. . SOCIETY

Vol. 37, No 1. March 2017 Attack of the Skeptic

Michael Marshall Interview

+Special Report - NICM Stupid plants &Gullibility

Australian Skeptics . www.skeptics.com.au

Skeptic_TESTCover_Mar17.indd 1 8/03/2017 10:10 am The Skeptic March 17

Skeptical Groups in NSW VIC Inc – Eran Segev Australian Skeptics (Vic) Inc – Chris Guest www.skeptics.com.au GPO Box 5166, VIC 3001 PO Box 20, Beecroft, NSW 2119 Tel: 1 800 666 996 [email protected] Tel: 02 8094 1894; Mob: 0432 713 195; Fax: (02) 8088 4735 Skeptics’ Café – Third Monday of every month, with guest [email protected] speaker. Clyde Hotel, cnr Elgin and Cardingn Sts, Carlton. Meal – 6pm first Thursday of each from 6pm, speaker at 8pm sharp.($4 contribution). More details month at the Crown Hotel, cnr Goulburn and Elizabeth Streets in on our web site www.skeptics.com.au/vic the city (meeting upstairs) Dinner meetings are held on a regular basis. Ballarat Skeptics in the Pub See for details. Hunter Skeptics – John Turner Tel: (02) 4959 6286 [email protected] Geelong Skeptics Society (formerly Great Ocean Rd) Meetings are held at the Club Macquarie, Lake Road, Argenton Contact: Carolyn Coulson [email protected] on the second Thursday of each month, excepting January, See Facebook for details.. commencing 7.00pm, with a guest speaker or open discussion Meets on the last Wednesday of each month from 6pm, City on a given topic. Visitors welcome. Further information from the Quarter, Cunningham Pier East Geelong secretary at: [email protected] The Surfcoast Summer Skepticamp is run annually by members

ACT Gippsland Skeptics in the Pub Canberra Skeptics – Lauren Kelly Interested parties contact Mark Guerin or Martin Christian Power PO Box 555, Civic Square ACT 2608 via the Gippsland Skeptics page: https://www.facebook.com/gr http://www.canberraskeptics.org.au Tel: 0410 382 306 oups/291929110900396/?ref=bookmarks [email protected] (general inquiries), [email protected] (Canberra Skeptics in the Pub). A free monthly talk, open to the public - check website for details Melbourne Eastern Hills Skeptics in the Pub Skeptics in the Pub gather at 1pm on the third Sunday of each Contact: Andrew Rawlings [email protected] month at King O’Malleys Pub in Civic. For up-to-date details: http://mehsitp.codenix.org www.meetup.com/ SocialSkepticsCanberra/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melbourne-Eastern-Hills Skeptics-in-the-Pub/19241290737690?ref=ts Meets second Monday of each month at The Knox Club, Wantirna South.

Melbourne Skeptics in the Pub See Facebook for details. Meets on the fourth Monday of every month from 6 pm at the Mt View Hotel in Richmond.

Mordi Skeptics in the Pub http://www.meetup.com/Mordi-Skeptics-in-the-Pub/ Meets at 7.30pm on the first Tuesday of each month at the Mordialloc Sporting Club. ($4 to cover website costs)

For details on Skeptical groups in other states and territories, see inside back cover Volume 37 • No 1 March 17 Contents

REPORTS Confrontation at MBW 10 Mendham, Saunders & Bryce 11 NZ Skeptics Conference 11 Tim Mendham & Richard Saunders

SPECIAL 12 NICM, TCM & rhino horn 12 Tim Mendham & Eran Segev 18 FEATURES The Skeptic’s Guide 18 Michael Marshall interview 30 ARTICLES 38 The Prince of Nigeria 30 Alessandra Teunise 35 Unlearned Journals 35 Diana Lucia

Homeopathic 38 Steve Roberts

I Think I Am 40 Tim Harding 52 The Body Electric 45 Brian Dunning

Stupid Plants 48 Tim Entwisle

Evolution of 52 Peter Hogan 48 40

REGULARS Editorial 4 54 Around the Traps 5 Puzzles page 16 Them! 17 56 The logical place 29 What goes around 54 Book reviews 56 Forum 58 EDITORIAL

Friends and associates here is the saying that you will be have something to do with it – one of Tknown by the friends you keep. its senior lecturers was a supporter who And when your friends act up or have last year had run a course in healing a close brush with the law, that means touch at the university, advertised on you could be tainted, in some people’s the university’s website. The practitioner ISSN 0726-9897 minds, with the same brush. photographed by the ABC for the clinic Quarterly Journal of Sometimes those friends are a few was wearing a JCU shirt. Yes, anyone Australian Skeptics Inc steps away – friends of friends, so it’s can buy a university branded shirt at (ABN 90 613 095 379) not entirely your fault. And sometimes the co-op, but if you’re practising woo Editor they’re just people who happen to be on university grounds in a university- Tim Mendham on the same ground as you, making owned building supported by university you an innocent bystander. staff, then some people may just think Editorial Board And sometimes there are cases where you’re part of the university. Steve Roberts it is your responsibility to know who So, only a few days after the clinic Eran Segev you are associated with, even if you opened, JCU shut it down. It decided Martin Hadley aren’t directly associated with them. it did have something to do with it, and Barry Williams But most worrisome is when that was the bad reputation the clinic Design Services you are responsible for putting the was giving the university. Nova Consulting P/L ‘friends’ where they are, and they prove The other example is covered at some themselves less than worthy and in the length in this issue of the magazine, so All correspondence to: process demean your reputation, and let it suffice to say that the National Australian Skeptics Inc you know they are less than worthy, Institute of Complementary Medicine PO Box 20 and yet you still associate yourself with at Western Sydney University, which Beecroft NSW 2119 them. By doing that, you endorse their is a proponent of traditional Chinese Australia actions, and then you have to take the medicine, has been revealed to be, Contact details lumps. however indirectly, accepting the use of Tel: +61 (0)2 8094 1894 Recently there have been two products of endangered animals. Once Mob: +61 (0)432 713 195 organisations which have found it was linking to a database of Chinese Fax: +61 (0)2 8088 4735 themselves in that position. herbs, one of which contains rhino One has hemmed and hawed and horn – that link was removed once it [email protected] then taken decisive action. James was pointed out. The second is a thesis, www.skeptics.com.au Cook University owned a building on supervised by NICM, which lists TCM its Townsville campus. It leased that cures, one of which contains rhino horn The Skeptic is published four times building to others, and one of the and musk deer, both endangered. per year by Australian Skeptics Inc. lessee’s tenants was a healing touch The issue is, especially for Views and opinions expressed in articles clinic. Healing (or therapeutic) touch universities, that you have to be careful and letters in The Skeptic are those of is a ‘medical’ treatment which removes who you lend your name to. The days the authors, and are not necessarily bad energies from your body by of the sheltered groves of academe those of Australian Skeptics Inc. passing hands over it. You don’t need are long gone; for better or worse, Articles may be reprinted with to touch the patient for it to work, universities and their institutions are permission and with due acknowledge- despite the name. The practitioner will under the watchful eye of potential ment to The Skeptic. draw bad out of your body and critics and hopeful defenders. And All effort is made to ensure correct flick it to one side. (Word of advice, universities are answerable to both. acknowledgement of all contributions. don’t stand behind the practitioner or (And we won’t even mention We are happy to update credit when so you’re going to end up with bad energy Wollongong University’s antivax informed. all over your shirt.) conspiracy-laden PhD for Judy So JCU had a pseudoscientific Wilyman. That would be very Editorial submission deadline clinic on its hands, and when people unfriendly.) . for the next issue: complained, it used the “I got nuthin’ April 30, 2017 to do with it” excuse. Except it did - Tim Mendham, editor 4 NEWS The Skeptic March 17 Around the traps ... JCU closes healing touch clinic

AUS: James Cook University has closed a Senior Lecturer in JCU’s College a Healing Touch Clinic that had been of Healthcare , Centre for operating on its Townsville campus just Nursing and Midwifery Research was a TGA calls for comment days after it opened. supporter (she also promoted a “Healing Healing (or therapeutic) touch is a Touch Level One masterclass” on the on CAM labelling whereby a practioner university’s website last year), and a waves their hands over a patient, practitioner had been photographed AUS: The Therapeutic Goods enabling the wearing a JCU shirt. Administration is seeking comments practitioner “The clinic had from interested parties on a range of to detect and been run by Healing reforms to the regulatory framework manipulate what Touch Townsville for complementary medicines. This is they say is the with clinics designed to provide an opportunity patient’s ‘energy conducted for a few for consumers, health professionals field’. It is similar hours every fortnight and sponsors “to contribute to the to and the in a JCU building development and implementation of ‘laying on of hands’ on the campus,” a range of reforms aimed to improve practices of faith the university said, the regulation of complementary healers. adding that it had medicines in Australia. These reforms Complaints no contractual or aim to increase transparency for were raised financial relationship consumers, provide additional immediately after with the clinic and flexibility for industry and support the announcement of the clinic, covering was not involved in its running. It also innovation, while maintaining the the lack of evidence for the treatment, said that no JCU staff were employed to safety and quality of therapeutic goods as well as the fact that because the clinic work at the clinic. available in Australia.” was located in a university building “JCU does not promote nor teach More details and forms for those on campus that they leased out to Healing Touch in its science-based wishing to make comments can go to various organisations, the university nursing programs.” the TGA consultation website - was giving apparent endorsement to the The Healing Touch Clinic is now http://tinyurl.com/hj5vmm3. controversial treatment. looking for a new home “due to recent Deadline for submissions is March Other comments included that events”. . 28. .

Chiro group distances itself from anti-vaxxers

AUS: The Chiropractors Association of Australia does not support the of Australia, the largest professional views promoted by the Australian group for chiropractors in the country, Vaccination-sceptics Network. has come down against the Australian It also made the point that immuni- Vaccination-sceptics Network for sation is not an area where chiropractors linking itself to the CAA. should be giving advice: “The CAA In a statement released today, the supports the Australian government’s CAA says “It has come to our attention view that immunisation is an impor- that the Australian Vaccination-sceptics tant health care initiative. It is outside Network contains a link to the CAA the scope of practice for chiropractors. National website. We have requested When considering immunisation, that they remove this link to our patients should consult with either website as a matter of urgency. their GP or Maternal and Child Health “The Chiropractors’ Association Nurse for further information.” . 5 23 NEWS

Introducing the Victorian HCC by exposing those said threats in the media. Mal Vickers applauds when a State government Hennessy is a Law graduate and worked as a solicitor before entering actually stands up for reason – thus far she’s proven to be a tough politician and a critical-thinker. AUS: Who stands up for sound therapy”. Other reasons for the introduction health practises, science and evidence- The laws also allow the public to of the new HCC bill were the Belle based medicine? Particularly when make complaints about regulated or Gibson affair, a midwife who appeared there’s no money in it. Civil society unregulated health practitioners who to be responsible for a number of relies on government regulators to step appear to be offering services outside deaths, and the realisation that the in and control the marketplace for the of what would be considered their existing commissioner did not have the public good. normal range of practice. For example, power to issue public health warnings. The new Victorian Health a chiropractor who offers , More information as to how the HCC Complaints Commissioner (HCC), or a dentist who offers to align your came about is explained in Hennessey’s created by the Andrews government, teeth using the principles of Feng Shui. second reading of the bill in the replaced the old Office of the Health The code of conduct in the new Victorian parliament†. Services Commissioner on 1 February, bill states the following in relation to Although Victoria’s new HCC, 2017. advertising: “A general health service with its new powers, follows the The new HCC legislation addresses provider must not make claims either NSW HCCC model, complainants the practise and claims of all health directly to clients or in advertising to the HCCC haven’t always been or promotional materials about the impressed by it. Complainants have efficacy of treatment or services the accused the HCCC of being slow provider provides if those claims and reticent to act. (For anyone who cannot be substantiated.” might be wondering, I have submitted Interesting. How many alternative complaints to the new HCC. It’s very health practitioners can you think early days, stay tuned.) of who can adequately substantiate If you live in Victoria and you their claims? It’s possible the new witness anything dubious or untoward commissioner may generously leave the within the health sector, including ‘back door wide open’ as to what he or alternative health, I encourage you to she may accept: we’ll wait and see. make a complaint to the HCC. You can lodge a complaint via the website, The new regime by phone or snail mail. You may save a So, how did this all come about? life or help to weed out the ‘bad eggs’ For some years now, Australian states from our messy, placebo infested and and territories, other than Victoria, at times chaotic, health care system. . practitioners. What’s of interest to have had useful acronyms for dealing skeptics is that certain practitioners with dubious health practitioners. who could previously operate without Queensland has had its Office of the Author’s note: I wish to acknowledge the need to justify what they did or Health Ombudsman (OHO). NSW the kind assistance of Dr claimed to consumers may be held to has had its Health Care Complaints in the preparation of this article. account. I’m particularly highlighting Commission (HCCC) – who, all the “-paths”: naturopaths, incidentally, have been a problem to *HCC code of conduct for homeopaths, needle-paths, aroma- the AVSN. In Victoria, the laws that practitioners https://hcc.vic.gov.au/ paths, leading you up the garden supported consumers in this area healthcare-providers/non-registered- paths (just checking if you’re paying remained … well …Victorian. providers attention!). The Andrews Government came All Victorian health practitioners into power in December 2014 with Jill † Victorian State Parliament now have a new code of conduct* Hennessy (pictured) as the Minister Hansard Legislative Assembly, 10 which they are required to abide by, for Health. Readers may recall that February 2016. http://tinyurl.com/ whether they like it or not. The new Jill Hennessy was the winner of the zydg94q bill encompasses everyone who makes 2016 Australian Skeptics Thornett a quid via health claims, even the most Award for the Promotion of Reason. extreme fringe health claims such That year, Hennessy famously stood as those who offer “gay conversion up to menacing threats by anti-vaxxers 6 The Skeptic March 17

Google blacklists Natural News

USA: Google has blacklisted the Herald, Grist, Gestapo entire Natural News site, removing CBS News, The that now 140,000 pages from its index. Daily Telegraph, decides what While the site still exists, the action Mother Jones, knowledge means that searches via Google, which and The Austin you’re never holds a market share of more than Business Journal. allowed to 80 per cent of search engine activity, Its founder, Mike access … will not bring up any Natural News Adams (on the right of the picture especially because much of that pages, only those third party sites, above), has been described as the knowledge can help set humanity free.” such as Wikipedia, which reference the most “blatant purveyor of the worst However, the action by Google organisation. kind of and paranoid against Natural News may be in Natural News, a notorious website anti-physician and anti-medicine response more for technical violations which specialises in coverage of conspiracy theories anywhere on the than for its content. Google has not anti-vaccination claims, AIDS/HIV Internet”. commented on the blacklist, but it has denialism, quack cancer treatments, Adams has responded to the been suggested that the actual reason and conspiracy theories has been blacklist in typical hyperbolic style, may that the mobile version of the site described as “one of the most wretched saying that “Silencing Natural News performs redirects to third-party sites hives of scum and quackery on the is all part of the globalist ‘script’ for that the user has not chosen, which Internet”, “the worst site on the the enslavement of a population is prohibited by Google’s terms of internet”. kept ignorant of reality. [It] follows service. This means that the site may It has been strongly criticsed for a pattern of censorship we’re seeing be relisted once the violations have its misinformation by the Los Angeles being levelled against other pro- been rectified. . Times, Forbes, ABC News (US), The Trump websites. New York Times, ScienceBlogs, Discover “You are witnessing a modern- Magazine, , The Daily day book burning by the internet SPECIAL OFFER for Subscribers Australian Skeptics is offering Vale Skeptics many Victorian Skeptics subscribers to the hard copy were aware of his edition of The Skeptic Colin Kline passing and may even have attended an additional digital copy AUS: We were saddened to his secular funeral. We have for free. learn late last year of the death passed our condolences to Many of our subscribers have of Colin Kline, life member and his family. long time supporter of Australian already taken up this offer. Skeptics. An engineer by trade you are not doing so but would and philosopher by disposition, Margaret Edeson like to get the free digital Colin was a noted figure in the Victorian skeptical scene. His AUS: Margaret Edeson, long time copy, then email the editor on family described him as “curious member of Canberra Skeptics, [email protected] and irreverent”, and he deserved has passed away in January of and we’ll adjust your the Skeptics’ life membership he this year. Lauren Kelly, president received many years ago. Though of Canberra Skeptics, said that subscription accordingly. he had died in the middle of the Margaret had “always been a Note, this offer is only open to year, we did not learn of his death friendly face at our meetings and subscribers to the hard copy until some time later, thanks to a was fighting skeptically a long generous bequest to the Australian time before most of us. She will be (paper) edition and is limited Skeptics Science & Education greatly missed.” She also made a to one free digital copy per Foundation (ASSEF). No doubt generous bequest to ASSEF. subscriber.

7 23 NEWS

The penalties page Joanne Howard – nurse Joanne Howard, a Victorian nurse and Tim Mendham reports on action by authorities fervent anti-vaccination campaigner, has had conditions put on her nursing against pseudoscience and bad practice registration by AHPRA. The conditions include AUS: The slowness of regulatory He added that that “The Practitioner is to authorities to take action against shonks “Most chiropractors undertake and successfully and quacks has been regularly and are doing the right complete a program of strongly criticised for some time. Several thing.” However, this education, approved by the well-known Skeptical activists have been view has been strongly Nursing and Midwifery Board awarded for trying to bring a multitude refuted by a number of Australia [NMBA] and of cases of infringement of regulations to of campaigners including a reflective practice the attention of those who supposedly against chiropractors’ report, in relation to evidence keep their constituents in line. Often misleading advertising. based practice.” She must also without result … or even a response. Activist Ken McLeod said that provide proof that any place she works So it is encouraging to see at least he and “Reasonable Hank” have is aware of the conditions. some instances of authorities taking put in complaints against more A ‘condition’ aims to “restrict a legal action against individuals whose than 700 chiropractors; Prof Ken practitioner’s practice in some way, to activities can cause serious harm to the Harvey said that he and Mal Vickers protect the public”. It can be placed public. Last year it was ‘baby cracker’ have put in complaints against on a practitioner’s registration for chiro Ian Rossborough banned from about 800 chiropractors; and the disciplinary reasons, such as because treating infants. The following are two Friends of Science in Medicine has a National Board has found that a examples of recent action resulting in submitted complaints against 400 practitioner has departed from accepted penalties. websites, involving as many as 1200 professional standards. chiropractors. For many of these cases, Howard has for some years espoused Hance Limboro - chiropractor McLeod says, there has been little or no her anti-vaccination stance on a Hance Limboro, a response from AHPRA or the CBA. series of Facebook pages, defying the chiropractor, has been convicted of false (All of the activists mentioned above NMBA’s position on vaccination, which advertising after he claimed to be able have been recipients of the Skeptic of “recognises the Australian National to prevent, treat and cure cancer in his the Year award.) Immunisation Handbook 10th edition advertising. Minter said “The Board has been up- as providing evidence-based advice He pleaded guilty to 13 charges filed front with the profession that if their to health professionals about the safe by the Australian Health Practitioner advertising is not compliant with the and effective use of vaccines and the Regulation Agency (AHPRA) in law, they will be held to account.” public health benefits associated with August 2016. Limboro was convicted AHPRA CEO, Martin Fletcher, said vaccination”. and fined $29,500 by the court and the outcome was “a landmark ruling”. Of concern is that Howard is not was also ordered to pay AHPRA’s legal “Our purpose, working closely with making her stance known only on costs. $27,500 of that fine was for the Board of Australia, closed Facebook pages – she has said advertising a health service in a false is to protect the public. This shows that “The hospitals I work at are well or misleading way; the that we will take action aware that I have made this decision and remaining $2000 was and that people breaking it is not an issue.” for using testimonials in the law will be held to The NMBA says in last year’s his advertising, which account.” statement that “The NMBA has become is not permitted when McLeod added that his aware that there are a small number advertising regulated studies revealed that about of registered nurses, enrolled nurses health services. two-thirds of chiropractors and midwives who are promoting Chiropractic Board of have also expressed or anti-vaccination statements to patients Australia Chair, Wayne promoted anti-vaccination and the public via social media which Minter, said the Board views, a result he says that, contradict the best available scientific welcomed the decision. after discussion with Prof evidence.” “Today’s conviction , is similar to Again, this comment about “a is a win for public protection and a the situation in the UK. small number” has been refuted. The warning to anyone advertising health It is known that about eight other Reasonable Hank website currently lists services in a way that contravenes the chiropractors are currently ‘in the 40 nurses, and Howard herself has said National Law. pipeline’ to be brought before courts. that “there are a lot of us out there”. . 8 The Skeptic March 17

US grant supports quest for the

USA: The US National Park Service things such as sea monsters, little is spending US$149,927 researching people, wild babies, unexplained Bigfoot, sea monsters, unexplained lights, animals that can change into lights, and other paranormal activity. other things, and invisible sea birds.” According to the Washington Free The organization says the research Beacon, Kawerak Inc, a non-profit is important to understanding how group that serves people of Eskimo, culture influences beliefs in the Aleut, or American-Indian descent paranormal. in the Bering Strait region between “The objective of the project is to Alaska and Russia, received the grant document, in a serious and meaningful Award for last year. The organisation illustrates its way, Bering Strait residents’ knowledge project with a picture of “Hairy Man,” about, experiences with, and beliefs Whack-a-Mole a mythical Bigfoot-like creature. about phenomena,” The group is not just interested in the group said. “We think that AUS: Sasha Hall, one of the students researching “Hairy Man,” but a whole this information is important to working on Prof Ken Harvey’s Whack- host of “supernatural” creatures, the understanding how people relate to a-Mole project over the university Beacon reports. their environment and that there are summer break, has won the best The project description reads. culturally specific understandings of Monash Summer School Scholarship “Phenomena that can be described as these phenomena which have not been presentation. The students’ project ‘supernatural’ include, among others, previously documented.” . centred on assessing claims made for complementary medicines, and featured on a recent Four Corners program. Hall had presented as part of Harvey’s group at the Skepticamp event that was run before the 2016 Australian Skeptics Convention in Melbourne. Her winning video can be found at http://tinyurl.com/jsgkr8y. .

