My Personal Odyssey in Skepticism HARRIET HALL discovered the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER shortly after its name rectly hurt anyone, but false beliefs change from The Zetetic. It changed my life. I had already about health regularly kill people. Irejected religion after reading atheist writings, but I was Anti-vaccine activism threatens everyone’s public health. Des- still open to belief in UFOs, ESP, and all sorts of other weird perate, vulnerable cancer patients things, simply because I had never come across anyone who are victimized by charlatans who questioned those beliefs. It was a revelation to learn that persuade them to give up treat- there were other explanations for those phenomena. And ments proven to cure or prolong it was a revelation to learn about the human psychology survival, get them to empty their of how our thinking can lead us astray. Regular reading of bank accounts and mortgage their homes to pay for treatments that SKEPTICAL INQUIRER educated me: it was equivalent to tak- don’t work, and get the dying to ing a college course in critical thinking. squander their last days in Mexico Most people hate to admit it ing, and it developed into a whole getting coffee enemas instead of at when they are wrong; I don’t. One new career. By my count I have home spending quality time with of the things I most love about now had thirty articles and re- their loved ones. skepticism is the opportunity to views published in SI. Beliefs in bogus treatments find out I was wrong about some- I continue to be overwhelmed are as strongly held as religious thing. It means I have learned and astonished at the unexpected beliefs. One of the lessons I something and have a better grasp course my life has taken. I have have learned is that evidence on reality than I did before. I feel spoken at skeptical conferences in and reasoning have no impact on smarter, and I find that very sat- five countries. I am an editor of true believers. I don’t write for isfying. the Science-Based Medicine blog. them. I write for the inquirers I wanted to know more. I read I have written for Quackwatch, and the fence-sitters. Just as I skeptical authors voraciously. I Skeptic magazine (where I have had never questioned ESP until attended CSICOP conferences as a regular column as The Skep- I read authors who questioned it, a sort of groupie, wanting to see Doc), online publications, medi- patients are not likely to question and hear in person the luminaries cal journals, and even briefly for whose books I had read, the intel- O, The Oprah Magazine! I have lectual giants who had become my coauthored a textbook on con- idols. Never in my wildest dreams sumer health and appeared in did I imagine that I would be on several anthologies. And none of the same stage with them some this ever would have happened if day. It never occurred to me that I hadn’t subscribed to SKEPTICAL I might have anything to contrib- INQUIRER way back when. ute. Then, in 2002, I attended My main area of focus has CSICOP’s Skeptic’s Toolbox been medicine, alternative medi- workshop, and Wallace Sampson cine, and quackery, because that’s and Ray Hyman encouraged me where I have something to con- to try my hand at writing. I had tribute from my background as never written anything before. a physician and because I think When my first article was pub- medicine is the most important lished in SKEPTICAL INQUIRER in issue for skepticism today. Belief 2003, I was ecstatic. I kept writ- in Bigfoot and UFOs doesn’t di- Skeptical Inquirer | November/December 2016 37 ODYSSEYS IN SCIENTIFIC SKEPTICISM: 40th Anniversary Celebration alternative medicine and ment to the Executive Council As long as humans are hu- quackery if all they have access was icing on the cake. It’s still mans, promoting critical think- to is what the proponents have hard for me to believe that I have ing will be a never-ending Si- written. My aim is to put correct become one of those people. syphean task. But I prefer to information out there where As a woman in the male-dom- see the glass as half-full: I am seekers can find it to counteract inated fields of medicine, avia- encouraged by what the skepti- some of the misinformation tion, and the military, I frequently cal movement has accomplished they are bombarded with. The encountered sexist attitudes and over these past forty years. Skep- culmination of my efforts is a unfair treatment. I wrote about tical information is widely avail- free ten-part video lecture series my struggles in my book Women able; skeptical organizations have on YouTube (http://web.randi. Aren’t Supposed to Fly: The Mem- sprung up all over the world; The proudest moment of my life was when I became a CSI fellow. It validated my work and meant I had been accepted into the company of the people I had so long admired. org/educational-modules.html) oirs of a Female Flight Surgeon. I conferences have multiplied and produced by the James Randi never had any such struggles in are well attended; the media Educational Foundation. In it, the skeptical community. I was know who to call for the skepti- I distilled everything I’ve learned warmly welcomed and appreci- cal response to a story; religious about science-based medicine ated, and no one even thought to belief is declining. On the occa- and alternative medicine into the mention my gender. I was always sion of this fortieth anniversary, essential information that I want treated as an equal, as a skeptic, I want to congratulate CSICOP/ everyone to know. not as a “woman skeptic.” I felt CFI and SKEPTICAL INQUIRER The proudest moment of my that I had found my true home for all they have done to make life was when I became a CSI and family. I’ve been very dis- the world a better place. And fellow. It validated my work and tressed by recent reports of sex- I can’t thank them enough for meant I had been accepted into ism in the skeptical community making my own life more ratio- the company of the people I had because it is so at odds with my nal, more meaningful, and more so long admired. My appoint- personal experience. productive. I am bursting with pride to have made some small ■ contribution to their efforts. Harriet Hall, MD, is a former Air Force flight surgeon, licensed pilot, and family physician. She critiques bad science and pseudoscientific thinking in alternative medicine and promotes critical thinking. She is a fellow and member of the Exec- utive Council of CSI. 38 Volume 40 Issue 6 | Skeptical Inquirer.