Analyzing the Mill Creek 'BIGFOOT FOOTPRINTS'
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the Skeptical Inquirer Vol 13, No. 3 / Spring 1989 $6 Analyzing the Mill Creek 'BIGFOOT FOOTPRINTS' Levitation: Lore, Physics & Fantasy • Patent Myth • Shroud Lessons CSICOP Chicago Conference • Skepticism as Puzzle Solving Biology Teachers' Beliefs • More on MJ-12 Published by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is the official journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Editor Kendrick Frazier. Editorial Board James E. Alcock, Martin Gardner, Ray Hyman, Philip J. Klass, Paul Kurtz, James Randi. Consulting Editors Isaac Asimov, William Sims Bainbridge, John R. Cole, Kenneth L. Feder, C. E. M. Hansel, E. C. Krupp, David F. Marks, Andrew Neher, James E. Oberg, Robert Sheaffer. Steven N. Shore. Managing Editor Doris Hawley Doyle. Public Relations Director Barry Karr. Business Manager Mary Rose Hays. Assistant Editor Andrea Szalanski. Production Lisa Mergler. Chief Data Officer Richard Seymour. Computer Assistant Michael Cione. Typesetting Paul E. Loynes. Audio Technician Vance Vigrass. Librarian, Ranjit Sandhu. Staff Crystal Foils, Leland Harrington, Raymond Harrington, Lynda Harwood, Laura Muench, Alfreda Pidgeon, Kathy Reeves. Cartoonist Rob Pudim. The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Paul Kurtz, Chairman; philosopher, State University of New York at Buffalo. Lee Nisbet, Special Projects Director. Mark Plummer, Executive Director. Fellows of the Committee James E. Alcock, psychologist, York Univ., Toronto; Eduardo Amaldi, physicist. University of Rome, Italy. Isaac Asimov, biochemist, author; Irving Biederman, psychologist. University of Minnesota; Susan Blackmore, psycholo gist. Brain Perception Laboratory, University of Bristol, England; Mario Bunge, philosopher, McGill University; Bette Chambers, A.H.A.; John R. Cole, anthropologist. Institute for the Study of Human Issues; F. H. C. Crick, biophysicist, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, Calif.; L. Sprague de Camp, author, engineer; Bernard Dixon, science writer, consultant; Paul Edwards, philosopher. Editor, Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Antony Flew, philosopher, Reading Univ., U.K.; Andrew Fraknoi, astronomer, executive officer. Astronomical Society of the Pacific; editor of Mercury; Kendrick Frazier, science writer, Editor, THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER; Yves Galifret, Exec. Secretary, l'Union Rationaliste; Martin Gardner, author, critic; Murray Cell-Mann, professor of physics, California Institute of Technology; Henry Gordon, magician, columnist, broadcaster, Toronto; Stephen Jay Gould, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard Univ.; C. E. M. Hansel, psychologist, Univ. of Wales; Al Hibbs, scientist. Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Douglas Hofstadter, professor of human understanding and cognitive science, Indiana University; Sidney Hook, prof, emeritus of philosophy, NYU; Ray Hyman, psychologist, Univ. of Oregon; Leon Jaroff, sciences editor, Time; Lawrence Jerome, science writer, engineer; Philip J. Klass, science writer, engineer; Marvin Kohl, philosopher, SUNY College at Fredonia; Edwin C. Krupp, astronomer, director, Griffith Observatory; Paul Kurtz, chairman, CSICOP, Buffalo, N.Y.; Lawrence Kusche, science writer; Paul MacCready, scientist/engi neer, AeroVironment, Inc., Monrovia, Calif; David Marks, psychologist, Middlesex Polytech, England; William V. Mayer, biologist. University of Colorado, Boulder; David Morrison, space scientist, NASA Ames Research Center; H. Narasimhaiah, physicist, president. Bangalore Science Forum, India; Dorothy Nelkin, sociologist, Cornell University. Joe Nickell, author, technical writing instructor. University of Kentucky; Lee Nisbet, philosopher, Medaille College; James E. Oberg, science writer, Mark Plummer, lawyer, executive director, CSICOP, Buffalo, N.Y.; W. V. Quine, philosopher. Harvard Univ.; James Randi, magician, author; Milton Rosenberg, psychologist. University of Chicago; Carl Sagan, astronomer, Cornell Univ.; Evry Schatzman, President, French Physics Associa tion; Eugenie Scott, physical anthropologist, executive director. National Center for Science Education, Inc.; Thomas A. Sebeok, anthropologist, linguist, Indiana University; Robert Sheaffer, science writer; B. F. Skinner, psychologist, Harvard Univ.; Dick Smith, film producer, publisher, Terrey Hills, N.S.W., Australia; Robert Steiner, magician, author. El Cerrito, California; Stephen Toulmin, professor of social thought and philosophy, Univ. of Chicago; Marvin Zelen, statistician, Harvard Univ.; Marvin Zimmerman, philosopher, SUNY at Buffalo. (Affilia tions given for identification only.) Manuscripts, letters, books for review, and editorial inquiries should be addressed to Kendrick Frazier, Editor, THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 