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Skeptical Inquirer the Mind Race' Muddle: Outracing the Evidence the Skeptical Inquirer The Mind Race' Muddle: Outracing the Evidence Loch Ness Evidence Reassessed Exploring the Fringes of Science The Media and the Paranormal Retest of an Astrologer / Medical Quackery VOL. IX NO. 2 / WINTER 1984-85 S5.00 Published by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Skeptical Inquirer THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is the official journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Editor Kendrick Frazier. Editorial Board James E. Alcock. Martin Gardner, Ray Hyman, Philip J. Klass, Paul Kurtz. James Randi. Consulting Editors Isaac Asimov, William Sims Bainbridge, John Boardman, John R. Cole, C. E. M. Hansel, E. C. Krupp, Andrew Neher, James E. Oberg, Robert Sheaffer. Steven N. Shore. Managing Editor Doris Hawley Doyle. Public Relations Andrea Szalanski (director). Barry Karr. Production Editor Betsy Offermann. Office Administrator Mary Rose Hays. Computer Operations Richard Seymour (manager). Laurel Geise Smith. Typesetting Paul E. Loynes. Staff Joseph Bellomo, Stephanie Doyle, Vicky Kunich, Ruthann Page, Alfreda Pidgeon. Cartoonist Rob Pudim. The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Paul Kurtz, Chairman; philosopher. State University of New York at Buffalo. Lee Nisbet, Executive Director; philosopher, Medaille College. Fellows of the Committee James E. Alcock, psychologist, York Univ.. Toronto; Isaac Asimov, biochemist, author; Irving Biederman, psy­ chologist. SUNY at Buffalo; Brand Blanshard, philosopher. Yale; Mario Bunge, philosopher. McGill University; Bette Chambers, AH.A.. F. H. C. Crick, biophysicist. Salk Institute for Biological Studies. La Jolla, Calif; L. Sprague de Camp, author, engineer; Bernard Dixon, European Editor, Omni; Paul Edwards, philosopher. Editor. Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Antony Flew, philosopher, Reading Univ., U.K.; Kendrick Frazier, science writer. Editor. THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER; Yves Callfret. Exec. Secretary, l'Union Rationaliste; Martin Gardner, author, critic; Stephen Jay Gould, Museum of Comparative Zoology. Harvard Univ.: C. E. M. Hansel, psychol­ ogist, Univ. of Wales; Sidney Hook, prof, emeritus of philosophy, NYU; Ray Hyman, psychologist, Univ. of Oregon; Leon Jaroff, Managing Editor, Discover: Lawrence Jerome, science writer, engineer; Philip J. Klass, science writer, engineer; Marvin Kohl, philosopher. SUNY College at Fredonia; Edwin C. Krupp, astronomer, director. Griffith Observatory; Lawrence Kusche, science writer; Paul MacCready, scientist/engineer, AeroViron- ment. Inc., Pasadena, Calif.: David Morrison, professor of astronomy. University of Hawaii: Ernest Nagel, prof, emeritus of philosophy, Columbia University: James E. Oberg, science writer; W. V. Quine, philosopher. Harvard Univ.; James Randi, magician, author; Carl Sagan, astronomer. Cornell Univ.; Evry Schatzman, President, French Physics Association; Thomas A. Sebeok, anthropologist, linguist. Indiana University; Robert Sheaffer, science writer: B. F. Skinner, psychologist. Harvard Univ.; Marvin Zelen, statistician. Harvard Univ.: Marvin Zimmerman, philosopher. SUNY at Buffalo. (Affiliations given for identification only.) Manuscripts, letters, books for review, and editorial inquiries should be addressed to Kendrick Frazier. Editor. THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. 3025 Palo Alto Dr.. N.E.. Albuquerque. NM 87111. Subscriptions, change of address, and advertising should be addressed to: THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Central Park Station. Box 229. Buffalo. NY 14215. Old address as well as new are necessary for change of subscriber's address, with six weeks advance notice. Inquiries from the media and the public about the work of the Committee should be made to Paul Kurtz. Chairman. CS1COP. Central Park Station. Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215. Tel.: (716) 834-3222. Articles, reports, reviews, and letters published in THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER represent the views and work of individual authors. Their publication does not necessarily constitute an endorsement by CSICOP or its members unless so stated. Copyright ©1984 by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. 3151 Bailey Ave.. Buffalo. NY 14215. Subscription Rates: Individuals, libraries, and institutions. SI6.50 a year; back issues. $5.00 each (vol. I. no. I through vol. 2. no. 2. $7.50 each). Postmaster: THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is published quarterly. Spring. Summer. Fall, and Winter. Printed in the U.S.A. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, New York, and additional mailing offices. Send changes of address to THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Central Park Station. Box 229. Buffalo. NY 14215. ""Skeptical Inquirer Journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Vol. IX, No. 2 ISSN 0194-6730 Winter 1984-85 98 Exploring the Fringes of Science: Critical Inquiries, Shifting Trends by Kendrick Frazier 106 NEWS AND COMMENT Touting Psychic Wonders in the Mainstream Media / Medical Quackery / Bible-Science Conference / Gallup Youth Poll / Perpetual Motion Wins in Court / Hynek Moves to Arizona / Pseudoscience Course in Texas 118 NOTES OF A PSI-WATCHER From SRI to Delphi: The Curious 'Mind Race' by Martin Gardner 122 PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS Teddy Bears, Mermaids, and Chiropractors by Robert Sheaffer ARTICLES 125 Outracing the Evidence: The Muddled 'Mind Race' by Ray Hyman 147 Sonar and Photographic Searches for the Loch Ness Monster: A Reassess­ ment by Rikki Razdan and Alan Kielar 159 A Final Interview with Milbourne Christopher by Michael R. Dennett 167 A Retest of Astrologer John McCall by Philip A. lanna and Charles R. Tolbert BOOK REVIEWS 171 Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood, Clear Intent: The Government Coverup of the UFO Experience (Philip J. Klass) 179 SOME RECENT BOOKS 180 ARTICLES OF NOTE 184 FROM OUR READERS Letters from Julie Johnson Knox, Warner Clements, Sue Blackmore, Thomas Gray, Jonathan Thornburg, Gary W. Lea, Michael A. Thalbourne, James Randi, Richard Busch, Jerome J. Tobacyk, Jerome E. Smith, Don Strachan, Edwin A. Rogers, George W. Earley, Page Stephens, Don Watts, and I. J. Good ON THE COVER: Illustration by Steve Chalker «1984. Exploring the Fringes of Science: Critical Inquiries, Shifting Trends esponse to the efforts of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER continues on a strong, positive, rising course, and we want to thank R you for your support and encouragement. Suggestions, com­ ments, inquiries, and requests to critique particular claims come in increasing numbers. High-quality articles arrive in satisfying abun­ dance. Our requests of experts to evaluate new claims are more often than not cheerfully and capably fulfilled. We have become the place to publish responsible, scientific critiques of paranormal and fringe- science claims and forthright exposures of pseudoscience. We also serve as a forum for thoughtful discussion of all the issues involved. We have expanded the number of pages in each issue and now are providing a full 20 percent more editorial material than we were only a year and a half ago. Circulation climbs with every issue. New readers are continually coming aboard. Many express pleasure at having discovered us. The majority stay and become a permanent part of the ever-widening community we try to serve. The circulation now stands at around 17,000. The impact goes far beyond the numbers, of course. Scientists and scholars draw on our articles and research reports for their own studies. Teachers make use of our material in course units on critical thinking. Journalists summarize our published critiques and view­ points for their mass audiences. And you, our readers, share our material with your friends and associates. When in your local news media or in your personal and professional relationships you encounter particularly blatant abuses of scientific fact or common sense in the realm of the paranormal, you turn to our pages for facts and perspectives to bolster your case for responsibility and reason. That's what the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is all about. We seem to have helped create, or at least to bring together, a community of concerned people dedicated to furthering good science and opposing bogus science—and to exploring the distinctions between the two. They are people with a sense of intellectual adven­ ture and appreciation of the wonders and mysteries of nature who realize that science advances in a kind of two-partner dance. One brings forth all the powers of the creative mind: bold speculation, piercing insight, imagination, intuition, an ability to synthesize and to see order in chaos, a willingness always to push forward into THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 9 unexplored intellectual territory. The other brings forth all the capa­ bilities of the disciplined mind: the ability to form testable hypotheses and design and implement controlled experiments, the determination to assess the quality of evidence, the willingness to subject results to peer criticism, and the ability to modify or even abandon (eventually, anyway) hypotheses in the light of new evidence. Both partners in this dance are necessary. As they operate in balance and harmony, science flourishes. In the domain of the paranormal and the fringes of science, with which we are concerned, things get all out of whack—especially in the public arena. Speculation substitutes for substance. Untested ideas gain the status of solid scientific principles. Assertions crowd out hypotheses. Fictions become facts. Wishful thinking substitutes for rigorous thinking. We've tried bringing some semblance of sanity, scientific rigor,
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