CBS Segment | Changelings | UFO Conspiracies | Balles Award | ‘Flying Friar’ | Fake News

Vol. 42 No. 4 | July/August 2018 the Magazine for Science and Reason WILDLIFE APOCALYPSE How Myths and Drive Animal Extinction

Skepticism Reloaded Cell Phones, Cancer, and Chance Lotus Birth Fad Speed Reading: Fact or Fiction? Skepticism and Literature

Published by the with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Response to Flood Creationists Committee for Skeptical Inquiry www.csicop.orgwww.csicop.org

Robyn E. Blumner, President and CEO Joe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow Benjamin Radford, Research Fellow Bar ry Karr, Ex ec u tive Di rect or , Research Fellow , Research Fellow

Fellows

James E. Al cock,* psy chol o gist, York Univ., Kevin Folta, molecular biologist, professor and Law rence Kusche, sci ence writer Mas si mo Pol id oro, sci ence writer; au thor; Toron to chair of Horticultural Sciences Department, Le on Le der man, emer i tus di rect or, Fer mi lab; ex ec u tive di rect or of CI CAP, It a ly Mar cia An gell, MD, former ed i tor-in-chief, University of Florida. No bel lau re ate in phys ics James L. Powell, geochemist, author, ex- New Eng land Jour nal of Med i cine Barbara Forrest, professor of philosophy, SE Stephan Lewandowsky, psychologist, School ecutive director, National Physical Science Kimball Atwood IV, MD, physician; author; Louisiana Univ. of Experimental Psychology and Cabot Insti- Consortium Newton, MA An drew Fra knoi, , University of tute, Univ. of Bristol, UK Anthony R. Pratkanis, professor of psychol- Banachek, professional magician/mentalist, San Francisco Scott O. Lil i en feld,* psy chol o gist, Emory ogy, Univ. of CA, Santa Cruz magic consultant/producer Kendrick Fra zi er,* sci ence writer; ed i tor, Univ., Atlanta, GA Donald R. Prothero, paleontologist/geolo- gist, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles Steph en Bar rett, MD, psy chi a trist; au thor; Skep ti cal In quir er Lin Zix in, former ed i tor, Sci ence and Tech nol­ County, Los Angeles, CA con sum er ad vo cate, Pittsboro, NC Christopher C. French, professor, De- o gy Dai ly (Chi na) Benjamin Radford, investigator; research Robert Bartholomew, sociologist, investigative partment of Psychology, and head of the Je re Lipps, Mu se um of Pa le on tol o gy, Univ. of fellow, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry journalist, Auckland, New Zealand Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, California, Berke ley Goldsmiths College, Univ. of James “The Amazing” Randi, magician; Willem Betz, MD, professor of medicine, Univ. Eliz a beth Loft us,* pro fes sor of psy chol o gy, CSICOP founding member; founder, James Julia Galef, host of the Rationally Speaking of Brussels Univ. of California, Ir vine Randi Educational Foundation Ir ving Bie der man, psy chol o gist, Univ. of podcast; cofounder, Center for Applied Daniel Loxton, author, editor of Junior Skeptic Rationality, Berkeley, CA Mil ton Ro sen berg, psy chol o gist, Univ. of South ern California at Skeptic magazine (US), artist, Vancouver, Chic a go Sus an Black more, vis it ing lec tur er, Univ. of Luigi Garlaschelli, chemist, Università di B.C., Canada Pavia (Italy); research fellow of CICAP, the Am ar deo Sar ma,* chairman, GWUP, Ger ma ny the West of Eng land, Bris tol Michael E. Mann, Distinguished Professor Italian skeptics group Richard Saunders, Life Member, Australian Sandra Blakeslee, science writer; author; New of Atmospheric Sciences and director of the Maryanne Garry, professor, School of Skeptics; educator; investigator; podcaster; York Times science correspondent Earth Systems Sciences Center, Pennsylvania Sydney, Australia Psychology, Victoria Univ. of Wellington, State University Mark Boslough, physicist, Albuquerque, NM New Zealand Joe Schwarcz, director, McGill Office for Da vid Marks, psy chol o gist, City Univ., Lon don Science and Society Hen ri Broch, phys i cist, Univ. of Nice, France Mur ray Gell-Mann, pro fes sor of phys ics, Mar io Men dez-Acos ta, jour nal ist and sci ence Eu ge nie C. Scott,* phys i cal an thro pol o gist; Jan Har old Brun vand, folk lorist; pro fes sor San ta Fe In sti tute; No bel lau re ate emer i tus of Eng lish, Univ. of Utah writer, Mex i co City chair, advisory council , Na tion al Cen ter for , founder and leader of Sci ence Ed u ca tion Mar io Bunge, phi los opher, McGill Univ., Guerilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) Kenneth R. Miller, professor of biology, Seth Shostak, senior astronomer, SETI Montreal project Brown Univ. Da vid Mor ri son, space sci en tist, NA SA Ames Institute, Mountain View, CA Sean B. Carroll, molecular geneticist; vice Thom as Gi lov ich, psy chol o gist, Cor nell Univ. Re search Cen ter , science writer; broadcaster; UK president for science education, Howard David H. Gorski, cancer surgeon and re- Rich ard A. Mul ler, pro fes sor of phys ics, Univ. Dick Smith, entrepreneur, publisher, aviator, Hughes Medical Institute, Madison, WI searcher at Barbara Ann Kar manos Cancer of California, Berke ley adventurer, Terrey Hills, N.S.W., Australia Thomas R. Casten, energy expert, Institute and chief of breast surgery section, Hinsdale, IL Joe Nick ell, sen ior re search fel low, CSI Keith E. Stanovich, cognitive psychologist, Wayne State University School of Medicine. professor of applied psychology, Univ. of John R. Cole, an thro polo gist; ed i tor, Na tion al Jan Willem Nienhuys, mathematician, Wendy M. Grossman, writer; founder and first Toronto Cen ter for Sci ence Ed u ca tion Waalre, The Netherlands editor, The Skeptic magazine (UK) Karen Stollznow,* linguist; skeptical inves- K.C. Cole, science writer; author; professor, Sus an Haack, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts Lee Nis bet, phi loso pher, Med aille Col lege tigator; writer; podcaster Univ. of Southern California’s Annenberg and Sciences, professor of philosophy, ,* MD, assistant professor Jill Cor nell Tar ter, as tron o mer, SE TI In sti tute, School of Journalism University of Miami of neurology, Yale Univ. School of Medicine Moun tain View, CA John Cook, Center for Climate Change Harriet Hall,* MD, physician; investigator, Bill Nye, sci ence ed u ca tor and tel e vi sion host, Car ol Tav ris, psy chol o gist and au thor, Communication, George Mason University, Puyallup, WA Nye Labs Los Ange les, CA Virginia. David J. Helfand, professor of , James E. Oberg, sci ence writer Fred er ick Crews, lit er ary and cul tur al crit ic; Da vid E. Thom as,* phys i cist and math e ma ti- Columbia Univ. Irm gard Oe pen, pro fes sor of med i cine (re- cian, Socorro, NM pro fes sor emer i tus of Eng lish, Univ. of CA, tired), Mar burg, Ger ma ny Berke ley Terence M. Hines, prof. of psychology, Pace Neil de Gras se Ty son, as tro phys i cist and Univ., Pleasantville, NY Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics, director of Rich ard Dawk ins, zo ol o gist, Ox ford Univ. di rect or, Hay den Plan e tar i um, Doug las R. Hof stad ter, pro fes sor of hu man the Vaccine Education Center, the Children’s Indre Viskontas, cognitive neuroscientist, TV Ge of frey Dean, tech ni cal ed i tor, Perth, Aus- un der stand ing and cog ni tive sci ence, In di- Hospital of Philadelphia tral ia and podcast host, and opera singer, ana Univ. Naomi Oreskes, geologist and professor, San Francisco, California Cor nel is de Ja ger, pro fes sor of as tro phys ics, Ger ald Hol ton, Mallinckrodt Professor of departments of the History of Science and Univ. of Utrecht, the Neth er lands Stuart Vyse, psychologist, former Joanne Toor and professor of history of science, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard Univ., Cummings ’50 professor of psychology, Con- Dan i el C. Den nett, Aus tin B. Fletch er Pro fes- emeritus, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA necticut College sor of Phi los o phy and di rect or of Cen ter for Deborah Hyde, skeptic, folklorist, cultural an- Lor en Pan kratz, psy chol o gist, Or e gon Health Cog ni tive Stud ies, Tufts Uni v. Ma ri lyn vos Sa vant, Pa rade mag a zine con- thropologist, Editor in Chief, The Skeptic (U.K.) Sci en ces Univ. trib ut ing ed i tor Ann Druyan, writer and producer; CEO, Ray Hy man,* psy chol o gist, Univ. of Or e gon Robert L. Park, emeritus professor of physics, Cosmos Studios Stev en Wein berg, pro fes sor of phys ics and Stuart D. Jordan, NASA astrophysicist U of Maryland as tron o my, Univ. of Tex as at Aus tin; No bel Sanal Edamaruku, president, Indian Rational- emeritus Jay M. Pasachoff, professor of astronomy lau re ate ist Association and Rationalist International and director of Hopkins Observatory, Barry Karr, executive director, Committee for E.O. Wil son, Univ. pro fes sor emer i tus, organis- Williams College Edzard Ernst, former professor of complemen- Skeptical Inquiry, Amherst, NY mic and evolutionary biology, Har vard Univ. tary medicine, University of Exeter John Pau los, math e ma ti cian, Tem ple Univ. Lawrence M. Krauss, foundation professor, Rich ard Wis e man, psy chol o gist, Univ. of Hert- Clifford A. Pickover, scientist, au thor, editor, Ken neth Fed er, pro fes sor of an thro pol o gy, School of Earth and Space Exploration and ford shire, England Cen tral Con nec ti cut State Univ. IBM T.J. Watson Re search Center. Physics Dept.; director, Origins Initiative, Benjamin Wolozin, professor, Department Krista Federspiel, science journalist, expert Arizona State Univ. Massimo Pigliucci, professor of philosophy, City Univ. of New York–Lehman College of Pharmacology, Boston Univ. School of on complementary and , Ed win C. Krupp, as tron o mer; di rector, Medicine Vienna, Austria. Grif fith Ob ser va to ry, Los Angeles, CA Stev en Pink er, cog ni tive sci en tist, Harvard Univ. *Mem ber, CSI Ex ec u tive Coun cil (Af fil i a tions giv en for iden ti fi ca tion on ly.)

The (ISSN 0194-6730) is published bi-monthly by Manuscripts, letters, books for review, and editorial inquiries should Subscriptions and changes of address should be addressed to: the Center for Inquiry in association with the Committee for Skeptical be sent to Kendrick Frazier, Editor, Skeptical Inquirer, EMAIL: kendrickfra- SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, P.O. Box 703, Amherst, NY 14226-0703 Or call Inquiry, P.O. Box 703, Amherst, NY 14226. Printed in U.S.A. Periodicals [email protected]. Mail: 944 Deer Drive NE, Albuquerque, NM 87122. toll-free 1-800-634-1610 (outside the U.S. call 716-636-1425). postage paid at Buffalo, NY, and at addition al mailing offices. Please consult our Guide for Authors for style, reference, and submittal Old address as well as new are necessary for change of address, Subscription prices: one year (six issues), $35; two years, $60; three instructions. It is on our website at www.csi cop.org/publications/guide. with six weeks advance notice. Skeptical Inquirer subscribers may not years, $84; single issue, $5.99. Canadian and foreign orders: Payment Articles, reports, reviews, and letters published in the SKEPTICAL speak on behalf of CSI or the Skeptical Inquirer. in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank must accompany orders; please add INQUIRER represent the views and work of individual authors. Their Postmaster: Send changes of address to Skeptical Inquirer, P.O. Box US$10 per year for shipping. Canadian and foreign customers are en publication does not necessarily constitute an endorsement by CSI or 703, Amherst, NY 14226-0703. couraged to use Visa or Master Card. its members unless so stated. Inquiries from the media and the public about the work of the Copyright ©2018 by the Center for Inquiry and the Committee for Committee should be made to Barry Karr, Executive Director, CSI, P.O. Skeptical Inquiry. All rights reserved. A PROGRAM OF Box 703, Amherst, NY 14226-0703. Tel.:716-636-1425. Fax: 716-636- 1733. Email: [email protected] Skepti­ ­cal In­quir­er July/August 2018| Vol. 42, No. 4

FEATURES COLUMNS 30 FROM THE EDITOR Myths Driving Wildlife Extinction...... 4 Wildlife Apocalypse: How Myths and Superstitions NEWS AND COM­MENT CBS Drops Skepticism in Sunday Morning Are Driving Animal Extinctions Demand for wildlife body parts for scientifically Paranormal Segment; CSI Issues Critical unproven medicinal remedies and paranormal Statement / FDA Has Duty to Crack Down trinkets is causing a worldwide crisis for many on Homeopathic Fake Medicine, Says endangered animal species, including rhinos Center for Inquiry / UFO over Arizona Likely and elephants. an IFO / Woomonger Radio Host Art Bell BOB LADENDORF AND Dies at Seventy-Two / Lies and False News BRETT LADENDORF Spread Faster, Farther Online Than Truth, Study Shows / ‘Alien’ Mummy Identified By DNA / Balles Critical Thinking Prize 40 Awarded to Authors of UFOs, Chemtrails, and Aliens...... 5 ASkepticism leading skeptic Reloaded addresses the essence of contemporary skepticism and highlights the vital IN­VES­TI­GA­TIVE FILES nonpartisan and science-based role of skeptics Secrets of ‘The Flying Friar’: Did St. in preventing deception and harm. Joseph of Copertino Really Levitate? JOE NICK­ELL...... 20 AMARDEO SARMA BEHAVIOR & 44 The Enduring Legend of the Changeling STUART VYSE...... 23 Lotus Birth KAVIN SENAPATHY SKEPTICAL INQUIREE The Phantom Menace of UFO Revelation 47 BENJAMIN RADFORD...... 28 Speed Reading: Fact or Fiction? WILLIAM VANDERLINDE NEW AND NOTABLE...... 60

50 LET­TERS TO THE ED­I­TOR...... 64 Skepticism and Literature in REVIEWS Nineteenth-Century Spain AZUCENA LÓPEZ MÁRQUEZ Tackling the Big Questions AND ANTONIO G. VALDECASAS HARRIET HALL ...... 59 Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for 53 the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia by Michael Shermer Dead Varmint Vision at Its Funniest An Alleged with Breasts A Monumental, but Flawed, Effort to in a Medieval Carving Understand Behavior PHILIP J. SENTER REYNOLD SPECTOR...... 61 Behave: The Biology of Humans SPECIAL REPORTS at Our Best and Worst 15 By Robert M. Sapolsky Gullible Reporting about ESP on CBS STEVEN NOVELLA RESEARCH REVIEW FOLLOW UP 17 12 56 CBS Sunday Morning Seers Don’t See So Well Cell Phone Radiation and Cancer Response to Ken Ham JOE NICKELL New NTP Results Inconsistent; and YouTube Comments 18 Random Chance Likely at Play by Andrew Snelling CHRISTOPHER LABOS LORENCE G. COLLINS The Anatomy and AND KENNETH R. FOSTER Pathology of Jihad VANNI CAPPELLI Committee for Skeptical Inquiry S kep­ti­cal In­quir­er™ “... promotes scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use THE MAGA­ ­ZINE FOR SCI­ENCE AND REA­SON of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims.” ED­I­TOR Kend­rick Fra­zi­er DEPUTY ED­I­TOR Ben­ja­min Rad­ford MAN­A­GING ED­I­TOR Julia Lavarnway [ FROM THE EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR Nicole Scott ART DI­RECT­OR Chri­sto­pher Fix

WEBMASTER Marc Kreidler Myths Driving Wildlife Extinction PUB­LISH­ER’S REP­RE­SENT­A­TIVE Bar­ry Karr

ED­I­TO­RI­AL BOARD James E. Al­cock, Harriet Hall, e were on a walking trek in wilderness Tanzania. Our guide, Ray Hy­man, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Elizabeth Loftus, Joe Nickell, Steven Novella, Am­ar­deo Sar­ma, Thad, had obtained a special license for us to trek and camp in Eugenie C. Scott, Karen Stollznow, David E. Thomas, a part of the eastern Serengeti miles from any road, far from the Leonard Tramiel

CON­SULT­ING ED­I­TORS Sus­an J. Black­more, areas most visitors see. Suddenly our tiny group came across a freshly abandoned W Ken­neth L. Fed­er, Barry Karr, E.C. Krupp, poachers camp. Thad, an American born in Tanzania and who has lived all his Jay M. Pasachoff, Rich­ard Wis­e­man life there, was furious. So was his assistant, a member of one of the local tribes. CON­TRIB­UT­ING ED­I­TORS Harriet Hall, Kenneth W. Krause, David Morrison, Massimo Pigliucci, They set about destroying the camp. They angrily tore it apart, while the rest of David E. Thomas, Stuart Vyse us nervously looked over our shoulders wondering if the poachers were watching Published in association with from the hills above. That was in 2009. Since then, as Bob Ladendorf and Brett Ladendorf report in this issue’s cover article “Wildlife Apocalypse,” poaching CHAIR Edward Tabash of big game in Africa has vastly accelerated. In 2005 sixty rhinos in Africa were PRESIDENT AND CEO Robyn E. Blumner killed for their horns or as trophies. Since then 7,000 more have been killed. CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Barry Karr COR­PO­RATE COUN­SEL Nicholas J. Little, The situation for elephants is even worse. Some 30,000 elephants are poached Brenton N. VerPloeg every year for their ivory. As one observer says, “Traders in ivory actually want BUSI­NESS MAN­A­GER Pa­tri­cia Beau­champ the extinction of elephants.” It pushes prices ever higher. FIS­CAL OF­FI­CER Paul Pau­lin It’s a sad and maddening tragedy happening right in front of us, and it is driv- SUBSCRIPTION DATA MANAGER Jacalyn Mohr en largely by myth and —the bogus idea prevalent in certain Asian COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Paul Fidalgo countries that rhino horns and elephant tusks have medicinal value as tonics, DI­RECT­OR OF LI­BRAR­IES Tim­o­thy S. Binga VICE PRESIDENT FOR PHILANTHROPY Martina Fern blood-purifiers, or aphrodisiacs. If you ever get asked, regarding superstitions DIRECTOR, COUNCIL FOR SECULAR HUMANISM and myths, “What is the harm?” you need only point to this extinction event Tom Flynn driven by mythology occurring right now. It is tragic. And heart-breaking. DIRECTOR, DIGITAL PRODUCT AND STRATEGIES Marc Kreidler We scientific skeptics continually debate issues of skepticism among our- DIRECTOR, CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMS selves. A lot of that self-scrutiny is going on right now, and it’s generally Debbie Goddard healthy. In this issue’s “Skepticism Reloaded,” a longtime member of our edi- DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT Stephanie Guttormson torial board and a leading figure in skepticism in Europe, Amardeo Sarma, asks DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR (and suggests some succinct answers to) the relevant questions: Why do we do Cody Hashman what we do? (“to seek a world where pseudoscientific claims do not deceive or DIRECTOR, TEACHER INSTITUTE FOR EVOLUTIONARY SCIENCE harm anyone”). What makes us different? (We take on issues others are silent Bertha Vazquez about; we focus on delusions, self-delusion, and wishful thinking that can lead BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Edward Tabash (chair), David Cowan, , Brian Engler, us astray; and we are truly nonpartisan and independent.) He argues that sci- Kendrick Frazier, Barry A. Kosmin, Y. Sherry Sheng, entific skepticism is central to everyone’s well being, whether they know it or Andy Thomson, Leonard Tramiel. Honorary: Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, not. He emphasizes skepticism’s global nature. In a section titled “Skeptics Are Susan Jacoby. Human” he calls for greater diversity and candidly discusses problems caused by improper behaviors. He talks about the need for more professionalism and better branding. He suggests future priorities. “We have a cause of utmost sig- nificance,” he writes. We must do as good as we possibly can. Claims about cell phones and cancer have emerged again with a report this year from the National Toxicology Program that seems to show a few troubling associations. In a Research Review in this issue, Christopher Labos, a cardiolo- gist and epidemiologist, and Kenneth R. Foster, a scientist who has extensively studied the interaction of nonionizing radiation and biological systems, provide a calm and scientifically reasoned assessment of those results. They find the var- ied results so inconsistent that random chance may be the most operative cause. —Kendrick Frazier

CFI Mission: The Center for Inquiry strives to foster a secular society based on reason, science, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Our Vision: A world where people value evidence and critical thinking, where superstition and prejudice subside, and where science and compassion guide public policy. Our Values: Integrity, Courage, Innovation, Empathy, Learning, and Wonder. [ NEWS AND COMMENT

CBS Drops Skepticism in Sunday Morning Paranormal Segment; CSI Issues Critical Statement

Kendrick Frazier

CBS is one of America’s premier tele- feats were real, and he initially fooled clip of Randi debunking him. No. The vision networks. It practically invented a lot of people, including some scien- most skeptical they got on Geller was television news. It was the home of tists. But that was back in the 1970s that he proved to be “unreliable” and Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. and early ’80s, and all that changed once that on The Tonight Show Starring And its ninety-minute Sunday morning his trickery was exposed and explained Johnny Carson he failed (but the video news and feature program, appropriately countless times. clip they showed was very short and titled Sunday Morning, is likewise well They showed him bending spoons unclear). regarded. It tends to emphasize cultural and divining the contents of sealed “Geller had caught the eye of the fare such as music, art, film, dance, and envelopes. It implied his abilities were intelligence community,” intoned the lifestyle trends, but whatever it takes on, genuine. I kept waiting for some video narrator with great seriousness. And you can expect it to do a fine job. That is until its program on March 18, 2018. Oh, it started out promising Statement by Committee for Skeptical Inquiry enough. That particular Sunday’s over- on the CBS Segment all theme was “Genius,” and there was Walter Isaacson talking about Leon- The segment on ESP and the paranormal on this week’s CBS Sunday Morning ardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Einstein, and nationally aired television show (March 18) was a regrettable lapse in the CBS network’s usually objective and reliable coverage. We call on CBS and the Sunday Morning show to take steps to correct the record and provide a more truthful and scientifically accurate view of the topic. The most skeptical they The segment provided a scientifically inaccurate and journalistically irresponsible got on Geller was that he treatment of the subject of alleged psychic powers. With only one too-brief excep- tion, the people who appeared on camera are strong proponents of the paranormal. proved to be “unreliable.” The segment’s few moments of skepticism were overwhelmed by anecdotes, claims, and assertions that portrayed psychics as genuine and paranormal powers as a likely reality, in contrast to the scientific evidence. In the context of the overall theme of this particular Sunday Morning show, “Genius,” the clear impression given was that some unusual people possess paranormal powers, a conclusion contrary to all other brilliant people he has chronicled reliable scientific evidence. in best-selling biographies. All good. This segment was remarkably uninformed by journalistic skepticism or by the Then came segment four. Its top- decades of reliable scientific studies that have failed to find evidence of paranormal ic—“ESP: Inside the Government’s Se- powers. It seemed almost a throwback to an earlier time before most responsible TV cret Program on Psychic Spies.” What? networks and news organizations learned to treat such topics with great caution and That subject might fit into a program to obtain and heed reliable scientific advice before airing such dubious claims. This on popular delusions. But in a program is very troubling in such a controversial area. We hope it is an anomaly. on the subject of genius? Are they im- The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a group made up of distinguished scientists plying that some people have extraor- (including three Nobel laureates), scholars, investigators, and science communi- dinary powers and that psychic claims cators that publishes the magazine Skeptical Inquirer and is part of the nonprofit are legitimate? I hoped not, but, sadly, Center for Inquiry, calls on CBS to take steps to correct the record. I was wrong. We ask the network and Sunday Morning to provide a more truthful and scien- They set the tone at the very begin- tifically rigorous view of this topic. Producers and reporters should become familiar ning. There was Uri Geller before the with the real scientific evidence and not allow paranormal proponents to use CBS’s camera, doing his “psychic” stuff. James great and well-deserved journalistic reputation to advance their agendas. Randi and countless others long ago —Issued by Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, March 19, 2018 exposed Geller as a clever but medio- (The statement is online at https://www.csicop.org/news/press_releases/ cre magician doing the kinds of things show/cbs_esp_paranormal.) magicians (or conjurors) have done for eons. But Geller of course claimed his

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 5 from then on we were in fantasy world. as a great success. (See Joe Nickell’s cri- of course.” Radin (essentially showing us This took them into remote viewing tique of that specific claim elsewhere in why CBS included this segment in an and Project Stargate and the secret this issue.) overall program on “Genius”): “What government-sponsored experiments in Then Radin, of the pro-paranormal we’re talking about is something like a the 1980s that Institute of Noetic Sciences, put CBS talent, similar to musical talent or sports psychologist Ray Hyman (a founding Sunday Morning correspondent Erin talent. So, there will be some people who member of our Executive Council) has Moriarty herself through an ESP test. are the Olympic levels; most of us aren’t thoroughly examined and critiqued. “This experiment is going to see if your there.” Here pro-paranormal journalist body responds before you see an emo- The segment ended, contrarily but Annie Jacobsen was their guide, plus tional picture as compared to before a honestly, with Jacobsen saying, “There is no proof. It does not pass scientific muster.” Yet the whole thrust of the seg- ment, the whole idea of its being part of an overall theme on “Genius,” was that such paranormal powers probably indeed do exist. The segment prompted the Commit- tee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), copub- lisher of the Skeptical Inquirer with the Center for Inquiry, to issue a state- ment the next day strongly criticizing that segment’s lack of journalistic and scientific care. See the text of the state- ment on page 5. Subjects such as these are notoriously difficult for most reporters and news Author Annie Jacobsen on CBS Sunday Morning. organizations to handle correctly. They are filled with pitfalls. Producers and Subjects such as these reporters, even good ones, who do not are notoriously difficult calm picture.” Hmmmm. That’s a le- make themselves fully aware of the long gitimate test for ESP? Radin seemed history of deceptions and delusions by for most reporters and to think so. They proceeded. Moriarty’s many paranormal claimants and of the news organizations to eyes supposedly reacted five seconds be- gullibility and desire to believe of other fore seeing the emotional picture. Radin well-meaning proponents, even some handle correctly. They are said with a straight face that she - researchers with credentials, can fall into filled with pitfalls. strated precognition. those pits of misinformation. Such sto- “Whoa, I sure didn’t see that com- ries require rigorous scientific thinking ing!” Moriarty exclaimed. “Which is why and lots of expert advice by scientifically I have my doubts.” But she was clearly trained and skeptically inclined experts. impressed. When the next day the Richard There were only a few other minor Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Sci- Dean Radin, identified not as a para- moments of skepticism. Midway through ence tweeted criticisms of the program, psychologist but as a “scientist.” Radin the segment, noted Caltech physicist Sean stimulated by CSI’s statement, reporter was on camera a lot. Jacobsen touted the Carroll was brought on. Asked if such a Moriarty did offer one tweet reply in her experiments in remote viewing of So- thing as ESP exists, he was allowed to say defense, but it was a weak one: “We re- viet military activities as a big success. on camera, “No, I think we know enough ported on government experiments with Of the secret research program, Radin about the brain to say, no, it really doesn’t the paranormal—supported by declassi- claimed bluntly: “It did work.” He of- work that way. We’d be able to test it, be fied Govt documents. We gave time to fered not a scintilla of scientific skepti- able to put a little receiver next to your both those involved and scientists.” cism toward it. head and pick up those signals if they And that leads us to emphasize again Then they brought on a psychic, were actually coming.” that just because some part of the gov- Angela Ford, promoting her claims of But those few seconds of skepticism ernment initiated a bizarre little research helping authorities find a fugitive. She were far outweighed by all the statements program at some point in the past, that is had said he was in a particular town in and imagery promoting paranormal not itself a validation of the claims it was Wyoming. When he was found a hun- powers. For instance, Angela Ford was studying. The whole point of research is dred miles from that town, it was touted asked if ESP exists: “Yes, it does. Yeah, to find out what is true. And the Star- 6 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT gate program, in contrast to Radin’s mal and only 3 percent skeptical. FDA Has Duty to Crack Down claim, had at best mixed results. It was As skeptic Jay Diamond sarcasti- on Homeopathic Fake Medi- shut down in 1995. Another point: all cally put it in response to my Facebook cine, Says Center for Inquiry such efforts tend to have a few strong post about it the evening it aired: proponents, often believers, within the agency pushing them strongly, and un- Seems quite balanced ... I mean The Food and Drug Administration they had Sean Carroll on for 5 less those people are counterbalanced (FDA) must take a much firmer stance by good outside scientists and skeptics, seconds saying it was nonsense, then 6 minutes of [others] making on the manufacturing and marketing the outcome can be misleading. Also, extraordinary, unsubstantiated of homeopathic health products, said just because a program is, or was, la- but science-sounding claims. the Center for Inquiry (CFI) in com- beled “secret” doesn’t necessarily make Now THAT’S good journalism! ments submitted to the FDA March it any more valid. Reporting on “secret” 26, urging the agency to take seriously programs appeals to the news media, PLUS - we discovered that reporter its duty to inform and protect American but the Skeptical Inquirer had been Erin Moriarty has psychic abilities! consumers from wasteful and danger- writing about and publishing critiques Wow - no psychics saw THAT ous fake medicine. CFI called for the of Stargate since at least the early coming! agency to expand the scope of its Draft 1990s. It isn’t exactly news in 2018. Guidance for Drug Products Labeled as Two other posts said simply, “It was 1 As for Moriarty’s assertion that the Homeopathic to fulfill its responsibil- segment was balanced, the Center for infuriating” and “I was mortified.” ity to the American people and ensure Inquiry’s Stephanie Guttormson timed Skeptic Steven Novella blogged the that these pseudoscientific products are a videotape of the segment and found next day about the segment, and the properly tested and labeled. it more than 97 percent pro-paranor- text of that appears on page 15. “Homeopathy is a sham. About this, there is no doubt whatsoever. Every piece of credible scientific research has Further Background on These Psychic Claims demonstrated that it has no effect of any Ray Hyman, “The Evidence for Psychic Functioning: Claims vs. Reality.” Skeptical Inquirer, March/April kind other than as a placebo,” said Nick 1996. It’s available on our website at https://www.csicop.org/si/show/evidence_for_psychic_func- Little, CFI’s vice president and general tioning_claims_vs._reality. counsel. “Nonetheless, this modern-day Hyman’s opening: snake oil exists in a shadow legal sta- The recent media frenzy over the Stargate report violated the truth. Sober scientific assessment has little tus, where it can be sold without being hope of winning in the public forum when pitted against unsubstantiated and unchallenged claims of subject to the same testing and labeling “psychics” and psychic researchers—especially when the claimants shamelessly indulge in hyperbole. While this situation may be depressing, it is not unexpected. The proponents of the paranormal have seized an requirements that real, science-based opportunity to achieve by propaganda what they have failed to achieve through science. medicine must follow. It is a recipe for CSI Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell, in “Mind Over Metal” (Skeptical Inquirer, July/August 2013), waste, fraud, and tragedy.” offered a good summary about metal-bending claims, starting with Uri Geller and how they’ve been The FDA’s draft guidelines suggested shown to be simple tricks. It is online at https://www.csicop.org/si/show/mind_over_metal. a risk-based approach, focusing on the In “Remotely Viewed? The Charlie Jordan Case,” in Skeptical Briefs back in 2001, Joe Nickell regulation of homeopathic products provided his review and evaluation of the Stargate program and his critique of the claims that a when the ingredients or method of ad- psychic found a fugitive in Lovell, Wyoming. It’s online on our website at https://www.csicop.org/ sb/show/remotely_viewed_the_charlie_jordan_case. ministration pose particular dangers, the Nickell’s conclusion: condition it claims to treat is particularly serious, the target population is particu- In summary, the Charlie Jordan case, touted as one of the most successful examples of remote viewing in the U.S. government’s psychic-spying project, is not convincing evidence of anything—save perhaps folly. Not larly vulnerable (such as children or the only was the case actually an example of alleged spirit contact rather than extrasensory perception but it elderly), or when the product is revealed also illustrates the limitations of anecdotal evidence: conflicting versions, selective reporting, and lack of to be tainted. However, the draft also documentation, together with additional manifestations of faulty memory, bias, and other human foibles. recommended the withdrawal of the ex- A critique of Dean Radin’s book Supernormal appeared in the January/February 2014 Skeptical isting Compliance Policy Guide regard- Inquirer, “When Big Evidence Isn’t: The Statistical Pitfalls of Dean Radin’s Supernormal.” It is online at ing homeopathy. https://www.csicop.org/si/show/when_big_evidence_isnt_the_statistical_pitfalls_of_dean_radins_su- pernormal. In its comments, CFI drew the FDA’s Ray Hyman’s article “Anomalous Cognition? A Second Perspective” appeared in the July/August 2008 attention to the absence of evidence for Skeptical Inquirer and is online at https://www.csicop.org/si/show/anomalous_cognition_a_second_ the efficacy of homeopathic products perspective. and the absurdity of the claims made as James Alcock’s critique of the book Extrasensory Perception appeared in the Skeptical Inquirer, July/ to the nature of homeopathy. For exam- August 2016. It’s online at https://www.csicop.org/si/show/heavy_with_praise_light_with_skepticism. Also relevant: Psi Wars: Getting to Grips with the Paranormal, edited by James Alcock, Jean Burns, ple, homeopaths maintain their products and Anthony Freeman, Imprint Academic, Exeter, UK, 2003, and Alcock’s brand new book Belief, Pro- become stronger the more diluted they metheus Books, 2018. are. The homeopathic product Oscillo- coccinum, marketed to reduce the dura-

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 7 tion and severity of flu symptoms, con- UFO over Arizona Likely an IFO tains the heart and liver of the Muscovy Joe Nickell duck, diluted to a level of 200C, leaving one part of alleged active ingredient 400 In March 2018, a month after the fact, edge of the sky. Using several online to every 10 parts of water. For ref- the FAA released a radio broadcast of sources, I researched the case, antic- erence, current estimates suggest that 82 what CBS News called an “out-of- the known universe contains up to 10 ipating some of the information he this-world incident.” Actually, the atoms. would want. UFO, seen by two separate civil avi- “We enthusiastically support the The sightings occurred near the ation pilots flying over Arizona, has FDA coming down hard on home- Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (Tuc- a very, very likely real-world expla- opathy where the products are tainted son) at about 3:30 pm local time on nation. or sold as miracle cures for fatal dis- February 24. The object was reported The object was first reported by the eases,” said Little. “But that’s not nearly flying in the opposite direction to the enough. Americans waste billions of pilot of a Learjet operated by Phoenix planes, but that would also appear to dollars every year on homeopathic sugar Air, who contacted air traffic control be the case if the object was relatively pills. The FDA has a duty not just to to ask, “Was anybody, uh, above us stationary. In fact, neither pilot could those poisoned by homeopathy, but also that passed us like thirty seconds ago?” be sure of the object’s actual motion The object was verified by a second to those fleeced of their hard earned or lack thereof. The Learjet pilot did pilot, from American Airlines Flight dollars.” insist, “It wasn’t an airplane.” 1095, after being queried by the con- In its comments, CFI drew troller: “Yeah, something just passed the FDA’s attention to the us. I don’t know what it was, but it was at least two, three thousand feet above absence of evidence for the us.” The controller could not verify McGaha pointed out that efficacy of homeopathic that any other aircraft was present at whenever a very bright products. that location. He joked to the Lear- light source is seen during jet pilot, “Maybe a UFO,” provoking a laugh. The American Airlines pilot the daytime, it is most said he could not identify the object likely a reflection of CFI requested that the FDA use its but that it was traveling in the op- sunlight off an object. existing power to ensure homeopathic posite direction and was extremely products are required to pass the same bright. He was asked if it might have safety and efficacy tests applied to been “a Google balloon” (one of a net- non-homeopathic drugs. Alternatively, work of balloons about eleven miles CFI asked that at the very least the above Earth intended to provide in- FDA mandate that homeopathic prod- ternet access to rural areas). He re- McGaha pointed out that when- ucts carry labels indicating they have plied, “Doubtful.” Not long after the ever a very bright light source is seen not been evaluated for safety or effec- incident, Bob Tracey of Phoenix Air during the daytime, it is most likely Group spoke with the Learjet captain tiveness by the FDA and list in plain a reflection of sunlight off an ob- who told him he had been flying at English the claimed active ingredient in ject. Given the time and place of the approximately 37,000 feet and that the product and its quantity. sighting, and therefore the angle and “Consumers have a right to the the unidentified object was several azimuth of the sun, he says, the Ari- truth about the medical products they thousand feet above. “The glare was zona UFO is fully consistent with this purchase,” said Little. “Homeopathic so intense,” said Tracey, “they couldn’t scenario: a reflective, slowly drifting manufacturers should not be allowed to make it out.” The American Airlines object at high altitude, very brightly hide behind archaic ingredient names 1095 pilot confirmed the effect, stat- and mystifying measurement systems ing, “Couldn’t make it out whether it lit by the sun. on their labeling. That’s why CFI has was a balloon or whatnot. But it was Given these findings, McGaha already filed a complaint with the Dis- just beaming light, or could have had says, together with the corroborative trict of Columbia Attorney General’s a big reflection.” evidence provided by the two pilots, office regarding the marketing of ho- I contacted my friend and col- the mystery object can be identified meopathic products.” league Major James McGaha, USAF as very likely some type of balloon— retired, a Committee for Skeptical such as a high-altitude research bal- Inquiry scientific and technical con- loon—inadvertently, in this instance, Note sultant. A former Special Operations doubling as a UFO. 1. https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/ pilot, as well as an astronomer (he is For references, please see http:// GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/ www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/ Guidances/UCM589373.pdf. director of Arizona’s Grasslands Ob- servatory), he has a unique knowl- entry/ufo_over_arizona_likely_ifo/.

