sign in sign up
<<
Home , Al Seckel, Broch, Gerard Croiset, James Alcock, Loren Pankratz, Sarah Thomason

•

Vol. 14. No. 4 / Summer 1990

"V-

v

Satanic Myths and Urban Legends Thinking Critically and Creatively Piltdown, Paradigms & the Survival Claims: Order Out of Chaos Quest for Auras / Biorhythms

GHOSTS MAKE NEWS! How Newspapers Report Psi Stories

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, , Philip J. Klass, Paul Kurtz, . 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. Business Manager Mary Rose Hays. Assistant Editor Andrea Szalanski. Art Valerie Ferenti-Cognetto. Chief Data Officer Richard Seymour. Computer Assistant Michael Cione. Typesetting Paul E. Loynes. Audio Technician Vance Vigrass. Librarian, Ranjit Sandhu. Staff Kimberly Gallo, Leland Harrington, Lynda Harwood (Asst. Public Relations Director), Sandra Lesniak, 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. , Executive Director and Public Relations Director. Fellows of the Committee (partial list) 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, psychologist, Brain Perception Laboratory, University of Bristol, England; Henri Broch, physicist, University of Nice, France; , philosopher, McGill University; John R. Cole, anthropologist, Institute for the Study of Issues; F. H. C. Crick, biophysicist, Saik Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, Calif.; L. Sprague de Camp, author, engineer; Bernard Dixon, science writer, London, U.K.: 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 Gell-Mann, professor of physics, California Institute of ; 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; , professor of human understanding and cognitive science, Indiana University; 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/ engineer, AeroVironment, Inc., Monrovia, Calif.; David Marks, psychologist, Middlesex Polytech, England; David Morrison, space scientist, NASA Ames Research Center; H. Narasimhaiah, physicist, president. Bangalore Science Forum, India; Richard A. Muller, professor of physics, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley; Dorothy Nelkin, sociologist, . , author, technical writing instructor. University of Kentucky; Lee Nisbet, philosopher, Medaille College; James E. Oberg, science writer; John Paulos, mathematician. Temple University; Mark Plummet, lawyer, Australia; W. V. Quine, philosopher, Harvard Univ.; James Randi, magician, author; Graham Reed, psychologist, York Univ., Toronto; Milton Rosenberg, psychologist, University of Chicago; Carl Sagan, astronomer, Cornell Univ.; Evry Schatzman, President, French Physics Association; 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, pro­ fessor of philosophy. Northwestern Univ.; Marvin Zelen, statistician, Harvard Univ. (Affiliations 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 as new are necessary for change of subscriber's address, with six weeks advance notice. Subscribers to THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER may not speak on behalf of CSICOP or THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. 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: (716)-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 Ave., Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. All rights reserved. Subscription Rates: Individuals, libraries, and institutions, $25.00 a year; back issues, $6.25 each. Postmaster: THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is published quarterly. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. 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. A SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Vol. 14, No. 4, Summer 1990 I I ISSN 0194-6730 Journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal

ARTICLES Ghosts Make News: How Four Newspapers Report Phenomena Roger Klare 363 Thinking Critically and Creatively Carole Wade and Carol Tavris 372 Police Pursuit of Satanic Crime. Part II: The Satanic Conspiracy and Urban Legends Robert D. Hicks 378 Order Out of Chaos in Survival Research Arthurs. Berger 390 Piltdown. Paradigms, and the Paranormal Kenneth L Feder 397 Auras: Searching for the Light Robert W. Loftin 403 Biorhythms and the Timing of Death David Lester 410 NEWS AND COMMENT 339 The Aging New Age / Airplane-Gate / John's Statistics / Graham Reed / Po Halos / Sending Mental Messages—and Money / Weeping Icon / The Brain's MagneticField s/ Truth in Advertising? NOTES OF A FRINGE-WATCHER 353 Relativism in Science Martin Gardner

1 PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS 360

BOOK REVIEWS 413 Ray Hyman, The Elusive Quarry (David F. Marks) 413 John C. Burnham, How Won and Science Lost (Robert A Baker) 418 Victor Cohn, News & Numbers (Roger Klare) 422

SOME RECENT BOOKS 424

ARTICLES OF NOTE 426

FORUM 429

] LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 431

Cover design and illustration by Bruce Adams. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER The perfect gift for relatives and friends. Save up to 30%

$25.00 for first one-year gift subscription 1.

NAME please print

ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP

only $18.75 for second one-year gift subscription (25% savings)

2. NAME please print

ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP only $17.50 for each additional gift hereafter (30% savings)

3. NAME please print

ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP

4. NAME please print

ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP

A gift card will be sent in your name.

YOUR NAME please print

ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP

Include my own subscription for 1 year ($25.00) • 2 years ($43.00) • 3 years ($59.00) •

Charge my • Visa n MasterCard n Check enclosed • Bill me * Exp Total $ (Outside the U.S., please pay in US. funds drawn on a U.S. bank. If you live outside North America and would like airmail, add $16.00 a yea;. Order toll-free: 800-634-1610 (In New York State call 716-834-3222.) SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • Box 229 • Buffalo, New York 14215-0229 News and Comment

The Old Age J Of the New Age

\\ I have the sense that the has offered such a thorough exploi­ I New Age is slowing down," tation of all that is classified as New I says Davis Dutton, co-owner Age that there is little fresh to say. of a bookstore that carries We've cooked the New Age chicken New Age materials. Bookseller Peggy 1,001 ways and it is increasingly Taylor of Webster's of Milwaukee difficult to come up with exciting, agrees: "Five years ago most book­ fresh recipes." stores renamed their section What was—or is—New Age? (See 'New Age.' . . . Probably in a year, SI, Spring and Summer 1989.) Most New Age as a term will die and well observers agree that its roots are have an 'Occult' section once again." found in the sixties' quest for fresh The November 3, 1989, Publishers options. While some young people Weekly included an essay by Jeremy sought political alternatives, others Tarcher, the pioneer New Age pub­ tended toward personal alternatives. lisher. Titled "Here's to the End of the Hippies who began by meditating and New Age," it concludes: "This decade demonstrating found, after the Viet-

fU~:

<=z

Summer 1990 339 nam war, that they were focusing on disclose one's fascination with various changing themselves rather than cult and occult notions and practices. society. It seemed a lot easier to do. Atavism, barbarism, superstition, and Critics labeled this, variously, as simple stupidity all "came out of the narcissism, me-generationism, escap­ closet" at about the same time. It had ism, or surrender. Fasting, meditating, become respectable to dabble in the yoga, macrobiotics, the cultivation of dubious. "higher powers," Eastern mysticism, But there is more involved in the channeling, curative crystals, and the wide acceptance of the New Age, and rediscovery of past lives increasingly Davis Dutton put his finger on it when occupied the time of many of the he said, "The popularity of New Age grown-up flower children. is due to the failure of our educational The New Age mingled hope, hype, system to instill rational thinking." holiness, and hucksterism. Nowhere New Agers are educated, even college- was this more evident than in pub­ educated. They can read. But whether lishing, where many new imprints they read critically is a separate were established to fill the demand for question. We have made so much out books on personal growth and "trans­ of learning the mechanics of reading formation." Because the New Age that the need for evaluating what one grew out of a dissatisfaction with the reads has become neglected. status quo, it needed unconventional If the New Age fades, what will dogmas. Established would happen to those whose need to believe not do. For new ideas the publishers made it so successful in the first place? turned to—what else?—old belief Not to worry. There will be new (old) systems. cerebral sanctuaries for the supersti­ Davis Dutton says: "I feel that tious. What has yet to be determined there is a kind of cynicism on the part is the new term under whose rubric of some of the publishers who just the warmed-over wisdom of the ages spew this stuff out, much of it will be served up as "the latest thing." regurgitation of what's been around It has to be broad enough to encom­ 100 to 200 years, just to make a buck." pass such old chestnuts as alchemy, Philip Sansone of Book People in , kabballa, I Ching, Tarot, Austin, Texas, puts it this way: "New black , white magic, witchery, Age is just a category that publishers Earth , and Tibetan and have latched onto in order to market Tantric Buddhism. to a certain segment of society." More important, it must include What segment? First the college- the recent tendencies that will give the educated baby boomers who came out next stage of New Age its distinctive of the protest movements. Their flavor and probably its new name. The numbers were increased by more most popular "new" currents are: conventional types attracted to meta­ holistic health; mythology, with physical moonshine by the popularity subsets for Goddess and Native Amer­ of Shirley MacLaine's books—as well ican religions; 12-step recovery pro­ as by her glamour—especially after grams; and visualization, or imaging. more of the rich and famous confessed 1. Healing. Insofar as the market­ to also being devotees of channeling, ing of literature is concerned, holistic astrology, , and other health and alternative healing have New Age beliefs. the inestimable advantage of being A herd instinct took over, as it marketable not only through tradi­ became first safe and then chic to tional bookstore channels but also in

340 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 the thousands of health-food stores ery books, tapes, lectures, and work­ where the faithful graze. If there is shops by recovered or lapsed addicts an in word today, it is surely "healing." (self-diagnosed). Consider the titles of the following There is glamour and money in the runaway bestsellers: You Can Heal A and R (addiction and recovery) Your Life, Healing the Shame, Healing business: athletes, movie stars, and Your Sexual Self, You the Healer, The wives of famous politicians grace the Dancing Healers, Where the Healing billboards with gripping testimonials, Waters Meet, The Healing Zone, and public confessionals, breast-beating, Healing Visualization. and self-flagellation. Not even our The appetite for being elementary schools are safe from the what it is, the interest in such modal­ maudlin confessions, hand and heart ities as Ayurvedic medicine, crystals, wringing, dire warnings, and threats therapeutic touch, , acu­ of those who have "done wrong and puncture, radionics, psychic healing, seen the light." Sinning and saving are naturopathy, chiropractic, and aroma­ back in style. therapy grows by leaps and bounds. ^.Visualization, or imaging, is espe­ 2. Mythology. What Shirley cially big among the holistically MacLaine and her 35,000-year-old healthy who believe that if you picture former self, Emmanuel, were to white blood cells fighting cancer cells channeling, Bill Moyers and the it will kill them. It is equally big in blissfully defunct Joseph Campbell are big business circles, where the ulti­ to mythology: 35 million viewers saw mate encomium these days is to be the programs and 100,000 bought thought a "visionary" and where videocassettes of The Power of Myth. "visioning" is the apogee of commer­ The Goddess religions occupy the cial creativity. Popular book titles are: spiritual penumbra of feminism: every Creative Visualization, Healing Visual­ mundane movement has its extra- ization, Creative Imagery—and for mundane reflection. Native American those so insecure they need to have religions, which grew out of matriar­ all the bases covered, Creative Visu­ chal cultures, have the same attrac­ alization: The Power of Myth. tion, although their revival is partly The words creative and power are due to the growth of ecological power words these days. Primitive consciousness. A prominent German people used to think you got smart member of the Green Party said, "In by eating the brains of animals. A lot ecology is the basis of a of "smart" people today seem to think political movement; in America it that if you use the word power you seems to be the basis of a religion." become powerful. 3. Twelve-step recovery programs We are assured by Robert Hall, from addictions are patterned on executive editor of the New Age Alcoholics Anonymous. What was publisher Humanics, that the firm's once a habit, sin, or personal problem books are in use by DuPont, IBM, is now seen as an "addiction." Thus Tenneco, Texaco, and the Mitchell- we have addictions to sex, drugs, Bradford Chemical Corporation. Is gambling, alcohol, overeating, smok­ this why the nation's industries seem ing, sleeping, undereating, depen­ to be losing power? dency, codependency, shopping, use of Fifty years ago, a publishing joke credit cards, hand-washing, and was that if you wanted to produce a house-cleaning. These have called bestseller you had to cover three forth a flood of treatment and recov­ burning interests of the public: Abra-

Summer 1990 341 ham Lincoln, doctors, and dogs. Thus, Whole Life, makes these remarks in a a sure-fire winner would be titled recent issue of his publication. Before "Lincoln's Doctor's Dog." Today, a a friend gave me a copy, I could not bestseller is more likely to be called: have imagined the circumstances that "Creatively Imaging Power Sex with would lead me to recommend Whole a Goddess While Recovering from an Life to a skeptic, except as a catalogue Addiction to Visionary Healing." of the latest New Age hokum. But statements like the one above appear —Murray L Bob throughout a fascinating story about a scheme promoted in the Murray L. Bob is director of the New Age community in New York in Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library Sys­ 1987. Touted in "prosperity work­ tem, Jamestown, New York, and a widely shops" as a "basis and model for a new published freelance writer. economic, political and social order," the scheme required participants to put up $1,500 in order to take a "seat" on an airplane piloted by someone who'd entered the game as a passenger Airplane-Gate: some time before. To pass through the stages of crew-member and co-pilot New Age Scheme before attaining the pilot's seat, one Backfires had to bring in other passengers, who were also required to put up $1,500. The State Attorney General's office, which has arrested and successfully here are no standards, ethical prosecuted a number of the game's or otherwise, for being part promoters, is quoted in the article to I of the New Age community. explain the way the scheme operated: . . . The fact is that the New Age " such as the Airplane Game community in New York as well as require an ever-expanding number of across the country has never had the participants. If a thousand games are guts to police its own, to reject the operating statewide, 56,000 new leeches and New Age scum that have investors will have to be found to pay permeated their ranks from day one. off the so-called pilots, co-pilots and As a result they've taken in and sup­ crew members who have already put ported some of the lowest dregs that in their $1,500. Those 56,000 new mainstream society has thrown away, investors would have to find 504,000 and they've gone beyond supporting additional investors in a matter of them, they've made them 'leaders.' days. The numbers escalate so rapidly And in doing so created a sick com­ the pyramid eventually collapses, munity, one that thrives in a fantasy leaving the latest—and most numer­ world where the normal laws of logic ous—group of investors without any and reason don't apply." chance to recover their investment, let Is the individual quoted above (a) alone make a killing." a subscriber to the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, or (b) the editor and pub­ Medoff shows no mercy toward the lisher of Whole Life magazine, self- people who were taken in by the described as "The Journal for Holistic scheme—labeling them "ignorant Health and Natural Living"? slobs," among other things. The sordid The answer, remarkably, is (b). details of how the game was put over, Marc Medoff, editor and publisher of and by whom, are interesting in the

342 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 way that crime stories set in a par­ that has been used and re-used for ticular milieu always are: there's the decades. . . . And of course that's sociology to consider, along with the what makes the whole thing all the particulars of the crime. Airplane more disturbing—if such a large recruitment meetings were fertile segment of the New Age commun­ ity fell so easily for such a trans­ ground for New Age revelation. "This parent scam, can you imagine what game isn't about money," Medoff would happen if a scheme with the quotes one promoter, "because you're slightest bit of sophistication were involved in a process and you're introduced? Not since the similarly getting to know a lot of things about promoted Circle of God scam in the yourself, your own life, your stuff and late 1970s (another illegal pyramid why you're not moving or getting swindle that was cloaked in New what you want. And you start learn­ Age jargon, it involved mailing sums ing about relationships at a very high of cash to complete strangers in level." anticipation of a big payoff) have so many people from so many different Other superb examples of New walks of life been suckered in so Age glossolalia abound, but it is easily. . . . The Airplane Game Medoff's criticism of the so-called should never have happened in the New Age community that makes the first place; it should have been most worthwhile reading. He may dismissed the same way we laugh seem to a skeptic to be stating the off three-card monte dealers, obvious, but for the publisher of a street-corner "gold" watch sales­ magazine seemingly devoted to New men, and people who still contend the earth is flat. Age practices and theology (although Medoff insists it never was a typical New Age magazine) to so roundly On the last page of the article, criticize that "community" is note­ Medoff reveals how deeply his faith worthy. Again and again, he cuts to has been shaken by the Airplane Game the void at the heart of the New Age: con:

... A major irony of the Airplane When I began publishing "Whole Game is that one of the reasons it Life" nearly three years ago it was was able to flourish so rapidly had with the intent of serving New to do with its adherents following York's "holistic community," a a very questionable, but well- community I took to be intelligent, entrenched New Age "principle." progressive, open-minded people That tenet implies that you just sort who wanted to change themselves of accept things that come your and in doing so help transform way, you don't criticize, analyze or society. ... Is there really such a question the ideas, programs and community? Or is there just a large philosophies that are presented in pool of New Age piranhas, where this community, you just follow the most cunning, most manipula­ them. Yes, that's right, like good tive, and most predatory of us little Nazis. The majority of people prosper, and everyone else loses? I in this community are like that, they think about that, and I have to be don't ask questions, they just honest with you. I really don't know believe—like they did in Jonestown. anymore. I really don't.

And: Despite his growing doubt, Medoff still accepted the kind of advertising The Airplane Game is a variation that plays on precisely the same vague of an age-old con-artist's formula notions about mind and matter that

Summer 1990 343 Medoff: 'V)Ie Became a Pariah'

The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER [asked of fact, several issues into bur pub­ Marc Medoff to. elaborate oh any of lishing history I ordered the term the .points in the accompanying news "New Age" removed from all of our report. He provided this additional promotional, advertising, and self- comment.—ED. referenced documents. Had we stuck to.-the New Age During my two-and-a-half-year "party line," we would have been tenure as publisher of Whole Life able to significantly add to our I was forced to travel the agonizing advertising revenues. As a result of intellectual path that led me from our increasingly anti-New Age being a cautious New Age enthu­ stance Whole Life became a pariah siast to being a critic, a skeptic, and among New Age publications, some finally a downright opponent. of which refused to run our sub­ During this course, nothing dis­ scription ads and attacked Whole tressed me more than the dawning Life for being too "critical of the reality that most of the advertising New Age movement." Whole Life carried was, sad to say, In the end, those we criticized little more than what Mary Hof­ in our editorial pages also decided fman refers to as "hokum." we were treading on forbidden soil. The bulk of the editorial con­ "After our publication of an article tent, though, never conformed to attacking the Airplane Game in what could accurately be character­ 1987, those we exposed stole and ized as a "magazine devoted to New destroyed thousands of copies of Age practices and theology." At no that issue in a desperate attempt time in the course of the nine issues to suppress its release. Those thefts we published did we sing the so crippled Whole Life financially praises or in anyway promote the that we had finally to cease pub­ activities of channelers, UFO lication in the summer of 1989, "abductees," crystal healers, or any some time after issue No. 9 came of the other bizarre New Age out and experienced similar thefts. practices that are the cover-story Threatening the New Age cash cow mainstays of virtually every New that exploits them for profit and Age publication in the country. criticizing their belief systems does Indeed, we lampooned and criti­ not sit well with committed New cized these activities with increas­ Agers. ing severity over the years. In point —Marc Medoff the Airplane Game promoters used to your body can create: The process is attract players. For example, in one endless and everyone can grow ad the manufacturers of herb vitamins stronger as they grow older." promise that their formulas "contain Another ad, for "High Tech Med­ only herbs which help your body itation" tapes, claims they produce accumulate positive life . . . . "enhanced whole brain synchrony," The more of it you have, the faster and a psychic uses her ad to broadcast your health improves. There are no her "surprising" discovery that "there limits to how much positive energy are ancient talents which are provid-

344 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 ing information beyond what can be has figured out that the statistical gleaned by the most sophisticated likelihood of achieving these results computer. I am talking about a dimen­ by chance is 1 in 10 billion." I proposed sion now being accepted at the highest in a letter to the NYTM a simple test levels as valid: , ESP that could be performed in one day and similar psychic phenomenon." by two people that might settle the One could go on and on. Obviously, question once and for all. The NYTM Medoff had to go on paying his bills did not print my criticisms of it and while he pondered the lessons of the Professor Jahn. It printed only two Airplane Game ripoff. In the end, letters; one congratulating Jahn, and Whole Life's increasingly anti-New one very short, incisive letter from Age stance offended both its readers Martin Gardner. Since I have never and those who placed the ads. Some seen my test described in the New Age devotees mounted nasty SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, I shall now quote campaigns against the magazine, and my letter to the NYTM in its entirety: it was forced for financial reasons to suspend publication (see box). "You I feel it is unfortunate that the could say that Whole Life was the first New York Times Magazine pub­ New Age publication in the country lished the article "Questions for to critically examine and attack the the Cosmos" without some kind New Age, and as a result was forced of peer review. What appeared out of business, in part due to this to be two scientific experiments position," Medoff told the SKEPTICAL (one on and the INQUIRER. "The New Age is not a other on ) seem to community that takes criticism well. have had serious flaws not Whole Life found that out." pointed out by your writer. The most serious (remote —Mary Hoffman viewing of Paris from Princeton) claimed that "the statistical Mary Hoffman, a member of the New likelihood of achieving these York Area Skeptics, teaches at a public results by chance is 1 in 10 school in Brooklyn. billion." To my knowledge, it is not possible to make a valid statistical analysis of an open- ended situation such as choosing a scene from anywhere in Paris. Remote Viewing, If there really exists such a J Statistics, and Jahn phenomenon as remote viewing, then Professor Robert Jahn should be willing to submit to n the past few years the mass media a far easier task which can, as have reported instances of "remote well, be evaluated statistically. viewing," or "remote perception." He, or his colleague in Paris, can I choose ten quite different loca­ One of the most prominent instances was the article "Questions for the tions in Paris, and even study Cosmos" in the November 26, 1989, detailed photos of these loca­ New York Times Magazine. This article tions numbered from 1 to 10. reported the results of Professor Then at a predetermined time, Robert Jahn's research at Princeton his colleague will go to one of University. The article stated: "Jahn the ten locations chosen by a

Summer 1990 345 random-number generator and repeat this ten times in a row, "transmit" his perceptions. At then the odds really will be one that time Prof. Jahn will record in ten billion. which of the ten photos is the So far, whenever scientific closest. If he can successfully controls have been applied to a

0 Graham Reed, Scholarof Anomalous Experience

rofessor Graham Reed, who whole gamut of strange and seem­ originated the term "anomal­ ingly paranormal experience can be Pous experience" and wrote a understood as manifestations of classic scholarly work on the sub­ somewhat rare but certainly "nor­ ject, died on December 29, 1989, mal" psychological mechanisms. It at his home in Toronto following was in this work that Reed coined a year-long battle with cancer. Born the term "anomalous experience" in Coventry, England, Professor to describe experiences that are so Reed obtained degrees from Cam­ odd that they are taken to be bridge University and the Univer­ paranormal. sity of Durham and his Ph.D. in Reed's last presentation on psychology from the University of behalf of was at the 1988 Manchester in 1966. In 1969, he CSICOP conference in Chicago, moved with his family to Toronto, where he delivered a paper on the where he joined the faculty of York psychology of channeling. Those University, serving variously as who heard him will remember his departmental chair in psychology witty and charming style. In the* and as dean of graduate studies. same year he was elected a CSICOP Professor Reed was a productive Fellow. and well-respected scholar, pub­ Professor Reed will be remem­ lishing many research articles in bered by his colleagues and friends professional journals. In 1985, he as a wonderful and remarkable published his Obsessional- human being, whose intellect, Compulsive Disorders, which he humor, and probing insight considered to be his opus magnum, touched the lives of all who came summarizing a professional life­ to know him. He will be remem­ time of inquiry into obsessive- bered by his students as an edu­ compulsive behavior. cator par excellence, who Reed's long and active interest stimulated them to think critically, in a rational approach to the para­ while at the same time making normal goes back to his early education an enjoyable and invig­ association with C. E. M. Hansel orating experience. in England. In 1972, Reed published his classic, The Psychology of Anom­ — alous Experience. A revised edition was published in 1988 by Prome­ theus Books. This book stands by James Alcock is professor of psychology itself in providing a cognitive at Glendon College, York University, framework through which the Toronto.

346 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 psychic phenomenon, the phe­ nomenon vanishes. Science is not science without adequate controls. It is not the role of scientists, or even the media, to report unpublished and uncon­ trolled phenomena which on the surface may appear to be scien­ tific experiments.

—Jay Orear

Jay Orear is a professor of physics ai lAV^uire- Cornell University. Because it took much longer for the earth's rocks to cool, the polonium should have vanished long before the rocks began to solidify. A Solution to Creationists, who accept the Bible The Tiny Mystery as a literal scientific textbook, say "po halos" prove that the earth was Of To Halos' created instantaneously by God. But two Florida State University geologists report that they have solved or years, some people who believe the mystery. Leroy Odom and William the earth was created during a J. Rink said they discovered that Fsix-day period 6,000 years ago scientists were wrong when they have been citing a natural pheno­ assumed that the largest halos were menon known as "po halos" to dispute caused by elements that emitted the the contention of scientists that our strongest, most penetrating alpha planet formed from molten rock 4.6 particles. In at least one case, Odom billion years ago (SI, Summer 1989: and Rink found halos that extended 357). more than twice the distance that an "Po halos" are concentric rings of alpha particle could naturally travel in discolored rock found in a variety of the rock. ancient crystals. They are created Thus "the size of the ring is not when radioactive material embedded necessarily controlled by the energy in the rock decays and releases alpha of the alpha particle," said Odom. That particles. The alpha particles strike means a longer-lived radioactive adjacent rock, discoloring it. element, and not polonium, could The radioactive element polonium easily be responsible for the halos. was believed responsible for "po halos" So how do the halos grow so large? because polonium releases alpha When the radioactive material decays particles that have enough energy to and sends an alpha particle into the penetrate the rock and create large rock, Odom explained, it creates a discolorations. positive electrical charge that builds up Yet polonium halos have puzzled in the surrounding rock and slowly scientists because polonium has a half- spreads outward like a drop of blue life of three minutes and it decays dye spreads on a piece of white cloth. completely within a matter of months. The rate of diffusion is excruciat-

Summer 1990 347 ingly slow: roughly a millionth of a envelopes and a $10 registration fee meter every 20 million years. But in and promise "to everything rocks that are more than half a billion about this operation absolutely con­ years old, that's enough time for halos fidential." created by long-lasting radioactive People who sent in the $10 were elements to expand and give scientists asked to broadcast a one-minute the illusion that only polonium could mental message to space aliens at have created them. 10:00 P.M. EDT on June 29. Participants "The migration could be even were supposed to mail in reports of faster," depending on other condi­ any strange phenomena they subse­ tions, said Odom, whose research is quently experienced. "Study and reported in the October 6,1989, issue analysis of these debriefing forms at of Science. command headquarters, in conjunc­ tion with other project data, will then —C. Eugene Emery, ]r. commence immediately, in complete secrecy," he pledged. Gene Emery is a science writer at the Feinstein said 5,000 Americans had Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., signed up, but he insisted that the Providence, Rl 02902. project was "not a money-making

Mental Messages, Mars, and J Making Money

hen we last left Alan Shawn Feinstein, the Rhode Island Wfinancial advisor, he was touting the importance of the "face" on Mars to the readers of his news­ letter, prompting Mars expert Con­ way Snyder to chastise Feinstein for his "falsehoods and half-truths" about something that is probably a natural (SI, Summer 1988, p. 340). Since then, Feinstein's followers have been led into other realms of the bizarre. In the first half of 1989, citing "a private briefing" to NASA about extraterrestrial life, Feinstein began recruiting participants for "Operation Indigo," a "top secret" project he billed as "the greatest attempt in history to contact life in outer space." The only X*«3^ur\&- requirements: send two stamped

348 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 venture." He denied that participants were required to pay or that the Tampa Bay's project was a secret. He also declined Weeping Icon Fiasco to say who would analyze the D responses. (The "private briefing" on the Mars face turned out to be one of the lectures in a regularly scheduled n July 1989, tears allegedly began series, open to the public, held at to flow from the Virgin Mary's eyes NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. in a color photograph of a painting The topic the previous week had been hanging in the Greek Orthodox "Diet and Cancer.") Shrine of St. Michael in Tarpon Springs, Florida, a Tampa Bay com­ Feinstein's report on the results munity. While priests from the two consisted of one paragraph explaining nearest Greek Orthodox churches that nothing had been found (he agreed that a was in progress, declined my request to see the reports they differed somewhat in their he received), and 16 paragraphs perspectives. The Rev. Christos touting a second project, this Matos told the faithful that it was "a one designed to broadcast a mental sign from God we are sinful and message to the hostages in Lebanon. (must) repent," while the Rev. Tryfon People were invited to get details in Theophilopoulos speculated that per­ a three-month trial subscription to haps it was "a sign of happiness from one of his monthly four-page newslet­ . . . the holy mother." More serious ters (regularly $90 a year). disagreement was to follow. In the beginning of 1990, Feinstein was offering to sell his newsletter Widespread newspaper and televi­ subscribers a set of 37 souvenir sion coverage attracted crowds and stamps, printed by the African coun­ try of Sierra Leone, that included one stamp (worth about $2.40) illustrated with the image of the Mars face. The price of the total set: $100. If the face turns out to have been carved by intelligent beings, he told his subscribers in January, "this stamp set could become one of the most valuable collector items in the world." A month later, Feinstein was promoting the set with a letter from "leading science researcher" Richard C. Hoagland, author of The Monu­ ments of Mars (see review in SI, 13:76), in which Hoagland expressed confi­ dence "that in the near future these sets should be worth no less than $10,000.00-$25,000.00 apiece!" Who says you can't make money by banking on something that's more "Tears" on photo hanging in Tampa Bay than 35 million miles away? shrine turned out to have been there all along. (Photo by Guss Wilder, Tampa Bay C. Eugene Emery Jr. Skeptics)

Summer 1990 349 donations to the privately owned dust settled, Matos was no longer shrine. I went for a look, bringing a permitted to operate at the shrine and newspaper photograph of the photo was awaiting assignment to another that was taken four days before my church, with all three parties refusing visit, and noted immediately that the media interviews. But shortly before "tear" pattern of white dots hadn't the fiasco exploded, Matos acknowl­ changed one iota in those four days, edged to photographer Guss Wilder despite Matos's claim that the tears that, yes, the white "tears" had continued to flow. None flowed actually been present on the shrine's during my visit, but Matos explained photograph all along! that this was because they "crystal­ Responding to my letter criticizing lized" from time to time. Placing my the area's largest newspaper, the St. head against the wall to look across Petersburg Times, for having published the icon's plane, I saw nothing but a photographs and eight articles on this flat piece of photographic paper, with­ story without once addressing the out any three-dimensional "crystals." "tear track" incongruities, the metro Taped to the picture's frame was editor responded: "I think some of the a caption that began, "The Guiding fun of reading a newspaper involves Mother of God Weeping Icon. . . ." making one's own discoveries about This seemed odd for a photo that what really happened." Fortunately, Matos swore had been hanging in the several members of the Tampa Bay shrine for seven months, with no Skeptics were able to make their own "tears" until several days earlier. The discoveries. caption named the St. Nicholas Alban­ ian Orthodox Church in Chicago, —Gary P. Posner where a nearly identical painting remains on display for "veneration" Dr. Posner is a St. Petersburg internist two years after having made national and founder of the Tampa Bay Skeptics. news when it reportedly wept. I He has written for Free Inquiry magazine contacted Jim Zaluba of the Midwest as a member of its Faith-Healing Committee for Rational Inquiry, who Investigation Project. visited the church, noting barely a hint of the original tear pattern on the painting. The souvenir photo sold at the church has the identical caption, but bears a tear pattern of dark streaks Magnetic Fields rather than white dots, and appears • Of the Brain to be artistically altered. I was originally the only source of skeptical commentary about Tampa he human brain is alive with Bay's "weeping icon," in interviews pulsating magnetic fields. A law of with the Tampa Tribune and four Tphysics holds that magnetic fields television and radio stations. As are produced whenever an electrical skepticism began to grow, the Rev. current passes through a conductor. Theophilopoulos distanced himself The brain's nerve cells, called neurons, from Matos's continued assertions of are triggered by small electrical cur­ tears and called a representative of the rents. This has been known for Diocese of Atlanta to arbitrate what decades and doctors routinely record appears to have been an intense the intensity and patterns of these behind-the-scenes dispute. When the electrical brain waves. Until recently.

350 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 fields from three distinct areas of the brain." Magnetic research of the brain is of great interest to surgeons, doctors, and psychologists. With this , specific brain locations are being linked to specific body activities. In the area of psychology, monitoring the brain's magnetic activity is helping determine the of imagination and thought processes. Magnetic fields of the brain, states Williamson, are a helpful window into the work­ Copyright «1990. American Institute of Physics ings of our mind. however, the magnetic fields that —American Institute of Physics accompany these electrical currents Science Report couldn't be measured. In fact, they couldn't even be detected. "The magnetic fields produced by u Truth in Advertising? neurons and other nerve cells are extremely weak. The entire magnetic field of the brain is a mere one- hundred-billionth of those magnets used to hold notes to refrigerator doors," explains physicist Samuel Williamson of New York University's Neuromagnetism Laboratory. Today, highly sensitive detectors can spot even these faint magnetic fields, and Williamson, a member of the American Physical Society, and his colleagues are busy mapping the brain's magnetic activity. Every brain function, from imagining a pay raise to lifting a forefinger, uses the neu­ rons of a specific location. Detecting magnetic fields can pinpoint these geographical areas. In one instance, Williamson discovered which part of the brain generated a magnetic field when a subject moved a forefinger. Moving the thumb produced magnetic fields from a slightly different spot. "Our sensory and motor systems are tied to highly specific brain areas," says Williamson. "In one experiment, This photo was taken by Daniel J. Phelps, a graduate student in the Department of we passed a brush over the the tip, Geological Sciences at the University of center, and base of a person's finger. Kentucky, along U.S. 27 in Jessamine We found that this produced magnetic County, Kentucky, near Nicholasville.

Summer 1990 351 International Skeptics Conference Sponsored by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and European Skeptics Organizations Vrije Universiteit Brussels, (Free University of Brussels) (Auditorium QC) Friday and Saturday, August 10 and 11, 1990 "Paranormal Belief in Europe"

Friday, August 10 7:00-9:00 P.M. Speakers include: Michael Hutchinson (UK), Vladimir Lvoff (USSR), Lars Peter Jepson (), Claude Benski, Secretary, Comite Francais pour l'Etude des Phenomenes Paranormaux (France), Cornelis de Jager, Univ. of Utrecht (), Henri Broch, Univ. of Nice (France), Amardeo Sarma, Society for the Scientific Investigation of Para-Science (W. Germany), Matti Virtanen (Finland) Saturday, August 11 9:00 A.M. - 12:00 NOON and 2:00 - 5:00 P.M. Speakers include: Susan Blackmore, Univ. of Bristol (UK), Cornelis de Jager, Univ. of Utrecht (Netherlands), Paul Kurtz, SUNY at Buffalo (USA), Ray Hyman, Univ. of Oregon (USA), Jean-Claude Pecker, College of France, Henri Broch, Univ. of Nice (France), A. Gertler, Inst, of Forensic Medicine (E. Germany), Evry Schatzman, president, French Physics Assn. E. Vermeersch, Univ. of Gent. Belgium. Additional speakers to be announced. (Simultaneous translation in English and French.) Registration: $45 (students $25) Accommodations: Special rates available at the Brussels Hilton Hotel. For further information, contact Barry Karr, CSICOP, P.O. Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. Tele.: (716) 834-3222. FAX (716) 834-0841. • YES, I(we) would like to attend the International Skeptics Conference Check enclosed O Charge my MasterCard D or Visa D Acct. # Exp. date

Name

Address.