Homeopathy rubbish in Russia

RUSSIA: The Russian Academy of the state health care system and label NEWS ON THE Science’s Commission for Combating homeopathic medicines accordingly. NEWSLETTER Pseudoscience has concluded that “The academic community views homeopathic treatments are not homeopathy as a pseudoscience,’’ says We publish a fortnightly rooted in science and are useless. a memorandum of the Commission emailed newsletter with Scientists recommend the Health for combating pseudoscience Ministry remove homeopathy from published in February. “Its application the latest news, events in medicine runs counter to the and weird things. It’s free, fundamental goals of the Russian health care system and should be and if you are currently opposed by the state. not subscribing, but want “Numerous attempts have been made to give homeopathy a scientific to keep up-to-date on the basis, and all of them have proven skeptical world, then go to futile,” says the memorandum. The abstract for the memorandum http://tinyurl.com/jsuxg2o can be found at http://tinyurl.com/ to sign up. hf8559s – unfortunately, the full text is in Russian. . 9 23 REPORT New Age Fair + NZ Skeptics Conference Love, Peace & Confrontation Call security! Tim Mendham, Richard Saunders and Ian Bryce at Mind Body Wallet.

did some others, and nearby customers turned to see what was happening. Ian and Richard moved away, but the stallholder’s female partner grabbed Ian by the arm, and said loudly to call security. “Odd,” Richard says, “because it had been Ian who had been assaulted.” Shame there weren’t any security cameras in the building. Maybe they rely on t the Mind Body Spirit (aka ‘Wallet’) straight vertical line between the middle surveillance. AFestivals, held regularly in Sydney, of the heel and the space between the A security guard appeared, and after Melbourne and Brisbane, purveyors middle toes. Apparently this was the best a friendly exchange, Ian and Richard of new age products and services sell line of balance. continued to tour the exhibition. Pretty their goods – pyramids, crystals, chakra He then told the people to make a fist soon, however, some other stallholders cleansing, a few UFO and message-from- of one hand, put it into the other hand complained, including the beyond proponents, , and more with an open palm, and hold it in front Harmoniser people who criticised alt med goods and services than you can of the stomach. He pushed down on Richard for having previously “upset” poke an ear candle at. their fists and two of them fell forward. them, and some others who said that we As Ian Bryce puts it: “Plenty of cures (He told the third that she was not had made them cry. on sale for non-existent ailments.” holding her hands still and was dropping Then we noticed four security guards Richard Sanders, Ian Bryce and Tim them. He was quite critical of her as he were following us around, speaking to Mendham visited MBS/W last October. tried several times for the effect.) each stallholder after we moved on. They Normally it’s all very serene, all very He then put some of the gel inserts on again confronted us and said they had friendly … until you ask a question. the gound in front of them to step onto. a growing list of complaints,. “You can’t Stall holders don’t take kindly to being He pushed down again on the fists and walk around questioning people.” As we challenged. Some ignore you, some ask this time, the people did not move. were upsetting stallholders they asked if you to leave, and this year one assaulted This was classic . It we would leave. Ian and yelled obscenities in his face. was obvious he was pushing in different Ian responded: “Many stallholders We were discussing with a few stall directions – it seemed to be firstly straight are selling things that don’t work and holders whether they really believed in down and secondly pushing slightly back. obtaining money by deception. That’s the products they were selling. One of Richard has seen this a lot, so he told fraud, they should be ejected, not us. We’re them was pushing gel-based shoe inserts the stallholder he knew how it was done. just asking questions to get to the truth.” to improve your posture and balance. And Ian demonstrated the procedure. The A conversation with security and that’s where serenity went out the window. stallholder was not pleased. He protested management took place away from The gentleman on the Stand Up Right “That’s not what I was doing” and he stallholders, and after what Richard stall was demonstrating how his inserts leapt forward, pushing Ian a couple of describes as a cordial discussion, the worked; he had three people lined up, times, ‘shirt-fronting’ him and yelling into Skeptics quietly left the building. and in front of them on the floor were his face: “Are you calling me a fucking “In the 16 years that we’ve been going prints of footprints on paper. He said liar?” He could be heard many stalls to this festival,” Richard says, “this was the these demonstrated how people’s feet were away. “We don’t come to your place …”. first time we’ve been asked to leave.” often out of balance – there should be a Richard stepped in to pull them apart, as So, who’s up for the next MBW? . 10 The Skeptic March 17 A Remarkable Event Call security! Tim Mendham, Richard Saunders and Ian Tim Mendham and Richard Saunders report Bryce at Mind Body Wallet. on the NZ Skeptics 2016 conference.

his year’s NZ Skeptics conference hypocrisy of the raw milk movement. Mark Hanna, “one of our local Twas hosted by the Invercargill Andrew Digby outlined his scientific heroes of sceptical activism”, provided Skeptics and held in Queenstown on the work with the Kakapo parrot recovery some good discussion on writing ASA South Island from December 2-4. project. (“Conservation is ingrained in the complaints; and Catherine Low, another Brad MacClure, one of the organisers, Kiwi psyche,” MacClure says). He covered science teacher, spoke on effective described it as “a folksy little conference”, statistics and genomics in a way that he altruism and applying skepticism to run on a bit of a shoestring budget with neither lost nor bored the audience, “No charity giving. the local skeptics catering, and held in small feat in my opinion,” say MacClure, the St Johns ambulance ‘training room’. “genomics being quite an esoteric subject.” PUZZLING DINNER Which might sound a little modest, Tania Lineham, a science teacher from Every Skeptics conference worth its salt until you saw the stunning view out Invercargill, was the recipient of the 2015 has a special dinner, and this year’s event the window of Lake Wakatipu and the Prime Minister’s Science Teacher Prize. was held at Puzzling Remarkables Mountains on the far shore. Her talk was a report on some of the World in Wanaka. This Cruelly, the organisers had the speakers innovative things being done to usher in involved putting everyone facing the windows, so the audience the next generation of scientists. on a 40-minute bus ride, couldn’t be distracted, and the speakers Scott Kennedy was also technically an but the journey was worth forgot what they were going to say. outsider to the . His it. Established in 1973, The conference got underway with a talk was centered on how certain artistic this series of buildings social quiz on the evening before the first media work and how to get the intended and gardens is dedicated day, run by by NZ Skeptics chairperson results from them - not so much a to sensory illusions, from Mark Honeychurch. MacClure supplied skeptical topic, but of interest to skeptics optical tricks, mazes, local craft beers which proved very who are interested in various types of puzzles, all the way to a popular for attendees and speakers alike. media production. tilted room where even For the conference itself, MacClure There were three overseas speakers: water seems to run uphill. The founder said one of his ambitions was “to bring Loretta Marron and Richard Saunders of Puzzling World, Stuart Landsborough, some speakers to it that were technically from Australia, and from himself a long-time skeptic (he also outside the ‘skeptical movement’, outside the US. Loretta covered her pathway into happens to be the man behind the our ‘echo-chamber’ as it were, but of skeptical activism, from cancer sufferer Kiwi version of the psychic challenge), interest to skeptics. We skeptics can tend to running the Friends of Science in was in attendance for the whole of the to concentrate on debunking or taking a Medicine. Richard gave an overview of conference. stand against pseudoscience, but it’s also weird pseudoscience with his “Too good At the dinner, the NZ Bent Spoon important to advocate for, and celebrate, to be true” talk. “We also got some spoon for 2016 was announced, going to the good scientists doing their thing.” bending lessons from him.” Herald, for “credulous With that in mind, Mark Bryan, Susan covered the GSoW (Guerilla journalism, repeatedly publishing articles a local vet who is also an Skepticism on Wikipedia) project. that clearly disregard the weight of epidemiologist, delved into The locals made extensive use of her evidence”. his research about dairy over the weekend, with another talk Congratulations to Brad, Sheree herds, deaths from herbicide on her skeptical activities, and taking McNatty, Chrissie MacClure, Helen intolerant swedes, and the part in a panel discussion. Adair and all at the NZ Skeptics. . 11 SPECIAL REPORT Alt Med Herbal

Tim Mendham and Eran Segev look at Remediesthe National Institute of Complementary Medicine - Chinese medicine, alternative facts and endangered species.

rof Alan Bensoussan, head validation of a used foundation of ethnomedicine. Pof the National Institute of for centuries in managing malaria.” Ethnomedicine is the comparative Complementary Medicine (NICM) Unfortunately for Bensoussan, study of how different cultures view at Western Sydney University, is again his claim for the efficacy of A. annua disease and how they treat or prevent facing criticism for his organisation’s is totally contradicted by the World it. It is a recognised field of study, apparent endorsement of unproven Health Organisation, which has said in and formal academic research into ‘traditional medicine’ treatments. a position paper for the Global Malaria ethnomedical treatment of illness has NICM was established in 2007 Programme that it “does not recommend been ongoing for at least 40 years, with a “to provide leadership and support the use of A. annua plant material in any major increase in academic interest over for strategically directed research into form, including tea, for the treatment or the last 20. complementary medicine and translation the prevention of malaria”. Indeed, Dr , vice of evidence into clinical practice and president of Australian Skeptics Inc, is a relevant policy to benefit the health of all THE REAL Senior Research Fellow, Cell Biology, at a Australians”. The plant A. annua has many US organisation named the Institute for Last year Bensoussan had asked that ingredients, one of which is artemisinin. Ethnomedicine. his organisation’s nomination for the It is this ingredient which is efficacious The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology Australian Skeptics’ Bent Spoon award in treating malaria. The amount of or Medicine was awarded to several for 2016 be withdrawn. In a letter to artemisinin in A. annua is extremely researchers, one half going to Tu Youyou Australian Skeptics, he insisted that variable, which is “for her discoveries his organisation does not “defend the why the WHO does concerning a novel use of any complementary medicine not recommend the Unfortunately for therapy against malaria”. unsupported by evidence. The focus of use of the plant itself “ Tu, chief scientist our research institute excludes many as treatment. Bensoussan, his claim at the China Academy forms of complementary medicine based The research is totally contradicted of Traditional Chinese on this notion.” that resulted in Tu Medicine in Beijing, But in an interview as part of an Youyou’s winning by the World Health found that a number article published at the end of January in the 2015 Nobel Organisation. of serious infectious MJA InSight on corporate influence on Prize in Physiology ” diseases are caused academic research (http://tinyurl.com/ or Medicine was indeed based on by parasites spread by insects. Malaria jvdyf7y), he insists on the bona fides of traditional medicine. Furthermore, is caused by a single-cell parasite that the type of work NICM undertakes by the prize is an acknowledgement that causes severe fever. Traditional Chinese referring to “The Nobel prize-winning there is value in looking at traditional medicine uses sweet wormwood to research into Artemisia annua (qinghaosu) practices in the search for valid treat fever. In the 1970s, after studies of … a good example of the recent research targets, a practice that is at the traditional herbal medicines, Tu managed 12 The Skeptic March 17

the fact that Tu’s research was centred Clockwise from right: Tu on isolating the active ingredient, Youyuou, Nobel Prize winner; artemisinin, rather than on treatment Prof Scott Homes, deputy with the whole plant as traditionally VC at UWS, Judy Jacka, and used. Prof Alan Bensoussan; and Elsewhere in the MJA InSight article, harvesting Artemisia annua. Bensoussan responds to cited criticism that NICM overplays the benefits of natural therapies and downplays negative results by saying that “In the early days of researching complementary medicines, it is expected that positive of scientific findings. results appear commonly in the The content of artemisinin in literature, as researchers and industry the leaves of A. annua is influenced will investigate the most established and by many genetic, agricultural and promising traditional medicines with environmental factors, including long established clinical use.” variations in artemisinin content in dry This totally ignores the fact that leaves from 0.01 to 1.4 per cent weight complementary medicines have been of dry leaf mass, as well as variations in extensively researched, for decades, with harvesting season, drying procedures very mixed results, to say the least. and storage conditions. For instance, homeopathy has been Patients who are treated for malaria around for more than 200 years, and with A. annua tea, it says, are likely has been scientifically assessed for more to be under-dosed. Research on using than 160 of those, with negative results. artemisinin-rich plant material showed And yet NICM continues to directly that the highest concentration of or indirectly support homeopathy to extract a substance, artemisinin, which artemisinin released in one litre of A. and other unscientific complementary inhibits the malaria parasite. According annua tea is still less than 20 per cent treatments on its website. to the Nobel Prize citation, “Drugs based of that which is contained in a 500mg In Bensoussan’s correspondence with on artemisinin have led to the survival pharmaceutical dose of artemisinin. Australian Skeptics in December 2016, and improved health of millions of This is because artemisinin is poorly he said that “We are intending to revise people.” soluble in water and unstable at high our website over the summer and hope Tu’s research indicates the difference temperatures. to address some of the issues you have between scientific ethnomedicine Studies have also shown that the raised.” research and duration of contact with water, ratio of These “issues” include information research. Tu looked for active plant material to water, and filter type for consumers which cover – without ingredients that could be separated affect the extraction efficiency. any reference to efficacy – the out from traditional medicine for a “In order to receive a dose equivalent following treatments incorporated in more effective and reliable treatment. to a 500mg artemisinin tablet or the term “complementary medicine”: Alternative medicine research sticks capsule, patients would be required to ; chiropractic; ; with the ‘traditional’ treatments in a drink as much as five litres of A. annua Alexander technique; ; fundamentalist holistic fashion, without tea per day, for a minimum of seven any proper application of true scientific consecutive days, making investigation beneath the superficialities compliance to treatment of the established ‘cure’. difficult to achieve.” The WHO document mentions that This means that “A number of herbal remedies made of Bensoussan’s referral to A. A. annua dry leaves are suggested for the annua as a “good example treatment and prevention of malaria.” of the recent validation But the document continues that it of a traditional medicine does not recommend the use A. annua used for centuries in plant material for the treatment or the managing malaria” is not prevention of malaria. only contradicted by the The WHO says that its world’s leading health recommendation is based on the review authority, but ignores 13 SPECIAL REPORT Alt Med

Herbal Remedies Right: Indian rhino, Continued... sought for its horn - officially endangered since 1975.

applied kinesiology; spiritual healing; Below: Darf musk deer, Reiki; Anthroposophical medicine; sought for its glands - ; homoeopathy; ; officially endangered ; crystal therapy; since 1976. ; and healing touch. It also lists “”, “biofields”, and bioelectromagnetic therapies as one of “the four domains of complementary medicine”. Despite Bensoussan’s intended in Melbourne in March 1999 (http:// revision of the site, as of February 25 tinyurl.com/jb6njsd). This was organised all of these dubious (at best) modalities by the Commonwealth government’s are still listed on the site. While the Environment Australia, RMIT, Traffic site doesn’t specifically endorse these Oceania which monitors trade in wildlife, forms of complementary medicine, and the Worldwide Fund for Nature their inclusion as relevant only adds (WWF). Bensoussan gave a talk as a the imprimatur of a university-based senior lecturer of the Chinese Medicine research institution to unproven or Unit, Faculty of Health, UWS. His debunked treatments. talk was titled “The Responsible Use of perspective of some human right to Traditional Chinese Medicine”. In that continuously exploit natural resources, in ENDANGERED SPECIES talk – in his opening statement in fact – this case if the medicine is valuable and Among many other issues is the use of Bensoussan says that “The use of parts in diminishing supply, the resource needs endangered species in TCM products. of endangered species such as rhinoceros protecting. Bensoussan has taken part in early horn, tiger bone and deer musk as “The TCM profession and the symposia for CITES, the Convention medicinal preparations may have placed community should absolutely reject on International Trade in Endangered a significant strain on these species and any use of endangered animal and plant Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. These contributed to the reduction of their species in Chinese medicines.” were particularly targeted at the Chinese numbers to critical levels.” All excellent and worthy views. And medical community to raise awareness Discussing legislation necessary for all the more surprising and disappointing of the issues using endangered species in stopping the use of endangered species in when NICM directly or indirectly their products. TCM, he says “The only ethical solution promotes or supports the use of The first symposium held in Australia is to ensure no endangered species are endangered animals in TCM. was in Sydney in August 1997, titled contained in the products, and to ensure There was a link on the NICM website “Healthy People, Healthy Wildlife labelling is accurate and not false. Even to a TCM Herbal Database, Yin Yang – First Australian Symposium on if only one in one hundred products House, one of several “freely accessible Traditional Medicines and Wildlife labelled with endangered species actually Chinese herb databases”. The Yin Yang Conservation”. contained them, this would probably database includes helpful information Whether UWS or Bensoussan was be sufficient to drive the species into on the medical use of Rhino horn (Xi involved in that is not clear. It was extinction.” Jiao), the clinical uses and indications of certainly before the launch of NICM And in response to comments he had which are: “Clears Heat, Relieves Fire in 2007, and even before the founding heard about the dilemma faced by TCM Toxicity, Cools Blood, Arrests Tremors. of another of UWS’s ventures into users, that we need to “step into their Erythema, nosebleed, vomiting blood, TCM, the Centre for Complementary shoes and then make judgements if we delirium, convulsions, manic behaviour, Medicine Research (CompleMed) in ourselves or our beloved ones are suffering loss of consciousness”. One of the 2001. CompleMed was seen as being the from ailment [where] modern medicine contraindications of Xi Jiao is if the patient research complement to NICM, but it offers little or no help whereas products suffers from Yin Deficiency Fever. The merged (or was subsumed) into NICM from these animals may offer relief”, recommended dosage of Xi Jiao is 1-2g. in 2013. Bensoussan says such a view “defies all In February, when it was made known A second symposium on the same logic”. to NICM that this pseudoscientific and topic (with the same title) was held “Even if we adopt the crudest dangerous content existed on a link to a 14 The Skeptic March 17

supplier it had endorsed, the link to the berezovskii (musk deer). health and wellbeing.” entire database was removed. The Indian Rhinoceros and the As one indication of the leaning of the The NICM website for the page on Chinese forest (or dwarf) musk deer are organisation, the Foundation says that Complementary Medicine Resources does both endangered species. But the list, “Homeopathy has stood the test of nearly have the disclaimer that “These links have and general text of the thesis, does not 200 years practice throughout the world.” been provided as a public service only and mention the endangered status of these The Foundation’s site has links to various NICM does not endorse any content that ingredients, or recommend that non- homeopathy sites and to the notorious is shown on third party sites.” endangered substitutes, which do exist in anti-vaxxer Joseph Mercola. But NICM’s association with the usage the TCM world, should be used instead. In April last year Judy Jacka, Vice- of endangered species in TCM is not At the end of the thesis is the Chair of the Jacka Foundation, was made limited to the Yin Yang database. statement: “All herbs used in this trial an Honorary Fellow of Western Sydney In 2008, a thesis was submitted in are listed with the Federal Government’s University “in recognition of Judy’s partial fulfilment of the requirements Therapeutic Goods Administration and leadership in the naturopathic profession for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, have such been acknowledged as suitable and her roles as a practitioner, educator, Centre for Complementary Medicine for human consumption. All herbs are writer and philanthropist”. Research, The University of Western currently available over the counter to These instances of NICM’s failure Sydney. (This was after the formation the public throughout Australia and to properly oversee areas of research of NICM but before CompleMed and are classified as food products and herb may seem to be minor infractions. NICM merged, though the research is starting products. But consider an established, reputable now listed as a higher degree research “They are all to be administered well organisation exaggerates that gives project at NICM.) within standard dosage levels. No herb incorrect information on the efficacy The thesis by Junguang Liu covered used in this trial is a controlled substance, of TCM products, fails to offer proper “Development of an evidence-based animal product or endangered species.” critical assessment of serious faults Chinese for the This is true - Xing Nao Jing was not and statements in research that are in management of vascular dementia”. one of the injections contradiction of its own (http://tinyurl.com/zh7zhrf) used in the trial. But The Foundation’s espoused values, associates Prof Alan Bensoussan was a co- it is included in the “ with organisations that supervisor of the project. thesis’s list, without website links to promote pseudoscience, On page 45-46 of the thesis is: comment by the homeopathy sites and and simply supports, “Recently, with fast developing science author, supervisor or whether directly or and technologies being applied in the co-supervisors. the anti-vaxxer Joseph indirectly, alternative pharmaceutical manufacturing area, more The lesson of Mercola. treatments, some of and more herbs or herbal mixtures have dealing with these ” which are questionable, been extracted or made into medicinal issues is that you disproven, unscientific, injections. These have not only largely have to be careful who you support, link dangerous, or just frankly ludicrous. These facilitated improved application to to, or associate with. things reflect badly on an organisation patients, but also increased the therapeutic With that in mind, it’s worth noting and makes one wonder, “what next?”. effectiveness and accordingly reduced that NICM receives financial support This is especially disappointing for an the therapeutic courses.” A table lists the from the Jacka Foundation of Natural organisation which proudly declares itself most common Chinese herbal medicine Therapies which, on its website, says that to be “evaluated by Australia’s leading injections used for the treatment of VaD. “the Foundation’s major philanthropic scientists under the Excellence in Research Among these, the thesis cites the Xing effort has been to support the work of for Australia scheme and received the Nao Jing Injection designed for “clearing the National Institute of Complementary highest ranking of 5 for two consecutive heat toxin and opening brain, removing Medicine (NICM)”. In 2015 it periods, representing research that is phlegm. Xing Nao Jing injection has allocated $2 million to the Institute, deemed well above world standard.” [letter been widely applied in China for stroke including funding for a new chair of to Australian Skeptics]. and vascular dementia. After 1-month complementary medicine at UWS. Australian Skeptics Inc has declared treatment intervention, they found the The Jacka Foundation is heavily that it will continue to stand by the 2016 scores in the treatment group increased pro-naturopathy and alt med – its Bent Spoon nomination that Bensoussan remarkably, as compared with the control board members having qualifications took so much objection to, and by the group”. and having practised in naturopathy, view that NICM does not live up to the This product includes in its homeopathy, reflexology, , standards expected of a serious research “Compositions” Bos taurus domesticus aromatherapy, Bach flower remedy, etc. organisation. It has also declared that (domestic cattle), Pteria martensii (nacre, Its vision is to encourage “A society where it will continue to monitor NICM’s or mother of pearl), Rhinoceros unicornis natural therapies are the first choice for activities in the future, perhaps even for (Indian rhinoceros), and Moschus people seeking informed control of their further nominations. . 15 PUZZLES

ACROSS Brain testers 1. & 11. Gathering of questioners can’t cube this pink CRYPTIC CROSSWORD no 33 pest. (8,2,3,3) 5. OMG, Georgia moved quickly! (6) 4 5 6 8 1 2 3 4 7 10. Calling placing, calling. (6) 9 11. See 1 across 10 11 13. Melanie was cut short and confused by a tree. (3) C 14. 12 Merrick the mahout. (8,3) 17. In a certain way it’s bad, but in others it’s good for 13 14 15 16 O U you. (5) A H 18. Bad pain, see, and it brings fear. (5) 17 16S 18 U 19 19. Disagreements with ablated facial feature? (3) 20 20. Baby calls and suffers Western Australian gas. (3) S R 21. Rolls up the sails on rocky shoals. (5) 20 21 22 23 R E 22. Woo promoter rejected Marx. (5) R A 24. Raid a catchy health problem. (11) 2524O M 25 Y 26 26. Isle found in Maine. (3) 28 27. Over-excited one on a moon of Uranus. (8) O 30. Squeeze on board, then runs away. (6) 27 28 29 30 E 32. Eat in the east, lying down. (6) 31 33. Holy dressing room! It’s scary! (8)) 32 33 L

Tim Mendham + Steve Roberts DOWN DR BOB’S QUIZ 1. Sects gather about, regarding hidden knowledge. (7) 2. Thin form of a rich compote. (11) 1. Why did Cleopatra choose an asp as her method of suicide? 3 Ironically kind treatment can save the little boat. (6,5) 2. The Norse god Odin was said to be able to see into the future. What was Odin’s disposition and character like? 4. Cut short, copper! (2) 6. Tree has become confused. (3) 3.How did Nikola Tesla become interested in studying static 7. Dad will just burst. (3) electricity? 8. Gets out bed and proves it wrong. (7) 4.From studies of news broadcasts, which day (clue: it was a 9. One Direction, another way, sings, mesmerises. (8) Sunday) was the most boring day of the 20th century? 12. High explosive becomes thin gas. (2) 15. Sorcerer not elsewhere classified as a wooer. (11) 5.Which early Beatles song did John Lennon write (with input from 16. Alien neighbours, astronomically speaking. (3,4,3) Paul McCartney) while staying at Stoke-on-Trent? 18. Teardrop fell from the hunter. (9) 6.What proportion of Time Capsules are lost without trace?? 20. Spelling ladies chew its brew. (7) 23. In truth, you can refine a pig’s house. (7) 25. Trendy ending for Sydney suburb, we hear. (2) 28. Have a narrow victory to win a star. (3) 29. Ladder, or nearly part of a ladder. (3) Answers on page 62 31. Father Pascal. (2)

16 THEM The Skeptic March 17 Readers’ indigestible Tim Mendham looks at those ‘other’ websites, where skeptics will find something of interest.

his issue we continue our review of websites of an unskeptical nature. This Ttime, a spiritual group with a dark side, and it’s not all ghosts accounting for sexual orientation, but charges of murder and judicial incompetence.

