Bears as Bigfoot | Truth | Sirius Matter | Leonardo Mysteries | Balles Prize | Creation Astronomy | Dr. Oz

the Magazine for Science and Reason Vol. 37 No. 4 | September/October 2013

The Myth of the Mad Genius SYLVIA BROWNE’S PSYCHIC FAILURES: Why Does Anyone Believe Her?

Has Global Warming Stopped?

Stardust, Smoke and Mirrors News and ESP Belief Lost Lessons of the Strangling Angel Electrocuting Parasites

Published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry   C   I –T   

Ronald A. Lindsay, President and CEO Massimo Polidoro, Research Fellow Bar ry Karr, Ex ec u tive Di rect or Benjamin Radford, Research Fellow Joe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow Richard Wiseman, Research Fellow www.csicop.org

James E. Alcock*, psychol ogist, York Univ., Toron to Thomas Gilov ich, psychol ogist, Cornell Univ. Jay M. Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Marcia Angell, MD, former ed itor-in-chief, David H. Gorski, cancer surgeon and researcher at Astronomy and director of the Hopkins New England Journal of Med icine Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and chief Observatory, Williams College Kimball Atwood IV, MD, physician; author; of breast surgery section, Wayne State Univer- John Paulos, math e mati cian, Temple Univ. Newton, MA sity School of Medicine. Clifford A. Pickover, scientist, author, editor, Stephen Barrett, MD, psychi atrist; author; consum er Wendy M. Grossman, writer; founder and first editor, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. advo cate, Allen town, PA The Skeptic magazine (UK) Massimo Pigliucci, professor of philosophy, Willem Betz, MD, professor of medicine, Univ. of Susan Haack, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts and City Univ. of New York–Lehman College Brussels Scien ces, professor of philos ophy and professor Steven Pinker, cogni tive scien tist, Harvard Univ. of Law, Univ. of Miami Irving Bieder man, psychol ogist, Univ. of Philip Plait, astronomer; lecturer; writer Harriet Hall*, MD, family physician; investigator, Southern CA Massi mo Polid oro, science writer; author; exec utive Puyallup, WA Sandra Blakeslee, science writer; author; New York direct or of CICAP, It aly Times science correspondent C.E.M. Hansel, psychol ogist, Univ. of Wales Anthony R. Pratkanis, professor of psychology, David J. Helfand, professor of astronomy, Susan Blackmore, visit ing lectur er, Univ. of the West Univ. of CA, Santa Cruz of England, Bristol Columbia Univ. Terence M. Hines, prof. of psychology, Pace Univ., Benjamin Radford, investigator; research fellow, Mark Boslough, physicist, Sandia National Laborato- Committee for Skeptical Inquiry ries, Albuquerque, NM Pleasantville, NY. James “The Amazing” Randi, magician; CSICOP Henri Broch, phys icist, Univ. of Nice, France Douglas R. Hofstad ter, profes sor of human under stand ing and cogni tive science, Indi ana Univ. founding member; founder, James Randi Jan Harold Brunvand, folklor ist; profes sor emer itus Educational Foundation of English, Univ. of Utah Gerald Holton, Mallinc krodt Profes sor of Physics and Milton Rosen berg, psychol ogist, Univ. of Chica go Mario Bunge, philos opher, McGill Univ., Montreal profes sor of histo ry of science, Harvard Univ. Ray Hyman*, psychol ogist, Univ. of Or egon Walla ce Sampson, MD, clin ical profes sor of med i cine, Robert T. Carroll, emeritus professor of philoso- Stanford Univ.; edi tor, Scien tif ic Review of phy, Sacramento City College; writer Stuart D. Jordan, NASA astrophysicist emeritus; Alter na tive Med icine Sean B. Carroll, molecular geneticist; vice president science advisor to Center for Inquiry Office of for science education, Howard Hughes Medical Public Policy, Washington, DC Amar deo Sarma* , chairman, GWUP, Germa ny Institute, Madison, WI Barry Karr, executive director, Committee for Richard Saunders, president, Australian Thomas R. Casten, energy expert; founder and Skeptical Inquiry, Amherst, New York Skeptics; educator; investigator; podcaster; chairman, Recycled Energy Development, Law rence M. Krauss, foundation professor, School Sydney, Australia Westmont, IL of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics Dept.; Joe Schwarcz, director, McGill Office for Science John R. Cole, anthro pol ogist; ed itor, Nation al director, Origins Initiative, Arizona State Univ. and Society Center for Science Ed uca tion Harry Kroto, professor of chemistry and Euge nie C. Scott*, physi cal anthro pol ogist; exec utive K.C. Cole, science writer; author; professor, biochemistry, Florida State Univ.; Nobel laureate direct or, Nation al Center for Science Ed uca tion Univ. of Southern California’s Annenberg Edwin C. Krupp, astron omer; direct or, Robert Sheaffer, science writer School of Journalism Griffith Obser va to ry, Los Angeles, CA Elie A. Shneour, bi ochem ist; author; president and Freder ick Crews, liter ary and cultur al critic; profes sor Lawrence Kusche, science writer research director, Bios ys tems Research Insti tute, emer itus of English, Univ. of CA, Berkeley Leon Leder man, emer itus direct or, Fermi lab; La Jolla, CA Richard Dawkins, zool ogist, Oxford Univ. Nobel laure ate in physics Seth Shostak, senior astronomer, SETI Institute, Geof frey Dean, techni cal ed itor, Perth, Austral ia Scott O. Lil ien feld*, psychol ogist, Emory Univ., Mountain View, CA Cornel is de Jager , profes sor of astro phys ics, Atlanta, GA Simon Singh, science writer; broadcaster; UK Univ. of Utrecht, the Nether lands Lin Zixin, former ed itor, Science and Dick Smith, film pro duc er; pub lish er; Ter rey Hills, Dan i el C. Den nett, Aus tin B. Fletch er Pro fes sor Technol ogy Daily (China) N.S.W., Aus tral ia of Phi los o phy and di rect or of Cen ter for Cog nitive Jere Lipps, Muse um of Pale on tol ogy, Univ. of CA, Stud ies, Tufts Uni v. Keith E. Stanovich, cognitive psychologist; Berke ley professor of human development and applied Ann Druyan, writer and producer; CEO, Eliz abeth Loftus*, profes sor of psychol ogy, psychology, Univ. of Toronto Cosmos Studios, Ithaca, NY Univ. of CA, Irvine Vic tor J. Sten ger, emer i tus pro fes sor of phys ics Sanal Edamaruku, president, Indian Rationalist David Marks, psychol ogist, City Univ., London and as tron o my, Univ. of Ha waii; ad junct pro fes- Association and Rationalist International Mario Mendez-Acos ta, journal ist and science writer, sor of phi los o phy, Univ. of CO Edzard Ernst, professor, Complementary Medicine, Mex ico City Karen Stollznow*, linguist; skeptical investigator; Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter Kenneth R. Miller, professor of biology, writer; podcaster and Plymouth, Exeter, UK Brown Univ. Kenneth Feder, profes sor of anthro pol ogy, Jill Cor nell Tar ter, as tron o mer, SE TI In sti tute, Marvin Minsky, profes sor of media arts and scien - Moun tain View, CA Central Connec ti cut State Univ. ces, M.I.T. Car ol Tav ris, psy chol o gist and au thor, Los Ange les, CA Barbara Forrest, professor of philosophy, David Morri son, space scien tist, NASA Ames Re- SE Louisiana Univ. search Center David E. Thomas*, phys i cist and mathe mati cian, Socorro, NM Andrew Fraknoi, astron omer, Foothill College, Richard A. Muller, profes sor of physics, Univ. of CA, Los Altos Hills, CA Berkeley Neil deGras se Tyson, astro phys icist and direct or, Hayden Plan etar ium, New York City Kend rick Fra zi er*, sci ence writer; ed i tor, Joe Nickell, senior research fellow, CSI S    I   Jan Willem Nienhuys, mathematician, Waalre, Indre Viskontas, cognitive neuroscientist, tv and pod- Christopher C. French, professor, Department The Netherlands cast host, and opera singer, San Francisco, CA of Psychology, and head of the Anomalistic Lee Nisbet, philos opher, Medaille College Mari lyn vos Savant, Parade mag azine Psychology Research Unit, Goldsmiths contrib ut ing ed itor College, Univ. of London Steven Novella*, MD, assistant professor of neurology, Yale Univ. School of Medicine Steven Weinberg, profes sor of physics and astron - Yv es Gal i fret, executive secretary, o my, Univ. of Texas at Austin; Nobel laure ate l’Union Rationaliste Bill Nye, sci ence ed u ca tor and tele vi sion host, Nye Labs E.O. Wilson, Univ. profes sor emer itus, organismic and Luigi Garlaschelli, chemist, Università di Pavia evolutionary biology, Harvard Univ. (Italy); research fellow of CICAP, James E. Oberg, science writer the Italian skeptics group Irm gard Oe pen, pro fes sor of med i cine (re tired), Richard Wis eman, psychol ogist, Univ. Maryanne Garry, professor, School of Psychol- Mar burg, Ger ma ny of Hertford shire, England ogy, Victoria Univ. of Wellington, New Zealand Loren Pankratz, psychol ogist, Or egon Health Benjamin Wolozin*, professor, Department of Murray Gell-Mann, profes sor of physics, Santa Fe Scien ces Univ. Pharmacology, Boston Univ. School of Medicine Insti tute; Nobel laure ate Robert L. Park, professor of physics, Univ. of Maryland Marvin Zelen, statis ti cian, Harvard Univ. * Mem ber, CSI Ex ec u tive Coun cil (Af fil i a tions giv en for iden ti fi ca tion on ly.) Skep ti cal In quir er September/October 2013 | Vol. 37, No. 5 ARTICLES COLUMNS 30 The Psychic Defective FROM THE EDITOR Wildly Wrong, Psychics Shouldn’t Revisited: Years Later, Get a Free Pass ...... 4 Sylvia Browne’s Accuracy Remains Dismal NEWS AND COMMENT Forbes’ Salzberg, CSI’s Nickell to Re- RYAN SHAFFER ceive Balles Prize in Critical Thinking/ CFI, Krauss Urge Rep. Lamar Smith to 36 Scrap Onerous Science Funding Crite- Stardust, Smoke, and ria/Psychic Ordered to Pay $6.8 Million for False Claims/In Twenty-First-Century Mirrors: The Myth of the Europe, Public Prosecutor Appoints Mad Genius Clairvoyant as Expert Witness ...... 5 JUDITH SCHLESINGER INVES TI GA TIVE FILES 41 Bigfoot Lookalikes: Tracking How News about ESP Hairy Man-Beasts JOE NICK ELL ...... 12 Research Shapes Audience Beliefs THINKING ABOUT SCIENCE PAUL R. BREWER Truth, Part I MAS SI MO PI GLI UC CI ...... 16

44 NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD Lost Lessons of The Mysteries of Leonardo the Strangling Angel MASSIMO POLIDORO ...... 18 LARAE MEADOWS PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS You Can’t Possibly Be Sirius! 49 ROBERT SHEAFFER ...... 20 Electrocuting Parasites: SCIENCE WATCH Cutting Edge Obesity Redux: A Response to Readers Pseudoscientific Technology KENNETH W. KRAUSE...... 23 THOMAS PATTERSON SKEPTICAL INQUIREE SPECIAL REPORT Did Psychic Visions Locate Missing California Boy? 8 BENJAMIN RADFORD ...... 26 Has Global Warming Stopped? NEW AND NOTABLE BOOKS ...... 58 DAVID MORRISON, JOHN R. MASHEY, AND MARK BOSLOUGH LET TERS TO THE ED I TOR ...... 61

FORUM BOOK REVIEWS THE LAST LAUGH ...... 66 The Wonder of Creation Astronomy 28 A Dangerous Blending of PIERRE STROMBERG...... 56 Dr. Oz’s Questionable Nazi Fact and Fiction Wizardry Wonders Without Number: Created with PETER HUSTON...... 58 Purpose or Conceived in Chaos? JOE SCHWARCZ by David Rives The Nazi Occult by Kenneth Hite FOLLOW UP A Fundamental, Costly Error 52 PETER LAMAL...... 60 NCCAM Responds to ‘Nurturing Non-Science’ Article The Marvelous Learning Animal:

ALYSSA COTLER What Makes Human Nature Unique by Arthur W. Staats Authors Reply to NCCAM Response EUGENIE V. MIELCZAREK AND BRIAN D. ENGLER [ FROM THE EDITOR Skep ti cal In quir er™ THE MAG A ZINE FOR SCI ENCE AND REA SON

EDI TOR Kend rick Fra zi er Wildly Wrong, Psychics Shouldn’t Get a Free Pass EDI TO RI AL BOARD James E. Al cock, Harriet Hall, Ray Hyman, Scott O. Lilienfeld, ow is it that Sylvia Browne can be so overwhelmingly wrong in her “psy- Elizabeth Loftus, Joe Nickell, Steven Novella, Am ar deo Sar ma, Eugenie C. Scott, chic” pronouncements and yet continue to be so popular? That isn’t the Karen Stollznow, David E. Thomas, Hfocus of historian Ryan Shaffer’s “The Psychic Defective Revisited” in this Leonard Tramiel, Benjamin Wolozin CONSULT ING EDI TORS Sus an J. Black more, issue, but it is the question that naturally arises after reading his new investiga- Ken neth L. Fed er, Barry Karr, E.C. Krupp, tive report. Shaffer follows up his 2010 SI article documenting Browne’s dismal Da vid F. Marks, Jay M. Pasachoff, Rich ard Wis e man record on missing person and death cases (in 115 readings she was then mostly CONTRIB UT ING EDI TORS Austin Dacey, D.J. Grothe, correct zero times). He examines one new reading and investigates new devel- Kenneth W. Krause, Chris Moon ey, David Morrison, James E. Oberg, Rob ert Sheaf fer, Karen Stollznow opments in eleven previously unresolved ones. Those include the Amanda Berry DEPUTY EDI TOR Ben ja min Rad ford case where Amanda and two other girls escaped captivity in May, ten years after MANA GING EDI TOR Julia Lavarnway Browne had notoriously and tragically told her mother “she’s not alive.” The ART DIRECT OR Christo pher Fix mother never recovered from her grief and died of heart failure in 2006. PRODUC TION Paul E. Loynes The result of Shaffer’s updated investigation? In the 116 cases considered, ASSISTANT EDITOR Sean Lachut Browne still has never been mostly correct in a single one. She has been mostly WEBMASTER Matthew Licata PUBLISH ER’S REPRE SENT A TIVE Bar ry Karr incorrect in thirty-three. (Eighty-three cases still have unverified outcomes.) CORPO RATE COUNSEL Brenton N. VerPloeg Anyone with such a dismal record in any other field would be laughed out of BUSINESS MANA GER Pa tri cia Beau champ town. But “psychics” get a special pass because their supporters want to believe, FISCAL OFFI CER Paul Pau lin they are swayed by charisma, and if they care about evidence at all (which is un- SUBSCRIPTION DATA MANAGER Jacalyn Mohr likely), they hear only self-serving self-reports from the so-called psychic. STAFF Melissa Braun, Cheryl Catania, Roe Giambrone, Antho ny San ta Lu cia, One of my favorite illustrations ever in the S I was Rob Diane Tobin, Vance Vi grass Pudim’s cartoon dramatizing one key way (of many) that psychics seem always COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Paul Fidalgo to get it right. A psychic triumphantly walks away from a dartboard, one dart in INQUIRY MEDIA PRODUC TIONS Thom as Flynn the bull’s-eye. That’s her story. But then we see that the whole target and indeed DIRECT OR OF LIBRAR IES Tim o thy S. Binga DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Alan Kinniburgh the entire wall behind it and the desk in front are littered with scores of darts gone far astray. As long as it is the psychic who is giving the results, we’ll hear The SKEP TI CAL IN QUIR ER is the offi cial journal of the Com mittee for Skeptical Inquiry, only of successes. Thoughtful people have long looked to the S I- an in ter na tion al or gan i za tion.  to provide the “other side” of the story, the one based on actual objective The S    I   (ISSN 0194-6730) is pub lished bimonth ly by the Commit tee for Skeptical Inquiry, 3965 examination of the evidence. To say there is a gap between the two approaches Rensch Road, Amherst, NY 14228. Printed in U.S.A. Peri od- is a wild understatement. i cals post age paid at Buf fa lo, NY, and at ad dition al mail ing offi ces. Subscrip tion prices: one year (six issues), $35; two years, $60; three years, $84; sin gle is sue, $4.95. * * * Cana di an and foreign orders: Payment in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank must accom pa ny orders; please add US$10 We all know that genius and madness go together, right? Well, skeptics may per year for shipping. Cana di an and foreign custom ers are encour aged to use Visa or Master Card. Canada Publications know better. (Remember full moons and madness? We debunked that one long Mail Agreement No. 41153509. Return undeliverable Ca- nadian addresses to: IMEX, P.O. Box 4332, Station Rd., ago.) But the idea that creative people tend toward madness (or bipolar dis- Toronto, ON M5W 3J4. order in modern lingo) has considerable popular acceptance and some expert In quir ies from the me dia and the pub lic about the work of the Com mit tee should be made to Barry Karr, Executive proponents. Yet it is false, a myth, as psychologist, therapist, and writer Judith Director, CSI, P.O. Box 703, Amherst, NY 14226-0703. Tel.: 716-636-1425. Fax: 716-636-1733. Email: bkarr@center Schlesinger demonstrates in her article in this issue on the myth of the mad ge- forinquiry.net. nius. Health care professionals are often complicit in uncritically promulgating Man u scripts, let ters, books for re view, and ed i to ri al in quir- ies should be sent to Kend rick Fra zi er, Ed i tor, S    the myth, which Schlesinger has been investigating for three decades. For more, I , EMAIL: [email protected]. 944 Deer see her book The Insanity Hoax: Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius. Drive NE, Al buquerque, NM 87122. Be fore sub mit ting any man u script, please con sult our updated and expanded Guide for Au thors for styles, ref er en ce requirements, and * * * submittal re quire ments. It is on our website in two formats at www.csi cop.org/pub lications/guide. For your friends who want to get the S I on their iPad, iPhone, Arti cles, re ports, reviews, and letters pub lished in the S -  I  rep re sent the views and work of in di vid u al computer, Kindle Fire, Blackberry, or other device, online SI subscriptions (and authors. Their publi ca tion does not neces sa ri ly consti tute back issues) are now available. SI is available digitally on Apple Newsstand and an endorse ment by CSI or its mem bers unless so stated. Copy right ©2013 by the Commit tee for Skeptical Inquiry. also on all other major platforms through the Pocketmags app. You can find all All rights reserved. The S   I  is availa ble on 16mm micro film, 35mm mi crofilm, and 105mm micro- the links at http://www.csicop.org/news/show/skeptical_inquirer_is_now_avail- fiche from Univer si ty Micro films Inter na tion al and is in- able_digitally. dexed in the Read ers’ Guide to Pe ri od i cal Lit er a ture. Subscrip tions and chan ges of address should be ad- —K F dressed to: S    I  , P.O. Box 703, Amherst, NY 14226-0703. Or call toll-free 1-800-634-1610 (out side the U.S. call 716-636-1425). Old ad dress as well as new are nec es sa ry for change of sub scrib er’s ad dress, with six weeks advance notice. S   I  subscrib ers Committee for Skeptical Inquiry may not speak on behalf of CSI or the S    I  . “... promotes scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use Post mas ter: Send chan ges of ad dress to S   I- of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims.”  , P.O. Box 703, Amherst, NY 14226-0703. [ NEWS AND COMMENT

Forbes’ Salzberg, CSI’s Nickell to Receive Balles Prize in Critical Thinking P  F 

Forbes columnist Steven Salzberg and author-investigator Joe Nickell will each be awarded the 2012 Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking, to be presented by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry at the CFI Summit in October. In the struggle against the torrent of pseudoscientific misinformation peddled to the public, there could be no more valuable ally to skeptics than rational, critical, and intellectually honest media. Unfortunately, tales of hauntings, the paranormal, and celeb- Steven Salzberg Joe Nickell rity-endorsed magic “alternative med- icine” cures based entirely on hearsay The Robert P. Balles Annual Prize behalf of skepticism have proven irresistible to much of the in Critical Thinking is a $2,500 award • 2009: Michael Specter, New Yorker established press and popular media. given to the author of the published staff writer and former foreign corre- This is why the work of Steven Salz- work that best exemplifies healthy spondent for the New York Times, for berg and Joe Nickell is so necessary. skepticism, logical analysis, or empiri- his book Denialism: How Irrational In his column for Forbes, “Fighting cal science. Each year, the Committee Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Pseudoscience,” Steven Salzberg regu- for Skeptical Inquiry selects the paper, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our larly shines the light of reason on the article, book, or other publication that Lives false or dubious claims made by those has the greatest potential to create • 2008: Leonard Mlodinow, physicist, hawking homeopathy, demonizing vac- positive reader awareness of important author, and professor at Caltech, for cines, deifying celebrity gurus, or gener- scientific issues. his book The Drunkard’s Walk: How ally denying science and reality, often at This prize has been established the expense of public health. He does Randomness Rules Our Lives through the generosity of Robert P. • 2007: Natalie Angier, New York so with a clear and accessible voice, and Balles, an associate member of CSI, Times science writer and author of with a healthy dose of humor. and the Robert P. Balles Endowed the book The Canon: A Whirligig Accessibility and humor, along Memorial Fund, a permanent en- Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science with unmatched rigor and curiosity, dowment fund for the benefit of CSI. • 2006: Ben Goldacre for his weekly are what the famed Joe Nickell, CSI CSI’s established criteria for the prize column, “Bad Science,” published in senior research fellow, has been bring- include use of the most parsimonious the Guardian newspaper (U.K.) ing to his work for decades. In 2012, theory to fit data or to explain appar- Nickell released his latest of many in- ently preternatural phenomena. • 2005: Shared by Andrew Skolnick, valuable books, The Science of Ghosts: This is the eighth year the Robert Ray Hyman, and Joe Nickell for their Searching for Spirits of the Dead, in P. Balles prize has been presented. series of articles in the S which he explores, investigates, and Previous winners of this award are: I on “Testing ‘The Girl exposes the many legends, myths, and with X-Ray Eyes’” hoaxes about ghosts. He gets past the • 2011: Richard Wiseman, psychol- mysticism and romance to examine ogist and entertainer, for his book Call for Nominations: There’s the actual evidence for “spiritual ac- Para normality: Why We See What amazing work being produced in tivity,” based on diligent research and Isn’t There 2013, with much more on the way. If hands-on investigation. • 2010: Steven Novella for his tre- you’d like to vouch for the author you The Committee for Skeptical In- mendous body of work, including think deserves the 2013 Balles Prize, quiry (CSI) is therefore proud to give the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, contact Barry Karr at bkarr@centerfo- the 2012 Balles Prize to both Steven Science-Based Medicine, Neurologica, rinquiry.net. Salzberg and Joe Nickell. It is the first S I column “The Paul Fidalgo is communications director time two awards have been given in Science of Medicine,” and his tire- the same year. less travel and lecture schedule on of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 5 CFI, Krauss Urge Rep. Lamar Smith to Scrap Psychic Ordered to Pay $6.8 Million Onerous Science Funding Criteria for False Claims B R The letter, sent May 16, 2013, notes that NSF’s current process The owners of a Texas ranch were not so understanding is based on “the time-honored raided by police based on a and filed a lawsuit. Ac cord- and scientifically sound principle psychic’s bogus information ing to the Houston Chronicle, of peer review.” It notes that that about a massacre have sued “A self-described psychic process evaluates applications for the psychic, winning a $6.8 who triggered a media frenzy funding based on two main crite- million judgment. The case when she told au thorities a ria: intellectual merit and societal began June 6, 2011, when Liberty County couple had impact. a psychic using the name a mass grave on their prop- “Your bill would not improve “Angel” (later determined to erty has been ordered to pay this process, which is widely con- be a woman named Presley the couple $6.8 million. A sidered to be one of the most suc- Gridley) called police and Dallas County judge issued cessful science funding processes the judgment May 7 against Science advocate Lawrence Krauss in the world and which has placed described a horrific scene of Arizona State University and the our nation at the forefront of sci- of mass murder: dozens of Presley ‘Rhonda’ Gridley, the Cen ter for Inquiry have submit- entific advances.” dismembered bodies near a sole remaining defendant in a ted a letter to Rep. Lamar Smith The letter notes that the pro- ranch house about an hour lawsuit filed a year ago.” (R–Texas) calling his draft legisla- posed bill would require the NSF outside of Houston, Texas. Other defendants orig- tive proposal altering the National director to be able to predict There were rotting limbs, inally named in the suit Science Foundation’s (NSF) peer which research will be ground- headless corpses and, chill- included six major media review system “both un necessary breaking. “This confuses the pro- ingly, children in a mass outlets as well as the police, and potentially harmful to science cesses of science with prophecy. grave. though claims against all the research supported by the United Groundbreaking discoveries are Deputies from the Lib- others were dropped. The States government.” not something one can reliably The draft bill proposed by erty County Sheriff’s office lawsuit blamed the sheriff’s foresee . . . they are often the Smith, chairman of the House went to investigate and soon office for repeating Grid- Committee on Science, Space, result of basic research which dozens of officials from the ley’s claims to reporters and and Technology, would require did not anticipate, and was not Texas Department of Pub- stated: “Over the course of the NSF director to certify that a specifically designed to result in, lic Safety, the FBI, and the the day, media defendants research project meet three new critical breakthroughs.” It gave as Texas Rangers were on the began to exaggerate and criteria before awarding a grant. examples: the World Wide Web; scene—not to mention ca- eventually make up facts It must advance national health, the field of quantum mechanics, daver dogs, news helicop- about Plaintiffs, including now required for all modern elec- prosperity, welfare, or defense; ters, and gawkers. that a mass grave existed on tronics; and the life-saving cer- it must be “groundbreaking” or It all turned out to be a the property, including the vical cancer screening Pap test, solve problems of the utmost false alarm. There were no bodies of children.” importance; and it must not du- discovered during research into guinea pig sex cycles. dead bodies; the psychic was District Court Judge Carl plicate other government-funded wrong (or lying). Though Ginsberg found that Gridley research projects. It also suggests The letter is signed by Krauss, the incident became a na- had made defamatory state- these requirements be considered Foundation Professor at Arizona tional embarrassment, po- ments about Bankston and for all federal science agencies. State University’s School of Earth “These requirements represent and Space Exploration and an lice refused to apologize, Charlton when she falsely a serious misunderstanding of the Honorary Board Member at the saying that procedures were reported the massacre to nature of scientific inquiry and Center for Inquiry (and a Commit- followed and that the sever- the Liberty County Sheriff’s discovery and, if approved, would tee for Skeptical Inquiry Fellow); ity of the claims warranted Office. Ginsberg found that not facilitate, but instead obstruct Ronald A. Lindsay, CFI President an investigation. Whether Gridley’s statement injured productive scientific research,” and CEO; and Michael De Dora, a tip comes from an ordi- the reputation of Bankston reads the letter. director of the CFI Office of Public nary citizen, an anonymous and Charlton, exposing “It would burden [the Policy. informant, or a self-pro- them to public hatred, ridi- NSF’s] process with standards CFI’s full letter is available as claimed psychic, informa- cule, and financial loss. The that politicize science and a PDF at http://bit.ly/CFI-Krauss- tion about mass murders plaintiffs stated that their fail to give proper weight to NSF. Rep. Smith’s draft bill is cannot be ignored. house was trashed in the the importance of basic scientific available at http://bit.ly/lamar- The ranch owners, Joe police raid and that they had re search.” smithbill. Bankson and Gena Charlton, lost friends as a result of the

6 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT

psychic’s false claims. In Twenty-First-Century Europe, That a psychic gave police Public Prosecutor Appoints Clairvoyant wrong information about a as Expert Witness serious crime is unremarkable and in fact routine. Following T W    M Z  high-profile missing persons cases, police often receive doz- About three years ago a have the first precedent. A ens or even hundreds of tips group of Polish scientists public prosecutor has estab- from psychics, which invari- wrote an “Open Letter in lished a clairvoyant as an ably turn out to be contradic- Defense of Reason.” Why? expert witness in a missing tory and inaccurate. The case Because the Polish gov- persons case. The clairvoy- brings up interesting issues ernment had issued an ant (whose name we will about responsibility for pro- official list of occupations not divulge) bragged about viding accurate information to that included such pro- the decision of the public police. Making a false report fessions as fortune-teller, prosecutor on his website. of a crime is itself a crime in astrologer, and dowser but He published court doc- many places, though prose- not, for example, “scien- uments and commented: cutions tend to be rare unless tist,” without realizing the “The only document of this it’s a costly and blatant hoax. legal consequences. More kind ever issued.” The doc- Part of the reason is that police than five thousand people ument appoints him as an not follow this precedent. don’t want to discourage po- signed this letter. expert witness and asks to Services offered by sha- tentially helpful tips from the An article about this in “conduct an experiment to mans, “bioenergy” thera- public. As the famous post- the S I reveal the whereabouts of a pists, and homeopaths em- 9/11 slogan says, “If you see (November/December missing person.” ployed by the public health something, say something.” 2010) noted: The clairvoyant is well- service would be much Because real terror threats are The Minister has not, known for ad vertising cheaper than doctors, sur- however, taken a stance rare, by definition most reports his services by claiming geons, and pharmacists. of suspicious packages and ac- toward possible legal his extensive cooperation consequences resulting Why pay detectives if we tivities are false alarms. Police from individual occu- with the Polish police over can simply look in a crystal don’t want to prosecute people pations being included many years. However, the ball? Why spend money on who sincerely suspect some- in the Classification. ex-spokesman of the Pol- DNA analysis if we can ask What if, for example, thing is amiss, but they also ish police headquarters, a fortune-teller? don’t want to waste time and the Polish Supreme when asked by the media Court were to allow resources on hoaxes and mis- establishing a forensic how many clairvoyants’ information. expert in the area of tips were actually correct in Tomasz Witkowski is a re- What makes this case dif- fortune-telling, astrol- the past decades, replied: searcher and science writer ferent is that it was not police ogy, bio-energy ther- “None.” with a PhD in psychology, apy, or similar special- and he is a founder of the that sued but rather an injured ization on the same The appointment of third party damaged by the grounds as other foren- a clairvoyant can have Polish Skeptics Club. psychic’s information. A psy- sic experts? It is only far-reaching consequences. chic being successfully sued a matter of time now It opens the possibility for for giving wrong information before a clever law- other “specialists” of this Dr. Maciej Zatonski is a sur- yer makes use of this geon and researcher work- is unusual, and it may cause provision and forces a type to take part in de- psychics to think twice about divorce decree with the ciding important public ing at Imperial College Health making claims they cannot help of a clairvoyant. matters. And it shows the NHS Trust in London and a back up. Of course many al- After all, a clairvoy- state’s approval for magic, founder of the Polish Skep- ant’s opinion is of the pseudoscience, and super- tics Club. ready advertise their services same weight as, for as “for entertainment only,” instance, a criminolo- stition to the public. And though there is nothing en- gist’s. I fear even to last, but not least, this ab- tertaining about reporting to think about any other surdity is funded with pub- The authors wrote about the police that dead and dismem- possible consequences lic money. “Psychology Is Science, Not of such decisions. bered children are on some- We can only hope that Witchcraft” campaign in our July/August 2013 issue. one’s property. Three years later we other public services will

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 7 [SPECIAL REPORT

Has Global Warming Stopped? The latest public confusion about climate change involves an apparent slowing of the rise of global temperatures. What is the reality concerning this putative temperature ‘plateau’?

DAVID MORRISON, JOHN R. MASHEY, AND MARK BOSLOUGH

uman-caused (anthropogenic) or even outright denial—about global opinion between scientists and their global warming has been a warming. critics concerning the reality and sig- Htopic of major scientific inter- A major recent source of public nificance of the putative plateau? est for more than half a century, and misunderstanding is the slowing of its consequences are broadly apparent the rise of temperature (the so-called Evidence for Global Warming in rising surface and ocean tempera- temperature “plateau”) that is appar- Before addressing the surface tem- tures, dramatic changes in Arctic ice, ent in annual average global surface perature issue, it’s helpful to review rising sea levels, and a multitude of temperature over the past fifteen years, the scientific case for continuing stresses placed on ecosystems around following rapid warming in the pre- global climate change. The reality of the planet, such as poleward migration ceding twenty-five years. Adding to the greenhouse effect and the impli- of bark beetles killing vast forests. some people’s bewilderment is the fact cations of increasing carbon dioxide However, some powerful organiza- that atmospheric and climate scientists in the atmosphere have been known tions dispute the reality of this climate tend to downplay this supposed plateau since the pioneering work of Svante change and the role of the greenhouse and continue to assert that the planet Arrhenius in 1896. The steady increase 2 effect as its cause. In the United States, is warming at a dangerous rate. What in atmospheric CO since the begin- there is widespread public confusion— is the reality behind this divergence of ning of the industrial revolution has been monitored directly since 1959 and reconstructed for earlier years from atmospheric samples trapped in ice. In May 2013 the concentration reached 400 ppm, 43 percent above pre-indus- trial CO2 levels. This increase is almost entirely caused by human burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Basic physics tells us that the increasing CO2 greenhouse effect will affect the tem- perature of the planet; the key question is by how much. In the past two decades we have been able, for the first time, to measure the greenhouse heating and to track where the excess heat is deposited. Ex- cess greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and reduce infrared radi- ation to space. The imbalance causes Atmospheric CO2 as measured from the Mauna Loa Observatory since 1958. Note the small re- the Earth to absorb more energy than peating seasonal variations. There is a steady overall increase from 315 to 400 ppm, and the it radiates. Most of that energy is going slight upward curvature shows the acceleration in the deposition of CO2. Carbon dioxide is the into the ocean, not the surface or at- primary greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, and as such is the main driver of climate change. The mosphere. Global ocean temperatures increasing CO2 greenhouse is causing an energy imbalance, with more heat added to the Earth are now measurable for the first time every year. However, only a part of this excess energy goes to increase the surface air tempera- by the Argo deep ocean probes—an in- tures, which are also subject to a variety of other influences. Data from Pieter Tans, NOAA/ESRL ternational network of more than 3,000 (www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/ ) and Ralph Keeling, Scripps Institution of Oceanography measuring stations that measure ocean (scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/ ). temperatures down to two kilometers

8 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer depth. One consequence of ocean heat- as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation greenhouse warming prefer to average ing is sea level rise from thermal expan- (ENSO), which involves major redis- surface temperatures over timescales sion of the water, now taking place at tribution of heat between the ocean and longer than a decade to help smooth an average rate of 3.3 ± 0.4 mm per year the atmosphere. The year 1998 saw one out the “noise” caused by the solar (based on data from 1993 to 2009). of the largest ENSO events in history, cycle, ENSO, and other short-term The effects of global warming are with resulting high measured tempera- changes due to volcanic eruptions. visible in many natural systems. The tures. For all of these reasons, climate Climate is not the same as weather, most dramatic changes are in the Arc- scientists looking for the effects of nor is it defined by this short-term in- tic. In the Arctic Ocean, the minimum summer ice cover has shrunk by more than 50 percent, and the residual ice is only about half as thick as it was thirty years ago. The Greenland ice sheet is rapidly shrinking, as measured by sat- ellites that sense the total mass of ice, and in the summer of 2012 it lost an astounding 500 cubic kilometers of ice. Most of the ice does not melt in place, but surface melt water lubricates the ice flow and causes much more ice to flow into the sea. The warming ocean then supplies the energy to melt this ice. There is similar ice loss in the Antarc- tic, primarily by erosion of floating ice shelves from below by warmer seawater. All this evidence demonstrates the recent acceleration of global warm- ing. But what about the evidence from global surface temperatures?

