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Intuition: the Case of the Unknown Daughter

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Intuition: the Case of the Unknown Daughter INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Intuition: The Case of the Unknown Daughter n the fall of 2003, my life Much effort has been was transformed by the news expended in the search for that I was the father of a extrasensory phenomena, in- I cluding the pioneering work of beautiful, thirry-six-year-old daughter. She had confronted Britain's Society for Psychical her mother on the basis of "intu- Research (SPR), founded in ition" that told her the man who 1882, and the scientific helped raise her was not her research of Dr. J.B. Rhine at actual father. Instead, as soon Duke University in the 1930s. proved by DNA testing, we dis- Rhine was a sincere and dedi- covered that she was my child. cated, but credulous, para- As one who had long been skep- psychologist. His first pub- tical of much that is labeled lished report on the subject, co- intuition, I had to admit that authored with his wife Louisa, The author and his daughter, who sensed her father through intuition. something had just happened— was "An investigation of a something both wonderful and mysteri- that people have auras (or energy fields) 'Mind-Reading' Horse," ap- ous. With the approval and assistance of that stem from a larger "universal energy pearing in 1929. They believed the my daughter, Cherette, I decided to inves- flow" which the ancient Chinese termed mare. Lady Wonder, was telepathic. tigate. As I learned, understanding intu- chi. "Connecting with your intuition," However, magician and paranormal ition depends in part on how it is defined. she declares, "is the act of tuning in to investigator Milbourne Christopher the never-ending flow of universal (1970, 39-54) visited Lady undercover Sixth Sense? energy." Intuition has frequencies, she and determined that she simply To New Age writers like Patricia explains, and so, "In a sense, tuning in to tesponded to subde cues used by her Einstein, author of Intuition: The Path of intuition is like tuning in to a radio sta- owner to telay information that had Inner Wisdom (2003), intuition is an tion" (Einstein 2002, 1-2, 40-41, 105). been gleaned from the subjects. "inner awareness" that functions as a Actually, Patricia Einstein is no Rhine's later card tests engendered "sixth sense"—that is, a form of extrasen- Einstein. Although she insists that considerable controversy, but proof of sory perception that includes psychome- "Instances of psychic healing and psy- ESP did not materialize (Christopher try (an alleged psychic skill in which chokinesis (telepathic movement of 1970, 19-37). Despite the work of oth- information is gleaned about people, or objects) have been well documented" ers who have followed in Rhine's foot- even places or events, by touching (Einstein 2002, 37), she herself provides steps, ESP remains unproved, and its objects that are associated with them). no documentation. In fact, such claims existence has not been accepted by main- Like other New Agers, she maintains have been repeatedly discredited. For stream science. (See for example, Kurtz instance, many ballyhooed psycho- 1985; Hansel 1989; Stenger 1990.) Joe Nickell is CSICOP's Senior Research kinetic marvels have been exposed as the Nevertheless, the belief that intuition Fellow. More of his "Investigative Files" product of deceivers using magic tricks is a psychic process persists. It ranges columns appear in Skeptical Briefs. (Randi 1982; Korem 1988). from the relatively harmless, such as 1 2 March/April 2005 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER New Age shops touting gemstones like at die realization of some larger concept. sion on her mother's face that Cherette hematite and tiger's eye as having the No single piece of information may be then read, unconsciously. At least it sub- power to enhance intuition, to the dan- sufficient, but, taken together, the clues tly presented, however obliquely, die gerous, such as "medical intuitives" who may produce something greater than the issue of genetics. claim to diagnose illness by reading a sum of its parts. In June 2003, while she was talking person's aura (Nickell 2001). In using intuition, because we are on the phone with her mother, die fact not consciously (i.e., deliberately and diat she was conceived before her par- Dual Processing analytically) processing data, the result ents were married again came up. She Bui if intuition is not a sixth sense, what can be quite startling—bordering on said she did not care about that, so long is it? Does it exist at all? Do people revelation and seeming quite mysteri- as her father was indeed her father. Her merely make guesses, then count the ous. When my daughter's mother, mother assured her that that was so and hits and disregard the misses? Certainly, Diana, asked her why she thought her that he had raised her. In a way that our hunches are not always accurate. father was not really hers, she replied, "I would be appreciated by fortunetellers