Spiritual Science Foundation was founded by His Holiness Dr Jayant Balaji Athavale, The Spiritual ScienceResearch Or it would use science, except that a consultant clinical hypnotherapist Foundation(spiritualresearchfounda science lacks “a holistic approach to from Mumbai, a “rare spirit who tion.org) is an organisation devoted help people overcome pain in life and brings to ordinary men a realisation of to finding “the real reasons behind gain lasting happiness”. their own divinity and makes spiritual the causes of problems in life and Enter spiritual science. life seem adventurous and attractive”. the solutions to overcome it. When It’s important to keep in mind Athavale is associated with two people address their problems in life at that “When one wants to research groups – the SSRF and Sanatan a physical, psychological and spiritual the subtle-world, one cannot use Sanstha, the latter set up “for level they have better chances of conventional measurement and providing education on in success.” analysis tools.” scientific terminology and for the It’s your typical spiritual What measures they do use are not benefit of Hindus”. development/guru-led/meditation clear, but they do come up with some How distinct the two groups are is type of thing, with a very impressive interesting results. difficult to tell, as you won’t find any and modern ashram building in . For instance, apparently about 30 clear references to the other group It seems to have a lot of money behind per cent of the world’s population on their respective websites (www. it, or very generous ‘seekers’. is possessed by ghosts, with one sanatan.org), though they share the That might be because the symptom being “increased or same ashram and obviously the same Foundation knows its market well: decreased sexual drive”. Or both? website designer. “For most of us, our time on Earth is Possession by female ghosts accounts One problem is that Sanatan divided between getting an education, for 85 per cent of gay men; naturally Sanstha is described as a right-wing getting a job, getting married, having it’s male ghosts for lesbians. You get a ‘radical Hindu’ group. Several people kids, making money, acquiring fame more definitive result for addictions, owing allegiance to the organisation and power.” with 96 per cent due to possession by have been arrested in four bombings We don’t know about you, but we ghosts or departed ancestors. (three in 2007 and one – in Goa, the haven’t spent a lot of time acquiring Coconuts are an interesting city of the ashram – in 2009). They are fame and power, more’s the pity. phenomenon. Just before a spiritual also implicated in the murders of three The site is OK – a bit clunky ceremony, a number of coconuts put Indian rationalists, one in 2013 and on the layout and navigation, with aside for saints cracked open due to two in 2015. This has led to calls for some garish colours. But someone negative energies. Where the negative Sanatan Sanstha to be banned. has spent a lot of time on the videos, energies came from is not known, but The case is complicated, involving which are professionally put together, the attending seekers prayed for the local politicians, three different judicial if a bit derivative of slasher films creation of a protective sheath around districts, positive and negative ballistic when it comes to negative energies the venue. As a further precaution, tests, with the Central Bureau of interrupting your relaxed spiritual they blew Holy ash and sprinkled Investigation waiting for the results lifestyle. water mixed with cow’s urine on the of tests by Scotland Yard, only they The Foundation says it uses coconuts. That would do it every time. haven’t sent the material to be tested scientific processes to get at the But then it all turns strange. due to “procedures”. fundamentals of people’s problem. The Spiritual Science Research Not your usual spiritual group. . 17 FEATURE Skeptical Activism SkeptiTHE c’sGuide Michael Marshall gives the full story on how to run campaigns, be an activist, get media coverage, set up skeptical groups, confront homeopathy, battle with the NHS, giving oxygen to the ‘baddies’, and how to make friends, enemies and influence people.

ichael ‘Marsh’ Marshall is M recognised as one of the leading skeptical activists in the UK, and probably the world. has called him “a mighty nerd from ”, and the self-proclaimed psychic Joe Power called him something TM: Marsh, you’re a well-regarded very rude and unprintable. skeptical activist, your name is widely Born in Bishop , County Durham, in the north-east of England known around the world, and your in 1983, he left the small village he grew up in (“Not many people ever leave campaigns have received global there”) and crossed the country to do an English degree at the University of recognition. How on earth did you get to Liverpool. be here? In his relatively short formal career in skepticism, he has helped found a local skeptical group in the Merseyside area of England, is full-time project MM: I don’t quite know how I managed director for the (and as such is one of only a handful of to get into skepticism. I was one of these professional skeptics in the world), organised the 10:23 homeopathy overdose people who didn’t really know what I campaign that received worldwide following and coverage, followed up with wanted to do, what I was good at. I’ve a campaign to stop the UK National Health System funding homeopathic always been a generalist; I could have done treatments, hosts the Skeptics with a K and Be Reasonable podcasts, is one of a science degree, a humanities degree. I’ve the people behind the QED Skeptics Convention held annually in Manchester spread myself across different interests; and, in his spare time, lectures to skeptical groups across the country and writes I’ve always been a blagger, I don’t have a the occasional article for , The Times and the New Statesman huge work ethic. while biting the hand that feeds him by pointing out the dangers of Bad PR I started work in a marketing company. and the media’s acquiescence in printing all the news that’s printed to fit. I listened to a few podcasts, and Googled But for some reason he doesn’t have a lot of time for ghosts. to see if there were any Skeptical meetings In this in-depth interview, editor Tim Mendham talks with Marsh to get the on in Liverpool. The only thing I found full story of his history in skepticism, as well as a detailed guide on how to, and was a random stranger putting a message how not to, be a skeptical activist: on Meetup asking if there were any 18 The Skeptic March 17

skeptical meetings in Liverpool. So In Australia it was the opposite. We things, like a psychic awareness week the next day I messaged that guy and started off with activist groups that where we handed out flyers at a Sally see if we should start something, and were media savvy, and the pubs grew Morgan show. The Skeptical network overnight he’d already got started. That out of that in the last ten years or so, was crucial for that and everyone took was Mike Hall, now the president of the same as you’re talking about – part. the Merseyside Skeptics. social groups. I think there is a potential for more, I met him in February 2009 and but the number of ‘active activist’ we set up a group from there. A lot of Some of the groups will use the pub/ groups is small; maybe four or five that people who know him or listen to his speaker platform to put on a few more are doing things. work know that Mike can be an odd events. I’ve always had the mentality guy around new people, but we hit it that once you’ve got a group of people Do you suggest things they might do? off immediately. We had the kind of who care about a thing together it’s rapport that means that seven years on almost a waste of an opportunity not to With the homeopathy protest we we’re still working together. look at what you can do locally. asked everyone what they would like There was no MSS before that. I How we work in the Merseyside to do – saying this is the thing we’re think at the first meeting we had about Skeptics – it’s kind of a cynical ploy hoping to do, and would they be happy 10 people there; the second week we – is that we have our big talks, people to join us in doing this. We do that had about five. And Mike said that if come along because they’re interested kind of thing with Good Thinking. At it doesn’t grow in numbers in about in the speaker. Everyone’s welcome to other times, one of the talks I give is all six months’ time we’ll knock it on the our social events, but when someone about my adventures in pseudoscience, head. comes along a few times we say, if you where I’ve just thrown myself into it I think by 11 months we were really want to know what it’s all about and followed a story to wherever it goes. front page of the BBC with the come along to our board meetings I try to use that in a way of saying that, 10:23 campaign just having had this before the event where we discuss if you don’t know what Skepticism ridiculous idea of protesting about what we’re going to do in the next few is, this is a good introduction to homeopathy. months; what our plan is. So it kind of skepticism; if you do know what it is, works as a lever that if 60 people come this is a good introduction to activism What’s the set-up for Skeptical groups along to your talks then if 10 of those and the kind of stuff you can do. I in the UK? come along to be social and two of always try to leave an event like that those might come along to the board with a suggestion that they could go When we started there were maybe meetings and before you know it after to a spiritual church, go to a Mind three Skeptical groups. They all called a few months, you’ve got a fairly good Body fair, go see a psychic who might themselves Skeptics in the Pub but core of people who have decided that be in your town at the time, go to see I think we were the first to say we’re they want to be involved. the chiropractors and homeopaths not going to be a Skeptics in the Pub There’s five of us on the board and – you don’t actually need to have a – we’ll do one but we’ll be a Skeptics technically any action has to be decided consultation, but certainly go along and society. And that allows us to run an by the board – but practically, I think, event, but also we’re not limited to that. in the time that we’ve been doing it It’s as much a mental distinction. But we’ve only had to have a vote once. We we always think more broadly. We’ve just talk until there’s a consensus on always thought that anyone who come what we’re going to do. along with a skill set and we’ll see what we can do with it. How many activist groups are there in So there were groups in London, the UK? Oxford, Leicester and then us. Now there’s about 30 or 40; you It’s really hard to say. basically can’t go into a major city, or I travel round the groups quite a even a minor city, without finding one. lot these days, and what I’ve found is They’re all completely autonomous; that the line between what is an activist there’s no central organisation. There’s group and what is not is really drawn “ Sally Morgan is a a website that collates them but they by whether they have an idea or not. prominent psychic, don’t tell any of them what to do. I There are so many people that would really good thing is that there’s no be entirely up to doing something but but she’s doing barrier to being a skeptical group; if you don’t know what to do, or how. fewer shows than want to do it, you can. If you encourage them to find a plan she used to. or a niche then we can use this to do ” 19 FEATURE Skeptical Activism

Skeptic’s Guide Continued...

see what claims they are making, their literature, etc. Trying to give people the idea of the sort of thing I would look out for if I were them. There are some parts of the country where there are specific issues. In the southwest of England you might have a more affluent area where they might have a greater penetration of alternative medicine into their daily lives, and they will have a very different experience to parts of the UK where it is more working class and people don’t have the in the UK as they are in Australia. less so than it was. disposable income to throw away on Osteopaths, cranial , the sort of things that don’t work. just as much muddies waters because Who are the high profile psychics? people are not sure what osteopathy is. Are there ghosts … haunted pubs? I’m sure it’s very similar here. I think we’ve only got one really high A huge issue is the ineffectiveness of profile psychic. You’ve had people like Ghosts are not really an area I’ve regulatory bodies to do anything. The Derek Acorah, who I think has passed ever got into, which is weird because Advertising Standards Authority is a to a point where he’s something of a everything is haunted in the UK if you good way of ruling that this advert or joke now. Everybody knows that he’s listen to the news. There are people who this website has made claims that they nonsense. We had Colin Fry, who I do great work investigating, people like can’t substantiate. But it’s really made think was on a downward slide in terms Hayley Stevens who does fantastic work for consumer products where your of his career before he died in 2015. So in this area. reputation really matters, and your he’s not around, or if he is around he’s But it’s not something we’ve really ability to advertise without sanctions or a really good psychic. done in the MSS, largely because a slap on the wrist and being added to So we have Sally Morgan, who’s none of us have the background or the the naughty step can make a difference. prominent, but she’s doing fewer shows experiences or the interest in that. If you’re a big bank and you’ve been than she used to. There was a time An activist group is driven by the hit with an ASA adjudication, then when she was doing 200 shows a year. interest and the expertise of the people that’s going to look really bad for you. who take part, and the passions they If you’re a backstreet family-owned Are her audiences dropping off or is she have. chiropractor and you’re listed on a rich enough not to need to perform? website somewhere because you said So what are the big issues in the UK? something on your own website, do It’s really hard to know. You can you really care, because the majority look at audience reviews on things like Obviously alternative medicine of your customers come in through Ticketmaster that give a star rating, is really huge. The fact that some word of mouth or some other forms and for a while my colleague Laura alternative medicine is funded by of advertising, so the ASA really hasn’t Thomason of the Good Thinking the government is a big issue for us; been set up to tackle those types of Society was looking at the audience homeopathy is the main one, but issues. It can be a bit of a free-for-all. reviews. For the period she was looking acupuncture is incredibly prevalent. The worst I think in terms of at, the reviews had dropped in the Acupuncture is on a much more secure being a total free-for-all are the TCM number of stars. Now that might have footing; people who know homeopathy [traditional Chinese medicine] places. been chance, it might have been a dip, is nonsense will still ask questions The majority of those I’ve been in will it might have been Sally wasn’t feeling about acupuncture. It’s rare that they’ll make all sorts of claims, and that’s particularly well for that month, or it accept that there’s no good evidence only the claims I understand because might have been because the audience for it. they’re in English Heaven knows what just weren’t getting the show that And then you get your private claims are made in Mandarin or other they’ve got at previous meetings. practice areas, like chiropractors. languages that I don’t understand. It could be that she’s changed They’re probably about as prominent The psychic stuff is big too, though the way that she operates; the kinds 20 The Skeptic March 17

of things she’ll do on stage. We can huge mail merge and between him and we came across was “Belgian skeptics speculate on all sorts of reasons. Alan Henness they made hundreds of commit mass suicide”. complaints all at once. Well, we’ve got some good news and Is she worried about the skeptics picking We could do that, or we could, some bad news – there was a Belgian her up? say, while everyone else is looking at society but they all committed suicide! chiropractic, we could do something We saw the headline about the same I don’t know. [laughs] I wouldn’t else. While all our light is shone on our time as were doing our open letter, so want to say that. area what on earth is going on in the we thought, why don’t we organise a newfound darkness. And homeopathy mass overdose to publicise the letter? was the one that Mike put forward as And the more we thought through that HOMEOPATHY OVERDOSE the most likely candidate, because it’s idea the bigger the idea got and that on the NHS and available in very well was much stronger than the letter. Let’s look at the 10:23 homeopathy respected pharmacies. We did a lot of planning, tearing campaign. How did that happen? Really the first thing we did on all of our ideas apart to see if they still the 10:23 campaign was just an open worked, what was the worst possible It really stems from letter to Boots, the big pharmacy chain outcome for what we do, what is the being sued by the chiropractors and the UK, to tell them that, given that person who hates what we’re doing what happened after that. they admitted they don’t necessarily the most going to say about this, and In the seven years that I’ve formally believe homeopathy works but they how do we argue against that to protect been in skepticism you can almost track sell it because of patient choice and not ourselves by designing what we’re doing the line through some of the things because of its effectiveness, to appeal to in a slightly different way? that happened and one knocking on to Boots’ better reason and the reputation We never used the word “suicide” in another. I always say to people, when that they shouldn’t be essentially our campaign – it was a mass overdose. you have the chance to do this little bilking customers with something that Whenever we wrote “overdose”, it was activist activity, take it, because you they aren’t confident works. always in inverted commas. That was can’t anticipate know where it will end That was going to be it – the open a strict decision, so we couldn’t be up. letter. accused of making light of suicide. So When Simon was being sued by And then, completely by chance we were thinking strategically that kind the British Chiropractic Association, at one of our Skeptics in the Pub of way. the emerging skeptical scene in the meetings, two people sitting next to We also thought strategically about UK, which wasn’t very big at the us but not with us, got interested in the name for what we were doing. At time, turned all of our attention to what we were talking about and started the time the average person had no idea chiropractors. It’s not a revenge thing having a conversation with us and what homeopathy was, they thought but it’s shining a light on what’s really got into skepticism. It turned out it herbal medicine, natural medicine. I happening. Maybe what the light finds they were from Belgium. They asked think that’s changed a bit, I do think will not be very beneficial for you. if there were any Belgium skeptics, so people in the UK seem a bit more So at one of the board meeyings, the we Googled it and the first headline aware. head of the Merseyside Skeptics, Mike Hall, said “I think we should be doing some activism; I’ve got a few candidates for some of things we should be doing.” We could add our light to the chiropractic campaign – the Quacklash, as it was called it at the time. It looks like there’s a lot of people doing a lot good stuff there, there are hundreds of complaints being generated. Simon Perry did a fantastic thing where he pulled a list of all of the chiropractors on the BCA’s website and set up a script to find certain words on their websites and another script to develop a

Right: Taking their medicine - homeopathy overdose in Red Square, London 21 FEATURE Skeptical Activism

Skeptic’s Guide That was always the intention, to get could get in touch with us. the media to explain that number? We had these five goals in order, and Continued... I think that certainly the first two and The intention was to demonstrate the fourth and fifth ones we were pretty to people that there was nothing in successful. Whenever the media talk about homeopathy. It wasn’t an experiment, homeopathy they always say it’s very it was a stunt. People say it was just And the third one, Boots? diluted, ultra-diluted, there’s barely a publicity stunt. And yes, it was a anything in it. They don’t say, there’s publicity stunt, but it was quite an Ah, no … it’s less so. They had to nothing in it. So the campaign, effective publicity stunt which is why respond, and they gave some fairly “Homeopathy, there’s nothing in it” - you do them. We were publicising the mealy-mouthed response and they got there’s the strapline. Whenever someone science that had long been settled. So it some bad publicity out of it, and that’s does their mass overdoses that’s what was to get into the mind of the average not necessarily the worst thing in the they shout on the videos, that’s the person by something big and silly and world. main point we’re getting across. The kind of attention grabbing and to affect There was another goal to the theory was that the skeptics often put the media narrative on homeopathy, campaign that I forgot to mention. The the scientific papers forward, but that which we did. For a while afterwards, reason we had a hashtag on the #10:23 didn’t work because the average person there was someone who was doing a was that every skeptic at the time was in the street isn’t reading the science. Masters in communication and one of debunking homeopathy individually If they were, they wouldn’t believe in the things they looked at was the media and everyone brought their explanation homeopathy for all this time because the discourse on homeopathy before and as to why homoeopathy is nonsense. science has been in for a long time. after 10:23. There was a significant So I thought, if all of those people are The single most digestible aspect change in the way the media discussed doing that work individually, that’s of this message is that you need to homeopathy. such a wasted effort when if there’s understand that homeopathy doesn’t From early on in the campaign we one central point that they can refer to work, there’s nothing in these pills. had a strategy document saying “these allows them to go off and do their own Your average person, if they know this are our main goals”. If you lay out thing in their own direction. is a sugar pill, they’re going to question your goals first, you can figure So the 10:23 hashtag its efficacy. That was the point we were out your tactics, but don’t was meant to be a badge making. just go deciding “we’re Peope say it or a banner tht we When the media talk about it, and going to do this” “ could all get behind, they don’t say there’s nothing in it, without figuring out was just a stunt. pool our resources, how do we force them to say there’s why because it might But it was an use it as a way of nothing in it? There’s the strapline, just be that your effective publicity flagging things to but they’re not going to repeat the tactics are in complete each other. That strapline for certain. So I had this idea opposition to your stunt, which is why was quite successful of using the Avogadro number, near goals. That’s why it’s you do them. too. enough to 6.02 x 1023. If we named our so important that your ” We found that campaign after Avogadro because it is tone and the way you people, as they did the chemical principle which is proof communicate and even the with Simon’s case against that homeopathy has nothing in it, and quotations that you give have the BCA, once they got to the we did our overdose at 10:23 in the to be influenced by your goals. homeopathy thing they felt, right, morning, how can the media not explain So our number one goal was public we’re now going to see what else there a number which has such a significance. discourse, number two goal was media is about homeopathy and do their own Weird numbers stick out, anyway, and discourse, and number three goal was to thing. Some put tags on Boots shelves it was such a weird number that they get Boots to stop selling homeopathy. that were designed to be the exact same couldn’t get away reporting on the event We didn’t necessarily think that size as the point of sale marketing, without explaining what the number number three would work, but it’s up saying this stuff was nonsense. Others meant. Every single piece of coverage there as part of what we would do. were Googling to see any kind of we got - the BBC, The Guardian,the Number four was to promote mention of homeopathy on official Telegraph, the Daily Mail – every one of skepticism. Technically number five looking places like the NHS website. them talked about “the 10:23 campaign was to promote the Merseyside Skeptics In fact, the NHS Choices website, which takes its name from the chemical as part of skepticism, to establish which is kind of a good resource in the principle that shows that there’s nothing ourselves in among skeptics so that UK - if you have certain symptoms it in homeopathy”. So we got the real people knew we existed in Liverpool, will tell you what it might be and what science in. and if you were around Liverpool you you should be thinking about - they had 22 The Skeptic March 17

a page about homeopathy and it was pretty sympathetic to homeopathy. I spoke to the person who was in charge of that page – he came to one of my talks – and he said that they got so much flak, so many emails about the page that said that “This isn’t on; you’re promoting homeopathy”. He went to his boss and said this is embarrassing, we have to change this. And his boss then commissioned Edzard Ernst to rewrite that page. And they announced the update to that page specifically at 10:23 in the morning. Which is such a nice little nod to the success of that campaign. Mike Hall and Michael Marshall That campaign had repercussions in the early days of the MSS around the world, other groups picked it up. people about this, and they’d say “Yeah, by someone who worked in public We did it in 2011. The idea was that’s the Daily Mail going off and health was, if you’re going to do this, that the UK would do it the first year, looking to promote nonsense”. And I’d don’t say why the vaccination rates are and see how big we’d do it the second say, no, that’s not how that works. The low, because even though it’s totally year. I ran the 2011 10:23 campaign editor of that magazine is not sitting bogus, it reminds people that there is a by myself, while we were setting up there and one day saying I wonder what ‘link’ between vaccination and autism the first QED skeptics conference and Annabel Croft is up to these days. That’s which brings the rate down; there’s a holding down a full-time job and doing some homeopathy lobby group who’ve kind of backlash. two podcasts as well, but I got in touch got Annabel Croft as a spokesperson But I don’t think that’s true with with every skeptics group in the world I who put together a press release that homeopathy. Lots of people had heard could find and said, let’s do something they’ve managed to get into that of homeopathy but didn’t know what together, this is an international magazine. It’s just marketing, just PR. it was. Every year homeopaths have movement. So on the sixth of February And that didn’t exist for skepticism. World Homeopathy Awareness Week 2011 we had 1700 people across 70 It was just a complete promo for where they get together and try to cities across 32 countries, including alternative medicine. spread awareness of homeopathy. But Paul Willis who was in Antarctica. they’re not spreading awareness, they’re Why was it the sixth of February? Which raises the comment by a lot spreading vague familiarity: “You’ve kind 6.02.10:23 … the Avogadro number of people which is “didn’t give them of heard the word, and it’s something in time and date precisely. oxygen”, “don’t raise their profile”. to do with health and it’s something to What’s your feeling on that? Do you do with nature.” That’s as far as they’ll One question – did you raise the profile not confront someone because it will go, because to spread real awareness of of homeopathy and then undercut it only promote them? homeopathy is to say, this is what it is, in the media? How much coverage of this is how it is made, and this is what the homeopathy in the media before you I’m really in two minds about that; evidence says. And we did that. launched your campaign? it’s a case by case kind of thing. At one point at Good Thinking we Certainly I wouldn’t take on an bought homeopathyawarenessweek. Probably not a huge amount before, anti-vaxxer on radio or TV because at org, and that outstripped the but whatever there was, it was pro- this point the media line on vaccination official homeopathy website. We homeopathy. is that it is very clear that it works and wrote that website in a very neutral It was often things like the tennis anti-vaccination is very much a fringe language, saying “This is the week star of the 80s named Annabel Croft view. That I think would be giving where homeopaths want to promote who seemed to appear in the Telegraph them oxygen and publicity. awareness, so here’s ten facts that they lifestyle magazine or the Daily Mail There was a measles outbreak in may not make you aware of.” We lifestyle magazine every few months Liverpool and we tried to do something sourced all of those facts very carefully, talking about how homeopathy helped to help raise the rate of vaccination and we didn’t put any editorial in there, her eczema or this or that. I talked to there. One of the things we were told it was just the facts. 23 FEATURE Skeptical Activism

Skeptic’s Guide GOOD THINKING that kind of thing, we didn’t have the time to do that sort of thing. And quite Continued... The Good Thinking Society, where does frankly we didn’t have the inclination that come from? because that bit was boring, whereas doing the ridiculous media stunts were After all the chiropractic dust the kind of thing you want to do as a So I think because most people had with Simon Singh had settled, and I hobby. heard of the word then I don’t think we understand it took a long time to settle, So I think Simon thought, well, if were raising its prominence by telling I think he rightly saw that in skepticism we had a body that existed to follow up them what the word meant. what would happen is that you get a lot on what was happening, so when the We wouldn’t do a big campaign of people very passionate about an issue, people who were doing this passionately about AIDS-denialism because it didn’t and they go off and do something. But in their spare time lose either energy or have that big a prominence and it’s not because they’re volunteers and they’ve interest or lose the time to do that we really worth it to much. Homeopathy got full-time jobs and lives, once the pick up the threads and see what we was on the National Health Service – it ‘fun’ of that point had gone maybe could do. If there was a body out there still is. Homeopathy is available in the not everyone was being as tenacious that could be systematic and tenacious biggest high street pharmacy in the UK, in following up what was happening and dogged and understand how the and it still is. It’s signposted as being afterwards. landscape works and where the pressure alternative but it’s not signposted as That was certainly something we points are and really work at it, then we being not to work. were guilty of in Liverpool, even could see what we could do. to a point where, during the 10:23 I think it was set up in about 2012 Here, with Stop the AVN, the campaign, the local NHS in the Wirral with Simon and a chap called Johnny movement against the anti-vaccination had a consultation as to whether to Shannon. They were giving some time people turned the anti-vaxxers from get rid of homeopathy. I gave some to it, but at about a day or two a week having the image of socially caring evidence; they got rid of homeopathy. cumulatively you’re not going to get people to that of cranks. Six months later they reversed that very far. decision under a legal threat. We never So at the start of 2014 Simon Yes, exactly, superb work, it really found out about it for years, because we decided to expand that and brought is. And I said this at the conference in didn’t know how to follow that kind someone in fulltime and someone part Melbourne and speaking with people of thing, we didn’t have the links to do time and I became the fulltime project that it is some of the most inspirational work that skeptics are doing in the world right now is what’s being done by the SAVN – it’s an important topic and they’re attacking so effectively.