The Temperature Plateau The often-quoted global surface tem- peratures are a measurement of only a very small part of the global energy balance. However, they are important for two reasons. First, they are part of a continuous record of thermometer measurements that can be traced back a century and a half (and extended fur- ther into the past by geologists), unlike the measurements of deep ocean heat or polar ice loss, which are limited to the past few decades. Second, these measurements are easily appreciated by the public, relating to their sense of what warming means. Surface temperatures fluctuate for Two perspectives on the global average temperature changes since 1970. In the upper panel, the many reasons other than greenhouse data are fit with a straight line. In the lower panel, they are fit with several straight-line segments, warming. For example, they are slightly giving a “stair-step” fit. Both show the same temperature increase of 0.7 C over forty-two years, affected by small variations in solar but we react differently depending on the way the data are presented. The plots show annual heating (the solar activity cycle). They temperatures, relative to the average from 1964–1994. Data are averages from NASA (Goddard Institute for Space Studies), NOAA (National Climatic Data Center), and the UK Met Office (Hadley are dominated on the short term by Centre). Figure compliments of Dana Nuccitelli (skepticalscience.com). weather and by such multiyear cycles

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 9 Take action with us.

You can help promote science, reason, and secular values. Imagine a world where religion and pseudoscience do not influence public policy—a world where religion no longer enjoys a privileged position. The Center for Inquiry is working toward these goals and educating the public to use science, reason, and secular values rather than religion and pseudoscience to establish public policy. The Center for Inquiry advances its mission through advocacy, education, and outreach programs. No other organizations advance science and secularism on as many fronts as CFI and its affiliates, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and the Council for Secular Humanism.

Donate today. When you make a donation to CFI, you become a member of a worldwide movement of humanists, skeptics, atheists, and freethinkers—all working together to promote the secular worldview and give voice to your values. Our major goals include: I Protecting the rights of nonbelievers I Advocating for science-based medicine I Sustaining and expanding the secular movement Make your most generous gift today, or request information on planned giving or making a bequest. To receive a brochure elaborating on what we are doing to achieve our important goals and how you can help, please complete and return the attached card or contact us at: Center for Inquiry Development Office PO Box 741 Amherst, NY 14226 1.800.818.7071 [email protected] www.centerforinquiry.net/donate SPECIAL REPORT]

terannual variability. Climate has long temperatures in every decade over the Those who deny climate science and been considered to be a twenty- to past half-century have been higher than evolutionary biology set up a strawman thirty-year average. So whatever pla- in the previous decade, and the two caricature of science and often succeed teau may appear in annual temperature warmest years were both in the past because so few people understand how I records, it is dominated by short-term decade, in 2005 and 2010. science really operates. fluctuations. There is no plateau in Is the short-term temperature “pla- climatologically significant tempera- teau” significant? Perhaps, taken alone, ture. However, we are impatient and it might be. But seen in the context of For Further Reading unwilling to wait twenty to thirty years other evidence for a rapidly warming NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies to assess the reality of climate change. planet, this recent fluctuation in the (http://data.giss.nasa.gov/) Looking at just the past decade of sur- surface temperature data is not evidence National Center for Science Education (http:// face temperature measurements, there against global warming. Heat is being ncse.com/climate) deposited on our planet, whether or not NOAA: National Climatic Data Center (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cmb-faq/anom- it yet shows up in short-term surface alies.php) temperature data. Skeptical Science: Climate Change Myths The denialists do not (http://www.skepticalscience.com/fixednum. Conclusion php) acknowledge the Skeptical Science: Getting Skeptical about This short-term temperature plateau Global Warming Skepticism broad-based evidence has become the primary argument of (http://www.skepticalscience.com/) those who either question or out- University Corporation for Atmospheric of climate change, Research (https://www2.ucar.edu/news/ or the thousands of right deny the reality of human-caused backgrounders/understanding-climate- global warming. Their argument is change-global-warming) scientific papers part of an overall denialist position published annually that does not recognize the reality of climate science. Sometimes it is said David Morrison is a plane- that strengthen our that carbon dioxide is such a minor tary scientist and astrobi- understanding of fraction of the atmosphere that it could ologist and director of the climate and have not contribute to climate change, or Carl Sagan Center for the even that it is absurd to imagine that Study of Life in the Universe never been rebutted anything humans do can have a major at the SETI Institute. He has been active in scientifically. effect on our planet. This narrative helping the public sort fact from misinfor- asserts that climate scientists are sim- mation on planetary science topics. He is ply seeing a correlation between tem- a Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Fellow. peratures and CO2 concentration and claiming naively that this correlation John R. Mashey is a semi-re- is an apparent plateau. implies causation. Therefore, if the tired Bell Labs/Silicon Valley The two charts on p. 9 illustrate two temperatures do not rise steadily with computer scientist/execu- CO2, this disproves the entire idea of different ways to look at the same infor- tive who for the past several mation. Both plot the measured global climate change. years has been studying temperatures from 1970 to 2012. The The denialists do not acknowledge climate science issues. He has prepared first fits a straight line in order to derive the broad-based evidence of climate an average rate of heating over the past change, or the thousands of scien- several investigative reports on climate half century. The second fits the same tific papers published annually that anti-science. data with a series of straight lines. The strengthen our understanding of cli- multiple straight-line fits show a tem- mate and have never been rebutted sci- Mark Boslough is a physicist perature plateau from 2001 to 2012. entifically. Their tactic is similar to that at Sandia National Laborato- These charts illustrate two equally of the evolution deniers, who ignore ries, adjunct professor at the plausible ways to look at the data. One entirely the research of evolutionary University of New Mexico, and indicates a steady increase in tempera- scientists and assert, simply, that biol- a critic of pseudoscience and ture; the other shows a stair step or “es- ogists believe absolutely in the correct- anti-science, especially global warming calator.” Both show that the tempera- ness of Darwin and have been naively denial. He is a Committee for Skeptical In- tures are rising, either continuously or interpreting all evidence according to a episodically—take your choice. The Darwinian dogma. quiry Fellow. Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 11 [ INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Joe Nickell, CSI’s senior research fellow, has worked professionally as a stage magician, mentalist, private investigator, and scholar. Among his many books is Tracking the Man-Beasts (Prometheus Books, 2011).

Bigfoot Lookalikes: Tracking Hairy Man-Beasts

lthough Sasquatch—after 1958 my work in this regard as that of a pa- ior. However, as considerable evidence generally called Bigfoot—is most ranatural naturalist—we may ask: Are in fact shows, many Sasquatch/Bigfoot Aassociated with the Pacific there animals that might be mistaken encounters may well have been of bears. North west (a region loosely ranging for Bigfoot? Mistaken identifications could be due from northern California to Oregon, to poor viewing conditions, such as the Washington, British Columbia, and A Candidate creature being seen only briefly, or from southern Alaska), sightings are reported a distance, in shadow or at nighttime, As it happens, there is one especially throughout the United States and through foliage, or the like—especially good candidate for many sightings of Canada (Bord and Bord 2006). Many while the observer is, naturally, excited. Bigfoot—even for some of the non- of these turn out to be hoaxes—notably Non-expert observation is also prob- hoaxed imprints of his big feet. The Roger Patterson’s filming of “Bigsuit” in lematic, as is expectancy, the tendency earliest record of potential Sasquatch 1967. (He used a gorilla suit purchased of people who are expecting to see a footprints comes from an explorer from costume-seller Phil Morris, con- certain thing to be misled by something named David Thompson, who while verted it to Bigfoot by modifying the resembling it (Nickell 2012b, 347). face and adding pendulous breasts, and crossing the Rockies at what is today Jasper, Alberta, came upon a strange enlisted a man named Bob Heironimus Comparisons to wear the suit [Long 2004; Nickell track in the snow. Measuring eight by 2011, 68–73].) Many other Bigfoot fourteen inches, it had four toes with A published compilation of 1,002 sightings are no doubt misperceptions short claw marks, a deeply impressed American and Canadian Sasquatch/ resulting from expectation and excite- ball of the foot, and an indistinct heel Bigfoot reports from 1818 to November ment (Nickell 2011, 94–96). imprint (Green 1978, 35–37; Hunter 1980 is instructive (Bord and Bord But misperceptions of what? Over with Dahinden 1993, 16–17). 2006, 215–310). Analysis of the cases my years as a skeptical cryptozoologist, The claws do not suggest the legend- (which are presented as brief abstracts) I have looked for real, natural lookalikes ary man-beast. Indeed, John Napier, a reveals that not only general anatomy to explain various reported “monsters.” primate expert at the Smithsonian In- but also color variations, footprints, For example, the round-faced, gliding, stitution and author of Bigfoot (1973, behavior, and geographical distribution “Flatwoods Monster” of 1952 with its 74), thought the print could well have of Sasquatch/Bigfoot are often quite “terrible claws” seemed almost certainly been a bear’s (whose small inner toe similar to those of bears. to be a barn owl, just as “Mothman” of might not have left a mark). Thomp- Anatomy. Bigfoot is typically de- 1966, with its large, shining red eyes, son himself thought it likely “the track scribed as a large, hairy man-beast. It could be identified as a barred owl (Nic- of a large old grizzled bear” (quoted in is said to walk on two legs, to have long kell 2011, 159–66, 175–81). Again the Hunter with Dahinden 1993, 17). arms, large shoulders, and, often, no legendary “giant eel” of Lake Crescent, But what about sightings? It is not neck. Although it is frequently likened Newfoundland, was probably inspired uncommon for eyewitnesses to state to an ape, it has been reported many by otters swimming in a line (who are that at first impression their Bigfoot times to have claws (Bord and Bord also known to be mistaken for some looked like a bear, thus proving the 2006, 215–310; Wright 1962). lake and sea monsters) (Nickell 2007; similarity (see Figure 1). Yet many go Like Bigfoot, bears can appear as 2012a). Given these and other exam- on to rule out that identification, based large, big-shouldered, hairy, manlike ples of monster lookalikes—I think of on some aspect of appearance or behav- beasts. Their anatomy is consistent

12 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer with bipedal standing (hence the long “arms”) though much less so with walking—and, according to the Smith- sonian expert John Napier (1973, 62), “At a distance a bear might be mistaken for a man when standing still. . . .” Consider this incident of a creature on the porch of a ranch house in western Washington State in 1933 (related at second hand, years later, by the daugh- ter of the woman who observed it): It was moonlight outside, and at first she thought it was a bear on the porch, but this animal was standing on its back legs and was so large it was bending over to look in the win- dow. She said it appeared over 6 feet tall and it didn’t look like a bear at all in the moonlight. She said in a few minutes it walked over [no doubt only a couple of steps] and jumped off the porch and started around the house. She went into the kitchen so she could get a good look and she said it looked just like an ape. (Lund 1969) Ape, Bigfoot, bear? You decide, but remember, this was bear territory. And a standing black bear can be up to seven feet tall (Yosemite 2013). During several days in April 2013 in New York State’s massive Adirondack Park, where there are scattered Bigfoot encounters, I talked to hunters and oth- ers who had witnessed standing bears. One man, at whose remote home I boarded for an evening, told me of once standing face to face with a black bear: Figure 1. Split-image illustration compares a standing bear (left) to the creature it is often mistaken for, Sasquatch/Bigfoot it was on its hind legs looking in the (right). Drawing by Joe Nickell. window at him! The often-reported action of Big- Bord 2006, 260, 264; see also Green of “Bigfoot.” Some months earlier, in foot running on all fours is entirely 1978, 246, 178). the fall of 1977, two South Dakota boys consistent with a bear, as in a case of One Bigfoot report was inspired (ages twelve and nine) saw only “long late April 1897. Near Sailor, Indiana, when, in April 1978, a Maryland hairy legs” in the bushes (Bord and two farmers witnessed a man-sized farmer saw a “bear” walking upright Bord 2006, 294), and that likely bear beast covered with hair walking on its across a field, followed by two “smaller became another “Bigfoot.” Reports of hind legs, but it “afterwards dropped creatures on all fours” (Bord and Bord Bigfoot’s gait as “peculiar” or the like on its hands and disappeared with rab- 2006, 300). This is consistent with a (Bord and Bord 2006, 290, 291) could bit-like bounds” (Bord and Bord 2006, mother bear in alert mode with cubs. be consistent with the awkward gait of 23, 221). No doubt the “hands” were Bears often stand on their hind legs to an upright bear. really paws. Again, in 1970, a Mani- look and to sniff the air, and black bears Coloration. Like descriptions of toba man saw a seven-foot, dark Big- usually have a litter of two, born in Jan- Sasquatch/Bigfoot, black bears can foot “stand up” by the roadside at night. uary or early February (“Black Bears” not only be black but also dark brown, And in 1972, at an Iowa state park, a 2013; Whitaker 1996, 703). And so, brown, cinnamon, blond, off-white, seven-foot brown Bigfoot was shot at apparently, a stated bear encounter was and white (Herrero 2002, 131–34). and “ran away on all fours” (Bord and converted by enthusiasts into a sighting The same is true of grizzly (brown)

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 13 bears (Ursus arctos), which—just like a As to bears, Napier (1973, 150–51) saw a “strange creature on all fours eat- Bigfoot reported in northern California observes that “The hindfoot of the bear ing [a] carcass” (Bord and Bord 2006, (Bord and Bord 2006, 246)—often has is remarkably human-like,” and that 307). Except for the tracks (which were dark-brown, silver-tipped hair (Her- near the end of summer when worn probably due to some anomaly like the rero 2002, 133; Whitaker 1996, 706). down, the claws “may not show up at overlapping of hind and fore feet), the “To confuse the novice further,” all” in tracks. Also at moderate speeds creature is consistent with a bear. states a noted authority, “there are also the hindfoot and forefoot prints may None of the tracks mentioned in the variations in color patterning on the superimpose to “give the appearance of 1,002 abstracts under study, represent- coats of each species.” This is due to a single track made by a bipedal crea- ing reports from 1818–1980 (Bord and genetic factors and to molting. With ture” (Napier 1973, 151). Bord 2006, 215–310), were reported to most bears, a lightening in the color of Bears’ five-toed hindprints range have dermal ridges (the friction ridges the coat occurs between molts (Herrero from about seven to nine inches long of, for instance, fingerprints). These are 2002, 133, 134). for the black bear to approximately ten common to both apes and man, as well In nighttime sightings, color may to twelve for the grizzly (brown) bear, as, presumably, to an ape-man. (Al- though in 1982, a U.S. Forest Service patrolman discovered such prints in Oregon’s Blue Mountains, in the Mill Aside from such outlandish reports as of a Creek Watershed, noted Bigfoot skep- Sasquatch treating an Indian for snakebite or tic Michael Dennett [1989] turned up evidence that those tracks were part of kidnapping people, numerous acts attributed an elaborate hoax.) to the fabled creature again have a ready Behavior. Bigfoot’s reported actions explanation: bears. are quite varied. Aside from such out- landish reports as of a Sasquatch treat- ing an Indian for snakebite or kidnap- ping people, numerous acts attributed to the fabled creature again have a go unreported, but the animal’s eye- although some can be more than six- ready explanation: bears. For example, shine is frequently described. There are teen inches, and “In soft mud, tracks Bigfoot often eats berries, fruit, grubs, numerous reports of “gleaming eyes,” may be larger” (Whitaker 1996, 704, vegetation such as corn, fish, animal “large glowing eyes,” “green shining 707). As bear expert Herrero cautions: carcasses, and human rubbish. It may eyes,” “glowing amber eyes,” and the “I don’t give measurements because be seen day or night. It often visits like, including occasionally “red eyes” track size varies so much depending on campsites, like one raided by a “cinna- mon-colored Bigfoot” in Idaho in the (Bord and Bord 2006, 259–300). Gen- substratum. If a track seems very large, summer of 1968 that left tooth marks erally, bear eyeshine is reported as rang- look at other track characteristics.” on food containers. It also peers into ing “from yellow to yellowish orange, A bear’s smallest toe (the innermost homes and vehicles, and sometimes though some people report seeing red one, as opposed to that of humans) shows aggression (Bord and Bord 2006, or green” (“Backpacker” 2013). The “may fail to register” (Whitaker 1996, 215–310; Merrick 1933). North American Bear Center mentions 704), no doubt explaining many four- Similarly, bears share these and a black bear with mismatched eyes, due toed “Bigfoot” tracks. As well, “In mud other aspects of behavior with Big- to an injured eye that “shines red rather a black bear’s toe separation may not foot. For example, bears feed on most than yellow” (“Mating” 2013). show” (Herrero 2002, 178), possibly nonpoisonous types of berries (which Footprints. Bigfoot has been reported giving rise to the illusion that—de- they eat by moving their mouths along to leave tracks that had two to six toes pending on just where there might be branches). As well, they tear open rot- and ranged in length up to twenty or a slight separation—a “four”-toed track ten logs for grubs, and they feed on more inches (Bord and Bord 2006, 215– might appear to have been made with fruit, corn, and other vegetation, fish, 310). Of course, many large tracks—like only two very broad toes, or even per- live or dead mammals, and human rub- the fourteen-inch ones of Patterson’s haps three. Rare, six-toed tracks (un- bish (Herrero 2002, 183, 149–71, 47; “Bigsuit” creature—are hoaxed (Nickell likely for either Bigfoot or bear) were Whitaker 1996, 708). Bears likewise 2011, 66–75; Daegling 2004, 157–87). found in Iowa in 1980 after a witness are encountered both day and night

14 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer JOE NICKELL INVESTIGATIVE FILES]

(Herrero 2002, 170; Whitaker 1996, oming) and its vicinity, and to portions bipedal, hairy man-beasts called Big- 703–709). They visit homes, vehi- of the northernmost areas of Washing- foot. Bears also frequently behave like cles, and campsites looking for food, ton, Idaho, and Montana, as well as Bigfoot, and they are found in regions and they sometimes show aggression most of British Columbia, Northwest common to the legendary creature—no (Herrero 2002, 83–87; Whitaker 1996, Territories, the Yukon Territory, and certain trace of which, in the fossil re- 703–709). These and other parallels Alaska (Herrero 2002, 4; Whitaker cord or otherwise, has ever been discov- I with Bigfoot are striking. 1996, 708). Like Bigfoot, bears are also ered. Then there are Bigfoot’s vocaliza- seen in woods and fields, along streams, References tions—many of which could well be and so on. those of bears. For example, Bigfoot Backpacker Blogs. 2013. Ask a bear: What color are your eyes at night? Online at http://www. often growls (Bord and Bord 2006, Assessment backpacker.com/ask_a_bear_night_eyes_ 237, 256, 268). One “snarled and shine/blogs/1944; accessed April 2, 2013. hissed” at witnesses (268), and an- Again and again come eyewitness “Black Bears.” 2013. Online at http://www. other “chattered its teeth” (255), while reports of Bigfoot that sound like mis- catskillmountaineer.com/animals-bears. reports of bears. In Washington State, html; accessed March 25, 2013. others “screamed” when shot at (247, Bord, Janet, and Colin Bord. 2006. Bigfoot 252). Similarly, bears growl and snort, for instance, in 1948, a man saw a “thin, Casebook Updated: Sightings and Encounters and they make loud huffing or puffing black-haired, 6-ft Bigfoot squatting from 1818 to 2004. N.p.: Pine Winds Press. on [a] lake shore.” In September 1964 Daegling, David J. 2004. Bigfoot Exposed. NY: noises (Herrero 2002, 15, 16, 115). AltaMira Press. Their most common defensive display a Pennsylvania man spotted “Bigfoot Dennett, Michael. 1989. Evidence for Bigfoot? is “blowing with clacking teeth”; as peering in a window of his mother’s An investigation of the Mill Creek ‘sasquatch home at dusk,” while a man sleeping prints.’” S I 13(3)(Spring): well, they may bawl (from pain), moan 264–72. (in fear), bellow (in combat), and make in his car in northwest California was Green, John. 1978. Sasquatch: The Apes Among a deep-throated, pulsing noise (when “woken by Bigfoot shaking it.” In July Us. Saanichton, BC: Hancock House. seriously threatened). Cubs “readily 1966, a British Columbia woman saw Herrero, Stephen. 2002. Bear Attacks, rev. ed. “head and shoulders of Bigfoot above Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press. scream in distress” (Rogers 1992, 3–4). Hunter, Don, with René Dahinden. 1993. Distribution. The habitat of Bigfoot 6-ft raspberry bushes at night.” In June Sasquatch/Bigfoot. Toronto: McClelland & in the 1,002 abstracts we are studying— 1976, three Floridians saw a creature “6 Stewart. ft tall, with long black hair, standing in Long, Greg. 2004. The Making of Bigfoot. from 1818 to November 1980—is ex- Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. tensive. It includes most continental a clump of pine trees.” In August 1980, Lund, Callie. 1969. Letter to John Green, American states (excepting Delaware, two Pennsylvania men “Driving down quoted in Bord and Bord 2006, 31–33. a mountain, saw husky black hairy Mating Battle. 2013. Online at http://www. Rhode Island, and South Carolina) and bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/ eight of thirteen Canadian provinces. creature standing in road.” And so on, reproduction/14-mating-battle-combatants. The greatest number of sightings were and on (Bord and Bord 2006, 230, 241, html; accessed April 3, 2013. 244, 287, 309). Napier, John. 1973. Bigfoot: The Yeti and in Washington State (110), followed Sasquatch in Myth and Reality. New York: by California (104), British Columbia Let it be understood that I am in no E.P. Dutton. (90), and Oregon (77)—that is, in the way saying that all Sasquatch/Bigfoot Nickell, Joe. 2007. Lake monster lookalikes. Pacific Northwest, the traditional do- sightings involve bears. After all, some Skeptical Briefs (June): 6–7. ———. 2011. Tracking the Man-Beasts. main of Sasquatch—followed by Penn- are surely other misidentifications or Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. sylvania and Florida (42 each). It is re- hoaxes involving people in furry suits ———. 2012a. CSI Paranormal. Amherst, NY: portedly seen in woods and fields, along (Nickell 2011, 72–73). As well, Ven- Inquiry Press. ———. 2012b. The Science of Ghosts. Amherst, streams, and so on (Bord and Bord ezuela’s “Loy’s Ape” of the 1920s was NY: Prometheus Books. 2006, 215–310; Nickell 2011, 225–29). identified as a large spider monkey, and Rogers, Lynn L. 1992. Watchable Wildlife: The The distribution of black bears is two specimens of China’s legendary Black Bear. Madison, WI: USDA Forest Service, North Central Station Distribution strikingly similar, as shown by popu- Yeren, shot in 1980, proved to be the Center. lation maps provided by the Audubon endangered golden monkey (Nickell Whitaker, John O., Jr. 1996. National Audubon Society (Whitaker 1996, 704) and else- 2011, 85–87, 96). Society Field Guide to North American I am merely pointing out, what Mammals, rev. ed. New York: Alfred A. where (Herrero 2002, 80). America’s Knopf. grizzly population was once quite ex- should now be obvious, that many of Wright, Bruce S. 1962. Wildlife Sketches Near tensive and included the western states the best non-hoax encounters can be and Far. Fredericton, NB: Brunswick Press. (Herrero 2002, 4); however, grizzlies explained as misperceptions of bears. Quoted in Bord and Bord 2006, 35–37. Yosemite Black Bears. 2013. Online at http:// are now relegated mostly to Yellow- Of creatures in North America, stand- www.yosemitepark.com/bear-facts.aspx; stone Park (chiefly in northwest Wy- ing bears are the best lookalike for the accessed March 25, 2013.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 15 [THINKING ABOUT SCIENCE MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI Massimo Pigliucci is professor of philosophy at the City University of New York, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and author of Answers for Aristotle: How Science and Philosophy Can Lead Us to a More Meaningful Life. His essays can be found at rationallyspeaking.org.

Truth, Part I

ry asking a scientist what the aim I mean that the Sun really does occupy different sense from which mathemat- of science is, and somewhere in one of the foci of the elliptical trajec- ical, logical, or moral statements are Tthe explanation the word truth will tories that describe every planet’s orbit. true or false (and the latter three also likely appear prominently. If you probe There are at least a couple of prob- differ among themselves, obviously). So a little further and ask said scientist lems with the CToT. To begin with, “truth” turns out to be a heterogeneous how they would know that a given it is surprisingly difficult to be precise concept, and we better make clear in scientific statement or theory is true, about what type of relation this “cor- which of the above (or possible other) they’ll invoke one version or another of respondence” actually is; moreover, and senses we are using it. what in philosophy of science is known perhaps more surprisingly, it isn’t even Once this initial hurdle is clarified as the correspondence theory of truth clear what we exactly mean by “truth.” we can then turn our attention to the (CToT). Indeed, I bet that a number of Let’s start with the second prob- other problem: if the CToT is a “the- skeptics would respond the same way lem. Presumably we all agree that the ory,” we better have a handy expla- to those very same questions. above-mentioned Copernican-Keple- nation of how it is supposed to work. Surprisingly, most philosophers since Aristotle have simply assumed that the CToT is, well, true, considering Statements about the physical world may be it too self-evident for further elabora- true or false in a different sense from which tion. (Scientists usually don’t even pose themselves the question, of course. For mathematical, logical, or moral statements are them the CToT is the only tool in the true or false (and the latter three also differ box, and they are simply concerned with using it properly.) among themselves, obviously). So “truth” Things got more complicated during turns out to be a heterogeneous concept, the second part of the twentieth cen- tury, when a number of philosophers and we better make clear in which of the above began to point out the problems with (or possible other) senses we are using it. the CToT, as well as to produce some possible alternative theories of truth. The most obvious problem is epis- temic: if we judge a scientific theory to The CToT basically captures the rian theory is true. We also presumably be true because it corresponds to the way common intuition that when one says agree that, say, Pythagoras’s theorem the world actually is, how do we know “X is true,” what one means is that there is true (yes, yes, within the framework the latter, since we only have access to is a correspondence between statement of Euclidean geometry). If you accept the world through theorizing and the- X and a state of affairs in the world standard (Aristotelian) logic, you will ory-dependent observations and ex- described by X. Aristotle was one of also agree that the law of the excluded periments? Another way to look at the the first to articulate the CToT, in his middle is true (it says that either a given problem is to say that the CToT seems Metaphysics: “To say of what is that it is proposition is true or its negation is, but to assume the availability of a god’s not, or of what is not that it is, is false, not both). Now, how about that it is eye view of things (or, as philosophers while to say of what is that it is, and of true that murder is immoral? Well, that put it more often these days, a “view what is not that it is not, is true.” Okay, might depend on your ethical stance, from nowhere”). But human beings not the most elegant rendition, but it on what one means by “murder,” and are bound by particular perspectives on basically boils down to this: when I say on whether you are a psychopath. the world; we don’t have independent that I think the Copernican-Keple- The point is, statements about the access to the world as it actually is—as rian theory of the solar system is true, physical world may be true or false in a Immanuel Kant famously pointed out

16 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer back in the eighteenth century. effectively—as a continuous increase in ization that they were actually ellipses Karl Popper thought of getting verisimilitude. was Kepler’s brilliant insight. More- around this problem by claiming that This, unfortunately, doesn’t work. over, turns out that philosophers of sci- we can never know whether a scien- For one thing, falsificationism itself ence have shown that not being wrong tific theory is true, but we can know is not a tenable account of scientific (i.e., not having been falsified yet) does whether it is false (if it is contradicted progress. Historians of science have not guarantee a monotonic approach by suitable observations or experi- conclusively shown that scientists don’t to the truth, so that we cannot actually ments). Popper proposed that the more actually discard theories when they are measure the degree of verisimilitude of a scientific theory survives attempts at falsified, and often for good reasons. A any given theory at any given time (un- falsification the more we can say that it good example is the Copernican part is truth-like: the more it withstands fal- of the Copernican-Keplerian theory: less we have access to the view from no- sification the more its degree of verisi- Copernicus got the position of the Sun where, but then we are back to square militude increases. That being the case, (roughly) correct, but the observations one). then, scientific progress itself can be re- of planets’ positions didn’t square with Stay tuned! Next time: some alter- conceived not as a grand march toward the theory because he assumed the natives to the correspondence theory of I truth, but more modestly—but equally planetary orbits were circles. The real- truth. . . .

There’s much more Skep ti cal In q uir er available on our website! Here’s just a sample of what you’ll find: “The Gore Orphanage Hauntings” Ohio investigator Josh Hunt examines a chilling story involving horribly burned children in the dark woods of Ohio—victims of the infamous and haunted Gore Orphanage... “Investigating Plagiarism In New Age Books” Based upon Benjamin Radford’s article in the last issue, there’s additional content and examples of plagiarism in a recent HarperCollins reference work on vampires. Decide for yourself and join the investigation!

For more online columns, features, and special content, visit www.csicop.org.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 17 [NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD MASSIMO POLIDORO Massimo Polidoro is an investigator of the paranormal, lecturer, and cofounder and head of CICAP, the Italian skeptics group. His website is at www.massimopolidoro.com.

