the differ­ ences favoring the essence groups, Flowers continued on page 55

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 35 Slides in Hell

CLIFFORD A. PICKOVER

"Down, down to hell; and say I sent thee thither."

—Shakespeare, Henry VI

n this informal essay, I discuss some recent mus­

ings on probability in a strange but illustrative Iexample. I hope the findings will appeal to stu­ An instructive yet dents, teachers, and a wide variety of skeptics, and I look diabolical exercise in probability—for forward to hearing from those of you who performed students, teachers, and simulations of the following using a computer.

skeptics of all ages. Try it As background, skeptics are always amazed by the at your own risk. degree to which some individuals improperly use math­

ematical probabilities in an attempt to win at roulette,

interpret numerological and astrological signs, discount

evolution, assess the results of ESP tests, determine risks,

and even find special meaning in the digits of pi.

As an example, why is it that if all die 3,838,380 ways

of choosing 6 lottery numbers out of 40 are equally like-

36 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 ly, that die public would prefer the cent occurrence of each digit, and I did numbers 37 12 7 20 18 17 to 1 2 3 4 amazingly well. The example above had 5 6? Why do most people bet the next 49.3 percent Is and 50.7 percent 0s. coin-flip yields a tail when I toss a fair Next, we would expect 25 percent occur­ coin 10 times and get 10 heads in a rences of the following pairs: 00, 11,01, row? Why does the public remember 10. In fact, doing my best to make a ran­ the relatively few accurate predictions dom sequence, I produced 15 percent, of "psychics" while forgetting the 13 percent, 36 percent, 36 percent occur­ numerous, incorrect predictions? Why rences, respectively. Apparently my fin­ do many people believe that if some­ gers preferred to oscillate rather than to one is winning at roulette she will con­ produce doublets like 00 and 11. Perhaps tinue to win because she is "hot"; and, I was trying to avoid dumpiness of digits paradoxically, if she is losing, many when in fact strings of identical digits think that she will begin to win should exist in a truly random sequence. because she is "due" for a change in I strongly suspect that, if I were to ana­ luck? Why are we willing to play the lyze all possible triplets of digits. I would lottery at all? Is it because the poten­ find that my fingers (and medulla oblon­ tial payoff is so large that it psycholog­ gata) also did not behave very randomly. ically outweighs the very poor expected return? In general we are poor at esti­ Do left-handed and right-handed mating reward and penalty versus risk. jects testing positive actually have can­ people produce different kinds of Perhaps the publics biggest confu­ cer. This fact is easy to overlook since we sequences? As one tires of typing, does sion concerns conditional probability focus on the 99 percent of the time that the randomness increase or decrease? and die fact that accurate medical (and the test outcome is correct given that we Could the statistics for different indi­ other) tests for an effect can be poor pre­ already know that cancer is present. viduals be used to diagnose any psycho­ dictors of causes. Consider a blood test logical or neurological diseases? Do the that is positive 99 percent of the time percentages tend to characterize, or Humans Cannot Produce "fingerprint," a particular individual? when a particular cancer is present, and Random Numbers positive 1 percent of die time when the These are all unanswered questions. cancer is not present. This seems like a Sit down at a computer keyboard, or a On a similar topic, Manfred Schroeder, wonderfully accurate test. If your test is typewriter, and randomly press die 1 and in his Fractals, Chaos, Power Laws (Freeman positive, you would surely think you 0 keys. Try to make die string of numbers 1991) discusses a machine, called have cancer and should take whatever as "patternless" as possible. In other "Shannons outguessing machine," that ana­ possible actions necessary to combat it. words, try to generate random numbers. lyzes the random head-tails choices of a However, if your oncologist is testing Here's my first attempt, typing 1 with my human contender. In this gambling game, for a relatively rare condition, die test left hand and 0 with my right hand: a player selects heads or tails, and a comput­ can be a miserable indicator of whether er attempts to guess the players section. If you have a particular cancer. For exam­ 101110001110001010110100 the computer guesses correctly, the human ple, if 1 percent of die population has 101001010010100010100111 loses money, otherwise the human wins this cancer, then the test will accurately 010110001110101000111010 money. Does a player change after losing a predict whether you have this cancer throw? Does the player keep on choosing 101011101110101011010101 with a reliability of about 50 percent. tails if tails has brought two previous wins? 010001010111011100101010 You might do just as well to flip a coin! Or does the gambler get nervous and select 100010100010101110101011 In this example, die problem is that there are as many false positives ashead trues next? For humans, such strategies arc 101110101010010101010010 positives; therefore, only half die sub- mostly subconscious, but the machine can 101011101001001000100010 uncover the hidden correlations in peoples 010001001010100010010101 selections and will beat any human after 100010101100101001110100 playing many games. Humans are simply 010001111010101010101010 not capable of producing random heads or Clifford A. Pickover is author of Keys to 111010101111011010101011 tails, Os or Is. Our minds abhor long strings Infinity (Wiley, 1995), Chaos in of like outcomes—as would occur naturally Wonderland (St. Martins Press, 1994), Before reading further, try this exper­ in truly random sequences. and many other books on the creative iment on yourself and your friends. I and artistic use of computers. He is cur­ have tested dozens of supposedly random rently a research staff member at the sequences typed by colleagues and found that it is curiously difficult for us humans Slides in Hell IBM Watson Research Center, Yorktown to type patternless sequences. To start Heights, NY 10598. E-mail: diff^wat- with, we would expect about a 50 per­ On a breezy April day last year, I was vis­ son.ibm.com. iting a local playground where I came

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 37 across the most startling piece of recre­ less. Specifically it is die probability that 1/2'° people would make it all the way ational equipment. It was a metallic slide a person didn't fall through the first hole down the slide without falling through with a large hole punched in the chute. times the probability of falling through any of the holes (1/1,024), this means that 1,023 out of 1,024 people would To this day, I can't think of any reason it the second hole: 0.5 x 0.5 = 25 percent. fall through one of die holes. He notes: was there, because it seemed rather dan­ For the third hole, we have 0.5' = 0.125. gerous. A child usually slid from the top This also means that, in a large enough of the slide to the bottom, but it seemed sample, 1/2 of the people will fall Using the formula (1,023/1,024)- = as if a small child could get stuck or even through the first hole, 1/4 through the 1/2, we can determine that out of the first x people to go down the fall through the hole in the chute. second, 1/8 through the third, etc. We slide, there is a 50 percent chance The image of this strange slide stayed can create a table showing the percent that one person will make it down in my mind for several months and chance of reaching and falling into each without falling through a hole. The solution x = 709.4 satisfies the equa­ stimulated the following mental exer­ hole as a person descends a slide: tion. Thus 1 would bet that a person cise. Consider a metallic slide punched would make it all the way down on Hole # % chance of reaching and with ten large holes that are equally one of the first 710 attempts. In falling into hole spaced from top to bottom. If we were other words, after 710 attempts, the chance of someone succeeding to construct such a porous slide, and if 50 exceeds 1/2. the holes were large enough, you'd cer­ 1 25 tainly fall through at least one of the 2 12.5 holes during your descent. 3 What happens if all the people on 4 06.25 For this uncomfortable problem, earth lined up to go down the 100-hoIe 03.125 let's assume that each time you 5 slide at a rate of 1 person a second? The 6 01.5625 encounter a hole you have a 50 percent probability of falling through the last 7 00.78125 chance of sliding through it and into a hole is a minuscule 0.5"* = 7.88 X 10 H 00.390625 vile oleaginous substance beneath the ". The average number of tries that a l 00.1953125 slide. For example, when your body > single person must make to finally arrive 10 00.09765625 passes over the first hole, 1 out of every at the bottom is 1/(0.5'°°) = 1.26 X 10w 2 times you'd expect to fall through the or, to be more precise, it would require hole into the loathsome liquid below. Your chances of reaching and falling At first I asked colleagues the follow­ into the final hole are slim indeed— 1.267,650,600,228,229.401,496.703,205,376 ing question. You are offered $1,000 if only about .09 percent. Therefore, most you can correctly guess which hole a mathematicians I asked said that, since attempts, on average. (Your gluteus max- person would fall through as he or she they were limited to selecting one hole, imus muscles had better be in good shape descended the slide. Which hole would they would place their money on hole before you attempt such an experiment.) you choose? Soon the number of ques­ number 1. In other words, individuals In other words, we may see one person tions started escalating. Here's a summa­ would be most likely to fall through this slide down over all the holes every 1.26 ry of the most interesting ones I asked. hole. However, one respondent said he X 10" attempts. At 1 person/second, we 1. If you were a gambling person, would not bet at all because the best can compute that it would require, on which hole would you bet a person chance is only a 50/50 chance. average, about 4 X \(P years, much would fall through? As for the second question, about longer than the age of the universe. Note 2. If you were a gambling person, how many attempts it would take to also that this would require many more how many attempts would you predict reach the bottom without falling people than the world population can it would require for a person to slide through any hole, note that the chances offer. Therefore, no one will reach the from the top of die slide to the bottom of reaching each succeeding hole are the bottom of the slide, or, as one respondent without falling through a single hole. same as for reaching and falling into the said, "They will all try and fail (assuming 3. If all the people on earth lined up previous one. Therefore, the chances of everyone only gets to try once), or die to slide down a longer, more horrifying passing over all the holes are the same as waiting in line." slide with 100 holes at a rate of 1 per­ reaching and falling into the last hole. Using a similar logic as with the 10- son a second, when would you expect Therefore, die probability is hole problem, after (2'°°-l)/(2"») the first person to arrive at the bottom .0009765625; that is, 1,024 attempts attempts, the chance of someone suc­ of the slide without falling through any would be required by a person, on aver­ ceeding exceeds 112. hole? An hour? A day? A decade? age, to reach die bottom. Some people I queried suggested that they would bet It turns out that an analysis of this Simulation of Slides in Hell problem is not too difficult. The chance on a number less than this because the of falling through the first hole is 50 actual events can happen in any order. I have written computer programs that percent. The probability of reaching For example, J. Theodore Schuerzinger allow one to mercilessly simulate the and falling through the second hole is from Dartmouth notes that because process of launching individuals down

38 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 the slide. In particular, the programs create a distribution, shown in Figure 20 1, of the number of attempts it takes a person to slide down the entire slide without falling through a hole. The program simply continues to launch people down the slide and catalogs how many attempts it takes a person to succeed in reaching the bottom. (BASIC and C program code listings are available to those who write to me.) The distribution is at first quite unex­ pected considering that, on average, 1,024 attempts are required to reach the bottom without falling through a hole. There is no peak at 1,024—rather there is a gradual "radioactive" (Poisson) decay from low values of the number of 1 2 3 d attempts to high values. Number of Attempts Required x10 When I asked colleagues on the Distribution of the number of attempts it takes a person to slide down Internet to explain this, Steve the entire 10-hole slide without falling through a hole. Czarnecki, from Owego, New York, was the first individual to provide an interesting explanation for this mys­ to the bottom of the slide. If we let the rather than spreading one's stake over tery. To understand his argument, we random variable N represent the num­ multiple hands. define a Bernoulli trial as a random ber of unsuccessful trials (attempts) experiment with only two possible out­ required before the first success for that Digressions comes. The person reaching a hole person (i.e., success is achieved on trial undergoes a Bernoulli trial; the indi­ /V+l), then N has a geometric density Here are some additional questions for vidual will either drop or pass over the defined by the equation P(N) = you to ponder. hole with probability /> and (l-/>), P(\-P)N. Here, P(N) is the probability 1. How would your answers differ respectively. Therefore, to make it all that N unsuccessful trials occur before to the three main questions asked in the way to the bottom, the person the successful trial. This is the "expo­ this article if, after falling through a must achieve the "pass over" result of nential decay" law observed in Figure hole, you had a 50 percent chance of all the individual Bernoulli trials. This 1. Steve Czarnecki notes that the entering a tube that shot you back up probability is given by P = (1 -/>)'", to the previous hole on the slide? which is 1/1,024 when/> is 1/2. expected value of N (i.e., the average number of attempts required before 2. How would your answers differ to Czarnecki next asks us to forget the successful trial) will be £(A0 = the three main questions if the probabil­ about the details of the slide itself and (\-P)IP. For the example with 10 ity for falling through the holes decreased instead only observe the people climb­ holes, 1,023 unsuccessful attempts are by 5 percent for each hole. This might ing up the ladder to the slide, and also required, on average, before the suc­ correspond to a slide where the holes got observe whether or not they appear at cessful attempt. Thus, our intuition smaller and smaller as you slid down. the bottom (after an appropriate time that the person will achieve one success 3. After I discussed the slides with col­ interval). This means that we are out of 1,024 attempts, on the average, leagues, Joe McCauley from Colorado observing another random experiment is correct. suggested studying the popular game with two possible outcomes: either the However, the geometric probability "Chutes and Ladders," also known as person makes it to the bottom, or does­ distribution has some surprising impli­ "Snakes and Ladders." The game is played n't. In other words, every time a person cations. For example, Czarnecki points on a 10 X 10 checkerboard. The board tries the slide, it is a Bernoulli trial with out that the most likely number of has 20 to 25 chutes and ladders that trans­ outcomes "made it to the bottom" or unsuccessful trials is zero—in other port pieces from one square to another. "didn't make it to the bottom." words, regardless of the odds, success Perhaps computer simulations, such as We can now interpret the slide on the first try is always the most prob­ those discussed in this article, can answer problem as an example of a sequence of able event! This has the practical con­ such questions as, "What is the minimum independent, repeated Bernoulli trials sequence that in any game of chance number of moves required to reach the with probability P of success. Here a involving betting, one is better off finish?" and "What is the mean number of success occurs when a person makes it "betting the ranch" on a single hand, moves required to reach the finish?" D

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 39 Book Reviews

meeting Photographic Mischief

ROBERT A. BAKER Camera Clues: A Handbook for Photographic Investigation. By Joe Nickell. 1994. University Press of Kentucky. 234 pp. Hardcover, $26.95.

oe Nickell's newest book in his con­ the North Pole before the arctic explor­ tomacrography, spectral techniques, and tinuing series of investigative tech­ er Frederick Cook. After analyzing laser technology. The development and Jniques, procedures, and strategies takes use of surreptitious photography is par­ Peary's expedition photographs using a on the subject of photography. In sophisticated technique called "pho- ticularly intriguing—especially its use in Camera Clues: A Handbook for rogrammetric rectification," i.e., deter­ criminalistics, as with die Zaprudcr film Photographic Investigation, Nickell mining the sun's elevation at the time following the Kennedy assassination in examines in a most entertaining and the photographs were taken, it was Dallas. educational manner: (1) the use of clear that Peary was at the Pole when Of definite interest to all skeptics is photography in investigative work; (2) he said he was. Nickell's Chapter 6: "Trick Pho­ how investigative methods are applied The latter case, that of a 1991 tography." Here Nickell stresses that to photographs themselves; (3) many photo showing three Americans sup­ whoever said "Pictures don't lie" was case studies of photographic mysteries posedly being held captive in Southeast obviously neither a photographer nor a and the strategies used in solving them; Asia, was shown to be a cruel hoax. skeptic. and (4) how rules of evidence, stan­ Other mysteries presented involve Combining two or more images to dards of proof, and other skeptical Civil War photos, Lincoln photos, air make a deceptive composite is one of principles and maxims can be and are combat photos, and Klondike gold the oldest of photographic tricks and used to solve past, present, and future involves making composite scenes, col­ photo enigmas. rush photos. Nickell next turns to the use of pho­ lages, (pasting together various pictures Nickell begins with a short, but tographs for identification. Included are and cutouts), "sandwich" pictures (put­ comprehensive, overview of the history case histories involving "mug" shots, ting negatives or transparencies atop of photography and the development composite portraits, and procedures for each other), photo-montages, and of the photographic process. He then identifying people in old photographs multiple exposures. In the latter exam­ shows us how we can identify and date and comparing facial features. Contro­ ple, even Polaroid camera models can old photographic postcards, how to versies and questions of authenticity sur­ be compromised. The Georgia skeptic distinguish originals from copies, and rounding photos of Emily Dickinson, and researcher Anson Kennedy, for how to detect fakes. This chapter is also John Wilkes Booth, Billy the Kid, Lee example, discovered how to make illustrated with a number of case stud­ Harvey Oswald, and John Demjanjuk "spirit pictures" this the supposedly ies of historical photo mysteries. Two (mistaken for the Nazi war criminal unfakeable Polaroid. Kennedy discov­ of the more interesting are the "Ivan die Terrible") are analyzed and ered "that the Polaroid one-step camera Commander Robert Peary controversy clarified. In a chapter on investigative can be used this the film door open, and the infamous "MIA photos." The photography, Nickell shows how to use thus preventing the exposed picture former is concerned with the question photography at "crime scenes," i.e., in from being fed out and developed; of whether Peary did or did not reach forensic cases, and examines pho- black tape can be then placed across

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 the front of the film pack to prevent can now be altered, for example, to pictures alleged to have been produced light leakage. . . . Then a second expo­ remove all the wires used to make Robin by paranormal forces and means—mira­ sure is made in die normal way." The Williams "fly" in die movie Hook. The cle pictures, photos made by spirits, and resulting prints can be downright chapter concludes this a lengthy review photographs supposedly produced "magical." Slides can also be sand­ of die various ways and means of detect­ through the use of psychokinesis and wiched together, and a photo enlarger ing photographic decep­ other supernatural powers. can be used to transfer the image to the tion, including examina­ Discussed at length are pic­ Polaroid film, which is then placed in tion of the sites where die tures allegedly of Jesus and the camera and developed normally. pictures were allegedly Mary and die Shroud of Again, producing "spiritual" results. made and examining nega­ Turin, along with other Other effective camera tricks involve tives to find other spurious "miraculous" pictures, such perspective (e.g., a fisherman holding a and anomalous features. as the Image of Guadalupe. Images of "The Golden small fish much nearer to the camera The final two chapters Door," or "The Gateway to than he is makes the fish appear to be are devoted to photogra­ Heaven," and pictures of much larger than it is); using filters and phy and the paranormal. the "Holy Spirit" are also other lens attachments to achieve spe­ The next to last deals with fun and easy to make if you cial (and deceptive) effects; as well as how paranormal pho­ have a Polaroid and are in a "do-it-your- motion effects and other sorts of cam­ tographs—of spirits and ghosts, UFOs, self mood. Equally informative and era tricks used so widely in the movies. legendary creatures like fairies and the entertaining are all those photographs Loch Ness monster, and "levitating" Darkroom tricks, such as cropping ostensibly taken by die spirits themselves, Transcendental Meditators—are made and photograms arc also discussed, as i.e., spooks who use unnatural means to and foisted on die public as authentic. well as the marvelous an of retouching put images on rolls of unexposed film, Kirlian auras, spy lenses, and the use of and die use of computer technology, "psychokinetic" photos, such as those made by Ted Serios and Uri Geller, and hidden surveillance cameras are other which can now fool even photo experts. the "real ones" made in the same manner topics that will fill die skeptic's heart Not only still pictures but motion pictures by Randi using a "gismo" (instead of PK) with delight. are also covered. O Robert A. Baker is professor emeritus of Nickell's final chapter is devoted to psychology at the University of Kentucky. "paranormal photographs," that is, those

Twentieth-Century Witch Trials

MARK W. DURM The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse. By Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1994. 336 pp. Hardcover, U.S. $22.95, Can. $29.99.