8 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT

Woomonger Radio Host Art Bell Dies at Seventy-Two Lies and False News Spread Faster, Farther Online Than BENJAMIN RADFORD Truth, Study Shows

Kendrick Frazier Longtime radio talk show host and paranormal promoter Art Bell died on April 13, 2018, at the age of seventy-two at his home in Pahrump, Nevada. “A lie can travel half way around the world while Bell achieved national prominence for Coast to Coast, a five-hour overnight the truth is putting on its shoes.” —Charles Spurgeon show devoted to conspiracy theories, UFOs, and all manner of the paranor- mal. Much of the show was devoted to unscreened (and often unhinged) Those may be the words of a nine- listeners calling in with their personal stories of seemingly unexplainable teenth-century English Baptist preacher, and sinister phenomena. Coast to Coast was broadcast from 1989 to but scientific skeptics also know that no 2003; at its peak in the 1990s, the show reached as many as 10 million debunking of a bizarre claim can ever catch listeners a week. up with the original story. And that’s now especially so in our age of social media. Much of Coast to Coast was devoted to unscreened (and Scientists from MIT’s Media Lab have often unhinged) listeners calling in with their personal stories documented and quantified this sad truth of seemingly unexplainable and sinister phenomena. about the truth in an intriguing new study of the spread of true and false news online. The researchers, Soroush Vosoughi, Deb Roy, and Sinan Aral, investigated the dif- In (dis)honor of Bell’s position as a perennial promoter of paranormal ferential diffusion of all the verified true pabulum, he received CSICOP (now the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry)’s and false news stories distributed on Twit- Snuffed Candle Award in 1998 for his track record of “encouraging credulity, ter from 2006 to 2017. Altogether they an- presenting pseudoscience as genuine, and contributing to the public’s lack alyzed the dissemination of 126,000 stories of understanding of the methods of scientific inquiry.” (Bell accepted the tweeted by around 3 million people more award in good humor, mindful that any attention is good attention.) than 4.5 million times. Their study is pub- Bell may be most notorious among skeptics for his role in the death of lished in the March 9 Science. thirty-nine members of the Heaven’s Gate UFO in 1997. As Tom Genoni MIT’s institutional review board ap- wrote in his article “Art Bell, Heaven’s Gate, and Journalistic Integrity” (SI, proved the research, and funded it July/August 1997): and provided access to the data. Following the Heaven’s Gate suicides, the public learned that news of a “com- The researchers classified the news as ei- panion UFO” trailing Hale-Bopp—a rumor spread predominately by ther true or false using information from six late-night talk radio host Art Bell—may well have contributed to cult members taking their lives in an attempt to “graduate,” as their Web site described it, to independent fact-gathering organizations a “higher level” and leave Earth in a . ... that exhibited 95 to 98 percent agreement Theories about a strange object near Hale-Bopp were first made public on the classifications. They used a broad in November of 1996 when Chuck Shramek, an amateur astronomer from definition of news. Instead of a more source- Houston, called Art Bell’s program to report that a photograph of his appeared based description, they refer to any asserted to show a large object behind the comet, an object he speculated to be up to four times the size of Earth. The following night, Courtney Brown, a tenured claim made on Twitter as news. professor of political science at Emory University and director of the Farsight The result? Falsehood won. Overwhelm- Institute in Atlanta, was a guest on Bell’s show and claimed that three “remote ingly so. Totally. Without question. “False- viewers” associated with his institute had confirmed Shramek’s findings and, hood diffused significantly farther, faster, incredibly, had determined it to be a metallic object full of aliens ... . deeper, and more broadly than the truth in The cult’s Internet link to the Art Bell homepage indicates it’s likely they first heard about an approaching spaceship during Bell’s two-month-long all categories of information,” they report. UFO escapade. They found that a significantly greater But whatever the Heaven’s Gate cult members or anyone else may have fraction of false cascades of tweets than done with the information presented on his radio show, Bell feels that is not true cases exceeded a depth of ten—mean- his responsibility. “I’m not going to stop presenting my material because ing there were ten retweet hops by new there are unstable people,” he insists. “That’s what the First Amendment is all about.” unique users from the original tweet over time. Also, “The top 0.01 percent of false Whether Bell believed the stories he helped popularize is unclear, but cascades diffused eight hops deeper into his influence on American popular culture is undeniable, and his legacy of the Twittersphere than the truth.” broadcasting anecdotes and evidence-free conspiracy theories lives on in Falsehoods also reached far more media personalities such as Alex Jones. people than the truth. The truth rarely diffused to more than 1,000 people, but the top 1 percent of false-news cascades

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 9 routinely diffused to between 1,000 and ‘Alien’ Mummy Identified By DNA 100,000 people. At every depth of a cascade of tweets, falsehood reached more people. Benjamin Radford This means, say the authors, “that many more people retweeted falsehood than they The mystery of Ata the mini-mummy about 40 years ago. He points did the truth.” began when seemingly humanoid to the way she was carefully laid Truth took six times as long as falsehood remains were found in 2003. The flat on the ground, wrapped in a leather pouch. (https://tinyurl. to reach 1,500 people and twenty times as figure, a mere six inches tall with an com/y9keyuol) long as falsehood to reach a cascade depth oddly conical skull and enlarged eye of ten. sockets, was found in the small town The article, “Whole-Genome The worst type of offender? Political of La Noria, 450 miles north of Chile’s Sequencing of Atacama Skeleton news. “False political news spread faster Atacama Desert. Like many such arti- Shows Novel Mutations Linked and farther than false news about terrorism, facts, it was sold—its provenance and with Dysplasia,” was published in the natural disasters, science, or urban legends,” therefore legality is murky—eventu- March 2018 edition of the journal they report. The total number of false polit- ally coming to the attention of UFO Genome Research. The abstract notes: ical rumors peaked at the end of both 2013 enthusiast Steven Greer (founder of The Ata specimen carried a and 2015 and again at the end of 2016, the UFO Disclosure Project) in 2012. strange phenotype—6-in stature, corresponding to the last U.S. presidential Greer claimed the figure was extrater- fewer than expected ribs, elon- election. There were also peaks during the restrial. An initial analysis answered gated cranium, and accelerated bone age—leading to specula- Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. Pol- one question but raised others; it was itics became the largest rumor category in tion that this was a preserved not ancient—as had been assumed— nonhuman primate, human fetus their data, with about 45,000 cascades, fol- but instead less than fifty years old. harboring genetic mutations, lowed by urban legends, business, terrorism, But was it human? or even an extraterrestrial. We science, entertainment, and natural disasters. previously reported that it was Why all this? What gives false news so human by DNA analysis with much power? They point to its novel char- an estimated bone age of about 6–8 yr at the time of demise. To acter. “We found that false news was more determine the possible genetic novel than true news, which suggests that drivers of the observed morphol- people were more likely to share novel in- ogy, DNA from the specimen formation.” True stories may have inspired was subjected to whole-genome anticipation, sadness, joy, and trust, but the sequencing using the Illumina false news inspired “fear, disgust, and sur- HiSeq platform with an average 11.5× coverage of 101-bp, paired- prise in their replies.” Those reactions ap- Benjamin Radford examines the “Starchild end reads … . Ata is a female of parently prompt more sharing. Skull” at the Roswell UFO festival. human origin, likely of Chilean The authors carried out a number of tests descent, and its genome harbors of novelty that support their conclusion. “Al- mutations in genes … previously linked with diseases of small stat- though we cannot claim that novelty causes Gary Nolan, professor of micro- retweets or that novelty is the only reason ure, rib anomalies, cranial malfor- biology and immunology at Stanford mations, premature joint fusion, why false news is retweeted more often, we University, recently examined the curi- and osteochondrodysplasia (also do find that false news is more novel and osity. As National Geographic reported: known as skeletal dysplasia). that novel information is more likely to be retweeted” (p. 1149). Nolan worked with genetic Ata shows a number of rare mu- researchers at Stanford and with What about automated bots? “We con- tations, and researchers suggest that computational biologist Atul the cause of the deformities might be clude that human behavior contributes more Butte’s team at the University to the differential spread of falsity and truth of California, San Francisco to exposure to nitrates, which are un- than automated robots do,” say the authors. analyze Ata’s genome. According usually high in the region because La Understanding how false news spreads is to their new study, mutations are Noria is a former mining town. the first step toward containing it, they note. present in seven of Ata’s genes Long-dead bodies with deformed that are all involved in human skulls have previously been mistaken “We hope our work inspires more large- growth. Nolan now thinks that scale research into the causes and conse- this combination of muta- for extraterrestrials, but there is noth- quences of the spread of false news as well tions caused Ata’s severe skele- ing unusual about finding deformed as its potential cures.” tal abnormalities, including her skulls in the Americas; archaeolo- unusually rapid bone growth. gists have found them for years. Cra- Further Reading He says that Ata is most likely nial deformation is a widely known See also the Policy Forum “The Science of Fake a human fetus who was either News,” by David Lazer and fifteen other researchers stillborn or died soon after birth. practice, and in 2012 archaeologists in the same issue of Science. ... Nolan thinks that someone in Mexico found a burial ground of cared for Ata when she died twenty-five skeletons; of those, more

10 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT than half showed intentional skull defor- where the lack of moisture inhibits de- offspring of an extraterrestrial male and a mation. In 2015, a pair of mummified cay-causing bacteria). Adult mummies human female. Scientists, however, were cats found in Chile was mistaken for the are strange enough, but baby mummies skeptical; two sets of DNA tests (one in chupacabra. The felines had dispropor- are even rarer and stranger looking. Be- 1999 and another in 2003) confirmed tionately large heads compared to the cause babies have disproportionally large that the skull was in fact human: a Na- rest of their bodies and were likely kit- heads compared to the rest of their bod- tive American or Mesoamerican male tens. Part of the reason that these objects ies, their desiccated remains seem all the child who likely suffered from hydro- seem so bizarre and mysterious is that more inhuman. cephalus, a condition that leads to skull very few people outside of the fields of Archaeologists digging near Mexico’s elongation and deformation. archaeology and anthropology are famil- Sonora desert have discovered what ap- A common theme pervades mys- iar with the process and appearance of pears to be the burial ground of an early tery-mongering circles: anything not mummification. Mesoamerican society, including signs of immediately explainable or obvious is For most people, the word mummy deformed skulls. Deformed skulls found interpreted as a baffling mystery, often evokes bandaged, slow-moving monsters in Mexico have been offered as evidence from ancient Egypt. We typically think for ancient extraterrestrial visitation. A with paranormal connotations. Thus, of bodies being reduced to a skeleton not child’s deformed skull—later dubbed a strange object in the sky becomes a long after death, but in fact bodies may the “Starchild skull”—was found in the flying saucer; a mangy dead coyote be- be preserved for centuries or millennia, early 1930s in the arid region around comes a chupacabra; and a deformed either through intentional preservation Chihuahua. It was later sold to a UFO fetus becomes an alien hybrid. Science (such as mummification) or because the researcher who exhibited the artifact at fiction speculation is fun but should not environment where a person died helps UFO and paranormal-themed confer- eclipse the real science and significance preserve the bodies (for example high in ences for many years, claiming that it is of these stories; truth is often stranger— the cold Andes mountains or in deserts too unusual to be fully human and is the and more interesting—than fiction. •

Balles Critical Thinking Prize Awarded to Authors of UFOs, Chemtrails, and Aliens

With their book UFOs, Chemtrails, and Aliens, Donald R. Prothero face, but that’s almost never enough to change someone’s mind,” and Tim Callahan not only refute false claims and misguided said Barry Karr, executive director of the Committee for Skeptical beliefs about supposed encounters with the extraterrestrial and Inquiry. “What Prothero and Callahan show so clearly in this book paranormal, but more importantly they also arm readers with the is that we can inoculate ourselves from falling for hoaxes and tools they will need to fairly evaluate any extraordinary claim they submitting to fear and wishful thinking by learning the skills of come across. It is for this achievement—an accessible, enrich- critical thinking—by thinking like a scientist.” ing, and genuinely fun introduction to scientific skepticism—that And thinking like a scientist doesn’t require any advanced Prothero and Callahan are awarded the 2017 Robert P. Balles degrees or laboratory work. “What makes someone a scientist is Annual Prize in Critical Thinking by the Committee for Skeptical not a white coat or lab equipment,” write Prothero and Callahan, Inquiry. “but rather how he or she asks questions about nature and what UFOs, Chemtrails, and Aliens collects several notable in- thought processes he or she employs to solve problems.” stances of alleged alien contact, evidence of extraterrestrial The Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in Critical Thinking is be- spacecraft, and the shadowy means by which these events have stowed by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, publisher of Skep- been covered up. Prothero, a geologist and paleontologist, and tical Inquirer magazine and a program of the Center for Inquiry. Callahan, an artist and animator, unpack the elements of each Prothero and Callahan will receive the prize at the CSICon con- case. With an approach that is conversational and sympathetic vention taking place October 18–21, 2018, in Las Vegas, which to the believer, the authors show why the evidence is never suffi- will also feature speakers such as , Steven Pinker, ciently extraordinary to justify the extraordinary claim. , Richard Dawkins, and many more. See CSIConfer- “Critical thinking and science have proven to be the most ence.org for more information. consistent and effective methods of distinguishing reality from The Balles Prize is a $2,500 award given to the creator of the illusion,” write the authors, who go on to show how several fac- published work that best exemplifies healthy skepticism, logical tors, including our often-deceptive senses and a sensationalistic analysis, or empirical science. The prize was established by Rob- culture, make us so susceptible to believe in that which is de- ert P. Balles, a practicing Christian, along with the Robert P. Balles monstrably false. Endowed Memorial Fund, a permanent endowment fund for the “As skeptics and science advocates, we can attempt to de- benefit of CSI. The winner of the 2016 Balles Prize was Maria bunk outrageous and extraordinary claims until we’re blue in the Konnikova for her book The Confidence Game.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 11 [RESEARCH REVIEW

Cell Phone Radiation and Cancer New NTP Results Inconsistent; Random Chance Likely at Play

CHRISTOPHER LABOS AND KENNETH R. FOSTER

he issue of cell phones and as showing “some evidence.” (These there could be a difference in biological cancer is in the news again reports are all online at the NTP web- effects, though there is no credible rea- since the National Toxicology site at ntp.niehs.nih.gov.) son to expect any such differences. ProgramT (NTP) study has released Keeping track of this evolving ev- The rats and mice being studied had its results. Keeping track of the NTP idence base can be confusing, and the their entire bodies exposed to RFR for results can be difficult. In 2016, they NTP will issue a final report sometime nine hours every day for two years. The released the partial findings of their this fall. But it’s worth examining why exposure also started in utero, not at study (Report of Partial Findings different people can come to such dif- birth. The whole-body exposure levels 2016), which showed an association ferent conclusions about the study’s were far above the whole-body exposure between cell phones and two types of findings. limits for humans but were comparable cancer (cardiac schwannomas and brain The NTP study was designed to ex- to exposure limits set for very small re- gliomas). The full data was released in pose rats and mice to different levels of gions of the body near a cell phone an- February 2018 (Wyde et al. 2018), and radio frequency radiation (RFR). One tenna. Consequently, the animals were while the cardiac schwannoma associ- group was a control group and three being exposed to RFR in a way that is ation remained statistically significant, other groups were exposed to 1.5W/ very inconsistent with the actual expo- the brain glioma association was seen kg, 3W/kg, and 6W/kg of RFR. Re- sure to a human user of a cell phone, as more equivocal. Then in March, searchers also tested two forms of sig- both in the particulars of exposure and duration of exposure. Notwithstanding these limitations, it is worth looking at Keeping track of this evolving evidence base can be what the data actually demonstrated. The association between malignant confusing. But it’s worth examining why different gliomas and cell phones has been of pri- people can come to such different conclusions mary interest, and it’s the one conclu- sion that has been subject to the most about the study’s findings. revisions. The idea that cell phones may cause brain cancer is not a new concern. The INTERPHONE series of stud- the NTP study results went through nal modulation, reflecting two major ies (interphone.iarc.fr) is often cited as peer review where an eleven-member access employed by cellu- supportive evidence for this association panel reviewed and voted on whether lar telephones: Code Division Multiple even though the actual conclusions of to accept or modify the study’s rec- Access (CDMA) and Global System the study were that “no increase in risk ommendations. The peer review panel for Mobiles (GSM). Both technologies of glioma or meningioma was observed (Actions from Peer Review 2018) transmit data in the form of modulated with use of mobile phones.” There was voted to label the cell phone cardiac signals, but GSM is much less uniform one statistically significant association schwannoma association as demon- in its power output than CDMA. Even though. Those who used their cell- strating “clear evidence” of carcino- though the average exposure level over phones most (defined here as the top genicity and the glioma association time may be the same, hypothetically 10 percent of users) seemed to have an

12 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer increased risk of glioma. But the authors in that the association was seen for both to RFR. These data are hard to recon- noted that there were “implausible val- forms of signal modulation, CDMA cile with the NTP. First, they used ex- ues of reported use in this group” and and GSM. But again, the results were posures about 1,000 times lower than that bias and error in the measurement seen only with male rats and not fe- in the NTP study, which would argue prevented a causal interpretation. Ac- male rats, male mice, or female mice. against a dose-response effect where curately measuring RFR exposure over Schwannomas are tumors arising from more RFR is worse. While dose-re- years is extremely difficult. The combi- Schwann cells that produce the my- sponse effects are not mandatory in sci- nation of weak (and generally negative) elin sheath around peripheral nerves. ence, it is difficult to understand how results, coupled with the difficulty of Schwannomas are interesting because low and higher doses of RFR could be accurately measuring exposure, has led they are histologically similar to acoustic equally dangerous. The Ramazzini also health agencies to consider this evidence neuromas. Some studies have suggested diverges from the NTP in another way: unpersuasive one way or the other. a link between acoustic neuromas and the cardiac schwannoma association was Therefore, the results of the NTP cell phones (Hardell et al. 2013); other only seen in male rats and not female were particularly eagerly anticipated. studies do not (Pettersson et al. 2014). ones, which makes these results far less The NTP study did show an associa- Again, the results are fragile, and the consistent than has been reported in the tion between RFR and gliomas. How- evidence base is somewhat inconsistent. media. Finally, the Ramazzini found no ever, the association was seen only in Thus, any evidence linking RFR to evidence that RFR was linked to neo- rats and not in mice. Also it was seen cardiac schwannomas would seem to plastic lesions of the brain. They claim only in male rats and not female rats. Finally, it was seen with CDMA signal The rats and mice being studied had their entire modulation but not the GSM signal bodies exposed to radio frequency radiation for nine modulation. There are some important limita- hours every day for two years. The animals were being tions to this analysis. Notwithstanding exposed to RFR in a way that is very inconsistent with the obvious issue that animal studies do not necessarily translate to humans, it the actual exposure to a human user of a cell phone. is hard to understand why the associa- tion would only be true in male rats and why it would only be true with one type be possibly supportive of this link given that there was a nonsignificant trend, of signal modulation. It is also worth the similarity of the tumor types. How- but this occurred in female rats as op- noting there were very few cases of ma- ever, it is worth remembering that the posed to the male rats that were seen in lignant gliomas in these animals. For rats had their whole bodies irradiated NTP. All we can say for sure is that the the animals exposed to CDMA RFR, with RFR, and it is not immediately NTP and Ramazzini studies are not en- only the male rats showed an increase obvious why schwannomas would pref- tirely supportive of each other nor have in gliomas—not the female rats or mice erentially appear in the heart. In fact, they “settled” matters. of either sex. The male rats exposed to they could have (and did) appear in any Given that the results are not con- CDMA RFR at 6W/kg had three ma- organ. Consequently, when you look at sistent across or even within species, lignant gliomas, compared to none for all schwannomas, not just the cardiac one must ask whether the results of those exposed to 3W/kg, 1.5W/kg, or schwannomas, there does not appear the NTP could be due to chance alone. unexposed controls. For GSM RFR the to be a significant relationship to RFR. Given the small number of tumors that 1.5W/kg, 3W/kg, and 6W/kg groups Therefore, for the schwannoma analy- occurred in each group, random chance developed three, three, and two glio- sis to be positive you have to ignore the could have a significant role in these mas, respectively. Given the very small whole-body results and focus only on findings. We often fail to appreciate just numbers, it becomes important to con- the cardiac findings. how important random chance can be sider the possibility of random chance. Reconciling the disparate data has in statistical analyses. The ISIS-2 study A scientist would consider these results been made harder by the just-released offers up a perfect example (ISIS 1988). to be very fragile—if one animal in the study from the Ramazzini Institute in The ISIS-2 study demonstrated that control group had developed glioma Bologna (Falcioni et al. 2018), which giving aspirin to patients after a heart (which is consistent with historical data was rushed to publication after the attack improved outcomes. However, for that species), the association would NTP results were made public. This even though the study was overall pos- disappear statistically. paper presented the results of a long- itive, one subgroup of patients showed When it comes to cardiac schwan- term rat study that suggests an increase no benefit. That subgroup was patients nomas, the results are more consistent in heart schwannomas in rats exposed born under the zodiac signs of Gemini

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 13 References and Libra. In fact, the authors of the with no single hypothesis that is being ISIS-2 study purposely highlighted this tested, and it would not be surprising if Actions from Peer Review of the Draft rather ludicrous and totally spurious sta- the increase in heart schwannomas were NTP Technical Reports on Cell Phone just a random event. Radiofrequency Radiation. 2018. Available tistical finding to demonstrate that “all online at https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ these subgroup analyses should be taken There are statistical ways to deal ntp/about_ntp/trpanel/2018/march/ less as evidence about who benefits than with this type of multiple hypothesis actions20180328_508.pdf. as evidence that such analyses are po- testing. The Bonferroni correction is Falcioni, L. et al. 2018. Report of final results tentially misleading.” one technique that is sometimes used, regarding brain and heart tumors in Sprague- Dawley rats… . Environmental Research In the NTP study we have a simi- and it basically amounts to using smaller (March 7). Available online at https://www. lar problem. Remember that there were p-value cut-offs the more tests you run. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/29530389/. four groups of animals, which were You basically divide 0.05 by the number Hardell, L. et al. 2013. Pooled analysis of tested against two types of signal mod- of tests you intend to run. So if you per- case-control studies on acoustic neuroma form two tests, then you should use a diagnosed 1997–2003 and 2007–2009 ulation and evaluated for many different and use of mobile and cordless phones. types of cancer including heart, brain, threshold of 0.05/2 or 0.025. If you run International Journal of Oncology 43(4): 1036– 44. Available online at https://ntp.niehs. nih.gov/ntp/about_ntp/trpanel/2018/march/ actions20180328_508.pdf. All we can say for sure is that the NTP and Ramazzini ISIS. 1988. Randomised trial of intravenous streptokinase, oral aspirin or both…. Lancet studies are not entirely supportive of each other nor 332: 3490360 (August 13). Available online at http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lan- have they “settled” matters. cet/article/PIIS0140-6736(88)92833-4/ abstract. Petterson, D. et al. 2014. Long-term mobile phone use and acoustic neuroma risk. Epidemiology 25(2): 233–41 (March). pituitary, adrenal, liver, prostate, kidney, ten tests, then your threshold should be Available online at https://www.ncbi.nlm. pancreas, mammary gland, and thymus 0.005, and so on. The NTP study did nih.gov/pubmed/24434752. not adjust for multiple testing. Report of Partial Findings from the National cancer among others. Thus, you have Toxicology Program Carcinogenesis Studies dozens of statistical analyses being run The inherent weakness of the NTP of Cell Phone Radiofrequency Radiation… . across all these many subgroups. The results is their lack of consistency. We 2016. Available online at https://www.biorxiv. NTP study was an exhaustive analysis, see a signal for harm in rats but not org/content/biorxiv/early/2016/05/26/055699. mice. We see a signal for harm in male full.pdf. but that thoroughness and the multi- Wyde, Michael E., et al. 2018. Effect of cell plicity of tests that were run means that rats but not female rats. We see a sig- phone radiofrequency radiation on body you must expect some false positive re- nal for schwannomas in the heart but temperature in rodents. Available online at sults due simply to chance. not the rest of the body. Finally, the https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/about_ntp/ Most statistical tests are based on rats exposed to RFR actually lived lon- trpanel/2018/march/wyde.pdf. Christopher Labos is a cardiologist with a the assumption that you have a 5 per- ger on average than the controls. So do degree in epidemiology. He writes regularly cent false positive rate, represented by cell phones cause cancer while simul- for the Montreal Gazette and cohosts a pod- 1 - 0.95 = 0.05, or 5 percent. However, taneously extending survival? It is not cast called the Body of Evidence. if you do two analyses the chance of impossible that there is some yet to be at least one false positive is 1 - 0.952 = fully understood mechanism at play, but Kenneth R. Foster received his PhD in 1971. 0.0975, or 9.75 percent. Do five analyses at this point random chance seems far Since then he has been engaged in studies • and the chance of at least one false posi- more likely. on the interaction of nonionizing radiation tive is 1 - 0.955 = 0.23, or 23 percent. Do and biological systems, with more than 160 thirty analyses and the chance of at least papers in peer-reviewed journals on topics Note one false positive is 1 - 0.9530 = 0.79, or including biophysical mechanisms of inter- The NTP study is a good case history of 79 percent. action, exposure assessment of RF fields in the problems of data dredging. For more on the environment, and medical applications Therefore, the more tests you run in this, see Kenneth R. Foster and Joseph Skufca, of RF fields. In addition, he has written your study, the more likely that you will “The Problem of False Discovery,” IEEE Pulse, March/April 2016, available online at widely about the public controversy sur- generate a false positive. And the NTP https://www.dropbox.com/s/4echhc6ez6pyn60/ rounding these issues and about broader study ran a lot of tests. Consequently, Foster_Skufca_2016.pdf?dl=0. and Stuart issues related to and society. they are very likely to have had false Vyse, “Moving Science’s Statistical Goalposts,” Skeptical Inquirer, November/December He is coauthor or coeditor of two books on positives. Studies such as this are essen- 2017, available online at https://www.csicop.org/ risk assessment and the law. tially fishing expeditions or data mining si/show/moving_sciences_statistical_goal_posts.

