Some Recent; Books

Frazier, Kendrick, ed. Science Confronts the . Prometheus Books, Buffalo, N.Y., 1986. 379 pp. $15.95 paper. This new collection includes 38 articles published in the in the past five years by 33 different authors, including Martin Gardner, James Randi, Paul Kurtz, Isaac Asimov, Stephen Toulmin, Piet Hoebens, and Ray Hyman. Divided into sections on and Belief, Expectation and Misperception, Claims of Mind and Distance, Claims of Mind and Matter, Claims of Mind and Body, Flim-Flam, , UFOs, Fringe , Creationism and Shroud Science, and . Coleman, Daniel. Vital Lies, Simple Truths. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1985. 287 pp., $17.95. Subtitled "The Psychology of Self-Deception," this is a wide-roaming overview of the subject of psychological blind spots. These blanks in our awareness due to causes deep within our consciousness are a way of trading full awareness for a sense of comfort and security. Deals with the trade-off between pain and attention, psychological defense mechanisms, and the construction of social reality. Kurtz, Paul, ed. A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology. Prometheus Books, Buffalo, N.Y. 1985. 727 pp. $34.95 cloth, $16.95 paper. Comprehensive col- lection of essays by leading skeptics and parapsychologists. A detailed evaluation of parapsychology and psychical research from a responsible, skeptical viewpoint. Addresses such questions as: Has ESP been demon- strated? What do critics say about the work of J. B. Rhine, S. G. Soal, the British Society for Psychical Research, and others? Includes skeptical evalua- tions of near-death experiences, life after death, ghosts, and other "para- normal" concepts. Many notable articles, e.g., Ray Human's 94-page critical historical overview, parapsycholgist Susan Blackmore's tale of her ten years of negative results, an annotated bibliography, and an index add to its reference value.

Articles of Mote

Barrett, Stephen. "Commercial Hair Analysis: Science or Scam?" Journal of the American Medical Association"254:1041-1045, Aug. 23/30, 1985. Physician sent hair samples from two healthy teenagers under assumed names to 13 commercial laboratories that perform multimineral hair analysis, a fad method for purported nutritional analysis. Levels of most minerals reported varied for identical samples sent to the same laboratory and from laboratory to laboratory. Food supplements recommended varied widely in types and amounts. Most reports contained computerized interpretations that were bizarre and potentially frightening to patients. "It is obvious that most of the laboratories covered in this report made claims that were without scientific

Spring 1986 281 foundation." Beardsley, Tim. "Parapsychology: MacLab, St. Louis, to Shut." Nature, 317:6, Sept. 5, 1985. News report on closing of the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research, with perspectives from discussions with James Randi. Bennetta, William J. "Looking Backward." Pacific Discovery (California Academy of Science), October-December 1985, pp. 23-28. Excellent report on "one of the ignoble traditions of textbook publishing in the United States: corrupting evolutionary biology, and biology as a whole, for the sake of placating creationists." Says Bennetta, a California consultant, "Some publishers are offering biology books or life-science books that don't discuss evolution, don't mention the word evolution, and are no more relevant to contemporary science than are, say, the San Francisco telephone directories." More typical are books that do treat evolution but confine it, isolate it, and "simply conceal the importance of evolutionary thinking in modern biology." Bennetta, William J. "Faking It." Pacific Discovery (California Academy of Science), October-December 1985, pp. 29-34. Companion article to the one above, consists of a thorough and devastating critique of seven new life- science textbooks submitted for use in California's public schools. The books mangle and muffle the subject of evolution, all failing to show how evolution shapes life and how the theory of evolution joins other sciences to form a coherent picture of the living world. "None, in fact, presents anything resembling science of the twentieth century. . . . The viewpoint is that of a sixteenth-century monk or, at best, of an eighteenth-century naturalist" enumerating parts and providing names for them. "This kind of science—this descriptive diversion that has no intellectual core and no integrative principle—doesn't make sense and can't make sense." Bennetta's analyses played a role in the decision by the California State Board of Education to require revisions in some of these books. Berman, Sanford. " 'In the Beginning': The Creationist Agenda." Library Journal, Oct. 15, 1985, pp. 31-34. Article for professional librarians about the efforts of creationists to influence textbooks, curricula, and the books libraries buy through political pressure. Contains many references to literature intended to counter creationist writings. Brown, Leslie. "The 'Cult Beat.' " Columbia Journalism Review, November- December 1985, pp. 42-48. Article on the hazards of covering religious sects. Proposes that what matters most is not the strangeness of a sect's activities but the legality of those activities and their effect on children, few of whom are members by choice. Also suggests that reporters on this beat need a sturdy psyche and ability to maintain an emotional distance to avoid falling prey to the techniques that influence people into joining sects. Carlson. Shawn. "Double-Blind Test of Astrology." Nature, 318:419-425, Dec. 5, 1985. See News & Comment, this issue. Goh. E. C. "Astronomers vs. Astrologers." Science Newswire. syndicated article distributed to newspapers in October 1985. Good article on the scientific effort to educate the public in the differences between astronomy and astrology. Getschow, George. "Biblical Petroleum: Prophets and Profits Motivate Evan- gelicals Hunting for Israeli Oil." Wall Street Journal, Aug. 22, 1985, p. 1. In-depth report on the hundreds of evangelical Christians from America's Bible Belt who are investing millions in Israel in hopes of finding the world's largest oil deposit, based not on geophysical studies but readings of the

