NEWS AND COMMENT

Thought Field Therapy Practitioners and Educators Sanctioned

SCOTT O. LILIENFELD AND gers. Later, clients are asked to move at the November 1999 AABT conven- JEFF M. LOHR their eyes in specific directions, count to tion in Toronto. five, hum snatches of a tune, and again In September 1999, the American Until quite recently, most regulatory tap various body parts in a specified Psychological Association (APA) Con- bodies (e.g., state licensing boards) in order. Although there are no published tinuing Professional Education Com- the field of psychology have been reluc- controlled studies of TFT's efficacy, mittee ruled that the absence of any tant to encroach upon the freedom of many of its advocates have claimed compelling scientific support for its clinicians to use their preferred thera- 80-95 percent success rates for a variety efficacy rendered TFT an inappropri- ate subject for Continuing Education peutic techniques. This "let a thousand of psychological conditions. (CE) courses. These courses are taken flowers bloom" approach to psycho-therapeuticTh p re a c first t i c e majohas r comofficiae lunde challengr e to on an ongoing basis by practitioners in attack from research-oriented psycholo- TFT's legitimacy occurred in mid- order to fulfill licensure requirements. gists, many of whom contend that the 1999, when the Arizona Board of As a result of the decision, CE spon- increasing proliferation of invalidated Psychological Examiners sanctioned a sors who proposed to offer courses psychologist who used TFT as his prin- treatments poses a serious threat to focused primarily on TFT were cipal therapeutic modality. This clini- clients and to the scientific status of informed that their applications would cian was placed on probation, ordered clinical psychology. no longer be approved. In recent to refrain from administering TFT years, many scientifically oriented Two surprising developments in within the practice of psychology, and psychologists have sharply criticized 1999 may signal a trend toward informed that he would be strictly APA for failing to set limits on the heightened restrictions on clinicians' monitored for compliance with this content of CE courses, which have adoption of unsubstantiated psycho- order. Foremost among the reasons for included workshops on calligraphy therapeutic methods. These develop- the board's action was the therapist's therapy, Jungian sandplay therapy, and ments concern a controversial tech- inability to substantiate his advertised other invalidated techniques. As a nique known as Thought Field claims of effectiveness. consequence, APA's actions have been Therapy (TFT), which was invented in Another reason was the therapist's hailed by a number of psychologists as the early 1980s by Roger Callahan, a use of a T F T technique known as voice a significant step toward addressing clinical psychologist and author of The technology, which involves an elec- these criticisms. Five Minute Cure. TFT, which tronic device to convert the client's is claimed by its proponents to be an voice into a visual display. Voice tech- The actions of the Arizona Board extremely effective and efficient treat- nology ostensibly allows clinicians to and APA have been met with numer- ment for post-traumatic stress disor- diagnose the client's blocks over ous protests from TFT proponents, many of whom maintain that their der, , addictions, and other the telephone and then prescribe a for- method has been unfairly targeted. psychological conditions, has bur- mal course of TFT treatment without Indeed, a number of similarly unsub- geoned in popularity among clinicians ever having to meet the client in per- stantiated psychotherapics have largely in the past several years. For example, son. The therapist disciplined by the escaped the close scrutiny of regulatory TFT was used by clinicians to treat Arizona Board had refused to disclose bodies. In the eyes of some observers, information concerning the voice tech- survivors of the 1998 bombing of the however, these two recent actions may nology device, and invoked a confiden- United States Embassy in Nairobi, herald a shift away from a laissez-faire Kenya, and TFT workshops have tiality agreement with Dr. Callahan approach to psychotherapeutic practice recently been offered in many major regarding this device as the rationale and toward heightened clinician American cities. for his refusal. accountability. TFT purportedly works by manipu- In recognition of the Arizona lating and balancing the client's energy Board's decision, the Science and Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D.. is an assistant fields by means of a complex series of Review committee, professor of psychology at Emory algorithms or fixed procedures. While a newly formed special interest group University and a clients imagine an anxiety-provoking within the Association for Consulting Editor. Jeffrey M. Lohr, Ph.D., event or stimulus, the TFT therapist Advancement of Behavior Therapy is a professor of psychology at the instructs them to tap various body parts (AABT), bestowed its first annual University of Arkansas and President of (e.g., eyebrow, collarbone, knuckles) in Scientific and Professional In- the AABT Science and Pseudoscience a predetermined order using dieir fin- tegrity Award upon the board Review Special Interest Group.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER March/April 2000 5 NEWS AND COMMENT