14 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer SPECIAL REPORTS]

Gullible Reporting about ESP on CBS STEVEN NOVELLA

n the 1970s and 1980s, belief in the paranormal was dealing with science denial—putting a the most common target of skeptics. Topics such as crank up against the consensus of scien- tific opinion as if they were equal. extrasensory perception (ESP), astrology, and faith A recent segment of CBS’s Sunday healing were at the top of the list of skeptical concerns. In Morning about ESP, however, was worse I than false balance; it was a throwback the past thirty years, skepticism has evolved quite a bit, and to the early days of credulous reporting while we never stopped being watchdogs on paranormal about the paranormal with only token beliefs and other pseudoscience, they did mostly fade into skepticism. Not that token skepticism is the background. Other topics, such as science denial and gone, but it has become more rare, es- pecially from a major network or news the rise of fake news, took center stage. outlet. But history has shown that there is ing some progress through exposure The piece, by Erin Moriarty, is a often a cycle to such things. Interest in and education. We have tried to inter- complete journalistic fail. It was the UFOs has waxed and waned over the act frequently with the press so that at kind of piece we used to see thirty-plus years, for example, never going away least the skeptical point of view will get years ago before the completely but fading and then rising better exposure when such topics are had any traction. It is a perfect exam- again to prominence as a new genera- addressed. One solid victory was when ple of what we call token skepticism—a tion discovers the topic. the BBC announced they will no longer piece that is utterly gullible except for a Still, we do like to think we are mak- follow a pattern of false balance when very brief talking head skeptic who says

The piece, by Erin Mori- arty, is a complete jour- nalistic fail. It was the kind of piece we used to see thirty-plus years ago before the skeptical movement had any traction.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 15 something generic, such as, “There is no Geller completely failed. random hits as if they are representative scientific evidence to support this.” The This is the classic defense of ESP and let the alleged psychics be the ones token skepticism is immediately ne- true believers—evidence that ESP is not to tell their own gullible story. Focusing gated, however, by some response from real is instead presented as evidence that on the hits, ignoring the misses, and the true believer, a response the skeptic ESP is simply quirky and unreliable, failing to put the data into any scientific is never allowed to respond to in turn. which is already part of the ESP nar- context is what pseudoscientists—and This is the kind of piece I used to rative and is hardly taken as a criticism. pseudojournalists—do. complain about to reporters or produc- What Moriarty failed to show is that Moriarty ends with a demonstration ers, who would then respond, “We are James Randi, who knows how Geller with Dean Radin in which she looks just going to let the audience decide does his parlor tricks, told Carson how at pictures, some emotional and others what to believe.” In other words, we to arrange the demonstrations so that neutral, to see if her pupils dilate prior are going to completely misinform our Geller could not cheat. to seeing an emotional picture, which readers/viewers, give them a profoundly The Carson segment was not evi- Radin claims is evidence of precognition. dence that Geller’s powers were unre- Unsurprisingly, it turns out that Mori- liable but evidence that Geller does not arty is psychic, and her pupils dilated five have ESP at all and instead uses simple seconds prior to an emotional image. magic tricks to fake ESP. You would not This is a great noisy setup for generat- know this from watching Moriarty’s ing false correlations. Just keep collecting It is a perfect example hack piece, however. data until you have a chance correlation, The main part of the segment cov- then focus on that. These setups are also of what we call token ered “Project Stargate,” a U.S. govern- easy to p-hack if you want to get pub- skepticism—a piece that ment program to test whether or not lished. Real rigorous controls, however, is utterly gullible except ESP could be used for espionage. To tell always make any alleged effect disappear. the story of Project Stargate Moriarty The whole piece was profoundly dis- for a very brief talking goes to … Dean Radin. That’s right, a appointing. It’s not as if there isn’t an head skeptic who says crank true believer in ESP. Going to a entire community of skeptics out there crank outlier as the expert is an absolute with useful information and insight at something generic, such hallmark of this type of gullible report- their fingertips. This is all really old ter- as, “There is no scientific ing. Radin predictably states that the ritory. program “worked.” I don’t know if Moriarty is a true be- evidence to support this.” What Moriarty fails to inform her liever. What is most likely is that she is viewers is that the project was in fact just an old-school journalist who thinks deemed an utter failure. She just notes of paranormal pieces as “fluff ” pieces that that it was “shut down” but does not don’t require journalistic rigor. You can mention that it was shut down because just lazily let the cranks and believers after a decade and millions of dollars, make their sensationalist claims, have they had nothing to show for it. a token skeptic for plausible deniability, misleading overview of the topic, and The project did not work—it was a add a little superficial disbelief of your fail to provide any scientific information complete failure and, in fact, is good ev- own to put yourself in the role of “skep- and just let them be their own skeptics, idence that ESP either does not exist or tic,” and you’re done. This identical piece which in turn is just a face-saving jus- is so weak and unreliable as to be useless. could have aired literally thirty years ago tification for, “We are going to brazenly The project focused mainly on re- with no change. pander to beliefs we know are not true mote viewing because that is what spies But there is one thing that is clearly because it’s better for ratings.” would like to do. The “gifted” people different today. At least we now have so- Here are some specific examples of they examined could not produce results cial media (for all its ills) to call out jour- Moriarty’s utter failure. She opens her that were distinguishable from chance. nalists when they produce such dreck. • piece with Uri Geller, the famous spoon It is one thing to do a demonstration Steven Novella is an academic clinical neu- bender from the 1970s. She shows him in a controlled environment where you rologist at Yale University School of Med- performing his various “psychic” par- can cheat; it is another to produce re- icine and cofounder of the New England lor tricks. Then, in what she probably al-world, actionable results. Any “hits” Skeptical Society. He is a fellow and mem- thought was “balance,” she mentions that they had were rare and random, the ber of the Executive Council of the Commit- that his powers were “unreliable,” show- kind of chance hits you would expect tee for Skeptical Inquiry. This report origi- ing that famous clip from The Tonight from a decade of research. nally appeared on his Neurologica blog. Show Starring Johnny Carson when But of course you can focus on those

16 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer CBS Sunday Morning

Seers Don’t See So Well JOE NICKELL

n March 18, 2018, CBS Sunday Morning featured envisioned him alive, in an underground location, and about to be released, an insufficiently skeptical segment, “ESP: Inside the whereas he had probably been kept in Government’s Secret Program on Psychic Spies.” a Lebanese house before his tortured corpse was recovered. One of the psychics presented— Allegedly, Ford said fugitive Char- OAngela Ford (formerly Angela Della- lie Jordan was in Wyoming at “Low- fiora)—is described as a former Penta- ell” near an “Indian burial place.” Now, gon Project Stargate “psychic spy.” She police had independently spotted Jor- recalled one of her best assignments in While claimed psychic dan’s vehicle outside Denver, apparently which, allegedly, she psychically tracked heading toward Wyoming. There is no down fugitive drug smuggler Charlie Angela Ford’s automatic “Lowell” in that state, and Lovell, Wy- Jordan in 1989. Reporter Erin Mori- writing technique came to oming, has no Native American burial arty simply takes Ford at her word and site. While there is such a site at Pi- gushes, “There is no obvious explana- be called “written RV,” nedale—where Jordan was arrested— tion for how Ford obtained the intel it was really just old-fash- Pinedale is over 300 miles from Lovell. that turned out to be accurate.” But was ioned spiritualism. So it looks like Ford may have been ad- it really accurate? vised about Wyoming and later engaged Actually, the Stargate project’s final in what is known as “retrofitting” (af- report found “reason to suspect” that in ter-the-fact matching of details). Then “some well publicized cases of dramatic word of mouth transformed the story hits” the psychics might have had “sub- into a folktale. stantially more background information” While Sunday Morning could have than might otherwise be apparent. Just been more skeptical, their guest, writer such criticisms are raised by the Charlie Stargate psychics. Whereas that was Annie Jacobsen, did conclude about the Jordan case and the involvement of An- basically clairvoyance by a new name, psychics: “There’s instances of unusual gela Ford. (I was asked to look into the what Ford did was to enter a “trance” situations, but there is no proof. It does case for the BBC series Mysteries, which and let her “spirit guides” manipulate not pass scientific muster.” • aired November 23, 1998. See also her hand to produce written responses my investigative report in the March to questions. While her automatic writ- 2001 Skeptical Briefs, online at https:// ing technique came to be called “writ- www.csicop.org/sb/show/remotely_ ten RV,” it was really just old-fashioned Joe Nickell, PhD, is CSI’s senior research fel- viewed_the_charlie_jordan_case.) spiritualism. low. He has worked professionally as both Ford—who has many of the traits Not surprisingly, Ford’s information a stage magician and a private investigator, associated with a fantasy-prone person- was often wildly erroneous, as in the and he is author of such books as Looking ality—was not practicing the typical “re- search for Lt. Col. William Higgins, for a Miracle and The Science of Miracles. mote viewing” (RV) used by the other who was held hostage by terrorists. Ford

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 17 The Anatomy and Pathology of Jihad

VANNI CAPPELLI

he 2017 terror attack in New York length and inefficacy of the wars that have been waged against it. We would brought forth the usual affirmations of courage do well therefore to remember what and resilience amid the sorrow, though these have have been the effects of such suppres- been joined by a growing sense of frustration that the sions of debate in the past and the ben- T eficial results when they were overcome. United States is not making progress in its struggle against The classic example of truth im- Islamic extremism. Such confusion stems from the fact that peded by a sacred mind-set is the re- Americans are far more capable of facing the effects of this sistance to the heliocentric system of resistant pathology than they are of looking into its causes. Nicolaus Copernicus and the persecu- tion of its greatest champion, Galileo While discussing his book The Righ- rationally defensible conclusions drawn Galilee. However, amid a continuing teous Mind with Bill Moyers on PBS in from such an interpretation. This ability attack upon the body politic by a phe- early 2012, social psychologist Jonathan to think critically and speak freely is all nomenon that is habitually referred to Haidt lamented how what he called the the more vital amid an ongoing crisis in metaphors of disease, the history of “sacralization” of social entities, ranging characterized by repeated mass casualty the understanding of celestial bodies is from victim groups to America itself, terrorist attacks, prolonged and devas- not as revealing as that of human anat- impedes rational, honest, and creative tating wars, and persistent threats to omy and pathology. thinking in our angry age. national and international security. Throughout the Middle Ages, the “Whenever you sacralize something, Yet nearly seventeen years since Sep- unquestioned authority on these sub- there you will find ignorance, blind- tember 11, long after the natural cog- jects was the Greek scientist Galen, ness to the truth, and resistance to ev- nitive dissonance provoked by such an though he never dissected a human idence,” Haidt said. Citing an example, experience should have cleared, Ameri- body and merely repeated Hippo- “American foreign policy did contribute cans are, as Professor Haidt pointed out, crates’s belief that diseases are caused to 9/11, but you can’t say that because still drifting in a mental fog on this sub- by an imbalance of “humors.” Relying people on the Right will see that as sac- ject reminiscent of pre-modern modes on animal dissections and speculative rilege.” of thinking. It remains very difficult to analogies, he could not know what was We are more than half a millen- talk about the conflict with jihad as any- underneath the human skin or how it nium into an intellectual evolution in thing other than a Manichean battle of worked because he had never seen it the Western world in which the Italian good versus evil or to analyze it objec- or even tried to look there. Even when Renaissance freed history and politics tively within a detailed context of the the taboo against intrusive postmor- from divine determination, the Scien- United States’ historical engagement tems weakened, if anatomists found tific Revolution established an empir- with the Muslim world. anything at variance with Galen, they ical and inductive approach to reality, This crippling of the critical faculty simply disregarded it—until the advent and the European Enlightenment won by considerations of an almost theo- of a genius who believed that life was all freedom of thought. One should be able logical correctness has greatly inhibited about “knowing how to see”: Leonardo to say anything that proceeds from a Americans’ understanding of the nature da Vinci. comprehensive presentation of evidence, of Islamic extremism and the United As the medical writer Sherwin B. a rigorous analysis of these facts, and States’ relation to it, contributing to the Nuland explained in a probing life of

18 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer this polymath that focused on his an- state-level or non-state origins, sources in denial that such a serious condition atomical researches, Leonardo’s radical of support, and patterns of diffusion. Fi- exists. No ideas based on fact and logic empiricism, though not entirely free nally, the policies of the United States have ever been intrinsically daring; they from bias, caused him to regard the and these allies in the Soviet-Afghan are only daring in a hostile social and work of earlier experts as “teachings to War, during which the most extreme Is- psychological environment. What is be tested and challenged rather than lamist groups received the lion’s share of desperately needed amid this unending teachings to be accepted and verified.” aid and were then allowed to continue struggle with jihad is not bias-appease- Vowing to “begin with the experience unmolested as Pakistani proxies after ment or face-saving but truth-seeking and by means of it investigate the cause,” America withdrew from the region, Leonardo set dogma aside and plunged would have to be objectively analyzed, and problem-solving, regardless of their into experiment. Over the course of de- as well as their historical effects. emotional or practical difficulty. And the cades of objective study, Leonardo sys- Most American government offi- urgency for such openness grows with tematically dissected dozens of cadav- ers, saw what was actually there, came to understand how organs functioned within the system of the human body, The ability to think critically and speak freely is all identified diseases such as arteriosclero- the more vital amid an ongoing crisis characterized by sis, and set it all down in dynamic draw- ings explicated by a brilliant text. repeated mass casualty terrorist attacks, prolonged With time, his methods were fol- and devastating wars, and persistent threats to lowed by Andreas Vesalius, William Harvey, and all those who have ever national and international security. contributed to the rational miracle that is modern medicine. How would the struggle with Islamic extremism look if subjected to Vincian scrutiny? How would such contrasting assertions as “Intolerance is basic to cials and foreign policy experts would each new terror attack. Islam,” “Only a tiny fraction of Muslims counter that all this has been done for An unfettered discourse on Islamic are violent,” “Jihad is a cancer that has decades and agree with counterterror- extremism and the United States’ rela- metastasized,” or even the great taboo, ism blogger Robert Chesney that “both tion to it holds forth the promise of a “American foreign policy contributed the Bush and Obama administrations comprehensive fresh view of the matter to 9/11,” stand up against a body of ev- cared a great deal about trying to find that would yield a comprehensive new idence that was analyzed on the basis ways to prevent radicalization, and if strategy that effects a cure. We might anyone knew how to actually ‘block the of “knowing how to see” and not cher- well emerge from such a free and open ry-picked to prove them? pathways’ in a reliable and scalable way debate as blameless knights in a contest This change in method would have it would have been done long ago.” with dragons or conclude that the fault to begin with a working knowledge of Yet this sanguine assertion ignores the actual tenets of Islam, and the tra- the powerful psychological prejudices is not in our stars but in ourselves—or jectory of political developments in the that Prof. Haidt addresses. The motives any of the many shades in between. Muslim world since the fall of the Ot- for rejecting or suppressing evidence Only we must be able to say it. • toman Empire at the end of World War about the origin, spread, and nature of Vanni Cappelli is a freelance journalist who I placed it in direct contact with moder- Islamic extremism are legion. Among has covered conflicts in the Horn of Africa, nity. It would need to recall that most them are sheer foreign policy orthodoxy, the Balkans, and South-Central Asia since countries in the region sought secular threats to vested interest groups, the dif- the early 1990s. He has made five long bases of legitimacy over the past century, ficulty of the proposed policy changes, a trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan since resistance to national self-examination, with the crucial exceptions of Saudi the September 11, 2001, attacks and is the perceived need to maintain Ameri- Arabia and Pakistan, and that both have a cofounder and the current president of ca’s image intact, and, most importantly, been treated as vital American allies for the Afghanistan Foreign Press Associa- a profound fear of a backlash: “You can’t nearly seventy years. The religious ide- tion. His writings on this subject have ap- ologies that guide their rulers would say that.” peared in The New York Times, The Wall have to be examined in detail, along However, a great nation at war is in Street Journal, The San Francisco Chroni- with their socioeconomic motivations. no more of a position to be held back cle, Orbis, Commonweal, and World Policy Islamic extremism in words and deeds by such taboos than is a physician seek- Blog. He lives in Poughkeepsie, New York. would have to be assessed in terms of its ing to treat a serious illness or a patient

Skeptical Inquirer July/August 2018 19 [ INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Joe Nickell, PhD, is CSI’s senior research fellow. He has worked professionally as both a stage magician and a private investigator, and he is author of such books as Looking for a Miracle and The Science of Miracles.

Secrets of ‘The Flying Friar’: Did St. Joseph of Copertino Really Levitate?

upported by records citing eye- taneously—even to miraculously mul- witness testimony, St. Joseph tiply food, like Jesus (Dingwall 1962, of Copertino was a seven- 23). But it was the “levitations”— Steenth-century religious marvel who which only began with his ordination laid claim to the power of levitation. as a priest in 1628 and therefore seem Reportedly, as stated by the title of a contrived—that secured his evolving new book by Michael Grosso (2016), notoriety and ultimate legacy. he was The Man Who Could Fly. Subsequently, Joseph’s wonder- Although I had addressed both the working increased, becoming “more topic of levitation and Joseph him- frequent and more dramatic.” He at- self briefly in a book (Nickell 1993, tracted crowds and was taken on tour 211–216) as well as in a BBC televi- by a ruling prelate, where he impressed sion documentary (“Secrets” 1999), I the credulous as a prophet, a healer and determined to look more deeply into exorcist, and an ecstatic. He had also the strange life of “the flying friar.” begun his “levitations” and had become Future Saint in effect “the reluctant star of a trav- eling spiritual circus,” whereupon he Born Joseph Desa in the Italian vil- came to the attention of the Holy In- St. Joseph of Copertino is lifted in flight at the site of lage of Copertino (or in English the Basilica of Loreto, by Ludovico Mazzanti quisition. He was accused of being os- Cupertino), he lived his sixty years tentatious and of having “affected sanc- (1603–1663) during a superstitious later, became an unlikely priest. (He tity,” but after two years he was found period that included the European was aided by a stroke of luck: the innocent. Rome later sent him into a witch obsession. Joseph—whose father sort of exile, away from public exhibi- bishop who was to administer the final had fled to avoid debtor’s prison and tions (Grosso 2016, 23, 24, 26–28). He exam was called away and so waived whose mother gave birth to him in a was at Grotella for sixteen years and the test!) Already given to long med- shed—was thought stupid. As a boy lived the last six at Osimo. itations, Joseph often yielded to fits he loitered at churches and—though In time, the prelate who had taken of ecstasy—emotional outbursts that always apologizing for fits of reverie— the friar on tour would tell Roman was taken in at a Capuchin monastery. began to prompt talk about him and authorities, “I can say nothing except There he prayed on his knees so often even to herald certain mystical phe- that he was a saint who went into ec- and so long (a habit that would later nomena reported around him (Grosso stasy and was adored by everybody” prove useful in his “levitations”) that 2016, 15–23). (Chiappinelli 2008)—hardly a ringing his knees became infected. When his The superstitious believed Joseph endorsement of one who purportedly trying to operate on them himself led was able to divine the thoughts of oth- flew like a bird. Another, a traveling to a lengthy convalescence, he was ers, to effect cures, to engage in com- companion to Joseph for years, sud- thought worthless and was dismissed. bat with the devil (at least in a story denly requested to be sent away from Nevertheless, with some help from he himself told), to have the supposed him (Grosso 2016, 29)—a mystery his mother, he joined the Order of power of bilocation—that is, to be in that seems to bespeak some dark secret, Conventuals in 1625 and, three years two distinctly different places simul- possibly knowledge of deception.

20 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Performance Art knees, then rose and floated just above and acting; I suspect such acts were What Grosso calls Joseph’s “strange the ground. In confirmation, the three fundamentally stunts that may have led performances” do indeed seem to reveal boys “put their hands between Joseph’s credulous seventeenth-century peas- him as a “performance artist” (Grosso tunic and the ground” (Parisciani 1963, ants to believe it was accomplished by 2016, 72, 165). They were especially 443). Readers might want to pause levitation. (After all, there were numer- common during his dramatic, lengthy here to consider what I will explain as ous “levitating” saints before Joseph, a Mass (that could last up to four hours). a probable trick in the next paragraph partial list naming fifteen [Smith 1965, In what I suspect was feigned entrance- (assuming the account is not merely 37, 38; see also Rogo 1982].) Thus, ment, his ecstatic state would render hearsay and embellishment). the witnesses would, in all good faith, him immobile as a statue, his body Because of Joseph’s station, the boys unintentionally exaggerate what had perhaps taking on the form of a cross. would have been compliant, not aggres- actually happened. Then he would seem to “rise and float.” sively skeptical. Note that the friar’s feet Let us start with an incident in which I would wager that he mimed this Joseph “flew” to the feet of a statue that by stretching himself upward until he stood more than a man’s height above artfully stood on tiptoe, then danced I would wager that the ground; there he adored it while lightly in place so as to create the illu- “floating midair” (Grosso 2016, 81–82). sion of “hovering” just above the ground. he mimed floating by In fact, all the time he “embraced” (i.e., He might then begin to “fly”—or stretching himself upward held onto the feet of) the statue! Per- leap—about, as he himself described it, haps with muscular ability he extended “like a small bird in a cage when it can until he artfully stood his body horizontally to add to the effect. get out and fly away.” On occasion, he on tiptoe, then danced A more significant example is a story would soar (bound through the air) to lightly in place so as to told in the first biography of the friar some elevated perch. (These flights were (Bernini 1722, 150). A priest walking his greatest feats, as we shall see in the create the illusion of with “Padre Giuseppe” (Father Joseph) following section.) “hovering” just above had mentioned the beautiful sky when, Around Good Friday, certain odd the ground. suddenly: movements of his body might occur, as These words seemed like an invi- if caused by an invisible power: he would tation for Padre Giuseppe to fly up be flung down, lifted up, shoved forward, into the sky, and so he did, letting or jerked back. Sometimes when he out a loud cry and bounding from are never mentioned, indicating that he the ground to fly up to the top of came to break the host (the consecrated an olive tree when he landed on his wafer), it would become (or so he would rose while still apparently kneeling. But knees on a branch that kept shaking act out) incredibly heavy or impossibly recall my earlier suggestion, regarding … as though a bird were perched on resistant, whereupon he would fall down the “backward levitations,” that Joseph the branch. Padre Giuseppe stayed heavily and then, weeping on his knees could subtly move from kneeling to a up there about a half hour … . (seemingly a prerequisite for what fol- pre-crouch position by placing the bot- Note the use of the word bounding1 lowed), supposedly “levitate backward.” toms of his toes flat on the floor. As he plus the fact that olive trees are typically For instance, during a Duke’s visit then moves slowly into a crouch using of low height (described as “short” and Joseph began to wail, then gave a great his well-developed muscles (you see “squat” [“Olive” 2017]). Remember too scream and flew into the air backward where this is going), the still-appar- that Joseph was practiced in kneeling in a kneeling position (original emphasis, ently kneeling friar is witnessed rising for long hours. Besides, bounding up- Bernini 1722, 85). But did he simply upward—or rather his knees are seen ward was one thing, but after coming spring backward? Details are too un- to rise, giving that illusion. The rest is out of his supposed rapture he had to clear: Did kneeling become crouching child’s play, literally. The boys are in- have help getting down! So the other and afterward a crouch return to kneel- vited to place their hands between the priest fetched a ladder for the catlike ing—the truth concealed by the friar’s tunic and the floor. It would probably friar. tunic? In other instances, details are also not occur to them to reach far back and Another example is also instructive. important. Bernini (1722, 30) in one search for the actual placement of Fa- The account (Bernini 1722, 26) quotes instance describes Joseph “now going ther Joseph’s feet. a deposition by some shepherds (who to the altar, jumping onto the last step The Levitations were probably illiterate), apparently of the pulpit” (emphasis added). (For all given years later. Father Joseph was of this, see Grosso 2016, 71–76, and his Now let us examine some of the more dancing excitedly in the name of the own sources.) extreme defiances of gravity that church, when he: Once, some talented young singers Joseph supposedly accomplished. That … suddenly sighed and loudly were brought to Joseph’s room to per- he could stand on tiptoe and even seem screamed and flew up in the air like form for him. Their singing sent him to slightly rise and hover may only a bird, halfway to the ceiling, where into such ecstasy that he fell on his indicate wonderful strength, balance, he continued dancing above the main

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 21 altar, and went to embrace the tab- when he first started moving but only Doctah supplied the original formula” ernacle that was a considerable dis- the instant before he left the ground (Musiker 2008, 24–25). If we can be so tance above the main altar. This was all the more marvelous because the people would be more likely to think impressed in the twenty-first century, altar was filled with flaming candles they saw him simply rise up. imagine such effects in the supersti- and he rested between the candles Grosso (2016, 80) gushes that the tion-ridden seventeenth, and I think we without knocking over even one. He duration of Joseph’s levitations—from can begin to understand the “levitations” stayed that way with his knees above only seconds to fifteen or thirty minutes the altar, embracing the tabernacle of “The Flying Saint.” • with both arms, for about fifteen or more of “sustained floating”—“seem to point to the reality of an unrecog- minutes … . Notes nized force of nature.” Certainly, he insists, they were “enough to render 1. Hence, the noted Anglican haigiogra- implausible the claim that they were pher Baring-Gould (1914, 297) used the phrase The still-apparently “extraordinary bounds,” and Smith (1965, 48) tricks of perception.” Yet our analysis extrapolates “that St. Joseph appears to have kneeling friar is revealed that Joseph did not hover in been a gymnast.” (For an opposing view, see witnessed rising the air but, after rapidly ascending, he Rogo 1982.) then rested on some support such as a 2. Grosso’s most-used source for the lev- upward—or rather his tree limb or held onto some fixed object itations is Bernini, whose 1722 text appeared nearly six decades after Joseph’s death. knees are seen to rise, such as a statue. In other accounts, such 3. Although I do not suggest Joseph used one, giving that illusion. details may have been left out because springboards were available since the Middle the narrator was simply relying on his Ages to propel acrobats (“History” 2018). The rest is child’s play, impressions. literally. Eyewitnesses are fallible, as we know References all too well. People insisted they actu- ally saw what they thought they saw— Baring-Gould, Sabine. 1914. The Lives of the or they remembered much later what Saints, vol. 10. : John Grant; cited It is apparent from his movements in Grosso 2016, 87–88. they believed they had seen, minus, for that he bounded, in increments, onto Bernini, Dominico. 1722. Vita Fr. Giuseppe da the altar where he “rested between the example, in some instances, the friar’s Copertino, abridged translation into English, candles”—that is, on the support that initial rushing forward before actual cited in Grosso 2016, 219–221. Chiappinelli, W. 2008. San Giuseppe da Copertino. held them. And there, for the several lift-off. Moreover, the canonization (saint-making) process itself, requiring Anacona, Italy: Shalom, 90; cited in Grosso minutes duration, he was “embracing”— 2016, 226. evidence of miracles, could well have in other words, holding onto—the tab- Dingwall, Eric John. 1962. Some Human Oddities. ernacle (which contained the Eucha- fostered some pious exaggeration on the New York: University Books, 9–17. rist). He was never simply floating in air, part of a late beloved friar’s brethren and Grosso, Michael. 2016. The Man Who Could as sources may seem to imply. flock. There is also the “gross exaggera- Fly: St. Joseph of Copertino and the Mystery of tion” of biographies that were published Levitation. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. Conclusions more than half a century after Joseph’s (Except as otherwise noted, information on 2 Joseph is taken from this source.) Not only do the accounts indicate death. Also, as a practical matter, the The History of Trampolines. 2018. Available Joseph’s most dramatic aerial traverses original records that led to his canon- online at https://www.trampolinegurus.com/ were launched by a leap—not by a sim- ization are no longer available for study trampoline-history/; accessed April 5, 2018. ple slow rising while merely standing (Smith 1965, 48–49). Musiker, Liz Hartman. 2008. The Smart Girl’s Guide to Sports. New York: Plum. or kneeling (Smith 1965, 49)—but, Today, I think few would be deceived by witnessing such feats—though we Nickell, Joe. 1993. Looking for a Miracle. Buffalo, moreover, I find that they appear to NY: Prometheus Books. have continued as just the sudden arc- might well be impressed by the acro- ———. 1995. Entities: Angels, Spirits, , ing trajectories that would be expected batics. Certainly most of us, under- and Other Alien Beings: Amherst, NY: from bounding. They were never cir- standing gravity, will not expect to see Prometheus Books. cuitous or spiraling flights like a bird’s. actual levitations or flying—although Olive. 2017. Available online at https://en.wiki- Invariably, Joseph’s propulsions began there are the tricks of magicians and fa- pedia.org/wiki/Olive; accessed November 13, 2017. with a shout or scream, suggesting kirs (Nickell 1993, 183, 211–216; 1995, 3 Parisciani, Gustavo. 1963. San Giuseppe da that he was not caused to leap by some 29). Even now, however, we can marvel Copertino. Osimo Anacona: Pax et Bonum; force but chose to. Analogous to martial at the flights of basketball players like cited in Grosso 2016, 72. artists who yell when executing some “Doctah” Julius Erving, who “added raz- Rogo, D. Scott. 1982. Miracles: A Parascientific technique (like breaking a board with zle-dazzle acrobatics to the game, and Inquiry into Wondrous Phenomena. New York: their hand), his cry may have been to was the first to spend seemingly endless The Dial Press, 13–50. Secrets of levitation. 1999. Season 1, episode 11, help him focus and commit to the act moments in the air, levitating toward Science, a BBC documentary and so dispel fear. It might also have the basket.” Although Michael Jordan series (1999–2001). served to turn all eyes on him. He would become the master of this feat, Smith, Robert D. 1965. Comparative Miracles. might have found that if he yelled not being dubbed “Air Jordan,” in fact “the St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co., 46–50.

22 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer [ BEHAVIOR & BELIEF STUART VYSE Stuart Vyse is a psychologist and author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition, which won the William James Book Award of the American Psychological Association. He is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

The Enduring Legend of the Changeling

n March 1863, a New York City ton’s four children lived to the age of coroner held an inquest on the five, and only one of Mary Todd Lin- death of a three-year-old child coln’s four children achieved the age of Iliving on Eighty-Third Street between twenty. Although in much of the world Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues. As today maternal and infant mortality are reported in the New York Times, Mary less of a problem than they once were, Nell, the child’s mother, had been told many children continue to be born with by a previous tenant that there were abnormalities and developmental prob- fairies about in the house where she lems that profoundly alter their parents’ lived, and growing up in Ireland she expectations. had learned this was a sign that a child in the household had been exchanged for a fairy child.1 The prescribed test Because the fear of stolen for a suspected changeling was to heat children was so rampant, the blade of a shovel until it was red hot and have the child sit on it. If a many precautions were The devil steals a baby and leaves a changeling behind. Detail fairy child had been substituted for proposed for warding off of The Legend of St. Stephen by Martino di Bartolomeo, early the true child, it would fly away. Mary demons and trolls and pre- fifteenth century. Nell performed this test on her child venting the theft of a child. (gender not specified) without her one. These appear to have remained husband’s knowledge, and the result- with their nurses for many years, and ing burns were so severe that the child afterward to have flown away, or rather died a week later. Mr. Nell testified vanished” (cited in Green 2016, 114). that “for some time past he had occa- Stolen babies were the subject of sionally thought his wife was insane, The story of the changeling is said common legend in England, Germany, she acted so strangely.” The coroner to be pre-Christian in origin, but many and Scandinavia, and both Martin decided to hold the mother in custody of the best written sources come from Luther (1483–1546) and the Grimm until the question of her sanity could the late middle ages. An early mention brothers reported cases of changelings be determined. of the phenomenon is found in the (Ashliman 1997). The changeling leg- There are few events in life more writings of William of Auvergne, who end was integrated into Luther’s Chris- anxiously anticipated than the birth of was Bishop of Paris from 1228 to 1249. tian belief, and as a result, counterfeit a child. The arrival of a healthy baby According to Auvergne, children of in- children were said to have been left by brings the prospect of happy years cubi demons were exchanged for moth- the devil. Other traditional versions of ahead and the fulfillment of many pa- ers’ healthy babies, and the changelings the myth implicated witches, fairies, rental dreams. But childbirth has never were discovered to have symptoms very elves, incubi, succubi, trolls, water spir- been an easy passage. Prior to the twen- similar to what today we would call its, dwarves, or demons. Changelings tieth century, both maternal and infant “failure to thrive”: “They say they are were also described in the Malleus Ma- death were common, and after they skinny and always wailing and such leficarum (Hammer of Witches), a popu- arrived, children frequently succumbed milk-drinkers that four nurse maids lar manual on , the original to disease. Half of Martha Washing- do not supply sufficient milk to feed 1486 edition of which was written by

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 23 German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Collins, whose nine-year-old son Walter referred to as “it.” Kramer (Kramer and Sprenger [1484] disappeared (spoilers ahead). After sev- • Leaving the child alone. Stories often 1928). The Malleus Maleficurum advo- eral months without any progress, the involve children being left alone, L.A. police claimed to have recovered cated the extermination of witches and even for a short time. Constant vig- Walter in Illinois. The boy was brought had a profound effect on witch hunting ilance is commonly recommended to Los Angeles, but Ms. Collins soon and the torture and murder of women. as a defense against babies being recognized that he was not her son. Far For almost two hundred years, it was the switched. second most popular book in Europe from being a supernatural abduction, after the Bible (Guiley 2008). the changeling in question eventually • Parents recognize the change. Like The case of the changeling has been admitted he had posed as Walter Col- Christine Collins, typically parents a remarkably popular subject in art and lins in the hope of going to Hollywood see a change and claim the child is literature. The Irish poet W.B. Yeats to meet the movie star Tom Mix. Sub- not theirs. made reference to the legend in his sequent detective work suggested that • Physical changes. The changeling is 1889 poem “The Stolen Child,” which the true Walter Collins was one of the often described as ugly, deformed, includes the repeated refrain: victims of the Wineville Chicken Coop shriveled up, and shaggy, but it al- Murders (Bovsun 2012) although his Come away, O human child! ways still bears a resemblance to the mother never accepted that explanation. To the waters and the wild original child. With a faery, hand in hand, • Behavior. Changelings are said to be always crying, never satisfied with food, and wailing at night. But the children are also often de- scribed as very changeable in their behavior, displaying a sweet and compliant demeanor with others when their parents are not around. • Scapegoating the changeling. Many of the stories suggest that the changeling has brought a general cloud over the household. Disap- pointments and misfortunes are blamed on the changeling. • Lack of growth or development. De- spite reports of eating large quanti- ties of food, the child fails to grow. In some cases, not gaining size at all over the course of an entire year. • Consulting with a wise person. Often The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli (1781). An incubus perched on a sleeping woman. the parents consult with someone with greater knowledge who ad- vises them as to what to do next. As For the world’s more full of weeping Common Themes of Changeling Stories pointed out by Ashliman (1997), than you can understand. Folklorist Joyce Underwood Munro this provides a sense of shared re- Fictional accounts of changelings (1997) reviewed many of the tradi- sponsibility for the actions taken by have been written by Swedish Nobel tional changeling stories and identified the parents. Prize–winning author Selma Lagerlöf a number of common themes. The • Tricking the changeling. In many of (Bortbytingen, 1915) and contemporary following is a brief summary of some: the stories, parents are advised to American novelist Victor LaValle (The • Circumstances of the parents: In most trick the changelings into reveal- Changeling, 2017). A 1980 horror film cases, changelings arrive in homes ing their true fairy or demon na- The Changeling starred George C. Scott that are not entirely happy to begin ture. Special foods are sometimes under the direction of Clint Eastwood, with. They come to widows and prepared to be given to the child, and the 2008 Academy Award–nomi- widowers, single mothers, and oth- but often horribly abusive tests are nated film Changeling starring Angelina ers involved in some form of strife. recommended, such as throwing Jolie (also directed by Clint Eastwood) • Baptism and naming. Children who the child into a fire, burning with was based on the highly publicized late- are unbaptized or unnamed are at a hot poker, placing them on a red- 1920s Los Angeles case of Christine greater risk. Changelings are often hot griddle, withholding food, or

24 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer administering beatings. Mary Nell’s elements described by Munro (1997), conditions. red-hot shovel was not an anomaly. including the method of banishment. In addition to failure to thrive, be- • Changeling betrays self. Often For example, in 1580 a mother who was fore the development of modern medi- during these tests, children are said employed in a nobleman’s field during cine and psychiatry, it is very likely that to reveal themselves to be much harvest time placed her week-old infant any number of childhood disorders were in a patch of grass while she worked. interpreted as stolen children. Several older than their chronological age. When she returned to nurse her baby, modern authors have suggested that in On some occasions, this admission it drank milk like no child she had ever pre-scientific eras children born with is made to another person, not the seen before, and she was convinced the autism and other developmental disor- parents. infant was not hers. At the suggestion of ders were probably considered change- • Banishment of the changeling. Some- the nobleman, she beat the child with a lings (Ashliman 1997; Wing and Potter times in the course of the test or as switch until it cried out, at which point 2002). By the late nineteenth century, a separate act, the family rids itself the devil appeared and returned her science had begun to provide nonsuper- of the imposter child. The child is original child (German Legends [1816], natural explanations for children who said to have gone up the chimney no. 88, cited by Ashliman 1997). This did not thrive or otherwise did not meet or to have been reclaimed by the kind of treatment did not only occur in the normal expectations for a healthy fairy mother. books. Eighteenth century European infant, and belief in changelings faded. • Return or not of the original child. court records show that many parents In some cases, the only outcome who were charged with abandonment, of the test and banishment is the manslaughter, and neglect claimed their disappearance of the changeling. children were changelings left by de- In other cases, the original child mons, fairies, or the devil (Froud 2017). returns, either immediately or after some time. Finally, in some cases, It is likely that before the the banishment fails, and the family nineteenth century, many makes a positive adjustment to the changeling. conditions that we now know to be medical—rather Changeling Prevention and Treatment than supernatural—could Facilitated Communication: A child not looking at the keyboard while her facilitator guides her hand over Because the fear of stolen children have prompted parents to the keys. was so rampant, many precautions think their children were were proposed for warding off demons changelings. Today’s Changelings and trolls and preventing the theft Although fairies, incubi, witches, and of a child. In his 1835 book Deutsche demons play a much smaller role in Mythologie, Jacob Grimm recom- Medical Explanations for Changelings our world today, we are far from free mended that babies be constantly It is likely that before the nineteenth of the changeling impulse. If anything, watched over: “Women who have century, many conditions that we now our expectations about childbirth and recently been delivered may not go to know to be medical—rather than super- parenthood are greater than those of sleep until someone is watching over natural—could have prompted parents couples in the middle ages.2 When the child. Mothers who are overcome to think their children were change- children don’t meet these expectations, by sleep often have changelings laid lings. As mentioned above, the typical parents sometimes find a different in their cradles” (cited in Ashliman stories point to a condition we know as demon to blame. The anti-vaccination 1997). A number of religious protective failure to thrive. This phrase describes a movement attributes autism to a greedy measures were employed. Catholics general outcome—not gaining weight pharmaceutical industry supported by a tended to use holy water, crucifixes, or developing normally—that can government conspiracy. Most cases of and representations of saints, whereas result from a variety of underlying autism involve developmental delays Protestants would often place the Bible disorders, including cow’s milk intol- that begin within the first year of life, or pages of the Bible in the child’s crib. erance, celiac disease, and inflamma- but a small percentage of autistic chil- In both sects, an unbaptized child was tory bowel disease (Marcovitch 1994; dren show a regressive form of the dis- considered at risk (Ashliman 1997). Schwartz 2000). However, the change- order marked by normal development Once a child was identified as a ling legend was most widely believed in the first years followed by a decline. changeling, the diagnosis often served as in pre-scientific times when witches, Parents report that their children have a justification for the kinds of horrible the devil, and fairies were thought to changed and can no longer perform treatment described by Munro (1997) be active participants in everyday life, as they once did, in some cases losing above. One of the more famous Grimm and medical science had not yet offered language skills they previously had brothers’ stories includes many of the an alternative explanation for these (Pickles et al. 2009; Taylor et al. 2002).