And it just started off as a Facebook page; it still is a Facebook page.

This is it. It’s something that was said by Heidi Robertson of the Northern Rivers Vaccination Supporters that “We were just a Facebook page”, But you weren’t just a Facebook page - you were activists. The Facebook page was one of the platforms you used, but you were the work that you wanted to do. Maybe you didn’t realise what you were going to go on to do, but it’s never just a Facebook page if you’re thinking we’re trying to affect stuff.

Royal London Homeopathic Hospital (now “Royal Integrated Medicine Hospital”), Great Ormond St. 24 The Skeptic March 17

director and skeptical investigator. nobody asked that Annabel Croft, former question. British #1 female It has a national focus rather than just Most things in ternnis player and Liverpool? the UK are done homeopathy icon. at a central level Yes, we don’t limit ourselves. In because we’re not my head how I think about what we that big – there’s do is like a diagram where we look at plenty of people homeopathy and where is the harm and look at where but it’s not that that’s knocked out is there something tangible we can big a place so one of the pillars of achieve. And we go for parts where the it’s not that hard legitimacy. diagram overlaps. We work nationally, to get the word we’ll collaborate with people in Europe around. But Is the funding and exchange messages with people all the funding for there because of around the world, but we won’t fight homeopathy is the homeopathic anti-vaccination in Australia. done at the local hospitals or does level – all the the homeopathic different Clinical hospital rely on the NATIONAL HEALTH SYSTEM Commissioning money? Groups as they’re now called have their In Australia, the system of government own budgets and they decide what It’s both. There were many more supporting health funds by underwriting they do and don’t fund. Nobody at the homeopathic hospitals and they’ve the fees to encourage people to join Department of Health asks them how been dwindling over the years. When them, and those funds including alt med much they’re spending on each thing; I started to get involved in skepticism treatments in their package, is seen to be it’s just not part of their remit, not part there were maybe five; one had just taxpayer money supporting alt med. But of what they’re interested in. about closed. how does the NHS fund homeopathy in So that’s what we died. We asked the UK? every CCG through a painstaking Are they purely homeopathy? and boring six months of freedom of The NHS is a slightly odd thing. It information requests and clarifications I think they were, originally. They came in after the Second World War and got a picture that it’s about £5 were largely just out-patient clinics. and I genuinely believe it’s one of the million. There’s a level of estimate in “Hospital” is a bit of a misnomer in greatest things the country’s achieved. there because London’s a bit of a black the conventional sense as there’d be You’ve got your free point of entry into hole that we’re still, even two and a half very few people who’d be in-patients the health service no matter what. I years later, trying to establish what’s for homeopathy. But they had the hope it survives my lifetime though I’m going on there. name “homeopathic hospital” which not confident that it will. gave it such a big sense of legitimacy. When it was originally set up there It was a minority of the funding bodies The funding is largely derived from was a homeopath invited to be on the supporting homeopathy. the local areas; you get a little bit of board because homeopathy didn’t have central government funding or funding any widespread criticism at the time. A significant minority – 15 per cent of through individual trusts, but that’s So it was kind of grandfathered in and the CCGs funding homeopathy, which largely for maintenance and staff. has always been funded to a degree. It was immediately encouraging because one It is that chicken and egg situation meant that there were homeopathic of the things that always concerned me – they fund it because it’s a hospital hospitals at various places around the was, if you’re a private homeopath, you’d there and the hospital exists because country and famously they would say be well within your rights to say that they fund it. When there’s not much that it was available on the NHS. homeopathy must work because you can scrutiny on homeopathy then that little We were approached by a legal firm get it on the NHS. circle carries on. But when there is who tipped our head in the direction Once you look at the 15 per cent more and more light shone on it, more of whether it was even legal for the of the country that allows you to get and more people raise questions as to NHS to fund homeopathy given that homeopathy on the NHS it really is why money is being wasted on it when, the Government had done a review in just sporadic little pockets, basically in a finite system, that money could be themselves that said it didn’t work. We where there are homeopathic hospitals. spent on other things that are sure to started looking into it and it astonished You can look at the map and see the have a really strong and positive effect. me that no-one knew how much we overwhelming majority of the country The Liverpool hospital closed, the were spending on homeopathy because where you can’t get NHS-funded Bristol hospital has been outsourced to 25 FEATURE Skeptical Activism

Skeptic’s Guide And because it was a government body Is there an element of the “old boys’ spending taxpayer money, that process network” in their funding? Continued... is subject to challenge by the public if there’s a problem with the consultation I think it’s the opposite of that. or if the decision isn’t made in a Certainly there were a couple of a private company called the Portman lawful fashion with the right level of doctors who run the homeopathy Centre for Integrative Medicine. The transparency and the right level of clinic and now run the private Glasgow hospital now offers integrative public engagement. one. But it’s more that the Clinical medicine, so they’ll do other things. So that’s what we looked at in Commissioning Groups, these NHS Even the London one has changed its Liverpool. They’re fairly big in bodies, are made up of GPs, so to name and offers other things too. The terms of their remit, and they’d make all those decisions about what fact it offers other things is the reason done a review of complementary should be on the budget you have to we have no idea how much it spends on medicine which came up with the be a working doctor and you’ve got homeopathy because we can’t break it recommendation of stopping funding this extra headache of having to be down.

Are there any Harley Street specialists in homeopathy?

There are; they’re typically ‘off Harley Street’, in the Harley Street area. Harley Street is the London location of very prestigious medical practitioners. It’s very posh; there are all sorts of practitioners on Harley Street. We did a big investigation of it looking down the list of places on the street. Parts of Harley Street are restricted – you can only have a Harley Street address if you do these types of very specific things, but there are a few buildings just off Harley Street that technically have a Harley Street address. One of them is even a residential building, that’s meant to be residential only, but there’s a floor of it that does all sorts of things.

You’ve shone a light on the funding of homeopathy immediately. They involved in all of this decision making homeopathy by the NHS; did you go put that to public consultation and process. any further than that? asked “what do you think about So sometimes, if you’re talking it?” Nobody complained about it, about £30,000 for homeopathy and There was 15 per cent … that’s 31 everyone was yeah, OK, fine, but they you’ve got a budget of hundreds CCGs who are funding homeopathy decided to fund it regardless. That was of millions, and you know that by out of a total of 211 CCGs at the very clearly a breach of the correct stopping that £30,000 you’re going time we did our study. There’s 209 process. You can’t have a review, have to get so much flak from the people now because a couple have merged the public not disagree with it and who promote homeopathy and the and there’s talk about merging even then ignore it. The minutes of that Society of Homeopaths and the more. meeting where they chose to continue British Homeopathic Association, Once we knew there were 31, that funding revealed that they had the Faculty of Homeopathy, then allowed us to look at their contracts ignored the recommendation because you’ll think, well, the £30,000 through the freedom of information. they feared that stopping funding of we’re spending on it, if they try to We found that when a contract was homeopathy would leave them open challenge us legally, we’re probably up for renewal there had to be a to legal challenge by the homeopaths. on good grounds, but if we lose it we consultation process or they had to go That’s not a good enough reason to could have legal fees that might be through a decision-making process. spend tax payers’ money. more than £30,000 … 26 The Skeptic March 17

So it’s not corruption but there’s a sense Not in the north-east, because there’s that’s probably the one I have the least of apathy? no homeopathic hospital there. And that opposition to, it’s not one I spend a lot was two years ago and it’s stopped now. of time looking for the evidence for it. I’m not sure I’d want to call it But the biggest are Bristol, which The problem is, it’s obviously not for apathy, but reluctance to beckon on had £145,000; Glasgow, which has serious conditions. pressure when you’ve got a million a homeopathic hospital, was £1.7 The depressing thing about it is other pressures as well. Your priorities million; London, which also has a that it’s right next door to the Great just aren’t there. homeopathic hospital, was a totally Ormond Street Hospital, the children’s That’s why it was quite useful for unknown amount, but we think it was hospital, which is government-funded us to say, “You’ve made this decision maybe about £3 million. So we start to but supplemented by charitable income. wrong, this is not legal, we’re willing get significant sums of money. But because that hospital needed more to take you to court over this.” So it’s In London, there were 17 groups. space, for a long time – it might still weird that we were effectively trying The curious thing is that they all have be doing it now – it was renting space to sue those doctors for making that a very firm policy that says that we’d in the Integrated Medicine Hospital decision – not them personally but don’t fund homeopathy unless, as a because how much space do you through them. I don’t think they patient, you get your GP to go in front need to offer homeopathy to a lot of would have been very displeased by us of a panel of other GPs and convince outpatients. So as far as I can see, this doing that because effectively it would them that homeopathy is the best charitable group was having to pay have meant “Now we have to do our available treatment for you. money to the homeopathic hospital, jobs properly. We can’t just brush it That never happens as an individual which worked well on the homeopathic under the carpet because we’re worried funding request. In another series of hospital’s bottom line. Now if you about the flak because we’re getting FOI requests, I asked how many of can imagine that the homeopathic flak.” And now flak versus flak, those those have been successful. I think I got hospital didn’t use that building, which two forces are cancelling each other out five in the entire country that had been is owned by the government, then and we get to step back and make the successful. it could give all of that space to the right decision. But yet those groups that have that Ormond St Hospital, without having to I’d like to think that wherever as their firm policy are almost certainly take charitable money to do that. we’ve had that kind of engagement the still funding homeopathy, they almost people who are involved in making certainly don’t realise they are or can’t The outcome of all of this? those decisions, who are all medical prove that they are. There’s this big black professionals and they all know hole in London where they give money Well, it’s on-going. We’ve managed homeopathy doesn’t work, that we’ve to the body that runs the hospital and to have homeopathy funding stopped been useful to those people by taking the hospital doesn’t report correctly, in Liverpool; that was a direct result of the brunt of the pressure, by taking in my opinion, how they are treating our work. When we threatened to take the focus of the lobbying opposing patients. So there’s no way for the CCG them to a judicial review, they decided us rather than opposing the doctors. to say that’s our money that you’ve spent to stop funding it. They conceded that We’ve actually be quite successful in on this patient on homeopathy because we might have a good reason for our doing that. the records aren’t kept. legal case, and decided to go back to The reaction is “We’ll have to look They pay hundreds of millions to the consultation on it. The good thing at this seriously now because we might trust body in London that runs all of was that, part of that consultation, we get sued.” the hospitals in London and that trust got good visibility. We helped them gives a percentage to the Royal London make sure they weren’t designing What was the smallest amount of NHS Hospital for Integrated Medicine and their consultation badly. And then funding you found? the integrated medicine hospital spends we were able to say we know this a degree of that money on homeopathy. was happening, and we could go to The smallest one was fantastic. In skeptics all round Liverpool, all round Newcastle it was £3.27. I think it must That could be a huge range of wastage the country, all round the world even, have been one prescription in the entire of money, not just on homeopathy. and say that you could lend your year. Even I spend more than that on voice to the consultation, because the homeopathy, because sometimes you I’d say the whole building is a waste homeopaths will and all their patients have to buy it to prove that someone’s of money. They do acupuncture in they will have encouraged them to. selling it! there, I think they do a full herbal Typically these consultations happen medicine, they do cognitive behavioural and skeptics don’t find out about them It doesn’t sound like a very flourishing therapy which I don’t know the because we’re amateurs, we’re literally market. evidence base on that but I believe amateurs, volunteers normally and we it’s good for certain types of things – don’t have the time or the resources or 27 FEATURE Skeptical Activism

Skeptic’s Guide which I think is good. There’s a lot of couldn’t prescribe it – and talking people who disagree with us and paint about local funding by CCGs they were Continued... us as removing the freedom of choice, saying “Well, there’s going to be this but the key thing is that homeopathy is consultation about blacklisting which still available out there; you can still walk is going to come in but it hasn’t come the expertise to monitor these things. into a homeopath and say you want it in yet so taking any decision would be We can now do that. or go into Boots and buy it relatively premature because that decision might And then mobilise people who cheaply. But it doesn’t deserve a place on end all funding anyway.” willing to put their time into something the NHS without evidence that it works But they are very separate things. but don’t know what. because it’s finite funding and everything As far as I could see they didn’t appear We managed to get something like you spend money on means you’re not to understand the landscape, how the 800 responses to the consultation in spending money elsewhere, every penny funding for homeopathy works. And Liverpool, and 74 per cent of the total spent on homeopathy is a penny not it would be easy to believe that they responses said “Stop homeopathy being spent towards a junior doctor’s were these very well-funded lobbyists funding”. salary – and junior doctors were on strike who had been effective, but I think in It was amazing to see that the recently in the UK because of effective part it’s also because skeptics have been majority of people who made cuts to their salaries. ineffective lobbyists in the past. submissions were skeptics. It totally The funding was about £5 blew me away. I was certain that the million and it’s probably gone It seems to be the case that homeopaths would have people all down to less than half when you do confront around the country and we might have of that. It’s hard to tell some of these groups, had some people doing it. because there is a big “ I was surprised you suddenly realise As a result, Liverpool dropped the chunk in London that how unprepared that they’re not funding. And this shouldn’t be seen was non-transparent quite as formidable as 74 per cent of people voted to stop so it’s hard to know they appeared to as you might have funding, it was 74 per cent of people how effective it’s be. They didn’t thought they would agree with what the evidence says we been there. understand the be. In Australia, should do. the Australian If 40 per cent of people said get rid What’s been the reaction landscape. Vaccination Network of it, and 60 per cent said keep it, they of the homeopathy ” had a pretty free run could still have made the decision, but industry to you? Any bricks and suddenly people it would have been a bit harder. If 90 through the window? started saying that “what per cent had said keep it, it would have you’re saying is wrong or misleading” been very hard to say we should follow No, weirdly they don’t seem to and they are taken aback. When the the evidence. So it really helped the realise we exist, apart from the ones in chiropractors came out against Simon doctors there. Liverpool. At the consultations, they Singh, they really stuffed it up, they put Then the Wirral, which neighbours targeted all of their rhetoric directly a spotlight on themselves and what they Liverpool, followed suit. It was a very at me, which is a very weird thing in were saying. similar consultation process, and we public consultations for them to be were able to take part again. We were directly addressing me by name. It’s They certainly made a lot more successful, and that stopped NHS not a very effective technique because skeptics a lot more aware of what was funding for homeopathy stopped in the it means that, to the body you’re being said by chiropractors. north-west. talking to, you just seem like a very In the north-east, funding had dried petty person who is using this time in a With skeptical activism, it doesn’t have up by that point. government meeting to have a personal to be huge. You either do an overdose It got to the point where there are gripe with an individual. It seems a very of homeopathy or you do what you just four CCGs in the south-west odd thing. have with the NHS, it’s mainly been around Bristol where it is still funded, But I was really surprised how legwork. with consultations pending. We’re unprepared they appeared to be. working with Bristol Skeptics to try and When they talked about some of the Exactly. There’s a level of strategy to it. encourage them to stop funding. That work we were doing – another strand may even have progressed by the time of what we were doing was that we But you haven’t been outside the people are reading this. were trying to blacklist prescribing homeopathy hospitals with placards. And then there’s London. homeopathy, effectively by pharmacies So we are really pushing things back, not being reimbursed for prescriptions No, I don’t think that would have and we have a lot of spotlight on it, of homeopathy which means GPs been effective. 28 The Skeptic March 17

You’ve done it through channels and saying that we waste £200,000-300,000 you’ve done it through doggedness and in the Bristol region on things that the Logical Place going through freedom of information, don’t work. It ended up being a story which takes ages. But it’s effective. It on Bristol radio, and ending up being The Recommendation doesn’t have to be confrontational. a scandal. And that put pressure on, it really did. You can’t attribute the was once elected as a local govern- I think, in a way, it has to not be closure of the homeopathic hospital to I ment councillor in an inner Melbourne confrontational. that – it did close and was outsourced suburb. The Council had concerns about If your average person still has a to a private clinic – but certainly that poor staff performance in providing mentality that, “well, I don’t know helped. Having that sort of coverage of advice to Council and in implementing what homeopathy is but it’s the kind it really helped. And that sort of local Council decisions. As these problems of nice, gentle, natural kind of stuff”, coverage wouldn’t have happened if that appeared to be systemic rather than then if you’re antagonistic, if you talk guy hadn’t sent that one FOI request. just the fault of the CEO, we brought in about them as the big evil bogey-man I found him afterwards. He hadn’t consultants for an independent review and that’s not where your audience is, even followed up on the email. He had of the Council administration. then you are the one that comes across no idea. I showed him the papers, and After interviewing Councillors and as looking wrong. So you have to really he had no idea this had happened. staff, the consultants reported that there try to understand the motivations of The butterfly effect of something you were indeed systemic organisational the people you are disagreeing with, try do you can never underestimate. deficiencies related to poor staff culture. and understand the way those people We’re not going to end people’s One of the most pervasive was that few appear to the people you are trying belief in homeopathy. I certainly staff understood the difference between to talk to, and modify your tone and don’t want to ban homeopathy. I’d a recommendation and a decision. your language, your strategies and like people to be informed enough to They seemed to think that staff made your techniques for trying to get your recognise that homeopathy doesn’t decisions and the Council either ‘ratified’ message out there. work, but you can’t force people into or ‘overturned’ their ‘decisions’. Some It’s putting your goals first, and that position. You just give them every staff even mistakenly classified rejection trying to work out your strategy and tool available to do that. We’re not of their recommendations by the elected your tone afterwards, it really is. going to end people’s belief in psychics. Councillors as ‘political interference’! People say it’s a Sisyphean struggle, They did not seem to understand that What do you say to people who say it’s the classic kind of thing, it’s a metaphor their role was to provide professional a futile gesture? I like to use. But at the same time, if advice to the Council, including options we’re not pushing the boulder uphill, and recommendations. I also found this I never believe that. how far down the hill is it? If we’re not misunderstanding at junior levels in the Having an argument on Facebook there to stop it and push it back up …. state public service and in some NGOs. with someone you’ve argued with a We have to keep trying. A recommendation has no status million times before, taking on an anti- It can get frustrating but you have to other than as advice to a decision-maker. vaxxer on your own private wall, I think find the pockets of interest and the way Although a recommendation may that is a futile gesture. I don’t think that that interesting stories are told – the well be persuasive, depending upon wins you many brownie points with £3.27 in Newcastle. That’s the kind of the expertise of its author, there is no anyone and you don’t change many little anecdote that gives you a buzz, a obligation by a decision-maker to adopt minds. That maybe I would say is futile. level of excitement that gives you that any recommendation. Thus it makes no But the rest of time, I think, you can energy to carry on wading through the sense to say that a recommendation has have a real effect. more boring things. been ‘overturned’. Only decisions can be If an opportunity presents itself to If you enjoy the process of activism overturned. Similarly, a recommendation do something activist, to see that little then you’ll enjoy it regardless of the cannot be ‘implemented’ unless and thing you’ve seen to question it … outcome and when the outcome is until it has been adopted as a decision There’s a fantastic example in the positive you’ll enjoy it a lot lot more. . by a decision-maker who is authorised homeopathy campaign. There’s a chap to make that decision. Although who got bored one afternoon and sent not one of the well-known , out a few random FOI requests, and these misunderstandings are errors of happened to send one to the Bristol reasoning, just like other fallacies. They homeopathy hospital, asking how About the interviewer: are instances of what I have called the much are you spending there. That Tim Mendham Recommendation Fallacy. FOI request got picked up by the local is executive officer and - by Tim Harding Bristol Post which must have been editor with Australian monitoring interesting FOIs. It was Skeptics Inc. 29 ARTICLE Psychology

The Prince of Nigeria needs ... YourWould you believe help it? Alessandra Teunisse looks at the psychology of gullibility.

n July 2007, Arthur Stimpson return). He showed them oil paintings point, two years on from the initial Ireceived an email that would not and bank statements with balances email, he was told by the police he was only ruin his life, but the lives of over £1 million to show them that the a victim of a scam. He ignored them everyone else in his village (Andrew money was secure. and borrowed a further £25,000 from Levy, 2011; Bracchi, 2011). Stimpson He borrowed £74,000 from his a friend. was a chartered surveyor who lived local butcher. He borrowed £110,000 At the end of 2010, two-and-a-half in Norfolk in the United Kingdom. from a farmer he’d known for years. years after receiving that initial email, He had attended a prestigious private The godfather to his children lent him Stimpson declared himself bankrupt school, was university educated, a £90,000. Other people lent him and handed himself over to the police. member of the Royal Institute of He was jailed for four years for fraud, a Chartered Surveyors, and by all Arthur Stimpson victim of a scam email. accounts a pillar of his community. The email in question was THE CHURCH OF LOVE SCAM from Spain and had written in Before we consider the issues in the its subject line “ATTENTION: anecdote above, I want to present NOTIFICATION OF AWARD”. another incident that occurred in the (Yes, all caps.) Apparently, he had won 1980s. In America, there was a special £2.7 million in the Spanish National type of penpal service available for Lottery. lonely men. It was known as the Church He called the number in the email of Love (Friedman, Shaw, & Tamarkin, to claim his prize only to be told 1989; “Thousands of Men Bilked In that, before he could receive any Lonely Hearts Scheme,” 1987). money, he would have to pay a small For a sum of about US$20 per “administrative cost”, a “transfer fee” various amounts between £10,000 and month (which is roughly US$60 if you will. In total, Stimpson ended £150,000. All in all, he borrowed over in today’s money), members of this up sending £50,000 from his own life £1.1 million from 13 people in his Church of Love could write letters to savings. He was told that he was close village (which only has a population of one of the 13 angels in the directory to getting the jackpot, but he needed 140). and receive replies. Lonely men from to send a little bit more money. But it still wasn’t enough. He forged the United States, Canada, and Mexico So Stimpson went to his friends and his wife’s signature to sign a deed of all signed up to participate in this local businesses and asked to borrow transfer on grazing land to the bank penpal scheme. some money (promising a 500 per cent to borrow a further £35,000. At this Richard Martin, a mechanic, signed 30 The Skeptic March 17

up in 1981. He wrote to Angel Terri, name, and not respond They knew it was and Angel Dawn, and Angel Toni, specifically to things “ but mostly he wrote letters to Angel he had told her in his a scam, but they still Vanessa. He wrote nearly 1,500 letters previous letters. turned up to support over four years. Essentially, that is It is estimated that one letter every day of every month this scam ran for about their angel.” for four years. Every month he paid 13 years. Between his monthly love offering and sent his 1982 and 1985 alone, time of need. A few men even testified angel his letters. Don Lowry had taken at least US$4.5 on Lowry’s behalf! Despite the men’s He, as well as 31,000 other men, million from his victims. The men testimony, Lowry was still sentenced to were promised that one day soon he ranged from their 30s to 60s and 10 years behind bars. would get to be with his angel in the included some very well educated Don Lowry passed away from lung paradise known as Chonda-za. The people. Eventually, Don Lowry, his cancer in 2014, but when asked if he men were the Knights of Chonda- wife Esther (who was the face of regretted conning all those men out of za, and they would live in a building Mother Maria), and Pamala St Charles their money with promises of obedient shaped like a nude woman and the (the actress who played Angel Pamala), Angels and his paradise of Chonda- angels would cater to his every need. were taken to court on charges of za, he said, not really, just that he had The saintly and magical Mother Maria mail fraud, money laundering, and probably made it a little too real. currently cared for all the angels, conspiracy. Here we have two very different who were all running from troubled The strange thing was that many incidents. Firstly, there is the educated pasts and abusive boyfriends. Mother men, although they now knew it was a Arthur Stimpson, in 2007, receiving Maria, apparently, had the power to scam, still turned up to support their an email telling him he had won the ‘revirginise’ the Angels. Angel Pamala at the court house in her Spanish National Lottery. Secondly, in Each angel would send letters to her the 1980s, we have a penpal service, knight, often telling him how much the Church of Love, promising men they thought of him, telling him to a future in paradise with beautiful continue being strong, how much women tending to their every need. So they loved him, and occasionally ask the question is: Why? Why did they for extra money. Angel Kristina’s car fall for these scams? How could they had broken down. Or Angel Vanessa not see what is so very obvious to us, wanted money to buy more paper and after the fact? Why are they so gullible? pens for her letters. Or Angel Dawn had medical bills that needed paying. SCAM STATISTICS Some men would send their life savings Falling victim to a scam is much more to help their Angel. common than you might first think. Robert McDonald, aged 56, a In 2015, internet scams alone cost $9-an-hour janitor contributed consumers in the United States an almost $10,000 (that was half of his estimated US$1 billion. To give you life savings) to his Angel and named a sense of scale, NASA’s latest space the Church of Love as beneficiary in probe, Juno, also cost US$1 billion. In his will. Another victim was Adolph Australia, in 2016 alone we have lost Holstein, aged 55, a truck driver from just over $77 million with over 144,000 Staten Island, NY, who was taken for complaints lodged (which is an increase $13,000 in cash, jewellery, dresses, of more than 39,000 complaints lingerie, and other gifts. compared to the total for 2015). Hopefully, it should come as no However, all these numbers related surprise that all the letters were written only to reported crimes. These by a conman. His name was Don numbers, as large as they are, must be Lowry. He used pictures of models, underestimates. It is likely that more created the characters, and wrote the people who have been scammed, letters. The letters were photocopied especially for small to moderate and sent to the Knights of Chonda-za. amounts of money, would be too That’s why, when Richard would read his monthly letter from his Angel, she Right: Arch criminal and love guru Don would only talk in generalities about Lowry, with one of his publications of mis- him, call him Darling instead of his sives from angels. 31 ARTICLE Psychology