New York in a psychic predicted an unexpected event station with the bodies of several before the fact," said Emery, a science extraterrestrials aboard; Quarantine? writer in Providence, Rhode Island. For • Fidel Castro will be jailed after his Failed Psychic example, the forecasts published with government is overthrown "in a massive Predictions for 1999 great fanfare in the supermarket tabloids revolt"; failed to mention such surprising events • The U.S. Postal Service will cancel Remember the 1990s? It was the decade as the massive earthquakes in Turkey mail delivery on Saturdays; when scientists discovered an anti-aging and Taiwan, the nuclear accident in • Cancer will be cured; drug that stretched the normal lifespan Japan, or the death of John E Kennedy • Oprah Winfrey will marry the next to 150 years, Madonna gave birth to Jr., his wife, and sister-in-law. mayor of Washington, D.C.; quintuplets, earthquakes transformed Instead, said Emery, Anthony Carr, • Liz Taylor will marry Malcolm both San Diego and Los Angeles into billed as "the world's most documented Forbes; islands, and a Super Bowl had to be can- psychic" by the National Examiner, is • The first successful human brain celed because so many players were sus- documented as predicting that Carolyn transplant will be performed; pended for drug use that both coaches Bessette-Kennedy would give birth to • Public water supplies will be treated couldn't field a team. healthy twins. And Sanjiv Mishra of widi chemicals that will prevent AIDS; At least that's what should have India, described by the tabloid Sun as • American voters will be able to cast occurred had the world's top psychics one of the ten "greatest psychics on their ballots using touch-tone tele- been correct. People may be celebrating Earth," made the not-so-great forecast phones; and the new millennium, but the world's top that JFK Jr. would fly "on a space shut- • Deep sea vacation dives to the psychics shouldn't be raising a glass of tle mission in August," with John Glenn Titanic will become commonplace. champagne to celebrate their successes as his co-pilot. for the 1990s, according to Gene Tracking the psychics is fun, but it has Emery, who has been tracking the hits a serious side, said Emery. "Every time and misses of the tabloid psychics for die media hypes psychics, it encourages two decades. consumers to waste large amounts of And, Emery says, die folks who money calling psychic hotlines. Most can claim to be able to see die future also ill afford it. It also encourages some didn't do very well in their forecasts for police departments to listen to psychics 1999. The psychics said 1999 would be who claim to be able to solve crimes. Not the year that: only do 'psychic detectives' waste valu- • A pollution cloud forced New York able police resources, die psychics some- City to be quarantined; times implicate people who later turn out • Wynonna Judd quit country music to be innocent." to become a women's wrestler; Emery said psychics give the illusion • Marijuana replaced petroleum as of being accurate when people forget die nation's chief source of energy; the bad predictions or don't realize how • The cast of 60 Minutes II was equivocal the forecasts are. Psychic replaced by Candice Bergen, Mary Tyler Sylvia Browne, for example, predicted 'Fastest Man on Earth/ Moore, and Margot Kidder; that in 1999 "the Pope will become ill Col. John Paul Stapp, • The Statue of Liberty lost both and could die." Said Emery: "That Dies at 89; Had arms in a terrorist blast; means she can claim success if the Pope • Monica Lewinski became a mil- suffers anything from a head cold to a Connections to Roswell lionaire after opening a New York bou- fatal heart attack." (Browne's notable Incident, Murphy's Law tique for the full-figured women called predictions for 1999 included forecasts Monica's Closet; of cures for breast cancer and sudden Colonel John Paul Stapp, USAF (Ret.), • O.J. Simpson confessed to Howard infant death syndrome [SIDS]. She died on November 13, 1999, in Stern on die air that he killed his ex- also said that "The world will not end Alamogordo, New Mexico, at age 89. wife, and anytime soon.") Some of die unam- On December 10, 1954, Stapp became • Roseanne shed her clothes to do a biguous forecasts the psychics made for the "Fastest Man on Earth" in a pio- week's worth of talk shows from a nud- the 1990s include: neering rocket sled experiment, in ist colony. • Soviet cosmonauts will be shocked which he was accelerated to 632 miles "It's always hard to find evidence tJiat to discover an abandoned alien space per hour in just five seconds, and then