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 25 References Some of these parents have attributed apy’s effectiveness as an autism treat- this regression to the toxic effects of ment. Worse, there have been a number Ashliman, D.L. 1997. Changelings. Available vaccines, but research does not support online at http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/change- of reports of deaths of young children ling.html; accessed February 19, 2018. this conclusion. For example, Taylor et with autism who have been subjected Bovsun, Mara. 2012. California’s crop of horror al. (2002) found no change in the rate to this treatment, both in the United in 1920s. NY Daily News (December 29). of regressive autism after the introduc- States and Britain (Centers for Disease Available online at http://www.nydailynews. tion of the measles, mumps, and rubella Control and Prevention 2006; Woznicki com/news/justice-story/california-crop-hor- (MMR) vaccine in the United States. ror-1920s-article-1.1229595; accessed April 2005). The chelation-related death of an 2, 2018. In other contemporary cases, parents autistic child in the U.K. prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. of developmentally disabled children re- editors of the British Medical Journal to 2006. Deaths associated with hypocalcemia ject the diagnosis of autism and claim publish an editorial warning against the from chelation therapy—Texas, Pennsylvania, their children have a physical—rather use of this treatment: “Serious concern and Oregon, 2003–2005. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available online than a developmental—disability. They should arise about the ongoing use of are delighted to find out that with at https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/ chelation therapy in children with au- mmwrhtml/mm5508a3.htm; accessed the help of facilitated communication tism at this time, especially when the February 21, 2018. (FC) or a variant of FC, such as rapid side effects of appropriate administra- Froud, Mark. 2017 The Lost Child in Literature prompting method, their children’s nor- tion are well reported, a death has oc- and Culture. New York: Springer. mal functioning level is revealed in mes- Green, Richard Firth. 2016. Elf Queens and Holy curred with an error of administration, sages typed on keyboards or tapped out Friars: Fairy Beliefs and the Medieval Church. and the treatment incurs a cost for the on letter boards. The children’s hands Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania families” (Sinha et al. 2006). Press. may require guiding by verbally com- Guiley, Rosemary. 2008. The Encyclopedia of petent facilitators to get the sentences * * * Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca. New York: typed out, but the result is remarkably For so many of us, the dream of a Facts on File, Inc. fluent language. A devastating con- healthy baby to love and hold is central Kramer, Heinrich, and James Sprenger. (1484) dition is avoided. Unfortunately, the to the story of our lives. Children give 1928. The Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich overwhelming evidence of research on us meaning and purpose, and if all Kramer and James Sprenger. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. facilitated communication shows that goes well, these little people offer us Marcovitch, Harvey. 1994. Failure to thrive. BMJ: the language-competent adult facil- the prospect of a kind of immortality. British Medical Journal 308(6920): 35–39. itators are unconsciously typing out Unfortunately, sometimes the child we Munro, Joyce Underwood. 1997. The invisible the messages and the children are not get is not exactly as we imagined, and made visible: The fairy changeling as a folk communicating at all. It is a Ouija-like there are challenges we never thought articulation of failure to thrive in infants phenomenon. and children. In Peter Narváez, The Good we would have to face. Today, genetic People: New Fairylore Essays. Lexington: The counseling makes it possible to avoid University Press of Kentucky: 251–83. Modern Methods of Banishment many unwanted childhood conditions, Pickles, Andrew, Emily Simonoff, Gina Conti Although autistic children are rarely and when a baby arrives that is not Ramsden, et al. 2009. Loss of language in exactly what the parents hoped for, sci- early development of autism and specific lan- called changelings today, they are guage impairment. Journal of Child Psychology sometimes subject to banishments that ence provides a natural explanation— and Psychiatry 50(7): 843–852. are, in their own way, almost as cruel if not always a cure—for what has Schwartz, I. David. 2000. Failure to thrive: An as those administered in the Middle befallen the family. It is understandable old nemesis in the new millennium. Pediatrics Ages. The parents of nonverbal chil- why many parents might have the urge in Review 21(8): 257–264. Sinha, Yashwant, Natalie Silove, and Katrina dren who embrace facilitated commu- to deny the truth and declare their Williams. 2006. Chelation therapy and nication unwittingly turn their children child a kind of changeling. But the autism. BMJ: British Medical Journal into marionettes. Furthermore, because challenge of parenthood is to recognize 333(7571): 756. these children often use facilitated our children for who they are and do Taylor, Brent, Elizabeth Miller, Raghu Lingam, communication at school—and even what is necessary to give them the best et al. 2002. Measles, mumps, and rubella in college—they are denied years of life they can possibly have. • vaccination and bowel problems or develop- mental regression in children with autism: evidence-based education that could Population study. BMJ: British Medical Notes help them become truly independent. Journal 324(7334): 393–396. In the case of parents who think their 1. “A Remarkable Case of Hallucination. Wing, Lorna, and David Potter. 2002. The children are the victims of vaccines, Mother Burns Child to Death.” The New York epidemiology of autistic spectrum disor- Times, March 18, 1863, 8. Available online ders: Is the prevalence rising? Developmental some have subjected their kids to che- at http://www.nytimes.com/1863/03/18/ Disabilities Research Reviews 8(3): 151–161. lation therapy, an invasive medical pro- archives/local-intelligence-the-atlantic-tele- Woznicki, Katrina. 2005. British boy dies after cedure used to remove the heavy metals graph-and-its-prospects.html. 2. Interestingly, a number of the original chelation therapy for autism. Medpage Today these parents presume to be the cause of texts cited overly doting parents as one of the (August 26). Available online at https://www. their child’s autism. Of course, there is precipitants of a changeling child (e.g., Kramer medpagetoday.com/neurology/autism/1616; no research support for chelation ther- and Sprenger [1484] 1928). accessed February 21, 2018.

26 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Imagine a future where science and reason serve as the foundation for our lives.

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Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 27 [ SKEPTICAL INQUIREE BENJAMIN RADFORD Benjamin Radford is a research fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and author or coauthor of ten books, including Investigating : The Scientific Search for Spirits.

The Phantom Menace of UFO Revelation

I heard you on an episode of the StarTalk Radio Show, and host keep hundreds of thousands of people Seth Shostak asked why governments around the world would across the globe involved with NASA, hide evidence of . You mentioned that the reason the Air Force, the Pentagon, the FBI, conspiracy theorists often give—to avoid mass panic—was absurd : and so on—along with all their current because polls show that many people (about a third) already think Q aliens exist. But if the government admitted extraterrestrial contact, and former counterparts in dozens of that still leaves two-thirds of the people who would panic. Isn’t that other countries—from simply acknowl- a significant number? edging what many people already as- sume to be true: that aliens exist? —Jorge C. The percentage of people who be- lieve in extraterrestrial life varies by The above query echoes decades marshalling a superficially time, question phrasing, and poll; one I’ve often encoun- impressive list of alleged coverups: on StarTalk, I had referenced a 2005 : tered when dealing with Area 51; crashes at Roswell, Aztec, Baylor Study reporting that people who are convinced and other places; the alien base at about a third of the public in A that governments around Dulce, ; “disappearing” UFOs (for an in-depth examination, the world are engaged in alien implants; Men in Black who have see Paranormal America by Christopher an astonishingly effective threatened, paid off, silenced, or killed Bader, Joseph Baker, and F. Carson and sustained effort to thousands of eyewitnesses; and so on. Mencken). More recent polls suggest hide evidence of UFOs, alien bodies, All in service of ... what, exactly? that the percentage has increased; for crashed saucers, advanced technolo- Why would the government go to such example, a 2017 poll from research and gies, and so on. Believers have spent an extensive effort and expense trying to consulting firm Glocalities found that Least I Could Do

By Ryan Sohmer and Lar deSouza (leasticoulddo.com)

28 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer “sixty-one percent of people believe that means that only 8.6 percent of the a formal admission that aliens are real. that there is some form of life on other people would panic, while 91.4 percent The UFO coverup conspiracy would planets. Seventeen percent rule this out of the world would not. have to span decades, cross interna- and only 22% say that they don’t know. So the question remains: Why would tional borders, and transcend political Forty-seven percent of people believe the world’s governments put so much administrations. It’s one thing to say in the existence of intelligent alien civ- effort into preventing a possible social that a given president, or even a country, ilizations in the universe. Twenty-six disruption among a small minority of might be able to successfully hide evi- percent rule this out and 28% say that people? In 2017 and 2018, millions of dence of a crashed saucer, extraterres- they don’t know” (https://tinyurl.com/ people took to the streets protesting trial technology, or bodies. But it’s quite y9um7ymc). Trump administration policies, racial another to claim that all of the world’s If that’s correct, then surely 61 per- injustice, economic conditions, sexual governments, in perpetuity, regardless cent of the public would not be “pan- harassment, and other issues in cities of which political party is in power and icked” to find out that they’re right around the world. In some places, the even among enemies, have colluded to about the existence of alien life. So that military has been called out to keep the continue the coverup. leaves 39 percent, as the numbers break Robert Sheaffer, author of Bad UFOs down above, who don’t already think and a former Skeptical Inquirer col- alien life exists. (The UFO conspiracy umnist, told me: doesn’t suggest that the public would It’s an article of faith among many panic only if aliens were known to be UFO proponents that the U.S. gov- present and active here on Earth—in- The percentage of people ernment knows that UFOs are alien stead of merely existing somewhere “out craft and that they even have debris from crashed saucers, but they keep there”—though a 2017 Chapman Uni- who believe in extraterres- it all highly classified. Hence there is versity survey found that 35 percent of trial life varies by time, a big push for so-called “Disclosure,” those polled believe that extraterrestri- question phrasing, and poll. when the government will suppos- als have indeed visited Earth.) edly reveal all it knows about extra- But just because a person doesn’t be- terrestrials. But if UFOs are prone to crash now and then, as they allegedly lieve that something is true doesn’t nec- are, there is no reason to think that essarily mean that they would panic if the U.S. is the only government they found out they were wrong. After in the world to be hiding alien all, people discover they’re mistaken in secrets. Does Canada possess UFO their beliefs (on subjects both minor secrets? Does the ? France? Germany? Japan? Russia? and major) all the time, and it doesn’t peace; how much more disruptive to China? The conspiracy would have send them into spirals of panic, hys- public order and government stability us believe that all the major world teria, or existential despair. Of course would revealing the existence of aliens governments, which can agree on revealing the “truth” about aliens need be? Governments can’t even control nothing else, have all agreed to keep not involve introducing the Martian small-scale panics within their own their secrets about extraterrestrials well-concealed. ambassador to the world or displaying borders—rumors of nuclear war, for the Roswell crash victims at the Smith- example, or Ebola outbreaks—so why The American intelligence commu- sonian; it could simply be displaying would aliens be any different? nity unanimously concluded that the messages received by SETI from other While governments surely would Russian government has in recent years worlds. prefer not to have their citizens panic, invested considerable time and effort in Those who don’t think alien life ex- preventing public panics does not seem sowing fear and discord among Amer- ists might in fact be delighted at an offi- to be a high priority for the government icans using social media. However, if cial acknowledgement that extraterres- in America or anywhere else. The U.S. this UFO conspiracy theory is true, the trials have been contacted. Or they may government couldn’t even prevent an Kremlin’s biggest weapon might merely be indifferent, or they might indeed employee of the Hawaii Emergency be admitting that aliens exist. Israel panic. The response would not only Management Agency from sending out and want to blow each other off vary by individual but also depend on an emergency alert mistakenly warning the face of the Earth but have secretly many factors ranging from how closely of an incoming ballistic missile attack agreed to make sure people in other the alien life resembles us to whether in January 2018—at a time of escalat- countries don’t learn about UFOs? we are greeted with gifts or War of the ing tensions between the United States The irony, of course, is that even if Worlds–style glowing beams of destruc- and North Korea. For nearly forty the world’s governments had proof of tion. For the sake of argument, let’s say minutes, Hawaiians panicked and took alien life and agreed to release it, the that the public’s reactions are evenly di- shelter, before the public was notified conspiracy theorists would just call it a vided among those responses. Of the 26 that it had been a false alarm. Around “false flag” program of disinformation percent of people who “rule out” the ex- the world there are far greater threats to and demand to know what they’re not istence of intelligent alien civilizations, public order than people panicking over being told. •

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 29 BOB LADENDORF AND BRETT LADENDORF

30 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 31 While most rhino horns are ground into powder and used as medicine to supposedly cure cancer, impotence, or, as an illegal wildlife trade monitor says, “you name it,” people in Asia have begun wearing beads or bangles made from rhino horns thought to cure ailments as well as for status symbols. Some horns are fashioned into ceremonial cups (Kolata 2018). Why is the illegal supply and demand for rhino horns so pervasive? Rhino horn, after all, is mainly composed of keratin, the same substance in human hair and finger- nails. But it’s as valuable as gold or heroin. A kilogram, for instance, can sell for $60,000 (Kolata 2018). The killing of rhinos is just the tip of the iceberg in the ever-increasing destruction of wildlife for dubious The poachers sell that horn to a middleman, who reasons. Not only rhinos are facing extinction but also may be working for yet another smuggler, a criminal African elephants; certain species of lions, tigers, and syndicate, or even terrorists. Government border agents wolves; Grauer’s gorillas; and even giraffes. All this is and officials are bribed as the horn makes its way to done primarily at the hands of humans despite coura- geous efforts by conservation groups, governments, and countries such as China and Vietnam, where the horn individuals to stop the attacks. Some wildlife, such as is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to treat rhinos and wolves, among many others, faced extinc- various ailments, none of them proven scientifically to 2 tion when trade in animal parts was legal, but they now work. face that possibility again with illegal trading and other extinction pressures. “Leading international wildlife crises involve illegal poaching of rhinos, elephants, and sharks for their body parts, to be sold on the Asian black market for exorbi- While TCM does include a lot of tant prices and used for medicinal purposes or art,” stated vegetable- and herbal-based medicines, Cristina Eisenberg, chief scientist at Earthwatch Insti- tute in Boston and author of The Carnivore Way: Coexist- as well as non-endangered animal parts, ing with and Conserving North America’s Predators. the use of critically endangered animal The myth underlying this illegal bone trade runs very deep. Proponents tout rhino horn, shark fin (cartilage), parts that it promotes for scientifically and elephant tusk medicinal uses, as tonics, blood-pu- rifiers, or aphrodisiacs. But ultimately, it’s about unproven treatments and cures has been money—these illegal products are primarily seen as status symbols in Asia. While the purported medici- a major factor in the decline and nal use of these items has not been proven by science, the profound negative consequence of poaching has extinction of animal species. been thoroughly documented and is decimating pop- ulations of rhinos, elephants, and sharks, leaving them at or near extinction. (Eisenberg 2018) As of 2016, there were only 29,500 rhinos left in the world, 70 percent of them in South Africa. There are five species of rhinos—most of them endangered—with Recorded Number of Rhinos Poached in South Africa two subspecies going extinct in 2011 (Gwin 2012). Just 1400

1215 1175 a century ago, there were an estimated one million rhi- 1200 nos in Africa (Ellis 2005). 1004 1000 Some 30,000 elephants are poached yearly for their

800 ivory (Showing That Every Elephant … 2017). The 668 Ivory Game documentary warns that African elephants 600 448 may become extinct in fifteen years. Biologists estimate 400 333

Number of Rhinos Poached that total loss of large mammals in Africa went up to

200 60 percent between 1970 and 2013 (Paterniti 2017). In 122 13 83 the “Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: Second Notice” 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 last year, signed by more than 15,000 scientists in 184 Source: https://www.whistleblowers.org/storage/docs/BlogDocs/blog2016/poachingstats.pdf countries, a highlight of the document was a 29 per-

32 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer cent reduction in the numbers of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and fish since the publication of the first notice in 1992 (Houtman 2017). The global black market in live animals and parts is the fourth largest in the world, with an estimated $20 billion in profits (Tackling Wildlife Trafficking 2017). “Traders in ivory actually want extinction of ele- phants, and that is probably the biggest danger,” warns Craig Millar, head of security for the Big Life Foun- dation/Kenya, in The Ivory Game. “The less elephants there are, the more the price rises. The more the price rises, the more people want to kill them. And this is an ever ongoing circle that is just going to end up bringing about exactly what they want—extinction.” The same could be said about rhinos, lions, gorillas, and many Why is the illegal supply and demand for other animal species. rhino horns so pervasive? Myths and Superstitions Rhino horn, after all, is mainly composed While the trade in rhino horn is banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered of keratin, the same substance as Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), the black in human hair and fingernails. market fueled by demand particularly from China and Vietnam is lucrative and primarily recent. In But it’s as valuable as gold or heroin. 2005, according to the organization Save the Rhino International, about sixty rhinos were killed for their over cures and as aphrodisiacs. While the media reports horns or as trophies in Africa. Since then, more than were actually wrong about Asians using rhino horn as a 7,000 have been killed, with 1,346 in 2015 alone sexual stimulant, the attention paid to that error ironi- (Poaching in numbers 2017). In South Africa alone, cally sparked interest in using it for that equally scientif- poaching increased 9,000 percent from thirteen in ically unproven purpose! Elizabeth Kolbert pointed out 2007 to 1,215 in 2014 ( Juskalian 2017; Save the Rhino in The Sixth Extinction that rhino horn in recent years International 2018). is “even more sought-after as a high-end party ‘drug’; at Connecting a real animal with a mythical one is a clubs in southeast Asia, powdered horn is snorted like task undertaken by marine biologist Richard Ellis, au- cocaine” (Kolbert 2015). thor of Tiger Bone and Rhino Horn: The Destruction of An even more sensational claim is that rhino horn Wildlife for Traditional Chinese Medicine. He is a re- cures cancer, fueling even more demand. There’s no search associate at the American Museum of Natural scientific basis for that claim. The cause was likely a History. “The use of rhino horn … can be traced to the rumor started in Vietnam a decade ago that rhino horn unicorn, another animal with a horn growing from a had cured cancer in a near-death South Vietnamese totally unsuspected place” (Ellis 2005). He also wrote Communist Party official. The rumor spread rapidly, this for the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria’s and the price of rhino horn surged (Rademeyer 2017). rhino campaign in 2005: This myth prompted poachers to increase their efforts It is not clear that rhino horn serves any medicinal at killing rhinos in Africa, some even using helicopters purpose whatsoever, but it is a testimony to the power to track them down (Watts 2011). of tradition that millions of people believe that it does. Of course, there may be a placebo effect for some Of course, if people want to believe in prayer, acupunc- users of rhino horn. “Belief in a treatment, especially ture, or voodoo as a cure for what ails them, there is no reason why they shouldn’t, but if animals are being one that is wildly expensive and hard to get, can have killed to provide nostrums that have been shown to a powerful effect on how a patient feels,” stated Mary be useless, then there is very good reason to curtail the Hardy, medical director of Simms/Mann UCLA Center use of rhino horn … . It is heartbreaking to realize that for Integrative Oncology and “a traditional medicine ex- the world’s rhinos are being eliminated from the face pert,” according to National Geographic magazine (Gwin of the earth in the name of medications that probably 2012). don’t work. (Save the Rhino International 2017) While TCM does include a lot of vegetable- and While the scientifically unproven medicinal uses of herbal-based medicines, as well as non-endangered rhino horn have driven the eastern Asian black market, animal parts, the use of critically endangered animal there are additional extinction drivers, including the su- parts that it promotes for scientifically unproven treat- perstitious beliefs in the efficacy of rhino horn for hang- ments and cures has been a major factor in the decline

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 33 and extinction of animal species. Numerous articles in Sea Shepherd ship continued its battle with fishermen science publications, including this magazine, confirm and the illegal nets; one of their anti-poaching cam- that these purported remedies have no basis in fact. The era drones was shot down there in late December 2017 late Robert Carroll wrote in his Skeptic’s Dictionary that (Tillman 2017). “Magical thinking is clearly the basis for some of these Another mammal under assault for its dubious me- concoctions, e.g. deer penis to enhance male virility. dicinal qualities is the pangolin, who rolls up in a ball for Many of the medicinals lead to the suffering and un- defense with scales on the outside. While not currently necessary maiming and killing of many animals.” As ex- endangered, the pangolin may be the most illegally traf- amples, Carroll relates how thousands of bears are kept ficked animal in the world, with some estimates as high in cages throughout Asia so their bile can be tapped and as 2.7 million yearly. The pangolin scales are sold for as sold to cure various ailments. “Other animals are treated much as $750 a kilogram. “Most … end up in China with equal disdain: sharks for their fins, rhinos for their and Vietnam,” reports The Economist. “In these countries horns, and tigers and tortoises for various body parts” pangolins’ meat is a treat and their scales are used in folk (Carroll 2018). medicine, even though the scales are made of keratin … As TCM continues the pressure on the illegal use and thus have no medicinal value” (A problem of scale of rhino horn, other connected factors help to reduce 2018). the numbers of these animals, as well as other wildlife. Some providers and consumers of sharks and other Some 73–100 million sharks are killed yearly, primarily endangered species in East Asian countries may argue for their fins for shark fin soup in Vietnam and China that the animals are killed for calories and protein, in (Masson 2014; Defenders of Wildlife 2018) There’s no addition to dubious medicinal practices, and continue scientific evidence that the soup treats any medical con- to be needed to help feed growing populations. As far dition, including cancer. It’s primarily a luxury item in as they are concerned, animal species may be low-hang- Chinese culture, although consumption of the soup has ing fruit, whether endangered or not. They also may been reduced in recent years with the introduction of an imitation shark fin soup (Shark fin soup 2018). While the scientifically unproven medicinal uses of rhino horn have driven the eastern Asian black market, there are additional extinction drivers, including the superstitious beliefs in the efficacy of rhino horn for hangover cures and as aphrodisiacs.

The vaquita, the smallest marine mammal that lives question whether those in the West who are critical of exclusively in the upper Gulf of California in Mexico, is their eating habits should deal with their own issues almost extinct because they get caught in gillnets used of overfishing in the Gulf of Mexico, the waters of the to catch Mexican shrimp. Because of a high demand in Pacific Northwest, and Chesapeake Bay. Then there China for its dried swim bladders “for their supposed is the religious argument that humans have “dominion” medicinal properties,” the endangered totoaba fish is over the animals, as mentioned in Genesis 1. caught in the illegal gillnetting in the Gulf. A campaign urging consumers to boycott Mexican shrimp and ask- ing the Mexican government to ban all gillnetting to The Price of Poaching save the vaquitas and totoaba has not been successful. With retail prices per kilo in the tens of thousands of “The Mexican government is putting shrimp industry dollars, the $20 billion black market hosts brazen play- profits over saving this tiny porpoise from its freefall ers trying to make a buck. The mastermind sellers in into extinction,” says Alejandra Goyenechea, senior animal parts, with methods for extraction, distribution, international counsel for the Defenders of Wildlife and financing, are likely to operate their networks sim- organization (Boycott Mexican Shrimp to Save Va- ilar to that of international drug cartels or arms dealers. quitas! 2017). In 2018, the Elephant Action League’s Along the supply chain exist financial incentives for

34 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer personnel with wealth accumulating to those who can than good, exposing animals to bombs and landmines control most of the network. From poachers to whole- and increasing the demand for ivory and bushmeat that salers to dealers to art merchants to buyers at the retail are used to finance and feed armies (Conflict’s other level, the profit margins drive incentives. Enforcers casualties 2018; Kaplan 2018). of the parts trade accumulate wealth but so do those The emotional impact on chimpanzees and gorillas at the retail end who can distribute to mass markets, was well illustrated in the documentary Virunga, which whether in the form of “medicine” or in the form of showed the heroic struggles of Virunga National Park “art.” For example, poachers will receive as little as $7 caretakers and military rangers to protect the animals per kilo of ivory for an African elephant tusk. In the from the intrusions of armies as well as poachers. Seeing documentary The Ivory Game, an arrested Tanzanian the fear in the animal faces as they clung to the care- poacher received from a dealer such a sum—a cou- takers as bombs exploded nearby shows the difficulties ple hundred dollars—for two tusks weighing fifteen faced by both wildlife and humans. kilos each. The dealer then parlayed his purchase into An additional pressure on wildlife and their ecosys- $3,000 per kilo in China. tems is the proposed completion of the U.S.-Mexico On the streets across the world, there’s significant border wall by President Trump. According to studies, variance in the economic value of the tusks, or rhino some 700 vertebrate species, such as jaguars, Mexican horns, driving the incentive for wholesalers to move gray wolves, ocelots, mountain lions, and black bears, more product. In one instance, the ivory tusks were rely on the borderland habitat—and more than 180 of found in a Chinese retail shop that was selling a painted the borderland species are already listed as endangered tusk for $330,000, or $22,000 per kilo. If that same or threatened. A wall also would keep those animals tusk had been extracted by the Tanzanian poacher, that from natural crossings—wildlife corridors (State of would be more than 3,000 times the price paid at the the border 2018). While U.S. laws could help protect source. endangered species, Congress passed a law in 2005 giv- With the recent banning of the ivory trade in China, ing the Department of Homeland Security authority prices for the legal selling of tusks dropped, but it’s too to waive all laws when constructing a wall. The agency early to determine that impact on the black market. already has used its authority to waive forty laws, such as However, documented evidence of the illegal trade, such as that highlighted in The Ivory Game, is shining a light Alarming Biodiversity Loss Predicted on the amounts involved along the supply chain. As a tusk, or a rhino horn, travels from the animal carcass in New Scientific Reports on the plains of sub-Saharan Africa to the medicine cabinet of an East Asian retiree, the price increase has As shown in the main article, many wildlife species are been phenomenal in recent years. experiencing severe declines in numbers due to the de- mand for animal parts based on myths and superstitions. Four new landmark scientific summary reports released Other Animal Extinction Pressures by an intergovernmental body March 23 show that Earth’s biodiversity is declining alarmingly worldwide. According to a 2013 survey by TRAFFIC, an orga- The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Bio- nization that monitors illegal wildlife trade for the diversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) states in one World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for of its regional reports on Africa that all flora and fauna Conservation of Nature (IUCN)—known for its Red are threatened by human-induced and natural causes. By List of Endangered Species—rhino horn also is a sta- 2100, climate change alone could reduce by half Africa’s tus symbol for the rich in countries such as China and bird and mammal species, along with a significant loss of Vietnam. “The motivation for consumers buying rhino plant species. In the next thirty years, Africa’s population horn (are) the emotional benefits rather than medici- is expected to double to 2.5 billion people. nal, as it reaffirms their social status among their peers. These added pressures, coupled with the ongoing rapid Image and status (are) important to these consumers,” loss of mammal species in Africa and elsewhere, will only and “they tend to be highly educated and successful increase the chances of a wildlife apocalypse, although people who have a powerful social network and no the reports do describe measures to ameliorate biodiver- affinity to wildlife. Rhino horns are sometimes bought sity losses and give hope for halting the decline of animal for the sole purpose of being gifted to others; to family and plant species. members, business colleagues or people in positions of Full reports with data will be released later this year. authority” (Save the Rhino International 2017). For more information about the summary reports for poli- Even war is bad for wildlife, as shown by researchers cymakers and IPBES, go to www.ipbes.net. Rob Pringle and Joshua Daskin in their recent Nature article. They conclude that wars do wildlife more harm

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 35 the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act, in ing as a cover for trafficking” (Nuwer 2017). constructing 650 miles of barrier in past years. (Schlyer Climate change provides additional pressures on 2018).3 There have been border protests against the wildlife, such as polar bears coping with the shrinking of new wall and pending lawsuits by environmental and Arctic ice. There are many other effects. “As the seasonal animal rights organizations (Against the Wall 2017). cycles in temperature and rainfall shift,” writes climate One area of dispute as to whether it contributes to scientist Prof. Michael E. Mann, “altering by different the decline in large animals is trophy hunting. Hunt- amounts the timing of the hatching of insects and the ers who paid a lot of money for permits to shoot and arrival of birds, entire food webs are in danger of dis- import elephant and other wildlife trophies argue that ruption. Plants and animals possess a certain amount the money helps in the conservation of animals in Af- of behavioral elasticity, but the more rapid the changes, rica, while animal rights groups say the trophy hunting the more likely this intrinsic adaptive capacity will be “causes immense suffering and fuels the demand for exceeded, and the more likely that we humans will be wild animal products” (Pearce 2017b). For a big game responsible for one of the most devastating extinction hunt, for instance, a hunter might pay up to $200,000 events in Earth’s history” (Mann and Toles 2016). for a rifle and $80,000 for a fourteen-day single elephant These additional pressures—added to the demand hunt (Paterniti 2017). A portion of the fee is paid to for certain wildlife, such as rhinos and elephants, based community members, such as the San in Namibia, and a on myths and superstitions—may indeed produce a portion for a conservation fund. An African trophy hunt wildlife apocalypse. for a leopard may bring in as much as $55,000, while a lion fetches up to $76,000. While some people still hunt Live Wild Pet Trade to eat, sport hunters are in it for the thrill and to show off their “trophies,” although some face severe criticism While China and Vietnam have been the main drivers as did the American who killed the well-known Cecil for the extinction of rhinos and elephants, the United the Lion (Paterniti 2017). States and Europe have surprisingly major black mar- President Trump planned to partially reverse an kets for the trade in wild, exotic pets. Birds and snakes Obama-era ban last November by allowing hunters to from overseas are stuffed into soda bottles for transit to import trophies from Zambia and Zimbabwe, then he the Western countries. Tragically, 90 percent of these reversed himself and postponed the decision after an animals die in transit (Wild Matters 2017). Many of outcry from citizens and lawmakers. California Rep. the same black marketers in wild animal parts, such Ed Royce, a Republican Congressman, pointed out that as rhino horn, also spark the trade in live animals the political turmoil in Zimbabwe could spell doom for (Conniff 2017). wildlife. “Elephants and other big game in Africa are “Many of these people who were doing the tradi- blood currency for terrorist organizations, and they are tional medicine trade are now branching out because being killed at an alarming rate,” he said (Pearce 2017a). the high-end pet trade in China has grown immensely,” In that country, points out Vanda Felbab-Brown, a se- commented Brian Horne, a herpetologist for the Wild- nior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of life Conservation Society. Critically endangered adult The Extinction Market, authorities seize the hunting ploughshare tortoises that live only in Madagascar cost preserves and keep the profits; they don’t reinvest in $100,000 each, which now draws in criminal elements. conservation. She said the trophy hunting business “be- For example, thieves broke into a captive breeding fa- comes very commercialized and the profits are captured cility in Thailand—set up by conservationists to re- by elites. You can also end up with trophy hunting serv- build populations of endangered species—and stole six