The Prince Table 1: For each age group, left-hand = amount lost; right-hand = number of reports of Nigeria Continued...

embarrassed to lodge a complaint. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission has a publication, The Little Black Book of Scams, freely available online (http:// tinyurl.com/hn4dfye). This book classifies scams into ten different types: • Advance fee fraud • Lottery, sweepstakes and competition trick you into downloading malicious reporting being scammed (looking at scams software onto your computer that fishes the right-hand columns). There is a • Dating and romance scams for your data. Their emails often appear small spike in the over-65 category. But • Computer hacking to come from organisations that you in terms of amount lost (the left-hand • Online shopping, classifieds and know and trust, such as a bank. Online columns), both the 45-54, and the 55- auction scams shopping, classifieds and auction scams 64 age groups are losing more money. • Banking, credit card and online can include not getting what you paid In terms of gender, the amount lost account scams for, or receiving an inferior product. and the number of reports tends to be • Small business scams Banking, credit card and online account fairly even. • Job and employment scams scams are often reported on in the Because so many different types • Golden opportunity and gambling news, eg card skimming. of people, with different levels of scams Card skimming is the copying of education, are falling for scams, it’s • Charity and medical scam information from the magnetic strip of important to understand why. An advance fee fraud is the most your credit or ATM card via a discreet common type of scam, including any attachment to the ATM or EFTPOS MEASURING GULLIBILITY scam where the scammer requests a fee machine. (For more information on So, why are some people so gullible? upfront in return for goods, money, or these scams, other scam types, and ways How can they fall for these scams? The rewards that are never supplied. The to protect yourself, look at The Little answer is, of course, complicated. Prince of Nigeria, or Nigerian 419 Black Book of Scams.) First, we must consider what it scam, is the best known means to be gullible. The Oxford example. The Arthur So many different English Dictionary defines it as Stimpson example “ “capable of being gulled or duped; falls into the category types of people, with easily cheated”. This definition isn’t of lottery, sweepstakes different levels of particularly satisfying as it could apply and competition scams. to anyone. Anyone could potentially Essentially, the victim education, are falling be gulled or duped under the right is told they have won for scams. circumstances, implying that everyone a lottery they never ” is gullible. entered. Dating and In defining gullibility there are two romance scams commonly involve the As can be seen, the types of scams elements to consider. Firstly, there must scammer creating a fake profile on a out there are varied and colourful. be cues indicating an untrustworthy legitimate dating site. They will develop There’s something for everybody. situation or premise. These cues range a strong rapport with the victim and Similarly, there are a number of from overt (eg Nigerian royalty has then ask for money to help with illness, different ways in which scammers try to personally contacted you) to subtle injury, travel costs or a family crisis. approach the gullible, including online, (eg products or services at unbeatable This type of emotional exploitation was over the phone, and door-to-door. prices). seen in the Church of Love scam. In Table 1 from the Australian Secondly, we need to consider a Computer hacking scams can government’s Scamwatch website, person’s ability and willingness to include phishing emails. Scammers you can see people from all groups are detect those cues of untrustworthiness. 32 The Skeptic March 17

People may be impaired because gullible: “I’m usually quick to notice it is a continuum. Therefore, you they have a lower IQ, developmental when someone is trying to cheat me.” must compare that score against a delays, cognitive impairments, or On this item, you would expect a large group for it to make any sense. they are simply tired. Or, a person gullible person to score low on this Furthermore, of the five questions that may be motivated or not willing to one, closer to 1. have been presented above, four of acknowledge those cues. A person may Some items ask about behaviours: them presume that the person filling so desperately want to believe that they “I have been persuaded to make out the questionnaire has good insight have found their true love online that donations to charities when I couldn’t into their own gullibility. However, a they dismiss any warning signs to the really afford it.” truly gullible person may be oblivious contrary. And some items ask about to this fact. That is why a large Thus gullibility can be defined as expectations: “If anyone is likely to fall number of the items on the full scale the acceptance of a false premise in the for a scam, it’s me.” are phrased like the second question presence of untrustworthiness cues. On both of these last questions, presented above. That is, in terms of Essentially, you believe something again, you would expect someone who other people’s perspective on you - “My that is untrue even though there are perceives themselves as gullible to score friends say I…, My family think I…”, signals there telling you that it isn’t real. higher on these. etc. Hopefully, this should overcome Arthur Stimpson was gullible When looking at a person’s score, this issue of lack of personal insight. because he believed a false premise there is no “gullible cut-off”, instead This scale was created using a (ie that he had won the Spanish National Lottery) in the presence of untrustworthiness cues (ie that he hadn’t entered a lottery, that he had to pay a fee before getting his winnings, that the bank that supposedly was going to give him his winnings didn’t exist, etc.). In my PhD research in the Department of Psychology at Macquarie University, I along with my supervisors, Dr Trevor Case and Prof Julie Fitness, have been creating a scale to measure gullibility. In this scale there are 24 questions. Each question is answered using a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). So, the higher the total score the more gullible a person is. Some items are self-explanatory: “I guess I am more gullible than the average person.” You would think that a gullible person would agree with this statement, scoring closer to a 7 than a 1 on this one. Some items try and take you out of your own perspective and into the perspective of the people who know you: “My friends think I’m easily fooled.” Perhaps you don’t have good insight into your own gullibility, but you notice that your friends and family say this type of thing about you all the time. So, again, a gullible person would hopefully score closer to a 7 rather than a 1 on this one. Some items are sneakily phrased, asking if you are the opposite of 33 ARTICLE Psychology

upon. So you expect that people will that any of us, given the right situation, The Prince be honest with you. Gullibility is the could become gullible. Perhaps if you acceptance of a false premise in the are lonely enough or truly in need of of Nigeria presence of untrustworthiness cues. money, you could become the next Continued... Essentially, it is an inability to detect Arthur Stimpson. those cues of untrustworthiness. So, It is important to discover exactly why should that general expectancy of what those situations or triggers are. people (ie your trusting nature) have However, my advice is, if you get an combination of first year psychology any relationship to your ability to email from the Prince of Nigeria, he students as well as members of the detect cues of untrustworthiness? These probably doesn’t need your help. He general public, with more than 1000 concepts are logically independent. doesn’t exist. So please don’t send him people participating. And that is what the study found. any money. . Apart from giving them this What is even more interesting is Gullibility Scale, we also measured a that other studies have found that couple of other things, such as social people who are high trusters are REFERENCES intelligence. University students tend actually quicker at detecting cues of Armstrong, A. et al. Andrew Levy. (2011). to be considered quite intelligent, but untrustworthiness compared with Arthur Stimson cons friends out of it was interesting to see if their levels people who are low trusters (Carter £1m after he’s duped in 2.7m “Spanish of social intelligence would be related & Weber, 2010; Yamagishi, Kikuchi, lottery scam.” Retrieved January 10, to gullibility. Social intelligence is & Kosugi, 1999). So this research is 2016, from http://tinyurl.com/czz6bx7 very similar to emotional intelligence, suggesting that you don’t need to be Bracchi, P. (2011). The village ruined but it relates specifically to how automatically distrustful of everyone in by the most gullible man in Britain: well people can interact in social order to avoid being gullible. Incredible story of the chartered situations. Logically, this concept of surveyor, an email pledging a £3m lotto social intelligence must be related to THE FUTURE OF GULLIBILITY RESEARCH win and the neighbours impoverished gullibility. The more gullible you are, Where do we go from here? So far we in a web of sheer greed. Retrieved the less social intelligence you have. have been looking at the difference August 3, 2015, from http://tinyurl. And that is exactly what we found. between individuals in levels of com/7tcg6gz Considering the concept of trust, gullibility – there are some people who Carter, N. L., & Weber, J. M. (2010). you would expect this concept to be are just more gullible than others. Not Pollyannas: Higher generalized related to gullibility. That is, the more However, there are also motivational trust predicts lie detection ability. trusting you are the more gullible states that might increase the chance Social Psychological and Personality you must be. But we wanted to test that a person will be gullible. For Science, 1(3), 274–279. doi: this empirically. We example, a highly 10.1177/1948550609360261 used an established discerning and critical Friedman, J., Shaw, B., & Tamarkin, measure of trust, “ People who CEO who, while online C. (1989). Victims of the Church of with questions such are trusters are dating, gets taken in Love Were Only the Lonely. Retrieved as: “Most people can by a romance scam. All October 1, 2016, from http://tinyurl. be counted on to do quicker at detecting because they are lonely. com/glaf8yg what they say they untrustworthiness. They are motivated Thousands of Men Bilked In Lonely Hearts will do; Most experts ” not to see those cues Scheme. (1987). Retrieved from http:// can be relied upon to of untrustworthiness; tinyurl.com/glfpaam tell the truth about the limits of their they just want to find a partner. Yamagishi, T., Kikuchi, M., & Kosugi, knowledge”, etc. You would assume And this could happen to anyone. It M. (1999). Trust, gullibility, and social that if you score highly on these items would certainly happen more easily to intelligence. Asian Journal of Social (meaning that you are more trusting), someone who is more gullible than less Psychology, 2(1), 145–161. doi: that you must be more gullible. gullible, but with the right situation 10.1111/1467-839X.00030 The results of the study were quite and the right amount of motivation, surprising. There was no statistical almost anyone might be susceptible to relationship between a person’s level of being gulled. About the author: trust and their gullibility. This result Why does this matter? Apart from Alessandra Teunisse is has been replicated twice. our having a laugh at the expense of in the first year of her PhD In order to understand this result, those who sign up to ridiculous money- candidature in the Dept of we must return to the definitions of making schemes or who are taken in by Psychology at Macquarie the two concepts. Trust is a generalised farfetched emails from African royalty, University. Her PhD topic is expectancy that people can be relied the research is starting to point out the Psychology of Gullibility. 34 ARTICLE Science The Skeptic March 17

Diana Lucia guides you through the world of predatory publishers, peerless reviews and those he publication of research within business model, where journals require Tlegitimate scholarly journals is readers to pay for access to an article who fight against the fundamental to the advancement of or a subscription to the entire journal scientific knowledge and a common itself; or open access journals, which destruction of the goal among academics. For the charge authors to publish but make purposes of scientific research, content available free of charge and scientific approach. scholarly journals are identified without restrictions to readers. The rise as formal, written periodicals that in popularity of open access journals disseminate findings, register an has resulted in more than 50 per cent plethora of spam requests to authors author’s precedence and ownership of new research now being made and reviewers. Many of these predatory of an idea and ensure quality control available free online. journals publish research that supports through peer review. Legitimate open access journals a particular political, religious, or social The first scientific journal was such as PLOS and BioMED have agenda using questionable science that born in 1665 from the Royal Society been essential in allowing for greater normally would not pass through peer of London and in essence served the access to science, a higher citation of review. same function of today’s journals; published work, improved education Examples of this are predatory namely to inform interested readers and a greater scope to publish journals publishing pseudoscientific of the latest scientific discoveries. negative results, with the latter therapies for capitalistic gain, papers As such, Philosophical Transactions largely being discouraged. However, denying climate change and the established the important principles the shift to open access journals has anthropogenic nature of climate of scientific priority also created a dark side change, or even claiming a newly- and peer review, to the dissemination discovered drug is efficacious, with which has become the Many predatory of knowledge, with a the hope to attract investors and sell central foundation of “ significant rise in journals the drug over the internet without scientific journals ever journals publish that are predatory in nature government approval. since and it is now the research that with unethical practices However, not all researchers that oldest continuously would not pass that undermine science and publish in predatory journals do so published science the scientific process. with dubious intentions; many are journal in the world. peer review. Predatory journals can honest researchers simply fooled by Since the launch ” have deceptive journal scam tactics designed to earn as much of Philosophical names, make false claims money as possible from researchers. Transactions the landscape of scholarly to having a higher credibility, publish There is the assumption that communication has largely shifted with fake content, charge hefty fees per the researchers that are most journals now predominantly falling publication, fail to engage in a rigorous commonly caught out are young into two categories: a paid access peer review process and/or send a graduate students, or early career 35 ARTICLE Science

uses criteria based on two documents the number of hijacked journals where Unlearned published by the Committee on counterfeit websites are created, stealing Publication Ethics (COPE). This a legitimate journal’s identity and journals includes The Code of Conduct for soliciting articles or submissions using Continued... Journal Publishers and the Principles the author-pay model, has increased of Transparency and Best Practice in from 30 in 2015 to 115 in 2017. Scholarly Publishing. It’s important to recognise that Based on these criteria, Beall’s many of these predatory publishers and researchers. However, this is not the list shows the number of predatory journals would have been missed and case, as many seasoned academics open access publishers has risen swept under the rug if it weren’t for have found themselves lured by exponentially over the years, from 18 the work of Prof Beall who has been predatory publishers pretending in 2011 to 1155 as of January 2017, a major contribution to science and they are ‘associations’ or ‘institutes’, with an increase of 232 in 2016. academic publishing. Many academics that publish journals whose titles Furthermore, the number of predatory have praised his efforts and have used are similar to the titles of established standalone journals has jumped from his blog for much needed guidance. and respected journals. Furthermore, 126 in 2013 to 1294 in 2017 - an Unfortunately, in January 2017 many of these predatory publishers increase of 412 over Beall’s site was forced to use colourful language and claim to 2016. This also Researchers are shut down. It’s unclear be “leading journals” in their field marks the first year “ exactly why the site based in London or New York, when that the number of left disheartened - disappeared, however they are in fact based in South Asia or predatory standalone their data may have colleagues of Beall’s have West Africa. In turn, the researchers journals is higher suggested that he was that do forward a manuscript are left than the number of taken years but they forced to shut down embarrassed, out of pocket and find predatory publishers. are held hostage. due to legal threats and themselves unable to submit their Further to this, ” politics. What is clear is paper in any other legitimate, peer dubious fake impact that Beall’s list will long reviewed journal because it has already factor companies that “calculate” and remain a valuable resource, and despite been published. publish counterfeit impact factors the sudden closure of his site, it has Many researchers are left extremely to publishers and trick scholars into been archived and is still accessible, disheartened as their manuscript with thinking their journals have legitimate at least for the time being, at http:// data which may have taken years to impact factors has also increased from tinyurl.com/h629kcl. collect is now being held hostage by a 26 in 2015 to 53 in 2017. Meanwhile, With Beall’s blog now defunct, predatory publisher. NAMED, SHAMED AND GONE In an effort to combat some of the damage that predatory publishers cause, Associate Professor Jeffrey Beall, an academic librarian and a researcher at the University of Colorado coined the term “predatory publisher” in 2010 and published a blog called Scholarly Open Access (http://scholarlyoa. com) in 2009. The blog chronicles the “potential, possible, or probable” predatory publishers or questionable standalone journals. Since its inception, the list grew to over one thousand entries updated yearly. Included are low-quality or predatory journals that exist only on the internet, with no named publisher. Many of these are mega journals with broad scopes that want to accept as many papers as possible to generate The would-be author Associate Professor Jeffrey Beall more revenue from authors. Beall 36 The Skeptic March 17

individuals, and consider contacting publishers operate and how to best selected associate editors regarding avoid them to ensure their research their experiences. Do those on the is submitted and published in high editorial board list their involvement quality academic journals. . on their own academic webpages? • Check that the journal clearly displays its policy for author processing fees on its website. REFERENCES • Identify if the publisher is a Beall J. (2010). Predatory open-access member of recognised industry scholarly publishers. Charleston initiatives such as the Committee on Advis.11:10–17. Publication Ethics (COPE) or the Beall J. (2016). Dangerous Predatory Open Access Scholarly Publishers Publishers Threaten Medical Association (OASPA). Research. J Korean Med Sci. 31(10): • Examine if the journal and publisher 1511–1513. it will be harder to sift through the are indexed in research databases Butler, D. (2013). Investigating murky water that has become academic you trust, such as Scopus (Elsevier, journals: The dark side of publishing. publishing. It’s imperative now Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and Nature, 495(7442), 433-435. more than ever that academics and PubMed (United States National Nicoll LH, Chinn PL. (2015). Caught researchers at all levels increase active Library of Medicine, Bethesda, in the trap: the allure of deceptive dialogue around the issue and share the MD). publishers. Nurse Author Ed. 25:4. knowledge of predatory journals and • Identify if the impact factor is the Shen C, Björk BC. (2015). ‘Predatory’ their associated publishers. same as is advertised by the journal/ open access: A longitudinal study It’s well known that researchers today publisher. Be careful to check that of article volumes and market are under immense pressure to publish, there are no qualifiers attached to the characteristics. BMC Med 13:230. with the banner slogan “Publish or number (eg an asterisk, with a note Tennant JP, Waldner F, Jacques DC et Perish” more to the point than ever identifying the impact factor as an al (2016). The academic, economic before. However, an understanding informal estimate). and societal impacts of Open Access: of what predatory journals are and Other helpful tools include the an evidence-based review. F1000Res the dubious methods used to trick Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory 5:632. researchers is one of the keys to that can be used to find out more about Ware M, Mabe M. (2015). The STM discouraging this dangerous turn in peer reviewed journals in any chosen Report: An Overview of Scientific academic publishing. discipline, which also includes links and Scholarly Journal Publishing. A news feature published in the to the publishers’ websites, refereed 4th Ed. The Hague, The Netherlands: journal Nature provides a checklist to status and list of indexing services. The International Association of identify reputable journals, with the Directory of Open Access Journals Scientific, Technical and Medical most important points being: (DOAJ) also lists the quality of the Publishers. • Check that the publisher provides open access, peer-reviewed journals as a Royal Society: royalsociety.org/about- complete and verifiable contact reference for researchers. us/history/ information on their webpage The existence of predatory journals Committee on Publication Ethics (email, address, working telephone threatens the rigorous scientific (COPE): publicationethics.org/ number). Be wary of those standard that the COPE code of conduct: http://tinyurl. publishers that provide a web relies on, and preys on the vulnerability com/hxfuwcd contact form as a sole mode of of researchers within the competitive Principles of transparency and best communication. research arena. practice: http://tinyurl.com/jc4fqay • Be cautious of e-mail invitations to Researchers need to stand up and submit a journal article. Evaluate the fight for the continued dissemination email for spelling and grammatical of legitimate evidence-based and errors. Does the email clearly peer review research that promotes identify the journal publisher? transparency, discourse and ethical Evaluate who signs the email, the practices. The reality is that these About the author: editor of that journal or the editor’s predatory journals and publishers rely Diana Lucia is a assistant? on revenue generated from authors. As Neuroscience Doctoral • Check that the journal’s editorial such, universities and institutes need to Candidate at the University board list contains full institutional provide training, mentorship and tools of Queensland, School of contact information for the for researchers to learn how these fake Biomedical Sciences. 37 ARTICLE Pseudomedicine Would you like some water with At last, Steve Roberts finds a useful homeopathic that product. ?

t the 2016 Australian Skeptics badger, stoat, and weasel, but no vole? to buy some homeopathic water. But, A Convention in Melbourne, Homeopathic fluorescent light or what sort? As well as homeopathic Michael Marshall traced back some of halogen light, but no incandescent pure water, Freeman’s offers fluoridated the funding for homeopathy in Britain. light. Probably due to political and water, rain water, swimming pool All roads seemed to lead to Freeman’s, a ecological correctness. water, Bath or Harrogate spa water, homeopathic dispensary which Google They even sell homeopathic “water”, Irish well waters (of 10 types), Tlacote shows as a modest shop in suburban which reminds me of the fundamental healing water, and of course Lourdes Glasgow. riddle of epistemology: how can we Water. The Freeman’s website, however, understand what thinking is, except by As an aside, I cannot help but shows a vast array of thousands of thinking? Much-diluted homeopathic remind readers that water at the products, far more than could be water should therefore physically stocked. Maybe Freeman’s assist in treatment has realised that at any dilution more of problems of the than 12C (= dilute 100 times, then ontic: Heidegger’s repeat that twelve times), all remedies recursive concept are exactly the same. All they’d need of the Dasein, or to do is get a blank bottle from stock, Atmanspracher’s put distilled water in it, and print writings on chaos, not the label. All customers’ needs can to mention Bhaskar’s thus be fulfilled: whether they want ontic presupposition homeopathic apple, aorta, ice cream, of the rubric of jokes. owl (please specify horned, barn, or If you have a problem Lapland), neptunium, polyurethane, with any of these ... strychnine, semen, dust, fox, condor, well, so do I. Antarctic skua, or vulture, Freemans are So let’s rush out on-line to help. It has to be noted, however, that some things are sadly absent. They Right: Freeman’s have homeopathic giraffe, warthog dispensary in Glasgow and wildebeest, but whence the - a modest shop with humble aardvark? Homeopathic ferret, global appeal 38 The Skeptic March 17

grotto of Lourdes is believed by some means to dilute by a factor of 100 (“c”) and if Lourdes water is believed to to confer the power of God, thus and repeat twelve times - leaving about work miracles, then homeopathically- healing sickness, one molecule of the administered Lourdes water should blindness, cancer, Lourdes water remedy in a bucketful cure you of ... a belief in miracles. I etc and increasing “ of water. “200c” can’t wait to buy some ... ah, no need - the prosperity of flows to the sea and would not leave a there’s plenty in the tap. . the nearby town. evaporates. There’s no single molecule in a Pilgrims used to pass body of water the size through Lourdes need to visit Lourdes.” of the Universe - not on their way to in 10^320 Universes several other sites actually. About the author: that had healing waters; that must have But wait, there’s more. 1M doesn’t Steve Roberts is 70% frustrated the locals no end. Thousands mean to dilute it 1000 times (Roman water and ensures he stays of gallons have always gushed forth “M”); no, at Freeman’s it means to potent by drinking large from the Lourdes spring; so if it could perform 1000 “c” dilutions. So 10M is quantities of fluids. Cheers! become holy, pilgrims could bathe in it. The Church recognises 69 healing events from among the 200 million Lourdes visitors. But surely there is no need to visit; the Lourdes spring water flows into a nearby fast-flowing river which flows down to Biarritz - not exactly a poor town either. Here the healing hydrogen oxide flows into the Bay of Biscay and is mixed into the world’s oceans, whence it is evaporated and falls as rain. Thus, except in a few drought-stricken areas (and even in those places, there is a little dampness in the air) everyone in the world is getting a few molecules of the wondrous waters. There’s no need to visit Lourdes; Lourdes is visiting you! Back to the Convention, where that tiresome skeptic, Michael Marshall, untouched by the miraculous molecules, mused that if the Lourdes water had the power or memory of God in it, then why dilute it and homeopathically potentise it? What 10,000C, or a dilution of 10^20,000. Above: Washing away all of happens to the presence of God as the Finding a useful molecule in a 10M that Lourdes holy mud ... or waters are diluted? I’ll tell you. remedy is about the same chance as looking for coins. Homeopathy is believed to work by a monkey correctly typing out all of the method of similarities - if malaria Hamlet, albeit without the punctuation makes you shiver, then something else and stage directions such as “Act 1 that makes you shiver should cure you Scene 1” and “Enter Horatio”; if you Right: Bottled Lourdes of malaria. (Bear with me). I don’t want those to be included, the chance water - just knock the top off know why diluting the remedy would would be 21M. But you can buy 1M, the Blessed Virgin. make it more potent, but the research 10M and even CM, which I won’t laboratory practices of 1796 left much try to describe because your copy of to be desired, and Hahnemann’s results The Skeptic would catch fire if it were have never been replicated. As I’ve printed. described before, and will probably do But back to poor old God and his so again because I love big numbers, healing waters. If like cures like, so you can commonly buy 12C, 30C, that stuff that makes you shiver cures 200C, 1M, and 10M dilutions. “12C” you of shivery conditions like malaria; 0339 ARTICLE Skepticism I Think I Am Tim Harding asks which form of skepticism should we follow - philosophical or scientific?