. . . Two kinds of truth: story-truth vincingly that most of our memories "repressed memories" as the twentieth- and happening-truth. Happening- truth is the indisputable black-and- are "story-truth" and that very few, too century version of Salem witch trials. white reality of "at such and such a few, are "happening-truth." Some (Loftus outlined many such cases in her time this happened, and then this, memories are even false truth! An article "Remembering Dangerously," in and then that." Story-truth is the example of die latter is found in die the March/April 1995 SKEPTICAL colorized version, breathing lumi­ nous life into the inert shell of the report of an experiment by Loftus, a INQUIRER.) past, waking up the dead, sparking leading expert on memory at the Throughout this book, the authors emotion, inspiring a search for University of Washington. She found thatrelat ewhe hown familie"false s memoriesall across "Americ were a meaning. implanted in people's minds, they arc being torn apart and how some came to believe in them even more family members, mostly fathers, are he excerpt above is from Elizabeth strongly than they did in their memo­ being sent to prison because of a new TLoftus and Katherine Ketcham's ries of actual events. psychological phenomenon: recovered The Myth of Repressed Memory This memory. For example, the pathetic text is must reading for all students of Loftus reveals just how faulty our plight of 51-year-old George Franklin, human behavior, both professionals memory really is. She exposes die recent who was charged with the sex abuse and laypeople. The authors relate con­ trend of sex-abuse charges based on and murder of Susan Nason, is given in

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 41 excruciating detail. The only evidence retreat. Julie also would later recall soon become even stranger. They would against Franklin was the memory, being molested by her father. involve her father forcing her to have sex repressed for 20 years, of his daughter, What really confounded this case with goats and dogs. She also recalled Eileen Franklin, who gave five different were particular beliefs of the Church of her mother having sex with animals and versions of how the memory came Living Water. As Loftus and Ketcham that the satanic-cult members even back to her. George Franklin was related: aborted her (Ericka's) own baby with a found guilty of first-degree murder. coat hanger and rubbed the damaged, Loftus and Ketcham say that despite ... As a faithful member of a fun­ bloodied fetus all over her naked body. damentalist church, he [Paul] was decades of research there is not one Paul Ingram, who had first confessed certainly well versed in the idea that controlled scientific study that supports Satan inspires evil deeds in the weak to sexually molesting his children, later, die idea that memories of trauma can and godless and then blocks all after his mind had cleared, pleaded to be driven into die unconscious and then memoriereliabls y orecoveref such d yearmalevolens latert. Yet the sentencing judge that he was not actions from conscious awareness. A George Franklin was found guilty. guilty of any of these crimes. Ingram primitive force of pure evil, Satan is Guilt resulting from "story-truth." The anachronistically capable of the was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He hysteria of Salem, Massachusetts, has high-tech scrambling of human is now in prison for something that spread to Main Street, America. minds and memories. Loftus is convinced never took place— for truth that never happened. Another example of a person's life Ingram, who initially vehemendy Finally, although Loftus and being destroyed through "repressed denied abusing his daughters, eventually Ketcham acknowledge childhood sexual memories" was the case of Paul began to question his own memory: "If abuse is a serious problem, they skill­ Ingram. Ingram was accused by his two his daughters were telling the truth—and fully and artfully challenge the claims daughters of sexually molesting them. he had always taught diem to tell the of "recovered-memory therapists" that Paul, his wife Sandy, and their daugh­ truth—then Satan must have driven him half of all women were abused as chil­ ters were members of the Church of to evil-doing and erased his memory." dren and that half of this number suf­ Living Water, a fundamentalist Furthermore, the "repressed memo­ fer from completely repressed memo­ Christian denomination in Olympia, ries" of Ericka and Julie would later ries. In other words, these "therapists" Washington. This particular church involve satanic ritual abuse. Ericka claim that 25 percent of all women in teaches that the devil is a physical pres­ would "recall" that from the time she America are walking around not realiz­ ence with powerful dark powers. was 5 years old until she was 12 her ing they were abused as children. The As the result of the Ingram daugh­ father in the middle of the night would authors aptly quote Friedrich ters, Ericka and Julie, attending a carry her from her bed to the barn, Nietzsche: "Whoever fights monsters church retreat in 1988, Paul Ingram where her mother and their friends should see to it that, in the process, he waited. Ericka remembered her father was accused by them of sexual molesta­ does not become a monster." wearing a gown and a hat resembling a tion based on the recovery of This book was dedicated "to the Viking helmet with horns. Inside the "repressed memories." The recall of principles of science, which demand barn "the group crowded around the Ericka's "memories" was aided by Karla that any claim to 'truth' be accompa­ table and everyone took turns stabbing Frank, a clairvoyant Christian at the nied by proof." Amen! Let us not allow a six-to-eight-month-old baby with a a "repressed memory" mindset to knife [until] ... the infant was dead." Mark W Durm is professor of psychology become a trendy psychology of the late at Athens State College, Athens, Alabama. Ericka's repressed memories would twentieth century. Myths, Monsters, and Memory

KEN KURSON ^ Making Monsters. By Richard Ofshe and Ethan Watters. "^ Scribner's, New York, 1994. 340 pp. Paper, $22.00.

ecovered memories are memories many others have been reporting newly By accumulating voluminous data Rsaid to have been buried in die sub­ remembered horrible occurrences from on the recovered-memory theory and conscious of someone who's been on die die past—usually from their early child­ its practitioners, the authors of Making receiving end of severe trauma. Victims hood and always at the knee of heroically Monsters (a Pulitzer prize-winning of incest, satanic rituals, UFO abduc­ brave therapists. Richard Ofshe and social psychologist and a freelance tion, past lives and multiple lives, and Ethan Watters don't buy it. writer) do not simply challenge die idea

42 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 of recovered memory, they destroy it. comic. The case of Barbara Maddox, for past life as a Jamaican girl named Denise Proponents of die theory are time and example, would be darkly (who also was beaten by her again exposed as willing to destroy die amusing were it not so typi­ abusive father). lives of their patients to further their cal in its destructive force. It is with cases like unsound theories and publish badly Maddox seeks counsel this that Making Monsters reasoned bestsellers like The Courage to about her failing marriage illustrates the dangers and Heal and Victims No Longer. from Gail Carr Feldman, a self-serving aims of the Sadly, the examples of such exploi­ hypnotherapist and self-pro­ recovered-memory trend. tation are manifold. But the book's great­ claimed recovered-memory The greatest danger, howev­ est strength is its story-telling. Some of expert. Although at the out­ er, is scarcely mentioned by the sample cases cited as proof of the the­ set Maddox possesses no the authors: By crying wolf ory's absurdity waver between tragic and actual memories of child­ with their patients' sup­ hood trauma, by the time posed memories of child­ Ken Kurson is with United Media (United she is "cured" she remembers participat­ hood abuse, these unscrupulous thera­ Features Syndicate and Newspaper ing in a satanic cult that featured ritual pists are helping deaden American sen­ Enterprise Association) in New York City. murders and cannibalism, as well as a sitivity to actual abuse. Fictions Elegant Statement for Skepticism

LISA SHEPHERD The Hippopotamus. By Stephen Fry. Random House, U.K., 1994. 259 pp. Hardcover, $29.95.

lthough skeptical literature gener­ of the same qualities, actually, alter­ is displayed for the reader. Those of a Aally resides in the realm of nonfic- nately shrewd and comically base as the skeptical frame of mind will see the final tion, at least one novel has been pub­ mood requires. solution, but not the path leading there lished that makes a clear and elegant Ted arrives at the SwafFord mansion until very near the end. In fact, the plot statement about the fundamental need with no preconceptions, only an is resolved almost too well, as the grace­ for skepticism. That novel is Stephen injunction to watch and learn. The var­ ful solution causes the reader to sit back Fry's The Hippopotamus. ious other characters, family members and admire Fry's cunning rather than The Hippopotamus is Fry's third and a few guests, are introduced quick­ remain caught in his superb prose. book and second novel. It is told most­ ly. All are lively and distinct. All are Stephen Fry possesses an exception­ ly in first-person accounts, via an searching for the same thing: the al ear for language, for the rhythms and exchange of letters between Ted source of the healing miracles that cadence of speech. He obviously loves Wallace and his goddaughter, who seem to be occurring on the estate. A words, as all the best writers do, and hires the aging ex-poet to investigate woman is somehow cured of terminal plays with them to great effect. One of what she believes to be a series of mir­ cancer; a sad, plain young girl gains the most evocative passages in the book acles occurring on the courage and beauty; even a comes during Ted's musings about the estate of one of Ted's oldest dying horse is brought difference between the silence of the country and the silence of the city: friends. back from the edge. Fairly Ted, the main narrator quickly one of the family throughout, is an appealing sons emerges as the focus In spite of the evidence of life all around me ... I was conscious of an character, considering he is of all the attention—an absolute deadness all around. . . . an embittered, curmud­ intensely virtuous boy London at half-past four . . . geonly lecher with alco­ named David. absolutely zings with life. The blasts holic tendencies. He is also Although the basic story of the newspaper vans thundering through empty streets, the hissing a keen judge of human is simple, the plot is tightly micturations of the derelicts, die nature, witty and even woven and beautifully real­ quick staccato of cheap stilettos kindly, in a brusque and ized. Set up along the lines clicking down alleys. . . . unusual way. Aware of his own mental of a classic English murder mystery, limitations and those of others, he is with the climactic scene taking place The book is filled with such pas­ capable of both sharp insight and during a dinner party with a raging sages, subtle, poetic passages that depthless crudity. Fry's prose has many storm outside, each piece of the answer delight the mind. It is also filled with

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 43 equally subtle and delightful insights sion, a simple direct message about the infinite complexity of existence. By into the human condition—nothing need for skepticism in our world. reverting to the cliche" of "supernatur­ earth-shattering, nothing wholly new Skepticism does not close the mind, as al" or "divine" we simply ignore the or unspoken, but each fresh revelation many of those caught up in distortions wonder of the real world. delivered with honesty and humor and of UFOlogy, New Ageism, or ESP are The true skeptic never takes the a sense of reality, of hard truth. wont to declare. Instead, skepticism easy way out, via the supernatural, but All the separate elements that make opens the mind to every explanation for explores the myriad possibilities of the this such a wonderful book weave any possible occurrence. To rationally real world and die amazing power of together to form a lasting final impres- explain something, you must first the rational human mind to compre­ understand what causes it. Combined hend and explain the mysteries it con­ Lisa Shepherd, 21, is a free-lance writer. with that message is the assertion that tains. As Fry subtly asserts throughout She said she underwent a mental every human being is capable of The Hippopotamus, the skeptic is the epiphany the first time she picked up a "miraculous" healing of themselves and true dreamer, the true visionary, the copy of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER and others. What is required, however, is true healer—because the skeptic finds discovered that there are obviously a great not supernatural powers or divine answers not in die divine, but in the many rational people in the world. assistance but an appreciation for the human heart. D

A Failed Look At Memory and Perceptions

TERENCE HINES ^ Hidden Memories: Voices and Visions from Within. By Robert A. Baker. ^m^^^^^^^m " Prometheus Books, Buffalo. N.Y., 1992. 373 pp. Hardcover. $27.95.

Editor's note: We normally don't publish The organization of the book is page 74, I quote Melvin Harris's com­ reviews of three-year-old books. There inadequate at all levels. Time after time ments on Evans in "Are Past-Life are, however, special circumstances in this a given paragraph will discuss one topic Regressions Evidence of Reincarnation?" case. In any event, scientists and skeptics and the next will cover an unrelated (Free Inquiry, 6[4]:25, 1986): must welcome criticism—even harsh topic, with nothing to tie the two sub­ criticism, as evident here—from within jects together. The result is a text that ". . . every single piece of informa­ their own ranks. Both the reviewer, tion given by Jane Evans can be lurches along. Topics are introduced, traced to de Word's fictional Terence Hines, and the book's author, discussed for a while, and then dropped, account. She used his fictional Robert Baker, are frequent contributors only to be picked up again later. sequences in exactly the same order to our Book Review section. Following Repetitions occur in which the same and even speaks of his fictional char­ the review, we publish Baker's response. acters, such as Curio and Valerius, as material is discussed in very much the if they were real people." same way in different places. Although there are 17 pages of references, citations n Hidden Memories, psychologist linking sources of quotations in die text In Baker's book, on page 15, we read IRobert Baker attempts to draw on to die references are poor. Often a modern research in memory, percep­ source is given in the text, but not listed Every single piece of information tion, and related fields to provide non- in the references. Or the entry in the ref­ given by Mrs. Evans could be traced paranormal explanations for claims of erence list is incomplete or wrong. For to De Word's book, and Mrs. Evans past lives, ghosts and similar appari­ example, on pages 156-157 the case of used his fictional sequences in exact­ ly the same order as he had, and tions, alien abductions, out-of-body Jane Evans, who seemed to be able to even spoke of De Wohl's fictional experiences, the seeming abilities of provide details of a past life, is discussed. characters, Curio and Valerius, as if mediums, channelers, and mystics, and This discussion follows die description they had been real. the like. This is an important and ambi­ of the Evans case in my own book tious undertaking since mere is a wealth Pseudoscience and the Paranormal The difference is dial in Baker's text, no of research dial supports nonparanor- (Prometheus Books, 1988) almost line quotation marks appeared around this mal explanations for all these phenome­ for line. There is a difference between material and Harris is nowhere credited. na. Alas, trie book fails to provide a Baker's text and my own. In my text, on Another problem is that technical coherent explanation of this research. terms are often used but are either

44 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 never defined or not defined until well quote: "if memory is dependent on hor­ tales of suffering" (p. 130). There is not after their first use. For example, die mones, and is holographic finding mem­ a shred of evidence to support this title of the second chapter includes the ory hormones in many sites outside die view, and much evidence against it term "cryptomnesia," but this rather brain moves (Karl] Lashley's engram out­ (Hicks, In Pursuit of Satan, Pro­ obscure term is not defined until 24 side me brain and into other glandular metheus Books, 1991; Victor, Satanic pages into the chapter. organs" (p. 51). In fact, neurotransmitters Panic, Open Court, 1993). The book is full of factual errors, found outside die nervous system play A final serious problem is Baker's inadequate explanations, and failures to many different chemical roles in die phys­ frequent failure to discuss material that would strengthen his argument and discuss large areas of relevant research. iology of die organs in which they are better inform readers about the research The discussions of the brain found. These roles are totally on the various topics discussed. For and the physiological bases unrelated to their function as example, in Chapter 4, "Hypnosis: The of memory in Chapter 1 are neurotransmitters. Gateway to Fantasy-Land," none of the especially good examples of Other mistakes occur in evidence is discussed showing that hyp­ mistaken interpretations and various places. On page 56 it nosis increases a person's suggestibility factual errors. The origin of is stated that sleeping organ­ and that it makes people more likely to the neocortex is placed at isms are in a coma. On page "remember" events that did not occur 100,000 years ago in 73 the philosopher Adolf and more confident that a now less reli­ humans. In fact, it originated Grunbaum, one of the most able memory is really more reliable. millions of years ago and is articulate and effective mod­ This is a major omission. In Chapter 7, found, in varying amounts, ern critics of psychoanalysis, on hallucination's, and Chapters 5 and in all mammals. It is further is termed a "Freudian apolo­ 6, on communication with the dead, stated that it took humans a thousand gist." On page 173 a brain structure no mention is made of hypnagogic or yean "to learn to use this 'new' brain." called die corpus callosum is said to be hypnopompic imagery. (This is puz­ This statement is contradicted by what is found only in "the higher and most intel­ zling, because Baker did write about known about the evolution of die brain. ligent creatures." In fact, it is found in all these subjects in his earlier book, They mammals. On page 176 it is stated thatCall It diHypnosis,e chief phenomen Prometheusa in, a 1990.psychomoto) r Another example occurs in Table 2B seizure and a hypnotic trance are identi­ Both are vital to the understanding of (p. 53), where it is noted, correctly, mat cal. reports of ghosts and similar phenome­ some substances that act as neurotrans­ na. (In fairness, he introduces the terms mitters in die nervous system are also in his Introduction, on p. 22.) Finally, found outside die nervous system in vari­ Baker argues that individuals who one can only wonder how it is possible ous organs. From this Baker speculates thatclaim to have been sexuallymemor abusedy iins not locateto writd eonl a chaptey in thre tha t has a major focus brain, but may also be located in other satanic-ritual situations really have on out-of-body experiences (Chap. 6) organs, such as die adrenal glands! To been abused, but not by Satanists. and give Susan Blackmore's extensive Their abuse fantasies "represent a fear work on this topic only one-third of a deriving from an abused childhood, sentence (p. 267). Terence Hines is a professor of psychology and they have taken a number of urban at Pace University Pleasantville, N. Y. legend themes and woven them into

