SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Vol. 18. No. 4 THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is the official journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, an international organization. Editor Kendrick Frazier. Editorial Board James E. Alcock, Barry Beyerstein, Susan J. Blackmore, Martin Gardner, Ray Hyman, Philip J. Klass, Paul Kurtz, Joe Nickell, Lee Nisbet, Bela Scheiber. Consulting Editors Robert A. Baker, William Sims Bainbridge, John R. Cole, Kenneth L. Feder, C. E. M. Hansel, E. C. Krupp, David F. Marks, Andrew Neher, James E. Oberg, Robert Sheaffer, Steven N. Shore. Managing Editor Doris Hawley Doyle. Contributing Editor Lys Ann Shore. Writer Intern Thomas C. Genoni, Jr. Cartoonist Rob Pudim. Business Manager Mary Rose Hays. Assistant Business Manager Sandra Lesniak. Chief Data Officer Richard Seymour. Fulfillment Manager Michael Cione. Production Paul E. Loynes. Art Linda Hays. Audio Technician Vance Vigrass. Librarian Jonathan Jiras. Staff Alfreda Pidgeon, Etienne C. Rios, Ranjit Sandhu, Sharon Sikora, Elizabeth Begley (Albuquerque). The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Paul Kurtz, Chairman; professor emeritus of philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo. Barry Karr, Executive Director and Public Relations Director. Lee Nisbet, Special Projects Director. Fellows of the Committee James E. Alcock,* psychologist, York Univ., Toronto; Robert A. Baker, psychologist, Univ. of Kentucky; Stephen Barrett, M.D., psychiatrist, author, consumer advocate, Allentown, Pa. Barry Beyerstein,* biopsychologist, Simon Fraser Univ., Vancouver, B.C., Canada; Irving Biederman, psychologist, Univ. of Southern California; Susan Blackmore,* psychologist, Univ. of the West of England, Bristol; Henri Broch, physicist, Univ. of Nice, France; Jan Harold Brunvand, folklorist, professor of English, Univ. of Utah; Vern Bullough, Distinguished Professor, State Univ. of New York; Mario Bunge, philosopher, McGill University; John R. Cole, anthropologist, Inst, for the Study of Human Issues; F. H. C. Crick, biophysicist, Salk Inst, for Biological Studies, La Jolla, Calif.; L. Sprague de Camp, author, engineer; Cornelis de Jager, professor of astrophysics, Univ. of Utrecht, the Netherlands; Bernard Dixon, science writer, London, U.K.: Paul Edwards, philosopher, Editor, Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Antony Flew, philosopher, Reading Univ., U.K.; Andrew Fraknoi, astronomer, Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, Calif.; Kendrick Frazier,* science writer, Editor, THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER; Yves Galifret, Exec. Secretary, l'Union Rationaliste; Martin Gardner,* author, critic; Murray Gell-Mann, professor of physics, Santa Fe Institute; Thomas Gilovich, assoc. professor of psychology, Cornell Univ.; Henry Gordon, magician, columnist, Toronto; Stephen Jay Gould, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard Univ.; C. E. M. Hansel, psychologist, Univ. of Wales; Al Hibbs, scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Douglas Hofstadter, professor of human understanding and cognitive science, Indiana Univ.; Gerald Holton, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Professor of History of Science, Harvard Univ. Ray Hyman,* psychologist, Univ. of Oregon; Leon Jaroff, sciences editor, Time; Sergei Kapitza, editor, Russian edition, Scientific American; Philip J. Klass,* science writer, engineer; Marvin Kohl, professor of philosophy, SUNY at Fredonia; Edwin C. Krupp, astronomer, director, Griffith Observatory; Paul Kurtz,* chairman, CSICOP; Lawrence Kusche, science writer; Paul MacCready, scientist/engineer, AeroVironment, Inc., Monrovia, Calif.; David Marks, psychologist, Middlesex Polytech, England; David Morrison, space scientist, NASA Ames Research Center; Richard A. Muller, professor of physics, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley; H. Narasimhaiah, physicist, president, Bangalore Science Forum, India; Dorothy Nelkin, sociologist, Cornell Univ. Joe Nickell,* author, technical writing instructor, Univ. of Kentucky; Lee Nisbet,* philosopher, Medaille College; James E. Oberg, science writer; Loren Pankratz, psychologist, Oregon Health Sciences Univ.; John Paulos, mathematician, Temple Univ.; Mark Plummer, lawyer, Australia; W. V. Quine, philosopher, Harvard Univ.; Milton Rosenberg, psychologist, Univ. of Chicago; Carl Sagan, astronomer, Cornell Univ.; Wallace Sampson, M.D., clinical professor of medicine, Stanford Univ.; Evry Schatzman, President, French Physics Association; Eugenie Scott, physical anthro­ pologist, executive director, National Center for Science Education; Thomas A. Sebeok, anthropologist, linguist, Indiana Univ.; Robert Sheaffer, science writer; Dick Smith, film producer, publisher, Terrey Hills, N.S.W., Australia; Robert Steiner, magician, author. El Cerrito, Calif.; Jill Cornell Tarter, SETI Institute; Carol Tavris, psychologist and author, Los Angeles, Calif.; Stephen Toulmin, professor of philosophy, University of Southern California; Marvin Zelen, statistician, Harvard Univ. Lin Zixin, former editor Science and Technology Daily (China). (Affiliations given for identification only.) *Member, CSICOP Executive Council

Manuscripts, letters, books for review, and editorial inquiries should be sent to Kendrick Frazier, Editor, THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 3025 Palo Alto Dr., NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111. (FAX 505-293-2757). For Guide to Authors, see Spring 1994 issue or fax request to editor. Subscriptions, changes of address, and advertising should be addressed to: THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Box 703, Buffalo, NY 14226-0703. Old address as well as new are necessary for Change of subscriber's address, with six weeks advance notice. Subscribers to THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER may not speak on behalf of CSICOP or THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Inquiries from the media and the public about the work of the Committee should be made to Paul Kurtz, Chairman, CSICOP, Box 703, Buffalo, NY 14226-0703. Tel.: (716) 636-1425. FAX: 716-636-1733. Articles, reports, reviews, and letters published in THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER represent the views and work of individual authors. Their publication does not necessarily constitute an endorsement by CSICOP or its members unless so stated. THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is indexed in the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. Copyright ©1994 by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, 3965 Rensch Road, Buffalo, NY 14228. All rights reserved. THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is available on 16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm, and 105mm microfiche from University Microfilms International. THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER (ISSN 0194-6730) is published quarterly. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, $25.00 a year, by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, 3965 Rensch Rd., Buffalo, NY 14228-2713. Printed in Canada. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, New York, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send changes of address to THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Box 703, Buffalo, NY 14226-0703. <% SKEPTICAL

INQUIRER Vol. 18. No. 4, Summer 1994

Journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal

THE PARADOX OF NIKOLA TESLA 'Extraordinary Science' and the Strange Legacy of Nikola Tesla Jeff Johnson 366 Nikola Tesla: Genius. Visionary, and Eccentric Jeff Johnson 368 ARTICLES Pollens on the 'Shroud': A Study in Deception Joe Nickell 379 Do Televised Depictions of Paranormal Events Influence Viewers' Beliefs? Glenn G Sparks. Tricia Hansen, and Rani Shah 366 Synchonicity and the Archetypes Ernest Gallo 396 The Synthetic Mind Clashes with the Reductionist Text Frank Reuter 404

NEWS AND COMMENT 338 Most Famous 'Nessie' Photo a Hoax / Time Zaps John Mack / APA Warns Therapists / Shroud Research Raises More Questions / Coast Guard Sails into the New Age

|—~~l CSICOP NEWS 345 c RESEARCH REVIEW Psi in Psychology Susan Blackmore 351

NOTES OF A FRINGE-WATCHER Eyeless Vision Martin Gardner 356

PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS Unreal with Rael, Brazel's Real Find Robert Sheaffer 363

BOOK REVIEWS Larry Dossey, The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine Gary P. Posner 408 Nick Herbert. Elemental Mind Gerald Huber 410 David J. Hess. Science in the New Age Lee Loevinger 413

NEW BOOKS 417

ARTICLES OF NOTE 419

FOLLOW-UP The Spectrum of the False Memory Debate G. W. Lea 421 Confusion Over Delphi Silver-Futures Keith Harary 431 FORUM The Scalp-Tinglin'... Science Show Ralph Estling 428 A Skeptic's Near-Death Experience Laura Darlene Lansberry 431

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 434

ON THE COVER: Illustration by Bruce Adams. News and Comment

After 60 Years, the Most Famous of All the 'Nessie' Photos Is Revealed as a Hoax

ince the first reported sighting of Over the years, the image had with­ a "huge fish" back in 1868, a stood rigorous scientific examination. S debate, fueled by eyewitness Explanations ranging from tree accounts and fuzzy photographs, has trunks to wishful thinking have been continued over whether a giant mon­ offered, but no one has been able to ster roams the murky waters of Loch settle the matter conclusively. Ness, Scotland. Believers in the mon­ Now two Loch Ness researchers ster legend have often cited the 1934 have established that the famous "surgeon's photograph" as the best shadowy silhouette was merely a evidence for the animal's existence. plastic wood model attached to a toy

The 1934 "surgeon's photograph" of the "Loch Ness monster."

338 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 From left: a 1992 photo of Wetherell's stepson Christian Spurling; Duke Wetherell and Colonel Robert Wilson, photographed in 1934. submarine. Their revelations were 90 and in poor health, he was able to first reported in a lengthy front-page answer a series of questions. article in the March 13 Sunday Tele­ Back in the thirties, Marmaduke graph (London) and subsequently dis­ Wetherell, often called "Duke," was seminated by international news hired by the Daily Mail to look into services. the stories that were circulating about The research began after David a mysterious beast in the loch. On Martin and Alistair Boyd, both with December 20, 1933, after only two the Loch Ness and Morar Project, days at the Loch, he discovered two stumbled across a 1975 gossip column large, four-toed footprints on the that indicated that a Loch Ness mon­ south shore. Somewhat prematurely, ster photograph had been faked. Al­ the Mail proclaimed, "Loch Ness though the column did not mention Monster Is a Fact, Not a Legend," and Colonel Robert Wilson (the surgeon for two weeks the world waited as to whom the 1934 photo­ graph was attributed) or spe­ cifically which photograph was being referred to, it did Nessle', mad* from plastic wood, painted name as co-conspirators gray, approximately Maurice Chambers and Ian 12lnhlgh Wetherell, the latter the son of a flamboyant actor and film producer from the twenties and thirties, Marmaduke Arundel Wetherell. Martin and Boyd first attempted to locate Ian Wetherell but discovered he had died some years before. They then contacted Marma­ duke Wetherell's stepson An artist's impression of Christian Spurling's model, from Christian Spurling. Although the Sunday Telegraph. London

Summer 1994 339 plaster casts of the prints were son to set up a photograph, they analyzed at the Natural History heard a groundskeeper approaching Museum. On January 4, the museum and had no choice but to sink the revealed that the two prints were model. (So it seems there really is identical and from the foot of a young a "monster" in the Loch Ness after hippopotamus, most likely being used all.) as an umbrella stand. Disgruntled and irritated, Duke —Tom Genoni, Jr. Wetherell decided he'd get conclusive proof of the illusive beast, announcing to his son Ian: "All right. We'll give them their monster." His son pur­ Time Challenges chased the raw materials—a toy sub­ marine stabilized with soldered lead— John Mack's UFO while his stepson Christian Spurling sculpted the 12-inch head and neck of Abduction Efforts plastic wood. After taking eight days to complete the "monster," sea trials ie widely read "Outlook" section were conducted and sometime in in the Sunday, April 17, Washing­ February or March 1934 Ian took the ton Post carried a front-page photographs at Loch Ness. Duke T feature article by Harvard psychiatrist Wetherell shared the story with his John E. Mack with the headline: close friend Maurice Chambers, hop­ "ALIEN RECKONING: Many Amer­ ing he might know someone con­ icans Claim They've Been Abducted vincing enough to lend credibility to by Extraterrestrials. A Once-Skeptical the photos. Chambers produced a re­ Harvard Psychiatrist Believes Them." spected doctor, Colonel Robert Wil­ If any of the Post's top editiorial offi­ son, who agreed to go along with the cials believe there is even one chance scheme. Wilson took the plates to a in a million that UFO abductions are chemist shop, developed the famous really occurring, one should expect photograph, and put into motion what that they would have assigned a team some have called one of the greatest of investigative reporters to look into hoaxes of the twentieth century. The Mack's claims—before publishing his photo has appeared in virtually all article. The Post could have assigned accounts of the Loch Ness monster the story to its Robert Woodward, ever since. who played a key role in breaking the Despite these amazing revelations, Watergate cover-up. the hunt for Nessie will continue. Time magazine did assign an in­ Adrian Shine, the Loch Ness Project vestigative reporter—James Will- Chief, says he accepts the report of werth—to look into Mack's claims. the hoax, but he maintained, "Eye­ Less than a week after publication of witness accounts still suggest that the Post article, Time's April 25 issue there is something powerful in the provided its readers with a two-page loch." Surprisingly, even the sleuths critical analysis of Mack's modus who uncovered the scheme agreed operandi, titled: "The Man from with Shine and do not believe that the Outer Space." monster itself is a fraud. The Time article revealed that one So what happened to Duke of the "abductees" Mack had worked Wetherell's monster? Apparently, with—Donna Bassett—was really a during one of his attempts with his researcher who had infiltrated his

340 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 "support group." According to Time, after reading books and articles on UFO abductions Bassett was able to "recall under hypnosis" for Mack her childhood experiences with an ET friend "named Jane, who healed her hands after a neighbor stuck them in boiling fudge to punish her for snooping." At one of the sessions, which took place in a bedroom of Mack's house, Bassett told Mack she "recalled" being taken aboard a flying saucer during the Cuban missile crisis, where she saw President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev, who was crying. She told Mack that, to comfort Khrushchev, Time's investigation casts doubts on she sat on his lap, put her arms around John Mack's methods. his neck, and reassured him that the formerly headed Harvard's depart­ crisis would be resolved. "Hearing her ment of psychiatry, his claims carry tale, Mack became so excited that he more weight than those of Hopkins, leaned on the bed too heavily, and it who is a professional artist, or Hop­ collapsed," according to Time. kins's principal deputy, David Jacobs, When Time's Willwerth revealed to a history professor at Temple Uni­ Mack that Bassett had concocted her versity. abduction tales, "Mack declined to dis­ Although Mack credits Hopkins cuss her case, though he hinted that with having introduced him to the he had doubts about her reliability." UFO-abduction field, and each pub­ The Time article concludes: "Mack's licly refers to the other as "my good view of the UFO phenomenon reflects friend," their relations have deteri­ a larger philosophical stance that orated recently because of their rejects 'rational' scientific explana­ basically different philosophical views tions and embraces a hazier New Age on UFO abductions. Hopkins and reality. 'I don't know why there's such Jacobs, understandably, view UFO- a zeal to find a conventional physical abductions as evil, traumatic events— explanation,' he says. 'I don't know comparable to rape. why people have such trouble simply Mack concedes that abduction accepting the fact that something victims suffer what he calls "ontolog- unusual is going on here. . . . We've ical shock" as "the reality of their lost all that ability to know a world encounters sinks in." However, as beyond the physical. ... I am a bridge Mack explained in his Post article, the between those two worlds.' " net result "is the discovery of a new With Mack's widespread appear­ and altered sense of their place in the ances on major TV and radio talk- cosmic design, one that is more shows to promote his new book, modest, respectful and harmonious in Abduction: Human Encounters with relation to Earth and its living sys­ Aliens, Mack is displacing his former tems. A heightened sense of the mentor, Budd Hopkins, as the chief sacredness of the natural world is guru of the UFO-abduction cult. experienced along with deep sadness Because Mack is a psychiatrist who about the apparent hopelessness of

Summer 1994 341 Earth's environmental crisis." In other of determining the validity of reports words, in the long run Mack seem­ [of sexual abuse] in the absence of cor­ ingly believes that UFO abductions are roborating information." Given the beneficial to the "experiencers," as he current level of scientific knowledge calls them. on the subject, the mechanisms of —Philip }. Klass memory are simply far too compli­ cated for the recalling of a personal experience to be confidently relied on for complete accuracy when it has been influenced by expectations, emo­ APA Statement tions, sensations, stress, and post- event questioning. "The retrieval and Addresses the Debate recounting of a memory can modify Over Assisted' Memory the form of the memory, which may influence the content and the convic­ tion about the veracity of the memory n response to the ever-growing con­ in the future," the statement says. troversy surrounding the false- One crucial element of the FMS I memory syndrome (FMS), the debate is centered on the role of the American Psychiatric Association therapist. Many skeptics have claimed (APA) has issued a "Statement on that because of the nature of the Memories of Sexual Abuse." Al­ memory-recalling process, it is easy though the statement does not include for a therapist to "lead" a patient, the "body of scientific evidence" on either by accident or design, to which its position is based, the five- "remember" abuse that may or may page document does attempt to sum­ not have occurred. The APA state­ marize the available information on ment reflects the same concerns: the subject for psychiatrists and "Memories can be significantly influ­ others working with sexual-abuse enced by questioning . . . and it has issues. also been shown that repeated ques­ "It is not known how to distinguish, tioning may lead individuals to report with complete accuracy, memories 'memories' of events that never based on true events from those occurred." The dangerous conse­ derived from other sources," the state­ quences that can result from the mis­ ment says. use of this type of therapy were Regarding the possibility of adoles­ illustrated by a recent $10-million cent abuse resulting in repressed sexual-abuse lawsuit against a Chi­ memories and neurosis, the APA cago cardinal. The plaintiff ultimately affirms its belief that child sexual withdrew the suit, citing an eventual abuse is a "risk factor for many classes lack of confidence in the memories of psychiatric disorders" and that the that were initially "recovered" during coping mechanisms "can result in a sessions with a therapist of question­ lack of conscious awareness of the able credentials. abuse. . . . Conscious thoughts and According to the APA, "Psychia­ feelings stemming from the abuse trists should maintain an empathic, may emerge at a later date." nonjudgmental, neutral stance While the APA admits that the towards reported memories of sexual emergence of memories can aid in abuse. ... A strong prior belief by assessing abuse claims, it states: the psychiatrist that sexual abuse, or "There is no completely accurate way other factors, are or are not the cause

342 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 of the patient's problems is likely to interfere with appropriate assessment New Shroud and treatment." The APA warns that Developments, therapists without proper training in many areas of care may cause further Intriguing to Bizarre psychiatric problems for a patient. In its closing paragraph, the APA number of new theories, ex­ statement asserts that "these issues periments, and tests relating to should not influence psychiatrists to A, the Shroud of Turin have come abandon their commitment to basic to light—ranging from the intriguing principles of ethical practice." It makes to the bizarre. two other points: "Psychiatrists Among the latter is a notion that, should refrain from making public before it was the burial shroud of statements about the veracity ... of Jesus, the 14-foot length of linen was individual reports of sexual abuse" and the tablecloth used at the Last Supper. "Psychiatrists should vigilantly assess This idea was advanced by the new the impact of their conduct on the wife of pro-authenticity scientist John boundaries of the patient/doctor Jackson (who now heads something relationship." The APA concludes by called the Shroud of Turin Research declaring that it will continue to moni­ Center, in Colorado Springs). She tor developments related to these does not appear to be kidding. issues. Another fanciful idea, proffered by The False Memory Syndrome several independent researchers and Foundation (an organization skeptical elaborated in a book being written by of therapy-assisted memories) com­ two of them, takes skepticism about mented favorably on the APA state­ the shroud into the realm of con­ ment, although not without some spiracy theories. According to the reservations. It applauded the APA theorists' scenario, the shroud was not position that therapists should remain merely damaged in the chapel fire of neutral when evaluating sexual-abuse 1532 but actually destroyed; its own­ claims (which the FMS Foundation ers shrewdly substituted a fake pro­ sees as in direct contrast to the role duced by none other than Leonardo taken by many recovered-memory da Vinci. Proof? Nonexistent. therapists) as well as the APA's advice Innuendo and speculation? Offered in against a psychiatrist's making public abundance. statements relating to a patient's case. Much, much more credible is the However, the FMS Foundation intriguing work of University of requested that the APA make avail­ Tennessee forensic researchers Ran­ able the specific scientific evidence dall Bresee and Emily Craig. Accord­ that it uses to support the existence ing to their article "Image Formation of and treatment for repressed and the Shroud of Turin" in the Journal of Imaging Science and Tech­ memories. nology (34: 59-67, January-February —Tom Genoni, Jr. 1994), reported nationwide by the Associated Press on February 9,1994, The full text of the statement, approved Bresee and Craig's experiments enable by the APA Board of Trustees on Decem­ them to produce images with macro­ ber 12, 1993, is available from the APA, scopic and microscopic properties 1400 K Street, NW, Washington, DC comparable to those of the shroud. 20005, telephone 202-682-2000. Their technique—used by medical

Summer 1994 343 illustrators but not common to main­ fibers and exhibit other characteristics stream artists—is called carbon-dust typical of the shroud, including "an imaging. Soft brushes are used to abundance of accurate three- apply pigment to a flat surface that dimensional information." According is then covered with a cloth and to Bresee, his study of the shroud has rubbed with a suitable tool (such as "turned out to be a real interesting a wooden spoon), thus transferring problem with religion mixed up with the image to the cloth. To reproduce science. Beliefs have gotten in the way the shroud's touted photonegative of an awful lot of people," he said. (actually quasi-negative) properties, He might well have been describing Craig explains that "you don't use the late scientist Max Frei's reputed light and shadow or highlights but pollen evidence—characterized else­ build the image with the darkest part where in this issue as "a study in being the closest to the viewer (like deception." the tip of the nose on a face) and then —Joe Nickell . . . lighter and lighter as you work back through the planes of the face." Joe Nickell, CSICOP Fellow, is author Craig and Bresee report that their of several investigative books, including images appear only on the uppermost Inquest on the Shroud of Turin.

works if they are close together.) "The Alternative Science well-known phenomenon of dowsing Update: Coast Guard may be a spontaneous twitch of muscle as one is moving over a geo­ Sails into the New Age logical gradient due to variations in extremely low intensity geophysical ie Strategic Planning Staff of the fields." And: "Herpes has been linked U.S. Coast Guard figured they to loneliness." Everyone else recom­ Tcould do a better job of planning mends being alone as a sure-fire pre­ if they knew where the world is ventive. "Remote perception, or the headed, so they hired the Arlington ability to ascertain information non- Institute to tell them. The result was locally, has been demonstrated. . . . "The Road to 2012," 348 pages of clair­ Mind interacting with matter tran­ voyance. It is very informative. scends the limitations of ordinary One learns, for example, that we space-time." will be able to tap the zero point To perceive what this report cost, energy in the vacuum. The technology we were able to transcend the space- for this is, the report says, "revolu­ time limitations of the U.S. Coast tionary," but, alas, it is protected by Guard bureaucracy using nonlocal international patents. "Cold fusion," means (the telephone). The cost to the the report says, may simply be a taxpayers was $100,000. manifestation of zero point energy. —Robert L Park It gets even more exciting: "Dozens of studies have shown that the prayers Robert L. Park is director of the Washing­ and meditations of widely separated ton office of the American Physical Society. individuals correlate with significant This is from the APS's "What's New" improvement of the health and well- weekly electronic newsletter and is being of others." (Presumably it also published with permission.

344 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 CSICOP News

Watch What You're Thinking! The Skeptic's Toolbox II Conference STEVEN GOLDSTEIN

here are three colored balls on the tricks on audiences who are prepared table in front of you. One red, to believe them real can be enor­ Tone yellow, one green. The man mously powerful. And, when deceit is with the dark hair and the dark, pene­ involved, they can be potentially very trating eyes standing behind the table harmful as well. stares at you intently—so intently, in It is because of this duality—the fact, that for a brief instant you find surface simplicity of psychological yourself wondering whether he is manipulation and the power of the actually trying to read your mind. Still effect—that this little parlor trick looking right at you, he boldly says served as a metaphor during the entire that he knows which ball you are conference for the many ways that about to select. You know this is people are able to deceive others— impossible, of course, and yet that con­ sometimes unintentionally, but often viction seems to waver ever so slightly with purpose, and often to devastating as you watch him confidently jot down consequences. a prediction on a slip of paper and place it aside. He looks back at you, and as The Case for Cases you find yourself trying to somehow mentally resist the man's powers, you Organized by Ray Hyman, CSICOP are shocked to find that the ball you Fellow and professor of psychology at subsequently select is indeed the one the University of Oregon, and Barry he predicted you would. Karr, executive director of CSICOP, So began CSICOP's second Skep­ the five-day Skeptic's Toolbox confer­ tic's Toolbox conference, in Eugene, ence held August 19-23,1993, built on Oregon. The above demonstration— the successes of a similar workshop along with other feats of mental held in Eugene the previous year (SI, wizardry—was performed as part of Winter 1993). Much like the earlier the kick-off dinner by Bob Fellows, a conference, the objective of the 1993 professional mentalist and consultant session was to help skeptics add to their on mind-control techniques. arsenal of tools and techniques with We all recognize this demon­ which to both guard against deception stration as a simple magic trick, of and properly evaluate paranormal course, even though we might not claims. know how it is done. And yet, as To that end, the conference was Fellows pointed out, the effect of such structured on the premise of case-based

Summer 1994 345 reasoning, in which participants were foremost inventor of amazing optical presented with a small set of proto­ illusions—described the reaction of an typical problems and their solutions. otherwise rational observer who Characteristics of these cases could began to express belief in his dowsing then be matched to new problems, demonstration. Indeed, when viewing either suggesting similar paths toward Andrus's mind-bending illusions, resolutions or adding to a databank many of which were on display at the of new prototypes and situations. conference, it is sometimes tempting As Hyman pointed out, the bene­ to seek such "extra-normal" explana­ fit of the case-based approach is that tions. How else to explain the Trizonal concrete examples are used to build Space Warp, for example, a spinning good models as a first step toward set of patterns that do weird things extracting broad principles. This can to one's sense of sight? Or two over­ make the learning experience much sized metallic-like nuts, connected in more meaningful than if critical such a way that a solid, straight rod thinking skills alone were taught, is seen to bend in order to go through without the benefit of context. them? A horse is a horse, of course? The case To Andrus, the point of demon­ of Clever Hans as an investigation of strating these illusions is not merely animal intelligence is well docu­ to show that we can be easily fooled mented; the claim was that the horse because "things are not always what Hans, after having a mathematical or they seem." Rather, it is to appreciate word problem spoken to him by his that the human mind is in fact owner, would be able to correctly tap working correctly in these instances, out the answer with his hoof. Many and to help us understand the circum­ experts at the time—police officers, stances in which this knowledge is scientists, and animal experts in turn- important. We look at a car parked on of-the-century Germany—saw Hans the street and, without thinking about in action and were convinced that his it, we assume that the part of the car intelligence was genuine. we can't see is there, too; our brains What is not so well known or have to do this so that we can make appreciated about this case is the ex­ sense of the world around us. And yet, tent of the investigation undertaken when we see two people of differing to examine this claim. Ray Hyman, heights standing facing each other on who led the session, told how Oskar a level plank, and then change heights Pfungst went beyond simply demon­ by simply changing places, we find it strating that the horse possessed no valuable to ask whether our eyes are academic abilities. Pfungst not only playing tricks on us. (The explanation identified the exact cues that guided of this illusion appeared in the Spring the horse but also conducted a vari­ 1994 SI.) As Andrus often proclaims, ety of experiments to ultimately we sometimes "come to the wrong understand completely every aspect of conclusions for the right reasons." the case. The result was a debunking When the write stuff is wrong. Can so thorough that today, almost a hun­ one's handwriting reliably say any­ dred years later, it is still believed by thing about oneself? Can it be used many to be the best example of a skep­ to make decisions on hiring, career tical investigation in history. choice, marital compatibility, or "He went kinda paranormal on me." honesty? What claims do the practi­ That's how Jerry Andrus—magician, tioners of handwriting analysis make? iconoclast, and perhaps the world's These were some of the questions

346 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 explored in the session on graphology, led by Barry Beyerstein, professor of psy­ chology at Simon Fraser Uni­ versity (Vancouver, B.C.) and a member of CSICOP's Exec­ utive Council. Beyerstein pointed out that graphology is much more widely used in Europe than in the United States; in France, in fact, job seekers are virtually disquali­ fied from hiring considera­ tion if they submit a letter that is typed or computer- generated, as opposed to handwritten. Beyerstein approached his examination of graphology with scientific questions: "Is there sufficient information in handwriting to allow reli­ able measurement of per­ sonality, aptitude, or health?" for example. And practical questions: "Is graphology justified in influencing life­ Jerry Andrus amazes Skeptic's Toolbox seminar style decisions?" "Does a attendee with one of his illusions. graphologist need to be trained?" and so on. In all cases, the and a distinct dearth of progress in results showed that as a "divinatory the field. All of which gives pause, art," graphology is nothing more than granted the rising popularity of this a warm, fuzzy brand of sympathetic phenomenon. magic. Like astrology, graphology seems Thinking About Thinking to rest on the notion of "pareidolia": the human infusion of patterns or The workshop also offered sessions meaning on random audio or visual with more general topics: events. In the case of handwriting Being fooled. This session was con­ analysis, this might be the idea that ducted by all five members of the writers of large capital I's are ego­ conference faculty. Each related tistical, or those having varying slants accounts and experiences of how are unpredictable. humans are deceived. Ray Hyman Graphology as a discipline? Beyer­ noted that with few exceptions the field stein found numerous objections: the has been little studied since 1900. One lack of standardization in training; lack reason may be that deception is difficult of commitment to research; absence to classify, precisely because such of links with other relevant disciplines; attempts at structure are rarely flexi­ a tendency to self-publish rather than ble enough to accommodate new submit results to refereed journals; changing paradigms.