36 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer ploughshare tortoises. The trade in exotic pets, accord- from 2004–2014, primarily in Africa, protecting wild- ing to conservation biologist David S. Wilcove, has “the life from poachers (Chancellor 2014).4 A conservation potential to drive species to extinction even when they organization, The Nature Conservancy, partnered with have suitable habitat, and to do so without anyone being the Northern Rangelands Trust to reduce poaching in aware of it” (Conniff 2017). Northern Kenya (Oluchina 2014). However, the fight against poachers in Africa received a setback when How Smartphones Decimated Grauer’s Gorillas famous American conservation investigator Esmond Bradley Martin, seventy-five, was stabbed to death at his Just when anyone interested in preserving species on home in a possible murder that may have been disguised the verge of extinction feels comfortable that many as a robbery of the long-time activist who uncovered efforts are being made to fight back through the illegal global trafficking of ivory and rhino horn (Dixon work of governments, nongovernmental organizations 2018). (NGOs), and concerned individuals, the disquieting In January 2018, Ivory Coast officials said they broke news is the human demand for cell phones is the cause up an international ivory-smuggling network, the sec- of at least one mammal’s near extinction. Grauer’s ond such bust on the continent that month. They ar- gorillas in the Congo have suffered a 77 percent rested six people and confiscated more than half a ton decline in the past two decades because of the con- each of ivory and pangolin scales, as well as leopard sumer electronics explosion. How? One of the key components of a cell phone is the parts. The network hid ivory parts in hollowed-out logs mineral coltan, and 80 percent of it is found in mines that were resealed and shipped to Asian countries. The in the Congo. Those mines that destroy the land to un- suspects had made calls to tax-haven countries, leading earth coltan and other minerals often use young chil- dren. These are “artisanal” operations, meaning that the Selected Organizations mining requires not machinery but laborers digging cra- Fighting for Animals ters into stream beds by hand. Amnesty International reports that as many as 40,000 children may be mining Below is a list of organizations that are active in protecting for coltan in the Congo. animals, including those involved in dangerous anti-poach- “To feed these people, wildlife is hunted from the ing efforts, filing lawsuits for animal rights, and conducting surrounding forests,” said Tara Stoinski, president and scientific research to determine the threats faced by ani- chief scientist of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund Interna- mals. The alphabetical list, which is by no means compre- tional. “This includes gorillas, chimpanzees, elephants, hensive, provides contact information in case you want to and many other species.” Trade in bushmeat is illegal, help with efforts to prevent the extinction of animals. but the Congo is a war-torn region that makes such laws unenforceable (Posada 2017). • Center for Biological Diversity — www.biologicaldiversity.org • Defenders of Wildlife — www.defenders.org Fighting Back • Earthjustice — www.earthjustice.org/the-wild/wildlife While the outlook is dire for many species, includ- • Earthwatch — www.earthwatch.org ing giraffes in Africa that have seen their numbers • Elephant Action League — www.elephantleague.org decline nearly 40 percent from 1985–2015 to less than • Greenpeace — www.greenpeace.org/usa 100,000 now, the good news is that many governments, • Marine Mammal Center — www.marinemammalcenter.org NGOs, conservation organizations, and individuals are • National Audubon Society — www.audubon.org banding together to save as many species as possible. • National Geographic Society — www.nationalgeographic.org As of January 1, 2018, China has banned all trade in • National Wildlife Federation — www.nwf.org ivory, which follows the lead of the United States in 2016 (Giraffes newly classified 2017). Hong Kong • Natural Resources Defense Council — www.nrdc.org also announced in late January that it would ban all • Ocean Conservancy — www.oceanconservancy.org ivory trade by 2021. Just this past July, 7.2 tons of new • Oceana — www.oceana.org elephant tusks were found under frozen fish in Hong • Save the Rhino International — www.savetherhino.org Kong and confiscated. Only ivory acquired before 1970 • Sierra Club — www.sierraclub.org is legal there (May 2018). • The Jane Goodall Institute — www.janegoodall.org In 2017, Operation Thunderbird, a sixty-nation • Wildleaks — www.wildleaks.org global seizure of illegal wildlife and floral trade, iden- • World Wildlife Fund — www.worldwildlife.org tified 900 suspects, with 1,300 seizures worth $5.1 million (Wild Matters: Tackling Wildlife Trafficking 2017). More than 1,000 rangers have given up their lives

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 37 officials to suspect money laundering. In another in The Reliquary, a U.S. government warehouse out- bust in Gabon, officials said they also broke up a side Denver that holds 1.3 million products made smuggling network that had ties to a cell of Boko from animals, many of them threatened or endan- Haram, the Islamic militant group responsible for gered species. Many were donated, but most were numerous murders and kidnappings in northern Ni- seized upon entry. Just 10 percent of global trade geria and bordering countries (Searcey 2018). in banned wildlife is intercepted. In the repository, Undercover NGO investigators and journalists you’ll see an African elephant footstool, tiger teeth have been instrumental in identifying companies, and claws fashioned into jewelry, a hat made of black merchants, and corrupt businessmen involved in bear skin, Tibetan antelope shawls, and a rhinoceros the illegal wildlife trafficking trade, as shown in the snout and horns on a wooden platter (Spinski 2017). documentaries The Ivory Game and Virunga. There The fight continues to save endangered animals, are many organizations working to save wildlife, and we can only hope that all humans realize the from long-standing ones such as The Sierra Club necessity for animal biodiversity and the need for and Defenders of Wildlife to newer ones such as scientific evidence in the use of medicines. “Too the Elephant Action League, Wildleaks, and United many animals, from sea horses to rhinoceroses, are for Wildlife, which was created by the Duke (Prince endangered by the demands of traditional Chinese William) and Duchess (Catherine) of Cambridge medicine,” says author Richard Ellis.5 “Of course, and Prince Harry. Others, such as Earthwatch, en- TCM is not the only factor in the endangerment gage citizen scientists in worldwide expeditions to of these animals, but it plays an enormous part. If provide data for scientific studies on wildlife, climate present trends continue, tigers and rhinos will be- change, and other matters. come extinct in the wild, perhaps in our lifetime There’s even a new tactic in wildlife conserva- and almost certainly in the lifetime of our children’s tion: horn and tusk forensics. Like the genetic fin- children” (Ellis 2005). The false beliefs that have driven gerprinting methods in the criminal justice system, From the savannahs of Africa to the ports of scientists are making efforts to match the DNA of North America, the black market trade in ani- poaching and decimation of various a rhino or elephant with its horn or tusk in posses- mal parts is lucrative for top smugglers. Demand species need to be corrected. sion of a poacher. A scientific database called Rhodis is driven for many reasons, of which belief in false (modeled after the FBI’s Codis system) has been medicines can perhaps have the best chance of being established with some 20,000 samples taken from reduced through educational outreach and policies rhinos by Dr. Cindy Harper, a veterinarian at the guided by progressive studies of human behavior. University of Pretoria, and her colleagues (Kolata Government programs and public-private agency 2018). partnerships can and have demonstrated success in These efforts may be too little, too late for some nudging consumer behavior in a direction that can species, but they give hope to others. Not only is produce positive outcomes for the self and the com- there some success in reducing poaching, but there munity. It can start with something as little as a con- is also increasing awareness in the public about the test for an anti-littering slogan along Texan high- wildlife trafficking issues. The false beliefs that have ways to change human behavior. It can be a program driven poaching and decimation of various species to frame better choices for consumers who desire need to be corrected, and the “profits captured by certain attributes from parts of animals. Though elites,” as termed by Felbab-Brown, need to be affecting the behavior of those who demand parts stopped (Nuwer 2017). Even John Hume, the con- for status or for value may prove the hardest work, troversial rhino rancher behind the rhino-ranching moving humans toward awareness through educa- movement to legalize the rhino horn trade in South tion and science may have the most profound effect Africa and the subject of the controversial docu- on a mass scale. mentary Trophy, thinks rhino horn medicinal uses For Carl Sagan, it would be “far better to grasp are bunk. It doesn’t matter to him that rhino horn the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, is snake oil when it comes to treating serious mala- however satisfying and reassuring” (Sagan 1997). dies. “I’m not ashamed that the rhino horn I make Though Sagan focused on the possibility of life be- available to the world could possibly be ingested by yond Earth, he knew that the greatest dangers to somebody who’s got cancer and he dies anyway. It’s our own well-being and to that of our environment not going to help them” (Christy 2016). came from within ourselves. For our planet, the re- It’s hard not to feel sad for the brutality inflicted duction and loss of species from these delusions of on animals for purposes of human beliefs in myths grandeur is tragic. It also would be a tragedy if we and superstitions, for status and appetites, and for weren’t able to fight off the AK-47s and machetes plain old greed. A lasting image of the horrible leg- with better knowledge on why people reject science acy of inhumane treatments of animals can be seen in favor of the dark. •

38 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Notes Paterniti, Michael. 2017. Should we kill animals to save them? 1. Ian Player is credited with saving South Africa’s rhinos from National Geographic (October). extinction in the 1960s. Pearce, Matt. 2017a. Trump postpones plan to allow elephant trophy 2. A 2015 article in Skeptical Inquirer by Harriet Hall, imports. Los Angeles Times (November 19). for instance, casts doubt on TCM versus science-based medicine: ———. 2017b. U.S. to allow elephant trophy hunting. Los Angeles “Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Didn’t Win a Nobel Prize, Times (November 17). Scientific Medicine Did.” It is available online at https://www.csicop. Poaching in numbers: 2006–2017. 2017. The Horn 2017. Available org/specialarticles/show/traditional_chinese_medicine_tcm_didnr- squot_win_a_nobel_prize_scientific_me. online at https://issuu.com/savetherhinointernational/docs/ 3. The value and extent of wildlife corridors in North America sr3260_thehorn17-book-web. is explained by Cristina Eisenberg in her book The Carnivore Way: Posada, Brenda. 2017. Call of the wild. Zoo View (Summer). (A Coexisting with and Conserving North America’s Predators. quarterly magazine of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association.) 4. For a more detailed account of how rangers face dangers from Rademeyer, Julian. 2017. Killing for Profit: Exposing the Illegal Rhino poachers, see Robyn Dixon’s “Elephant Men,” Los Angeles Times, Horn Trade. South Africa: Zebra Press. December 22, 2017. Another article on the rhino horn legal trade controversy is Robyn Dixon’s “It’s Cruelty beyond Words,” Los Angeles Sagan, Carl. 1997. The Demon-Haunted World. New York: Ballantine Times, August 2, 2017. Books. 5. In Ellis’s Tiger Bone & Rhino Horn: The Destruction of Wildlife Save the Rhino International. 2017. Poaching for rhino horn. for Traditional Chinese Medicine, chapter 3 (“Chinese Medicine, Available online at https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/ Western Medicine”) discusses TCM in detail, while chapter 4 (“Horn threats_to_rhino/poaching_for_rhino_horn. of Plenty”) details the history of the “unicorn” and its connection to ———. 2018. Poaching statistics. Available online at https:// the supernatural and the reality of real animal horns. www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/poaching_statistics; accessed References February 2, 2018. Schlyer, Krista. 2018. Walled off: A ‘big beautiful wall’ would devas- A problem of scale. 2018. The Economist (February 3). tate wildlife populations on both sides. Defenders 93(2) (Winter). Against the wall. 2017. Audubon (Winter). Searcey, Dionne. 2018. Ivory Coast arrests six in crackdown on smug- Boycott Mexican shrimp to save vaquitas! 2017. Defenders (Summer). Carroll, Robert. 2018. The Skeptic’s Dictionary (online). Available gling. New York Times ( January 26). online at http://skepdic.com/tcm.html. Shark fin soup. 2018. Wikipedia. Available online at https://en.wiki- Chancellor, David. 2014. Save the animals. Time (August 18). pedia.org/wiki/Shark_fin_soup#Imitation_shark_fin_soup; Christy, Bryan. 2016. Deadly trade. National Geographic (October). accessed February 15, 2018. Conflict’s other casualties. 2018. The Economist ( January 13). Showing that every elephant—and every voice—counts. 2017. Conniff, Richard. 2017. Loved to death. Scientific American (October). National Wildlife (October–November). Defenders of Wildlife. 2018. Email to Bob Ladendorf (February 9). Dixon, Robyn. 2017a. It’s cruelty beyond words. Los Angeles Times Spinski, Tristan. 2017. The reliquary. New York Times ( July 11). (August 2). State of the border. 2018. Defenders 93(2) (Winter). ———. 2017b. Elephant men. Los Angeles Times (December 22). Tackling wildlife trafficking. 2017. Defenders (Winter). ———. 2018. Ivory activist fatally stabbed. Los Angeles Times Tillman, Laura. 2017. Anti-poaching drone shot down in Mexico. Los (February 6) Angeles Times (December 27). Eisenberg, Cristina. 2014. The Carnivore Way: Coexisting with and Wild matters: Tackling wildlife trafficking. 2017. Defenders (Summer). Conserving North America’s Predators. Washington: Island Press. Watts, Jonathan. 2011. “Cure for cancer” rumour killed off Vietnam’s ———. 2018. Letter to Bob Ladendorf ( January 29). Ellis, Richard. 2005. Tiger Bone & Rhino Horn: The Destruction of rhinos. (November 25). Available online at https:// Wildlife for Traditional Chinese Medicine. Washington, D.C.: www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/nov/25/cure-cancer- Island Press. rhino-horn-vietnam. Giraffes newly classified as vulnerable. 2017. Population Connection (March). Gwin, Peter. 2012. Rhino wars. National Geographic (March). Houtman, Nick. 2017. Concerned scientists—world scientists’ warn- ing to humanity: Second notice. Oxford University Press blog. Available online at https://blog.oup.com/2017/12/concerned-sci- Bob Ladendorf is a freelance writer, for- entists-world-scientists-warning-humanity-second-notice/; accessed February 14, 2018. mer chief operating officer at the Center Juskalian, Russ. 2017. Last chance to be. Discover (November). for Inquiry Los Angeles, and coauthor of Kaplan, Karen. 2018. Wild animals highly sensitive to effects of war, an article on “The Mad Gasser of Mattoon” researchers find. Los Angeles Times ( January 18). Kolata, Gina. 2018. A poaching science is a crime scene. New York for Skeptical Inquirer. He also recently Times ( January 9). reviewed the documentary The Patholog- Kolbert, Elizabeth. 2015. The Sixth Extinction. New York: Picador. ical Optimist and Michael E. Mann’s book Mann, Michael E., and Tom Toles. 2016. The Madhouse Effect: How on climate change for this magazine. Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy. New York: Columbia University Brett Ladendorf has worked in the finan- Press. cial markets for more than twelve years Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff. 2014. Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us and currently has a financial services About The Origins of Good And Evil. New York: Bloomsbury USA May, Tiffany. 2018. Hong Kong moves to ban all ivory sales, closing consulting practice for alternative invest- a loophole. New York Times ( January 31). Available online at ment managers and financial technology https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/world/asia/hong-kong- firms. He holds a BA in economics from elephant-ivory.html. Nuwer, Rachel. 2017. Elephants as trophies? An endless debate. New the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA in finance York Times (December 5). and accounting from the University of Chicago Booth School Oluchina, Charles. 2014. The price of poaching. Nature Conservancy of Business. His coauthor is his father. (August/September).

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 39 Skepticism Reloaded A leading skeptic addresses the essence of contemporary skepticism and highlights the vital nonpartisan and science-based role of skeptics in preventing deception and harm.

AMARDEO SARMA

orty-two years have passed since the birth of CSICOP, the Committee for the Sci- entific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (now the Committee for Skep- tical Inquiry, CSI), and its magazine, Skeptical Inquirer. Soon after its birth, Fthere was a wave of skepticism across the globe. A great visionary was at the center of the explosion: Paul Kurtz, a philosophy professor who saw skepticism as a global worldwide endeavor. The Australian Skeptics took off in 1980 with Mark Plummer as president. A decade later, in the mid-1980s, CSICOP encouraged skeptics all over the world to form their own groups.

Mark Plummer, then executive director of CSICOP, and Wendy Grossman, founder of the magazine The Skeptic in the United Kingdom, toured Europe in this mission, result- ing in many new groups. Paul Kurtz also defined skepticism as he saw fit for the movement in his book The New Skepticism (1992). This vari- ant is what we would now call “scientific skepticism.” It is distinct from the ancient Greek variety of skepticism that de- nied that we could acquire knowledge and wanted us not to take a stand—to suspend judgment. Skeptics today do take a stand. They insist on skeptical inquiry, which is at the core of scientific research, as a funda- mental and indispensable tool. At the same time, they also ac- knowledge that the body of science represents reliable knowl- edge of a real world. More importantly, they stand up and theories are a recent addition. (See also Frazier’s Commentary advocate for what we know about science and pseudoscience, “In Troubled Times, This is What We Do,” Skeptical In- even when others (including friends and colleagues) frown on quirer, March/April 2018.) us. Skeptics today are committed to scientific realism. With the twenty-first–century trend of “alternative facts” well underway, the time is ripe for revitalizing a vision for Initially, the movement focused mainly on fringe science the future. claims ignored by the scientific establishment. A decade ago, We need to begin by framing our cause and our identity as Kendrick Frazier, editor of Skeptical Inquirer, extended skeptics worldwide. Let us start from the very core. the scope. In the book Science under Siege: Defending Science, Exposing Pseudoscience (2009), he put the defense of science it- self on the map. Publications and events organized by skeptics Why Do We Do What We Do? had been increasingly taking up anthropogenic global warm- Why do we bother? What drives us? Do we enjoy showing ing, GMOs, and the anti-vaccination movement. Conspiracy that others are wrong? Or do we want to show that we are

40 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer somehow better than others who we believe to be ignorant? and religious or nonreligious biases that could cloud their The answer is central to the skeptical movement. It defines objectivity. the ambition of contemporary skepticism. The reason we have taken up such issues is that others are Our overall goal and vision must be at the very core of our reluctant to deal with them for fear of antagonizing people motivation, at what drives us. Let us take an example from they need to work with or on whom their career paths may someone who set out to change the world, Rev. Dr. Martin depend. Luther King Jr. He had a dream. What is ours? Our work is much harder than it would be in an ideal We strive for a world in which pseudoscientific claims do not world because many of those who should know better are fail- deceive or harm anyone. ing. Universities have allowed pseudoscience in their curricula. Our motivation also defines what we are concerned with: Too many leading scientists and renowned experts are silent unfounded, unscientific, pseudoscientific, antiscientific, or plainly false claims. With our tools of skeptical inquiry and when they should be speaking up. We often need to do the with the background of reliable, scientific knowledge, we do dirty work of others, as in keeping quackery out of medicine. not want such false claims to fool or deceive us or others and Several NGOs have gone off course and have ignored science thus harm us or withhold benefits from us. By doing so, we and evidence. also want to better understand the world around us and the Alternative facts and fake news are not new. And even mechanisms by which our wishful thinking leads us astray. the use of these terms is losing its meaning when those who So how do we reach our goals or strive to fulfil our dream? spread bullshit apply those terms to those who are more fac- How do we limit deception and harm caused by pseudosci- tual than they are. entific claims? Most skeptical organizations focus on science As skeptics, we have a growing job to do, and this means and critical thinking as the best available instruments of re- much more work for us all. liable knowledge by far. Most would describe their mission and how they achieve their overall goals in some version of the following: Skeptics today do take a We provide reliable information on claims that contradict sci- ence and the tools of skeptical inquiry to evaluate and investigate stand. They insist on skeptical them. Our vision and mission together define the driving values inquiry, which is at the core of of skeptical organizations. They are the reason so many skep- tics are passionate about what they do and spend so much of scientific research, as a funda- their time and money for skepticism instead of for themselves and their own benefit. We need these values to motivate us mental and indispensable tool. and others to action.

What Makes Us Different? Scientific Skepticism Is Central to Our Well-Being Skeptics are neither the first nor the only people educating the public about science or on what might be disadvan- Contemporary skepticism is about everybody, not just us as tageous for them. We have consumer protection agencies, skeptics. It is about everyone’s well-being, now and in the testing agencies and companies, science communicators, the future. Its approach combines science and critical think- scientific establishment itself, and information portals, such ing—twins of a sort. as ones on climate change. As skeptics, we place our confidence in science as by far It does not make sense to duplicate others’ efforts. There the best means to acquire knowledge that we can rely on, is, however, something particular and unique to what we have even on matters of life and death. We are also aware that we been doing and will very likely continue doing in the future. I as humans have a broad capability to fool ourselves. This psy- see three elements that define our scope and approach: chological limitation can severely damage us individually or the planet as a whole, and it can also prevent us from taking 1. We take on issues on which others for various reasons are useful action. silent. Initially, these were limited to fringe science issues, The potential consequences also point to how we would but this has changed significantly of late. want to prioritize our efforts. As a disclaimer, any prioritiza- 2. We focus on delusion, self-delusion, and wishful thinking tion should not discourage anyone from pursuing their favor- that may lead us astray. It is no coincidence that magi- ite project or topic. Our success depends on enthusiasm, and cians were part of the movement from the very start. we do not know whether a “pet” topic of today could become 3. We are truly nonpartisan and independent and know that a significant problem years or decades in the future. People are every political, ideological, and religious inclination can best at doing what they love doing. lead to self-delusion in some areas. Even skeptics may fall Many skeptical organizations are already prioritizing their for claims that they wish to be true if they do not remind work based on how much harm some areas cause or how themselves that they too have their political, ideological, much benefit they prevent. Examples are:

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 41 • Pseudomedicine in all its forms, such as homeopathy; gether. They can reflect shared values, motivations, and scopes, • Denying the usefulness of vaccination or even the fact but they should not tell individual organizations what to do. that viruses cause diseases; and At every level, it will always be a challenge to achieve the right mix between useful consolidation and individuality to • The spread of superstition and magical thinking with avoid fragmentation. Should we consolidate the movement significant damaging potential. (Rationalists in India and based on language, country, or region? How large or small skeptics in Africa face physical threats and endanger their should these regions be? Those concerned need to decide how lives with their engagement.) to solve this on a case-by-case basis, and I do not see a one- In line with a view on possible consequences and possible size-fits-all formula to solve this problem. harm or denied improvement, global warming and GMOs have been rightly taken up. Skeptics Are Human Both prioritized and “pet” topics have led to a wealth of We have been fortunate to have all sorts of people driving information worldwide that skeptics make available today. the skeptical movement and ensuring that it moves on. We can all draw from these resources and have done so in Some are doers who form the backbone. They make sure the past. The German skeptics reacted very quickly when that the organizations keep running, magazines keep being claims related to facilitated communication came up. Their published, and events keep happening. We also need leaders magazine, Skeptiker, reprinted an article by Gina Green and who organize skepticism and keep individual organizations benefited from the experience gained in Australia and the across the world together. Then there are personalities such United States. as James Randi who inspire us all. A healthy combination of this diversity helps us all. If we want others to see us as pushing a universal cause, we must also ensure diversity in a different sense of the word. Skeptical groups must have women and individuals from mi- With the twenty-first–century nority communities in visible positions. Increasing diversity requires particular and constant attention. trend of “alternative facts” What we do not need are those who put themselves above the movement. When we do involve stars, we need to make well underway, the time is sure that they will benefit our cause and not just use our com- ripe for revitalizing a vision mon cause to boost their reputations. However, it is unavoidable that, in the long run, we will for the future. have problems with well-known and lesser-known skeptics. Problematic people are not unique to skeptical organizations, but they are something that the movement, and particularly its leaders, will have to manage. Being a skeptic does not mean that we are all good people. A few may not be. Similarly, some of those we argue against may have good intentions. Within skeptical organizations, Working across the Globe we will have to be just and take action, defending those who There are now skeptic and rationalist organizations all over interested parties accuse unjustly, as well as acting firmly on the world. But we also need networking between skeptics unacceptable behavior. We have to prepare for even unlikely globally to help us all be more effective and efficient. Science occurrences and ensure that mechanisms are in place to pre- has been doing this all along. This kind of networking must vent misbehavior such as sexual harassment. It is the job of the be at the heart of our future work. leaders of the skeptical movement to deal with such problems However, it remains essential that we do not make the and issues. These issues will not go away but will remain a mistake many other NGOs have made. Every country and constant challenge. region has its specific problems and approach. The network of skeptical organizations must learn from each other and at Professionalization the same time avoid imposing on each other. One prominent limitation is that skeptics are all far too These considerations also frame the ability and limitations dependent on voluntary activity. We need more skeptics who of organizations, such as ECSO, the European Council of can do this as a paid job. The problem is very often the lack Skeptical Organisations. ECSO was formed to bring to- of funds. Marko Kovic from the Swiss skeptics makes a valid gether skeptical organizations in Europe. Organizations such point when he writes: “One of the highest priorities of skep- as ECSO must focus on facilitating the exchange of informa- tical organizations should be to generate revenue streams tion, promoting the creation of new groups, and organizing that are as large and as sustainable as possible” (https://www. events to bring people from all over a region or the world to- skeptiker.ch/some-problems-of-the-skeptic-movement/).

42 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Reform or Refocus? There have been three ways to generate revenue. The first is via membership of organizations, which has been the We have come a long way since the 1970s. Some skepti- prime source of income for the German skeptics organization cal organizations started in the nineteenth century. The GWUP. The second is via donations and bequests, which is Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij, the association against the way other organizations work, CSI and the Australian quackery in the Netherlands, was founded in 1881. Comité Skeptics being two examples. The third is what almost all or- Para in Belgium took off in 1949. There is a lot we have ganizations do anyway: providing services and products, such achieved, and we all have an excellent reason to be proud of as a magazine or events. it. We are here to stay. But we also have much further to go. We should never be satisfied with what we have achieved; instead we must build for the future. As a movement and with organizations that are independent of specific or vested interests, we are more We are unwilling to accept credible than most. So here is my take on our future priorities: the dangers caused by 1. Get a consistent message out on the skeptical movement. Focus on what drives us and why we are needed. The alternative facts and “why” is at the very core to motivate and grow skeptical pseudoscientific claims. groups. 2. Define a skeptic as one who adheres to scientific skep- ticism. 3. Prioritize on topics having the most significant potential for harm, be it directly or by omission. At the same time, It is the first two that can significantly improve the fi- let those with a strong motivation continue working on nancial basis of cause-based organizations. We have not yet their favorite subjects. You never know when they may been able to present our cause and why we do what we do turn out to be critical. well enough. Much more than what we do, we have to clearly 4. Make use of the immense global resources of skeptics. communicate why we put in all our time and effort. We are Involve women and people from minority communities. unwilling to accept the dangers caused by alternative facts and Network across countries and regions. pseudoscientific claims. 5. Support those who work under the hardest social and Skeptical organizations should not show themselves as pri- economic conditions, such as in Africa. Don’t be conde- marily places for careers. They must build on our cause as the scending, and provide advice only when asked. primary motivator, followed by the fun of doing things, with career considerations coming last. 6. Make it clear that we are the people who are not com- mitted to any interest groups and who will stand up for Branding science and critical thinking even if it means alienating some of our “friends.” Our independence from interest So who are we? Should we call ourselves “skeptics” despite and pressure groups is what makes us different. It is, as the negative connotation? Does it match our vision and some would say, our unique selling point. purpose? I think we should be pragmatic here. The term skeptic does Let us make it clear that we have a cause of utmost sig- often convey a negative association, and some use it in a way nificance with the challenges of the twenty-first century in we don’t like. We oppose climate “skeptics” and refuse to ac- view and that this requires support, both work and financial resources. Should it not be on everyone’s agenda to not be cept the term in this connection. deceived or harmed? Let us get on with it! • At the same time, we as a movement have been known as skeptics. With any search on the internet for skeptic (or Amardeo Sarma is a fellow and mem- “Skeptiker” in German), we show up rather than the climate ber of the Executive Council of the or GMO “skeptics.” Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is Not only will it be a waste of resources looking for a new founder and chairman of the German word or brand, but this will also detract from our actual pur- skeptics organization GWUP. He has pose and work. We have been able to establish the term scien- been involved in industrial research tific skepticism. What we need to do whenever we show up is for more than thirty-five years and is to say, it is we who are the skeptics. The others are not. Let us currently general manager at NEC Re- identify our cause, our mission, and our community as skeptics search Laboratories Europe in Germany. when we do what we do.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 43 Lotus Birth An alternative birth practice called lotus birth—not cutting the umbilical cord after delivery—is a poorly studied phenomenon with high risks and low benefits. It’s also not traditional; the fad dates back only to the 1970s.

KAVIN SENAPATHY

nown in proponent circles as “lotus birth,” umbilical • Place the placenta into a sieve or colander for 24hrs to allow nonseverance is a practice in which the umbilical drainage. cord is not cut post-birth, leaving the baby attached • Wrap the placenta in absorbent material, a nappy or cloth and to the placenta until the cord dries and eventually detaches put in into a placenta bag. The covering is changed daily or Kfrom the navel—usually a period of three to ten days. Lit- more often if seepage occurs. Alternatively, the placenta may be laid on a bed of sea salt (which is changed daily) and liberally tle information has been published on the safety or medical covered with salt. benefit of this practice. Those engaging in lotus birth often • The baby is held and fed as the mother wishes. keep the placenta in a pouch or a bowl to dry, with salt and optional dried herbs and essentials oils to aid in the drying • The baby is clothed loosely. process and to mask the odor of the decomposing placenta. • The baby can be bathed as usual; keep the placenta with it. These supplies are sold in kits from local sellers or through • Keep movement to a minimum. (Taylor 2018) online shops such as Etsy, though lotus birthers also share tips on how to prepare concoctions at home. Some propo- Early History nents distinguish between “full” and “short term” lotus births, in which the cord is cut four to forty-eight hours following Considered a recent alternative birth phenomenon, the roots birth. of lotus birth as currently practiced can be traced back only a few decades. With a vague but unconfirmed notion that A typical lotus birth protocol proceeds as follows: some non-human primates don’t sever the umbilical cord, a • When the baby is born, leave the umbilical cord intact. If the pregnant woman named Clair Lotus Day from California cord is around the baby’s neck, simply lift it over. began to question routine cutting of the cord back in the 1970s. Australian doctor and lotus birth proponent Sarah • Wait for the natural delivery of the placenta. Do not use oxyto- cin, as this forces too much too soon into the infant and com- Buckley writes that Day’s “searching led her to an obste- promises the placenta delivery. trician who was sympathetic to her wishes and her son • When the placenta delivers, place it into a receiving bowl beside Trimurti was born in hospital and taken home with his cord the mother. uncut” (Buckley 2009, 40). The practice has been growing • Wait for full transfusion of the umbilical blood into the baby since 1974, with the late yoga master and midwife Jeannine before handling the placenta. Parvati Baker credited with popularizing lotus birth in the United States and midwife Shivam Rachana, founder of the • Gently wash the placenta with warm water and pat dry. International College of Spiritual Midwifery and author of the book Lotus Birth (2000), spreading the practice in Australia. The “prolonged contact” with the placenta that a lotus birth provides “can be seen as a time of transition, allowing the baby to slowly and gently release their attachment to the mother’s body,” writes Buckley. Placenta rituals among Australian home birthing women have been described as use of the organ “in various rituals and ceremonies to spiritualize an aspect of birth that is usually overlooked,” including lotus birth, burial of the placenta be- neath a specifically chosen plant, and consuming the placenta (placentophagy) (Burns 2014). The prevalence of lotus birth around the world is unclear.

44 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Buckley writes that “since 1974, many babies have been born • In term infants, delayed umbilical cord clamping increases he- this way, including babies born at home and in hospital, on moglobin levels at birth and improves iron stores in the first several months of life, which may have a favorable effect on land and in water, and even by caesarean section” (Buckley developmental outcomes. 2009, 41). Lotus birth remains rare in hospital settings. The practice appears to be more common in out-of-hospital • Delayed umbilical cord clamping is associated with significant births, with discussions and advice-sharing on lotus birth in neonatal benefits in preterm infants, including improved transi- parenting forums on Facebook and WhatToExpect.com. A tional circulation, better establishment of red blood cell volume, decreased need for blood transfusion, and lower incidence of search of Facebook as of publication turns up a few active dis- necrotizing enterocolitis and intraventricular hemorrhage. cussion groups, including “Lotus Birth/Umbilical Non-sever- ance” with over 600 members, “Lotus Birthing” with over 400 • Given the benefits to most newborns and concordant with members, and Italy-based forum “LOTUS BIRTH ITALIA” other professional organizations, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists now recommends a delay in with over 2,000 members. Members of these forums share umbilical cord clamping in vigorous term and preterm infants advice, anecdotes, and photos. for at least 30–60 seconds after birth.