Robert A. Baker Responds

bviously, from Terence Hines's to Jane Evans and Melvin Harris, it is material would not assume that my Oremarks my book Hidden true that I omitted specific reference to intentions were to deny Harris full cred­ Memories failed to live up to his expec­ Harris's work on page 157 at die end of it for it. The source of this material was tations and high standards. Some of his the first paragraph. Rather than an page 162 of Harris's book Investigating criticisms are fair and well taken, oth­ attempted "plagiarism" as Hines the Unexplained (Prometheus, 1986). ers are not. His comments on organi­ implies, die last sentence of that para­ Nothing was taken from Hines. zation, flow, and repetitiousness are his graph reads: "According to Melvin Concerning Hines's example of subjective editorial opinions, and I will Harris, who investigated the case, the technical terms not being defined, he not comment on diem. However, none evidence is overwhelming that this made a poor choice in selecting "cryp­ of these comments were raised by book. . . ." And in the following para­ tomnesia." His assertion that the term Prometheus's editors, who did, in my graph, die last sentence reads: "As Harris "cryptomnesia" is not defined until 24 opinion, an excellent job of editing my clearly demonstrated, Mrs. Evans had pages into the chapter is grossly mis­ work. die ability to store vivid stories in her taken; the term is defined in the very Regarding citations and the reference subconscious." Most people reading this first sentence of Chapter 2 as follows:

SKEFT1CA1 INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 45 Cryptomnesia, the power of the Those who are familiar with did publish a highly favorable review of mind to recall things of which there Grunbaum's work know he damns psy­ Blackmore's book in the Fall 1994 is no conscious memory, is much choanalysis with strong praise and SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. more common than most people realize, (p. 78) many regrets that Freud's work is not My discussion of satanic ritual scientifically sound. abuse and the large number of abuse As for the corpus callosum being fantasies is much broader and more Concerning the discussion of the found in only the "higher and more accurate than Hines makes it appear. brain and the physiological bases of intelligent creatures," I was implying My suggestion that some abused indi­ memory, Hines is correct that the neo­ that it is not found in lower and less viduals may ascribe their abuse to cortex developed millions of years ago as intelligent creatures, such as insects. Satanists—after therapeutic brain­ part of our heritage from the primates, The statement on page 176, in washing—was exactly that: a hypothe­ but truly "modern" man did not appear which he claims that I believe a psy­ sis. Were there evidence to support it, I until the Cro-Magnon brain showed a chomotor seizure and a hypnotic would have cited it. In no way, how­ tremendous increase over that of die trance are identical, is taken from an ever, did 1 make it a major thesis. Neanderthal. Despite what Hines avers, entire section titled "Hypnosis and the In re-reading Hines's initial com­ I did not conclude that "memory is Epilepsies." The careful reader of this ments I may have found the source of located in other organs such as the section knows very well that the rela­ his great displeasure. First, Hidden adrenal glands." Instead, I was merely tion between hypnotic behavior and Memories was never meant to be "the commenting on Bergland's speculation psychomotor seizures is well estab­ important and ambitious undertaking" that various brain hormones do play an lished and that many of Mesmer's Hines assumed it to be. Instead, my important and significant role in die patients were also epileptics. Hines intentions were to discuss a number of overall memory process. To interpret fails to mention that the last sentence different topics, such as cryptomnesia these comments otherwise is to make of this section on page 176 clearly and other anomalies of memory, peo­ me out to be a fool. This is clearly states: "Of course in most instances of ple who claimed to have visited other Hines's intent when he quotes these clinical and laboratory 'hypnosis' with planets, people who claimed to have examples out of context. Neither non-epileptoid clients we have no rea­ talked with the dead, people who have Bergland's logical and reasonable speculation nor my interpretation of it son whatsoever to suspect, nor do we suffered from hallucinations and delu­ deserves to be ridiculed or scorned. find, any EEG differences between sions, and some other unusual aspects people who are wide awake and those of alien abductions—topics that I As for my statement on page 56, who are reputed to be 'hypnotized.'" I believed would be of interest to skep­ "Sleep is the only time in the organ­ also refer the reader to my earlier work tics. Apparently I did not write the ism's life when there is little or no activ­ They Call It Hypnosis (Prometheus, book Hines wanted me to. ity and the organism is in a coma . . ."; 1990), which makes it abundantly Despite Hines's negative opinion, a the secondary meaning of the word clear that hypnosis is primarily a turn­ number of other skeptics and reviewers "coma" from the Greek and meaning ing on of one's imagination. were able to find some merit in the "deep sleep" is "stupor." I feel sure that Hines's comments concerning my book and have gone so far as to recom­ the average reader would understand that I did not mean to imply ordinary failure to discuss hypnotic suggestibil­ mend it to others. I also should men­ sleep is a pathological condition. ity and hypnopompic and hypnagogic tion that I have prepared a revised and imagery are certainly fair. Since I had improved version of the book. It is Regarding my referral to Grun- already discussed these topics at great currently under consideration by baum as a "Freudian apologist," I am length in a number of earlier papers Prometheus. far from being alone in considering and in my book on hypnosis, 1 In summary, I am both puzzled and Grunbaum an "apologist." The well- believed—erroneously perhaps—that chagrined at Hines's unprovoked known psychiatrist Garth Wood, in his further discussion would be super­ attack on my relatively harmless book. book The Myth of Neurosis (Harper & fluous. Despite the flaws of Hidden Row, 1987), states on page 269: As for my failure to devote more Memories—its errors and omissions—I space to Susan Blackmore's work on believe it is a much better, more accu­ . . . Adolf Grunbaum, the philoso­ the NDE experience, her splendid arti­ rate and reliable book than Hines pher and Freudian apologist, states unequivocally about psychoanalysis: cle "Near-Death Experiences: In or would have us believe. If any of my "Its scientific foundations are Out of the Body" (SI Fall 1991) did readers agree with this assessment—or impoverished." He continues: "To not appear until Hidden Memories had have other comments—I would appre­ say that the theory is ill-founded already gone to press. When ciate hearing from you. does not mean it is false. I'm trying to [ay bare the logical structure of Blackmore's book Dying to Live the theory, and to show what must (Prometheus, 1993) did appear, my Robert Baker be done if suitable evidence is to be book was already two years old. To 3495 Castleton Way North found" [Italics added.] compensate for my neglect, however, I Lexington, KY 40517

46 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 New Books

^>

Abell's Exploration of the Universe, 7th the "mystery" of the Bermuda Triangle and more. His aim is to provide an appreciation edition. David Morrison, Sidney Wolff, showed that it was what he calls a "manu­ of the role of mathematics in understand­ Andrew Fraknoi. Saunders College factured mystery." ing social issues and "a keener skepticism of Publishing, Philadelphia, 1995- 682 pp., its uses, nonuses, misuses, and abuses in the hardcover. The latest revised edition of the The Corruption of Reality. John F. daily paper." classic textbook Exploration of the Universe, Schumaker. Prometheus Books, Amherst, first introduced by the late astronomer N.Y., 1995. 289 pp. An examination of Psychology, 4th edition. David G. Myers. George Abell in 1964 and widely used ever religion, hypnosis, and psychopathology as Worth Publishers, 33 Irving Place, New since. Presents a comprehensive, up-to-date expressions of the unique human ability to York, NY 10003, 1995. 693 pp.. hardcover, summary of the facts of astronomy, an modify and regulate reality. The brain's latest edition of psychology text (basic introduction to the rational exploration of remarkable ability to process information vision: "to merge rigorous science with a nature, and a clear view of the history and along multiple pathways allows us to dis­ broad human perspective") has been revised character of science and scientific thinking. tort reality in strategic ways that help us to provide enhanced emphasis on thinking This edition (Andrew Fraknoi is an added cope. critically. The opening chapter is "Thinking coauthor) features updated sections incor­ Critically With Psychological Science," and porating the latest astronomical develop­ Earth's First Steps. Jerry MacDonald. abundant "Thinking Critically About ..." ments and a new epilogue tying together Johnson Books, 1880 South 57th Court, boxes within later chapters reinforce that the grand threads developed throughout Boulder, CO 80301. 1994. 290 pp., theme. Examples of such topics: unconscious the book. $22.95, hardcover. Subtitled "Tracking Life influence, firewalking, hypnosis, eyewitness Before the Dinosaurs," this is the story of recall, repressed memory, risk perception, Astronomy: From the Earth to the the discovery by MacDonald of hundreds trial marriages, and pseudo personality assess­ Universe, 4th edition, jay M. Pasachoff. of predinosaurian fossil footprint trackways ments. Saunders College Publishing, Philadelphia, in late Paleozoic (Permian) rock of southern 1995. 635 pp., paper. Latest edition of this New Mexico's Robledo Mountains. Science Versus Pseudoscience. Nathan highly readable astronomy text. Describes MacDonald's trackway discovery has since Aaseng. Franklin Watts, 95 Madison Ave., the current state of astronomy, both the been recognized by the Smithsonian and New York, NY 10016, 1994. 144 pp. Here's fundamentals and the exciting advances Carnegie museums as the most important something rare: a book for young people now taking place. The author says one of Permian footprints site in North America. critically examining pseudoscience. After his aims is to educate voters and prospec­ opening chapters on false information and tive voters in the hope they will support sci­ Entities: Angels, Spirits, Demons, and understanding science, the author groups entific research. 750 color photographs and Other Alien Beings. Joe Nickell. claims into categories of mind and spirit, the 250 drawings. Prometheus Books. Amherst NY. 1995. human body, Earth, and the cosmos and 297 pp.. $24.95. hardcover. The latest of provides critical assessments. Offers ten use­ Be Happier Starting Now. Ray Sahelian, this prolific investigative writer's works eval­ ful guideposts for determining what science M.D. Be Happier Press. P.O. Box 12619. uates dozens of cases reporting spirits, the­ is. Has an epilogue on the importance of tec- Marina Dei Rey. CA 90295. 1994. 200 pp. ological beings, and alien creatures. Nickell ognizing pseudoscience (To be reviewed in a ($12.00 i $3.00 shipping) paper. A self- puts to good use his background as a detec­ future issue.) actualization book different from any of its tive, knowledge of forensic science, and genre. In addressing one of the most univer­ determination to apply the methods of crit­ Witch-Children. Hans Sebald. Prometheus sal of human quests—happiness—it pro­ ical analysis to casting light on dozens of Books, Amherst, N.Y. 14228. 1995. 265 motes a humanist approach. Spirituality is cases in which some kind of "entity" has pp., $24.95. A troubling look by a social sci­ explained as a sense of connection associat­ supposedly been manifested. entist at the "devastating" role played by ed with brain chemicals, such as serotonin children in two eras of hysteria: the witch­ and endorphins. The mind-body connec­ A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper. hunt craze of the 16th and 17th centuries tion is explained in terms of interactions of John Allen Paulos. Basic Books, 10 E. 53rd and the contemporary epidemic of children the neural, hormonal, and immune systems. Street, New York, NY 10022. 1995. 224 accusing adults of molestation, often in a pp., $18.00, paper. Mathematics professor setting of Satanic rituals and witchcraft. The Bermuda Triangle Mystery—Solved. Paulos, author of Innumeracy and Beyond Finds strong similarities between the two Larry Kusche. Prometheus Books, Innumeracy, here shows how basic mathe­ eras. Examines die unscrutinized credibility Amherst, N.Y. 1995. 302 pp. $16.95. matical knowledge can prevent you from afforded children in these periods of hyste­ paper. A welcome new edition, with an being duped by stories in the media. In a ria (in which adults drop their natural skep­ update, of a classic work of skeptical inves­ series of short inquiries, he examines the ticism) and provides insights from a social- tigation. Kusche's calm, methodical investi­ numbers that make the news in economics, psychological viewpoint. gation, going back to original accident politics, affirmative action, technological reports wherever possible, actually solved risk, health, sports, celebrity features, and —Kendrick Frazier, ED/TOR

SKEPTICAL INQUIRE* • JULY/AUGUST 1995 47 Articles of Note

Asher, Brad. "A Shaman-Killing Case on reviewing Hyman's and Honorton's com­ Harrison, Barbara Grizzuti. "Quantum Puget Sound, 1873-1874." Pacific peting databases of ganzfeld experiments, Blither." Mirabella, October 1994, pp. Northwest Quarterly, 86(1): 17-24, Winter the paper summarizes the results of 11 40ff. Deepak Chopra's trendy mishmash of 1994/95. In Washington Territory in 1874 new ganzfeld studies that Bern and physics, medicine, and mysticism is selling an American Indian named Harry Fisk Honorton contend comply with guide­ millions of books. Is he peddling old-fash­ stood trial for killing another American lines jointly authored by Hyman and ioned snake oil in new bottles? A refresh­ Indian. He was acquitted on the grounds Honorton. This paper is immediately fol­ ingly skeptical send-up in a women's fash­ that he thought the other man was making lowed with a reply from Hyman ion magazine, of the New Age prophet of his wife ill through sorcery. ("Anomaly or Artifact? Comments on "quantum healing" and entrepreneur of Bern and Honorton," pp. 19-24). Hyman Ayurvedic enterprises. "It doesn't make Barron, Cheryll Aimee. "Mantra for die says that although Bern and Honorton's sense, at least not to me," says the author. Moment." Buzz, February 1995, pp. 76-79, 11 ganzfeld experiments are superior to "There is just enough derivative Indian 111. Lively and generally critical feature arti­ previous parapsychological experiments, mysticism in Chopra's work to lend his cle on how, to the amusement (and occa­ the tests of randomization were inade­ words the appearance of substance and san­ sionally embarrassment) of many expatriate quate, the results showed important ity—if one is awfully forgiving and credu­ Indians in America, Deepak Chopra's best- inconsistencies with previous experiments, lous and needy." selling repackaging of the ancient Hindu and the data contain a unique pattern that folk medicine Ayurveda has become the rage may reflect a systematic artifact. Bern fol­ Loevinger, Lee. "Science and Evidence." of New Agers. Typical is a quote from a fel­ lows with a brief response challenging 35 Jurimetrics Journal, Winter 1995, pp. low Indian living in California: "Who Hyman's counterclaim and presenting new 153-190. Review of new criteria for admit­ knows what that fellow is talking about?" analyses. ting scientific evidence, a result of the 1993 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that superseded Bartholomew, Robert E. "Disease, Bevir, Mark. "The West Turns Eastward." the previous 1923 Frye rule. Concludes Disorder, or Deception?" Journal of Journal of the American Academy of Religion, that the new standard, ruled in Daubert v. Nervous and Mental Disease, 182(6): 331- 62(3):747-767, Fall 1994. Madame Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, imposes a 338, 1994. Examines 37 cases of latah—a Blavatsky, 19th century writer and spiritu­ greater responsibility on trial courts. It will chronic conditioned behavior that includes alist, was the major influence in steering require a more realistic and understanding repeating words, obscenities, automatic American occultism toward Eastern judicial appraisal of the complexities of obedience, and hypersuggestibility—with­ philosophies. modern science, including a more rigorous in a Malay extended family. Concludes that standard for reception of scientific evidence latah is a social construction of Western- Brun. Todd. "Physicists Shouldn't Be Too in many cases. The result should be to trained universalis! scientists. Open-minded About Pseudoscience." make the law more responsive to the needs APA News (American Physical Society), of a scientific and technological society. Bartholomew, Robert E. "Tarantism, February 1995, p. 4. This is a response to Dancing Mania, and Demonopathy: The three letters (October 1994, p. 4) that crit­ Marin, Rick, and Ari Posner. "Channeling Anthro Political Aspects of 'Mass icized an earlier column by James Randi Alien Babies." Newsweek. March 20, 1995, Psychogenic Illness.'" Psychological ("It's Time for Science to Take a Stand p. 68. Brief critical blast at NBC-TV's "dis­ Medicine. 24:281-306, 1994. Study ques­ Against Popular Superstition," APA News, turbingly delusional New Age seance called tions the widely held assumption that the June 1994, p. 12). Randi outlined a wide 'The Other Side.'" Adds that the network's phenomenon known as mass psychogenic variety of pseudoscientific claims popularly reward for "pandering to the lowest crack­ illness (MPI) exists per se in nature as a psy­ accepted by the public and mostly ignored pot denominator has been dismal ratings." chiatric disorder. by scientists. The subsequent letter writers accused him of being closed-minded and Moore, Timothy E. "Subliminal Self-Help Bern, Daryl J., and Charles Honorton. intolerant of new ideas. Brun expresses Auditory Tapes: An Empirical Test of "Does Psi Exist? Replicable Evidence for shock that there wasn't one letter in support Perceptual Consequences." Canadian an Anomalous Process of Information of Randi and calls on physicists to support Journal of Behavioral Science, 27(1): 9-20, Transfer." Psychological Bulletin, 115(1):4- critical thinking and be willing to support January 1995. Subjects heard hundreds of 18, 1994. This is the published paper by people like Randi who "are doing what they five-second samples from two commercial­ Bern -and Honorton that argues that can to fight" unsubstantiated "sensational ly made tapes, identical except for the "sub­ ganzfeld experiments have achieved repli­ claims." liminal" messages they contained. The sub­ cation rates and effect sizes in attempting jects were not able to tell the tapes apart at to demonstrate psi (anomalous processes French, Chris. Untitled critical review of a rate better than chance. of information transfer) sufficient to war­ John Beloffs Parapsychology: A Concise rant bringing the data to the attention of History. Philosophical Psychology, 7:409- Pierce, Sidney K., Gerald N. Smith, Jr., the wider psychological community. After 411, 1994. Timothy K. Maugel, and Eugenie Clark.