282 THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 10 Scriptures and the words of evangelical prophets. Greyson, Bruce. "A Typology of Near-Death Experiences." American Journal of Psychiatry" 142(8): 967-969, August 1985. Differentiates "near-death experi- ences into three distinct types. Reports a cluster analysis of 89 such experi- ences and the typology resulting from it. Lawson, Anton E., and Elmer A. Krai. "Developing Formal Reasoning through Study of English." Educational Forum, 49(2): 221-226, Winter 1985. Presents ten practical teaching procedures to encourage reasoning skills. Lucas, Ward. "Police Use of : A Waste of Resources and Tax Money." Campus Law Enforcement Journal, July-August 1985, pp. 15-21. Excellent article on the misinformation surrounding claims that psychics help police solve crimes. Includes several case studies showing how wide of the mark the psychics are. Also includes analysis showing how psychics often plausibly develop an intense belief that they have psychic abilities; this belief in turn helps make them believable to others. Discusses other reasons why well- educated police professionals, politicians, and even newsmen often end up believing something paranormal has happened. Nevertheless, says the author, a Denver investigative reporter and TV anchorman, psychic abilities haven't been demonstrated, and the use of psychics by well-meaning but gullible police would be amusing if it didn't divert investigators from solid police work. McKusick, Marshall. "Psychic Archaeology from to Oz." Archaeology, 37(5): 48-52, September-October 1984. Good article on the vogue for "psychic archaeology." Traces much of the interest to devotees of . Includes critical discussion of Goodman's American Genesis and Schwartz's The Project, which McKusick calls "extraordinarily misleading" and "a casebook of phony visions." Rickup, Roger. "To Land a Position in Paris, Penmanship Can Be Paramount." Wall Street Journal, Sept. 3, 1985, p. 1. Report on the widespread use of by businesses in France. Reveals that at least 80 of France's 100 biggest companies use graphology in hiring, especially for executives and professionals. Royko, Mike. Chicago Tribune Syndicate, distributed to newspapers September ' 1985. Column on the $9-million lawsuit against the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi by seven people who accuse him of failing to deliver on a promise to teach them how to fly. Smith, Jack. [Untitled columns] Los Angeles Times, Aug. 20 and Sept. 3, 1985. An acerbic column, and a followup about reaction to it, poking fun at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for calling in psychics to help them find two patas monkeys that escaped from the city's zoo. (The monkeys were recaptured but not because of any paranormal help.) In the second column Smith stands fast against reproaches for his disbelief in psychics, refers readers interested in scientific studies on the matter to SI, and points out that James Randi's SI0.000 prize for a scientific demonstration of paranormal powers under scientific conditions remains unclaimed. Stacy, Dennis. "UFO Update." Omni, November 1985, p. 91. Brief piece on the hard times that have hit . UFO organizations are shriveling up and dying. Reveals that a British book called Sky Crash: A Cosmic Conspiracy was turned down by 21 American publishers.

— Kendrick Frazier

Spring 1986 283