Summer 1994 347 One example involves optical illu­ America in the 1930s (and continuing sions. Hyman pointed out that, while today), to the current status of the psychologists like to explain phenom­ ganzfeld experiments, which are ena in terms of a single cause, decep­ touted by the parapsychological com­ tion in general is caused by many munity as being the most promising factors, operating at many different development in the field. levels. Among the reasons people are The problem with most para- fooled, he said, are cognitive limits to psychologists, noted Hyman, is that perception, a distortion of the after the dust settles on an argument representation of knowledge, and the they still have hope that "something power of a particular social situation. is there." A skeptic's position, on the Social factors can contribute heav­ other hand, is not anti-psi; it's agnos­ ily to the persuasive influence of a pre­ tic. A skeptic's "belief" is that a claim sentation, Bob Fellows pointed out. In has a normal explanation. the 3-card monte street con, for Hyman noted that there have been example, the skill of the operator is several prominent parapsychological less important than the psychological researchers—Charles Akers and environment created by the shills. Susan Blackmore, to name two—who Similarly, the secret of Uri Geller is have left the fold after finding no not how he bends keys, but how, as results, often after having devoted Hyman pointed out, he "bends minds." many years of serious study to the From such scenarios, and others, cause. Unlike these few, however, we may extrapolate "demand charac­ many remain committed, not neces­ teristics" that play a part in the ease sarily to scientific inquiry, but to their with which people can be manipulated: own agendas. Hyman related the com­ the expectation that people are sup­ ment of a colleague: "If parapsycholo- posed to answer questions in a tele­ gists had been doing their jobs phone interview, for instance; the responsibly, there never would have notion that guests do not complain; been a need for CSICOP." the idea that true believers believe; The esoteric brain. "A sudden, usu­ and the feeling that experts must ally unexpected alteration of con­ know the truth. Once again we are sciousness so intense as to be over­ reminded, Fellows noted, that we need whelming"—this definition of tran­ to be careful when placing authority scendence was a central theme in this outside ourselves. session, on the inner workings of the The special case of parapsychology. Led brain, led by Barry Beyerstein. by Ray Hyman, this discussion cen­ Beyerstein outlined the ways that tered around the fact that para­ different psychological states—and psychology, as distinct from other their corresponding brain functions— paranormal activities, is essentially a can account for intense personal scientific enterprise. Its practitioners experiences, such as out-of-body epi­ are serious scientific researchers, sodes. For example, certain tran­ often at the Ph.D. level, and most are scendent experiences can be caused by trained in the disciplines of statistics the abnormal brain states associated and experimental design. with various medical conditions, such Hyman sketched a brief history of as epilepsy, schizophrenia, and the field, beginning with the forma­ Tourette's Syndrome. Similarly, tion of the Society for Psychical discipline-induced causes, such as deep Research in the 1880s, through J. B. meditation, hypnosis, ritualistic Rhine's Parapsychological Society of chanting, and self-mutilation rites, can

348 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 also produce transcendence. Even also good advice: know what your "normal" arousal phenomena—sleep point of view is, make your story or sensory deprivation, fatigue, fast­ human, and give it a structure, such ing, or emotional trauma and injury— as raising a question, repeating the may be responsible for altered premise, and resolving the issues. states. Beyerstein also identified the part The Case for Tools of the brain in which these activities have been isolated. The limbic system, The conference wrapped up with some responsible for the mind's emotional final thoughts on the cases and how modeling of reality, has been shown to apply them. This included a discus­ to be the primary area for the "elec­ sion of the difference between skep­ trical short-circuiting" that is often tics and believers and ways to improve associated with the states mentioned communication between the two. above. All of which supports the Whereas skeptics search for truths, millennia-old notion of that old coun­ believers tend to want validation of try doctor, Hippocrates, who first their experiences. But while skeptics postulated that it is indeed the brain are usually advocates for general themes that is the originator of all emotions and ideas, such as clear thinking, open- and experiences. mindedness, and education, they ask Getting the message across. Bob believers to give up something specific Fellows offered some insight into the when trying to make a case. It is for communications process and how skeptics can be more effective in making an argu­ ment. People on different sides of a discussion, he said, may think equally well, but may have different premises. Motivational speakers are aware of this and will try to change their subjects' prem­ ises. In one-on-one situations, skeptics need to keep an open mind and practice active lis­ tening to decode what a per­ son says. It is also helpful to make "I" statements when describing a behavior or feel­ ing ("I'm not comfortable with that") and not to con­ descend or to humor the be­ liever. In presenting to larger groups, it's important to per­ sonalize a topic and to try to invest it with some ori­ ginality. Following the guide­ lines of good story-telling is Hyman demonstrates dowsing at seminar

Summer 1Q94 340 reasons like this that a solid toolbox Steven Goldstein is an advertising copy­ of skeptical principles and communica­ writer and a member of the Bay Area tion techniques can be extremely valu­ Skeptics. Address: 525 Brennan St., Suite able. 205, San Francisco, CA 94107.

D Two New Fellows Elected to CS1COP

wo more scientists have recently new privately funded SETI been elected Fellows of the Com­ program born out of the ashes T mittee for the Scientific Investi­ of the recently canceled NASA gation of Claims of the Paranormal High Resolution Microwave (CSICOP): Survey (previously known as SETI), for which she was also • Thomas Gilovich, associate pro­ project scientist. She has received fessor of psychology, Cornell two NASA Public Service University. His research and Medals. teaching interests include sources of erroneous beliefs, cog­ In addition, we welcome a newly nitive illusions, misperceptions of elected Technical Consultant of randomness, and social judg­ CSICOP. ment. He is the author of How We Know What Isn't So: The Falli­ • Michael R. Dennett, writer and bility of Human Reason in Every­ investigator, Federal Way, day Life. Washington. He has long been • Jill Cornell Tarter, Senior active in examining claims of Research Scientist, the SETI Bigfoot creatures, psychics, Institute, Mountain View, Calif. UFOs, and so on. He's a con­ She is an astronomer and a tributor to the newly published leading researcher in the search Psychic Sleuths (Prometheus for extraterrestrial intelligence. Books). His work has frequently She is currently project scientist appeared in the SKEPTICAL for Project Phoenix. This is the INQUIRER. •

350 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 Research Reviews

Psi in Psychology SUSAN BLACKMORE

Most academic psycholo­ biological mechanisms"? gists do not yet accept The evidence in question is an M the existence of psi." So overview of research on the ganzfeld. begins the abstract of an important This technique of partial sensory new paper on parapsychology. deprivation of subjects in ESP experi­ The claim is undoubtedly true, and ments, pioneered by Honorton in the many readers of SI will think it ought mid-1970s, produced the great Ganz­ to stay that way. Yet this quotation feld Debate in the mid-1980s (Hyman implies that the psychologists in 1985; Honorton 1985; see also SI, 10: question might soon be changing their 2-7, Fall 1985), and finally culminated minds. in fully automated testing procedures It comes, not from a tirade against (Honorton et al. 1990). The paper the skepticism of academia but from reviews the various meta-analyses of an article just published in one of ganzfeld findings and, as Honorton psychology's most prestigious aca­ has done before, argues that obvious demic journals, Psychological Bulletin. problems like multiple analysis, selec­ Titled "Does Psi Exist? Replicable tive reporting, and methodological Evidence for an Anomalous Process of flaws cannot be responsible for the Information Transfer," the article is high replication rates. It then presents data from "11 new ganzfeld studies." by parapsychologist Charles Honor- ton (who died in 1992—see SI, 17: 306- In 1988 the National Research 308, Spring 1993) and Cornell psy­ Council produced a report on enhan­ chologist Daryl Bern. Bern's high cing human performance that in­ profile and the respect he is accorded cluded a highly negative conclusion on by psychologists will ensure that this parapsychology (Druckman and article is taken seriously and that Swets 1988; see SI, 13: 34-45, Fall perhaps some of them will begin to 1988). Bern and Honorton have some wonder about psi. new light to cast on this report that So how good is this "replicable might seem out of place in an academic evidence"? Is it sufficient, as the article. The NRC apparently solicited authors claim, to suggest the existence a background paper from Harris and of "anomalous processes of informa­ Rosenthal, and this paper noted the tion or energy transfer (like telepathy impressive ganzfeld results. Accord­ or other forms of extrasensory per­ ing to Bern and Honorton, the chair ception) that are currently unex­ of the NRC committee telephoned Rosenthal and asked him to delete this plained in terms of known physical or

Summer 1994 351 section of the paper. Rosenthal errors in the randomization proce­ refused to do so, but the section in dure. This cumbersome procedure question did not appear in the final required sets of sealed, unmarked NRC report. envelopes containing letters specify­ This is troubling indeed if it means ing the target selection (Sargent that prejudice is coming before 1980). On the basis of my various genuine scientific inquiry. It serves hypotheses I predicted specific errors more than anything to highlight how in the placement and contents of some difficult it is to stick to purely scientific of these envelopes and, when I was issues in this controversial area. able to open all the envelopes, I found Bern and Honorton also accuse the several such errors. I published the NRC report of not being an indepen­ findings and Sargent and his col­ dent examination of the ganzfeld leagues responded, claiming that they because it was heavily based on Ray were due to minor experimental error Hyman's original critique. As for their (Harley and Matthews 1987; Sargent own paper, I would say it could also 1987). be misleading. The strength of some Whatever one's favored interpre­ of Hyman's arguments is not at all tation, it is my opinion that these apparent and the impression is given problems are serious and we should that many laboratories have found not consider Sargent's studies a valid replicable effects. part of the ganzfeld database. It may This claim receives some support be for this reason that parapsychol- from Honorton's analysis, which ogists now rarely cite them as evi­ shows that the overall effect does not dence for psi. So I was disappointed depend on just one or two labs. to find that Bern and Honorton did Nevertheless, by far the greatest not mention this at all. number of studies were contributed They then go on to provide data by just two researchers. Out of 28 from "11 new ganzfeld studies." This studies, Honorton contributed 5 and will perhaps give readers the impres­ Carl Sargent, at Cambridge, 9. So sion that the data are being presented Sargent's are by far the largest for the first time. In fact they were number of studies. However, I have previously published, in almost the shown (Blackmore 1987) that there same form, in the Journal of Parapsy­ were very serious problems with chology in 1990 (Honorton et al. 1990). nearly all of Sargent's ganzfeld stu­ Admittedly they are impressive and dies. By failing to mention this, Bern deserve presentation to a wider and Honorton imply that these nine audience than the readers of para­ studies are reliable research. psychology journals. They are the The story of my visit to Sargent's series of experiments using the auto- laboratory is no secret. I went there ganzfeld—or fully automated ganz­ to try to find out why Sargent was feld system. This was designed to successful with the ganzfeld while I meet the "stringent standards" set by was not. I observed 13 sessions, of Hyman and Honorton (1986) in their which 6 were direct hits. I then joint communique—which ended the considered whether the hits might be great Ganzfeld Debate. due to sensory leakage, experimental In this new paper Bern and Honor- error, fraud, or psi, and made predic­ ton claim that these "stringent stan­ tions based on all these hypotheses. dards" have been met—a view with I was satisfied that sensory leakage which I widely concur. As the exper­ was not a problem but found serious iments are presented here, and in the

352 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 In a ganzfeld experiment, a subject relaxes in a chair in a soundproof room with half a Ping-Pong ball taped over each eye. The only sound is white noise coming from the headphones. At the same time, in a series of trials, a "sender" in another room is given a set of four pictures and asked to concentrate on one. No one else knows which pictures are chosen until the experiment is completed and the subject has reported any impressions he "received." previous 1990 paper, there are no I think one's response to this should obvious methodological flaws. The be optimistic. The work so far looks results are highly significant and the promising—let's see whether the effect size is comparable to that found results can be replicated by other in previous ganzfeld studies. There is researchers. also confirmation of findings that Honorton is no longer with us, but emerged from earlier meta-analyses. fortunately he was in Edinburgh long For example, selected subjects who are enough to help set up the autoganz- artistic and believe in psi do better feld there for others to continue. Just than unselected subjects. They do a few months ago the first results better when friends act as senders and were reported at the Society for dynamic targets are better than static Psychical Research annual conference ones. in Glasgow (Morris et al. 1993).

Summer 1994 353 Ray Hyman Responds to Bern and Honorton

ern and Honorton's Psychological worthy improvement in methodo­ B Bulletin paper is followed in the logical sophistication and experi­ same issue by a six-page critique mental rigor over the previous from Ray Hyman, Department of ganzfeld experiments. Despite Psychology, University of Oregon these improvements, the experi­ ("Anomaly or Artifact? Com­ ments fall disappointingly short in ments on Bern and Honorton," pp. the critical area of justifying the 19-24). randomization procedures. Even though all but one of the individual States Hyman: studies produced a positive effect size and the overall effect was Although the autoganzfeld significant, the autoganzfeld exper­ experiments are methodologi­ iments do not constitute a success­ cally superior to previous para- ful replication of the original psychological experiments, the ganzfeld experiments." Hyman tests of their randomization says Bern and the parapsycholo- procedures were inadequate. gists' optimism should encourage The autoganzfeld experiments investigators to attempt replica­ consistently produced positive hit rates, whose combined effect tions, and "these replications will was highly significant. However, eventually decide the issue." these experiments produced Bern follows Hyman's critique important inconsistencies with with his "Response to Hyman," (pp. the previous ganzfeld experi­ 25-27), in which he says: "I argue ments. They also showed a that our claims about the con­ unique pattern in the data that may reflect a systematic artifact. sistency of the autoganzfeld results Because of these unique fea­ with the earlier database are quite tures, we have to wait for inde­ modest and challenge his pendent replications of these [Hyman's] counterclaim that the experiments before we can con­ results are inconsistent with it. In clude that a replicable anomaly response to his methodological or psi has been demonstrated. point, I present new analyses that should allay apprehensions about Hyman concludes: "The auto­ the adequacy of the randomization ganzfeld experiments are a praise­ procedures." n

Two pilot experiments were were tested in pairs using dynamic reported. In the first, 16 unselected targets. This time the hit rate was over subjects, with friends as senders, tried 40 percent (25 percent is expected by to detect both dynamic and static chance), which is comparable to targets. Results were at chance. In a Honorton's previous results. second study 32 subjects were selected What can we now conclude? These tor artistic or musical ability and a were only pilot studies carried out by positive attitude toward psi. They students and they used a ganzfeld

354 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 setup that was not quite completed. D.C.: National Academy Press. Will these results continue when the Harley, T., and G. Matthews. 1987. Cheat­ promised refinements are in place? ing, psi, and the appliance of science: A reply to Blackmore. Journal of the Society Will the final setup really rule out for Psychical Research 54: 199-207. methodological flaws and the chance Honorton, C. 1985. Meta-analysis of psi of experimenter or subject fraud? I ganzfeld research: A response to Hyman. await the next set of results with more Journal of Parapsychology, 49: 51-86. than bated breath. Honorton, C, R. E. Berger, M. P. Varvoglis, M. Quant, P. Derr, E. I. Schechter, and In my opinion Bern and Honorton D. C. Ferrari. 1990. Psi communication have overstated the strength of the in the ganzfeld. Journal of Parapsychology, earlier ganzfeld evidence. They have 54: 99-139. completely ignored the problems with Hyman, R. 1985. The ganzfeld psi experi­ ment: A critical appraisal. Journal of Sargent's work and understated some Parapsychology, 49: 3-49. of Hyman's objections. However, I Hyman, R., and C. Honorton. 1986. A joint agree with them that the autoganzfeld communique: The psi ganzfeld contro­ procedure appears sound and the versy. Journal of Parapsychology, 50: 351- results are important. It is too soon 364. Morris, R. L., S. Cunningham, S. McAlpine, for those "academic psychologists" to and R. Taylor. 1993. Toward replication change their minds about psi, but it and extension of autoganzfeld results. is no bad thing that they have been Paper presented at the 17th International given the chance to consider it. Conference of the Society for Psychical Research, Glasgow, September 1993. Sargent, C. L. 1980. Exploring psi in the References ganzfeld. Parapsychological Monographs, 17. New York: Parapsychological Bern, D. ]., and C. Honorton. 1994. Does psi Foundation. exist? Replicable evidence for an anom­ . 1987. Sceptical fairytales from Bris­ alous process of information transfer. tol. Journal of the Society for Psychical Psychological Bulletin, 115(l):4-18. Research, 54: 208-218. Blackmore, S. J. 1987. A report of a visit to Carl Sargent's laboratory. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 54:186-198. Druckman, D., and J. A. Swets. eds. 1988. Susan Blackmore is senior lecturer in Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, psychology, University of the West of Theories and Techniques. Washington, England, Bristol BS16 2]P, England.

A Repertoire of Rationalizations

A curious fact about the recent left-critique of science is the degree to which its instigators have overcome their former timidity or indif­ ference toward the subject not by studying it in detail but rather by creating a repertoire of rationalizations for avoiding such study. Buoyed by a "stance" on science, they feel justified in bypassing the grubby necessities of actual scientific knowledge.

-Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt, High Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1994 [p. 6])

Summer 1994 355 Notes of a Fringe-Watcher ,«-,;*',

MARTIN GARDNER

0 Eyeless Vision

or four decades Ronald Coyne blindfold was tied over the dough. (pronounced "coin"), a Pente­ Assistants then wrapped his entire Fcostal preacher who lives in my head with a long strip of cloth of the hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has sort used to make turbans. The cloth been wowing church groups with swathed his entire face from chin to what magicians call an "eyeless vision" forehead, giving him the appearance act. But first a little background. of a mummy. For centuries conjurors have After his face was swathed, Kuda known how difficult it is to blindfold would raise his hands to adjust the a person so effectively that he or she portion of the cloth that crossed his cannot obtain a peek down the side nose. Beneath his fingers, his thumbs, of the nose. Noses project so far from unseen by the audience, would push the cheekbones that an opaque blind­ up through the dough, along the sides fold, covering nose and eyes, invari­ of his nose, to form two tunnels that ably leaves two tiny loopholes. This reached to the inside corners of his is not the only method of obtaining eyes. In a few more minutes the dough vision while seemingly securely blind­ would harden, leaving permanent folded—magic shops sell a variety of passages through which both eyes blindfold tricks—but it is the simplest, could peek. and one still unknown to the public. Now back to the Reverend Coyne. Magicians using the nose peek In 1950 in Sapula, a town close to usually add other dodges to streng­ Tulsa, young Ron (then seven) acci­ then an audience's belief that they dentally slashed his right eye with cannot possibly see. Powder puffs or baling wire. His parents rushed him silver dollars may be placed over the to Tulsa's St. John's Hospital where closed eyes and fastened down with an ophthalmologist tried to save the tape. Eyelids may also be taped shut. eye by surgery. This proved impos­ Kuda Bux, a magician from India, sible. The eye was removed and a was famous for his eyeless-vision act. plastic eye substituted. Three months Because he is no longer living, and no later Ron was "saved" in a rousing performer now uses his method, I will conversion experience during the altar explain here, perhaps for the first call at a local Baptist vacation Bible time, exactly how he managed to see. school. After large globs of soft dough For ten months Ronald was totally were pushed over Kuda's eyes, a black blind in his right eye. Daisy Gillock,

356 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 wife of an Assembly of LR 213 LP at K.P.B. God pastor in Odessa, Texas, and sister of the well-known Pentecostal THE PLASTIC EYE MIRACLLE faith-healer T. L. Osborn, came to Sapula to conduct a revival. "WHEN During the faith- healing part of the ser­ vice, young Coyne fol­ GOD lowed others to the platform. Not knowing Ron's right eye was SMILED false, Daisy Gillock prayed that sight in the eye be restored. As Coyne tells us in his ON, literature, he at once began to see with the plastic eye—first the altar steps, then the RONALD COYNE microphone and his This long-playing album, recorded in the mid-sixties, presents fingers. one of Ronald Coyne's entire acts. This miracle, reported by Tulsa's two newspapers,, caused a the same title. Recorded in the mid- sensation in the area. Coyne claims sixties by Loyal Records, a Bir­ that his mother, a devout Christian, mingham, Alabama, company, its two accepted the miracle at once; but his sides present one of Coyne's entire father, a professed atheist, refused to acts, complete with background organ believe until one day when Ron asked music and shouts of Glory to God, his dad to blindfold his good eye. After That's Right, Praise the Lord, and seeing and hearing Ron read print Thank You Jesus. You can even hear with the other eye, the father was so Coyne belt out the lyrics of "Only stunned that he was instantly saved. Believe." Soon young Coyne was appearing The front cover of this album in nearby Pentecostal churches to shows a photograph of a handsome demonstrate how well he could see Ronald clutching a Bible. On the back when his good eye was "securely" cover are these stirring words by covered. From that day to this, more Walter Bailes, president of the record­ than 40 years, Coyne has been pre­ ing company: senting his sensational act to believers all over America, and even abroad. Can you imagine the shock it must If you send a dollar to Ronald have given a seven-year-old boy to be told that he must have an eye Coyne Revivals, 3702 E. 51st Street, removed from the socket forever Tulsa, OK 74135 (phone: 918-744- because of an injury to that eye and 0309), you can obtain Coyne's life that it would be replaced by a plastic story in a 77-page booklet, When God eye. Can you imagine the hurt that Smiled on Ronald Coyne. It was written a praying, God-fearing, trusting by his mother in 1952. For four dollars mother must have felt at the news. you can buy a long-playing album with Think of how this must have added

Summer 1994 357 even more doubt to an already of electronic noise, accompanied by atheist father. But wait a minute! foot-stomping, hand-clapping, and a The story doesn't end here. In fact wide range of vocal sounds." this is only the beginning. But Reverend Coyne began his act at Ronald tells it so much better eight. Money collections were made himself on this album. I would like before and after the performance to say though that I have personally while he sat on two chairs because his witnessed this miracle of his seeing through this plastic eye and know weight seemed more than 400 pounds. that it is a work of the One who "As he began to preach," Murry created all things. writes, "his thunderous voice hinted that he may have learned to whisper Now in his fifties and grossly in a saw-mill." overweight, Coyne is still flimflam- Coyne began by recalling sinners ming the faithful. In 1989 the tabloid who had been saved by Jesus from the Weekly World News (August 15) fea­ eternal flames of hell. His numerous tured him on its front page. The inside Bible quotes were met with loud interview, by Ross Johnson, quoted amens, hallelujahs, and praise-the- Coyne as follows: Lords. An elderly woman was called to the platform. After holding her The Lord is a mystery. Men cannot hands and jabbering in the Unknown understand Him. I often wonder Tongue, Coyne suddenly yelled why He gave this miracle to me "Now!" The poor woman fell back­ instead of all the other people who ward, "slain by the Lord," into the need to be healed. arms of two women behind her. For In fact, the first thing I'm going five minutes she lay on the floor, arms to ask when I get to heaven is: "Why upraised, lips trembling. A dozen me, Lord? Why me?" others were similarly "slain." It's an abnormal thing that goes against everything that is taught by The show's second half was medical science. If a doctor who's Coyne's long-practiced act. A bor­ a Christian sees me with the glass rowed handkerchief was folded and eye, he'll say, "It's a miracle of God." taped over his good eye. "I was seated If a doctor who isn't a Christian sees about twenty feet in front," Murry me read hell say, "The man really writes, "and even with my poor eye­ is reading—just don't give me any sight I thought I could see the tape of that God stuff." come loose under the eye." With his Nobody can understand it. Some artificial eye, apparently now made of people try to fight it. But everybody agrees that they've never seen glass, Coyne read aloud Kipling's anything like it. I'd say 99 percent "Gunga Din," as well as social security of them accept it as the divine numbers, driver's licenses, and other miracle that it really is. items handed to him. One woman fell into a trance after he correctly read Louisiana skeptic Henry Murry her driver's license. attended one of Coyne's performances Coyne then proceeded to "heal" on April 28, 1989, in a tent on anyone who came forward with an Highway 10 near Jackson, Louisiana. ailment. A skeptic who had accompa­ His account of the show appeared in nied Murry to the show raised his the May-June 1989 issue of La Raison, hands to declare himself an atheist a publication of Baton Rouge skeptics. who did not believe Coyne was Murry says at 6:45 P.M., before Coyne actually seeing with his glass eye. arrived, he was subjected to "an hour Unflappable, Coyne calmly said, "The

358 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 TIME WARP IN THE DEVIL'S TRIANGLE! Vacationers sail back in time to the spring of I 1960 - and watch Amos 'n' Andy on LIVE TV! Kiddie tycoon, 7, yonks 5 teeth to get $$ from tooth fairy! It's a miracle and a mystery, say doctors I BLIND MAN READS ,,u,,u A GLASS EYE! Oklahoma preacher stuns thousands with mind-boggling demonstration!

WOMAN PREGNANT 62 YEARS

AIDS is Dead granny found killing off \ in freezer - under the world's' frozen peas, corn vampires! |f and TV dinners! HOW TO LOOK 10 YEARS YOUNGER IN JUST 10 DAYS!

Front page of Weekly World News. August 15. 1989.

Lord will destroy you, probably on would have to prove in court that he your way home this evening." I should can set through his eyeless socket add that Coyne likes to pop out his after an expert covers his good eye artificial eye and continue reading so thoroughly that no nose peek is with the empty socket. possible. This, of course, Coyne To make sure Coyne was still cannot do. performing, I wrote to ask. "Yes," One of the saddest aspects of Coyne replied in a handwritten note, Protestant fundamentalism is that so "we are still working and traveling for many evangelists who are nothing Jesus. I will look to hear from you." more than greedy con artists are able Signed "In Him, Ronald Coyne." to take millions from the generous When I accuse Coyne of using a contributions of gullible believers. nose peek, I am unworried about libel Steve Martin's marvelous film Leap of action. Truth is not libelous. Coyne Faith (1993) is about just such a

Summer 19Q4 35" HEADQUARTERS CAMPUS FOR CSICOP AND THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER

Taking advantage of interest rates, Located adjacent to the State Uni­ before they escalate further, and a soft versity of New York at Buffalo's construction market, we have begun Amherst Campus—the largest campus construction of the Center for Inquiry, of the nation's largest state university Phase II. This is the long-awaited system—the Center for Inquiry will completion of CSICOP's headquarters provide the permanent, multi-purpose campus, consolidating SKEPTICAL home base that the skeptical movement INQUIRER'S Buffalo-area administra­ has long required. tive, editorial, production, and ware­ Numerous opportunities exist for housing activities in one efficient contributions and the naming of rooms facility. and structures after friends or loved Ground-breaking was held May 21, ones. The CSICOP Library and the 1994, and the plan is for occupancy Center for Inquiry itself still remain to in early 1995. be named.

Preliminary architect's model of the Phase II building. ^JS* J«s ., V 7 ! N

3 ' —=—' / i ! — . — — \ / —1 i _CU

Floor plan of the new building, to be completed in early 1995. Construction Now Under Way! • New building on two floors, expan­ with full audio-visual support dable for the future • Dedicated audio-video-TV produc­ • Eye-catching new contemporary tion and duplication facility. For design larger productions, multimedia con­ • Will house the world's largest skep­ ference room converts to 3-camera tical library—computerized catalogue television studio accessible via modem from anywhere • Additional, efficient office space to in the world provide for CSICOP's past and • Conference and seminar facilities, future growth Construction Cash Is Still Short We will realize important savings by the CSICOP/CODESH construction starting construction now, although and endowment goals. To maintain our our "Price of Rea­ momentum, additional cash gifts for son" Capital Fund construction are urgently needed. Drive is still in pro­ Please support the "Price of gress. Under Co- Reason" Capital Fund Drive today. Chair Martin Gard­ For more information, use the post­ ner this campaign paid response card in this issue or has reached more contact CSICOP today at 716- than 65 percent of Martin Gardner 636-1425. hustler. made an appalling documentary in The film is based mainly on the 1972 in which he freely confessed his shattered career of faith-healer Peter many deceptions. One was to paint a Popoff. Popoff pretended to have cross on his forehead with a chemical supernatural powers, given to him that turned red from perspiration by the Holy Spirit, to know details while he preached! "You don't get about the lives and ills of persons booked back unless you have a gim­ called up to be healed. In reality, as mick," Marjoe told Newsweek 0uly 31, discovered and exposed by James 1972). He estimated that he had Randi, the Reverend Popoff was earned $3 million for his parents, who receiving this information through a were part of the scam. hidden earpiece. His wife and assist­ Coyne's gimmick is the nose peek. ants would go through the audience, Now that he is nearing the end of his prior to the show, and converse with long and shabby career, and few spectators. Later, from a trailer congregations today accept him as outside the auditorium or tent, Eliza­ genuine, he would do well to imitate beth Popoff, seated in front of a Marjoe. A documentary explaining his television screen showing the plat­ method of seeing, and telling how he form, would relay this information to has hornswoggled good believers for her husband. four decades, ought to bring in much Combine the hypocrisies of Popoff needed loot. My guess is he lacks the and Coyne with the tears and guts to make such a film, even though swaggers of Jimmy Swaggart, and you it would be a fine way to atone for have Steve Martin's phony evangelist. his sins. Not until a crippled boy is genuinely Coyne's act is an exception among made to walk is the healer stricken eyeless-vision performers. Most of with remorse—remorse intensified by them are self-styled psychics who the desertion of his girlfriend, subtly pretend they can read print with their acted by Debra Winger. fingers or toes, or see through their One of his clever "miracles" is foreheads. In China in 1980 a group secretly painting open eyes on the of "psychic" children read printed closed eyelids of a giant wooden Jesus, material after it was shoved into their nailed to a cross behind the tent's ears or put under their armpits. For platform. This was an invention of the details on the history of eyeless vision script writers, but such a miracle is by psychic charlatans, see my paper not far from those perpetrated by "Dermo-Optical Perception" (Science, actual faith-healers. Marjoe Gortner, February 11,1966). It is reprinted with who began his Pentecostal career as additions in Science: Good, Bad and a child evangelist at the age of four, Bogus (Prometheus Books, 1981). a

362 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 Psychic Vibrations

Unreal with Rael, Brazel's Real Find

ROBERT SHEAFFER

urely the most interesting of and free love. Some of the principal those claiming to have extra­ teachings of the Elohim seem to center S terrestrial friends is Claude around the importance of sensual Vorhilon, who says the space people massage and "fulfillment," and Raelian told him to take the name "Rael." Once publications are filled with images of a journalist and race-car driver, smiling, healthy, naked young bodies. Vorhilon claims he first encountered Recently they created something of a extraterrestrials at a remote location scandal in Montreal by sponsoring a in France in 1973. Not long afterward, conference titled "Yes to Masturba­ as "Rael," Vorhilon wrote They Took tion/' to which they brought some of Me to Their Planet. In it he explained the world's leading experts on the the message given to him to preach subject. The Raelian sect requires its to humanity: The "Elohim" named in adherents to pay as dues 3 percent of Genesis as our creators, a term that their after-tax income, a price that though plural is usually translated as many of them apparently feel is worth "God," were in fact these same extra­ paying. terrestrials. We did not evolve on Recently, the Raelian movement earth: rather, this advanced race, proclaimed that its leader, the "chosen using DNA, genetically engineered us one" of the Elohim, was in fact the in their own image. And we should Messiah expected by Jews. In do as the Elohim command. According November 1993, they sent a letter to to Rael, we earthlings are instructed Israeli Prime Minister Ytzhak Rabin to build them a proper embassy, in on behalf of "Rael, the Messiah, whose Jerusalem, so that they may openly mission is to rebuild the third temple return to earth, bringing with them near Jerusalem." In it they took credit all of the deceased prophets of the for the Israeli-Palestinian peace major religions. (He suggests how, in accords, whose implementation, they the interim, the Elohim might be noted, was scheduled for the twen­ contacted telepathically.) tieth anniversary of Rael's first extra­ Today the Raelian sect claims more terrestrial contact. Once again they than 27,000 members worldwide, reiterated their demand for an with a disproportionately large num­ embassy in Jerusalem, for which they ber coming from French-speaking say 3.5 square kilometers are required. countries. The group is noted for its The Raelians cautioned that, if they 1960s-style image of peace, long hair, did not get what they want from

Summer 1994 363 Israel, they would ap­ against them. "We are not a sect, but proach the a minority religion," they proclaim.