48 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 "On the Giant Octopus {giganseus) and Thalbournc, Michael A., and Christopher carefully examined by a science reporter and the Bermuda Blob: Homage to A. E. C. French. "Paranormal Belief, Manic- found wanting. Filled with good history Verrill." Biology Bulletin, 188:219-230, Depressiveness, and Magical Ideation: A and perspective, this is a thoughtful and bal­ April 1995. In 1896, a carcass washed up Replication." Person. Individ. Diff., anced look at a subject too often on a beach at St. Augustine, Florida. From 18(2):291-292, 1995. Study of 114 English approached with bias and disdain for scien­ a description sent to him, Yale professor A. university students sought to confirm a pre­ tific evidence. See also "Plutoniums Bad E. Verrill first identified it as the remain; of vious study in Australia that suggested that Rap," by David Schoonmaker in the a colossal octopus, and he named it Octopus people who believe in and claim experience March-April 1995 American Scientist, vol. giganteus. Shortly afterward, however, he of the paranormal tend to score higher on 83, p. 132. The author says few gulfs reversed himself and concluded that it was measures of manic-depressiveness and mag­ between public perception and scientific part of a large vertebrate, most likely a ical ideation. Paranormal belief was indeed evidence "are as wide as the one that sepa­ whale. The authors recently obtained pre­ significantly correlated with these mea­ rates the popular and scientific convictions served samples of that carcass and a second sures. about the hazards of plutonium." one washed up on Bermuda in 1988. After electron microscope and biochemical Wheelwright, Jeff. "Atomic Ovenreaction." CORRECTION: In this column in our analyses, they conclude that they are large Atlantic Monthly. April 1995. pp. 26-30. 38. March-April issue, a reference to a pieces of vertebrate skin, the Bermuda sam­ A dose look at plutonium's "unearned" rep­ Smithsonian article by Wernick on conspir­ ple from a large fish, the Florida sample utation as the pre-eminent poison. acy theories should have said it appeared in indeed from a huge whale. ". . . With pro­ References to plutonium as the ultimate that magazines March 1994 issue. found sadness at ruining a favorite legend," poison and carcinogen—widely and uncrit­ they conclude, "we find no basis for the ically repeated in the antinuclear and —Kendrick Frazier existence of Octopus giganteus." antienvironmental movements—are here and Robert Lopresti

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SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 49 Follow-Up

the Skeptical Position ausible? Beloff Replies to His Critics

In our May/June issue we published whole physicalist worldview, accord­ calist" and that what worries him about parapsychologist John Beloff's article ing to which all events must ultimately paranormal phenomena is precisely that "The Skeptical Position: Is It Tenable?" be explicable as due to the interaction of they resist such reductionism. He invites and five critical responses to it. For this particles. OBEs and NDEs are indeed me to "examine die observed phenome­ issue we invited him to respond briefly to psychophysiological phenomena, as are na objectively . . . and evaluate diem those criticisms. We also invited philoso­ our ordinary nocturnal dreams, and she under strictly controlled conditions." pher Antony Flew to comment. is welcome to study them as such; but But that is precisely what Robert Morris that is no reason to deny the occasional and his team are doing now here at the y critics and 1 have much in psi component that may intrude. University of Edinburgh with my full blessing. To be an "absolute paranormal- common. We all appeal to Ray Hyman, like James Alcock, ist" one would need to have either wit­ evidence and argument, not would like us to ignore the historical M nessed or experienced some paranormal to faith. Yet we differ on the question cases on principle. But his attempt to phenomenon that one could not possi­ of whether paranormal phenomena dispose of D. D. Home is much too bly doubt. Never having had that privi­ exist. This is understandable; for the facile. The sitters, in Home's case, lege, I remain a de facto paranormalist. experimental evidence is marginal and included persons as sophisticated as hence vulnerable to suggestions of Francis Galton. If the illumination was methodological flaws, while the strong really as poor as Hyman would have us John Beloff evidence tends to be spontaneous and believe, they would not have hesitated Department of Psychology hence dependent on testimony. That is to say so. Yet, in a letter that Galton University of Edinburgh why I proclaimed that the skeptical wrote to Darwin, he expresses himself Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, Scotland position is indeed tenable. I shall now as fully satisfied with the way in which U.K. try to explain why my critics fail to Crookes had conducted the stance he persuade me that it is plausible. attended. Naturally, we would all pre­ Susan Blackmore is undoubtedly the fer to have been present in person! But, most open-minded of my five critics. unlike Hyman and Alcock, I do not Antony Flew Comments Indeed, I am still hopeful that, after believe that, in the words of Henry I welcomed John Beloff's paper (, another turn of die wheel that may Ford, "History is bunk!" /June 1995) and congratulate bring evidence even firmer than the I come finally to Paul Kurtz, who, SKEPTICAL INQUIRER on publishing it, ganzfeld evidence, she may again unlike Martin Gardner, shows that one with subsequent comments by variouIs change her stance. Her reason for reject­ can disagree with someone and still be well-informed scholars. I see myself as ing the psi hypothesis is an unusual one, civil. As a fellow humanist, may I say a de facto skeptic about the all namely, that it lacks explanatory power. that I admire his efforts to uphold reason phenomena of parapsychology: necessary but also sufficient conditi The point is, however, drat die existence and denounce superstition. I suspect, of my joining the club of believers i of psi is not just one more scientific however, that he is deceiving himself in hypothesis; it calls into question the to quote James Alcock—"a derm denying that he is a "reductionist physi-

50 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 nation of psi that researchers in general even he concedes that, if parapsycholo- peculiarly, and most appropriate can reproduce by setting up the specified gists were able to satisfy repceatability . . . Scottish verdict "Not proven." And conditions and following a specific proce­ we would then, indeed, have to revise our surely, amounts to a de facto rather than dure. assumptions." an absolute skepticism. Since Beloff has commented on my I am sure that it is correct to claim I myself do not admit to absolute published views, my primary duty here is that Hume himself was indeed an skepticism with respect to any conceiv­ to address those comments. Beloff says "absolute skeptic with respect to the his­ able occurrences. Indeed such absolute that throughout my "long career as a skep­ torical record." But all that he explicitly skepticism is, surely, a contradiction in tic" I have 'consistently rejected precogni­ maintained he had established in the rel­ terms. But although I am no longer near­ tion as nonsensical." This is not quite cor­ evant Section X of his Enquiry ly as confident as I once was that Trevor rect. What I have consistently rejected— Concerning Human Understanding was Hall proved all his cases against paranor­ since contributing in 1954 to an that "a miracle can never be proved so as mal occurrences, I remain completely Aristotelian Society symposium on to be the foundation of a system of reli­ confident—with James Alcock. Ray "Could an Effect Precede Its Cause"—is gion."' It can never be proved because Hyman, Martin Gardner, and of course precognition defined as involving the critical historians in assessing the avail­ David Hume—that no one, absent that causing, by an event occurring at a later able evidence have to depend on what perennially absent repearability demon­ rime two, of an effect that had already they know or believe that they know stration, can prove any cue for. occurred at an earlier time one. For that about what is probable or improbable later and supposedly backwardly causing and possible or impossible: and, absent Antony Flew event must necessarily: cither be causally repeatability, the)- will surely believe (hat 26 Alexandria Road redundant, since its putative earlier effect they know that paranormal occurrences Reading RGI 5PD has—by the hypothesis—already occurred are physically impossible. But now sup­ U.K. and hence has presumably already been pose that a neo-Humean historian is con­ sufficiently caused, or else be taken to fronted with what seems to him or her to Notes cause not to have occurred an event that— be overwhelming evidence that some again by the hypothesis—has already paranormal event did in fact occur. Until I Sec Anthony Flew, cd.. Readinp in the occurred. Which is the most manifest of and unless repeatability reveals that its Philosophical Problem if Parapsychology (Buffalo. contradictions. occurrence was after all physically possi­ NY.. Prometheus Boob, 1987), Chap. 8. Since my objection was and is to pre­ ble, he cannot as a historian concede that i bid cognition defined specifically as I've stat­ that evidence proves that it did occur. It 3. Page 127 in the standard Oxford «ii ed, it is not an objection that would hold therefore remains for him to return the emphasis added. against wildly improbable true forecast­ ing as such. So if I "were to dream con­ sistently of the winner of tomorrow's horserace," as Beloff wrote, then I could do rather more than "express surprise at my astonishing run of luck." For. if I were to be so fortunate, then I could and sure­ ly ought to concede that my perfor­ mances constituted evidence for rile real­ ity of the particular kind of paranormal phenomenon that is best described, non- commitally, as P psi-gamma.' Of course that would not explain its occurrence. Bur then, as Susan Black- more says: "Believing in psi does not get me anywhere. I cannot seem to under­ stand . . . any better if 1 admit psi." The admission of die reality of a phenomenon docs not as such constitute its explana­ tion. A main reason for rejecting such terms as telepathy, clairvoyance, and pre­ cognition is that they misleading!)1 suggest that a true explanation has been provided when in fact it has not; and perhaps never could be.: Beloff also writes: "Antony Flew (1978) endorses Hume with respect to all past claims of a paranormal kind and so could be classed as an absolute skeptic with respect to the historical record, but

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 51 Forum

lighting Candles, Cursing Darkness

RALPH ESTLING

o, I'm sorry, but there is just Leakey (all of them), Asimov, Bronowski, that certain of the "disinterested" bit. no getting around the fact that and a hundred others like them (well, sev­ Maybe the answer I'm looking for, Nwe expect scientists to make eral others), when I wouldn't give a tin­ or a part of it, lies in the word pursuit, more sense than just ordinary people. ker's dam, even if I was sure what it was, the acknowledgment that the thing he And that's where the trouble lies. to read volumes by great minds in the wants is, one, worth pursuing and, Scientists themselves (at any rate, the realms of theology, for instance. The idea two, not yet attained, that it lies out­ ones among them who make sense) are of reading a book authored by or, far side himself and that this is "a good quick to challenge this contention, point­ more likely, ghosted for a politician is too thing." For once a thing is attained, ing out that there is no earthly reason to gruesome even to be considered. No, we what happens to the pursuit of it? The assume, or even hope, that scientists as a expect our scientist—physicist, chemist, framers of the Declaration of whole are wiser (and not merely in posses­ astronomer, geologist, biologist, paleon­ Independence were not quite profes­ sion of certain facts) than any other body tologist—to be more profound, more sional politicians at the time (many of of professionals—professional politicians, aware, more conscious, less inclined than them would later become so, unfortu­ professional footballers, professional pro­ others to opt for the easy, cheering, reas­ nately) and were therefore still capable fessors, or anything else—that, to sum up, suring lie. Why should this be so? of seeing that the value of happiness lay among their number the proportion of One answer is that it is not so, it is just in its being pursued, not in its obtain- good, mediocre, and plain lousy is no dif­ plain wrong, both factually and ethically, ment, either in Heaven or on Earth. ferent from that of any other organized to believe a person trained in and practic­ There is a grumbling, growling, dis­ body of men and women. ing a scientific vocation is on average more satisfied, grouchy restlessness in a scien­ "The big question of the day," vari­ capable of sound thinking, less capable of tist, a good one, that I find appealing; ous busy minds are now asking, "is self-deception, than anyone else. Why and not being a scientist, I might of simple: Can science give us answers should a scientist be more conversant with course be kidding myself in believing based on certainty?" And as the ques­ good sense than, say, an advertising execu­ that this is the mark of a good scientist or tion (not of the day but of the past 400 tive, an accountant, a bishop? Perhaps that there are a lot of them around, even years or so) is simple, I can give a sim­ here is where one possible answer lies. granting they are just a minority of their ple answer, the simplest there is: No. A scientist (I mean a real one and profession. I've little doubt that smugness It is not science's job to be certain. not a reasonable facsimile of one, and and self-satisfaction form the larger pan That is religion's job. Or politics's job. there are plenty of them lying about of of the behavior patterns of most scien­ Or Freudian psychoanalysis' job. It is course) is interested in something that tists; I just think, and I can be wrong, science's job to make sense. matters profoundly—or ought to— that the minority who don't think like Why, for example, do I so enjoy read­ but is not out to sell you something. this is larger among scientists than ing things by Haldane, Medawar, Carl I'm not sure what he is out for. among nonscientists. I don't know. As Sagan, Martin Gardner, Hawking, Hoyle, Disinterested pursuit of understand­ soon as I see the notion written down in Bondi, Feynman, Maynard Smith, ing? That would be nice. And I believe such a concrete fashion like this I get cold Stephen jay Gould, Richard Hawkins, it, in a way, although I'm not always all feet. I think maybe I'm only fooling

52 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995

myself. Self-deception is no respecter of ness loud and long. Indeed, never to and dissatisfied with things but most persons. Still, there it is. Whatever "it" is. stop cursing it, for all the candles he especially with themselves. And that's Perhaps "it" is the acceptance, if may light. For every scientist (every real why I like them better (the better ones) only tacit, that it is not enough to light one) knows that prizes handed out by than I like philosophers and other men one candle in the darkness. One must Nobel committees and all the other and women skilled in life's little wisdoms also curse the darkness, the eternal, all- prizes of all the other committees are, who aren't grumpy at all. Or restless. encompassing darkness, the darkness when you come down to it, prizes given For they, the calm, satisfied ones, have that will beat us, in the end. Lighting a for failure to achieve, prizes awarded for lit their little candles and they quiely, or candle, or even a whole bevy of candles, the awareness of the laughably, cryably not so quietly, rejoice in what they have is a good thing, a vitally necessary little candle that has been lit in the done, congratulating themselves as they thing; but it is, when you come down unutterable vastness of the dark. bask in the tiny flicker. For they are die to it, a pretty petty, lackluster achieve­ Perhaps, just possibly, the real scien­ Certain Ones, those who Know, those ment. The darkness remains, is hardly tists among us know this and are con­ whose conclusions, as Peter Medawar aware of the candle. And so it remains stantly aware of it. And so they are cer­ wrote in The Future of Man, mark "the for a good scientist to curse that dark- tain of less and in pursuit of more, and end of a train of thought instead of the so, being less certain of more things, they beginning of an exploration." Ralph Estling writes from Ilminster, can understand more, and better, than They have forgotten to curse die Somerset, England. the rest of us, and are restless and grumpy darkness. IZ1 Quoteworthy ^^— "Albert Overhauser, Stuart Distinguished Professor of Physics at had overcome the notorious resistance of scientists to new ideas. Purdue, was among the eight [winners of the 1994 National Medal Overhauser said that in less than a year Slichrer at Illinois had con- of Science]. Best known for the dynamic nuclear polarization effect finned his predictions experimentally, and that ended the doubts." that bears his name, he also predicted spin and charge density waves. ... In introducing the recipients at a press conference yesterday, Jack —Robert L Park, Gibbons, die President's Science Advisor, . . . noted that the predic­ "What's New?" tion of the Overhauser effect was initially greeted with skepticism. American Physical Society, Reflecting a widely held perception, a reporter asked how Overhauser September 9, 1994

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 53 CSICOP News

European Skeptics Meet mere academic interest, for when it is SI Editor Receives in Germany tied to a false ideology it can have Humanist Pioneer Award extremely negative effects on society. The Seventh European Skeptics Another blatant illustration of this is Kendrick Frazier, Editor of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, has been presented the Conference was convened May 4-7, the way Lamarck's theories of evolu­ American Humanist Association's 1995, in Rossdorf (near Darmstadt), tion were taken up by Lysenko and Humanist Pioneer Award for 1995. Germany. The conference was cospon- promoted by Stalin in the Soviet According to the AHA, the award is sored by the European Council of Union. Tim Trachet, of the Belgian presented to those whose lifetime Skeptical Societies (ECSO), CSICOP, Skeptics, maintained that even today careers or special personal endeavors have contributed significantly to the historical research is exploited by con­ and the German Society for the advancement of the human condition Scientific Investigation of Para-Science spiratorial theorists. in one or more special ways. In naming (GWUP). The conference was orga­ The conference focused on a wide Frazier for the award, the AHA board nized by Amardeo Sarma, the energetic range of topics—although the main "took special note of your efforts to executive director of GWUP, which has emphasis was on fringe medicine and counter pseudoscience, various frauds, and flummery where people's lives are over 1,000 readers of its newsletter. the dangers that homeopathy and diminished or threatened, and in addi­ Well over 120 participants from all over other alternative "health cures" pose to tion for your efforts to publish the fine Europe took part in the conference. human health. This was illustrated by magazine that the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is, Coinciding with the 50th anniver­ Professors Ernst Habermann and a unique journal bringing needed sary of the end of World War II, the Irmgard Oepen of Germany and Wim information, to the general public and scientists, that would seldom be fea­ meetings were significant. It enabled Betz of Belgium. The ECSO Board, tured in institutional journals." The skeptics to point out that Germany in chaired by Professor Cornelis de Jager award was presented at the associa­ the 1930s and 40s was ruled by the of the Netherlands, decided to under- tion's annual conference, May 19-21, in Nazi Parry, which based its ideology on take as its first major effort to educate Scottsdale, Arizona. pseudoscientific theories of Aryan the European public—including mem­ racial superiority. Had a vigorous skep­ bers of the European parliament— relationship of paranormal beliefs to tics' movement existed in Germany about the lack of clinical scientific ver­ neo-spirituality and the fact that we are before the war, capable of criticizing ification of homeopathy. often dealing with a religious question the questionable pseudoscientific Other topics of interest were the rather than a scientific one. John premises of Nazi ideology, the terrible nature of deception, sensory illusions, Maddox, retiring editor of Nature, genocide against millions of innocent and the difficulties in accepting uncor­ described his involvement in the French people might have been averted. Thus roborated eyewitness testimony of para­ homeopathy controversy with Ben- the existence of pseudoscience is not of normal events. I read a paper about the veniste, and James Randi presented a pessimistic appraisal of the psychic scene Joe Nickell Joins CSICOP Staff in America. Rob Nanninga reported on We are pleased to announce that Joe Nickell has joined the CSICOP staff In an interesting test in the Netherlands of Amherst New York. Dr. Nickell, formerly a technical writing instructor at the 50 astrologers, which had negative University erf Kentucky at Lexington, will be CSICOP'sSenio r Research Scholar at the new Center for Inquiry complex results. The keynote address of the con­ Skeptical Inquirer readers will recognize him as the author of numerous ference was delivered by Thomas von investigative articles, on crop circles, spontaneous human combustion, mira­ cles, and the Shroud of Turin. They may also know him as the author or coau- Randow, science correspondent for books as Inquest on the Shroud of Turin, Secrets of the Supernatural, Camera Germany's leading newspaper. Die Zeit. Clues, Mysterious Realms, entities. The Magic Detectives, and Missing Pieces. The European Skeptics will meet next Nickell has long been a CSICOP Fellow, and is one of CSICOP's more active media con­ tacts, frequently appearing on television and radio programs, and regularly giving magazine year (1996) in Buffalo at the first World and newspaper interviews His expertise and his graciousness under pressure are well known. Skeptics Congress, where we will cele­ and he is now able to share in the exhausting task of handling the hundreds of media calls we receive annually. brate the 20th anniversary of CSICOP; More important he will help create new CSICOP projects to expand our presence and pub­ they plan to meet in Spain in 1997. lic visibility. Further, he is working with the local and regional skeptical groups that are springing up around the world and networking with other scientific and educational organizations. —Paul Kurtz, Chairman, CSICOP