Related Practices and Unproven Claims Mention of lotus birth in the medical literature is sparse, Considered a recent alternative though case studies have been documented since the 1970s. Proponents tend to hold the placenta in high regard, wishing birth phenomenon, the roots to honor the organ, citing both abstract and specific benefits. “We need to relearn what a birth can be like when it is not of lotus birth as currently disturbed by the cultural milieu. We need a reference point from which we should try not to deviate too much. Lotus practiced can be traced back Birth is such a reference point,” writes Dr. Michel Odent, surgeon and proponent of lotus birth and other risky feats only a few decades. such as water birth, dubbed the “French birthing guru,” in the foreword to the 2001 book Lotus Birth. Some lotus birth advocates suggest that cutting the cord causes lifelong psy- • There is a small increase in the incidence of jaundice that re- chological trauma. Proponents have shared accounts of adults quires phototherapy in term infants undergoing delayed um- remembering the trauma upon encountering the concept of bilical cord clamping. Consequently, obstetrician–gynecologists lotus birth (“Lotus Birth” 2017). Buckley (2009) writes, “I and other obstetric care providers adopting delayed umbilical notice an integrity and self-possession with my lotus-born cord clamping in term infants should ensure that mechanisms are in place to monitor and treat neonatal jaundice. children, and I believe that lovingness, cohesion, attunement to Mother Nature, and trust and respect for the natural order • Delayed umbilical cord clamping does not increase the risk of have all been imprinted on our family by our honouring of the postpartum hemorrhage. placenta, the Tree of Life” (43). Aside from spiritual benefits, lotus birthers and proponents The Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists is- also believe in medical benefits. Popular Australian parenting site sued a statement acknowledging that “(RCOG) is aware that BellyBelly shares a few purported benefits (“Lotus Birth: 7 Rea- a small number of women are choosing umbilical non-sever- sons” 2018), including optimal blood transfer: “The placenta is ance, or ‘lotus birth,’” and stressing that “the practice of lotus placed at the same level with the baby to ensure the blood trans- birth is new to the UK and there is a lack of research regard- fer. An extra 80-100mL of the oxygenated blood can contribute ing its safety” (Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecol- towards their brain development within the first year.” There is ogists 2008). In the statement, Dr. Patrick O’Brien, RCOG evidence in favor of delaying cord clamping, though there are spokesperson, said: gaps in the existing evidence regarding “the optimal time to If left for a period of time after the birth, there is a risk of clamp the cord and the interventions that should be performed infection in the placenta which can consequently spread to before clamping in infants who fail to establish spontaneous res- the baby. The placenta is particularly prone to infection as it contains blood. Within a short time after birth, once the pirations or are severely asphyxiated, as well as those who breathe umbilical cord has stopped pulsating, the placenta has no spontaneously” (Niermeyer 2015). circulation and is essentially dead tissue. Current management recommendations do not exist for lotus RCOG published a scientific impact paper reviewing the birth in the United States. However, there are management rec- body of evidence suggesting that deferred rather than immedi- ommendations for the next most closely related newborn prac- ate clamping may have benefits at both term and preterm births tice—delayed cord clamping—for which there is evidence of (Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists 2015). benefit to the newborn. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (2017) issued a committee opinion, endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Col- Risks, Outcomes, and Commentary lege of Nurse–Midwives, with recommendations regarding the Though lotus birth is not well-documented as a practice in timing of umbilical cord clamping after birth: medical literature, negative health outcomes have been doc-

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 45 umented, including infection and idiopathic neonatal hepa- Nevertheless, awareness of lotus birth, the reasons proponents titis (Tricarico et al. 2017). Lotus birthing also requires the cite for doing it, and management of those who choose it, primary caregiver—almost always the mother—to remain should be on the radars of medical practitioners. Along with close to a bag of decomposing flesh, and it keeps her home- refusal of other newborn nursery protocols, including refusal bound as she cares for the newborn until the umbilical cord of intramuscular vitamin K, erythromycin eye ointment, new- detaches. born screening for congenital conditions, hepatitis B vacci- Dubbing it “the wackiest childbirth practice ever,” Dr. nation, discharge timing, and recommended sleep position, Amy Tuteur, a vocal critic of the natural childbirth movement, “providers need to be aware of alternative practices and know describes lotus birth as “a bizarre practice with no medical how to respond to them with patient-centered yet medically safe care” (Monroe et al. 2018). •

References Mention of lotus birth in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. 2017. Delayed umbilical cord clamping after birth - ACOG. Available online medical literature is sparse, at https://www.acog.org/Clinical-Guidance-and-Publications/ Committee-Opinions/Committee-on-Obstetric-Practice/Delayed- though case studies have been Umbilical-Cord-Clamping-After-Birth. Bryant, Kristina A. 2017. Alternative birthing practices increase risk of documented since the 1970s. infection. Pediatric News. Available online at https://www.mdedge.com/ pediatricnews/article/144621/infectious-diseases/alternative-birth- Proponents tend to hold the ing-practices-increase-risk#. Buckley, Sarah J. 2009. Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering. Berkeley, CA: placenta in high regard, Celestial Arts. Burns, Emily. 2014. More than clinical waste? Placenta rituals among wishing to honor the organ, Australian home-birthing women. The Journal of Perinatal Education 23(1): 41–49. doi:10.1891/1058-1243.23.1.41. citing both abstract and Gunter, Jennifer. 2017. A lotus birth is leaving a newborn attached to a decomposing placenta. Dr. Jen Gunter. Available online at https://drje- specific benefits. ngunter.wordpress.com/2017/08/29/a-lotus-birth-is-leaving-a-new- born-attached-to-a-decomposing-placenta/. Lotus birth. 2017. Sacred Birthing. Available online at http://sacredbirthing. com/blog/2017/05/14/lotus-birth/. Lotus birth: 7 reasons why parents-to-be have one. 2018. Available online at https://www.bellybelly.com.au/birth/lotus-birth-7-reasons-why-par- ents-to-be-have-one/. benefit and considerable risk, particularly the risk of massive Monroe, Kimberly, Maria S. Skoczylas, and Heather L. Burrows. 2018. infection.” She explains the phenomenon: “What’s the real When parents say “no” to newborn nursery protocols. Contemporary reason behind lotus birth? Homebirth and other fringe birth Pediatrics. Available online at http://contemporarypediatrics.modern- advocates are engaged in a battle of oneupsmanship, and the medicine.com/contemporary-pediatrics/news/when-parents-say-no- newborn-nursery-protocols?page=0,3. woman with the most bizarre (and often the most dangerous) Niermeyer, Susan. 2015. A physiologic approach to cord clamping: Clinical birth practices wins” (Tuteur 2012). issues. Maternal Health, Neonatology and Perinatology 1(1). doi:10.1186/ Jennifer Gunter, Canadian-American gynecologist, obstetri- s40748-015-0022-5. cian, vaginal health expert, and author, writes on her blog that Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists. 2008. RCOG statement on umbilical non-severance or “lotus birth.” 2018. Available online at lotus birth is “biologically unsound [and] untested,” adding that https://www.rcog.org.uk/en/news/rcog-statement-on-umbilical-non- it is “the equivalent of diapering up a raw steak and attaching to severance-or-lotus-birth. your newborn for three to five days. It is not a magical, historical, ———. 2015. Clamping of the umbilical cord and placental transfusion. Available online at https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/ or cultural practice forcibly torn away from women by an un- guidelines/scientific-impact-papers/sip-14.pdf. caring patriarchy; it was something a woman dreamed up after Taylor, Aaron. 2018. Lotus birth. Available online at http://www.womenof- hearing about chimpanzees. To brand this as a modern ritual is spirit.asn.au/index.php/lotus-birth. nothing but predatory marketing” (Gunter 2017). Tricarico, Antonella, Valentina Bianco, Anna Rita Di Biase, et al. 2017. Lotus birth associated with idiopathic neonatal hepatitis. Pediatrics & Kristina Bryant, a pediatrician specializing in infectious Neonatology 58(3): 281–282. doi:10.1016/j.pedneo.2015.11.010. diseases, suspects that peer pressure to choose the most nat- Tuteur, Amy. 2012. Lotus birth: The wackiest childbirth practice ever. The ural birth options plays a role in the proliferation of lotus Skeptical OB. Available online at http://www.skepticalob.com/2012/03/ birth. She writes that “many pediatricians, me included, are lotus-birth-wackiest-childbirth.html. not well informed about these practices and don’t routinely Kavin Senapathy is an author, writer, and sci- ask expectant moms about their plans. I propose that we can ence activist covering health, medicine, bio- advocate for our patients-to-be by learning about these prac- technology, agriculture, and food. She’s the tices so that we can engage in an honest, respectful discussion cofounder and director of international pro-sci- about potential risks and benefits. For me, for now, the risks ence, pro-biotech movement March Against outweigh the benefits” (Bryant 2017). Myths and coauthor of The Fear Babe: Shatter- Lotus birth is poorly studied, and experts largely agree that ing ’s Glass House, a book discussing this is for good reason—there is no need to legitimize a high- popular food misconceptions and why they proliferate despite evidence against them. risk, no-benefit phenomenon that didn’t start until the 1970s.

46 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Speed Reading: Fact or Fiction? Is training in speed reading valuable? It depends.

WILLIAM VANDERLINDE

everal years ago, I came across the manual for a self-paced speed reading course. Intrigued by promises of reading thousands of words per minute, I worked my way through the book. To my disappointment, my reading speed did not improve very Smuch. I re-read the instructions and was urged to go faster! Skip words! Ignore the unim- portant stuff! I did all that and my speed improved, but my understanding and retention of what I read dropped dramatically. I concluded that for some reason I just wasn’t a good candidate for speed reading. Much later I learned that my experience was quite typical. The term speed reading was coined by a school teacher named Evelyn Wood in the 1950s.

People typically read about 250 to 300 words per minute. to read anywhere from 2,700 words per minute to 15,000 Wood claimed to greatly speed up reading by eliminating words per minute depending on content (Van Gelder 1995). subvocalization and looking at groups of words instead of At 15,000 words per minute, you could read Gone with the individual words. She would also use her finger as a guide Wind in twenty-eight minutes. Many people are skeptical to the eye, running it straight down the middle of a page at that reading at this speed results in any real comprehension high speed. She began teaching speed reading seminars, and of the material. As Woody Allen sarcastically commented, “I in 1959 she founded the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics took a course in speed reading and read War and Peace in 20 Institute in Washington, D.C. Students were promised they minutes. It’s about Russia” (Oliver 1995). could increase their reading speed by two to five times, with President Kennedy sent many staff members to Reading improved comprehension. Some of her students allegedly Dynamics courses, as did Presidents Nixon and Carter. At its could read 6,000 words per minute. Wood herself claimed peak, Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics seminars were taught

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 47 at more than 150 outlets. Evelyn Wood died in 1995, but her have good understanding of it, but none of the speed readers no- methods are still taught through Fred Pryor Seminars. ticed that the material was from two different sources. The speed There are some people who do have a natural ability to readers did not attend to details or local coherence between read extraordinarily fast with high comprehension. For ex- ideas (Ehrlich 1963). ample, Kim Peak (the model for Dustin Hoffman’s character Perhaps the most thorough and conclusive study of speed in the film Rain Man) was reported to have memorized the reading was conducted by Michael Masson ( Just et al. 1982). contents of 12,000 books and could read at more than 4,000 Study participants were recruited, some of whom had com- words per minute. However, Peak had an abnormal brain pleted Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics, and others were a structure, had difficulty with routine physical tasks such as control group of normal readers. As of the early 1980s, Read- walking and buttoning a shirt, and scored below average on ing Dynamics focused on two aspects of reading: making fewer standard IQ tests (Weber 2009). For this article I’ll exclude and faster eye fixations, and using previous knowledge of the speed reading claims associated with savants. subject to organize the information that is read. Academic studies of speed reading have had difficulty Students had been instructed in Evelyn Wood’s method confirming the more extreme claims. Many early studies in of using their hand as a pacer, moving it across the text at a the 1960s reported very high reading speeds from 2,000 to rapid speed. The instructor and the students were under the

Evelyn Wood claimed to read upward of 15,000 words per minute depending on content. At 15,000 words per minute, you could read Gone with the Wind in twenty-eight minutes.

10,000 words per minute but lacked proper measures of read- impression that these hand motions guided the eye to fixation ing comprehension or didn’t have control groups. In one case, locations; however, Masson’s research demonstrated that the speed readers scored “68% comprehension,” but people who hand motion acted more like a metronome than a pointer. had never read the passage scored 57 percent (Carver 1971). The hand and eye beat out a similar rhythm, but the eye did Speed readers were generally found to have a poor grasp of not actually follow the hand motion. detailed content but a good grasp of the main theme and The Evelyn Wood class also emphasized the understand- could perform well at tasks such as producing an outline of ing of how different types of texts are organized, such as text- the text. A key feature of speed reading was that the readers books, newspaper articles, and stories. For example, students made fewer and quicker eye fixations on the page. A typical were trained to read textbook passages by skimming the table reader’s eye will fixate for about one-fourth to one-half sec- of contents, titles, headings, and illustrations while using pre- ond on perhaps every other word, with the remainder being vious knowledge of the topic to fill in the gaps. These tech- filled in by peripheral vision or from context. Speed readers niques are similar to research skills used by many people. For have far fewer fixations and spend less time on each, typically example, Martin Gardner was once asked how he could re- 1/10 to 3/10 of a second. Thomas described a reader with a view so many books, and he answered that he did not actually reading rate of 10,000 words per minute who only made six read most books he reviewed; he just looked at the index and eye fixations per page, scanning vertically downward on the that gave him all the information he needed to write his re- left hand page and upward on the right. The reader made no view (Hyman 2010). fixations at all on the bottom third of the page. It was un- Masson’s research study consisted of three groups of col- clear what comprehension was demonstrated by this reader lege students: normal readers, trained speed readers, and (Thomas 1962). “skimmers,” i.e., normal readers who were encouraged to skim Perhaps most interesting was a study in which graduates the text at a rapid pace. A relatively simple passage was taken of a speed reading course were presented with a text in which, from Readers Digest and a more demanding one from Scien- unknown to them, every alternate line was taken from one of tific American. In both cases, the results were the same: speed two unrelated source documents. Speed readers read this text readers were about three times faster than normal readers, but at an average rate of 1,700 words per minute and claimed to their reading comprehension was much lower and decreased

48 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer as their reading speed increased. The speed readers were only material or need to improve their study skills, a speed reading slightly faster and better at comprehension than the skim- course just might be worth it. • mers, although the speed readers performed well at tasks such as preparing an outline of the text. One could easily conclude References that speed reading is basically a form of skimming, making use of study skills commonly used by college students. Carver, R.P. 1971. Sense and Nonsense in Speed Reading. Silver Spring, MD: Revrac Publications. The recent popularity of hand-held wireless devices has Chen, Angela. 2014. How fast can you read this. The Wall Street Journal led to a renewed interest in speed reading. Apps are now (March 27). available that will present one word at a time on the screen Ehrlich, E. 1963. Opinions differ on speed reading. National Education Association Journal 52: 45–46. (Chen 2014). Users can increase the speed to the point where Hyman, Ray. 2010. Martin Gardner: A polymath to the nth power. they feel they are just catching all the words, typically about Skeptical Inquirer 34(5) (September/October). 50 percent faster than their normal rate. Reading speed in- Just, Marcel Adam, Patricia A. Carpenter, and Michael Masson. 1982. What Eye Fixations Tell Us about Speed Reading and Skimming. Pittsburgh: creases because there is no time lost in moving the eye to a Carnegie-Mellon University. new fixation point. Actually, this technique has been around Oliver, Myrna. 1995. Evelyn Wood; pioneer in speed reading. The LA Times for decades under the name Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (August 31). Thomas, E.L. 1962. Eye movements in speed reading. In R.G. Staffler (RSVP), but it used to require special equipment. Studies (Ed.), Speed reading practices and procedures. Newark: University of have shown that RSVP does increase speed but it also reduces Delaware. comprehension because readers cannot look back at previous Van Gelder, Lawrence. 1995. Evelyn Wood, who promoted speed reading, is dead at 86. The New York Times (August 30). words. RSVP also prevents the reader from using the struc- Weber, Bruce. 2009. Kim Peek, inspiration for ‘Rain Man,’ dies at 58. The ture of the text to skim for key content. New York Times (December 26). Returning to my original question, is training in speed William Vanderlinde is an failure an- reading valuable? It really depends on what sort of material alyst in Columbia, Maryland. He received a PhD you read and what you want to get out of it. For those of us in Materials Engineering from Cornell University. who read highly technical material that requires careful study He is a fellow of ASM International. of each sentence, speed reading may not have much to offer. However, for people who need to skim a large amount of

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Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 49 Skepticism and Literature in Nineteenth-Century Spain A nineteenth-century Spanish story offers a devastating critique of pseudomedicine. In at least twelve ways, it anticipates the bogus rationales offered for today’s quack medicine.

AZUCENA LÓPEZ MÁRQUEZ AND ANTONIO G. VALDECASAS

“… take me to Spain.” —“Spanish Caravan,” The Doors he idea of Spain in the minds of foreign visitors has evolved substantially over the past three centuries. From an illiterate and savage country whose outlook mayT be synthesized in the dictum attributed to Voltaire that “Africa begins in the Pyrenees” or the commentary of Casanova upon entering Spain in 1767 (“Wretched Spain!”) (Casanova 1894), to its later transformation into a romantic and exotic place full of brave men and passionate women. This latter vision persisted and was made universal in the twentieth century through portraits of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) as depicted in the narratives of Hemingway and Orwell, among many others. From these, Spain’s devotion for bullfighting was then singled out as rep- resentative of the country as narrated in Hemingway’s novel Daniel Collado The Sun Also Rises, which made Pamplona’s San Fermín cele- brations famous worldwide. This oversimplified depiction of However, no one would deny that different social strata a highly diverse Spanish society was insightfully analyzed by existed, some with very cultivated people seriously interested the expert musicologist Judith Etzion in her landmark work in the advancement of scientific knowledge. Emilio Huelin, on the Spanish fandango (Etzion 1993), a style of music author of the collected articles Cronicón Cientifico Popular and dance popular in eighteenth-century Spain. The truth (Popular Scientific Chronicle), is an excellent example of one is that many different “Spains” have existed in the Iberian of these intellectuals who wanted to disseminate scientific Peninsula over the past three centuries and that different knowledge to the wider society (Huelin 1877). Indeed, a travelers have found what they were looking for, choosing to review published in the scientific journal Nature of Huelin’s single out only one of many different realities. first volume of work written in Spanish is a testimony of his Despite the presumed transition from an uncultured important contribution: nation to a romantic and exotic one, disdain for science in Spanish society has been a traditional view that has remained We perused this volume with interest and pleasant sur- constant during this time. Jules Verne best conveys the inter- prise; we were pleased at finding it to be an excellent and well-written review of all new occurrences in the scientific national view of science in nineteenth-century Spain. In his world, and we were surprised to see such a work emanate novel From the Earth to the Moon, originally published in 1865, from a country which hitherto has contributed but too small Verne describes the international contribution to the cost of a share towards the progress and welfare of science. (A.G.B. the voyage to the moon, for which he states: 1877) As to Spain, she could not scrape together more than 110 Other authors, with the same purpose of promoting sci- reals. She gave as an excuse that she had her railways to finish. The truth is, that science is not favorably regarded in that entific literacy within the general public, used literature as a country, it is still in a backward state; and, moreover, certain means to cultivate public rationality. As an example, here we Spaniards, not by any means the least educated, did not form analyze one of the best narratives to illuminate the fraud of a correct estimate of the bulk of the projectile compared pseudomedicine: a story written by José Fernández Bremón with that of the moon. They feared that it would disturb the established order of things. In that case it were better to titled Monsieur Dansant, médico aerópata (1879, Monsieur keep aloof; which they did to the tune of some reals. (Verne Dansant, airpathy physician). Its devastating critique of pseu- [1865] 1900; emphasis added) domedicine is written in the context of an intriguing story

50 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer with superb rhythm and structure. work” is often invoked. This is precisely the justification given In short, Monsieur Dansant founds a health business based by Dansant when patients ask why they are not getting better. on air. Different kinds of air, such as cool, warm, humid, fast, and slow (among others), are prescribed for a wide range of 4. The use of large urban or foreign (far and exotic) places to au- ailments. The treatments are usually administered in a splen- thenticate the message. did clinic built by Dansant’s wealthy partner, although spe- Humans are social beings, and social context gives meaning cially “packed” air could be sent abroad on demand. This is the to them. Context can provide a hint of seriousness and legit- basis of the whole story, which also links a somewhat cynical imacy, but it may also convey deception. London and New love story with the development of the health business and York have large numbers of conjurers and healers, and saying perfectly illustrates the set of characteristics usually accompa- that you have been “practicing in New York” is an empty nying these kinds of fake cures. phrase. (If you have been teaching at Columbia University, As such, this tale identifies deception and other salient for example, it may be another matter.) features that should be carefully considered when presented with any proposal of “miraculous cures” in the past, present, and future. All the features that characterize the pseudomed- Despite the presumed transition icine are in the story of Dansant, although not all are explicit. Let’s examine them in detail. from an uncultured nation to a romantic and exotic one, disdain for 1. Be careful with the display of academic degrees. Dansant introduces himself as a doctor, although he has science in Spanish society has never studied medicine. His knowledge is based mainly on been a traditional view that has intuition and so-called sympathetic medicine (see below). However, being called a doctor gives him some level of legit- remained constant during this time. imacy, as this word is usually associated with practitioners of medicine. The skeptical literature is full of debates with authors who 5. The fact that a book has been published in different countries call themselves doctors or who indeed have doctoral degrees, and languages does not necessarily fill it with more veracity. such as parapsychologists Rupert Sheldrake and Russel Targ. The Bible is a book that has been translated into almost all However, academic degrees are not passports to truth. Ac- languages, yet this does not make it more reliable concerning ademic degrees do not necessarily give legitimacy to a per- the origins of the universe or biodiversity. son’s beliefs. There is no guarantee of truth just because one Another example is L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics, which claims to be transmitting “knowledge.” The final arbitration was first proposed as a “model of the mind.” But when it was of knowledge is played out in scientific journals, not in news- questioned as being pseudoscience, it transformed into a credo papers and popular science books. So, be careful with the ex- of the Scientology religion. hibition of academic degrees as a passport to truth. 6. The likelihood of superficial explanations 2. Rhetorical vocabulary may hide the lack of factual substance. Pseudorational explanations appear to have some degree Pseudoscience uses two vocabulary-related strategies to try of authenticity, although they may lack any kind of causal to give the perception of authority. On the one hand, it bor- connection between the diseases and cures. Practitioners of rows common scientific terms to make their discourse seem sympathetic medicine believe that some diseases are best credible. Terms such as energy, waves, frequency, and vibra- treated with things related to the disease (Stevens 2001). tions are common in the pseudoscience literature, but they A good example is the belief within folklore medicine that are not used according to their proper definitions based on the consumption of certain animal parts, such as rhinoceros physics. On the other hand, pseudoscience uses less common horn, is the best cure for virility problems. In the same guise, words that are not necessarily connected with science but Dansant approaches disease using the “sympathetic” meth- transmit a sense of deepness and wisdom. Typical examples odology, prescribing hot air to treat a common cold or fresh include astral projections, crystal therapy, and biological recodi- air for a nervous breakdown and so on. fication, among others. 7. Uncertainty is not a question of zeros and ones but of degrees. 3. Beware of excuses and justifications given when the expected Degrees of uncertainty drive science and research but not result of a treatment is not obtained. to defend the idea that “everything may be valid.” The In the scientific treatment of diseases, when the application dictum “everything is connected with everything” lacks of a remedy does not have the desired effect, the explanation meaning. Everything admits degrees, and the connection provided may focus on the specific role the substance plays between different causes and effects can only be elucidated in the targeted organ or tissue. The rationality of how a rem- by research. Parodying a popular statement of chaos theory, edy works is reflected in the rationality of the lack of effect. we may say that “when a citizen sneezes in New York, it may Pseudomedicine explanations do not have this rationality. have an effect on someone in Tokyo,” but if truly deserved, Rather, the all-inclusive excuse that “in some cases, it does not an investigation could be carried out to test this hypothe-

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 51 sis. Moreover, diffuse holism is not a reason to think that can self-help but also self-deceive. In some cases, the feel- everything is relative. The truth is that some relationships ing of improvement may have a hidden cause. A somewhat are more uncertain than others, and human progress and famous case in Spain involved the alternative treatment of a knowledge has been built on the reduction of uncertainty. child with cancer by a healer. The parents were very happy Different kinds of air may affect human health differently. at the beginning of the treatment, as the child showed However, this is a matter of research. In fact, we already know a changes in energy and happiness. However, all these signs lot about the effects of urban air on human health as the result of an in-depth study of components and effects (Kolok 2016). quickly declined, and the child died not long afterward. It was later discovered that the healer had prescribed the child 8. Playing on the hopes and fears of patients a tincture laced with cocaine (see https://elpais.com/dia- The best indication of a fake cure is when it enthusiastically rio/1994/06/02/sociedad/770508003_850215.html). plays with the patient’s hopes, promising results that no other may offer. Bremón’s literary work has surprisingly and brilliantly de- scribed the main characteristics on which pseudomedicines As such, this tale identifies base their promotion. This short story deserves to be better deception and other salient features known, which should not be a costly task given the number that should be carefully considered of translation tools available today. • when presented with any proposal Further Reading of “miraculous cures” in the past, Martin, Rebeca. 2013. Ficciones no disimuladas: la narrativa breve de José present, and future. Fernández Bremón. Editorial Renacimiento. Valdecasas, A.G. 2014. ¿Que me pasa doctor? Available online at http:// revista.mncn.csic.es/nm02/files/assets/basic-html/index.html#7.

9. Superficial altruism for added credibility References There are many kinds of altruism. The worst is superficial altruism, which involves only being generous to gain more A.G.B. 1877. Cronicon Cientifico Popular. Nature 16(September 13): 418. Bremón, José Fernández. 1879. Cuentos. Available online at the Internet than invested. This kind of behavior is usually found in Archive https://ia600403.us.archive.org/16/items/cuentos00fern/cuen- deceivers. tos00fern.pdf. Casanova, Jacques. 1894. The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725– 10. External appearance is not necessarily related to the quality of 1798. Available online at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2981/2981-0. content and truth. txt. Big buildings and lavish installations do not signify the Etzion, Judith. 1993. The Spanish Fandango—From eighteenth-century efficacy of a therapy or treatment. This rule works in other “lasciviousness” to nineteenth-century exoticism. Anuario musical 48: 229. areas as well. Not so long ago, the evolutionist Leigh Van Huelin, Emilio. 1877 Cronicón Cientifico Popular Vol. I. Madrid: Imprenta Valen founded the journal Evolutionary Theory with the de Manuel Tello. motto “primacy of content over display.” The opposite may Kolok, Alan. 2016. Modern Poisons: A Brief Introduction to Contemporary be said of many pseudomedicines, which prioritize display Toxicology. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. over content. Cronicon Cientifico Popular. 1877. Nature 16, 418 (September 13). Stevens, Phillips. 2001. Magical thinking in complementary and alternative 11. Conflict with different proposals or with academic practices medicine. Skeptical Inquirer 25(6) (November/December): 32–37. Available online at https://www.csicop.org/si/show/magical_think- may increase popularity but is unrelated to plausibility. ing_in_complementary_and_alternative_medicine. As the Spanish saying goes, cuando el río suena, agua lleva Verne, Jules. (1865) 1900. From the earth to the moon. Available online (when the stream rings, it is because it carries water). at the Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/cu31924052535725. According to our analysis, some people may be led to believe Azucena López Márquez is a journalist working in that just because there is some controversy about pseudo- the Communication Department at Madrid’s Na- medicine, at least an atom of truth may exist on all sides. tional Museum Natural Science. This relativistic thinking is misguided and dangerous.

12. Signs of improvement after a treatment are not always di- Antonio G. Valdecasas is a senior researcher at the rectly related to the treatment administered. same institution. Both are interested in raising sci- Placebo effects may play a role in the preliminary phases ence literacy and public awareness of the dangers of alternative medicine treatments. However, the important of pseudoscience. point is whether this “improvement” continues and develops into a new state of health. The mind is an incredible tool: it

52 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Dead Varmint Vision at Its Funniest An Alleged Dinosaur with Breasts in a Medieval Carving A ninth-century carving on an English church depicts a carnivorous dinosaur with breasts, veri- fying human contact with and corroborating a biblical passage on dinosaurs suckling their young. Or not.

PHILIP J. SENTER

ccording to the young-Earth creationist (YEC) worldview, God created the Earth, humans, and all other kinds of organisms independently during the same week about 6,000 years ago, as described in the book of Genesis. This worldview rejects the overwhelming physical evidence thatA the Earth is over 4.5 billion years old (Gradstein et al. 2004), that all organisms on it evolved from a common ancestor (Prothero 2007), that non-avian dinosaurs became extinct about 65 million years ago (Wicander and Monroe 2016), and that humans (Homo sapiens) did not arise until about 0.3 million years ago (Hublin et al. 2017) and therefore are separated from non-avian dinosaurs by millions of years. To support the YEC view that humans and non-avian dinosaurs were contemporaries, YEC authors frequently claim that ancient or medieval artwork depicts dinosaurs. Investigation of such claims shows that they are usually based on ludicrous misinterpretations of the artifacts in question (Senter 2012a; 2013; Senter et al. 2013; Senter and Klein 2014).

Previously I introduced the terms dead varmint vision and human body form and human behavior, and they are incon- apnotheriopia (literally, “dead-beast vision”) to denote the ten- sistent with dinosaurs. Even so, some YEC authors absurdly dency of YEC authors to erroneously see dinosaurs and other contend that Grendel and his mother were dinosaurs (see Sie- prehistoric animals (dead varmints) in ancient art (Senter bert 2013), and that contention is an important part of the 2013). Here, I report a case in which dead varmint vision has voluptuous varmint myth. presented itself with a particularly entertaining twist: a claim Another part of the backstory of the voluptuous varmint that a medieval carving depicts a dinosaur with breasts and myth is Lamentations 4:1–8. That biblical passage poetically that breastfeeding dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible. From describes the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem by the melon-eating tyrannosaurs (Senter 2012b) to fire-breathing Babylonians as a topsy-turvy time when things have charac- duckbills (Senter 2017), the absurd dinosaur-related claims teristics that are the opposites of their normal ones. Gold is that the YEC movement regularly spawns often have partic- no longer shiny, gemstones that had been collected are now ularly high entertainment value, but the notion that dinosaurs strewn, the once-precious “sons of Zion” are now as worthless had breasts surely takes the cake. It could aptly be dubbed the as clay, serpents are suckling their young, human mothers aren’t voluptuous varmint myth. suckling theirs, the rich are now poor, and the pure Nazirites To fully appreciate the voluptuous varmint myth, it is nec- are now impure. In short, nothing is as it normally is. essary to first grasp the elements of its backstory. These include The Hebrew word for “serpent” in verse 4:3 is tannîn. Al- the Beowulf epic and a biblical passage that mentions an animal though some researchers mistakenly interpret the word tannîn that the ancient Hebrews called a tannîn. Beowulf, a medieval as a term for a kind of mythical sea monster (Kiessling 1970; English narrative, includes a scene in which the hero, Beowulf, Wakeman 1973; Day 1985; Heider 1995), it is easy to demon- kills a monster named Grendel and another scene in which strate that it means “serpent.” In Exodus 7:8–12, Aaron’s staff Beowulf kills Grendel’s mother. Grendel and his mother are becomes a tannîn, and in verses 15–21, God calls Aaron’s staff described in the epic as humanoid creatures (lines 1350–1355). the staff that had become a nāhāsh (the generic Hebrew term Grendel has head hair (line 1647) and carries a patchwork for “snake”). In Isaiah 27:1, the monster Leviathan is called pouch (lines 2085–2092). Grendel’s mother wields a knife (line a nāhāsh and a tannîn. These two passages demonstrate that 1545), keeps a fire burning in her home (line 15516–1517), and the terms nāhāsh and tannîn are equivalent. Furthermore, cou- is a descendant of Cain (line 1258–1268) (Alexander 1973; plets in Deuteronomy 32:33 and Psalm 91:13 equate tannîn Swanton 1997). These are all traits that are consistent with the with pethen (a venomous snake). Couplets in which the author

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 53 ophis (snake) on the next (Ogden 2013; Senter 2013; Senter et al. 2016). Eventually, the word drakōn gave rise to the word dragon, which is the typical English translation of tannîn in the King James Version of the Bible, including Lamentations 4:3. Early medieval artists depicted the dragon simply as a snake, but in the late Middle Ages they began to add feathered wings and a pair of limbs (Temple 1976; Mittman 2006). By the end of the Renaissance, the dragon had become a bat-winged quadruped in European art and bore a passing resemblance Figure 1. Sketch of the four lions in the stone panel at Breedon-on-the-Hill, to Mesozoic reptiles such as dinosaurs and pterosaurs (Allen after plate LIc of Jewell 1986, with the manes shaded. and Griffiths 1979; Benton 1992; Absalon and Canard 2006; Morrison 2007). says the same thing twice with different words are frequent That passing resemblance prompted the advent of apno- devices in ancient Hebrew literature, and in these cases, they theriopia, which brings us to the case in question: a carved indicate the equivalence of tannîn with “snake.” The tannîn is stone panel from the Church of St. Mary and St. Hardulph at scaly (Ezekiel 29:3–4), venomous (Deuteronomy 32:33), and Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, England (Jewell 1986). terrestrial (Isaiah 13:22, 34:13, 43:20; Jeremiah 9:11, 10:22, On that panel are two pairs of lions, with one lion attacking the 49:33, 51:37)—all traits consistent with snakes. The mistaken other in each pair (Figure 1). Each attacker supports itself upon interpretation of tannîn as “sea monster” is due to researchers its hindlimbs while leaning on its victim with its forelimbs, having misunderstood ancient texts on Leviathan, a demonic in the manner of a real lion upon its prey. The four lions are entity that is described figuratively as a tannîn that is impris- highly stylized, as one might expect from an artist in a coun- oned beneath the sea ( Job 41:1:43; Psalm 74:13–14; Psalm try where lions are not part of the native fauna. Nonetheless, 104:26; Isaiah 27:1; Enoch 60:7–8; 2 Baruch 29:4; 4 Esdras the leonine nature of the four animals is made evident by the 6:49–52). Leviathan is a serpent imprisoned in the abyss of the shaggy mane of each, which extends down the dorsal edge of sea in the same way that Satan is (Revelation 20:1–3): meta- the torso and is multi-lobed, a feature that appears in other phorically, not literally. lions in English art of the same period (Figure 2). Each also The word tannîn appears numerous times in the Old Tes- has a short snout that suggests a cat, small ears like a lion’s, and tament, and the Septuagint usually translates tannîn as drakōn. a narrow tail that is inconsistent with any animal but a mam- Drakōn is ancient Greek for “serpent,” as is amply demon- mal. The panel was carved in the early ninth century ( Jewell strated by the numerous ancient Greek artistic depictions of 1986). Eleven centuries later, thanks to dead varmint vision, the the drakōn in myths as a snake and by several ancient Greek four lions would be misidentified as dinosaurs: three herbivores texts in which a creature is called a drakōn on one line and an and a tyrannosaur in need of a brassiere. In 1992, the YEC periodical Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal published an article by Bill Cooper titled “The Early History of Man—Part 4. Living Dinosaurs from Anglo-Saxon and Other Early Records” (Cooper 1992). In that article, Coo- per cited numerous medieval British myths and legends as “re- cords” of human encounters with dinosaurs and other reptiles presently known only from Mesozoic fossils. He also identi- fied various creatures in medieval British artwork as evidence that humans had encountered dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles. Among those works of art was the Breedon-on-the- Hill panel. Cooper interpreted the attacking lion on the left as a “bipedal predator” and the other three lions as “a herd of grazing Brontosaurus-type dinosaurs.” Although one of the lions on the right is biting the other, Cooper suggested that the two are “necking,” as in the neck-to-neck combat of giraffes, with the unstated implication that the behavior of long-necked (“Brontosaurus-type”) dinosaurs might have been similar to that of today’s long-necked animals. Cooper identified the stylized mane of the “bipedal predator” in the carving as a depiction of dinosaurian armor plating. He posited that the “bipedal preda- tor” was of the same kind as the monster Grendel of the Beow- ulf epic and that Grendel was a “predatory dinosaur.” Noting Figure 2. English stone carvings of the eighth century with three lions in that Grendel had puny arms (in Cooper’s imagination, not in one case (left: after Figure 3.29 of Hicks 1993) and a pair of lions in the the Beowulf epic), he implied that Grendel was a tyrannosaur other (right: after Figure 3.31 of Hicks 1993). Note the multi-lobed manes without stating it outright: “I doubt that the reader needs to (shaded) and the narrow limbs and tails, as in the Breedon-on-the-Hill lions. be guided by me as to which particular species of predatory