Believers in the supposed "UFO crash" at Roswell, New Mexico, probably got the biggest excitement of their lives when it was announced that Con­ gressman Steven Schiff (R-N.M.) formally requested the General Accounting Office, the in­ vestigative arm of the Congress, to look into the alleged coverup. (See News and Com­ ment, Spring 1994.) Thus far, nothing has turned up, al­ though the Albu­ querque Journal Egyptian government for a piece of (January 13,1994) quoted an unnamed land on Mt. Sinai. This would then aide of Schiff complaining that the transfer the protection of the Elohim investigation was "getting stone­ from Israel to Egypt, resulting in the walled" by the Department of dissolution of the State of Israel, and Defense. Schiff told the Washington a new Diaspora. Post (January 14,1994): "Generally I'm All this talk about Rael as the a skeptic on UFOs and alien beings, Messiah has greatly upset certain but there are indications from the run- fundamentalist Christian groups. In around that I got that whatever it was, their book UFO 666, David Allen it wasn't a balloon. Apparently, it's Lewis and Robert Shreckhise argue another government coverup." that much of the UFO phenomenon Nonetheless, a more prosaic ex­ can be attributed to demons, noting planation for the event suggests itself that the interval between Rael's first from the text of an article from the and second extraterrestrial contacts Roswell Daily Record of July 9, 1947, was exactly 666 days. As for Rael's which was among the papers released account of the Creation, UFO 666 to the press by Schiff himself. That charges that "Raelianism is blasphemy newspaper interviewed Mac Brazel, of the worst order," concluding that the rancher who discovered the Rael is but one of "many Antichrists alleged crash scene. Based upon before the final one." Rael, however, Brazel's account the article describes charges that his group is being per­ secuted for being a "minority reli­ a large area of bright wreckage made gion." With the Church of Scientology up of rubber strips, tinfoil, a rather they have founded an International tough paper and sticks. . . . The Federation of Philosophical and Reli­ rubber was smoky gray in color and scattered over an area about 200 gious Minorities, or "FIREPHIM," its yards in diameter. . . . The tinfoil, French acronym, for the purpose of paper, tape, and sticks made a bundle combatting alleged discrimination about three feet long and 7 or 8

364 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 inches thick, while the rubber made expertise" in the UFO field, including a bundle about 18 or 20 inches long knowledge of the term "MJ-12," and and about 8 inches thick. In all, he he even believed that extraterrestrial estimated, the entire lot would have beings were "behind the technology weighed maybe five pounds. There in the [UFO] crafts." A few days later, was no sign of any metal in the area Admiral Inman withrew his accep­ which might have been used for an engine and no sign of any propellers tance of the nomination for Secretary of any kind, although at least one of Defense. So perhaps the main­ paper fin had been glued on to some stream news organizations may have of the tinfoil. There were no words completely missed the mark in assess- to be found anywhere on the instru­ ment, although there were letters on some of the parts. Considerable scotch tape and some tape with flowers printed upon it had been used in the construction. No strings or wires were to be found but there were some eyelets in the paper.

The state of extraterrestrial engi­ neering must indeed be advanced far beyond ours to be capable of constructing its interstellar craft out of rubber, paper, tinfoil, and sticks. It is to be hoped that the opportunity has not been lost to learn some­ thing of extraterrestrial botany by studying the floral designs on the alien scotch tape. In a possible related de­ velopment, on January 13 members of the Computer UFO Network (CUFON) of Seattle, Washington, sent a press release to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which was holding confirmation hearings for Admiral Bobby Ray Inman to be Secretary of Defense. In the release ing reasons causing Inman to with­ they included some statements attrib­ draw his name from nomination; uted to Inman in the writings of perhaps he was forced to do so when Timothy Good, a UFOlogist not it became clear that he could not be known for avoiding bizarre and out­ counted on to continue to keep the rageous claims. According to Good, secrets of the sinister MJ-12 in its on­ Admiral Inman claimed to have "some going coverup of UFO-crash data. •

Summer 1994 365 Extraordinary Science and the Strange Legacy of Nikola Tesla

JEFF JOHNSON

ach summer the International Tesla Society holds its Extraordinary Science Confer­ E ence in Colorado Springs. The society honors the memory and work of Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), pioneer of electrical technology and world-class eccentric. One purpose of the L society—and apparently the conference—is "to £% provide a forum for voicing new and untested Half a century offer his ideas . . . for the education and enlightenment of the scientific community, students and the death, Tesla, a pioneer general public."1 This was the first year I had of electrical attended. engineering and a As a forum for untested ideas the conference world-class eccentric, is a roaring success: It is a magnet and show­ has developed a cult case for some of the most delightfully following. The untested—in a few cases untestable—notions currently vying for attention. As an added International Tesla attraction, this conference included a much Society's annual larger number of very old ideas—tested and dis­ Extraordinary Science credited innumerable times and yet still hanging Conference—a forum on. for all misunderstood Perhaps this is what is meant by the term inventors and a bizarre extraordinary science. It is certainly distinguished from conventional, nonextraordinary science. In showcase of untested ordinary science, ideas gain stature as unsuc­ ideas—is one cessful attempts to discredit them are made. But manifestation. this is too tame for the extraordinary scientist, whose ideas retain, or even gain, stature despite successful challenges. In this perverse sense the canons of extraordinary science may be seen as much more stringent than those of ordinary common-or-garden-variety science. I'm per­ fectly willing to concede this is extraordinary. Martin Gardner once observed that pseudo- scientists tend to fall into two groups: those motivated to defend some religious dogma and

366 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 Why Tesla?

It's easy to see why Tesla should tend to work in research depart­ have become the focus of an ments of large companies—tech­ effusive subculture: He was abso­ nological development today is too lutely convinced of his own genius; expensive and too complex for any he promoted his own personality single person to understand it all. cult of the "great inventor" sort; At least part of Tesla's reputation he enjoyed financial success in early stems from the fact that he was the life, and later in life was able to in­ last of the great inventors to work dulge in a panoply of bizarre and alone. A mediocre artist may grandiose ideas; and he achieved acquire an exaggerated reputation considerable scientific notoriety, by dying just before the onset of despite a flawed understanding of a dark age, and something similar physics and other sciences. seems to have happened to Tesla's It was Thomas Edison who made reputation among unsung.geniuses inventing a corporate endeavor. today. Since Edison, successful inventors those motivated by a belief in their traditional and obligatory by regular own greatness, unrecognized by the conference attendees; certainly this world, which in some cases can grow odd mania for artificial lightning is into paranoia.2 The conference was what the casual visitor is most likely made up almost entirely of this latter to remember. group, which we might call egotistical Six tables in the hall outside pseudoscience to distinguish it from displayed various wares. Some of religiously motivated pseudosciences these displays were by small compan­ like creationism. The conference is a ies, while others were staffed by indi­ focal point for a subculture of inven­ vidual inventors just itching to talk tors whose genius has yet to result about their work. This conference had in fame or fortune and whose work the air of an ordinary industrial fair, is regarded by conventional scientists albeit a very small one. as trivial, dubious, or just plain loony. One such display was the Quantum There were two large presentation Electronics Corporation's Panda Air rooms. Positioned on the stage of one Purifier. This, it turns out, is an ozone was a large high-voltage generator, generator. Ozone is produced when obviously intended for use in some electricity discharges through air, display of electrical pyrotechnics. Such which may be why this company exhibitions were a mania with Nikola thought the Extraodinary Science Tesla, who loved to be photographed Conference would be an appropriate at lectures standing on one of his own venue for its display. The device may high-voltage machines—called a Tesla contain a Tesla coil. Testimonials to coil—with streamers of electricity the unit's efficacy were distributed. shooting from his fingertips. The In another corner a salesman was society named after him puts on demonstrating something called the similar shows. I suspect this curious Lakhovsky Multi-Wave Oscillator, form of theater is now considered (continued on page 3 75j

Summer 1994 367 Nikola Tesla: Genius, Visionary, and Eccentric

JEFF JOHNSON

n the past decade or so, obtained a letter of intro­ I Nikola Tesla (1856- duction to Edison and 1943) has become a immigrated to New name to conjure York. He worked for with—at least within Edison for about a year the subculture of before having some that American phe­ kind of falling out. The nomenon: the Inven­ standard story is that tor. Few people today Edison told Tesla it recognize his name, would be worth although in the his­ $50,000 to him if he tory of electrical could improve Edi­ technology it is as im­ son's electric generators portant as Thomas significantly. Tesla did Edison's. Even Tesla's this and then asked Edison admirers don't seem to for his money. "Tesla," Edi­ know exactly what to make of son replied, "you don't under­ him. The old saw about there stand our American humor." being a thin line between genius and Tesla then caught the attention of madness is a false dilemma: for some George Westinghouse, inventor of the there is no line at all. Tesla was one air brake, who was looking to break such rugged individualist with a foot into electrical technology and thought in each camp. Tesla's ideas on electric power Tesla was born of Serbian parents distribution had merit. Electricity can in Croatia and was raised and educated be distributed in two general forms: there and in Austria and Hungary. direct current (DC) and alternating cur­ From early childhood he displayed rent (AC). Edison used DC exclusively great precociousness in technological and had a near monopoly on impor­ subjects: biographers credit him with tant electrical patents at the time. devising waterwheels at the age of Tesla advocated the use of AC, which five. As a university student he ex­ could be transmitted much greater celled in electrical technology. About distances and, just incidentally, 1882 he conceived the ideas that offered a way to do an end-run around would form the foundation for his Edison's DC patents. only truly successful inventions: the In 1891 Tesla and Westinghouse in­ induction motor and "polyphase" stalled an AC motor and generator in power transmission. the mining town of Telluride, Colo­ In 1884, while working in Paris for rado, which got him, and the state, the Continental Edison Company, a credit for the world's first practical French affiliate of Thomas Edison, he commercial use of AC motors, genera-

368 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 tors, and transmission lines. The equipment was APPARATOS FOE TB1HSMITTIH0 ELECTRICAL ENERGY. used to power mining APPLICATION nun jii.u, 1101. IIIIVED HIT 4, IIM. machinery from a water 1,119,732. Patented Dec 1.1914. turbine four miles distant. This installation, the Ames Power Station, is still extant and bears a marker honoring Tesla. Westinghouse then won the contract to light the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago using Tesla's "polyphase" AC system—essentially the same method of trans­ mitting electricity we use today. This was the first world's fair at which elec­ tricity was exhibited ex­ tensively. In addition to providing all the power and light at the fair, Tesla gave lectures and demon­ strated a number of his inventions, most notably a metal egg that he used to show that magnetic fields could be made to rotate. ~n+^ ATTORNEYS. The egg would stand up and spin like a top on its One of Testa's patents for transmitting electrical power narrow end when placed through the air. within the rotating field. This toy illu­ and Canadian cataracts.) It also repre­ strated the principle of the induction sents the end of Tesla's truly produc­ motor—one of the few of Tesla's tive period. He would continue to pro­ inventions that are ubiquitous today. duce remarkable ideas for decades but About this time Tesla was also devel­ would never again be able to finish oping the high-voltage generator later what he started. known as the "Tesla coil" and using Tesla was now obsessed with the it to give spectacular electrical shows idea of transmitting electric power that, to people in the 1890s, must have without wires. This is different from been overwhelming. radio, the purpose of which is to trans­ In the next few years Tesla would mit information—sounds, pictures, supervise the installation of his poly­ etc.—using very little energy. Tesla phase system at the new Adams wanted to pump so much raw elec­ Power Station #1 at Niagara Falls. trical energy into the atmosphere (or This was the world's first true com­ sometimes the earth, Tesla couldn't mercial electric power station. (Today make up his mind) that people all over there is a statue of Tesla on Goat the world would be able to run appli­ Island, which divides the American ances without plugging them in, and

Summer 1994 369 (No. Model.) 4 Sheets—Sheet S. N. TESLA. ELECTRO MAGNETIC MOTOR. No. 381,968. Patented May 1, 1888.

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370 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 •I

The Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island, built 1901-1903. was intended for radio and wireless transmission of power across the Atlantic. ships at sea wouldn't need to carry thereafter. (Residents don't hold any fuel. He also talked of making the grudges and seem to regard the inven­ upper atmosphere fluoresce—abolish­ tor that knocked out their power sta­ ing the dark of night forever. (One tion rather fondly. Today the city is of the most ironic aspects of current the home of the Nikola Tesla Museum Tesla-worship is that many admirers of Science and Technology.) view with alarm the low-level electro­ His next big project, the Warden­ magnetic fields produced by small clyffe Tower, on Long Island, in New appliances, while all maintain un­ York, was the last great enterprise of bounded enthusiasm for his wireless- his life. Built in 1901-1903 it was 172 power ideas, which, if they were feet tall and was to have had a practicable, would produce fields hemispherical metal dome when com­ millions of times stronger than any­ pleted. It's usually described as looking thing in use today.) To this end he began build­ ing larger and larger Tesla coils. In 1899-1900 he operated a laboratory in Colorado Springs that was essentially a house for a huge Tesla coil— 54 feet in diameter. During one experiment, the purpose of which is still not entirely clear, Tesla's demands on the local electric utility became so great that the town's main generator Nikola Tesla was set on fire, blacking out the Tesla was honored for his invention of the induction entire area. Tesla left shortly motor in this 1983 postage stamp.

Summer 1994 371 Tesla's Inventions: A Critique

esla fans credit him with a long never took his ideas beyond some T list of inventions and dis­ very short-range demonstrations. coveries. These include radio, a This left the field to Guglielmo bladeless steam turbine, fluores­ Marconi—whom Tesla despised— cent lighting, robotics, diathermy, who would prove the feasibility of the laser, vertical takeoff aircraft, long-range wireless communica­ pulsars, and much more. Ironically, tion just a few years later. This these people seem least enthusiastic leads to a Tesla Paradox: Although toward the one area in which he anticipated Marconi and others historians of science and tech­ in many ways, excellent histories nology give Tesla unqualified of early radio need make only inci­ credit: AC power technology. He dental mention of Tesla. (Two is generally credited with two books that together make an excel­ ubiquitous inventions: the induc­ lent history of early radio tech­ tion motor and "polyphase" power nology are Syntomy and Spark and transmission. All Tesla fans love his The Continuous Wave, both by Hugh induction motor, but many fear the G. J. Aitken.) This paradox recurs current that makes it go. Yet this throughout Tesla's life. is really the only area in which His bladeless turbine may have Tesla succeeded in developing a been conceptually sound, but dif­ concept into a practical reality. (In ficult and expensive to manu­ his honor, the scientific unit of facture, and it may have had tech­ magnetic induction, or magnetic nical characteristics that limited its flux density, is named the "tesla.") appeal. Tesla fans are inclined to In other areas Tesla's achievements resent this. are not so impressive. Other claims are even more A good example is radio. In the dubious: Tesla fans broaden the mid-1890s Tesla developed all the definition of invention until it loses components needed to construct a all meaning. Tesla found that gas- practical radio system, but then filled glass tubes glowed in the seems to have lost interest—he presence of his high-voltage like a giant mushroom or salt shaker. is, however, immediately compre­ Tesla obtained funds to build it by hensible as an enormous Tesla coil— signing control of his patents over to far larger than the monster at Colo­ financier J. P. Morgan, apparently on rado Springs. It was never completed the understanding the tower would be and was pulled down in 1917. part of a worldwide radio system. But Although a millionaire in the Tesla was still thinking of wireless 1890s, Tesla had so indulged his appe­ power. To electrical engineers the tite for expensive experiments that form of Tesla's tower doesn't seem to from the early 1920s until his death lend itself to being a radio antenna (by in 1943 he was nearly destitute. By this time radio pioneers were using the turn of the century, at the height much simpler, cheaper antennas). It of his reputation, Tesla had cultivated

372 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 apparatus, but modern neon and 60 years before radio astronomers fluorescent lighting don't work this did. Considering what radio tech­ way and were developed by others. nology was in 1900 this may not The claim that Tesla is the father be the true explanation. of robotics stems from a story of Tesla's "death ray" is something a demonstration he performed in of a mystery. Some (not all) ad­ 1898 in which he steered a model mirers insist it was actually built boat in a water tank by remote con­ and used to shoot down a plane. trol. He speculated that electricity Descriptions vary: sometimes it is had curative powers and built Tesla a particle beam of some sort. My coils for this purpose—therefore it favorite is that it was "a kind of is claimed that he invented dia­ radio-wave-scalar weapon or what thermy. He rambled about death might be called an ultra-sound gun" rays—hence, he "invented" the (The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola laser. Little more than a sketch Tesla, by D. H. Childress, 1993). from the 1920s of a very peculiar The most intriguing of Tesla's biplane on casters makes Tesla the inventions are the ones that got "inventor" of vertical take-off and away. Visitors to the Tesla landing (VTOL) aircraft. All this Museum in Colorado Springs are may be remarkably prescient, but told a story reminiscent of UFO by similar reasoning Leonardo da conspiracy tales: In a raid on his Vinci invented the helicopter and house immediately after his death, Hero of Alexandria (first century) government agents seized all of invented the steam locomotive. Tesla's apparatus—some 85 trunks About 1900 Tesla was playing full—either because timid bureau­ with a radio receiver when he crats felt the world wasn't ready picked up a series of regular pulses. for the wonders of Tesla tech­ He instantly concluded he had nology or for more sinister reasons. made contact with Martians—an Exactly what all this top-secret announcement that got him con­ Tesla technology may be isn't siderable ridicule. Tesla's modern known, but some of it, so goes the admirers, perhaps a bit embar­ story, may make time travel rassed for their hero, are equally possible. sure he had tuned in on a pulsar— -;•/• friendships with such Gilded Age sional newspaper copy by talking of luminaries as architect Stanford building "death rays" and photo­ White and author Samuel Clemens, graphing thoughts on film. But by who once had his picture taken in one this time he was almost forgotten. of Tesla's laboratories—having al­ Tesla was also a lifelong defender lowed himself to be suitably elec­ of the physics of Sir Isaac Newton trified. But as the twentieth century against the innovations of the upstart wore on, Tesla's coterie of admirers Albert Einstein. slowly shrank as his public pro­ Like Howard Hughes, Tesla had a nouncements on scientific subjects lifelong terror of germs, and this became more and more bizarre. phobia grew steadily worse as he During World War II he made occa­ aged. He washed continually—at

Summer 1994 373 Just What Is a Tesla Coil Anyway?

esla coils and books about them examples. Presumably, they are T are ubiquitous at Tesla exhibi­ thinking of ignition coils and fly­ tions. These coils are specialized back transformers, neither of electrical transformers and spark which is a Tesla coil. These things gaps in circuits that produce high are much more sophisticated devi­ voltages at high frequencies. Often ces whose only similarity to a Tesla the coil has a large metal ball on coil is that they all produce high top from which streamers of elec­ voltages. Some Tesla fans go even tricity shoot. further and imply that all trans­ Large Tesla coils can produce formers are Tesla coils. This is non­ millions of volts and are used to sense: Tesla did not invent the make spectacular electrical dis­ transformer. plays—but that's about all. The True Tesla coils are not used in Tesla coil has never been much scientific experiments today be­ more than a toy: excellent for a cause they are too quirky: their vol­ wide variety of adolescent mayhem tages and frequencies vary from but having no important scientific many causes and they require con­ or industrial applications. This stant adjustment. They are also device, which obsessed Tesla for very "dirty" electrically: They pro­ the last half of his life, is now only duce intense radio and TV inter­ a curiosity. ference. Today's scientists and Tesla's admirers try to get engineers have far superior around this embarrassing fact by methods of producing high vol­ claiming that Tesla coils are to be tages—methods that do not derive found in many places today: cars from Tesla's work. and television sets are favorite n hotels he would demand the maids raphies of Tesla: Prodigal Genius, by stock his room with 18 fresh towels John J. O'Neill; Tesla: Man Out of Time, a day. No matter how desperately in by Margaret Cheney; and Lightning in need of money, he was always impec­ His Hand, by Inez Hunt and Wanetta cably dressed. He had many morbid W. Draper. These provide some in­ fears: he was disturbed by round ob­ sight but are more properly classified jects, particularly pearls in women's as hagipgraphy. This may not be jewelry. He preferred to dine alone be­ entirely the fault of the authors: Tesla cause he couldn't bear to eat without encouraged his own personality cult, first counting the items on his plate, partly from vanity, partly as camou­ and the habit embarrassed him. (He flage. The data needed for a truly satis­ preferred things to come in multiples factory portrait may simply not exist of three.) His last years were spent (or it may be stored in Belgrade). How­ in cheap hotels in which he devoted ever, although these authors have his time and meager resources to varying degrees of difficulty in distin­ feeding pigeons—his only com­ guishing science from nonscience, panions—that came to his windowsill. Tesla has yet to find a biographer There are three book-length biog- immune to his crankiness. o

374 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 (Continued from page 367) the device. Also, he continued, there seems to be a curious anticorrelation also called a "Violet Ray Device." This between the seriousness of a medical is a modern version of a "device for condition and the unit's efficacy: It's electrical healing," originally manu­ not at all helpful for heart attack or factured in the 1920s. It is built into trauma from being run over by a car, an attache case, which contains a Tesla but for arthritis and rheumatism it coil to produce high-frequency high "may give what we call positive experi­ voltage. This is carried by a heavily mental results." Someone asked if it was insulated wire to a wand with a glass good for your aura. Answer, "Oh, it's bulb at its tip. The bulb is filled with great for your aura!" This contraption one or another inert gas that produces is straight out of the era when mail­ an eerie violet glow when the power order catalogs listed "electric belts" for is turned on. When this wand is men (for impotence, and almost any­ touched to human skin, a mild elec­ thing else) and "magnetic corsets" (for tric tingle is felt. (The voltage pro­ "female complaints"). duced by small Tesla coils is very high A banquet room had been pressed but the current is so slight that there into service as a bookstore. Titles is no danger—so long as everything spanned the entire range of the ego­ is working properly.) Massaging an tistical pseudosciences: admiring afflicted area of the body with this works on everything from quack wand is claimed to have therapeutic medicine to UFO propulsion. One effects. interesting series of books comprised One elderly woman—she may have paperback reprints of legitimate been a little deaf—was so enthralled science-and-technology "how to" by the tingly wand that she kept it books dating from the 1800s. Con­ pressed to her ear for several minutes. siderable space was devoted to books (The salesman finally had to tell her on Tesla and his inventions. Perhaps it was best not to overdo.) She then the largest single section consisted of asked if it was good for sore feet. The books on how to build Tesla coils. answer was yes, and before anyone There were also Tesla T-shirts, coffee knew what was happening she had cups, and other items for sale. Al­ kicked off her shoes, pulled up a chair, though usually immune to such and was inviting the salesman to apply kitsch, I couldn't resist a Tesla beer the glowing gadget to her feet. Chival­ mug along with my arm-load of rously, he complied. (The glow is inci­ books. dental: healing effects are "not The lecture/workshop schedule attributable to the glow.") was dominated by talks on recent While all this was going on, the attempts at perpetual motion. Con­ salesman told us a bit more about the ventional (nonextraordinary) scien­ device. It seems that regulatory tists hold to a principle called the law agencies like the FDA don't think of conservation of energy. This law much of it and get very upset when implies that it is impossible to build claims are made for it. Therefore, the a machine that continuously produces salesman explained—very candidly, I more energy than it consumes—in thought—to keep the government nontechnical terms, there's no such happy they have "elected not to make thing as a free lunch. Extraordinary testable claims." They are not, how­ scientists never stop looking for this ever, averse to distributing testi­ free lunch: A working perpetual- monials from chiropractors who use motion machine would make its

Summer 1994 375 inventor the richest person in history, and Trial of Gaston Naessens, by Chris although most of these people don't Bird. stress this, preferring to style them­ Next up: Brown's Gas ... A selves as benefactors of humanity. Technological Breakthrough," by Yull Researchers in this field have come Brown, and "Innovations Using to resent the invidious connotations Brown's Gas," by Gary Hawkins. the term perpetual motion has acquired When conventional scientists run elec­ and are looking for less derogatory tricity through water, the molecules phrases to describe their work. Cur­ break down into their constituents: rently, the two most popular candi­ hydrogen and oxygen. When Brown dates are free energy and over-unity. The does the same thing in his apparatus, former seems to refer to machines he gets something called Brown's Gas: that extract energy from sources not "It has been the popular practice of discernible to conventional physicists, other investigators of the Brown gas- while the latter is applied to machines generator to ascribe to the gas proper­ whose efficiency is greater than one: ties of molecular hydrogen and oxy­ that is, they produce more useful gen gasses in proportion of 2:1. energy than they consume. Exactly Although this assumption is very how one could build an "over-unity plausible, it is also very incorrect." motor" and not achieve perpetual Well, that sounds clear enough—until motion has never been adequately you look at the accompanying figure,4 explained. which seems to imply that that is The scope of the conference, as re­ exactly what Brown's Gas is. It also flected in its literature,3 was in itself suggests that mixtures of hydrogen rather extraordinary. and oxygen are explosive in any ratio. First, there was "The Incredible Conventional chemists will be crushed World of Gaston Naessens." Naessens to learn they don't understand the claims a number of discoveries. One behavior of hydrogen/oxygen mix­ is "The Somatid, an ultramicroscopic tures. So just what is Brown's Gas? subcellular living and reproducing The conference brochure is a trifle entity which many scientists believe contradictory. It does, however, is the precursor of the DNA [sic] and assure us that it's going to cause a which may be the building block of "21st Century Industrial Revolution." all terrestrial life." He is also the Now, on to perpetual motion and inventor of a new kind of microscope, "The Energy Conserver Method," by with "resolution far greater than George Wiseman: "Heat, light and current state-of-the-art micro­ magnetism are side effects of electron scopes"—and presumably just the flow and do not actually consume elec- thing for seeing somatids. On _ 6»ts% a more disturbing note, con­ HYDROGEN sider his formula 714-X: "a 1- Explosive^ £xplo«lv« compound that has restored to Mixture Mixture perfect health 750 out of 1,000 100% 0% cancer victims and has equally OXYGEN dramatic results with AIDS H patients." That Naessens has 33'A % had to face some skepticism in Brown's Gas 5 % Either side of perfect his life is strongly implied by (Perfect Mixture) mixture is EXPLOSIVE! a title the conference bookstore Brown's Gas was billed for unclear reasons—as a was offering: The Persecution technological breakthrough.

376 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 trons." Wiseman has the strange idea his energy machine. Newman is also that conventional physicists and a "tragic genius" in the classic Tesla engineers think electrons are "con­ mold, having spent 14 years fighting sumed" or "thrown away" in electric unsuccessfully for patent recognition. circuits. He has developed methods of He did, at one point, get the National designing electrical devices that do not Bureau of Standards to examine his suffer from the unnecessary limita­ machine, but the test results were dis­ tions introduced by this false world- appointing. To add insult to injury the view: "The Energy Conserver allows NBS explained this failure in terms of electron flow but saves those elec­ conventional electromagnetic theory trons, without losing voltage, so that (SI, 11:114, Winter 1986-87). New­ the electrons can go through the cir­ man is also something of a visionary cuit again and again." Remarkable. and philosopher: "Well above and be­ "This is not perpetual motion . . . [but yond the theory and energy machine, our] circuits could be called over-unity Mr. Newman will continue to promul­ when viewed by conventional dogma." gate the eternal message of love, (Italics in the original.) truth, and justice for all."6 "The Magnetic Battery," by Bert In addition to Newman's Grand Werjefelt: "Finally ... an acceptable Unified Theory, there were several explanation of apparent violations of other brands of extraordinary physics the Conservation of Energy Laws in the conference literature: "Zero- . emerges!!!" To a nonextraordinary Point Energy," "Absolute Electro­ engineer, this "magnetic battery" statics," "Point Energy Creation looks an awful lot like a motor, which Physics," and the "Scalar Magnetic turns a generator, which charges a Field." (This last is the basis for battery, which runs the motor, which frightening new "death rays" that turns the generator."5 Presumably, were secretly developed by the Soviet the battery is there only to get the Union.) I'm not sure I didn't miss a thing started, but I am plagued with few others. All are in conflict with con­ doubts. ventional physics, but whether they "PODMOD . . . The Phoenix conflict with each other isn't clear. Project," by Richard L. "Scott" McKee: Extraordinary Scientists seem to get "Claims have been made that this along with each other very well—per­ device only needs a modest input from haps because they are too polite to a 12V battery to generate up to 4000 check one another's arithmetic. times as much power for output!" Although not nearly so popular as Hmmmmmm. . . . perpetual motion, references to "The Energy Machine," by Joseph "reactionless space drives" are also W. Newman, was probably the high common in conference literature. The point of the conference. Newman is same people who seem to regard the the most famous of the current crop law of conservation of energy as a vio­ of perpetual motionists—a label he lation of their civil rights are equally won't appreciate—having demon­ incensed at Sir Isaac Newton's idea strated his machine to Johnny Carson that the only way to get pushed is to on "The Tonight Show" and in scien­ push on something else. This law is tific forums. Physicists currently extremely inconvenient in rocketry speculating about superstrings may be because in space there isn't anything more interested in his Unified Theory to push against. Rockets can get their of All Physical Phenomena, which he push only by forcibly expelling mater­ developed to explain the behavior of ials called propellants. When a rocket's

Summer 1994 377 propellant runs out, so does its ability thought that the ideas promoted will to change speed and direction—it can set the scientific world on fire we may only drift. Propellants are also heavy, safely dismiss; but the conference may bulky, and expensive, which places disperse a little envy. It offers partic­ severe restrictions on range and per­ ipants 15 minutes of fame in front of formance. Extraordinary researchers a sympathetic audience. For that are therefore making extraordinary moment their achievements are real efforts to find an alternative. Sim­ and they are accorded the respect they ilarly, modern ideas about gravity are may feel they deserve. They chat with treated with the contempt they others who have had to endure deserve by those working on anti- obscurity and ridicule and they go gravity machines—yet another eter­ away refreshed—perhaps feeling it is nal quest for the free lunch. really the world's fault, not theirs, that There was much more. As an they aren't rich and famous. adjunct to all the Extraordinary The influence of ideas promoted at Science going on there was also a the conference is likely to be self- session on Extraordinary Financing limiting, just as the unconscious self- (their term, not mine): "Gold!!! Every­ satire at which their proponents are thing you ever wanted to know. so adept may limit their own influ­ . . ." by William Cody, a "true descen­ ence. For anyone interested in the dant of 'Buffalo Bill.' " Perhaps this sociology of the pseudosciences the may give readers without much tech­ conference is a real education. nical background a better taste for the "anything goes" spirit of the con­ Notes ference than my other examples: for if it strikes you as odd to hear panning 1. Program for the 1993 Extraordinary for gold being called "finance"—I got Science Conference, p. 2, published by the International Tesla Society, P.O. Box 5636, the same bemused feeling from hear­ Colorado Springs, CO 80931. The quotation ing these other things being called is from a box listing the "Goals and Objec­ "science." tives" of the society. As I looked about at the people at­ 2. Martin Gardner, Fad) and Fallacies in the Name of Science, Dover, 1957, pp. 11-14. tending and exhibiting, everyone 3. AH uncredited quotations are from the seemed happy enough, flitting un­ conference program, pp. 6-9. (See note 1.) critically from one dubious wonder to 4. This figure was redrawn by the author the next. But I couldn't help won­ from one shown in the conference program. 5. Bert Werjefelt. "The Magnetic Bat­ dering about their possible futures, if tery," Extraordinary Science, 5, no. 2. (April/ anyone there would wind up emu­ May/June 1993): 23-32. This is the official lating Tesla's tragic later years. In publication of the International Tesla middle age he pursued projects that Society, and this issue is largely devoted to were dubious at the time and are now the Extraordinary Science Conference. 6. Conference program, p. 12. (See note regarded as scientific and tech­ 1.) nological dead ends. Before the turn of the century Tesla had made real achievements, but he spent his last Jeff Johnson (5441 S. Federal Cr., decades destitute and forgotten. MC205, Littleton, CO 80123) is an In providing a forum for these electrical engineer and a member of the people, the conference may serve a board of the Rocky Mountain Skeptics, valuable function—although not the whose newsletter is publishing a version one its organizers have in mind. The of these articles.

