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Who's Answering? Means?" Or Similar Questions, Inviting JOE NICKELL the Sitter to Provide the Meaning

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Who's Answering? Means? BOOK REVIEWS In an otherwise comprehensive study, comprises "real" science (creationism ver­ Psychologists know, for example, that the only disappointment is the relatively sus evolution). Readers of this journal in the "voices" allegedly heard by mediums scant attention paid to "creation-science." particular would be interested in such an are invariably their own internal Though not entirely avoided, a fuller analysis. Nonetheless, this is only a minor thoughts, that they glean information— treatment of this topic could have illumi­ blemish. Anyone interested in the tension innocently or shrewdly—by familiar nated how the terms of debate have created by the interaction of religion, sci­ means. These include reading body lan­ shifted over what constituted "true" reli­ ence, and public policy should read this guage (to sense when one is factually on gion (fundamentalism versus modernism) book. The issues it raises arc as important or off track), providing data in question to contemporary arguments over what today as they were in the 1920s. form (which may, if correct, be consid­ ered a "hit," but otherwise will seem an innocent query), and inviting the sitter to interpret the vague statements offered. Talking to Heaven— (Van Praagh often asks, "Do you under­ stand this?" or "Do you know what this Who's Answering? means?" or similar questions, inviting JOE NICKELL the sitter to provide the meaning. If the sitter docs not comprehend, the medium Talking to Heaven. By James Van Praagh. Dutton, New York, will try another tack.) 1997. ISBN 0-525-94268-8. 194 pp. Hardcover, $22.95. Van Praagh manages to cast discred­ ited spiritualism in a new light: He uti­ Enjoying best-seller status for a time this from a medium's bodily orifices), and lizes popular belief in every type of spring—number one on the New York even luminescent "materializations" of alleged ghostly activity (flickering lights, Times booklist—James Van Praagh's spirit entities. Alas, one must look else­ dreams, "meaningful" coincidences, and Talking to Heaven revives an old claim. where to find evidence of the double- the like), not just seance phenomena. He- Van Praagh claims that he and certain exposed pictures and other tricks, the takes advantage of New Age popularity to other "spiritualists" can communicate hiding places where apports include "chakras" (purported with the dead. Unfortunately, the were stashed until needed, ,Al/fi? JMCS? gw. energy centers"), medita- author neglects to mention that the his­ the evidence that ecto- Of/*'. JA |^ •»»«*0/H\ ? —' nuntion, , |/3^*_unpsychi-c [•iitnmiiphenom-- tory of modern spiritualism has been a plasm's "gauzelike" quality f,t jj A***y> ' ena, and so on, but pre­ history of deception. (as Van Praagh character- &7SY: senting everything in a As many skeptics well know, its very izes it) was due to phony ^?5$if .s°*sdoi>Y» reng'ous raIncr tnan founding in 1848 was a fraud. mediums using cheese­ £*Y8ot>Y*' occult context. For Spiritualism sprang to life in upstate New cloth for the purpose, and example, he equates the York with the rappings and alleged spirit the reports of those who old mediumistic "spirit contacts of two teenage girls known as embraced the "spirits" and guides" (supposed go- the Fox sisters. Soon the young girls' per­ discovered them to be living betweens with the "other formances captured international atten­ persons in ghostly guise. world") with "guardian angels," tion, prompting similar claims by medi­ The record of such trickery, if not the thereby tapping into the currently fad­ ums across the world. Only forty years actual risk of exposure, has caused many dish interest in angels. later, with her sister Katie looking on, did spiritualists to avoid physical phenom­ His major ploy is the book's title, Margaret Fox publicly demonstrate the ena. Despite his endorsement of their Talking to Heaven, which suggests that tricks the schoolgirls had used in pre­ authenticity, when it comes to his own spirits of the dead exist not in some tending to communicate with a ghost. practice, Van Praagh is strictly a "mental ethereal dimension, as earlier spiritual­ Despite spiritualisms checkered his­ medium," one who uses "psychic abil­ ism implied, but in a traditional reli­ tory of hoaxes and trickery. Van Praagh ity" that includes alleged clairvoyance gious domain. Everyone, Van Praagh endorses the genuineness of such phe­ (or inner sight) and clairsentience would say, can talk to Heaven. But one- nomena as spirit photography, "apports" (extrasensory feelings). is reminded of the exchange in (magically appearing items), "ecto­ Such an approach makes it difficult Shakespeare's King Henry IV between plasm" (a substance allegedly exuded for an investigator to distinguish Glendower and Hotspur. When the for­ between two types of deception: that mer boasts, "I can call spirits from the Joe Nickell is Senior Research Fellow at involving the deliberate hoodwinking of vasty deep," the other replies, "Why so CSICOP and Investigative Files columnist the sitter and that in which the medium can I, or so can any man; But will they for SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. and sitter essentially deceive themselves. come when you do call for them?" SKEPTICAL INQUIRER July/August 1998 51 .
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