3025 Palo Alto Dr., N.E., Albuquerque, NM 87111. Subscriptions, change of address, and advertising should be addressed to: THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. Old address as well as new are necessary for change of subscriber's address, with six weeks advance notice. Inquiries from the media and the public about the work of the Committee should be made to Paul Kurtz, Chairman, CSICOP, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. Tel.: (716) 834-3222. FAX: (7l6)-834-0841. Articles, reports, reviews, and letters published in THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER represent the views and work of individual authors. Their publication does not necessarily constitute an endorsement by CSICOP or its members unless so stated. Copyright ©1989 by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, 3159 Bailey Ave., Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. Subscription Rates: Individuals, libraries, and institutions, S22.50 a year; back issues, $6.00 each. Postmaster: THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is published quarterly. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Printed in the U.S.A. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, New York, and additional mailing offices. Send changes of address to THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. Skeptical Inquirer Journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Vol. 13, No. 3 ISSN 0194-6730 Spring 1989 SPECIAL REPORT 260 High School Biology Teachers and Pseudosclentlfic Belief: Passing It On? by Raymond A. Eve and Dana Dunn ARTICLES 264 Evidence for Bigfoot? An Investigation of the Mill Creek 'Sasquatch Prints' by Michael R. Dennett 273 Alleged Pore Structure in Sasquatch (Bigfoot) Footprints by Deborah J. Freeland and Walter F. Rowe 277 The Lore of Levltatlon by Gordon Stein 284 Claims of Levltatlon 'Miracles In India' by B. Premanand 289 Levltatlon: Some Phantasy and Some Physics by Warner Clements 296 Unshrouding a Mystery: Science, Pseudoscience, and the Cloth of Turin by Joe Nickell 300 Rather Than Just Debunking, Encourage People to Think by Al Seckel 305 MJ-12 Papers 'Authenticated'? by Philip J. Klass 310 A Patently False Patent Myth by Samuel Sass CSICOP CONFERENCE IN CHICAGO 226 New Light on the New Age by Lys Ann Shore 241 Graphology and Personality: 'Let the Buyer Beware' by Robert Basil NEWS & COMMENT 244 Gallup Poll / Paranormal Database in France / Skepticism and TV / Tabloid Television / 'House of Blood' in Atlanta / Klass Confusion NOTES OF A FRINGE-WATCHER 252 Gaiaism by Martin Gardner PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS 257 Antigravity, anti-CSICOP, and antiscience by Robert Sheaffer BOOK REVIEWS 313 E. John Speer, Die geistige Welt—lhre Wesen und grenzwissenschlaftliche (Felix E. Planer) 314 Henry Gordon, Extrasensory Deception (Wendy Grossman) 317 SOME RECENT BOOKS 322 ARTICLES OF NOTE 326 FROM OUR READERS Letters from John Prager, Michael W. Walker, David E. Young, Daniel Cohen, Steven Kurtz, W. H. Watkins, Robert G. Jahn, Alan M. MacRobert, Martin Reiser, Forrest Johnson, John H. Hubbard, Elizabeth Thomas, Raymond P. Levine, J. W. Nienhuys, and Doug Berger Cover design by Lisa Mergler. Cover photo of Paul Freeman's bust of Bigfoot (see pp. 264-272) courtesy of Michael R. Dennett. CSICOP CONFERENCE IN CHICAGO New Light on the New Age CSICOP's Chicago conference was the first to critically evaluate the New Age movement. Lys Ann Shore ELD IN the vast Hyatt Regency expressed a variety of viewpoints, each Hat Chicago's O'Hare Airport, the viewing the New Age in light of his or 1988 conference of the Committee for her own background and concerns. the Scientific Investigation of Claims of Opening speaker Maureen O'Hara, for the Paranormal (CSICOP) wasn't the example, a humanistic psychologist and only event going on at the hotel from professor of women's studies at San November 4 to 6. Quality-control man Diego State University, identified herself agers, lawyers, and others were convening as a former biochemist who changed as well. It's safe to say, however, that the fields after she underwent a near-death CSICOP conference was the most com experience. pelling event around—so much so that O'Hara sees the New Age as a sign of at least one participant in another con the failure of the "scientific story" to ference played hooky to kibitz at account for all the aspects of human CSICOP's opening session. experience. Taking a historical perspec The meeting's focus was the much- tive, she asked the audience to consider touted "New Age," which CSICOP the Scientific Revolution of the seven Chairman Paul Kurtz in his opening re teenth century as a mystical revolution— marks called simply "the Old Age an attempt to "read God's mind" directly repackaged." He emphasized that not all rather than having reality interpreted by aspects of the New