City State Zip. Notes of a Fringe-Watcher MARTIN GARDNER

Relativism J In Science

n recent decades there has been a And how about observation by a growing trend among a small group butterfly? Evolution seems to entail, I of sociologists and humanities for someone like Wigner, that reality professors, even among a few scient­ is a matter of degree; that as life ists and philosophers, to deny that evolved on (at least) the earth, the science moves closer and closer to universe slowly developed from some objective "truth." This bizarre view is sort of featureless fog to the compli­ closely linked to an anti-realist trend cated mechanism it is today. And what that has been stimulated by the would happen to the universe if all paradoxes and mysteries of quantum life became extinct? Would it fade back mechanics. The properties of particles into the gloom? and quantum systems are, in a sense, If the universe has no reality not "real" until they are measured. without human observers, it is an easy The measurements can be made by step to suppose it is we who shape the apparatus, but the apparatus itself is structure of the outside world. If you a quantum system, so it too seems to and I are the creators of its laws, it be in an "indefinite" state until it has follows easily that science should be been observed by a person. Alas, the regarded as similar to art, poetry, observer also is a quantum system. Is music, philosophy, and other products he indefinite until someone observes- of human culture. Because folkways him? And how can we escape from this change in time and vary from culture seemingly endless regress? to culture, and because science clearly A few physicists, notably Eugene is part of culture, one can look upon Wigner, argue that the quantum the history of science in the way one world, which of course is the entire looks upon the history of fashions. universe, has no reality until observed Women's skirts are up in one decade, by conscious minds. This view runs down in the next, then up again. The into grave difficulties over the ques­ height of the skirt is a cultural tion of how high on the evolutionary preference. We cannot say a particular scale a mind has to be to make an height is "true" and the others "false." object real. As Einstein, who was It is hard to believe that some repelled by this kind of social solip­ intelligent people not only see the sism, liked to ask: Is the moon non­ history of science as a series of cultural existent until a mouse observes it? preferences but even write books

Summer 1990 353 about it. The Harvard astronomer ple would say they are unreal because Bruce Gregory, for example, recently there are no such animals. But Gre­ produced a volume entitled Inventing gory claims that "unicorns are not Reality: Physics as a (Wiley, 'real' because our community has no 1989). His wild theme is that physicists expectations about living or dead do not discover laws of nature. They unicorns that can be fulfilled. . . ." invent them. Newton didn't discover Moreover, our language can even alter the law of gravity. He invented it. J. the past. When we stopped talking J. Thompson didn't discover the about unicorns, they ceased to be real. electron. He made it up the way one "History is not as immutable as we makes up a tune. "The universe is might think; language can apparently made of stories," Gregory quotes the transform the past as readily as it poet Muriel Rukeyser, "not of atoms." shapes the present and the future." Gregory's views are in the tradition Shades of Orwell's 1984, in which of pragmatists who put human expe­ communist historians continually rience in the center of what is "real." rewrite history! They don't deny that there is an It is a short step from such human- outside world with which we interact; centered hubris to the belief of Shirley but because we can know nothing MacLaine and other New Agers that about it except what we experience, we have the power to create our own they are unable to take seriously any realities. There may be some sort of talk about structures "out there" timeless world out there; but if so, as independent of human minds. Follow­ Kant maintained, its ultimate struc­ ing in the footsteps of such pragma­ ture is forever beyond our grasp. "The tists as Karl Pearson and Benjamin Lee laws of physics," Gregory bluntly puts Whorf, Gregory focuses on human it, "are our laws, not nature's." We are language (including, of course, the the gods who shape reality. language of mathematics) as the It is not surprising to learn that principal shaper of what scientists like Gregory is a devotee of the early New to think is out there. "The stubbornly Age cult of est. "I owe my appreciation physical nature of the world we of the immense power of the myth encounter every day is obvious," he of 'is,' " he writes, "to Werner Erhard's writes. "The minute we begin to talk relentless commitment to making a about this world, however, it some­ difference in my life. Absent his how becomes transformed into unremitting efforts to uncover the another world, an interpreted world, role of speaking in shaping experience, a world delimited by language. . . ." this book never would have been Since the world we talk about is written." the only one we can know, it follows Let's try to clear up some confu­ that "as our vocabulary changes, so sions involving subjectivity and rela­ does the world." Again: "When we tivism. First, the notion that science 'create a new way of talking about the is always fallible is an ancient one, ably world, we virtually create a new defended by the Greek skeptics, that world." Books are real "not because no scientist or philosopher today of some mystical connection between denies. The very term fallibilism was language and the world, but because coined by the American philosopher you can ask me to bring you a book Charles Peirce to emphasize the way and my action can fulfill your expecta­ scientific statements differ from tion." theorems in mathematics and formal Consider unicorns. Ordinary peo­ logic. In logic and mathematics there

354 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 are ironclad proofs inside formal Rudolf Carnap liked to call "degrees systems. For example, you can prove of confirmation," to its statements. the Pythagorean theorem within the That doesn't mean, however, that a system of Euclidian geometry—a scientist is not justified in saying that proof that remains undamaged by the evolution has been strongly confirmed non-Euclidian structure of space-time. or that a flat earth has been strongly Given the axioms of Euclidian geome­ disconfirmed. try, the theorem is true in all possible The title of Nancy Cartwright's worlds. Science, on the other hand, book How the Laws of Physics Lie has no infallible proofs. (Oxford University Press, 1983) Although all scientific statements seems to suggest that she agrees with are corrigible, it does not follow that Gregory, but on careful reading it they can't be placed in a continuum turns out otherwise. What she does of probabilities that range from virtual maintain—and who can disagree?—is certainty to almost certain falsehood. that the phenomenological laws of No one doubts, for instance, that the physics (laws based on direct obser­ earth is shaped like a ball, goes around vations) have a much higher degree the sun, rotates, has a magnetic field, of confirmation than theories. We can and has a moon that circles it. It is be sure that all elephants have trunks almost certain that the universe is because we can verify the statement billions of years old and that life on by direct observation. Cartwright says earth evolved over millions of years she "believes" in the phenomenolog­ from simple to more complex forms. ical laws, and also in such theoretical The big bang origin of the universe entities as electrons, even though is not quite so certain. The inflationary their observation is indirect. If elec­ model of the universe is still less trons don't make tracks in bubble certain. And so on. Science at present chambers, she asks, what does? But lacks any technique for applying when you turn to theoretical laws, precise probability values, or what such as the laws of relativity and

WHO ANA I? p WHAT • , IN THE HELL ARE WE DOING HERE

Summer 1990 355 quantum mechanics, she doesn't structure of protons and the nature "believe" in them in the same way of supernovae. This statement I because they are too far from strong cannot prove, this statement I confirmation, and too subject to cannot justify. This is my faith. change. It is in this sense that science lies. It is important to understand that, Where does this leave us? Surely when a theory becomes strongly it does not leave us with a relativism confirmed by repeated observations in which competing scientific theories and experiments, it can move across are "incommensurable"—that is, a fuzzy boundary to become recog­ without standards by which they can nized by the entire scientific commun­ be ranked. Science is like an expanding ity as a fact. That planets go around region with a solid core of truths that the sun was once the Copernican are very close to certainty. As you theory. Today it is a fact. That material move outward from the core, asser­ objects are made of molecules was tions become progressively more once a conjecture. Indeed, for many tentative. In no way can one deny that decades it was ridiculed by many science progresses in a manner quite physicists and chemists. Today it is a different from the "progress" of fact. In Darwin's day there was a music, art, or fashions in clothes. theory of evolution. Today, only Like almost all scientists, philo­ ignorant creationists refuse to call it sophers, and ordinary people, Peirce a fact. It is also important to under­ was a hard-nosed realist. Science, he stand that so-called revolutions in wrote, is a method "by which our science are not revolutions in the beliefs are determined by nothing sense of overthrowing an earlier human, but by some external perman­ theory. They are benign refinements ency—by something upon which our of earlier theories. Einstein didn't thinking has no effect." discard Newtonian physics. He added Here is how the eminent Harvard qualifications to Newtonian physics. physicist Sheldon Glashow said the "The history of physics makes it same thing in a mini-essay in the New hard to sustain the idea that we are York Times (October 22, 1989): getting closer to speaking 'nature's own language,'" Gregory naively writes. On the contrary, the history We believe that the world is know- of physics makes it easy. Who, except able, that there are simple rules academics smitten by relativism, can governing the behavior of matter and the evolution of the universe. deny that science steadily improves its We affirm that there are eternal, ability to explain and predict? Abso­ objective, extrahistorical, socially lute truth may indeed be forever neutral, external and universal unobtainable, but if theories are not truths and that the assemblage of getting closer to accurate descriptions these truths is what we call physical of the universe, why do they work so science. Natural laws can be discov­ amazingly well? How is it we can build ered that are universal, invariable, skyscrapers, hydrogen bombs, televi­ inviolate, genderless and verifiable. sion sets, spacecraft, and other wond­ They may be found by men or by ers of modern technology? Why is women or by mixed collaborations of any obscene proportions. Any quantum mechanics able to predict intelligent alien anywhere would with accuracies of many decimal places have come upon the same logical the outcomes of thousands of sophis­ system as we have to explain the ticated experiments?

356 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 Surely it is insane to suppose that earth. She was good in describing the the enormous predictive power of infighting among geologists, but she science is nothing more than the had no interest whatever in the power to predict the behavior of a evidence pro and con. From her world fabricated inside our tiny skulls. perspective, her only task was to Of course all predictions are tested by describe the conflict as if it were a human experience, but since every­ battle between two rival art critics, thing we do is human experience, to with no mechanism for ever deciding say this is to say something obvious who was right. A frustrated senior and trivial. Wigner wrote a now- paleontologist in the audience finally famous essay on "The Unreasonable burst out with the question, "Is it Effectiveness of Mathematics." To really news to sociologists that evi­ those who believe in a mathematically dence counts?" structured universe, independent of After all, Trefil concludes, "gravity you and me, what could be more pulls on the Bushman as well as on reasonable than the way mathematics the European." Reading Shirley fits the universe? MacLaine, you might decide to create Nobody denies that science is a your own reality by jumping off a high human tool, or that its history is building and soaring like Superman. influenced by cultural forces in all Are we not assured by transcendental sorts of interesting ways. Nobody meditators that with training one can denies that scientists invent theories suspend gravity and levitate? Did not by creative acts similar to those of Jesus, that great super-psychic, walk poets and artists. But once a theory on water? Last year a Russian psychic is formulated, it is tested by a process stood on a railroad track and tried to that, in the long run, is singularly free suspend the law of momentum (mass of cultural biases. False theories are times velocity) by stopping a train. The not shot down by a change of lan­ poor man is no longer with us. Here guage, but by the universe. is how Stephen Crane, in one of his James Trefil, in his stimulating short poems, reminded us that we are book Reading the Mind of God not the measure of all things: (Scribner, 1989), recalls a lecture by a young sociologist on the history of A man said to the universe: the now-popular conjecture that "Sir, I exist!" dinosaurs were killed off by climatic "However," replied the universe, changes that followed the impact of "The fact has not created in me an extraterrestrial object striking the A sense of obligation." •

Summer 1990 357 CSICOP Conferences on Audio Cassettes New! 1990 Conference in Washington, D.C. " and Scientific Literacy" (Complete Conference, Sessions I-VII, $79.95, a saving of $15.25) SESSION I: Scientific Literacy, with Paul Kurtz, Michael Zimmerman, John Paulos, Robert Crease (2 cassettes, $11.90) SESSION II: Critical Thinking in Public Education, with Paul MacCready, Anton Lawson, Richard Schrock, Steven Hoffmaster. (2 cassettes, $11.90) SESSION III: (1) Public Policy and the Paranormal, with Ray Hyman. (2) Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About UFOs But Were Afraid to Ask, with Philip J. Klass (3 cassettes, $17.85). SESSION IV: Keynote Address by Gerard Piel (1 cassette, %5.95) SESSION V: Astronomy and , with Phili Ianna, Andrew Fraknoi, David Morrison, Bernard Leikind (2 cassettes, $11.95) SESSION VI: Psychic Phenomena and the Laws of Physics, with James Alcock, Milton Rothman, Robert Jahn, and Victor Stenger (3 cassettes, $17.85) SESSION VII: Animal Rights and Scientific Research, with Lee Nisbet, Randall Lockwood, Larry Horton, Franklin Loew, Donald J. Barnes, and Richard Malvin (2 cassettes, $11.90) SESSION VIII: Awards Banquet, with Paul Kurtz, Richard Berendzen, Bill Nye the "Science Guy," James Randi, Penn & Teller (2 cassettes, $11.90) 1988 Conference in Chicago: "The New Age: A Scientific Evaluation" Keynote Address by Douglas Hoffstadter. Speakers: Paul Kurtz, Maureen O'Hara, J. Gordon Melton, Jay Rosen, Robert Basil, James Alcock, Sarah Thomason, Graham Reed, George Lawrence, Ted Schultz, Bela Scheiber, Henry Gordon, Lee Nisbett, J. Richard Greenwell, Frank Poirier, Roy P. Mackal, , Rose Matousek, Richard J. Klimoski, Edward Karnes, Felix Klein, Mark Plummer, Robert Hicks, James E. Starrs, Michael Botts, John Baker, George Gerbner, Daniel Fabian Frazier, Barry Karr, James Randi, B. Premanand, and Robert Steiner. Complete set of audiotapes $69.50. 1987 Conference in Pasadena: Controversies in Science and Keynote Address by Carl Sagan. Speakers: Al Hibbs, Jill Tarter, Robert Rood, Frank Drake, Ray Hyman, Thomas Sebeok, Robert Rosenthal, Gerd Hovelmann, Wallace Sampson, William Jarvis, Austen Clark, Jerry P. Lewis, Joseph Barber, Joe Nickell, Patrick Riley, Ivan Kelly. Plus "Open Forum" with CSICOP Executive Council and the Awards Banquet. Complete set of audiotapes $45.00. 1986 Conference at the University of Colorado-Boulder: Science and Pseudoscience Keynote Address by Stephen Jay Gould. Speakers: Paul Kurtz, Murray Gell-Mann, Helmut Schmidt, Susan Blackmore, Leo Sprinkle, Nicholas P. Spanos, Ronald K. Siegel, Sarah Grey Thomason, Paul MacCready, William V. Mayer, Eugenie C. Scott. Plus Awards Banquet. Complete set of audiotapes $39.50. 1985 Conference at University College London: Investigation and Belief Speakers: Paul Kurtz, Philip J. Klass, Melvin Harris, Jeremy Cherfas, Al Seckel, David Berglas, Antony Flew, Ray Hyman, C.E.M. Hansel, James Randi, David Marks, Karl Sabbagh. Complete set of audiotapes $31.00. 1984 Conference at : Paranormal Beliefs—Scientific Facts and Fictions Speakers: Paul Kurtz, Sidney Hook, Andrew Fraknoi, Roger Culver, J. Allen Hynek, Philip J. Klass, Ray Hyman, Martin Ebon, Leon Jaroff, Charles Akers, Wallace Sampson, Robert Steiner, James Randi, William Roll, Persi Diaconis. Complete set of audiotapes $30.00 1983 Conference at SUNY-Buffalo: Science, Skepticism and the Paranormal Speakers: Paul Kurtz, C. E. M. Hansel, Robert Morris, James Alcock, Stephen Barrett, Lowell Streiker, Rita Swan, Mario Mendez-Acosta, Henry Gordon, , Michael Hutchinson, Michel Rouze, Dick Smith, James Randi, Michael Edwards, Steven Shaw, Mario Bunge, Clark Glymour, Stephen Toulmin, Daryl Bern, Victor Benassi, Lee Ross, Ken Rommel, Robert Sheaffer. Complete set of audiotapes $50.00. Conference Audio Cassettes ORDER FORM 1990 Conference in Washington, D.C. SESSION I $11.90 • SESSION IV $5.95 • SESSION VII $11.90 • SESSION II $11.90 • SESSION V $11.90 • SESSION VII $11.90 • SESSION III $17.85 D SESSION VI $17.85 • (When ordering individual sessions, please add $1.50 for postage and handling for each session, or $3.75 for 3 or more.) Q Please send the complete set for $79.95 + $3.75 for 1st class p&h. Total $83.70. Total $

1988 CSICOP Conference • Please send the complete set for $69.50 + $3.75 postage and handling. Total $73.25. Total $_

1987 CSICOP Conference • Please send the complete set for $45.00 + $3.75 postage and handling. Total $48.75. Total $_

1986 CSICOP Conference • Please send the complete set for $39.50 + $3.75 postage and handling. Total $43.25. Total $_

1985 CSICOP Conference • Please send the complete set for $31.00 + $3.75 postage and handling. Total $34.75. Total $_

1984 CSICOP Conference • Please send the complete set for $30.00 + $3.75 postage and handling. Total $33.75. Total $_

1983 CSICOP Conference D Please send the complete set for $50.00 + $3.75 postage and handling. Total $53.75. Total V4_

• Check enclosed Grand Total $_

Charge my • Visa • MasterCard # Exp..

Name

Address-

City State Zip

CSICOP • Box 229 • Buffalo, NY 14215-0229 • (716) 834-3222 Or call toll free 800-634-1610. In New York State call 716-834-3222. Psychic Vibrations

ROBERT SHEAFFER

he news has been breaking so fast large rock was found sitting on a piece these past few months that some of paper. Among those whose names Timportant items on the para-front were being crushed on this and similar may have been missed in the shuffle. papers were the presidents of Vene­ The U.S. Army reported from zuela and Costa Rica, several prom­ Panama on the sinister weapon de­ inent Panamanian officials of the posed dictator Manuel Noriega em­ Catholic church, various diplomats— ployed against his enemies: witchcraft. including Henry Kissinger, U.S. pres­ The Washington Post recounted some idents Ronald Reagan and George of the remarkable discoveries made in Bush, U.S. senators Alfonse D'Amato Noriega's private quarters. A "gluti­ and Jesse Helms, and New York Times nous ball of corn meal" was wrapped investigative reporter Seymour in a blue ribbon and white string. Hersh. Inside, it contained a crumpled-up The harshest punishment of all picture of Guillermo Endara, the man seemed to have been reserved for one whom the Panamanian voters had the individual whose name had been audacity to prefer over Noriega. A sealed inside a rotting cow's tongue, which was found sitting in a bowl of white corn and eight spoiled eggs. The & ^\ tongue was folded in half and nailed shut. Unfortunately, we do not know THIS. who was singled out for such malice, because all this putrefaction had rendered the ink on the paper quite illegible. While events thus far do not inspire confidence in the efficacy of Noriega's voodoo, we should reserve judgment until we see whether he beats the rap and has the last laugh. Elsewhere, the controversial Black Muslim minister Louis Farrakhan recently disclosed some previously unmentioned allies: some occupants of UFOs, he says, are on his side. Farrakhan described in a press release a vision he had had while in Mexico in 1985. He says that a -shaped UFO picked him up, and whisked him

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 up to what he calls the "Mother rows." Austin describes this ambigu­ Wheel." There he says he received ous prophecy as "a fact now verified advance warning of the impending by the global distribution of earth­ U.S. attack against Libyan targets. quakes recorded on seismographs." "During the confrontation in the Gulf He notes that the Greek word trans­ of Sidra," reports Farrakhan, "... a lated as "sorrows" actually denotes bright orange object was seen over the "birth pangs," so recent earthquakes Mediterranean. The Wheel was, in should be understood as the "birth fact, present and interfered with the pangs" of the time of Jesus' Second highly sensitive equipment of the Coming. aircraft carrier, forcing it to return to Digging further into biblical proph­ Florida for repairs." In a similar vein, ecy, Austin cautions us to expect a Farrakhan told his followers that, "great future earthquake" that is should his alleged enemies lay a hand "associated with the return of Christ on him, America would suffer "the to Jerusalem (Acts 1:9-12; Zechariah fullness of Allah's wrath" in the form 14:1-11), and is described as inflicting of many UFOs, followed by great severe topographic and geologic disasters. changes on a global scale." A series of seismic charts are presented to determine whether any trend is building up toward such a calamity, You probably didn't realize that "Crea­ which he fortunately determines is tion Science" offers exciting new not: "No steady trend suggesting perspectives not just on the origins of increased frequency or intensity has life and Noah's flood but on earth­ been indicated." Nonetheless, he quakes as well. Stephen Austin, writes that "the birth-pangs notion of chairman of the Geology Department earthquakes is verified by seismo- at the Institute for Creation Research, graphic data, which shows their has published in ICR's Acts and Fads/ erratic occurrence. . . . Global seismic Impact some exciting new research, activity is very non-uniform in time; titled "Earthquakes in These Last it is like waiting for birth pangs. When Days." Noting the destructive Califor­ will there be another global upturn in nia earthquake this past October 17 seismic activity?" (which, incidentally, occurred just Austin concludes his scientific four minutes after 00:00 GMT the paper by observing that earthquakes following day, and hence is known to have "been used" by God for "special science as the Loma Prieta earthquake purposes." While you may have of October 18,1989), Austin discusses thought that earthquakes were to be the "special purposes" that biblical understood in terms of the motions earthquakes have served, beginning of tectonic plates, this distinguished with the one on day three of creation creationist geologist proclaims that week. "three purposes—judgment, deliver­ "Recent earthquakes," explains ance, and communication—should Austin, "should receive a different in­ form our basis for understanding terpretation in the Christian's think­ earthquakes." So the next time we ing. Jesus Christ spoke of them as Californians feel the earth heaving 'signs' of His coming again to earth." beneath us, we should ponder wheth­ One of these "signs" will be "earth­ er it is Divine Judgment, Divine Deliv­ quakes in diverse places" (Mark 13:8), erance, or Divine Communication which heralds "the beginning of sor­ that is triggering the latest tremblor.

Summer 1990 361 was Ronald Francis Bennett, who also goes by the name of "Ptah." Claiming Speaking of California, many of the to be the reincarnation of that long- residents of that great state would deposed deity, Ptah's campaign plat­ object if I were to say that "only in form was, "I'm God, you're God, we're California would a reincarnated Egyp­ all God." Asked how he judged his tian deity seek public office," so I prospects in last November's election, won't. Nonetheless, seeking election Ptah replied, "I think my chances are to the Palo Alto City Council last fall about one in three." His optimism notwithstanding, out of 17 candidates Ptah finished last.

More news on the Creation front: The plans of ICR's president, John Morris, to study Flood geology at Mount St. Helens were interrupted this past September by an urgent trip to Turkey because "the remains of Noah's Ark had possibly been discov­ ered on September 15." Once again, the annual ICR expedition to Mt. Ararat had spotted some remarkably ark-shaped rocks. However, the ICR later reported that even though "the objects appear visually much the same as eyewitnesses have frequently described their encounters with the Ark," after careful study of it from the air, they were all convinced that "the object was most likely of natural origin." •

A Reminder . . . All subscription correspondence (new subscriptions, renewals, back-issue orders, billing problems) should be addressed to: SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229 All editorial correspondence (manuscripts, letters to the editor, books for review, authors' queries) should be addressed to the Editor's office in Albuquerque: Kendrick Frazier, Editor, The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 3025 Palo Alto Dr. N.E., Albuquerque, NM 87111 Inquiries concerning CSICOP programs or policies should be addressed to: Paul Kurtz, Chairman, CSICOP, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229

362 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 Ghosts Make News •= How Four Newspapers Report Psychic Phenomena ROGER KLARE

hosts are welcome guests in daily newspapers. Other types of psychic Gphenomena are entertained as well. Uncritical reporting is the norm: newspapers often do not follow the objective model of news reporting—getting both sides of the story— when covering these topics (Meyer 1987:157). What makes this type of reporting so NewspapersA popular? First, uncritical stories try to amuse readers by playing up the strange and irrational feature extensive nature of alleged paranormal events. These coverage of stories are thought to be virtually harmless if paranormal it is later shown that the events were not really mysterious (Cowen 1981:16). For newspapers, proponents; then, the paranormal serves as entertainment. nevertheless, This is one of the major reasons they run ghost reporters' emphasis stories (Brunsman 1988:30). Articles on the paranormal also serve as on science and news. They are a blend of unusual events and controversy may personalities, a combination that favors the increase coverage feature-story format, specifically the human- interest story. This type of story shows "a of skeptics. subject's oddity or emotional or entertainment value" (Itule and Anderson 1987:292). Since newspapers attempt to balance cover­ age of "domestic and foreign affairs—serious hard news—with human-interest stories—soft news" (Weiman 1985:82), a psychic becomes a logical choice to fill the need for the latter. This also ensures that and their paranormal claims will continue to receive news coverage. However, it appears that the problem of uncritical stories is inherent in the reporting process itself. Yet within that process are two strategies that may help increase the coverage of skeptics.

Summer 1990 A Closer Look at define feature stories as those that Newspaper Reporting "analyze the news, entertain an audience or describe people, places or I made a study of newspaper stories things in or out of the news." about psychic phenomena that ap­ The Reporting Approach taken in peared from 1977 to 1988. I chose to a story fell into one of four categories: start with 1977 because this was the first full year after the formation of 1. Credulous: Specific paranormal CSICOP. claims were made by a story The newspapers used in this study source or by the reporter with­ were the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the out critical comment. Columbus Dispatch, the New York 2. Neutral: Specific paranormal Times, and the Washington Post. Curtis claims were made and ad­ MacDougall (1983:535) found that dressed, or no claims were such events as the predictions of local made. Also included in this psychics rarely receive coverage out­ category were stories in which side a limited geographical area. I the reporter used qualifying chose the Cleveland Plain Dealer and terms, such as "so-called" and the Columbus Dispatch to provide "alleged," to describe persons or coverage of local and regional events. claims. MacDougall also found that other 3. Skeptical: Specific paranormal events, such as the activities of well- claims were addressed by a known psychics, receive national source or by the reporter. coverage through the Associated 4. Interdeterminate: Reporting ap­ Press and major newspapers. I chose proach could not be determined. the New York Times and the Washing­ ton Post to provide coverage of national The Story Image conveyed fell into events as well as some local and one of three categories: regional ones. I examined 222 stories. They were 1. Danger to person(s) encounter­ primarily about individual "psychic" ing the psychic phenomenon. experiences, parapsychologists who 2. Benefit to person(s) encounter­ collect reports of these alleged expe­ ing the psychic phenomenon. riences, and claims made by self- 3. Not specified as being either proclaimed psychics. I located the danger or benefit. stories in newspaper indexes.1 Most of the stories included only Based on how newspapers identi­ one topic, though some discussed two fied their sources, the Story Source and some three. There were 19 Story classification had seven categories: Topic categories, ranging from polter­ geists to Kirlian photography. 1. Experiencer: A person who had I classified each article by Story an alleged paranormal experi­ Type, Reporting Approach, Story ence and did not claim any Image, and Story Sources.2 The Story psychic powers. Type had two categories: news story 2. Practitioner: A self-proclaimed and feature story. B. D. Itule and psychic. D. A. Anderson (1987:6) define news 3. Parapsychologist: This category stories as those that "chronicle the included scientists and psychol­ who, what, where, when, why and ogists, those employed in re­ how of timely occurrences." They search laboratories, and field

364 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 workers. 4. Scholar: A sociologist or other TABLE 1. Distribution of Story Topics academic. Among 222 Newspaper Stories 5. CSICOP Investigator. This cate­ gory included CSICOP spokes­ Topic % persons and CSICOP scientific and technical consultants. Poltergeists 27 6. Scientist or Other Investigator Ghosts 18 not connected to CSICOP. Psychokinesis 14 7. Other: Anyone not matching 13 the descriptions above. This 12 does not include the reporters ESP 9 covering the individual stories. Psychic healing 7 Psychic crimefighting 6 I counted a Source category only Telepathy 5 once in a story, regardless of how 5 many representatives of that category were mentioned. For example, in a Reincarnation 4 story with three Experiencers that Remote viewing 3 category counted as one. Parapsychology 3 Auras 2 The Findings Channeling 2 Near-death experiences 2 Story Topic: The topics were cate­ Out-of-body experiences 2 gorized in Table 1, which shows the Kirlian photography 1 percentage of the 222 stories that Psychic phenomena (general) 1 discussed a given topic. Note that poltergeists and ghosts top the list. Note: Figures total more than 100 percent Story Type: Of the 222 stories in because some stories included two or the study, I found that features out­ three topics. numbered news stories nearly 2 to 1. Reporting Approach: Uncritical arti­ TABLE 2. Distribution of Reporting cles on the paranormal outnumbered Approach Among 222 Newspaper Sto ries those with a skeptical approach by well over 2 to 1. (See Table 2.) frequency Story Image: Paranormal pheno­ Approach # % mena were more often portrayed as Credulous 104 46 beneficial than as dangerous. (See Neutral 70 31 Table 3.) Skeptical 39 17 Story Source: Experiencers, Practi­ Indeterminate 14 6 tioners, and Parapsychologists each outnumbered CSICOP Investigators Note: Five stories had two reporting by more than 2 to 1. These ratios approaches. changed slightly when Scientists and Other Investigators were substituted for CSICOP Investigators. Comparing Story Type with The relationships these classifica­ Reporting Approach (Table 4), I found tions have with one another tells us that news stories were associated with something about the nature of news­ the Neutral approach and features paper reporting. were associated with the Credulous

Summer 1990 365 TABLE 3. Story Image Conveyed by TABLE 4. Distribution of Reporting 222 Newspaper Stories Approach by Story Type (N = 222) News Feature Frequency Story Story Image # * (N = 79) (N = 148) Approach Benefit 72 32 * % Danger 62 27 Credulous 35 51 Not specified 92 41 Neutral 43 24 Skeptical 18 17 Note: Four stories conveyed both benefit Indeterminate 4 7 and danger.

3 Note: Five stories had two reporting approach. This indicates that the approaches. skeptical view does have some hope of being heard within the news-story view, a reader could easily think so. format. True, a skeptic is usually given Nearly all stories had at least one only a few sentences to state his or source; therefore sources play a role her case. We can say, however, that in determining the reporting approach at least in principle, news stories about in most paranormal stories. When we the paranormal are guided by an "ideal compare Story Source with Reporting of neutrality." Approach (Table 5), we find that The presence of neutrality in news Experiencers, Practitioners, and stories is a contrast to its absence in Parapsychologists were all associated features. But the feature's ability to with the credulous approach. This analyze a situation in depth actually indicates that many paranormal claims makes it a more promising vehicle for were made without critical comment. skeptical views. Feature writers can go CSICOP Investigators were asso­ beyond mere entertainment, though ciated with the neutral approach; their often this is not the case. comments were primarily used to In a story classified as Neutral, a balance claims. Scientists and Other reporter may highlight either the Investigators, who included both views of paranormal proponents or proponents and skeptics, were split those of skeptics. The number of among the Credulous, Neutral, and sentences attributed to each Story Skeptical approaches. The appearance Source—direct and indirect quotes— of a small percentage of CSICOP measures the relative amount of Investigators in the Credulous cate­ attention given to that viewpoint. For gory indicates that claims were not example, suppose we have a story in addressed in some stories. which a CSICOP Investigator has but I counted the number of sentences one sentence to address a claim. (In attributed to each source in every some stories this is what I found.) If neutral story. Of the total number of a Parapsychologist is given several sentences, CSICOP Investigators had sentences to state his or her case, the only 8 percent. Scientists and Other skeptical comment acts like the warn­ Investigators had just 5 percent. In ing statement in a cigarette ad: few contrast, Parapsychologists, Practi­ readers may notice it. Though it would tioners, and Experiencers had 26, be hard to prove that the reporter 18, and 16 percent, respectively. intended to discredit the skeptical These numbers reveal the extent of

366 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 TABLE 5. Distribution of Reporting Approach by Story Source

CSICOP Other Exp. Prac. Para. Schol. Inv. Sci. Other (N = 97) (N = 68) (N = 65) (N = 9) (N = 29) (N = 37()N = 92) % % % % % % % Credulous 59 56 54 33 14 38 47 Neutral 29 24 34 56 52 32 33 Skeptical 7 15 9 0 34 27 18 Indeterminate 5 6 3 11 0 3 2

Note: For statistical analysis, indeterminate category was combined with neutral category. newspaper neglect of the skeptical Another relationship was Story view: even in neutral stories, where Source and Story Image (Table 7). The there was some attempt to balance mass-media image of psi has been opposing views, coverage was lopsided characterized as demonic and malev­ in favor of proponents. olent (McClenon 1984:200). An al­ It is important to remember that ternative media image is one that the presence of a particular Story emphasizes potential benefits. Source does not by itself determine Table 7 shows that Experiencers the Reporting Approach. Many other were associated with a Story Image factors, such as Story Type and the of danger, though this finding was not reporter's beliefs, are also involved. statistically significant. Practitioners, Table 6 shows a breakdown of who stand to profit monetarily from Reporting Approach by newspaper. their self-proclaimed psychic powers, The Plain Dealer, the Dispatch, and the were associated with an image of Post all have similar percentages of benefit, which may reflect the self- credulous stories, while the New York promoting abilities of practitioners Times is odd newspaper out. noted by Kendrick Frazier (1985:5).

TABLE 6. Distribution of Reporting Approach by Newspaper

Cleveland Columbus Washington New York Plain Dealer Dispatch Post Times (N = 36) (N = 55) (N = 71) (N = 65) % % % % Credulous 53 56 49 29 Neutral 42 25 23 38 Skeptical 3 13 20 26 Indeterminate 3 5 8 6

Note:Five stories had two reporting approaches.