54 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 Klingon from page 5 coined words in the fantasies of Lord should we ignore the sign language Dunsany, James Branch Cabell, L. used by the hearing impaired, the talk­ For example, ok for eye, zu for blue, Frank Baum, and in books said to be ing drums of Africa, die smoke signals and fra for human combine to produce channeled by supermortals, such as of American Indians, communication frazolca, meaning a blue-eyed woman. Oahspe and The Urantia Book. by whistling in die Canary Islands, and Lancelot Hogben explained his semi- Edward Kelly, a sixteenth-century the languages used by artificial-intelli­ artificial language in a Penguin book crystal-gazer, scoundrel, and friend of gence researchers for conversing with tided Interglossa (1943). the British astrologer John Dee, computers. Many of these rival tongues are dis­ devised a language called Enochian. He In crude science fiction, extraterres­ cussed in Marina Yaguello's fascinating claimed it was spoken by angels and by trials inexplicably speak English, but in Lunatic Lovers of Language (1991) Adam before it degenerated into more sophisticated science fantasy they translated into English from die origi­ Hebrew after the Fall. speak alien tongues often described nal French by Catherine Slater. For completeness I should also with detailed linguistic rules and Yaguello is a teacher of linguistics at mention artificial languages that arise words. Every conceivable way of com­ the University of Dakar, in Senegal. I in subcultures, such as Shelta Thari, municating without speech has also have not seen Mary Slaughter's spoken by tinkers in England, and been exploited: telepathy (as in Wells's Universal Languages (1982). Carny, spoken by American carnival Men Like Gods), dancing, whistling, Yaguello also covers synthetic lan­ workers. A peculiar language called smelling, using musical tones, and so guages in works of fiction, such as Bootling flourishes only in the small on. In James Blish's VOR an alien Newspeak in George Orwell's 1984 town of Boonville, California. We all "speaks" by altering the color of a patch and the slang language invented by know pig-latin, and there are other, less on his forehead. For information about Anthony Burgess for A Clockwork familiar ways of distorting a natural science-fiction artificial languages, see Orange. She also discusses die Martian language. There are the "unknown the entry "Linguistics" in Peter language created by the French medi­ tongues" spoken by the early Nichols's Encyclopedia of Science um Helene Smith, and neologisms in Christians, and by Mormons, Fiction, and "Language" in the index of the works of Swift and Rabelais. To die Pentecostals, and other recent sects Everett Bleiler's monumental Science- latter we can add die hundreds of when the Holy Spirit seizes them. Nor Fiction: The Early Years. •

Flowers from page 35 Ironically, one of these stalwarts provid­ whatsoever about their usefulness. Per­ ed an anecdote that lends itself nicely to haps the time has come to wake up and not helped by the Bach Remedies might a placebo interpretation. In describing stop smelling the flowers. have felt so foolish about having taken her hero's healing powers. Weeks (1973: flower essences as a remedy for serious 120) noted that the Bach Flower References psychological problems that they would­ Remedies seemed to work best for those Bach. E. 1977a. "Heal Thyself.- In The Bach n't want anyone to know. who had traveled a very long distance to Flower Remedies. New Canaan, Conn.: Keats. Originally published by C. W Daniel, Essex. Any favorable results stemming from be treated by die master. It is reasonable England, 1931. the use of the Bach Flower Remedies are to think that those who traveled a long . 1977b. "The Twelve Healers." In The probably the result of nothing more way on English roads in the 1930s to see Bach Flower Remedies. New Canaan, Conn.: Keats. Originally published by C. W. Daniel, than a placebo effect. As most readers of a doctor might have been highly moti­ Essex, England, 1933. the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER know, a vated to improve—so motivated that Chancellor. P. M. 1971. Handbook of the Bach placebo is not a biologically active ingre­ they might have been especially suscep­ Flower Remedies. London: C. W. Daniel. Kaslof, L.J. 1988. The Bach Remedies: A Self-help dient, but it often "works" because the tible to the belief that this charismatic Guide. New Canaan. Conn.: Keats. person who takes it believes that it is doctor and his unusual treatment would Tyler, V, E 1993. "Paraherbalism Is a Pseudo- effective. Placebo effects have been bring them relief from their troubles. science." In The Health Robbers, ed. by S. Barrett and W. T Jarvis. Buffalo. N.Y.: demonstrated time and time again and In summary, there seems to be no Prometheus. have been found in a wide variety of sit­ reliable, unambiguous evidence to sup­ Weeks, N. 1973. The Medical Discoveries of uations involving a large number of psy­ port any of the multitude of claims Edward Bach. Physician. New Canaan. Conn.: Keats. Originally published in 1940. chosomatic disorders. Bach was appar- made by Bach and his followers. The Weisglas, M. S. 1979. "Personal growth and con­ ently an individual with excellent lan­ Bach Remedies that I "inherited" when scious evolution through Bach Flower guage skills and a great deal of confi­ I bought my health-food store are cur- Essences." Dissertation Abstracts Inter­ national part B, p. 3614 (1981). dence in his ability to heal. He was rently under the counter where they Wheeler. F. J. 1977. "The Bach Remedies probably adept at convincing patients can't be seen. If people come in and ask Repertory." In The Bach Flower Remedies. that they were going to get better. He for them I will sell them, but I don't New Canaan, Conn.: Keats. Originally pub­ lished by C W. Daniel. London. 1952. was certainly charismatic enough to intend to reorder; and I have instruct­ Wigmore, 1993. Bach Flower Essences for the attract a loyal band of followers. ed my employees to make no claims Family. London: published by author. D

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 55 Moon from page 32 percent of the power, whereas the com­ was associated with the day of the cor­ ponents near full moon (12, 14, 16, 18 responding Uranian synodic cycle of To investigate this possibility, I associat­ days) or die middle of the anomalistic 367 days. If there exists an astrological ed die date of each disaster with the cor­ period (10, 12, 14, 16 days) all received effect associated with Uranus's synodic responding day of the anomalistic lunar less than 3 percent each. period, disasters should occur more cycle, the period of passage from one The evidence, therefore, indicates frequently near 367 days. But a runs perigee to another. This period is more no correlation of maritime disasters test calculates a probability of 87.5 per­ variable than the synodic period. For the with the lunar anomalistic period, a cent for the distributions being ran­ 6,032 anomalistic periods in the interval possible weak correlation (at best mar­ dom. Thus, neither Uranus's orbital 1528-1976, the shortest is 24.66 days, ginal statistical significance as mea­ period nor its synodic period bears any die longest is 28.56 days, and the mean sured by the chi-square test and the relation to maritime disasters.) is 27.55 days. Figure 4 shows the fre­ runs test, negative as measured by spec­ We conclude that neither planetary quency of disasters with anomalistic tral analysis) with the lunar synodic configurations nor lunar periods have period; the dip near full moon seems to period. Given the lack of correlation anything to do with nonwartime mar­ have disappeared. To check this I per­ with the anomalistic period, rather itime disasters. One could extend this formed a different statistical test, a runs than attribute to something astrologi­ study to include other types of disas­ test for randomness. The x! test calcu­ cal this possible weak correlation of the ters—air crashes, earthquakes, floods, lates the probability that die null test is full moon with lower disasters, it seems and so forth—but given the negative true, in this instance that there is no dif­ more reasonable to accept an obvious results obtained so far such an effort ference between die distribution under alternative: the light of the full moon hardly seems worthwhile. study and a random distribution. Only may help prevent maritime disasters. marked deviations from randomness To answer the rhetorical title of this References permit rejecting the null hypothesis with paper, the moon did not contribute to a high level of confidence. The runs test sinking the Titanic either, although a Heindel, M. 1928. Simplified Scientific Astrology. calculates directly the probability that No. Hollywood, Calif.: Wilshire. pp. 151- full moon might have helped to save 152. the distribution is random. For the asso­ her. (The moon was two days from Kelly, 1. W.. W. H. Laverry, and D. H. Saklofske. ciation of disasters with synodic period new on April 15, 1912, and rose as a 1990. An empirical investigation of the rela­ the probability of randomness is 22.9 thin crescent more than two hours tionship between worldwide automobile traffic disasters and lunar cycles: No relation­ percent, whereas for die association with after the ship had sunk.) ship. Psychological Reports. 67: 987-994. anomalistic period the probability (Because the resolution of the spec­ Kelly, I. W., D. II. Saklofske, and R. Culver. becomes 50.0 percent. As a final check I tral analysis was insufficient to check 1990. Worldwide disasters and moon phase. applied spectral analysis to the data used for a possible correlation of Uranus's SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. 14:298-301. Nash, J. R. 1976. The Darkest Hours. Chicago: to produce both Figure 3 and Figure 4. synodic period of 367 days with mar­ Nelson-Hall. For both data sets the first two compo­ itime disasters, 1 applied the runs test Prange, G. W. 1981. At Dawn We Slept. New nents of die spectrum received nearly 70 to the data. The date of each disaster York: McGraw-Hill, p. 365. D

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56 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 Letters from page 2 Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt present theme of the review. My question is this, an accurate account of the attack on sci­ just where do Gross and Levitt imply those who earn it to those who don't—to ence from the academic left. While I that there is no need for critical thought the status of a moral absolute, overriding agree this the article, I do take exception about science as a social activity? When any considerations of community solidari­ to one point in it—the reference to the exactly did they imply that there can be ty and even social order. grave contamination of anthropology. no legitimate criticism of science? The use of anthropology is an unwar­ Roger Cooke ranted generalization. Anthropology, the James M. Cargal Burlington, Vt. study of humankind, is divided into four Mathematics Department major subfields—biological/physical, Troy State University archaeological, sociocultural, and linguis­ Montgomery, Ala. "Knocking Science for Fun and Profit" tics. As a biological and forensic anthro­ was irritatingly political. One early dis­ pologist, I can assure you that biological claimer docs not eliminate the effect of anthropologists adhere to the tenets of Thank you, thank you Edis and Bix for referring to the antiscience academics as the scientific method. We are biologists pointing out that bashing antiscience "the academic left." They could as easily who focus on the human and other pri­ may not be in our best interests. Bashing have been called the "academic fringe," mate species, past and present. We are may promote righteous feuds rather than or the "anti-empiricists," thus avoiding not social scientists, nor do we embrace reasoned discussion. I vote instead for the implication that all leftists arc mem­ some methods employed to gain knowl­ calm, rationality, and heroic sacrifices in bers of an antiscience lunatic fringe. edge by other anthropological subfields, our attempts to curtail bias and promote In a similar manner, the .article- rein­ i.e., sociocultural anthropology. reason. forces, if not actually mimics, the recent Biological anthropologists are also on Also, thank you SI for publishing trend I've seen in other media of portraying the front lines, exposing the pseudo- more than one review of the book in the fringe environmental groups, at least science of the creationist, Afrocentrist, same issue! Variety offers a greater per­ implicitly, as mainstream. Environ­ and multicultural agendas as it relates to spective from which to judge any book. mentalist! is not like astrology, which is in anthropology. Biological anthropology its entirety a pseudoscience and can be dis­ has not been contaminated and should Karen Achor missed as such. When you dismiss the envi­ not be lumped with the other subfields. Laguna Hills, Calif. ronmentalist fringe, you need to delineate what you arc dismissing and what you are John K. Lundy not. I saw SI cited recently (although not Professor, Anthropology Program At the end of a cogent analysis of the very quoted) on an Internet news group as say­ Clark College real left-wing assault upon rationality, ing that there has never been an ozone-hole Vancouver, Wash. Keith Parsons, in his review of Higher problem. Although dearly not the intent of Superstition, says: "Indeed [Gross and your article on that subject (Fall 1994), that Levitt] are rightly concerned about the idea is what some people take away if such The issue of antiscience is chilling. comfort their book might give to Rush articles simply debunk extremist views, However, I propose the following plan to Limbaugh types for whom every feminist without describing and documenting the unite die various elite, antilogic ideologues is a 'feminazi' and every environmentalist legitimacy of more moderate opinions. with the foot soldiers of traditional science. is a tree-hugging fanatic." Such documentation is undoubtedly hard Each group, each "way of knowing," Limbaugh has many intellectual sins to do in a magazine of your size; neverthe­ including the traditionalists, will select to answer for he is profoundly ignorant less, when you take on such topics, you from among their adherents scientists and of the scientific method and its implica­ have a responsibility to do so with care. engineers to design an airplane. These tions in the physical-science arena. With respect to feminism, in refuting vehicles will be built and run onto the tar­ Worse, he often uses dubious papers and the antiscience position of some scholars mac. Each group will then be given the reports to support his particular agenda. who call themselves feminist, you are opportunity to board any one of them for But even the most casual listener to dealing with at best one branch of femi­ the test flight. A wise observer once his show knows he never refers to all fem­ nism, and sometimes not even that; and observed: There are no sects in geometry. inists as "feminazis," nor does he call all you need to take great care not to impli­ environmentalists "tree-hugging fanat­ cate the more robust and complex gener­ Frank Guldseth ics." He has always defined his views in al feminist ideology as antiscientific. Arlington, Va. political terms against specific ultra- extremists in the various leftist move­ I was very pleased to see a review that provided some counter-balance to the ments, be they feminist or environmen­ "Knocking Science" article. Overall, I Taner Edis and Amy Sue Bix end their tal. It is dear the reviewer was ignorant of continue to find SI 2 fascinating and reli­ review of Gross and Levitt's Higher Limbaugh's positions or he was making a able magazine. Superstition by saying: "However, this cheap political point of his own. should not obscure our need for critical Gregory Tillman thought about science as a social activi­ Curtis D. Cushman Urbana, III. ty." In fact, this seems to be a major Olympia, Wash.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 57 Your magazine is certainly head and science, in Higher Superstition. If these new paradigms are correct. shoulders ahead of any other publication We regret that Jerry Hobbs, whose Talking Barbie spoke a basic Truth when that I have seen in its efforts to debunk admiration of Richard Feynmann cannot she lamented, "Gee, math is hard." superstitious beliefs and to enlighten the possibly exceed our own, hates our style of Math, we are told, is harder for women; public on the many mysteries of the writing enough to denounce it, and to rec­ inherently, genetically harder. It runs world. You arc doing a great service to ommend that we take a course in Effective counter to feminine ways of knowing. humankind. Thank you. Writing. It just goes to prove that you don't (On the other hand, the Kens of die In Gross and Levitt's article, "Knock­ need to know something in order to teach world—dominant white Euromales with ing Science for Fun and Profit," there is a it. One of us has taught it. In any case, we plastic hair—pick up linear concepts like certain arrogance in the highfalutin' ver­ must hope that if our expository caprices numbers in a jiff.) biage they use. Its purpose seems to be to put him off, the ideas themselves didn't. You'd think Mattel would have been impress rather than inform. Their tone Karen Achor joins reviewers Edis an praised for its nurturing corporate phi­ infers an attitude of die high and mighty Bix in calling fir a more conciliatory tone losophy. Instead, Mattel was accused of and unassailable authority, a real turn-off in the argument (and of course it is an sexism and had to rewire (well, rechip) a for us common folk. Perhaps they should argument). Maybe their ". . . calm, ratio­ slew of Talking Barbies. . . . study the characteristics of Richard nality and heroic sacrifices. . . ."in hopes Criticizing an idea has become equiva­ Feynman or review Effective Writing 101. of curtailing bias and promoting reason, lent to criticizing die idea-holder. That's are the way of wisdom; but that is not our bad enough, but there's an even weirder Jerry Hobbs experience of these issues in these times. It is flip side: Ideas are judged not on their own merits, but on the attributes of their adherents. This is one frightening brand Lutz, Fla. certainly not the practice of the other side, of sympathetic magic, folks. It tells us that as even a cursory reading of its claims medical knowledge gained in German would show. Sometimes stupidity or evil concentration camps is magically evil and Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt respond: elicit prophetic language. Time alone tells should not be used 50 years later to allevi­ whether the prophet had things right. ate suffering. It tells us that oddballs are We owe John Lundy an apology. Biological Gregory Tillman is convinced that really something more than just odd. They are anthropology is a vigorous science, among our agendas are political: that we are avid wrong. Good-bye Hypatia. Good-bye whose practitioners we have good friends. to paint all leftists as a lunatic fringe. This Newton. Toodle-oo Curie and Einstein, Our reference was insufficiently explicit: it is odd and a little disturbing. One of us should have been to cultural anthropology. (NL) thinks of himself as an active leftist, Even there, however, there are scholars— commited thereto on most political and eco­ Promoters of these new paradigms friends again—who strive to restore rigor nomic questions. The other (PGR), while don't seek equal opportunity for equal and objectivity to the discipline. The trouble perhaps no longer as active, has worked for ability. They seek to lower standards, to is with a popular if not majority view in the left causes most of his life, including putting make ali reality-models equal, while business: that objectivity is a delusion. said life in danger by dissecting, on Boston's paradoxically elevating their own beliefs. Roger Cooke, again an old friend of one CBS-affiliate radio station, the anti-abor­ of us (NL), from graduate school days, tion arguments of a Prince of the Church. A. Tubbesing argues that the right, academic and other­ Of course we realized that the term "acad­ Grafton, Ohio wise, also contributes relentlessly to anti- emic left" would evoke anger. We tried, to science and indeed more broadly to irra- the point of boring the reader, to specify its tionalism. It was not our purpose to obscure meaning and to explain why we judge it I write to express my appreciation of, and this well-know fact. Our foci, which already the best among problematical alternatives. agreement with, Noretta Koertge's article. had to be very broad (and for which we We agree, finally and sadly, to James A few years ago, I completed my knew we would be taken to task), were chosen Cargal's strong and economically phrased Ph.D. in nursing at Case Western Reserve because antagonism to science among those point-in-a-question; and we look forward University in Cleveland. When I began committed to the political left is in impor­ to the performance, some day of Frank the course work there was a cohort of tant ways a new phenomenon, one to which Guldseth's Gedankenexperiment—but, so vehement feminists in die program. It defenders of reasoned inquiry are just awak­ to speak, for real, in the metal became rapidly apparent to me that not ening. By concentrating on this distressing only did these women have strong opin­ novelty we hoped to avoid diluting it. This is ions about traditional science, but they not to say that rightist antiscience is innocu­ Antiscience in Academia: also felt that men had no place in nursing. ous: it never has been and it isn't now. It is "Feminism and Science" These feminists were critical of empiri­ simply something most of our hoped-for cal methodologies and proposed that nurs­ readers know from long experience. As Noretta Koertge points out ("How ing science should be much more qualita­ George Rowell points out that not all Feminism Is Now Alienating Women tive and based only on intuitive knowl­ the left's misperceptions and misrepresenta­ from Science," SI, March/April), certain edge. It was die feminists' contention that traditional science was paternalistic and tions of science are new. That is of course feminist ideas have flipped 180° in me past male-oriented and thus suspect at all levels. true: some go back a long way We devote two decades. The resulting new paradigms They stated that men's and women's minds several paragraphs to the question, some do more than just promote sloppy think­ operated in dramatically different ways. specifically to Karl Marx's own views on ing. They usher in weird double standards.