ictionaries often draw a But why are these definitions of scientific skeptics express a contrary Ddistinction between the modern skepticism important? And why do view, we are sometimes then accused common meaning of skepticism, and we spell it with a ‘k’ instead of a ‘c’? of “not being real sceptics”. So I think its traditional philosophical meaning, As an admin of a large online skeptics definitions are important. which dates from antiquity. group (Skeptics in Australia), I am In my view, denialism is a person’s The usual common dictionary often asked such questions, so some choice to deny certain particular facts. definition is “a sceptical attitude; explanation is appropriate. It is an essentially irrational belief doubt as to the truth of something”, where the person substitutes his or whereas the philosophical definition DEFINING THE DEFINITION her personal opinion for established is “the theory that some or all types of As to the first question, one of the knowledge. Science denialism is the knowledge are impossible”. main definitional issues I have faced rejection of basic facts and concepts These definitions are of course quite is the difference between skepticism that are undisputed, well-supported different, and reflect the fact that and what I call denialism. (The parts of the scientific consensus the meanings of philosophical terms second question I shall answer later.) on a subject, in favour of radical have drifted over the millennia. The Some skeptical newbies typically do and controversial opinions of an contemporary meaning of “scientific a limited amount of googling, and unscientific nature. Most real skeptics skepticism” is different again, and I what they often come up with is accept the findings of peer-reviewed shall talk about that later. the common dictionary definition science published in reputable I should say at the outset that while of skepticism, rather than the lesser scientific journals, at least for the time I have a foot in both the scientific and known scientific skepticism definition being, unless and until it is corrected philosophical camps, and although I that we Australian skeptics use. They by the scientific community. will be writing here mainly about the tend to think that “scepticism” (with a Denialism can then give rise to less familiar philosophical skepticism, I ‘c’) entails doubting or being skeptical conspiracy theories, as a way of trying personally support scientific skepticism of everything, including science, to explain the discrepancy between over philosophical skepticism, for medicine, vaccination, biotechnology, scientific facts and personal opinions. reasons I shall later explain. moon landings, etc. When we Here is the typical form of what I call 40 The Skeptic March 17

the Scientific Conspiracy Fallacy: philosophers and other intellectuals • Premise 1: I hold a certain belief. did not want to take sides in the • Premise 2: The scientific evidence is interests of self-preservation. So they inconsistent with my belief. retreated from public life into various • Conclusion: Therefore, the scientists cloistered schools of philosophy, are conspiring with the Big Bad the main ones being the Stoics, the Government/CIA/ Epicureans, the NASA/Big Pharma Gymnosophists, Cynics and the (choose whichever is “ Skeptics. convenient) to fake naked ascetic gurus - As I mentioned the evidence and not a good image for earlier, the undermine my belief. meanings of such It is a tall order modern skepticism. philosophical to argue that the ” terms have altered whole of science is over 2000 years. genuinely mistaken. That is a debate These philosophical schools were that even the conspiracy theorists different theories as to how to achieve know they probably can’t win. So the eudaimonia, which roughly translates most convenient explanation for the as the highest human good, or the inconsistency is that scientists are fulfilment of human life. They thought engaged in a conspiracy to fake the that the key to eudaimonia was to evidence in specific cases. live in accordance with Nature, but they had different views as to how to ANCIENT GREEK SKEPTICISM achieve this. The word “skeptic” originates from In a nutshell, the Stoics advocated the early Greek skeptikos, meaning the development of self-control and for obtaining it. They went as far as “inquiring, reflective”. fortitude as a means of overcoming thinking that knowledge is impossible The Hellenistic period covers the destructive emotions. The Epicureans - nothing can be known at all. A later period of Greek and Mediterranean regarded absence of pain or suffering head of the Academy, Carneades, history between the death of Alexander as the source of happiness (not just modified this rather extreme position the Great in 323 BCE and the Roman hedonistic pleasure). The Cynics into thinking that ideas or notions victory over Greeks at the Battle of (which means “dog like”) rejected are never true, but only probable. Corinth in 146 BC. The beginning conventional desires for wealth, power, He thought there are degrees of of this period also coincides with the health, or fame, and lived a simple probability, hence degrees of belief, death of the great philosopher, logician life free from possessions. Lastly, there leading to degrees of justification for and scientist Aristotle of Stagira were the Skeptics, whom I will now action. Academic Skepticism did not (384–322 BCE). discuss in more really catch on, and largely died out As he had detail. in the first century CE, with isolated no adult heir, During this attempts at revival from time to time. Alexander’s empire Hellenistic period, The founder of Pyrrhonist was divided between there were actually Skepticism, Pyrrho of Elis (c365-c275 the families of three two philosophical BCE) was born in Elis on west side of his generals. varieties of of the Peloponnesian Peninsula (near This resulted in skepticism – the Olympia). Pyrrho travelled with political conflicts Academic Skeptics Alexander the Great on his exploration and civil wars, in and the Pyrrhonist of the East. He encountered the Magi which prominent Skeptics. in Persia and even went as far as the In 266 BCE, Gymnosophists in India, who were Top: Aristole (painting Arcesilaus became naked ascetic gurus - not exactly a by Francesco Hayez, 19th head of Platonic good image for modern skepticism. century). Academy. The Pyrrho differed from the Academic Academic Skeptics Skeptics in thinking nothing can Right: Pyrrho of Elis did not doubt be known for certain. He thought (illustration from Thomas the existence of that their position “nothing can be Stanley’s History of truth in itself, known at all” was dogmatic and self- Philosophy 1655). only our capacities contradictory, because it itself is a 41 ARTICLE Skepticism

Clockwise from left: David Hume (portrait by I think I am Allan Ramsay, 1754), Rene Descartes (portrait by Franz Hals, 1648), and Immanuel Kant (por- Continued... trait lithographer uncertain).

claim of certainty. Pyrrho thought that the senses are easily fooled, and reason follows too easily our desires. Therefore we should withhold assent from non- evident propositions and remain in a state of perpetual inquiry about them. This means that we are not necessarily skeptical of ‘evident propositions’, and that at least some knowledge is possible. This position is closer to modern skepticism than Academic Skepticism. Indeed, Pyrrhonism became a synonym for skepticism in the 17th century CE; but we are not quite there yet. Sextus Empiricus (c160-c210 CE) was a Greco-Roman philosopher who promoted Pyrrhonian skepticism. It is thought that the word “empirical” comes from his name, although the Thus “modern philosophy” dates Greek word empeiria also means from the Renaissance of the 14th to “experience”. Sextus Empiricus first the 17th centuries, although precisely questioned the validity of inductive when modern philosophy started reasoning, positing that a universal within the Renaissance period is a rule could not be established from an matter of some scholarly dispute. incomplete set of particular instances, The defining feature of modern thus presaging David Hume’s “problem philosophical skepticism is the of induction” about 1500 years later. questioning of the validity of some or all types of knowledge. So before SKEPTIC WITH A ‘K’ going any further, we need to define The Romans were great inventors and knowledge. engineers, but they are not renowned The branch of philosophy dealing for science or skepticism. On the with the study of knowledge is contrary, they are better known for Romanised “sceptic”. Yes, I know that called “epistemology”. The ancient being superstitious; for instance, the “skeptic” is the American spelling and philosopher Plato famously defined Roman Senate sat only on ‘auspicious “sceptic” is the British spelling, but I knowledge as “justified true belief”, days’ thought to be favoured by the don’t think that alters anything. The as illustrated by the Venn diagram gods. They had lots of pseudoscientific most likely explanation is that the (Figure1). According to this beliefs that we skeptics would now Americans adopted the spelling of the definition, it is not sufficient that a regard as quackery or woo. For early Greeks and the British adopted belief is true to qualify as knowledge example, they thought that cabbage that of the Romans. – a belief based on faith or even was a cure for many illnesses; and in just a guess could happen to be true around 78 CE, the Roman author MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL SKEPTICISM by mere coincidence. So we need Pliny the Elder wrote: “I find that a Somewhat counter intuitively, the adequate justification of the truth of bad cold in the head clears up if the term “modern philosophy” is used to the belief for it to become knowledge. sufferer kisses a mule on the nose.” distinguish more recent philosophy Although there are a few exceptions, So, I cannot see any valid historical from the ancient philosophy of known as “Gettier problems”, this reason for us to switch from the early the early Greeks and the medieval definition of knowledge is still largely Greek spelling of “skeptic” to the philosophy of the Christian scholastics. accepted by modern philosophers, 42 The Skeptic March 17

Propositions

Truths Knowledge Beliefs

and will do for our purposes here. of its certainty and clarity”. His Above: Miguel de Unamuno, who looks like he (Epistemology is mainly about the fundamental aim was to attain might have lost a good idea. justification of true beliefs rather than philosophical truth by the use of this basic definition of knowledge.) reason and logical methods alone. For are knowable a priori; and statements There are also different types of him, the only kind of knowledge was about the world, which are contingent knowledge that are relevant to this that of which he could be certain. His and knowable a posteriori. discussion. ideal of philosophy was to discover In modern philosophical A priori knowledge is knowledge hitherto uncertain truths implied by terminology, members of the that is known independently of more fundamental certain truths, in first group are known as analytic experience. For instance, we know a similar manner to mathematical propositions and members of the latter that “all crows are birds” without proofs. as synthetic propositions. Into the having to conduct an empirical survey Using this approach, Descartes first class fall statements such as “2 + of crows to investigate how many are engaged in a series of meditations to 2 = 4”, “all bachelors are unmarried”, birds and whether there are any crows find a foundational truth of which he and truths of mathematics and logic. that are not birds. Crows are birds by could be certain, and then to build Into the second class fall statements definition – it is just impossible for on that foundation a body of implied like “the sun rises in the morning”, there to be an animal that is a crow knowledge of which and “the Earth has but is not a bird. he could also be precisely one moon”. On the other hand, a posteriori certain. He did this “ Scientific skepticism Hume tried to knowledge is knowledge that is in a methodical way - an activist movement prove that certainty known by experience. For instance, by first withholding does not exist in we only know that “all crows are assent from opinions as well as a type of science. First, he notes black” from empirical observations which are not applied philosophy. that statements of the of crows. It is not impossible that completely certain, ” second type can never there is a crow that is not black, for that is, where there is be entirely certain, example as a result of some genetic at least some reason due to the fallibility of mutation. for doubt, such as those acquired our senses, the possibility of deception The above distinction illustrates from the senses. Descartes concludes (for example, the modern ‘brain in a how not all knowledge needs to be that one proposition of which he can vat’ hypothesis) and other arguments empirical. Indeed, one of the earliest be certain is “Cogito, ergo sum” (which made by philosophical skeptics. It modern philosophers and skeptics, means “I think, therefore I exist”). is always logically possible that any Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a In contrast to Descartes, a different given statement about the world is French mathematician, scientist and type of philosophical skeptic, David false, hence the need for doubt and philosopher. (His name is where Hume (1711-1776), held all human skepticism. the mathematical word ‘Cartesian’ knowledge is ultimately founded Hume formulated the ‘problem comes from.) These three interests solely in ‘experience’. In what has of induction’, which is the skeptical of his were interrelated, in the sense become known as “Hume’s fork”, question of whether inductive that he had a mathematical and he held that statements are divided reasoning leads to knowledge scientific approach to his philosophy. up into two types: statements about understood in the classic philosophical Mathematics “delighted him because ideas are necessary statements that sense. This problem focuses on 43 ARTICLE Skepticism

United States as the ‘birth of modern the scientific method is best suited I think I am skepticism’. (CSICOP is now called to this purpose. Scientific skeptics the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry attempt to evaluate claims based Continued... – CSI.) However, CSICOP founder on verifiability and and and philosophy professor Paul Kurtz discourage accepting claims on faith has said that he actually modelled it or anecdotal evidence. This is different after the Belgian Comité Para of 1949. to philosophical skepticism, although the alleged lack of justification for The Comité Para was partly formed as inspired by it. . generalising about the properties of a a response to a predatory industry of class of objects based on some number bogus psychics who were exploiting of observations of particular instances the grieving relatives of people who REFERENCES of that class (for example, the inference had gone missing during the Second Descartes, R. (1641) Meditations on First that “all swans we have seen are white, World War. Philosophy: With Selections from the and therefore, all swans are white”, Kurtz recommended that CSICOP Objections and Replies, trans. and ed. before the discovery of black swans in focus on testable paranormal and John Cottingham, Cambridge: Cambridge Western Australia). pseudoscientific claims and to leave University Press. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was religious aspects to others. CSICOP Hume, David (1748) An Enquiry Concerning (and still is) a major philosophical popularised the usage of the terms Human Understanding. Gutenberg Press. figure who tried to show the way “skeptic”, “skeptical” and “skepticism” Kant, Immanuel (1787) Critique of Pure beyond the impasse which modern by its magazine, , Reason 2nd edition. Cambridge: philosophy had led to between and directly inspired the foundation Cambridge University Press. rationalists such as Descartes and of many other skeptical organizations Loxton, Daniel (2013) Why Is There a Skeptical empiricists such as Hume. Kant is throughout the world, including the Movement? (PDF). widely held to have synthesised these Australian Skeptics in 1980. Novella, Steven (15 February 2013). two early modern philosophical Through the public activism of ‘Scientific Skepticism, Rationalism, and traditions. And yet he was also a groups such as CSICOP and the Secularism’. Neurologica (blog). skeptic, albeit of a different variety. Australian Skeptics, the term “scientific Russell, B. (1961) History of Western Kant thought that only knowledge skepticism’ has come to symbolise an Philosophy. 2nd edition London: George gained from empirical science is activist movement as well as a type of Allen & Unwin. legitimate - a notion that foreshadows applied philosophy. Unamuno, Miguel de., (1924) Essays and modern scientific skepticism. He There are several definitions of soliloquies London: Harrap. thought that metaphysics was scientific skepticism, but the two that illegitimate and largely speculative; and I think are most apt are those by the in that sense he was a philosophical Canadian skeptic and About the author: skeptic. the American skeptic . Tim Harding BSc Loxton’s definition is “the practice has studied the history and SCIENTIFIC SKEPTICISM or project of studying paranormal and philosophy of science twice In 1924, the Spanish philosopher pseudoscientific claims through the - many years ago as part of Miguel de Unamuno disputed the lens of science and critical scholarship, a science degree and more common dictionary definition of and then sharing the results with the recently as part of an arts skepticism. He argued that “skeptic public”. degree at Monash University. does not mean he who doubts, but Novella’s definition is “Scientific he who investigates or researches as skepticism is the application of opposed to he who asserts and thinks skeptical philosophy, critical thinking that he has found”. Sounds familiar, skills, and knowledge of science and doesn’t it? its methods to empirical claims, while Modern scientific skepticism remaining agnostic or neutral to is different from philosophical non-empirical claims (except those skepticism, and yet to some extent that directly impact the practice of inspired by the ideas of Pyrrho, Hume, science).” By this exception, I think Kant and de Unamuno. he means religious beliefs that conflict Most skeptics in the English- with science, such as creationism or speaking world see the 1976 opposition to stem cell research. formation of the Committee for the In other words, scientific skeptics Scientific Investigation of Claims of maintain that empirical investigation the Paranormal (CSICOP) in the of reality leads to the truth, and that 44 ARTICLE Pseudoenergy The Skeptic March 17 The

We are constantly bombarded with marketing references to your body’s energy field. Brian Dunning asks if there really is such a thing.

ears after Skeptoid’s original its immediate environment is not in that litre of fuel. A basic unit of Yepisode #1 on New Age Energy, necessarily an unsound concept. Our energy is called the joule, and a typical talk of energy fields — particular bodies generate heat, we have mass, gasoline contains about 42 megajoules the human body’s energy fields — fluids move within us and millions of of energy per kilogram. A typical continues to permeate pop culture. electric signals are constantly being alkaline AA battery contains about A quick Google search for “human transmitted through our nervous 9000 joules. The calories of chemical energy field” yields an avalanche of system. Might we not actually produce energy that my bloodstream absorbs New Agey sciencey-sounding results: an energy field? when I eat a Power Bar charge up my biofields; noetic balancing; auras; muscles enough to dig some specific, chakras; cleansing and activating your WORDS AND MEANINGS and measurable, amount of dirt in my fields; bioenergetics; science unlocking A useful place to begin is with garden. the secrets; luminosity; sensing; definitions, namely those of “energy” That’s all that energy is: a negative energy; positive energy; and and “field”. Energy is a measurement measurement of work capability. the human bioelectromagnetic field. of something’s ability to perform But in popular culture, “energy” has Does the human body indeed have work. A litre of gasoline has potential somehow become a noun. “Energy” is any characteristic that can reasonably chemical energy in that, when it often spoken of as if it is a thing unto be described as an energy field? burns, molecular bonds are formed itself, like a region of glowing power Although most of the usage that produce exothermic chemical that can be contained and used. you’ll hear of the term sounds like reactions. Put it into the engine, and Here’s a good test. When you hear something from Deepak Chopra, this reaction will cause the engine to the word “energy” used, substitute the which is clearly without any factual run, converting that chemical energy phrase “measurable work capability.” meaning, the idea that a living into kinetic energy. We can precisely Does the usage still make sense? body has some measurable effect on quantify the amount of energy stored Remember, energy itself is not the 45 ARTICLE Pseudoenergy

The Body Temperature is another type of living beings. It is essentially the same field that’s defined only by a single concept held by many ancient cultures Electric value, not a vector. At every point who tried to explain the difference throughout the universe, there is a between living creatures and inanimate Continued... temperature. That’s the temperature objects: one had , the other did not. field. If I move my hand closer to the Using real scientific concepts, we can fireplace, the measurement at that extrapolate what the Force might be. point in the field goes up. As a field, it would be measurable at thing being measured: energy is the every point in space, as Yoda described: measurement of work performed or of MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU “You must feel the Force around you. potential. So really the biggest difference between Here, between you, me, the tree, the OK, so that’s energy, a measured, the actual definition and the popular rock, everywhere. Yes, even between the quantified amount of work capability. understanding of a field is that it’s land and the ship.” So let’s wipe the slate clean and look just a set of measurements, it’s not Since the Force is able to push at what a field is. whatever force or characteristic that the ship up away from the land - but A field is the measurement of measurement describes. As an example, is also able to not to move things if some value at every point in space. let’s take a look at the most famous not requested by a controlling Jedi It’s a bit of an abstract concept. energy field in all of fiction, the knight - something external would Consider gravity, one of the most Force. In Star Wars, Obi-wan Kenobi have to be involved. If I want the familiar fields. The gravitational field described the Force as: “It’s an energy gravitational force to move an asteroid, is described by a measured vector at field, created by all living things. It I need to move something massive into every single point in the universe. surround us, it penetrates us, it binds position so I can change the vector and A vector consists of direction and the galaxy together.” magnitude of the magnitude. Thus, the gravitational A field does surround gravitational field in field shows the direction and strength us and penetrate us, “ The fictional the vicinity of the of gravitational pull. because it includes every Force recalls today’s asteroid. Whatever In conversation, we might often point everywhere. But type of field is refer to the Earth’s gravitational field, it does not bind the New Age usage of described by the but as you can see, there isn’t really galaxy together; that’s the concept of the Force would also have such a defined place. Close to the done by a set of forces. energy field to be similarly altered Earth, the gravitational field is largely Gravity, inflation, ” in a highly specific determined by the pull of the planet, electromagnetism; manner. but it’s also influenced by other bodies there is a whole slew of complicated And this is where the fictional Force far away. There isn’t really a line that mechanisms by which things are held recalls today’s New Age usage of the we could draw to define what’s inside together and that put the stuff in the concept of the energy field. This is and outside of the Earth’s gravity. galaxy wherever it is. But in Obi-wan’s words of a Reiki practitioner describing Even all those points in the field that more metaphysical sense, the Force is her process as she passes her hands are very close to (or even inside) the doing both of those things and more: it over the body of a subject: “What Earth are influenced by distant bodies is the fabric of a shared by all we’ll be looking for here, within John’s as well. The gravitational field is one auric field, is any areas of intense heat, field, full of complexities, that extends unusual coldness, a repelling energy, throughout the whole universe. a dense energy, a magnetising energy, All other fields are similar. The tingling sensations, or actually the electromagnetic field is another one, body attracting the hands into that area also defined by a vector of direction where it needs the reiki energy, and and magnitude at every point in balancing of John’s qi.” space. Wherever you take a compass, From a physical perspective, we whether you’re at home, in a spaceship can see there are a lot of things wrong orbiting Jupiter, or way out in deep with what she’s saying. She speaks of space, that compass needle will point John’s “auric field”, his , the “field some direction. In many places the of energy” surrounding him. As we’ve electromagnetic field may be too weak discussed, a field and energy are two to move a real compass’ metal needle, unrelated things. If you move your but at every point in space, there is a hand through air or water or some quantifiable vector describing that spot other medium, you may well encounter in the electromagnetic field. hot spots, cold spots, or some pressure 46 The Skeptic March 17

or force that pushes or pulls on your Humans don’t affect compass needles doomed. There is no such thing as an hand. If you had a metal ring on, you or more sensitive magnetometers. Nor energy field; they are two unrelated may be able to feel the pull if your should we; the only ferromagnetic concepts. Nor is there any evidence hand passes through a point where element that exists in our bodies in or sound hypothesis suggesting the the magnetic field is strong. If John’s any significant amount is iron, most body emanates some type of intangible feet are very cold, and you passed your notably in the haemoglobin of our cloud. If we really wanted to stretch hand very close to them, you might red blood cells. They’re suspended in definitions, we could say the human be able to feel a cold spot where the liquid, and are jumbled body has potential ambient heat energy was absorbed by and tumbling in energy. Everything his feet. If his forehead was very hot every direction. The Some believe we that has mass and you might be able to feel the air in its molecules have to all “ is within a force immediate vicinity slightly warmed. be aligned and bonded create magnetic fields field has potential Human bodies, like any other firmly in a lattice to be - easily disprovable. energy, like a rock physical objects, do influence a magnet. Humans don’t affect within the Earth’s physical fields. Our bodies are at a She used other gravity. The stronger certain temperature, so we affect the words too, his aura, compass needles.” the vector in the temperature field. We have mass, his qi, his reiki energy. gravitational field and so we affect the gravitational field. None of these have any counterpart the more mass in the rock, the more Temperature is easily measurable, in the physical world. Although she potential energy it has. John has as but such a tiny amount of gravity attempted to described their properties much potential energy as anyone. But is not. Gravity is the weakest of the as heat or magnetism, those properties potential energy is potential, it’s not four fundamental forces; it takes a are already taken by … well, heat and currently being expressed. It does not tremendous amount of mass for its magnetism. There are no properties produce warmth or tingling sensations effect to be detectable. We are visible, attributable to the mysterious field any more than would a rock; if it did, it we make noise; other than that, our she describes, thus it cannot be would constantly be reduced as it’s used bodies don’t really have much of an authoritatively said to exist. Even the up. We don’t see humans constantly effect. So what are all these effects the most elusive concepts in the farthest withering away as their life force energy reiki master claims to be able to feel reaches of physics, such as dark matter, is being used up projecting a strange from John? are known because they have detectable field of something. Some believe we create magnetic properties. So the takeaway from all of this fields. This is a difficult proposition, Thus, this New Age concept of the is not to be moved when you hear as the very idea is easily disprovable. body having an “energy field” is fatally a product or service advertised as interacting with your body’s energy field. It is simply word salad, as we say; a collection of sciencey-sounding words thrown together, tossed around, and scooped onto a plate. Learning to recognise goofiness like this is the perfect intersection of science education and consumer protection, which is the core of skepticism. So whenever you hear a word salad, you should always be skeptical. .