6 March/April 2000 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER NEWS AND COMMENT brought to a complete halt in 1.4 sec- "If Something Can Go Wrong, It Will Fortunetelling Ban onds. The purpose of die experiment Go Wrong (at die worst possible time)." was to study the effects of bailing out Col. Stapp wrote the following Lifted in Louisiana from supersonic aircraft. Stapp's medical words, which he intended to serve as his In November 1999, a federal judge in research led to innovations in seatbelts epitaph: New Iberia, Louisiana, struck down and other safety devices, although his When life comes to a crossing of the that city's 1982 ban on palm reading recommendation to make seats in pas- ways and fortune telling. Judge Tucker L. senger aircraft face die rear (so the entire Where mere existence falters through Melancon ruled that the town had back can absorb the shock of a sudden its path violated its residents' First Amend- stop) was not adopted. While sands of time drain to the after- math. ment rights. Lawyers for New Iberia As head of the Stapp Foundation, he What morning through review my for- argued that the ban protected the wel- led an annual conference for surgeons mer days fare of its 32,000 citizens by cracking and engineers on car crashes, which How hard I worked to make my life down on fraud and unfair trade prac- still continues in his name. His land- worthwhile tices. Framing the fight as a free mark speed record earned him a place The causes lost before they could be speech issue, Melissa Long, a for- won tuneteller, joined psychic reader Ray on die cover of Time magazine on The goals not reached, tasks starred but September 12, 1955, and he was the nor done Trimble and the American Civil subject of the 1956 Twentieth Century The day of waiting for good fortunes Liberties Union in suing the city over Fox movie On the Threshold of Space. smile. the closure of Trimble's shop. After the ruling Long commented that the His busy career earned him many acco- Forever free from life's unending woes. lades as well, including the National Through endless tranquil ages I'll decision was a "victory for free Medal of Technology, presented by repose. speech" that "brings New Iberia up to No more to grope for goals I could not the times." President Bush in 1991. gain His work with high-altitude balloon No more to feel the bitterness of pain, pioneer Col. Joseph W. Kittinger led Forever free from life's unending woes. —Benjamin Radford Through endless tranquil ages I'll Stapp to commission a series of lifelike Benjamin Radford is Managing Editor of repose. human dummies for crash tests. Some the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. of these crash-test dummies may have From "For Your Moments of Inertia: From even been mistaken for Roswell Levity to Gravity." Copyright 1992 by John Paul Stapp. "aliens." (See "Case Closed: Reflections on the 1997 Air Force Roswell —David E. Thomas Report," Gildenberg and Thomas, Dave Thomas is a New Mexico physi- SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, March/April cist and SKEPTICAL INQUIRER consult- 1998 [Vol. 22. No. 2].) ing editor. A November 16, 1999, New York Times obituary by Douglas Martin included a story about an assistant to Col. Stapp, one Capt. Edward A. Murphy, Jr., who had incorrectly installed some sensors used on Stapp in a 1949 high-speed sled ride. The sensors could be installed in one of two ways, and Murphy managed to place every sin- gle sensor in die wrong position. And so it was diat Col. Stapp, staggering off of die sled with blood oozing from his eyes, learned diat the sensors all read "zero"— he had been tortured for nothing. Capt. Murphy remarked, "If diere are two or more ways to do something and one of diose results in a catastrophe, then some- one will do it that way," die original state- ment of die well-known Murphy's Law,

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Match/April 2000 7 NEWS AND COMMENT

