BOOK REVIEWS

years offered a large cash prize to any- aged by their masters. She says that us this spell of bad weather "will affect one who can demonstrate "real" qigong selecting an "improper method" and every living creature on the planet." In without cheating. practicing it for too long can result in this true-life pseudoscience thriller, Examples of deception by some of the symptoms that she has specialized in they examine evidence of mass extinc- the most popular qigong masters treating for over twenty years. But what tions throughout history to show us (referred to as qigongists) are exam- is the "right" method, one might ask? how cataclysmic events of the past ined, including Yan Xin, who now Well, what it finally comes down to hold a warning for our future survival. enjoys great popularity in the US. Yan again is just simple, uncomplicated Jumping back and forth in time, they became a TCM doctor in 1982, but relaxation. But in China rujing, not argue that the myths and monoliths of two years later "his medical license was qigong, is the term used to describe relax- an earlier, unknown civilization that revoked due to his odd superstitious ation meditation aimed at clearing the was wiped out during a period of sim- practices. Then Yan hunted for work mind and thinking of nothing. Though ilar climate change left a warning for elsewhere and became a quack doc- the authors point out the great difficul- us—a record that shows we are about tor." Some of Yan's high-profile fail- ties involved in defining qigong, they to experience another one of these rare ures arc documented, as are those of state that qigong stresses intense concen- environmental disasters: a global other "qigong gods." tration on complex imagery, supplied superstorm. The final chapter is a report by from books, audiotapes, or from the And just what would this global Beijing Medical University psychiatrist master. This is what they say separates superstorm look like? According to Bell Zhang Tongling on the effects of qigong- qigong from other activities. Dr. Zhang's and Strieber, the greenhouse effect and induced psychosis (zuohuo rumo). recommendations appear to be a polite the trapping of more and more heat by Delusions, hallucinations, and psychosis way of saying that the only "correct" way surface air would cause the upper can result when people (especially those to practice qigong is to choose some atmosphere to get colder and the who are highly susceptible to sugges- other activity (like rujing or tai chi) and resulting extreme difference in temper- tion) become obsessed with practicing call it a form of qigong. ature would produce extremely violent qigong, a condition frequently encour- Tennis anyone? weather. Next, the polar ice caps would melt and the oceans would become less Profits of Doom: salty and warmer and the sea levels would rise. Then the North Atlantic Weekly World News current would collapse resulting in many catastrophes:

Goes Mainstream • Blizzard conditions that develop suddenly at high latitudes and spread ROBERT BAKER south. • Massive snowfalls and sustained The Coming Global Superstorm. By Art Bell and winds more than 100 miles per hour. Whitley Strieber. Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster, • Satellite communications will be ART BELL AND Inc.) New York, 2000. ISBN 0-671-04190-8. 255 pp. disrupted and news blackouts will occur. I WHITLEY STRIEBER Hardcover, $23.95. • General panic will occur as whole here is only one possible expla- year and rake in millions for his back- cities are trapped. • The USA will lose 60 percent of its nation for the editors of Pocket ers? Bell, Strieber, and the publishing population. Books accepting and publish- sales force well know the dollars that • Europe will lose even more people Ting this sorry piece of pseudoscientific well up from any and all scary prophe- and all life forms in Canada, Russia, propaganda: Profit with a capital "P." cies of doom, death, and mass destruc- Finland. Sweden, Norway, Iceland Seeing the names Art Bell and Whitley tion. Moreover, their timing is perfect. and Scotland will be wiped out. Strieber must have brought visions of No time could be better than the birth • If the global superstorm happens in summer the melting ice will cause megabucks to the minds of the Simon of the new millennium for cashing in massive floods. If the global super- and Schuster staff. After all, something on superstition and fear. storm happens during winter the like 3 to 5 million credulous thrill- According to Bell and Strieber, gigantic snowfalls will not melt and seekers tuned in weeknights and on Earth's climate is changing so drasti- we will have a new ice age. Sunday to have good old Art tickle cally that unless we do something • Unprecedented death tolls and their terror-bones. Moreover, didn't about it immediately, we will very clever Whitley's Communion top the soon experience a new ice age and a Robert A. Baker is Professor Emeritus of New York Times best seller list for over a massive global superstorm. They tell psychology at the University of Kentucky