The Mysteries of Leonardo

eonardo da Vinci not only epito- is possible that Leonardo may have mizes genius and creativity, but he been in contact with ideas that, at his Lis also one of the most sought-af- time, were considered heretical, such ter sources of mysteries, both real and as neo-Platonic and Gnostic ones. The invented. Probably the most famous latter, for example, included belief in example of this is The Da Vinci Code’s Sophia, the mother goddess who cre- many legends linked to this inventor, ated the world, which Leonardo might but there are many other examples, as have wanted to represent with Leda, a we shall see. lost painting. In some remaining copies of the painting, the great mother is seen , Leonardo the Heretic as a “cosmic egg ” from which other eggs give rise to humans. The Gnostics According to some authors of histor- also believed that there were two forms ical fiction, Leonardo was a heretic. of Jesus, one carnal, who died on the Evidence of this is supposedly hidden cross, and one that was only spirit. in his painting The Last Supper, where it Another famous painting by Leonardo, is said that the Master himself expressed the Virgin of the Rocks, shows two chil- his belief that Christ was married to dren similar to one another: perhaps Mary Magdalene. The woman is to be the one commonly referred to as John identified with the Apostle showing the Baptist was actually Jesus’s double feminine traits and sitting to the right and his identity was disguised in order of Jesus. Further evidence in support of to get it accepted by the religious cli- the genius’s heresy would be the lack of ents. Unlikely, but no one can tell for the chalice with the wine on the table, sure today. symbol of the Eucharist, and the pres- Another question then concerns ence of a disembodied hand holding a Leonardo’s propensity to often portray menacing knife. St. John the Baptist. Some people won- What are the facts? In reality, for dered if this attachment to the saint did The Last Supper, the magnificent mural not conceal something else, maybe the painting adorning the refectory of the adherence to the cult of St. John, the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, same one held by the Knights of the in Milano, Italy, Leonardo took his Order of Malta. However, these are inspiration from the Gospel of John, assumptions that art historians are still where there is no mention either of questioning. the chalice with the wine or of the Eu- Leonardo and his Virgin of the Rocks painting. charist. In addition, the hand with the knife belongs to Peter (as demonstrated younger apostle, Jesus’s favorite, was Was Leonardo a Member of the by the preparatory drawings by Leon- always represented as a teenager with Priory of Sion? ardo preserved at the Windsor Royal long hair and gentle features. The entire Da Vinci Code by Dan Library) and refers to an episode in the Brown (note the absurdity of calling , Gospel where Peter cuts the ear of the Esoteric Symbols Everywhere the Master not by his name, Leonardo, servant of the High Priest. Finally, the but by the name of the town where he delicate appearance of John belongs to Although maybe not a heretic, and was born, Vinci, apparently believing the iconography of the time, where the certainly not a devout Catholic, it it to be his surname) revolves around

18 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer MASSIMO POLIDORO NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD]

the mysterious and ancient sect of the time included between 1260 and 1390. mother, Caterina Buti del Vacca, or , “Priory of Sion ” keeper of secrets and It is therefore likely to be a work of art, even her half-sister Bianca. In addi- founded by the ever-present order of but very unlikely that it was painted by tion, there are those who think that the Templars. It is said that among its Leonardo, since it was already around the Mona Lisa is nothing less than a members there were luminaries such at least for a century before he was born. self-portrait of Leonardo, as shown , as Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo and by a superposition of the two faces to of course Leonardo. In reality, the sect Mirror Writing the computer. In fact, it is quite cer- was invented out of whole cloth by tain that the woman portrayed is Lisa Frenchman Pierre Plantard in 1956. Leonardo possessed an unusual mirror writing technique; that is, he wrote Gherardini, that is, “Monna” (short for Plantard took the name “Priory of “Madonna” or as we would say today Sion” from a hill above Annemasse, going from right to left and often “Lady”). Lisa, wife of Francesco del where he planned to install a retreat started to write on the last sheet, and Giocondo (hence “Gioconda,” as the house. As for the list of the “initi- then reached the first. This peculiarity painting is also called). Rather more ated,” Plantard copied it from the list has often been interpreted as an attempt difficult to exactly establish, however, of alleged “Imperators,” that is, the put in place by Leonardo to keep his supreme heads, of the Ancient and work secret and incomprehensible to is the location in the background. The Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, founded most people. Those who considered him bridge on the right is reminiscent of in 1915 in the United States by another a heretic had even come to call it the one in Buriano, near Arezzo, but it is “writings of the devil” because of this more likely that this is an idealized creator of fantasies, Harvey Spencer . Lewis, with whom Plantard was in landscape dreamed up by Leonardo contact. Anti-Semitic, anti-Masonic, and a member of the French right, The Lost Remains of Leonardo Plantard orchestrated this plot in order Finally, one last mystery: What hap- to create a historical line, likely to prove pened to the remains of Leonardo? his own descent from the Merovingian His tomb no longer exists and no one as an heir to a dynasty lost in the knows where his bones lie now. At his mists of history, giving him wide room death he was buried in the Church of to maneuver and a huge advantage Saint-Florentin in Amboise, France. over many orders of competing Grand But in 1802, due to the erosion of time Masters and maybe leading him to a leading political role. It didn’t work. and revolutionary vandalism, the ruins of the chapel were destroyed, and the Leonardo Author of the Shroud of Turin? gravestones and tombstones were used characteristic. In fact, it was his sponta- to restore the castle. Children used According to Lynn Picknett and Clive neous way of writing. Neurologists have to play with the abandoned bones, so Prince, the Shroud of Turin was the shown that his was a habit acquired in a gardener picked them up and bur- work of Leonardo. Writer Victoria childhood, natural for lefties that were ied them. In 1863, the poet Arsène Hazel interprets a passage in the Codex , not corrected as Leonardo was. He Houssaye discovered an intact skele- Atlanticus as a “confession” on the wrote also with “normal” calligraphy, ton, with a bent arm and a very broad part of its author: “When I painted but with less ease and especially in skull. Not far from that spot he also Domene God an infant, you put me in demonstrative occasions, such as for unearthed fragments of a slab half prison: now, if I do him big, you will some topographic maps. Not surpris- deleted with the following readable make me worse things.” Not only that, ingly, Leonardo did dictate to others his letters: EO DUS VINC. It is per- according to Lillian Schwartz, the face letters of introduction. of the Shroud fits with the self-portrait haps Latin for Leonardus Vincius? of Leonardo and would therefore be an These bones ended up in the castle Who Is Actually the Mona Lisa? experiment in pre-photographic tech- of Amboise, where they still are and niques devised by the genius of Vinci. The identity of the woman depicted in where it is stated that they “supposedly” In fact, the historical sources (the the most famous portrait in the world belong to Leonardo. first written reference to the Shroud has long been debated. Some authors But, like many other questions sur- is a memorial in 1389), as well as the have suggested, citing evidence not rounding the incredible life of the Re- scientific radiocarbon dating, show that always credible, that the woman was naissance marvel, this one will probably I the Shroud was prepared in a period of a Sforza, perhaps Catherine, or her remain forever unanswered as well.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 19 [ PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS ROBERT SHEAFFER Sheaffer’s “Psychic Vibrations” column has appeared in the S  I for more than thirty years; its highlights have now been published as a book (Create Space 2011). Sheaffer blogs at www.BadUFOs.com, and his website is www.debunker.com.

You Can’t Possibly Be Sirius!

he official world premiere of influential people. Of course, if Greer the movie Sirius, directed by the actually had any documents as hot as all TEmmy-award winning Amardeep that, he would have surely given them Kaleka and based upon the claims to the press long ago. of UFO-celebrity Steven Greer of Most of what we see after that CSETI, took place in Hollywood on comes in no particular order. We are April 22. The movie’s website summa- given UFO cases and UFO witnesses rized its message as follows: in a popcorn sort of manner: no sooner The Earth has been visited by does one bounce up than it falls back advanced Inter-Stellar Civilizations and another takes its place. There is no that can travel through other dimen- time (or need) for exposition or anal- sions faster than the speed of light. ysis. Every case, and every claim, is They use energy propulsion systems apparently completely solid and needs that can bring us to a new era. Humans have also developed these no further explanation or proof. The systems but those in power have “organization” of the film was such suppressed them in order to keep us that one could have taken almost any at the mercy of fossil fuels. . . . “This segment of it, and switched it with any really is the greatest story never told” says Dr. Greer, “Once people other, and the change would scarcely understand that classified projects be noticed. Some things that we are have figured out how UFO’s operate, shown, for the most part quite briefly, they will realize we no longer need include: oil, coal and nuclear power. This is the truth that has driven the secrecy.” • President Eisenhower’s warn- ing about the Military-Industrial Greer delivers a similar message in Complex the highly controversial conspiracy-ori- • Dr. Oppenheimer saying, “We have ented movie Thrive, whose bizarre and done this (nukes) before” conspiratorial political message has • Ancient aliens riled many on both the left and the Steven Greer and promo for movie Sirius. • Federal reserve and oil company con- right. spiracies Funding for the movie was obtained location of this being or the name of • MJ-12 Government UFO cover-up through crowdsourcing. On July 28, the person or persons who possess it.” conspiracy 2012, Greer announced meeting his The additional funds were indeed duly • NASA Space Shuttle UFO video fundraising goal of $250,000. But he raised. • Many “free energy” claimants, still needed more money because, you As Sirius opens, we see Greer going including T. Townsend Brown, see, “There is a chance that we may be into a college auditorium in Santa Tom Valone, Tom Bearden, Stanley able to include in the film ‘Sirius’ the Monica, the audience being checked Meyer, John Searl, Eugene Mallove, scientific testing of a possible Extrater- John Havrilla restrial Biological Entity (EBE) that with metal detectors for weapons. • Anti-gravity and electrogravitics has been recovered and is deceased. “Most people don’t know what a Dead claims This EBE is in the possession of a Man Trigger is. . . . Very few people • Automobiles that can run on water, cooperative institute desiring further need one.” But Greer has one, and if covered up by “petro-fascists” scientific evaluation of the possible the Conspiracy rubs him out, lots of ET. We cannot reveal at this time the sensitive documents get sent out to I was interested in the scene about

20 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer CSETI’s CE5 training session, “hu- man-initiated contact,” which involves, among other things, meditation and re- mote viewing. They go into the desert So, supposedly the little critter is a human child, or some other remote place, and shine at least six years old, and only six inches long. a flashlight or laser at any light they see in the sky. If it appears to flicker back, This sounds almost as implausible as an ET! it is seen as evidence of interstellar communication. Many of the ET craft are “trans-dimensional,” and thus are an example of a New World primate. in this circus. As noted by the website not visible to the human eye. However, www.ParaPolitical.com, the “Citizens they can be seen using night-vision So, supposedly the little critter is a Hearing” featured the equipment, which apparently has the human child, at least six years old, and capability to make trans-dimensional only six inches long. This sounds almost hands-down, nuttiest U.S. congress- things visible. I once spoke with a fel- as implausible as an ET! Some pro- men who ever lived. . . . The hearing low at a UFO meeting who had been panel will be headlined by former posed explanations include a deformed congressman Merrill Cook (R–Utah) through Greer’s “training,” and he was fetus, or a parasitic twin that had been who was once banned from his own very impressed by it. He explained that, growing inside some person’s body. party’s offices after a profanity-laced at first, he could not see any of the ET Barely had the buzz over Sirius tirade and was famously plagued craft that Greer was talking about. But begun to fade when the next UFO cir- during his few years in Congress by as the training progressed, he learned reports of erratic behavior leveled by cus began, organized by Stephen Bas- his own staff. . . . Cook’s chief of staff how to perceive them. sett of Paradigm Research: Janet Jenson wrote in an intra-office “We have acquired an EBE!” boasts An event with historical implica- e-mail in 2000. “If he asks you to fax his underwear to the speaker’s office, one of Greer’s CSETI colleagues, and tions will be held at the National please just do it.” the analysis of this little guy—just six Press Club in Washington, DC from April 29 to May 3, 2013. At that Joining Cook will be former inches long—is the principal “news time as many as forty researchers and congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R– hook” for the film. We are told that this military/agency witnesses will testify Maryland). The eighty-six year- little body was dug up in the Atacama for thirty hours over five days before old raised eyebrows in 2004 when Desert in Chile, and ended up in Bar- former members of the United States he attended a Unification Church Congress. . . . The Citizen Hearing event to receive the “Ambassador celona, Spain. 3D scans reveal its inter- of Peace medal” from cult leader nal organs, apparently very human-like. on Disclosure of an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race Sun Myung Moon who, afterwards, Now here is the biggest “bombshell” of will attempt to accomplish what the declared himself the Messiah and the film: DNA from this creature has Congress has failed to do for for- his wife the Assistant Messiah as been analyzed by Dr. Garry P. Nolan ty-five years—seek out the facts sur- Bartlett watched in delight... Also appearing is former congresswoman of the Stanford University Medical rounding the most important issue Cheeks Kilpatrick (D–Michigan) School. The results: of this or any other time. (http:// www.citizenhearing.org) who embarrassingly failed to receive . . . the 6 inch specimen is a human her own party’s re-nomination in that was likely 6-8 years of age at the This event was far from “historical,” 2010. . . . time of death (age based on epiphy- as there have been at least six other Rounding out this happy band… seal plate X-Ray density standards). “UFO disclosure” events held at the is former senator Mike Gravel (D– Alaska). Since his most recent bank- X-Ray imaging and CT scan results National Press Club, beginning with confirmed the specimen is biological ruptcy, Gravel has pathetically taken and is not a non-human primate. Steven Greer’s Disclosure Project on to making public appearances for The specimen was concluded by the May 9, 2001. Of course, to lobby for anyone who will buy him lunch—his medical specialist to be a human “disclosure” implies that there is some- previous engagements have included child with an apparently severe form thing to “disclose,” which is highly a conference sponsored by the holo- of dwarfism and other anomalies… caust denial website Barnes Review. Reconstruction of the mitochondrial dubious. And to hold a valid “hear- (UFO conspiracies aren’t Gravel’s DNA sequence and analysis shows ing” implies that witnesses are queried only angle. He’s also been working an allele frequency consistent with under oath, which of course will not the 9/11 Truth circuit and several a B2 haplotype group found on the be the case, leaving them free to fab- truther websites have accused him west coast of South America, sup- ricate as much as they please without of absconding with donor funds.) porting the claimed origination of the (http://tinyurl.com/kq5ltxr) specimen from the Atacama Desert fear of repercussions. The five former region of Chile. Sequence analysis members of Congress are being paid As for the so-called “witnesses,” it definitively rules out the specimen as a reported $20,000 each to participate was mostly the usual suspects: Stanton

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 21 [PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS ROBERT SHEAFFER

Friedman, Steven Greer, Nick Pope, alous often results in a skeptic accept- • “A 15-minute video was about to be Roger Leir, etc. Lee Speigel wrote a ing none of the rest of the document, shown of a 77-year-old man, in very good summary of the “hearings” in a even though it might be filled with bad health, who wanted to take the series of articles for the Huffington accurate information. It seems to be opportunity to reveal a story of what Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ accepted in the intelligence commu- happened to him while he worked lee-speigel/). Here are a few brief nity that faked documents usually—if for the CIA under Pres. Dwight excerpts: not often—contain much valid infor- Eisenhower in 1958. This gentleman mation to help get it accepted as gen- has received numerous threats from • “Linda Moulton Howe on reported uine throughout.” [In other words, his government not to talk. . . . X goes UFO abductions and the possible the MJ-12 documents are accurate on to talk about how Eisenhower was manipulation of the human mind. despite the fact that they’re fake.] upset when he learned that there was She tells a story about a military per- • Lt. Col. Richard French (Ret.) told activity going on at a base in Nevada son who told her he was on a team (that would later be renamed as Area that, in 1978, was assigned to investi- the committee about an incident 51) that the government allegedly had no jurisdiction over. Eisenhower sent X and his boss to the base to find out what was going on there. “There were different garage door openings This event was far from “historical,” as there have and inside they had different saucer crafts. The first one was the Roswell been at least six other “UFO disclosure” events craft—it was kind of crashed up, but apparently every alien had died except held at the National Press Club, beginning with for a couple. Later on we viewed the Steven Greer’s Disclosure Project on May 9, 2001. autopsy film and then the colonel said, ‘What we’ve got in here is we’re interviewing a grey alien.’” How successful were the so-called “hearings”? According to a post-mor- tem analysis by Parapolitical, Google Trends actually recorded a gate a town that was allegedly flooded he witnessed in the late 1960s in decrease in online interest in the Alamogordo, New Mexico: “I learned term “UFO” during the carnival. To by extraterrestrials.” say this week’s UFO carnival—billed • “Kilpatrick introduces Nation of Islam of an accident a few miles away in the direction of White Sands [missile as a “mock congressional hearing”— leader Louis Farrakhan.” [Farrakhan at the National Press Club was a fail- claims to be a UFO contactee.] range] . . . Afterward [I was told] ure would be an understatement. . . . “Sgt. James Penniston claims a Close there was an unknown number of There are roughly 2,200 television stations in the U.S. Three covered Encounter With A UFO Taking humanoids, either killed or injured. The parts of the casualties were the event. Radio coverage was sim- Off ” (Rendlesham Forest, U.K, 1980). ilarly sparse. [Apparently nobody asked him about taken to base operations at Holloman that “binary message” that he suppos- Air Force Base [in New Mexico].” Now Bassett says that he wants to take his edly received “telepathically” from the [French claims to have been an inves- UFO show to the UN. But according to UFO, and wrote down—thirty years tigator for Project Blue Book, sent to exopolitic’s Alfred Lambremont Webre, a afterward.] various destinations to debunk sight- former colleague of Basset, “UFO Citizen ings and say it was all swamp gas. Hearing witnesses Bassett, Huneeus and • Dr. Robert Wood [the principal pro- However, there is absolutely no proof Greer’s anomalous eye and body part moter of recent MJ-12 documents, that French ever had any connection movements may indicate brain-mind supposedly revealing a secret gov- with Blue Book. None of his claims entrainment by manipulatory extrater- ernment UFO cover-up group] said, about UFOs can be substantiated in restrials or advanced military-intelligence “The identification of one aspect of a any way, and they appear to be fab- nanotechnology as part of a global control I questioned document as being anom- rications.] agenda” (http://tinyurl.com/moejb7v).

22 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer [ SCIENCE WATCH KENNETH W. KRAUSE Kenneth W. Krause is a contributing editor and “Science Watch” columnist for the S  I. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Obesity Redux: A Response to Readers

n thoughtful response to my recent more extreme obesity, the association excess adiposity should be prepared and SI column, “Obesity: What Does rose to 29 percent. By itself, however, willing as well to endorse an increased Ithe Science Really Say?” (May/June the mildest grade of obesity was not need for frequent medical attention. 2013) a number of readers wrote to correlated with a significantly elevated But the so-called “obesity paradox” me or the editor raising crucial issues risk, and the overweight but not obese is nothing new. Since the 1980s, it deserving of an equally considerate category was actually associated with a has typically proposed that, although response. As such, and because a great 6 percent lower incidence of all-cause being overweight raises a person’s risk deal of new science has been published mortality. of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and on the subject, I’ve chosen to forego Interesting data, to say the least. But many other chronic illnesses, some the Letters section and address these how should they be responsibly inter- people—particularly the ill and those readers’ concerns here. One foundational question tends to resurface every few years or so. It asks One foundational question tends to resurface whether excess adiposity is in fact a serious health problem, as prevailing every few years or so. It asks whether excess medical opinion has dictated for more than half a century, or whether it is just adiposity is in fact a serious health problem, as as well or even better to be fat. prevailing medical opinion has dictated for more A new Journal of the American Med- ical Association study on the topic (Fle- than half a century, or whether it is just as well gal et al. 2013) caused quite a stir this year among both the popular media and or even better to be fat. public health officials. Four American and Canadian researchers led by Kath- erine Flegal of the National Center for preted? Unsurprisingly, much of the of middle-age or older—might actually Health Statistics, Centers for Disease popular media, along with certain food benefit from a little, though never a lot, Control and Prevention, Hyatts ville, and drink special interests, focused on of extra weight (Hughes 2013). Maryland, reviewed ninety-seven stud- one possible explanation they assumed Indeed, in an editorial to Flegal’s ies providing a sample size of more than their audiences and customers would study, two physicians suggested that 2.88 million individuals and 270,000 prefer to hear—essentially that being slightly elevated BMIs in patients suf- deaths to calculate all-cause mortality hazard ratios for standard body mass overweight as a general proposition can fering from certain chronic diseases, index (BMI) classifications.1 be a positive thing. acute catabolic illnesses, and even trau- Flegal’s results caused some lay ob- On the other hand, certain popular matic injuries might be sensibly associ- servers to inquire, as Slate magazine’s sources failed to report Flegal’s own list ated with lower mortality (Heymsfield William Saletan did on January 2, “Is of potential explanations, including an and Cefalu 2013). If so, it becomes Fat Good?” Her team reported as fol- “earlier presentation of heavier patients” apparent why overweight or even mild lows: Relative to normal weight, all and a “greater likelihood of receiving obesity could both increase the risk of combined grades of obesity were asso- optimal medical treatment.” In such life-threatening diseases and decrease ciated with an 18 percent higher inci- instances, those inclined for whatever mortality rates. dence of all-cause mortality. In cases of reason to favor a positive appraisal of But no responsible health care pro-

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 23 fessional endorses excess weight gain lowed 3,775 men and 1,575 women of nutritional plan based on the distant generally. In fact, at least one recent middle-age for an average of sixteen past when so much has changed in re- study has linked higher BMIs to not years and concluded quite sweepingly cent millennia, including the biology only the aforementioned physical ail- that adherence to Western-style cui- of every species of plant, animal, and ments but to impaired cognition and sine significantly reduces the prospect human on the planet. poorer memory in postmenopausal of “ideal aging,” i.e., remaining free Second, Paleo diet dogma denies its women as well (Kerwin et al. 2010). of chronic diseases and retaining high followers the benefits of some excep- In addition, other experts continue to physical, mental, and cognitive func- tionally nutritious fare. Dairy is rich warn, for example, that “individuals ex- tionality (Akbaraly et al. 2013). in calcium, for example; whole grains posed to maternal obesity during fetal That much resolved, the implied are packed with fiber and vitamins; and life are at increased risk of becoming query remains: With what should we legumes are replete with protein. Con- overweight or obese children and adults replace the typical Western diet? I rec- sider the various circumstances of con- themselves, thus perpetuating the vi- ommend that we begin by conceiving sumption as well. Why, for instance, cious cycle of obesity” (Gillman and of a “normal” diet. In other words, should athletes rebuff easily digested Poston 2012). why not define appropriate nutritional sources of carbohydrates that help them recover quickly and safely from espe- cially vigorous exercise? Finally, the Paleo fixation ignores The public fixation with the ‘Paleo’ diet the heterogeneous nature of our ances- tors’ environments and assumes an ideal ignores the heterogeneous nature of our past that never existed. The truth is we ancestors’ environments and assumes don’t know exactly how much meat, fish, fruit, or even primitive grains our an ideal past that never existed. Pleistocene forebears ate, or at what precise stages of their evolution. What we do know is that, to survive, they had to be flexible—not doctrinal. Another reader contemplates the We should of course remain open habits (yes, plural) scientifically as ones Mediterranean diet, also the subject to all potential subtleties regarding ad- offering foods and portions that the of recent popular headlines. One espe- iposity and health. But given the depth human species, or perhaps slightly more cially noteworthy study, published last and breadth of the evidence associating specific human populations, evolved to February in the New England Journal of extreme overweight with all manner of consume? From there, individuals can Medicine, contrasted the cardiovascu- affliction, the primary public-health and must fashion more exclusive diet lar health benefits of one low-fat diet objective must be to prevent both obe- plans that suit their particular objectives with those of two Mediterranean-style 2 sity and pre-obesity. and biological circumstances. diets—one supplemented with nuts, Other readers have questioned or As one reader observed, some in- the other with extra-virgin olive oil commented on the efficacy of certain clined toward an evolutionary defini- (Estruch et al. 2013). After following popular diets. It should be acknowl- tion have endorsed the “Paleo” diet, 7,447 randomly assigned Spaniards at edged from the start, of course, that based on the assumed consumption risk for heart disease, the investigators good health is primary and that only habits of our ancestors who lived from found that, relative to a low-fat plan, diet plans holding nutrition above or 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago. Thus, adherence to either Mediterranean plan alongside weight-loss or weight-main- all foods invented during or after the reduced a patient’s risk of suffering car- tenance are worth consideration. In agricultural revolution are unceremoni- diovascular death, myocardial infarc- fact, both my research and personal ously expunged from the menu. On the tion, or stroke by thirty percent. experience lead me to believe that the obviously positive side, Paleo dieters So exactly what did the Mediter- only truly effective weight-loss diets are exclude all processed sugars, meats, and ranean dieters eat? In addition to either also exceptionally healthy ones. grains. More controversially, however, nuts or olive oil, participants consumed Experts have now established that they eliminate dairy, peanuts, lentils, at least three daily servings of fruit and the typical Western diet—one replete beans, and peas, for example. at least two servings of vegetables. Fish with fried and sweet foods, processed Like many of her colleagues, biolo- was eaten at least three times per week, and red meats, refined grains, and gist Marlene Zuk has judged the Paleo as were legumes. The menu offered high-fat dairy products—is less than diet’s logic a fundamentally flawed white, but not red, meats and permit- ideal, to put it most diplomatically. A fantasy (Zuk 2013). First, says Zuk, ted the drinking of wine. On the other recent British study, for instance, fol- we shouldn’t even hope to construct a hand, subjects avoided cookies, cakes,

24 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer KENNETH KRAUSE SCIENCE WATCH]

and pastries completely and limited erased from the menu until personal ex- situation as an opportunity for accom- their consumption of dairy and pro- perimentation reveals them tolerable to plishment and not as an excuse for re- I cessed meats. whatever extent. Finally, each individ- gression to mediocrity. Perhaps most notably and contro- ual must fashion his or her own solu- versially, however, the authors’ data tion. Even the most successful popular Notes tend to refute the long-standing con- diets should be scrutinized for their re- 1. Standard BMI categories, calculated as viction that fat intake must be reduced spective strengths and weaknesses, and weight in kilograms divided by height in meters to promote cardiovascular health. So then summarily rejected. squared, were reported in 1997 from the World Health Organization Consultation on Obesity what of vegetarianism, one might Tragically, the politics of frustration and adopted in 1998 by the American National reasonably wonder—is its well-docu- and anger have intruded deeply into the Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. In her team’s mented reputation for good health at obesity discussion, as numerous readers study, Flegal used the latter organization’s cur- rent terminology: underweight (BMI of <18.5), least somewhat overblown? have suggested. Concerned citizens are normal weight (18.5–<25), overweight (25–<30), Not according to a group of re- frequently implored or even coerced to and obese (≥30). More specifically, she also searchers from Loma Linda University deny the only interventions that have defined grades 1, 2, and 3 obesity as corre- who recently studied 73,308 male and ever succeeded: those that emphasize sponding to BMIs of 30–<35, 35–<40, and ≥40, respectively. However, all BMI categories are female Seventh-day Adventists (Orlich education, individual experimentation, controversial because they fail to differentiate et al. 2013). Participants were catego- and personal responsibility. In their between lean muscle mass and fat mass or sub- rized as nonvegetarians, semi-vegetar- absence, we are encouraged instead to cutaneous fat (less dangerous) and visceral fat (more dangerous). ians, pesco-vegetarians (accepting sea- blame legitimate businesses and a face- 2. But for a sociologist’s critical examination of food), lacto-ovo-vegetarians (accepting less and unoffendable community for how obesity has come to be defined as a social crisis dairy and eggs), or vegans (excluding all the obese person’s choices at the super- of epidemic proportions, see Boero, Natalie. 2012. animal products). After an average of market, restaurant, and home. Killer Fat: Media, Medicine, and Morals in American “Obesity Epidemic.” Rutgers University Press. six years per subject, 2,570 deaths were Taubes, Lustig, and others claim recorded. that personal responsibility is irrelevant. References Overall, the group calculated a They allege that the biological obstacles Akbaraly, T., S. Sabia, et al. 2013. Does overall twelve percent lower adjusted hazard for certain obese individuals are insur- diet in midlife predict future aging pheno- ratio for all-cause mortality in the com- mountable and, as such, that no obese types? A cohort study. American Journal of person should ever be asked to make Medicine. 126(5): 411–419.e3. bined vegetarian versus nonvegetar- Estruch, R., E. Roset, et al. 2013. Primary ian categories. Oddly, the association informed, rational choices. Yet incred- pre vention of cardiovascular disease with a was far stronger for men (vegan males ibly, each writer’s new book offers di- Mediterranean diet. New England Journal of scored a 28 percent lower hazard ratio etary instruction. They advocate as well Medicine 368: 1279–1290. Flegal, K.M., B.K. Kit, et al. 2013. Association than nonvegetarians) and less than sta- for continued research into the science of all-cause mortality with overweight and tistically significant for women. of nutrition as it relates to obesity. A obesity using standard body mass index When considered in light of the fine idea. However, one wonders what categories. Journal of the American Medical “hormonal/regulatory defect” hypoth- desirable interventions could possibly Association 309(1): 71–82. Gillman, Mathew W., and Lucilla Poston. 2012. esis proffered by writers like Gary result that demand no measure of per- Maternal Obesity. Cambridge University Press. Taubes and Robert Lustig, recent sonal responsibility. 4–5. studies and commentaries offer consid- Of course some of us are biologi- Heymsfield, S.B., and W.T. Cefalu. 2013. Can overweight as defined by BMI actually have a erable, though certainly qualified and cally predisposed to obesity—myself protective association with mortality? Journal incomplete, guidance for the obese and included. Why should it surprise us of the American Medical Association 309(1): severely overweight. that severely excessive adiposity results 87–88. First, though solutions may appear from any number of physical problems Hughes, V. 2013. The big fat truth. Nature 497: 428–430. simple, their execution will doubtless or abnormalities? And even among the Kerwin, D.R., Y. Zhang, et al. 2010. The prove otherwise. For those leading an obese, some solutions will prove more cross-sectional relationship between body “average” or “typical” lifestyle, thought- difficult than others. Nevertheless, well- mass index, waist-hip ratio, and cognitive performance in postmenopausal women ful and significant changes are unavoid- intentioned, science-minded com men- enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative. able. Second, ample portions of vegeta- tators shouldn’t try to convince us that Journal of the American Geriatric Society 58(8): bles and fruits are the mainstays of any obesity can’t be overcome until the evi- 1427–1432. successful diet. Lean unprocessed meats dence clearly confirms as much. Orlich, M.J., P.N. Sin., et al. 2013. Vegetarian dietary patterns and mortality in Adventist (fish especially), healthy oils, dairy, and Impressionable yet intelligent, mo- Health Study 2. JAMA Internal Medicine whole grains—though clearly valu- tivated children deserve far more forth- DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.6473. able—should probably be conceived right and inspiring counsel. In truth, (Published online June 3, 2013.) of as nutritional supplements, not as obesity can be and often is effectively Zuk, Marlene. 2013. Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet, staples. Empty calories, including all confronted, and obese children espe- and How We Live. NY: W.W. Norton & sweets and processed grains, should be cially deserve the chance to regard their Company.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 25 [SKEPTICAL INQUIREE BENJAMIN RADFORD Benjamin Radford is a research fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and author or coauthor of six books, including Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore.

Did Psychic Visions Locate Missing California Boy?

Have you heard this news story about a California psychic who found a missing boy, and the police are confirming it? I’ve been hearing a lot about it. Do you : think this is the new best case for psychic detectives? Q —J.D. Mack

Yes, there’s a new “best sixty miles away and had never been to how could she possibly have recog- case” for psychic detec- the location. nized their home from her psychic : tives! Let’s see if it’s a Psychics claiming to find missing visions? The answer is simple: She saw stronger case than the persons is not new, but Ragland’s ac- it on television. Ragland stated that she A last “best case” for psychic count has been confirmed by police. had been following the extensive news detectives I investigated Riverside County sheriff’s spokes- coverage about the missing boy, and (see “The Psychic and the woman Sgt. Lisa McConnell con- that she had her first visions about him Serial Killer,” S I, firmed that Ragland had located the while she was watching a news report March/April 2010). Here’s the news body, and detective John Powers was about the search. story: The search for an eleven-year- quoted as saying that he was amazed Television reports included photo- old California boy missing since July 7, at how Smith had been found: “Not in graphs and video footage of the Smith 2013, came to a tragic end three days 23 years have I ever seen anything like home and property, and Ragland had later when the body of Terry Smith Jr. this.” indeed seen the Smith property before was found buried in a shallow grave Assuming the basic facts are true as she arrived there, whether she remem- near a tree not far from his home reported, it’s a genuinely bizarre story, bered it or not. The fact that a house in the Riverside County community and within days it was being discussed and tree in her vision “matched” the of Menifee. A woman named Pam as an amazing “best case” for psychic house and tree where Smith was found Ragland, who claims to have psychic detectives. Many news reports stated is not surprising. It is merely evidence or intuitive powers, is being credited by that a psychic directly led to the boy’s of not remembering where she saw an police and others as having located the recovery; the Vancouver Sun, for ex- image, not psychic powers. boy through her visions even though ample, offered the July 13 headline police had already searched the area. “Psychic Finds Missing Boy’s Body in Psychics or Statistics? California,” and a CBS News headline Driven by recurring visions of the Why would Ragland suddenly get a crowed, “Police: Psychic Found Body boy along with a distinctive home and vision of Smith’s location, correct or Of Murdered 11-Year-Old Boy.” tree, Ragland called a tip line and was otherwise? She believes that she and The case is strange and intriguing, encouraged to drive to Menifee to her children are “intuitive” and that but perhaps not unexplainable. Clues to search. So she did, joined by her two the senses, ideas, and intuitions that solving the mystery may lie in psychol- children and an off-duty fireman who come to her are important. She had ogy and statistics. offered to help. They searched the area been focusing on conjuring or receiv- where the boy was last seen, the Smith ing feelings about the missing boy and property, and found to Ragland’s aston- Prophetic Visions? clearly assumed that whatever impres- ishment that a home and tree matched Since Ragland had never met the sions came to her were relevant and her visions—even though she lived Smith family or been to their property, meaningful.