Summer 1990 367 TABLE 7. Distribution of Reporting Story Image by Story Source

CSICOP Other. Exp. Prac. Para. Schol. Inv. Sci. Other (N = 91) (N = 67) (N = 65) (N = 9) (N = 27) (N = 37()N = 95) % % % % % % % Benefit 25 72 20 44 11 54 34 Danger 45 12 38 33 30 19 25 Not specified 30 16 42 22 59 27 41

Effects of Uncritical I know it's not just a coincidence—it Newspaper Coverage must be ESP. Explain that, Mr. Skep­ tic!") Those choosing this interpreta­ I looked at two effects of uncritical tion will find support in print. coverage: how it validates alleged The influence newspapers have on psychic experiences and how it rein­ paranormal belief is not easily mea­ forces existing belief in the para­ sured. It appears they act more as a normal. and less as a cause. Does it Although newspapers treat para­ follow, then, that newspapers should normal phenomena as entertainment, do nothing more than merely reflect by reporting these alleged occurrences the of our time? As as straight fact they imply that the Meyer (1987:157-158) reminds us, "It paranormal interpretation is based on is not unusual for a newspaper to solid evidence. Newspapers also simply announce some paranormal reward persons seeking to report event and let it go at that, as if there experiences or publicize claims: having were no reason to question it." their names in the paper gives them Problems exist with this laissez- status (Weimann 1985:84). This faire approach. For one, many people recognition seemingly adds weight to lack the knowledge to separate science their claims when the stories exclude from pseudoscience (Miller 1987:28). any opposing views. Uncritical cover­ For another, newspapers can be used age therefore supports both the claims as a forum by so-called psychics to and the persons making them. promote their claims. Such claims can Uncritical coverage also supports be dangerous to the public's physical, existing beliefs (Weimann 1985:84). mental, and monetary health. Newspapers call attention to the Our next question is this: Do paranormal by concentrating on per­ newspapers have a responsibility to go sonal experiences. Evidence indicates beyond uncritical reporting? We can that these experiences are the main look to an important theory of the factor contributing to belief in ESP and press for our answer. The social other psychic phenomena (Evans responsibility theory focuses on the 1973:209; McClenon 1984:147). Peo­ role of the press in a free and complex ple do have unusual experiences that technological society. It simply says they may interpret as paranormal. that it is "the responsibility of the ("He called yesterday after ten years press not only to present diverse just when I was thinking about him. viewpoints but also to interpret them

368 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 responsibly" (Itule and Anderson ments were severely limited in most 1987:673). This philosophy has stories. Skeptics are thus heavily become a major influence on how the outmanned and outgunned. press operates. These are gloomy findings for the Paranormal reporting needs to be state of skepticism in newspapers; included in the domain of this philos­ however, some hopeful signs can be ophy. CSICOP is one of the primary seen. By its very existence, CSICOP agents for bringing this about. has helped to make newspapers aware of the skeptical view. This may cause Improving Newspaper Coverage some reporters to insert critical comments; at least, they are aware Changing the way newspapers cover that another side exists. Several the paranormal will of course take critical comments came from sources time, considering that uncritical other than CSICOP Investigators; reporting has long been a staple item. many came from the reporters How has CSICOP fared so far? The themselves. results from this study are not encour­ To determine the role reporters aging at first glance. CSICOP Investi­ play in providing critical comments, gators had infrequent appearances in we first need to find out which sources the stories analyzed, and their com­ appeared in the various stories. Table

TABLE 8. Percentage of Stories Using a Given Source, by Story Topic (Percentages total from left to right)

CSICOP Other Exp. Prac. Para. Schol. Inv. Sci. Other % % % % % % % Topic

Poltergeists (N = 61) 62 8 43 3 21 7 48 Ghosts (N = 40) 53 13 13 0 3 5 60 Psychokinesis (N = 32) 34 25 59 9 25 19 28 Precognition (N = 28) 21 64 14 0 0 0 43 Clairvoyance (N = 26) 15 58 27 8 12 8 38 ESP(N = 19) 32 32 53 11 32 16 37 Psychic healing (N = 15) 33 53 7 0 13 33 53 Psychic crimefighting (N = 13) 0 62 0 0 0 23 85 Telepathy(N = 12) 8 17 50 8 17 8 33 Spiritualism (N = 10) 30 90 0 0 10 10 50 Reincarnation (N = 8) 0 38 25 13 0 13 38 Remote viewing (N = 7) 0 14 57 0 0 29 43 Parapsychology (N = 6) 0 0 0 17 50 17 50 Auras (N = 5) 20 60 0 0 0 20 40 Channeling (N = 5) 60 100 0 40 0 40 40 Near-death experience (N = 4) 25 0 0 25 0 50 0 Out-of-body experience (N = 4) 75 50 25 0 25 50 25 Kirlian photography (N = 3) 0 0 66 0 33 0 0 Psychic phenomena (N = 1) 0 100 0 0 0 0 0

Summer 1990 369 8 compares Story Topics with Story tigative reporting will strengthen the Sources. Each number indicates the ideal of neutrality in news stories. percentage of stories discussing a Newspapers tell the "who," "what," particular topic that used the given "where," and "when" of paranormal source. The table shows that of the events, but often only partly tell the 28 stories about precognition, 64 "why" and "how"—the skeptical percent used Practitioners as sources, view—or leave it out altogether. The but none used a CSICOP Investigator, original news story may lack the space or a Scientist or Other Investigator. to explain the why and how, and it Now compare the precognition topic may take time to track both of them in Table 4 and you'll find that half the down. But if we're going to treat the stories were skeptical or neutral. paranormal as a news item, what's Reporters provided critical comments needed is more follow-up. As it is, in some of these stories. most news stories are just one-day Frazier (1982:16-18) suggests sev­ affairs—and readers are frequently eral guidelines reporters and editors left with claims only partially can use when covering paranormal answered. topics. Some stories in this study Of course, some general reporters showed evidence that these or similar do investigate paranormal claims. For guidelines were followed. For exam­ example, general reporters played a ple, some reporters explained tricks major role in refuting the reincarna­ used by psychics and others used tion claims made in The Search for qualifying phrases when referring to Bridey Murphy (MacDougall 1983: psychics to indicate the questionable 130). The skeptical view of the paran­ nature of their claims. Few reporters ormal can hold the interest of news­ looked at the paranormal from a paper readers, as witnessed by the scientific point of view, however. existence of some skeptical By emphasizing science, reporters columnists. may increase coverage of those skep­ Reporters may also increase cov­ tical of the paranormal. The science erage of skeptics by emphasizing the reporter has the important task of inherent controversy in the paranor­ explaining what science has to say mal. Conflict and disagreement make about the paranormal. In addition, he news; proponents and skeptics alike or she has the equally important task have colorful speakers. In addition to of investigating specific claims. This supplying news, controversy also latter role reflects the changing focus supplies a form of entertainment of science reporting; investigative (McClenon 1984:127). reporting is seen as a vital component Philip Meyer (1986:41) notes that (Logan 1985:55). the personalities of skeptics, psychics, Unfortunately, only a handful of and parapsychologists can become the newspaper stories about the paranor­ focus of a story, as opposed to report­ mal are written by science reporters; ing and investigating the paranormal most are written by general reporters claim. While this is true, emphasis on (Frazier 1985:6). Despite this, science the controversy does at least allow the reporters are not without some influ­ inclusion of the skeptical view. And ence. As role models, they may help it takes advantage of a recognized paranormal reporting give up the force in newspaper reporting: the practice of merely announcing claims power of conflict. to concentrate on investigating them. Now if we're really going to cover An emphasis on science and inves­ the controversy, what we need is an

370 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 in-depth look at the opposing views. databases had two problems: newspapers To do this, reporters will need the were not indexed back to 1977 and only length of the feature story. It also selected stories were included. 2. An independent coder classified a means that more space needs to be sample of 51 stories. Percentage of agree­ allotted to skeptics, to balance the ment on coding decisions made by coder and current lopsided coverage of propo­ author: for story type, 96 percent; reporting nents. This would extend the ideal of approach, 83 percent; story image, 96 neutrality to the feature story. percent; story sources, 97 percent. 3. Associations are statistically signifi­ Improving newspaper coverage is cant (p< .05) unless otherwise noted. an important and difficult goal. For the paranormal has long been considered References to be entertaining news, with stress on the entertainment. Newspapers Brunsman, B. J. 1988. Ghost story: Reporting have reported alleged paranormal on the haunted house of Horicon. The events as fact and extensively covered Quill, April, pp. 25-30. the views of proponents. Good report­ Cowen, R. C. 1981. Media hype boosts ing implies that the other side—the occultism. Christian Science Monitor, skeptical side—should receive equal February 25, p. 16. coverage. But judging by what is often Evans, C. 1973. Parapsychology—what the questionnaire revealed. New Scientist, 57: found in newspaper stories, rational­ 209. ity has only a ghost of a chance. Frazier, K. 1982. How to cover "psychics" and the paranormal. Bulletin of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Acknowledgments April, pp. 16-19. . 1985. A reporter's checklist: Para­ I wish to thank Professor Sandra normal—or self-promoter? Sciencewriters, Haggerty for her guidance through­ 33(2): 4-6. out this study. I am also grateful for Itule, B. D., and D. A. Anderson. 1987. News assistance from Dr. Guido Stempel III, Writing and Reporting for Today's Media. New York: Random House. Dr. Hugh Culbertson, and Professor Logan, R. A. 1985. Commentary: Rationales Tom Hodges. The research discussed for investigative and explanatory trends here was part of a master's thesis. in science reporting. Newspaper Research Requests for further information may Journal, 7(1): 53-58. be addressed to me, c/o Professor MacDougall, C. D. 1983. Superstition and the Haggerty, College of Communication, Press. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701. McClenon, J. 1984. Deviant Science: The Case of Parapsychology. Philadelphia: Univer­ Please include a stamped return sity of Pennsylvania Press. envelope. Meyer, P. 1986. Ghostboosters: The press and the paranormal. Columbia Journalism Review, March-April, pp. 38-41. Notes . 1987. Ethical Journalism: A Guide for Students, Practitioners and Consumers. New 1. There is no commonly accepted defi­ York: Longman. nition of what topics to include under the Miller, J. D. 1987. The scientifically illiterate. term psychic phenomena. After consulting the American Demographics, 9(6): 26-31. literature of proponents and skeptics, I drew Weimann, G. 1985. Mass-mediated occul­ up a list of topics. I then checked these topics tism: The role of the media in the occult against newspaper indexes, not only for the revival. Journal of Popular Culture, 18(4): sample newspapers but also for five others. 81-88. For this study, then, I considered the topics newspapers included in the indexes I exam­ ined. I also consulted newspaper databases Roger Klare is a freelance science writer. for possible topics and stories, but available He lives in Athens, Ohio.

Summer 1990 371 Thinking Critically And Creatively i

CAROLE WADE and CAROL TAVRIS

hese days, most college students know that you have to exercise the body to keep it in Tshape. But they assume that thinking doesn't take any effort at all, and certainly no practice. You just do it, like breathing. But thinking does need practice. All around us we see examples of flabby thinking, lazy thinking, emotional thinking, and nonthinking. Some­ times students justify their mental laziness by proudly declaring that they are "open-minded." c "It's good to be open-minded," replies philos­ Critical Athinking opher Jacob Needleman, "but not so open that your brains fall out." fosters the ability One of the greatest benefits of studying to be creative psychology is that students can learn not only and constructive. how the brain works in general but how to use theirs in particular—through the disciplined Here are eight guidelines of critical thinking. Critical thinking general is the ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments on the basis of guidelines for well-supported reasons. It is the ability to look learning to think for flaws in arguments and resist claims that have no supporting evidence. Critical thinking, critically. however, is not merely negative thinking. It also fosters the ability to be creative and constructive— to generate possible explanations for findings, think of implications, and apply new knowledge to a broad range of social and personal problems. Critical thinking cannot really be separated from creative thinking, for it's only when students question what is that they can begin to imagine what can be. For example: Many people, when faced with a setback to their expectations, narrow their horizons instead of expanding them. We know a fellow named Victor whose entire dream in

An excerpt from Psychology, 2nd ed. (Harper & Row, 1990). Reprinted by permission.

372 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 life was to be a veterinarian. Victor's love of animals was legendary: at three, he wouldn't let you kill a bug in his presence. But Victor wasn't admitted to any of the veterinary schools he applied to, and his reaction was panic and despair: "My whole life is ruined!" At first, Victor was not thinking critically; he had divided his possibilities into only two alternatives: become a veterinarian, or nothing. But by examining this assumption and by thinking creatively about all the possible occupations that would make use of his love of animals, Victor realized his DON'T OVERSEEs^F't-IF=V IX choices were endless: pet-shop owner,

Hollywood "pet therapist," trainer at 1 Sea World, designer of humane zoos, J]! EXAMINE. THE. EVIDENCE I organizer for an endangered-species ,,*• — s group, ecologist, wildlife photo­ grapher, and so on. k DEFINE THE PROBLEM I Some researchers find that most W ASK OUESTIOWS; &£. WIULltv*3 TO WONDER people don't think critically until at W^- least age 25. This doesn't mean, answers," or a sponge for "soaking up however, that they can't think criti­ knowledge." The mind is neither a bin cally. Even young children can do so, nor a sponge. Remembering, thinking, though often they don't get much and understanding are all active credit for it. The ten-year-old daugh­ processes that require judgment, ter of a friend, when told that ancient choice, and the weighing of evidence. Greece was the "cradle of democracy," Unfortunately, children who chal­ replied, "But what about the women lenge prevailing opinion at home or and slaves, who couldn't vote and had in school are often called "rebellious," no rights? Was Greece a democracy rather than "involved." As a result, say for them?" That's critical thinking. the critics, many high school and And it is also creative thinking, for college graduates cannot formulate a once you question the basic assump­ rational argument or see through tion that Greece was a democracy for misleading advertisements and propa­ everyone, you can begin to imagine ganda that play on emotions. They do other interpretations of Greek civi­ not know how to go about deciding lization at that time. whether to have children, make an However, we agree with the grow­ investment, or support a political ing number of educators, philos­ proposal. They do not know how to ophers, and psychologists who believe come up with imaginative solutions to that the American educational system their problems. They cannot use their shortchanges students by not teach­ heads. ing them to think critically and Critical thinking involves a set of creatively. Too often, they say, both skills that can be applied to any subject teachers and students view the mind or problem. But it is particularly as a bin for storing "the right relevant to psychology, for three reasons. First, the field itself includes

Summer 1990 373 the study of thinking, problem- a company and question everything, solving, creativity, emotion, and other even procedures that have been used components of this process, and by its for years. Other occupations prefer to very nature fosters critical and crea­ give trainees "received wisdom" and tive thinking. In one recent study, discourage criticism. graduate students in psychology 2. Define the problem. Once you've substantially improved in their ability raised the question, the next problem to reason about the events of everyday is to identify its issues in clear and life. In contrast, graduate students in concrete terms. "What makes people chemistry showed no improvement happy?" is a fine question for midnight (Lehman, Lempert, and Nisbett 1988). reveries, but it will not lead to answers Second, the field of psychology gener­ unless you have specified what you ates many competing findings on mean by "happy." One psychologist topics of immediate personal and social defined a "happy marriage" as one that relevance, and people need to be able had lasted ten years and produced two to evaluate the studies and their children (Toman 1976). Would you implications. Third, the public's appe­ agree with that definition? tite for psychological information has The wrong formulation of a ques­ created a huge market for what R. D. tion can produce misleading or incom­ Rosen (1977) calls "psychobabble": plete answers. The question "How pseudoscience and that have does hypnosis improve memory for a veneer of psychological language. events?" assumes that hypnosis Critical thinking can help separate always improves memory. But putting psychology from psychobabble. the matter another way—"How does In part, learning to think critically hypnosis affect memory?"—allows for means following the rules of logic. But other possibilities. As it happens, there are also some general guidelines hypnosis can also increase memory involved (Ennis 1985; Paul 1984; errors, and some hypnotized people Ruggiero 1988). Here are eight of the will even cheerfully make up details essential ones: of an event that never happened. 1. Ask questions; be willing to wonder. 3. Examine the evidence. In the heat What is the one kind of question that of argument, people often exclaim: "I most exasperates parents of young just know it's true, no matter what children? "Why is the sky blue. you say" or "That's my opinion; Mommy?" "Why doesn't the plane nothing's going to change it" or "If fall?" "Why don't pigs have wings?" you don't understand my position, I Unfortunately, as children grow up, can't explain it." Accepting a conclu­ they tend to stop asking "why" sion without evidence, or expecting questions. others to do so, is a sure sign of "The trigger mechanism for crea­ uncritical thinking (or of no thinking tive thinking is the disposition to be at all). It implies that all opinions are curious, to wonder, to inquire," writes equal, but they are not. A critical Vincent Ruggiero (1988). "Asking thinker asks, What evidence supports or 'What's wrong here?' and/or 'Why is refutes this argument and its opposition? this the way it is, and how did it come How reliable is the evidence? If it is not to be that way?' leads to the identi­ possible to check the reliability of the fication of problems and challenges." evidence, the critical thinker considers Some occupations actually teach their whether its source has been reliable trainees to think this way. Industrial in the past. engineers are taught to walk through Some well-known popular beliefs

374 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 have been widely accepted, on the requires us to examine our biases basis of (a) poor evidence or even (b) when the evidence contradicts them. no evidence. For example, many All of us, of course, carry around people believe that it is psychologically a headful of assumptions about how and physically healthy to "ventilate" the world works: Do people have free their anger at the first person, pet, will or are we constrained by biology or piece of furniture that gets in their and upbringing? Is socialism or cap­ way. Actually, years of research in italism the solution to poverty? If we many different fields suggest that don't make our assumptions explicit, sometimes expressing anger is bene­ our ability to interpret evidence ficial, but more often it is not (Tavris objectively can be seriously impaired. 1989). Often it makes the angry 5. Avoid emotional reasoning: "If 1 person angrier, makes the target of feel this way, it must be true." Emotion the anger angry back, lowers every­ has a place in critical thinking. Without body's self-esteem, and fosters hostil­ it, logic and reason can lead to mis­ ity and aggression. Yet the belief guided or destructive decisions and persists, despite the lack of evidence actions. Indeed, some of the most cold­ to support it. blooded monsters of 4. Analyze assumptions and biases. have been above average, even bril­ Critical thinkers evaluate the assump­ liant, thinkers. But when "gut feel­ tions and biases that lie behind argu­ ings" replace clear thinking, the results ments—beliefs that are taken for are equally dangerous. "Persecutions granted and biases about how the and wars and lynchings," observes world works. They ask how these Edward de Bono (1985), "are all a assumptions and biases influence result of gut feeling." claims and conclusions in the books Because our feelings seem so right, they read, the political speeches they it is hard to understand that people hear, the news programs they watch, with opposing viewpoints feel just as and the ads that bombard them every strongly. But they do, which means day. Here's a real example: The that feelings alone are not a reliable manufacturer of a popular pain guide to the truth. Students enter the reliever advertises that hospitals field of psychology with many pas­ prefer its product over all others. The sionate beliefs about child rearing, natural assumption—the one the drugs, astrology, ideal body weight, advertiser wants you to make—is that the origins of intelligence, the nature this product is better than all others. of "mental illness," men and women, Actually, hospitals prefer it because it whites and blacks, Americans and is cheaper than its competitors. Japanese, heterosexuals and homosex­ Critical thinkers are also aware of uals. Try to set these feelings aside their own assumptions, and when so they won't interfere with your necessary are willing to question consideration of evidence bearing on them. For example, many people are such issues. Keep in mind the words biased in favor of their parents' ways of English poet and essayist Alexander of doing things. When faced with Pope: "What reason weaves, by pas­ difficult problems, they usually reach sion is undone." for familiar solutions, saying "If my 6. Don't oversimplify. A critical dad did it this way, that's the way 111 thinker looks beyond the obvious, do it," or "I was brought up to believe resists easy generalizations, and that the best way to discipline children rejects either/or thinking. For exam­ is to beat them." But critical thinking ple, when life serves up a miserable

Summer 1990 375 situation, should you deny your 80 percent more likely to separate or problems ("Everything's fine; let's go divorce than those who had lived apart to the movies") or face them head-on? (Bennett, Blanc, and Bloom 1988). Either answer oversimplifies. Re­ Time magazine promptly concluded search shows, instead, that sometimes that "premarital cohabitation may be denial can keep people from solving hazardous to your marriage" and Dear their problems, but sometimes it helps Abby advised a reader that if she them get through painful situations wanted her forthcoming marriage to that can't be changed. last she shouldn't cohabit beforehand. Often in an argument someone will But there is another plausible conclu­ generalize from one tiny bit of evi­ sion: that people who cohabit before dence to the whole world: one paroled marriage are less committed to tra­ ex-convict who commits a crime ditional institutions in general and means the whole parole program is therefore more inclined to leave an bad; one friend of yours who hates unhappy marriage. This was the his school means that everybody who interpretation the researchers them­ goes there has a hard time. Anecdotal selves favored. generalizations are the source of 8. Tolerate uncertainty. Ultimately, stereotyping as well: one dishonest learning to think critically teaches us welfare mother means they are all one of the hardest lessons of life: how dishonest; one bad experience with a to live with uncertainty. For example, New Yorker means that all New it's important to examine the evidence Yorkers are difficult. A critical thinker before drawing conclusions. Some­ wants more evidence than one or two times the evidence merely allows us stories before drawing generaliza­ to draw tentative conclusions. But we tions. all encounter situations in which there Many people also oversimplify is little or no evidence on which to when thinking about their own lives. base any conclusions. And sometimes, For example, they generalize from one exasperatingly, the evidence seems negative event to a whole pattern of good enough to draw strong and defeat, creating no end of misery: "I sturdy conclusions—until new evi­ did poorly on this test, and now 111 dence throws our beliefs into disarray. never get through college or have a Critical thinkers are willing to accept job or kids, or anything." this state of uncertainty. They are not 7. Consider other interpretations. A afraid to say, "I don't know," or "I'm critical thinker creatively formulates not sure." This admission is not an hypotheses that offer reasonable evasion, but a spur to further creative explanations of characteristics, behav­ inquiry. ior, and events. The ultimate goal is The desire for certainty often to find an explanation that accounts makes people uncomfortable when for the most evidence with the fewest they go to an expert for the answer assumptions. But critical thinkers are and the expert cannot give it to them. careful not to shut out all competing Some patients demand of their doc­ explanations too soon. They generate tors: "What do you mean you don't as many interpretations of the evi­ know what's wrong with me? Find out dence as possible before settling on the and fix it!" Some students demand of most likely one. their professors: "What do you mean A recent study of Swedish couples, it's a controversial issue? Just tell me for instance, found that those who the answer!" lived together before marriage were The need to accept a certain

376 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 amount of uncertainty does not mean tradict their own position. True that we must live without beliefs and critical thinking, according to Paul, is convictions. "The fact that today's "fair-mindedness brought into the knowledge may be overturned or at heart of everyday life." least revised tomorrow," says Rug- giero (1988), "could lead us to the kind References of skepticism that refuses to embrace any idea. That would be foolish Bennett, Neil, G., Ann Klimas Blanc, and because, in the practical sense, it is David E. Bloom. 1988. Commitment and the modern union: Assessing the link impossible to build a life on that view. between premarital cohabitation and Besides, it is not the embracing of an subsequent marital stability. American idea that causes problems—it is the Sociological Review, 53:127-138. refusal to relax that embrace when De Bono, Edward. 1985. De Bono's Thinking good sense dictates doing so. It is Course. New York: Facts on File. Ennis, Robert H. 1985. Critical thinking and enough to form convictions with care the curriculum. National Forum, 65(l):28- and carry them lightly, being willing 30. to reconsider them whenever new Lehman, Darrin R., Richard O. Lempert, and evidence calls them into question." Richard E. Nisbett. 1988. The effects of graduate training on reasoning. American Like the man who was delighted Psychologist, 43:431-442. to learn he had been speaking prose Paul, Richard W. 1984. Critical thinking: all his life, many people already know Fundamental to education for a free some of these basic guidelines of society. Educational Leadership, Sep­ tember: 4-14. critical and creative thinking. They do Rosen, R. D. 1977. Psychobabble. New York: it, we might say, without thinking Atheneum. about it. But educators can make those Ruggiero, Vincent R. 1988. Teaching Think­ guidelines more explicit and help ing Across the Curriculum. New York: students shape up their mental Harper & Row. Tavris, Carol. 1989. Anger: The Misunder­ muscles. stood Emotion, 2nd ed. New York: Touch­ Ultimately, however, critical think­ stone/Simon & Schuster. ing is as much an attitude as it is a Toman, Walter. 1976. Family Constellation, skill. All of us are much less open- 3rd ed. New York: Springer. minded than we think. We take comfort from believing that only other In addition to collaborating on their people are biased or need to think textbook Psychology for Harper & Row, more clearly. Critical thinking now in its second edition, psychologists requires that you be willing to submit Carol Tavris and Carole Wade are even your most cherished beliefs to coauthors of The Longest War: Sex honest analysis. Philosopher Richard Differences in Perspective (Harcourt W. Paul (1984) observes that without Brace Jovanovich) and both have written fair-mindedness, reasoning skills tend for popular magazines. Dr. Tavris is to be used in the service of one- author of Anger: The Misunderstood upmanship. That is why intelligent Emotion (Touchstone), which debunks people are not always critical thinkers. many of the pop-psych myths about anger Clever debaters can learn to poke and aggression. Dr. Wade currently holes in the arguments of others, teaches at the College of Marin and Dr. while twisting facts or conveniently Tavris in the Department of Psychology ignoring arguments that might con­ at UCLA.

Summer 1990 377 Police Pursuit of Satanic Crime Part II The Satanic Conspiracy And Urban Legends

ROBERT D. HICKS

Part I, on the law-enforcement model of cult crime, appeared in the Spring 1990 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER.

ult officers rail at the inhuman philos­ ophies and depredations of the many Ccults "out there." So how many cults exist? The fact is, no one knows. As the scholar of religion Gordon Melton has done (1986), one ] may try to survey groups that surface publicly. Yet some groups whose memberships adopt self- A Police cult-seminars identifying labels may not even claim a formal promote membership roll, much less articulate a com­ monly held credo. And when trying to identify fundamentalists' cult groups labeled as such, the groups them­ views of satanic selves may resist the categorization. Neverthe­ conspiracy. The less, cult officers and others make the following assertions: insights of folklore research and the —Occult groups (undefined) are "usually understanding of organized into 'covens' consisting of 9 or urban legends and 13 members." With 10,000 covens in the rumor-panics help in 1946 growing to 135,000 in 1985, the total national membership may explain the appeal run to 500,000 (Barry 1987: 40). and spread of —Cult members may number up to ten satanic-cult stories. million (Jonsson 1989). —About 3,000 cults exist in the United States (Griffis n.d.: 51). Griffis also says that only 500 of the total figure for cults deal with "the occult" (Baird 1984: 9). —"Using the broad definition of the social scientists, one can find some 500-600 cults or alternative religions in the United States. Of these, over 100 are primarily

378 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 ethnic bodies confined to first- and and animal sacrifices, kidnaping, second-generation immigrant com­ ongoing mental and physical abuse, munities," and total membership may child pornography, to name the prim­ reach 150,000 to 200,000 (Melton ary activities. D. W. Griffis (n.d.) tags 1986: 6). the Ordo Templi Orientis as such a So the estimates range from group and believes that their mind- 150,000 to 10 million participants in control methods of enforcing slavish groups tagged as cults. participation in cult ceremonies Notoriously lacking from cult include the use of symbols to trigger seminars is the voice of "nontradi- criminal responses in members—for tional belief" or, for that matter, of example, a black rose, a greeting card secular professional behavioral with a frog illustration, or cuing science. Law enforcers appoint them­ devices like the famous card deck in selves experts in interpreting signs the film The Manchurian Candidate. and symbols of groups whose The seminars' portrayal continues: members they've never met. Melton, Fourth-level satanists' belief in magic at least, defines cults for his scholarly propels them to sacrifice people. They purposes. First, he notes that to many release some primal energy force people "the term 'cult' is a pejorative through killing, which enriches the label used to describe certain religious participants, say the cult officers. The groups outside of the mainstream of abuse of children itself is a form of Western religion" (1986: 3), the sense worship. While for most ritual pur­ in which cult officers use the term. poses the children of traditional Cult officers prefer to identify satanists will suffice, sometimes cults' proselytizing through mind- satanists must look elsewhere for control, their fraudulent recruitment sacrificial fodder: usually at day-care of members, and their attraction to centers. sociopaths as key criteria for classi­ One Virginia investigator related fication, comparison, evaluation. Cult at a seminar that a particular day-care seminars stridently examine in this center abused children as a routine. way level-two satanists, or those with a public image, and take their public rites and symbols as illustrative of the clandestine, undetectable conspiracy of satanists, the final level.

The Satanic Conspiracy Here is the view of the "satanic conspiracy" widely and uncritically promulgated in cult seminars: Beyond the publicly accessible, organized satanists are the traditional, danger­ ous ones. Overall, though, traditional satanists belong not to different denominations of the same basic credo but rather to an international mega- cult tightly organized in a clandestine hierarchy. Whole families participate, raising children to a lifetime of human

Summer 1990 379 Once the parents had dropped them the secret fourth-level satanists pre­ off for the day, the day-care staff sent an insidious threat. "They will go bussed the children to an airfield, to any lengths to satisfy their needs," loaded them onto an airplane, and he said (Fouquette 1988). Griffis says, then flew them to a ceremonial site. "The most dangerous groups are the Day-care staff—while robed—forced ones that we know nothing about. . . . the children to lie in open coffins that They are the real underground" were then lowered into the earth. (Kahaner 1988: 84). Onlookers threw dirt on the children, Cult officers say that the ranks of who cried for help, but no one re­ secret satanists boast the intelligentsia sponded. The high priest retrieved and of our society, hence the moneyed then sexually assaulted the children. power behind the rituals. Pat Pulling The point of the ritual was to reduce maintains that satanic ranks include the children's self-esteem. After the "doctors, lawyers, clergymen, even rituals, the day-care staff returned the police" (Briggs 1988). The same source children (by airplane) to the center, stated that "adherents of this violent where their unsuspecting parents religion" number about 300,000 picked them up at the end of the day nationally. Apparently, the secret (Richmond Bureau of Police seminar, satanists are not new: only through Virginia, September 13,1988). cult seminars do police learn how to The Virginia investigator's story recognize their existence. Secret expresses a paradigm of day-care satanists are responsible for the center satanism that has appeared in almost 50,000 human sacrifices every widely publicized cases throughout year, a figure contradicted by the the country, leading to mass indict­ national homicide figures published by ments and ruined reputations but very the FBI, which show about half this few convictions, none of them related figure for each of the past few years to the occult (Charlier and Downing (1988). 1988). Despite this large-scale conspiracy, To Griffis (n.d.), "occult cults" go police still have uncovered little or no one step farther: ritual murder binds evidence of cults' murderous activi­ members to the cults. Charles Manson ties. Police say the lack of evidence is belongs to this variety: his imprison­ a result of the cults' success: cultists ment apparently has not reduced his eat bodies or dispose of them without involvement. According to Jerry a trace. The only consistent evidence Simandl, a Chicago police investigator, we have of secret satanists' existence drug use also pervades all levels of comes from two sources: the abuse satanic activity. stories told by children and those of To cult officers, society has much cult survivors. I address here the cult to fear from fourth-level satanists. Ex- survivors' stories. probation officer Thomas Wedge, active on the cult lecture circuit, says: Cult Survivors "It doesn't matter what you and I believe. It's what they believe that Cult survivors are often said to be the makes them dangerous. . . . For the offspring of satanic parents bred to first time, we in law enforcement are a life of abuse and witnessed murders. dealing with something we can't shout The prototype cult survivor is at . . . can't handcuff. And it is very Michelle Smith, who with her psychi­ dangerous" (Hyer 1989). To Virginia atrist husband, Lawrence Pazder, Beach police investigator Don Rimer, wrote Michelle Remembers (Smith and

380 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 Police Can Help Foment D Satanic Rumor-Panics

he police have demonstratedd It o find the satanic group behind r this. Characteristically, he said, T - "Their freedom of worship is susceptibility to cult-seminavr iprotected , . . . but we want to hysteria by fomenting rumor-t 'monito r them" (Noonan 1989). The panics. The Allenstown, New9 inex t day, the Manchester, New Hampshire, Police Department- iHampshire , Union Leader ran an received reports during May 1989a 1editoria l stating: "We have reached that six cats had been found hang- 1a sorry state of affairs when fol- ing from a tree not far from ae

Summer 1990 381 limbs rubbed on her, imprisonment in possessed by another person or entity, a snake-infested cage, confrontations a feeling that "may also be a delusion with red spiders, and watching satan- in a psychotic disorder, such as ists rend kittens with their teeth. schizophrenia. . . ." (p. 270). Rituals occurred in cemeteries, homes, The MPD phenomenon is not well mausoleums, and offices. understood. The most remarkable Smith even developed physical find of recent research pertains to the symptoms: she said a rash on her neck physiological changes that accompany developed (a photograph of which a switch in personalities. Such symp­ appears in the book) when Satan toms accompanying personality appeared and wrapped his tail around changes include rapidly appearing and it (Smith and Pazder 1980: 184). disappearing "rashes, welts, scars, and How does Pazder react to the lurid other tissue wounds; switches in stories? "I happen to believe you," he handwriting and handedness; epi­ says to Smith, "for many reasons . . . lepsy, allergies, and color blindness" but mostly for what I feel with you. (Goleman 1988). These symptoms, It feels real. ... I think the way you coupled with a sufferer's sincerity and are expressing the experience is very conviction, may confuse an investiga­ touching. It is authentic as an expe­ tor with no experience with MPD. rience" (193-194). While touched by The preoccupation with MPD Smith's experience, Pazder neverthe­ sufferers presents police with some less doesn't discuss the applicability of paradoxes. On the one hand, they cite Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) the growing number of cult-survivor to her story, yet the police frequently stories and their sameness as evidence dub her an MPD sufferer because they of fourth-level satanists (that is, maintain that MPD is the main people who have never met telling symptom of satanic abuse. stories with essentially the same MPD does, in fact, "develop in symbols or motifs). Yet most of the people who were severely and repeat­ cult survivors, young women possibly edly abused as children, apparently as afflicted with MPD, do not present a means to protect themselves against verifiable stories. First, none has the pain of the abuse" (Goleman yielded physical evidence of crime 1988). The standard diagnostic tool of other than physiological symptoms the psychiatric profession, known as like Smith's rash. Second, from the DSM 11I-R (Diagnostic and Statistical police point of view, MPD sufferers Manual of Mental Disorders, third are not particularly credible. MPD edition, revised, 1987), offers as the sufferers can convincingly relate "essential feature" of dissociative fantasies as fact and believe the stories disorders, of which MPD is one, "a they tell. The police themselves say disturbance or alteration in the nor­ that interviews with MPD victims mally integrative functions of identity, may consume years in order to extract memory, or consciousness" (p. 269). a coherent story. The police point out MPD sufferers may exhibit as many that even hypnosis for investigative as 10 personalities, some more than purposes produces no results (but for 200, in which "the personalities and therapeutic purposes, MPD sufferers personality states each have unique become quite loquacious). Third, no memories, behavior patterns, and one doubts that MPD victims have social relationships." As a further indeed suffered some form of abuse symptom, an MPD sufferer may as children, but not necessarily con­ exhibit a belief that he or she is nected with satanism. Adults may

382 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 abuse children under the pretext of personae. The focus, however, of any a satanic ceremony. Adults may cover scientific inquiry into the spread of up brutal, abusive behavior by intim­ satanic stories among MPD sufferers idating children: "Don't tell or 111 make should equally target therapists. the devil come and get you!" Or Anthropologist Sherrill Mulhern of abusive adults may claim that they the University of Paris has studied themselves are demons. therapist-patient interactions in the Despite their questionable value as cult survivor cases. witnesses to alleged satanic crimes, At the National Conference on cult survivors' stories still awe police Child Abuse and Neglect (Salt Lake audiences. But another facet of the City, Utah, 1989) Mulhern said: MPD stories lends credibility to cult- crime officers' claims of conspiracy: When one concentrates the re­ the explanation of identical cult- search focus on discovering the survior stories among people living specific ways in which therapists hundreds or thousands of miles apart. come to "believe" in the reality of Many law enforcers cite the identical satanic/ritual abuse, one imme­ nature of such stories as evidence of diately uncovers a remarkable their truth despite no other support­ myth-making network of thera­ ing evidence. pists, patients and investigators blending together specific idiosyn­ The Federal Bureau of Investiga­ cratic data into one a-temporal, tion's Ken Lanning, a child-abuse analytic grid. I say this because, specialist, has pointed out that the cult when one examines specific adult survivors currently on the talk-show survivor stories, it becomes imme­ circuit didn't parade their claims until diately apparent that initially after the publication of Smith's book patients were not saying the same in 1980. In fact, he couldn't locate any things but came to say similar things contemporary survivor stories before over time. that year. To Mulhern, the satanic model that has emerged at conferences of ther­ apists, police, and cult survivors is the Perhaps MPD sufferers—as uncom­ four-tiered homogenization of Satan­ mon as they are—have borrowed the ism obtained "through hours of symbolism of satanic trappings from networking" between the various lurid novels, movies, and television professionals, "the whole thing sus­ (since the rituals never involve histor­ tained by deeply held religious beliefs. ically accurate, arcane ancient rites) to What they describe bears little represent a fear deriving from an resemblance to the kinds of things abused childhood. Perhaps again, they that an expert in religion . . . might meld urban legend motifs into their present."