378 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 Pollens on the 'Shroud': A Study in Deception

JOE NICKELL

espite its exposure as an artistic forgery, the Shroud of Turin (which bears the D front and back images of an apparently crucified man) is still promoted as the burial cloth of Jesus by a small, but vocal, group of religious enthusiasts, including a few scientists. They continue to cite the "presence of Pales­ tinian pollen grains on the Holy Shroud" (De Vincenzo 1993) as a major counterargument to the carbon-14 test results, which indicated the The Shroud of Turin cloth was of medieval manufacture (Damon et al. 1989; Nickell 1989, 1991). Unfortunately, it has been shown to now appears that the pollen study was an be an artistic forgery, exercise in deception—self-deception, at best, if but a small group of not outright scientific fraud. enthusiasts still cite The analysis was conducted by a Swiss criminologist named Max Frei-Sulzer (1913- the supposed 1983). Frei once taught an evening course in presence of microscopical techniques in the Zurich Univer­ Palestinian pollen as sity extension system; subsequently he was a major counter­ asked to create a crime laboratory for the local police, which he began in 1950 (Palenik 1982). argument. It now In 1973, as a consultant to a shroud commission appears that the Frei was granted permission to take samples pollen study was an from the cloth. This involved pressing small strips of sticky tape onto the cloth's surface, exercise either in then peeling them off—coated with surface self-deception or debris—and sticking them on microscope slides. outright scientific During the next two years, between jobs as fraud. a freelance criminologist, Frei microscopically examined his tapes and in March 1976 issued a report, claiming he had found certain pollens that "could only have originated from plants that grew exclusively in Palestine at the time of Christ." Frei was also quoted as asserting: "I can state with certainty that the Turin shroud dates from the time of Christ." (Humber 1978: 196; Wilcox 1977:167). Apparently, however, he

Summer 1994 area of the Anatolian steppe that includes Urfa (Edessa, in ancient times)—both in Turkey (Frei-Sulzer 1979). He reportedly traveled through the Near East and Turkey "in different floral seasons" in order to obtain pollen specimens to compare with those on the shroud (Frei-Sulzer 1982). The discovery of these addi­ tional pollens seemed strikingly to confirm a "theory" of the shroud's history advanced by Ian Wilson. This is an important issue for shroud advocates since the cloth lacks any provenance before the 1350s. Wilson's conjectural history of the shroud begins with the notion that it was the ancient Image of Edessa, also known as the Mandylion. According to a fourth-century legend, Jesus miraculously imprinted his face on a cloth as a gift to Edessan King Abgar, in "consolation" for his affliction with leprosy. The Mandylion remained in ing the frontal image. Edessa until 943, when it was seized was either "misquoted" or withdrew by the Byzantines and installed at this rash statement, because shroud Constantinople. From there, this researcher Ian Wilson (1979:80) soon theory holds, it was eventually taken insisted, "Frei makes no such claims," to France by crusaders (Wilson 1979: describing him as a "cautious indi­ 126-191). vidual." However, not only is the story of Subsequently, Frei had also Abgar and Jesus demonstrably apoc­ claimed, according to wire-service ryphal, but the Mandylion bore only reports, that "he found traces of a facial portrait, not the twofold ointment made from a type of aloe imprint of a crucified man. It is there­ that grows only on the island of fore not surprising that historians are Socotra, off the coast of South Yemen. quick to dismiss Wilson's scenario Ancient texts refer to the ointment (Nickell 1987: 41-48). as having been applied to corpses Nevertheless, Frei's pollen evi­ before burial, Frei said." These alleged dence gave Wilson's ideas new cred­ findings—consistent with the refer­ ibility. In return, Wilson devoted a ence to aloes in the Gospel of John chapter to Frei in his book and gave (19:39)—were presented to the Arch­ an extended list of 49 "Plant Species bishop of Turin just in time to make of Pollen Samples from the Shroud (as 1981 Easter news (Dart 1981). identified by Dr. Max Frei)" in an Earlier, Frei had also claimed to appendix (Wilson 1979: 77-81, 293- have found pollens on the shroud that 298). (Later Frei [1982] claimed to have were characteristic of two other non- identified at least 56 different pollen European regions, including Istanbul types.) (formerly Constantinople) and the Still, Wilson did concede "that Frei

380 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 ••MHH Photomicrograph of slide 6-B/d from the Max Frei collection. While this detail shows two or three of the many pollen grains found on that tape (which contains much more pollen than all of the other 25 tapes combined), they are from the lead end where Frei's gloves left the myriad of cotton fibers shown crisscrossing the area. Clean gloves should have left no pollens in this area. McCrone labels this—and a suspicious smear of several hundred pollens on the body of the same tape—"contamination." (Photomicrograph courtesy of Paul C. Moloney, ASSIST) was using palynology, the science of have been kept in the course of its pollen analysis, in a particularly history. Another complication is that unusual way." As he explained: "Nor­ plants that originally had one specific mally a core is taken from some regional derivation are today found all sedimentary deposit, and by simple over the globe" (Wilson 1979: 79-80). analysis of the pollens at different Related criticisms came from var­ levels, a picture can be built up of ious quarters. Some faulted Frei's changes of flora in one region over work for apparently failing to use a given period." He continued: "By control samples. Another problem contrast Frei was trying to use the was the possibility of contamination. method to determine through which According to an article in Science 81, geographical regions one given object, even Shroud of Turin Research Pro­ the shroud, had moved, the significant ject (STURP) scientists "say the clues being the identification on the pollens might have been carried by the object of pollen from plants of spe­ wind or deposited by the shroud's cifically limited geographical distribu­ visitors; its presence does not prove tion." Wilson elaborated: "One of the that the shroud was ever in the Holy complications of the method is that Land" (Burden 1981). many plants are common to virtually However, Smithsonian botanist all areas in which the Shroud might Richard H. Eyde (1986) observed that

Summer 1994 381 the real problem with Frei's work was McCrone (1980; 1981) is the noted that he claimed to do that which was microanalyst who discovered paint suspect. Eyde noted that pollen iden­ pigments—notably red ochre—on the tification "is not to species save in rare shroud image. cases; rather it is to this or that 'type' Schafersman (1982a) subsequently of [pollen] grain—or to genus or elaborated on his views, terming Frei's species-group." He added: "This is so pollen data "incredible" and casting well known, that the burden of proof suspicion on how the data "supports is on the one who says he's identified in exquisite detail a highly speculative a species by its pollen. The identifier history of the 'shroud's' journey that must say what traits separate the no reputable historian or scientist identified grain from grains of related endorses because there is no inde­ plants." pendent evidence for it." Schafersman Other problems with Frei's cred­ pointedly observed that at the Inter­ ibility were forthcoming. Before his national Congress on the Turin death in 1983, his reputation suffered Shroud in 1978, Frei publicly endorsed a severe blow when, representing Wilson's shroud/Mandylion theory. himself as a handwriting expert, he Schafersman went on to explain pronounced as genuine the notorious how unlikely it was, given the evi­ "Hitler diaries," which were soon ex­ dence of the shroud's exclusively posed as third-rate forgeries (Brown­ European history, that 33 Middle ing 1983). Eastern pollens could have reached the In the meantime, an even more cloth, particularly only pollen from serious question had arisen about his Palestine, Istanbul, and the Anatolian pollen evidence—not just about its steppe. With such selectivity, Scha­ interpretation, but concerning its very fersman stated, "these would be existence. Frei's alleged findings were miraculous winds indeed." In an article at variance with those of STURP, in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Schafers­ whose members had taken their own man (1982b) called for an investigation sticky-tape samples from the shroud of Frei's work, for comparison not in 1978 (at which time Frei took a only with STURP's tapes but with second set of samples). Now, it is not "duplicate and independent sticky- true—as shroud enthusiast Daniel C. tape samples of pollen and dust" that Scavone (1989: 44-46) reports (with Schafersman wished to be taken from characteristic inaccuracy)—that "the the shroud. STURP scientists were shocked when Although new samples were not they examined the tapes for pollens taken, after Frei's death another and not one pollen was found on any organization, the Association of of them." However, STURP did report Scientists and Scholars International that "very few pollen were observed for the Shroud of Turin (ASSIST), on the tape samples in the present obtained Frei's tape samples. His project" (Schwalbe and Rogers 1982). widow, Gertrude Frei-Sulzer, first Probably the first person to pub­ loaned five tapes to ASSIST. I was licly suggest Frei might be guilty of present when these were made avail­ deception was shroud critic Steven D. able for microscopical viewing in mid- Schafersman, a professional micro- February 1986 at a shroud conference paleontologist. He, Walter McCrone, at Elizabethtown College, Elizabeth- and I each gave presentations on the town, Pennsylvania; McCrone was shroud at an international microscopy the first to examine one of the tapes conference held in Chicago in 1982. and soon announced: "There's a

382 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 • M

—1 ft Walter McCrone, regarded by many as the world's leading micro- analyst, discovered paint pigments on the Shroud of Turin and subse­ quently examined pollen specimens allegedly removed from the same linen cloth. His motto is "Think small." (Photo by Joseph Barabe, copyright McCrone Scientific Photography)

pollen" (Maloney 1989). parts and floral debris, such as an­ Two years later, ASSIST acquired thers, filaments, and vascular tissue Frei's collection of tapes from his on at least three of the tapes." This widow and son and invited two was held to support a hypothesis that scientists—McCrone and STURP's "actual flowers had been laid down on Alan Adler—to verify that the samples the Shroud at some time during its were taken from the Shroud of Turin. history," which in turn "would explain With the proceedings being video­ the high percentage of floral pollens taped, as each slide was handed to on the Shroud as described by Dr. McCrone he observed it under the Frei" (Flaherty 1989). light microscope while simultaneously Interestingly, ASSIST's Paul Mal­ shroud researchers observed the oney (1994) reports that the pollens microscope's field on video monitors "are mostly located in what I call the McCrone described linen fibers 'lead' (as opposed to the 'body') of the (including scorched fibers) and various tapes," supposedly attributable to contaminants, including synthetic Frei's method of handling the tape, by fibers, particles of iron oxide (red which he picked up additional pollens ochre), and a few pollens. from between the threads. On the Termed "one of the most surpris­ other hand, McCrone (who did not ing revelations of the day" was the examine the leads during his mara­ discovery of "various kinds of plant thon inspection) is suspicious of the

Summer 1994 383 excessive pollens reported in those in France and Italy. I'm afraid that unlikely areas, stating that, at best, Max Frei was like so many other they would represent "contamination" members of the STURP group who of some sort (McCrone 1994). were so convinced by their faith the Shroud was real that they were just Indeed, McCrone's overall assess­ as convinced that whatever was ment of the pollens is at variance with needed on the Shroud to prove that that of ASSIST. When I headed the fact must be there, and if they didn't symposium on forgery at the Manu­ literally find it they regarded this script Society's 1993 meeting in Santa as their error rather than a reality Fe, I invited him to give a presentation. in terms of what the Shroud actu­ The evening before, we had a lengthy ally shows. discussion, during which the distin­ guished microanalyst confided to me McCrone added (1993b): his opinion of Frei's pollen evidence. This he did with some obvious pain, I have looked back over my notes explaining that "Max" had been a and see that I mentioned, margi­ friend of his. At my prodding, in two nally, the presence of very few subsequent letters he elaborated in pollens. Only 10 plus or minus on some detail on his observations. all of the tapes other than 6 Bd which has dozens of them. I also Explaining that he "spent a long day noted that those on 6 Bd were examining the 26 Frei tapes in order located within 2-3 square milli­ to be able to say that they had meters of the tape. At the time I definitely come from the Turin remember saying diplomatically shroud," McCrone stated: "It was not that they were "contamination." I too difficult to conclude that they had didn't in fact, identify those pollen, since it was easy to find red ochre on so I don't know whether they are linen fibers much the same as I had Palestinian or Italian. It is very seen them on my samples." He con­ doubtful that they were present on the Shroud itself and sampled by tinued (1993a): Max. The fact that they are then present indicates that the tape had At the same time I was interested to be pulled back so that they could to note that there were very few be introduced and I see no good pollen grains; perhaps one per reason for that except skullduggery. square cm, which was pretty much A skilled skulldugger would, of what I had observed on my set of course, pick off all but one or two tapes. Incidentally I had talked to of those contaminating pollen Max Frei at one of our London grains. Microscopy meetings a year or two earlier and had asked him what the So I can't be sure that Max really concentration of pollen was, and he adulterated the tapes from that bit did say about one per square cm. of evidence, but the fact that most Considering that figure and the of the pollen he found supposedly number of tapes and their length came from the Palestinian area even there could not have been much though it had spent the last 600 more than 100 pollen grains all total years or so bouncing around in on his or my tapes. It is difficult to France and Italy is more than a little see how he could have found an surprising. assemblage of pollens representing 49 different species of Palestinian Finally, he added this bombshell: pollens on a piece of cloth that has spent the last 650 years of its life One further point with respect to openly exhibited and much handled Max which I haven't mentioned

384 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 anywhere, anytime to anybody is International, 1(3): 3-7, June. based on a statement made by his Humber, Thomas. 1978. The Sacred Shroud. counterpart in Basel as head of the New York: Pocket Books. Police Crime Laboratory there that Maloney, Paul. 1989. ASSIST announces the Max had been several times found acquiring of the Max Frei collection for Shroud research. ASSIST Newsletter, guilty and was censured by the 1(1): 1-3. Police hierarchy in Switzerland for, . 1994. Letter to Joe Nickell, January shall we say overenthusiastic inter­ 12. pretation of his evidence. His Basel McCrone, Walter C. 1980, 1981. Light counterpart had been on the inves­ Microscopical Study of the Turin tigating committee and expressed "Shroud," Microscope, 28:105-128 and 29: surprise in a letter to me that Max 19-38.) was able to continue in his position . 1993a. Letter to Joe Nickell, June 11. as Head of the Police Crime Lab in . 1993b. Letter to Joe Nickell, June 30. Zurich. . 1994. Phone conversation with Joe Nickell, January 24. Nickell, Joe. 1987. Inquest on the Shroud of The implications of McCrone's Turin, updated ed. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prome­ revelations are devastating to authen­ theus Books. . 1989. Unshrouding a mystery: Sci­ ticity advocates—or should be. How­ ence, pseudoscience, and the cloth of ever, experience shows they are never Turin, SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 13: 296-299, dissuaded by negative evidence. Spring. . 1991. Les preuves scientifiques que le Linceul de Turin date du Moyen age. References Science et Vie (France), July 6-17. Palenik, Skip. 1982. Microscopic trace Browning, Michael. 1983. Historian waffles evidence: The overlooked clue, Part 2 on Hitler "Diaries," Lexington Herald- ("Max Frei—Sherlock Holmes with a Leader (Lexington, Ky.), April 26. Microscope"), Microscope, 30: 163-169. Burden, Annette. 1981. Shroud of mystery. Scavone, Daniel C. 1989. The Shroud of Turin Science 81, November, pp. 77-82. (Great Mysteries series). San Diego, Damon, P. E., et al. 1989. Radiocarbon dating Calif.: Greenhaven Press. of the Shroud of Turin. Nature, 337: 611- Schafersman, Steven. 1982a. Letter to the 615. editor, Microscope, 30: 344-352. Dart, John. 1981. Scientists can't prove or . 1982b. Science, the public, and the deny its link to Jesus. Los Angeles Times, Shroud of Turin. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, April 18. 6(3): 37-56, Spring. De Vincenzo, Victor. 1993. 12 reasons why Schwalbe, L. A., and R. N. Rogers. 1982. I cannot accept the carbon-14 test results Physics and chemistry of the Shroud of on the Holy Shroud of Turin. Shroud Turin: A summary of the 1978 investi­ Sources, September/October, pp. 1-6. gation. Analytica Chimica Acta, 135: 47, Eyde, Richard H. 1986. Letter to Joe Nickell, n. 4. March 18. (See also his letter to National Wilcox, Robert K. 1977. Shroud. New York: Geographic, February 1985.) Macmillan. Flaherty, Thomas. 1989. "Verification of the Wilson, Ian. 1979. The Shroud of Turin: The Max Frei Collection." ASSIST Newsletter, Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? New York: 1(1): 4-5. Image Books. Frei-Sulzer, Max. 1979. Wissenschaftliche Probleme um das Grabtuch von Turin. Joe Nickell is the author of many Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau, 32-34: 133-135. investigative hooks, including Inquest on . 1982. Nine years of palynological the Shroud of Turin (Prometheus Books, studies on the Shroud. Shroud Spectrum 1983, 1987).

Summer 1994 385 Do Televised Depictions of Paranormal Events Influence Viewers' Beliefs?

GLENN G. SPARKS. TRICIA HANSEN, and RANI SHAH

ver the past 15 years, scholars from various disciplines have shown increas­ O ing interest in the study of paranormal beliefs. The term paranormal is reserved for claims made about the existence of a wide range of extraordinary phenomena that includes such things as ESP (extrasensory perception), Presentation of a haunted houses, ghosts, devils, spirits, reincar­ nation, telekinesis (the ability of the mind to disclaimer before move or bend objects), UFOs (unidentified flying the program objects), astrology, and astral projection (one's spirit leaving the body, traveling some distance, 'Beyond Reality and then returning). In a recent national survey significantly of 1,236 adults, Gallup and Newport (1991) found that paranormal beliefs were "wide­ reduced the spread," with nearly 50 percent of the respon­ tendency for dents reporting belief in ESP and almost 30 percent reporting belief in haunted houses. viewers to endorse These beliefs are held by people of various paranormal demographic groups, occupations, and economic beliefs. levels. A number of scholars and skeptics from different disciplines and intellectual perspectives have expressed concern about the fact that belief in the paranormal is so common. For example, K. L. Feder (1984), an anthropologist writing in American Antiquity, laments the findings of a survey reported by Bainbridge (1978) that revealed widespread acceptance of the notion that "human physical and cultural evolution was directed by extraterrestrial aliens" (pp. 525-526). Regarding these findings, Bainbridge (1978) concluded: "Apparently our university does not give students the knowledge to protect them from intellectual fraud" (p. 39).

386 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 One claim that consistently the media for disseminating scien­ appears across much of the literature tifically unproved ideas about the dealing with paranormal beliefs is that paranormal, simultaneously appear to the mass media should accept a major be relatively unconcerned about offer­ responsibility for encouraging people ing scientific evidence for their claim toward uncritical acceptance of para­ of the pernicious effects of the media normal claims. For example, in a guest in this domain. Because of the lack of essay for Time, James Randi (1992), evidence in favor of the notion that a magician and skeptic, noted that the media depictions of the paranormal do reason for the prevalence of "absurd influence paranormal beliefs, the beliefs" among the populace of every study reported below investigated this culture is to be found in the uncritical issue. acceptance and promotion of these While some newspapers carry notions by the media" (p. 80). disclaimers next to astrology columns, Among scholars, the indictment of this practice does not appear to be the media for encouraging the adop­ particularly prevalent (see Gersh tion of paranormal beliefs is far 1987). More common than the use of harsher than Randi's. Even a casual disclaimers may be the use of truth perusal of the literature reveals that claims that inform the public that its scholarly contributors subscribe media depictions of paranormal activ­ widely to the notion that the media ity are actually based on documented unduly influence people to accept occurrences. Such truth claims are paranormal claims by giving excessive used frequently in news documentar­ attention to reports of paranormal ies to substantiate the fact that the activity, and by encouraging uncritical depicted events actually happened. acceptance of the veracity of these Several recent television programs reports (Feder 1984; Kurtz 1985). For (e.g., "Unsolved Mysteries," "Haunted example, Kurtz (1985) refers to the Houses: Real Stories") follow this "dominant influence of the media in news documentary style. While forming [paranormal] attitudes and research is important on the effects beliefs," and he charges that the media of paranormal truth claims presented often "behave totally irresponsibly in in a news documentary, the present treating 'paranormal' occurrences" study is concerned with the use of (pp. 359-360). Along this same line, disclaimers and truth claims for Feder (1984) blames the media for the paranormal events that occur in the problems faced by archaeologists in context of dramatic entertainment.1 their attempts to overcome the many One recent television series that reports of "unverified claims." regularly featured the dramatic depic­ The charge that the media play a tion of paranormal events was crucial role in influencing paranormal "Beyond Reality" (USA Network). beliefs is not new (see Mailer and This 30-minute program began with Lundeen 1932), but it it may be more a short truth claim: "The following widespread since the rise of television. story of paranormal activity is based Surprisingly, however, there is a lack on reported incidents." Each episode of direct empirical evidence to sub­ in the series depicted the story of one stantiate the claim that mass media primary character's experience with influence paranormal beliefs. This is some type of paranormal event, which particularly interesting because it was always depicted as if it actually suggests that the scientists, philos­ happened. One question concerns the ophers, and skeptics, who often blame potential effects of the information

Summer 1994 387 presented prior to each episode. Did to one of five experimental condi­ the truth claim that appeared before tions. In four of the conditions, each episode lend more credibility to everyone watched the same episode the program content and influence of "Beyond Reality," but the infor­ people to believe more in the validity mation that appeared prior to the of paranormal events? How did the episode was varied. In a fifth condition effect of this truth claim differ from (control group), participants viewed the effect of other types of informa­ an episode of a situation comedy that tion (i.e., disclaimers) that might have contained no references to para­ appeared in the same place—or from normal activity. no information at all? These questions Two weeks prior to their viewing were explored in the experiment of the videotapes, participants com­ reported below. pleted a 30-item questionnaire de­ Viewers of typical television enter­ signed to measure the extent to which tainment fare are not generally mo­ a respondent expressed belief in tivated to engage in careful, rational paranormal activitity. (See Jones, deliberation on the points that might Russell, and Nickel 1977 and Tobacyk be used to support or refute the and Milford 1983 for sources on these validity of paranormal activity. Their items.) Each of the items was rated viewing orientation is more likely to on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly be toward satisfying some emotional disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). To need (Rubin 1986) or toward affecting disguise the true purpose of the their current mood (Zillmann 1988). experiment, the questionnaire also The inclusion of either a truth claim contained a variety of other items, or a disclaimer prior to an episode of unrelated to paranormal beliefs. dramatic entertainment should gener­ Participants were run through the ally increase the viewer's motivation laboratory phase of the study in to evaluate the veracity of the depicted groups of from two to five. To prevent events. One question addressed by the any interaction during the session, present research concerns the effects particpants were instructed to sit at of a televised, dramatic depiction of one of five desks that were separated paranormal activity that occurs in the by visual barriers. They were absence of any disclaimer or truth instructed to relax and enjoy the claim, and is consequently seen by television program and the commer­ viewers who are relatively unmoti­ cials that they were about to see, but vated to make judgments about the to be sure not to interact with one 2 veracity of the program content. another during the program. Com­ mercials were mentioned in an The Study attempt to disguise the true purpose of the experiment. Observations Students enrolled in a Communica­ through a one-way window indicated tion class at a large midwestern that no interaction took place between university served as participants in the any of the participants. study (N = 187; males: n = 56, During each viewing session, par­ females: n = 131.)3 Participation was ticipants watched one of five different offered as one alternative for dis­ videotapes. These videos had been charging a course research require­ randomly assigned to the various ment. viewing sessions prior to the arrival In a single-factor experiment, the of the participants. In four of the participants were randomly assigned conditions, participants viewed a 30-

388 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 minute episode of the program In the fourth condition, no message of "Beyond Reality," including the com­ any kind appeared prior to the pro­ mercial messages as they were orig­ gram. Participants in a control condi­ inally broadcast. The only difference tion watched an episode of "Perfect between these four conditions was the Strangers" (a situation comedy) that message that was professionally contained no reference to paranormal edited at the beginning of the program activity. to convey various impressions about Following the video, which the upcoming content. The messages depicted various scenes of astral appeared in white letters on a dark projection involving a husband and his background and the same narrator's estranged wife, the experimenter voice read each message. These mes­ returned and requested that the sages were edited into the same place participants respond to some ques­ where the actual "truth claim" orig­ tions. The first portion of the ques­ inally appeared when the episode was tionnaire asked about the program's broadcast. After the final data collec­ various commercials. These questions tion, participants were asked about were designed to continue the disguise their perceptions of the edited mes­ of the true purpose of the investiga­ sages. No one expressed suspicion that tion. Following these questions, par­ the messages were not actually part ticipants responded to the same items of the program as it had been orig­ on paranormal activity that had been inally broadcast. The different mes­ completed several weeks earlier. sages were as follows: Participants were also asked to report their own idea about the purpose of Reality: The following scenes depict the experiment. a reenactment of paranormal activ­ Three weeks after the conclusion ity that was actually reported and of the experiment, the experimenter documented by the people involved. returned to the participants' class and While the people in these scenes are asked everyone to complete a subset professional actors and actresses, of the items on paranormal activity the characters that they portray are once again.4 After these question­ real. naires had been completed, a full debriefing took place. Those not Fiction: The following scenes depict present at this session were informed paranormal activity that was never later about the purpose of the exper­ actually reported and documented. The characters shown in these iment and referred to the experi­ scenes and the events that occur are menter if they had questions. purely fictitious and are presented Of the 30 items used to assess only for your entertainment. paranormal beliefs, 7 items were singled out as ones that would be most Impossible: The following scenes likely to be affected by the program depict paranormal activity that was "Beyond Reality." These items are never actually reported and docu­ marked accordingly in Table 1, and mented. The events that occur in analyses revealed that they formed a these scenes are impossible from a reliable measure. The remaining 23 scientific standpoint in that they items on paranormal beliefs asked contradict the known laws of nature. There is no evidence that about very specific phenomena that these events—or any other events were not depicted in "Beyond Reality" of a similar nature have ever actu­ and thus were less likely to be affected ally happened. by seeing the program (e.g., palm

Summer 1994 389 TABLE 1

Respondents Indicating Agreement, Disagreement, Or Uncertainty About Paranormal Beliefs

Agree Undecided Disagree Item % % %

'Mind or soul can leave body and travel (astral- projection) 30.0 35.3 34.8 "Psychic phenomena are real and should be studied scientifically 42.2 25.1 32.7 UFO sightings are either other forms of physical phenomena (such as weather balloons) or hallucinations 24.6 28.9 46.6 The Abominable Snowman of Tibet really exists 12.3 31.0 56.7 I firmly believe that ghosts or spirits do exist 69.0 13.4 17.7 Black magic really exists and should be dealt with in a serious manner 32.1 35.3 32.6 Witches and warlocks do exist 34.8 25.1 40.2 Only the uneducated or the demented believe in the supernatural and occult 14.5 7.0 78.7 Through psychic individuals, it is possible to communicate with the dead 15.0 39.6 45.4 I believe the Loch Ness monster of Scotland exists 21.4 29.4 49.2 Once a person dies, his/her spirit may come back from time to time in the form of a ghost 48.1 24.1 27.8 Some individuals are able to levitate (lift objects) through mysterious mental forces 24.6 34.8 40.6 Telling the future through palm reading represents the beliefs of foolish and unreliable persons 36.9 23.5 39.5 I am firmly convinced that reincarnation has been occurring throughout history and that it will continue to occur 27.3 28.9 43.8 reading, casting spells, the Loch Ness naire. As the table reveals, belief in monster, etc.). paranormal phenomena was quite common among the study's partici­ Results pants and parallels those levels reported by Gallup and Newport Table 1 displays the percentages of (1991) in a random sample of respondents who either agreed, dis­ Americans. agreed, or were undecided about each To examine the possible effects of paranormal belief statement on the the disclaimers and the truth claims initial, pre-experimental question­ presented just prior to the episode of

390 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 Agree Undecided Disagree Item % % % 1 firmly believe that on some occasions 1 can read another person's mind via ESP (extrasen­ sory perception) 34.2 18.7 47.1 ESP is an unsual gift and should not be con­ fused with elaborate tricks used by entertainers 43.9 27.3 28.9 'fGhosts and witches do exist outside the realm of imagination 43.8 27.3 28.9 * Supernatural phenomena should become part of scientific study 34.8 31.0 34.3 "tAII reports of "scientific proof of psychic phe­ nomena are strictly sensationalism with no factual basis 18.1 38.5 43.3 It is possible to cast spells on individuals 13.4 26.7 59.9 With proper training, anyone could learn to read other people's minds 15.0 26.2 58.8 It is advisable to consult your horoscope daily 11.2 17.1 71.7 Plants can sense the feelings of humans through a form of ESP 11.2 36.4 52.4 ESP has been scientifically proved to exist 9.1 61.0 30.0 "|Many phenomena (such as ESP) will one day be proved to exist 62.6 19.3 18.2 Psychokinesis, the movement of objects through psychic powers, does occur 26.7 39.6 33.6 A person's thoughts can influence the move­ ment of a physical object 16.1 44.9 39.1 Mind reading is not possible 22.0 26.2 51.9 Many special persons have the ability to pre­ dict the future 36.9 25.7 37.4 * During altered states, such as sleep or trances, the spirit can leave the body 26.7 32.1 41.2

Note: Percentages are based on 187 respondents for each item. "Strongly agree" and"Agree " are combined into one category for this table. "Strongly disagree" and "Disagree" are similarly combined. * Designates an item on the 7-item scale. t Designates an item that was omitted on the measure three weeks after program viewing.