54 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer dinosaur the details of his physical description fit best.” Cooper, Bill. 1992. The early history of man—Part 4. Living dinosaurs from Anglo-Saxon and other early records. Creation Ex Nihilo Technical In the caption to Figure 2 of his article, which illustrates Journal 6(1): 49–66. the carved panel, Cooper connected Grendel’s mother to the Day, John. 1985. God’s Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea. Echoes “bipedal predator” in the carving: “Could the sagging skin on of Canaanite Myth in the Old Testament. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. the underbelly of this apparently adult creature have fooled Goertzen, John C. 1993. Letter to the editor: Living dinosaurs. Creation Ex the Danes into thinking that most of the adult members of Nihilo Technical Journal 7: 200–201. the species were female, mistaking its appearance for mam- Gradstein, Felix, James Ogg, and Alan Smith. 2004. A Geologic Time Scale 2004. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. malian-type breasts, and thus the older creature seen with the Heider, George C. 1995. Tannin. In Karel Van der Toorn and Bob Becking young Grendel for Grendel’s mother?” In other words, the (eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Leiden: Brill, larger monster in the Beowulf epic was portrayed as a female 1579–1584. Hicks, Carola. 1993. Animals in Early Medieval Art. Edinburgh: Edinburgh because adult tyrannosaurs had belly folds that medieval En- University Press. glishmen mistook for breasts. Hublin, Jean-Jacques, Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer, Shara E. Bailey, et al. 2017. In a subsequent letter to the editor (Goertzen 1993), YEC New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens. Nature 456: 289–292. author John Goertzen took things a step further, positing that Jewell, R.H.I. 1986. The Anglo-Saxon friezes at Breedon-on-the-Hill. the apparent breasts on the “bipedal predator” of Breedon- Archaeologia 108: 95–115. on-the-Hill were truly breasts: “the mammary glands on this Kiessling, Nicolas K. 1970. Antecedents of the medieval dragon in sacred history. Journal of Biblical Literature 89: 167–175. carnivorous dinosaur were probably real.” He then drew a con- Mittman, Asa S. 2006. Maps and Monsters in Medieval England. New York: nection with the suckling tannîn of Lamentations 4:3: “Figure Routledge. 2(b) [of Cooper 1992] would tend to support this verse and Morrison, Elizabeth. 2007. Beasts Factual and Fantastic. The Medieval Imagination. Los Angeles: Paul J. Getty Museum. the interpretation of dinosaur for ‘tannim’ [sic]. This dinosaur Ogden, Daniel. 2013. Drakōn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek was apparently a mosaic animal, part mammalian and mostly and Roman Worlds. Oxford: Oxford University Press. reptilian … .” In other words, the “dragons” of the Bible were Prothero, Donald. 2007. Evolution. What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters. New York: Columbia University Press. breasted dinosaurs. Senter, Phil. 2012a. More “dinosaur” and “pterosaur” rock art that isn’t. One could not ask for a more variegated collection of mis- Palaeontologia Electronica 15(2.22A): 1–14. interpretations nor a more thoroughly comical exemplar of ———. 2012b. Dinodang: The melon rex myth. Skeptical Inquirer 36(4): 52–57. dead varmint vision. As we have seen, the biblical word tannîn ———. 2013. Dinosaurs and pterosaurs in Greek and Roman art means “serpent,” and the inclusion of the suckling tannîn in and literature? An investigation of young-Earth creationist claims. the Opposite-Day passage of Lamentations 4 indicates that Palaeontologia Electronica 16(3.25A): 1–16. ———. 2016. Christianity’s earliest-recorded heresy and its relevance to a tannîn does not ordinarily suckle its young. Grendel and his Christian acceptance of scientific findings. Thinking about Religion 12: mother were humanoid (not to mention imaginary) mon- (no page numbers). Available online at http://organizations.uncfsu.edu/ sters, not reptilian beasts. No known carnivorous dinosaur ncrsa/journal/v12/SenterP_Peritomes.htm. ———. 2017. Fire-breathing dinosaurs? Physics, fossils, and functional was armor-plated. Finally, the lions on the Breedon-on-the- morphology versus pseudoscience. Skeptical Inquirer 41(4): 26–33. Hill panel are in fact lions, not a herd of Brontosaurus-type Senter, Phil, and Darius M. Klein. 2014. Investigation of claims of late-sur- dinosaurs being attacked by a predatory dinosaur, nor are their viving pterosaurs: The cases of Belon’s, Aldrovandi’s, and Cardinal Barberini’s winged dragons. Palaeontologia Electronica 17(3.41A): 1–19. manes armor plating. Senter, Phil, LaRhonda C. Hill, and Brandon J. Moton. 2013. Solution to As I have previously pointed out (Senter 2013), the mistakes a 440-year-old zoological mystery: The case of Aldrovandi’s dragon. of dead varmint vision are avoidable. Cooper and Goertzen could Annals of Science 70: 531–537. Senter, Phil, Uta Mattox, and Eid H. Haddad. 2016. Snake to monster: have avoided their particular mistakes by paying more attention Conrad Gessner’s Schlangenbuch and the evolution of the dragon in to the biblical context of Lamentations 4:3 and other passages the literature of natural history. Journal of Folklore Research 53: 67–124. on the tannîn, by paying more attention to the wording of the Siebert, Eve. 2013. Monsters and dragons and dinosaurs, oh my. Creationist interpretations of Beowulf. Skeptical Inquirer 37(1): 43–48. Beowulf epic, and by studying stylization of animal depictions Swanton, Michael 1997. Beowulf. Revised Edition. : Manchester in early medieval English art. They could also have avoided the University Press. massive error that is the YEC worldview by noting the plethora Temple, Elżbieta. 1976. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900–1066. London: Harvey Miller. of biblical passages that preach against taking the Pentateuch Wakeman, Mary K. 1973. God’s Battle with the Monster. A Study in Biblical (which includes Genesis) literally (Senter 2016). Imagery. Leiden: Brill. The dinosaurs of the carved panel at Breedon-on-the-Hill Wicander, Reed, and James S. Monroe. 2016. Historical Geology. Evolution exist only in the imaginations of YEC authors with apnother- of Earth & Life through Time. Boston: Cengage. iopia. The voluptuous varmint myth therefore now joins the long and ever-lengthening list of discredited dinosaur-related claims that YEC authors have put into print, with the merry distinction of winning the laughter prize. • Philip Senter earned a PhD in biological sciences from Northern Illinois University in 2003 and References teaches zoology courses at Fayetteville State Absalon, Patrick, and Frédérik Canard. 2006. Les Dragons. Des Monstres au University in North Carolina. He has published Pays des Hommes. Paris: Gallimard. Alexander, Michael. 1973. Beowulf. A Verse Translation. London: Penguin. seventy peer-reviewed articles on dinosaur pa- Allen, Judy, and Jeanne Griffiths. 1979. The Book of the Dragon. London: leontology, reptile biology, and the creation-evo- Orbis. lution debate. He wrote on claims of fire-breathing dinosaurs in our Benton, Janetta R. 1992. The Medieval Menagerie. Animals in the Art of the Middle Ages. New York: Abbeville Press. July/August 2017 issue.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 55 [FOLLOW UP

Response to Ken Ham and YouTube Comments by Andrew Snelling Lorence G. Collins

fter my article “Twenty-One Reasons Noah’s is not enough space in this short response to give scientific Worldwide Flood Never Happened” was published justifications for all twenty-one reasons I provided. Here are in the March/April 2018 Skeptical Inquirer, the the five reasons that I address. creationistA organization Answers in Genesis produced a YouTube video in which Andrew Snelling criticized some The origin of salt and gypsum deposits of the reasons I presented in the article for why such a Instead of my explanation that deposits of salt had to form worldwide flood could not have happened (see https:// by evaporation of marine water in areas where an arm of the answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2018/04/02/chris- ocean had been cut off for some reason and where a desert tian-equips-atheists-debate-christians/). Snelling, a geol- climate caused the isolated water to evaporate, Snelling ogist, is director of research for Answers in Genesis. As a claims (at about the 8:30 mark of the video) that the salt was lead-in to this video, Ken Ham pointed out that there were carried in a solution of hot water. (I make an interpretation many people working for Answers in Genesis with PhDs here because he did not elaborate on where this hot water who are well trained in science and who support the inter- came from, but it is generally believed by young-Earth cre- pretations presented by Snelling, and he implied that my ationists that it was ejected from oceanic volcanic spreading science was not as good as theirs. centers from which the “fountains of the deep” emerged.) In the course of the video, Snelling argues that I have pre- Supposedly, sufficient salt was concentrated in these solu- conceived uniformitarianism views that differ from the bibli- tions that the salt became precipitated when the water cal ones that the young-Earth creationists have. However, in cooled. But there are no salt deposits anywhere in the world either case, because the creationists call themselves “creation close to oceanic spreading centers. All are in the interiors of scientists,” our differences in opinion must be based on sci- continents and occur multiple times throughout the geologic entific evidence and not necessarily on our positions with re- ages in widely different places in every continent. spect to interpreting the Bible. The young-Earth creationists I heard a young-Earth creationist in a talk say that the interpret it with a literal translation, whereas I and most other hot water that carried the ions of sodium and chlorine of mainline Christians who are scientists do not believe that the which salt is composed was ejected at high speeds as steam Bible was written to be a science textbook. I believe that the from the oceanic spreading centers. If so, somehow the Hebrew authors of the Old Testament of the Bible were in- salt-bearing steam had to cool as a mass of liquid instead of spired and wrote their books based on their understanding of expanding explosively as an extremely hot gas and thereby what they thought they knew during the time in which they becoming scattered and dispersed in the atmosphere. Then, lived. I believe that the Bible portrays who God (the Creator) this condensed mass of hot water (whether once steam or is, why he created the universe, the Earth, and life (including not) had to land somewhere in large volumes of Noah’s flood humans), and how to obtain salvation. It does not answer the waters. The problem for Snelling is that the sodium and questions of when, where, and how creation was done. Science chlorine ions in this water mass are so soluble in water that answers these questions. they would become dispersed in the huge volumes of the In Ken Ham’s introduction and in the video, there was no flood waters and never concentrate to the point of precipi- attack on me for being a Christian, but he, Snelling, and oth- tation to form solid masses of layered salt (see http://www. ers from Answers in Genesis were irked that I had published csun.edu/~vcgeo005/collins.pdf). What Snelling proposes is the article in Skeptical Inquirer and gave ammunition to impossible and shows that he has not done his homework. atheists to attack the young-Earth creationists. Snelling es- The natural laws for chemical behavior must be obeyed. sentially threw down the gauntlet, so to speak, and challenged me to give real scientific evidence. Not replying to his chal- lenge is really not a choice for me, as he claimed that I had not Sand dunes with giant cross-bedding in the Mesozoic rocks in “done my homework.” Therefore, in this follow-up response Zion National Park I have chosen five of the twenty-one reasons to demonstrate Snelling claims (about nine minutes into the video) that the that Snelling has not done his scientific homework. There cross-bedding in sandstone dunes was created under water

56 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer (like the sand dunes that are created under the Golden Gate prints in the Coconino sandstone, which clearly shows that Bridge by rushing tidal water). He claims that the angles of rain fell on the sand in a desert dune in open air. Paleontol- maximum dip of cross-bedding are less than 30 degrees, and ogist Phil Senter records raindrop prints in several geologic therefore, this cross-bedding of sandstones in the Grand ages (Triassic, Permian, Devonian, and Cambrian) around the Canyon area was deposited under water. Figure 1 is a photo world in sedimentary rocks that were also supposedly depos- of cross-bedding of dunes a few miles north of the Grand ited during Noah’s Flood; see Figure 1 in http://www.csun. Canyon National Park boundary that clearly shows angles edu/~vcgeo005/Flood%20geology.pdf. Therefore, Snelling greater than 30 degrees—which is clear evidence that these has not done his homework, because there are published data dunes were formed under dry desert conditions instead of that show that raindrop prints do in fact occur in the sup- under Noah’s flood waters. Adjacent to it (right image) is posed Noah’s flood deposits. another example from the Vermillion Cliffs in the same area. A similar image is on page 54 of the Grand Canyon book (cited below), also with dip angles greater than 30 degrees. All of these images show that Snelling has not done his homework. photo credit: David Elliott.photo credit: David Figure 2: Fossilized raindrop prints. Figure 1: “The Wave,” dune cross-bedding in Jurassic Navajo sandstone formation, North Coyote Buttes, Coconino County, Arizona, showing dip angles greater than 30 degrees (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_Buttes). Coccoliths in the White Cliffs of Dover I suggest that the coccoliths, which are a kind of algae with calcareous platelets in spherical shells, cannot be deposited Moreover, sand dunes like those formed underwater under beneath water thicknesses of over 350 feet during Noah’s the Golden Gate Bridge would not be expected to be formed flood because they require sunlight for photosynthesis and by Noah’s worldwide flood and be stacked like what is seen in must exist near the ocean surface to obtain the energy from these two images. Even the Permian Coconino sandstone that the sun and that having that many coccoliths (trillions and crops out in the Grand Canyon has desert dune cross-bed- trillions of them) in the oceanic waters at the same time ding with dips of 30 degrees and delicate footprint trails of as the one-year flood would cut out the sunlight for coc- spiders, scorpions, and millipedes and raindrop prints (Fig- coliths a few feet below the ocean surface. Snelling argues ure 2) that could not have been preserved on the surfaces of (at the 13:12 mark of the video) that I cannot use the chalk dunes formed by the raging torrents of Noah’s flood waters. (composed of coccoliths) in the White Cliffs of Dover as See illustrations on pages 58 and 156 in the book The Grand an example because they are on the continent and not like Canyon, Monument to an Ancient Earth, 2016, edited by geol- coccoliths that occur in modern oceans. ogist Carol Hill and others. This is a ridiculous argument because coccoliths in the past did not grow on continents; they grew in ocean waters. Raindrop prints occur in many places around the world He then proceeds to use an example of coccoliths deposited Snelling claims (about twelve minutes into the video) that in Kansas, which is far in the interior of our continent. He he has seen raindrop prints in the Grand Canyon when he points out that these deposits contain fossilized remains of a has led tours down the canyon on rafts. He says that rain- fish (twelve feet long) with another smaller fish in its stom- drop prints in the canyon do not look like anything that he has observed in the adjacent rocks. He suggests that such may be just concentrations of precipitated minerals. Figure 2 shows fossilized raindrop prints as casts on the underside of the prints. You can see the clear demonstration of the bowl-shape im- pact basins where the globular water drops have collided with mud and the raised splash-rims that result from the impact. In this underside view, the rims project into the rock instead of being raised around the bowls, and the bowls extend upward instead of downward. It is clear that these really are fossil- ized raindrop prints. Next to this image are fossil raindrop Figure 3: White Cliffs of Dover.

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 57 ach as well as fossils of large turtles, birds, and a plesiosaur. that olive trees that lived during Noah’s flood could have been He claims that because these kinds of creatures are mixed hardier than those living today. He also asserts that olive trees together, they had to be deposited suddenly during a rapid would have been like orange trees in that they could reproduce change in the chemistry of Noah’s flood waters that caused asexually by budding from roots or from fragmented branches. all the coccoliths to suddenly plunge down and be buried. But neither Snelling nor his colleagues have demonstrated He says that they could not have been buried over millions by any experimental studies of their own that a live olive tree of years by falling dead coccoliths that settle at a few inches or any fragmented branches that have been submerged for at a time over thousands of years. three months (or even six months during Noah’s flood) can As I have pointed out, a 350-foot thickness of coccoliths come alive again. He is merely speculating without scientific cannot be living at the same time in ocean waters; further- support. more, the skeletal bones of the various fish, reptiles, and birds are composed of calcium carbonate, which is the same compo- Conclusion sition as the calcareous platelets of the coccoliths. The oceanic These five examples show that Snelling has not done his water was saturated with calcium ions, and therefore there is homework. I agree that I look at many situations from a no chemical reason the bones of these creatures should dis- uniformitarianism point of view, but geologists recognize solve and disappear. They could remain on the ocean floor for that not all processes that occur during geologic history millions of years without disappearing. are necessarily slow events occurring over millions of years. Moreover, Snelling’s statement that birds were buried Catastrophic events, such as the explosion of Mt. St. Helens, by the coccoliths is misleading because it implies that birds are examples. But young-Earth creationists cannot decide were living at that time (the Cretaceous Age) during No- that uniformitarianism does not work during the Genesis ah’s flood. They were not birds in the modern sense but were week and up until Noah’s flood and then decide that they gliding reptiles (pterodactyls) with teeth. One does not know will accept such processes at other times. I note that Snelling how these various creatures could have been killed, but a toxic never responds to my Reason 21, in which I point out that algal bloom could have been the cause. Such blooms com- the Redwall limestone has karst topography (cave forma- monly and suddenly kill thousands of fish and other marine tion) in it as well as deep erosion channels of the Surprise creatures today. Canyon Formation on top of it, neither of which could hap- pen in less than one year during Noah’s flood. He chooses An experiment done on a live olive tree by Charles Munroe III data that he thinks fit his model and ignores data that do I suggested that an experiment with the submergence of a not fit. Science is not done that way. As I said in my original live olive tree under water for three months showing that Skeptical Inquirer article, it only takes one ugly fact to the olive tree was killed by this submergence was evidence ruin a beautiful hypothesis. Moreover, a local huge flood that a worldwide flood never happened. Snelling discusses that occurred in Mesopotamia during biblical times is cer- the olive tree experiment (about twenty-two minutes into tainly possible. For more information, see http://www.csun. the video) and asks where the published article is in which edu/~vcgeo005/Collins2.pdf and http://www.csun.edu/~vc- this experiment was described. He said that Answers in geo005/Carol%201.pdf. Genesis would not consider any assertion unless they can As a further point, my March/April Skeptical Inquirer see a published article. Figure 4 below at left contains the article gave physical reasons Noah’s worldwide flood never images in question. happened, but there are equally strong reasons from biolog- And, thereby, here is the published article. Snelling said ical evidence such a flood never happened. See article to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Skeptical Inquirer. This article also gives evidence that the Earth cannot be 6,000 years old, but many billions of years old. •

Lorence G. Collins is a retired professor of geol- ogy from California State University Northridge. On the website Opposition to Creationism, he has more than three dozen articles describing the views of young-Earth creationists and their scientific errors in interpretations. Figure 4: Live olive tree and same tree after submergence under water for three months. Courtesy Charles Munroe III.

58 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer REVIEWS]

Tackling the Big Questions Harriet Hall

n 1997, Michael Shermer wrote one of the classics of skepticism, Why People Believe Weird Things. Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, He has continued to produce skeptical Immortality, and Utopia. By Michael Shermer. New York: I Henry Holt and Co., 2018. ISBN: 978-1-62779-857-0. books at regular intervals, with topics as diverse as intelligent design, holocaust 320 pp. Hardcover, $30.00. denial, and morality. His new book, Heavens on Earth, is his most ambitious yet. In it, he grapples with immortality, the afterlife, reincarnation, near-death experiences, the , heaven, utopias, and the meaning of life. These are top- ics usually relegated to the spheres of wisdom traditions.” I had to wonder if he read the same book I did. philosophy and religion, but Shermer The topics of Heavens on approaches them through science, Earth are usually relegated Near death experiences and accounts looking for evidence—or lack thereof. of reincarnation have been claimed as The belief that death is not final is to the spheres of philosophy scientific evidence for the afterlife, but overwhelmingly common—even among and religion, but Shermer Shermer examines that evidence in a third of atheists and agnostics—but it detail and finds it lacking. Naturalistic is not supported by a shred of evidence. approaches them through explanations make more sense. Anom- As the story goes, humans are terrified science, looking for evi- alous psychological experiences are ex- of dying, so they invented comforting plained by science; talking to the dead narratives including God, a soul that dence—or lack thereof. is explained by cold reading. Strange survives the death of the body, resurrec- things happen. He describes a very tion, reincarnation, and methods they strange experience of his own, when a radio long forgotten in a drawer sud- hope will extend life. Shermer questions the physical brain, there can be no con- denly started playing at a time and in assumptions such as whether contem- sciousness, no “soul.” He even checked a way that held meaning for his family. plating death results in terror. In a sur- into the Chopra Center to experience vey, only 3 percent of respondents listed He says, “There is no such thing as the Chopra’s Ayurvedic regimen of diet, “fear of death” as a reason for their belief supernatural or the paranormal. There exercise, massage, breathing exercises, in God. Final statements of inmates on is just the natural and the normal and and meditation. He found the massage death row speak of love, not terror. An- mysteries we have yet to solve with nat- and meditation relaxing, and he ac- thropologists interpret burial customs in ural and normal explanations.” knowledges that there is some scientific terms of belief systems, but the earliest He explains how arguments for the humans may have buried their dead for evidence for benefits from meditation. soul are flawed. The very feeling of a a more pragmatic reason: dead bodies But he doesn’t accept Chopra’s view of unified self is an illusion. We are more rot and stink. consciousness as a fundamental prop- like a Swiss army knife, a collection of Shermer knows Deepak Chopra erty of the universe. I was amused to see distinct but interacting modules. Most personally and believes he is sincere. that Deepak Chopra had written one of the brain’s operations are not avail- He has tried very hard to understand of the blurbs on the back of the book’s able to the conscious mind. what Chopra means when he calls con- jacket: “I appreciate every evolutionary Shermer covers efforts to extend the sciousness “a quantum mechanical field step skepticism takes toward openness. human life span, including those of the of interrelatedness,” but he doesn’t find Heavens on Earth is an affirmation that cryonicists, extropians, transhumanists, it credible. He subscribes to the scien- other worldviews deserve respect and Omega Point theorists, singularitarians, tific explanation of consciousness as an understanding. In this book science may and mind uploaders. He explains why emergent property of the brain. Without actually be catching up with the world’s he is pessimistic about the possibility of Skeptical Inquirer July/August 2018 59 [NEW AND NOTABLE Listing does not preclude future review.

AT LEAST KNOW THIS: Essential Science to En- uploading minds to computers. Even if it could be done, hance Your Life. Guy P. Harrison. Prolific journalist would it be you? and author Guy Harrison (his books include Think The “good old days” were dreadful. This is by far the best Before You Like, Good Thinking, Think, and 50 Pop- ular Beliefs That People Think Are True) returns with time in history to be alive, so why do 71 percent of people a book on the “profound answers” to simple ques- think everything is getting worse? Shermer tries to explain tions about who we are and where we came from. the psychological and evolutionary factors behind this pessi- He emphasizes this isn’t a book of science trivia or mism. Quests for utopias have repeatedly gone astray. “Hu- mere conversation fodder: “This is important stuff. mans are not perfectible because no such thing as perfection This is the foundation from which further learning arises.” His chapter titles give the idea: When Did exists.” Neither utopias nor dystopias are accurate portrayals Everything Begin? Who are We? What is Everything Made Of? What is of reality. Life? How Did We Get Here? Why Does the Race Concept Fail? Where Are Why do we age and die? Science provides answers, and We? How Do Brains Work? How Will Everything End? As he concludes, Shermer covers the evidence in detail. Basically, we die so “The more we learn, the more alive and awake we become.” Prometheus that others can live. Individuals are mortal, but the species Books, 2018, 416 pp., $19.00. survives. We can even hope to achieve species immortality by some day going to the stars. CONJURING THE UNIVERSE: The Origins of the The last chapter is titled “Imagine There’s No Heaven: Laws of Nature. Peter Atkins. The noted scientist Finding Meaning in a Meaningless Universe.” The feeling and writer Peter Atkins (Oxford University) here of awe for the wonder of the cosmos can provide meaning. provides a personal and even witty view of how the laws of nature and the fundamental constants Some people call this spirituality; some think it is evidence came about. The physical laws (of conservation for God. Neither concept is necessary. Stars died so we could of energy, of electromagnetism, of classical and live. That’s pretty cool! From the reality discovered and de- quantum mechanics, and of thermodynamics) scribed by science, we can derive meaning, “through recog- and constants account for the deep structure of nition of our uniqueness, through gratitude for having the the world and appear to be consistent whenever and wherever they are tested and not to have chance to live, through the love of others and others’ love for changed over time. Why? How? His mantra is simply that most of the us, and through engagement with the world with courage laws emerged from deep symmetries without much happening. In the and integrity.” “We create our own purpose, and we do this course of the book, he explains “how much was not much.” Oxford Uni- by fulfilling our nature, by living in accord with our essence, versity Press, 2018, 216 pp., $24.95. by being true to ourselves.” The book ends with this hopeful thought: THE GRAND CANYON, MONUMENT TO AN ANCIENT We are given this one chance to live, some four score trips EARTH: Can Noah’s Flood Explain the Grand Can- around the sun, a brief but glorious moment in the cosmic yon? Carol Hill, Gregg Davidson, Tim Helble, and drama unfolding on this provisional proscenium. Given all Wayne Ranney, editors. This excellent and hand- we know about the universe and the laws of nature, that is somely produced book is the result of a remark- the most any of us can reasonably hope for. Fortunately, it able project led by research geologist Carol Hill is enough. It is the soul of life. It is heaven on earth. and ten other scientist experts on the Grand Can- yon to directly address claims and distortions of Some will argue that Shermer goes beyond the science or young-Earth creationists about the origin, history, that these subjects aren’t amenable to science. You probably and age of the canyon and its rocks. What makes it won’t agree with everything Shermer says in this book, but unusual and potentially highly effective is that many of the authors are some of the scientific evidence he describes may be new also Christians (and yet strong defenders of science). They understand how to analyze the many specific claims of “flood geologists” and write to you, and it will definitely fulfill the highest purpose of clearly about the real science in a way that is nonthreatening, effective, a book: to make the reader think. It might even challenge and potentially persuasive to the vast segments of the lay public—in- some treasured assumptions. cluding deeply religious people—who may be confused by the claims. It It is well written, engaging, and will appeal to the gen- is an unusual challenge they’ve undertaken, but they seem to have done eral reader and to anyone who is searching for answers to it. They end with two important points: “Science has to be allowed to go where the evidence leads” and “Truth always matters!” An attractive, the big questions. There are some unfortunate errors that I oversized book with hundreds of beautiful color photos and graphics on hope will be corrected in future editions: Mark Crislip is an high-quality paper. A much-needed work. Kregel Publications, 2016, 240 infectious disease specialist, not an ER doc, and psilocybin pp., $26.99. is not LSD. • Harriet Hall, MD, also known as the “SkepDoc,” is a retired Air Force family physician and flight surgeon who writes about pseu- doscientific and so-called alternative medicine. She is a contrib- uting editor and frequent contributor to the Skeptical Inquirer.

60 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer HOROSCOPES: Reality or Trickery? Kimberly Blaker. Illustrations by Diana Silkina. In this A Monumental, but slim book for children and teens, writer and skeptic Kimberly Blaker guides them easily through the topic of astrology and horoscopes. Flawed, Effort to “Is there a scientific explanation for why your horoscopes seemed so true?” she asks at the Understand Behavior beginning. “You’re going to uncover a lot of Reynold Spector fascinating facts about horoscopes and astrol- ogy as you sleuth for answers to the question. Then, toward the end of the book, you can also do experiments and activities of your own to help you determine for yourself whether as- Behave: The Biology of Humans at trology is real or just a hoax.” Green Grove Press, 2018, 78 pp., $9.99. Our Best and Worst. By Robert M. THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE JERSEY DEVIL: Sapolsky. New York: Penguin Press, How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin 2017. ISBN 978-1594205071. 790 Franklin Created a Monster. Brian Regal and pp. Hardcover, $35.00. Frank J. Esposito. Two historians (Kean Univer- sity) examine the genesis of the popular myth in which in 1735 a witch named Mother Leeds gave birth to a horrifying monster—a deformed flying horse with glowing red eyes—that flew up the chimney of her New Jersey home and disappeared into the Pine Barrens. Regal and Esposito find that everything you think you know about the Jersey Devil is wrong and that the real story of the New Jersey Devil’s birth is far more interesting and complex than most skeptics and believers n his long (790 page), extensively referenced book alike think. Involved are land grabs, astrological predictions, mer- Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, maids, dinosaur bones, sideshows, and Founding Father Benjamin neurobiologist and primatologist Robert Sapolsky Franklin. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018, 160 pp., $24.95. attempts to uncover the cause and consequences of I many aspects of human behavior employing techniques and results from neuroscience, evolution, psychology, WHAT MAKES YOUR BRAIN HAPPY AND WHY sociology, molecular biology, genetics, and moral phi- YOU SHOULD DO THE OPPOSITE. Updated and Revised. David DiSalvo. This is an update of a losophy with a sociological bent. He begins his analysis book first published in 2011. Subsequent re- and synthesis of behavioral data with the underly- search shows, says the author, that the book’s ing neurobiological and hormonal causes of behavior. original thesis is more strongly supported now Later he focuses on fetal development, childhood, than even when it was first published: “The adolescence, and adulthood. Still later, he focuses on brain is a prediction and pattern-detection cultural and ecological factors that influence behavior. machine with a penchant for storytelling that craves certainty, stability, and predictability.” He spends considerable time on morality and less on And that’s all great—except when it’s not. The goal is to let us know religion. why we think as we do and do as we do. The title refers to the fact that much of what makes our brains “happy” leads to errors, biases, In many places, Sapolsky plunges and distortions that cloud our judgment and muddle our decision into controversial areas. making. Prometheus Books, 2018, 335 pp., $18.00. —Kendrick Frazier

In many places, Sapolsky plunges into controversial areas. For example, he argues that Steven Pinker’s thesis that “people have gotten less awful” over the centuries is overly optimistic. He implies that Pinker is a Pan- gloss. Sapolsky points out that when you take time (du- ration) as well as population size into account, he finds that World War II, the An Lushan Rebellion (China) and the killings in World War I, the Taiping Rebellion (China), and Tamerlane’s depredations lead the list of horrific events. He also emphasizes that the recent hor- rific wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq; the horren- Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 61 In parts of Sapolsky’s book there are clear deficiencies or wrong statements.