Summer 1990 383 The Matamoros Drug Incident: • Where's the Satanism?

he Matamoros drug killings inn inin g and herding illegal aliens into northern Mexico last springg tth e U.S. Thave fueled cult seminar inter­ Where does the satanic label est, despite the incident's absencee ccom e from? Rex Springston, a of satanism. In early April 1989', ireporte r for the Richmond News when the news accounts firstt JLeader, decided to trace the label appeared about the discovery off ((persona l communication, 1989). In bodies on a Mexican ranch near thee ttalkin g to the American investiga- Texas border, the Associated Presss ttor s cited in the news releases, he dubbed the killings "satanic," ani 1learne d that two had initially adjective that graced many news- cclassifie d the murders as satanic. paper headlines for weeks. Infor- 1Bu t as soon as the two investigators mation concerning the murderss \visite d the site, they both—Oran continues to be ambiguous becausee INeck , a customs official, and Rafael we have depended on second- andi IMartinez , an anthropologist—dis- third-hand sources. We do not cclaime d the satanism. But the know much of the backgrounds off 1Texa s attorney general's assistant the murderers, and their state- respondei d that the attorney ments had filtered through weekss igeneral , Jim Mattox, might have of interrogation before their Mex- iuse d the label early in the inves- ican police-contrived public displayf tigatiot n (indeed, the attorney before the press. In all likelihood,, ggenera l quite liberally used it, as Pat the so-called cult members comee IPullin g documents in her book, The from the same background as thoses IDevil's Web, 1989). Officials now recruited for other criminal activ- thint k that most of the murders ities: gun and stolen vehicle run- victimize\ d rival drug dealers, not

I suggest that a partial explanation and mass hysteria. For the remainder for the spread of satanic cult stories of this article I explore how some of among MPD patients and their ther­ these terms apply to the satanic apists can be found in folklore stories. research. In particular, people tell Stories of ritual abuse (that is, stories, and they tell them under abuse committed incidental to a ritual different motivations, to different as a form of propitiation, as cult audiences, with different calculated officers use the term) present no new effects. The relevant folklore terms, phenomena, as folklorist Jan Harold all of which have specific meanings Brunvand has described in his popular and imply specific dynamics at work books about urban legends. The Chok­ within populations, include rumor, ing Doberman (Brunvand 1984) and rumor-panics, urban myths and The Mexican Pet (Brunvand 1986). In legends, subversion tales or myths, fact, stories of abduction and mutila-

384 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 innocent people snatched off the almost one week after the first street (Applebome 1989). reports of the killings, even most According to current thinking, newspapers had begun to focus on the drug-gang leader, Adolfo de the incident as drug-related, not Jesus Constanzo, like Charles Man- satanic (Applebome 1989). son, gathered whatever symbolism Although the Matamoros story and ritual he could to intimidate is far from over, some cult officers rivals and his own lackeys. He still misrepresent the events, thus invented his own symbology (not aiding and abetting urban legends. a belief system, as mistakenly Virginia Beach police investiga­ reported) to offer his workers tor Don Rimer gave a seminar protection that he was in fact citing the Matamoros killings as powerless to provide in order to satanic. The officer was quoted in convince them to risk their lives in the newspapers (Crocker 1989) as the drug trade, where the mone­ saying that the Matamoros killings tary rewards for most are meager. "prove that human sacrifices by In short, Matamoros represents Satanists are not simply 'urban violence associated with drug deal­ myths.' " ing. No evidence exists—at least " 'Now, those people who talked among the details of the incident about the 'urban myth' and asked, that have been made public—of any 'Where are the bodies?' are silent," participation by Constanzo or his the officer said to a citizens' group. group in satanic activities, involve­ But the Matamoros business dis­ ment with a satanic conspiracy, or places nothing about urban myth, human sacrifice to propitiate the proves nothing about satanism, and Devil. Nor do Constanzo's rites should be properly viewed in the belong to Afro-Caribbean religions, context of Mexican border drug- such as Santeria or Palo Mayombe, running and its associated violence. from which he contrived his own brand of ritualism. By April 17, R.D.H.

tion or murder of children pervadade earthly locale." Satanic legends enter Euro-American history and mythol10I­- the fray as migratory tales, i.e., stories ogy. Recent scholarship has produceced "widely known in different places," a study of the phenomenon of chilfuld possibly in cyclical fashion (or several abduction and murder in Reformatioion narratives similar thematically). Par- Germany, stories identical to those; ooff ticularly, "urban legends . . . often today, except that the scapegoats werere appear to be 'new' when they begin Jews, not shadowy satanists (HsiIsia to spread, but even the newest- 1988). sounding stories may have gone the According to Brunvand (198686: rounds before. A 'new urban legend,' 158), legends "are prose narrativeves then, may be merely a modern story regarded by their tellers as true. . . . told in a plausible manner by a credible They are ... set in the less-remotote narrator to someone who hasn't heard past [than myth] in a conventionamal the story before, at least not recently

Summer 1990 385 enough to remember it" (Brunvand Jersey, alarming citizens and police 1984: 4-5). (Kolata 1988). Rumor, hysteria, and Stories of cult activities by satanists urban legends are easy: simply com­ have never before entered the expe­ bine the right ideological leaning with rience of police officers and, when fear and facile explanations for oth­ related by seemingly credible wit­ erwise unpalatable occurrences. nesses, some officers suspend empir­ icism and believe. Brunvand further Police Legends details the process by noting, "Most urban horror legends, however, com­ The police have demonstrated suscep­ bine fully fictional plots with a credible tibility to cult-seminar hysteria by setting and realistic characters to fomenting rumor-panics and urban anchor themselves to supposed real- legends. The Allenstown, New Hamp­ life events" (1984: 73). Shorn of shire, incident is an example. (See box modern settings, the urban legends on p. 381.) are reducible to motifs which, "in A similar incident occurred a few folklorists' jargon, are traditional years back in Brown County, Indiana. narrative units—such as characters, A New Age group called the Elf Lore objects, or actions—that serve as the Family (ELF) arranged to have a public building blocks of folk stories" (p. 31). gathering at a public park. ELF posters In fact, the standard guide to older around town mentioned camping, motifs (Thompson 1955) catalogs feasts, dancing, "New Age work­ elements of witches' sabbaths, ritual shops," "bardic tales and tunes," and murder and mutilation of children, other events. Many of the organizers children abducted by or sold to the described themselves as witches and devil, as well as a legion of plots even distributed "witchcraft fact involving the devil, hundreds of motifs sheets" to explain their beliefs (Guinee that show up in cult seminars, der­ 1987). So far, no problem. But by the iving from Europe, America, and even time of the ELF weekend gathering, Africa, the Philippines, and Indonesia. a local church group had planned a Brunvand chronicles many motifs that strategy to proselytize the ELFers, and appear in new urban legends, includ­ the local sheriff's department became ing attempted abductions of children involved through a deputy who had from shopping mall restrooms; attended a cult seminar given by two assaults on young boys that result in Indiana state police officers, both self- castration; kidnaping of girls into proclaimed experts, who had in turn prostitution rings. received their information from cult Some police officers perpetuate consultant Dale Griffis. new legends without taking the time Following the weekend, the local to verify them. For example, a spur­ newspaper reported the event under ious police circular found its way the title, "Sat anic Rites Held at through South Carolina telling of an Yellowwood Forest," the article dis­ LSD-impregnated Mickey Mouse cussing animal sacrifice, drinking decal endangering children (Brunvand blood in rituals, nude dancing or 1984: 162). The Pendleton, South dancing by people in "devil-like cos­ Carolina, Police Department even tumes," and eating raw flesh. The warned the community about the news reporter used only one source transfers. The same story, with the for the article: the deputy sheriff. same anonymous police circular, Neither a local Baptist minister nor recently traveled throughout New the park conservation professionals

386 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 nor the. ELFers could corroborate the that menace not only people but an sensational claims of the local sheriff's entire way of life, our governmental department. The article dutifully institutions immobilized because of noted, though, that the sheriff's constitutional guarantees of religious department "could not stop the satanic liberty, even extending to satanists. rites because of the Constitutional Subversion myths include certain right to freedom of religion that ingredients: description of a danger, protected the worshipers." identification of a group of conspira­ But the ELFers were not satanic. tors and their pernicious motives, a The seminar-trained police spent process by which conspirators manip­ considerable time and effort watching ulate the unwary to do their bidding, the ELFers simply because they were the actual threat to society, plus the not Christians, thus creating the remedy that citizens must pursue satanism. The sheriff's department, by (Bromley 1989: 13). feeding information to a gullible Another sociologist, Jeffrey S. journalist, created a new legend; the Victor (1989), examined a localized news article then becomes a cult- panic that resulted from rumors of seminar handout proving the exist­ satanic cult activities in parts of ence of satanism. An Indiana Univer­ Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York, sity folklorist who documented the a situation he likened to a "collective event noted, "The influence of second­ nightmare." (See also his article in the hand opinions proved especially Spring 1990 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER.) strong among the law enforcement Throughout this broad territory, element" (Guinee 1987: 2). rumors of meetings, animal killings, ritual drinking of blood, and an Subversion Myth and Anxiety impending sacrifice of a "blond, blue- eyed virgin" culminated "in a peak of But urban legends can be more than hysteria on Friday the thirteenth of twice-told tales. Sociologist David May," 1988. In this case, the James­ Bromley (1989: 2) extends the urban town, New York, Police Department legend even further: he has described acted with remarkable perspicacity a narrative form, the subversion and restraint and forestalled potential myth, which responds "to perceived violence. Among other events, rumors breakdowns in the social order." led more than a hundred citizens to Subversion myth reflects social ten­ show up at a supposed ritual site, sion. These narratives deal with the armed and ready to confront the (non­ tales of cult survivors and others who existent) cultists. Another rumored fear satanic cults—but with a purpose. cult site, a warehouse, suffered thou­ "They function as cautionary tales sands of dollars' worth of vandalism. which in a metaphorical sense sensi­ Many parents kept their children from tize audiences to the perils of raising attending school. children in a world filled with danger­ Victor did not find the rumor-panic ous groups and events" (p. 25), in a a sudden development. Similar to world over which parents have little Bromley's explanation of subversion control. The stories, then, "constitute myths, the New York rumors of cults a significant cultural form through provided "symbolic meaning, however which social disorder is confronted false, to an evolving collective myth. and symbolically contained." That myth offered a ready-made Coupled with a collective readiness explanation for ambiguous, unclear to believe, the myths present threats sources of collective anxiety" (p. 35).

Summer 1990 387 In particular, as Bromley also sug­ does exist. Some people also commit gests, the "rumors can be interpreted violent crimes while invoking the as cultural metaphors for the loss of power of Satan. Such people may not the family function to protect chil­ necessarily act alone but in concert dren" (p. 37). In short, the elements with others. But law enforcers cannot of urban legends about satanic doings demonstrate the existence of a wide­ tell a story of the dissipation of values spread satanic conspiracy: the evi­ most Americans describe as "tradi­ dence doesn't exist. tional" and therefore cherished. In postulating a self-contradictory model of cults and crime, law en­ Conclusion forcers have assumed the role of reli­ gious polemicists of recent years: Certainly the subject of urban legend requires more insightful academic The Satanic literature has been study to identify the satanic meta­ carried almost totally by the imagin­ phors, and their systematic and some­ ative literature of non-Satanists— times predictable usage, and to explore primarily conservative Christians people's readiness and willingness to who describe the practices in vivid detail in the process of denouncing believe. Particularly useful to law them. . . . The Satanic tradition has enforcement would be an insight into been created by generation after how collective myths become very generation of anti-Satan writers. personalized ones, as in the case of (Melton 1986: 76) cult survivors. A cult survivor's story might be Law enforcers must not beguile true. But a police investigator must themselves into believing satanic be an empiricist and not believe a conspiracy theories and conducting survivor's claims, as Pazder does, surveillance of and records-gathering simply because her (or his) story sounds on people who have shown no criminal authentic. To be sure, the investigator involvement. As the FBI's Ken Lan- must consult with physicians and ning (1989: 77) has observed: psychologists, but he or she cannot ignore the possibility that cult survi­ What is the justification for law vors have other motivations to tell enforcement officers giving presen­ satanic stories. Some have psychiatric tations on satanism and the occult? disorders that may make borrowing ... Is it public relations, a safety satanic trappings easy and attractive. program, or crime prevention? If it Others may seek public attention. is crime prevention, how much Officers must reckon with the nature crime can be linked to satanic or and longevity of the patient's past occult activity and what do such interaction with a therapist. presentations do to prevent the crime? Law enforcement agencies It is important, though, for inves­ should carefully consider the legal tigators to remember the historical implications and justification for context of such stories: people such presentations. Is the fact that throughout history have sought satanism or the occult is or can be scapegoats for misfortune or the a negative influence on some people banality of living, as a response to enough justification for such law stress. The stories invoking satanic enforcement efforts? cults have not changed—apart from the settings—in centuries. Law-enforcement investigators Abuse of children and teenagers must remove the "cult" from cult

388 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 crime and do their jobs accordingly. Griffis, D. W. n.d. Mind Control Groups and "Bizarre crime and evil can occur Their Effects on the Objectives of Law Enforcement. Doctoral dissertation. San without organized satanic activity. Rafael, Calif.: Columbia Pacific Uni­ The law-enforcement perspective versity. requires that we distinguish between Guinee, William. 1987. Satanism in Yellow- what we know and what we're not wood Forest: The interdependence of sure of" (Lanning 1989: 80). antagonistic worldviews. Indiana Folklore and Oral History, 16 (1): 1-30. Hsia, R. 1989. Blue knights and the black Acknowledgment art. Washington Post, April 18. Jonsson, D. 1989. Expert says some look to a cult for structure in life. Salt Lake The author thanks Steve Squire, Tribune, April 15. Frank MacHove, Jeffrey Victor, and Kahaner, L. 1988. Cults That Kill. New York: Kathleen Sands for their helpful Warner Books. comments on the draft of this paper. Kolata, G. 1988. Rumor of LSD-tainted tattoos called hoax. New York Times, December 9. References Lanning, K. 1989. Satanic, occult, ritualistic crime: A law enforcement perspective. American Psychiatric Association. 1987. Police Chief, 56 (10): 62-83 (October Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental issue). Disorders, rev., 3rd ed. Washington, D.C. Melton, J. G. 1986. Encyclopedic Handbook of Applebome, Peter. 1989. New report warns Cults in America. New York: Garland of alliance of racist groups. New York Publishing Company. Times, February 6. Noonan, Vernica. 1989. Satanic cult killed Baird, D. 1984. Sympathy for the Devil. animals in Allenstown, police say. Union Capitol Magazine (Denver, Colo.), July 15. Leader (Manchester, N.H.), May 3. Barry, R. J. 1987. Satanism: The law enforce­ Pulling, P. 1989. The Devil's Web. Lafayette, ment response. National Sheriff, 38 (1):38- La.: Huntington House. 42. Smith, M., and L. Pazder. 1980. Michelle Briggs, E. 1988. Satanic cults said to entice Remembers. New York: Congdon and teens with sex, drugs. Richmond Times- Lattes. Dispatch, March 5. Springston, R. 1989. Richmond News Leader. Bromley, D. G. 1989. Folk narratives and Personal communication. deviance construction: Cautionary tales Thompson, S. 1955. Motif-Index of Folk as a response to structural tensions in the Literature, 6 vols. Bloomington, Ind.: social order. In Deviance and Popular Indiana University Press. Culture, ed. by C. Sanders. Victor, J. S. 1989. A rumor-panic about a Brunvand, J. H. 1984. The Choking Doberman dangerous satanic cult in Western New and Other "New Urban Legends." New York. New York Folklore, 15 (1-2): 23-49. York: W. W. Norton. Zitner, Aaron. 1989a. N.H. police chief . 1986. The Study of American Folklore, discounts alleged signs of cult activity. 3rd ed. New York: W. W. Norton. Boston Globe, May 5. Charlier, Tom, and Shirley Downing. 1988. . 1989b. Cult scare seen as overrated. A 1980s witch-hunt. Memphis Commer­ Boston Globe, May 28. cial Appeal. Six-part series reprinted in January 1989. Crocker, Ronnie. 1989. Detective warns of Robert Hicks is a law-enforcement satanism. Daily Press (Newport News, specialist/criminal justice analyst with the Va.), June 10. Virginia Department of Criminal justice Federal Bureau of Investigation. 1988. Crime in the United Stales, 1987. Washington, Services, 805 E. Broad St., Richmond, D.C. VA 23219. This two-part report Fouquette, D. 1988. Detective delivers expresses his opinions, not those of his warning on satanism. The Beacon (Virgi­ agency or the Virginia state government. nia Beach, Va.) May 8. He has just completed a book on cults and Goleman, D. 1988. Probing the enigma of multiple personality. New York Times, law enforcement, to be published by June 28. Prometheus Books later this year.

Summer 1990 389 Order Out of Chaos In Survival Research

ARTHUR S. BERGER

A few weeks before Joseph B. Rhine died in ^^1980, I visited him at his big old house I \in Durham, North Carolina. As we talked, with his wife, Louisa, silent but attentive in the room, it was plain that in spite of his failing hearing and near blindness his mind was still active. During our conversation, he talked about his desire to see action during World War I and how he tried to enlist in the Army. He was turned down because of his defective 1% hearing and poor eyesight. He applied to the Research into Navy and was again rejected. When the Marine Corps refused him because of his hammertoes, reincarnation and he challenged the Marine doctor to a hike—and survival is confused a Marine uniform was his. and chaotic. When I wrote my biography of Rhine (Berger Investigative and 1988a), I included this story, because to me it judicial bodies made illustrates Rhine's enormous determination and his iron will, the very qualities he needed to up of respected introduce parapsychology to America. He gave members of the parapsychology its terms, its concepts, its psychical research theories, and its test procedures, and he endeavored, against much incredulity and and skeptical skepticism, to endow his work with scientific communities have status. Because of Rhine, parapsychology has now been formed to become a household word in the United States, and mistakenly and through misunderstanding, bring some order to has come to be used interchangeably with, or the situation. in preference to, the term psychical research. This usage implies a failure to realize that each discipline occupies a different investigative area. To impress scientists, Rhine established parapsychology as an experimental and quan­ titative inquiry into psi in the laboratory. Psychical research, on the other hand, is a qualitative inquiry and includes the collection and evaluation of reports of spontaneous cases, including . Today, Rhine's succes-

390 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 sors, who share his hope of impressing element has been missing that there science with laboratory experiments is a wide difference of opinion con­ and statistics, have largely ignored this cerning the true worth of previous qualitative side. But it should not be investigations and evaluations. The ignored. Spontaneous cases provide a vast majority of the most important natural field of study of alleged investigations that seem to have telepathic and related phenomena as supplied evidence for, or at least that compared to the artificial conditions have been suggestive of, survival after of the laboratory. And only the spon­ death or reincarnation have been taneous cases—apparitions, dreams, mainly one-man shows. The past gives hauntings, out-of-body experiences, us plenty of examples and they still mediumship, and claims of reincarna­ abound today: Sir William Crookes's tion—bear upon the intriguing, highly investigations of the physical medi­ emotional, and still absolutely unre­ ums Florence Cook and D. D. Home- solved question of whether human Richard Hodgson's investigation of consciousness continues beyond bod­ the mental medium Leonora Piper; ily death in discarnate or reincarnated James H. Hyslop's investigation of the form. mental mediums Mrs. Chenoweth and It is important, therefore, that Mrs. Smead; the Reverend C. Drayton reports of spontaneous cases be Thomas's sittings with the mental investigated and evaluated, but with medium Gladys Osborne Leonard; the proviso that such investigation Gustav Geley's experiments with the and evaluation be done in a way that physical medium Franz Kluski; Harry will discover if they give convincing Price's investigation of Borley Rec­ evidence of the survival of the con­ tory, which has been called "the most sciousness of, or the reincarnation of, haunted house in England." a deceased person. The key word is The Golden Age of mediumship convincing. It is because this essential ended more than 50 years ago, and

fcavJywrt—:»

Summer 1990 391 haunted houses like Borley Rectory each asks us to trust in his statements are not much in fashion anymore. implicitly and to rely on his proce­ Nevertheless, the parade of modern dures, observations, and conclusions. investigators and their different But we don't know whether any claims of telling evidence continues: particular investigator is sane, honest, L. Stafford Betty wrote of his inves­ objective, or competent, or whether tigation of a poltergeist case in which he is fraudulent or has been deceived. he concluded that a deceased person The history of parapsychology and was the agent (Betty 1984); I reported psychical research contains several an experiment of the cross- chapters in which the real character correspondence type that was sugges­ of the investigators has been un­ tive of survival (Berger 1987b); Karlis masked. In parapsychology, Walter J. Osis claimed that experiments in out- Levy, whom Rhine made director of of-body experiences supported the his Institute for Parapsychology, was hypothesis that the human being has discovered doctoring data (Rhine an ecsomatic aspect capable of sepa­ 1975). S. G. Soal, a respected mathe­ ration from the body and independent matician and experienced experimen­ operation outside it (Osis and McCor- ter, was also shown to have mick 1980); George Meek claims to manipulated data (Markwick 1985). In have electronic proof of survival of psychical research, Crookes, the death based on instrumental com­ eminent scientist, has been accused of munication with the dead (Meek using Florence Cook's fraudulent 1982); D. Scott Rogo maintains that seances in order to cover up and phone calls from the dead have been maintain a sexual liaison with her (Hall received (Rogo and Bayless 1980). All 1962). Geley, a medical doctor, has these claims relate to discarnate been charged with suppressing the survival. medium Eva C.'s fraud (Lambert Because of the work of Ian Steven­ 1954). Harry Price was taken to task son, some people think there is proof for deliberate fraud in the Borley of another form of survival—reincar­ Rectory investigation (Dingwall, nation. Belief in reincarnation is a vital Goldney, and Hall 1956). Even Hodg­ element of Hinduism and is accepted son, whom I have held up as an by the great majority of the people excellent example of the critical and of India; and although apparent cases careful psychical researcher (Berger of the phenomenon have been re­ 1988a), has been accused of emphas­ ported in India for centuries, they izing evidence that favored his con­ were never empirically investigated clusions and underemphasizing that until Stevenson's pioneering efforts. which did not (Thouless 1968). In As a result of his studies of young Stevenson's case, no accusation of children in India and elsewhere who wrongdoing has ever been made. Yet claim to remember prior lives, Steven­ some personal bias may have crept son claims that the most probable into his investigations; there may have explanation of many of these cases is been a judicious selection and presen­ not ESP or possession, but reincarna­ tation of positive data in order to tion. support a personal belief in life after death. Other defects in his investiga­ Now, although each of these inves­ tions exist as well (Berger in press). tigators differs from the others in the methods he uses and in the kinds of It seems clear that no marvelous phenomena with which he deals, all phenomena uncovered through the have one thing in common. In effect, work of any one investigator are

392 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 acceptable unless verification has been Since scientific and academic circles received from other independent refuse to waste time on survival and investigators. Repetition or confirma­ reincarnation, little notice has been tion of a phenomenon or conclusion taken of the fact that in psychical can provide the power to convince that research the situation is no less has been missing by vastly increasing confused and chaotic than it is in the chances that it is valid and un­ parapsychology. Confusion and end­ tainted. less and pointless disagreement run Although Rhine tried with all his rampant. In case after case, old as well might to make ESP and PK acceptable as new, armchair critics who review to science, he admitted to me that he them find all sorts of defects in the had failed. Indeed, the situation is even way investigators have conducted worse today than when I spoke with investigations, from poor methodol­ him, because attacks against parapsy­ ogy to poor, distorted, or dishonest chology have mounted steadily since reporting. the founding of the Committee for the Even when two researchers are Scientific Investigation of Claims of working together to investigate the the Paranormal. I have written else­ same facts in the same reincarnation- where that parapsychology is "an out­ type case, they cannot agree. For post under " (Berger 1988a). It example, Rakesh Gaur was born in is in a confused and chaotic state, as 1969 in Rajasthan, India. When he was both external critics, such as C. E. M. five years old, he told his parents that Hansel (1966; 1980) and Ray Hyman he had lived a prior life as a carpenter (1986), and internal ones, such as in a place called Tonk, some 225 Charles Akers (1984) and Susan J. kilometers away, that he had been Blackmore (1986), attack its experi­ married to a woman named Keshar, ments in and and that he had been electrocuted. psychokinesis on grounds ranging When the child was taken to Tonk, from methodological and statistical he recognized the widow and son of flaws and failure to preclude sensory Bithal Das, a carpenter who had been cues to the charge that subjects and electrocuted in 1955. Two investiga­ experimenters have cheated. tors interviewed the child, the parents, They have good reason for suspi­ and interested witnesses, and made a cion and skepticism. A case in point record of all statements and checked is Soal's experiments with Basil Shack- and verified them by interviewing all leton between 1941 and 1943. They the people who said they had known were the most famous ever conducted the dead carpenter. In the end, the two on British soil and were looked on for investigators sharply disagreed on decades as fraud-proof and the most how the case should be interpreted 1 convincing evidence of ESP ever (Pasricha and Barker 1971). produced. Yet evidence of Soal's Nothing is settled; there is no fraudulent manipulation of data has consensus on any case or on the been uncovered. The lesson here is database for survival and reincarna­ that a fraud-proof experiment in the tion. After a hundred years of inves­ laboratory or a fraud-proof investiga­ tigations, the situation is best tion in the field does not exist, and described by recalling a series carried we have to be skeptical about claims some years ago by American and or results unless independent exper­ English television called "The Long imenters or investigators are able to Search." In one of the programs, confirm them. originating from Jerusalem, a rabbi

Summer 1990 393 was asked whether Jews are argumen­ alternative paranormal one. An inter­ tative people, he replied, "Where you pretation of a case as suggesting or find two Jews, you'll find three demonstrating survival or reincarna­ opinions." Similarly, among those tion can be given only after normal psychical researchers who are inter­ or other paranormal interpretations ested in survival and reincarnation, have been ruled out. Guidelines for there are three opinions. One is that such critical evaluations (Berger the investigations in these areas are 1988b) would include the examina­ all flawed and fall far short of proof; tion of the testimony of witnesses, a second is that they furnish clear-cut written documents, and all circum­ or at least suggestive evidence; a third stances surrounding a case and would opinion, often voiced by Gardner require cross-examination of wit­ Murphy, is that one cannot believe or nesses and corroboration from wit­ disbelieve and that the whole matter nesses or other sources. After the rests on dead center. conclusion of its investigation, the task force will present its findings to Order Out of Chaos a panel of judges in an evenhanded way with arguments and counter­ In the belief that the time has come arguments. for taking steps to try to untangle this web and establish some kind of order, Tribunal: After the completion of an investigative group and a judicial inquiries and presentation to the body, both of which will deal with the tribunal of findings and opinions by question of the cogency of survival the task force with full opportunity and reincarnation cases, have been being given to an investigator whose formed by the International Institute case is being examined to present his for the Study of Death (USD), a side, the panel of judges will examine multidisciplinary and multicultural all spontaneous cases of apparent organization formed to throw light on survival or reincarnation brought many aspects of death, including the before it. The tribunal will decide possibilities of survival and reincarna­ impartially and authoritatively all tion (Berger 1987). questions relating to the cases in order to present to the world a just inter­ Task Force: A task force of inves­ pretation of the facts. The tribunal tigators will conduct independent and consists of independent and eminent impartial inquiries into all cases scientists and scholars who support "suggesting" or supplying substantial the aims of the tribunal and have been evidence for survival or reincarnation. invited to serve by the USD. Some The USD will encourage investigators members are from the psychical to refer their cases to the task force research community and some, such for either joint investigation or rein­ as Paul Kurtz, are from the commun­ vestigation. The USD may also refer ity of skeptics and critics outside cases coming to its attention and psychical research. meriting investigation. The purpose of I would be less than candid if I did the task force is to determine whether not confess that the concept of a the phenomenon reported actually tribunal has been challenged by some occurred, if it was correctly reported, people. These Doubting Thomases and whether it can best be explained believe that it is a naive delusion that by survival or reincarnation or by an the perennial controversy over the alternative normal theory or an survival hypothesis can ever be re-

394 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 solved. This objection brought home advocates to the tribunal and the to me once again that the subject of tribunal has ruled on the case, we hope survival is highly charged with emo­ to have the highest standard of tions, hopes, and fears and can cause evidence that can be applied to a case even rational people to act irrationally and to have received the most and to create a dogma or argument informed opinion. The determinations to hide behind in order to avoid it. made by a panel of judges ought to I do not see how or why the role be regarded with confidence that they or function of the tribunal set up by are a fair and just exposition of a case the USD to decide the dispute over and should have a binding authority. survival and/or reincarnation is any They should command more attention more difficult or different from the and respect than all the reports and functions of many other types of findings of individual investigators judicial and nonjudicial bodies that and all the criticisms of reviewers of handle and decide every day all kinds their work put together. of complex matters in criminal and A series of such decisions over civil courts, administrative agencies, the next decade should either bring and commercial and labor arbitra­ us evidence of survival and rein­ tion. carnation so convincing that the Suppose that someday in the future scientific and academic worlds can­ a case comes to the court whose not ignore it or show us plainly that evidence for the reality of survival or our present methods of investi­ reincarnation is enough to convince gation have provided no empirical the tribunal. The widely held Western basis for the survival or reincarnation assumption that at death we are hypothesis. In either case, the inves­ extinguished like a candle would be tigative and judicial bodies should help overturned. William James once said: bring more order and make more "If you wish to upset the law that all progress in an area where neither crows are black, you must not seek exists today. to show that no crows are; it is enough to prove one single crow to be white." Note Such a case would be the white crow of survival. But lest there be any 1. In this case, Pasricha believed that misunderstanding, it is not the role Rakesh Gaur knew a great deal about Bithal of the tribunal to look for such a case Das before going to Tonk and that he in order to support the survival probably acquired this information paranor- hypothesis. If there are no convincing mally although it was not necessarily a case of reincarnation. Barker perceived no para- cases, the tribunal will say so and if normality at all and thought the case was all its decisions are negative and do only a product of the widespread belief in not confirm that hypothesis, one India of reincarnation. Although Rakesh justifiable conclusion would be that Gaur had made a few general statements such negative data drive additional about a prior life before going to Tonk, the nails into the coffin of the hy­ recognition tests he passed there and what pothesis. he did and said there could have been the result of being supplied with cues. Apart from this, I believe that the case is extremely Conclusion: After a case has been weak. It suffers from the defect that the investigated by the task force, after child's parents did not keep a written record positive and negative data and criti­ of the child's statements about a prior life cisms and countercriticisms have been and the case depended on the ability of presented by advocates and devil's witnesses to remember.

Summer 1990 395 References rev. ed., ESP and Parapsychology: A Critical Reevaluation, Prometheus Books, Akers, C. 1984. Methodological criticisms of Buffalo, N.Y., 1980; new rev. ed., The parapsychology. In Advances in Parapsy­ Search for Psychic Power, Prometheus chology, 4:112-164, ed. by S. Krippner. Books, 1989. Jefferson, N.C., and London: McFarland. Hyman, R. 1986. Parapsychological research: Berger, A. S. 1987a. A new approach to an A tutorial review and critical appraisal. old subject: The International Institute Proceedings of the IEEE, 74:823-849. for the Study of Death. American Society Lambert, R. 1954. Dr. Geley's report on the for Psychical Research Newsletter, 13(1):5. medium Eva C. Journal of the Society for . 1987b. Aristocracy of the Dead. Psychical Research, 37:62. Jefferson, N.C., and London: McFarland. Markwick, B. 1985. The establishment of . 1988a. Lives and Letters in American data manipulation in the Soal-Shackleton Parapsychology: A Biographical History, experiments. In A Skeptic's Handbook of 1850-1987. Jefferson, N.C., and London: Parapsychology, ed. by P. Kurtz. Buffalo, McFarland. N.Y.: Prometheus Books. . 1988b. Evidence of Life After Death: Meek, G. 1982. Spiricom: Electronic com­ A Casebook for the Tough-Minded. Spring­ munications with the "dearly departed." field, 111.: Charles C. Thomas. New Realities, 4(6):9. . In press. Reincarnation by the Osis, K., and D. McCormick. 1980. Kinetic numbers: A criticism and suggestion. In effects at the ostensible location of an Reincarnation: Fact or Fable, ed. by A. S. out-of-body projection during perceptual Berger and J. Berger. Wellingborough, testing. Journal of the American Society for U.K.: Crucible. Psychical Research, 74:319. Betty, L. S. 1984. The Kern City poltergeist: Pasricha, S. K., and D. R. Barker. 1981. A A case severely straining the living agent case of the reincarnation type. European hypothesis, journal of the Society for Journal of Parapsychology, 3:381-408. Psychical Research, 52:345. Rhine, J. B. 1975. Comments. Second report Blackmore, S. 1986. The Adventures of a on a case of experimenter fraud. Journal Parapsychologist. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prome­ of Parapsychology, 39:306, 325. theus Books. Rogo, D. S., and R. Bayless. 1980. Phone Calls Dingwall, E. J., K. M. Goldney, and T. H. from the Dead. New York: Berkley. Hall. 1956. The haunting of Borley Thouless, R. H. 1968. Review of obituary: Rectory. Proceedings of the Society for The "Hodgson Report" on Madame Psychical Research, 51:1. Blavatsky by Adlai E. Waterman. Journal Guptha, L. D., N. R. Sharma, and T. C. of the Society for Psychical Research, 44:344. Mathur. 1936. An Inquiry into the Case of Shanti Devi. Delhi: International Aryan League. Arthur S. Berger is director of the Hall, T. H. 1962. The Spiritualists. London: International Institute for the Study of Allen & Unwin. (Reprinted as The Death, P.O. Box 8565, Pembroke Pines, Medium and the Scientist: The Story of PL 33084. He is an attorney, a thana- Florence Cook and William Crookes, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, N.Y., 1984.) tologist, and an educator and is coeditor Hansel, C. E. M. 1966. ESP: A Scientific of Perspectives on Death and Dying Evaluation. New York: Charles Scribner's; (Charles Press, 1989).

396 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 Piltdown, Paradigms, and the Paranormal i

KENNETH L FEDER

seudoscience is a polymorphous enter­ prise; the range of pseudoscientific claims P is enormous. The world would be far different from what orthodox science supposes if there were substantive validity to the assertions of psychics, astrologers, clairvoyants, past-life therapists, UFOlogists, ancient- astronaut enthusiasts, dowsers, creationists, pyramidologists, crystal boosters, faith healers, and the holders of myriad other beliefs in the ^% paranormal, occult, and . The claims made by the proponents of these The Piltdown case various phenomena or perspectives are more provides an than merely extreme. They, to varying degrees, fundamentally challenge existing paradigms— excellent model the ways we view the world around us or some for how science specific aspect of the universe or reality. Within the framework of scientific discourse, however, deals with claims it cannot be said that the claims made by that purport to parapsychologists and occultists are impossible simply because they sound improbable or topple existing because acceptance would alter the way we view paradigms. reality. Certainly concerned scientists need to assess individual cases. The pages of this journal have seen many successful attempts to show specifically why some of these claims are pseudoscientific. As Al Seckel (1989) has pointed out, however, refuting or debunking individual claims, though important, is simply not enough. There are always other claims. Refuting the myth of the Bermuda Triangle, for example, does not necessarily lead to a recognition of the pseu-

Summer 1990 397 doscience in or claims of evolved—when compared with some ancient astronauts. hypothetical species ancestral to us Perhaps it is just as important, for and the apes. Our intelligence, it was those of us committed to skeptical argued, must therefore have begun to inquiry, to show how science works, evolve before other of our uniquely how it handles new, revolutionary human traits. So, fossil ancestors of claims, paranormal or otherwise. We our species were expected to show need to ask: On what basis do our development of a humanlike brain paradigms in science stand or fall? In first, with an apelike body lagging so doing, we can show that scientists behind evolutionarily. As writer handle the claims made in pseudos- Charles Blinderman points out, such cience no differently from the way researchers as English anatomist they treat other claims that challenge Grafton Elliot Smith were quite current understanding of the explicit in predicting the discovery of universe. human ancestors with large brains On this topic, the early history of and primitive bodies (1986:36). Later, human evolutionary theory provides Smith went so far as to characterize an excellent model for how science early man as "merely an Ape with an deals with claims that purport to top­ overgrown brain" (1927:105-106). ple our existing paradigms. I present The paradigm of brain-centered evo­ it in the hope that others might find lution suited the sensibilities of the late nineteenth and early twentieth it useful in their discussions of the centuries: if we were indeed cousin to nature of scientific reasoning, espe­ the ape, at least it had been our brains cially when scientists are faced with that first distinguished us from our emotional adherence to particular common ancestor. views, wishful thinking, or outright deception. The fossil record, however, was not sympathetic to this scenario. The Upright Apes or Neandertal finds in the second half of Four-legged ? the nineteenth century and the dis­ covery of Java Man in 1891 both After the publication of Darwin's showed a fossil ancestor virtually Origin of Species in 1859, many modern from the neck down and thinkers applied the idea of natural primitive from the neck up—the selection to a species that Darwin did reverse of the expectation. Needless not focus on in that work; they applied to say, this caused some confusion Darwin's theory to human beings. among researchers. Some initially With very little fossil evidence to go tried to explain away these incon­ on, they constructed a plausible venient data. For a time, Neandertal scenario. reconstructions were fudged to make Biological taxonomists had long them appear more apelike. As evi­ recognized the physical similarity dence mounted, however, and as between humans and other primates, committed as some were to the in particular the apes. What most paradigm of brain-centered evolu­ differentiates humans from other tion, many adopted a paradigm in primates is our intelligence, made which upright posture significantly possible by large and very complex predated development of the modern brains. The human brain was the human brain. They didn't like it, but aspect of our species that appeared to they had little choice; it was what the be the most changed—the most highly evidence showed. The view that

398 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 humanity began its evolutionary history as an upright ape rather than a four-legged human became increas­ ingly popular at the end of the nine­ teenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries as more and more fossil evidence seemed to confirm this perspective. Thus was the stage set for the announcement published in the Brit­ ish journal Nature on December 5, 1912, of the discovery of an important human fossil in Sussex at a place called Piltdown, in southern England. (See Weiner 1955, Millar 1972, and Blind- erman 1986 for detailed treatments of the Piltdown story; see also, Feder 1990.) The discovery consisted of a FIGURE 1. Reconstruction of the Piltdown skull and lower jaw that seemed to skull. Stippled areas represent fossil frag­ ments actually recovered. The cranium is confirm, not the prevailing, but the large, with a round profile and steep original paradigm; the cranium itself forehead, as in modern Homo sapiens. The seemed indistinguishable from that of jaw, on the other hand, is quite apelike, with a modern human but the jaw was quite no chin and a shape that required a primitive and apelike (Figure 1). This prognathic (forward thrust), apelike face. fossil appeared to date from a geolog­ ical period earlier than that ascribed seemed to be so well supported by to Neandertal, and at least as old as fossil evidence accumulated over that of Java Man. about 50 years, but only if subsequent Many researchers, some quite well research provided additional support known, seized upon the discovery at for the notion of a brain-centered Piltdown. They saw Piltdown Man— focus for early . One which was called Eoanlhropous dawsoni, bit of enigmatic data, no matter how or Dawson's Dawn Man, after its apparently compelling, cannot cause discoverer, Charles Dawson—as the us to abandon well-supported views true human ancestor. The Java and of human evolution—or, I might add, Neandertal specimens with their more cosmogeny or human perception. primitive brains were viewed, there­ The years following Dawson's dis­ fore, as extinct offshoots of the main covery saw many looking for addi­ line of human evolution in which tional evidence in the form of fossils Eoanthropus stood at the base (Figure similar to Eoanthropus. The famous 2). Thus, at least for some, the older excavations at the Chinese at and preferred paradigm seemed rees­ , in which some 40 tablished; in human evolution it had individuals of "" were been the brain, after all, that evolved discovered, were, at least in part, an into the modern form first, with the attempt to validate the discovery at body, virtually from the lower jaw Piltdown (Shapiro 1974). Anatomist down, playing evolutionary catch-up Davidson Black, of the Peking Union later on. Medical College, who for a time led Clearly, Eoanthropus would over­ the excavations, apparently had been turn the existing paradigm that had inspired to dig at Zhoukoudian by a

Summer 1990 399 - MODERN HUMANS - MODERN HUMANS

- NEANDERTAL NEANDERTAL

PITHECANTHROPUS (Java Man) PITHECANTHROPUS (Java Man) EOANTHROPUS-

FIGURE 2. Without Eoanthropus (Piltdown Man), some placed Pithecanthropus (Java Man) and Neandertal in an evolutionary sequence leading directly to modern humanity (left). With Eoanthropus, many viewed Pithecanthropus and Neandertal as evolutionary dead ends (right). In this view, only Eoanthropus was directly ancestral to modern human beings. visit to the lab of Grafton Elliot Smith, pretation. That researcher was a well-known supporter of Eoanthro­ Charles Dawson, the discoverer of the pus. The Jesuit priest and paleontol­ original. It did little to validate the ogist Teilhard de Chardin, who had initial discovery. It only raised ques­ excavated at Piltdown after its initial tions at the same time his apparent discovery, also worked at Zhoukou- incredible luck raised eyebrows. dian. So, when they started excavation As the search for anything vaguely there in the 1920s they were looking resembling Eoanthropus progressed, for the Chinese equivalent of Pilt­ data continued to accumulate support­ down Man. They got, instead, fossils ing the existing paradigm. More with humanlike bodies and brains just Neandertal discoveries were made and two-thirds the mean size of the more fossils resembling Java Man and modern human brain. Peking Man (now called Homo eredus) Interestingly, with so many looking were found. Beginning in the late for confirming evidence, only one 1920s an even older, more primitive researcher was able to find a fossil that and smaller-brained hominid species seemed to mirror the Piltdown discov­ was discovered in Africa. Called ery and, therefore, support its inter­ Australopithecus, it provided rather

400 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 forceful, further validation of the a valid discovery and could have existing paradigm; this oldest of served to overturn the existing, ancestral human fossils, then thought seemingly well-supported paradigm. to be a million years old and now But, as others have said before, known to have varieties dating to extreme claims require extreme levels more than 3.5 million years ago, of proof or validation. possessed a brain less than one-third In the case of Piltdown, the claim the modern human mean, but was challenged merely the existing para­ fully upright. Even the earliest digm of human evolution. This was members of the genus are quite significant enough and required an similar to modern humans from the extreme level of validation—though, neck down. of course, none was forthcoming. In After the third decade of the the case of, for example, parapsy­ twentieth century, Eoanihropus went chology, existing paradigms in human from being a major concern of those psychology, neurology, anthropology, interested in human evolutionary biology, and even physics are being history to a cautionary footnote in challenged. So be it. Our paradigms evolution texts, where it went as an indeed may be wrong, and the para- unexplained, enigmatic, anomalistic, psychologists and the rest may be and contradictory piece of data. This right, though it is significant that remained the case until a reexamina­ research conducted over the past tion of the Piltdown fossil in the late hundred years has not shown this to 1940s and early 1950s showed that the the satisfaction of many scientists. modern-looking cranium and the Moreover, the Piltdown story apelike mandible were of entirely should put to rest the notion that different ages, neither was particu­ science is inflexible and scientists larly old, and the apelike quality of the closed-minded. Concepts concerning lower jaw had a very simple explana­ the pathways taken in human evolu­ tion; it was, in fact, that of a modern tion changed and continue to change ape and had been cleverly crafted to as evidence is collected. The changes appear to fit the skull. Piltdown Man in our views are not cyclical or could overturn no paradigms. It was random, but progressive. Though a fraud. individual scientists may be swayed by personal biases, wishful thinking, or The Meaning of Piltdown peer pressure, data cannot be explained away for very long. By and Many perceive the Piltdown story as large, evolutionary scientists did not a black mark against science. In fact, want to abandon a brain-centered it shows how well science eventually view of evolution, but they did when sorts out frauds, mistakes, and wishful evidence indicated that upright pos­ thinking. It clearly shows how science ture was much older than brain does react and must react when expansion. Some may have been existing, well-supported paradigms fooled by Piltdown and returned to the are challenged by new data. brain-centered view of human evolu­ tion. However, with so much subse­ While lending apparent support for quent evidence supporting the view a cherished view of how human that humanity evolved, in a sense, evolution had proceeded, Piltdown from the ground up, Piltdown became contradicted notions of human evo­ trivial, even before it was finally lution based on a substantial body of proved fraudulent. data. Nevertheless, it could have been

Summer 1990 401 Paleontological skeptics in the early pology, Central Connecticut State years of the twentieth century were University, for his suggestions. certainly justified in asking for more than a single, seemingly inexplicable References piece of evidence before evolutionary Blinderman, Charles. 1986. The Piltdown paradigms were rewritten. The scien­ Inquest. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. tific skeptics among us are similarly Feder, Kenneth L. 1990. Frauds, Myths, and justified in asking for something more Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in . Mountain View, Calif.: than has been provided before we Mayfield Publishing. overturn our view of reality. Until Millar, Ronald. 1972. The Piltdown Men. New then, claimed evidence for ESP, tele­ York: Ballantine Books. kinesis, clairvoyance, and the rest will Seckel, Al. 1989. Rather Than Just Debunk­ ing, Encourage People to Think. remain the equivalent of Eoanlhropus SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 13:300-304. dawsoni. Shapiro, Harry. 1974. Peking Man. New York: Simon and Schuster. Acknowledgments Smith, Grafton Elliot. 1927. Essays on the Evolution of Man. London: Oxford Uni­ A preliminary version of this paper versity Press. Weiner, J. S. 1955. The Piltdown Forgery. was presented at the Tenth Annual London: Oxford University Press. Griffiths Memorial Lecture at Drexel University in Philadelphia. I am grate­ Kenneth L Feder is in the Department ful to my colleagues there for their of Anthropology, Central Connecticut comments. I also thank Michael Alan State University, New Britain, Connec­ Park of the Department of Anthro­ ticut 06050.

Subscription Service Are you curious about your subscription? If you have questions about your SKEPTICAL INQUIRER subscription payment, change of address, delivery, or other problems, please call our Subscription Service at 716-834-3222 or write to Skeptical Inquirer Subscription Service Box 229 Buffalo, NY 14215-0229

We will need to know your name, ad­ dress, zip code, subscriber number (on your mailing label), and the date and amount of any payment in question.

402 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 Auras: Searching For the Light

ROBERT W.LOFTIN

any people who claim to have psychic powers say they are able to see auras. MI: s are said to be fields of light that surround human beings and, possibly, other living things. The standard theory is that these auras are internally generated fields of psychic force, that a person's personality can be £% identified by the color and form of his or her An investigation aura, and that auras change with a person's moods. In some occult literature charts can be attempts to test found that claim to correlate different colors the claim that a with different states of mind (Leadbeater 1925). In some cases, those who regard themselves as psychic can see psychically sensitive advance their ability to see auras around auras as evidence to support their claims (Garrett 1968). people. The discovery of "Kirlian" photography was interpreted by many putative psychics as a vindication of their abilities (Ostrander and Schroder 1970). Claims that auras have been photographed are commonplace. One difficulty with interpreting Kirlian photography as evidence for auras was that inanimate objects also seem to have auras; therefore it was necessary to shift the claim somewhat. Either one had to maintain that all things, including rocks, nuts and bolts, plastic combs, and so on were surrounded by a field of energy or one had to interpret these photographic effects as artifacts, created by the process (Krippner and Rubin 1974). Given that the Kirlian process is a complex one—an object is placed on a plate of sensitized photographic film, a weak electrical current is passed through the film, and when the film is developed the image appears—it seemed to me

Summer 1990 that the effect was likely to result from ought to be able to be seen in the dark. induced electrical energy, not from If the putative aura reader does not electrical energy emitted by the object. claim to be able to see them in the The plausible and accepted explana­ dark, this undermines the claim that tion is that moisture on the objects they are internally generated. modulates the electrical energy, caus­ I am assuming that those who claim ing the halo of light to appear on the to see auras are telling the truth. I developed film (Pehek, Kyler, and believe that they are. The ones I have Faust 1976). talked to have impressed me as Yet it did not seem to me to be entirely sincere. Some of them claimed implausible that some people can see no other psychic abilities of any kind. halos of light around living things. We At least one person said he did not know that living things are sur­ like the fact that he could see auras, rounded by fields of energy. Instru­ found it quite a nuisance, and was not ments can detect both the heat energy at all eager to talk about it. Since I that surrounds living bodies and the think it is important to approach magnetic field. It seemed at least questions of this kind with an open possible that some people's eyes might mind, I assumed that the claims were be slightly sensitive to infrared (i.e., made in good faith. heat) waves, for example, causing To test the ability, however, it was them to see light around other people. necessary to use the strictest scientific We know there is a massive spectrum method possible. I had no grant money of electromagnetic waves, of which or fancy equipment; therefore I had visible light is only a small band. to make do with what was at hand. Research fails to show human vision The first requirement was a pitch- into the infrared; but since some black room with entrances at each end people, such as the color-blind, are and a "light lock" or double door at insensitive to frequencies others are one end. I located a photographic sensitive to, it doesn't seem out of the darkroom that seemed ideal. question that a few others might be After finding a "psychic," a woman more sensitive than normal. Of course who agreed to be tested according to there is nothing in the least "occult" strict scientific protocol, I enlisted the about this. If some people can see services of a group of ten friends who auras for this reason, there would be were willing to act as subjects. My nothing "paranormal" or "supernatu­ greatest fear was that somebody in the ral" about it. subject group would pass information The other hypothesis I considered to the psychic; therefore, I took great was that auras are not internally care to make sure that the subjects generated, but are the result of a visual were my friends, rather than hers. I defect in the person "seeing" the aura. wanted a large pool of subjects to To put it rather roughly, it occurred minimize the chance that a confeder­ to me that if you can see auras, there ate in the subject group would pass may be something wrong with your information to the psychic. eyes. The test was quite simple. The All this is mere speculation unless psychic would be introduced into the there are those who can see auras darkoom through the double doors, so consistently. I devised an experimental that no light would enter the room. test to ascertain if there are people At the other end, there would be who can. My basic idea was that, if either one or two persons. The psychic auras are internally generated, they would be given up to three minutes

404 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 INQUIRER to say how many auras she saw at touch the subjects or get close enough the other end of the room. Since I to pick up cues, I erected a low barrier wanted to avoid elaborate statistical between the psychic and the subjects. tests, I did away with "nearly right" This was merely a piece of plywood answers by stipulating that "one" and clamped to heavy lab tables, so that "two" were the only possible answers. one could easily see over the barrier Each answer, therefore, was com­ yet climb it only with difficulty. As pletely right or totally wrong. I an additional precaution, I rested my eliminated the alternative of some­ hand lightly on the shoulder of the times having no subject at all to rule psychic during every trial so that I out the possibility that subtle cues, knew exactly where she was at all such as the sound of breathing, other times. low level sounds, smells, or any other I warned the psychic that the lights such clues, might cloud the issue. might be turned on unexpectedly in Perhaps someone with abnormally the middle of a trial. This would void keen ears might hear the difference that particular trial, but I found the between no person and one person. possibility of sudden illumination of It seemed that it might be harder to the room necessary as a curb to the discern the difference between one use of any instruments, confederates, person and two from such cues. or some other aid. Since there were To further cover subtle sounds in no other doors to the room I didn't the room, I brought in two "white think any such thing was likely; but noise generators"—fans that emitted I was not willing to assume that a a low steady hum in the background clever person could not outwit me and to cover any noise emitted by the think up something that had not subjects. occurred to me. The distance from one end of the In order to rule out the possibility room to the other was about 50 feet. of remote radio transmission of To be sure that the psychic did not information or something of the sort, simply walk forward in the dark and the location of the experiment was

Summer 1990 405 kept secret from everyone concerned minimize the effect of a possible except my trusted assistant. Until the confederate in the subject group. trials actually started, only the two of The lab happened to be fitted with us knew where they were to take an alarm system to warn photography place. The psychic was lightly searched students so they could avoid having before the experiment—nothing very their film exposed by stray light. thorough, merely looking in the ears When the back door was opened, the for receivers, and looking at jewelry alarm rang loudly and continuously for evidence of electrical equipment. until the door was closed. This sound None was found. effectively masked the footsteps of the On the afternoon of the first series subjects entering the lab and let the of trials, my assistant and I spent psychic and myself, waiting outside, several hours light-proofing the dark­ know when the subjects were in place. room. Working with heavy black Before the first series of 30 trials, paper, black paint, and heavy tape, we the entire group assembled at a carefully covered every possible location remote from the lab. The source of light leaks. I expected that psychic was asked to answer a series a photographic darkroom would be of questions, including: light-tight, but that was not the case. 1. How do you feel tonight? Is there We found many pin-point sources of any reason that we should not go light, such as cracks around the doors, ahead? If so, we will postpone the and each of them was carefully series until another night. (I was fully covered. We had no meters to measure prepared to do so, even though this light, but since I have excellent night would have been frustrating to the vision, I was confident that my eyes volunteer subjects.) were probably more sensitive to light 2. Do you know any of these than any but the most elaborate and subjects? Have you ever communi­ expensive equipment. When I could cated with any of them before on any see no light at all with my naked eye, subject whatsoever? (The subjects I was satisfied. I was assuming that were asked the same question. if I couldn't see any light, no one else Anyone who said "yes" would have could. been eliminated.) Chance expectation would be 15 3. Do these subjects have auras? hits out of 30 trials. If the psychic got Can you see them now? 20 hits out of 30 trials, it would be 4. Do you intend to receive any significant at the 95 percent confi­ information of any kind from these dence level. In other words, if we did subjects or any other person what­ this experiment 100 times, the psychic ever, other than the instructions I give would get 20 right answers by pure you during the course of the exper­ chance only 5 times. Ninety-five times iment? (The subjects were asked if out of 100, the psychic would get they intended to send any information fewer than 20 hits by pure chance. A to anyone at all during the simple coin-toss by my assistant experiment.) determined whether one or two 5. Do you have about your person subjects were admitted to the far end any electronic equipment of any kind? of the room. After they entered the Satisfactory answers to all ques­ room, they were told to stand quietly. tions having been recorded, we pro­ The subjects were rotated in a regular ceeded to the lab, and I explained the order so that the same person did not procedures to all concerned. I had a serve as a subject too often, to tape recorder going during the entire

406 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 series of trials. A wise step, as it turned even mention it. As far as I could see, out. Immediately on seeing that the no harm had been done. They were test was to take place in a photogra­ obviously not electronic listening phic laboratory, the psychic indicated devices, and I no longer thought she that she was allergic to photographic was trying to trick me. However, she chemicals and hoped this wouldn't had managed to smuggle an extrane­ interfere with the experiment. This ous object into the experimental remark was clearly recorded on the setting, which indicated a weakness in tape. I asked if she wished to halt the the protocol. experiment at this point. She indicated At this point the series of trials she was willing to continue, so we began. The psychic and I waited in the went ahead. dark between the double door until When everyone was being briefed we heard the back door alarm go on, on the procedure, the psychic asked and then off again, which meant the if during the test she could stand at subjects were in place. Then we waited a different point from the one indi­ ten seconds and entered the dark­ cated. I refused, on the general room. When the psychic gave her principle that the experimenter should opinion, either "one" or "two," I retain complete control of all exper­ immediately turned the lights on so imental conditions. Well before the that all concerned, including the experiment began, I had made up my psychic, could immediately see if it was mind not to be led by the psychic in a hit or a miss. I considered going even the slightest detail. While I could through the whole series "blind," so see no difference in the two places, that neither the psychic nor I would I did not assume that I could not be know how she was doing. I discarded outwitted. this idea because I felt she had the While instructing the subjects on right to know, on the spot, if I had where to stand, not to shuffle, and scored her correctly. so forth, I noticed out of the corner As it turned out, I didn't! I had a of my eye that the psychic had drifted clipboard in my hand and scored each into one of the small cubicles in the hit or miss on a chart, at the same room where individual students de­ time calling out in a loud voice "Hit" veloped and printed pictures. After the or "Miss," for the benefit of the tape. briefing, when everyone was in posi­ After the series, when I compared the tion to begin, I searched the cubicle. tape to the chart, I discovered I had I found a small velvet bag, secreted inadvertently entered a "hit" in the there by the psychic without my "miss" column, shorting the psychic. knowledge! At this point, I jumped to This was another good reason to have the conclusion that she was trying to run the tape constantly. trick me. I expected to find some The psychic got hits on the first sophisticated electronic equipment in three trials. Then I noticed that when the velvet bag, perhaps sensitive to the back door was opened, admitting infrared or some such thing. Instead, light into the room, the light shone it contained some innocuous crystals, under the door of the light lock where apparently quartz crystals, which the psychic and I were waiting. If one were possibly intended to help her looked down at the bottom of the focus her psychic energy. I quietly door, one could see shadows moving removed them and put them on the back and forth as the subjects entered table where the psychic was waiting. and left the room. (See diagram on I did not accuse her of anything, nor next page.)

Summer 1990 407 o o back door subjects

light

barrier 4* door

psychic •*• o o <- experimenter — light door - lock

On the subsequent trials, I placed tesquely unfair to the psychic if I a heavy dark cloth across the bottom claimed a flaw in the procedure after of the light-lock door so that no light she scored better than chance. If she could be seen as subjects entered and could tell how many people were at left the room. It is possible that the the other end of the room by seeing psychic may have been able to discrim­ their auras, reading their minds, or inate between one shadow entering whatever, I had to be prepared to the room and two shadows entering admit she passed the best test I could the room. In any case, the misses devise. began to occur after I blocked this Before the 30 attempts in this stray light. This too points to a weak­ series were completed, the test had to ness in protocol. This sort of detail be aborted because the allergies of the is seldom mentioned in published re­ psychic were becoming more and ports of experiments, and would not more troublesome. Her eyes were likely be thought of unless one were swollen almost shut and her skin was present on the scene. A strength of flushed. I am satisfied that she did not the protocol was that the experimen­ merely "bail out" because she wasn't ter was next to the psychic at all doing well. She had mentioned the times—anything the psychic could see allergies at the start, the air in the lab or hear, the experimenter could was saturated with fumes, she was probably pick up as well. obviously under stress, and she readily I tried to devise the best protocol agreed to try another series of tests I could, because it would be gro­ at another location.

408 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 For the second series, I obtained the there must be something wrong with use of a windowless television studio. the protocol. Then, too, I doubted that The setup was similar in all relevant I could devise a protocol that would respects. I used ten new subjects to really be good enough to show that guard against the possibility that the a person can see auras. For one thing, psychic might have secured the help I began to worry that if my rather of any members of the first group simple procedures became known, between the two trials. The results someone could invent a rather simple were not above chance, 13 hits in 30 way to get around them! trials. I remain convinced that this par­ At this point, I decided that this ticular psychic was sincere. I think she type of research is probably not worth thinks she can see auras. I don't think the trouble. Since the psychic did not she can, but I don't think she was produce any results above chance, trying to trick me. She was cheerful those who do not believe that people and courteous throughout, submitted can see auras would not be surprised. to all indignities without protest, and Generally, the reaction would be of did exactly as she was told. the "Ho Hum! So what else is new?" The possibility remains that auras sort. Those who firmly believe that are not internally generated but that auras do exist and that some people some people see them because they can see them might admit that this have a different visual apparatus. If psychic on this occasion couldn't see this is the case, those who see them them, but would remain firm in the are quite sincere, but auras become conviction that someone else could see much less interesting because this them on another occasion. would clearly remove them from the On the other hand, if the psychic area of the paranormal and place them could get it right every time, would in the category of visual defects. skeptics admit she could see auras? Probably not. They would be far more References likely to point to possible problems with the protocol. I have already Leadbeater, C. W. 1925. Man Visible and indicated what some of them might Invisible. Wheaton, 111.: Theosophical be—something smuggled in, light Publishing House. (This is a classical under the door while the subjects source that has gone through many editions and reprintings.) entered, an ability to pick up subtle Garrett, Eileen. 1968. Awareness. New York: sensory cues. Then, too, how could Berkley. one rule out subtle passing of infor­ Ostrander, Sheila, and Lynn Schroder. 1970. mation from a confederate in the Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. subject group or a spy on a rooftop Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Krippner, Stanley, and Daniel Rubin. 1974. with binoculars and a radio transmit­ The Kirlian Aura. Garden City, N.Y.: ter, observing from afar and radioing Doubleday/Anchor. the psychic on a tiny receiver con­ Pehek, John O., Harry J. Kyler, and David cealed in the filling of a tooth? There L. Faust. 1976. Image modulation in is far too much of a tendency in this corona discharge photography. Science, 194:263-270. area of research to evaluate the protocol of the experiment by the results! If nothing is found, the Robert W. Loftin is a professor of protocol is considered to be a good one; philosophy, Department of History and but if the test is positive for putative Philosophy, University of North Florida, psychic abilities, it is assumed that Jacksonville, FL 32216.

Summer 1990 409 Biorhythms and the Timing of Death

DAVID LESTER

IORHYTHMS supposedly consist of three cycles—physical, emotional, and intellec­ Btual, of 23, 28, and 33 days, respectively. During positive phases (the first half of each cycle) individual energies are supposed to be high, while during negative phases (the latter half of each cycle) energies are supposed to be low. Critical days occur when a cycle crosses the baseline during the switch from a positive to a negative phase, and vice versa. Since there are three cycles, single, double, and triple critical In this study, the days can occur. In the first 58 years and 68 days of life, there are 4,006 single critical days, 312 timing of suicides, double critical days, 8 triple critical days, and homicides, and 16,926 noncritical days. natural deaths Research into the timing of death and biorhythms has not typically supported these was found to be ideas. Two recent reviews of the research both unrelated concluded that the biorhythm theory appears to be invalid (Bainbridge 1978; Hines 1979). For to the victims' example Wolcott et al. (1977) found no relation­ biorhythm cycles. ship between accidents and biorhythms, and Khalil and Kurucs (1977) found no relationship between accidents or deaths and biorhythms. Two studies of suicide have been published, one of which claimed to find an association between biorhythms and suicidal behavior. Dezelsky and Toohey (1978) reported on 19 cases of student suicides, finding no association with biorhythms. D'Andrea et al. (1984), in the Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, reported on a much larger sample of 993 suicides and found that more suicides occurred on critical days than expected. Neither study, however, employed a comparison group of nonsuicidal deaths. The present study attempted to replicate

410 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 the results of D'Andrea employing being 7.4 percent). comparison groups of homicide vic­ Overall chi-quare tests comparing tims and natural deaths. the three groups of subjects failed to reach statistical significance: for the Method physical cycle X2 = 31.03, df = 44, for the emotional cycle X2 = 59.85, df = For the year 1982, every suicide and 54, or for the intellectual cycle X2 = homicide victim recorded in the Med­ 90.93, df = 64. ical Examiner's office in Philadelphia Following the procedure of D'An­ was identified. For each suicide, the drea et al., who hypothesized that sui­ next natural death was also taken. The cides would be more likely on days result was 212 suicides (mean age when all three cycles were critical, 41.4, SD = 17.3), 207 natural deaths semicritical, or negative, 25.1 percent (mean age 59.6, SD = 18.4), and 353 of the suicides were found to have homicide victims (mean age = 33.9, SD occurred on such days, 26.1 percent = 15.9) for whom files were available. of the natural deaths, and 26.7 percent For each subject, the date of death of the homicidal deaths. These per­ and the date of birth were noted centages did not differ from the where given, and the place of the day chance expected percentage of 24.7 of death in the physical, emotional, percent, nor did the three percentages and intellectual cycles calculated differ from one another (X2 = 0.15, (Anon. 1976). Data were available for df=2). 201 suicides, 321 homicide victims, The present study failed to find and 190 natural deaths. significant associations between the timing of death from suicide and the Results and Discussion variation over the biorhythm cycles. The introduction of comparison Using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov one- groups of natural deaths and deaths sample chi-square test, the distribu­ from homicide did not change this tions of suicidal deaths did not differ conclusion. It must be concluded that from chance expectations over the deaths from suicide bear no relation physical, emotional, or intellectual to the position of the individual in his/ cycles: The maximum discrepancies of her biorhythm cycles. Thus the pres­ the distributions from chance expec­ ent study failed to find any value in tations were 2.8 percent, 3.1 percent, biorhythm theory. and 4.8 percent, respectively, with the critical value for significance being 9.6 References percent. Anon. 1976. The Great International Math Similarly, the distributions of on Keys Book. Texas Instrument Learning natural deaths did not differ from Center. chance for any of the three cycles Bainbridge, W. S. 1978. Biorhythms: Eva­ (maximum discrepancies 9.6 percent, luating a pseudoscience. SKEPTICAL 8.1 percent, and 5.1 percent, respec­ INQUIRER, 2(2):40-56. D'Andrea, V., D. Black, and N. Stayrook. tively, with the critical value for 1984. Relation of the Fliess-Swoboda significance being 9.9 percent), nor did biorhythm theory to suicide occurrence. the distributions of homicidal deaths journal of Nervous & Menial Disease, differ from chance expectations (max­ 172:490-494. Dezelsky, T. L., and J. Toohey. 1978. imum discrepancies 3.5 percent, 3.6 Biorhythms and the prediction of suicidal percent, and 4.7 percent, respectively, behavior. Journal of School Health, 48:399- with the critical value for significance 403.

Summer 1990 411 Hines, T. M. 1979. Biorhythm theory: A aviation accidents with the biorhythm critical review. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, theory. Human Factors, 19:283-294. 3(4):26-36. Khalil, T., C. Kurucs, 1977. The influence of biorhythm on accident occurrence and David Lester is in the Psychology performance. Ergonomics, 20:289-298. Wolcott, J., R. Memeekin, R. Burgin, and R. Program, Stockton State College, Pomona, Yanowitch, 1977. Correlation of general N] 08240.

TO PRESERVE YOUR COPIES OF THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER

Order handsome and durable library binders. They are bound in blue library fabric stamped in gold leaf.

Each binder holds six issues. Price per binder $7.95; three for $20.95; six for $39.00 (plus $1.50 per binder for han­ dling and postage).

Please send me . . binders.

I enclose my check or money order for $ |U.S. funds on U.S. bank]

Please charge my D Visa O MasterCard o Exp. _

Zip.

THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • Box 229 • Buffalo, NY 14215

412 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 Book Reviews

Comprehensive Commentary, Insightful Criticism The Elusive Quarry: A Scientific Appraisal of Psychical Research. By Ray Hyman. Prometheus Books, Buffalo, N.Y., 1989. 447 pages. Cloth $24.95.

DAVID F. MARKS

keptics and nonskeptics the world over will read The Elusive THE SQuarry with great interest. Not only is Ray Hyman a leading authority on psychical research, but this collec­ tion provides in unexpurgated form in-depth insights into the mind of the ELUSIVE skeptic at its most incisive. This book offers the most comprehensive and fair-minded commentary on parapsy­ chology available. All readers of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER and all parapsy- A SCIENTIFIC APPRAISAL OF chologists will want to read and re­ PSYCHICAL RESEARCH read it. It contains essential, thought- provoking, critical material for all RAY who wish to be better informed about the problems of research in this H Y M AN controversial area. Hyman is distinguished by his wide-ranging experience and scholar­ presuming that positive evidence of ship. Not only has he worked in the psi results from either fraud or plain field longer than most, but he has a incompetence is vigorously chal­ unique combination of expertise as lenged. The real possibility of unwit­ magician, academic researcher (psy­ ting errors by sincere, self-deceiving chologist), consultant, and commen­ investigators operating complex pro­ tator. In magnificent style, Hyman tocols provides an alternative account roundly educates the reader against often overlooked by committed dis­ reacting reflexively to paranormal believers. Hyman's review of claims in a way that neglects the nineteenth-century scientific re­ evidence and methodology of each search shows how much there is yet particular claimant's formulation. to learn from a historical perspective The longstanding critical tradition of of the field.