"Beyond Reality," a paranormal-belief beliefs would be revealed by a negative change score was computed for each score. A one-way ANOVA for unequal participant. The score on the seven- cell-sizes across the five experimental item scale taken before viewing was conditions was computed on the subtracted from the corresponding change scores. The results of this score taken just after viewing. As a analysis revealed a significant main result of this procedure, any increase effect for the manipulation of prior in paranormal beliefs after the pro­ information [F(4, 106) = 2.72, p < 5 gram would be revealed by a positive .03]. Comparisons of the means score. Any decrease in paranormal revealed that participants who viewed

Summer 1994 391 '' JABLE2 .. Mean Change Scores in Paranormal Belief? Immediately Following Exposure to a Televised Depiction of Paranormal Events ;*

Reality Fiction Impossible No ^Message Control- - &**-\ • -.96ab -1.58ob, -2.04a . +i.59b • -.82ab (n = 23) (n.= -19) -"(n'='2S)' '••*'• "("'=22) '. (n = 22)';

Note: Negative scores reflect reports of de&easeb paranormal.'bejief after the program, relative to beliefs measured two weeks earlier. Means having *no subscript iff' common differ at p-< .05-according to the Newfhanj^euls post-comparison procedure. .

TABLE 3 Replication Analysis of Table 2 Means With* Participants Who Also Responded Three Weeks After Viewing

Reality Fiction Impossible No Message Control'

-25b -1.93ab -2.79a . +1.23bc -5CU (n=16) (n-= 15) (n = 19) % (n= 13) . (n=16)

Note: Negative scores reflect reports of decreased paranormal belief after the program relative to beliefs measured two weeks earlier. Means having no subscript in common differ at p < .05 according to the Newman-Keuls post-comparison procedure. the program with no prior informa­ gram. This analysis produced a pat­ tion of any type (M = 1.59) were tern of means that was similar to those significantly more likely to report reported immediately after viewing. increased, paranormal beliefs when Table 4 displays the full results of this compared with the participants who analysis. viewed the program in the impossible condition (M = -2.04). Table 2 dis­ Discussion plays the full results of this analysis. When this same analysis was con­ The results of the initial questionnaire ducted using only the participants indicated that paranormal beliefs were who responded to the questions three widespread among this particular weeks later (see note 4), essentially the sample of college students. These same results emerged. Table 3 displays findings are typical when compared to the full results of this analysis. other recent surveys of paranormal In order to assess the longevity of beliefs in college student populations the effects revealed in the analyses (Tobacyk, Miller, Murphy, and Mit­ above, change scores were similarly chell 1988). It is interesting to note computed using the measure of para­ the significant proportion of respon­ normal beliefs assessed three-weeks dents who indicated uncertainty about after participants had viewed the pro­ the various paranormal belief items

392 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 TABLE 4 Mean Change Scores in Paranormal Beliefs Three Weeks Following Exposure to a Televised Depiction of Paranormal Events

Reality fiction Impossible No Message Control

-1.06ab -2.60a -1.73ab +1.00b -.44ab (n=16) (n=15) (n=19) (n = 13) (n = 16)

Note; Negative scores reflect reports of decreased paranormal beliefs three-weeks after the program relative to beliefs measured two weeks prior to program exposure. Means having no subscript In common differ at p < .05 according to the Newman-Keuls post-comparison procedure.

(see Table 1). For issues on which could be that the appearance of any beliefs are uncertain, it is reasonable message prior to a paranormal depic­ to assume that there may be more tion—even one that affirms the verac­ opportunity for media influence than ity of the events—serves to focus for issues on which beliefs are already attention on the possibility that the strong. depicted events are deserving of some The results of the experiment doubt. provided evidence for the fact that Surprisingly, the effects of the media depictions of a paranormal experimental manipulation showed event may have an impact on viewers' some signs of persisting up to three paranormal beliefs. Specifically, the weeks after the program was viewed. findings indicated that the use of a The direction of the mean for each disclaimer message before the pro­ condition was similar to that observed gram tended to reduce beliefs in the immediately after viewing, and the paranormal, while the use of no size of the statistical effect was nearly message at all tended to increase these the same as the one from the analysis beliefs. It could be that the use of a of immediate effects. This evidence strong disclaimer forces viewers to suggests that viewers who watch pro­ process program content with the idea grams that feature paranormal activ­ firmly in mind that the depictions are ity may be influenced in their para­ not true. But the data indicate that normal beliefs for weeks after the type of disclaimer used may also viewing. be important. The message that While replication and extension of highlighted the impossibility of the these results will be important (as with depicted events tended to cause a any scientific finding), the data from greater reduction in paranormal this study do suggest that there is beliefs, even though the fiction mes­ merit in the widespread claims of sage also caused a significant reduc­ scientists and skeptics that the media tion relative to the no-message exert some influence in the domain condition (see Tables 2 and 3). of paranormal beliefs. Interestingly, the use of a "truth In one sense, the effects of media claim" did not result in increased depictions of paranormal activity may beliefs in paranormal activity. In fact, not seem to carry the social impor­ the mean indicated a tendency for tance of other media effects reported viewers in this condition to decrease in the literature over the years. The their paranormal beliefs slightly. It effects of viewing violence on subse-

Summer 1994 393 quent aggressive behavior (Hues- Feder, K. L. 1984. Irrationality and popular mann and Eron 1986), for example, archaeology. American Antiquity, 49: 525- are often dramatic and carry social 541. Freedman, J. L. 1984. Effect of television consequences that few would deny violence on aggressiveness. Psychological (but see Freedman 1984). Neverthe­ Bulletin, 96: 227-246. less, it seems apparent that after Gallup, G. H., and T. Newport. 1991. Belief reflecting upon the potential implica­ in paranormal phenomena among adult Americans. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 15:137- tions of media impact on paranormal 146, Winter. beliefs, there is a great deal at stake. Gersh, D. 1987. Disclaiming horoscopes. Edi­ The ability to correctly discern tor and Publisher, March 18, pp. 22-23. whether or not a given phenomenon Huesmann, L. R., and L. D. Eron. 1986. really exists strikes at the very heart Television and the Aggressive Child: A Cross-national Comparison. Hillsdale, N.J.: of human endeavor. In the age of Lawrence Erlbaum. electronic communication, the long- Jones, W. H„ D. W. Russell, and T. W. Nickel. used (and deeply ingrained) principle 1977. Belief in the paranormal scale: An of "seeing is believing" may be increas­ objective instrument to measure belief in magical phenomena and causes. JSAS ingly inadequate as an epistemological Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, standard. This is not to suggest that 7, 100 (Ms. No. 1577). extraordinary and incomprehensible Kurtz, P. 1985. The responsibilities of the events never actually occur. But it media and paranormal claims. SKEPTICAL seems important to be able to correctly INQUIRER, 9: 357-362. Mailer, J. B., and G. E. Lundeen. 1932. discern if, and when, they do. And it Sources of superstitious beliefs, journal seems especially important that we do of Education Research, 26: 321-343. not accept the veracity of such events Petty, R. E., and J. T. Cacioppo. 1986. just because they are witnessed on Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change. New television. We hope that the study York: Springer-Verlag. presented here will serve as an initial Randi, J. 1992. Help stamp out absurd beliefs. step toward a more comprehensive Time, April 13, p. 80. understanding of how televised depic­ Rubin, A. M. 1986. Uses, gratifications, and tions of paranormal events function media effects research. In Perspectives on Media Effects, ed. by J. Bryant and to influence our judgments about the D. Zillmann, 281-301. Hillsdale, N.J.: events that actually take place in the Lawrence Erlbaum. real world. Tobacyk, J., and G. Milford. 1983. Belief in paranormal phenomena: Assessment instrument development and implications Acknowledgment for personality functioning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44:1029- The authors are grateful for the able 1037. assistance of Prof. Eran Preis and Kelly Tobacyk, J., M. Miller, P. Murphy, and Hodgson in assisting with the experi­ T. Mitchell. 1988. Comparisons of para­ mental procedures reported in this normal beliefs of black and white univer­ sity students from the southern United study. This study was partially sup­ States. Psychological Reports, 63: 492-494. ported by a Faculty Incentive Grant Zillmann, D. 1988. "Mood management: awarded to the first author by the Using entertainment to full advantage." School of Liberal Arts at Purdue Uni­ In Communication, Social Cognition, and versity, 1991. Affect, ed. by L. Donohew, H. E. Sypher, and E. T. Higgins, 147-171. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. References Notes Bainbridge, W. S. 1978. Chariots of the gullible. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 3(2): 33-48, 1. One obvious need in the study of the Winter. potential for the media to influence para-

394 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 normal beliefs is systematic content analysis Consequently, three of the items that were of current media offerings. Casual observa­ used on the seven-item scale reported in the tion reveals that with the advent of cable results were not measured three weeks later. television, there has been an increase in the An abbreviated four-item measure that frequency of messages that deal with analyses revealed to be reliable was used paranormal claims. For example, in the past instead for the analysis of longer-term few years, cable networks have begun to sell effects. Of the 111 participants who were commercial time to "psychics" and "fortune­ included in the analysis of immediate tellers" who encourage viewers to call a 900 program exposure, 32 were not present number to obtain their "professional" advice. during this final phase of data-collection. In addition, with the proliferation of cable This produced an "N" of 79 for the analyses channels, it appears that programs dealing of long-term effects (males: n = 24; females: with paranormal themes may also have n = 55). increased. 5. In any experiment of this type, one 2. The effects of motivation to scrutinize threat to internal validity is the possibility a message on subsequent attitude change are that participants were aware of the general well documented and understood within the purpose of the study and subsequently context of the elaboration likelihood model modified their responses. In order to guard of persuasion (Petty and Cacioppo 1986). against this threat, a particularly conserva­ Persuasion that occurs when respondents tive course was followed. First, the inclusion are not highly motivated to scrutinize a of questions about the commercial messages message is characterized as a process that in the episode of "Beyond Reality" were is influenced by "peripheral cues." In the designed to obscure the focus on paranormal present case, it may be possible to concep­ beliefs. Second, the inclusion of a "hypothesis tualize the visual features of televised guess" question at the end of the study accounts of paranormal events as peripheral revealed that no participant even suspected cue content. that the disclaimer information had been 3. Preliminary analyses revealed that sex manipulated in any way. Third, in response was not related to any of the dependent to the "hypothesis guess" question, if a measures of interest in the study. Conse­ respondent even mentioned that he/she quently, it does not appear as a factor in any thought the study was about paranormal of the main analyses reported in the results. beliefs, his/her data were not included in the 4. Unfortunately, because these data analyses. Most participants expressed the were collected during a class period, there belief that the study was concerned with were strict time limits for the session. Only recall of commercial messages. This proce­ a small number of paranormal belief items dure yielded an N = 111 for the major could be included in the questionnaire. analyses (males: n = 33; females: n = 78).

A longer version of this paper was compet­ itively selected for presentation to the Mass Glenn G. Sparks is an associate professor Communication and Society Division of the in the Department of Communication at Association for Education in Journalism and Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN Mass Communication annual meeting in Kansas City, August, 1993. The long version 47907. Tricia Hansen and Rani Shah is available from the first author upon are both Ph.D. students in the Department request. of Communication at Purdue University.

Summer 1994 395 Synchronicity and The Archetypes

ERNEST GALLO

ie doctrines of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) are still with us. TA modified version of the Jungian arche­ types was nicely packaged by Joseph Campbell in a well-received series on public television (The Power of Myth). The associated doctrine of syn­ chronicity is still cited in occultist and pseudo- scientific literature as a scientific basis for astrology and other improbabilities. Jung was a formidable scholar and a trained scientist. Although he tried to cling to a degree Evidencea offered of skeptical restraint, he was deeply drawn to the occult. His mother claimed to be in contact in support of with spirits; his young cousin caused knives in synchronicity and a drawer to shatter with a loud bang. Jung was so impressed with this cousin that he wrote his the archetypes dissertation about her. While Jung was arguing depends solely on with Freud about psychic phenomena, a loud noise emanated from a bookcase; Jung predicted the imprecision of it would be repeated and was highly impressed Jung's language when this portentous prediction came true. Nor was he surprised when he saw the vision of and concepts. a face half buried in the pillow next to him; to one in contact with the mysteries, such visions come. But Jung was far more than a simple occultist. He was able to construct his system with the aid of an impressively wide-ranging scholarship; at his best, he is engagingly skeptical about his wilder speculations. But always through the skepticism there shines the conviction that his insight has hit home, and that no rational criticism can or should stand in the way of what he calls "psychological truth." Jung sought objective evidence for the archetypes, but finally took refuge in his own magisterial convictions. The so-called archetypes are "mental predis­ positions independent of individual experience, which have their source in the collective uncon-

396 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 scious" (Friedman and Goldstein 1964). An individual in crisis may feel the healing powers of the communal archetype: access to that archetype arises through an acausal process that Jung called "synchronicity." Jung's doctrine of synchronicity implies that "one and the same (trans­ cendental) meaning might manifest itself simultaneously in the human psyche and in the arrangement of an external and independent event" (Jung 1955). Such a confluence of events has been well described as follows:

At certain moments of heightened spiritual awareness, the archetypal meaning-structure that spans the mind and the world flashes into visibility. This happens in the form C4r.j~~f. of a "meaningful coincidence." The one event does not cause the other, but the pattern of the universe His patient supposedly needed a becomes visible to us in their nonrational experience to shake her congruency. (Price 1989) out of her imprisonment by Cartesian philosophy. After the scarab incident The notion that the physical world she improved markedly. She had been bothers to reflect our personal diffi­ in need of rebirth: the rising Sun-god culties seems like wild fantasy; but is called "the scarab" (khepri), a cul­ Jung was convinced of its literal truth, turally determined image of the arche­ and offered this anecdote in evi­ type of rebirth. dence: How strong is this anecdotal evi­ dence? It's a long leap from the death A young woman I was treating had, and rebirth of the sun to the rebirth at a critical moment, a dream in of a patient from the chains of which she was given a golden rationalism. The vision of the scarab scarab. While she was telling me this does not seem tailored to this specific dream I sat with my back to the patient's needs: many people (and not closed window. Suddenly I heard a only patients) can be described as in noise behind me, like a gentle tap­ ping. I turned round and saw a need of regeneration—a word with a flying insect knocking against the wide range of referents. The beetle window pane from outside. I opened also represented self-generation, the the window and caught the creature Egyptians apparently believing that in the air as it flew in. It was the the male inserts the egg in the dung- nearest analogy to a golden scarab ball and thus, phoenix-like, gives birth that one finds in our latitudes, a to himself unassisted.1 One could scarabeid beetle, the common rose- easily—all too easily—apply this image chafer (Cetonia aurata), which con­ to a wide variety of psychic states: the trary to its usual habits had evi­ need to redefine oneself, to learn dently felt an urge to get into a dark room at this particular moment responsibility, and so on. The beetle (Jung 1955) image seems specifically applicable to

Summer 1994 397 1959). Further, cultural tradition does not guarantee that all members of the "Being freed of content, the culture will image the archetype in the archetype can be made to signify same way: "The archetype is essen­ tially an unconscious content that is almost anything." altered by becoming conscious and by being perceived, and it takes its colour Jung's patient only if we confine from the individual consciousness in ourselves to one possible set of inter­ which it happens to appear." pretations while ignoring the rest. It is most difficult to connect the If one myth does not supply a archetype to the image, since the suitable match, another will. The image will differ from culture to beetle figures in a number of myths culture and, within a given culture, that can easily be trimmed to fit from one person to another. We might Jungian categories, such as the be able to cope with this remarkable devouring mother, the sacred wed­ indeterminacy if we knew the content ding, ego inflation, the so-called of a given archetype. But this is an quaternity. Given this rich collection, impossible dream: "One must, for the the Jungian analyst can easily find sake of accuracy, distinguish between parallels to the psychic state of the 'archetype' and 'archetypal ideas.' The patient: it is necessary only to pick and archetype as such is a hypothetical and choose among myths until we find one unrepresentable model, something that suits. like the 'pattern of behavior' in Jung might object in these terms: biology" 0ung 1959). "I do not claim that every time a beetle We will pass over the fact that a appears in myth, it must represent pattern of behavior in biology is liberation from the straitjacket of something quite specific, describable rationalism. The beetle itself is not an in a finite number of words. For Jung, archetype. It points to an archetype that rational analysis stands helpless in underlies it and that brings itself to front of the depth and richness of the our attention through the image of archetypes: "The fact is that arche­ the beetle." But we shall see that in typal images are so packed with making the archetypes transcend any meaning in themselves that people specific representation, Jung is safely never think of asking what they really tucking them away from rational do mean. . . . And when he starts inspection. thinking about them, he does so with the help of what he calls 'reason'— The Ambivalence of the Archetypes which in point of fact is nothing more than the sum-total of all his prejudices One difficulty in examining arche­ and myopic views" (Jung 1959). types is that we cannot access them Being freed of content, the arche­ directly. When we consider the motif type can be made to signify almost of the beetle in world myth we are anything. Being so loosely tied (if at not directly examining an archetype all) to specific images, any and all but only one of its culturally deter­ connections can be made among mined manifestations. Archetypes archetypes. These can be shuffled "are no longer contents of the uncons­ around and recombined freely to cious, but have already been changed generate the most astounding and into conscious formulae taught seemingly profound implications. according to tradition. . . ." (Jung Here is how, in a few swift steps,

398 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 Marie-Louise von Franz demonstrates from which the king drinks" (Von that the Great Mother, the World Franz 1980). This image is interesting, Tree, Sun, Well, Death, and Father are but does this single emblem in all basically one: Sethos's tomb prove very much? Given a sufficiently wide range of The World Tree is the Great Mother examples from many cultures, one and is related to the Sun which is could make any connection one born every morning from a tree as wishes. But of course that is precisely its fruit. Under the World Tree what von Franz thinks of as a strength there is often a Well, and this Well of the archetypal system: "If one is also the Great Mother. But she knows enough mythology one can is also the Death Mother, for in make a completely consistent web myth a well is the door to the land from every great archetype to every of the dead. The World Tree is phallic, so that it is the Father as other great archetype" (von Franz well as the Mother. The phallus is 1980). Yes, and that is precisely the also connected with the Sun, and trouble. If every archetype is myste­ the Great Mother often has a phallic riously identical with every other, broom or an enormous nose. then virtually anything can be proved (Marie-Louise von Franz 1980: from the body of data. paraphrased) The free association used by von Franz is related to the technique of We supposedly know that the amplification used by Jungian analysts. World Tree is the Great Mother If, for example, the patient offers a because "in the tomb of the Egyptian dream that seems archetypal, the King, Sethos the First, there is a world analyst will thoroughly review all tree and on its trunk it has a breast possible parallels between the dream

Summer 1994 399 "That the walls of the archetypes are so thin that the one can flow into and become the other may not be a sign of a wondrous unity as much as a way of removing all constraints from the logic of the investigation."

and other archetypes lest the patient helm's translation. Now, one could miss out on any part of the marvelous easily read that hexagram as the voice web of meanings. In brief, the analyst of a skeptic: is suggesting to the analysand a wide range of cleverly interrelated interpre­ A cauldron with legs upturned/ tations. The procedure may be thera­ Furthers removal of stagnating peutic, but what does it do to Jung's stuff. claim that he has discovered archetypes buried deep in the psyches of a (Interpretation: The 1 Ching should be multitude of patients? The mine has overthrown, and our minds cleansed been salted. The material delivered by of antique superstition.) analysands in a therapeutic setting can no longer count as raw data (Fried­ The handle of the cauldron is man and Goldstein 1964). altered. One is impeded in his way That the walls of the archetypes of life. are so thin that the one can flow into and become the other may not be a (Interpretation: Our means of grasping sign of a wondrous unity as much as the 1 Ching have been disastrously a way of removing all constraints from changed by the current translation, the logic of the investigation. The which impedes understanding of the more fluid the overlap permitted text.) among archetypes, the greater is the opportunity for finding any archetype In other words, one could plausibly in any image, and any image in the discover that this ancient book of psyche of any patient. soothsaying has denounced both itself and its modern translation! In con­ Jung and the Book of Changes trast, Jung's reading of "The Caul­ dron" showed that the 1 Ching was We can illustrate the ambiguities of delighted both with the new transla­ Jungian interpretation by examining tion and with Jung's introduction. For Jung's comments on the Chinese Book Jung the upside-down cauldron is not of Changes (the 1 Ching). In writing a overthrown but (quite arbitrarily) foreword to Hellmut Wilhelm's trans­ simply unused. Again, Jung ignores the lation of the J Ching (1950), Jung lines about the altered handles and consulted that work about his inten­ instead quotes quite different lines tion to introduce the Eastern classic about golden handles, which then are to the Western mind. The book conveniently made to refer to the new answered with "The Cauldron" translation, which will give a new grip (Hexagram #50), in which Jung finds (Griff; Begriff = understanding) on the an enthusiastic endorsement of Wil­ text.

400 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 The Pretense of Objectivity science or mathematics. Jung fancied that he had united the inner world of Can Jung's approach be made so psychology with the outer world of rigorous as to begin to resemble a modern physics. His disciples assure scientific method? Or if the Jungian us that the supposed collapse of approach cannot be made rigorous, Newtonian mechanics into theoretical can modern science perhaps be made paradox has made this union possible. to seem poetic, evocative—i.e., some­ The details are alarming. We are told thing less than rigorous? If so, then that the response of patients to a Jung can claim to be, at least in some Rorschach test can be understood only very loose sense, scientific. if we postulate holes in "psychic space" Jung assures us that overwhelming similar to the wormholes of theoret­ numbers of case studies provide ical physics (McCully 1974). We must objective evidence for the archetypes. realize that "Bohr showed that the But it is not clear that a particular physical universe is made up of facts image taken from world mythology and their opposites" (Keutzer 1984). must mean precisely what the Jungian This fantastic distortion does not says it must mean. One relies solely really represent Bohr's principle of on the ad-hoc judgment of the Jungian complementarity; but it does echo who is making the observation. Our Jung's assurance that in his system an confidence is not increased when we assertion is true only if its opposite are told that only a Jungian analyst has is also true (Jung 1954a). an adequate background and the According to Marie von Franz correct mind-set to evaluate the data (1974), all the integers are archetypes. gathered (Rieff 1964). In a chapter concisely titled "The Jung claims that time and again his Number Four as the One- patients spontaneously reproduce Continuum's Model of Wholeness in ancient visual representations of All Relatively Closed Structures of psychic processes: mandalas, winged Human Consciousness and in the figures, etc. (Jung 1969). The judg­ Body," we learn that four is a "border ment that the patient's "very vision" number." Equations of a degree higher is exactly equivalent to the traditional than four cannot be algebraically image is simply Jung's judgment: solved: consequently four is "an apex would another observer agree? and simultaneously the end of a Jung cites an astounding case of the preceding ascent." For good measure, schizophrenic who saw winds pro­ Einstein's universe has four dimen­ duced by the penis of the sun: this sions, and "the triple codes of the private myth parallels an obscure genetic substance DNA . . . are built Mithraic myth of the winds pouring up on a quarternio of bases which can 3 from a tube in the sun. Is the coin­ be combined in 4 = 64 variations"— cidence meaningful? The sun's penis supposedly an echo of the structure as the source of the wind does not of the I Ching hexagrams. Von Franz seem firmly connected to any human provides a photograph of a developing need to organize experience: it is hard egg divided into four parts: this proves to imagine a stern evolutionary pro­ that the egg has a "quarternary cess weeding out organisms whose structure." nervous systems failed to develop this All these associations are utterly odd image. arbitrary. Any small integer can be Matters become even worse when shown to be a "boundary number": for evidence is sought in the world of example, there are no more than five

Summer 1994 401 regular convex polyhedra. Einstein's symbols will surely provide a match universe has four dimensions but somewhere. Jung is not dealing with Kaluza's has five, and some modern hard-edged concepts: Even in the theories postulate ten or twenty-six. apparently striking case of the golden Nor does the number four, important scarab, there is considerable distance in Jungian symbology, have any between the patient's need for change special significance in the developing and the Egyptian notions of rebirth. egg. Finally, although in the photo­ It is the creative imagination of both graph provided the developing egg therapist and patient that bridges the indeed has divided into four cells, it gap. The coincidence provides each earlier had two and later it is destined with a kind of personal excitement to have eight, sixteen, thirty-two, etc.2 that establishes the experience as There is no reason to fix on the four- numinous and hence valid: without cell stage as representing some mys­ that incommunicable sense of height­ tical content. ened affect, the coincidence would not have been considered meaningful in the first place. The degree of excite­ Summing Up ment of the investigator does not ensure that the method is scientific: Jung is at times vividly aware that an objective observer may see no theory determines what the would-be meaning at all in the coincidence. empiricist actually sees (Jung 1959) and that the "personal bias of the In addition, Jungians claim that observer" plays a large role in inter­ each plate in the picture-book of preting data (Jung 1961). Jung does archetypes is culture-specific. The not even insist on the truths of his archetypes in the collective uncon­ theories: the elements of his hy­ scious, in themselves formless and potheses have temporary, provisional without content, receive specific status as "mere auxiliary concepts that forms from different cultures, which can be laid aside at any time" Jung embody them differently. Richness of 1954b). Indeed, he insists that a meaning is secured by progressively psychological principle is true only if emptying the archetype of specific— its opposite is also true. and hence limiting—content: in the •This last criterion may allow Jung­ end the archetype becomes an empty ian theory to be sensitive to the domain, safely transcendent and well paradoxes and contradictions of the beyond scrutiny. psyche, but it also effectively protects The doctrine of the archetypes is that theory from criticism. If contra­ important as a model of the pseudo- dictory propositions are true, no system, one that apparently draws on conclusion is forbidden. a wide range of objective data but that How then does Jung try to over­ in reality carefully selects its evidence; come these difficulties? He seeks one whose claim to transcendental objective evidence in world cultures: knowledge actually serves to protect in art, myth, and literature. The the system from critical inspection; existence of archetypes can be objec­ one whose pretense to scientific rigor tively verified because they can be depends solely on the slipperiness of found in the cultural record. However, its private language. The elaborate world culture is so diverse that it may Jungian doctrine of the archetypes and be impossible to fail to locate an of synchronicity is little more than a objective parallel to a given state of house of cards, one that has taken far mind: the large picture-book of world- too long to tumble.