Reprinted with permission from Skeptoid #411, April 22, 2014.

About the author: Brian Dunning is a computer scientist, and host & producer of the award-winning podcast, Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena (www.skeptoid.com). 47 ARTICLE Botany Stupid

PlantsTim Entwisle talks to the trees, but they’re not paying attention.

lot has been written in recent for the view A years about plants being that we tend to smart. If you believed it all, you underestimate would suffer nauseating guilt and the ability of plants to respond (rather he argues for the elevation of plants regret every time you ate a carrot, sensibly in general) to the world above animals in almost every respect, and you certainly wouldn’t hold a around them. But when this argument and an end to our indifference to the Cabinet meeting near scribbly gums ratchets up to plants having some vegetable world. While he agrees that or trumpet vines. Weaker converts kind of neurology, or capacity to think plants do some apparently very smart might simply be more inclined to in a way that we might equate with things, like respond to external stimuli embrace the green sentient beings in humans or other animals, I start to in consistent and clever ways, such their garden. feel emotionally and intellectually responses, he says, are programmed and Drawing on chemical stockpiles uncomfortable. therefore always correct, making plants that are the envy of Breaking Bad’s Here’s where I stand. Plants are “not intelligent because unlike humans Walter White, plants can fend off fascinating, they do things animals they do not make mistakes”. hostile insect attacks by calling in don’t do (eg convert carbon dioxide I can live with that as a defining squadrons of predatory wasps, at the into sugars and oxygen using solar statement about plant intelligence. same time warning their vegetable power) and they live at a pace almost I’m less relaxed about recent attempts cohorts to prepare arms. Peas have unconceivable to humans. Slowly. They – even as metaphors – to equate plant been overheard having clicking move, respond to the environment, responses to an intelligence one might conversations reminiscent of the possibly make relatively complex find in a sensible animal. While driven Khoisan in South Africa. And under decisions, and undoubtedly do a whole by an admirable intent (plants really our feet, kilometres of fungal threads lot of things we don’t yet understand, are interesting) ultimately this kind connect forest trees into a real Earth but mostly at a (to us) relaxed pace. of reasoning seems at best to turn our version of Tolkien’s Fangorn forest, To botanists or plant scientists they are flora into simply slow fauna. populated not by phlegmatic Ents always going to be more interesting but by collaborative beech and oak. than animals. Then people go and THE SENTIENT SHRUB Plants do all this apparent thinking ruin it all by asking whether they are So what defines this slow fauna without the need for that distracting intelligent, or do intelligent things. movement? In his widely read 2013 mushy thing we carry around inside Years ago I was quite taken by New Yorker article2 on the intelligent a heavy bony case we call a skull. a book called In Praise of Plants1, plant (yes or no), Michael Pollan There is some evidence for these written by a cheeky French botanist begins by referencing The Secret Life ‘behaviours’ and some justification called Francis Hallé. In this book of Plants by Peter Tompkins and 48 The Skeptic March 17

Christopher Bird, a book published in need to develop responses to all that In the end, Pollan gets to pretty 1973, and one that I bought second life brings to them. These responses much the same point I do: plants hand a decade or so later, chuckling include emitting chemicals in response rock, but in an entirely different way at its breathless reporting of Soviet to caterpillar attack to attract those to animals. That is, we don’t need to insights into plant intelligence and predatory wasps. comfort ourselves with terms like plant signs of intelligent life in our vegetable Pollan’s essay features the Perth neurobiology but rather celebrate things companions. I remember, as Pollan scientist, Dr Monica Galiano, whom that plants do like photosynthesis does, Tompkins and Bird’s excitement I’ve spoken with a couple of times and … the “cooperative underground at the experiments of Cleve Backster, on radio, fascinated then and now by economy” of the forest, the wood wide who found that plants remembered anyone who is willing to question our web. things, reacted morally and experienced assumptions and use science to test stress, all pretty much like we do. what seem to be unlikely realities. THE FEELING FOREST Much of the science in the book At the scientific meeting Pollan Which brings me nicely to the most has been discredited, but Pollan notes attended, Dr Galiano’s theories recent treatise on this topic, The Hidden that some, such as Daniel Chamovitz received a cool reception. The plant in Life of Trees: What they Feel, How they (author of What a Plant Knows3), question was a mimosa, often called communicate, Discoveries from a Secret consider the book damaging to ‘the the Sensitive Plant, because its fern-like World by Peter Wohlleben4. cause’ because scientists “became wary leaves fold inwards It’s a book that of any studies that hinted at parallels when the wind makes me feel between animal senses and plant blows or you touch “ Celebrate the uneasy, if not a senses”. In 2005, Pollan reports, there them. Dr Galiano ‘cooperative underground little queasy. I love was a push for a new field of ‘plant found that if you the passion and neurobiology’ by some plant scientists, drop the plant (in economy’ of the forest, intent, but not the heavily resisted by other scientists as a pot) repeatedly, the wood wide web. anthropomorphic lacking any evidence. the leaf responds at ” goggles and the It isn’t that plants don’t use chemical first as it does when sweeping up of a few and electrical signalling, say the you touch it, but after a while remains facts into grand theories. Wohllenben sceptics, just that the mechanisms are open despite the jolting. This response starts with a tree stump, which without quite unlike those of an animal nervous was ‘remembered’ with the plant not leaves to provide it fresh food remains system. The criticisms of Lincoln Taiz, closing its leaves to a similar response alive because it is connected by a plant physiologist from University weeks later. cooperative or co-opted fungal threads of California Santa Cruz, cited by These experiments were dismissed to the roots of nearby trees (which have Pollan are interesting. The plant by some in the audience as being leaves). This is the wood wide web! neurobiologists, he says, suffer from too contrived, confusing tissue Wohlleben argues trees are naturally “over-interpretation of data, teleology, fatigue with habituation, and mixing interdependent. They exchange anthropomorphising, philosophising, adaptation with learning. It seems the nutrients and “help neighbours”, and wild speculation”. All will be criticism was in part or mostly around so that a forest is a “superorganism explained by chemical or electrical language rather than the results of the with interconnections much like ant pathways, says Taiz. experiments themselves. colonies”. But more than this, trees are, According to Stefano Mancuso, apparently, “reluctant to abandon their Pollan’s key defendant, plants do it Hello It’s not easy dead”, “look after their own” and “‘help differently to animals, and that stops mates being green their sick and week back up onto their us from truly appreciating the way feet”. Trees do play favourites though, they work. In particular, plants have and Wohlleben wonders why some a modular design, which creates are “kept alive over the centuries” and resilience. Because plants are mostly S’up! others not. rooted to the ground they need a Electrical signals are produced by “highly developed sensory apparatus” beech trees in response to caterpillar – 15-20 distinct senses (which is munching, and after some time (“an about what we now ascribe to humans hour or so”) toxic chemicals emerge in as well I think), including hearing other leaves. There are some wonderful (demonstrated by the ability to detect examples of plants doing smart things. caterpillar munching and flowing African acacias respond to giraffe water). The chemistry of plants is grazing by producing toxins in their complex, driven by their being rooted leaves as well as a gas, ethylene, which to the earth and the consequent causes nearby trees of the same species 49 ARTICLE Botany

Stupid Plants Continued... Right: 1962 space aliens (though the original book had experimental seeds gone wrong).

to produce the same toxins. While for Francis Hallé Giraffes stop grazing when and Michael Pollen it’s vive la they taste the toxins, and difference, Wohlleben thinks move on. Not to the next tree we get obsessed with trying to but 100 metres or so away. keep some boundary between Trees can respond to different animals and plants, hence insect saliva in different ways: our reluctance to ascribe “If they can identify saliva, intelligence of any kind to they must also have a sense of vegetable matter. In his mind, taste.” more attention should be paid There is morality in all to the similarities between this, but our kind of morality plants and animals. rather than the plant’s. In In my mind, we should farms, with selective breeding praise our plants and celebrate and cultivated plants, their peculiarities. We love these connections are lost them not as conscious beings according to Wohlleben. but because life on Earth Giant redwoods planted in depends on them and because Europe don’t grow as tall as for many of us humans, they those in their native habitat are what makes life worth in California, perhaps because living. . they are not planted in a forest with members of their own species (plus, the soil is no good, and trampled). Disturbances of the human brain with its neuron REFERENCES to forests are “traumatic”, despite connections. A root also ‘feels’ its way 1. In Praise of Plants, by Francis Hallé, translated some conservationists being “thrilled through the soil and negotiates rocks by David Lee (Timber Press, Portland/ when storms or commercial forestry and unsuitable substrate. So, somehow, Cambridge) 2002. operations” open up spaces and when a tree communicates with insects 2. “The Intelligent Plant: Scientists debate allow for increased species diversity. and other pollinators through the a new way of understanding flora”, by Apparently “in exchange for a few use of perfumes in their flowers, or Michael Pollan, The New Yorker 23 December species adapted to open areas that through various visual stimuli, this 2013. now feel like a million dollars basking is orchestrated from the root tips. I 3. What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses, by happily in the bright sun, hundreds of assume. Daniel Chamovitz (Oneworld Publications, microscopic organisms of little interest Putting the location of the plant Oxford) 2012. to most people die out locally”. brain to one side, it’s the cooperation 4. The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel, How they Finally Wohlleben bemoans the between individuals of a species that communicate, Discoveries from a Secret World, handling of trees in nurseries and how also stretches my credibility. “Trees by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jane the trimming of roots where “the brain- synchronise their performance so that Billinghurst (Greystone Books, / like structures are cut off along with the they are all equally successful”, which Berkeley) 2016. sensitive tips”’ can do no good. is why according to Wohlleben trees Along with others, including will never grow too close to each other. obliquely Charles Darwin in his A tree is “only as strong as the forest book Power of Movement in Plants, that surrounds it”. In a forest are the Wohlleben punts for the plant ‘brain’ vibrations caused by interruptions being in the roots, and in particular to the flow of water in roots “cries of About the author: the root tips. Presumably this is in thirst”? Perhaps “dire warnings to their Tim Entwisle is Director and part because the network of roots and colleagues that water levels are running Chief Executive of the Royal fungal hyphae conjure up an image low”. Botanic Gardens Victoria. 50 ARE YOU SKEPTICAL? Are reason, science, education, critical thinking and common sense important to you? Then you should subscribe to The Skeptic.

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Send to: The Skeptic PO Box 20, Ph: (02) 8094 1894 —Mobile: 0432 713 195 Beecroft, NSW 2119 Fax: (02) 8088 4735—email: [email protected] ARTICLE Creationism The Evolution ofCreationism Peter Hogan wanders into the creationist camp to see how it has changed over the years.

aving a long standing interest in ark who travels in a van containing Hthe creation/evolution debate I a large model of Noah’s ark. sometimes browse the main Australian The CMI likes to boast that it has creationist website at www.creation. scientists who speak and write on com, published by Creation Ministries creationism. I was surprised to see the International (CMI). I found some number of people (all men) who are items quite interesting. offered as speakers on creationism CMI has branches in Australia, USA, who have qualifications in Canada, UK, New Zealand, South science or engineering. Out Africa and Singapore. It is not-for-profit of 13 listed in the Australian and non-denominational. It is made branch of CMI, 10 had up of Bible literalists with the main degrees or PhDs in these objective of putting the creationist case areas, while another two had medical therefore provides a reliable framework in the creation/evolution debate. The qualifications. Their qualifications for scientific research into the question version of creationism they promote is: cover biology, geology, chemistry, of the origin and history of life, a young earth less than 10,000 years palaeontology, and molecular biology. mankind, the Earth and the universe. old; six 24 hour days for God to create There is no suggestion that they are not “Facts are always subject to the Heavens and the Earth; that the competent in their own field, however, interpretation by fallible people who flood of Genesis 6-9 was a global event; when they talk about evolution, it is a do not possess all information. By and all land-based living things are different matter. definition, therefore, no interpretation descended from those on Noah’s ark, of facts in any field, including history including humans and insects. STATEMENT OF FAITH and chronology, can be valid if it The Australian branch is based in What is also surprising is that these contradicts the scriptural record.” Eight Mile Plains in Queensland. men would have had to agree to the So these men are required to ignore Its activities include publishing Statement of Faith required by anyone the science if it contradicts the Bible. It two magazines, Creation magazine connected with CMI. raises the question of their credibility (aimed at supporters) and Journal of The CMI supports a young earth when they pontificate on evolution. Creation (contains research articles creationist model. The basic belief is The CMI likes to boast that there by creationists), publishing books that the Bible is divinely inspired and are scientists who are young earth and DVDs critical of evolution and is inerrant. But the statement of faith creationists, but these scientists have sending speakers to church groups includes these items: to reject science if it contradicts the that are willing to listen to them. The “The account of origins presented Bible. Their science qualifications are publications are sold worldwide. The in Genesis is a simple but factual irrelevant. They are promoting their speakers include an expert on Noah’s presentation of actual events and religious beliefs. 52 The Skeptic March 17

A common problem when talking Of course, their basic premise that with creationists is that they will the Bible is infallible is unchanged The Gish Gallop mention a factoid that a creationist but they concede the evidence doesn’t scientist has come up with to discredit support some of their claims. (See uane Gish was a prominent young The evolution. Usually it needs specialist creation.com/qa#bad_arguments.) D earth creationist in the USA in knowledge to give the scientific Another claim the CMI has the 1970s and 80s. He had a PhD in Evolution explanation. Perhaps a suitable answer stopped using is whether Charles Biochemistry and was a formidable would be to point to the axioms the Darwin recanted his views on religion debater, rapidly firing off anti- of creationist scientist is required to on his death bed. There is an article evolution arguments in what has been accept and say something like “But he on the CMI website that is quite called “the Gish Gallop” that made it is not speaking as a scientist when he admirable. It was written by Russell difficult for his opponents to refute. talks about evolution. He is distorting Grigg, one of CMI’s science trained He was vice president of the Institute Creationism science to defend his religious beliefs.” speakers. In a well-researched article for Creation Research, a prominent Grigg looks at the origins of the belief promotor of creationism. FUNDAMENTAL WRONGS that Darwin recanted on his deathbed He visited Australia a few times in Australian Skeptics – individually and as and returned to Christianity. It is the 1970s to promote creationism. a group - have been active in opposing mainly attributed to Lady Elizabeth In its obituary to Gish CMI Australia creationism and exposing the faulty Hope, an Australian-born evangelical comments: “Dr Gish’s speaking visits science of the creationists since the Christian, who became Lady Hope to Australia in the 1970s were a major 1980s, when the CMI when she married factor in inspiring several of those was called the Creation Due to criticism Admiral Sir James who later went on to found the first Science Foundation “ Hope. Lady Hope had creation groups in that country. Out (CSF). by the scientific visited Darwin some of these later grew the network of When the Bjelke- community, CMI has time before he died ministries that are now called Creation Petersen Queensland when they discussed Ministries International.” government tried backed off on some Christianity. She One of those inspired was Ken Ham, to have creationism of their claims. later wrote about the one of the founders of Queensland- taught in science ” meeting and some based Foundation classes Australian Christians interpreted that later became the CMI. Ham Skeptics published Creationism an the account to show Darwin had moved to the US in 1987 and became Australian Perspective, edited by Martin recanted. a prominent creationist speaker and Bridgstock and Ken Smith. In 1984 Grigg looks at the evidence for and debater. After a dispute with CMI he the CSF produced The Quote Book, a against the claim and concludes it is left to form . AiG collection of quotes from pro-evolution unlikely Darwin changed his agnostic has built a Creationism museum and scientists that seemed to cast doubt beliefs. Noah’s Ark museum in Kentucky. Ham on evolution. Bridgstock published an If only all the CMI writers were controversially debated Bill Nye the article in Australian Science Teachers up to this standard of research and Science Guy in 2014. Journal pointing out all the errors in the intellectual integrity. . American Skeptics like to have a quotes. In 1991 the Victorian Skeptics dig at Australian Skeptics for sending published Creationism: Scientists Respond, them Ken Ham, to which I reply, It’s our a response to a collection of simplistic REFERENCES revenge for sending us Duane Gish. . leaflets the CSF had produced. Examples of creationist material: science community, CMI has backed CMI speakers: used by creationists. Arguments they The full statement is at include: See “Arguments we think creationists “Evolution is just a theory.” should NOT use”: of eye evolution from Origin of Species.” Did Darwin recant?: About the author: “There are no beneficial mutations.” Gish obituary: and has been on the Vic skeptics committee since humans and dinosaurs co-existed.” the earliest days. 53 REGULARS

The cycle of life HOT FOOTING IT Fires, bonfires and trials by fire. Ordeal by fire was initially regarded as a form of torture, though it is more commonly And so it goes, the almost inevitable defined today as a test of faith (or as a particularly realisation that all knowledge is nasty and confrontational experience). As a test, it typically required that the accused walk a certain distance, connected and connectable. usually 2.7 metres, over red-hot ploughshares or holding a red-hot iron. Innocence was sometimes established by a complete lack of injury. In 1498, Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, the leader of a reform movement in Florence who HEAT VISION claimed apocalyptic prophetic visions, attempted to prove the Byzantium was the centre or divine sanction of his mission by undergoing a trial by fire. launching place for much of the The trial was a fiasco, since a sudden downpour doused activity of the three Medieval Crusades the flames, cancelling the event, and this was taken by (1095 – 1291 CE). St Andrew featured onlookers as a sign from God against him. prominently in the visions of Peter Bartholomew (?-1099), a soldier and mystic from France who was part of the First Crusade. In December 1097, Peter claimed Saint Andrew took him to the Church of St Peter, inside Antioch, and showed him where the relic of the Holy Lance could be found. The lance was supposedly the instrument that pierced Christ’s side on the cross. Accusations later arose that Peter had faked the vision and planted the lance. To prove his innocence, Peter voluntarily went through the ordeal by fire in 1099. He died as a result of his injuries. What goes around ... Sources: Wikipedia, and Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades (Vol 1). FIRE IN THE HEART St Andrew (early 1st century – mid to late 1st century CE), after whom the university and the famous golfing town is named, had a white cross – the ‘white saltire’ Peter – as a symbol of the cross on which he was crucified. The St Bartholomew Andrews cross on the Scottish flag is incorporated in the Union Jack. Andrew (also known as Andrew the Apostle) is also patron undergoes an saint of many countries and towns, incuding Barbados, Romania, ordeal of fire to Russia, Ukraine, Prussia, Amalfi in Italy, and Patras in Greece. prove he was a He is considered the founder and the first bishop of the true prophet. Church of Byzantium and is consequently the patron He was a saint of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. prophet, he just wasn’t true. Source: Wikipedia, except where noted

54 The Skeptic March 17

FEELING THE HEAT HOT FOOTING IT Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498) was known for Ordeal by fire was initially regarded as his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art a form of torture, though it is more commonly and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced defined today as a test of faith (or as a particularly clerical corruption, despotic rule and the exploitation of the poor. nasty and confrontational experience). As a test, it He prophesied the coming of a biblical flood and a new Cyrus from typically required that the accused walk a certain distance, the north who would reform the Church. In September 1494, when usually 2.7 metres, over red-hot ploughshares or holding Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and threatened Florence, such a red-hot iron. Innocence was sometimes established by a prophesies seemed on the verge of fulfilment. In 1495 when Florence complete lack of injury. In 1498, Dominican friar Girolamo refused to join Pope Alexander VI’s Holy League against the French, Savonarola, the leader of a reform movement in Florence who the Vatican summoned Savonarola to Rome. He disobeyed and Girolamo Savonarola uplifts his claimed apocalyptic prophetic visions, attempted to prove the defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting divine sanction of his mission by undergoing a trial by fire. his reform campaign with processions, “pious people in Piazza Savonarola, The trial was a fiasco, since a sudden downpour doused theatricals” and bonfires of the vanities. Ferrara, his place of birth. the flames, cancelling the event, and this was taken by onlookers as a sign from God against him. BURN BABY BURN A bonfire of the vanities (Italian: Falò delle vanità) is a burning of objects condemned by authorities as occasions of sin. The phrase usually refers to the bonfire of 7 February 1497, when supporters of Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects such as cosmetics, art, and books in Florence on the Mardi Gras festival. Such bonfires were not invented by Savonarola, but had been a common accompaniment to the outdoor sermons of San What goes around ... Bernardino di Siena in the first half of the century. The focus of this destruction was nominally on objects that HOT TOPIC might tempt one to sin, including books that were deemed to be immoral, manuscripts of secular Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) was an songs, artworks, paintings, sculpture Italian writer, poet, and humanist. He wrote a and, in this case, the works of number of notable works, including The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio. and the Genealogia Deorum Gentilium (The Genealogy of the Pagan Gods) which remained the most comprehensive guide to pagan mythology for 200 years. The late medieval Scots bishop, scholar, and translator Gavin Douglas (1474– 1522) was a particular fan of Boccaccio, writing “But those who laugh at this or shake their heads/Go read Boccace in the Genealogy of Gods/His two last books will remedy their delusion”. Douglas matriculated and attained his master’s degree at St Andrews University in Fife, named after the patron saint of Scotland. Bonfire of the vanities (Spanish version) by Source: Wikipedia and St Andrews Rarebooks Pedro Berruguete, late 15th century Source: Wikipedia, except where noted