Summer 1990 413 The Elusive Quarry consists of 28 is situated, the would-be critics had articles, essays, and reviews divided better be silent. Hyman provides an into four parts. The 28 pieces are excellent role model for any skeptic drawn from Hyman's writings on wishing to be taken seriously in psychical research between 1957 and scientific discussions about the 1988, although more than half were paranormal. originally published during the 1980s. Two key themes emerge in The volume begins with an interview Hyman's wide-ranging collection: with Jeffrey Mishlove at the 1979 (1) parapsychology needs to improve convention of the Parapsychological its experimental controls if it is to Association. This convention seems to produce evidence of sufficient quality have been a key event in Hyman's to convince skeptics that there may thinking about the parapsychological be a "quarry" to find; (2) a better world, and it marks a transition point dialogue between critics and re­ in his attitude and approach to crit­ searchers should enable the hunt for icism. Each part of the collection the "elusive quarry" to proceed more begins with a specially prepared efficiently, either to its capture or final introduction, and the volume ends demise. Ray Hyman's joint commu­ with an epilogue summarizing nique with Charles Honorton on the Hyman's point of view on major psi ganzfeld research provides an issues. excellent example of the new dialogue The collection includes excellent between investigator and critic. Such articles on various aspects of the dialogues, it can be hoped, will lead paranormal that could well be to the production and publication of regarded as "classics" in the field. All crucial, decisive experiments within thinking people should be exposed to the next few years. Hyman's ": How to Hyman's volume has many Convince Strangers That You Know strengths. It sets the scene for future All About Them," and all skeptics will dialogue and criticism, and it provides want to study carefully "Proper a scholarly review of the history of Criticism," "Water Witching," "The the psi controversy. There appear to Ganzfeld Psi Experiment: A Critical have been two phases in Hyman's Appraisal," and "Parapsychological critical work. From the 1950s to the Research: A Tutorial Review and early 1980s Hyman believed that the Critical Appraisal." No skeptic or evidence for psi was of sufficient believer should attempt to participate quality to conclude that something is in serious discussion and debate before there but that this something probably reading Hyman's work and following results from methodological prob­ his guidelines on how to conduct such lems. Parapsychologists had also failed interactions in a professional and fair- to convince scientists of the relevance minded manner. and theoretical interest of their Critics, like those they critique, putative findings. Then from 1981 must expect criticism themselves. onward Hyman's detailed study of the Unless they have adequately prepared ganzfeld area convinced him that the themselves by reading primary source evidence was of poorer quality than materials, studying the relevant most parapsychologists would be methodology, becoming well versed in willing to admit and that one simply the relevant procedures, and attempt­ could not judge whether something is ing to understand the scientific con­ there or not. This opinion was rein­ text within which a paranormal claim forced by an independent survey

414 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 conducted by Charles Akers. This has evolution in ideas and approach. This led Hyman to a new strategy in can be seen most clearly by comparing criticism, to a rapprochement in which Hyman's 1957 review of Modern critic and investigator cooperate to Experiments in Telepathy (by S. G. Soal design methodologically adequate and Frederick Bateman), his 1978 experiments rather than remain for­ review of Wolman's Handbook of Para­ ever at loggerheads in counterproduc­ psychology, and his 1988 article "Psi tive, adversarial roles. Experiments: Do the Best Parapsycho- But The Elusive Quarry also brings logical Experiments Justify the Claims surprises and disappointments, and for Psi?" In 1957 Hyman concluded: these require comment. There are "We need many more facts than the large areas of duplicated material both parapsychologists have supplied us" within and between its different parts. (p. 164). In 1978: "The critic will be To take one example, Sir William surprised by both the quantity and Crookes's research with spirit medi­ quality of the evidence presented" (p. ums is described in some detail in no 170). In 1988, reviewing three major fewer than four separate chapters (pp. areas of psi research—on remote 86-93, pp. 193-196, p. 226, and pp. viewing, the ganzfeld, and random- 247-248). Similar redundancy and number generators—Hyman wrote: duplication occurs with respect to "Parapsychological research falls short Robert Hare, Alfred Russel Wallace, of the professed standards of the field" J. C. F. Zoellner, , and Targ (p. 114). The shift in point of view and Puthoff's remote-viewing is entirely consistent with the increas­ research. Many of the articles and ing production of data between the reviews make similar points and such 1950s and 1980s. This data appeared repetition can become an irritation as superficially to be of good quality but one searches for new pearls of wisdom following detailed inspection were among the oyster shells. The organ­ found to be wanting. ization of the book into its four However, I detect one problem sections seems at times somewhat with Hyman's critical enterprise. chaotic and arbitrary. By careful Having arrived at the position in the editing the current volume could have 1980s that the evidence of psi is of been reduced by perhaps 50 or 100 insufficient quality "to be placed pages, producing a slimmer more before the scientific community for palatable set of readings. Unfortu­ judgment" (p. 137) and that further­ nately the volume contains no index, more parapsychologists "no longer can thus making it much less useful as a safely assume that the typical para- reference source than would other­ psychologist has the competence to wise be the case. This significant use statistical correctly, design publication deserved better editing appropriate investigations, carry out and production than Prometheus has these investigations correctly, or write on this occasion provided. them up properly," why should we Any collection of writing produced also agree to indulge in "patience and over a span of nearly 40 years will more patience" (p. 443)? Is it not more naturally reveal the author's changing rational perhaps for the long- point of view. As his thinking and suffering critic now to switch atten­ opinions are tested and challenged by tion to other spheres of scientific ever shifting evidence and more activity? Does not any theory of sophisticated argumentation, there rationality recommend redeployment will inevitably be a corresponding of resources to other, presumably

Summer 1990 415 more productive, endeavors? Or is the tigators, I reached the conclusion that critic's participation in the search for it is extremely unlikely that humans psi so intrinsically enjoyable (or have the ability to "remote view." This addictive?) that it cannot be ended, conclusion is consistent with the however long and fruitless? While evidence and therefore, I believe, being ever more patient, one surely rational. would be well advised to get on with In The Elusive Quarry, Ray Hyman other things. One thing Hyman would seems to be telling critics like me to recommend that we do is to try to gain be more patient. However, I believe a better understanding of how scien­ it would actually be irrational to tific errors arise, how scientists can continue the search for psi or to be misled by their procedures and expend more than a modicum of effort assumptions. As suggested by Robert reviewing the works of others, at least Morris, this translates "ESP" into in this area at this time. It took a "Error Some Place" and provides considerable amount of resources plenty of scope for research into the over a 12-year period (thankfully, psychology of science, with interdis­ intermeshed with other research ciplinary links to the sociology, phi­ activities) to lay to rest the psi claims losophy, and history of science. of Russell Targ, Harold Puthoff, and The critic's role is always going to Charles Tart for the SRI remote- be crucial in all areas of scientific work. viewing series. Although clearly Criticism is necessary because without Hyman is willing to be more patient it there is a greater risk of error. than I, I question the rationality of However, criticism should never continuing the search for psi when the become the kind of witch-hunt in payoff has been so consistently poor which emotional ad hominem attacks over the 140 years of scientific study. replace rational discussion and argu­ Either psi exists or psi does not exist. mentation. Such extremes should be I argue that the evidence Hyman and avoided at all costs. Freedom and others have reviewed points much dignity are inalienable human rights, more strongly to the latter possibility no matter how wrong, deluded, than to the former. I therefore wonder incompetent, or fraudulent an individ­ how rational it is for Hyman to state ual or group may be. There is a very in his Epilogue to The Elusive Quarry thin line between the repression of the that he does not have "the faintest dissident, deviant, or heretic and the idea" whether psi exists. Surely, even censorship of scientific opinions. the most patient and proper critic CSICOP Fellows and other skeptics must have at least the faintest idea need look no further for a set of that the simple reason psi is so elusive guidelines than Hyman's article on is that it does not exist. On what proper criticism. evidence is any other conclusion justified? And even if it does exist, My own view of the current status how could such an evanescent process of parapsychology differs slightly possibly have any significant practical from Hyman's. If I can be allowed a applications in the real world? personal anecdote, having conducted research on remote viewing for a One disturbing implication of the number of years, discovered serious continued yet more patient dialogue flaws in the key experimental work, proposed by Hyman is that even failed to replicate the effects under though the methodological flaws and controlled conditions, and studied fraudulent practices in psychical attempted replications of other inves­ research have been conscientiously

416 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 criticized for at least 137 years, with little significant impact, any scientist willing to enter the arena even as a "Are there not many critic lends credibility to what is seen considerably more by many to be an intransigently discreditable and irrelevant of fundamental and practical science. Given Hyman's conclusions questions within science, more that (l) "the parapsychologists' first pressing and worthy of order of business should be to get their resources and attention, than own house in order" (p. 137) and (2) "psi's existence is not going to be the continued search for such resolved one way or another in our an elusive quarry?" lifetime," is the critic not also contin­ uing to buy into a lifelong mission sciences are busy dealing with less with no direct scientific payoff? elusive, much more substantive, Without disagreeing with Hyman's palpably more significant problems of two conclusions above, I therefore the planet and its human organiza­ cannot concur with his final proposal tions. Looking at the current agenda about patience. Are there not many for the human sciences, how can considerably more fundamental and further resourcing of psi research for practical questions within science, an indefinite period into the future more pressing and worthy of resour­ possibly be justified? ces and attention, than the continued The fact is that the major questions search for such an elusive quarry? of parapsychology could all be resolved one Might the continued cultivation of a way or another in a period of no longer failed science not simply lead to yet than three years. In all of the major more wasted effort, resources, crea­ areas—PK, ganzfeld, and precogni­ tive imagination, and critical dialogue, tion—properly controlled large-scale to yet more scientific failure? experiments could be conducted, Considering only the psychological analyzed, and reported by cooperative sciences, the kindred disciplines of teams of disbelievers, skeptics, and neuroscience, immunology, genetics, believers. Hyman and Honorton have psychiatry, and the social, health, and already agreed on a proper ganzfeld environmental sciences, there are all protocol, and Honorton and others are kinds of problems urgently in need of engaged in the necessary empirical more and better research: brain-mind work. To share the load, other small relationships, clinical depression, teams of experts could agree on schizophrenia, genetic disorders, protocols in the other psi areas. The cancer, heart disease, alcoholism, drug research could be funded by the usual abuse, psychoneuroimmunology, em­ organizations and benefactors and the bryo research, environmental pollu­ results published without unneces­ tion, the Greenhouse Effect, famine, sary delay. The search would then be disaster prevention and management, over, either because something had and the social, economic, and political been found or because nothing had problems of poverty, unemployment, been found. If no evidence of psi were gender, ethnicity, social organizations, obtained (my prediction) it would not institutional and political change, make one jot of difference to believers. inflation, and international debt. As Hyman correctly states on page While parapsychologists are busy 446, according to parapsychologists' getting their house in order, other logic, the failure to find psi would in

Summer 1990 417 no way diminish the case for psi in need and gain from proper criticism. the older data. And there will always In fact one could even say that science be the usual ad hoc accounts of why is a form of criticism, criticism of what the experiments failed. Alternatively, is assumed to be knowledge using real evidence for psi could be found reason supported by evidence. and skeptics would need to adjust their The Elusive Quarry is a superb thinking. But there is no valid scien­ review for both practicing parapsy- tific reason for prolonging the debate chologists and skeptics alike. It pro­ indefinitely. vides essential reading for college and Science, pseudoscience, and anti- university courses on parapsychology, science will never die, and therefore pseudoscience, and the paranormal. neither will the need for proper There cannot be a better text with criticism. There are many other areas which to inoculate young scientists of scientific inquiry, equally in need against the seductive science of things of skeptical, critical thinking, and that might not be so. which are making and will continue to make a greater, more tangible David F. Marks is a professor of contribution to human knowledge and psychology, Middlesex Polytechnic, Lon­ its application. All areas of science don, and a Fellow of CS1COP.

Superstition 55, Science 0 How Superstition Won and Science Lost: Popularizing Science and Health in the United States. By John C. Burnham. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, N.J., 1987. 369 pp. Cloth, $35.00. Paper, $16.00.

ROBERT A. BAKER

ne of the most depressing as tists and findings from the laboratory well as one of the more impor­ in ways that the general public could Otant science books of our time understand and appreciate were more was published a few years ago with effective and successful in the nine­ little or no fanfare. Skeptics more than teenth century than in the twentieth. most will be deeply appreciative of Burnham's thesis is that, collectively, John C. Burnham's How Superstition we have done a terrible job of pop­ Won and Science Lost. The book is a ularizing science over the past several sobering account of how the scientific decades. In nearly every medium, establishment lost the game to the supernaturalism and the mystical and purveyors of superstition and saw the occult elements in modern society cultural impact of both science and have dominated the show, stolen the scientists frustrated and reduced. thunder, and grabbed the prize. Difficult as it may be to believe, Scientific reaction has been little more efforts to explain the work of scien­ than a whimper.

418 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 According to Burnham, when and naturalism." Unfortunately, so everyone assumed that superstition completely did this new obscurant­ and mysticism had been relegated to ism—made up of sensationalism and the past and science popularizers isolated fact—dominate the media turned to other concerns, irrational- that , suspension of ism and its agents disguised them­ incredulity, and belief in mystic selves and continued the fight. The miracles were widely accepted. During result was a resounding victory for the the twentieth century those scientists occult. Not only did the science writers who saw science as a calling (with few quit, they also isolated the products exceptions) withdrew from all popu­ of research from the spirit and process larizing and left the task to the PR of doing science. Moreover, the types and consumer economists. This broadly educated and talented syn­ is the major reason we find The Globe, thesizers also deserted and left the The Star, the Weekly World News, and field to the public relations (PR) types. the National Enquirer on the check-out The outcome was, in Burnham's counters instead of Discover or Scien­ words, the abandonment of "interest­ tific American. ing science-reporting which fits into In the first two chapters, Burnham a general world view and extends does a careful, scholarly job of tracing one's vision" for a type of "Gee Whiz the popularization of science, health, science which excites irrelevant emo­ and hygiene over the past two cen­ tion and reinforces one's mysticisms." turies. In the third chapter, he looks Like most workers in the scientific at the popularizing of psychology, laboratories, Burnham is perplexed by which differed somewhat from that the "haunting paradox of how [our] of other disciplines. For example, culture ended up so little influenced psychology did not formally begin as by science when the products of both a science separate from philosophy the natural and the health sciences so until the 1880s and did not become profoundly shaped everyday life and a viable presence until early in the great events alike." Somehow or other twentieth century. Even then, despite science's negative paradigm against the young science's attacks on tele­ error, which proved to be so effective pathy, spiritualism, and faith-healing, in the last part of the nineteenth psychology failed to dissociate itself century, wound up attenuated and from other aspects of mysticism. The derailed in the twentieth. Why? term psychology soon came to be used Perhaps the major reason was that the as "a code word for the mysterious." forms of superstition changed and Psychologists had—or claimed to hardly anyone recognized it for what have—knowledge that common folk it was. The new form adopted the did not possess. Psychologists, by standards of the all-powerful media identifying themselves as researchers world. Not only was this media world privy to the laws of nature, were non-naturalistic; but like superstition, ironically bringing on themselves not it was actually competitive with the only the prestige they coveted as traditional world of popularized scientists but an association with the science. Furthermore, in the media mystery they were trying to dispell. world "the elements of sensationalism Despite the gains made by psychology and disjointed segmentation of infor­ in World War II, the birth of the mation were exactly the elements of popular magazine Psychology Today in superstition that early popularizers of 1967, and the Bob Newhart television science had attacked with skepticism show from 1977 to 1978, the public

Summer 1990 419 impression was still that psychology product. . . . People who relied on the is a semi-science made up of "uncon­ world of advertising did not need nected conclusions." charms when they could obtain con­ While some psychologists attemp­ sumer goods that would protect them ted to protect the public from exploi­ from various real and imaginary evils." tation, others wound up taking Burnham notes on another front advantage of those their fellow pro­ that specialization and narrowness fessionals were trying to protect. within the scientific disciplines and in Distressingly, psychology became not the colleges and universities became only an incoherent science but in so extreme that the scientist Conway Sigmund Koch's phrase "crowded Zirkle sarcastically suggested that the with pieces of pseudo-knowledge student's diploma should read: largely unrelated to each other." Ironically, by the mid-1970s even the The Johns Hopkins University editors of Psychology Today were certifies that: publishing papers debunking science JOHN WENTWORTH DOE and objectivity. Burnham wisely Does not know anything but: selected psychology as "a paradigm for BIOCHEMISTRY all the sciences"; and his choice was well made, because this discipline Please pay no attention to any closely followed the four-stage pat­ pronouncement he may make on tern of decline leading to victory by any other subject, particularly when he joins with others of his kind to superstition: save the world from something or the other. However, he worked 1. Diffusion: the condensation, hard for his degree and is potentially simplification, and translation of a most valuable citizen. Please treat science, which is not only unne­ him kindly. cessary but causes a loss of its most valuable qualities; Also noted was that among scientists 2. Popularization: the attempt on themselves one finds the most curious the part of scientists to share mixture of modernism in a specialized their vision of the religion and field coupled with an intense adher­ spirit of science; ence to medieval or primitive super­ 3. Dilution: which occurs when stitions that are unworthy of them. popularization passes into the A recent example is the flood of hands of educators and journal­ interest on the part of many psychi­ ists and PR personnel; atrists in reincarnation, spirit posses­ 4. Trivialization: which occurs sion, and alien abductions. when science consists of As the twentieth century wore on, nothing but isolated news items according to Burnham, not only did and reports of products by scientists suffer from a loss of passion authority figures. and identity but, even more disturb­ ing, what was most critically missing The operation of this cultural pattern from popularization was skepticism. has, indeed, produced some truly This, Burnham notes, was the one remarkable discoveries. The first is casualty in the war that proved to be that "consumers like being deceived decisive. Years earlier the popularizers . . . they enjoyed the fantasy involved managed to connect science's progress in the world of commercials, in which in solving nature's mysteries with advertisers emphasized illusion, not traditional skepticism. In 1902 Joseph

420 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 Jastrow, for example, described the forum to enlighten one part or scientific habit of mind "that makes another of the public. . . . But these one keen-scented for right beliefs and surviving men and women of secure, not from error indeed, but science were swamped numerically from rash credulity." By contrast, the by other scientists who at most counted some sort of political or more recent science writers have not professional association work, that been able to convey even the most is, bureaucratic activity, as their routine doubts of the investigations. service to science. Most likely, these By stressing only scientific products, "scientists" were in fact narrow they actually promote an a-skeptical technicians who did a job without way of thinking. What little skepticism a calling. In either case, such pro­ there was, Burnham tells us, was fessionals did not struggle with often directed against science and other population elements for pos­ medicine rather than against either session of the public mantle of folk or commercial error. science. Nor do they feel personally the obligation to pick a fight with Burnham's message is that we need other superstitions, to devote more time and attention to or advertising. The chances were scientific popularizing and that the that they did not even know what best scientists need to devote more civilization was or perhaps science time and effort to the tasks of com­ as such. Few Americans of that era munication and education. They need did. . . . Nowhere had the technical to be aroused and motivated to enter training, the education or the milieu the battle again. The war for the public of the technicians prepared them for mind is not yet over; there are many an obligation to summarize, sim­ plify or translate science for any battles ahead, and if skeptics properly non-specialist audiences. Indeed, in prepare and pool their resources they functional terms, science probably will not lose them all. We also need did not exist any longer on the to know our enemy as well as our­ popular level. Superstition did. selves and our shortcomings. Burn- ham's book can be of great help with Burnham's closing words are bitter the latter, and skeptics, particularly, words indeed, but they are words we should read it carefully. Perhaps the are forced to swallow because they following quote from Burnham's final are, for the most part, true. Saddest chapter will provide an impetus in this of all is the fact that books like direction (pp. 261-262): Burnham's treatise never become very popular and are much too often Even in the 1980s there were still generally ignored. Although published a few men and women of science in 1987, How Superstition Won . . . has who had a sense of identification clearly not received the media atten­ with science as a way of truth, civilization, morality and other tion that a book of such exemplary constructive values and a high scholarship and importance to all of contempt for commercialism of any us fully deserves. Perhaps such neg­ kind, much less mysticism, irration- lect, ironically, proves his point! alism and occultism. Many repre­ sent their generation's quota of irrepressible skeptics, hardheaded Robert A. Baker is professor emeritus of naysayers deviant enough to speak psychology, University of Kentucky, out in both the lab and a public Lexington.

Summer 1990 421 How to Understand Numbers in the News News & Numbers: A Guide to Reporting Statistical Claims and Controversies in Health and Other Fields. By Victor Cohn. Iowa State University Press, Ames, la., 1989. 178 pp. Paper, $9.95.

ROGER KLARE

few years ago, the Associated reporting as well. Press carried a story with an Even though the book is aimed at Ak arresting headline: "Parents working journalists, the general Spank More in U.S. than Sweden." A reader can gain much from it. This curious reader would naturally want is a how-to book. A background in to know more about the study behind statistics is not required—what's the headline. The news story said needed is a desire to understand what spanking occurred in 58 percent of numbers can and cannot tell us. American families in 1976 and in only The author leads us through basic 27 percent of Swedish families in principles of statistics, with plenty of 1980. help from experts. Along the way, he The study's first problem was its uses many examples that apply these use of different years for comparison. principles in the real world of public Other problems were the self- controversy and debate. reporting by participants and the Cohn examines the public concern presence of an anti-spanking law in with unknown risks, such as certain Sweden. These flaws make it impos­ chemicals in the food supply, as sible to draw a valid comparison opposed to known risks, such as between the two countries. automobile driving and smoking. Scientific studies may have prob­ Some of these unknown risks may lems that are not as obvious. How can pose far less of a threat than the journalists learn to spot the good and known ones. He explains this contra­ the bad in these and in other news diction: "The public is not entirely stories containing numbers? News & illogical. It is easier to cope with the Numbers shows the way. known than the unknown and mys­ In this excellent book, science teriously threatening." He adds that reporter Victor Cohn highlights the while we voluntarily accept the known importance of numbers in the every­ risk of driving, we don't like the idea day world of journalism. In his words, that the unknown risks of chemicals "We journalists like to think we deal are being imposed on us. mainly in facts and ideas, but much The average risk of dying in a car of what we report is based on crash is 1 in 5,000. This compares with numbers." Journalists will find this a l-in-26,000 chance of being killed book a helpful guide to the proper use while crossing a street or a 1-in- of statistics. While the book mainly 450,000 chance of dying at the hands deals with health and environment of a tornado. The average risk of reporting, the principles described getting cancer from chemicals in food apply to political, business, and sports is difficult to calculate. We're dealing

422 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 with many chemicals. Some pose public. Although this book will not greater risks than others. But, as the turn reporters into statisticians, it book points out, feeding large doses does provide some of the language and of any chemical to laboratory animals shows how to use it effectively. does not automatically result in Armed with this knowledge, jour­ cancer. ("Apple pie causes cancer," said nalists will be in a better position to a cartoon character a few years ago, spot some of the bad science. "But bad reflecting public misconceptions and science," Cohn points out, "is no frustrations about chemical testing.) excuse for bad journalism." He sums Reporters try to provide the public up a major problem: "We tend to with all the information it needs for oversimplify. We may report, 'A study estimating risks. Cohn explains how showed that black is white' or 'So-and- the limitations of data, data analysis, so announced that. . .,' when a study risk assessment, scientists, and science merely suggested that there was some itself all create uncertainties that cloud evidence that such might be the case." the issues. How can we get some The guidelines in this book should answers amid this unavoidable uncer­ help journalists avoid oversimplifying tainty? It begins with what good complex issues. reporters do best: ask questions. Some The author cautions us that des­ questions to be answered for readers: cribing reality will not be easy—such How large or small is the risk? Under is the imperfect nature of science and what conditions? What is the evidence its applications in the real world. A and how believable is it? What can be good reporter operates as a skeptic, done to lessen the risk? striving to avoid both the Type 1 One of the many strengths in this error—"believing an untruth"—and book is the emphasis on questions the Type 2 error—"disbelieving the reporters can ask. By stressing what truth." This is difficult, but it's also reporters can do, the author affirms worthwhile. the important job they have in con­ veying scientific information to the Roger Klare is a freelance science writer.

Order Please send me Skeptical Inquirer Index(es) (10 vols.—1976-1986) at $10.00 each. Total $ your (Outside the U.S. and Canada add $1.00 postage, $2.50 airmail.) Visa and MasterCard customers call toll-free 800-634-1610 101-page (In NYS call 716-834-3222) Check enclosed D Charge my MasterCard D Visa D Skeptical # Exp Name_ Inquirer (PLEASE PRINT) INDEX Address- City. . State. . Zip. today! SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, BOX 229, Buffalo, New York 14215-0229

Summer 1990 423 Some Recent Books A listing here does not preclude a more detailed review in a future issue.

Dictionary of Science & Creationism. How Superstition Won and Science Donald L. Ecker. Of the many excel­ Lost: Popularizing Science and Health lent books about the science/creation- in the United States. John C. Burn- ism controversy, this one is unique: ham. Historian argues that although it is organized in dictionary form to science itself may be progressive, the provide ready access to the topic of cultural impact of science and scien­ interest. Each topic (e.g., "De­ tists has been greatly reduced because sign Argument," "Geomagnetism," the fight of science against supersti­ "Radioactive Dating," "Transitional tion has not been won by the forces Form") is given typically one or two of rationality and naturalism—indeed, pages of clear, thoughtful discussion at many levels superstition has won. together with full references to the See review, this issue. Rutgers Uni­ scholarly literature and cross- versity Press, 109 Church St., New references to other topics in the book. Brunswick, NJ 08901, 1987, 369 pp. A handy and valuable guide to all the $35.00 cloth, $16.00 paper. major areas that relate to evolutionary theory and how that information 101 Ways to Avoid Reincarnation. shows the pseudoscientific nature of Hester Mundis. Humorous parody of "scientific" creationism. Foreword by the New Age movement. 101 short Martin Gardner. Prometheus Books, sections on such topics as Decorating Buffalo, N.Y., 1990,263 pages (Index), Your Own Inner Space, Making the $32.95 cloth. Right Impression on Your Higher Self, How to Rolf Yourself, Astro-Buck Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Astrology, the Sayings of Confusion, Science and Pseudoscience in and —Dolby Sound Archaeology. Kenneth L. Feder. A Connection. Workman Publishing, welcome and readable examination of New York, 1989,144 pp., $5.95 paper. popular claims in archaeology. The author, an archaeologist and teacher, Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus. Mar­ aims to put the analysis of claims tin Gardner. A new paperback print­ "firmly within the perspective of the ing of what has become a classic work as it relates to on science and pseudoscience (first archaeology." After chapters on published in 1981). Prometheus science and pseudoscience and on how Books, Buffalo, N.Y., 1989, 412 pp., we know what we know, Feder $15.95 paper. explores virtually all the popular and bizarre claims that have dogged Science and Supernature: A Critical archaeology over the decades. May- Appraisal of Parapsychology. James E. field Publishing Company, 1240 Villa Alcock. A prominent critic of para­ St., Mountain View, CA 94041,1990, psychology here publishes two leng­ 246 pp. $12.95 paper. thy recent appraisals. The first is a

424 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 detailed examination of parapsychol­ methods and benefits of science, to ogy first published in a special issue stem the tide of pseudoscience, and of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (fol­ to convey the joys of science. Divided lowed by his reply to numerous into two parts, "Getting Excited About solicited comments published in the Science" and "Doing Science" (includ­ same issue). The second is adapted ing many examples of science that can from his commissioned paper compre­ be done at home). Lowell House, 1875 hensively reviewing for the National Century Park East, Los Angeles, CA Research Council's Committee on 90067, 1989, 149 pp., $9.95 paper. Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance (see SI, Fall Voices for Evolution. Betty McCollis- 1988) the major empirical studies ter, editor. An extremely useful involving random-event generators or publication reprinting resolutions, remote viewing. This is an excellent statements, and position papers from and up-to-date examination of the organizations—scientific, educational, current status of the best laboratory and religious/philosophical—in sup­ parapsychology experiments by a port of science and evolution in the well-informed psychologist-critic. creationism controversy. More than Prometheus Books. Buffalo, N.Y., 75 statements are published, includ­ 1990, 186 pp., $24.95 cloth. ing those from most of the major scientific societies and bodies in the Teach Your Child Science: Making United States. National Center for Science Fun for Both of You. Michael Science Education, P.O. Box 9477, Shermer. An excellent and entertain­ Berkeley, CA 94709, 1990, 141 pp., ing primer that is effective in address­ $5.90 paper. ing its three main goals: to help parents and children understand the —Kendrick Frazier

Summer 1990 425 Articles Of Note

Cowley, Geoffrey, "Not Just for Dutch space scientist has sections on Nerds," and Sharon Begley, "Rx for the Scientific Method, Externally Learning." Newsweek, April 9, 1990, Imposed Limits to Science, Fraud in pp. 52-64. Main articles in news­ Science, Pseudoscience and Fringe magazine's excellent cover-story Science, Doubtful Science and Non- about science education. Subtitled, Science (Homeopathy), and Astrol­ "How to Teach Science to Our Kids," ogy. The latter section has an up-to- the articles are refreshing for their date and responsible discussion of positive approach and examples of evidence for and against the so-called creative teachers now at work and Mars Effect. innovative programs now being estab­ lished. One of the themes is to teach Falk, Ruma. "Judgment of Coinciden­ kids by having them do science, based ces: Mine versus Yours." American on simple observations of the every­ Journal of Psychology, 102(4):477-495, day world around them. Winter 1989. Psychologist (and author of "On Coincidences," 51, vol. 6, no. 2) interested in why coincidences often result in unwarranted surprise conducts study to learn whether people find their own coincidences more surprising than those of others. She conducted two experiments, one controlling for a story's objective surprisingness, the other controlling for self-selection of subjectively sur­ prising stories. The study found that self-coincidences indeed were judged more surprising than those of others in both experiments. The results suggest that the more personally meaningful the self-coincidence, the more surprising it is. Furthermore, "the finding that meaningless coinci­ dences, constructed of randomly determined elements, turned out more surprising than others' coinci­ De Jager, Cornelis. "Science, Fringe dences once they were attached to the Science, and Pseudoscience." Quar­ self is quite remarkable," says Falk. terly journal of the Royal Astronomical "This suggests that the 'egocentric Society, 31:31-45, 1990. Essay by touch' must be powerful."

426 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 Gleick, James. "Oh-oh, Here Comes although it has been James Randi who the Mailman." New York Times Book has championed the need for magi­ Review, March 4, 1990, pp. 1, 32. cians to be consulted, Randi is named Former Times science reporter (and by Hansen as one magician "especially author of the bestselling science book unsuited" as a consultant. The atti­ Chaos) discourses on the correspon­ tudes here tarnish an otherwise fairly dence he receives that seems to totally worthwhile discussion. misunderstand what science is about. "So many of my correspondents these Kolata, Gina. "1-in-a-Trillion Coin­ days have conceived completely new cidence, You Say? Not Really, Experts cosmologies. It seems that when you Find." New York Times, February 27, write about science, you quickly get 1990, C1 (Science Times section). onto an international mailing list for Good report showing why "coinciden­ psychic discoveries, mathematical ces, those surprising and often eerie proofs, stock market strategies, and events that add spice to everyday life, grand theories of everything. It's may not be so unusual after all." amazing how many people have Focuses on the research of Harvard figured out the secrets of the uni­ statisticians Persi Diaconis and Fred­ verse." Gleick decides that "whether erick Mosteller showing that virtually they are sadly crackpot or whole­ all coincidences can be explained by somely curious, some people seem to some simple rules. Some of the find­ need something different." And "real ings are published in the December science is hard.... People find it easier 1989 Journal of the American Statistical to absorb weird ideas from science Association. A woman won the New than to understand the process that Jersey lottery twice in a four-month leads to the ideas. The grand theories period, and this was reported as a 1- and themes sound magical, some­ in-17-trillion longshot. One in 17 trill­ times; but real scientists have to sweat ion is the odds that a given person who through piles of real data from . . . buys a single ticket for exactly two a day in the laboratory.... When they New Jersey lotteries will win both make a theory, they can't afford to times. But the chance that some per­ indulge a taste for voodoo. They're son, out of the many millions who buy about to be proved right or wrong. lottery tickets in the U.S., will win Another pile of data is on its way." twice in his or her lifetime is far high­ er: better than 50-50 over a 7-year period; l-in-30 for a 4-month period. Hansen, George P. "Deception by By such examples and analyses, "amaz­ Subjects in Psi Research." Journal of ing" coincidences are being demystified. The American Society for Psychical Research, vol. 84, January 1990, pp. 25- 80. Discusses two major safeguards Miyaoka, Etsuo. "Application of against cheating by subjects in para­ Mixed Poisson-process Models to psychology experiments. Includes a Some Canadian Birth Data." Canadian section on special security problems Journal of Statistics, 17(2):123-140, with telepathy experiments. Points 1989. Study of Canadian birth data out correctly that designing sufficient included examining whether birth controls requires some knowledge of rates are associated with phases of the magic and discusses the role of .the moon. "We found no evidence for any magician. Nevertheless,- Hansen association of births with phases of would clearly limit the roles of magi­ the moon, except possibly with one cians in psi research and, ironically, of the many cases examined."

Summer 1990 427 Suplee, Curt. "Apocalypse Now: The sible for corrupting the paleontolog- Coming Doom Boom." Washington ical literature on the Himalayas. "My Post, Dec. 17, 1989, Bl (Outlook conclusion remains as before—that all section). Feature anticipating a 1990s contributions authored or co- "spate of doomsday prophecies, end- authored by Gupta should be ignored, of-the-world cults, Second Coming and syntheses that have taken his announcements, and a score of sects 'data' to be reliable should be used with proclaiming that apocalypse—sacred, extreme caution." profane, or a la mode—is just around the chronological corner." Teresi, Dick, and Judith Hooper. "The Last Laugh?" Omni, January 1990, pp. Talent, John A. "The Peripatetic 43ff. Gives examples of the latest Fossils: Part 5." Nature, 343:405-406, wave of apocalyptic thinking (end-of- February 1, 1990. Scientist replies to the-world predictions, etc.) and fol­ letters in previous week's issue ("The lows each with some factual informa­ Peripatetic Fossils: Part 4," 343:305- tion and scientific perspective. 308) and reasserts his charges that Indian scientist V. J. Gupta is respon- —Kendrick Frazier

Center for Inquiry Brings Skepticism to Radio, TV A new organization, the Center for Thinking featuring author- Inquiry, has been formed to bring entertainer Steve Allen is already skepticism, critical thinking, and in national release. Now in produc­ the scientific point of view more tion is "The Voice of Inquiry," prominently onto the electronic a radio program that will cover media. Tom Flynn, an experienced topics of interest to skeptics and visual communications profes­ other proponents of critical think­ sional, has been named director of ing. the . Included in the program are Until now CSICOP has de­ interviews with Tom MacDonough pended on the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER on SETI, Joe Nickell on Spontane­ and on conferences, seminars, and ous Human Combustion, Ray public relations to spread the Hyman on why he is a skeptic, and skeptical message. The Center for Susan Blackmore on ESP, near- Inquiry will expand that outreach death experiences, and out-of-body with radio programming, video experiences. productions, and other electronic The Center for Inquiry can be media projects. A radio public reached at Box 229, Buffalo, NY service announcement on Critical 14215, FAX (716) 834-0841.

428 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 Forum^L £ ]

11 Written U In the Stars

everal years ago a blue-ribbon and scanned the signs looking for panel of scientists, including Carl mine. Pisces. Aries. Ah, Taurus. I SSagan and Isaac Asimov, issued found my column and, please believe a bold statement saying they could me, for the first time in my life actually find absolutely no connection between looked at the dates consigned to the one's birth day and the so-called Bull: April 21 to May 21. behavior traits associated with one's I couldn't believe the chart's mis­ astrology sign. take. It thought Taurus started in I beg to differ. Astrology has had April, when everyone knew how each a pronounced effect on my existence, sign exactly matched up to our both in the ebb and flow of daily months. Taurus was May, May was activity and in the larger, deeper Taurus. (See how stubborn I was?) currents shaping my life's decades. My "This chart is screwed up," I said feelings about astrology are not based to a nearby friend. on a scientist's dry statistics, but on "What do you mean?" she asked. personal experiences. "It s. ys Taurus starts in mid-April." When I was growing up, my par­ ents (who were blithely unaware of astrology lore) nevertheless were forever commenting on their May- child's evident qualities, namely, my determined, practical nature, my down-to-earth attitude, and my ten­ dency toward, well, pigheadedness. Boy, could I be stubborn, as befits one of the Taurean clan. Not knowing much about the mythical quality of bulls, I still had an appreciation for their strength and power. I liked identifying with a mighty animal. Please bear in mind, I didn't wor­ ship astrology or follow it on a day- to-day basis; I was more content to know I was a Bull and let that fact color my existence. In tenth grade, however, I was forced to re-examine my basic tenets and world-view. Somehow I got hold of an astrology chart one day in the school lunchroom

Summer 1990 429 "It does." dora Duncan, Bob Dylan, John F. I began feeling uncomfortably Kennedy. warm as she explained the relation­ I was ready to switch. ship between the signs and the sky's Feeling both guilty and excited I star patterns. Taurus did indeed end turned in my horns and tail, split on May 21, followed by Gemini, which myself down the middle, and said ran well into June. goodbye to life as a Taurus. The My birthday was and always had changes were subtle at first, but just been May 27. as spring eases into summer, so too "What's your sign?" my friend did I metamorphose into a Gemini. asked. It was an innocent question, Although sporadic Taurean traits one I would hesitate to answer from surfaced periodically, more and more that moment on. I was moody, playful, even witty. My "I don't believe in that stuff," I said, parents blamed the change on the in a gruffer voice than my friend pressures of adolescence, but I knew deserved. better. Later that day in the privacy of my I changed career goals, trading in bedroom, I took stock of the situation. an interest in the hard sciences for an According to the rules of the game, urge to write and study English. I I was a Gemini, a sign I had previously made jokes in class. I wavered back looked down upon. The Twins. What and forth between exultation and pansies. Indecisive. Fickle. Sensitive. depression. It was like starting over. How could I be a Gemini when I was Now, years later, looking back on so stubborn, so bullheaded, so that early life I feel like an ex-lover Taurean. wondering what I ever saw in that Still, I was curious to know more Taurus of a Bull. Lately, though, I've about the sign I was supposed to be. been attracted to Aries: imaginative, Further investigation told me Geminis intelligent, incisive, impatient. That'd were indeed unpredictable, high be fun to be for a while. The only strung, and inconsistent, all opposite problem is that the sign is clear on traits of the noble Taurus. But Gem­ the other side of Taurus, running inis, I discovered in a basic astrology from March 19 through April 19. book, were also versatile, artistic, Would any Aries be interested in a witty, intelligent, enthusiastic. That house trade, so to speak, for the rest didn't sound bad. Then I read about of the year? Please respond quickly, the Gemini's twin-nature, the two however—before I change my mind— selves forever at war with each other. for as we all know those Geminis are That gave me pause. As a Taurus I frustratingly mercurial. It's written in would never have had that problem, the stars. for the Bull was known for its single- mindedness. On the other hand, if I —Martin Perlman became a Gemini, look at all the illustrious company I'd have as fellow Martin Perlman is a writer in Santa Geminiers: Dashiell Hammett, Isa­ Barbara, California.