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER September/Octobet 2000 55 BOOK REVIEWS

mass destruction on an unfath- atomic explosions." They would have provide us with a model that proves omable scale will occur. us believe that the Vedic lords had it, nothing will be done on a govern- mental level. . . . Because science nuclear weapons! The fused sand Bell and Strieber also assure us can't produce certainty propagan- their gloom and doom is "based on proves it! dists and politicians have effectively years of research with top scientists In Chapter 18 "Does It Happen?" stopped any kind of official-level reform that might save our world. and archaeologists. . . and it is sci- Bell and Strieber tell us that in ages (216-217) ence fact.' Earth's climate is changing past the onset of superstorms were so and unless we do something about it sudden that What splendid logic! Science can't we could be on the brink of a new ice The sudden freezing that killed these predict future weather but we amateurs age." But just what, pray tell, can us animals required much more than a cart. But in order to be sure of our ideas poor helpless and hapless humans do bad storm. It required a storm that more science work is needed. Science was capable of delivering unprece- to forestall such massive climate fury? must prove we're in danger but you will dented levels of extreme cold to the After 200 pages of horror and gut- surface and doing it so suddenly that just have to take our word for it now. wrenching worldwide tales of human the animals which were caught But science can't produce certainty but misery and suffering. Bell and placidly grazing, did not even have official policy should be changed nev- Strieber in a short but cheery chapter time to look up. . . . To all appear- ertheless based on our belief that we're ances they were simply frozen solid titled "Hope and The Human right and the superstorm is coming! where they stood without enough What hogwash! Future" inform us the global super- warning to do more than raise their storms can be thwarted if wc merely: heads. . . . The most famous of the This is a Weekly World News cover 1) buy fuel-efficient cars; 2) subject frozen mammoths, the Berezovka story disguised as a scientific tome. It's sport utility vehicles to conventional mammoth... Discovered in 1901, hard to believe that these two boogey¬ the animal was intact except for its emission standards; 3) insulate our men are serious in this sorry attempt to trunk and other areas that had been water heaters; 4) have more "scien- eaten by predators before the make money by frightening the half- tific breakthroughs," e.g., a better remains could be removed. The informed and misinformed into read- fuel cell and a fusion reactor that Berezovka mammoth is preserved ing this nonsense! works; 5) make more use of solar cells just as it was found. It died in the What one usually does when con- middle of a sudden movement, rais- and wind power; 6) ride more bicy- fronted by a truly bad book is ignore it. ing its trunk as if surprised. cles; 7) develop more and more intel- (171-173) This piece of puerile propaganda, how- ligent robotic machines; and 8) ever, is so truly inept and so blatantly A few perplexing questions immedi- improve science's ability to "predict money-grubbing every intelligent ately raise their ugly heads: Could such future climate." reader should clearly understand the radical climactic extremes occur this They apparently forgot that this last authors' and the publisher's reasons for quickly ever? Why did the predators eat ukase pretty much does in their predic- putting this book on the market. only part of the rock-solid frozen meat? tions of doomsday. If science can't do it Some naive and unwary souls may And, why didn't the predators also now, what makes these two believe that see this work as the sincere efforts of freeze? Finally, in one of their final they can do better than the scientists? two eco-environmental heroes to save chapters the authors candidly admit: In a short review it is not possible the world. If you fall for this ploy, let to cite in detail all of the factual Whether or not a new ice age will be me assure you that you have, once the result depends largely on when errors, logical contradictions, egre- again, been conned and outwitted by the superstorm develops and how gious exaggerations, and gross manip- long it lasts. . . .Wc are, in fact, tak- two facile and manipulative masters of ulations of common sense their ing a great chance with a tremendous the art of making money from peo- account contains. Two short examples danger. So why don't scientists warn ple's fears and forebodings. If you of the danger? Why don't they raise will provide you a clue. In Chapter 8, wish to be frightened or to find some- the alarm? The two of us are amateurs. "The War Hypothesis," Bell and We don't think that we're wrong, but thing truly terrible to worry about, Strieber try to persuade us that "mis- serious scientific work has to be done tune in to Pat Robertson's TV show siles, rockets, possibly even jet power re we can be sure of our ideas [ital- The 700 Club or subscribe to and ics mine]. . . .The problem is that and bombs are described in Vedic lit- read Answers In Genesis or The scientists can't predict future erature" and archaeologists digging in weather, not with enough certainty Congressional Record. the ruins of Ur and Nineveh found to enact the kind of dramatic policy fused silica, i.e., "sand that has been changes that are needed if we are heated to such extreme temperatures right. So we're in trouble. Scientists Note might think that sudden climate that it has turned to glass . . . material shift is a danger. But unless they can 1. Fortunately for those scientists and their that is also found at ground zero of work, they remain unnamed and unreferenced.

5 6 September/October 2000 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER