NOTES OF A FRINGE-WATCHER MARTIN GARDNER

What's Going On At Temple University?

n recent years Temple University, a Temple's president, Peter Liacouras, distinguished coeducational institu- agreed. The center's mission, he Ition in Philadelphia, has become a declared, was "to examine critically fron- center for the promulgation of some of tier research projects that hold promise

the wildest aspects of pseudoscience. It of future breakthroughs." r..,*... all began in 1986 when Richard J. Fox, Temple's Center for Frontier Science, chairman of Temple's board of trustees, as it is now called, was founded in 1987. met with some fringe scientists in Since then it has sponsored a raft of con-

London. He became impressed by their ferences, and more that fifty lectures on hW—OpMw difficulties in getting work published Temple's main campus. Its periodical that went beyond "mainstream para- Frontier Perspectives, issued twice a year, digms." "Paradigm" is still a favorite has grown to more than eighty pages. I buzzword of maverick scientists and had not seen a copy until physicist C. those who write about them. Alan Bruns, at Franklin and Mitchell There was a crying need, Fox College, in Lancaster, sent a copy of Vol. decided, for an organization that would 7, No. 1, 1998, to CSlCOP's office, .•.:..'. permit fringe scientists to interact with which in turn forwarded it to me. mainstream scientists and provide a Reading through its pages I could favorite "frontiers." I don't need to forum for discussing their results. If hardly believe my eyes. I had expected remind SI readers that this is the nine- Temple University would sponsor such a the magazine to be concerned with such teenth-century crank contention that center it could make certain that high outstanding frontiers as superstring the- certain substances, diluted to a degree academic standards were maintained. ory, the nature of dark matter, the that no molecules of the substance Here is how Fox described the purpose genetic origins of altruism, how organic remain, have great potency in curing an of such an organization: molecules fold so rapidly, speculations enormous variety of ailments. Because The Center's overall objective is to about a "multiverse" in which endless homeopathic remedies consist of noth- create a legitimate place and environ- universes, each with a unique set of laws, ing but distilled water, it becomes neces- ment where scientists, researchers, explode into reality, or supercomputers sary for its defenders to assume that, in and thinkers from all areas of scien- operating with quantum mechanics. some mysterious manner totally tific and intellectual endeavor can The "frontiers" covered in this pecu- unknown to chemists, the water retains come together and discuss their thoughts, projects, and ideas no mat- liar journal are nothing of the sort. They a "memory" of its vanished substances. ter how revolutionary, with complete are reports on research so far removed Cyril Smith, a British electrical engi- confidence and comfort. from reputable science that it is no won- neer, writing on "Is a Living System a der academic journals refuse such Macroscopic Quantum System?", relates Martin Gardner's latest book is The Last papers. Let me quickly review a few top- "homeopathic potencies" to the Earth's Recreations (Springer-Verlag, Copernicus, ics that dominate the Fall/Winter 1998 electromagnetic fields that cause dows- 1997), a collection of twenty-three of his issue of this magazine. ing rods to turn. The Center obviously Scientific American columns. Homeopathy is one of the center's regards the ancient art of water witching

1 4 September/October 1998 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER as another of today's science "frontiers." fetus is strongly influenced by its placebo effects. In 1989 it sponsored a conference on mother's emotional state. Homeopathic Here are a few other fields of para- dowsing, chaired by Terry Ross, identi- drugs are "harmonic nonlinear soliton science presented favorably in the fied as a "well-known dowser." waves in resonance with subconscious Fall/Winter 1998 issue of Frontier Nancy Kolenda, executive editor of negative programs .... The energy of Perspectives: Frontier Perspectives, writes "The partici- homeopathic medicine will collapse a In "Is Dead Matter Aware of Its pants found the meeting to be a learning negative thought program . . . making it Environment?" Peter Graneau argues experience that gave them the opportu- no longer available to enter the con- that all particles of matter arc aware of nity to develop their skill as dowsers .. ." scious field." Delusions can also be ban- all other particles regardless of how far A second conference on dowsing, titled ished by a second "treatment modality" away they are. He thinks Newton's "Bioinformation Sensing and Sensitivity the authors call TFT or "Thought Field physics is superior to Einstein's, and to Geophysical Fields," was held later in Therapy." likens the blindness of establishment 1989 in Germany. In 1990 the Center for Frontier scientists today to the blindness of those Writing on "Three Frontier Areas of Science sponsored a conference on Italian professors who refused to accept Science that Challenge the Paradigm" homeopathy in Baden-Baden, Germany. Galileo's experiment of dropping two (Frontier Perspectives, Vol. 3, No. 1,1992), Among its speakers was Jacques different weights from the Tower of Pisa. Beverly Rubik, for seven years director of Benveniste, a French homeopath whose Graneau is unaware that this experiment the Center, conjectures that dowsing is related to ELF (Extremely Low Frequency The journal reports on research so far removed electromagnetic waves). ELF waves arc another major concern of the Center, from reputable science that it is no wonder especially the alleged terrible effects on academic journals refuse such papers. human health of ELF waves bombarding us from overhead electrical wires. The work on "water with a memory" was so was never performed. other two major concerns of the Center, thoroughly discredited a year or two ear- Dan Kenncr, an acupuncturist, Rubik asserts, are alternative medicines lier.1 Nancy Kolenda writes that the con- defends the thousands of herbal reme- and the nature of consciousness. ference "ended on a high note with a dies sold in Oriental shops. He doesn't Glen Rein, in a paper on how quan- unanimous decision to move forward in mention the shops in India where the tum fields heal, finds that such fields, a global cooperation in promoting herbs arc quite different from those in rather than electromagnetic fields, are homeopathic research." China and Japan. Kenner introduces a what alter the properties of water and Beverly Rubik is also gung ho for word that was new to me—"nosology." give it healing powers. Like other homeopathy. Her paper on "Frontiers of It is not a study of noses, but the science authors in this journal, Smith and Rein Homeopathic Research" ran in the Vol. of classifying diseases. Homeopathy, write in a mind-numbing technical jar- 2, No. 1, 1991, issue of Frontier Kenner tells us, is an example of "empir- gon almost impossible to understand. Perspectives. Bruns, who tipped me off to ical nosology"—that is, a way of classi- F. Fuller Royal and Gregory Olson dis- this bizarre periodical, said in a letter fying illnesses based on careful research. cuss "Illness as a Delusion." They actually that he heard Rubik lecture at a regional Roger Taylor favorably reviews a self- believe that illness has no reality! Illness, meeting of the American Association of published book—he calls it a "gem of according to these authors, is caused by Physics Teachers. Her stirring defense of science"—titled Waves in Dark Matter. "mental delusions" in a mind that is not psychic powers included an account of The author, O. Ed Wagner, has done confined to the brain but is active in every her experience with Russia's "magnetic experiments which show that these atom of our body. Homeopathic reme- women" who suspend metal objects on waves, previously undetected, are dies, they maintain, "arc patterns of non- their foreheads and chests. Rubik responsible for what he calls the hitherto linear waves that resonate with similar showed slides of herself with a spoon "unexplained ability" of trees to raise thought programs located in the memory stuck to her forehead! Bruns was amazed water up their trunks. A Chinese bio- field of the subconscious mind and with that no one in the audience laughed or physicist, Taylor adds, has done work perturbations in the conscious mind snickered. which suggests that these elusive W¬ field. These medicines are capable of Enough about homeopathy. To regard waves play a role in the spacing of eliminating delusional programs located its revival today as a frontier science is acupuncture points on human bodies. in the memory field that serve as the comparable to calling a revival of "Without doubt a new and important foundation for illness." phrenology or palmistry a frontier sci- chapter has been opened in the science Before birth, according to Royal and ence. It has been said that anyone today of life," Taylor concludes. Another book Olson, we existed outside of time in a who believes in phrenology ought to have under review extols the great benefits of region of "pure light." Time entered our his or her head examined. The same can green tea in inhibiting cancer, dental lives only after we descended "into a be said of today's homeopathy enthusiasts caries, and other ailments. lower earthly vibration." A developing who are unable to distinguish cures from The magazine's funniest paper is "On

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER September/October 1998 15 Jacobs, one of our nation's most ener- also written a book about UFO abduc- getic promoters of the reality of human tions, as incompetent and gullible. As abductions by extraterrestrial aliens. His for Philip Klass, the nation's top first book, The UFO Controversy in debunker of the UFO mania, Jacobs America (Indiana University Press, refuses even to speak to him. 1975), is an expanded version of his The hybrids who walk among us are doctoral thesis at the University of fiendishly clever in concealing them- Wisconsin. Secret Life (Simon and selves. They look and dress exactly like Schuster, 1992), his second UFO book, us. To further confuse us, the aliens is devoted to first-hand accounts of plant false memories in abductee heads abductions. The Threat, his latest book so that when they are returned to Earth, (also by Simon and Schuster) was pub- police think they arc nuts because they lished early this year. "Ph.D" appears talk about seeing Jesus, the Virgin Mary, after Jacobs' name on the jacket, and Abraham Lincoln, and other notables. also after his name at the top of every These fake memories are created by a David Jacobs, Temple University UFO historian left-hand page, a sure giveaway to the technique called "mindscan," a term (Photo by Philip J. Klass) man's ego. His editors at Simon and Jacobs coined. It never occurs to him Schuster obviously don't believe any- that he himself is using a form of mind- the Nature of Tarot," by Inna Semetsky, thing he says, but books about alien scan on his patients. identified as someone at Columbia abductions sell so well to UFO enthusi- "If The Threat has any shortcoming," University's Teachers College. (Let's asts that once-respected publishers are wrote Joe Queenan in his New York Times hope she's a student and not on the unable to resist the anticipated profits. review (January 10, 1998), "it is its fail- staff.) Semetsky defends the validity of Although Jacobs has had no training ure to explain why aliens always seem to Tarot card readings. The practitioner in psychology, psychiatry, or hypnother- abduct people no one ever heard of... . uses the random arrangement of the apy, he uses hypnotism to induce his Nor does he [Jacobs] inform the reader shuffled cards to tune into fields that patients (now more than 700) to why these seemingly omnipotent crea- Semetsky relates to David Bohm's develop strong memories of horrendous tures have never nabbed him. Perhaps "implicate order," Jung's archetypes and abductions even though many patients Mr. Jacobs has in fact been abducted, concept of synchronicity, Heisenberg's had no such memories until hypnotized. brainwashed, and tricked into writing uncertainty principle, and karma. In Jacobs is convinced that five million this book—with the specific purpose of addition to space's three dimensions, Americans have been kidnapped at least making a reputable publisher appear and the dimension of time, there is fifth once by aliens. One female patient, who inane and UFO hunters seem even more dimension consisting of consciousness. worked in retail sales, had, according to laughable." Because time is a "parameter" of this Jacobs, a hundred abductions in one Aside from Klass's books and fifth field, it allows Tarot readers to tap year, an average of one every three days! newsletters, the most powerful, most into Jung's "collective unconscious," How did she manage to keep her job, hilarious recent debunking of the UFO part of the fifth field, and learn about New York Times reviewer Joe Queenan scene is an article by Frederick Crews in future events. Semetsky urges the intro- wanted to know. The New York Review of Books (June 25, duction of Tarot into mental health Jacobs' patients routinely report 1998). Titled "The Mindsnatchers," professions. incredible sexual molestations. The Crews reviews three UFO books, one of Prominent believers in ESP, PK, and aliens extract sperm from men, eggs which is Jacobs's The Threat. As Crews precognition (some no longer living) from women, then use them to produce recognizes, Jacobs, like John Mack and who have been active in the center's con- a race of hybrids intended soon to take others, is blissfully unaware of how eas- ferences and/or contributors to its jour- over the Earth. Jacobs writes that he ily false memories can be fabricated. nal include Brian Josephson, Rupert "desperately wishes" this not to be true, Fortunately, the damage these memories Sheldrake, Andrija Puharich (author of but now he "fears for the future" of his can do to patients is less harmful than a book about Uri Geller), Robert Jahn children. Jacobs isn't sure where the false memories of sexual abuse by and his psychic assistant Brenda Dunne, aliens come from, but he thinks it might human adults. Innocent fathers, moth- Glenn Olds, Willis Harmon, Helmut be from a distant planet. They commu- ers, and teachers have already wasted Schmidt, Ramakrishna Rao, Harold nicate with each other and with humans years in prison, some even under life Puthoff, Stephen Braude, David Griffin, by telepathy. You might suppose Jacobs sentences, solely on the basis of fabri- Fred Wolfe, and many others. would look favorably on other UFO cated memories of sexual abuse dramat- Another piece of evidence that researchers using hypnosis to revive ically recounted in court by children Temple University is sliding into absur- memories of abductions. Not so. For and grownups who were brainwashed by dity involves UFOs. On their faculty as example, he regards John Mack, fanatical therapists. an associate professor of history is David Harvard's embarrassing psychiatrist who Crews quotes the following passage

1 6 September/October 1998 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER from Jacobs's account of the memories envision her six-year-old daughter paper by Jacobs, or, as far as I know, walking into a room ringed with naked of a patient he calls "Beverly": reviewed any of his preposterous books. hybrids who had erections; she was led Then the hybrids told Beverly that to believe that her daughter would be Note they could take her body whenever raped by all of them. they wanted and that she was always 1. After INSERM, France's medical research vulnerable and never safe. One hybrid That a seemingly sane history profes- agency, closed down Benveniste's laboratory, he raped her, and she was forced to per- sor could believe such obvious confabula- opened his own Digital Biological Laboratory south of Paris. He recently claimed to have trans- form fellatio upon another. They tions and keep his job at a major univer- pinched her, twisted her skin, and hurt mined "water memory" over the Internet, using e-mail. sity is surely no small academic scandal. her without leaving marks. The And he is suing two Nobel prize winners, pushed an unlit candle into her vagina. Temple even allows Jacobs to regularly physicist Georges Charpak and biologist Francois Jacob, and physicist Claude Hennion, for writing They then told her she had caused her teach a course on UFOlogy. There is one unkind things about him. On Benveniste's monu- children to be abducted .... On thing that can be said in praise of Frontier mentally flawed homeopathic research, see Chapter another occasion hybrids made her Perspectives. It has not yet published a 4 of my On the WU Sid, (Prometheus. 1992). O

W E INVITE YOU TO BECOME A CSICOP Associate Member

By being a Skeptical Inquirer subscriber you have the i J Enter my subscription to the Skeptical Inquirer • one year ($35.00) Q two years ($58.00) • three years ($81.00) opportunity to become a CSICOP Associate Member. • Also enclosed are my dues as a CSICOP Associate Member • one year ($20.00) • two years ($35.00) Q three years ($50.00)

These are some of the • I am already a subscriber and would like to become a CSICOP benefits you will receive as an Associate Member Associate Member: My subscription account number is (This number appears above your name on your Skeptical Inquirer m a i l i n g label.)

10% discount on Skeptical Inquirer • one year ($20.00) Q two years ($35.00) • three years ($50.00) conference and seminar registration Total $ (J Check or money order enclosed ! 10% discount on CSICOP videotapes, Charge my • MasterCard • Visa audiotapes, T-shirts, and other Card # Exp.. merchandise Signature Name 10% discount on selected Prometheus Address Books of special interest to skeptics City . State. • ZIP- Phone _ Personalized membership card Please make checks payable to CSICOP and return to: CSICOP Associate Members Four exciting issues a year of the P.O. Box 703. Amherst. NY 14226-0703 Skeptical Briefs, the thought-provoking and informative CSICOP newsletter Credit card orders may call toll-free 1-800-634-1610 or FAX (716) 636-1733 available exclusively to Associate Members. / understand that as a CSICOP Associate Member I do not tepresent CSICOP nor can I speak or write on behalf of CSICOP or its publications.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER September/October 19»8 17