430 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 Letters to the Editor

The new catastrophism 1960s. I was taught in the 1940s that an early collision could have blasted the I commend you warmly on your "new, moon out of the forming earth. Cata­ expanded effort to devote more atten­ strophic change is not a revolutionary tion to science, critical inquiry, and and new idea. It has long been all right science education" (Winter 1990). in geology. Sophistication of writing and appear­ There must, however, be evidence ance of the magazine have improved for it. It is easy to construct untestable steadily and dramatically over the years. hypotheses, or easily falsifiable ones. I find SI increasingly useful in teaching Extraordinary claims must be supported (trying to teach) skepticism and critical by extraordinary evidence, and we must thinking to biology and nursing be skeptical of extreme scientific hy­ students. potheses and "wishful science" as well David Morrison and Clark Chap­ as of pseudoscience. The bandwagon man's article in the Winter 1990 issue effect is powerful among scientists, is an excellent summary of the history particularly in matters outside their own of the idea of catastrophism: compact, fields. clearly written, and informative. Some (Similar comments apply to the of their references to geology and punctuated-equilibrium model [menti­ biology, however, embody misunder­ oned in passing on p. 151], which standings that have recently become incorrectly claims that orthodox biology widespread. As several of these misun­ does not recognize changes in evolution­ derstandings originated in the biological ary rate. Darwin discussed several cases, literature, I would like to offer a and Simpson [1944] wrote an entire biologist's constructively skeptical com­ book on the subject.) ments on them. 2. Most paleontologists are not con­ 1. The oft-repeated claim (reported vinced that the Cretaceous/Tertiary on p. 141) that orthodox geological extinctions of dinosaurs, ammonites, uniformitarianism insists on slow and etc., were caused by asteroid impact (the steady change is simply a false charac­ Alvarez hypothesis, pp. 142, 143). The terization, a straw man. The point of media continually and uncritically repeat uniformitarianism is that it rejects this story, confusing the impact with the untestable hypotheses; it does not deny extinctions. . . . sudden changes or rare events. Geolo­ The astronomers and physicists have gists have always known of floods, very good (though not yet absolutely volcanoes, and earthquakes. A popular convincing) evidence that an asteroid hit 1951 geology text (Gilluly et al.) explic­ the earth at the end of the Cretaceous. itly cautioned that although "geologic Even if there was an impact, much processes have always operated in the biological evidence shows that it could same way, they have not necessarily not have caused the extinctions. The always operated at their present rate or Alvarez scenario does not account for intensity." Many scientists abandoned the timing or the selectivity of uniformity of rate long ago; many more extinctions. never asserted it. Nor does geology Scientists who support the Alvarez reject extraterrestrial influences; impact scenario of extinction of the dinosaurs craters (p. 142) on the earth and the are usually physical scientists. Those moon were recognized long before the who are familiar with the fossil record

Summer 1990 431 are generally forced by the evidence to direct evidence supporting it. Failure to reject the asteroid's role in extinc­ make these distinctions confuses the tions, . . . public and erodes its confidence in Catastrophic extinctions, even if of science and scientists, with the accom­ extraterrestrial origin, do not affect panying embrace by the public of Darwinian evolution at all (p. 144). They pseudoscience, magic, and mysticism. merely impose another set of selective pressures. Such events differ in degree Henry E. Heatherly but not in kind from such familiar local Lafayette, La. catastrophes as landslide, flood, fire, and glaciation. . . . Again, I enjoyed the article greatly David Morrison and Clark Chapman and hope that your physicist and astron­ respond: omer authors will not take offense at my comments on geological and biolog­ Skepticism is essential to science, and the ical matters that are probably peripheral ideas of the new catastrophism are suffi­ to the main intent of their contribution. ciently novel that a healthy skepticism is appropriate. But, as Heatherly says, it is James F. Waters important to distinguish between very Professor of Zoology speculative hypotheses and ideas that are Department of Biology "nearly sure." A major point that we Humboldt State University perhaps failed to articulate as well as we Areata, Calif. might have done is that the impact of asteroids and comets with the earth is one of those scientific ideas that is "nearly sure, There are several items in the article by with considerable and wide-ranging direct Morrison and Chapman with which I evidence supporting it." The basic facts about take issue. The authors seem to give the frequency of such impacts and the energy unqualified acceptance to the theory they release are robust. Waters to the that an asteroid or comet hit the earth contrary, there is nothing "extraordinary" and caused a mass extinction at the end or "extreme" in the hypothesis that of the Cretaceous period. It is my extraterrestrial projectiles have episodically understanding the cause of this dieout played havoc with the fragile ecosystems on is still being vigorously argued and that our planet. Indeed it would be extraordinary, the original Alvarez theory is far from in view of the lunar cratering history and being universally accepted by evolution­ the known distributions of earth- ary biologists. approaching asteroids, if the earth had not There are several other points in the been hit by several 10-km or larger objects article that I question; however, my since the Cambrian, and extraordinary to main disagreement is philosophical. The imagine that such events would not have authors too often make little or no caused mass extinctions. If mass extinctions distinction between a relatively unsure, were not already known in the fossil record, even highly speculative, scientific theory our current knowledge of the earth's cosmic and those theories about which we can environment would compel us to look for be nearly sure. This failing is a common them. one among those writing for the general The mechanisms by which an impact public about cosmology, evolution, and produces extinctions are less certain, and the astrophysics. scientific debate on these subjects is currently A scientist writing for a general lively. But it strains credulity to state, as audience should make clear when a does Waters, that the Cretaceous impact theory is speculative, with only meager could not have caused the extinctions. We indirect evidence supporting it; when a assert that the burden of proof must lie with theory is more sure, with direct evidence those who advocate such a remarkable behind it; and when one is nearly sure coincidence. For an analogy, consider the with considerable and wide-ranging 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. Tech-

432 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 Back Issues of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER 15% discount on orders of $100 or more ($6.25 for each copy. To order, use reply card attached.) SPRING 1990 (vol. 14, no. 3): Why we need to A reaction-time test of ESP and precognition, Terence understand science, Carl Sagan. The crisis in pre-college Mines and Todd Dennison. Chinese psychic's pill-bottle science and math education, Glenn T. Seaborg. Police demonstration, Wu Xiaoping. The Kirlian technique, pursuit of satanic crime, Part 1, Robert D. Hicks. The Arleen J. Watkins and William S. Bickel. Certainty and spread of satanic-cult rumors, Jeffrey S. Victor. Lying proof in creationist thought, Joseph E. Leferriere. about polygraph tests, Elie A. Shneour. Worldwide FALL 1988 (vol. 13, no. 1): Special report: Astrology disasters and moon phase, J. W. Kelly, D. H. Saklofske, and the presidency—articles by Paul Kurtz and Mur­ and Roger Culver. St. George and the dragon of ray L Bob. Improving Human Performance: What creationism, Martin Gardner. about parapsychology? Kendrick Frazier. The China WINTER 1990 (vol. 14, no. 2): The new catastro- syndrome: Further reflections on the paranormal in phism, David Morrison and Clark R. Chapman. A field China, Paul Kurtz. Backward masking, Tom Mclver. The guide to critical thinking, James tell. Cold fusion: A validity of graphological analysis, Adrian Furnham. The case history in 'wishful science'? Milton A. Rothmanr intellectual revolt against science, /. W. Grove. Reich The airship hysteria of 1896-97, Robert E. Bartholomew. the rainmaker, Martin Gardner. Newspaper editors and the creation-evolution SUMMER 1988 (vol. 12, no. 4): Testing psi claims controversy, Michael Zimmerman. Special report: New in China, Paul Kurtz, James Alcock, Kendrick Frazier, Barry evidence of MJ-12 hoax, Philip ]. Klass. The great Karr, Philip J. Klass, and James Randi. The appeal of the Urantia mystery, Martin Gardner. occult: Some thoughts on history, religion, and FALL 1989 (vol. 14, no. 1): Myths about science, Milton science, Philips Stevens, Jr. Hypnosis and reincarnation, A. Rothman. The relativity of wrong, Isaac Asimov. Jonathan Venn. Pitfalls of perception, Anthony G. Wheeler. Richard Feynman on fringe science. Luis Alvarez and Wegener and pseudoscience: Some misconceptions, the explorer's quest, Richard A. Muller. The two Nils Edelman. An investigation of psychic crime- cultures, Lewis Jones. The 'top-secret UFO papers' NSA busting, C. Eugene Emery, Jr. High-flying health Won't release, Philip J. Klass. The metaphysics of quackery, Terence Hines. The bar-code beast, M. Keith. Murphy's Law, Robert M. Price. The Unicorn at large, Occam's Razor and the nutshell earth, Martin Gardner. Martin Gardner. SPRING 1988 (vol. 12, no. 3): Neuropathology and SUMMER 1989 (vol. 13, no. 4): The New Age—An the legacy of spiritual possession, Barry Beyerstein. Examination: The New Age in perspective, Paul Kurtz. Varieties of alien experience, Bill Ellis. Alien-abduction A New Age reflection in the magic mirror of science, claims and standards of inquiry (excerpts from Milton Maureen O'Hara. The New Age: The need for myth Rosenberg's radio talk-show with guests Charles L. in an age of science, Ted Schultz. Channeling, James Gruder, Martin Orne, and Budd Hopkins). The MJ-12 Alcock. The psychology of channeling, Graham Reed, Papers: Part 2, Philip J. Klass. Doomsday: The May 'Entities' in the linguistic minefield, Sarah Grey 2000 prediction, Jean Meeus. My visit to the Nevada Thomason. Crystals, George M. Lawrence. Consumer Clinic, Stephen Barrett. Morphic resonance in silicon culture and the New Age, Jay Rosen. The Shirley chips, F. J. Varela and Juan C. Letelier. Abigail's anomalous MacLaine phenomenon, Henry Gordon. Special report: apparition, Mark W. Durm. The riddle of the Colorado California court jails psychic surgeon, Richard J. ghost lights, Kyle J. Bunch and Michael K. White. The Brenneman. obligation to disclose fraud, Martin Gardner. SPRING 1989 (vol. 13, no. 3): High school biology WINTER 1987-88 (vol. 12, no. 2): The MJ-12 papers: teachers and pseudoscientihc belief, Raymond E. Eve Part I, Philip J. Klass. The aliens among us: Hypnotic and Dana Dunn. Evidence for Bigfoot? Michael R. Dennett. regression revisited, Robert A. Baker. The brain and Alleged pore structure in Sasquatch footprints, consciousness: Implications for psi, Barry L Beyerstein. Deborah J. Freeland and Waller F. Rowe. The lore of Past-life hypnotic regression, Nicholas Spanos. Fantas­ levitation, Gordon Stein. Levitation 'miracles' in India, izing under hypnosis, Peter J. Reveen. The verdict on B. Premanand. Science, pseudoscience, and the cloth creationism, Stephen Jay Gould. Irving Kristol and the of Turin, Joe Nickell. Rather than just debunking, facts of life, Martin Gardner. encourage people to think, At Seckel. MJ-12 papers FALL 1987 (vol. 12, no. l): The burden of skepticism, 'authenticated'? Philip J. Klass. A patently false patent Carl Sagan. Is there intelligent life on Earth? Paul Kurtz. myth, Samuel Sass. Medical Controversies: Chiropractic, William Jarvis; WINTER 1989 (vol. 13, no. 2): Special report: The Homeopathy, Stephen Barrett, M.D.; Alternative 'remembering water' controversy—articles by Martin therapies, Lewis Jones; Quackery, Claude Pepper. Catching Gardner and James Randi; bibliographic guide to the Geller in the act, C. Eugene Emery, Jr. The third eye, 'dilution controversy.' Pathologies of science, pre­ Martin Gardner. Special Report: CSICOP's 1987 cognition, and modern psychophysics, Donald D. Jensen. conference. (continued on next page) Back issues (cont'd.) SUMMER 1987 (vol. 11, no. 4): Incredible : consciousness, Barry Beyerstein. Spirit-rapping un­ Investigating combustion deaths, Joe Nickell and John masked, Vern Bullough. The Saguaro incident, Lee Taylor, F. Fischer. Subliminal deception, Thomas L Creed. Past Jr., and Michael Dennett. The great stone face, Martin tongues remembered? Sarah G. Thomason. Is the Gardner. universe improbable? David A. Shotwell. Psychics, SUMMER 1985 (vol. 9, no. 4): Guardian astrology computers, and psychic computers, Thomas A. Easton. study, G. A. Dean, I. W. Kelly, J. Rotton, and D. H. Saklofske. Pseudoscience and children's fantasies, Gwyneth Evans. Astrology and the commodity market, James Rotton. Thoughts on science and superstrings, Martin Gardner. The hundredth monkey phenomenon, Ron Amundson. Special Reports: JAL pilot's UFO report, Philip J. Klass; Responsibilities of the media, Pan/ Kurtz. 'Lucy' out Unmasking psychic Jason Michaels, Richard Busch. of context, Leon H. Albert. The debunking club, Martin SPRING 1987 (vol. 11, no. 3): The elusive open mind: Gardner. Ten years of negative research in parapsychology, Susan SPRING 1985 (vol. 9, no. 3): Columbus poltergeist: Blackmore. Does astrology need to be true? Part 2: The I, James Randi. Moon and murder in Cleveland, N. answer is no, Geoffrey Dean. Magic, science, and Sanduleak. Image of Guadalupe, Joe Nickell and John metascience: Some notes on perception, Dorion Sagan. Fischer. Radar UFOs, Philip J. Klass. Phrenology, Robert Velikovsky's interpretation of the evidence offered W. McCoy. Deception by patients, . by China, Henrietta W. ho. Anomalies of Chip Arp, Communication in nature, Aydin Orstan. Relevance of Martin Gardner. belief systems, Martin Gardner. WINTER 1986-87 (vol. 11, no. 2): Case study of West WINTER 1984-85 (vol. 9, no. 2): The muddled 'Mind Pittston 'haunted' house, Paul Kurtz. Science, crea- Race,' Ray Hyman. Searches for the Loch Ness mon­ tionism and the Supreme Court, Al Seckel, with ster, Rikki Razdan and Alan Kielar. Final interview with statements by Francisco J. Ayala, Stephen Jay Gould, and Milbourne Christopher, Michael Dennett. Retest of Murray Gell-Mann. The great East Coast UFO of astrologer John McCall, Philip lanna and Charles Tol- August 1986, James E. Oberg. Does astrology need to bert. 'Mind Race,' Martin Gardner. be true? Part 1, Geoffrey Dean. Homing abilities of bees, FALL 1984 (vol. 9, no. l): Quantum theory and the cats, and people, James Randi. The EPR paradox and paranormal, Steven N. Shore. What is pseudoscience? Rupert Sheldrake, Martin Gardner. Followups: On Mario Bunge. The new philosophy of science and the fringe literature, Henry H. Bauer; on Martin Gardner 'paranormal,' Stephen Toulmin. An eye-opening double and Daniel Home, John Beloff. encounter, Bruce Martin. Similarities between identical FALL 1986 (vol. 11, no. l): The path ahead: Oppor­ twins and between unrelated people, W. Joseph Wyatt tunities, challenges, and an expanded view, Kendrick et al. Effectiveness of a reading program on paranormal Frazier. Exposing the faith-healers, Robert A. Steiner. Was belief, Paul J. Woods, Pseudoscientific beliefs of 6th- Antarctica mapped by the ancients? David C. Jolly. Folk graders, A. S. and S. J. Adelman. Koestler money down remedies and human belief-systems, Frank Reuter. the psi-drain, Martin Gardner. Dentistry and pseudoscience, John E. Dodes. Atmos­ SUMMER 1984 (vol. 8, no. 4): Parapsychology's past pheric electricity, ions, and pseudoscience, Hans eight years, James E. Alcock. The evidence for ESP, C. Dolezalek. Noah's ark and ancient astronauts, Francis E. M. Hansel. $110,000 dowsing challenge, James Randi. B. Harrold and Raymond A. Eve. The Woodbridge UFO Sir Oliver Lodge and the spiritualists, Steven Hoffmaster. incident, Ian Ridpath. How to bust a ghost, Robert A. Misperception, folk belief, and the occult, John W. Baker. The unorthodox conjectures of Tommy Gold, Connor. Psychology and UFOs, Armando Simon. Freud Martin Gardner. and Fliess, Martin Gardner. SUMMER 1986 (vol. 10, no. 4): Occam's razor, Elie SPRING 1984 (vol. 8, no. 3): Belief in the paranormal A. Shneour. Clever Hans redivivus, Thomas A. Sebeok. worldwide: Mexico, Mario Mendez-Acosta; Netherlands, Parapsychology miracles, and repeatability, Antony Piet Hein Hoebens; U.K., Michael Hutchinson; Australia, Flew. The Condon UFO study, Philip J. Klass. Four Dick Smith: Canada, Henry Gordon; France, Michel Rouze. decades of fringe literature, Steven Dutch. Some remote- Debunking, neutrality, and skepticism in science, Paul viewing recollections, Elliot H. Weinberg. Science, mys­ Kurtz. University course reduces paranormal belief, teries, and the quest for evidence, Martin Gardner. Thomas Gray. The Gribbin effect, Wolf Roder. Proving SPRING 1986 (vol. 10, no. 3): The perennial fringe, negatives, Tony Pasquarello. MacLaine, McTaggart, and Isaac Asimov. The uses of credulity, L. Sprague de Camp. McPherson, Martin Gardner. Night walkers and mystery mongers, Carl Sagan. WINTER 1983-84 (vol. 8, no. 2): Sense and nonsense CSICOP after ten years, Paul Kurtz. Crash of the in parapsychology, Piet Hein Hoebens. Magicians, crashed-saucers claim, Philip J. Klass. A study of the scientists, and psychics, William H. Ganoe and Jack Kir- Kirlian effect, Arleen J. Watkins and William S. Bickel. wan. New dowsing experiment, Michael Martin. The Ancient tales and space-age myths of creationist evan­ effect of TM on weather, Franklin D. Trumpy. The gelism, Tom Mclver. Creationism's debt to George haunting of the Ivan Vassilli, Robert Sheaffer. Venus McCready Price, Martin Gardner. and Velikovsky, Robert Forrest. Magicians in the psi lab, WINTER 1985-86 (vol. 10, no. 2): The moon was full Martin Gardner. and nothing happened, /. W. Kelly, James Rotton, and FALL 1983 (vol. 8, no. l): Creationist pseudoscience, Roger Culver. Psychic studies: The Soviet dilemma, Robert Schadewald. Project Alpha: Part 2, James Randi. Martin Ebon. The psychopath'ology of fringe medicine, Forecasting radio quality by the planets, Geoffrey Dean. Karl Sabbagh. Computers and rational thought, Ray Reduction in paranormal belief in college course, Jerome Spangenburg and Diane Moser. Psi researchers' inatten­ J. Tobacyk. Humanistic astrology, I. W. Kelly and R. W. tion to conjuring, Martin Gardner. Krutzen. FALL 1985 (vol. 10, no. 1): Investigations of fire- SUMMER 1983 (vol. 7, no. 4): Project Alpha: Part walking, Bernard Leikind and William McCarthy. Firewalk- 1, James Randi. Goodman's 'American Genesis,' Kenneth ing: reality or illusion, Michael Dennett. Myth of alpha L Feder. Battling on the airwaves, David B. Slavsky. Rhode Island UFO film, C. Eugene Emery, ]r. Landmark expectations of miracles, Robert A. Steiner. Downfall PK hoax, Martin Gardner. of a would-be psychic, D. H. McBurney and J. K. SPRING 1983 (vol. 7, no. 3): Iridology, Russell S. Greenberg. Parapsychology research, Jeffrey Mishlove. Worrall. The Nazca drawings revisited, Joe Nickell. Peo­ SUMMER 1980 (vol. 4, no. 4): Superstitions, W. S. ple's Almanac predictions, F. K. Donnelly. Test of Bainbridge and Rodney Stark. Psychic archaeology, Kenneth numerology, Joseph G. Dlhopolsky. Pseudoscience in the L. Feder. Voice stress analysis, Philip J. Klass. Follow- name of the university, Roger J. Lederer and Barry Singer. up on the 'Mars effect,' Evolution vs. creationism, WINTER 1982-83 (vol. 7, no. 2): Palmistry, Michael and the Cottrell tests. Alan Park. The great SRI die mystery, Martin Gard­ SPRING 1980 (vol. 4, no. 3): Belief in ESP, Scot Morris. ner. The 'monster' tree-trunk of Loch Ness, Steuart UFO hoax, David 1. Simpson. Don Juan vs. Piltdown Campbell. UFOs and the not-so-friendly skies, Philip man, Richard de Mille. Tiptoeing beyond Darwin, /. J. Klass. In defense of skepticism, Arthur S. Reber. Richard Greenwell. Conjurors and the psi scene, James FALL 1982 (vol. 7, no. 1): The prophecies of Nostra­ Randi. Follow-up on the Cottrell tests. damus, Charles J. Cazeau. Prophet of all seasons, James WINTER 1979-80 (vol. 4, no. 2): The 'Mars effect' Randi. Revival of Nostradamitis, Piel Hoebens. Unsolved — articles by Paul Kuril, Marvin Zelen, and George Abell; mysteries andextraordinary phenomena, Samual T. Dennis Rawlins; Michel and Francoise Gauquelin. How I was Gill. Clearing the air about psi, James Randi. A skolography debunked, Piel Hein Hoebens. The metal bending of scam, James Randi. Professor Taylor, Martin Gardner. Science, intuition, SUMMER 1982 (vol. 6, no. 4): Remote-viewing, and ESP, Gary Bauslaugh. D. F. Marks. Radio disturbances and planetary posi­ FALL 1979 (vol. 4, no. 1): A test of dowsing, James tions, J. Meeus. Divining in Australia, D. Smith. "Great Randi. Science and evolution, Laurie R. Godfrey. Lakes Triangle," Paul Cena. Skepticism, closed- Television pseudodocumentaries, William Sims Bain­ mindedness, and science fiction, D. Beyerstein. Followup bridge. New disciples of the paranormal, Paul Kurtz. on ESP logic, C. L. Hardin and R. Morris and S. Gendin. UFO or UAA, Anthony Standen. The lost panda, Hans SPRING 1982 (vol. 6, no. 3): The Shroud of Turin, van Kampen. Edgar Cayce, James Randi. Marvin M. Mueller. Shroud image, Waller McCrone. SUMMER 1979 (vol. 3, no. 4): The moon and the Science, the public, and the Shroud, Steven D. Scha- birthrate, George Abell and Bennett Greenspan. Bio- fersman. Zodiac and personality, Michel Gauquelin. rhythms, Terence Hines. 'Cold reading,' James Randi. Followup on quantum PK, C. £. M. Hansel. Teacher, student, and the paranormal, Elmer Krai. WINTER 1981-82 (vol. 6, no. 2): On coincidences, Encounter with a sorcerer, John Sack. Ruma Falk. Gerard Croiset: Part 2, Piel Hoebens. SPRING 1979 (vol. 3, no. 3): Near-death experiences, Scientific creationism, Robert Schadewald. Follow-up on James £. Alcock. Television tests of Musuaki Kiyota, 'Mars effect,' Dennis Rawlins, responses by CS1COP Christopher Scott and Michael Hutchinson. The conversion Council and George Abell and Paul Kuril. of J. Allen Hynek, Philip J. Klass. Asimov's corollary, FALL 1981 (vol. 6, no. l): Gerard Croiset: Part 1, Isaac Asimov. Piel Hein Hoebens. Test of perceived horoscope accuracy, WINTER 1978-79 (vol. 3, no. 2): Is parapsychology Douglas P. Lackey. Planetary positions and radio a science? Paul Kuril. Chariots of the gullible, W. S. propagation, Philip A. lanna and Chaim J. Margolin. Bainbridge. The Tunguska event, James Oberg. Space Bermuda Triangle, 1981, Michael R. Dennett. Observa­ travel in Bronze Age China, David N. Keightley. tion of a psychic, Vonda N. Mclntyre. FALL 1978 (vol. 3, no. 1): An empirical test of astrol­ SUMMER 1981 (vol. 5, no. 4): Investigation of 'psy­ ogy, R. W. Basledo. Astronauts and UFOs, James Oberg. chics,' James Randi. ESP: A conceptual analysis, Sidney Sleight of tongue, Ronald A. Schwartz. The Sirius Gendin. The extroversion-introversion astrological "mystery," Ian Ridpath. effect, Ivan W. Kelly and Don H. Saklofske. Art, science, SPRING/SUMMER 1978 (vol. 2, no. 2): Tests of three and paranormalism, David Habercom. Profitable psychics, James Randi. Biorhythms, W. S. Bainbridge. nightmare, Jeff . A Maltese cross in the Aegean? Plant perception, John M. Kmelz. Anthropology beyond Robert W. Loftin. the fringe, John Cole. NASA and UFOs, Philip J. Klass. SPRING 1981 (vol. 5, no. 3): Hypnosis and UFO A second Einstein ESP letter, Martin Gardner. abductions, Philip J. Klass. Hypnosis not a truth serum, FALL/WINTER 1977 (vol. 2, no. 1): Von Daniken, Ernest R. Hilgard. H. Schmidt's PK experiments, C. £. Ronald D. Story, The Bermuda Triangle, Lurry Kusche. M. Hansel. Further comments on Schmidt's experi­ Pseudoscience at Science Digest, James £. Oberg and ments, Ray Hyman. Atlantean road, James Randi. Deci­ Robert Sheaffer. Einstein and ESP, Martin Gardner. N- phering ancient America, Marshall McKusick. A sense rays and UFOs, Philip J. Klass. Secrets of the psychics, of the ridiculous, John A. Lord. Dennis Rawlins. WINTER 1980-81 (vol. 5, no. 2): Fooling some people SPRING/SUMMER 1977 (vol. 1, no. 2): Uri Geller, all the time, Barry Singer and Victor Benassi. Recent per­ David Marks and Richard Kammann. Cold reading, Ray petual motion developments, Robert Schadewald. Hyman. Transcendental Meditation, Eric Woodrum. A National Enquirer astrology study, Gary Mechler, Cyndi statistical test of astrology, John D. McGervey. Cattle McDaniel, and Steven Mulloy. Science and the mountain mutilations, James R. Stewart. peak, Isaac Asimov. FALL/WINTER 1976 (vol. 1, no. 1): Dianetics, Roy FALL 1980 (vol. 5, no. 1): The Velikovsky affair — Wallis. Psychics and clairvoyance, Gary Alan Fine. articles by James Oberg, Henry J. Bauer, Kendrick Frazier. "Objections to Astrology," Ron Westrum. Astronomers Academia and the occult, J. Richard Greenwell. Belief and astrophysicists as astrology critics, Paul Kurtz and in ESP among psychologists, V. R. Padgett, V. A. Benassi, Lee hlisbet. Biorhythms and sports, A. James Fir. Von and B. F. Singer. Bigfoot on the loose, Paul Kuril. Parental Daniken's chariots, John T. Omohuniro. nically, it is true that most of the loss of Historical Geology, Crowell, New York), buildings was due to fire and even some which after listing a variety of catastrophes, intentional dynamiting of structures, such as volcanic eruptions, concludes: who would deny the relationship of these events to the massive earthquake that struck The cumulative effects of the constant the preceding day? downslope creep of the soil, the gradual decay of the rocks under the atmosphere, We do not accept the view that the and the gradual removal of material by certainty of scientific truth should be streams hour after hour, day in and day determined by a poll of scientists. The "new out, over millions of years are probably catastrophism" is, indeed, fairly new, and much greater than the effects of these it draws upon evidence from disciplines minor catastrophes. rather far removed from traditional paleon­ tology. But the fact that many paleontologists A more current comment appears in a lead are uncomfortable with some of these ideas article on mass extinctions in the June 1989 does not make them wrong. One of us (CRC) National Geographic. Author Rick Gore was told by a colleague in the Harvard writes: "Many scientists refuse to accept that Geology Department that a majority of the [impact] catastrophes have caused the great members of that department had still not dyings. 'We don't need an impact,' I have accepted plate tectonics as of the mid-7Os, heard over and over from paleontologists. even though history will record the plate- 'We can explain mass extinctions with tectonic revolution as having occurred a earthly causes.' " We suspect that these decade earlier. It takes a while before new paleontologists have never raised their eyes ideas achieve wide acceptance. We also to look at the face of the moon and ponder question Waters's concern that the "media" the implications of its cratered surface. have created a "bandwagon" effect in support Modern, secure knowledge from explor­ of impact-triggered extinctions. In our ing the earth as a planet in space tells us experience, the media usually bend over that the effects of the impact catastrophes backward to present opposing sides in any may have dominated our whole planet in controversy, since conflict makes for a more the first hundred million years of its history, interesting story. A good reporter will dominated the earth's surf ace geology during always find a dissenting voice. Thus the the first half-billion years, and episodically media tend to prolong controversy even when dominated the ecosphere ever since. Large a true consensus has already appeared. impact catastrophes must affect Darwinian We wish that Waters were correct that evolution. If catastrophic impacts occur only we have falsely characterized mid-twentieth- every 50 or 100 million years, the century geology as prejudiced against Darwinian struggle for survival during catastrophism. We agree that geologists have intervening epochs can do little—except by long recognized variations in the rates and accident—to prepare species for surviving the intensity of observable processes and in the rare but terrible environmental calamities roles of what some have termed "minor wrought by the impacts. Being global, these catastrophes"(e.g., hurricanes, earthquakes, effects are different in kind from local volcanic eruptions) in geological history. landslide, flood, etc. Stephen ]ay Gould has Similarly, as Waters says, biologists have been very eloquent on this issue. This idea long known that evolutionary change is not does not violate fundamental Darwinian constant. But the textbooks are replete with principles, but it does cast evolutionary testimonies to the predominance of unifor- processes in a different light (cf. David mitarianism over catastrophism, and many Raup's chapter in Origins and Extinc­ professional scientists have been resistant to tions, ed. by D. E. Osterbrock and P. H. theories that invoke catastrophes as anything Raven, Yale Univ. Press, 1988). more than a sideshow. Very few scientists These are all complex issues, many of had considered the implications of catas­ them on the cutting edge of current research. trophes of the magnitude of the larger cosmic Some of the ideas in our article may well impacts prior to the Alvarez paper in 1980. be incorrect, but most will stand the test As an example, consider the 1962 text of time. In any case, time and the scientific by E. W. Spencer (Basic Concepts of process will ultimately decide.

436 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 Cold fusion and Is it coincidence that "cold fusion" was wishful thinking "discovered" in Utah? Rothman analyzes the "Cold Fusion" fiasco as if Pons and Milton A. Rothman's incomplete, biased, Fleischmann were operating out of a and, yes, unscientific article on cold laboratory on the moon. fusion (SI, Winter 1990) did not include The facts are that Utah is the rump all of the evidence. Specifically: he failed state of a more grandiose scheme, the to mention the very crucial experiment independent religious/communist state of Robert Huggins of Stanford, in which of Deseret, which includes the State of Huggins carried out two electrolysis Nevada, and a corridor to the sea operations, one with ordinary water, through Southern California. The State one with DzO. The latter gave signif­ of Deseret is about as buried within the icantly more heat. Then we find out that United States as the state of Lithuania Rothman was one of the group that is in the Soviet Union. spent "many millions of dollars" on high- My point is this: In Utah, you have temperature fusion research. Therefore a large body of people who control the he has a high stake in finding that claims political and economic apparatus of the for cold fusion are not true and is state, and who also believe in such things therefore prone to self-deception. as that the Native Americans (Ame­ rinds) are Jews; it is a state where radio R. Thomas Myers stations advertise tours through the Prof, of Chemistry "Land of the Bible," and you find the Emeritus guests are headed for Cancun and the Kent State University Yucatan peninsula. Kent, Ohio Combine that kind of credulity with the church/state desire to make a buck through business investments and you I enjoyed the article on cold fusion by begin to understand why no one in Utah Milton Rothman. From the start it was would be willing to apply brakes to Pons clear that the incident would call for a and Fleischmann's runaway train, and good book: if true, part physics text and in fact would be clamoring to get on it. part explanation of why discovery took so long; if false, about how a mistaken Rod Goff claim came to be made and its setting Reno, Nev. in wider sociological contexts. Now that it seems clearly to be false, one hopes that the latter book will not comprise Milton Rothman replies: another bible of the anti-science move­ ment. For the truth is that scientific Re the comment of R. Thomas Myers, I procedure operated exemplarily used all the data 1 had at the time of writing. throughout: replication was attempted Undoubtedly, it was not complete. However, and failure reported within months (a some new data has been published that tends minute timescale by research standards), to support my point of view. A group from and the initial publication was not Caltech has analyzed the thermal measure­ subjected to the usual scrutiny of peer ments of Pons and Fleischmann and has review. concluded that errors in these measurements While there is never room for com­ could account for their results (Science, placency, scientists may be pleased at the Nov. 10, 1989, p. 793). Experiments in operation of their procedures on this "fracto-fusion"—fusion caused by electric occasion. fields generated in tiny fractures within the beryllium—have been reported. The exper­ Anthony Garrett imenters report that these electric fields do Dept. of Physics & Astronomy occur, but they have not yet verified fusion University of Glasgow in the cracks. Glasgow, , U.K. 1 have not denied that anomalous small

Summer 1990 437 effects may have occurred. We are going His reference to X-rays and the sun's to learn a lot about the gas-absorbing powers core fails to mention the book's proton- of palladium. We will perhaps learn that proton and Carbon-catalyzed fusion oxidation of the hydrogen liberated by reactions, leaving the impression that its electrolysis of water could produce sporadic data on this subject are silly. . . . bursts of heat. But there is no doubt that Flashing past the electron's supposed the initial claim of large-scale power- hundred "ultimatons" without consider­ generating fusion is dead. And that is the ing how twistors, spinors, and super- main point of the story. string theory might apply may be Rod Goff raises an interesting conjecture. forgivable, since the article was not 1 confess that similar thoughts crossed my written to explore possible resonances mind. However, it would have been between the book and ten-dimensional inappropriate for me to include speculation geometries or recent advances in theo­ on religious motivation in an article that retical physics, but rather to debunk. 1 was trying to keep reasonably scientific. Most unfortunate is Gardner's wave- Without knowing the religious orientation of-the-pen dismissal of "huge sections" of the particular scientists involved, it would of the book as "phony science." These have been nothing more than an exercise moderate sections deal with stellar in stereotypical thinking. If there are any evolution, "dark gravity bodies" (black history of science students out there looking holes), atomic structure, solar system for a dissertation, it would be interesting formation, continental drift, and other to study the relationship between religious items whose "science" is not "phony," belief and attitudes toward scientific but confirmed by physics. He misses research. There is much historical data [neutrinos] (before their discovery) in available, and it is not a simple subject. the book's discussion of radioactive Many very religious individuals have been decay, or, in nuclear cohesion, a "force good scientists. as yet undiscovered, . . ." that is obviously the then-unknown strong nuclear force. Urantia Book John Brawley It's my guess that very few of the Eureka, Mo. 100,000-plus readers of the Urantia Book are also SKEPTICAL INQUIRER subscribers. I am, and must respond to Martin "It is a fact that religion does not grow Gardner (Notes of a Fringe-Watcher, SI, unless it is disciplined by constructive Winter 1990). I've always held Gardner criticism, amplified by philosophy, in high esteem, and had I not been a purified by science, and nourished by Urantia Book reader these past 20 years, loyal fellowship" (Urantia Book, p. 1088). I might have simply accepted his article Just as skepticism is a healthy antidote at face value, placing the book on my to religion without truth, religion is an list of cosmologies to ignore. In that case, antidote to skepticism without truth. Gardner would have done me a great Gardner does a fairly good hatchet job disservice, as he has for any who might of lampooning a treatise that since the otherwise have judged the book by its mid-1930s has explored black holes, the text rather than by his opinion—highly curvature of space, the origins of respected though that opinion may be. evolutionary life on earth, positive Gardner's description of the book's eugenics, the phenomena of mind, content is for the most part accurate, personality, time, space, and dozens of if sketchy. "Nothing could persuade me other major scientific, philosophic, and to read every line of this . . ." is a religious concepts. commendable admission of incomplete Notwithstanding the disclaimer study. His sins of omission and his "within a few short years many of our flippant paraphraseology demand statements regarding the physical sci­ exposure. ences will stand in need of revision," UB

438 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 accurately specifies that the Milky Way, When a work of such unprecedented representing the central nucleus of nature and scope as the Urantia Book Orvonton (the larger galaxy we are just is encountered, one might reasonably now discovering), moves through space. expect an approach of journalistic A Scientific American article (September integrity or objectivity; at least personal 1987) says: "First claim that the Milky honesty. Readers who expect those Way is moving through space was made qualities from your essayists have been in 1975 by Vera C. Rubin and W. Kent betrayed; Martin Gardner abandoned all Ford, Jr." Is this the phony science three. Gardner prophesied? The very same Intent on solving the "total enigma" article, on "The Great Attractor," of the book's origin, Gardner, at the contains a chart that is essentially a expense of gross distortion of the true drawing based on the Urantia Book's nature of the Urantia Book and the concept of the multiple rotations of "quietly growing cult" that reads it, slams space systems, and is practically a the deceased William Sadler into a bootleg of some half-dozen UB cosmo- preconceived notion that ". . . one of logical concepts. Is this the moonshine, the strangest characters in our nation's Guru Gardner? religious history" was a disgruntled Mathematician Roger Penrose's the­ Seventh Day Adventist who "chan­ ory of a twistor universe is identical in neled" a "mishmash of claptrap." concept to UB's description of organized What is this trait of the animal in man space. As late as 1963 magnetic re­ that leads him to insult and assault that versals and sea floor spreading were not which he cannot spiritually attain or taken seriously, and not until Novem­ intellectually achieve? ber 1965 did three separate theories actually confirm what the Urantia Terry Kruger, Editor papers had continuously upheld: plate Urantian Sojourner Magazine tectonics. Incidentally, the sun's outer Boulder, Colo. atmosphere indeed contains calcium and the region between the sun and the earth is filled with fragments of the sun Martin Gardner, in his article on "The itself. Great Urantia Mystery," tentatively The Urantia Book (p. 29): "The concluded that the unknown writer of existence of God can never be proved that large tome might have been William by scientific experiment or by the pure Sadler or his wife. I would like to propose reason of logical deduction. God can be another possibility. realized only in the realms of human Several years ago I bought a copy of experience; nevertheless, the true con­ Urantia for a dollar at a book sale. The cept of the reality of God is reasonable former owner turned out to be the to logic, plausible to philosophy, essen­ curator of the rare books collection at tial to religion, and indispensable to any the university where I taught psychol­ hope of personality survival." Einstein ogy. We got together and decided to wrote: "Concepts can only acquire track down the author. He talked to content when they are connected, people in his profession and corres­ however indirectly, with sensible expe­ ponded with the president of the Urantia rience. But no logical investigation can Foundation, to no avail. reveal this connection; it can only be I took a different tack. I figured the experienced." While UB illuminates this writer was probably a member of the connection, only man's voluntary part­ circle of mystics in Chicago, was a fluent nership with the indwelling fragment of writer, and had to be extremely well God can create the experience that versed in the religious writings from actually validates it. which much of the book is derived. I think the influences of Gnostic Chris­ D.Julio Edwards tianity, Christianity, Judaism, Hindu Denver, Colo. Cosmology, the kabbala, Egyptian mys-

Summer 1990 439 tery religions, and modern writings in William Sadler nor his wife, but one of this area, e.g., Theosophy, are evident the adopted sons of ]. H. Kellogg, the ex- in the book. Sadler did not seem to fit Seventh-Day-Advenlisl Cornflake King. the bill. However, when I began look­ Perhaps more on this later. I would welcome ing into the Chicago mystics I quickly hearing from anyone who knows the came across a star who fit the require­ whereabouts of Christy Sadler, Dr. Sadler's ments. adopted daughter, who may still be living The most prominent member of that in the Chicago area. group was an editor of a magazine devoted to Christian mysticism, and the writer of a number of books on that Alcoholism a myth? topic, of which the most popular was Mystic Christianity. That man was A review of a controversial book called William Walker Atkinson (1862-1932). Heavy Drinking: The Myth of Alco­ I found a copy of Mystic Christianity, and holism in our Winter 1990 issue has found striking similarities with Urantia. brought more reader mail, most of it critical, It was as if Urantia was a playful creation than anything else we have published in that went beyond where present knowl­ recent memory. Following are excerpts from edge takes us, to present one possible a representative sampling of letters.—THE reality that incorporates aspects of all EDITOR. the religious views listed above. Perhaps the reason there were no further releases of his work, if he was Atkinson, Jeffrey A. Schaler's review of Herbert was that Atkinson died in 1932. Fingarette's Heavy Drinking: The Myth of Alcoholism shows an amazing gulli­ Sam Fulkerson bility for a piece published in a usually Louisville, Ky. reliable source with the title of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Fingarette's work is one of the worst pieces of academic Martin Gardner replies: publishing I have ever seen. It is totally biased, uses research that has been 1 have no desire to reply at length to the labeled "fraud," describes experiments many furious letters 1 have been receiving that failed as "highly successful," and from true believers in the UB (Urantia ignores all of the massive valid research Book). 1 considered the book fair game for that has proved his moralistic stance a a Mencken-type attack because of the angry farce. attacks that Urantians make on anyone who Your readers may be interested in my dares to criticize the UB. monograph evaluating Fingarette's As for the book's scientific merit, Us work (Defending the Disease of Alcoholism, enthusiasts are like the early Velikovskians. Wilson, Brown & Co., 153 E. Tallmadge They pick out statements that reflect the Ave., Akron, OH 44310), and my article common knowledge of the day, imagine "Thinking About Heavy Drinking" in anticipations of new science in vague the Public Interest, (no. 95, Spring 1989), remarks, and rationalize passages that have which also publishes Fingarette's turned out to be false on the grounds that response. My reply to that response will the extraterrestrials were forced to phrase be published in another journal. their revelations within the limited knowl­ I hope the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER will edge of the channeler. The UB, to any look a bit more skeptically on Schaler's objective reader, has no more scientific merit review and perhaps balance it with an than the "science" in recent books channeled objective one. by ]. Z. Knight's Ramtha. 1 find it sad that intelligent people take the UB seri­ William Madsen ously. Dept. of Anthroplogy Let me add that J now have good evidence University of California that the channeler of the UB was neither Santa Barbara, Calif.