26 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer This is not unusual; in high profile sociated Press interview. “He had his in an area previously searched. Further- missing persons cases it is common for eyes closed, but I just thought he was more at the time of the initial searches police to be inundated with hundreds sleeping.” Yet her vision of a peaceful of the property, Smith—reported to be or thousands of visions, hunches, and sleeping boy was wrong; instead what a high-functioning autistic—was as- feelings from psychics, most of which she and her children found near a tree sumed to be alive. Searchers were look- are contradictory and all of which turn on the Smith property was described as ing for a lost eleven-year-old boy, not out to be wrong. Despite popular belief a blackened, bloated head with half of necessarily a body in a shallow grave. It and claims to the contrary, there is not the nose and an eye missing. is also possible that the body was buried a single documented case of a missing Ragland did not show up at the there after the area was searched. person being found or recovered due to Smith property by random chance or There remain many unanswered psychic information. psychic vision. Instead, after driving to questions in this case, including about Like Ragland, many psychics genu- the town of Menifee where the search Ragland’s role in Smith’s recovery. Po- inely believe in their powers and abil- command center was located, she met lice, quite understandably, have inves- ities and are sincerely trying to help. Over the course of many missing per- sons cases and tens of thousands of vi- sions and predictions, eventually some What seems at first like an amazing, iron-clad of them will turn out to be correct sim- “best case” of psychic detective powers may ply by chance. In this case, however, Ragland’s odds of correctly guessing not be so unexplainable with the application of where Smith’s body would be found were much better than chance. critical thinking, psychology, and skepticism. This is because it’s a statistical fact that most homicide victims, including children, are killed by a family mem- ber. There are exceptions, of course, but an off-duty fireman who drove her tigated the possibility that she might the odds are that a missing or murdered around the area. Ragland may or may have had some role in Terry Smith Jr.’s child will be found in or near the family not have known that the property they disappearance. Unless, of course, she home. Given the profile of the alleged were visiting was that of the Smith got her information from psychic pow- killer, reported to be Smith’s sixteen- family—where she would soon rec- ers or divine visions. year-old half-brother, it’s likely that the ognize the scene from her “visions” or Yet there is a third, more likely boy’s body would be found near where news coverage—but her fireman guide option: Ragland is neither psychic he was last seen (the family’s home), surely did. nor involved in any crime, but simply and not, for example, hundreds of miles Once Ragland and her children were someone who unknowingly mistook a away. on the Smith property, it was the smell television news scene for an intuitive Pam Ragland could not have known of the boy’s decomposing body—not a vision and whose instincts correctly this, of course, but the point is that po- psychic vision—that helped them lo- told her where the missing boy was sta- lice and searchers had already identified cate the corpse. In fact, Ragland did not tistically most likely to be found—and the Smith property and nearby areas as find Smith’s body; her daughter Sydnee eventually was. among the most likely places where found the boy’s body while investigat- What seems at first like an amaz- Terry Smith Jr., alive or dead, might ing the stench. It’s not as if Ragland ing, iron-clad “best case” of psychic be found. In other words, Ragland’s vi- contacted the police with a detailed, detective powers may not be so unex- sions of the Smith house, which likely accurate description of where Smith’s plainable with the application of critical came to her through TV news reports body could be found. thinking, psychology, and skepticism. instead of ESP, happened to also be The fact that police and search- The scientific principle of Occam’s where Smith would most likely be ers may have missed Smith’s body— Razor suggests that, other things being found—as indeed he was. which, after all, was found not far from equal, the simplest explanation is often It’s also worth noting that Ragland’s the Smith home—is troubling and may the correct one. Either Pam Ragland visions of Smith were, by her own ac- suggest incompetence, but is not as in- is the first person in history to find a count, wrong. She described seeing a credible as it may seem at first glance. missing person through psychic visions, young boy lying on his side with his Police and searchers are only human, or the accuracy of her predictions was eyes closed: “I couldn’t understand why and it is not unheard of for a piece of due to a combination of psychology, I he wasn’t moving,” she said in an As- evidence, or even a body, to be found statistics, and luck.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 27 [FORUM

Dr. Oz’s Questionable Wizardry JOE SCHWARCZ

iracles are pretty rare events. Except on television’s speculated that it might have some ef- fect on humans as well. Since chloro- Dr. Oz Show, where they appear with astonishing genic acid content is reduced by roast- Mfrequency. Oz of course doesn’t claim to raise the ing, a green coffee bean extract was dead or part the Red Sea, but he does raise people’s hopes chosen for the study. In cooperation with colleagues in of parting with their flab. And he’s certainly not shy about India who had access to volunteers, flinging the word miracle about. But it seems miracles fade Vinson designed a trial whereby over- as quickly as they appear. Raspberry ketones, acai berries, weight subjects were given, in random order, for periods of six weeks each, ei- and African mango, once hyped as amazing “fat busters,” ther a daily dose of 1,050 mg of green have already given way to newer wonders. coffee bean extract, a lower dosage of 700 mg, or a placebo. Between each Granted, Dr. Oz—or more likely his six-week phase there was a two-week producers—do not pull miracles out of “washout” period during which the an empty hat. They generally manage to participants took no supplements. toss in a smattering of stunted facts that There was no dietary intervention; the they then nurture into some pretty tall average daily calorie intake was about tales. Like the ones about chlorogenic 2,400. Participants burned roughly 400 acid or Garcinia cambogia causing ef- calories a day with exercise. On aver- fortless weight loss. The former piqued age there was a loss of about a third of the public’s interest when the great Oz a kilogram per week. Interesting but introduced green coffee bean extract as hardly “staggering.” And there are ca- the next diet sensation. Actually “chlo- veats galore. rogenic acid” is not a single compound The study involved only eight men but rather a family of closely related and eight women, which amounts to compounds found in green plants, a very statistically weak sample. Their which perhaps surprisingly contain no diet was self-reported, a notoriously chlorine atoms. The name derives from unreliable method. The subjects were the Greek “chloro” for pale green and not really blinded since the high-dose from a study of green coffee bean ex- “genic” meaning “give rise to.” (The regimen involved three pills and the tract by Joe Vinson (2012), a respected element chlorine is a pale green gas, lower dose only two pills. A perusal of chemist at the University of Scranton hence its name.) the results also shows some curious fea- It was an “unprecedented” break- who has a long-standing interest in tures. For example, in the group that through, Oz curiously announced, ap- antioxidants, such as chlorogenic acid. took placebo for the first six weeks, parently having forgotten all about his Aware of the fact that chlorogenic acid there was an eight kilogram weight loss previous weight-control miracles. This had been shown to influence glucose during the placebo and washout phase, time the “staggering” results originate and fat metabolism in mice, Vinson but almost no further loss during the 28 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer high-dose and low-dose phases. By have long been used in “natural weight Basically, it is clear that if there is the time, though, that critics reacted to loss supplements.” Why? Because in any weight loss attributed to Garcinia Oz’s glowing account, overweight peo- theory, they could have an effect. cambogia, it is virtually insignificant. ple were already heading to the health The rind of the fruit, sometimes But there may be something else at- food store to pick up some green coffee called a tamarind, is rich in hydroxy- tributed to the supplement, namely bean extract that might or might not citric acid (HCA), a substance with kidney problems (Li and Bordelon contain the amount of chlorogenic acid biological activity that can be related 2011). Al though incidence is rare, even declared on the label. As for Dr. Oz, to weight loss. Laboratory experiments one is an excess when the chance of a he had already moved on to his next indicate that HCA can interfere with benefit is so small. So Garcinia cambo- “revolutionary” product, Garcinia cam- an enzyme that plays a role in convert- gia, like green coffee bean extract, can bogia, unabashedly describing it as the ing excess sugar into fat, as well as with hardly be called a miracle. But it seems “Holy Grail” of weight loss. enzymes that break down complex car- Dr. Oz puts his facts on a diet when We were actually treated to the bohydrates to simple sugars that are it comes to fattening up his television Grail in action. Sort of. Dr. Oz, with readily absorbed. Furthermore, there I guest Dr. Julie Chen, performed a are suggestions that Garcinia extract ratings. demonstration using a plastic contrap- stimulates serotonin release, which can References tion with a balloon inside that was sup- lead to appetite suppression. Heymsfield, Steven B., David B. Allison, Joseph posed to represent the liver. A white Laboratory results that point toward R. Vasselli, et al. 1998. Garcinia cambogia liquid, supposedly a sugar solution, possible weight loss don’t mean much (hydroxycitric acid) as potential antiobesity was poured in, causing the balloon, until they are confirmed by proper agent: A randomized controlled trial. Journal representing a fat cell, to swell. Then human trials. And there have been of the American Medical Association 280. Online at http://jama.jamanetwork.com/ article.aspx?articleid=188147. Kim, Ji-Eun, Seon-Min Jeon, Ki Hun Park, et al. 2011. Does Glycine max leaves or Garcinia cambogia promote weight-loss or lower While playing with balloons and a plastic liver plasma cholesterol in overweight individuals: A randomized control trial. Nutrition Journal may make for entertaining television, it makes 10. Online at http://www.nutritionj.com/ content/10/1/94?a_aid=3598aabf. for pretty skimpy science. Li, J.W., and P. Bordelon. 2011. Hydroxycitric acid dietary supplement-related herbal nephropathy. American Journal of Medi- cine 124(11): e5-6. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed. 2011.03.015. Onakpoya, Igho, Shao Kang Hung, Rachel Perrt, et al. 2011. The use of Garcinia extract a valve was closed, and as more liquid some: fifteen years ago a randomized (hydroxycitric acid) as a weight loss supple- ment: A systematic review and meta-anal- was introduced, it went into a differ- trial involving 135 subjects who took ysis of randomised clinical trials. Journal of ent chamber, marked “energy.” The either a placebo or a Garcinia extract Obesity. Online at http://www.hindawi.com/ message was that the valve represents equivalent to 1500 mg of HCA a day journals/jobes/2011/509038/abs/. Garcinia extract, which prevents the for three months, showed no differ- Vinson, Joe. 2012. Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, linear dose, crossover buildup of fat in fat cells. While play- ence in weight loss between the groups study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ing with balloons and a plastic liver (Heymsfield et al. 1998). A more recent a green coffee bean extract in overweight may make for entertaining television, trial (Kim et al. 2011) involving eighty- subjects. Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and it makes for pretty skimpy science. six overweight people taking either Obesity: Targets and Therapy (January 17). Online at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ Contrary to Dr. Oz’s introduction two grams of extract or placebo for ten pmc/articles/pmc3267522/. that “you are hearing it here first,” weeks echoed those results. In between Joe Schwarcz is director of Mc- there is nothing new about Garcinia. these two major studies there were Gill University’s Office for Sci- There’s no breakthrough, no fresh re- several others (Onakpoya et al. 2011), ence & Society (mcgill.ca/oss). search, no “revolutionary” discovery. In some of which did show a weight loss He hosts The Dr. Joe Show on the weight-control field, Garcinia cam- of about one kilogram over a couple of CJAD Radio 800 AM in Montreal bogia is old hat. Extracts of the rind of months, but these either had few sub- every Sunday from 3–4 . He this small pumpkin-shaped Asian fruit jects or lacked a control group. is a Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Fellow. Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 29 Years Later, Sylvia Browne’s Accuracy Remains Dismal REVISITED

An update of our “Psychic Defective” analysis examines DEFECTIVEdevelopments in eleven cases Sylvia Browne made predictions about, explores a new reading, and scrutinizes her other failed predictions about the papacy and American politics.

Illustration by Neil Davies RYAN SHAFFER

ylvia Browne continues to offer $850 phone predictions have had and as a location where Berry readings, sell books, deliver public lectures, and other notable predictions that was, and said she was dead head her own church as she remains one of the can be finally evaluated. because “your daughter was most famous psychics in the United States. My On April 21, 2003, Aman- not the type that would not 2010 coauthored article, “Psychic Defective: Sylvia Browne’s da Berry went missing a day have called you” (Radford SHistory of Failure,” compiled every publicly available predic- before her seventeenth birth- 2013). Besides claiming that tion Browne made on missing person and death cases, totaling day. Louwana Miller, Berry’s a potential person of interest 115 readings, and concluded Sylvia Browne was mostly cor- mother, was desperate to was “sort of Cuban-looking, rect zero times, mostly wrong in twenty-five cases, and had find her daughter and be- short kind of stocky build, ninety unknown outcomes (S  I, March/ lieved Browne was the key heavyset,” she said he was April 2010). In the last three years there have been develop- to solving the disappearance. “maybe 21, something like ments in the cases of Amanda Berry, Nicholle Coppler, Jerry In 2004, Miller was flown to that, 21, 22.” When Miller Cushey, Alexandra Ducsay, Dustin Ivey, Hunter Horgan, The Montel Williams Show asked if she would ever see Amanda Lankey, Christopher Mader, Dena McCluskey, where Browne told the grief her daughter, Browne told Michelle O’Keefe, and Pat Viola that were listed as having stricken mother that “she’s the bereaved mother, “yeah, unknown outcomes. not alive,” mentioned “water” in heaven, on the other side.” This article updates the The impact of Miller’s previous analysis with a new appearance with Browne on reading, bringing the total to Montel was crushing for a 116 cases, and investigates mother who held out hope changes in those eleven cases her daughter would be found with previously unknown alive. In a detailed interview conclusions by showing with Miller by Stephen Browne mostly wrong in Hudak, the mother said she eight, with three remaining believed Browne “98 per- in the unknown category. cent” (Hudak 2004). When The result? The evidence Miller died of heart failure in demonstrates Browne still 2006, reporter Regina Brett has never been mostly correct explained how hard Miller in a single case, thirty-three worked at drawing attention cases have mostly incorrect to the case and looking for

predictions, and eighty-three Dan Callister, PacificCoastNews./Newscom her daughter “before that cases have unverified out- In 2004 Browne told the mother of Amanda Berry that “she’s psychic did her in” (Brett comes. The article also looks not alive.” Amanda and two other girls escaped captivity on 2006). According to that at the human toll Browne’s May 6, 2013. article, Browne was more specific than what was aired 30 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer DEFECTIVE Years Later, Sylvia Browne’s DEFECTIVEAccuracy Remains Dismal REVISITED on television, telling Miller ancestors from Africa, Eu- and 69.5 inches of all males the case as a “validation,” that Amanda “died on her rope, or both. Thus, in the between fifty and fifty-nine Browne wrote she accurately birthday,” “she didn’t suffer,” broadest sense many people, (United States Department told the mother that Nich- and “that her black hooded not just Latin Americans, of Health and Human Ser- olle Coppler “was no longer jacket was in a dumpster could fit that description. vices 2010). Castro may have alive and could be located with DNA on it.” Browne was wrong about the a “stocky build,” but he does in or under the house and Browne’s prediction was kidnapper’s age; she claimed not appear to be “heavyset.” that the person who killed wrong. On May 6, 2013, in 2004 that the person in- The website statement also her was also involved with Berry fled after being held volved was about twenty-one referred to Browne’s descrip- both young boys and girls” in torturous conditions for or twenty-two, but Castro is tion of the “perpetrators,” (“Webcast Previews” 2012). ten years, and police called currently fifty-two, making despite police announcing When Coppler went missing Berry a hero for her escape her claim off by two de- Castro “ran the show and in 1999, she ran away from that led law enforcement to cades, as he was in his early he acted alone” (Dolan et home and met an older man, her kidnapper and two other forties at the time. Her de- al. 2013). This reading is Glen Fryer. Police suspected abducted girls, Gina DeJe- scription was also that the moved into the wrong cate- Fryer was involved in the sus and Michelle Knight. suspect was “short,” but an gory of the “Psychic Defec- disappearance early on, and DeJesus had been missing online booking photograph tive” list. in August 2001 they not since 2004 and Knight was shows he is about sixty-five Browne remains relatively only found Coppler’s identi- kidnapped in 2000. In the inches (AP Photo 2013), quiet on Berry’s rescue aside fication at his house but also chilling phone call to po- which is only slightly smaller from saying her “heart goes her hair and photos. He was lice, Berry identified herself than the most recent U.S. out to Amanda Berry,” but arrested for rape and child as Amanda Berry, missing government data that lists in 2012 Browne’s website pornography after police for ten years and said her an average height of 67.1 posted a video of her 2002 retrieved videos and pho- captor was Ariel Castro, inches for Hispanic males Montel appearance about tos of him raping underage a fifty-two-year-old man. between forty and fifty-nine Nicholle Coppler. In citing girls, including a girl who In a statement posted on was murdered in Kentucky Browne’s website, a message in 2000. Fryer, who was a says Sherry Cole, Amanda suspect in his wife’s murder Berry’s cousin, “reached out as well, agreed to a plea deal, to Sylvia this morning to let but on February 18, 2002, her know that she supports he committed suicide before her, loves her, knows Sylvia telling detectives what he did never claims to be 100 per- to Coppler. cent right, but wanted to Nine months after the let her know that she was guilty plea and suspect’s accurate in her description death in 2002, Nicholle’s of the perpetrators at the mother, Krista Coppler, time” (“Sylvia’s Statement appeared with Browne in on Amanda Berry” 2013). November 2002 on Mon- That Castro, born in Puerto tel where she told Krista Rico, is “Cuban-looking” is the obvious outcome that Cuyahoga County Jail/ZUMA Press/Newscom debatable for several reasons, Booking photo of Ariel Castro shows that Browne was wrong Coppler is deceased. The including the fact that being about the person of interest being “short” and “maybe 21 mother asked, “Do you Cuban is a nationality that years old.” On July 26, 2013, Castro pleaded guilty in the know where she’s at?” and imprisonment and rapes of Amanda Berry and two other girls includes a broad category of who escaped in May. Browne replied, “She’s right people who have immediate near his house.” Krista then DEFECTIVESkeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 31 asked Browne, “Is she in his resting “near” or “under” the disposed to be in love with a was twenty-one, but since basement?” and Browne re- house incorrect. Therefore in man” and the “priest was try- he was over that age he sponded vaguely with “yeah, this reading with ten claims, ing to help him” (McMillan did not serve any time and in the house or under the Browne has a 10 percent or, 1997). While Browne said faces life in prison for other house.” According to Lima at best, 20 percent accuracy, she expected the perpetrator charges (Nolan 2011). As for News in 2012, “police found while 20 percent of her state- “to get caught,” she claimed Browne’s predictions on the her skeleton after the house ments were wrong and the that “somebody with the murder, a gang was not in- was demolished and while remaining 60 percent of her street name of ‘King’ di- volved, multiple people did the foundation was being statements, including cause rected gang people to do it,” not commit the crime, no dug out” (Sowinski 2012). of death and possible accom- but when asked for a name “homosexual advances” were Out of the entire reading plices, are unknown. Due to a she declined, saying, “she motivating factors, there was Browne was correct on the lack of evidence that could ei- is concerned about the eth- no evidence Odomes loved most likely scenario given ther confirm or deny Browne’s ics of doing so” (McMillan Horgan, no mentions about Fryer’s guilty plea, suicide, other six statements, this read- 1997). Odomes being “mulatto,” connection to two previous ing remains in the unknown In 2007, the investigation and no person named “King” murders, and the evidence: outcome category. This case was reignited in what turned was involved. Browne’s Coppler was deceased. Her is also a revealing look at how out to be a highly unusual prediction is placed in the other predictions about Browne operates. In the tran- case that Browne failed to wrong category, since most of her claims were not sup- ported by fact or they indeed contradicted what was pre- In the Horgan-Odomes case, Browne’s sented at trial. prediction is placed in the wrong category, In 2003, Browne gave a since most of her claims were not reading to Sonya Helman- supported by fact or they indeed toler on Montel about the contradicted what was presented at trial. 2001 disappearance of her brother Jerry Cushey Jr. A transcript of the reading could not be located, but a Coppler being “under” the script, it was Krista’s state- predict. After re-interview- journalist at the time wrote: house, “near” the house, ments about Fryer’s basement ing two men, police accused “Browne said Cushey had that she was “smothered,” that prompted Browne to Derrick Odomes, an African been struck on the head that Fryer transported girls focus on the home’s interior. American who lived across and choked and his body “across state lines,” that she Furthermore, nearly ten years from the church cemetery, dumped,” pointing to “how did not leave the house, that lapsed between the reading of robbing and murder- hard it is to find a body in people named Kevin and and finding her remains; law ing Horgan and obtained water” (Smydo 2003). An- Billy were involved, three enforcement found the de- DNA and fingerprints from other journalist wrote that males were involved, or that ceased and Browne played Odomes that linked him to “Browne told Helmantoler she was killed out of fear for no role in police locating the the crime. As it turned out, on The Montel Williams reporting Fryer’s crimes are body. Horgan was robbed. Both Show that Jerry was killed either wrong or unsubstanti- Browne was also proved his wallet and car were sto- because he saw something he ated. For example, Coppler’s wrong in her predictions len, and police found his shouldn’t” (Brubaker 2006). remains cannot be “near” or about the August 1992 mur- pants pockets were “turned In 2010, Ronald Curran and “under” the house while also der of Hunter Horgan, a inside out” (Monroe 2011). Christopher Myers, Cushey’s being “in” the house. priest at St. John’s Episco- The trial was slow to move roommate, were charged with In total, Browne’s “val- pal Church in Louisiana. In forward because Odomes’s the shooting death of Cushey idated” statements for the 1997, Browne was paid $400 lawyer argued he should be and hiding his body over a Coppler reading were one or, by local police for the read- tried as juvenile, because drug debt Cushey owed. In at best, two out of ten pre- ing in which she claimed, Odomes was fourteen in 2011, Myers pled guilty and dictions (counting the body “The priest was killed by a August 1992 and therefore Curran pled guilty in 2012 buried next to the foundation ‘young mulatto’ homosexual legally a juvenile. In August (Buckley 2012). Myers took as either “in” or “under” the who was enraged by Hunt- 2011, Odomes, at age thir- police to the two locations house as per Browne’s web- er’s rejection of his advances” ty-three was found guilty for where they buried Cushey’s site claim). Accepting the (McMillan 1997). The psy- the murder he committed body in wooded areas (Buck- body as being “in” the house chic said, “Someone was in as a fourteen year old. The ley 2010). Browne’s state- makes Browne’s two other love with the minister and judge sentenced Odomes ments about the reason, man- statements about the remains he [the minister] wasn’t pre- to incarceration until he ner of death, and location of

32 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer REVISITED the body were false. This was were false. Conversely, if murder, and without more with an ‘L,’ last name ‘L,’ like a mostly wrong prediction the charges were wrong then evidence or a trial there are something like [censored] or and has been moved to that Browne’s timeline as well as too many unknowns. Thus, something, knows about this.” category. the nature of his death were this case remains in the un- In 2007, the police found On October 11, 2006, incorrect. Browne’s veri- known category. Dena McCluskey’s body “in Browne did a reading about fiable statements in either Sylvia Browne’s Novem- a secluded area of Tuolumne the death of Alexandra Duc- instance were mostly incor- ber 30, 2005, reading for County” and arrested Russell say for Linda, her mother, rect, which puts this reading Samantha Mader, mother Todd Jones for her murder and said her daughter’s mur- in the wrong category. of Christopher Mader, had (Ahumadara 2007). In 2011, derer is “sort of like” the “Zo- On February 8, 2006, a much clearer outcome. Jones was found guilty of vol- diac Killer.” Browne gave a Amanda Lankey’s 2004 Browne gave the mother a untary manslaughter in the name, but it was censored by murder was featured on name, which was again cen- killing of Dena McCluskey, The Montel Williams Show, Montel, where Browne sored, and claimed Chris- Jones’s roommate (Ahu- claiming he “got in and fol- spoke with her mother, Vic- topher’s murder stemmed madara 2011). He admitted to lowed her in” and it was toria Foster. Browne asked, from the killer not liking burying her body in a shallow linked to “four” other women “Do you know anybody by “the food” at the bar he grave near property owned who were found and told the the name of [censored]” to worked at, then later the by his parents after burning mother to search for rapists which the mother said yes. killer “saw him passing by, her body. Browne’s predic- in the area. In September Browne claimed, “There was and shot him.” Browne also tions were false. There was no 2012, Matthew Pugh, Al- also a female involved with told the mother to start David involved, or an “L” last exandra’s former boyfriend, was charged with murder and burglary after a small piece Russell Todd Jones admitted to burying of tape led police to him (Juliano and Cleary 2012). Dana McCluskey’s body in a shallow grave Pugh is only accused of one near property owned by his parents murder, but as he is awaiting after burning her body. Browne’s trial this case will remain in the unknown category. predictions were false. In contrast, Browne gave more detail in her October 26, 2005, reading on Mon- the first initial of ‘C,’” and looking “where he ate break- name, she was wrong about tel for Tamara Ivey, mother Browne said Amanda was fast.” Matthew Correll and the body’s location and a of deceased Dustin Ivey, by killed in a “car,” specifically Shawn Myers were charged “basement” and failed to men- saying a teenage boy and a blue Honda Civic. Browne with the murder, and Correll tion that the person involved a “dark-haired young” fe- said Amanda met the person was found guilty and Myers was her daughter’s roommate. male were involved. Said on the Internet. In 2004, pled guilty in 2012 (New- This reading is moved into Browne, “I think it’s going Cecil Wallis Sr. was imme- man 2012). The two had the wrong category. to be solved really soon” and diately named a person of in- attempted to rob Mader. In October 2000, “a sexual predator” was the terest in the murder because Browne’s predictions were Browne sat down with Pa- suspect who used “a rock.” Lankey was last seen alive at not true about how many tricia O’Keefe, the mother Tamara replied, “They told his house and her body was people were involved, the of Michelle O’Keefe, who me that it wasn’t sexual.” In found not far from that lo- reason for the murder, or was murdered in February 2006, Richard Joshua Col- cation. In 2011, Wallis Sr. how the crime happened. 2000. A transcript could not lier, Dustin’s brother and committed suicide before This case has been put in the be located, but according to Tamara’s son, was charged trial in an unrelated rape case wrong category. news reports Browne said with Dustin’s murder. Po- involving teen girls at the On February 26, 2003, the killer was “a blue-eyed, lice claimed the two got same home between 1998 Browne made predictions dark-skinned white man into an argument and Col- and 2002 (Tunison 2011). for Dena McCluskey’s step- named Lee or Leon, who lier killed his brother. He Assuming Cecil Wallis Sr. mother Donna, asking the fled the scene on a shuttle was found not guilty at trial was behind the murder, stepmother, “Who is David?” bus” (Botonis 2000b). She (Stoner 2007). If the police there is no evidence a female and Donna responded, further obfuscated, say- and the prosecutor’s charges with a “C” was “involved,” “David doesn’t ring a bell at ing the murderer is “very are correct and Browne was and Browne was wrong all.” Browne then said, “She’s dark-complected and could right about the case being about how the person met in like a basement thing” lo- be mistaken as being black” solved “soon,” then all other Lankey. Cecil Wallis Sr. was cally and “the reason I brought and “he had a blue uniform details in Browne’s reading not charged with Lankey’s up David is because David, with a pocket and a badge

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 33 REVISITED or something over it” (Bot- was correct about one of his was not the case. According from asking her questions onis 2000b). Browne then names being Lee. Browne’s to the Dateline episode, his about criminal cases. In claimed O’Keefe’s murder website celebrated this fact uniform consisted of black 2011, she was asked by An- was part of a series of mur- by promoting a Dateline epi- pants, a black jacket, and a gela Spinks, in front of an ders at that location and that sode showing Browne saying brown shirt. The shirt had Albuquerque, New Mexico, the gun used in the murder it was a “white man named the company’s red logo with audience, who killed Lloyd, could be found “in a large Lee or Leon, who fled the a pattern of a badge on the Dixie, and Steven Ortiz, her green metal trash can next scene on a shuttle bus,” sleeves and chest, but it was parents and brother, with to an elevator or door” that which had no further analysis not a badge, and Browne’s a pickaxe on Father’s Day. had not been emptied since or clips from the show (“The claim that it had “something According to journalist Nico the murder eight months Girl With The Blue Mus- over it” is unclear. So while Roesler, Browne told Spinks before. In response to the tang” 2010). It is import- she was correct on three the murderer was Jesse Rios, taping, police announced ant to note that Raymond statements that police al- her brother-in-law (Roesler they were following the tips Lee Jennings was named ready knew months before, 2012). The police had pre- Browne offered not because as the suspect less than two Browne was wrong on at viously questioned Rios and they believed her, but “you months after the murder and least ten claims. This read- his wife Cherie Ortiz-Rios, don’t reject any informa- six months before Browne’s ing is moved into the mostly who found the bodies tion,” as “a person could say involvement. This case re- wrong category. and lived on the property they’re a psychic and really ceived national attention be- Similarly, on February (Roesler 2012). An official be trying to give you infor- fore Browne’s reading, and 11, 2004, Browne conducted with the New Mexico state police “told the family to Browne has never been mostly accurate disregard Browne’s answer because the show was rigged out of 116 readings, with thirty-three and that it was a stunt” cases mostly wrong and eighty-three (Roesler 2012). The mur- unverified predictions. ders remain unsolved, and it is unclear what, if any, infor- mation Browne knew about mation either firsthand or O’Keefe’s murder was even a reading for Jim Viola, the triple homicide from the from another source” (Bot- featured on America’s Most whose wife Pat Viola went media. Adding this case to onis 2000a). Wanted in the summer of missing from Bogota, New the list of Browne readings In late 2009, Raymond 2000. No physical evidence, Jersey, in 2001. The psychic with unknown outcomes to Lee Jennings was found such as a gun, was discovered said she “had a major sei- the “Psychic Defective” ar- guilty after three trials for despite Browne’s claims and zure,” was then given a ride ticle brings the total to 116 Michelle O’Keefe’s February police following up on her by a grocery truck driver, and cases total with eighty-three 2000 murder and was later statements. She was correct the husband needed to look unknown outcomes. sentenced to forty years. about the name Lee, being in Akron, Ohio (Mahabir These readings are not Long before Browne’s Oc- white, and eye color, which 2004). In September 2012, Browne’s only miserable pre- tober 2000 reading, on April could have been surmised authorities announced they dictions in recent years. 4, 2000, Jennings was told by by anyone who followed the had Pat Viola’s body since Browne predicted in Proph- police he was the suspect in case knowing that Jennings July 27, 2002, when they ecy (2005): “After Pope John the murder (Brown 2012). had been the suspect since found it washed ashore on Paul II passes, there will Jennings, a security guard April. Browne was wrong a Rockaway beach in New be only one more elected at the school where O’Keefe about the Leon name, his York. DNA tests of the pope” and wrote “he will be was killed, was the sole wit- being “dark-skinned,” “very bones were taken in 2006 succeeded by what is essen- ness and told conflicting dark-complected,” “could be and new samples from 2011 tially a triumvirate of popes” accounts of what happened mistaken as being black,” and led to the identification (Browne and Harrison 2005). (Fausset and Blankstein he did not “flee,” as he stayed (Baustista and Superville In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI 2001). For example, he told at the scene and did not take 2012). Pat Viola was dead at resigned, the first in nearly investigators about when “a shuttle bus.” Furthermore, the time of Browne’s read- 600 years, and Pope Francis he first saw O’Keefe, which Browne’s claims about where ing so she could not have was elected, becoming the contradicted his earlier the gun was were false, and been alive in Ohio since her first pope from the Americas. statements and physical ev- O’Keefe’s death was not part remains were in New York. Browne’s predictions about idence (Fausset and Blank- of a series of other murders. This reading is moved to the the Pope were wrong, and stein 2001). While Browne While one might expect a mostly wrong category. she failed to predict these was wrong about the sus- security guard to have a blue Browne’s dismal record rare moments in the pa- pect being named Leon, she uniform and a badge, this has not dissuaded people pacy. In End of Days (2008)

34 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer Browne made predictions remain on the unknown (August 19). ure. S I (34)(2) ———. 2012. Curran guilty in slay (March/April). Online at http:// such as: “Many of the dra- list. Following these recent case. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review www.csicop.org/si/show/psy- matic advancements in our updates to the “Psychic De- (April 13). chic_defective_sylvia_brownes_ space travel will be the di- fective” article, Browne has Dolan, Matthew, Joe Barrett, Tamer history_of_failure/. El-Gho bashy, and Kris Maher. Skomal, Lenore. 2011. Me and Sylvia rect result of what we’ve never been mostly accurate 2013. Charges filed in abduc- Browne: 2012 predictions. Erie learned from them, from out of 116 readings, with tion of Ohio women. Wall Street Times-News (October 17). Online the manned Mars explora- thirty-three cases mostly Journal (May 9). Online at http:// at http://www.goerieblogs.com/ tion in 2012” (Browne and wrong and eighty-three un- online.wsj.com/article/SB100014 news/writersblock/2011/10/ I 24127887324059704578470750 my-and-sylvia-browne-2012- Harrison 2008). There was verified predictions. 534634028.html. predictions/. no 2012 mission to Mars. Fausset, Richard, and Andrew Blank- Sylvia’s statement on Amanda Berry. References stein. 2001. Parents’ lawsuit 2013. SylviaBrowne.com. Online In 2011, Browne predicted broadened in hunt for killer. at http://www.sylviabrowne.com AP Photo. 2013. “APTOPIX Mitt Romney would defeat Los Angeles Times (November /g/Sylvias-Statement-on- Missing Women Found,” 26). Online at http://articles. Amanda-Berry/189.html. Barack Obama in the 2012 Associated Press, May 9. Online latimes.com/2001/nov/26/local/ Smydo, Joe. 2003. What happened at http://www.apimages.com/ presidential election, only to me-8340. to Jerry?: Missing man’s fam- metadata/Index/APTOPIX- reverse herself in late Sep- Hudak, Stephen. 2004. Psychic leaves ily searches for clues in this Missing-Women-Found/891 mom ‘98 percent’ sure missing world and the next. Post-Gazette tember 2012 when Romney ca35dadfc49e1bf0814337bea daughter is dead. Plain Dealer (July 6). Online at http://old. 66b1/8/0. was trailing in polls and re- (November 18). post-gazette.com/neigh_washing- Ahumadara, Rosalio. 2011. ceived negative press for his Juliano, Frank, and Tom Cleary. ton/20030706wacoverwash3p3.asp. Raley Mc Cluskey family sur- 2012. Milford cops make arrest Sowinski, Greg. 2012. Bones iden- private comments made to prised by manslaughter con- in Alexandra Ducsay’s killing. tified as missing teen Nicholle viction. Modesto Bee (July 19). donors (Skomal 2011). Connecticut Post (September 6). Coppler. Lima News (February Online at http://www.modbee. If one focuses only on Online at http://www.ctpost. 20). Online at http://www. com/2011/07/19/1781423/ com/policereports/article/ limaohio.com/obituaries/arti- the missing person cases, modesto-man-guilty-of-man- Milford-cops-make-arrest-in- cle_7f5167c4-412f-5759-81ad- slaughter.html. Browne’s prediction about Alexandra-Ducsay-s-3841775. be91a93f7fc8.html. ———. 2007. Search for Raley- Amanda Berry was not even php. Stoner, Andrew. 2007. Notorious 92: McCluskey ends at the grave. Mahabir, Karen. 2004. A psychic Indiana’s Most Heinous Murders the first time Browne told a Modesto Bee (November 3). on the case: Husband of missing in All 92 Counties (Bloomington: Online at http://www.modbee mother her child was dead Bogota woman asks for help. The Rooftop Publishing), p. 473. .com/2007/11/03/110866/ when the missing child was Record (February 10). The girl with the blue mustang. search-for-raley-mccluskey-ends. McMillan, John. 1997. Psychic gives 2010. SylviaBrowne.com. On line alive. In 2003, Browne told html. police clues into priest’s 1992 slay- at http:// www.sylviabrowne.com Baustista, Justo, and Denisa R. the parents of Shawn Horn- ing. The Advocate (September 14). /b/The-Girl-With-TheBlue Superville. 2012. Remains iden- beck he was dead, but he was Monroe, Nate. 2011. Odomes guilty Mustang/731679257300427117. tified as those of Bogota woman in priest slaying. Houma Courier html. found alive in 2007. After who vanished 11 years ago. The (August 25). Tunison, John. 2011. Cecil Wallis Record (Sep tember 12). Online her failed prediction received Newman, Jeff. 2012. Mader’s mur- Sr., ‘person of interest’ in Amanda at http://www.northjersey.com/ media attention, Browne re- derer gets life, no parole. Southern Lankey killing, found dead. bogota/Remains_found_on_ Maryland News (August 11). MLive.com (November 10). leased a statement to CNN’s Queens_beach_a_decade_ago_ Online at http://www.somd- Online at http://www.mlive. identified_as_those_of_missing_ Anderson Cooper saying: news.com/article/20120822/ com/news/grand-rapids/index. Bogota_woman.html. “She cannot possibly be 100 NEWS/708229586/1055/ ssf/2011/11/cecil_wallis_sr_per- Botonis, Greg. 2000a. Psychic’s com- mader-s-murderer-gets-life-no- son_of_inte.html. percent correct in each and ments investigated. Daily News parole&template=southernMary- United States Department of Health (October 24). every one of her predictions. land. and Human Services. 2010. ———. 2000b. O’Keefe’s killer She has, during a career of Nolan, Bruce. 2011. Murder case Anthropometric reference data for ‘seen’ by psychic. Daily News finally closed in killing of Hunter children and adults: United States, over 50 years, helped literally (November 3). Horgan III, Episcopal priest. The 2007–2010. Centers for Disease Brett, Regina. 2006. On her heart: tens of thousands of people” Times-Picayune (September 23). Control and Prevention. Online Missing Mandy. Plain Dealer (“Psychic Told Parents That Psychic told parents that son was at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ (March 5). dead. 2007. CNN (January 19). series/sr_11/sr11_252.pdf. Son Was Dead” 2007). The Brown, Errol. 2012. Ray Jennings: Online at http://www.cnn.com/ Webcast previews: A validation Wrongfully convicted in the question is, if Browne can- CNN/Programs/anderson.coo- on a prediction made 11 years murder of Michelle O’Keefe. not be 100 percent accurate per.360/blog/2007/01/psychic- ago. 2012. SylviaBrowne.com JusticeForRay.com. Online at told-parents-that-son-was-dead. (March). Online at http://www. then just how accurate is http://justiceforray.webs.com/ html. sylviabrowne.com/p/All-Articles/ thecase.htm. she? The Ortiz reading has Radford, Benjamin. 2013. Psychic A-validation-on-a-prediction- Browne, Sylvia, and Lindsay Harrison. been added to the metric, defective: Sylvia Browne blun- made-11-years-ago/30195.html. 2008. End of Days: Predictions and ders again. S I while Browne was wrong in Prophecies About the End of the 37(3) (July/August). World. New York: Dutton, p. 243. the cases of Amanda Berry, Roesler, Nico. 2012. One year later, ———. 2005. Prophecy: What the Ryan Shaffer is a Jerry Cushey, Dustin Ivey, suspicions linger in El Rancho Future Holds For You. New York: writer and histo- pickax killings. The New Mexican Hunter Horgan, Christo- Dutton, pp. 145–46. (June 16). Online at http://www. rian. He has a PhD Brubaker, Brandy. 2006. Family pher Mader, Dena McClus- sfnewmexican.com/local%20 in history and is pleads for information on Pa. key, Michelle O’Keefe, and news/Suspicions-linger-in- currently a post- man missing for 5 years. Tribune pickax-killings. Pat Viola. The Nicholle Business News (October 12). doctoral fellow at Shaffer, Ryan, and Agatha Jad- Buckley, Chris. 2010. Murder victim the Institute for Global Studies at Coppler, Alexandra Ducsay wiszczok. 2010. Psychic defective: buried in two locations, police and Amanda Lankey cases Sylvia Browne’s history of fail- Stony Brook University in New York. say. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 35 The Myth of the Mad Genius

The myth of the mad genius began with a misinterpretation of Plato’s “divine madness” and has since gathered support and credibility because of public fascination, media distortion, and enthusiastic pseudoscience.

JUDITH SCHLESINGER

Stardust, Smoke and Mirrors

36 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer ost myths are popular because they offer quick solu- ful jealousy it evokes in the less-gifted tions to the world’s ongoing puzzles, whether found observer. In fact, the myth’s capacity to in nature or in the baffling variations in human be- neutralize envy is a major reason for its havior. This is especially true when a myth is an- popularity and endurance. cient, photogenic, and has a whiff of science about it. Another is the contribution of those The mad genius myth qualifies on all counts, deriv- creatives (and wannabes) who delib- ing its credibility from expert proponents (hereinafter erately cultivate a wild, eccentric pose called “mythers”) who proclaim the existence of a solid in order to appear more brilliant than empirical link between great creativity and bipolar dis- they really are and get a pass on such order, so that those who are blessed with the one mundane responsibilities as holding up must also be saddled with the other. This their half of a relationship and paying equation is patently false but too rarely their share of the rent. Steve Allen, challenged, even by mental health professionals who should know better, for reasons that most un-mad of geniuses, called that will soon be explained. Meanwhile, the tragedy of the mad genius myth is that it this ploy “the Bohemian excuse,” and encourages viewing the genius through a warped, dusty, and generic lens; this not its global appeal could well sustain the only negates the individualism of society’s most exceptional talents, it also dimin- myth all by itself. ishes their accomplishments as a product of mental disturbance. Popularity and Power has begun to generate its own swirl of History, in Brief The myther’s favorite poster boy is controversy, with recent theories about The mad genius notion benefits from Vincent van Gogh, whose painting gun accidents and other fingers on the the mystique that clings to virtually Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear sup- trigger. (For a critical discussion, see every Big Idea from ancient Greece: plies their most convenient visual. Joe Nickell’s column, “The ‘Murder’ the conviction that it expresses some- Chances are this will continue despite of Vincent van Gogh,” SI, September/ thing profound that “has always been new indications that someone else may October 2012.) known.” The irony is that this one idea have severed that famous lobe—this It should be noted that the symp- began by distorting the original wis- would be his roommate Paul Gauguin, toms of tertiary syphilis, which raged dom. For example, Plato invented the who was notorious for his hot tem- in many quarters until its 1906 cure, concept of “divine madness” to describe per as well as his skill with a sword. closely mimic the mood swings and a visit from the gods that delivered Scholars have found intriguing clues psychosis expected of a bipolar diagno- precious inspiration and enabled the to this alternate scenario among van sis. A short list of famous victims in- artist to create. This was a fortunate, Gogh’s 874 letters, which were posted cludes Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert unpredictable, and short-term event, in 2010 at www.vangoghletters.org. Schumann, Oscar Wilde, and Edgar nothing like the ongoing mental disor- But such facts will matter little to Allan Poe (Hayden 2003), who have der it would become in our time. Over mythers, whose exclusive focus on all been trailed by whispers of madness. the centuries Aristotle’s benign view in ternal pathology tends to minimize But it’s easy for any artist to acquire a of melancholia was also twisted to fit the impact of external stressors and pathological label, since, in addition the stereotype—often by influential events on the life of the artist. to soft-pedaling any physical reasons writers who were themselves depressed In van Gogh’s case, this requires for aberrant behavior, mythers prefer dis counting his poverty, loneliness, to ignore the crazy-making heartbreak and repeated romantic and occupa- and struggle of the creative life itself. tional failures, as well as the physical For a fuller discussion of this point, consequences of epilepsy, absinthe poi- see Chapter 8, “They Must Be Crazy” soning, and late-stage (tertiary) syph- (Schlesinger 2012, 153–170). ilis; moreover, when viewed from this To be fair, fascination with shat- narrow perspective, his suicide stands tered brilliance is hardly new. The pa- unexamined as the ultimate proof of rade of the gifted and doomed stretches his mental illness. But syphilis also at least as far back as Icarus, one of the killed Theo van Gogh soon after Vin- first to be punished for flying too high. cent died, suggesting that the afflicted Shakespeare’s tragic heroes were also painter took his own life at the prospect inevitably destroyed by their internal of losing his beloved brother, who was flaws (Macbeth’s ambition, Hamlet’s also his only friend and patron. Surely indecision).Today, the breathless media one doesn’t need bipolar disorder to ex- coverage of every celebrity derailment perience this level of grief and despair. continues to underscore the danger of And as it happens, Vincent’s suicide great talent, while softening any pain-

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 37 and sought to alchemize their own storm of influence, all this intense lit- Not surprisingly, mythers prefer to suffering into inherent proof of their erary and psychosocial drama was soon disregard such challenges, relying on superiority. legitimized by a new scientific focus public confusion about science to make One such popularizer was the Re- on the exceptional mind. Certainly the their statements sound impressive. For naissance monk Marsilio Ficino, whose European climate was ripe for Charles example, in the past few years, they self-serving translation of ancient texts Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859), keep invoking a “proven” genetic link contained the news that being born which sketched the contours of natural between bipolar disorder and great cre- under Saturn (as he was) was a sure sign supremacy and triggered the eugenicist ativity. Aside from leapfrogging over of genius (Wittkower and Wittkower dream of breeding a superior race of the increasing doubts about the diag- 1963). In 1621, British theologian humans. But since ambivalence is an nosis, they are exploiting the widely Robert Burton published The Anatomy integral part of the myth, by century’s reported jubilation over the “mapping” of Melancholy: 988 pages that helped end early psychiatrists were expounding of the human genome—as well as the distract him from his own “distemper.” on the dark side of genius and its com- equally common ignorance about what In his rambling and wildly popular mon heredity with idiots and criminals. this actually means. The fact is that tome, Burton considered everything Primitive as these speculations were, this fabled guide only identifies the se- from geography to goblins, but the they are still being used to supply the quencing of protein chains, rather than myth with a long “scientific” pedigree. establishing precise and immutable But this only works if the references are links between specific genes and any kept vague—and so virtually every particular behavior or disease. In any writer who cites Cesare Lom- case, even if reliable DNA causality is broso’s 1895 book The Man of ever established, individual variations in Genius as credible historical environment and experience will always These waters background neglects to reveal affect its expression. But this is much too that he actually described equivocal for those who want the world are further muddied by geniuses as “stammering, to believe that the genetic ingredients of sexually sterile, pasty-faced creativity and bipolar disorder, as well the ongoing controversy over vagabonds of inadequate as the alleged link between them, are all whether mental illness— beard” (1895, 5–37, vi). backed by “indisputable scientific evi- These waters are fur- dence” (Schlesinger 2012, 114). including bipolar disorder ther muddied by the on- going controversy over Wobbly Research —exists at all. whether mental illness—in- In fact, they are not. And future pros- cluding bipolar disorder— pects are dim, due to the enormous exists at all. Ten years ago the research obstacle that blocks any American Psychiatric Association empirical inquiry from the start: the was forced to admit that, despite its lack of universal definitions or mea- practitioners’ reliance on medical rem- surements for either variable. The pres- edies and terminology, not a single one ence of creativity can only be inferred of the “disease” categories collected in from subjective judgments, such as book’s most enduring legacy was to their official manual (the DSM) had a evaluating arbitrary paper-and-pencil cement the connection between the known biological basis or sign (Amer- tests of its many amorphous and end- words melancholy, depression, and ar- ican Psychiatric Association 2003). lessly-debated components. Similarly, tistic endeavor. Today the most prolific This is still true today, and in fact the since bipolar disorder lacks the tangible myther is psychologist Kay Redfield newest edition, the DSM-5, has in- clues from blood tests, brain scans, Jamison, who extols such benefits of spired numerous journalistic exposés, or diseased tissue that a true physical her own bipolar disorder as “loving passionate public criticism, and unprec- illness would provide, its verdict turns more, and being more loved” (Jamison edented protests within the guild itself. on such slippery criteria as whether 1995, 217–218). Her scientific claims Even “the nation’s shrink”—the direc- its politically-determined, behavioral will be evaluated a bit later. tor of the National Institute of Men- “symptoms” are “persistent” during a The eighteenth century catapulted tal Health—has slammed the DSM’s “distinct” period—temporal parame- the mad genius into permanent cul- lack of validity, noting that the United ters that are fully as ambiguous as the tural icon by merging colorful fiction States government’s active search for an symptoms themselves. This makes it about the tragic, brilliant hero with the alternative classification system has been impossible to reliably identify these noisy creative struggles of real poets like going on for two years and is mandated two concepts, let alone connect them Poe, Shelley, and Byron. In a perfect to continue for eight more (Insel 2013). in any definitive way—an exercise

38 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer approximately as futile as trying to nail male, white, and middle-aged writers that they continue to trump two cubes of Jell-O together. were mood-disordered—was quickly the study’s lack of validity. For in- What gets served up instead is a scooped by Psychology Today and Sci- stance, her 50 percent rate of mental stack of mismatched studies that in- ence News as if it described all writers illness among poets seems to confirm corporate so many different concepts, of every age, race, type, geography, and the common perception that theirs is designs, instruments, populations, and gender. Even a full generation later, an especially perilous art—unless you methodologies that their findings are few realize that Andreasen’s stunning read the article for yourself and learn virtually incompatible. Mythers get majority of disturbed writers reflects that this number only represents a total around this by claiming the results “all such a small, homogenous group—and of nine people. Equally obscure is the point in the same direction,” although moreover, one living at a retreat that fact that the hefty 12.5 percent of visual this is no surprise when researchers happens to be famous for attracting artists taking antidepressants actually start with the same agenda. In its own burned-out professionals. But most reflects only one person. hopeful way, the increasingly popular damaging, since Andreasen’s results It doesn’t help that the original ar- “meta-analysis” approach vaults over failed to reach statistical significance, ticle is so difficult to find. Although such inconvenient disparities by ho- is that they could never be more than it appeared in something called Psy- mogenizing them and declaring this to suggestive rather than the supposed chiatry, that journal is not one of the be “scientific.” And so the mad genius “proof” of creative pathology they have prestigious, peer-reviewed journals gets elevated from fallacy to fact. since become. of similar title that can be searched Jamison’s 1989 study has had a through the customary professional Methods to the Madness greater impact with an even weaker data bases. Rather, this Psychiatry is methodology; it effectively launched the interdisciplinary newsletter of a The mythers derive their pseudosci- her as the go-to media expert on the non-degree-granting therapy school in entific rationale from three primary mad genius and continues to appear in Washington, D.C. My copy took some sources: psychiatrists Nancy Andreasen virtually everything written on the sub- determined off-track digging to find, and Arnold Ludwig and psycholo- ject, both inside and outside the field. requiring waiting several weeks and gist Jamison, whose 1989 study and Like Andreasen, the lone interviewer paying a $27 fee to a retrieval service 1993 book have become the sacred who hand-picked her white, male, and that seems to have since disappeared scrolls of the mad genius movement middle-aged acquaintances, Jamison (it’s interesting that Jamison’s current (for detailed critiques of all three, see interviewed forty-seven award-winning online CV lists 126 articles, and this is Schlesinger 2009, 2012). Much like British playwrights, poets, novelists, bi- citing Lombroso’s work without quot- ographers, and visual artists to deter- ing his words, many writers repeat the mine the rate of mood disorders dramatic claims of this trio without among them. Again, she also divulging how they were derived. After invented her own diag- three decades of studying this litera- nostic criteria, uniquely ture, I suspect that too few people have claiming that her actually read the originals, assuming subjects’ reports of The result that someone earlier in the chain has treatment were of writers parroting already done the proper vetting. The the most strin- result is that the frequent repetition gent index of the “mad genius” myth is of these references in both the popular their disorder. that the frequent repetition and professional literature creates that But the fatal flaw coveted whiff of scientific legitimacy was her lack of a of these references in both the all by itself. control group, popular and professional Andreasen’s 1987 study is still called which precluded “the groundbreaker.” Comparing thirty any of the cus- literature creates that coveted writers she knew at the Iowa Writers’ tomary statisti- whiff of scientific legiti- Workshop with thirty roughly matched cal analyses and individuals in “non-creative” fields like left her with only macy all by itself. social work and law, she was their sole simple percentages interviewer and judge, using her own to report. diagnostic protocol that was not printed This would seem with the article and was only available to end the matter right upon request. Andreasen’s shocking there. Yet some of those result—that fully 80 percent of her percentages are so impressive

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 39 the only one that omits naming the get’s correspondents are doing an early References publication). Such hurdles can easily version of Tweeting and for similar American Psychiatric Association. 2003. Press encourage busy researchers (and cash- motives: to alleviate boredom and stir Release 03-39: Statement on Diagnosis and Treatment of Mental Disorders (September strapped grad students) to simply trust things up. 26). Online at http://www.psych.org/Main their colleagues’ verdict and pass along Yet hearsay and rumor can easily Menu/Newsroom/NewReleases/2003/News the news without examining the con- qualify any artist for the mad genius Releases. list, the most popular of which is Jami- Andreasen, Nancy C. 1987. Creativity and men- tent themselves. tal illness: Prevalence rates in writers and The third major resource is Arnold son’s collection of 166 (1993, Appendix their first-degree relatives. American Journal of Ludwig’s book, The Price of Greatness: A). Although to her credit she softens Psychiatry 144: 1288–92. Resolving the Creativity and Madness her diagnoses with the word probable, Hayden, Deborah. 2003. Pox: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis. New York: Basic Books. Controversy (1995), which actually that word tends to fall off whenever her Insel, Thomas. 2013. Transforming diagnosis. does nothing of the sort. But the title selections are cited. It doesn’t help that National Institute of Mental Health Director’s has apparently convinced researchers she has also produced several concerts blog (April 29). Online at http://www.nimhy. nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-di- that there’s no need to go any further, to “honor” supposedly bipolar compos- agnosis.shtml. since—once again—writers are far ers by exhibiting musical “evidence” of Jamison, Kay Redfield. 1989. Mood disorders and more likely to acknowledge the work their pathology. In the first of these, in patterns of creativity in British writers and art- than to describe it. 1989, the National Symphony played ists. Psychiatry 52: 125–34. ———. 1993. Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Ludwig’s method was to gather composers’ happy and sad compositions Illness and the Artistic Temperament. New York: 1,004 New York Times biographies of together to demonstrate their aberrant Free Press. eminent people from different fields fluctuations of mood (for a full discus- ———. 1995. An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness. New York: Alfred A. (96 percent of them white), as if they sion of this video, see Schlesinger 2012, Knopf. were all shaped by the same ingredients 106–109). Lombroso, C. 1895. The Man of Genius. Con- of success. To justify bundling together Ultimately, all this diagnosing of temporary Science Series. Edited by Havelock Ellis. London: Walter Scott. Whitefish, MT: such dissimilar luminaries as Amelia the long-dead seems pointless as well Kessinger’s Publishing Rare Reprints. Earhart, Harry Houdini, and Mar- as mean-spirited. As every clinician Ludwig, Arnold M. 1995. The Price of Greatness: vin Gaye, Ludwig invented a number knows, it can be tricky enough to eval- Resolving the Creativity and Madness Con- of common explanatory variables like uate someone who is sitting right in troversy. New York: The Guilford Press. Schlesinger, Judith. 2009. Creative mythconcep- “oddness” and “anger at mother.” De- front of you; in fact, the difficulty of tions: A closer look at the evidence for the spite the fact that these are neither de- getting clinicians to agree on a diagno- mad genius hypothesis. Psychology of Aesthetics, fined nor measurable, they appear in sis is an ongoing and familiar problem, Creativity and the Arts 3(2): 62–72. ———. 2012. The Insanity Hoax: Exposing the the fifty-five pages of charts and graphs and the main reason that the DSM cri- Myth of the Mad Genius. Ardsley-on-Hudson, that reassure the reader that something teria keep shifting around. What is less New York: Shrinktunes Press. scientific has occurred. Ironically, al- well-known is the fact that such remote Wittkower, Rudolf, and Margaret Wittkower. assessment is actually unethical, since 1963. Born Under Saturn: The Character and though Ludwig admits that “mental Conduct of Artists. New York: W.W. Norton. illness is not essential for artistic suc- psychiatry’s own Goldwater Rule pro- Judith Schlesinger, PhD, cess” (1995, 7), his work—or at least its hibits the public diagnosis of any indi- is a psychologist, thera- combination of titles—is regularly used vidual without benefit of a face-to-face pist, educator, musician, to argue the opposite. interview. But few people know or care jazz critic, and the author A final truth-twisting technique is about all this. of The Insanity Hoax: Ex- the “psychological autopsy,” in which In the end, the mad genius myth is far posing the Myth of the mythers comb the histories of long- too popular to give up—it’s old and glam- Mad Genius (www.theinsanityhoax.com), dead geniuses for “evidence” that they orous and shimmers with a pseudoscien- which combines three decades of scholarly were bipolar, even though the verdict tific patina. Besides, the currency of psy- research and clinical experience into the is implicit in their choice of whose lives chology has always been abstraction: aside first comprehensive analysis of this pseu- doscientific stereotype. A psychology pro- to examine in the first place. Any sur- from neuroscientists who directly examine fessor for seventeen years, Schlesinger’s viving diaries and letters are scrutinized the brain, hypotheticals may be the best it publications include her film biography of for signs of delight and disappoint- can offer. This would be fine if it enabled Humphrey Bogart (Metro Books, 1997), ar- ment, since finding both is the bipo- people to accept and appreciate the differ- ticles in The American Psychologist and the lar jackpot. Autopsists will also dissect ences among us, whether in temperament British Journal of Psychiatry, the psychology other people’s writings for concerns or accomplishment or anything else. The chapter in Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook about the artist’s state of mind. These problems arise when such variations are (Garland Publishing, 2000), and ten years of become additional “data” despite the pathologized without proof, diminishing “Shrinktunes” columns for allaboutjazz.com clear possibility of personal agendas the bright stars who bring such joy and that explore the overlap between psychology I and music. or simple gossip—i.e., that the tar- beauty to the rest of us.

40 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer How News about ESP Research Shapes Audience Beliefs A study shows that the media can affect beliefs about whether ESP exists and whether ESP researchers are scientific. However, media influence depends on how coverage presents ESP research.

PAUL R. BREWER

ontroversy erupted in January 2011 when the presti- idently a good sport, appeared as a guest gious Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP) on the same episode). published an article by Daryl Bem, an emeritus pro- All of this raises questions about the C potential for media coverage of ESP fessor of psychology at Cornell University, in which he pre- research to influence audience beliefs. sented a case for ESP (extrasensory perception). Bem (2011a) Can media stories sway whether peo- ple believe in ESP and whether they argued that his experiments showed scientific evidence of see research on it as scientific? Do such precognition, or awareness of future events. However, many effects depend on whether the media other psychologists disputed his conclusions. Indeed, the cover ESP research in a one-sided way that only presents the case for ESP, a same journal that published his study also published a rebut- two-sided way that includes scientific tal challenging how he interpreted his data (Wagenmakers et rebuttals from ESP skeptics, or a face- tious way that treats it as a joke? More al. 2011). The debate over ESP played out in the pages of the broadly, what role(s) can media mes- S  I as well, where James Alcock (2011) pre- sages play in fostering belief or skep- sented a critique of Bem’s research and Bem himself (2011b) ticism about paranormal research? To help provide answers, I conducted an defended it. experiment of my own. Very recently JPSP published a study fail- tions. For example, a January 23, 2011, ing to replicate Bem’s results (Galak et al. interview of Bem on MSNBC allowed 2012; see S  I, March/ him to present his case without rebuttal. Belief and Media Messages about April 2013, for a news summary). Other stories described his research but the Paranormal Unlike most psychological stud- also gave time to scientific counter-ar- Scientific polling shows that many ies—even ones published in leading guments. Still other media stories essen- Americans believe in ESP. For example, journals—Bem’s ESP research became tially treated Bem’s research as a joke. 41 percent of the respondents in a June news. Television programs such as Most entertainingly, perhaps, comedian 6–8, 2005, Gallup poll said that they ABC World News with Diane Sawyer Stephen Colbert devoted a January 27, believed in it, making ESP the most and CBS’s The Early Show covered it, 2011, segment of his satirical television widely accepted paranormal phenom- as did print sources ranging from the program (The Colbert Report) to poking enon mentioned in the survey (Moore New York Times to Discover Magazine. fun at it, saying, “I know what you’re 2005). An even greater percentage (48 Some media stories presented Bem’s thinking: ‘Stephen, that’s bullshit.’ But percent) of respondents in an October conclusions in a largely one-sided man- on the other hand, I know you’re think- 16–18, 2007, Associated Press-Ipsos ner, saying little about his critics’ objec- ing, ‘Stephen, that’s bullshit’ ” (Bem, ev- poll said they believed in ESP (Bolton

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 41 paranormal; it has not considered the potential effects of media messages that discuss paranormal research but treat it in a humorous or lighthearted manner. Here, I use news coverage of Bem’s Research suggests that media messages could ESP research as a case study to exam- contribute to the widespread belief in ESP. ine the impact of media messages that challenge paranormal research through either scientific argument or dismissive humor.

The Experiment 2007). In each poll, respondents with a vious research, I conducted an exper- To do so, I conducted a controlled college degree were just as (if not more) iment showing that newspaper stories experiment in April 2012. A team of likely to believe as were less educated about paranormal investigators can in- students helped design the study and respondents. fluence readers’ beliefs about whether recruited 446 fellow students to partic- Research suggests that media mes- ghosts exist and whether ghost hunters ipate in it.1 To be sure, college students sages could contribute to the wide- are scientific (Brewer 2012). Taken to- are not necessarily representative of spread belief in ESP. One previous gether, these studies also indicate that the broader public; however, recall that report in the S I the impact of a specific media message belief in ESP appears to be consistent showed that trends in public beliefs on paranormal beliefs can depend on across different levels of education. about alien abductions and psychic whether it cites a scientific authority The participants were randomly as- powers have paralleled trends in news as well as whether it is one-sided (only signed to one of four conditions. Those media attention to these topics (Nisbet presenting the case for the paranor- in the one-sided story condition read a 2006). Another S I mal) or two-sided (presenting the case news story, attributed to the New York article described a series of controlled against as well). Times, that described Bem’s research experiments demonstrating that vari- However, so far no study has di- without presenting any criticism of it ous forms of media—including “real- rectly tested whether media messages (headline: “Journal to publish paper ity” shows, newspapers, and television can influence beliefs about ESP and its on ESP”). Participants in the scientific news—can influence audience mem- researchers. Furthermore, the existing rebuttal story condition read a different bers’ beliefs about paranormal phenom- research on two-sided messages has version of the story that quoted an- ena ranging from “astral-projection” to focused on whether scientific rebuttals other psychologist (Ray Hyman of the UFOs (Sparks 1998). In my own pre- can induce greater skepticism about the University of Oregon) as being critical of Bem’s research and mentioned that efforts to replicate it had failed (head- line: “ESP paper expected to outrage psychologists”). Those in the joke story condition read yet another version of the story that described Bem’s history of performing “Kreskin-style magic acts for students and friends” and quoted the same psychologist (Hyman) as saying, “[Bem’s] got a great sense of humor. . .I wouldn’t rule out that this is an elaborate joke” (headline: “You might already know this . . .”). Finally, those in the control condition read a story on an unrelated topic. To enhance the realism of the study, we drew the headlines and story contents from real Figure 1. Percentage of experimental participants in each condition who reported believing in ESP and thinking ESP research- coverage. Afterward, participants com- ers are “very” or “somewhat” scientific. pleted a survey asking them whether

42 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer References they believed or disbelieved in ESP as scientific (Nisbet 2006; Hill 2012). In well as how scientific they thought ESP part, the findings here reinforce those Alcock, James. 2011. Back from the future: researchers generally are.2 concerns by showing that uncritical Parapsychology and the Bem affair. S I 35(2): 31–39. Online coverage of Bem’s study increased per- at http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/ Results ceptions of ESP research as scientific. show/back_from_the_future. At the same time, the results show that Bem, Daryl J. 2011a. Feeling the future: Given that the study used random news coverage citing skeptics or taking Experimental evidence for anomalous ret- assignment to experimental conditions, roactive influences on cognition and affect. a facetious tone can undermine the one can compare the results across Journal of Personality and Social Psychology aura of scientific authority surrounding conditions to reach conclusions about 100(3): 407–25. ESP research. In broader terms, my ———. 2011b. Response to Alcock’s “Back to whether the different versions of the findings highlight both the power of the future: Comments on Bem.” Csicop. ESP story influenced readers. First, org (January 6). Online at http://www.csi- the media to shape beliefs about the consider the results among the partici- cop.org/specialarticles/show/response_to_ paranormal and the way in which that pants in the control condition. Of these, alcocks_back_from_the_future_comments_ influence depends on the nature of on_bem/. 43 percent said they believed in ESP the coverage. Journalists’ choices about Bolton, Jim. 2007. Poll: One-third believe in and 59 percent saw ESP researchers ghosts, UFOs. USA Today (October 26). how to present paranormal research as “somewhat” or “very” scientific (see Online at http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/ can determine whether their stories Figure 1)—a set of results that, in and news/offbeat/2007-10-25-ghosts-poll_N. encourage faith or doubts about such htm. of itself, reflects the widespread belief research. Brewer, Paul R. 2012. The trappings of sci- in ESP even among the educated. Now ence: Media messages, scientific authority, The findings also carry implications consider the results among participants and beliefs about paranormal investigators. for those seeking to promote skepticism who read the one-sided story about Science Communication (September 7). Online about the paranormal. Bem’s critics had at http://scx.sagepub.com/content/early/201 Bem’s research. Of these, 51 percent the opportunity to follow two different 2/06/27/1075547012454599.abstract. believed in ESP and fully 69 percent Galak, Jeff, Robyn A. LeBouef, Leif D. Nelson, but equally effective paths in respond- saw ESP researchers as scientific. Thus, et al. 2012. Correcting the past: Failures to ing to his conclusions: by presenting reading the one-sided version of the replicate psi. Journal of Personality and Social serious counter-claims or by addressing Psychology 103(6): 933–948. story led to a sizable—and statistically them in a light-hearted way. In an era Hill, Sharon. 2012. Amateur paranormal research meaningful—increase in perceptions of and investigation groups doing “sciencey” when the critical satire of comedians ESP researchers as scientific, as well as things. S I 36(2): 38–41. such as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, a smaller (non-statistically significant) Online at http://www.csicop.org/si/show/ and Penn Jillette increasingly shares the amateur_paranormal_research_and_investi- increase in ESP belief.3 media spotlight with traditional science gation_groups_doing_sciencey_things. Meanwhile, reading either the sci- Moore, David W. 2005. Three in four Americans programming and news, scientific argu- entific rebuttal story or the joke story believe in paranormal. Online at http://www. ment and humor may each play import- led to decreased belief in ESP and de- gallup.com/poll/16915/three-four-ameri- ant roles in challenging potentially du- cans-believe-paranormal.aspx. creased perceptions of ESP researchers I bious claims of scientific knowledge. Nisbet, Matt. 2006. Cultural indicators of the as scientific (again, see Figure 1). Of paranormal. Csicop.org (March 22). Online at http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/ the participants who read the scientific Notes rebuttal story, only 38 percent believed cultural_indicators_of_the_paranormal/. 1. The students who helped conduct the Sparks, Glenn G. 1998. Paranormal depictions in ESP and only 55 percent saw ESP study were Jordan Blackbird, Danielle Brody, in the media: How do they affect what peo- researchers as scientific. The results Kyle Christie, Kerrin Dougherty, Kira Frank, ple believe? S I 22(4)(July/ were virtually identical for participants Caitlyn Goodhue, Kylee Harris, Hanna Kim, August): 35–39. Jessica Klein, Juliana Liscio, Chelsey Rodowicz, who read the joke story: 39 percent of Wagenmakers, Eric-Jan, Ruud Wetzels, Denny Stephanie Trader, and Nicole Vandevliet. Borsboom, et al. 2011. Why psychologists them believed in ESP and 55 percent 2. To disguise the true purpose of the study, must change the way they analyze their data: we asked each participant to read two addi- saw ESP researchers as scientific. All The case of psi: Comment on Bem. Journal tional stories on other topics. To further disguise of Personality and Social Psychology 100(3): of these percentages were significantly the purpose of the study, the post-test survey smaller than the corresponding per- included numerous questions on a variety of 426–32. centages for readers of the one-sided other subjects. Paul R. Brewer is a professor in the Department 3. I analyzed the mean (average) responses of Communication and the Department of Polit- story. for each question to test whether they differed ical Science and International Relations at the across conditions to a statistically meaningful extent, using one-tailed hypotheses tests and a University of Delaware. His interests include Implications for Education threshold of p ≤ .05. Scores for belief in ESP the nature and effects of media messages Many skeptics worry that the media ranged on a six-point scale from strongly disbe- about science. His research has appeared in lieve to strongly believe, while scores for percep- help foster belief in the paranormal and such journals as Science Communication and tions of ESP researchers as scientific ranged on a Public Understanding of Science. perceptions of paranormal research as four-point scale from not at all to very.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 43 Lost Lessons of the Strangling Angel Europe’s diphtheria outbreaks in the 1940s provide a sobering context for modern anti-vaccination claims.

L A RAE MEADOWS

hen the Strangling Angel was at her strongest in of breath. Some patients’ necks swell, Norway and Germany, 715 people each day were in- sometimes to the width of the head, a fected. She took refuge in the throats and hearts of condition called Bull Neck. The toxin W can also travel to the nervous system, the unprepared. The Strangling Angel—diphtheria—found causing paralysis, and to the heart caus- comfort on the boots of German soldiers as they marched ing heart failure. Diphtheria was once called the “Strangling Angel” because of across Europe in the 1940s. Even though she visited over one how it kills. million people in Europe at the time, she was forgotten and The bacteria that cause diphtheria her lessons were lost. reside in the upper respiratory system. It is spread by close contact with an infected person or contact with drop- The merciless lessons of diphthe- lets of saliva, the toxin, or other bodily ria are drowned out today by the echo chamber of anti-vaccine activists trying fluids. Occasionally objects soiled by an to convince parents not to vaccinate infected person can spread the disease. their children and to discourage people Susceptibility increases in overcrowded, from vaccinating themselves. An online unsanitary, and poor socioeconomic collection of factoids meant to support conditions. Research also indicates the anti-vaccination position reverber- that stress and starvation make a per- ates around the Internet, cut from one son more likely to contract diphtheria. website and pasted onto another with- Between 5 and 20 percent of people out fact checking or context. Two of who get diphtheria die, depending on these anti-vaccination echoes are: “In age. Children are at the highest risk of Germany, compulsory mass vaccination death. against diphtheria commenced in 1940 Diphtheria was a scourge on Eu- and by 1945 diphtheria cases were up rope’s residents during World War from 40,000 to 250,000” (Allen 1985), II. Europe saw more than one million and its usual sidekick, “In nearby Nor- recorded diphtheria cases in 1943, not way, which refused vaccinations, there counting Russia (Stowman 1945). were 50 cases of diphtheria.” Europe, we must first understand the The truth about the relationship basics of the disease. “Don’t Get Stuck” between diphtheria and vaccines in the Diphtheria is a highly contagious Don’t Get Stuck! asserts: “Vaccination 1940s cannot be expressed as a shout bacterial disease of two types: respira- was made compulsory [in Germany] against hard walls while standing at the tory and skin (cutaneous). Skin diphthe- at the beginning of the Second World bottom of a canyon. A higher vantage ria can cause redness, sores, and ulcers. War; and the diphtheria rate soared up point is needed to see the truth about Mild fever, sore throat, and chills are to 150,000 cases, while in unvaccinated vaccines in Europe in the 1940s. the first symptoms of respiratory diph- Norway, there were only 50 cases” theria. Diphtheria then creates a toxin (Allen 1985). Allen offers no sources Diphtheria 101 that makes a blue or gray-green coating for this information. Allen is the past Most industrialized westerners are that sticks to the throat and nose. The president of the natural medicine advo- blissfully ignorant of diphtheria today. coating thickens in the throat, making it cacy group American Natural Hygiene To understand how it spread across hard to swallow and robbing the patient Society.