58 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 FILL IN THE GAPS IN YOUR SKEPTICAL INQUIRER COLLECTION 15% discount on orders of $100 or more • $6.25 a copy (Vols. 1-18). To order, use reply card insert.

MAY/JUNE 1995 (vol. 19, no. 3) The belief engine, sleep paralysis, and devil-stricken telephone cords SUMMER 1989 (vol. 13. no. 4): The New Age— A/cock I Is skepticism tenable? Beloff plus Blackmore. from hell / Scientific creationism: The social agen­ An examination: The New Age in perspective / A Hyman, Kurtz, Alcock. and Gardner I Mediumship. da of a pseudoscience / Observing stars in the day­ New Age reflection in the magic mirror of science / Stein I Ancient aluminum. Eggert I Crop circle time: The chimney myth / Does an ancient Jewish The New Age: The need for myth in an age of sci­ mania wanes, Nickell I Doug Henning and TM. amulet commemorate the conjunction of 2 B.C.? ence / Channeling / The psychology of channeling Gardner I A young Grand Canyon? Heaton ($5.00) SUMMER 1992 (vol. 16. no. 4): Freedom of sci­ / 'Entities' in the linguistic minefield / Crystals / MARCH/APRIL 1995 (vol. 19. no. 2) entific inquiry under siege / Psychic experiences: Consumer culture and the New Age / The Shirley Remembering dangerously. Loftus I Antiscience in Psychic illusions / The scientist's skepticism / The MacLainc phenomenon / Special report: California academia. Gross and Levitt I Feminism now alienating persistent popularity of the paranormal / Self-help court jails psychic surgeon. women from science, Koertge I 'Lights out': A books: Pseudoscience in the guise of science? SPRING 1989 (vol. J 3. no. 3): High school biolo­ faxlore phenomenon, Brunvand I Critique of evo­ SPRING 1992 (vol. 16. no. 3): Special Report: gy teachers and pseudoscientific belief / Evidence lution study, Larhammar ($5.00) The Maharishi caper JAMA hoodwinked / Myths for Bigfoot? Alleged pore structure in Sasquatch JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 (vol. 19. no. I) of subliminal persuasion: The cargo-cult science of footprints / The lore of levitation / Levitation 'mir­ Wonder and skepticism, Sagan I Putting away child­ subliminal persuasion / Subliminal perception: acles' in India / Science, pseudoscience, and the ish things, Dawkins I The astonishing hypothesis. Facts and fallacies / Subliminal tapes / The Avro cloth of Turin / Rather than just debunking, Crick. I Nuclear medicine, Seaborg I Literary science VZ-9 'flying saucer' / Two 19th-century skeptics: encourage people to think / MJ-12 papers 'authen­ blunders. Gardner /Air Force report on the Roswell Augustus de Morgan and John Fiske. ticated'? / A patently false patent myth. incident / 1994 CSICOP Conference. ($5-00) WINTER 1992 (vol.16, no.2): On being sued: The WINTER 1989 (vol. 13. no. 2): Special report: FALL 1994 (vol. 18. no. 5): Empirical evidence for chilling of freedom of expression / The crop-circle The 'remembering water' controversy / reincarnation? / Reader's guide to the ozone contro­ phenomenon / Update on the 'Mars effect' / A dis­ Bibliographic guide to the "dilution controversy' / versy / Bigfoot evidence: Arc these tracks real? / Why senting note on End's 'Update' / Magic Melanin: Pathologies of science, precognition, and modern we are unmoved as oceans ebb and flow / Spreading scientific illiteracy among psychophysics / A reaction-time test of ESP and Anomalous phenomena in Kazakhstan / minorities, Pan 2 / Adventures in sci­ precognition / Chinese psychics pillbottle demon­ False memories. ence and cyclosophy / Searching for stration / The Kirlian technique / Certainty and security in the mystical. proof in creationist thought. SUMMER 1994 (vol 18. no 4.): FALL 1991 (vol.'16. no. 1): Near-death FALL 1988 (vol. 13. no. 1): Special report: 'Extraordinary science* and the strange experiences / Multicultural pseudo- Astrology and the presidency / Improving Human legacy of Nikola Tc&la / Nikola Tesla: science: Spreading scientific illiteracy. Performance: What about parapsychology? / The Genius, visionary, and eccentric / Pollens Pan 1 / Science and commonsense China syndrome: Further reflections on the para­ on the 'Shroud': A study in deception / Do skepticism / Spook Hill / Lucian and normal in China / Backward masking / The validi­ televised depictions of paranormal events Alexander/ 1991 CSICOP conference. ty of graphological analysis / The intellectual revolt influence viewers' beliefs? / Synchronicity SUMMER 1991 (vol. 15. no. 4): Lucid against science. and the archetypes / The synthetic mind dreams / Nature faking in the humanities / dashes with the reductionist text / Psi in Carrying the war into the never-never land SUMMER 1988 (vol. 12. no. 4): Testing psi claims pyschology. of psi: Pan 2 / Coincidences / Locating in China, Kurtz. Alcock, Frazier, Karr. Klass, and SPRING 1994 (vol. 18, no. 3): The invisible buildings' True believers. Hands' the appeal of the occult: Some thoughts on Antiscience Threat: The growth of anti- SPRING 1991 (vol. 15. no. 3): Special report: Hi-fi history, religion, and science / Hypnosis and rein­ MJCIKC / The aiitiscience problem / Measuring the pseudoscience / Searching for extraterrestrial intelli­ carnation / Pitfalls of perception / Wegener and prevalence of false memories / Bleulers views on inher­ gence: An interview with Thomas R. McDonough / pseudoscience: Some misconceptions / An investi­ itance of acquired characteristics and on psi phenome­ Getting smart about getting smarts / Carrying the gation of psychic crime-busting / High-flying health na / Examining the satanic panic ... A personal per­ war into the never-never land of psi: Pan I / Satanic quackery / The bar-code beast. spective ... A sociological and historical perspective / cult 'survivor' stories / 'Old-solved mysteries': The SPRING 1988 (vol. 12. no. 3): Neuropathology Philosophy and the paranormal. Ian 2: Skepticism, mir­ Kecksburg incident / Magic, medicine, and meta­ and the legacy of spiritual possession / Varieties of acles, and knowledge physics in Nigeria / What's wrong with science edu­ alien experience / Alien -abduction claims and stan­ cation? Look at the family. WINTER 1994 (vol. 18. no. 2) The new skepticism/ dards or inquiry (excerpts from Milton Rosenbergs Philosophy and the paranormal. Pan I: The problem radio talkshow with guests Charles Grudcr. Martin of 'psi' / Electromagnetic field cancer scares / Attacks WINTER 1991 (vol 15, no. 2): Special report: Gallup Ornc, and Budd Hopkins) / The MJ-12 Papers: on role-playing game* / Global fortune-telling and poll: Belief in paranormal phenomena / Science and Pan 2 / Doomsday: The May 2000 prediction / My Bible prophecy / Chemikov pattern puzzle. self-government / ^wfcst Bank collective hysteria episode visit to the Nevada Clinic / Morphic resonance in FALL 1993 (vol. 18, no. 1): 'perspectives on education / Acceptance of personality test results / silicon chips / Abigail's anomalous in America: Sandia study challenges misconceptions / Belief in astrology: A test of the Bamum apparition / The riddle of the Colorado Do 'honesty' tests really measure honesty? / Astrology effect / A test of clairvoyance using ghost lights. strikes back—but to what effect? / Diagnoses of alien signal-detection / Intercessory prayer as INQUIRER WINTER 1987-88 (vol. 12. no.2): The kidnappings that result from conjunction effects in medical treatment? 114 III IHll 1 Ml \ I. MJ-12 papers: Pan I / The aliens among memory / Mathematical magic for skeptics / The blind FALL 1990 (vol. 15. no. 1): Neural us: Hypnotic regression revisited / The girl who saw the flash of the first nuclear weapon test / Organization Technique: Treatment or brain and consciousness: Implications for Science: The feminists' scapegoat? torture / The spooks of quantum mechan­ psi / Past-life hypnotic regression / SUMMER 1993 (vol 17, no. 4): The right hemi­ ics / Science and Sir William Crookes / Fantasizing under hypnosis / The verdict sphere: An esoteric closet? / Improving science teach­ The 'N' machine / Biological cycles and on creationism. ing: The textbook problem / The eyewitness: Imperfect rhythms vs. biorhythms / 1990 CSICOP FALL 1987 (vol. 12.no. I): The burden interface between stimuli and story / Pathological sci­ Conference. ence: An update / Jack Horkheimer. 'Star Hustler,' r=A of skepticism / Is there intelligent life on interview / The false memory syndrome. SUMMER 1990 (vol. 14, no, 4): Ghosts Earth? / Chiropractic / Homeopathy / SPRING 1993 (vol 17. no. 3): Anguished silence make news: How four newspapers report Alternative therapies / Quackery / and helping hands: Autism and Facilitated psychic phenomena thinking critically and Catching Geller in the act / Special Communication / Facilitated Communication, creatively / Police pursuit of satanic crime. Pan 2 / Older Report: CSICOP's 1987 conference, autism, and Ouija / Treading on the edge: Practicing out of chaos in survival research / Piltdown. paradigms, SUMMER 1987 (vol. 11. no. 4): Incredible cre­ safe science with Shi I / Education for science / A and the paranormal / Auras: Searching for the light. mations: Investigating combustion deaths / threat to science / Charles Honorton's legacy to SPRING 1990 (vol.14, no.3): Why we need to Subliminal deception / Past tongues remembered? / parapsychology / 1993 CSICOP Conference. understand science / The crisis in pre-college sci­ Is the universe improbable? / Psychics, computers, WINTER 1993 (vol 17. no. 2): Special report: 3.7 ence and math education / Police pursuit of satan- and psychic computers / Pseudoscience and chil­ •million Americans kidnapped by aliens? / Psychics: Do ic crime, Pan I / The spread of satanic-cult rumors dren's fantasies / Thoughts on science and super- police departments really use them? / Psychic detec­ / Lying about polygraph tests / Worldwide disasters strings / Special Reports: JAL pilot's UFO report / tives: A critical examination / Therapeutic Touch. / and moon phase. Unmasking psychic Jason Michaels. Improving science teaching in the US / The Big Sur SPRING 1987 (vol. II, no. 3): The elusive open WINTER 1990 (vol 14. no. 2): The new cata- mind: Ten years of negative research in parapsy­ "UFO" the strange case of the New Haven oysters. strophism / A field guide to critical thinking / Cold FALL 1992 (vol 17. no I): A celebration of Isaac chology / Does astrology need to be true? / Pan 2: fusion: A case history in 'wishful science'? The air­ The answer is no / Magic, science, and meta- Asimov A man for the universe, Kendrick Frazier, ship hysteria of 1896-97 / Newspaper editors and Arthur C Clarke Frtdenk Pbhl Harlan Ellison. L science: Some notes on perception / Velikovsky's the creation-evolution controversy / Special report: interpretation of the evidence offered by China. Sprague de Camp. Carl Sagan. Stephen jay Gould. New evidence of MJ-12 hoax. Martin Gardner. Paul Kurtz, Donald Goldsmith. FALL 19S9 (vol. 14. no. I): Myths about science / James Rands, and £ C Krupp I Gaia without mys­ The relativity of wrong / Richard Feynman on fringe ticism / Gaia's scientific coming of age / The curse science; Luis Alvarez and the explorers quest / The of the runcstone: Deathless hoaxes / Night terrors. two cultures / The 'top-secret UFO papers' NASA For a complete listing of our won't release / The metaphysics of Murphy's Law. back issues, call 800-634-1610. "Men's science" dissected an event and The New York Academy of Sciences spon­ In "Remembering Dangerously," Elizabeth attempted to empiricize it and in die sored a conference. "The Flight from Science Loftus asked whether the current trend in process lost the Gestalt that was essential to and Reason, "May 31 to June 2 in New York de-repressed memory was related to witch- understanding the event. It was die femi­ City, on these same issues. We hope to have a hunting in earlier centuries. A significant nists' contention that only women could report in a future issue. —EDITOR hypothesis (p. 25) was that "during periods understand a holistic viewpoint. of intolerance any society looks for scape­ The next stage of die feminists' argu­ goats." This hypothesis is difficult to evalu­ ment was that nursing is an eclectic and The Repressed Memory Debate ate because we have so little information on holistic science that requires an under­ the reasons that such a period of intoler­ standing of each individual patient's I applaud Elizabeth Loftus's article on ance should occur. I have my doubts that Gestalt. Because nursing practice required a repressed memory ("Remembering intolerance per se is a useful explanation. holistic view of patients and men could not Dangerously," SI, March-April). Where does the intolerance come from? comprehend this view, nursing research I believe that there must be a legisla­ Further, Loftus noted (p. 26) that the and the knowledge base of nursing should tive change with respect to repressed witch-hunting period victimized the be developed by women. Their next con­ memory. I personally believe that the evi­ weak, while current accusations of child­ clusion was thai caring requires specific dence indicates that many "repressed hood abuse (when they are untrue) vic­ mental functions that men are not able to memories" are actually false memories timize die strong. What is going on here? accomplish. Therefore, men are incapable induced either by interrogation or by the Maybe if we look at a couple of other of "caring." Because caring is an essential brain's own faulty recall mechanism, recent examples of "witch-hunting," we will aspect of the practice of nursing, nursing which may haphazardly link previously detect a partem. Nazi Germany conducted should be a wholly female profession. unrelated images. Yet there are many a witch-hunt against Jews, Catholics, Thankfully, this viewpoint is not held by instances of temporary amnesia through homosexuals, and other non-Aryan the majority of nurses or nurse researchers. physical, psychological, or chemical trau­ "deviants." The U.S. House Un-American However, I do see its oblique appearance in ma. Here is my proposed solution to the Activities Committee conducted a witch­ articles and editorials in nursing research sociological problem imposed. hunt against socialists and Communists. In journals and clinical journals. Repressed memories may be submit­ both of these instances, some (if not many) In (his context, I was especially ted as evidence before a court of law if, of the victims were wealthy and powerful. pleased to see Koertge's article. and only if, there is a permanent record What do all four of these have in common? and transcript of the patient's therapy My take is that all four movements were Dennis Ross, RN, MAE, Ph.D. that elicited the repressed memory. or are responses to a pervasive uncertainty Middlebury, Vt. This, of course, could only be done if on die pan of a large portion of the popu­ the patient consented. Also, in 100 per­ lace. It is not (as Loftus mentioned on p. 26) cent of such cases, conviction of a crime fear of a specific threat (e.g., child abuse), That women in Women's Studies pro­ should require the presence of other, but rather a generic unease that predisposes grams could appeal to "women's ways of corroborating evidence. the perception of specific threats. When one knowing" rather than organized reasoning If we implemented such a system, feels impotent, one is highly motivated to sounds to me as though these women have the methods used to elicit the memories find a distinct, clearly delineated, no- finally accepted the male perspective that could be scrutinized. Patients and ther­ shades-of-gray source of danger. And, in there is such a thing as "women's intu­ apists will complain that this will order to be believable, that threat must coa­ ition." Having once come close to getting infringe on the rights of the patient to lesce into a person who has (or is alleged to slapped for using the term, I quickly real­ privacy. But what about the rights of have) power over those who are uneasy. ized that anyone who supported die idea acquitted individuals subjected to the What is the seed that causes this gen­ (men) that women had to resort to intu­ physical, psychological, financial, and eralized unease to crystallize around a spe­ ition rather than reasoning was insulting social trauma of such an accusation? cific threat? I believe it is the presence of a the intelligence of women. I am happy to What about the stigma associated with a "priesthood" that has a socially sanctioned say that I know of no woman who feels trial? claim to legitimacy. Usually (and most that women must resort to intuition. If memory-recovery therapists really likely in die case of de-repressed memory), It appears to me that support of subjec­ believe that their techniques are based the members of the priesthood are gen­ tive thinking and intuition is nothing more on science, and not witchcraft, then they uinely concerned about the plight of a than a rationalization of phobias about sci­ should submit their techniques to public group of victims or the society or human­ ence, logic, and math. This amazing atavism scrutiny. Although doctor-patient confi­ ity at large. They, too, are frustrated by in thinking brings to mind Margaret dences are, by law, confidential at the their inability to pinpoint a clear threat. Arwood's book. The Handmaid's Tale, which patient's request, the surgeon is nonethe­ However, once they identify a threat, they created a futuristic world out of the odd com­ less accountable for his surgical tech­ leap upon it, generalize it, and legitimize it bination of feminism and right-wing conser­ niques. Maybe some of these therapists via their own institutional status. . . . vatism, much to the detriment of women. should be sued for malpractice. Today, counselors and therapists are concerned and frustrated at die numbers Ray Sutera Albert F. Case, Jr. of clients who arrive functioning poorly Chicago, III. Troy, Mich. and who have no clearly identifiable (and