402 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 Bibliography Human Destiny. New York: Dell Publishing.. Friedman, Paul, and Jacob Goldstein. 1964. Rieff, Philip. 1964. C. G. Jung's confession: Some comments on the psychology of Psychology as a language of faith, Encoun­ C. G. Jung. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 33: ter 22: 45-50, May. 194-225. Shelburne, Walter. 1976. Synchronicity: A Gray, Louis Herbert, ed. 1920. The Mythol­ rational principle of explanation. Anima, ogy of All Races. 13 vols. Boston: Marshall 3: 58-67, Fall. Jones Company. Von Franz, Marie-Louise. 1980. On Divina­ Jung, Carl Gustav. 1954a. The Practice of tion and Synchronicity. Toronto: Inner Psychotherapy, trans. R. F. C. Hull. Vol. City Books. 16 of The Collected Works of C. ]. Jung. . 1974. Number and Time: Reflections London: Routledge and Regan Paul. Leading Towards a Unification of Psychology , 1954b. The Development of Personality, and Physics, trans. Andrea Dykes. Lon­ trans. R. F. C. Hull. Vol. 17 of The Collected don: Rider and Co. Works of C. J. Jung. London: Routledge Von Scholz, Wilhelm. 1976. Der Zufall und and Kegan Paul. das Schicksal (1924), cited in Hans Bender, . 1955. "Synchronicity: An Acausal "Meaningful Coincidences in the Light of Connecting Principle," trans. R. F. C. the Jung-Pauli Theory of Synchronicity Hull. In C. G. Jung and W. Pauli, The and Parapsychology," in Betty Shapin and Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche. Lisette Coly, eds., The Philosophy of New York: Pantheon Books. Parapsychology. New York: Parapsychol­ . 1959. "Archetypes of the Collective ogy Foundation, 1976, pp. 66-84. Unconscious," trans. R. F. C. Hull. In The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Vol. 9, Part 1, of The Collected Works of Notes C. G. Jung. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. . 1969. Man and His Symbols. 1. The symbolism may have arisen from New York: Doubleday. the coincidental resemblance of the Egyptian . 1963. Memories, Dreams and Reflec­ word for "beetle" and the verb "become," as tions. New York: Pantheon. well as from the fact that the dung beetle Keutzer, Caroline. 1984. The power of rolls before it a ball of dung "in which ancient meaning: From quantum mechanics to Egypt beheld an image of the world" (Jean synchronicity. Journal of Humanistic Psy­ Henri Fabre, The Sacred Beetle and Others.) chology, 24 (1): 80-94. 2. This point about the developing egg . 1982. Archetypes, synchronicity and is made by Dennis Merritt, a practicing the theory of formative causation. Journal Jungian analyst and an insect pathologist. of Analytical Psychology, 24: 255-262. Although a dedicated Jungian, and one Leach, Maria, and Jerome Fried, eds. 1972. convinced of the truth of synchronicity, Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology Merritt (1989) says of von Franz's excursions and Legends. New York: Funk and into biology, "If the author demonstrated so Wagnalls. little understanding of how the genetic code McCully, Robert S. 1974. "The Rorschach, works, how can one begin to believe the Synchronicity and Relativity. In Toward sweeping conclusions she makes about the a Discovery of the Person, ed. by Robert relationship between the I Ching, numbers William Davis. Burbank, Calif.: Society and the genetic code?" I am grateful to my for Personality Assessment. colleague Richard Noland for bringing this Merritt, Dennis L. 1989. "Jungian Psychol­ essay to my attention, and to Dennis L. ogy and Science—A Strained Relation­ Merritt for providing bibliographic ship." In The Analytic Life, 11-31, ed. by information. the New England Society of Jungian Analysts. Boston: Sigo Press. Ernest Gallo was trained as a medievalist, Price, Robert M. 1989. The metaphysics of and teaches a course in critical thinking Murphy's law. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 14: 69-73, Fall. in the Department of English, University Progoff, Ira. 1973. Jung, Synchronicity and of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Summer 1994 403 The Synthetic Mind Clashes with the Reductionist Text

FRANK REUTER

Assume for a moment that you are back ^LJL in seventh grade and that you have been / \ given a textbook reading assignment by your science teacher in preparation for the next day's class. More than likely you will come across passages like the following:

Leaves are the plant organs that trap light and make food for the plant. The food made by leaves often becomes food for animals. Leaves vary in size, shape, and structure. Many plants it can be identified by the shapes of their leaves. Oversimplistic and The shape of an oak leaf differs from a maple or a rose leaf. A leaf is made up of a blade derivative prose in and a stalk. The leaf blade is a plant's major school texts organ for trapping light. The leaf stalk is called the petiole (PET ee ohl). A leaf blade is attached makes to a stem by the petiole. Leaves of some plants, such as grass or tulips, do not have petioles.1 comprehension more difficult not I select this text not because I consider it less. Reductionist to be inferior to the average text but because it is so typical.2 The majority of grade-school teaching textbooks in whatever discipline use the reduc­ methods likewise tionist style so apparent in these passages.3 When I read these texts, no matter how hard hamper learning. I try to concentrate, the idea generally escapes me. Why? Because the style is overly simplistic. Attempting to make sure that no single state­ ment is unclear, the textbook utilizes sentences that are simple in structure, that is, they contain only one main clause. Of necessity, sentence after sentence begins with the same subject. Ideas, in effect, are placed next to each other without their relationships being signaled by normal sentence connectives. What is absurd

404 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 3:7 Cell Parts FIGURE 3-10. Ribosomes are Photographs of cells magnified 40 000 to 50 000 times located on the endoplasmic re­ show tubelike structures in the cytoplasm. The tubes ticulum (a). Mitochondria (b) re­ form a network called the endoplasmic reticulum (en lease energy for cell activities. duh PLAZ mihk• rih TIHK yuh luml, or ER. The ER con­ Chloroplasts (c) use light energy nects with the cell membrane and the nuclear mem­ to manufacture food. brane. The ER changes constantly and is where many cell substances are made. Ribosomes (RI buh sohmz) are tiny grainlike particles. They are so small, they can be seen only with an electron microscope. Ribosomes are structures where proteins What is the function of nbo-

The prose on this page from Heimler's Focus on Life Science is typical of the oversimplistic style of most grade-school textbooks. about such writing is that the attempt subordinated concept, the problem to make the writing simple actually makes disappears. it much harder to comprehend. Grade Now, think of yourself as the school texts are, for the most part, teacher of that seventh-grade class, unreadable. frustrated that students are not There are simple solutions to cure reading their assignments. Can you this type of bad writing. When I taught blame the students? Probably not. The freshman composition courses, such attitude of students I have talked with writing was common among the is this: I am not going to read my text­ students, probably because they had book until I find out which specific seen it so often. I called the problem facts the teacher will include on the "parallel, repetitive, simple sentence objective tests that determine my structure." To cure students of writ­ grade. This brings us to a second issue: ing such halting prose, I would coun­ the way we test and its ramifications sel them to write a paragraph rather for learning. than a sentence at a time, thinking out Just as our textbooks are reduction­ the relationship of their ideas before ist, so are our teaching methods. putting anything down on paper. The Allow an anecdote to convey my point. results were nearly miraculous. Once A number of years ago, newly any reasonably intelligent college appointed as a professor at a state freshman is aware of the danger of university, I was teaching a course in writing oversimplistic, repetitive the history of the English language, prose and of the importance of con­ a requirement for English majors. For veying an organized, unified, properly several weeks, I assigned reading and

Summer 1994 405 lectured at length about three quali­ The truly sad aspect of this ties of language: it is (1) dynamic (it approach to learning—in addition to changes; Old and modern English are its utter failure—is that it runs mutually unintelligible), (2) arbitrary counter to everything we have learned (there is no necessary relationship about the human mind. As any between words and their meanings; number of theorists have pointed out, head is kopf in German and tele in the brain readily learns the most French), and (3) conventional (to complicated things we ever need to convey meaning, speakers must utilize learn. Language, for example, is so consistent, unspoken rules of lan­ complex that it is all but a miracle that guage). Then I gave a straightforward we can speak; yet any child who is not test, asking that students define these brain-damaged develops the facility to three qualities, utilizing specific exam­ speak intelligibly about the things he ples to illustrate them. Known for the or she normally experiences. clarity of my class presentations, I was What I am proposing is that the stunned to find that the students' human mind is a synthetic instru­ papers were absymal and that few, if ment, capable of understanding com­ any, were able to write meaningful plicated ideas with facility provided they statements about the three defined are articulated clearly and provided a qualities. During a long discussion teacher is willing to stop and explain with the class, I was informed that I those issues that do, at times, need should have offered a matching test, to be explained as a series of intelligible at which time, my students averred, step processes. The more we con­ they would have earned A's because descend to students and stoop below they understood the concepts. I did their levels to make sure that they not make this concession. Although don't miss anything, the more we bore I offered the class a chance to be tested them and destroy their motivation to again, I argued that no matter how learn. It is time we stopped writing well they understood my words, they textbooks as if every student were a could not master the subject until they moron who could not take in more too could actively verbalize the concepts. than one piece of information per It goes without saying that although sentence. Why? Because the method I was teaching in a humanities depart­ does not work. The condescension to ment, none of those students—college students' abilities and the lowering of juniors and seniors—had ever before expectations leads to high scores and been exposed to an all-essay test. confirms "success," but few graduates Most, in fact, admitted that they never are competent, as employers readily were called on to give more than one- know. sentence answers to test questions— in whatever discipline. So what can be done? For starters, textbook companies This pattern dominates the teach­ need to stop using utterly reduc­ ing in the majority of the country's tionist, simplistic prose. Texts should primary and secondary schools (and be well written and use a complete in many universities). In the interests range of normal syntactic structures. of proving that students are learning When an idea needs to be subordi­ and "know" the material, instructors nated to another idea, I guarantee that give true-false, matching, and fill-in- students will be able to see the the-blank tests covering information relationship and understand the con­ that has to be stored only in short- cept if the proper sentence connectives are term memory. used. This is certain: the more inter

406 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 esting the material is, the more eager resistance to this idea will be great, students will be to read it. The bane for botched and confused student of teaching is the unread assignment. papers themselves become a constant Given the human propensity to be lazy proof that students are not ready to and avoid responsibility, students will write essays. Of course bad writing resist reading assignments in unread­ is the inevitable consequence of bad able texts. models and rote teaching. As long as A second quality indispensable to true understanding and intelligence readable texts is that they not be depend upon an individual's ability to totally derivative and thus mere turn an idea around in the brain and compilations of data. Stephen Jay verbalize (or write) it clearly, then Gould, in his insightful essay "The essay questions are an indispensable Case of the Creeping Fox Terrier way of knowing whether students are, Clone," demonstrates how pervasive in fact, mastering subject matter or "endless, thoughtless copying" is in merely memorizing detached, uncon- our biology textbooks by tracing the textualized pieces of information. common use of the fox-terrier analogy The human mind is a synthetic to define the size of eohippus (the dawn instrument. To educate it, challenges horse) in describing the evolutionary must be real and they must be excit­ lineage of horses. Few people, he ing. We will do our best for the suggests, really know what a fox- generations that succeed us if we stop terrier looks like and, therefore, treating students as intellectual crip­ probably few authors who borrowed ples. I dearly pray that when my the analogy for their textbooks knew children have children, they won't either. They reproduced it mind­ bring home for my perusal texts that lessly—as Gould himself almost did make me pity them their homework once. Gould asserts: "Good teaching assignments. requires fresh thought and genuine excitement, and . . . rote copying can Notes only indicate boredom and slipshod 4 1. Charles H. Heimler, Focus on Life practice." Science. (Columbus, Ohio: Merrill Publishing From a lifetime of reading, I am Company, 1989), p. 157. 2. In defense of the text, it includes certain that any junior or senior high- detailed references to evolution and Charles school science text would benefit from Darwin. And like many recent texts, it is the use of at least intermittent sec­ amply and beautifully illustrated. tions of excerpts from the primary 3. My awareness of these problems has writings of scientists, be they original grown over the years as I have studied my children's textbooks. I will not bore the research scientists or science "popu- reader with endless examples for which there larizers." The reason is simple, of is insufficient room, but the reductionist course: a detailed, original selection style is almost universal, no matter what the reveals something about the process discipline. If you are a parent and don't look of a human mind at work, struggling at your children's textbooks, this is a good time to start. with a problem or concept. Provided 4. Stephen Jay Gould, "The Case of the that teachers are capable of explicating Creeping Fox Terrier Clone," in Bully for such a text, students will be exposed Bronlosaurus (New York: Norton, 1992), p. to the excitement of ideas treated as 166. intellectual challenges. Frank Renter (Rt. 5, Box 24-3, Berryville, A final recommendation: as early AR 72616) is a former university teacher as possible, examinations should of English literature and now operates his include essay-type questions. The own editing business.

Summer 1994 407 Book Reviews Medical Practice Enters a New Age

Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine. By Larry Dossey, M.D. HarperCollins, New York, 1993. 291 pp. Hardcover, $22.00.

U GARY P. POSNER

became aware of Healing Words morning. ... As the incense filled the when a producer for the NBC-TV room, I would invoke the Absolute. I newsmagazine "Now" called in ... I would shake several rattles and advance of its March 30 report. The gourds, paraphernalia used worldwide book cites a Free Inquiry article (Spring by shamans and healers to 'invoke the 1990) in which I critiqued a Southern powers.' ... I felt a connection with Medical Journal study (July 1988) healers of all cultures and ages." purporting to demonstrate that Dossey has since retired from "intercessory prayer [by strangers, active medical practice to write and without the patients' knowledge] to lecture, and he recently co-chaired a the Judeo-Christian God has a bene­ committee reviewing mind-body stu­ ficial therapeutic effect in patients dies for the Office of Alternative admitted to a CCU [Coronary Care Medicine at the National Institutes of Unit]." I had pointed out a number of Health. flaws in the study that render its Dossey has concluded that God findings seemingly insignificant. (See need not be "up there" but rather that also "Intercessory Prayer as Medical "the Divine factor in prayer is inter­ Treatment: An Inquiry," a critical nal." Further, says Dossey, con­ analysis by Jeff Witmer and Michael sciously directed prayers for a specific Zimmerman, SI, 15:177-180, Winter outcome are far less effective than 1991.) prayers initiated unconsciously: "Unob­ In the Preface to Healing Words, structed, the unconscious during sleep Dossey tells of how he was "surprised and dreams may be free to realize its to discover [this] single scientific study natural, innate affinity with the that strongly supported the power of Divine." Such speculative bridges prayer in getting well," and how it throughout the book, and the puddles inspired a personal quest to "probe the of "scientific" evidence that they serve scientific literature for further proof to interconnect, evoke images of of prayer's efficacy." Soon, Dossey, Percival Lowell's illusory Martian who had "planned to become a min­ network of canals and oases. And any ister" before deciding instead to attend similarity in Dossey's philosophy to medical school, made the decision to "negative psi" is no mere coinci­ pray for his patients: "I would go to dence—Dossey embraces many such my office earlier than usual each parapsychology experiments as

408 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 among his strongest "scientific" skeptical of her findings, she said, evidence. "Well, you're not a true scientist then. Dossey's detailed discussion of the A scientist is supposed to be inquiring SMJ CCU study begins predictably . . . but not with skepticism." Clearly, enough: "If the technique being neither she nor the "scientists" with studied had been a new drug or a whom she worked had a clue as to surgical procedure instead of prayer, the requisite role of skepticism in it would almost certainly have been scientifically evaluating such alleged heralded as some sort of 'break­ abilities. through.' " But I was taken aback as Among the many other claims Dossey then proceeded to offer a embraced by Dossey: Uri Geller's critical assessment of the study to rival powers; voodoo and "distant hexing"; my own. Despite his earlier praise of a "93-percent accurate" cold-reader; the study that had so inspired his "Therapeutic Touch" (the New Age quest, Dossey ultimately was left with technique presently scandalizing the the realization that "this study has Colorado Board of Nursing); Robert missed the mark.... We would expect Jahn's random-event generator ex­ greater evidence than a few small periments, which "transcend space percentage points of improvement. [and] time" (and which have since been We would want to see statistically debunked in a parapsychology jour­ significant life-or-death effects, which nal!); William Braud's experiments simply did not occur." showing that "the mental images of Dossey concurs with the "many one person can modify the activity of researchers [who] feel it is easier to the autonomic nervous system of a study the effects of prayer in simple, distant person [who is] unaware that nonhuman living systems [emphasis in the attempt is being made"; and the original]. Prayer experiments in biblical story (Joshua 10:12-14) of the simpler life forms are much less sun standing still. "In addition to ambiguous, involve fewer variables, standing still, could time become and are easier to interpret." He cites 'disjointed,' such that the future would many "consistent, replicable, and precede the present, or the present robust" experiments from the para- precede the past?" (Anecdote: An psychological literature, and mentions unidentified man was spontaneously "the late Olga Worrall, the well- cured of colon cancer through his known psychic healer," who sup­ minister's prayer before the prayer posedly demonstrated an ability to was even said!) "protect" one of two samples of bac­ Having adopted the paranormal teria exposed to a toxic agent. The worldview as his standard of refer­ results, published in a 1980 para­ ence, Dossey's subchapter on "Why psychology book, "showed that the Do Drugs Work?" becomes almost 'protected' bacteria indeed survived in understandable: "[To] doctors and greater numbers than the controls, at scientists in general [and CSICOP levels of great statistical significance." Fellow Martin Gardner, who is named Those results were also published specifically] . . . the possibility that a in the Star tabloid, and a friend physician's thoughts and beliefs could promptly sent me the clipping. I then actually shape a patient's physiological called Worrall on the telephone (both responses [to a drug]—at a distance, she and I were living in Baltimore). even when the patient is unaware— When I introduced myself as a scien­ is unthinkable. This has resulted in a tist who couldn't help but be a bit virtual blindness in modern medicine

Summer 1994 409 to these issues, and an unconscious missed in a five-page Appendix as drive to deny demonstrated facts." biased and unsupported by the evi­ A standard method of scientific dence—the real evidence—found pri­ experimentation is called into ques­ marily in "parapsychology journals tion: "It appears that double-blind [which] have peer-review standards as studies can sometimes be steered in rigorous as many medical journals." directions [by] the thoughts ... of the (But parapsychologists'peers are more experimenters. This might shed light parapsychologists; and look at what on why skeptical experimenters ap­ even the Southern Medical Journal's pear unable to replicate the findings "rigorous" peer-review process of... 'true believers' [who] seem more endorsed!) able to produce positive results." Nice Dossey refers unflatteringly to the try. But on those rare occasions when "many New Age health 'authorities' skeptics are invited in by "true be­ who speak and write endlessly of the lievers" simply to review and tighten marvelous results one can expect if their notoriously lax controls, their certain measures are aggressively positive results almost invariably undertaken...." He seems to sincerely evaporate. believe that he has little or nothing There is no evidence in Healing in common with them, since his Words that its author is familiar with entreaty is for the adoption, by doctor the work of MacArthur Award- and patient alike, of an attitude of calm winner James Randi in exposing psi "prayerfulness," to open the gateway claims. He does quote CSICOP Fellow to the Divine and thus facilitate Ray Hyman, identified as "a well- natural healing. I suspect that most known critic of parapsychology," but of Dossey's readers will hear in his only to seemingly compliment the Healing Words a harmony of truth and random-event generator experiments majesty. Perhaps I am tone deaf, but by Helmut Schmidt of the Mind all I hear is a cacophony of New Age Science Foundation: ". . . If there are psychobabble. flaws in his work, they are not the more obvious or common ones." The Gary P. Posner, M.D., is an internist National Research Council's 1988 and in Tampa, Florida, and founder of the 1991 reports on "Enhancing Human Tampa Bay Skeptics. He is the author Performance," which reached con­ of the chapter on Noreen Renier in Psychic clusions highly critical of psi phenom­ Sleuths, edited by foe Nickell (Prometheus ena, are acknowledged, but are dis­ Books, 1994).

Quantum Animism

Elemental Mind: Human Consciousness and the New Physics. By Nick Herbert. Dutton, New York, 1993. 308 pp. Hardcover, $22.00.

U GERALD HUBER

ick Herbert, the author of to accept the fact that hidden variable Elemental Mind, is a well- theories, i.e., theories that try to N known popularizer and one of reintroduce classical concepts into a small group of physicists who refuse quantum mechanics, have been exper-

410 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 imentally invalidated. So one opens the book with the hope of finding out what could lead a trained physicist to adopt this maverick role. Herbert announces at the start that he wishes to defend what he calls "quantum animism." He sees mind as a fundamental force of the physical world: all physical objects, down to the smallest subatomic particles, are permeated by the universal mind. This is so, he maintains, because a simple materialistic view of the universe can­ not account for our sense of self, for our feeling of consciousness. How could nonconscious particles give rise to a conscious human being? He fails to mention that this philosophical chestnut has been convincingly After having stated this point of demonstrated to be merely a pseudo- view he devotes Chapter 2 to describ­ problem. But for Herbert, what is ing models of human perception. The mere knowledge in comparison with quality of the material presented is his own gut feelings? He insists that uneven, ranging from experimentally "if present-day science finds itself verified remarks about color percep­ powerless to validate my private tion to something that he calls "the insight into the real nature of things, inner-space emotion map." He goes on so much the worse for science." to devote Chapter 3 to brain research, To counter the objection that and there he gives a fairly accurate someday the behavior of a completely overview. Chapter 4, on the other determined computer program may be hand, is a tribute to the philosophy indistinguishable from that of a of James Culbertson. Herbert freely conscious human, he remarks: "It admits that Culbertson is ignored by seems to me that no conceivable mainstream scientists, but does not robotic behavior could ever prove waste time discussing why this is so. beyond doubt that the robot actually Instead he assures us that the robots possessed insides" (p. 9). He agrees of the future—who are expected to that this leads to the problem of possess consciousness—will worship solipsism, i.e., that according to the Culbertson's books as sacred texts. same subjective criterion none of Culbertson appeals to the fact that Herbert's fellow humans can have a moving particle in three-dimensional consciousness either. However, he space can be imagined as a line in four- shows no interest in pursuing this dimensional space-time in order to matter further. And the science of claim that such lines can be conscious psychology doesn't fare much better of one another and that therefore the than the rest of the human race. He physical world is animate. Culbertson agrees that behaviorism is both falsi- thought that this assertion amounted fiable and also uncontradicted, but his to a falsifiable theory and suggested own consciousness apparently in­ three tests: (l) build a "clear-loop link," forms him that it is "doomed from the with which you can gain direct evi­ outside." dence of the consciousness of other

Summer 1994 411 beings, if they possess any; (2) con­ committed by the subjectivists in their struct a "Culbertson conscious com­ "interpretations" of quantum me­ puter" and show that it is superior to chanics. computers that perform similarly but He inconclusively reviews a are unconscious; and (3) produce a "Z- number of other fringe theories about experience" by attaching a human mind and quantum mechanics, among mind to a Z-network by means of a them those of Eccles and Penrose, clear-loop link. without indicating where he stands on With the same logic one could also the issue, and he ends by calling atten­ claim that the assertion that invisible, tion to the striking similarities ethereal dragons exist is a scientific between his ideas about "inner aware­ theory, because one can do an exper­ ness" and the Roman Catholic doc­ iment to test it: simply build an trine of transubstantiation (p. 271). I invisible-ethereal-dragon detector and could hardly disagree. go out and see if they are there. Never­ Of special interest to SI readers will theless, Herbert is fascinated by the be Herbert's treatment of alleged fact that Culbertson's theory might be parapsychological effects. He feels able to explain why consciousness that science is simply too young and evolved: he thinks that it allows space- naive to be allowed to pass judgment time to be used as a superhard disk on matters like this, which it is not in order to store information. He does yet in a position to understand. On mention that there are also more the other hand, he is impressed no end conventional theories to explain the by the "research" on a German polter­ evolution of consciousness, but he geist, the random-number generator does not get around to comparing experiments by parapsychologists them with Culbertson's ideas. Helmut Schmidt and Robert Jahn, a After returning from the fourth study on the efficiency of prayer, and dimension, Herbert turns his atten­ one on the "I-feel-I'm-being-stared- tion to quantum mechanics and com­ at" effect. He sees great prospects for mits a string of familiar subjective such research but cautions that it blunders. He confuses the term obser­ must be reliably repeatable. One vation, which has a very special wonders if he has noticed that para­ meaning in quantum mechanics, with psychologists have tried for more than the everyday notion of "looking at" a hundred years to do exactly this— something. He then goes on to claim without being able to find a repro­ that it has been shown experimentally ducible experiment that would indi­ that nature is nonlocal, that present cate the existence of anything para­ quantum theory is also nonlocal, that normal. He cites exactly one skeptical any possible successor of quantum argument, which he refutes correctly. mechanics would have to be nonlocal He points to the fact that the success as well, that quantum objects possess of casinos does not contradict psycho­ no attributes of their own (it would kinesis, because the odds there are be correct to say: "possess no classical stacked against the gambler to such attributes"), that quantum theory an extent that even if a small psychic predicts that cats can be both alive and effect did exist it would not enable the dead at the same time, that there is player to win. Although Herbert hits a quantum measurement problem this straw man, he misses the real that puzzles physicists, who are point nevertheless, because indepen­ helpless to solve it, and so on. In short, dent of this bias problem there is still he presents the usual list of errors no evidence for psi in studies of lot-

412 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 teries—not even a small statistical of these might be due only to coin­ effect. cidence and does not insist that they Typical of the inconclusive, anec­ constitute definite proof of either dotal tone of much of Herbert's book psychic ability or the hereafter. So one is his mention of how he connected is left wondering why he mentioned a random-number generator to a them at all. typewriter in order to transmit mes­ Sometimes physicists write books sages from the dead. He is impressed about philosophy. And sometimes by the fact that after the typewriter these turn out to be of considerable wrote "BY JUNG," it turned out that insight, as is the case with the works a student had a book by Jung in his of the Austrian physicist and philo­ pocket. And at a meditation-and-LSD sopher Ludwig Boltzman. Here this is party to call up the ghost of Houdini, not the case. a malfunctioning printer yielded him a string of letters that he interpreted as a humorous sign from Nature's Gerald Huber is a founding member of higher dimensions. Generously, he GWUP, the German skeptics group, and leaves open the possibility that both a longtime critic of parapsychology.

Deconstructing Skepticism

Science in the New Age: The Paranormal, Us Defenders and Debunkers, and American Culture. By David J. Hess. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wis., 1993. 243 pp. Paper, $17.95.

LEE LOEVINGER

ie era known as "the sixties" began with the inauguration of TJohn F. Kennedy as president in 1961 and probably ended with the defeat of George McGovern in the fall of 1972. It is notable for the coming of age of the "baby boom" generation and the development of a countercul­ ture that was more counter than culture. Remnants or echoes of the sixties remain with us, however. One of the more esoteric legacies of the sixties is a philosophy known as "deconstruction," initiated by Jacques Derrida, an Algerian French­ man, and expressed mainly through a school of literary criticism. A basic tenet of deconstruction is that there is no such thing as metaphysical

Summer 1994 413 certainty and that all logical dichot­ long and lists more than 300 names. omies are false, since each side always This includes those of about a dozen rests upon assumptions or supposi­ who are affiliated with the Committee tions that are identical to those of its for the Scientific Investigation of opposite. The term does not appear Claims of the Paranormal and a few in Webster's Third, but the Random who have written classics, such as House Dictionary of the English Language Vannevar Bush, Thomas Kuhn, and (2nd ed., 1987) defines deconstruction C. P. Snow. AH the rest seem to be as a philosophical movement "that authors of New Age or paranormal questions all traditional assumptions books or articles. about the ability of language to Despite, or perhaps because of, this represent reality and emphasizes that skewed selection, I found the book a text has no stable reference or quite informative. I have been reading identification because words essen­ books and periodicals on science since tially only refer to other words and the end of World War II, and I did not therefore a reader must approach a have any idea of the extent of the text by eliminating any metaphysical literature of superstition. The most or ethnocentric assumptions through interesting aspect of the viewpoint an active role of defining meaning, presented here is the thesis that the sometimes by a reliance on new word New Age, parapsychology, and skep­ construction, etymology, puns and ticism are three cultures that are, at other word play." The Encyclopaedia bottom, aspects of a single "para- Britannica (1993) observes that this culture." In accordance with this undermines a belief in reason and approach, Hess purports to describe rationality, and drily notes that decon­ each of these cultures in what is struction remains "somewhat contro­ intended to be a scholarly manner. versial." From both the title and the text it David Hess's book Science in the New seems that the New Age is the Age is a good example of deconstruc­ author's favorite among his three tion in action. Hess claims that the cultures. The book begins with a topic of the book, in one sense, is "the flattering recital of the many mani­ universal problem of the dialogue festations included within the New between science and religion," with a Age movement: past-lives therapists, focus on the segment of the American crystal healers, earth goddesses, lost population "that contests the reality civilizations, mantras, gurus, Har­ of phenomena known as 'para­ monic Convergence, shamanic normal.' " He claims that he writes voyages, Hollywood ghosts, Califor­ "primarily for other scholars" but he nia channelers, natural medicine, writes so that the book is also access­ pagan rituals, and Shirley MacLaine. ible to interested nonexperts. The The New Age movement is a "reaction alleged scholarly nature of this book to the defeats of the political aspira­ (which is asserted several times) tions of the 1960s," and the New appears to rest on the fact that most Agers, who might best be described of the text consists of summaries or as "heirs to the hippies," now are discussions of what others have articulating alternative spiritual written on the several topics visions and also "expressing the addressed. I have not attempted to dilemmas of the current social order count the references in the text, but and attempting to define alternatives the number must be enormous. The to that order." New Agers are skeptics appended bibliography is 25 pages in their own right who are skeptical

414 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 "not only of the demands of religious and others sympathetic to GSICOP. faith but also of the promises made Thus CSICOP and its allies often to them by the corporate world, speak "in the idiom of journalistic official science, and the medical estab­ muckraking." In an endnote Hess lishment." Nevertheless, as the move­ credits himself with forbearance in not ment sheds some of the most calling this group "hostile critics." scientifically questionable beliefs and Such skeptics, he says, sometimes practices, it is being absorbed into the engage in a "kind of religious zeal to mainstream of American culture. defend a materialistic and atheistic In both the author's affection and worldview that smacks of what has logical ordering, parapsychologists are been called 'scientific fundamentalism' located somewhere between New or 'irrational rationalism.' " Whether Agers and skeptics. Parapsychologists skeptics are debunking or merely are "heterodox scientists" who attacking on an intellectual level, he attempt to win acceptance within the maintains that their writing reflects orthodox academy but are engaged in a confrontational and aggressive the study of paranormal phenomena, approach to the paranormal. To Hess such as psychokinesis, extrasensory this shows that skepticism is a very perception, telepathy, clairvoyance, masculine discourse—indeed, a pre­ and precognition. Within the field of dominantly male movement. In con­ parapsychology there is a division trast, many of the leaders of the New between the exponents of quantita­ Age movement are women—although tive, experimental, laboratory-based parapsychology has been dominated studies and the supporters of case by men. This is consistent with the histories and field methods known as observation that in Western society "spontaneous case research." While the values associated with masculin­ some parapsychologists do both kinds ity—intelligence, logic, objectivity, of work, there is a tendency for them independence, and risk-taking—tend to fall into one or the other camp. to correspond to those associated with However, as Hess observes in a the "hard" sciences, as opposed to the discussion of gender in the social "soft" fields of what Hess calls the construction of boundaries between "human sciences" (usually known as fields (an important and recurring social sciences) and the arts. subject in his analysis), "the lab is Although "science" appears in the foreign to the paranormal," which title of this book, the text is about as occurs in the home and is an affair scientific as a review of current motion of the heart, of family ties, and pictures by your local movie critic. As frequently of mothers, daughters, and one clue, there isn't a single quanti­ children. The president of the Para- tative datum in the whole book. How­ psychological Association is reported ever, there is an entire chapter to have argued that the experimental devoted to a review of some of the method has been a failure in the field most popular movies of the 1970s and of parapsychology. 1980s portraying ghosts, haunted While those in each of the postu­ houses, or possession by spirits— lated cultural groups see themselves including identification of the actors as skeptical of the claims of other and actresses playing important roles groups, "there is another, more in each. This is said to provide a "check strident form of skepticism" that is on the analysis presented in the identified with the SKEPTICAL preceding chapters" and to show that INQUIRER and its readers and scientists Hollywood is part of the "emergent

Summer 1994 415 paraculture." The transition in movie By moving in this direction, para- mythology over the years is said to psychologists would also be moving reflect the change in popular imagi­ toward a ground that could be shared nation from the dark world of the with a "more sophisticated skepti­ occult, with its emphasis on Faustian cism." Bluntly put, it is suggested that forces and magical powers, to "the parapsychologists should abandon the bright light of the New Age, with its search for "evidentiality" (i.e., scien­ emphasis on spirituality and self- tific data or proof), and skeptics should development." Those interested in a abandon "debunking" (i.e., asking for synopsis of the movie plots may read scientific data or proof) and then "both the book. For this review it is sufficient sides might be able to find a middle to report that the author states, with ground on which they study para­ obvious satisfaction: "One figure, normal beliefs and practices." however, does tend to get sacrificed Despite its lack of lucidity, and in the Hollywood movies: the skeptic, sometimes coherence, in exposition, I who is generally male and often found this book educational. I am now associated with a higher position in convinced that the dogma of irration­ the scales of social power and hier­ ality is vastly stronger and more wide­ archy. ... As viewers, we sense a spread than I had ever imagined it. It certain justice when the skeptic is is not, as I had once thought, merely sacrificed." a social or professional oddity. If the In the concluding chapter, Hess beliefs espoused by Hess are half as suggests what he considers the "prac­ popular and widespread as he claims, tical implications" of his analysis. With then they are nothing less than the respect to parapsychology, more effi­ intellectual counterpart of the drug cient data-gathering still leaves the culture that is pervading and corrup­ repeatable experiment an "elusive ting our cities. quarry," while generating psycholog­ ical and sociological knowledge Lee Loevinger is a Washington, D.C., at­ oriented toward clinical or public torney with a degree in psychology. He fre­ education is an achievable alternative. quently reviews books on scientific subjects.