dous killing crimes of Stalin and Mao; and the ongoing wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Africa disconfirm Pinker’s optimistic thesis. In another part of the book, he accuses Pinker of plicit assumptions lead to an overvalu- to localize where in the brain certain “cherry-picking.” (Pinker responds to ing of certain behaviors, e.g., empathy behaviors originate. He assumes brain such criticisms in a chapter of his new (see Paul Bloom’s 2016 book Against scanning studies are meaningful, i.e., book Enlightenment Now that was pub- Empathy: The Case for Rational Com- changes in brain scans associated with lished in the May/June 2018 Skepti- passion for a contrary view). I, like many certain behaviors or perceptions are sci- cal Inquirer.) others, would argue you cannot under- entifically sound. However, he does not In other parts of Sapolsky’s book stand many behaviors and events unless emphasize that brain scans, e.g., fMRI there are clear deficiencies or wrong you take nonliberal non-Western worl- and PET scans, actually measure blood statements. For example, he implicitly dviews into account. Sapolsky might be flow, blood volume, deoxygenated he- assumes the critical importance of the surprised to know that in Korea (where moglobin, or glucose and/or oxygen Western liberal notion of the primacy I served in the U.S. Army in 1969 and uptake; he does not note that non-neu- of harm and fairness, which in turn spoke Korean), Good Samaritans were ral processes can affect fMRI and PET. leads to the evolutionary theory of kin widely viewed by Koreans as fools for (See Jerome Kagan’s 2017 book Five selection and reciprocal fairness. How- giving away their family or govern- Constraints on Predicting Behavior for a ever, he ignores important non-Western ment’s wealth to strangers. detailed critique of Sapolsky’s methods.) Now, to the heart of Sapolsky’s In the many psychological studies book: What causes behavior and from he references, Sapolsky is not aware of This book is a monumen- whence does it originate? And what or ignores the findings that many such are the consequences? He focuses on studies are nonreplicable and that many tal effort to describe “good” and “bad” behaviors and, at are done in artificial laboratory condi- and understand behavior, great length, on the underpinnings of tions. Moreover, even if correct, such “moral” behavior. However, one critical studies are often done on college vol- especially human aspect of his discussions is missing: the unteers and may not be generalizable to behavior. But in many thorough and systematic work of cen- the broader population. Context greatly turies of moral philosophers beginning matters, as Kagan emphasizes. places it is deficient. with Plato, Aristotle, and several Chi- Sapolsky also places too much em- nese scholars culminating in the work phasis on research employing mice, rats, of Bernard Williams and Derek Parfitt primates, and particularly his favorites, of Cambridge University. He also does baboons. The behavior and physiology attitudes that motivate behavior in the not emphasize the critical role that the of these animals often does not extrap- majority of humans: these include: 1) law plays in determining behavior, espe- olate to humans. A rat brain weighs 1 societies in which ingroup/outgroup cially in America. gram; a human brain 1 kilogram. More- dynamics and loyalty are crucial (e.g., Sapolsky rightly emphasizes the over, humans have neural structures, Japan); 2) societies where authority, re- central nervous system—especially the connections, and cortical areas that spect, and obedience are all important brain and, later in the book, hormones. other mammals, including primates, do (neo-Confucian societies); 3) societies However, he is apparently not famil- not have. where spiritual purity is paramount; and iar with (or disregards) reports that do Other methodological problems 4) societies where noncarnal, nonviolent not support his views. For example, he abound throughout the book. For ex- behavior is critical (Amish). Thus, in his ignores nutrition and many other im- ample, Sapolsky discusses almost all discussion of morality, Sapolsky’s im- portant environmental factors. He tries studies in terms of means (averages) 62 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer and statistical significance. He rarely to be not correct. I worked in the field genesis Drops Sharply in Children to discusses magnitudes of such differ- of DNA synthesis in brains of animals Undetectable Levels in Adults” in the ences—or that in fMRI very small dif- and humans for a decade. It is true that journal Nature.) Thus, these recent more ferences can be greatly magnified and DNA synthesis in adult human brain sophisticated experimental investiga- overemphasized. This lack of focus on neurons occurs, but not for neurogenesis tions give good reasons to doubt that the magnitude of differences instead of (the birth of new neurons). DNA syn- quantitatively important human adult statistical significance is a grievous fault. thesis in neurons, as in other cells, serves neurogenesis occurs. Moreover, unlike Finally, I note two errors of fact in several purposes, including DNA repair, in rodents, the belief that human de- areas in which I am thoroughly famil- the repair of the removal of the sixth pression is due to deficient neurogenesis iar and have published. First, on page base in DNA (hydroxymethylcytosine), is obviously incorrect and that exercise, 560, Sapolsky states categorically that and intracellular mitochondrial repli- environmental enrichment, antidepres- substance P is involved in depression. cation. Mitochondria last only about sants, etc., might enhance neurogenesis He says “drugs that block the action of thirty days and need to be replaced fre- in adult human brains is also almost cer- substance P can have marked anti-de- quently. DNA synthesis also occurs in tainly incorrect since significant neuro- pressant properties.” This is not true. In degenerating and dying neurons. genesis in adult humans doesn’t occur. the 1990s when I was head of develop- Sapolsky’s ad hominem attacks on Pasko ment at Merck, we hypothesized that Rakic deserve an apology. a “blocker” of substance P in the brain To explain the lack of neurogenesis would have anti-emetic and antidepres- Sapolsky also does not in adult humans, in 1985 Rakic and sant properties. The former is true, and others proposed a theory that suggests our drug aprepitant, now generic, a sub- emphasize the critical that the lack of human neurogenesis is stance P blocker, was approved by the role that the law plays in beneficial, so that long-term memory FDA almost two decades ago for use as and other key functions can last over the an anti-emetic. However, although one determining behavior, entire life span. As I’ve noted, the extant initial small pilot study suggested that especially in America. reliable data support this very important aprepitant had antidepressant proper- theory. The amount of time, effort, and ties, large controlled trials did not con- taxpayer money wasted on murine mod- firm this hypothesis. Thus, Sapolsky is els is staggering. wrong about substance P and depres- I believe that Sapolsky is biased in his sion. discussion of neurogenesis. He is trying More important, on pages 147– to show there is tremendous “plasticity” 150 Sapolsky argues that in humans A highly publicized report twenty in the brain that can be affected by envi- years ago by Elizabeth Gould of neu- “throughout adult life there is neuro- ronmental factors. This is undoubtedly rogenesis in the adult primate neocor- genesis in brain,” for example, there is true; for example, nutrition, education, tex turned out to be a claim that could the birth of new neurons in the hippo- and experience can affect the develop- campus and cerebral cortex. This is an not be replicated. Moreover, there were ment and function of the human brain extremely important issue for neuro- other kinds of errors in the early re- and attendant behavior. But there is no biology, pharmacology, exercise physi- ports of widespread brain neurogene- convincing evidence that after about age ology, aging, and hormonal action. For sis in animals as well as adult humans, seven neurogenesis contributes much if example, in rats, exercise and antide- e.g., mistaking dividing endothelial and anything to plasticity. pressants were shown to stimulate neu- glial cells for neurons. (Sapolsky quotes In summary, this book is a monu- rogenesis. Moreover, Sapolsky argues the initial incorrect or misleading re- mental effort to describe and understand that Professor Pasko Rakic (Yale) was ports.) Consequently, in the past few behavior, especially human behavior. incorrect in doubting many reports of years, there has developed a consen- But in many places it is deficient—with the role of neurogenesis in animals and sus that in only one small part of the an implicit point of view that affects humans. Because of Rakic’s negativity adult human brain (the dentate gyrus Sapolsky’s analysis and synthesis, many about neurogenesis in adult humans, of the hippocampus) might there be errors of fact and interpretation, and the Sapolsky makes an ad hominem attack neurogenesis. However, more recently, lack of coverage of several key drivers of on Rakic, indirectly suggesting Rakic multiple reports using increasingly so- behavior, for example the law. • held up the “field” for ten years. In fact, phisticated techniques have not found many of the earlier studies that reported neurogenesis in the adult human brain, neurogenesis in the adult human brain or if there is, it is below the level of de- Reynold Spector, MD, is adjunct professor made errors. First, the authors of these tection—much less than 1 percent per of medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical studies assumed DNA synthesis in the year in the dentate gyrus and nowhere School, Colts Neck, New Jersey. He wrote on human brain was in part due to the else. (See Shawn F. Sorrells et al.’s 2018 drug therapy hype in the March/April 2018 birth of new neurons. This turned out article “Human Hippocampal Neuro- issue.

Skeptical Inquirer July/August 2018 63 [ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Interstellar Asteroid | Superstitious Rituals | UFO Study | Sonic Attack? | New Fellows | Science Ambassadors short-term profit. The author blames primarily my interest in the academic side Scott Pruitt, evangelical Chris- leftist postmodern philosophy of literature, considerably before

Vol. 42 No. 2 | March/April 2018 the Magazine for Science and Reason tian and current head of the En- for anti-intellectualism and an- Sidky suggests postmodernism vironmental Protection Agency tiscience. Follow the money, started. (EPA), recently offered a fine exam- Professor Sidky. For example, the real culprits for climate change John Forester ple of how religion and capitalism Lemon Grove, California join forces to strangle reason: “The denial are Big Oil and Big Coal. Some academics greatly inflate idea of ‘dominion‘ is about mastery: I learned from the article by Prof. academic influence on society, Human beings have their right to Sidky how left-wing academic but in fact their influence is very take what they want from the earth, postmodern relativism has at- small (they mostly just talk to in terms of natural resources, with- tacked science over the past forty REVIEWS OF one another) and is dwarfed by Daniel Dennett out regards to how it might affect years and how the right wing has Sharon Hill Drug Therapy Hype the big money interests. Deepak Chopra other species” (quoted on Vox.com). enthusiastically adopted its prin- INTRODUCTORY PRICE U.S. and Canada $5.99 21 Reasons Noah’s Flood Never Happened Are science and reason vastly ciples. In academia and the news CSICon Las Vegas 2017 John Grant Colin Wilson’s Strange Legacy undervalued in 2018 America? Baltimore, Maryland media, we mostly hear about With leaders such as Pruitt, who the fables and foibles of conser- The War on Science could reasonably deny it? Has post- Sidky intimates that the anti- vatives. I’ve kept track of anti- modern academia, with all its con- science movement in academia science on both sides as I’ve seen In his survey of the academic structing and deconstructing, made started in the 1970s. It started them misinterpret and ignore sci- backdrop to today’s rampant un- some small contribution to the pres- earlier, although without a name. entific results. Some of these false reason, Professor Sidky suggests a ent state of affairs? Maybe a tad. My undergraduate career, UC beliefs have been codified into causative link between the rise of But as long as we accept the Berkeley (1947–1951), started laws, such as U.S. laws against what he calls postmodernism and preposterous claims of religion with physics and ended with stem-cell research and European the unreason he sees around us and refuse to examine the as- English literature, with some laws against GMO foods. thinking that I might end up a (“The War on Science, Anti-In- sumptions and effects of the eco- L.G. Wade professor. But disillusion came tellectualism, and ‘Alternative nomic system we’re all beholden Walla Walla, Washington with a senior-year seminar on Ways of Knowing’ in 21st-Cen- to, we won’t need the permission D.H. Lawrence. Lawrence wrote tury America,” March/April of professors to act more than a While I agree that postmodern mostly what he considered real- 2018). Goofy thinking is ram- little nuts. and deconstructionist ideas bear a pant, and perhaps English profes- istic novels but also several out- lot of blame for the current shriv- sors, historians, anthropologists, Ken Winkes right short fantasies, The Rock- eling of general trust in science, I and philosophers do exert some Conway, Washington ing Horse Winner being the best wonder whether the stagnation of tenuous influence on the general known due to its film version. scientific progress doesn’t provide public, but to suggest that aca- It’s not just a war on science and But I noticed that Lawrence’s the intellectual space for such demics who question our socially knowledge; it’s a war on real- realistic novels were often based obscurantism to thrive. From constructed cultural verities have ity. Four hundred years ago, ev- on what I considered fictional the beginning of the seventeenth caused the public to reject science eryone agreed that Earth is the science. For example, at a dinner century through the middle of and reason is a misreading of how center of the universe and that party the hostess wants to make the twentieth, scientific theories culture works. In fact, tempests humans are the reason for its ex- a speech. Lawrence writes that advanced decade after decade. in our academic teapots far more istence. Now, thanks to science, she mentally orders, by her will, From Kepler’s planetary laws often reflect cultural shifts than we know that we are an accident that everyone else cease talking to to Turing and Shannon, each cause them. of evolution, a species of ape in- which they comply. In another generation produced profound Some of the academic work habiting a tiny speck in an un- example, a rich young English- new theories and mathematical Sidky cites is indeed silly, even imaginably huge and indifferent man of 1912 commits suicide tools. In the past century, the in- entertainingly so, and I thank universe. Did God really create a because, you see, he was rich and compatibilities between the laws him for the smiles. Nonetheless, trillion galaxies just to make us? young. I pointed out that there of small- and large-scale physics Sidky grants the legitimacy of This is quite a demotion and a was no known process of thought remain unresolved. We work out much of that work while simul- big blow to our collective ego, transference by purely mental the implications of earlier theo- taneously saying it encourages or and many people simply reject it means and that there was not a ries and say “gee whiz!” but have contributes to the irrationality in favor of their preferred myths. wave of suicides in the British advanced no significant new the- that permeates society. Having rejected this reality, many upper classes prior to The Great ories. When neither science nor It’s a stretch to suggest, as people feel free to reject other War. superstition advances, it is easier Sidky does, that academics who aspects of reality, such as global Having, since childhood, lis- to equate them. question our assumptions have climate change and evolution. tened to discussions of the cre- Like Trump’s, our first impulse is Don Martin destroyed the philosophic under- ation of historical fiction by one Toronto, Ontario pinnings of science and reason to protect our ego and our excep- who was a master of it, I felt that when other very powerful forces tionalism, whether that relates to realistic fiction had to be based us personally, to our species, our in our culture clearly don’t like on a factual background that H. Sidky replies: nation, our race, or our religion. people thinking too much. Reli- did not affront scientific reality. This is basic human nature, and First, I thank the many readers gion would certainly have to top The argument of my term paper I doubt whether a majority will who have taken time to write re- that list, but it’s not the only cul- received a C, simply because ever fully embrace reality as re- sponses to “The War on Science.” prit. Most forget our entire lives I failed to accept the scientific vealed by scientific inquiry. Dialogue on this topic is essential are embedded in an economic fictions in which Lawrence, and as the assault on science and reason system that tolerates reason only John Powell other supposed modernists, be- continues unabated and has even as long as it is the servant of McFarland, Wisconsin lieved. That experience closed off gained strength under the current

64 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer abysmal political circumstances. In scientists who have paid attention myth. His article is on my website Collins replies to Odell: his letter, Ken Winkes suggests that have opted for mutual coexistence, as “The Flood of Noah” at http:// Yes, I have known about the lava I have presented a misreading of a view expressed in Stephen Jay www.csun.edu/~vcgeo005/Nr- flows that occur in the bottom of how culture works. I think he has Gould’s unfortunate idea of “non- 39TheFlood.pdf. the Colorado River that dammed misconstrued the article because I overlapping magisteria.” It is such up the river several times. Andy start out stating specifically that the an approach that has created intel- While I don’t disagree with any is correct that these very resistant rise of anti-intellectualism and an- lectual space for supernaturalism, of Collins’s reasons that Noah’s basaltic rocks could not have been tiscience perspectives involve many paranormalism, and irrationalism worldwide flood never happened, eroded out in the 4,350 years since complex interconnected factors, rather than the stagnation of sci- some of them depend on the as- the supposed Noah’s Flood. I just such as globalization, demographic ence. Antiscience narratives are not sumption that the estimated ages did not include this information as shifts, changes in the socioeconomic a joke, amusing, “silly,” or “enter- of formations are geological (not a reason in the Twenty-One Rea- infrastructure, and disparities in taining,” as Winkes seems to think, biblical) and for others that cre- sons article because I thought I had wealth and power. My objective in and unless rational thinking folks ationists have cherry-picked the enough reasons, and I knew that this article has been to highlight the take this problem seriously and data and reinterpreted it. the young-Earth creationists (YEC) adopt a no-holds-barred stance in culpability of American academia To me, the most convincing would not accept such a reason be- in this sad affair rather than look at this war, we are all in trouble. single piece of evidence that the cause they argue that U/Pb radio- the broader picture. Neither have I Canyon is old comes from the metric dating cannot be trusted left out the “very powerful forces in Correction: The opening phrase volcanics on the west end of the because they say that the decay rate our culture,” a point also indicated in H. Sidky’s “The War on Science Canyon, the Uinkaret Plateau. of U was different in biblical times. by John Grant. I have clearly noted …” in our March/April 2018 There are lava dams 2,000 feet Of course, that is ridiculous, but it the unholy antiscience alliance be- issue should have read, “At the start high that were laid down in an is hard to argue against miracles. tween fundamentalist churches of the twenty-first century” (not already existing canyon. Yet they Most of my other reasons did not and profit-hungry agrochemical twentieth century). Many readers, have been eroded back to about have this issue as a problem. industries. I disagree with Winkes’s nicely attuned to what century we river level. They must have been Andy Odell is also correct that statement that we are talking about are living in, noticed and kindly formed after Noah’s flood, yet creationists seem not to understand a “tempest in a teapot” and that ac- informed us we were off by a hun- we all know God promised us he erosion. YEC seem to think that ademia is a reflection rather than a dred years. —Editors. would never do that again—the a great volume of water is what force in shaping minds. There is cer- rainbow story. carved the Grand Canyon. That is tainly an interplay between broader It would be impossible to not true. The great volume is trans- cultural forces and academic dis- 21 Reasons Noah’s erode most of 2,000 feet of basalt ported above the bottom of the can- ciplines, but to suggest that college yon and has no effect on erosion. students leave antiscience classes Worldwide Flood Never in a mere 4,360 years (almost six inches per year!). I don’t see how It is even not true that the sand indifferent is naive and unrealistic. Happened grains carried in flood waters do John Powell’s point that this is this can be explained with a one- Lorence Collins’s article on the erosion, particularly when the “a war on reality” is on the mark. flood scenario, short of a miracle, “Twenty-One Reasons Noah’s quartz sand grains have the same The very definition of irrational- which science can’t abide. If we Worldwide Flood Never Hap- hardness as the quartz in the Zoro- ism, which is how I characterize resort to a miracle, then why not pened” (March/April 2018) re- aster Granite in the bottom of the the rightwing religious/antiscience just claim the whole Canyon was iterates the clear evidence that canyon. What does the major part perspectives (paranormalism, oxy- a result of a miracle? Further, at young-Earth creationists do not of the erosion of the canyon is the moronic creation science, and bogus six inches a year, Lava Falls would have a leg to stand on with re- so-called bedload of boulders that alternative ways of knowing), is be- be completely gone by now, in gard to a catastrophic Noachian are rolled and tumbled along the lief despite the absence of evidence, the time since Powell’s trip in flood. It is unfortunate that bedrock and forcibly ram against or a denial of reality. John Forester 1868, yet it hasn’t changed no- he did not give a more reliable the rock that does most of the ero- is absolutely correct that the roots of ticeably. reference to the stimulating hy- sion. Present-day boulders have lit- antiscience go back earlier than the The wind-blown sand of the pothesis regarding a prehistoric tle effect on erosion because the vol- rise of postmodernism. I focused on Coconino Sandstone, with its flooding of the Black Sea basin as ume of present day floods is not that the latter alone. But in reality, an- grain size, frosting, cross-bed- the source of the Noachian story. large. The amount of erosion goes tiscience sentiments go even further ding, and lizard tracks, probably A good link to this is provided up, I think, with the sixth power of with the reactions to Copernicus, comes in a close second, but the by Googling “Black Sea Deluge the velocity of the water flow. It was Galileo, Hume, and Darwin. L.G. creationists explain it away as Hypothesis,” which leads to a during the end of the Ice Age when Wade has astutely called attention to well-referenced Wikipedia article wind-blown sand carried in by a large volumes of water were gen- the frightening fact that antiscience on the subject. Perhaps Collins’s flood surge (and ignore the ani- erated by rains and melting of ice beliefs are being legally codified. I 2009 reference, cited in his arti- mal tracks). in mountain glaciers that had the am unsure of Don Martin’s sugges- major effect on eroding the bottom cle, covers this, but that URL is Creationists seem to not un- tion that the “stagnation of scientific of the canyon. But even then, it was no longer on the web and thus derstand erosion, either. Fluvial progress” has created intellectual slow and not at rates required to do the importance of the hypothesis erosion occurs primarily by water space for obscurantism to thrive. I the erosion in less than 4,350 years. cannot be explored. carrying sediment that grinds do not think science is stagnating. away at the bottom. Doubling Just think about the massive sci- Dr. A.R. (Pete) Palmer the depth and/or flow rate of Lorence Collins’s article “Twen- ence-based changes that have taken Boulder, Colorado the water does not allow for half ty-One Reasons Noah’s World- place since World War II. the time. The added water, high wide Flood Never Happened” is The real problem is that the sci- above the bottom, does little to very enlightening, especially for entific community has failed to pay Lorence Collins replies to Palmer: erode. the students and lovers of geol- sufficient attention to the ravings I am aware of this possibility, and ogy. However, the major reason of what Thomas Paine described as Charles Munroe suggests the Black Andy Odell that Noah’s flood never happened the “blasphemers of science.” Those Sea Deluge as the source of the flood Flagstaff, Arizona is strikingly evident unless some

Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2018 65 earth scientist can adequately for decades. What has been ac- out of group statistics), even in After the success of our Iowa answer the following question: complished? Are there established the lung cancer trial highlighted pilot in 2016, NCSE launched Where did the water come from? goals? I often doubt we are all on (see the Kaplan-Meier curve the program nationally in 2017. Let’s assume that the highest the same bus heading in the same plateaus in the Checkmate-017 In 2017, we worked with over peak in Noah’s time was 12,000 direction. trial). In settings such as mela- 124,000 people across ten states. feet. The Bible’s Genesis ac- Where is the public outreach noma, CPIs have led to such last- Finally, if you are able, it is count twice mentions forty days and marketing? How about more ing remissions in some metastatic very helpful for our program and forty nights of rain. Quick than a handful of positive voices patients that clinicians whisper leadership if we are named so arithmetic reveals that for forty promoted in the mainstream the “C word.” Unfortunately, it’s that people can contact us. I days of rain to cover a height of press? Where are the politically not yet possible to predict who lead the national program with 12,000 feet would require 3,350 savvy leaders? Where is the mod- will respond and who will not. the assistance of my NCSE col- inches of rain a day! The website ern media production? Where are Thus, industry and academia are league Claire Adrian-Tucci. My for Kentucky’s ark replication, the education efforts? devoting tremendous resources colleague, Professor Maurine Answers in Genesis, states that Is it a movement if it doesn’t to identify predictive biomarkers Neiman, is the primary faculty the Genesis story has to be true go anywhere? Now is the time to and complementary approaches member who has helped build because of dozens of histori- be engaging the highly frustrated to enhance immune-mediated the program in Iowa. Many cal flood story myths. Why are public with a compelling narra- tumor rejection. In my opinion, graduate students, including there so many flood story myths? tive for progress. Instead of a fan that’s a big deal. Kyle McElroy, Joseph Jalinsky, Throughout our planet there are convention of similar speakers and James Woodell, have led the hundreds of sites where, hiking Adam Bristol effort to build this program on talking to like-minded listeners, San Francisco, California in the hills, one can discover sea a Critical Thinking Summit is the ground. fossils high above sea level. Be- sorely needed to craft some strat- Thank you for considering fore our understanding of plate egy aimed to actually do some- these points, and thank you again tectonics, one explanation of the thing bold and substantial. for the kind mention in your upland sea fossil mystery would Ambassadors for Science publication. Sharon A. Hill be the appearance of a super First off, my colleagues and I Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Emily Schoerning, PhD flood that covered high moun- would like to thank you for Director of Research and tains many years ago. mentioning National Center for Community Organizing Mel Gabel Science Education (NCSE)’s Sci- National Center for Palm Desert, California ence Booster Club program in Science Education Hyped Drug Therapies your March/April “Ambassadors (See also Lorence Collins’s Fol- In the article “Drug Therapy for Science” article (by Matthew low-Up column in this issue on p. Hype” (March/April 2018), Dr. C. Nisbet). While the depiction 56, “Response to Ken Ham and Spector rightly points out that of our program was positive and YouTube Comments by Andrew some pharmaceutical marketing reflective of our larger goals, we [FEEDBACK Snelling.”) does not accurately reflect the wonder if the mention might be The letters column is a forum medical benefit evidenced in revised for accuracy prior to on- line publication. on mat­ters raised in previous clinical trials. He is also correct issues. Letters should be no Are We Skeptics that the initial enthusiasm for In our program, we do not longer than 225 words. Due angiogenesis inhibitors, such as train people to “persuasively dis- to the volume of letters we Doing It Right? Avastin, has not translated into cuss” topics related to climate sci- receive, not all can be pub- Editor Kendrick Frazier is a posi- broad clinical utility. However, ence and evolution; we train peo- lished. Send letters as email text (not attachments) to tive and enthusiastic advocate for Dr. Spector is misguided when ple to accurately and engagingly convey information on these [email protected]. In the sub- scientific skepticism, as he dis- he portrays cancer immunother- ject line, provide your surname played in his Commentary (“In apy as unjustified hype. Opdivo topics in community contexts. and informative identif­ication, Troubled Times, This Is What is one of six “checkpoint inhib- We find that many communities e.g.: “Smith Letter on Jones We Do,” March/April 2018). I’m itors“ (CPIs) that collectively do not have ready access to infor- evolution article.”­ Include­ your afraid it feels wrong to join in have achieved FDA approval in mation on these topics and that name and ad­dress at the end the cheerleading. “Let’s go!” isn’t more than twenty cancer settings there is a tremendous public ap- of the letter. You may also mail your letter to the editor to 944 helpful if there is no plan or set of in less than a decade, including petite for information on climate Deer Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM coherent and actionable goals to melanoma, breast, lymphoma, science and evolution. 87122. move toward. kidney, gastric, urothelial, head The engagement of the Uni- Measurable progress markers and neck, ovarian, merkel cell, versity of Iowa with this program in the realm of scientific skepti- colorectal, and “MSI-high” tu- has been invaluable. Now that I cism seem to be tough to define. mors. have left Iowa, graduate students I can’t readily identify significant It is true that the summary at the University of Iowa are the positive effects that today’s skep- data from large immunotherapy people on the ground doing this tical movement (as distinct from trials often show low overall re- work in communities and collect- ) has made in American sponse rates and limited improve- ing data on program measures. I society. People don’t even know ments in median overall survival. and my colleagues at NCSE de- what it means to be a “skeptic.” However, he ignores the subset of velop content and training meth- This merits concern. The skep- patients who have very long-last- ods, as well as track and analyze tical community has been active ing remissions (which is washed program success. The organizations listed above have aims similar to those of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry but are independent and autonomous. Representatives of these organizations cannot speak on behalf of CSI. Please send updates to Barry Karr, P.O. Box 703, Amherst NY 14226-0703. International affiliated organizations listed at www.csicop.org. 66 Volume 42 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer Scientific and Technical Consultants CENTERS FOR INQUIRY www.centerforinquiry.net/about/branches Gary Bauslaugh, Luis Alfonso Gámez, William M. 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Lange, China prof. of social welfare, MD, Mohawk Valley Physician China Research Institute for Science Popularization, Univ. of California at Berkeley Health Plan, Schenectady, NY NO. 86, Xueyuan Nanlu Haidian Dist., Beijing, 100081 China Affiliated Organizations | United States Tel.: +86-10-62170515 Egypt 44 Gol Gamal St., Agouza, Giza, Egypt ALABAMA D.C./MARYLAND MISSOURI OREGON Alabama Skeptics, Alabama. Emory National Capital Area Skeptics NCAS, Skeptical Society of St. Louis (SSSL) Oregonians for Science and Reason France Kimbrough. Tel.: 205-759-2624. 3550 Maryland, D.C., Virginia. D.W. “Chip” St. Louis, Missouri. Michael Blanford, (O4SR) Oregon. Jeanine DeNoma, Dr. Henri Broch, Universite of Nice, Faculte des Water­melon Road, Apt. 28A, Northport, Denman. Tel.: (240) 670-6227. Email: President. Email: [email protected]. president. Tel.: (541) 745-5026; Email: Sciences, Parc Valrose, 06108, Nice cedex 2, AL 35476 [email protected]. PO Box 8461, Silver Spring, 2729 Ann Ave., St. Louis, MO 63104 [email protected]; 39105 Military Rd., France Tel.: +33-492-07-63-12 MD 20907-8428 http://www.ncas.org www.skepticalstl.org Monmouth, OR 97361. www.04SR.org ARIZONA Germany Tucson Skeptics Inc. Tucson, AZ. James Mc­ FLORIDA St. Joseph Skeptics PENNSYLVANIA Arheilger Weg 11, 64380 Rossdorf, Germany Gaha. Email:[email protected]. 5100 Tampa Bay Skeptics (TBS) Tampa Bay, P.O. Box 8908 Philadelphia Association for Critical Tel.: +49-6154-695023 N. Sabino Foot­hills Dr., Tucson, AZ 85715 Florida. Rick O’Keefe, contact person. St. Joseph MO, 64508-8908 Think­ing (PhACT), Bob Glickman Pres- India Tel.: 813-505-7013; Email: ident. 653 Garden Road Glenside PA Phoenix Area Skeptics Society (PASS) NEVADA 46 Masi garh, New Friends Colony [email protected]. c/o O’Keefe, 19038. 215-885-2089 E-mail: Presi- http://phoenixskeptics.org Reno Skeptical Society, Inc., New Delhi 110025 4011 S. Manhattan Ave. #139, Tampa, FL [email protected]. Website: www.phact.org Email: [email protected] Brad Lutts, President. Tel.: 91-9868010950 33611-1277. www.tampabayskept Tel.: (775) 335-5505; TENNESSEE London Phoenix Skeptics, Phoenix, AZ. Michael ics.org Email: [email protected]. 18124 Rationalists of East Tennessee, East Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Stack­pole, P.O. Box 60333, Phoenix, AZ ILLINOIS Wedge Parkway #1052 Reno, Nevada Tennessee.­ Carl Ledenbecker. Tel.: (865)- 85082 London WC1R 4RL, England Rational Examination Association 89511. www.RenoSkeptics.org 982-8687; Email: [email protected]. 2123 Nepal CALIFORNIA Stony­brook Rd., Louis­ville, of Lincoln Land (REALL) Illinois. Bob NEW MEXICO Humanist Association of Nepal, Sacramento Organization for Rational TN 37777 Ladendorf, Chairman. Tel.: 217-546- New Mexicans for Science and Reason PO Box 5284, Kathmandu Nepal Think­ing (SORT) Sacramento, CA. Ray Span- 3475; Email: [email protected]. PO (NMSR) New Mexico. David E. Thomas, TEXAS genburg, co-foun­der. Tel.: 916-978-0321; Tel.: +977-1-4413-345 Box 20302, Springfield, IL 62708 www. President. Tel.: 505-869-9250; Email: North Texas Skeptics NTS Dallas/Ft Email: [email protected]. PO Box 2215, New Zealand reall.org [email protected]. 801 Fitch Ave., Worth area, John Blanton, Secretary. Carmichael, CA 95609-2215 http://home. email: [email protected] Chicago Skeptics Jennifer Newport, Socorro, NM 87801. www.nmsr.org Tel.: (972)-306-3187; Email: skeptic@ comcast.net/~kitray2/site/ Nigeria ntskeptics.org. PO Box 111794, Carrollton, contact person. Email: chicagoskeptics@ NEW YORK Bay Area Skeptics (BAS) San Francisco— TX 75011-1794. www.ntskeptics.org PO Box 25269, Mapo, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria gmail.com. www.chicagoskeptics.com New York City Skeptics Michael Feldman, Bay Area. Eugenie C. Scott, President. 1218 Tel.: +234-2-2313699 LOUISIANA president. PO Box 5122 New York, NY VIRGINIA Miluia St., Berkeley, CA 94709. Email: Peru Baton Rouge Proponents of Rational 10185. www.nycskeptics.org The James Randi Educational [email protected]. www.BASkeptics.org Ex. Dir. Manuel Paz-y-Miño Inquiry and Scientific Methods Foun­dation. James Randi, Director. Calle El Corregidor 318, Rimac, Lima 25-PERU Independent Investig­ ations Group (IIG), (BR-PRISM) Louisiana. Marge Schroth. Central New York Skeptics (CNY Skeptics) 2941 Fairview Park Drive, Suite 105 Center for In­quiry–Los Angeles, 4773 Tel.: 225-766-4747. 425 Carriage Way, Syracuse. Lisa Goodlin, President. Tel: Falls Church, VA 22042 email: [email protected] Holly­wood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027. Baton Rouge, LA 70808 (315) 636-6533; Email: info@cnyskeptics. Email: [email protected] Tel.: 323-666-9797. www.iighq.com org, cnyskeptics.org PO Box 417, Fayettville, Telephone: 571-318-6530 Lokal Biurowy No. 8, 8 Sapiezynska Sr., MICHIGAN NY 13066 ­­ 00-215, Warsaw, Poland Sacramento Skeptics Society, Sacramento. Great Lakes Skeptics (GLS) SE Michi- Science & Reason, Hampton Rds., Terry Sandbek, President.­ 4300 Aubur­ n gan. Lorna J. Simmons, Contact person. OHIO Virginia. Lawrence Weinstein, Old Romania Blvd. Suite 206, Sacramento CA 95841. Tel.: 734-525-5731; Email: Skeptic31 Central Ohioans for Rational Inquiry Dominion Univ.-Physics Dept., Norfolk, Fundatia Centrul pentru Constiinta Critica Tel.: 916 489-1774. Email: terry@ @aol.com. 31710 Cowan Road, Apt. 103, (CORI) Central Ohio. Charlie Hazlett, VA 23529 Tel.: (40)-(O)744-67-67-94 sandbek.com President. Tel.: 614-878-2742; Email: email: [email protected] Westland,­ MI 48185-2366 WASHINGTON [email protected]. PO Box 282069, Asso­ciation for Rational Inquiry Seattle Skeptics Russia Tri-Cities Skeptics, Michig­ an. Dr. Gary Columbus, OH 43228 (SDARI) President: Tom Pickett. Email: Peterson. Tel.: 989-964-4491; www.seattleskeptics.com Dr. Valerii A. Kuvakin, 119899 Russia, Moscow, [email protected]. Program/ e-mail: [email protected]. Cleveland Skeptics Joshua Hunt, Vorobevy Gory, Moscow State Univ., general information 619-421-5844. www.tcskeptics.blogspot.com Co-Organizer, www.clevelandskeptics.org Philosophy Department www.sdari.org. Postal ad­dress: PO Box 623, Senegal MINNESOTA South Shore Skeptics (SSS) Cleveland La Jolla, CA 92038-0623 St. Kloud Extraordinary Claim Psychic and counties. Jim Kutz. Tel.: 440 942- PO Box 15376, Dakar – Fann, Senegal CONNECTICUT Teaching Investigating Community 5543; Email: [email protected]. PO Tel.: +221-501-13-00 New England Skeptical Society (NESS) (SKEPTIC) St. Cloud, Minne­sota. Jerry Box 5083, Cleveland, OH 44101 www. New England. Steven Novella M.D., Presi- Mertens. Tel.: 320-255-2138; Email: southshoreskeptics.org dent. Tel.: 203-281-6277; Email: board@ [email protected]. Jerry Mer- Association for Rational Thought (ART) theness.com. 64 Cobblestone Dr., Ham- tens, Psychology Department, 720 4th Cincinnati. Roy Auerbach, president. den, CT 06518 www.theness.com Ave. S, St. Cloud State Univ., St. Cloud, Tel: (513)-731-2774, Email: raa@cinci. MN 56301 rr.com. PO Box 12896, Cin­cinnati, OH 45212. www.cincinnati skeptics.org

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