60 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 therefore targetable) etiology. The avail­ memories, but fails to note the single Lights Out! ability of a panacea in the doctrine of most striking difference. There were no repressed memory is too tempting to resist. confirmed, corroborated witches in The tone of Jan Harold Brunvand's ankle Salem. There are confirmed and corrob­ "Lights Out!" (SI, March-April) was a tad Van L. Knowles orated recovered memories and abusers. condescending toward the general public, Berea, Ky. which by and large fell for the fable. If we Kenneth L. Salzman were all authors of books on urban legends Licensed Clinical Psychologist (or even readers of such books), perhaps we I am very concerned about your coverage Lansing, Mich. might have been more suspicious at the out­ of die "False Memory Syndrome" issue. I set. However, most of us are aware of certain fear that your coverage has taken on the documented aspects of gang behavior some crusading flavor of the False Memory Elizabeth Loftus responds: of them do have initiation requirements for Syndrome Foundation (especially refer­ membership, many are prone to commit­ ence Martin Gardner's columns on the Kenneth Salzman expresses as fact his wishful ting extremely violent acts with little provo­ subject), is running well behind the avail­ thinking about the beliefs and practices of cation, and more than a few have little or no able data, and is presenting a very mis­ psychotherapists in terms of dealing with regard for the sanctity of life, human or oth­ leading and derogatory image of the state alleged repressed memories of childhood sexu­ erwise. Thus to hear that inner-city gangs and nature of psychotherapy in the U.S. al abuse. I and others have been concerned from a distant state were using the "Lights The profession as a whole has been about those who routinely attempt to exca­ Out" method of initiation would not have concerned about tile validity of long- vate alleged "repressed" memories of abuse die same effect on us as an alert about alien repressed memories since long before the through invasive therapeutic techniques such abductions could. Nor would it be unrea­ FMSF appeared, and this issue has been, as age regression, guided visualization, trance sonable to assume that a local gang from a in my experience, generally approached writing dream work, body work, and hyp­ nearby metropolis might adopt the idea and with some skepticism. The modal advice nosis. Salzman and others wish to place the start cruising our quiet suburban streets within the profession this regard to such blame on the relatively untrained clinicians, looking for a Good Samaritan sap to waste. cases has been: "Go carefully, do not jump and indeed there is some evidence in the Because of the reports from south Florida, if to confrontation, stabilize the present, and recent work of psychologist Michael Yapko someone rams my rental car while I'm on treat the feelings respectfully." That this is that problematic pratices may be more com­ my way to Disney World, I'm not going to the position of the overwhelming majori­ mon among nondoctoral clinicians. stop to exchange insurance information, and this policy could save my life. Until I ty of clinicians is not reflected in your However, all of us need to take seriously had received more information on the reports, which contain, in fact, no validat­ the results of a new survey of highly trained "Lights Out" phenomenon, I intended to ed quantitative references whatsoever of licensed clinical psychologists soon to be err on the side of caution with an extra dose the extent of the problem described. The published in the Journal of Consulting of credulity. professional community has been accu­ and Clinical Psychology (Poole, Lindsay mulating these numbers (see the prelimi­ Memon, and Bull, in press). This survey of nary report of the American Psychological trained practitioners in the U.S. and Keith Trexler Association special committee). The data Britain revealed that a significant minority Milford, N.H. reveal a situation that is cause for neither of clinicians believe they can identify clients panic nor complacence. The FMSF has who were sexually abused as children even initiated a concerted attack upon the pro­ when those clients deny abuse histories, that A true incident may have inspired the fession by asserting that it supports and they use risky techniques to help clients rumors and faxlore described in your encourages unskeptical and harmful prac­ recover suspected memories, and that as a "Lights Out" story. Around the beginning tices. SI has, by the one-sidedness of its group they view virtually any presenting of 1993, a driver in Stockton, California, reporting, appeared to support this attack. complaint from an adult female client as a signaled to die driver of a lightless vehicle It is as if you had declared that all psychi­ potential indicator of a history of childhood in the customary fashion. An occupant of atrists are convinced of the validity of alien abuse. Although only a significant minority the unlit car responded with gunfire and abductions, based upon your readings of of clinicians (perhaps 25 percent, according killed a schoolteacher in the back seat of the work of John Mack. to Poole et al.) engage in practices that are the other vehicle. The story received You publish an article by Elizabeth risky if not dangerous, this translates into a prominent coverage in the regions media. I otitis in which she presents anecdotal large number of practitioners. My article in accounts of therapist impropriety, and the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER (as well as my Al Christians then generalizes to the profession as a recent book. The Myth of Repressed Lake Oswego, Ore. whole. Of note is the fact that her Memory,) was one attempt to try to educate accounts are not of fully licensed or that minority, the merchants of mental Jan Harold Brum and replies: trained professionals (although I have no chaos, so that they refrain from continuing doubt that some malpractioners can be in their reckless ways, and destroying fami­ 1 admit to being just a tad condescending found at this level). Loftus notes striking lies in the process. Fortunately I have been toward the general public, which was perhaps differences between the witch hunts of privileged to be joined by numerous talent­ understandably gullible about "Lights Out!" Salem and die modern cases of recovered ed clinicians in the essential effort. But many journalists and law-enforcement

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 19V5 61 sis of Chalmers' review, J. Am. Coll Nutr.. 1995. personnel—quickly recognizing the warnings such unscientific language never appears 14:116-123. as bogus—were much more outspoken in in one of its scientific articles. 5. Hemila. H. Vitamin C, neutrophils and their criticisms, as my article points out. die symptoms of the common cold. Pediatr. I learned about the Stockton, California, Stan Kurzban Infect. Dis. ]., 1992.11:779. incident when my article was in press; after Chappaqua, N.Y. 6. Pauling, L. How to Live Longer and Feel examining news stories, I concluded that it Better. New York: Freeman, 1986. had no direct connection to the "Lights Out!" warnings. On September 18, 1992, a driver Vitamin C and Illness Stephen Barrett replies: there used a hand signal to alert a driver behind him at a stoplight that his headlights This exchange continues a debate begun in Andersons first study found that the average were out. The driver of this second car, tak­ the May-June Letters column. —EDITOR number of confined days was 1.30for the vit­ ing this as a sign of disrespect, shot at the first amin group and 1.87 for the placebo car, killing Kelly freed, 29, a passenger, who Recently Stephen Barrett claimed that vit­ group—about half a day per person—which was a longtime popular employee of a local amin C supplementation at best only I calculate to be a 30 percent difference school system, although not a teacher. In slightly affects the symptoms of the com­ (.57+1.87). Subsequent studies by August 1993. at the sentencing, the prosecu­ mon cold (SI, January-February). Barrett Anderson and others have yielded conflicting tor suggested that the convicted killer had referred to the large-scale studies carried results: some show a similar decrease in symp­ acted "to save face with his fellow gang mem­ out by Anderson et al. but extracted no toms, others show none. Thus if a difference bers"; however, the defense attorney denied actual data from their reports. In their first in house confinement exists, it is half a day or that his client belonged to a gang. Never was study, Anderson et al. found that vitamin less, which I think has little practical signifi­ a gang initiation mentioned in connection C supplementation (1-4 g/day) decreased cance. The "complaint" about "many of his with this tragic case, and in February 1995, die "numbers of days confined to house" critics" that Hemila attributes to Pauling is in articles about efforts to establish a Kelly per subject by 48 percent in subjects with on page 226 of reference 6, where Pauling Freed Teen Center in Stockton, no reference a low dietary intake of fruit juices (1). "surmised" that most physicians had read nei­ was made to gangs. Barren's claim that at best there is only a ther his book (Vitamin C and die Common Cold) nor any of the articles describing the The differences in details between this slight reduction in symptoms appears controlled studies of vitamin C The sugges­ actual crime and the supposed planned grossly misleading considering the pub­ tion that no one who disagrees with Pauling attacks described in the warnings, plus the lished results (1-4). Unlike Barrett, I have has actually read the scientific literature on fact that never in any news stories about the written scientific papers analyzing the vitamin C is presumptuous and incorrect. warnings—nor in any of the faxed warn­ effect of vitamin C on die common cold ings themselves—was the Stockton case (2-5), and my conclusions are quite differ­ mentioned, all suggest that the "Lights ent from his. Pauling complained that many of his critics had not read cidier his texts or the original reports, and gave sev­ Out!" story developed independently Re "The Dark Side of Linus Pauling's eral detailed examples to support his case Legacy" by Stephen Barrett (January- (6). Apparently many critics have thought February, 1995), I will restrict my com­ that their main task is to educate die gen­ Critique of Antievolution Paper ments to the quotation from one of eral public on the silliness of vitamin C Pauling's books that megadoses of vitamins supplementation, but not to inform them­ In Dan Larhammar's otherwise excellent "can help in controlling heart disease, can­ selves about die hard science on the topic. article ("Severe Flaws in Scientific Study cer and other diseases" and to Barrett's Criticizing Evolution," March/April rejoinder: "No responsible medical or 1995), the author errs by referring to "evi­ nutritional scientists share this view." dence . . . thai argues against evolution as Harri Hemila, Ph.D. In 1990 a three-day symposium on a phenomenon." As he states earlier in die Department of Public the relation between cancer and vitamin same paragraph, "evolution is the process Health C was held at the National Institutes of that has led to the life forms that inhabit University of Helsinki Health. The report of die symposium Earth today." Because evolution is die Helsinki, Finland proceedings said: "Dr. Gladys Block word that scientists use to refer to that process, whose occurrence is beyond (NIH) summarized die current epidemi­ question in die context of scientific dis­ References ological data on the role of ascorbic acid course, there can be no scientific evidence that it did not occur. The evidence the [vitamin C] in cancer prevention. Of 46 author discusses, like much other evi­ 1. Anderson, T. W., D. B. Reid, and G. H. epidemiological studies reported, 33 Beaton. Vitamin C and me common cold: A dence, may support or contradict a par­ described significant protective effects on double-blind trial. Cm. Med Assoc. J. 1972, ticular theory of how evolution occurs, but 107:503-8 cancer mortality or incidence." only outside the context of science, e.g., in 2. Hemila, H. Vitamin C and die common More recently, a study in die journal creationist literature, can any scientific cold. Br. J. Nutr.. 1992, 67:3-16. Epidemiology by Enstrom et al. (May evidence be said to argue whether evolu­ 3. Hemila, H. Does Vitamin C alleviate die 1992) followed 11,348 subjects for an symptoms of die common cold?—a review of tion occurred. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER'S edi­ average often years. It reported a decrease tors should be most careful to ensure that current evidence. Stand J. Infect. Dis.. 1994. 26:1-6 of 12 percent in mortality from all causes 4. Hemila, H., and Z. S. Herman. Vitamin for those who ate enough fruits and veg­ C and die common cold—a retrospective analy­ etables to provide them with at least 50

62 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JULY/AUGUST 1995 mg of vitamin C a day, and a decrease of The liberal arts are not competitors with I have enthusiastically read your 29 percent for those who used a vitamin science, but rather serve us all as observers of magazine for a long time. C supplement in addition to the fruits and commentators on the human zoo. Both and vegetables. For cardiovascular deaths areas are complementary in creating and Lorna J. Simmons the corresponding percentages were 13 maintaining the well-functioning human Westland, Mich. percent and 36 percent for all subjects, 11 being, and neither stands independent of percent and 45 percent for males. the society in which it is found. "The X-Files" Edgar Villchur Jack Miller Member, Board of Trustees Port Clements, B.C. After reading Eugene Emery's humorless Linus Pauling Institute Canada discussion of "The X-Files" (SI, March- of Science and Medicine April), my response is: "Lighten up Gene, Palo Alto, Calif. Disparaging Emily Dickinson, Words­ it's fiction." worth, Poe, et al. in the name of scientific What's next, a serious critique of the skepticism? I can't think of a more foolproof techno-babble on Star Trek? Science and Beauty way to alienate the romantics among us. Surely we can allow the poet enchanted Daniel Cohen As always, Martin Gardner makes an by nature to shun the skeptical lens for a Cape May Court House, N.J. excellent point in his piece "Science and few moments of reverie. I'm a nature poet Beauty" (SI, March-April). Knowledge of myself, and I shudder to think that some Eugene Emery replies: how the universe works certainly can and of my lyrical lines could be skewered by should deeply increase one's sense of its the hardened skeptic as antiscientific. I don't let the facts get in the way of my loveliness and, yes, mysteriousness. Please, have some room in your scien­ enjoyment of "The X-Files," and well- However, perhaps Gardner overlooks an tific universe for the value of nonscientificinformed experiences—unles fans of the show wills yo recognizeu really thewan t important source of much emotional reac­ the world so entirely intellectually orient­ program for what it is—good entertainment. tion against the scientific worldview. ed that in your most intimate personal But my experience with people who have Increasingly, scientific findings and theories moments you hear the "voice of reason" not been exposed to the scientific side of para­ extend the domain of physical causality into declaring "I'm so chemically receptive to normal events, combined with comments I've humankind itself. The more thoroughly our your pheromoncs" instead of your heart seen on the X-Files comer of the Internet, sug­ thoughts, feelings, and actions are shown to whispering "I love you"! gest that there art also fans who believe they're be matters of chemistry and structure, the watching stories based on fact. It gives cre­ less room is left for traditional free will, not dence to my motivating concern that, if the to mention an immortal soul or a God. Gloria J. Leitner program isn't trying to use fiction to lend It doesn't really do much good to say Boulder, Colo. undeserved legitimacy to the paranormal, it is that these questions are not subject to having that effect on some viewers. empirical test and therefore lie beyond the I am enjoying your emphasis upon "sci­ In the wake of my column, and my News purview of science. At best, this simply ence and reason." Nobody is ever going and Comment item about the program that sweeps them under die rug. At worst, it is to be able to knock out pseudoscience. got the Coriolis force backwards (SI, May- dishonest. The fact is, most of them are The world would be a much drearier June 1995), X-Files co-executive producer integrally involved with material reality. place if there were no nonsensical ideas Glen Morgan wrote me a nice note explaining For example, St. Paul pointed out quite to laugh about now and then. For one that the Coriolis description was an unin­ some time ago that Christianity stands or thing, there would be no place for skep­ tended error and how, "When ashed by fans falls by whether or not the resurrection of tics. They would be out of meaningful about these moments in the shows, I enjoy Christ is a historical fact, i.e. a testable employment. The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER popping their balloons and explaining how I proposition. Moral and ethical standards would become a mere memory. just made it up." Morgan said he and his depend largely on what the nature of the Gone, too, would be many creative partner approach each episode as a satire or human organism is. And so on. Whether people. It takes a great amount of intelli­ parody of those people so willing to believe any or not they articulate this to themselves, gence and ingenuity to produce one ridiculous conspiracy or phenomenon placed m most people arc quite able to perceive it, good unadulterated scam and then to before them that is labeled 'supernatural and to many it is a bitter pill to swallow. keep the scientific intelligentsia from uncovering its fallacies. The letters column is a forum for views on Poul Anderson The beauty of science, in itself, is suf­ matters raised in previous issues. Letters Orinda, Calif. ficient. One turns off the credulous when should be no more than 250 words. Due to one attacks in full force. I am certain the volume of letters, not all can be pub­ that, by asserting the joys of "science and In asserting a conflict between "the cul­ lished. They should be typed double- reason" instead of pure skepticism, you ture of science" and "the culture of liberal spaced. Address: Letters to the Editor, arts," all Martin Gardner accomplishes is will make many more converts and hope­ SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. 944 Deer Dr. NE, fully avoid some of the negatives, such as to reinforce the fortress mentality I per­ Albuquerque, NM 87122. ceive in the pages of SI. lawsuits, for example.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRE* • JULY/AUGUST 1995 63 International Network of Skeptical Organizations