44 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer Hard Numbers vaccine program: in Poland opened the first ghetto specif- In 1945, the United Nations Relief ically for Jews. Also in 1939, Germany 1 The reason underlying the high mor- and Rehabilitation Administration bidity in Germany and its incorpo- greatly expanded its use of concentra- released diphtheria numbers for sev- rated territories is largely determined tion camps. The number of people held eral European countries over several by the absence of any nation-wide in concentration camps quadrupled years, including Norway and Germany policy of immunization comparable from 1939 to 1942. Undesirables from to that so successfully applied in (UNRRA 1945). Great Britain. On the other hand, all over Europe—Jews, the mentally ill, Roma, communists, gay people, polit- • In 1940, Germany had 143,585 cases a large-scale campaign was intro- ical dissidents—were also imprisoned and Norway had 149. duced in the pre-war period in Western Germany, while an increase in the camps. The estimated number of • In 1943 (the last year in the report), in diphtheria morbidity and mor- camps ranges greatly, some estimate up Germany had 238,409 cases and tality has since led the Reich and to 15,000 by the end of the war. Some Norway had 22,787. Prussian Ministry of the Interior to approve immunization in those parts were temporary, others existed for sev- Allen’s numbers are reflective of of Germany particularly affected. eral years. only about one-third of the total cases Moreover, immunization is compul- (There were several different types recorded in Norway and Germany. sory for all youths at the beginning of concentration camps, including of their Landjahr—i.e., their year of Diphtheria’s Dark History agricultural service. (Stuart 1945) In the 1920s and 1930s, diphthe- (Landjahr was a voluntary program England implemented ria killed thousands of people every for all youngsters except university stu- a mass diphtheria year in Europe, but not all countries dents, who were required to participate.) vaccination program in were equally affected (Rosen 1948). Germany had an incomplete, non- Diphtheria was one of the top three compulsory diphtheria vaccination 1940 in response to the killers of people under age fifteen program. A large percentage of, maybe outbreaks. The value of in England and Wales in the 1930s. even most, citizens were not vaccinated Germany wrestled with exponential against diphtheria. Even though the vaccines was made increases in diphtheria infection rates original claim and Allen’s claim have clear to the public. between 1920 and 1940 from about 50 been fully discredited, the numbers to over 200 per 100,000 people (Baten have not yet been put in appropriate and Wagner 2003). Norway escaped context to shed light on the larger issue being ravaged by diphtheria and had a of vaccine effectiveness. We need to un- labor camps and extermination or death long-term steady decline in the num- derstand why Germany and Norway’s camps. For the purposes of examining bers of diphtheria cases. numbers went up at such a high rate. diphtheria in Germany during this Due to the small number of cases There are two obvious factors that time, the specific type of camp is not in Norway, no national program for have yet gone unexplored: World War important, so all the different types of diphtheria vaccinations was instated. II and the Holocaust. camps will be referred to as concentra- Epidemiologists of the time described tion camps.) Sardines and Sanitation Norway as almost completely non-im- The Nazis packed people into con- munized (Anderson 1947). In September 1935, Germany passed centration camps at an even higher rate Allen’s claims do not include other the Nuremburg Laws, depriving Jews than they did in the ghettos and fur- European countries, but England is es- of many of the rights and protections of ther restricted access to clothes, shoes, sential to note. England implemented a citizenship. In October 1935, the laws soap, food, medicine, and clean water. mass diphtheria vaccination program in were extended to cover Roma (gyp- Many camps used prisoners for slave 1940 in response to the outbreaks. The sies), blacks, and other “undesirables.” labor. The clothing was inadequate to value of vaccines was made clear to the Between 1933 and 1939, new laws protect from the cold. Camp prisoners public. In 1940, England had 47,683 banned Jews from municipal hospitals, had to contend with starvation, unend- cases of diphtheria and in 1944, the forced them out of schools at all levels, ing stress, exhaustion, and exposure. number had dramatically dropped to and severely limited Jewish doctors’ From a germ’s point of view, it was a 29,446 (UNRRA 1945). ability to practice medicine. This is perfect place to reproduce. Unrelenting Germany did not follow England’s not a comprehensive list, but it does tidal waves of disease swept through the lead, but neither did it go the way of demonstrate how restricted health care camps without conscience or mercy. Norway. In 1945, Dr. G. Stuart of the was for Jewish and other “undesirable” “Quite aside from hard-to-measure European Regional office of the United Germans. traumas such as the drawn-out antici- Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Ad- In October 1939, the German-occu- pation of an impending catastrophe, the ministration summarized the Ger man pied territory of Piotrków Try bunalski incarceration itself, the dehumaniza-

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 45 tion, the sustained fear of death, I could Forces to enter Bergen-Belsen Concen- ter treatment, diagnose problems, and point to some very tangible assaults tration Camp. Said Conin, “One had to even perform surgery. The infirmary upon my health in the concentration get used early to the idea that the in- staff would often try to hide advanced camp,” Jewish linguist Werner Wein- dividual just did not count. One knew illness from Nazi doctors who would berg recalled about his experience in that 500 a day were dying and that 500 come to check on the patients because Westerbrock Camp and Bergen-Belsen a day were going to go on dying before the Nazi doctors were usually perform- Concentration Camp. “Among them anything we could do would have the ing “selection.” When patients were were prolonged starvation and expo- slightest effect. It was, however, not “selected” it usually meant they were sure; being worked beyond my endur- easy to watch a child choking to death chosen to be put to death. According to ance and strength; every cut and bruise from diphtheria when you knew a tra- numerous accounts, prisoners resisted turning into festering wounds accompa- cheotomy and nursing would save it” going to the camp doctors. The infir- nied by high fever; diphtheria, dysen- (Reilly et al. 1997). maries were called “waiting rooms for tery, hepatitis, and a bout with typhus the crematoria” in some camps. that very nearly killed me” (Weinberg 1984). From a germ’s point of Just an Experiment Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp view, the Nazi camps In some camps prisoners were subjected was located in northern Germany near were a perfect place to deadly medical experiments, includ- Calle. Housed in Bergen-Belsen were to reproduce. ing new vaccine development. Research Jews, Roma, criminals, Jehovah’s Wit- on typhus, smallpox, cholera, malaria, nesses, homosexuals, prisoners of war, Unrelenting tidal waves yellow fever, tuberculosis, paratyphoid, and political prisoners. In July 1944, of disease swept through and diphtheria was conducted on the approximately 7,300 prisoners lived prisoners. in Bergen-Belsen. By April 1945, the the camps without In written testimony given for the number rose to 60,000. Many of those conscience or mercy. International Auschwitz Committee, people were evacuated from other former prisoner Dr. Stanislaw Klod- camps or regions in the German oc- zinski described the medical experi- cupied territories. Food rations did not Fear Medicine ments he saw performed by SS doctors rise proportionally. and pharmaceutical company represen- Bergen-Belsen was liberated on Prison block infirmaries and camp hos- tatives: “These preparations, he tried out April 15, 1945, by the British Army. pitals were short of all medical sup- on prisoners of the Auschwitz camp for The liberators were shocked by what plies including cots, life-saving drugs, experimental purpose regarding typhus, they found: more than 60,000 prison- sterile supplies, diagnostic tools, staff, typhoid fever, and various para-typhoid ers in various stages of starvation and and anesthesia. Prisoners had to share diseases, diarrhoea [sic], tuberculosis of almost all suffering from disease. beds even if their diseases were conta- the lungs, erysipelas, scarlet fever and Lieutenant Colonel M.W. Conin of gious. The block infirmaries were often other diseases” (International Auschwitz the Royal Medical Corps at Belsen was staffed by other prisoners without med- Committee 1986). one of the first medics from the Allied ical training, who were left to adminis- When disease levels got too low in the camps where research was taking place, Nazi doctors intentionally in- jected prisoners with disease and sent them out into the populations at the camps to re-infect the prisoners and keep diseases active in the camps. By having a lasting infection, they could study the effectiveness of vaccines as well as the long-term effects of the dis- eases (Baumslag 2005, 145). War Lieutenant William Smith of the Canadian Army explains death on the front in World War II in his online account of Operation Infatuate (an amphibious landing to take Walcheren, a Dutch Island). “There in early December, outside Groesbeek, on the

46 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer edge of the Reichswald Forest, I was The Netherlands saw a whopping for- had 1,273 cases of diphtheria. 1940 had wounded on patrol. Brown was killed, ty-fold increase in diphtheria cases, a shocking 5,501 cases. The exponential shot in the kidneys by a sniper, and which was dwarfed by Norway’s 112- growth continued for the next two years, Doakes died of diphtheria in a hospital fold increase in cases (Stuart 1945). The with 1942 seeing 19,527 and 1943 see- somewhere in Holland” (Smith 1944). increases in diphtheria rates all followed ing 56,603. In August 1944 the number Smith’s story was common. Soldiers the German occupations in those coun- of cases was up to 60,226. The Germans killed each other; diphtheria and other tries. Germany’s official numbers did were booted from the Netherlands in diseases killed soldiers. Soldiers, espe- not even double (UNRRA 1945). early 1945. In 1945, diphtheria rates cially those on the front lines and in Belgium was invaded by Germany in in the Netherlands dropped faster than they gained the year before, to 49,730 prisoner of war (POW) camps, under- May 1940, and with the invaders came cases (Stuart 1945; Anderson 1947; fed, under-dressed, packed together in a considerable increase in diphtheria. tight groups and exhausted, were vul- UNRRA 1945). nerable to disease. Every aspect of war The Netherlands and Belgium made the soldiers and civilians more had one significant commonality— vulnerable to disease. incomplete vaccine programs. The Norway’s decision to Netherlands stopped their previously Capture have an unvaccinated widespread but not comprehensive Conditions for POWs during World populace was a diphtheria vaccine program during the War II varied depending on rank, cir- war. Belgium attempted widespread cumstance, and the country in which deadly mistake. vaccinations but did not make it man- they were captured. In Germany, some datory. POWs were kept in castles, others were Norway Was Different forced to work as slave laborers. Many lived in concentration camps or in con- Unlike the Netherlands and Belgium, ditions similar to them. Norway was completely undefended In 1939, Belgium had 2,419 cases of In January 1945, tens of thou- against diphtheria. The rates of diph- diphtheria. By 1941, the number had sands (numbers vary between 30,000– theria dipped so low the country had skyrocketed to 4,271. Even worse was 120,000) malnourished Allied prisoners little natural resistance and there was 1943 at 16,072 or about 1,340 cases per of war were forced to march in groups no national or compulsory vaccination month (UNRRA 1945). In Sep tember program. When Norway was invaded of up to 300 across Poland and Ger- in April of 1940, it set in motion an many in what came to be known as The 1944, the Canadians pushed into Bel- astronomical spread of diphtheria. Long March. Temperatures dipped to gium and started to shove Germany In 1939, Norway had 71 cases of a biting -13 degrees Fahrenheit. The out. In early November, the Germans diphtheria. By 1943 it was up to 22,787 prisoners were given inadequate water were forced out of Belgium. In Novem- (UNRRA 1945). Norway was caught and food. They had to resort to drink- ber, the cases were down to 447 (Stuart totally unprepared. With no inocula- ing from ditches and scavenging for 1945). tions and no natural immunities, the food, including eating rats. They were The Netherlands was also invaded by population was at the mercy of the forced to sleep on the ground in the Germany in May 1940. In 1939, they troop movements and the disease’s freezing conditions, which resulted in amputations due to frostbite. POWs died from exposure, dysentery, exhaus- tion, pneumonia, typhus, and diphthe- ria. Between 1,121 and 2,200 POWs died during the three-month winter march. Diphtheria on the March Germany’s policy of slave labor, con- centration camps, ghettos, and a lack of vaccines made it a festering pustule of disease. As Germany marched across Europe, disease became a second army, a wake of death behind the tanks and guns. The European countries with the greatest increases in diphtheria during 1940–1944 were Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Denmark.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 47 Note course. Norway’s decision to have an sections of the population, and crowded 1. United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation unvaccinated populace was a deadly those people into concentration camps Administration was the branch of the United mistake. and ghettos. That concentration and Nations tasked with planning and coordinating relief efforts for WWII war victims. Lessons Learned the accompanying war conditions led to outbreaks of disease in Germany. References Allen was on to something—diph- As a consequence, diphtheria could be theria in Europe during the 1940s is found in the footsteps of German sol- Allen, Hannah.1985. Don’t Get Stuck! The Case a compelling anecdote in the current Against Vaccinations and Injections, revised diers in countries they invaded during edition. Natural Hygiene Press, 28. debate over the safety and effectiveness World War II. After being invaded Anderson, Gaylord. 1947. Foreign and domestic of vaccines. Unfortunately for the orig- by Germany, Norway, which had no trends in diphtheria. The American Journal of inal online assertion, Allen’s position, Public Health 37(1): 1–6. diphtheria vaccine program, saw un- Baten, Jörg, and Andrea Wagner. 2003. and the anti-vaccination position, the imaginable increases of diphtheria (149 Autarchy, market Disintegration, and health: vaccination programs in Norway and cases in 1940 to 22,787 in 1943). Other The mortality and nutritional crisis in Nazi Germany argue in favor of mass, com- Germany 1933–1937. Economics and Human countries with incomplete inoculations, Biology 1: 1–18. pulsory vaccinations and show the dan- like Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Baumslag, Naomi. 2005. Murderous Medicine: gers of the anti-vaccination movements and Denmark also had huge increases. Nazi Doctors, Human Experimentation, and to the health of all people. England had an extensive vaccination Typhus. Praeger. In countries without complete vacci- International Auschwitz Committee. 1986. Nazi program and the incidents of diphtheria Medicine: Doctors, Victims and Medicine in nation programs, when the disease was during World War II declined. Vacci- Auschwitz. Howard Fertig. introduced, it spread at an almost in- nations are essential to protecting peo- Reilly, Jo, David Cesarani, Tony Kushner, et conceivable rate. Norway’s mistake—be al. 1997. Belsen in History and Memory. ple from disease and merely controlling Routledge. it a result of hubris or ignorance—was it by other means is not sufficient. Rosen, George. 1948. Public health in foreign its belief it could control a disease with- The anti-vaccination movement in periodicals. American Journal of Public Health out vaccines and its failure to adequately 38: 1158–1160. America today uses Hannah Allen’s Smith, William. Operation Infatuate–Walchren consider changing conditions outside its claims about Germany and Norway to 1 to 8 Nov 1944. Online at http://bit.ly/ control. try to discourage vaccinations in children VIFDWg. Stowman, Knud. 1945. The epidemic outlook in Europe in the 1940s is a case study and adults. As a result of their efforts, that demonstrates the importance of Europe. The British Medical Journal 1(4403): nearly ten percent of children in Amer- 742–744. paying attention to the health of all ica are not fully vaccinated. The num- Stuart, G. 1945. A note on diphtheria incidence countries and helping them eradicate ber of parents filing for exemptions to in certain European countries. The British their diseases. The world is a smaller Medical Journal 2(4426): 613–615. school vaccine requirements is increas- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation place than it was during WWII. All ing steadily. America is having outbreaks Administration (UNRRA). 1945. people are just a short plane ride from of diseases previously controlled through Epidemiological Information Bulletin: 241– the next continent. A person infected 246. vaccinations, like whooping cough and Weinberg, Werner. 1984. Survivor of the first with diphtheria can take between two measles. America may soon be as vulner- degree. Christian Century (October 10). to five days to show symptoms. In that able as Belgium was in the 1940s. If an- Online at http://bit.ly/Wa0dPT. time an infected person can travel thou- ti-vaccination proponents see their goal For Further Reading sands of miles by plane and potentially accomplished, America risks becoming Baker, Jeffery, Artur M. Galazka, Susan E. contact thousands of people. another Norway. Germany and Norway in the 1940s Robertson, et al. 1995. Resurgence of diph- Dr. Paul Offit, developer of the rota- theria. European Journal of Epidemiology also teach us that human rights abuses virus vaccine, summarized his objection 11(1): 95–105. Collins, Selwin D. 1946. Diphtheria incidence are not just matters of morality for the to the anti-vaccination claims about persons directly involved. Altruism is and trends in relation to artificial immuniza- vaccines in 1940s Germany plainly: “I tion, with some comparative data for scarlet not the only reason to help people in can’t believe we are still discussing this fever. Public Health Reports 61(7): 203–250. Galazka, Artur. 2000. The changing epidemiol- conditions like those in ghettos and in the 21st century. There is no debate. camps; enlightened self-interest may ogy of diphtheria in the vaccine era. Journal of Look at the history of vaccinations in Infectious Diseases 181(1): S2–S9. be necessary to protect from outbreaks the world and you come away with the of disease. The take away from World following conclusion: immunization War II Europe diphtheria rates and the rates increase, disease decreases. It is LaRae Meadows is bent on investigating im- effectiveness of vaccines would be most just that simple.” portant topics, contorting herself to discover clearly stated as: new views, and sharing her discoveries. Her In the 1930s and 1940s, Germany Acknowledgments dangerous lack of self-preservation makes created a breeding ground for diphthe- writing on controversial topics fun for her. For research assistance I thank: Kristian She has a background in legislative and policy ria. They did not implement a compre- Frøland, student at Norwegian University advocacy for foster children in California and hensive, compulsory vaccine program. of Science & Technology, and Timothy They restricted medical care for large Binga of Center for Inquiry Libraries. owns a small business.

48 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer Electrocuting Parasites: Cutting Edge Pseudoscientific Technology Want to rid your body of worms and other parasites? Forget the medical doctors and the toxic drugs they prescribe. Just hook yourself up to the “Parasite Zapper,” turn it on, and electrocute the nasty little things.

THOMAS PATTERSON

s a guest lecturer in a clinical parasitology course, I came rid ourselves of these two curses, almost across information about a very unusual device while I all diseases would disappear from hu- manity (Clark 1995, 2). She evidently Awas updating my lecture material. The device is called knows this because she has diagnosed the “parasite zapper.” It is a small black box with two copper and treated hundreds of patients. colored handles or pads. Each handle is connected to the box I was not aware that an animal phys- iologist could obtain a license to treat by a wire. The “patient” holds a handle in each hand while human patients. I was aware that the the box is turned on to supposedly rid the body of parasites. title “doctor” does not necessarily mean “medical doctor.” Evidently the state I found this interesting, as I had Further investigation revealed that of Indiana was aware of this also; in 1993 Clark caught wind of an investi- never heard of such a device for treating she is also an author and has written gation of her practice by the State of parasitic infections. Standard protocol several books that are rife with pseudo- Indiana and quickly left the state. She for a suspected parasitic infection is to science. Her best-known work is prob- gather a specimen, carefully identify later moved her healthcare operation ably The Cure for All Diseases, in which the parasite in the laboratory, and then to Mexico, where she operated a clinic she reports that all human disease is prescribe the appropriate anti-para- called Century Nutrition. sitic drug. However, this contraption directly related to parasitic infections The claims in her book border on with its tiny nine-volt battery suppos- or toxins. According to her, if we could the bizarre. Clark states that she has edly electrocutes parasites and rids the body of these nasty little critters. No time-consuming medical diagnosis or careful parasite identification is needed with this amazing parasite zapper. It seems that the zapper is the brain- child of Hulda Clark. Clark earned her PhD in animal physiology from the University of Minnesota. Her doctoral dissertation was on potassium compart- ments of crayfish, so I am understand- ably skeptical of her qualifications as a healthcare provider. In addition, she earned a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) degree from the now-defunct Clayton College of Natural Health, an unac- credited complementary medicine cor- respondence school that ceased opera- tion in 2010. This makes me even more skeptical.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 49 discovered though her unpublished I have never seen the flatworm Fa- trolled conditions. I have seen my “experiments” that each living organ- ciolopsis buski in a patient. However, I battery-powered electric fly swatter ism gives off its own frequency like a do agree that many Americans are in- electrocute flies with a sparkling pop. very tiny radio station. For example, fected with parasites. The most com- Parasite killing would be a different the herpes simplex virus gives off a mon worm infections I have seen in matter entirely. The parasite would frequency of 300 KHz while a salmo- the Midwest are pinworm (Enterobius have to be in a mild salt solution in a nella bacterium transmits at 400 KHz vermicularis) infections and roundworm petri dish with the parasite located be- (Clark 1995, 18). By offsetting these (Ascaris lumbricoides) infections. Pin- tween the two terminals of a nine-volt frequencies (whatever that means) with worm infections are fairly common in battery. her zapper, the microorganisms can be children. Female pinworms crawl out of But if I complete the circuit with killed. The idea that each virus, bacte- the anus at night and can cause intense the nine volts applied across each of my rium, parasite, or other living organism itching, usually the first symptom. hands, my body acts like a tremendous transmits a species-specific frequency is Some roundworms like to leave the resistor and there is not nearly enough preposterous. intestine and roam about inside and voltage to kill parasites in my body. I She also claims that hundreds of outside the body. It is not unusual for tested this idea using a fresh nine-volt human cancers are caused by one par- a patient to bring in a roundworm that battery and a voltmeter. There was asite, Facioloposis buski (Clark 1995, has crawled out of their nose, as this enough resistance in my body so that 250). She is convinced that infection worm can migrate from the intestine, nine-volts went in but none came out, with this parasite is also necessary be- back into the stomach, and out the according to my voltmeter. Certainly fore one can contract HIV (Clark 1995, mouth or nose. It is also not unusual parasites can be killed with a jolt of electricity, but pushing enough voltage or current through the human body to kill parasites would be painful indeed, not to mention the potentially deadly effect of playing havoc with the electri- The idea that each virus, bacterium, parasite, or cal conduction of the heart. One might other living organism transmits a species-specific opt for the parasite infection rather than near-electrocution. frequency is preposterous. Some zapper believers state that they have seen first-hand the zapped worms in the toilet. My guess is that they are actually seeing vegetable fibers or undigested food material. First of all, has the believer actually been diagnosed with a parasitic infection? If so, what 150). How she knows this is unclear. A for a mother to bring in a child’s diaper species of parasite? Can someone be search of the scientific literature reveals with a few roundworms flailing about cured of a disease or infection they may no studies that show a connection be- in the crotch area of the diaper, much not even have? Where is the scientific tween this parasite and human cancers to the mother’s horror. evidence that the parasite zapper actu- or HIV infections. Most infections are easily treated ally kills parasites? The fluke Faciolopsis buski is leaf with antiparasitic drugs. In extremely I could find only one study that shaped and is about two to three inches rare cases, a very heavy roundworm evaluated the zapper. “Zapper study long. The adult worm lives in the intes- infection can cause intestinal block- shows that zappers have benefit” was tine and is sometimes referred to as the age and may require surgery. Standard published in the American Naturopathic giant intestinal fluke. Fasiolopsis buski is treatment for roundworms and pin- Medical Association Monitor (Thiel found in tropical and subtropical parts worms consists of a prescription for 1998, 5–9). However, this journal is of China, Thailand, Vietnam, and India. mebendazole, which is very effective not available on Pub-Med, the online It gains entry into the body when an in- against most intestinal worms (Zeibig repository for evidence-based biomedi- dividual ingests larvae infected water 2013, 194). I am not aware of a single cal journals and research studies. plants like water chestnuts. The larvae documented case in which the parasite The investigator studied subjects are microscopic and cannot be seen with zapper has eliminated a true pinworm with all sorts of “possible” infections the naked eye (Zeibig 2013, 269). This or roundworm infection. that were never verified. The possible fluke is uncommon in the United States, I would venture to say that the infections were: “Strep, Staph, Viral, but when it is found it is mostly seen in zapper, if it delivers the nine volts of Fungal, and Parasitic.” No laborato- recent immigrants or visitors from the direct current (DC) from the battery, ry-supported diagnosis was made, as above-mentioned areas. could kill a small parasite under con- the author was a naturopath and was

50 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer not allowed by the State of California person administering the treatments the platform, which is connected to to order medical laboratory tests. In- should not know if the real zapper was the zapper box by a wire. If your dog fections were identified by symptoms used or if the fake zapper was used. looks like he or she needs a round of such as gas, bloating, constipation, etc. This is called double blinding and it is zapping, catch your dog and place the The outcome he relied on at the end designed to minimize bias. Any type of zapper pads on each side of the ribcage of the study was “how the subject felt bias can lead to errors in collecting and and then secure the pads and zapper after treatment.” During the study, the interpreting data. box in place with a bandage. Your dog author states that many of the subjects Samples must be collected before will undoubtedly love this and will soon also took a variety of vitamins, herbal treatment and after treatment. If para- blends, and glandular supplements. sites were present in the subject’s sam- be begging for more zapping sessions. He did not state what the nutritional ple before treatment and no parasites Don’t forget the kids. supplements were, but he wanted to were present in a sample collected after Of course the zapper is not approved investigate two variables, the effect of treatment, this would strongly suggest by the FDA for treating any type of in- zapping and nutritional intervention that the zapper treatment was effective. fection, perhaps because it is so effec- on the above-mentioned infections. By objectively comparing the results of tive that it would put the pharmaceu- Investigating the effect of two variables the before and after samples, a statisti- tical companies and physicians out of in the same study can be difficult. cal calculation can be done to see if any business. However, my guess is that it is It must be noted that at the begin- difference observed between the control not approved for treating infections be- ning of the study, no samples were (untreated) and experimental (treated) cause the whole zapper concept makes collected from any of the subjects to groups was significant. no sense and no one can prove that it determine if they even had a parasitic I can find no well-designed scien- even works. infection or any other type of infection tific studies that demonstrate that the The praises of parasite zapping in the first place. Of course, most of the small voltage produced by the zapper make me wonder about the scientific subjects showed noticeable improve- electrocutes parasites. Evidently one ment at the end of the study. A predict- of the advocates of zapping noticed literacy and the critical thinking skills able outcome if the subject passionately this also and states on the web that the of the public. In an age of tremendous believes that the zapper works. The zapper no longer electrocutes parasites. scientific advances it is a puzzle why so references cited in the study included It actually works by waking up white many believe in homeopathy, ear can- many alternative medicine publications blood cells that can then attack and dling, detoxification, magnetic healing, including Clark’s The Cure for All Dis- eliminate parasites. How he knows this energy wand waving, power balance eases. he doesn’t say, but he seems convinced. bracelets, urine drinking, and the host To summarize, this study looked I have observed thousands upon of other illogical and unproven ideas at subjects who had symptoms of gas, thousands of white blood cells during that seem to be so popular today. We bloating, constipation, etc. The sub- my long career in the medical labora- should probably add parasite zapping to jects took unknown amounts of vari- tory, but I don’t believe I have ever wit- I this list. ous nutritional supplements and they nessed a sleeping (or even drowsy) one, felt better after they received a round so I don’t know if this is true or not. References of zapping. So are we to conclude that But no matter how it supposedly works, Clark, H.R. 1995. The Cure for All Diseases. San zapping and nutritional interventions there is currently no published scientific Diego: New Century Press are beneficial for treating “Strep, Staph, study that suggests that zapping will Thiel, R.J. 1998. Zapper study shows that Viral, Fungal, and Parasitic” infections? kill parasites in the human body either zappers have benefit. American Naturopathic Medical Association Monitor 2(4):5–9. To really test the efficacy of the directly or indirectly. Zeibig, E.A. 2013. Clinical Parasitology, A zapper, a large number of individuals A survey of the Internet suggests Practical Approach. St. Louis: Elsevier would have to be accurately diagnosed that the zapper is very popular, and with the same parasitic infection. several models are now available for Half would be randomly assigned to purchase. Not surprisingly, these web- Thomas Patterson is cur- rently a professor in the a control group and the other half to sites abound with many wonderful tales Clinical Laboratory Science an experimental group. The control and testimonials about the healthful Program at Texas State Uni- group would be given simulated zapper benefits of regular zapping. It evidently versity, where he teaches treatments, that is, the zapper would works on kids, pets, and even food! clinical research methods, have no battery in it. The experimen- One deluxe model comes with a six- molecular diagnostics, im- tal group would be given the actual teen-inch-square platform that allows munohematology, immunology, and clinical recommended full zapper treatments. the zapper enthusiast to zap fruits and laboratory management. He wrote “The Pseu- The subjects must not know to which vegetables before eating them. One doscience of Live Blood Cell Analysis” in our group they belonged. In addition, the simply lays the fruits and veggies on November/December 2012 issue.

Skeptical Inquirer | March/April 2013 51 [FOLLOW UP

NCCAM Responds to ‘Nurturing Non-Science’ Article

hank you for your letter to Dr.

education for anyone seeking educa- Francis Collins, Director, National NCCAM Curriculum Grants over $1 million to 24 Mainstream Organizations (2000–2012) tion in CAM. Units are earned toward $6.85 million a “continuing education certificate” $7,000,000 Nurturing $6,500,000 through NIH’s NCCAM site (www. $6,000,000 nccam.nih.gov/health/decisions/cre- $5,500,000 Institutes of Health, regarding the $5,000,000 $4.47 million dentialing; www.nccam.nih.gov/train- $4,500,000 $3.96 million T $4,000,000 ing/videolectures). $3.24 million $3,500,000 $2.93 million $2.67 million $3.09 million Non-Science $3,000,000 These websites are presented with- $2.49 million May/June 2013 issue of the S- $2,500,000 out any critique of CAM protocols $2,000,000 Startling Concepts in the Education of Physicians (Sampson 2001; see also www.science $1,500,000 $1,000,000 basedmedicine.org/index.php/yes- $500,000  I, specifically the Early in its history, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine we-can-we-can-abolish-the-nccam). awarded grants to incorporate CAM information into traditional medical school curricula. Worse, NCCAM also de scribes how to obtain CAM certification from a pri- University of Toronto