Geller Rebottled witnessed by others and sealed in an If Geller is not—as he insists— envelope in Robbins's pocket. Geller doing magic tricks, he is being underap- He's ba-a-a-ck. "Psychic" Uri Geller asked the actor to project his thoughts. preciated, since his effects are indistin- debuted for a new generation of TV The entertainer then began drawing guishable from those accomplished by viewers on January 5, 2000, when he a spiral and adding a few more strokes. magicians widi more verve and enter- appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay He claimed not to know what the sketch tainment. His Tonight Show appearance Leno. The Israeli entertainer has had meant, but when die target drawing was promoted his new book, Mind other, short-lived comebacks since he produced his rendering was a good Medicine: The Power of Positive Healing. burst on the scene in 1973, convincing match with Robbins's pictorial of a snail. It thus appears that Geller has climbed media personalities and even some sci- As if divining the thoughts of skep- aboard yet another dubious bandwagon. entists that he had special powers of tics everywhere, the wonderworker —JoeNickell telepathy and psychokinesis, especially hastily acknowledged that magicians using his brainwaves to bend metal could produce the same effect, while Joe Nickell is CSICOP's Senior Research objects such as keys and spoons. insisting his performance was "kosher." Fellow. At one time or another Geller has Indeed, magic catalogs and conjuring claimed to locate gold and oil by map textbooks reveal many ways of divining Manslaughter Charges dowsing, to perform an eyeless-vision someone's supposedly secret sketch, a demonstration with an automobile (a "psychic magic" feat called "Telepathic for Herbalist, feat magicians call "the blindfold Drawing." Apparently Geller wants his Spiritualists drive"), even to be in contact with audience to assume that what looks just super-beings from a distant planet. like a magic trick is not, if the performer Lawrence Perry, an Over die years Geller has launched casually says it is not. practitioner in North Carolina, has been numerous lawsuits, one a $15 million Interestingly, Geller did not perform charged widi manslaughter in die death action against CSICOP and James his classic feat of bending a key or spoon of an eight-year-old girl under his care. Randi. CSICOP maintained die suit in a spectator's hand—an effect magicians Helena Rose Kolirwenzew, a diabetic, lacked merit and was intended to harass accomplish by trickery. (A magician's cat- died on October 21, 1999, after her critics and silence debate. The court's alog even sells a book on metal-bending mother Marion stopped administering judgment was to brand Geller's com- tricks with "keys and silverware.") insulin and instead used herbs as treat- plaint "frivolous" and to award CSI- Geller did perform another old ment, allegedly at Perry's urging. Perry COP sanctions against him (covering a favorite. Exhibiting a tray of supposedly operates the General Health Care portion of CSICOP's considerable legal "broken" watches, Geller placed a few of Facility for Preventive and Alternative fees). Geller has launched other suits diese between his palms while encourag- Medicine in Columbus. A grand jury against Randi and his publisher, ing viewers at home to do likewise—even has been asked to decide whether to Prometheus Books, as well as others out- to place a spoon atop die television! Soon indict Perry on a charge of practicing side the skeptical community. Geller had Leno verify mat a watch was medicine without a license. In introducing Geller, Jay Leno ricking, and he invited viewers to call in In Australia, a husband and wife appeared somewhat embarrassed, and widi their own anticipated successes. were found guilty of manslaughter in distanced himself by stating that he was Actually, remote "psychokinesis" is the case of a woman who died while neither a skeptic nor "naive." The talka- simplicity itself. Watches may start undergoing a "spiritual diet." The tive "psychic," boasting of his self- running again when they are handled; Supreme Court in Brisbane sentenced claimed prowess, told a story about one previously unnoticed bends in spoons 61-year-old Jim Pesnak and his wife television viewer who had blamed him or keys may be revealed—or imag- Eugenia to six and three years in jail, for her pregnancy: Supposedly his ined—on inspection; an unrelated respectively. They have been described broadcast metal-bending power had dis- occurrence (such as an appliance mal- as "cult leaders" who encouraged fol- torted her IUD. Geller seemed anxious function) may be attributed to die lowers to fast. The victim, a 53-year-old to exhibit the contraceptive device, alleged psychic stimulus; and false Melbourne woman, suffered deteriorat- mentioning that it was in his pocket, claims may be made, either out of the ing health after six days on die diet, and but Leno discouraged him while won- respondent's desire to promote mystical finally lapsed into respiratory failure dering aloud how Geller might have beliefs or a need for attention. five days later. The Pesnaks failed to gotten it. Magicians like Milbourne Christopher provide medical attention for the vic- Geller proceeded to perform. He discovered that the metal-bending tim, instead relying on "spiritual noted that actor Tim Robbins, seated stunt worked as well for skeptics as it strength" to heal her. beside him, had earlier made a drawing, did for the reputed marvel. —Benjamin Radford