Poisoning the Intellectual Cohesion

. . . The proliferation of distortions and exaggerations about science, of tall tales and imprecations, threatens to poison the intellectual cohesion necessary for a university to work as anything other than a collection of fiefdoms, trying to avoid each other's concerns—and students—as much as possible.

—Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt, High Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1994 [p. 7])

416 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 New y^^ Books ]

Bringing UFOs Down to Earth. Philip and logical solutions, evaluating the J. Klass. CSICOP, P.O. Box 703, evidence, forming a hypothesis, chal­ Buffalo, NY 14226-0703, 1994. 26 pp. lenging the hypothesis, reaching a $2.50, paper. (Originally commis­ conclusion, suspending judgment, and sioned by the Smithsonian National taking action. Ends with a discussion Air and Space Museum.) Informative, of thinking skills, methods, and processes.

Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science. Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt. Johns Hopkins University Press, Balti­ more, 1994. 328 pp. $25.95 hardcover. Scientists Paul Gross and Norman BRINGING UFOS Levitt raise serious questions about DOWN TO EARTH the growing criticism of science by humanists and social scientists on the "academic left." They warn that prin­ ciples and practices that underlie 300 years of scientific achievement have Philip J.KLAS S come under attack by literary theorists who "deconstruct" scientific texts, radical feminists who condemn scien­ tific "patriarchy," and other scholars well-written, illustrated booklet for who have little actual knowledge of teenagers interested in reports of science. They examine examples of UFOs. With many short case studies "science bashing" coming from an and anecdotes, it provides a gentle array of viewpoints in academia, in­ introduction to the scientific approach cluding postmodernism, radical fem­ to examining UFO claims critically. inism, environmentalism, multi- culturalism, and AIDS activism. They The General Pattern of the Scientific argue that the long-term effects on Method, 2nd ed. Norman W. Edmund. science education and public judgment Norman W. Edmund, 407 Northeast of scientific issues may be far more Third Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301- serious than the "political correctness" 3233, 1994. 47 pp. Paper. Single copy wars now being waged on university $3.00, bulk $0.85. An illustrated guide campuses. to the scientific method, for students, by the founder of the Edmund Scien­ Psychic Sleuths. Edited by Joe Nickell. tific Co. Edmund provides handy short Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY sections on such things as curious ob­ 14228-2197, 1994. 251 pp. $24.95 servation, defining a problem, search­ hardcover. Subtitled "ESP and Sensa­ ing for evidence, generating creative tional Cases," this is a much-needed

Summer 1994 417 critical evaluation of persons who Toward a New Enlightenment. Paul claim to help the police solve crimes Kurtz. (Edited and with introductions by "psychic" powers. In each chapter by Vern L. Bullough and Timothy J. an experienced researcher examines Madigan.) Transaction Publishers. the claims of a particular "psychic": Rutgers—The State University, New Henry Gordon examines Peter Hur- Brunswick, NJ 08903, 1994. 401 pp. kos; Stephen Peterson: Gerard $39.95 hardcover. A laudable compila­ Croiset; Michael R. Dennett: Dorothy tion of essential writings (most never Allison; Gary P. Posner: Noreen published in book form, some never Renier; Jim Lippard: Bill Ward; Lee published anywhere) of the activist Roger Taylor, Jr., and Michael R. philosopher, teacher, author, editor, Dennett: Rosemarie Kerr; Kenneth L. and organizer Paul Kurtz (who Feder and Michael Alan Park: Phil founded CSICOP, Free Inquiry maga­ Jordan; Ward Lucas: Greta Alexander. zine, and Prometheus Books, to name Nickell provides additional comments, just three of his intellectual offspring), and James Alcock provides additional whom the editors call "the dominant analyses of psychic sleuths' claims in voice of secular humanism over the an afterword. Appendices include two past thirty years." The writings, most evaluations of psychic claimants for dating since 1980 forward, focus on the Los Angeles Police Department by practical topics Kurtz has been con­ Martin Reiser and colleagues, several cerned with throughout his life: articles from the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, ethics, politics, education, religion, sci­ and a follow-up study by Mark Durm ence, and pseudoscience. (Of historical and Jane Ayers Sweat extending their interest to our readers is his address survey of police departments' use of "The Scientific Attitude vs. Anti- psychics (SI, Winter 1993), from large science and Pseudoscience" to the cities to small and medium-sized cities. inaugural meeting of CSICOP, May Must reading for everyone who gets 1, 1976, at SUNY-Buffalo.) "My main involved with this subject. concern in my professional career has been to defend the methods of science and reason as applicable not only to Psychology, 2nd ed. Peter Gray. narrow areas of scientific inquiry, but Worth Publishers, Inc. 33 Irving Place, to all domains of human endeavor," New York, NY 10003, 1994. 788 pp. Kurtz writes in the Preface. In a per­ $55.95 hardcover. Introductory psy­ sonal sketch in his Foreword, Bul­ chology text by Boston College psy­ lough portrays Kurtz's exuberance, chologist. Describes the main ideas of cheerfulness, and energy and says he the field and the evidence behind is a "far more complicated and inter­ them, and attempts to get students to esting" man than even his prodigious join in thinking about behavior—its accomplishments indicate, a strong functions, causes, and mechanisms. believer in maintaining friendships, "In writing the book," says Gray in and an outspoken and sophisticated the Preface, "1 constantly imagined defender of human and intellectual myself carrying on a dialogue with an freedom. inquiring, thinking, appropriately skeptical student." —Kendrick Frazier

418 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 Articles Of Note

Brewin, Thurstan B. "Logic and when the phial in question was sealed Magic in Mainstream and Fringe (no tests have ever been done to show Medicine." journal of the Royal Society it contains real blood). of Medicine, 86:721-723, December 1993. Mentions three obvious rea­ Gould, Stephen Jay, "The Persistently sons for the current boom in fringe Flat Earth." Natural History, March medicine, then discusses a possible 1994, pp. 12-19. Essay points out that fourth: its appeal to that side of our the most prominent of all prejudicial nature that dislikes logic and prefers scientific stories emphasizing overly magic. stark contrasts between the Middle Ages and the eras before and after— Ellis, Bill. "The Highgate Cemetery the supposed dark and medieval con­ Vampire Hunt: The Anglo-American sensus for a flat earth—is entirely Connection in Satanic Cult Lore." mythological. Folklore, 104: 14-39, 1993. The prac­ tice—and fear—of witchcraft has Greyson, Bruce. "Varieties of Near- made a comeback in Britain in the past Death Experience." Psychiatry, 56 (4): hundred years. This article discusses 390-399, November 1993. The nature the late-nineteenth-century Golden of near-death experiences varies Dawn organization, 1950s police depending on whether danger was warnings, and a feud between rival expected (as in surgery) or was sudden occultists that ended up at the criminal (as in accidents). "Surrendering" courts of Old Bailey. versus "fighting" led to different kinds of experiences, as did coronary arrest. Garlaschelli, Luigi, Franco Ramaccini, and Sergio Delia Sala. "A 'Miracle' Herman, Daniel. "Science, Seance, Diagnosis." Chemistry in Britain, and San Francisco: The Spiritualists' 30:123-125, February 1994. A more Phantom Fandango." The Californians, complete report of the authors' fam­ 11(2): 18-37, 1994. A lengthy histor­ ous investigation, published in brief ical essay on spiritualism in San in Nature in 1991, advancing the hy­ Francisco and its struggle with science. pothesis that the "blood" liquefaction Contends that for nineteenth-century observed regularly at a Naples cathe­ Americans, and especially San Fran­ dral is more likely due to the natural ciscans, the advent of spiritualism, phenomenon of thixotropy. This is a contrary to what one might think, property of certain gels (e.g., ketchup helped usher in modernity by soothing and mayonnaise) to become more fluid anxieties about industrialization and when disturbed and to resolidify when other losses of individuality in a left to stand. All the compounds used rational, scientific era. in their reddish-brown FeO(OH) colloidal solution would also have been Langton, James. "Revealed: The Loch available in the fourteenth century, Ness Picture Hoax." Sunday Telegraph

Summer 1994 419 (London), March 13, 1994, pp. 1, 3. together layer upon layer by "a tire­ The article that revealed that the less tinker called evolution." famous 1934 photograph by Col. Robert Wilson, M.D., had been Rae, Stephen. "John Mack." New York hoaxed. See News and Comment, this Times Magazine, March 20, 1994, pp. issue. 30-33. Lively profile of the Harvard psychiatrist who thinks alien- Lardner, Ring, Jr. "The Age of Reason, abduction stories are true. Reports on 1794-1994." The Nation, February 21, his earlier explorations into psycho­ 1994, pp. 232-233. Tagged "Uncom­ analysis, EST, holotropic breathwork, mon Nonsense," Lardner simply lists Eastern philosophy, and shamanism. "some of the strange things Ameri­ "Mack was predisposed to seeing enti­ cans believe 200 years after Thomas ties," says the author, who also quotes Paine published The Age of Reason. Carl Sagan, Philip Klass, and several "None of them can meet the ordinary of Mack's Harvard psychiatry depart­ standards of proof required in a court ment colleagues. ("I wish he were of law or in an objective scholarly doing something else. This is so off- investigation. . . ." The 42-item list base," says one.) includes popular, pseudoscientific, paranormal, and religious myths. Sengoopta, Chandak. "Rejuvenation and the Prolongation of Life: Science Mayor, Adrienne, and Michael Hea­ or Quackery?" Perspectives in Biology ney. "Griffins and Arimaspeans." and Medicine, 37:55-66, Autumn 1993. Folklore, 104: 40-66, 1993. In the first Some of the leading scientists working of two related articles, Mayor hy­ with monkey glands and other pothesizes that the griffin of myth­ rejuvenation techniques early in the ology was inspired by fossilized skele­ century were not frauds in the usual tons of the dinosaur protoceratops, sense but scientists pursuing what which have been found near the gold turned out to be a dead end. mines that griffins supposedly guard­ ed. Heaney then proposes that the Verdoux, H., and M. Bourgeois. "A Arimaspeans—the tribe that sup­ Partial Form of Lycanthropy with posedly fought the griffins—are a Hair Delusion in a Manic-Depressive version of the "wildmen" legend that Patient." British journal of Psychology, still lives on in Central Asia under the 163: 685-686, November 1993. A name "Almas." report on a patient who believed excessive hair was growing on his Miller, Kenneth R. "Life's Grand body, with some indications of think­ Design." Technology Review, February/ ing he was a werewolf. March 1994, pp. 24-32. A professor of biology at Brown University and Young, Robert Vaughn. "Scientology author of a high-school biology text­ from Inside Out." Quill, 81 (9): 38- book responds to the creationists' 41, November/December 1993. A latest form of attack against evolution, former public relations officer for their so-called "intelligent design L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology organ­ theory." Miller shows how biology ization explains the systems they used offers new evidence that organisms— to direct and misdirect reporters. far from springing into existence in full form from a grand designer's —Kendrick Frazier original blueprints—were cobbled and Robert Lopresti

420 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 Follow-Up

he Spectrum of the False Memory Debate T G. W. LEA s a clinical psychologist who has lems. After evaluating the parents and assessed or treated more than the five-year-old daughter I concluded Ai 175 sex offenders and the same that there was no basis for the number of sex-abuse victim survivors complaint; the mother's intense alien­ over the past 15 years, I have followed ation from the father was modeled by the False Memory Syndrome debate the daughter and, in spite of my with particular interest. (See Martin repeated recommendations for access Gardner, "The False Memory Syn­ supported by court order, the girl drome," SI, Summer 1993, and sub­ refused to see her father. sequent letters to the editor and Notwithstanding the above, Mar­ Gardner's response, Winter 1994.) tin Gardner makes some remarks in Indeed, there are any number of his replies (Winter 1994, p. 214) that self-appointed "validators" around invite comment. He suggested that "a who seem to see it as their mission father capable of raping his four-year- to uncritically accept or, in a number old daughter betrays such psychotic of cases, facilitate "memory" of sexual- behavior that it is almost impossible abuse complaints. Over the past five for there to be no other records of years in particular I have been asked his mental illness." This is simply not to evaluate such complaints, which the case. The vast majority of sex often, although not always, arise in offenders, incest offenders in partic­ heated custody/access disputes. In one ular, have no criminal record and no recent case, a two-and-a-half-year-old documented record of mental-health infant covered her doll in play therapy disorders. Roughly half, however, and pronounced it "dirty"; the play have been sexually abused themselves therapist suggested to the concerned (or at least that is what they report) mother that this type of conduct is and roughly 70 percent have been indicative of child sexual abuse and, physically abused; roughly half are as the mother could identify no other alcohol/drug dependent. The vast person who had had access to the majority have come from familial and/ infant other than herself, accused her or social backgrounds that are impov­ estranged husband of abusing his erished, i.e., one or both parents daughter. It was more than a year and absent, alcoholic, abusive, etc. a half before he was able to see his More seriously, Gardner goes on daughter without supervision. to suggest that wives and other In the same vein, a father whom relatives seldom have reason to main­ I evaluated one year ago in a custody/ tain a state of "denial." This, too, is access dispute involving alleged sexual at odds with both my experience and abuse recently died of cardiac prob­ the literature. While many mothers of

Summer 1994 421 children who are victims of incest do Gardner adds that at times there separate from the father at the time may be a full confession. In my of the disclosure, a very substantial experience that is rare, certainly on number do not. The child's mother the order of less than 5 percent of the and siblings know that to break the time, and the "vigorous denials" he "silence" or "denial" is to put the father referred to may be genuine or false. at risk of incarceration, job and Vigorous denials, therefore, are not financial loss, with the concomitant probative one way or the other. To loss of status in the community and complicate things, victims often do attendant shame, guilt, and so on, for love and admire the offender and in other family members. Most assaults some cases find the dissonance so are accompanied by explicit or implicit potent that they "split" the non- threats of violence. In other cases, offending "good Daddy" who exists mixed feelings of affection, fear, and during the day from the offending confusion relating to the meaning of "bad Daddy" who exists at night. genital stimulation and associated Both false-negatives and false- pleasure have maintained victim positives are serious matters when it silence. It is not true, then, that family comes to child sexual abuse com­ members seldom have reason to plaints. I concur, then, with the state­ maintain a state of "denial." ment of senior editor Mary Sykes Thirteen years ago I was asked to Wylie in the Family Therapy Net- evaluate and treat a nearly four-year- worker (September/October 1993) old girl who had been apprehended with respect to the false-memory from a heroin-addicted, sexually debate: abusive mother. There was no ques­ tion that this infant had been poorly The truth doesn't lie somewhere in treated; I counseled the girl and her the mushy middle of the contro­ father for about nine months with versy, but all across the spectrum, respect to her nightmares, enuresis, from one extreme to the other. No and sexual acting out. In 1992 the possibility forecloses another con­ same father contacted me to speak tradictory possibility for somebody else. There could be innocent par­ with his then 15-year-old daughter as ents and guilty but amnesic parents the girl's mother had contacted her by and parents who engaged in some phone and asked for visitation. The but not all of the abuse of which girl had no recollection of the events they are accused, and parents who that occurred during her infancy. are conscious perpetrators cynically When I spoke with her she exhibited using the controversy for their own a normal personal and social profile. ends. Similarly, there are adults She had no recollection of being who, in their own confusion and counseled by me, nor did I expect her unhappiness, are remembering to. She was genuinely surprised when abuse that did not happen and adults who have truly suffered every form I told her that she had spoken to me of sexual abuse from inappropriate II years earlier about "plastic willies looking and touching to molesta­ and plastic winkies." This single case tion, to the most sadistic, horrify­ does not "prove" the issue of False ing, long-term trauma imaginable Memory Syndrome one way or the and unimaginable. other, but it does suggest that memo­ ries of abusive events prior to the age G. W. Lea is a registered clinical psy­ of four years (at least in this case) may chologist in Kelowna, B.C., V1Y 4N7 be repressed. Canada.

422 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 Confusion Over Delphi Silver-Futures Trials? KEITH HARARY

was glad to read Robert Sheaffer's example, according to Targ's reported attempt to clarify the details of the description, he found himself scrutin­ I Delphi silver experiments and izing drawings that actually were events surrounding them (SI, Psychic roughly 30-to-40 miles away from him Vibrations, Winter 1994). Many peo­ at the time. He later admitted, in ple have experienced difficulty in response to my critique, that he had sorting through the many misleading not scrutinized the drawings in ques­ claims about Delphi. I am happy to tion—contrary to what was reported. present another brief attempt to clear When asked to support his many other up this confusion. claims about the Delphi trials, Targ There are a number of factual claimed that he had "lost" the data. errors in Sheaffer's comments about Sheaffer perceives contradictions the Delphi work itself. He states, for where none exist. It is true that the example, that John White was the first 12 trials in the Delphi series (if principal investor and that he turned we include the pilots) led to correct a substantial profit. He also states that predictions of future price movements the investor lost much of his earlier in silver. It is also true that these were profits following two incorrect predic­ informal trials, with optional stopping tions and lost all further interest in and spontaneously varied probabilities investing through Delphi. John White, of a hit, and that the success of these however, was never involved in the trials is therefore statistically mean­ Delphi work. Anthony White, one of ingless. My discussion of the judging three Delphi partners, was involved— procedure used in the additional trial but he was not the principal investor. involving the golf course, incidentally, The principal investor did not lose was intended merely to show that most of his earlier profits in the two Targ's claims about supposed "dis­ unsuccessful trials. He also did not lose placement" are not supported by the all further interest in Delphi following data. Sheaffer seems to be suggesting these trials. that I would have had to have believed Sheaffer also states that I sug­ myself to be psychic (or actually been gested that the judges may have been psychic) in order for the first 13 trials thrown off the track in judging the to have led to correct predictions. This first trial by a comment about the is a mistaken assumption with which smell of roasted peanuts—which sup­ any qualified statistician would no posedly led them to select the San doubt disagree. Francisco Zoo as the target. In fact, Sheaffer also expresses skepticism I actually pointed out in my published about my stating that I have no critique of the silver trials (JASPR, further interest in using remote October 1992) that I do not recall ever viewing as an investment strategy in having made such a statement—and playing the silver market. To this that the manner in which Russell Targ suggestion, I can only reply that I have reported the judging of this particular turned down anyone who has ever trial to the editors of Time-Life Books approached me, since the Delphi trials was inaccurate and misleading. For were reported, proposing such a ven-

Summer 1994 423 ture. In addition, when Targ used my induced at will. name to promote his National ESP Finally, Sheaffer states that we will Laboratory, which involved the never know what really happened in general public in making predictions the Delphi trials. This is also not about the market, I filed suit to correct. Although Targ now claims to prevent the use of my name in this have "lost" the data, the original manner. I believe this was the only report on this work was published responsible action I could have taken. long ago (Psi Research, 4, pp. 79-88, I would not hesitate to take it again 1985). The critical point made in my if my name were used to promote such recently published discussion of the activities. In my opinion, the Delphi silver trials is that Targ's recent trials represented a well-intentioned descriptions of the Delphi series do not and potentially worthwhile effort, correspond with the published report which was unfortunately sensational­ that he himself previously coauthored. ized and made the subject of exag­ Most significant, he has frequently gerated and misleading claims. reported (with inconsistent details) a As to my finally rejecting the subsequent series of nine formal trials "psychic" label, I do not understand that did not actually take place—and why Sheaffer apparently finds this that did not appear in the original position difficult to comprehend. I report. Targ has subsequently been have long-since perceived the terrible unable to support this claim with any problems inherent in using such a hard data. I hope that SKEPTICAL label to describe any human being— INQUIRER readers will take the time and have written and lectured exten­ to read this critique and learn the true sively about these problems. As to facts of the case. I would be happy Scott Rogo's interesting statement— to provide a reprint to anyone who quoted in Sheaffer's column—that I wishes to do so. ever claimed I could "leave my body," this is also incorrect. Out-of-body experiences, as I have often pointed Keith Harary is at the Institute for out, are powerful subjective psycho­ Advanced Psychology, 2269 Chestnut logical phenomena that may be Street, #875, San Francisco, CA 94123.

Sixth European Skeptical Conference Science, Pseudoscience, and the Environment The Sixth European Skeptical Confer­ pseudoscience in die schools and in die ence is scheduled for September 23- media, alternative medical practices in 25, 1994, in Ostend, Belgium. The a Europe without frontiers, recent conference will be hosted by SKEPP, developments in parapsychological the Belgian skeptics organization, and research, practical aspects of skeptics coordinated by die European Skeptical organizations, and practical debunking. Program Committee. Osted can be reached easily by train Among the topics tentatively from Brussels International Airport or planned for discussion are geobiology, by ferry from England. environmental alarmism, cosmic influ­ For more information, contact ences, philosophical aspects of pseu­ Barry Karr at CSICOP: 716-636-1425 doscience and skepticism, science/ or Fax 716-636-1733.

