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Download Zetetic Scholar Nos. 12 & 13 16.8 MB A~~~A~I~S RESEARCH (CSAR) PAT TRUZZI CONTENTS SCIENTIFIC REVIEU OF CLAIMS OF NUMBERS 12 & 13 CONSULTING EDITORS AN~LIES AND THE PARANO~L AUGUST 1987 JAMES E, ALCOCK THEODORE X. BAREER mrxm HARRY COLLINS MARcELm TRUZZI ~ILLrA~ R, CORLISS Zetetic Rumlnatrons on Skepticism and Anomalies in Science........... 7 RICHARD DE MILLE JAMEsMCLEXXiF,RAYHYMW PERSI ~IA~~NlS A Remote Viewing wriment Conducted by a Skeptic and a Believer..... 21 ~ARTrN EBON ROBERT eALEff~ATH RICHARDKAMMANN ~I~HEL ~A~~UEL~N New Zealand Prophecies Exposed as a Hoax.............................. 34 3~RNAR~ ~~~VEL~ANS ELLIC HOWE SHIRLEX MCIVER DAVID M JACOBS UFO (Flying Saucer) Groups: A Look at British Membership.............. 39 SEYMOUR ~AUSK~PF EDWARD J, WOODY CAluRs s. ALV~ ROBERT L, MORRIS Historical Notes on a Seance with EUsapia Palladino in 1912........... 61 W~LLrAM NAGLER CHARLES TART MARCELLOTRUZZI ROY WALLIS Reflections on 'Woject Alpha": Scientific Drperiment or Con3uror's 11 lusion? . 73 HENRYH. BAUER TR~ZZI AUGUST 1987 Dlstributlons of Beliefs on Controversial Matters..................... 99 McHAK;EsANlUt4TRdJIK;DIAux;uEs- ZmIC ~~ is ~1~s~~ by Marcello Truzzi and is the official journal of the Center for Scientific ~ma~ie~ Research. The opinions expressed in GERDH.HWEUtAW this journal do not ne&~ssarily represent those of the Center. All A Constructively Rational Approach to Parapsycholcqy and corres~~de~ce, in~i~~inq man~s&ript~~ letters, books for review, and Sclentlflc Methodology (Responses to My Commentators s~~~~iption a& editorial ~~ir~~s~ should be addressed to: The Mitor, and Some Further Attempts at Clarification) . 110 ~ETETIC SC~~~~, Dept. of Sociology, Eastern ~ich~qa~ University, Responses to: John Beloff (1X), Susan J. Blackmzre (114), Ypsilanti, MI ~3197 [USA). Hans J. Eysenck (1151, P.H. Hoebens (1171, Brian 1~11s (119J, JUrgen Keil (1191, Stanley Krippner (120), Morton Leeds (121), Walter van S~~I~I~S: Zetetic Scholar is ~~bl~~h~~ irregularly but approximately Lucadou (122), Gerald C. Mertens (123). Robert L. twice per ~~s~~ are for two darners, arn3 rates are: indivi- Morris (1251, Carroll B. Nash (126). Iward Oepen duals (U~Aan~~a~a~a~, $15 ~~.~.~.~ib~~rie~, ~n~t~~ut~o~s and foreign, (127), John Palmer (1281, Trevor J. Pinch (1291, $20 (U.S.) by surface mail and $30 airmail. No foreign Cxxrency or non- Steven M. Rosen (130). Gertrude R. Schmaidler U.S. bank checks, please, due to ~~o~~b~t~v~ service charges. New sub- (1311, Christopher Scott (132), Ccuglas M. Stokes in with the nt issue (when av (1321, Ulrlch Tlmn ( 135). Jerome Tohacyk (1351, eo~tries~ with Rhea A. Whrte (1361, and Leonard Zusne (137). ies. Double issue 1314 in reduced-xerox CONTENTS CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE, --..3PJEIAL zs FmIrJ- CFEATQIB Chinese Parapsychology: Bibliography of English especially the authors of the articles in Language Items, Part II . 58 for your patience and encouragement in getting out overdue issue of ZS. Most of you know ZS is a labor of pretty much a one man operation. The unconscionable elay was produced out of a strange combination of my prccrastina- ---ItEuIARzsFEATtlREs n and overload. Unlike our current politicians, I accept the blame EDI~RIAL................................................................... 3 with the responsibility. Thank you for your indulgence and your -- kind letters urging me to continua this oroiect. I can only hope that the contents of this double-sized issueLmiqht in pert compensate RANDOM BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE OCCULT AND THE PARANORMAL, I L II.............. 103 for the delay. BOOKRESQWS Henceforth, to avoid future "catch-up" problems, 2.5 will officially be on an irregular schedule although I stillhopetoqet at least two issues out per Trevor H. Hall's The Enigma ----of Daniel Home: Medium year. A subscription will continue to consist of two numbers. The next issue --or Fraud? (ERIC J. DINGWALL)................................... I54 (t14) is already largely in my computer, so it should be out on schedule (within six months). Meanwhile, a number of CSARprojects are now beinqde- Michel Gauquelin's Birthtimes (PIET HEIN HOEBENS).................... 160 veloped, including publication of theCSARnewsletter. Again, my thanks for (GEOFFREY DEAN)................................................. 162 your past support and your patience. Leonard Zusne and Warren H. Jones's Anomalistic Psychology: ******** A Study of Extraordinary Phenomena -~-of Behavior and Experience (RON WESTRUM)..................................... 166 Since publication of the last issue, death came to a startling number of the major contributors to ZS: George Abell, Milbourne Christopher, Eric J. Martin Ebon's Psychic ___--____Warfare: Threat or Illusion? Dinqwall, J. Allen Hynek, Walter Gibson, Richard Kammann (all Senior Consul- (JOHN BELOFF)................................................... 