55 REVIEWS

said it was “now generally exploded, as without Stars in their eyes reason”, and the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1758) said it “has long ago become a just subject of contempt and ridicule”. Tests of Astrology: A Critical Review of Hundreds of Studies Its revival is sometimes traced to the birth of By Geoffrey Dean and others Princess Margaret in 1930, when a Sunday paper, short of things to say about the Thursday-born Ain O Publishing, €44.00 inc postage royal baby, had her horoscope done. Available from the publishers, [email protected]. Both books give examples of astrologers who gave what they, and their clients, thought were wonderfully accurate readings, but then found eoffrey Dean was the first-named they had the wrong charts, and of the vast majority Gauthor of Recent Advances in of recipients of horoscopes proclaiming their Natal Astrology (1977), perhaps the accuracy even when they were all given identical most frequently referred-to critical ones, or the charts of notorious murderers. work on astrology. A planned revised edition never materialised; however, PROBLEMS OF ASTROLOGY as Dean told me, it is now out of date Journalists have admitted being given the job of and this new book constitutes the most writing horoscopes and simply making them up, comprehensive summary of the subject. with no astrological knowledge whatsoever, and [Geoffrey Dean is regarded as one old columns were recycled and published on the of the leading experts on astrology wrong day, but readers still thought them accurate. in the world, and he is also currently The “impel, not compel” excuse comes up, and president of the WA Skeptics. - Ed] the contradictions between Western and Eastern In view of what it says about astrology. astrology, it is rather surprising that Astrologers were unaware of Uranus, Neptune Recent Advances was published under the and Pluto before they became known to aegis of the Astrological Association and astronomers, but now claim they have influence. supported by other astrological bodies. Why, therefore, were they not aware of their Comments in the book include: “The astrological influence, and therefore their existence, before they literature is filled largely with demonstrations of were discovered? belief. What it is not filled with is demonstrations The charts of people who die more or less of truth”; astrology was founded on concepts whose simultaneously, as in plane crashes or on 9/11, application involves systems, most of them disagreeing might be expected to cluster together, but they on fundamental issues, and all of them supported don’t. And, as the book says, “predicting events by anecdotal evidence of the most unreliable kind; after they happen never fails”. it “starts with fantasy and then proceeds entirely One astrologer, comparing the charts of Prince logically”; new features are conveniently considered Charles and Lady Diana before their wedding, when they reinforce the case and ignored otherwise; found rapport, compatibility, a strong bond, “most astrologers are pitifully credulous about ‘results’ ability to work together, etc; after their separation, that appear to support astrology”; and astrology another astrologer saw in the same charts trauma, “can be largely explained by intuition, gullibility and anger, rebellion and disaster. And yet another’s universal validity”. predictions for Charles were a classic mix of things This latest book supports and strengthens those that didn’t happen and failure to see significant assertions. events that did occur. It includes personal stories of astrologers and The cover of Prediction magazine for June 1939 believers who changed their minds; the discovery read: “Ten years’ peace! World to disarm ...”, of astrology; the evolution of tests and why they are and astrologers denied Hitler was a warlike man, needed; a whole section on the Gauquelin work; predicted his fall, and poured scorn on the idea of hundreds of empirical studies over 1927-2015; any threat from Germany. test overviews; artefacts (including a good general But astrologers can’t lose. If someone’s chart discussion of why people see what they expect to supposedly shows aggression and they appear see); the future of astrology; the case for and against; aggressive, astrology is valid; if they seem meek and a glossary; and name, subject and book indexes. mild, they are aware of their aggression and have Despite its claims to a long and continuous suppressed it: heads I win, tails you lose! history, astrology almost disappeared for a very Nothing in astrology is concrete. With regard long time. Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary (1755) to ‘houses’, there is disagreement on everything: 56 The Skeptic March 17

number, sequence, position of peak strength, The claimed significance of the work of John method of division, interpretation and validity. Nelson on forecasting shortwave propagation And houses, of course, like constellations quality based on the positions of the planets themselves, have no real physical existence. in relation to the Sun, long claimed as the best Then there’s the “dawning of the Age of scientific support for astrology, is also discussed, as is Aquarius” which, depending on whom you the revelation that he was using an invalid method believe, could be any of nearly 100 dates from which rendered his results meaningless, though still 1457 to 3550! being quoted as proof of astrology 15 years later. And, while some astrologers say astrology There is, however, no reference to the excellent involves psychic ability, others insist it does not. discussion of Nelson’s work in Astrology: Science or by Hans Eysenck and David Nias BIRTH PANGS (1982) - somewhat surprisingly, since Nias is one of Much attention in Tests of Astrology is inevitably the authors of this book. paid to the husband and wife team of Michel Eysenck, with the astrologer Jeff Mayo, tested and Francoise Gauquelin. Michel Gauquelin was whether people display the characteristics associated trained as a psychologist and statistician, but is with their sun signs - rather oddly, perhaps, since widely known for his work on what he sometimes we are often told that ‘proper’ astrologers take little called neo-astrology or cosmobiology, ie the notice of sun signs and only do personal readings scientific measurement of the correlations between based on the exact time and place of birth. They the position of certain planets at birth (Jupiter, found that people did indeed appear to show the Mars, Saturn in particular), an individual’s fame in associated characteristics, and this was, of course, various professions, and their personality. He was trumpeted as evidence for astrology, but, as I once author of a number of books on astrology, some heard Eysenck himself say, it was found that the of them critical of traditional astrology, including effect disappeared with people unfamiliar with sun The Scientific Basis of Astrology: Myth or Realityand signs; the explanation for the apparent success was Dreams and Illusions of Astrology. He was also well- self-attribution: respondents adjusting their answers known for his theory of major sports stars being to what they thought matched their signs. associated with the planet Mars. One of the best books on the subject, The Gemini Gauquelin always automatically assumed the Syndrome by RB Culver and PA Ianna (1979) is registered time of a person’s birth was accurate. There discussed, with its revelation of the techniques of are, in fact, doubts about using this moment in time vague wording, shrewd guesses, inside knowledge, due to various tendencies, such as avoiding giving and repeated predictions in the hope they will midnight because of the need to give a definite eventually come true - keeping quiet when they date, to avoid the first hour after midnight, and don’t, trumpeting them when they do! to favour even-numbered hours against odd ones; The book ends with a summary: there is no doubts about the reliability of different social classes physical way astrology could work; hundreds of and cultures, some not so fussed about complete tests have shown it does not deliver useful factual accuracy; fathers being responsible for registration truth; the claimed “as above, so below” links do but excluded from the delivery room, hence likely to not exist; charts are meaningful even when wrong; record too late; and even the general unreliability of outcomes are explained by hidden persuaders; clocks in the past. Also, some Americans misreported and claimed experience is unfounded because it is their birth date to coincide with significant days, for never tested under controlled conditions. Hits are tax advantages, or to avoid the 13th. chosen, misses ignored, failures explained away, And what is the time of birth anyway: emergence and unwelcome test results dismissed because, it is of head, full expulsion, cord cutting, first breath, said, astrology cannot be tested. first cry? What if premature, or induced? In the words of a Chinese proverb quoted in Again, astrologers differ, while claiming high this book: “If a thousand people believe a foolish success whichever criterion is favoured. The thing, it is still a foolish thing”. Many thousands, moment of conception, rather than birth, is surely indeed millions, believe in astrology, alas, but, as more significant, being when the individual comes the book shows, it is indeed a foolish thing. into being, but it, of course, cannot be established. The Gauquelins’ work, ending as it did in - Reviewed by Ray Ward sadness and tragedy (they parted, Michel remarried and separated again, and he overdosed on sleeping pills sometime between May 18 and 21, 1991, Reprinted from The Skeptical Intelligencer, Winter 2016, with his body not being found until several weeks published by the Association For Skeptical Enquiry, later), must now be considered invalid. http://www.aske-skeptics.org.uk/ 57 FORUM Chiropractic + Chiropractic God save the Queen In which are discussed royalty, illness, cures, experts, no scientific basis for homeopathy and no quality evidence of its efficacy. and life in the Palace Assuming that the Queen may indeed have been taking homeopathic ‘remedies’ for her heavy cold, one wonders if she had also been et me say at the outset that I have the utmost taking science-based medicines prescribed by Lrespect for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her physician. The happy outcome, whatever notwithstanding that I am strongly supportive of the cure, is that Her Majesty did recover from Australia cutting its apron strings to Britain and her bad cold. (The Palace typically declined to becoming a republic. comment on what treatments she may or may No, what this piece is about is the Queen’s not have had.) She may not have been taking recent heavy cold and the strong support of any medicine at all, but simply toughing it out as the British Royalty for homeopathy. It is well most of us do when we have a cold. documented that members of the Royal Family The point of this is that the British public are ‘believers’ in the efficacy of homeopathic knows that their Queen is a supporter of ‘medicine’. Indeed, the Queen’s physician, Dr homeopathic remedies, and that some people Peter Fisher, has called for homeopathy to be who are also users of homeopathic treatments prescribed alongside traditional medicines saying may be inclined to believe that Her Majesty’s that “NHS doctors need to get over their bias recovery was due to, or assisted by, her towards complementary therapies”. enthusiasm for homeopathy. That statement flies in the face of the British This type of delusion (“celebrity-endorsed government’s Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally cures”) is commonplace, and a cause for concern Davies, who has branded alternative medicine for those of us who are supporters of science- as “rubbish”. It is also counter to the Australian based medicine. It also relates to the other National Health and Medical Research Council phenomenon where self-appointed ‘experts’ (NH&MRC)’s final report of 2015 that there is promulgate certain non-scientific cures or beliefs which are then proclaimed to a gullible public, some members of which prefer the opinions of these deluded enthusiasts (= nutters) to those of science-trained physicians. The example of the notorious anti-vaccination enthusiast, Meryl Dorey, comes to mind. So, returning to Her Majesty’s recent heavy cold, did she, or did she not take homeopathic concoctions for her distressing condition? And did Prince Phillip, who also had a cold at that time, also take homeopathic remedies? We will probably never know. And, anyway, a cold is a cold, caused by a virus, and even scientific-based treatments (including antibiotics, which do not cure virus infections), are usually given to treat unwanted side-effects which could lead to other problems such as pneumonia. Her Majesty is perhaps to be praised, because if she recovered from her cold believing (and proclaiming) that the homeopathic treatment did the trick, such a revelation would bolster the claims of believers in homeopathy and support their cause. Her Majesty is discreet. Silence is golden.

Kevin McDonald East Seaham NSW 58 The Skeptic March 17

Degrees of concern In which are discussed university qualifications, There are four tertiary centres of education offering both a bachelor (three years of study) mythical conditions, and who’s fooling who? and master of Chiropractic (two years of study). These centres are RMIT in Melbourne, Macquarie University, , ontempt is the only emotion I’ve felt for and Central Queensland University. In order to C those who practise chiropractic. Yet recently practise as a chiropractor one needs to obtain something happened to change my mind. both degrees. I met an earnest and sincere young man who had just obtained a degree in chiropractic from a prestigious tertiary centre of education. This man These universities describe their courses in was proud of his “academic” achievements and chiropractic as courses in Chiropractic Science. believed he was about to embark on a worthwhile Chiropractic is, however, more correctly defined career akin to scientific medicine. as a pseudoscience. This is not without good But what has this newly qualified chiropractor reason. Consider, for example, the underlying really gained from his tertiary education and principle of chiropractic. This is the notion of a what has he lost? He has gained the right to “vertebral subluxation” as the cause of disease. feel proud of his qualification and to feel that For chiropractic, a subluxation is “a lesion he is practising in a worthwhile field of medical or dysfunction in a joint or motion segment science. I say this because, not only has he in which alignment, movement integrity and/ obtained undergraduate and Master’s degrees in or physiological function are altered, although chiropractic from a prestigious university, but he contact between joint surfaces remains intact. is also endorsed by the Australian government. It is essentially a functional entity, which may The Medicare arm of the Australian government influence biomechanics and neural integrity” pays for chiropractic treatment as long as patients (Wiki). The purported displacement involved are referred by a medical doctor. Medicare pays in a vertebral subluxation is not necessarily huge sums of taxpayer money to radiologists to visible on X-rays. This is in contrast to the report on spinal X-rays referred medical definition of spinal subluxation which, by chiropractors. The Federal according to the World Health Organisation, Government also permits is a “significant structural displacement”, and chiropractors to use the title therefore visible on X-rays. (Wiki). “doctor”. When asked how there can be a subluxation This chiropractor, therefore, if it cannot be seen on X-rays the Secretary- has every right to feel that he has General of the World Federation of Chiropractic, obtained a worthwhile degree Attorney David Chapman-Smith, replied that and that he should be respected chiropractic subluxation is essentially a functional for providing a valuable service. entity, not structural, and is therefore no more Yet, the evidence demonstrates visible on X-rays than a limp, headache or any that chiropractic is possibly only other functional problem (Wiki). effective at relieving lower back The obvious question then is, if subluxations pain. Moreover, a chiropractor cannot be diagnosed by X-rays, why do is no more effective at relieving chiropractors refer so many patients for X-rays? lower back pain than a Medical science and chiropractic regard the physiotherapist or a masseur. usefulness of X-rays for patients with back pain Other than false legitimacy very differently. Medical science does not suggest bestowed upon him from a patients with lower back pain be routinely tertiary centre of education and referred for X-rays. For several years now the the Australian Government this medical guidelines governing referrals for X-rays chiropractor has not gained for back stipulate that patients should only much from his studies. He has, undergo such investigations for very limited and however, lost years of his life and specific reasons, such as suspicion for vertebral a large sum of money studying fractures or malignant disease. This excludes the something of little value. vast majority of patients suffering from back pain. 59 FORUM Chiropractic

Degrees of concern continued Skeptics’ 2016 Skeptic of the Year award, Dr Ken Harvey and Mal Vickers, received their award for a similar endeavour. – Ed] Scientific medicine has good reasons for Some of these claims are that chiropractic can discouraging the routine use of X-rays for be effective as an alternative to immunisation patients complaining of back pain. The evidence and in treating conditions such as allergies, shows that in the vast majority of cases back asthma, ADHD, depression, hypertension, Bell’s pain resolves spontaneously within at the most palsy, congenital hip dysplasia, croup, diarrhoea, a few weeks and X-rays rarely reveal the cause fever, infection, myasthenia gravis, and scoliosis. of the pain. Referring patients for unnecessary Were chiropractic able to cure any of the above X-rays exposes patients to harmful radiation, conditions, medical science would be severely lost time from work, a possible co-payment and humiliated. significant and unnecessary costs which must be It’s not possible to determine from the borne by the taxpayer. information published on the internet whether So while scientific medicine has moved away tertiary centres offering chiropractic courses from routinely X-raying patients with back pain, teach their students that chiropractic can chiropractic, in keeping with a pseudoscience, cure conditions such as those listed above. If, ignores the evidence and continues X-raying however, chiropractic students are not taught patients unnecessarily. Furthermore, that chiropractic can treat such conditions, chiropractors frequently subject their patients to one must assume that they are also not taught a significant dose of radiation by ordering X-rays that chiropractic is ineffective in treating these of the whole spine and pelvis. conditions, because if this was the case there would be much fewer chiropractors making such UNIVERSITY COURSES unsubstantiated claims. Information published on the websites of the One has to conclude that tertiary centres of universities offering courses in chiropractic education that legitimise the study of chiropractic includes claims such as “the Chiropractic program are not only duping students but are misleading is a rigorous evidence-based program”. Yet if a vast number of Australian citizens into this were the case the universities would have to considering chiropractic a legitimate field of teach their students that the evidence shows that medicine. the benefit of chiropractic is limited to possibly So why do the Australian government and relieving lower back pain and that this can be as prestigious centres of tertiary education validate easily achieved by a physiotherapist or a masseur. chiropractic? In the case of the government, we The students would also have to be taught that must assume they are receiving poor advice from X-rays for back pain are hardly ever required. committees whose members cannot distinguish Another claim is that the chiropractic course pseudoscience from science. In the case of strives to graduate enquiring, diligent and ethical tertiary centres of study, there can be only one clinicians and researchers and that research, of two reasons why they legitimise the study of evidence based practice and life-long learning chiropractic. Either the academics who propose is highly valued. Yet if chiropractic students such courses cannot distinguish pseudoscience were educated in this manner they would surely from science or the motivation of these academics realise the short-comings in chiropractic and is to boost the bank balance of their universities. leave the profession. Moreover, I can find no If the first explanation is correct, then there good contribution made by scientific research in is something seriously amiss in academia in the field of chiropractic. Australia. The second explanation is more likely Disconcertingly chiropractic does not limit and for this reason my contempt has shifted away itself to the treatment of back pain. Chiropractic from those duped into spending time and money websites make claims that chiropractic can be of in order to obtain qualifications in pseudoscience use in treating most medical problems (“There’s and has shifted to the universities who sell no place for pseudo-scientific chiropractic these courses under the pretence of providing in Australian universities”, Prof , a legitimate and worthwhile education in a president of the Friends of Science in Medicine, scientific field of medicine. Their behaviour is, in Dec 6 2011). Loretta Marron, CEO of the my view, unconscionable. FSM, lists several chiropractic practitioner website claims in her comprehensive report on Dr Michael Meyerson chiropractic. [The winners of the Australian McMahons Point NSW 60 The Skeptic March 17

Australia were oblivious. I am aware of over 700 chiropractors being reported to AHPRA, Breaking ad the HCCC and the OHO, over several years. I am aware that the complaints have included In which are discussed false advertising, codes of photographs of breaches of the Codes of Conduct and Australian Consumer Law in excruciating conduct, unresponsive authorities, and Senate inquiries detail. Yet in the overwhelming number of cases, the action taken by the regulators, if any action is taken at all, is to remind the chiropractor of the he recent conviction of chiropractor Hance Codes of Conduct and Consumer Law. T Limboro opens up an interesting line of One such case deserving examination involves speculation. In the NSW Downing Centre Local a chiropractor who went into a hospital, posing Court in February, magistrate Alison Viney as a spinal injury patient’s snowboard coach, convicted Limboro of 11 counts of advertising and ‘adjusted’ him. The formal notification to a health service in a false or misleading way and AHPRA was detailed and provided overwhelming fined him $27,500, plus costs. He is the first evidence that the chiropractor had entered a person in the country to be prosecuted by a hospital without the hospital’s permission (actually regulator for posting a series of misleading ads trespassing), under an alias (criminal deception), to online for promising patients he could cure cancer. conduct treatments on a spinal injury patient. Here’s where the speculation begins. Although The evidence included: the misleading claims and quackery spouted by • Facebook posts by the chiropractor’s friend and the chiropractic industry have been around since the mother of patient; before the establishment of the Commonwealth of • a Facebook post by a College of Chiropractic Australia, and although science and the regulators lecturer; have known it to be misleading quackery, we have • an article published by a journalist; to wonder what took them so long? • a Facebook post from the patient’s mother in It’s not as if the regulators have only recently which the chiropractor is introduced by name discovered these misleading claims; I and others by the mother of the spinal injury patient. have been lodging formal notifications with the She says she introduced him to the hospital national regulator AHPRA and State regulators medical team as her son’s snowboard coach. She such as the NSW Health Care Complaints then posted an audio file of an interview with Commission and Queensland’s Office of the the chiropractor in which mother said, four Health Ombudsman, for many years. The media times, that he did enter the hospital posing as and bloggers such as Reasonable Hank have also a snowboard coach and ‘adjusted’ the patient been exposing them. without the hospital’s knowledge, and he agreed If ever a registered health care practitioner with that, twice. deserved to have the book thrown at him for the The evidence that the chiropractor treated bastardry of telling cancer sufferers that he can the spinal injury patient in a hospital while cure them with his quackery, this is it. Yet, if ever masquerading as his snowboard coach to deceive there was a Teflon Industry, where no amount hospital staff is overwhelming. Despite all of the of mud would stick, this is it. Limboro is only above, AHPRA decided to take no action because one example in an industry making all manner the chiropractor “has denied that he provided of outrageous claims and regulators have done treatment as alleged”. What sort of investigation nothing until very very recently, and even then was that? Did they listen to the audio file? Why only on a small scale. $27,500 for all the grief was he not prosecuted for providing false evidence Limboro caused? One prosecution for the many to the investigation? thousands of breaches of the Code of Conduct by It gets worse for AHPRA and the Chiropractic hundreds of chiropractors? Board. They have failed to respond to a letter I To remind readers of The Skeptic, the wrote of November 11, 2016, in which I gave a Chiropractic Code of Conduct says good practice list of 101 chiropractors who continue to provide involves “providing treatment/care options based the dangerous and ineffective “Webster Technique” on the best available information and practising to pregnant women in spite of a public warning in an evidence-based context and not being eight months earlier from the Chiropractic influenced by financial gain or incentives”1. Which Board of Australia and the Royal Australian is a nice way of saying “stick to evidence-based and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and medicine and don’t rely on someone’s ‘reckons’.” Gynaecologists. Here we have compelling evidence It’s not as if the Chiropractic Board of presented to AHPRA and the Chiropractic Board 61 FORUM Chiropractic

Breaking ad continued We know that there are many chiropractors doing the right thing: providing evidence-based treatments. We also know that there are many, that at least 101 chiropractors are treating pregnant probably the majority, who are not doing that. women, yet AHPRA and the Board have ignored it. It is AHPRA’s and the Chiropractic Board’s Apart from the 700+ formal notifications to responsibility to know who and how many, but it’s AHPRA and the State regulators, no one has any clear they don’t know, and if they don’t know how idea of how many chiropractors are providing can they pull the cranks into line? quack therapies. A brief survey conducted by Prof As Chiropractor Dr Shepherd said in his article Edzard Ernst and Simon Singh, mentioned in concerning anti-vaccine chiropractors: “A zero their book Trick or Treatment3 found that 75 per tolerance attitude to these practitioners should be cent of British chiros were anti-vaccination, but adopted from the association level up to the State the survey was cut short when the chiropractic and Federal health ministers. A slap on the wrist industry discovered what the survey was about. for this behaviour is no longer acceptable to the I conducted a similar survey and got much the rational practitioners in my profession and nothing same result here. The truth is that nobody really less than deregistration, first offence or not, is knows the extent of anti-vaccination sentiment required for those who break the rules. We owe the and actions in the chiropractic industry, but it is general public that much, at least.”4 AHPRA’s job to know. Clearly, there is some level of maladministration Ken McLeod within AHPRA. This is worthy of a Senate Inquiry South Coast NSW also covering AHPRA’s response to notifications of the conduct of the hundreds of chiropractors REFERENCES reported to regulatory authorities, and the overall 1. http://www.chiropracticboard.gov.au/Codes-guidelines/ regulation of chiropractors by AHPRA and the Code-of-conduct.aspx Chiropractic Board. Further, a study should be 2. https://www.ranzcog.edu.au/news/Example-News conducted by the NHMRC into the treatments the 3. Trick or Treatment, Corgi Books, 2009, at page 226 chiropractic industry provides to the community, 4. AMA NSW magazine, ‘Chiropractors and vaccination’ 30 some of them subsidised by the poor bleeding January 2017 https://www.amansw.com.au/chiropractors- taxpayer, whether they be evidence-based or not. and-vaccination/

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD SOLUTION DR BOB’S QUIZ SOLUTIONS

Y T S I R C A S X E I P U S

N 1. She tried out various means of death on slaves, and the T R P R U I E

E one that was killed by an asp looked the most serene

S M A R C S E N O I R P Y H

E after death.

E M N Y T S L

C 2. He was always very gloomy. N A M N A I D R A C Y H C A T

O O M A D C I

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H A R P O D S F E R U H A W

E 4. O F R T R E P E 11 April 1954.

S O N Y C I N A P I M U E S

R 5. “Misery”.

K E E A L R O

T N A M T N A H P E E M M L E L 6. 70%.

U N U C H D O R

B U P E H T N I T G N I T I C

E O S E U E C E

D E P S A G D S C I T P E K S

62 The Skeptic March 17

Skeptical Groups in Australia

QLD SA Queensland Skeptics Association Inc – Bob Bruce Skeptics SA – Laurie Eddie www.qskeptics.org.au 52B Miller St Unley, SA 5061 Mob: 0419 778 308 [email protected] Tel: (08) 8272 5881 [email protected] Meetings with a guest speaker on the last Monday of the month from February to November at the Morrison Hotel, 640 Stanley Thinking and Drinking - Skeptics in the Pub Street,Wooloongabba. Dinner from 6pm, speaker at 7.30pm. Contact: [email protected] Qskeptics eGroup - www.egroups.com/list/qskeptics www.meetup.com/Thinking-and-Drinking-Skeptics-in-the- Pub/ calendar/10205558 Brisbane Skeptics in the Pub or http://tinyurl.com/loqdrt http://Brisbanesitp.wordpress.com, follow links for Facebook, Meets on the third Friday of every month at The Benjamin on Twitter and email list Franklin pub, 233 Franklin St, . Meets on the first Tuesday of each month from 6:30pm at the Plough Inn, Southbank WA WA Skeptics – Dr Geoffrey Dean Gold Coast Skeptics – Lilian Derrick PO Box 466, Subiaco, WA 6904 PO Box 8348, GCMC Bundall, QLD 9726 Tel: (07) 5593 1882 Tel: 08 9341 4538; [email protected] [email protected] Contact Lilian to find out news of more events. Details of all our meetings and speakers are on our website at www.undeceivingourselves.org

TAS NT Hobart Skeptics – Leyon Parker PO Box 84, Battery Point TAS 7004 Darwin Skeptics – Michelle Franklin Tel: 03 6225 3988 BH, 0418 128713 [email protected] PO Box2027 Humpty Doo NT 0836 Tel: 0408 783 145; www.facebook.com/group/darwinskeptics/ Skeptics in the Pub - 2nd Monday each month, [email protected] 6.30pm, Ball & Chain restaurant, Salamanca Place Meetings to be announced - see Facebook page for details Launceston Skeptics – Jin-oh Choi 0408 271 800 [email protected] www. launcestonskeptics.com Launceston: Skeptics in the Pub 1st & 3rd Thursday of each month 5.30pm @ The Royal Oak Hotel Launceston: Skeptical Sunday, 2nd Sunday of each month 2.00pm @ Cube Cafe

NOTE: LISTINGS WELCOME We invite listings for any Skeptical groups based on local and regional areas. Email us at editor@skeptics. com.au with details of your organisation’s name, contact details and any regular functions, eg Skeptics in the Pub, with time, day of the month, location etc. Because this is a quarterly journal and most groups meet monthly, it is unlikely we will be able to include references to specific speakers or events.