ARGENTINA. CAIRP. Director. Ladislao Enrique Business Center for Academic Societies Japan. 16-9 Danielle Kalka. President. PO. Box 2792. Des Plaines. Marquez. Jose Marti, 35 dtp C. 1406 Buenos Aires. Honkomagomc 5-chomc. Bunkyo-Ku. Tokyo 113. IL 60017-2792. Rational Examination Assoc of AUSTRALIA. National: Australian Skeptics, PO Box A2324. MEXICO. Mexican Association for Skeptical Research Lincoln Land (REALL), David Bloomberg. Chairman. Sydney South. NSW 2000, (E-mail: skrptics^spot.- (SOMIE). Mario Mendez-Acosta. Chairman. RO. Box 20302, Springfield IL 62708 (217-525-7554). lt.sw.au.oz). Regional: Australian Capital Territory, HO. Apartado Postal 19-546. Mexico 03900. D.F. INDIANA. Indiana Skeptics, Robert Craig. Chairperson, Box 555. Civic Square. 2608. Newcastle Skeptics. NETHERLANDS. Stichting Skepsis. Rob Nanninga. 5401 Hedgerow Drive. Indianapolis. IN 46226. Chairperson, Colin Keay, Physics Dept., Newcastle Secretary, Westerkade 20. 9718 AS Groningen. KENTUCKY. Kentucky Assn. of Science Educators and University. NSW 2308. Queensland, P.O. Box 2180. NEW ZEALAND. New Zealand Skeptics. Vicki Hyde Skeptics (KASES). Chairman. Prof. Robert A. Baker. Brisbane. 4001. South Australia. PO Box 91. Magill. Chairperson, South Pacific Publications. Box 19-760. 3495 Castleton Way North. Lexington. KY 40502. 5072. Victoria. RO. Box I555P. Melbourne. 3001. Christchurch 5, N.Z., Fax: 64 3 384-5138. LOUISIANA. Baton Rouge Proponents of Rational Western Australia. PO. Box 899. Motley WA 6062. NORWAY. NIVFO. K. Stenodegard, Bolts 9. N-7082, Inquiry and Scientific Methods (BR-PRISM), Dick BELGIUM. Committee Para, ). Dommanget. Chairman, Kattem. Skepsis. Terje Emberland, Contact. P B. Schroth. Director, 425 Carriage Way. Baron Rouge. Observatoire Royal de Belgique, Avenue Grculairc 3. 2943 I oven 0608. Oslo 6. LA 70808-4828 (504-766-4747). B-1180 Brussels. SKEPP. W Ben, Secretary. Laarbcekban RUSSIA. Contact Edward Gevorkian, Ulyanovskaya 43. MASSACHUSETTS. Skeptical Inquirers of New 103. B1090 Brussels (FAX: 32-2- 4774301). Kor4. 109004. Moscow. England. Contact Laurence Moss. Ho & Moss. 72 BRAZIL Opcao Racional, Luis Gutman. Rua Santa SOUTH AFRICA. Assn. for the Rational Investigation Kneeland St, Boston 0211 1. CUra.431. Bloco 5. Apr, 803, Copacabana - Rio de of the Paranormal (ARIP), Marian Laserson, MICHIGAN. Great Lakes Skeptics. Carol Lynn, contact. Janeiro 22041-010 (021-227-8694). Secretary. 4 Wales St.. Sandringham 2192. 1264 Bedford Rd.. Grosse Pointe Park. Ml CANADA. Alberta Skeptic Heidi Lloyd-Price, SOCRATES, Leon Relief, contact, 3 Hoheizen 84230-1116. Secretary. P.O. Box 5571. Station A. Calgary. Alberta Crescent. Hoheizen. Bellville 7530. MINNESOTA. Minnesota Skeptics, Robert W. McCoy. T2H 1X9. British Columbia Skeptics, Lee Moller. SPAIN. Alternative Racional a las Pseudosciencias (ARP). 549 Turnpike Rd.. Golden Valley. MN 55416. St. contact. 1188 Beaufort Road. Vancouver V7G IR7. Carlos Telleria. Executive Director. Apdto. 1516, Kloud ESP Teaching Investigation Committee Manitoba Skeptics. Contact John Toews. President. 50080 Zaragoza. El Investigador Esceptico. Contact (SKEPTIC). Jerry Mertens. Coordinator. Psychology Box 92. St. Vial. Winnipeg. Man. R2M 4A5. Felix Arcs De Bias, Gamez/Ares/Martincz. P. O . Box Dept.. St. Cloud State Univ.. St. Cloud. MN 56301. Ontario Skeptics, Henry Gordon, Chairman. 343 904, 20080 Donostia-San Sebastian. MISSOURI. Kansas City Committee for Skeptical Clark Ave West. Suite 1009. Thornhill Ontario L4J SWEDEN. Vetenskap dc Folkbildning (Science and Inquiry, Verle Muhrer. Chairman. 2658 East 7th. 7K5. Sceptiques du Quebec: Jean Ouellette. CP People's Education), Sven Ove Hansson, Secretary, Kansas City, MO 64124. Gateway Skeptics, 202, Succ. Beaubien, Montreal H2G 3C9. Box 185. 101 23 Stockholm. Chairperson. Steve Best. 6943 Amherst Ave., Univer­ CZECH REPUBLIC Czech Club of Skeptics. Milos TAIWAN. Tim Holmes. # 269 Chung Hsing Rd.. sity City. MO 63130. Chvojka, nam. Jirfho z Lobkovic 7. CS-130 00 Fengyuan. NEW MEXICO. New Mexicans for Science & Reason, Prague 3. The Czech Republic. UKRAINE Perspective, Oleg G. Bakhtiarov, Director. John Geohegan. Chairman, 450 Montclaire SE, ESTONIA. Contact Indrek Rohtmcts. Horisont. EE 3-B Khmelnitskogo St.. 252001 Kiev. Albuquerque. NM 87108: John Smallwood. 320 0102 Tallinn, Narva mnt. 5. UNITED KINGDOM. SKEPTUCAL. INQUIRER Representative. Artist Road. Santa Fe. NM 87501 (505-988-2800). EUROPEAN COUNCIL OF SKEPTICAL ORGANI­ Michael J. Hutchinson. 10 Crescent View, Loughton, NEW YORK. Inquiring Skeptics of Upper New York ZATIONS. Amardeo Sarma. Secretary, Postfach Essex IG10 ilV The Skeptic magazine. Editors, 'Toby (SUNY), Contact. Michael Sofia. 8 Providence Si.. 1222. D-64374 Rossdorf (FAX: .49 6154 81912). Howard and Steve Donnelly, PO. Box 475, Manchester Albany. NY 12203. (518-437-1750). New York Area FINLAND. Skepsis, Veli Toukomies, President. M60 2TH. (E-mail: toby«?cs.man.ac.uk). London Skeptics (NYASk), Wayne Tytdl. contact person. 159 Rintamamiehentie 15. 06100 Porvoo. (358-15- Student Skeptics, Contact: Bill Harman, 21 Manville Melrose Ave.. E. Massapequa. NY 11758, (516- 5249-3200, Fax: 358-15-584-620). Rd., London SWI7 8JW. Wessex Skeptics, Robin Allen. 798-6902). Western New York Skeptics, Tim Madigan. FRANCE. Cercle Zetetique, Contact: Henri Bioch. 12 Dept. of Physics. Southampton Univ.. Highfield. Chairman. 3965 Rensch Rd.. Buffalo, NY 14228. Rue David Deitz, 57000 Men. Comite Francais Southampton SOT 5NH. OHIO. South Shore Skeptics, Page Stephens. 6006 Fir pour l'Etude des Phenomenes Paranormaux, Claude Avenue. Cleveland. OH 44102 (216-631-5987). Benski. Secretary-General. Merlin Gerin. RGE/A2 United States Association for Rational Thinking (Cincinnati area). 38050 Grenoble Cedex. ALABAMA. Alabama Skeptics, Emory Kimbrough. Joseph F. Gastright. Contact, 111 Wallace Ave. GERMANY. Society for the Scientific Investigation of 3550 Watermelon Road. Apr. 28A. Northport. AL Covington. KY 41014 (606-581-7315). Para-Science (GWUP). Amardeo Sarma. Convenor. 35476 (205-759-2624). OREGON. Oregonian's for Rationality, Contact. Bill Postfach 1222. D-64374 Rossdorf (FAX: .49 6154 ARIZONA. Tucson Skeptics Inc. James McGaha. Capron. PO Box 4739. Vancouver. WA 98662 (206- 81912). Chairman. 7049 E. Tangue Verde Rd.. Suite 370. 260-1896) HONG KONG. Hong Kong Skeptics. Contact Rebecca Tucson. AZ 85715. Phoenix Skeptics, Michael PENNSYLVANIA. Paranormal Investigating Committee Bradley. PO. Box 1010, Shatin Central Post Office, Slackpole, Chairman. P.O. Box 60333. Phoenix. AZ of Pittsburgh (PICP). Richard Busch. Chairman. Shatin. NT. 85082. 8209 Thompson Run Rd.. Pittsburgh. PA 15237 HUNGARY. Hungarian Skeptics, Gyula Bencze. CALIFORNIA. Bay Area Skeptics. Wilma Russell. (412-366-4663). Philadelphia Association for Ttrmeati Vilegi. P.O. Box 25. Budapest 8.1444. (Fax Secretary. 17723 Buti Park Court, Castro Valley. CA Critical Thinking (PhACT. William A Wisdom. 76 011-36-1-118-7506). 94546. East Bay Skeptics Society. Daniel Sabsay. Limekiln Pike. Glenside. PA 19038 (215) 884-3885. INDIA. Indian Skeptics. B. Premanand. Chairman. 10 Pro.. P.O. Box 20989. Oakland, CA 94620 TEXAS. Houston Association for Scientific Thinking Chettipalayam Rd.. Podanur 641-023 Coimbatore (510-420-0702). Sacramento Skeptics Society, Terry (HAST). Darrell Kachilla. P.O. Box 541314. Tamil nadu. Indian Rationalist Association, Contact. Sandbek. 3550 Watt Ave.. Suite #3. Sacramento. CA Houston. TX 77254. North Texas Skeptics. Joe Sanal Edamaruku. 779. Pocket 5. Mayur Vihar 1. 95821 (916-488-3772). E-mail: tsandbek-mother. Vodkering. President. PO. Box 111794, Carrollton. New Delhi 110 091. Maharashtra Superstition com. TX 750111794. Irradiation Committee, Dada Chandane, Secy., COLORADO. Rocky Mountain Skeptics, Beta Scheiber. WASHINGTON. The Society for Sensible D/6. First Root. Super Market. Solapur 413001. President, P.O. Box 7277. Boulder. CO 80306 Explanations, P.O. Box 7121. Seattle. WA 98133- ISRAEL. Israel Skeptics Society. Philip Marmaros. (303-444-5368). 2121. Tad Cook. Sec/Treas. (E-mail: ucreHsc.com). Chairman. P.O. Box 8481. Jerusalem. (Fax: 972-2- D.C. Capital Area. National Capital Area Skeptics, c/o WISCONSIN. Contact person: Roxine McQuitty, 611652, E-mail: humefectv?elronet.co.il). D.W. "Chip" Denman, 8006 Valley Street. Silver MATC-West. 1200 S. 7I» St., West Allis. Wl 53214 IRELAND. Irish Skeptics. Peter O'Hara. Contact. St. Spring. MD 20910. (414-456-5402. 414-873-4446, McQuirty*?Music. Joseph's Hospital. Limerick. FLORIDA. Tampa Bay Skeptics. Gary Posner. 1113 lib.MATC.edu). ITALY. Comitato Italiano per il Contralto delle Normandy Trace Rd., Tampa. FL 33602 Affermazioni sul Paranormale, Massimo Polidoro. (813-221-3533). E-mail: garypos*?aol.com. The organizations listed above have aims similar to those Editor. Srirau & PtmamutU. P.O. Box 60. 27058 GEORGIA. Georgia Skeptics. Becky Long. President of CSICOP but are independent and autonomous. Voghera (PV). 2277 Winding Woods Dr.. Tucker. GA 30084. Representatives of these organizations cannot speak on JAPAN. Japan Skeptics. Jun Jugaku. Chairperson. ILLINOIS. Midwest Committee for Rational Inquiry, behalf of CSICOP. THE COMMITTEE FOR THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF CLAIMS OF THE PARANORMAL AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

Paul Kurtz, Chairman Barry Karr, Executive Director

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL CONSULTANTS

George Agogino, Dept. of Anthropology, William Jarvis. professor of health promo­ Elie A. Shneour, biochemist; director. Eastern New Mexico University tion and public health. Loma Linda Uni­ Biosystems Research Institute, La Jolla, Bill G. Aldridge, executive director, National versity, School of Public Health California I. W Kelly, professor of psychology, Science Teachers Assoc. Steven N. Shore, associate professor and University of Saskatchewan Gary Bauslaugh. dean of technical and chair, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy. academic education and professor of Richard H. Lange, M.D. Mohawk Valley Indiana Univ. South Bend chemistry, Malaspina College, Nanaimo, Physician Health Plan. Schenectady. N.Y. Barry Singer, psychologist. Eugene, Oregon British Columbia, Canada Gerald A. Larue, professor of biblical history Mark Slovak, astronomer. University of and archaeology, University of So. Richard E. Berendzen, astronomer, Wisconsin-Madison California. Washington, D.C. Gordon Stein, physiologist, author; editor of Bernard J. Leikind, staff scientist, GA Martin Bridgstock. lecturer. School of the American Rationalist Technologies Inc.. San Diego Science. Griffith Observatory, Brisbane, Wadaw Szybalski, professor. McArdlc William M. London, associate professor Laboratory, University of Wisconsin- Australia of health education. Kent State Madison Richard Busch, magician, Pittsburgh, Pa. University Ernest H. Taves, psychoanalyst. Cambridge, Shawn Carlson, physicist, San Diego, Calif. Thomas R. McDonough, lecturer in engi­ Massachusetts Charles J. Cazeau, geologist, Deary. Idaho neering, Caltech, and SET! Coordinator Sarah G. Thomason, professor of linguistics. Ronald J. Crowley, professor of physics, of the Planetary Society University of Pittsburgh, editor of California State University, Fullerton James E. McGaha, Major, USAF; pilot Language. Roger B. Culver, professor of astronomy, Joel A. Moskowitz, director of medical psy­ Neil deGrassc Tyson, astrophysicist, Princeton Colorado State Univ. chiatry, Calabasas Mental Health University and the Hayden Planetarium Services. Los Angeles. Felix Arcs De Bias, professor of computer science. University of Basque. San Robert B. Painter, professor of microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Sebastian. Spain California CSICOP Michael R. Dennett, writer, investigator. John W. Patterson, professor of materials sci­ SUBCOMMITTEES Federal Way. Washington ence and engineering. Iowa State Sid Deutsch, Visiting Professor of electrical University Astrology Subcommittee: Chairman, engineering. University of South Florida. Steven Pinker, professor and director of the I. W Kelly, Dept. of Educational Tampa Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, MIT Psychology, 28 Campus Drive, J. Dommanget, astronomer. Royale James Pomerantz, professor of psychology, Saskatoon. Sask.. Canada. 57N-OX1 Observatory. Brussels, Belgium Rice University Natham J. Duker, assistant professor of Gary Posner, M.D., Tampa, Fla. Electronic Communication pathology. Temple University Daisie Radner, professor of philosophy, Subcommittee: Chairman, Page Barbara Eisenstadt, educator. Clifton Park, SUNY. Buffalo Stephens. 6006 Fir Ave., Cleveland, N.Y. Michael Radner, professor of philosophy, OH 44102. E-Mail: Jim Kurz John E Fischer, forensic analyst, Orlando Fla. McMaster University. Hamilton, [email protected] Frederic A. Friedel, philosopher, Hamburg, Ontario. Canada West Germany Robert H. Romer. professor of physics. Health Claims Subcommittee: Co- Amherst College Robert E. Funk, anthropologist. New York chairmen. William Jarvis, Professor Milton A. Rothman. physicist. Philadelphia. State Museum & Science Service of Health Promotion and Education, Pa. Eileen Gambrill, professor of social welfare. School of Public Health, Loma University of California at Berkeley Karl Sabbagh. journalist. Richmond. Surrey. England Linda University, Loma Linda, CA Sylvio Garattini, director. Mario Negri Robert J. Samp, assistant professor of educa­ 93350. and Stephen Batten. M.D., Pharmacology Institute. Milan. Italy tion and medicine. University of P.O. Box 1747, Allentown. PA Laurie Godfrey, anthropologist. University of Wisconsin-Madison 18105. Massachusetts Steven D. Schafersman, geologist. Houston Gerald Goldin, mathematician. Rutgers Bela Scheiber." system analyst, Boulder. Parapsychology Subcommittee: University. New Jersey Colo. Chairman. Ray Hyman, Psychology Donald Goldsmith, astronomer; president. Chris Scott, statistician. London. England Dept.. Univ. of Oregon. Eugene. Interstellar Media Clyde F. Herreid, professor of biology. Stuart D. Scott. Jr., associate professor of OR 97402. SUNY. Buffalo anthropology, SUNY. Buffalo UFO Subcommittee: Chairman, Philip Terence M. Hines. professor of psychology. Erwin M. Segal, professor of psychology. SUNY. Buffalo J. Klass, 404 "N" Street S.W.. Pace University. Pleasantville. N.Y. Philip A lanna, assoc. professor of astronomy. "Member of CSICOP Executive Council Washington, D.C 20024. Univ. of Virginia The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal encourages the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and disseminates factual information about the results of such inquiries to mw&k^ j the scientific community and the public. It also promotes science and scientific inquiry, * critical thinking, science education, and the use of reason in examining important issues. To carry out these objectives the Committee:

• Maintains a network of people interested in critically examining paranormal, fringe-science, and other claims, and in contributing to consumer education • Prepares bibliographies of published materials that carefully examine such claims • Encourages research by objective and impartial inquiry in areas where it is needed • Convenes conferences and meetings • Publishes articles that examine claims of the paranormal • Does not reject claims on a priori grounds, antecedent to inquiry, but examines them objectively and carefully

The Committee is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization. The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is its official journal.