171 tants to CSAR) and Piet Hein Hoebens (who frequently contributed to the pages of ZS, was --as he preferred it-- my "unofficial associate editor," and had a Curtis D. McDougall's Superstition ---and the Press profound influence on my own views about anomalies). They all are and will be (HENRY H. BAUER)................................................ 173 greatly missed. Joseph W. Zarzynski's Champ - Beyond the Leqend rx4 psEuDo-sKEPrIcIcISM (HENRY Ii. BAUER)................................................ 176 Over the years, I have decried the misuse of the term "skeptic" when used to Books Briefly Noted (M. TRUZZI)...................................... 178 refer to all critics of anomaly claims. Alas, the label has been thus misap- plied by both proponents and critics of the paranormal. Sometimes users of the ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE....................................... 5 term have distinguishing between co-called "soft" verus 'hard" skeptics, and I in part revived the term "zetetic," ABOUT CSAR..............................................,................. 205 because of the term's misuse; but I now think the problems created go beyond mere terminology, and matters need to be set right. Since "skepticism" properly refers to doubt rather than denial -- COVER ILLUSTRATION BY PIET HEIN HOEBENS nonbelief rather than belief -- critics who take the negative rather than an agnostic position but call still themselves “skeptics" are actually pseudo- skeptics and have, I believed, gained a false advantage by usurping that label. In science, the burden of proof falls upon the claimant: and the more extraor- dinary a claim, the heavier is the burden of proof demanded. The true skeptic takes an agnostic position, one that says the claim is -not proved rather than disproved. He asserts that the claimant has not borne the burden of proof and that science must continue to build its cognitive map of reality without incorporating the extraordinary claim as a new "fact." Since the true skeptic does not assert a claim, he has no burden _to p rove1 an y thin ,, q.He just goes on using the established th&%ieso~"conventlona science as usual. But if a =eff:ir ScI)nlnr. #1:/l; (1907) 3 critic asserts that there is evidence for disproof, that he has a neq ative hrpo thesis (9 the conjecture that a seeming psi result was actually due to an artifact), he is making a claim and therefore also --,--has to bear a burden of psoof.Sometimes, such negat~v~ims by critics are also quite extrsq (3, that a UFO was actually a giant plasma or that someone in a psi experi- ment was cued via an abnormal ability to hear a high pitch others with normal ABOUT THE ears would fail to notice), in which case the negative claimant also may have to bear a heavier burden of proof than might normally be expected. CONTRIBUTORS Critics who assert negative claims but who mistakenly call themselves "skep- tics" often act as though they (as would be appropriate only for the agnostic TO THIS ISSUE: or true skeptic) have no burden of proof placed on them at all. A result of this is that many critics seem to feel it is only necessary to present a case CABU?S S. ALVARADO is associated with the graduate program of the Division of for their counter-claims based upon plausibility rather than empirical evi- Parapsychology of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. dence. Thus, if a subject in a psi experiment can be shown to have had an opportunity to cheat, many critics seem to assume not merely that he probably HENRY H. BAUEH is a Professor of Chemistry and Science Studies at Virginia did cheat but that he must have, regardless of what may be the complete Polytechnic Institute and State University at Blacksburg, Virginia. absence of evidence that he did so cheat (and sometimes ignoring evidence of the subject's past reputation for honesty). Similarly, improper randomization JOHN BELDFF is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh in procedures are sometimes assumed to be the cause of a subject's high psi Scotland and editor of the ~--Journal of the Society -for Psychical scores even though all that has been established is the possibility of such Research. an artifact having been the real cause. Of course, the evidential weight of the experiment is greatly reduced when we discover an opening in the design QXXFBEY DEAN is an analytic chemist, a scientific critic of astrology and co- that would allow an artifact to confound the results. Discovering an opportu- author of Recent Advances in Natal Astrology: --AA Critical Review nity for error should make such experiments less evidential ard usually unwon- 1900-1976. - - - vincinq; it usually disproves the claim that the experiment was "air tight" against error, but it does not disprove the anomaly claim. Showing evidence is BHICJ.DINGWALL (1890-1986) was ananthropologist, anhistorian, a sexolo- unconvincing is not grounds for completely dismissing it. If a critic asserts that the result was due to artifact X, that critic then has the burden of gist, a leading investigator and critic in psychical research, and proof to demonstrate that artifact X can and probably did produce such results until his death, the oldest living member of London's Magic Circle. under such circumstances.
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