440 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 The latest references quoted by Jeffrey mutation, and the interaction of dom­ Schaler date only to the 1960s. Where inant and recessive genotypes. Schaler has Schaler been during the explosion says: "There is no clear definition of of medical science in the last 20 to 30 what the mind is, let alone an under­ years? standing of the relationship between the First, if one goes even as far as to mind and brain/body. To a neurologist define the terms Schaler is discussing, there is no such thing as the mind." The his argument crumbles. A disease is "any psychologic definition (Random House deviation from or interruption of the College Dictionary, 1980) of the mind is normal structure or function of any part, "the totality of conscious and uncon­ organ, or system (or combination scious mental activities of the orga­ thereof) of the body that is mani­ nism." As board eligible in neurology and fested by a characteristic set of symp­ psychiatry, I agree with this definition toms and signs and whose etiology, and disagree with Schaler's comments pathology, and prognosis may be known about neurologists. or unknown" (Dorland's Medical Diction­ Schaler says that "a disease is a ary, 1988). Because alcoholism (Cecil dysfunction of the body" and that Textbook of Medicine, 1988) is a drug- since "the relationship between the dependence syndrome (a set of symp­ mind and the body is unknown, it toms) characterized by specific compli­ is inaccurate to state with certainty cations and effects—including a that a behavior like alcoholism is a neuropharmacology action on neuronal disease.". . . cell membranes, metabolic tolerance The relationship between the mind due to increased efficacy of hepatic and body is complex but far from enzymes, numerous structural and unknown. When you see a gun pointed functional changes in multiple organ your way your brain causes you to feel systems (alcohol affects the liver, heart, fear, your heart to race, and the blood and brain), self-perpetuating mecha­ vessels in your muscles to dilate. Secre­ nisms producing addiction (including tion of adrenalin by the brain's neuroen­ physical tolerance and withdrawal as docrine system mediates the effects in well as psychological conditioning)— this simple example. alcoholism seems to fit the definition of Schaler's statement that "the mind disease. Schaler's support of Fingarette's can't be sick" and that "mental illness" statement that "clearly it is each is a "contradiction in terms" has abso­ drinker's perception . . . and not an lutely no logical basis in fact. Parkinson's uncontrollable abnormal chemical- disease is a lack of the neurotransmitter physiological reaction, that decisively dopamine in certain areas of the brain; affects the choice to drink" illustrates seizures are caused by abnormal elec­ his lack of knowledge in the areas of trical neuronal discharges; schizophre­ tolerance, withdrawal, and neuronal nia, manic-depression, and major adaptation. depression have been shown to have Although there is a fourfold greater genetic components, have abnormal incidence of alcoholism in the adopted- chemical profiles in the cerebrospinal away children of alcoholic biologic fluid, blood, or urine, have abnormal parents when they reach adulthood findings on brain imaging, and show (Cecil Textbook of Medicine, 1988), Schaler improvement to specific pharmacologic argues that "the unaccounted for var­ approaches compared to placebo (Kandel iance between those genetically predis­ and Schwartz, Principles of Neural posed individuals who do not get the Science, 1982). disease and those not genetically pred­ isposed who do become alcoholics can Douglas Berger, M.D. only be attributed to a strength in will." Instructor of Clinical Schaler is obviously unaware of some Psychiatry basic mechanisms of genetics, including Einstein College of Medicine incomplete penetrance, recombination, Bronx, N.Y.

Summer 1990 441 As an alcoholism professional and a Schaler's review brings together in one charter subscriber, I am shocked and place just about all the confusions that chagrined that a generally favorable attend discussion of this issue. review of Fingarette's ill-conceived Most serious are the conceptual volume has found its way into the pages confusions about heredity. Dismissing of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. the overwhelming evidence that risk of At the outset, due consideration must alcoholism is heritable, the review points be given to the fact that the true causes to the "unaccounted for variance" and conditions of alcoholism are very presented by those genetically at risk difficult to analyze, and much informa­ who do not become alcoholic. In fact, tion about it is still missing. Alcoholism since any statement about heritability is certainly is not one of the subjects of a statement about probabilities, this pure science. would not be a problem even were we Nevertheless, a substantial amount to argue that alcoholism itself is inher­ of viable research has been dissemi­ ited. But no one argues that. What is nated, and an important body of knowl­ heritable, here as always, is variation edge has been accumulated on the along some physiological variable(s). Let subject. But further progress will only these variables assume certain values, come through the application of the and you have a person more likely to scientific method and by the exclusive develop the syndrome if the "right" acceptance of verifiable evidence. environmental conditions obtain—and Yet in this volume, seemingly with­ only then. To say that the variance "can out real justification, Fingarette simply only be attributed to a strength in will" proclaims the opposite of what the best is simply false. . . . existing evidence would indicate and what the most rational thinking profes­ Douglas G. Mook sionals in the field of alcoholism have Charlottesville, Va. written. Fingarette wants us to believe that his opinions are supported by "what Teachers and evolution science knows," but his writing is quite unscientific; and far from giving us the Michael Zimmerman's article implicitly "real truth" on alcoholism, he offers takes newspaper editors to task for little more than a rehash of previously believing that "creation science" should published opinions. be taught in the public schools ("News­ Fingarette once again trots out the paper Editors and the Creation- infamous 16-year-old "behavior treat­ Evolution Controversy," SI, Winter ment" research report by Mark and 1990). Indeed, Zimmerman argues that Linda Sobell. Incredibly, Fingarette still such a belief correlates closely with calls it a "groundbreaking report detail­ ignorance of both evolution and "crea­ ing the successful results of their . . . tion science." Judging by earlier letters program of controlled drinking." The and articles in SI, I assume that most author ignores the fact that these of your readers also argue that creation- experiments were dismissed years ago ism should be banned from the as incomplete, too small-sampled, too curriculum. short-lived, lacking even in minimal I disagree. follow-up, and totally inconclusive. A year or so ago, I called Boulder High However, in the end he hedges again, School and verified that science teachers and he finds that "the question of what cover at least two theories universally constitutes controlled drinking . . . regarded as wrong: Lamarck's heritabil­ remains a point of controversy" after all. ity of acquired characteristics, and Ptolemy's geocentric universe. That is, they teach these as theories that are Felix R. Bremy, Ph.D. known to be wrong but are still histor­ Wayne, N.J. ically or intellectually important.

442 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 As scientists, we should not try to who accurately predicted the attempted hide creationism—nor hide from it—but assassination of Pope John Paul II. . . ." rather should teach it as we teach There were two attempts, in 1981 and Lamarck's and Ptolemy's theories: as 1982, but when checking both of the something that is politically and socio­ corresponding centerfolds we find no logically important—right now!—even such predictions. though scientists regard it as dead —"John Monti, the New York psychic wrong. We should not ban creationism who foresaw the shooting of President from the schools but should expose and Reagan. . . ." Checking the 1981 cen­ refute it there. Anything less demeans terfold we find that there is a photo of the students, shirks our responsibility, Mr. Reagan; but it predicts an era of and allows creationism to prosper. prosperity and patriotism, not a shooting. Matt Young —"Florence Vaty, the Los Angeles Boulder, Colo. psychic who predicted Richard Nixon's resignation. . . ."—not in the 1974 Enquirer. A classroom lesson When I point out to the students that apparently these predictions somehow I am a high school science teacher with failed to make it to the printer, the lesson more than 30 years in the classroom. is clear to all. I would recommend this In the early 1970s it occurred to me to idea to teachers from elementary save the National Enquirer centerfold through high school as an effective predictions for the coming year. I have springboard for a solid debunking of found this to be a highly productive way pseudoscience. of engaging my classes in a lot of spontaneous discussions. Particularly, John Lister normally passive students become very Exeter High School interested and participate actively in the Exeter, Calif. lesson. I then post all the centerfolds on the bulletin board for the rest of the week. On each is recorded the number Central Park UFO of predictions, the number correct, and the percent correct. Robert Sheaffer refers in his Psychic For the years 1973 through 1989 we Vibrations column (Winter 1990) to the have 889 predictions, of which 21 were flying saucer that reportedly crashed in more or less correct (I had to give a Central Park in . It turns number of them 1/2 correct credit in the out that there was such an incident. I total) or approximately 2 percent. None heard the details from a fellow skeptic of the correct predictions were star­ here in New York. tling—they tended to be vague ("there The "saucer" was not an extraterres­ will be severe storms this winter") but trial spacecraft, but an inflatable plastic occasionally very accurate (concerning tent of experimental design that had divorce and marriage of Hollywood been set up on an outdoor of stars). They never predict anything that a Fifth Avenue apartment near Central most people would consider important. Park. In the morning, the owner woke Looking at the predictions for 1990 up late and left his apartment in a hurry we note the following: without dismantling the tent. —"Florida psychic Jack Gillen, who The wind picked up the tent and blew foresaw the crash of a DC-8 that killed it across the street, where it landed in 256 people. . . ." Here they are referring the park and skidded across the ground to an event that occurred in 1985, but until it came to a halt when it bumped when you look at the centerfold there against a stone wall. is no such reference. The police—not the military—cor­ —"Lou Wright, the Denver psychic doned off the area. But the excitement

Summer 1990 443 came to an end when the building's Metaphysics hardly enters into doorman appeared, deflated the tent, this, and this form of the Law has long rolled it up, and walked off with it under since been applied in all parts of indus­ his arm. try. For example, many loudspeakers I thought you might be interested in have been blown up because they had learning that the most implausible UFO to be connected with a plug similar story to come down the pike actually to a European electrical mains plug. contained a grain of truth. We now use DIN, RCA, or other quite different connections for loud­ Richard Morrock speakers. Bay Terrace, N.Y. Harrie Verstappen Curacao Growing up skeptical Netherlands Antilles

A letter from T. M. Hennig (Winter 1990) asks for help in raising children Double Nobelists to be skeptical of seductive doctrines and rationally selective of theories. Henry Heatherly himself (Letters, Several effective habits to be devel­ Winter 1990) commits an error of oped are: Read both sides of any con­ omission in pointing out the error of troversy. Be alert when considering any Phillips Stevens's assertion that Pauling religious, scientific, or economic propa­ and Curie were the only two individuals ganda that pleases you, as the wish to to have received two Nobel Prizes. He believe is a powerful force against rightly credits John Bardeen with two rationality. Compare evidences, but Nobels in Physics (1956 and 1972) but consider whether evidence of one idea is apparently unaware that Frederick may be evidence for something entirely Sanger of Great Britain won the Nobel different. If evidences offered seem Prize for Chemistry in 1958 and again invalid, ask propagandists to ask them­ in 1980. selves: "Why have I adopted this belief?" Picayune errors aside, I've been an Hold on to a bit of cynicism about the enthusiastic reader of your excellent testimony of "experts"; they may turn periodical for the past ten years. May out to be wrong. you continue to flourish.

Harry E. Mongold Tony Johnson Manhattan, 111. La Grange College La Grange, Ga. More on Murphy's Law Penn-itence Re Robert M. Price's "The Metaphysics of Murphy's Law," (SI, Fall 1989), it It was way cool to see a review of our seems necessary to call attention to the book Perm & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear fact that Murphy's Law did not start out friends in the Winter 1990 SI. It did, as the tongue-in-cheek amalgamation of however, force me to choose between more or less funny theorems that is so two of my personal vows. One vow was popular now. never to read anything in the press with As far as I know, Murphy's Law was my name in it, and the other was to read first expressed around World War II in every word of every issue of SKEPTICAL the aviation in approximately INQUIRER. So, I read it. this form: "If you design part of a I liked Mary Beth Gehrman's saying machine so that it can be assembled we were practicing "metacondescen- wrong, then somebody, somewhere, sion at its best." I'm not sure what it sometime will assemble it wrong." means, but we'll swear by it from

444 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 now on. Gremlins There's just one thing I'd like to point out before someone beats me to it. The A production gremlin, of the decidedly excerpt from the book, the one that nonparanormal variety, marred a state­ really jumps out, indented and profes­ ment by Milton Rothman in a reply to sionally typeset and everything, is from his critics in the Spring 1990 Letters to a story of mine called "Kamus, King of the Editor column (p. 323). A dropped Cards," and the chosen paragraph was line in the second paragraph of his actually written by Albert Camus. The response had him seemingly referring joke of the bit was that Camus was a to positively charged electrons. The close-up magician and one of his card phrase in question was supposed to read, tricks is described using quotes from his "The fact that in our part of the universe essays as "patter." I'm sure everyone all atoms consist of positively charged recognized the difference in writing nuclei surrounded by negatively charged style between Albert and me, but—just electrons is also perfect knowledge. in case someone missed it—I wanted to . . ."—ED. make it crystal clear. Old Camus was a bitchin' writer, but when he trashes The letters column is a forum for views on rationalism I don't want it attributed to matters raised in previous issues. Brief letters my name. (less than 250 words) are welcome. We I respect rationalism as much as the reserve the right to edit longer ones. They next guy, even if the next guy is James should be typed double-spaced. Due to the Randi. volume of letters, not all can be published. Address them to Letters to the Editor, Penn Jillette SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 3025 Palo Alto Penn & Teller Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111. New York, N.Y.

445 Thinking About the Mind and the Universe

Physicists influenced by New Age nonsense, and by what they fancy certain Eastern religions say, find the strongest support for antirealism in the "measurement problem" of quantum mechanics. A particle's property seems not to be out there until the particle interacts with a measuring apparatus that collapses its wave packet and allows the property to become "definite." Does it follow from the fact that an electron is not there until observed that the universe is not there until observed? It does not. There is nothing new about the fact that many things that seem to be out there are not. The image in a mirror is not behind the mirror, as baby chimps suppose. No two persons in front of a looking glass see the same reflection. A mirror does not look like anything in an empty room. It does not follow that a well-defined structure of room, mirror, and bouncing light rays is not there. A rainbow is observer dependent. No two people see the same bow. No arc of colors is out there. It does not follow that a well-defined structure of sun, sunlight, and raindrops is not there. Moreover, neither rainbow nor mirror images require human observation. Unmanned cameras photograph them admirably. It is true that an electron is somehow—no one knows exactly how— not there ... until measured even though the measurer can be mindless. It does not follow that the macroscopic records of measuring instruments are not there until a human mind sees them. It does not follow that quantum fields, interacting in enormously complex ways, are not there. Because the sound of a falling tree is a sensation in your brain, it does not follow that the tree and the compression waves are inside your brain. Quantum mechanics raises not a single fresh metaphysical problem. It has nothing to say about such ancient unanswerable questions as whether the universe was created or exploded all by itself, whether it would go on running if all minds vanished, or why quantum fields exist rather than nothing. If you are compelled to think, for emotional reasons or because some guru said so, that you are essential to the universe, that the moon would not be there without minds to see it, you are welcome to such self-centered insanity. Don't imagine that it follows from quantum mechanics. Realism is not a dirty word.

—Martin Gardner

Excerpted by permission from "Guest Comment: Is Realism a Dirty Word?" American Journal of Physics, American Association of Physics Teachers, 57(3), March 1989. Local, Regional, and National Organizations The organizations listed below have aims c/o Ho & Moss, Attorneys, 72 Kneeland similar to those of CSICOP and work in St., Boston, MA 02111. cooperation with CSICOP but are indepen­ MICHIGAN. MSU Proponents of Rational dent and autonomous. They are not affiliated Inquiry and the Scientific Method with CSICOP, and representatives of these (PRISM), Dave Marks, 221 Agriculture organizations cannot speak on behalf of Hall, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, CSICOP. MI 48824. Great Lakes Skeptics, Don Evans, Chairman, 6572 Helen, Garden UNITED STATES City, MI 48135. ALABAMA. Alabama Skeptics, Emory Kim- MINNESOTA. Minnesota Skeptics, Robert brough, 3550 Watermelon Road, Apt. W. McCoy, 549 Turnpike Rd., Golden 29A, Northport, AL 35476. Valley, MN 55416. St. Kloud ESP Teach­ ARIZONA. Tucson Skeptical Society ing Investigation Committee (SKEPTIC), (TUSKS), James McGaha, Chairman, Jerry Mertens, Coordinator, Psychology 2509 N. Campbell Ave., Suite #16, Dept., St. Cloud State Univ., St. Cloud, Tucson, AZ 85719. Phoenix Skeptics, MN 56301. Michael Stackpole, Chairman, P.O. Box 62792, Phoenix, AZ 85082-2792. MISSOURI. Kansas City Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Verle Muhrer, Chair­ CALIFORNIA. Bay Area Skeptics, Rick man, 2658 East 7th, Kansas City, MO Moen, Secretary, 4030 Moraga, San 64124. Gateway Skeptics, Chairperson, Francisco, CA 94122-3928. Berkeley Steve Best, 6943 Amherst Ave., Univer­ Skeptics, Daniel Bain, Contact, U.C. sity City, MO 63130. Berkeley, 300 Eshleman Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720. East Bay Skeptics Society, NEW YORK. Finger Lakes Association for Daniel Sabsay, President, P.O. Box 20989, Critical Thought, Ken McCarthy, 107 Oakland, CA 94620. Society for Rational Williams St., Groton, NY 13073. New Inquiry, Bob Lee, President, 1457 57th St., York Area Skeptics (NYASk), William Sacramento, CA 95819. Southern Cali­ Wade, contact person, 97 Fort Hill Road, fornia Skeptics, Susan Shaw, Secretary, Huntington, NY 11743-2205. Western P.O. Box 5523, Pasadena, CA 91107; San New York Skeptics, Tim Madigan, Chair­ Diego Coordinator, Ernie Ernissee, 5025 man, 3159 Bailey Ave., Buffalo, NY 14215. Mount Hay Drive, San Diego, CA 92117. NORTH CAROLINA. N.C. Skeptics, Michael J. Marshall, Pres., 3318 Colony COLORADO and WYOMING. Rocky Dr., Jamestown, NC 27282. Mountain Skeptics, Bela Scheiber, Pres­ ident, P.O. Box 7277, Boulder, CO 80306. OHIO. South Shore Skeptics, Page Stephens, Box 5083, Cleveland, OH 44101 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, DELAWARE, PENNYSYLVANIA. Paranormal Investigat­ MARYLAND, and VIRGINIA. National ing Committee of Pittsburgh (PICP), Capital Area Skeptics, c/o D. W. "Chip" Richard Busch, Chairman, 5841 Morrow- Denman, 8006 Valley Street, Silver field Ave., #302, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Spring, MD 20910. Delaware Valley Skeptics, Brian Siano, FLORIDA. Tampa Bay Skeptics, Gary Secretary, Apt. 1-F, 4406 Walnut St., Posner, 6219 Palma Blvd., #210, St. Philadelphia, PA 19104. Petersburg, FL 33715. SOUTH CAROLINA. South Carolina Com­ GEORGIA. Georgia Skeptics, Keith Blanton, mittee to Investigate Paranormal Claims, Vice Pres., 150 South Falcon Bluff, John Safko, 3010 Amherst Ave., Colum­ Alpharetta, GA 30201. bia, SC 29205. ILLINOIS. Midwest Committee for Rational TENNESEE. Tennessee Valley Skeptics, Inquiry, Ralph Blasko, Chairman, P.O. Daniel O'Ryan, Secretary, P.O. Box Box 2792, Des Plaines, IL 60017-2792. 50291, Knoxville, TN 37950. INDIANA. Indiana Skeptics, Robert Craig, TEXAS. Austin Society to Oppose Pseudo- Chairperson, 5401 Hedgerow Drive, science (ASTOP), Lawrence Cranberg, Indianapolis, IN 46226. President, P.O. Box 3446, Austin, TX KENTUCKY. Kentucky Assn. of Science 78764. Houston Association for Scientific Educators and Skeptics (KASES), Chair­ Thinking (HAST), Darrell Kachilla, P.O. man, Prof. Robert A. Baker, 3495 Cas- Box 541314, Houston, TX 77254. North tleton Way North, Lexington, KY 40502. Texas Skeptics, John Blanton, President, LOUISIANA. Baton Rouge Proponents of P.O. Box 111794, Carrollton, TX 75011- Rational Inquiry and Scientific Methods 1794. West Texas Society to Advance (BR-PRISM), Henry Murry, Chairman, Rational Thought, Co-Chairmen: George P.O. Box 15594, Baton Rouge, LA 70895. Robertson, 516 N Loop 250 W #801, MASSACHUSETTS. Skeptical Inquirers of New England, Laurence Moss, Chairman, (continued on next page) (continued from previous page) Contact, Dept. of Psychiatry, Airedale Midland, TX 79705; Don Naylor, 404 N. General Hospital, Steeton, Keighly, West Washington, Odessa, TX 79761. Yorkshire, UK BD20 6TD. WASHINGTON. Northwest Skeptics, ITALY. Comitato Italiano per il Controllo Philip Haldeman, Chairman, T.L.P.O. Box delle Affermazioni sul Paranormale, 8234, Kirkland, WA 98034. Lorenzo Montali, Secretary, Via Ozanam WISCONSIN. Wisconsin Committee for 3, 20129 Milano, Italy. Rational Inquiry, Mary Beth Emmericks, MEXICO. Mexican Association for Skepti­ Convenor, 8465 N. 51st St., Brown Deer, cal Research (SOMIE), Mario Mendez- WI 53223. Acosta, Chairman, Apartado Postal 19- AUSTRALIA. National: , 546, Mexico 03900, D.F. P.O. Box E 324 St. James, NSW 2000. NETHERLANDS. Stichting Skepsis, Rob Regional: Australian Capital Territory, Nanninga, Secretary, Westerkade 20, P.O. Box 555, Civic Square, 2608. New 9718 AS Groningen. South Wales, Newcastle Skeptics. Chair­ NEW ZEALAND. New Zealand Skeptics, person, Colin Keay, Physics Dept., Warwick Don, Dept. of Zoology, Univ. Newcastle University 2308. Queensland, of Otago, Dunedin, NZ. P.O. Box 2180, Brisbane, 4001. South NORWAY. NIVFO, K. Stenodegard, P.O. Australia, P.O. Box 91, Magill, S.A., 5072. Box 2119, N-7001, Trondheim. Skepsis, Victoria, P.O. Box 1555P, Melbourne, Terje Emberland, Contact, P. B. 2943 Vic, 3001. West Australia, 25 Headingly Toyen 0608, 6. Road, Kalamunda, W.A., 6076. SOUTH AFRICA. Assn. for the Rational BELGIUM. Committee Para,}. Dommanget, Investigation of the Paranormal (ARIP), Chairman, Observatoire Royal de Bel- Marian Laserson, Secretary, 4 Wales St., gique, Avenue Circulaire 3, B-1180 Sandringham 2192. Brussels. SPAIN. Alternativa Racional a las Pseudo- CANADA. National: Chairman, James E. sciencias (ARP), Luis Miguel Ortega, Alcock, Glendon College, York Univ., Executive Director, P.O. Box 6.112, 2275 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario. Bilbao. Regional: Alberta Skeptics, Elizabeth SWEDEN. Vetenskap och folkbildning Anderson, P.O. Box 5571, Station A, (Science and People's Education), Sven Calgary, Alberta T2H 1X9. British Ove Hansson, Secretary, Sulite Imavagen Columbia Skeptics, Barry Beyerstein, 15, S-161 33 Bromma. Chairman, Box 86103, Main PO, North SWITZERLAND. Conradin M. Beeli, Con­ Vancouver, BC, V7L 4J5. Manitoba venor, Muhlemattstr. 20, CH-8903 Skeptics, Bill Henry, President, Box 92, Birmensdorf. St. Vital, Winnipeg, Man. R2M 4A5. UNITED KINGDOM. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Ontario Skeptics, Henry Gordon, Chair­ Representative, Michael J. Hutchinson, man, P.O. Box 505, Station Z, Toronto, 10 Crescent View, Loughton, Essex LG10 Ontario M5N 226. Quebec Skeptics: Jean 4PZ. British & Irish Skeptic Magazine, Ouellette, C.P. 282, Repentigny Quebec, Editors, Toby Howard and Steve Don­ J6A 7C6. nelly, 49 Whitegate Park, Flixton, Man­ EAST GERMANY. East German Skeptics, chester M31 3LN. London Student A. Gertler, Chairman, Inst, for Forensic Skeptics, Michael Howgate, President, 71 Medicine, Humboldt Univ., Berlin 1040. Hoppers Rd., Winchmore Hill, London FINLAND. Skepsis, Matti Virtanen, Secre­ N21 3LP. Manchester Skeptics, Toby tary, Kuismakujo 1 S 18, Helsinki 00720. Howard, 49 Whitegate Park, Flixton, FRANCE. Comite Francais pour l'Etude des Manchester M31 3LN. Wessex Skeptics, Phenomenes Paranormaux, Claude Robin Allen, Dept. of Physics, Southamp­ Benski, Secretary-General, Merlin Gerin, ton University, Highfield, Southampton RGE/A2 38050 Grenoble Cedex. S09 5NH. West Country Skeptics, David INDIA. B. Premanand, Chairman, 10, Fisher, Convenor, 27 Elderberry Rd., Chettipalayam Rd., Podanur 641-023 Cardiff CF3 3RG, Wales. Coimbatore Tamil nadu. For other Indian WEST GERMANY. Society for the Scientific organizations contact B. Premanand for Investigation of Para-Science (GWUP), details. Amardeo Sarma, Convenor, Postfach IRELAND. Irish Skeptics, Peter O'Hara, 1222, D-6101 Rossdorf. The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Paul Kurtz, Chairman

Scientific and Technical Consultants (partial list) William Sims Bainbridge, professor of sociology, Illinois State University. Gary Bauslaugh, dean of technical and academic education and professor of chemistry, Malaspina College, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. Richard E. Berendzen, professor of astronomy, president, American University, Washington, D.C. Barry L. Beyerstein, professor of psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Martin Bridgstock, lecturer, School of Science, Griffith Observatory, Brisbane, Australia. Vern Bullough, dean of natural and social sciences, SUNY College at Buffalo. Richard Busch, magician, Pittsburgh, Pa. Shawn Carlson, physicist, Berkeley, Calif. Charles J. Cazeau, geologist, Tempe, Arizona. Ronald J. Crowley, professor of physics, California State University, Fullerton. Roger B. Culver, professor of astronomy, Colorado State Univ. J. Dath, professor of engineering, Ecole Royale Militaire, Brussels, Belgium. Felix Ares De Bias, professor of computer science, University of Basque, San Sebastian, Spain. Sid Deutsch, professor of bioengineering, Tel Aviv University, Israel. J. Dommanget, astronomer, Royale Observatory, Brussels, Belgium. Natham J. Duker, assistant professor of pathology, Temple University. Barbara Eisenstadt, educator, Scotia, N.Y. Frederic A. Friedel, philosopher, Hamburg, West Germany. Robert E. Funk, anthropologist, New York State Museum & Science Service. Sylvio Garattini, director, Mario Negri Pharmacology Institute, Milan, Italy. Laurie Godfrey, anthropologist, University of Massachusetts. Gerald Goldin, mathematician, Rutgers University, New Jersey. Donald Goldsmith, astronomer; president, Inter­ stellar Media. Clyde F. Herreid, professor of biology, SUNY, Buffalo. Philip A. Ianna, assoc. professor of astronomy, Univ. of Virginia. William Jarvis, chairman, Public Health Service, Loma Linda University, California. I. W. Kelly, professor of psychology. University of Saskatchewan. Richard H. Lange, chief of nuclear medicine, Ellis Hospital, Schenectady, New York. Gerald A. Larue, professor of biblical history and archaeology, University of So. California. Bernard ). Leikind, staff scientist, GA Inc., San Diego. Jeff Mayhew, computer consultant. Aloha, Oregon. Joel A. Moskowitz, director of medical psychiatry, Calabasas Mental Health Services, Los Angeles. Robert B. Painter, professor of microbiology. School of Medicine, University of California. John W. Patterson, professor of materials science and engineering, Iowa State University. Steven Pinker, assistant professor of psychology, MIT. James Pomerantz, professor of psychology, Rice University; Daisie Radner, professor of philosophy, SUNY, Buffalo. Michael Radner, professor of philosophy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Robert H. Romer, professor of physics, Amherst College. Milton A. Rothman, physicist, Philadelphia, Pa. Karl Sabbagh, journalist, Richmond, Surrey, England. Robert J. Samp, assistant professor of education and medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Steven D. Schafersman, geologist, Houston. Chris Scott, statistician, London, England. Stuart D. Scott, Jr., associate professor of anthropology, SUNY, Buffalo. Al Seckel, physicist, Pasadena, Calif. Erwin M. Segal, professor of psychology, SUNY, Buffalo. Elie A. Shneour, biochemist; director, Biosystems Research Institute, La Jolla, California. Steven N. Shore, astronomer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Md. Barry Singer, psychologist, Eugene, Oregon. Mark Slovak, astronomer, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Douglas Stalker, associate professor of philosophy, University of Delaware. Gordon Stein, physiologist, author; editor of the American Rationalist. Waclaw Szybalski, professor, McArdle Laboratory, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ernest H. Taves, psychoanalyst, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sarah G. Thomason, professor of . , editor of Language.

Subcommittees Astrology Subcommittee: Chairman, I. W. Kelly, Dept. of Educational Psychology, University of Saskat­ chewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 0W0, Canada. College and University Lecture Series Subcommittee: Chairman, Paul Kurtz; Lecture Coordinator; Ranjit Sandhu, CSICOP, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. Education Subcommittee: Chairman, Steven Hoffmaster, Physics Dept., Gonzaga Univ., Spokane, WA 99258-0001; Secretary, Wayne Rowe, Education Dept., Univ. of Oklahoma, 820 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019. Electronics Communications Subcommittee: Chairman, Barry Beyerstein, Dept. of Psychology, Simon Fraser Univ., Burbaby, B.C. V5A 1S6 Canada; Secretary, Page Stevens, Box 5083, Cleveland, OH 44101. Legal and Consumer Protection Subcommittee: Chairman, Mark Plummer, c/o CSICOP, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215-0229. Paranormal Health Claims Subcommittee: Co-chairmen, William Jarvis, Professor of Health Education, Dept. of Preventive Medicine, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 93350, and Stephen Barrett, M.D., P.O. Box 1747, Allentown, PA 18105. Parapsychology Subcommittee: Chairman, Ray Hyman, Psychology Dept., Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97402. UFO Subcommittee: Chairman, Philip J. Klass, 404 "N" Street S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024. .*•

* y inia§(QMnijo8^

^taBQQQj](p0S®''Qix§soQGqg3 (&§ esffiftgfl tosoeGfjpGftgB <•*? poaaaHirei) aax3 p-°~—*SSHB

'SfiasGcaeQ MaanEGftaD afonO-Hlhs GosnDOe

„ nv. - tLrfuw, '"" IL." iV-* ^SSLO. **_ fesidss eDoafi gsaoBto© dlatas

sss sm m$m mm® ®ro a go

jtjt as a? * &•

'<#*.

mi mil {4