Elizabeth Loftus, past president of the don't know. It just came into my mind." using "cold reading" (an artful method American Psychological Society, cau- of fishing for information), Cherette tions: "Intuition is hot. But often it is Identifying the Clues thought she detected some possible equivocation and challenged: "What perilously wrong." She recommends the In the case of my daughter's intuition, I else haven't you told me?" and "Mom, book Intuition by David Myers who, she sought to identify the clues that might who is my daddy?" states, "marshals classic and contempo- have led to her sense of "knowing" that rary science and masterfully shows us she had a different father. Soon, Diana conceded there was a why." And skeptic Michael Shermer Diana describes her in growing up, as chance it was someone else, but that wrote for the Los Angeles Times Book not having much of a "whimsical there were only "two possibilities": If her Review, "Myers' book brilliantly estab- mode," but instead being typically seri- father was not her actual father, she said, lishes intuition as a legitimate subject of ous and inquisitive. Among the things then it was a young poet she had been scientific inquiry." she wondered about were her eyes, with for a short time before resuming As Myers relates, many studies show which matched neither her father's nor her relationship with her old boyfriend, that quick, impressionistic judge- her mother's. (See photo. They resemble Cherette's supposed father. At this, ments—while often mistaken—can my ancestors' even more than mine.) Cherette says, she felt that she probably nevertheless predict some behaviors Although many people remarked that did have a different father, and by the time her mother had tracked me down more successfully than rationally ana- she and her sister did not look like sis- both were convinced I was indeed lyzed ones. Myers (2002, 4) observes ters, she knew she resembled her mother Cherette's "Daddy" (as she now calls that we have two quite different ways of and did not become suspicious of her me)—a fact we confirmed by DNA test- knowing things. He explains: parentage—at least not consciously. ing.' (Not entirely lost on me during our Nevertheless, her younger brother was ... [RJecent cognitive science reveals Thanksgiving 2003 first meeting was a fascinating unconscious mind— adopted, so at some point die idea that die irony that as a paranormal investiga- another mind backstage—that Freud she could have been adopted too would tor I was myself being investigated—the never told us about. More than we have presented itself. (In fact, her sister realized over a decade ago, thinking result of intuition, no less!) occurs not on stage, but offstage, out once thought all three were adopted.) of sight. [Sjtudies of "automatic There were other clues. At Cherette's priming," "implicit memory," "heuris- wedding, when she was twenty-six, a Assessment tics," "spontaneous trait inference," friend of her mother's inadvertently Although not arrived at consciously, right-brain processing, instant emo- tions, nonverbal communication, and revealed a family secret: that her parents nevertheless my daughter's sense that creativity unveil our intuitive capaci- had not been married when she was she might have had a different father ties. Thinking, memory, and attitudes conceived. Again, that bit of informa- could logically be inferred from the data: all operate on two levels (conscious tion was not in itself very revealing, but That her brothet was adopted raised the and deliberate, and unconscious and automatic)—dual processing, today's it can now be seen as potentially sugges- question of her own parentage; since she researchers call it. We know more than tive, another piece of the puzzle. resembled her mother but not her we know we know. Following some medical tests, in father, and especially since her eyes were March 2001, she announced to her not similar to either's, she could expect As noted psychologist Robert A. mother diat she had learned her blood that she might have a different father; Baker told me—with specific reference type. Aldiough she did not then ask her that possibility was enhanced by her to my daughter's intuitive revelation— parents' blood type—so she did not yet parents not having been married when we humans are constantly responding to know hers was different from each of theirs and incompatible with her subtle cues. Unconsciously, we collect INTUITION.- CASE OF THE and assemble bits of data—much like father's—nevertheless the announce- UNKNOWN DAUGHTER pieces of a jigsaw puzzle—often arriving ment may have put a thoughtful expres- Continued on page 33 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER March/April 2005 13 (The absence of a flash was later confirmed when data were an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, but a few para- released from sensitive surveillance satellites that constandy graphs later it is revealed the the probability of the impact is scan Earth from above.) They also evidently did not make only one in 100,000.
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