Georgetown University Tufts University Boston University of Kentucky Have these grants had a positive effect on public health? Group Health Cooperative vate organization, the National Certi- Children’s Hospital Boston Johns Hopkins University University of Washington University of Pennsylvania article “Nurturing Non-Science: Start- fication Commission for Acu punc ture Rush University Medical Center University of Illinois at Chicago University of California Los Angeles University of MichiganUniversity at Ann of MinnesotaArbor Twin Cities University of Virgina Charlottesville Harvard University (Medical School) A.T. Still University of Health Sciences Oregon Health and Science University University of California San Francisco University of NorthUniversity Carolina of North Chapel Texas Hill HLTH SCI CTR erican Medical Student Association FDN Minneapolis Medical Research FDN, INC. Eugenie V. Mielczarek and Brian D. Engler and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM), University of Texas Medical BR Galveston Am which issues diplomas in acupuncture, Figure 1. Total of all fifty-three mainstream organizations 2000-2012 (to date) = $67.1 million. (twenty-four ling Concepts in the Education of Chinese herbology, Asian bodywork organizations with awards of over $1 million displayed here) therapies, and oriental medicine. Cur-

rently forty-three states plus the Dis- NCCAM Curriculum Grants to CAM Organizations (2000–2012) magine if departments of physics, chemistry, and biol- at many institutions that evolved into trict of Columbia license practitioners Physicians.” As the National Center CAM training or curriculum awards. of acupuncture and oriental medicine. $2.21 Million ogy of our most prestigious universities offered courses An examination of the first seven years, Almost all of these states require com- Iin astrology, crystal-ball gazing, alchemy, and creation- 1993–2000, a detailed review (Green pletion of NCCAOM’s national writ- for Complementary and Alternative ism. And imagine if these endeavors were funded by the 2001), listed twenty-eight grants of ten exam, and some states also require $1.38 Million $1.38 Million which twelve were for specialty centers. a practical exam. There is no mention $964 Thousand $975 Thousand National Science Foundation (NSF) and if the head of $827 Thousand NIH’s earliest awardees that tran- on NCCAM’s website of the failure of $804 Thousand NSF appeared at an international conference celebrat- sitioned from specialty awards to cur- any of its research grants to discover any riculum development were Bastyr Na- scientific validation of these protocols. Medicine (NCCAM) was the subject ing these endeavors. Would there be an outcry from $45 Thousand Starting in 2002, only four years the science community? If you answered yes, then you turopathic College, Palmer College of Chiropractic, and Oregon College after its inception and before any of its must be unaware that the paradigm for this is already of Oriental Medicine, an acupuncture research grants showed positive re sults Bastyr University of the article, your letter was forwarded in place and there has been no outcry. Since 1998, $76 college (http://xnet.kp.org/permanen- for CAM, NCCAM decided to fund teaching CAM. It awarded $28.5 mil- . University of Western States tejournal/fall02/editorial.html) These Palmer College of Chiropractic million in grants for courses and training in non-science lion in R25 education grants to fifteen Center for Mind-Body Medicine Northwestern Health Sciences Oregon College of Oriental Medicine organizations train practitioners who National College of Natural Medicine based medical protocols such as acupuncture, magnets, organizations: twelve medical schools, National University of Health Sciences to us for reply. believe they can heal medical problems Figure 2. Total of eight awards to CAM organizations (2000–2012) = $8.6 million. Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, Qigong, mind-body myths, with non-science based protocols. two nursing schools, and one founda- tion. The program’s “immediate goal naturopathic treatments, and Vedic medicine have been This substantial fiduciary encourage- PROGRAM/PROTOCOL FUNDING ment of non-science, non-evidence-based was to encourage and support the in- Botanicals $193 million NCCAM’s mission is to define, funded by the National Institutes velopment with its awards for several curriculum by NCCAM, NIH’s untested corporation of CAM information into medical, dental, nursing, and allied of Health (NIH), the federal agency alternative medicine protocols. center, was in direct conflict with its Mind-Body $157 million health professional school curricula, res- charged with research in medical sci- The absence of an effectively orga- mission “to exemplify and promote the Acupuncture $78 million idency training programs, and continu- ences. Fifty-three of these awards went nized disapproval from the scientific highest level of scientific integrity, public CAM Curriculum Development and through rigorous scientific investiga- ing education courses. A longer-term Training $76 million to academic medical schools and asso- and medical community constitutes an accountability, and social responsibility in goal was to accelerate the integration ciated organizations. Figure 1 shows indifference to teaching “healing pro- the conduct of science” and with the “mis- Distance Healing* $22 million of CAM and conventional medicine” funding from NIH’s National Center tocols” that have no place in modern sion of NCCAM . . . to define, through Mushroom Extract $3 million for Complementary and Alternative medicine and drain our scarce medical (www.nccam.nih.gov/grants). The tion, the usefulness and safety of com- rigorous scientific investigation, the use- Magnetic Fields $2 million R25 awards plus the inclusion of CAM Medicine (NCCAM) for twenty-four resources. fulness and safety of complementary al- curriculum under other programs to Maharishi Vedic Medicine $0.4 million of these fifty-three. Figure 2 shows Even prior to its elevation to an ternative medicine interventions and their medical schools, previously regarded funding for organizations teaching NIH center, the Office of Alternative roles in improving health and health care” plementary and alternative medicine as stellar proponents of science-based Table 1. CAM Curriculum Development and Training funding compared to several CAM protocols also funded non-MD specialties. Table 1 compares Medicine (OAM) was committed to (http://www.nccam.nih.gov/about/plans). education, became a springboard that by NCCAM since the late 1990s. *Included in Distance Healing: Reiki, Qigong, Therapeutic Touch, and prayer. (CAM) interventions, and their roles NCCAM’s funding for curriculum de- funding grants for specialty centers NCCAM’s website also provides 32 Volume 37 Issue 3 | SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Skeptical Inquirer | May/June 2013 33 in improving health and health care. Unfortunately, the article contains several errors. We appreciate the op- The in tent of the program was not to practice of CAM modalities. portunity to address some of the most train students about how to practice The second issue concerns the important issues we identified. CAM modalities, as the authors assert. expenditures and number of grant The first issue is regarding the stated A special issue of Academic Medicine awards cited in the article. NCCAM purpose of the education program dis- (October 2007) describes the program, has funded or administered a total of cussed in the article. NCCAM has and lessons learned, in detail. twenty-five discrete R25 grants from its supported two curriculum programs The other educational program inception through the fiscal year 2012, under the “R25” mechanism. The first, (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/ with a total value of approximately $33 funded from 2000 to 2006, provided pa-files/PAR-04-097.html), which is million (this includes approximately grants to mainstream educational in- ongoing, is limited to professional $23 million awarded to fifteen insti- stitutions and organizations. The pro- schools that train complementary tutions under the first program and gram was designed to expose conven- health practitioners, including schools approximately $10 million under the tional practitioners to the state of the of osteopathic medicine, chiropractic, second). The authors inaccurately state scientific evidence about CAM thera- and oriental medicine. It explicitly in- that the cost of these education grants pies during their training, with a goal cludes mainstream professional schools. was $76 million and that there were as of improving communication with, ad- The goal of this program is “to increase many as fifty-three awards. In addition, vice for, and care of their patients. The the quality of the research content in some of the grantee institutions shown program sought to address the concern the curricula at CAM institution in the in figure 1 of the article, such as the that physicians and other health care United States where CAM practitioners University of Virginia Charlottesville practitioners had relatively little reli- are trained . . . to enhance CAM prac- and the University of Illinois at Chi- able training or objective scientific in- titioners’ exposure to, understanding of, cago, did not receive NCCAM curric- formation about CAM therapies, even and appreciation of the evidenced-based ulum grants with data exported from though approximately 40 percent of biomedical research literature and ap- NIH RePORTER and a description of adult patients were employing these proaches to advancing scientific knowl- the search criteria used. practices (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/ edge.” Again, neither of these programs The third issue is regarding our guide/pa-files/PAR-00-027.html). was designed to provide training in the consumer publication on credentialing

52 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer of CAM providers, referenced in the sults through multiple channels. NC- These are a few of the most im- article (http://nccam.nih.gov/health / CAM-funded research has resulted in portant concerns we noted in reading decisions/credentialing.htm). This is more than 3,000 peer-reviewed pub- this article. While we welcome critical an informational piece designed to lications, including prominent studies reviews of our initiatives, based on the help members of the general public un- published in leading journals such as nature of inaccuracies, we have respect- derstand the lack of national standards the New York England Journal of Med- fully requested that this article be re- and enormous state-to-state variation icine and the Journal of American Med- tracted. If I can be of any further as- in credentialing and licensure of CAM ical Association. Although the authors sistance, please feel free to contact me. professions across the United States. claim that our website does not men- This is the central theme of the fact tion any negative research findings, the sheet. Contrary to the authors’ impli- NCCAM website has numerous sum- Alyssa Cotler, M.P.H. cations, this piece does not describe maries of publications from many of Director, Office of Communications how to obtain CAM certification, nor these papers showing both positive and and Public Liaison can one earn CEU’s by accessing this negative results (http://nccam.nih.gov/ National Center for Complementary fact sheet. research/results) as well as important and Alternative Medicine Finally, NCCAM is committed to safety information (http://nccam.nih. National Institutes of Health the dissemination of its research re- gov/health/safety). Bethesda, Maryland

Authors Reply to NCCAM Response

ur response to Alyssa Cotler of NCCAM link included in the paper places and resulted in the $76 million NCCAM is arranged consecu- does not make this explicit. However, total cited. NIH Reporter was used in Otively covering each issue raised. our references include a later paper our research. Indeed, having examined First Issue: “Stated purpose of educa- published also in Academic Medicine all NCCAM grants for an earlier arti- tion programs discussed in the article.” (Marcus, Donald, and Laurence Mc- cle, we started our work on this paper The PAR-00-027, released Decem- Cullough 2009). An evaluation of the by dividing the R25 grants from other ber 13, 1999, established the first R25 evidence in “evidence-based” integra- mechanisms that at first glance seemed grants (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/ tive medicine programs, Academic Med- not to involve education or training guide/pa-files/PAR-00-027.html) and icine 84(9): 1229–34. The Marcus and curricula. As our detailed investigation the intent is clear. Appearing in the McCullough paper clearly evaluated continued, though, we soon discovered section on Educa tional Objectives is the installation of courses on non-ev- that the boundary between curricular this sentence: “The intent of this ini- idenced based protocols into physician and non-curricular grants was not as tiative is to help support the incorpo- education. rigid as Cotler implies. We realized that ration and integration of CAM infor- the R25 grants represented only about mation into the educational curriculum Second Issue: “. . . concerns expendi- half of those that we needed to consider to which conventional medical, dental, tures and number of grant awards cited in examining the impact of NCCAM nursing, and allied health professional . . . ” funding on health professionals’ educa- students are exposed and into the CE Cotler’s letter addresses only pro- tion. So we expanded our investigation for conventional practitioners.” grams supported under the R25 mech- as addressed in our article. The authors were aware of and have anism. Our paper addressed all grants Cotler specifically calls out two read the special issue of Academic Med- that featured curricula and training. As mainstream institutions as some that icine of October 2007. It is from one we stated in our article: “From 2000– did not receive R25 grants: University article there by Pearson and Chesney 2012, the total sum of awards falling of Virginia Charlottesville and Univer- (http://journals.lww.com/academic under the mantle of CAM pedagogy sity of Illinois Chicago. She is correct medicine/Fulltext/2007/10000/The_ to both mainstream and CAM schools as far as that funding mechanism goes, CAM_Education_Program_of_the_ was $76 million.” These include R25 but this objection is beside the point. National_Center.3.aspx) that the but also other grant mechanisms. This As stated previously, our study went sub stance of our quote stems. The fact is stated explicitly in a number of beyond R25 grants alone by finding

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 53 [FOLLOW UP

and including other grants that also in- Prj_info_desc_dtls.cfm?aid=7066159 programs, phone-in services for the volved the establishment of or changes &print=yes). This program, too, aimed public, and botanical information da- in course, training, and university cur- at producing CAM researchers and ex- tabase searches.” Once again, although ricula. plicitly calls out coursework to be pro- not funded through R25, these grants UVA, for example, included a se- vided including “evidence-based com- were appropriate to include in our ries of K30 and a T32 grants (totaling plementary practices and products” for study. $2.5 million). A K30 grant is defined Post-Docs and “coursework and experi- by NIH as a “Clinical Research Cur- ential exercises in complementary prac- Third issue: “. . .regarding our riculum Award.” A T32 grant is a “Na- tices and products,” “two CAM-spe- [NCCAM] consumer publication on tional Research Service Award.” The cific application development courses,” credentialing . . .” specific grants we included are briefly and “a CAM-related dissertation” for Some confusion may have been described below: pre-doctoral trainees. Again, it was clear caused by the inclusion of two separate A series of K30 grants, active be- that, though not R25, these grants also hyperlinks when we referred to CEUs tween 2001 and 2005, entitled “CAM belonged in our study. (Continuing Education Units) that can CLINICAL RESEARCH CUR- be earned through NCCAM’s web- RICULUM PROGRAM” (http: Our concern remains that site. The first link (http://nccam.nih. //projectreporter.nih.gov/pr_Prj_info_ millions of U.S. taxpayers’ gov/health/decisions/credentialing. desc_dtls.cfm?aid=6224293&print= htm) indeed does not, in itself, offer yes). Its description states that the ef- dollars have been and are CEUs. We included it to point out fort was to “support an interdisciplin- being expended by NCCAM some information offered to the public ary effort between the schools of med- on research into CAM by NCCAM, but we apparently were icine and nursing at the University of not clear in that intent. The second link Virginia and the Center for the Study modalities that, long ago, (not mentioned by Cotler) is to a series of Complementary and Alternative have been shown to be of video lectures (http://www.nccam. Therapies (CSCAT).” Further, it was ineffective—sometimes by nih.gov/training/videolectures) that dedicated to “the expansion and im- are offered free by NCCAM, although provement of core courses designed other government agencies. registration is required. The page ex- as in-depth instruction in the funda- plicitly states that the series is “devel- mental skills, methodology, theories oped for health care professionals to re- and conceptualizations needed for the The grants we included for UI Chi- ceive continuing education, [although] well-trained, independent CAM clini- cago were funded by the K07 (“Ac- members of the public are invited to cal researcher.” While we do not ques- ademic/Teacher Award”) and P50 view the series and learn more about tion the need for well-trained medical (“Specialized Center”) mechanisms and various aspects of CAM and CAM re- researchers, we asked what might be totaled $6.8 Million. Project descrip- search” and that for health professionals different in the education of a “CAM tions may be found online at http:// who appropriately register “Post-tests clinical researcher” as compared to any projectreporter.nih.gov/pr_Prj_info_ must be completed with an accuracy of other—perhaps CAM methodologies desc_dtls.cfm?aid=7318080&print=yes 70 percent or better to receive a CME themselves? Very likely so, since the and at http://projectreporter.nih.gov/ [Continuing Medical Education] or a grant description goes on to state, “The pr_Prj_info_desc_dtls.cfm?aid= CEU credit. A maximum of 10 CME faculty includes credentialed CAM 6171951&print=yes, respectively. In Category I credits will be awarded to practitioners.” In any case, it was clear the former, between 2008 and 2012 the physicians and a maximum of 12 con- to the authors that such grants, even PI was to “take on the tasks of develop- tact hours will be awarded to nurses.” though they were not funded via the ing curricula in natural products phar- One author (Engler) who registered R25 mechanism, fit squarely into the macology.” The latter, active between when we began our research in order to set of grants that seem to be pushing 2001 and 2004, included three “cores,” view the lectures for research purposes unproven pseudoscience into main- one of which is described as follows: (not for CEUs) is surprised to find that stream health curricula. “The Education and Infor mation five of the ten lectures offered no lon- UVA also received a series of Core will be responsible for pharma- ger are available “in an effort to keep T32 grants, active between 2007 and cognosy curriculum development and the science current.” Regrettably those 2011, entitled “TRAINING PRO- the implementation of graduate and no longer available include courses GRAM IN COMPLEMENTARY post-doctoral training programs, for in: Mind-Body Medicine; Acupunc- & ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE” the implementation of interactive on- ture: An Evidence-Based Assessment; (http://projectreporter.nih.gov/pr_ line learning and continuing education Manipulative and Body-Based Thera-

54 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer pies: Chiropractic and Spinal Manipu- the clinicaltrials.gov website, PubMed, that they seem to be funded with no lation; and CAM and Aging. He began etc., to locate some publications not regard to proven effectiveness of any all of these courses with an interest in listed on NCCAM’s own site, but, CAM therapy, and that we have been eventually discovering what evidence again, the dearth of negative findings unable to discern any community bene- is offered, but they now, alas, no lon- was noticeable. We are aware that the fit attributable to any of them. One can ger can be accessed. According to the Cochrane Collaborative (linked to only infer that negative feedback from page, NCCAM “will be adding new on the research results page to which clinical trials has, at least in some cases, lectures,” and he is interested in seeing you directed us, http://nccam.nih.gov/ not been forthcoming to those who what they will cover. research/results) is an independent re- award follow-on grants, and it has been source, and we have used it and com- our experience that negative results are Final issue: “. . . the authors claim that pared its information with more recent not readily available to the public, in- our Web site does not mention any similarly peer reviewed articles and cluding the authors. negative research findings . . .” continue to use all resources and press The authors did not read every pub- releases from NCCAM on specific evi- The authors stand by our article and lication for every study that NCCAM dence which might reveal a CAM pro- conclusions. ever has funded. For those we did ex- tocol as evidenced based medicine. amine in depth, though—and keep Our concern remains that millions Eugenie V. Mielczarek in mind that we used NIH Reporter of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars have been Professor of Physics, emeritus as our principal tool for finding and and are being expended by NCCAM George Mason University sorting grants—we found that the pre- on research into CAM modalities that, Fairfax, Virginia ponderance either had no publications long ago, have been shown to be inef- listed—even years after completion—or fective—sometimes by other govern- Brian D. Engler that they principally covered study de- ment agencies (e.g., magnet therapy). Affiliate Faculty signs rather than results. We were able, Specific to curricular and other edu- George Mason University using keywords and resources such as cation-oriented grants, our concern is Fairfax, Virginia

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Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 55 [BOOK REVIEWS

The Wonder of Creation Astronomy PIERRE STROMBERG

f you’ve been a regular reader of the World Net Daily news website like Wonders Without Number: Created with Purpose II have, you’ve probably marveled or Conceived in Chaos?By David Rives. over the bizarre weekly videos cobbled David Rives Ministries, Lewisberg, Tennessee, 2012. together by David Rives to promote ISBN: 978-0-9857926-2-6. 146 pp. Softcover, $15.95. “creation astronomy”—a thriving new branch in the tree of creationism. Rives has recently upped the ante by releasing a new book, Wonders Without Number: Created with Purpose or Conceived from Chaos?. Right from the start, Rives reveals creationists’ usual obsessive-compulsive disorder regarding the big bang: “You some are stable—namely electrons, nally get to the rest of astronomy. Rives cannot have a Big Bang without enor- neutrinos, and protons (and apparently echoes much of the same type of claims mous amounts of matter. So where did dark matter). made in Guillermo Gonzalez’s Our the matter come from? Has it always Rives’s claim that no one has any Privileged Planet. Rives draws a cartoon existed? What is the purpose of its exis- idea what happened before the big bang caricature of the Milky Way galaxy, ex- tence, and how did it come to be?” (p. 8). is also simply untrue. Brane cosmology horting us to thank our lucky stars that Rives recycles these rehashed left- we happen to live exactly in the partic- overs from other creationists to essen- and eternal inflation both explore con- ular spot we currently occupy. tially make the case that if the big bang cepts that could answer such questions. cannot account for the origination of Others, such as the Hartle-Hawking Rives casts doubt on the chances matter, the entire theory falls apart. no boundary condition suggest that of life in the outer edges of the galaxy In fact, the big bang does account for space-time is finite. Rives continues by echoing the claims of actual scien- the origination of matter, in exactly the with his big bang obsession until Chap- tists like Peter Ward, who postulated same way that exotic particles are cre- ter 4, where he turns his attention to that stars in the outer edges of galaxies ated in particle colliders like the Large biology, and spews forth all the usual would be unlikely to host Earth-like Hadron Collider: by converting energy long-debunked arguments you’ve come worlds because the rate of star forma- to mass (E=mc2). The nearly infinite to expect from a creationist—Darwin, tion is lower, hence, they are metal energy density moments after the sin- “Macro-evolution,” the geologic col- poor. However, recent discoveries have gularity event would result in a soup of umn, uniformitarianism, Haeckel’s indicated that planets can be found particles of all types “condensing” out em bryos (“Well over 130 years after the orbiting even metal-poor stars. Rives of the vacuum in a process known as time of Haeckel’s work, school text- continues to claim our fortuitous loca- “pair production,” most of which are books still use drawings based on his tion, arguing that it “enables Earth to unstable and would decay back into en- falsified illustrations,” [p. 53]), etc. safely exist without the threat of pow- ergy almost immediately. Of these, only It isn’t until Chapter 5 that we fi- erful supernovae, black holes, stellar

56 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer collisions, or elemental deficiencies” (p. you to my theory, which we will call modate outrageous concepts like “sci- 62). Rives seems to regard these prop- The Rives Theory of Relativity” (p. ence” and “reality,” rolling out Stalin’s erties as unique, but given our current 87). Simply put, Rives would like us corpse for the ten millionth time, and a understanding of the Milky Way, these to dispense with using light-years to terrifically ironic verse from the book of properties are replete throughout large measure distance and instead, “Relative Proverbs, “Every word of God is pure: areas of our galaxy. to the speed of our fastest spacecraft, he is a shield unto them that put their Zeroing in on Earth again, Rives we can determine how long it would trust in him. Add thou not unto his claims, “If the Earth was only 5 percent take to reach an object in space.” Rives words, lest he reprove thee, and thou closer to the Sun, it would become like seems to find his theory both profound be found a liar” (Proverbs 30:5–6). the planet Venus, boiling hot and unin- and significant but makes no attempt to Rives equates contemporary as- habitable. However, if we were just 20 explain why. tronomy with atheism and creation percent farther away, our planet would astronomy with true Christianity. Of resemble Mars, freezing . . . and still course, nothing could be further from uninhabitable” (p. 63). the truth. The vast majority of contem- Rives also provides no caveats re- porary Christians have no problem with garding a given body’s mass relative modern astronomy. Indeed, some even to its ability to retain liquid water and point to the big bang as a validation of sufficient atmospheric pressure. A Rives seems to find their faith. The only threat from mod- ten-second search on the Internet re- his theory both ern astronomy is to those who interpret veals that while there are still debates as the first chapter of Genesis in a literal to the true extent of the habitable zone profound and manner, nothing more. within our solar system, the boundaries David Rives and other creationists range from 0.725 Astronomical Units significant but realize the war is lost, so their game to 3.0 Astronomical Units. (One AU makes no attempt plan is to target the next generation. He equals the distance from the Earth to makes this clear when he concludes, “As the Sun, ninety-three million miles.) to explain why. late as the 1940’s, evolutionary doctrine Another area Rives regards as was still being censored from textbooks; unique is the fortuitous location of our yet, today, one would do well to find solar system’s gas giants. “Dangerous cosmic debris is pulled in by the mas- even a casual mention of the Biblical sive gravity of the outer planets instead account of Creation. . . . Today, uni- of proceeding closer to Earth” (p. 65). versities originally established to teach While this is true, recent analysis of Christian principles now take pride in Kepler’s treasure trove of extra-solar Those of you who are familiar with religious diversity” (p. 138). systems show that we are by no means creation astronomy may be wonder- At the end of the book, David Rives unique in this area either. ing, “How does Rives handle the speed is described as an “author, lecturer, Rives falls into circular reasoning and of light problem?” The answer is he and singer/songwriter.” This review marvels over the Earth’s atmosphere doesn’t. He doesn’t even mention it. has provided an insight into his first with his assertion, “. . .only Earth has I looked carefully, numerous times two talents. One can only hope for his the correct combination of gases for life through Rives’s book and he simply sake that history regards his third more I to exist. These conditions have not been doesn’t address it. He doesn’t mention kindly. found anywhere else in the Universe” Russell Humphreys’s incoherent at- (p. 67). In a true bit of comic relief, the tempt to address the issue. He doesn’t Pierre Stromberg has been a member of notorious Yahoo! Answers provided bet- mention Jason Lisle’s recent claims re- the organized skeptic community for more ter information regarding atmospheric garding instantaneous speeds for light than two decades and was the founder of changes during the Archean era than (“Anisotropic Synchrony Con ven tion”). Pacific Northwest Skeptics. He has encour- Rives could provide. Nothing. aged and organized grassroots opposition By the time we get to Chapter 7, The concluding chapter is about to creationism, exposed bogus claims re- “The Stars of Heaven,” Rives takes us what you’d expect—ranting about to the outer limits of human belief as “secular indoctrination,” railing against garding ancient artifacts, and conducted he explains, “I would like to introduce unreasonable Christians who accom- investigative work on exorcisms.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 57 [NEW AND NOTABLE Listing does not preclude future review.

ABOMINABLE SCIENCE: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and other Famous Cryptids. Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero. A welcome critical examination of claims and A Dangerous evidence about the best-known and most-familiar cryp- tids—Bigfoot, the Yeti, Nessie, the sea serpent, Mokele Blending of Nazi Mbembe (the alleged Congo dinosaur)—guided by the rules of naturalistic scientific inquiry and a commitment Fact and Fiction to critical thinking and skepticism. The opening chapter examines the difference between real science and pseu- PETER HUSTON Phil doscience in the context of cryptozoology, and the final Senter one considers why people believe in monsters. Columbia is a University Press, 2013, 424 pp., $29.95. BRAINWASHED: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience. Sally Satel and Scott O. Lilienfeld. A psy- chiatrist and a psychologist present needed scientific perspective about the often over-hyped (even faddish) current popular interest in neuroscience. They caution against over-interpretation of brain scans and simplistic arguments about their meaning, question overreliance on brain-based interpretations of behavior (“neurocen- trism”), examine the “neuromarketing” of new technol- ogies, and consider the legal implications of modern The Nazi Occult. By Kenneth Hite. neuroscience. A balanced inquiry into how many real- world applications of neuroscience can obscure, rather Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2013. than clarify, the many factors that shape our identity and ISBN: 978-1-78096-598-7. 80 pp. behavior. Basic Books, 2013, 226 pp., $26.99. Softcover, $17.95.

HOAX: Hitler’s Diaries, Lincoln’s Assassins, and Other Famous Frauds. Edward Steers Jr. Foreword by Joe sprey is a specialty publishing company Nickell. An in-depth examination of six of the most amaz- aimed primarily at military modelers, ing frauds in history—the Shroud of Turin, Piltdown man, Owargamers, and other hobbyists. Their the forgery of Hitler’s diaries, counterfeit reproductions of “The Oath of a Free Man,” conspiracy theories alleging products have a well-deserved reputation for that President Roosevelt had prior knowledge of the packing a great deal of hard-to-find, special- attack on Pearl Harbor, and details of Lincoln’s assas- ized information in a small number of pages sination allegedly recorded in missing pages of John along with many high-quality illustrations, Wilkes Booth’s journal. Greed and the desire to believe charts, maps, and photographs, despite occa- are at work in all six, the author says. University Press of sionally spotty citing of sources. In some cir- Kentucky, 2013, 235 pp., $24.95. cles, if one wants a particularly obscure piece PUTTING PHILOSOPHY TO WORK: Inquiry and Its Place of information regarding military uniforms in Culture. Expanded Edition. Susan Haack. The noted or equipment, e.g., the exact type and shade philosopher (and CSI Fellow) Susan Haack offers a col- of socks worn by Napoleon’s various hussar lection of provocative and illuminating essays putting regiments sorted by year and campaign as her philosophy to work on a whole range of real-world well as by unit, a relevant publication from issues: truth, evidence, fact, objectivity, bias, self-decep- Osprey is considered the immediate “go-to” tion, the demands of rationality, how unbiased inquiry source. I have many of its books and am differs from advocacy, how scientific inquiry differs from inquiry in other fields, threats to the integrity of science generally highly pleased with them. from political and commercial pressures, the tensions However, Osprey is branching off in new between science and religion, and the difficulty the legal directions, presumably to cater to the mar- system has in dealing with scientific testimony. Valuable ket for hobbyists and modelers interested in new essays added to this expanded edition include fantasy subjects. For the record, I don’t have a devastating critique of Karl Popper’s philosophy of a problem with this. If a hobbyist or warga- science and a critique of scientism. Prometheus Books, mer wishes to buy a nicely illustrated, concise 2013, 345 pp., $23.00. publication summarizing the story of Jason and the Argonauts or Norse mythological tales or even zombies—and someone wishes to publish it—I don’t have a problem with

58 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer RELIGION AS MAGICAL IDEOLOGY: How the Supernatural that. History is history and fantasy is fan- Reflects Rationality. Konrad Talmon-Kaminski. An exam- tasy, but they can both be fun and they most ination of the relationship between rationality and super- certainly can make fascinating reading. Each natural beliefs arguing that such beliefs are products of has its place. evolution, cognition, and culture. The author does not Unfortunately, The Nazi Occult blends the offer a false rapprochement between reason and religion two. It is a historical fact that some of the but explores their interrelationship as a series of complex people involved with the Nazi movement adaptations between cognitive and cultural processes. Acumen Publishing, 2013, 160 pp., $95.00. had an interest in the occult; some held strange beliefs, and some acted in strange A SKEPTICS GUIDE TO THE MIND: What Neuroscience Can ways due to these beliefs. The exact extent and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves. Robert A. Burton, and influence of these beliefs on the Nazi MD. Concerned about seeing “the most complex aspects movement and its ideology and actions is of human behavior reduced to sound bites” (such as the highly controversial and has been written recent headline “Possible Site of Free Will Found in Brain,” the author (like Satel and Lilienfeld in their book listed about by many people, often with wildly on p. 58), thoughtfully examines often unsupportable or varying accuracy and scholarship. (In fact, I contradictory behavioral observations emerging uncrit- have a shelf of books on this very subject— ically from brain scans and other physical observations some good, some not so good.) of the brain. In doing so he pursues a basic premise: “Our I’d been hoping this work would survey brains possess involuntary mechanisms that make unbi- such writings and the beliefs and practices ased thought impossible yet create the illusion that we they describe and put them in their proper are rational creatures capable of fully understanding the mind created by these same mechanisms.” St. Martin’s place in an easy-to-read, concise, single Press, 2013, 264 pp., $24.99. volume. Unfortunately, this volume makes no effort to place its topics in context, nor SNAKE OIL IS ALIVE AND WELL: The Clash between Myths does it discuss the reality of the ideas shared and Reality—Reflections of a Physician. Morton E. Tavel, within. Instead it purposely blurs the distinc- MD. An exploration of modern snake oil—quackery of tion between fact and fiction. This is danger- all sorts and treatments that lack scientific credibility ous with such a topic. (including faith healing, acupuncture, chiropractic, mis- information about diets and vitamin supplements, anti- For example, it seems to be historical fact oxidants—from a medical and psychological perspective. that Guido von List’s beliefs in runes, Ger- A valuable opening section on general biases and pitfalls manic folk beliefs, and “recreated traditions” is essentially a guide to thinking about our own biases of perceived Germanic folk beliefs—and his (e.g., chapters on regression toward the mean, hindsight teachings based on these ideas, called “Arios- bias, cause-effect illusions, etc.). The second section is ophy”—did have an influence on Nazi belief in on health fallacies and misconceptions. The third consid- ers confusions between science and religion. Brighton the alleged superiority of the “Aryan race” and Publishing, 2012, 246 pp., $13.95. “the Volk.” This is described in this volume without footnotes as if it were historical fact. THE WAY OF SCIENCE: Finding Truth and Meaning in a Also, it seems to be pure nonsense, de- Scientific Worldview. Dennis R. Trumble. A book about the spite belief in some circles, that the Nazis deeper benefit of science, a thoughtful rumination on the built UFOs and after the war housed them critical-thinking tools that science has to offer and the in a secret base in or under Antarctica. This value and pleasures of basic science literacy. Trumble emphasizes that the methods and facts of science are belief, although silly (see Massimo Polidoro’s accessible to everyone, that scientific rationality and column “Hitler’s South Pole Hideaway,” SI, critical thinking are good for our physical well-being January/February 2013), has been linked and our sense of morality, and that the scientific world- with some prominent holocaust deniers, view offers a profound sense of wonder, connectedness, such as Ernst Zundel, who may have been and optimism about the human condition. Prometheus using such a strange belief to “hide in plain Books, 2013, 375 pp., $20.00. sight” so that people would dismiss their ho- —Kendrick Frazier locaust denial activities as the work of “de- ranged UFO nuts” and therefore not inter- fere with them. Unfortunately, this subject is also described without footnotes as if it were historical fact. In fact, the work con- tains a very nice painting of American fighter

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 59 planes dogfighting with Nazi UFOs dowsing, has experimented with its over the Antarctic in 1946. Again, use to find landmines, so it might be A Fundamental, the captions describe this battle as possible. if it were a documented historical Did a self-professed medium Costly Error event. The two ideas are presented named Mathilde Ludenhorf really as if equally valid. consider the Dalai Lama (of all peo- PETER LAMAL The author also presents state- ple!) to be the head of “the world- ments about yetis, zombies, lycan- wide Jewish conspiracy” as claimed thropes, and sorcerers controlling on page 39? I decided to dig a little the weather, among other things, as on this one; I found nothing in three if they were real and had been a part respected books, but a properly foot- of the events of World War II. noted Wikipedia page says she did, so it seems to be true. But using the Osprey book alone, one simply can- not tell fact from fiction, and that’s not good. I admit at times I had The recommendations for further trouble telling the fact reading section includes a mix of le- The Marvelous Learning Animal: from the fiction. gitimate works of scholarship, books What Makes Human Nature Unique. written by people whom I consider By Arthur W. Staats. to be “true believers” and those who, Prometheus Books, Amherst, in my opinion, “make stuff up to see New York, 2012. their name in print” with no distinc- ISBN: 978-1-61614-597-2. tion between them. A small selec- 402 pp. Hardcover, $23.77. At no point does the work state tion of games, comics, and movies that this is supposed to be a survey are also recommended for people of imaginary beliefs or a work of fic- with an interest in this subject. n his new book The Marvelous Learn- tion. My guess is that the author and I have nothing against hobbyists, ing Animal, Arthur Staats’s concern publisher considered many of these modelers, and wargamers who wish Iis with what he designates as “The ideas to be so silly that they felt there to have fun using fantasy ideas. I re- Great Scientific Error,” which he says was no need to do so. Yet the back cently played in a table-top wargame should be made explicit. The error con- cover states, “Now, using a combi- set in modern times where our side’s sists of considering behavioral traits the nation of photography and artwork goal was to rescue some scientists same as physical, biological traits. A major reconstructions, the true story of the from telepathically controlled zom- problem with the error is that in trying most secret battles of World War bies. For a couple hours, with much to understand human behavior it largely II can finally be told.” Not exactly a dice rolling, rule consulting, and even leaves out learning, instead emphasiz- disclaimer. some strategic decision making, we ing biological factors, inherited traits, and Unfortunately, if there’s one thing had fun despite the fact that I believe innate tendencies. Recent groundbreaking I’ve learned in years of watching the in neither telepathy nor zombies. human genome research has reinforced fringe, no matter how absurd or stu- However, I do think that Osprey this approach. pid an idea is, someone somewhere is should have thought more before Staats proposes a new paradigm for going to take it seriously and believe publishing a book on the Nazis of understanding human behavior. Ac - it—especially so if it’s printed by a le- World War II that blends fantasy cording to this paradigm, human nature gitimate publisher of historical works. and reality without making any at- and human behavior have developed pri- Doubly so if it is about something tempt to enable the reader to distin- marily though learning. The brain is often like Nazis. guish between the two. It’s danger- considered the cause of how we behave. I admit at times I had trouble tell- ous and of questionable taste. I hope Staats rejects this notion. He considers ing the fact from the fiction. Did the that future volumes of the series will the brain to be a mechanism that enables Nazis, as described in this book, use make this distinction clear. n our learning, including learned emotional specially trained soldiers, hexensoldat, behavior. There is no natural separation Peter Huston is an author and educator who searched for landmines with between biology and learning, nature and with a background in Asian Studies and dowsing rods? I have no idea, but I nurture. They are complementary. In this teaching English as a second language. seem to recall somewhere that the view, learning is a biological process. But He blogs at http://www.peterhuston. U.S. Army, despite there being zero to understand learning we must study blogspot.com. scientific evidence for the validity of learning, not biological phenomena such