8 March/April 2000 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER NEWS AND COMMENT

spot to bury his dead cat. But through lacy), were among the 100 "or so" top the technique of retrofitting, Allison science books of the century selected by converted her failure into a seeming suc- the editors of American Scientist and cess, mentioning details of the boy's Philip and Phylis Morrison, longtime clothing diat she had supposedly "seen" contributors to Scientific Americans accurately. books pages. In her obituary. The New York Times Most works on the list are of interest observed that Allison was unsuccessful to anyone interested in the history and in solving the Patty Hearst kidnapping, philosophy of science. the "Son of Sam" killings, the Atlanta The list includes Einstein's The child murders, or the death of JonBenet Collected Papers and The Meaning of Ramsey—all cases in which Allison Relativity, Darwin's Autobiography insinuated herself. "Skeptics," noted the (included via its 1950 edition), Bertrand Times, "many armed with volumes of Russell and Alfred North Whitehead's research, insist that psychics never Principia Mathematica, Erwin Schrodin- solved a single crime." That was cer- ger's What Is Life?, George Gamows tainly true of Allison who nevertheless One, Two, Three . . . Infinity, Rachel made a name for herself by convincing Carson's Silent Spring, Lewis Thomas's DOROTHY ALLISON AND SCOTT JACOBSON people otherwise. Lives of a Cell Mary Leakey's Laetoli, Richard Feynman's Surely You're Joking, 'Psychic Detective' —JoeNickell Mr. Feynman! and QED, and Carl Dorothy Allison Dies Sagan's The Pale Blue Dot. It includes Vannevar Bush's Science: The Endless Frontier, Thomas Kuhn's Dorothy Allison—who gained fame, or MARTIN GARDNER infamy, as a self-proclaimed psychic The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, sleuth—died on December 1, 1999, at Fads& C.P. Snow's The Two Cultures, Jacob age 74. Bronowski's Science and Human Values, Although she convinced many Fallacies Peter Medawar's The Art of the Soluble, reporters and even police that she had a IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE and Kari Popper's The Logic of Scientific —HG tHI0*119f HOOK* Discovery. criminological sixth sense, skeptics ftfuooinumi- H .wu w u ASCI MMMMCVtn THAT SUHthlM IDIH Current working scientists are well observed that the Nutley, New Jersey, sitli* great-grandmother propelled herself represented as well. They include James into prominence by a tried-and-true Watson, The Double Helix, Freeman formula: arrive on the scene of high- Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, Lynn profile cases, make numerous vague Margulis and Karlene V. Schwartz, Five pronouncements and, after the true Kingdoms; Stephen Hawking, A Brief facts become known, interpret the History of Time, Jane Goodall, In the statements accordingly—a technique Top 100 Science Books Shadow of Man; Steven Weinberg, known as "retrofitting." Dreams of a Final Theory, Edward O. For example, a 1997 episode of TV's of the Century Wilson, The Insect Societies; Marvin Crackdown on Crime said of Allison: Two classic works of skeptical investiga- Minsky, The Society of Mind Richard "Nutley police asked her to find a miss- tion are among die top 100 science Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, ing five-year-old boy. She did. He had books of the century, selected by Stephen Jay Gould, Ever Since Darwin, drowned in a pipe during a storm." In American Scientist magazine. Stephen Pinker, The Language Instinct, fact, however, every one of those state- Martin Gardner's entertaining and and Douglas Hofstadter and Michael ments is untrue. It was Allison who ap- influential survey of pseudoscientists. Dennett, The Mind's I. proached police with a "vision." Not In the Name of Science (1952, long The full list and commentary arc in only did she fail to locate the child's available in a Dover reprint as Fads and the November/December 1999 Amer- body, but she caused police to waste Fallacies in the Name of Science), and ican Scientist. considerable resources in digging up a Oskar Pfungst's Clever Hans (1911), a drainage pipe she had identified. The classic investigation into experimental —Kendrick Frazier boy's body was actually discovered later, animal and human psychology and Kendrick Frazier is Editor of the floating in a pond, by a man seeking a self-deception (the talking animal fal- SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. •

SKEPT1CAL INQUIRER March/Apr.! 2000 9