60 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer REVIEWS] as genes or pharmacology. sonality have never been sufficiently ex- of cultures should focus on the cumula- All of us have unique learned “reper- plored, the traditional concept of it has tive learning resulting in those aspects— toires of behavior.” Individuals with cer- been, and is, an inference attributed to rather than possible genetic causes. tain repertoires of behavior, for example, causes such as genes, brain, and mind. The paradigm of humanness that when faced with novel situations, will This view of personality illustrates, Staats describes calls for changes in respond with novel behaviors that are Staats says, the Great Scientific Error’s basic and applied science and human creative, that are discoveries. Creativity neglect of learning. If you want your science. In the fields devoted to the is not the result of unique minds but child to be intelligent, there is no way study of human development and prac- of learning. The framework Staats ad- to manipulate genes or the brain to en- tices explanations draw on the biologi- vocates resolves the long-standing sep- sure that goal. If you do not want the cal sciences. There is no awareness that aration of the internal mind/brain and child to have temper tantrums, there is the critical facts of basic and human external behaviors. Sufficient knowledge no biological preventive. Rather, a child learning have not been used to explain of the basic behavioral repertoires will who has learning experiences that result and deal with human behavior. enable our understanding of the work- in desired behavior repertoires will thus The bottom line: “Humans and pi- ings of “the mind,” such as thinking, have an attractive personality. geons [and all other nonhuman species] problem solving, and creativity. This But, Staats points out, we have no learn by the same principles, yes. But knowledge Staats calls “the missing good evidence of the learning that pro- humans can learn more by an unbeliev- link.” Consider intelligence; intelligence duces normal or abnormal behavior rep- ably huge amount. And that learning tests predict individuals’ learning. They ertoires in childhood. We have not even also involves new principles” (p. 150). do this because they measure samples of begun studies of how human normal and This book is somewhat repetitious the basic behavioral repertoires necessary abnormal behavior is actually learned. and overwritten, but that feature may for effective learning and performance With respect to cultural evolution, benefit people unfamiliar with behav- across a wide set of situations. Staats says there is no such phenome- iorism. The fundamental point Staats Staats’s theory is exemplified in his non. Cultures do not develop accord- makes needs to be addressed by those consideration of personality, which is ing to the principles of genetic natural who are concerned about the causes of the opposite of the traditional view of selection. The human-selection theory human behavior. n personality that emphasizes inferred in- of cultures is defined as the behaviors ternal causes. Personality is an internal of humans in particular groups as well Peter Lamal is a fellow of the Division of cause of behavior, as learning recorded as what those groups produce. The cul- Behavior Analysis of the American Psy- in the brain, but that internal cause is tural advances of all the humanoid spe- chological Association and a member of composed of learning repertoires of be- cies resulted from cumulative learning. the Association for Behavior Analysis In- havior. Because the real causes of per- Thus questions about particular aspects ternational. INBOX]

Best Lake Monster mate the angle between distance to the monster: Photo? the top of the monster’s about fifty feet. head and the water: about two degrees. Using the distance, we I was struck with the calculate the top of the “World’s Best Lake Monster 2. Lake Champlain trees are about 100 feet tall. monster’s head looms 1.7 Photo” (“New Information feet above the water. Surfaces on ‘World’s Best In the photo, the trees The calculation is ap- Monster Photo,’ Raising directly behind the mon- proximate, and I’ve rounded Questions,” SI, May/June ster subtend an angle of the numbers to reflect this, 2013) and realized I could about three degrees. but even if you play with the estimate the monster’s size From that, and simple without a trip to the lake. I trigonometry, the far parameters it is difficult to shoreline is about 2,000 used three basic facts: get a monster substantially feet away. larger. If some call this a 1. Virtually all cameras 3. The camera was proba- “monster,” it is certainly not cover in the narrow di- bly about five feet high. in the class of Nessie. rection a total angle of The angle between the about twenty-four de- monster’s water line and Richard Muller grees. If larger, the lens the distant shore is about Professor of Physics is classified “wide angle”; six degrees. Use the fact University of California, if smaller, “telephoto.” that the lake is level, and Berkeley Using this we can esti- trigonometry gives the CSI Fellow

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 61 [INBOX

The 1977 photo of “Champ” haven’t, and neither has anyone In my experience, when you ucci’s article on burden of proof taken on Lake Champlain can else. These same questions can infuse a libertarian with empathy and Barry Fagin’s article on liber- be dismissed as a hoax on its own be asked about other cryptozo- you get a liberal. tarian skeptics to be illuminating. evidence. ological creatures such as Yeti, The skeptical position on psy- Arthur S. Reber Does this animal breathe with Champ, and Nessie. It’s a shame chics, faith healers, UFOs, and so Visiting Professor lungs or with gills? If with lungs, that all the time, effort, and on is that the burden of proof rests University of British then it must constantly surface money spent debunking Bigfoot on the person making extraordi- Columbia to survive, a constancy that elim- can’t be used for far more worth- nary claims. Contrarily, those who Vancouver, Canada inates it as native to any lake that while purposes. promote these positions presume freezes over in winter. But if it that the burden of proof is on the David Gardner breathes with gills, then why is it skeptic to show that the phenom- Seattle, Washington In his May/June forum column, on the surface with its long neck, Dr. Fagin argues that evidence, ena cannot possibly be true. My head, and gills so high out of the presumably scientific evidence, experience with libertarians is that water? What evolutionary pres- Science, Government, and shows that “. . .governmental they treat the idea that govern- mental regulations might be use- sures would produce a gilled ani- Libertarian Values approach[es] to problems do not mal that swims as if it had none? work particularly well. . . .” He ful as an extraordinary claim. In With gills, Champ (or per- the unfortunately not-so-extreme Barry Fagin (“Valuing Science asserts that government regula- haps Chump) could remain tions intended to address climate case this can lead to paranoia, or with Differing Values: Let’s as Fagin states it, “Is it really so be- under the surface and undetected change will probably advance a Broaden the Debate in the Skep- yond the pale to think that global indefinitely, but the photo argues political agenda and “values” that tical Movement,” SI, May/June efforts to address anthropogenic against gills. But if it surfaces to he and like-minded individuals 2013) presents a balanced de- global warming are at risk to be breathe then it has done so, ei- oppose, so he advocates for a lib- fense of libertarianism. He is cor- hijacked by others with a much ther in Lake Champlain, the ertarian society. rect; it fosters skepticism, enables more expansive agenda?” Read the Richelieu River, the St. Law- While I appreciate Dr. Fagin’s one to break from superstition blogs. The scientists lie, the liber- rence Seaway, or the Atlantic, measured tone, current libertarian and theological purity, reinforces als and environmentalists scheme, for thousands of years of human thought misses an essential point empiricism, and embraces logic and all others are dupes or idiots. habitation—and apparently with about society: Not everyone starts and science. As a liberal I ac- I am glad to see that some lib- no other evidence for its existence out in life with the same resources knowledge these points and am ertarians do accept the science of except this photo. and opportunities. Compare sympathetic with them. global warming, but Fagin didn’t R.K. De La Hunt But, and yes, there must be being born a slave destined to present anything positive in terms Seattle, Washington a “but,” he does not touch on die in the Roman Coliseum with of solutions. I am enough of a lib- what would replace the govern- being born a middle class kid in eral to not appreciate the liberty ment whose size and invasiveness Oklahoma City, whose parents of all frying together because gov- Bigfoot DNA Claim libertarians deplore. Progressives ensure that she or he goes to an ernment restrictions on individ- are suspicious of a society where excellent state university. ual liberty are not acceptable. If Thanks for the Bigfoot DNA free markets operate with mini- People from all over the world libertarians have nongovernmen- article in your May/June 2013 mal regulation, corporations are still seek residence in the U.S.— tal approaches to ameliorate the issue. I always enjoy reading ar- governed by the “silent hand,” not because their governments problems of global warming, they ticles that expose all the hokum and services are privatized. We are overreaching but because their should present them. that surrounds us. As for Bigfoot welcome libertarian skepticism, governments don’t work as well as Robert Clear believers, they need to explain but most of us who have read this one does. Berkeley, California several things (aside from the Ayn Rand are repulsed by a cul- Current libertarian thought fact that no Bigfoot has ever ture steeped in stress and stripped carries the belief that governments inherently restrict freedoms. This been definitively observed and of empathy, altruism, and social Barry Fagin was spot on in his identified): Why have no car- support systems. would include one’s perceived patient explanation of why some casses or bones ever been found? Ironically, it is in countries right to drive vehicles, burn fuel, of us skeptics are libertarian or Why have Bigfoot hunters never with supportive governments that and own weapons as he or she conservative. For very good, ev- found fur or scat? Why do we skepticism thrives. As Noren- pleases. Each of these activities idence-based reasons we do not have only hoaxed photos and zayan and Gervais (“The Origins affects neighbors. When it comes have confidence that big gov- footprints? And a problem I’ve of Religious Disbelief,” Trends to the atmosphere, one’s activities ernment is the best, or even very not seen raised before: for any in Cognitive Sciences, 17, 20–25, affect everyone else on Earth. good, at solving problems. So I species to survive, there must be 2013) note, progressive democra- Libertarians may be con- applaud your begrudging con- a minimum number of healthy cies that reinforce mutual caring cerned about protecting you cession that there may be a few individuals capable of reproduc- have the highest levels of support from your government. But it living, breathing non-liberal skep- ing. What that number might be for science and the lowest levels works another way as well: gov- tics among your readership. For for Bigfoot is unknowable (as it of religiosity. When people feel ernment serves to protect me instance, you might be surprised is for unicorns and griffins), but secure—when government pro- from you. to learn that I support the moral it must be sufficiently high that tects the environment, provides Bill Nye value that a prosperous society biologists and other legitimate universal health care, supports CSI Fellow can and should come to the aid of researchers should have found education and infuses the culture those unable to help themselves. definitive evidence of its exis- with an empathic collectivity— But how in the world did that tence by now. Obviously, they people are most free. I found the juxtaposition of Pigli- metastasize into the insurance

62 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer nightmare created by Obamacare? I call you Bill? I feel like I know Interstellar Travel: gate the possibility of interstellar Any fair-minded person who has you so well) errs in stating that Preposterous? travel in the next century. There watched in horror as daily news- libertarians miss the point that not have been two 100 Year Starship paper reports continue to expose everyone starts out in life from the It was disheartening to see the public symposia. (I spoke at the monstrous cost overruns and un- same position. We merely disagree normally credible S  I- first of these in 2011.) intended consequences being gen- with liberals as to what follows  publish such an unscien- While this project has at- erated by Obamacare should share from that. He also conflates, to my tific article as Robert Sheaffer’s “Is tracted a certain percentage of our disgust. mind, two distinctly different ideas: Interstellar Travel ‘Preposterous’?” kooks, most people associated Yes, I am politically conser- Government as an agent of fairness (SI, May/June, 2013). Sheaffer with it are serious scientists who vative, because I am skeptical of with government as a protector of uses remarkably unscientific terms understand the difficulties raised liberals who resist learning any- individual rights. The strength of (“completely preposterous” and in the articles Sheaffer cites but thing from one failed big society the connection between these two “utterly implausible”) to refer to nevertheless find the idea worth program after another. Think concepts, if any, is a key difference interstellar travel. Does this mean considering. of it this way: We don’t address between liberals and libertarians, impossible, really hard, or simply Will human technology 100 hunger by making everyone buy one not likely to be resolved in these that our society doesn’t know years hence permit the creation hunger insurance. We give the pages. how to do it yet? He appears to and use of hundreds of tons of hungry food or stamps to buy It is a long reach to go from be arguing that interstellar travel is antimatter, or the building of an food. We don’t address home- “government regulations might impossible for us or any other civi- ultra-powerful laser that could lessness by making everyone buy be useful” to embracing a govern- lization, no matter how advanced. accelerate a spacecraft to relativ- housing insurance. We give the ment the size and scope of the one To do this he references three re- istic speeds? We cannot know, homeless free or subsidized pub- we have now. My main point was ports from the 1960s and entirely any more than scientists of 1913 lic housing. that a skeptical approach to under- ignores more recent, and more could have predicted today’s thorough, studies to the contrary. technology. It’s certainly possi- John Clinger standing how government actually Perhaps the most knowledge- ble. It may not happen, but it’s Midlothian, Virginia works and why that is, as opposed to how it is supposed to work and able expert in this arena was Dr. not preposterous. how it could be if we just voted for Robert Forward (1932–2002), This has nothing to do with who spent a significant portion UFOs. There are many good rea- Barry Fagin replies: the right people, is an appropriate one for skeptics to take. I believe it of his career at Hughes Research sons to reject the idea that UFOs Professor Reber raises a number of will lead to policies that are more Center where he created and pub- are alien spacecraft. But the sup- thoughtful points, which space re- libertarian than they are liberal or lished the most extensive bibliog- posed impossibility of interstellar strictions do not permit me to ad- socially conservative, but for the raphies of interstellar travel avail- travel is not one of them. dress fully. It is interesting, though, moment I’d just like to get this per- able, largely in the Journal of the Ken Olum that he writes from Canada, a spective into the world of ideas that British Interplanetary Society, JBIS. Sharon, Massachusetts country which has had a freer econ- SI represents. Forward’s exceptionally well-re- omy than the United States for the searched conclusion in 1986 was past two decades. While hardly a Climate Denial in that “Interstellar travel is difficult, Robert Sheaffer’s article on inter- libertarian paradise, Canada does the Classroom but it is not impossible” (JBIS, stellar travel is an important re- enjoy the benefits of modest military 39/9). An essentially similar con- minder of the limitations placed clusion was reached in 1999 by spending, lower corporate tax rates, The number one denialist tool box on space flight by the laws of Giovanni Vulpetti (JBIS, 52/9). A stable government fiscal policy, and item in the article by Hassall et al. physics. But it’s important that brief summary of both about how enthusiastic support for immigra- (“Climate Change Denial in the space travel “pessimists” not exceptionally difficult interstellar tion. I and other libertarians are Classroom,” SI, May/June 2013) is overlook another way to solve the travel is and the nature of some working to see the U.S. enjoy the the professor’s “The only constant problem. To travel to the stars, of the possible solutions is given all humanity has to do is live lon- benefits of similar policies. about climate change is change”—a by Wertz (Orbit and Constellation ger. A lot longer, to be sure, but I disagree with the implication howling denial of free will. Design and Management, 2001, p. happily not forever. that having empathy is both a nec- As Daniel Dennett says in Free- 654–664). Spacefaring distances are essary and sufficient condition (or dom Evolves, we humans have the “large” and space travel times at least must be strongly correlated) ability to imagine a variety of fu- James R. Wertz are “long” only in comparison with being a liberal and supporting tures and choose among them. In Rolling Hills Estates, to the present paltry life span of the modern redistributive state. But addition, we have demonstrated California human beings. If we can extend I would suggest that despite that the ability to “terraform” Earth to the typical human lifetime by a disagreement, the features of the suit us. Pretending that Earth “just factor of ten, a 2001-style voy- modern welfare state that liberals happens” shirks responsibility and I’m not sure whether “Psychic age to Jupiter becomes feasible. desire the most can be funded with also pretends that we do not have Vibrations” is the sort of column Another factor of ten gets us out a national government between ten the free will to imagine our futures that one should try to correct, but today’s scientific commu- past Pluto. And so on. All this at and twenty percent the size of the and make a choice. Of course by nity is certainly not convinced velocities well below c. one we have now. The huge major- going on with our little lives, we that “the concept of interstellar There are probably inherent ity of governmental expenditures have made a choice—just not a travel is utterly implausible.” On limits to the present meat bags go toward rapidly growing enti- thoughtful one. tlements, something that only liber- the contrary, NASA and DARPA that house human conscious- tarians seem willing to talk about. John Dooley started an organization called ness. But with the increased aug- I believe that Bill Nye (may Lancaster, Pennsylvania “100 Year Starship” to investi- mentation of the human form

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 63 [LETTERS TO THE EDITOR with mechanical and computa- with extraterrestrial intelligence sible is limited by fundamental draw away the small percentage tional components, who knows will most likely fail. laws of physics, like the conser- of that enormous energy flow that how far we can go ere we must David W. Briggs vation of energy and momentum, becomes waste heat before it melts shuffle off our mortal coils. Nat- Marion, Massachusetts that must be obeyed by all civili- everything in the vicinity. urally we still have to find the zations in the universe, no matter Dr. Wertz complains that I fuel to get there, design space- how advanced. Mr. Olum asks, referenced “three reports from the Robert Sheaffer replies: craft that can last centuries, and “Will human technology 100 years 1960s” about interstellar travel. solve a host of other problems. I seem to have stirred up something hence permit the creation and use However, the laws of physics have But these problems all have one of a hornets’ nest by presenting of hundreds of tons of antimatter, not changed since then, so their compelling feature: they are engi- physics Nobel laureate Edward or the building of an ultra-pow- conclusions remain valid. As for neering challenges, not violations Purcell’s argument that inter- erful laser that could accelerate a Robert Forward’s proposals for of physical laws. stellar travel is “preposterous.” spacecraft to relativistic speeds?” interstellar travel using a light Barry Fagin Perhaps I should have specified But that is exactly the kind of sce- sail, we still would need a mi- Colorado Springs, Colorado “relativistic interstellar travel,” nario that Purcell considered and crowave laser in our solar system the kind that Stanton Friedman rejected. As Purcell noted, to accel- that somehow generated one GW and many UFO pro ponents keep erate one unit mass to .99c requires of power (or 1/100 of all the en- In “Is Interstellar Travel ‘Pre- talking about, supposedly making fourteen units of convenient mat- ergy being used on Earth) to ac- posterous’?” Robert Sheaffer does it possible to travel to another star ter/antimatter fuel, safely stored celerate a payload of only sixteen an excellent job of explaining within a single human lifetime (what do you use to contain tons grams (less than an ounce!) for a why interstellar travel is physi- (assisted by time dilation). of antimatter?), converted (some- trip to Alpha Centauri in twenty cally impossible. There is nothing to prevent how) to energy with 100 percent years. While it may be possible to However, the possibility of interstellar travel so long as it is efficiency, and directed (somehow) someday use such a device to return interstellar communication is “long and slow.” The distance to to create a thrust exactly in the data about nearby stars, as a pro- left open, as he notes in stating, Alpha Centauri, the very nearest direction we wish to go, while posal for interstellar travel this is “Purcell concludes his paper by star system, is 4.37 light-years, shielding (somehow) the passen- clearly “preposterous.” demonstrating that interstel- 1.34 parsecs, or about 276,000 gers, and indeed the entire Earth, Mr. Briggs is concerned that lar communication using radio astronomical units: about 50,000 from extremely intense gamma even SETI might be technolog- waves is perfectly possible.” It times the average distance to Ju- rays. But that already implausible ically impractical. Of that, we would be very interesting if the piter. It took Pioneer 10 and 11 scenario assumes that you don’t don’t need to worry. SETI scien- S  I could pub- approximately eighteen months plan to stop when you reach your tists are confident that they could lish an exposition of this by an to reach Jupiter. At that speed, destination; you will just fly right detect strong signals sent to us from astrophysicist. it would take more than 80,000 on by. If you want to stop, then you 100 or more light-years away, and Since interstellar travel has years to reach Alpha Centauri. must accelerate your deceleration their equipment gets better all the been ruled out, interstellar com- Of course it is possible to go faster fuel (in that same ratio), and your time. The impossible question is: munication would have to be than that. But even if we could fuel to payload ratio is now 210:1 Is anybody out there in that stellar with some intelligent beings eventually go 100 times faster (when you reach full speed, you region transmitting to us? that have evolved on a planet than present-day probes, we are will have one unit of payload, and near one of the nearby stars. The still looking at a one-way trip of fourteen units of deceleration fuel, probability of life having evolved around 800 years. Be sure to bring meaning you need to start with Obesity Science to such a level of technological plenty of movies to watch during 14 x 15 units of fuel). That’s for intelligence on one of those few the voyage. While long interstel- a one-way trip. For a round trip The column by Kenneth W. stars would seem to be very slim. lar trips such as these are no doubt (assuming there are no convenient Krause “Obesity: What Does Also, the timing of that evolution technologically possible, they are filling stations along the way), you the Science Say?” (SI, May/June would have to be synchronized “preposterous” for completely dif- must start with over 40,000 units 2013) challenges the “energy exactly with our own. One char- ferent reasons. of matter/antimatter mix for each balance” (EB) concept as being acteristic of intelligent behavior Mr. Fagin suggests that long unit of payload. Have we reached too simple an explanation for is that if unrewarded it is not and slow space travel might not “preposterous” yet? And remember increasing obesity. Differences repeated for long. If intelligent be so objectionable if we could you can’t claim “future technol- in metabolism re lated to sev- beings on another planet were radically extend human lifetimes, ogy” will do better, because we eral other factors certainly must a hundred years ahead of us in through technological means. He are assuming 100 percent perfect contribute. He cites research on technological development, they is probably quite right about that. efficiency. The powerful laser is sugar by Robert Lustig as one would have given up attempting Perhaps I might even someday be an interesting suggestion. How- such factor. However, from cer- to communicate with us before uploaded onto a computer (or per- ever, something has to power that tain media reports of Dr. Lustig’s we were ready to listen. If they haps onto many computers), to sail laser; it won’t power itself. We studies, he may have carried his are one hundred years behind off on a voyage across the galaxy. could not do better than to use the theories too far when he calls us, we will have given up the But whatever is going out there, is perfect matter/antimatter engine sugar “addictive.” Others of like attempt to communicate. And it really me? Maybe we should just imagined above. Your laser will, mind have claimed modern foods if communication requires a fo- do the bit about radically extend- of course, be less than 100 percent constitute a “toxic food environ- cused beam, we would need to ing our lifetimes, and then stay efficient, because every device is, ment” and have gone on to claim know exactly where to aim it. So, here and enjoy it? so those fuel ratios increase. Also that personal control and respon- it would seem that the search for Many people seem to forget I hope that your laser comes with sibility are not useful. This idea and attempts to communicate that what is technologically pos- a truly gargantuan heat sink to has lead to calls for restrictive

64 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer laws and regulations that have no Edward Schuman, MD no difference between making a it “enshrines prejudice in an experi- scientific basis, for example the Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania scientific claim and denying it— ment’s result.” Rather, it helps make proposed banning of the sale of “to claim P is the same as to deny explicit and quantify the scientist’s large containers of soft drinks in not-P.” While true, it implies that It is with great interest that I judgment, which is inevitably sub- New York City. denying and skepticism are equiv- jective to begin with. In general, You may find a new book read K. Krause’s article on obe- alent, when they are very different sity. Is the author familiar with there is no such thing in science as helpful. The Food Police by in substance and process. Denying “purely merit-based decisions,” since Jayson Lusk presents a broad per- the Montignac diet, which has something is indeed a scientific proved very popular in Europe? all decisions are human judgments spective on today’s food system claim and does have a burden of and therefore inherently subjective. based on facts that are objective This diet is based on the glycemic proof. However, a skeptic request- index of foods and recognizes the (Of course this doesn’t mean that and consistent. The author grew ing proof, evidence, or definitions such judgments are arbitrary or up on a working farm, studied impact of all carbohydrates on is not making a scientific claim made regardless of evidence.) food science in college, and has the fattening process. Besides and carries no burden of proof. worked in both farming and doing away with the calorie Should we bear a burden of proof myth, it recommends dissociat- food processing. He later went to ask a dowser for evidence or to Aircraft Death Spirals into agricultural economics and ing the intake of fats on the one define his claims? I think not. is very aware of the day-to-day hand and sugars (carbohydrates) The second point is that a Concerning the likely 1978 “spi- choices facing anyone trying to on the other, since hyperglyce- Bayesian philosophical frame work ral and crash” of UFO reporter farm the land or raise a family. mia induces a discharge of in- has a serious flaw. Bayesian Infer- Fredrick Valentich, discussed in Mr. Lusk does not work for the sulin, which transforms lipids ence is only one of many philoso- the “Psychic Vibra tions” column food industry but is a professor at (and excess sugar) into body fat. phies of science. It is distinguished in the March/April 2013 issue, the Oklahoma State University. He Montignac extols the virtues of by its partial dependence on prior U.S. Air Force had long been aware the Mediterranean diet, which has plenty of his own criticisms judgments (“prior probability”) to of the problem. is basically that of Southwestern of industry and government as alter conclusions about whether In 1968, as a lowly proofreader France (the “French paradox”), well as of the Food Police. a hypothesis is valid or not. By for a specialty publishing firm, I where the health index is the I have been a reader of the doing so Bayesian Inference es- read an Air Force flight safety man- best of the country (Lille in the S  I for several sentially enshrines prejudice in an ual that addressed exactly this issue. North being at the other end of years and find it especially valu- experiment’s result. Flyers on dark nights or in clouds the spectrum): vegetables, garlic, able in areas where questions Imagine allowing a precon- where they could not get visual fruit, but also red wine, duck have become so politicized that ceived conclusion to affect the confirmation of the horizon would meat, and foie gras! (Duck con- sorting out the correct and ob- result of an experiment—the enter a spiral, tight or loose, and the tains mainly HDL lipids—good jective scientific facts has become result is irreversibly tainted. Be- centrifugal force would give them cholesterol—so go for it!) very difficult. One example of cause Bayesian analysis al lows use the seat-of-their-pants feeling that Unfortunately, it seems most this is global warming, which of a previous conclusion, it loses they were flying straight and level. nutritionists have been weaned must be resolved (if it can be its claim to purely merit-based An attempt to correct to the on calorie counting, which as- resolved) based on the very best decisions. horizon as indicated by the attitude science, not politics! Hopefully sumes that the human body indicator instrument would feel you can do the same for obesity. works like a furnace, and this is David Dilworth very wrong, so pilots would return not the case: our body adapts to [email protected] to what “felt” right, assuring their Phillip R. Wells intake, and calorie starving can Food Scientist (Retired) speedy deaths unless they were for- lead to the undesired result viz. tunate enough to get a visual sight- South Hadley, Massachusetts obesity. Massimo Pigliucci replies: ing in time to straighten up. Congratulations on your When I pointed out the logical The lesson was, “believe your journal; keep up the good work Kenneth Krause’s “Science equivalency of p or ~p I did not instruments.” Watch” missed the robust litera- debunking pseudoscience. mean to imply that denial and Lance Benson ture of over sixty original studies, D.A. Johnson skepticism are themselves equiva- Milton, Nova Scotia most of which find an association La Hulpe lent. But skeptics cannot simply help Canada between decreased sleep duration Belgium themselves to the “you are making and an elevated body mass index a positive claim” rhetorical move, [FEEDBACK (BMI), the marker of being over- Kenneth Krause responds to read- since any positive claim can easily be The letters column is a forum on mat- weight or obese. The effect ap- ers in his column in this issue, turned into a negative one. ters raised in previous issues. Letters pears strongest in children and “Obesity Redux,” p. 23. Concerning Bayesianism, it is should be no longer than 225 words. young adults and has been found certainly the case that it is one of Due to the volume of letters we receive, in many different populations several types of philosophical account not all can be published. Send letters including urban, rural, and third Bayesian Analysis of scientific epistemology, and it is as email text (not attachments) to world countries. This observa- also true that it has flaws (though I [email protected]. In the subject line, Prejudicial? provide your surname and informative tion may be part of the reason disagree with the modifier “deep”). why some people take in excess Please allow me to suggest two identification, e.g.: “Smith Letter on Jones Still, it is widely acknowledged to evolution art icle.” In clude your name and calories. There are probably mul- clarifications to Massimo Pig- be useful in both science and philos- address at the end of the letter. You may tiple factors involved, with the liucci’s column “Whose Burden ophy, and it is particularly helpful also mail your letter to the editor to 944 mechanism and power of each of Proof?” (SI, May/June 2013). when thinking about burden of Deer Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87122. yet to be clarified. The article states that there is proof. Also, it is incorrect to say that

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2013 65 [ THE LAST LAUGH BENJAMIN RADFORD, EDITOR

SKEPTICAL ANNIVERSARIES by Tim Farley

September 10, 2008: CERN’s Large Hadron Collider was first powered on; despite the claims of some, it has not yet destroyed the Earth. September 10, 1993: Emmy-winning science TV pro- gram Bill Nye, The Science Guy premieres. September 13, 1848: Railroad worker Phineas Gage survives an accident in which a steel rod is driven through his skull. His post-injury personality changes were key to studying how the brain works and negating mind/brain dualism. September 28, 1978: The death of Pope John Paul I just thirty-three days after his election spawns many conspiracy theories. October 1, 1988: The U.S. Vaccine Injury Compensation Program begins operation; it is created after a series of lawsuits resulted in vaccine shortages. October 1, 1993: A long battle between the Church of Scientology and the U.S. government ends when the church is granted tax-exempt status. October 13, 1988: Archbishop of Turin Anastasio Ballestrero announces in a press conference that the Shroud of Turin had been dated to medieval times using carbon-14 dating. October 19, 1908: The Anti-Vaccine League of America begins its first conference in Philadelphia. October 21, 1888: Margaret Fox confesses that she and her sisters faked the sounds heard during their Spritual- ist séances, partially by cracking their knuckles. October 30, 1938: The radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds by Orson Welles is thought by some listeners to be a real news event.

Tim Farley is a research fellow with the James Randi Educational Foundation and created the website whatstheharm.net.

66 Volume 37 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer Scientific and Technical Consultants CENTERS FOR INQUIRY Gary Bauslaugh, John F. Fischer, Richard H. Lange, Daisie Radner, www.centerforinquiry.net/about/branches writer and editor, forensic analyst, Orlando, FL MD, Mohawk Valley Physician prof. of philosophy, SUNY Buffalo Victoria, B.C., Canada Eileen Gambrill, Health Plan, Schenectady, NY Robert H. Romer, TRANSNATIONAL Richard E. Berendzen, prof. of social welfare, Gerald A. Larue, prof. of physics, Amherst College 3965 Rensch Road, Amherst, NY 14228 Univ. of California at Berkeley Tel.: (716) 636-4869 astronomer, Washington, DC prof. of biblical history and Karl Sabbagh, archaeology, Univ. of So. California AUSTIN Martin Bridgstock, Luis Alfonso Gámez, journalist, Richmond, Surrey, England science journalist, Bilbao, Spain PO Box 202164, Austin, TX 78720-2164 senior lecturer, School of Science, William M. London, Robert J. Samp, Griffith Univ., Brisbane, Australia California State Univ., Los Angeles Tel.: (512) 919-4115 Sylvio Garattini, assistant prof. of education and CHICAGO Richard Busch, director, Mario Negri Pharma cology Rebecca Long, medicine, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison [email protected] magician/mentalist, Pittsburgh, PA Institute, Milan, Italy nuclear engineer, president of Geor gia Steven D. Schafersman, INDIANAPOLIS Council Against Health Fraud, Atlanta, GA Shawn Carlson, Laurie Godfrey, asst. prof. of geology, Miami Univ., OH 350 Canal Walk, Suite A, Indianapolis, IN 46202 anthropologist, Univ. of Massachusetts Society for Amateur Scientists, Thomas R. McDonough, Chris Scott, Tel.: (317) 423-0710 East Greenwich, RI lecturer in engineering, Caltech, and SETI Gerald Goldin, statistician, London, England LOS ANGELES mathematician, Rutgers Univ., NJ Coordinator of the Planetary Society Roger B. Culver, Stuart D. Scott Jr., 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90027 prof. of astronomy, Colorado State Univ. Donald Goldsmith, James E. McGaha, associate prof. of anthropology, Tel.: (323) 666-9797 astronomer, USAF pilot (ret.) Felix Ares de Blas, astronomer; president, Interstellar Media SUNY Buffalo MICHIGAN 3777 44th Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49512 prof. of computer science, Alan Hale, Chris Mooney, Erwin M. Segal, Univ. of Basque, San Sebastian, Spain astronomer, Southwest Institute for Space journalist, author, host of Point of Inquiry prof. of psychology, SUNY Buffalo Tel.: (616) 698-2342 Research, Alamogordo, NM NEW YORK CITY J. Dommanget, Joel A. Moskowitz, Carla Selby, astronomer, Royale Observatory, director of medical psychiatry, Calabasas PO Box 26241, Brooklyn, NY 11202 Clyde F. Herreid, anthropologist /archaeologist Tel.: (347) 699-0234 Brussels, Belgium prof. of biology, SUNY Buffalo Mental Health Services, Los Angeles Steven N. Shore, SAN FRANCISCO

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Kelly, MD, Tampa, FL M5G 1K3, Canada education, Oklahoma City Univ. prof. of psychology, Univ. of Saskatch ewan, CHINA Canada China Research Institute for Science Popularization, NO. 86, Xueyuan Nanlu Haidian Dist., Beijing, 100081 China Affiliated Organizations | United States Tel.: +86-10-62170515 EGYPT ALABAMA D.C./MARYLAND MINNESOTA South Shore Skeptics (SSS) Cleveland 44 Gol Gamal St., Agouza, Giza, Egypt Alabama Skeptics, Alabama. Emory National Capital Area Skeptics NCAS, St. Kloud Extraordinary Claim Psychic and counties. Jim Kutz. Tel.: 440 942- FRANCE Kimbrough. Tel.: 205-759-2624. 3550 Maryland, D.C., Virginia. D.W. “Chip” Teaching Investigating Community 5543; Email: [email protected]. PO Dr. Henri Broch, Universite of Nice, Faculte des Water melon Road, Apt. 28A, Northport, Denman. Tel.: (240) 670-6227. Email: (SKEPTIC) St. Cloud, Minne sota. Jerry Box 5083, Cleveland, OH 44101 www. Sciences, Parc Valrose, 06108, Nice cedex 2, AL 35476 [email protected]. 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Michael Blanford, New Delhi 110025 http://phoenixskeptics.org OREGON 4011 S. Manhattan Ave. #139, Tampa, President. Email: [email protected]. Tel.: 91-9868010950 Email: [email protected] Oregonians for Science and Reason FL 33611-1277. www.tampabayskept 2729 Ann Ave., St. Louis, MO 63104 LONDON (O4SR) Oregon. Jeanine DeNoma, Phoenix Skeptics, Phoenix, AZ. Michael ics.org www.skepticalstl.org Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Stack pole, P.O. Box 60333, Phoenix, president. Tel.: (541) 745-5026; Email: The James Randi Educational St. Joseph Skeptics London WC1R 4RL, England AZ 85082 [email protected]; 39105 Military Rd., Foun dation. James Randi, Director. Tel: P.O. Box 8908 Monmouth, OR 97361. www.04SR.org NEPAL CALIFORNIA (954)467-1112; Email [email protected]. St. Joseph MO, 64508-8908 Humanist Association of Nepal, PENNSYLVANIA Sacramento Organization for Rational 201 S.E. 12th St. (E. 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theness.com. 64 Cobblestone Dr., Ham-

den, CT 06518 www.theness.com

C Y E The organizations listed above have aims similar to those of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry but are independent and autonomous. N I R T U E Q Representatives of these organizations cannot speak on behalf of CSI. Please send updates to Barry Karr, P.O. Box 703, Amherst NY 14226-0703. R F O R I N International affiliated organizations listed at www.csicop.org.

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