424 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 Fill in the gaps in your SKEPTICAL INQUIRER collection 15% discount on orders of $100 or more ($6.25 for each copy. To order, use reply card insert.) SPRING 1994 (vol. 18, no. 3): The Antiscience Threat: The chimney myth, Sanderson. Does an ancient Jewish The growth of antiscience, Kurtz; The antiscience problem, amulet commemorate the conjunction of 2 B.C. ? Rubincam. Holton. Measuring the prevalence of false memories, SUMMER 1992 (vol. 16, no. 4): Freedom of scientific Goertzel. Bleuler's views on inheritance of acquired inquiry under siege, Kurtz. Psychic experiences: Psychic characteristics and on psi phenomena, Windholz. Examin­ illusions, Blackmore. The scientist's skepticism, Bunge. The ing the satanic panic: ... A personal perspective, Huston; persistent popularity of the paranormal, Lett. Self-help ... A sociological and historical perspective, Hints. books: Pseudoscience in the guise of science? Gambrill. Philosophy and the paranormal, Part 2: Skepticism, SPRING 1992 (vol. 16, no. 3): Special Report: The miracles, and knowledge. Grey. Maharishi caper: JAMA hoodwinked, Skolnick. Myths of WINTER 1994 (vol. 18, no. 2): The new skepticism, Kurtz. subliminal persuasion: The cargo-cult science of sublim­ Philosophy and the paranormal, Part 1: The problem of inal persuasion, Pratkanis; Subliminal perception: Facts and 'psi,' Grey. Electromagnetic field cancer scares, Deutsch. fallacies, Moore; Subliminal tapes, Phelps and Exum. The Avro Attacks on role-playing games, Cardwell. Global fortune- VZ-9 'flying saucer,' Blake. Two 19th-century skeptics: telling and Bible prophecy, Tremaine. Chernikov pattern Augustus de Morgan and John Fiske, Rothman. puzzle, Pickover. WINTER 1992 (vol. 16, no. 2): On being sued: The chilliing FALL 1993 (vol. 18, no. 1): 'Perspectives on education of freedom of expression, Kurtz. The crop-circle phenom­ in America: Sandia study challenges misconceptions, enon, Nickell and Fischer. Update on the 'Mars effect,' Ertel. Frazier. Do 'honesty' tests really measure honesty? A dissenting note on Ertel's 'Update,' Kurtz. Magic Lilienfeld. Astrology strikes back—but to what effect? Dean. Melanin: Spreading scientific illiteracy among minorities. Diagnoses of alien kidnappings that result from Part 2, de Montellano. Adventures in science and cyclosophy, conjunction effects in memory, Dawes and Mulford. de Jager. Searching for security in the mystical. Grimmer. Mathematical magic for skeptics, Benjamin and Shermer. The FALL 1991 (vol. 16, no. 1): Near-death experiences, blind girl who saw the flash of the first nuclear weapon Blackmore. Multicultural pseudoscience: Spreading scien­ test, Sinclair. Science: The feminists' scapegoat? Walker. tific illiteracy, Part 1, de Montellano. Science and common- SUMMER 1993 (vol. 17, no. 4): The right hemisphere: sense skepticism, Aach. Spook Hill, Wilder. Lucian and An esoteric closet? Saravi. Improving science teaching: The Alexander, Rowe. 1991 CSICOP conference, Shore and textbook problem, Padian. The eyewitness: Imperfect Frazier. interface between stimuli and story, Reich. Pathological SUMMER 1991 (vol. IS, no. 4): Lucid dreams, Blackmore. science: An update, Cromer. Jack Horkheimer, "Star Nature faking in the humanities, Gallo. Carrying the war Hustler," interview by Gabriel Seabrook. The false memory into the never-never land of psi: Part 2, Gill. Coincidences, syndrome, Gardner. Paulos. Locating invisible buildings, Plummer. True SPRING 1993 (vol. 17, no. 3): Anguished silence and believers. Bower. helping hands: Autism and Facilitated Communication, SPRING 1991 (vol. IS, no. 3): Special report: Hi-fi Mulik, Jacobson, and Kobe. Faciliated Communication, pseudoscience, Davis. Searching for extraterrestrial intelli­ Autism, and Ouija, Dillon. Treading on the edge: Practicing gence: An interview with Thomas R. McDonough. Getting safe science with SETI, Tarter. Education for science. Gore. smart about getting smarts, Faulkes. Carrying the war into A threat to science, Schatzman. Charles Honorton's legacy the never-never land of psi: Part 1, Gill. Satanic cult to parapsychology, Blackmore. 1993 CSICOP Conference. 'survivor' stories, Victor. 'Old-solved mysteries': The WINTER 1993 (vol. 17, no. 2): Special report: 3.7 million Kecksburg incident. Young. Magic, medicine, and meta­ Americans kidnapped by aliens? Stires and Klass. Psychics: physics in Nigeria, Roder. What's wrong with science Do police departments really use them? Sweat and Durm. education? Look at the family. Eve. Psychic detectives: A critical examination, Walter Rowe. WINTER 1991 (vol. 15, no. 2): Special report / Gallup Therapeutic Touch, Bullough and Bullough. Improving poll: Belief in paranormal phenomena, Gallup and Newport. science teaching in the U.S., Marek and Wayne Rowe. The Science and self-government, Piel. West Bank collective Big Sur 'UFO,' George. The strange case of the New Haven hysteria episode, Stewart. Acceptance of personality test oysters, Quincey. results, Thiriart. Belief in astrology: A test of the Barnum FALL 1992 (vol. 17, no. 1): A celebration of Isaac Asimov: effect, French, Fowler, McCarthy, and Peers. A test of clairvoy­ A man for the universe, Kendrick Frazier. Arthur C. Clarke, ance using signal-detection, McKelvie and Gagne.Interces ­ Frederik Pohl, Harlan Ellison, L Sprague de Camp, Carl Sagan, sory prayer as medical treatment? Wltmer and Zimmerman. Stephen ]ay Gould, Martin Gardner, Paul Kurtz. Donald Goldsmith,FAL L 1990 (vol. 15, no. 1): Neural Organization James Randi, and E. C. Krupp. Gaia without mysticism. Technique: Treatment or torture, Worrall. The spooks Shannon. Gaia's scientific coming of age, Frazier. The curse of quantum mechanics, Stenger. Science and Sir William of the runestone: Deathless hoaxes, Whittaker. Night Crookes, Hoffmaster. The 'N' machine. Gumming. Biological terrors, sleep paralysis, and devil-stricken telephone cords cycles and rhythms vs. biorhythms, Wheeler. 1990 CSICOP from hell, Huston. Scientific creationism: The social agenda Conference. of a pseudoscience. Shore. Observing stars in the daytime: (continued on next page) SUMMER 1990 (vol. 14, no. 4): Ghosts make news: How Budd Hopkins). The MJ-12 Papers: Part 2, Klass. Dooms­ four newspapers report psychic phenomena, Klare. day: The May 2000 prediction, Meeus. My visit to the Thinking critically and creatively. Wade and Tavris. Police Nevada Clinic, Barrett. Morphic resonance in silicon chips, pursuit of satanic crime, Part 2, Hicks. Order out of chaos Varela and Letelier. Abigail's anomalous apparition, Durm. in survival research, Berger. Piltdown, paradigms, and the The riddle of the Colorado ghost lights, Bunch and White. paranormal, Feder. Auras: Searching for the light, Loftin. WINTER 1987-88 (vol. 12, no. 2): The MJ-12 papers: Part SPRING 1990 (vol. 14, no. 3): Why we need to understand I, Philip J. Klass. The aliens among us: Hypnotic regression science, Sagan. The crisis in pre-college science and math revisited, Baker. The brain and consciousness: Implications education, Seaborg. Police pursuit of satanic crime, Part for psi, Beyerstein. Past-life hypnotic regression, Spanos. 1, Hicks. The spread of satanic-cult rumors, Victor. Fantasizing under hypnosis, Reveen. The verdict on Lying about polygraph tests, Shneour. Worldwide disasters creationism, Gould. and moon phase, Kelly, Saklofske, and Culver. FALL 1987 (vol. 12, no. 1): The burden of skepticism, WINTER 1990 (vol. 14, no. 2): The new catastrophism, Sagan. Is there intelligent life on Earth? Kurtz. Medical Morrison and Chapman. A field guide to critical thinking, Controversies: Chiropractic, Jarvis; Homeopathy, Barrett, Lett. Cold fusion: A case history in 'wishful science'? M.D.; Alternative therapies, Jones; Quackery, Pepper. Rothman. The airship hysteria of 1896-97Bartholomew. Catching Geller in the act, Emery. Special Report: Newspaper editors and the creation-evolution contro­ CSICOP's 1987 conference. versy, Zimmerman. Special report: New evidence of SUMMER 1987 (vol. 11, no. 4): Incredible cremations: MJ-12 hoax, Klass. Investigating combustion deaths, Nickell and Fischer. FALL 1989 (vol. 14, no. 1): Myths about science, Rothman. Subliminal deception, Creed. Past tongues remembered? The relativity of wrong, Asimov. Richard Feynman on Thomason. Is the universe improbable? Shotwell. Psychics, fringe science. Luis Alvarez and the explorer's quest, computers, and psychic computers, Easton. Pseudoscience Muller. The two cultures, Jones. The 'top-secret UFO and children's fantasies, Evans. Thoughts on science and papers' NSA won't release, Klass. The metaphysics of superstrings, Gardner. Special Reports: JAL pilot's UFO Murphy's Law, Price. report, Klass; Unmasking psychic Jason Michaels, Busch. SUMMER 1989 (vol. 13, no. 4): The New Age—An SPRING 1987 (vol. 11, no. 3): The elusive open mind: Examination: The New Age in perspective, Kurtz. A New Ten years of negative research in parapsychology, Age reflection in the magic mirror of science, O'Hara. Blackmore. Does astrology need to be true? Part 2: The The New Age: The need for myth in an age of science, answer is no. Dean. Magic, science, and metascience: Some Schultz. Channeling, Alcock. The psychology of channeling. notes on perception, D. Sagan. Velikovsky's interpretation Reed, 'Entities' in the linguistic minefield, Thomason. of the evidence offered by China, Lo. Crystals, Lawrence. Consumer culture and the New Age, WINTER 1986-87 (vol. 11, no. 2): Case study of West Rosen. The Shirley MacLaine phenomenon, Gordon. Special Pittston 'haunted' house, Kurtz. Science, creationism and report: California court jails psychic surgeon, Brenneman. the Supreme Court, Seckel, with statements by Ayala, SPRING 1989 (vol. 13, no. 3): High school biology Gould, and Gell-Mann. The great East Coast UFO of August teachers and pseudoscientific belief, Eve and Dunn. Evidence 1986, Oberg. Does astrology need to be true? Part 1, Dean. for Bigfoot? Dennett. Alleged pore structure in Sasquatch Homing abilities of bees, cats, and people, Randi. footprints, Freeland and Rowe. The lore of levitation, Stein. FALL 1986 (vol. 11, no. 1): The path ahead: Opportunities, Levitation 'miracles' in India, Premanand. Science, pseudo- challenges, and an expanded view, Frazier. Exposing the science, and the cloth of Turin, Nickell. Rather than just faith-healers, Steiner. Was Antarctica mapped by the debunking, encourage people to think, Seckel. MJ-12 papers ancients? Jolly. Folk remedies and human belief-systems, 'authenticated'? Klass. A patently false patent myth, Sass. Reuter. Dentistry and pseudoscience, Dodes. Atmospheric WINTER 1989 (vol. 13, no. 2): Special report: The electricity, ions, and pseudoscience, Dolezalek. Noah's ark 'remembering water' controversy, Gardner and Randi; and ancient astronauts, Harrold and Eve. The Woodbridge Bibliographic guide to the 'dilution controversy.' UFO incident, Ridpath. How to bust a ghost. Baker. Pathologies of science, precognition, and modern SUMMER 1986 (vol. 10, no. 4): Occam's razor, Shneour. psychophysics, Jensen. A reaction-time test of ESP and Clever Hans redivivus, Sebeok. Parapsychology miracles, precognition, Hines and Dennison. Chinese psychic's pill- and repeatability. Flew. The Condon UFO study, Klass. bottle demonstration, Wu Xiaoping. The Kirlian technique, Four decades of fringe literature, Dutch. Some remote- Watkins and Bickel. Certainty and proof in creationist viewing recollections, Weinberg. thought, Leferriere. SPRING 1986 (vol. 10, no. 3): The perennial fringe, FALL 1988 (vol. 13, no. 1): Special report: Astrology and Asimov. The uses of credulity, de Camp. Night walkers and the presidency, Kurtz and Bob. Improving Human mystery mongers, Sagan. CSICOP after ten years, Kurtz. Performance: What about parapsychology? Frazier. The Crash of the crashed-saucers claim, Klass. A study of the China syndrome: Further reflections on the paranormal Kirlian effect, Watkins and Bickel. Ancient tales and space- in China, Kurtz. Backward masking, Mclver. The validity age myths of creationist evangelism, Mclver. of graphological analysis, Furnham, The intellectual revolt WINTER 1985-86 (vol. 10, no. 2): The moon was full against science. Grove. and nothing happened, Kelly, Rotton, and Culver. Psychic SUMMER 1988 (vol. 12, no. 4): Testing psi claims studies: The Soviet dilemma. Ebon. The psychopathology in China, Kurtz, Alcock, Frazier, Karr, Klass, and Randi. The of fringe medicine, Sabbagh. Computers and rational appeal of the occult: Some thoughts on history, religion, thought, Spangenburg and Moser. and science, Stevens. Hypnosis and reincarnation, Venn. FALL 1985 (vol. 10, no. 1): Investigations of firewalking, Pitfalls of perception, Wheeler. Wegener and pseudos- Leikind and McCarthy. Firewalking: reality or illusion, cience: Some misconceptions, Edelman. An investigation Dennett. Myth of alpha consciousness, Beyerstein. Spirit- of psychic crime-busting, Emery. High-flying health quackery, rapping unmasked, V. Bullough. The Saguaro incident, Hines. The bar-code beast, Keith. Taylor and Dennett. SPRING 1988 (vol. 12, no. 3): Neuropathology and the SUMMER 1985 (vol. 9, no. 4): Guardian astrology study. legacy of spiritual possession, Beyerstein.Varietie s of alien Dean, Kelly, Rotton, and Saklofske. Astrology and the commod­ experience, Ellis. Alien-abduction claims and standards of ity market, Rotton. The hundredth monkey phenomenon, inquiry (excerpts from Milton Rosenberg's radio talk- Amundson. Responsibilities of the media, Kurtz. 'Lucy' out show with guests Charles Gruder, Martin Orne, and of context, Albert. SPRING 1985 (vol. 9, no. 3): Columbus poltergeist: I, SUMMER 1981 (vol. 5, no. 4): Investigation of 'psychics/ Randi. Moon and murder in Cleveland, Sanduleak. Image Randi. ESP: A conceptual analysis, Gendin. The extrover­ of Guadalupe, Nickell and Fischer. Radar UFOs, Klass. Phren­ sion-introversion astrological effect, Kelly and Saklofske. Art, ology, McCoy. Deception by patients, Pankratz. Commun­ science, and paranormalism, Habercom. Profitable night­ ication in nature, Onion. mare. Wells. A Maltese cross in the Aegean? Loftin. WINTER 1984-85 (vol. 9, no. 2): The muddled 'Mind Race,' SPRING 1981 (vol. 5, no. 3): Hypnosis and UFO Hyman. Searches for the Loch Ness monster, Razdan and abductions, Klass. Hypnosis not a truth serum, Hilgard. Kielar. Final interview with Milbourne Christopher, H. Schmidt's PK experiments, Hansel. Further comments Dennett. Retest of astrologer John McCall, lanna and Tolbert. on Schmidt's experiments, Hyman. Atlantean road, Randi. FALL 1984 (vol. 9, no. 1): Quantum theory and the Deciphering ancient America, McKusick. A sense of the paranormal. Shore. What is pseudoscience? Bunge. The new ridiculous. Lord. philosophy of science and the 'paranormal/ Toulmin. An WINTER 1980-81 (vol. 5, no. 2): Fooling some people eye-opening double encounter, Marlin. Similarities all the time, Singer and Benassi. Recent perpetual motion between identical twins and between unrelated people, developments, Schadewald. National Enquirer astrology Wyatt et at. Effectiveness of a reading program on study, Mechler, McDaniel, and Mulloy. Science and the paranormal belief, Woods, Pseudoscientific beliefs of 6th- mountain peak, Asimou. graders, A. S. and 5. }. Adelman. FALL 1980 (vol. 5, no. 1): The Velikovsky affair — articles SUMMER 1984 (vol. 8, no. 4): Parapsychology's past eight by Oberg, Bauer, Frazier. Academia and the occult. Green- years, Alcock. The evidence for ESP, C. £. M. Hansel. well. Belief in ESP among psychologists, Padgett, Benassi, $110,000 dowsing challenge, Randi. Sir Oliver Lodge and and Singer. Bigfoot on the loose, Kurtz. Parental expec­ the spiritualists, Hoffmaster. Misperception, folk belief, and tations of miracles, Steiner. Downfall of a would-be psychic, the occult, Connor. Psychology and UFOs, Simon. McBumey and Greenberg. Parapsychology research, Mishlove. SPRING 1984 (vol. 8, no. 3): Belief in the paranormal SUMMER 1980 (vol. 4, no. 4): Superstitions, Bainbridge worldwide: Mexico, Mendez-Acosta; Netherlands, Hoebens; and Stark. Psychic archaeology, Feder. Voice stress analysis, U.K., Hutchinson; Australia, Smith; Canada, Gordon; France, Klass. Follow-up on the 'Mars effect/ Evolution vs. Rouze. Debunking, neutrality, and skepticism in science, creationism, and the Cottrell tests. Kurtz. University course reduces paranormal belief. Gray. SPRING 1980 (vol. 4, no. 3): Belief in ESP, Morris. UFO The Gribbin effect, Roder. Proving negatives, Pasquarello. hoax, Simpson. Don Juan vs. Piltdown man, de Mille. WINTER 1983-84 (vol. 8, no. 2): Sense and nonsense Tiptoeing beyond Darwin, Greenwell. Conjurors and the in parapsychology, Hoebens. Magicians, scientists, and psy­ psi scene, Randi. Follow-up on the Cottrell tests. chics, Ganoe and Kirwan. New dowsing experiment, Martin. WINTER 1979-80 (vol. 4, no. 2): The 'Mars effect' — The effect of TM on weather, Trumpy. The haunting of articles by Kurtz, Zelen, and Abell; Rawlins; Michel and Francoise the Ivan Vassilli, Sheaffer. Venus and Velikovsky, Forrest. Gauquelin. How I was debunked, Hoebens. The metal FALL 1983 (vol. 8, no. 1): Creationist pseudoscience, bending of Professor Taylor, Gardner. Science, intuition, Schadewald. Project Alpha: Part 2, Randi. Forecasting radio and ESP, Bauslaugh. quality by the planets, Dean. Reduction in paranormal FALL 1979 (vol. 4, no. 1): A test of dowsing, Randi. Science belief in college course, Tobacyk. Humanistic astrology, and evolution, Godfrey. Television pseudodocumentaries, Kelly and Krutzen. Bainbridge. New disciples of the paranormal, Kurtz. UFO SUMMER 1983 (vol. 7, no. 4): Project Alpha: Part 1, Randi. or UAA, Standen. The lost panda, van Kampen. Edgar Cayce, Goodman's 'American Genesis/ Feder. Battling on the air­ Randi. waves, Slavsky. Rhode Island UFO film, Emery. SUMMER 1979 (vol. 3, no. 4): The moon and the SPRING 1983 (vol. 7, no. 3): Iridology, Worrall. The Nazca birthrate, Abell and Greenspan. Biorhythms, Hines. 'Cold drawings revisited, Nickell. People's Almanac predictions, reading,' Randi. Teacher, student, and the paranormal, Donnelly. Test of numerology, Dlhopolsky. Pseudoscience Krai. Encounter with a sorcerer. Sack. in the name of the university, Lederer and Singer. SPRING 1979 (vol. 3, no. 3): Near-death experiences, WINTER 1982-83 (vol. 7, no. 2): Palmistry, Park. The Alcock. Television tests of Musuaki Kiyota, Scott and Hutchin­ great SRI die mystery, Gardner. The 'monster' tree-trunk son. The conversion of J. Allen Hynek, Klass. Asimov's of Loch Ness, Campbell. UFOs and the not-so-friendly corollary, Asimov. skies, Klass. In defense of skepticism, Reber. WINTER 1978-79 (vol. 3, no. 2): Is parapsychology a FALL 1982 (vol. 7, no. 1): The prophecies of Nostradamus, science? Kurtz. Chariots of the gullible, Bainbridge. The Cazeau. Prophet of all seasons, James Randi. Revival of Tunguska event, Oberg. Space travel in Bronze Age China, Nostradamitis, Hoebens. Unsolved mysteries and extra­ Keightley. ordinary phenomena. Gilt. Clearing the air about psi, FALL 1978 (vol. 3, no. 1): An empirical test of astrol­ Randi. A skotography scam, Randi. ogy, Bastedo. Astronauts and UFOs, Oberg. Sleight of SUMMER 1982 (vol. 6, no. 4): Remote-viewing, Marks. tongue, Schwartz. The Sirius "mystery," Rid path. Radio disturbances and planetary positions, Meeus. Divin­ SPRING/SUMMER 1978 (vol. 2, no. 2): Tests of three ing in Australia, Smith. "Great Lakes Triangle," Cena. psychics, Randi. Biorhythms, Bainbridge. Plant perception, Skepticism, closed-mindedness, and science fiction, Beyer- Kmetz. Anthropology beyond the fringe. Cole. NASA and stein. Followup on ESP logic, Hardin and Morris and Gendin. UFOs, Klass. A second Einstein ESP letter, Gardner. SPRING 1982 (vol. 6, no. 3): The Shroud of Turin, Mueller. FALL/WINTER 1977 (vol. 2, no. 1): Von Daniken, Story, Shroud image, McCrone. Science, the public, and the The Bermuda Triangle, Kusche. Pseudoscience at Science Shroud, Schafersman. Zodiac and personality, Gauquelin. Digest, Oberg and Sheaffer. Einstein and ESP, Gardner. N- Followup on quantum PK, Hansel. rays and UFOs, Klass. Secrets of the psychics, Rawlins. WINTER 1981-82 (vol. 6, no. 2): On coincidences, Ruma SPRING/SUMMER 1977 (vol. 1, no. 2): Uri Geller, Marks Folk. Croiset: Part 2, Hoebens. Scientific creationism, Schade­ and Kammann. Cold reading, Hyman. Transcendental Medi­ wald. Follow-up on 'Mars effect/ Rawlins, responses by tation, Woodrum. A statistical test of astrology, McGervey. CS1COP Council and Abell and Kurtz. Cattle mutilations, Stewart. FALL 1981 (vol. 6, no. 1): Gerard Croiset: Part 1, Hoebens. FALL/WINTER 1976 (vol. 1, no. 1): Dianetics, Wallis. Test of perceived horoscope accuracy. Lackey. Planetary Psychics and clairvoyance. Fine. "Objections to Astrology,' positions and radio propagation, lanna and Margolin. West rum. Astronomers and astrophysicists as astrology Bermuda Triangle, 1981, Dennett. Observation of a psychic, critics, Kurtz and Nisbet. Biorhythms and sports. Fix. Von Mclntyre. Daniken's chariots, Omohundro. Forum

The Scalp-Tinglin', Mind-Blowin', Eye-Poppin', Heart-Wrenchin', Stomach-Churnin', Foot-Stumpin', Great Big Doodley Science Show!!! RALPH ESTLING

et us now lambaste infamous thinking. The only qualification in men, those who call themselves science's favor—not that it doesn't L scientists and perhaps honestly have dogmas, because it certainly believe themselves to be scientists and does, loads of them—is that its dogmas indeed have the post-nominals to tend to collapse in a heap a bit more show it, but who are not scientists. readily than those you find in art, Science is, when all's said and done, religion, politics, and the rest. If you only the name we give to what it is have a scientific dogma and it's dis­ scientists do and think; and scientists, covered that according to it 1 + 1 T4 same as the rest of us, are a mixed 2, this often means you're in trouble. bag, especially when it comes to doing (Not always, as quantum theory and thinking. They're supposed to shows us.) Whereas in politics you can love truth for its own sake and to seek hold on to your dogma on that basis it at all costs. No doubt all of them for decades, in religion for centuries. think they do, but whether they really In psychoanalysis, 1 + 1 # 2 is a do and to what extent is one of those genuine advantage. things that doesn't mean much when All constructs of human beings applied with broad strokes of a tar have this problem, i.e., they're made brush. It only has true meaning when by humans, with all that this entails. applied to this or that individual, and Science is just another such construct, I'm carefully avoiding individuals and humanity's latest and, some of us just grousing generally. think, best. But best might just mean Dogma, certainty without evi­ "not as bad as all the rest"; it may not dence, is the great menace, the great necessarily be all that great intrinsi­ nemesis, of science, of art, of religion, cally. I think we had better adopt this of politics, of economics, of philos­ relative view on the greatness of ophy, of how to write articles for science if we're to avoid winding up magazines, of just about everything as total pessimists and misanthropes that we do and think. Dogma is a great and, of course, antiscience. If we don't ossifier of mind and of imagination, expect or demand too much from our of all creativity. It is an integral part fellow mortals, including our fellow of human nature, being our laziness's scientists, we're less likely to become answer to the strain that goes with as disappointed and infuriated as we

428 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 "The problem emerges in science when scientists leave the realm of science and enter that of philosophy and metaphysics, too often grandiose names for mere personal opinion, untrammeled by empirical evidence or logical analysis, and wearing the mask of deep wisdom." might otherwise. Here endeth the thrum, a blur of fury, a million mad first lesson. mosquitoes locked in a jam jar, thirst­ The thing is, we do demand more, ing for blood, remembering the stag­ a lot more, from scientists. They are, nant pools of home. We follow the toy after all, the appointed, sometimes the train of their thought along its trem­ self-appointed, guardians at the gates bly tracks, through the cardboard of reason. Many are reasonable— tunnels, over the shuddering tin wonderfully, marvelously so, as was bridges, past the plastic stations, to Richard Feynman. But there are where it emerges, at the point it began others. its journey, circumambulent in argu­ There are scientists, often but not ment, terminus and starting point all invariably cosmologists or quantum one, smoke, steam, vapor pouring theorists, who can take ideas, stand out—but nothing else. For these are them on their heads, and twirl them the scientific myth-makers. around like tops, till they hum and Myth-making, metaphysics, mys-

Summer 1994 429 tery, magic, speculation without a Cosmos, or myriads of cosmoses, trace-element of proof—this is the suddenly, inexplicably, causelessly hallmark of the self-indulgent, undis­ leaping into being out of—out of ciplined mind, in science or anything Nothing Whatsoever, for no reason at else. If you steel your brain in the all, and thereafter expanding faster methods of logical deduction, empir­ than light into more Nothing What­ ical observation, and rational analysis, ever. And so cosmologists have given this clearly limits that brain's sphere us Creation ex nihilo, Everything out of operation, erects boundaries, con­ of Nothing, our own, our very own ditions, restrictions, no-go areas. But, scientifically authenticated Genesis- as Robert Frost tells us, "Something come-lately. And at the instant of this there is that doesn't love a wall." The Creation, they inform us, almost trouble is, without these walls of parenthetically, the universe pos­ reason we are back with the shamans sessed the interesting attributes of in their reindeer skins and antlers, Infinite Temperature, Infinite Den­ dancing 'round the fire, chanting the sity, and Infinitesimal Volume, a ritual spells, the sacred, holy words rather gripping state of affairs, as well that will (or so we hope) frighten away as something of a sudden and dramatic the evil spirits of the night and the change from Nothing Whatsoever. cold. The fire gives warmth and, They then intone equations and other though its shadows cast on the walls ritual mathematical formulae and look of the cave are menacing and troub­ upon it and pronounce it good. ling, it makes the cave bears and I do not think that what these sabertooths keep their distance, and cosmologists, these quantum theor­ the tales the shaman tells are lively, ists, these universe-makers, are doing and the dancing invigorating. But we is science. I can't help feeling that must forgo all this. For we have been universes are notoriously disinclined here before and we have left this place to spring into being, ready-made, out long ago and moved on, and we should of nothing. Even if Edward Tryon (ah, have no desire to go back. a name at last!) has written that "our Many, even with Ph.D.s after their Universe is simply one of those things names, have not left this strange, dark which happen from time to time." land and do not want to. Some are We seem instinctively to feel that scientists. Many of these are theorists the natural condition is nonexistence, in physics; there are fewer of them nothingness. It is a deep, pervasive in the life sciences. The reason for this belief in all human cultures and is not hard to come by. When scien­ mythologies, as is the need for a tists are on the borderlands, the wild Beginning in and of Time. But like fringe areas, of knowledge, specula­ many human needs, like gods who tion creeps in on little cat feet and sits care for us so deeply and passionately there, in the doorway, licking its lips. they create universes for us and then The problem emerges in science carefully nurture and tend them for when scientists leave the realm of our benefit, there is no overriding, science and enter that of philosophy inescapable requirement for them, and metaphysics, too often grandiose and no compelling certainty. Perhaps, names for mere personal opinion, although we have the word of many untrammeled by empirical evidence or famous scientists for it, our universe logical analysis, and wearing the mask is not simply one of those things that of deep wisdom. happen from time to time. And so they conjure us an entire But perhaps we are. o

430 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 First-Person Report: A Skeptic's Near-Death Experience LAURA DARLENE LANSBERRY

The following letter, from a reader in and without any sensation of pain, the Tucson, Arizona, was written in late doctor hit me with the paddles. From December 1993, a few days after she out of the darkness, void and dead, underwent the extraordinary experience the tunnel reappeared, and at the end she describes. We think her understanding I could see a light. I struggled toward of this experience is rare, important, and the light, and the tunnel pushed back worth sharing.—EDITOR and back until I heard the doctor say: "Laura, we lost you, but it's all right hadn't expected to ever write a now. We brought you back!" Opening letter or article for the SKEPTICAL my eyes I realized the bright light had I INQUIRER! I find the authors, wri­ been the bright light of the operating ters, and editor do a marvelous job as room. It was only then that I under­ a general rule. With that said, I stood I had died. Lethargic, 1 didn't respectfully ask for a full hearing on care; I almost wished I had been left a subject that is somewhat contro­ alone. versial: NDE, near-death experience. I can understand how those who I ask for a full hearing because I have talk of NDEs and believe in some something to say that, if not read to mystical power might misconstrue the end, will sound a bit as though this happenstance; I cannot do the I am a believer in the tomfoolery of same. But I did find it moving and many of those who speak on NDEs. powerful, and I have recognized that I died a few days ago. I was on the the only thing that is important in life operating table, conscious and aware, is what we do here and now. We won't as is the procedure in angioplasty, and be getting another chance! What we all of a sudden I felt incredibly sleepy— accomplish now, what we do in this sleepier and sleepier until I faded out life, is all that is important. We take entirely. What happened on the table nothing to the grave with us! was that my heart fibrillated, stopped, I also realize this is as equally and then I passed on to oblivion. An subjective as the experience of any eternity later, which was only a zealous believer, and I make no claim minute or so in real time, I came back. other than that I am a person of What I experienced, as a skeptic and integrity and have told of my expe­ one who doesn't believe in the survival rience as accurately as I am able. To of personal identity, was awesome. the best of my knowledge, I am the Looking back on it I realize that as first and only skeptic to experience the my conscious brain had slowly closed phenomenon of NDE and write of it down, the surface gave up its energy in objective terms, not finding in the before the lower layers did, and it gave experience anything to dissuade me of me the impression that I was starting my natural and healthy skepticism. down a long tunnel, a tunnel that Pragmatically, the experience is not closed upon me even as oblivion a brain in trauma as has been sug­ embraced me. gested; it is the experience of a brain Then, totally unbeknownst to me passing away. There was no trauma

Summer 1994 431 for the brain. The mere passage of the necessarily correct. I am not debunk­ brain seems to take place in layers as ing anyone's faith or belief system. I the outer neurotransmitters fail to fire wish only to report my particular NDE and create the tunnel effect. When the experience and relate that, for me, it tunnel closes, we are dead. Now, for was merely a physiological phe­ those of us lucky enough to come back, nomenon attending the experience of a reversed tunnel effect takes place as death, nothing more. the neurotransmitters begin to fire again. The light, of course, is the brightness of any room seen by the Readers interested in more insights that eyes, through closed eyelids, that had help explain the near-death experience in ceased to register any light at all. A naturalistic terms may wish to read Susan bit unnerving, yes, but spooky, no. Blackmore's article "Near-Death Experi­ I don't wish to imply by this letter ences: In or Out of the Body?" in our that my views on life after death are Fall 1991 issue. •

c

This Messy and Personal Side of Science

After conclusions are firmly in place, a logical pathway can be traced from data through principles of reasoning to results and new theories— context of justification. But scientists who make the discovery rarely follow the optimal pathway of subsequent logical reconstruction. Scien­ tists reach conclusions for the damnedest of reasons: intuitions, guesses, redirections after wild goose chases, all combined with a dollop of rigorous observation and logical reasoning to be sure—context of discovery. This messy and personal side of science should not be disparaged or covered up by scientists for two major reasons. First, scientists should proudly show this human face to display their kinship with all other modes of creative human thought. (The myth of a separate mode based on rigorous objectivity and arcane, largely mathematical knowledge, vouchsafed only to the initiated, may provide some immediate benefits in bamboozling a public to regard us as a new priesthood, but must ultimately prove harmful in erecting barriers to truly friendly under­ standing and in falsely persuading so many students that science lies beyond their capabilities.)

—Stephen Jay Gould, "In the Mind of the Beholder," Natural History, February 1994

432 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 •* The universe is nolt^& the only thing that \s

SKEPTICAL is getting INQUIRER bigger too! That's right: we'll soon be bigger and more timely than ever. Beginning with the first issue of 1995, we're expanding to a standard-sized magazine format and increasing our frequency to six issues a year. The result? Greater visibility ... more exposure... and more chances to introduce more folks to the challenge and excitement A*., •^%>~ of scientific inquiry and critical thinking. M1

Look for us soon in your comer of the universe: •at the bigger, better-than-ever SKEPTICAL INQUIRER — y\ "^fs?" ^A-' The Magazine of Science and Reason. Letters to the Editor^,/-—

The new skepticism The why of why?

In "The New Skepticism" (51, Winter In the second paragraph of William 1994), Paul Kurtz makes a credible Grey's fine article on "Philosophy and argument for his "skeptical inquiry" the Paranormal" (SI, Winter 1994), he approach to knowledge of the physical states that "scientific inquiry provides world. However, his argument for its us with a body of knowledge that use in matters of ethics and morality purports to explain why things happen seems quite weak. as they do: why rivers flow, why plants Kurtz notes that for nihilistic skep­ grow. . . ." Unless he defines why as ticism: "Complete cultural relativity is meaning the mechanism whereby nat­ the only option for this kind of skep­ ural events occur, I must take issue with ticism. Principles of justice are simply his use of the word why. The use of the related to the power or the social word why has teleological implications. contract; there are no normative stan­ Attempting to ascribe purpose to natural dards common to all social systems." In phenomena could be intellectually dan­ an attempt to parallel his argument gerous. Rarely, in science, do we ask the defending the body of knowledge devel­ question why. Why? tends to be a philo­ oped by the physical sciences, he sophical, even theological, question to responds to the ethical conclusions of which one could rightly, but unscien­ nihilistic skepticism (and other hard, tifically, answer, "God made it so." rational forms of skepticism) with: "We Generally, in science, we ask ques­ have long since transcended cultural tions designed to help elucidate either relativism in values and norms and are the nature of something or the under­ beginning to see the emergence of a lying causes of a phenomenon, i.e., What global society. Thus extreme cultural is the nature of ... ? How does . . . subjectivity is no longer valid, for there work? What is the mechanism whereby is a basis for transcultural values." . . . ? While I might agree that the global society has made "Morality is a matter Sheldon F. Gottlieb of geography" invalid, it still holds that Department of Biological values may change over time such that Sciences "Morality is a matter of temporality." University of South Alabama For example, if in one hundred years, Mobile, Ala. due to population pressures, it is uni­ versally accepted that people who have more than two children should be put EMF and cancer scares to death and their children sold into slavery, would that be moral? Unlike As a longtime subscriber to the physical laws, which remain stable over SKEPTICAL INQUIRER I was thoroughly time, human values change. There is no disappointed by the article "Electromag­ parallel between our progressive under­ netic Field Cancer Scares" by Sid standing of natural sciences and our Deutsch (Winter 1994). Deutsch man­ concept of ethical behavior. aged to provide an oversimplified—I would say simplistic—and misleading Dan Culbertson review of a very complicated subject. Edgewater, Fla. The following is an example of a

434 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 grossly misleading statement in magnetic field would be involved Deutsch's article when he discusses 60 remains unclear, although some indi­ Hz magnetic fields: cations might be derived from the fact that transmission lines were the major The earth's magnetic field has a exposure source in this study. Trans­ strength about 50 uT. Nobody has mission line fields are homogeneous suggested that the earth's field causes and rather stable, and transients are cancer, and neither is it reasonable to uncommon. Thus the results of this propose that a 200 uT field should be study would argue against transients viewed with suspicion. . . . The field or fast on-off switches being the of a refrigerator bar magnet can be relevant characteristic. Rather these far greater than 200 uT. results would support a characteristic such as the time-weighted average. Deutsch should know that an alter­ nating 60 Hz magnetic field can do things Based on this study and other that a static field, such as that of the earth research, the Swedish equivalent of a or of a bar magnet, cannot. In particular, combination of EPA and OSHA has a 60 Hz field—as opposed to a static formulated the following policy (SSI field—can induce electric fields and Newsletter, 1993): currents into a stationary object. Fur­ thermore, 60 Hz extremely low fre­ The Swedish Radiation Protection quency (ELF) magnetic fields will Institute (SSI) takes it for granted penetrate the human or animal body there is scientific evidence for the virtually unaltered and therefore will hypothesis about a connection induce within the body electric fields, between certain types of cancer and exposure to such low-frequency mag­ providing a means for getting an ELF netic fields which are found close to electric field into the body, which cannot high voltage power lines, electric be done very well "directly" by applying equipment, etc. There are, however, one from the outside also some facts that contradict this Deutsch states that to decide hypothesis. SSI judges that the total whether 60 Hz fields can produce cancer knowledge now available speaks in favour of taking steps to reduce the "we perform controlled experiments; fields. and epidemiological surveys of people who live near power lines." After ignoring many of the controlled labor­ Charles Polk atory experiments when he advocates Professor Emeritus of his "commonsense position of skeptical Electrical Engineering scientists," he apparently also chooses University of Rhode Island to ignore the results of epidemiological Kingston, R.I. research. Although much of that (Former President (1988/89) of research is still controversial—epidemo- the Biolectromagnetics Society) logical surveys are difficult and almost always open to different interpreta­ tions—the most recent and probably I applaud Sid Deutch's informative most carefully done study, "Magnetic article and Si's increasing focus on fringe Fields and Cancer in Children Residing science. These areas are as worthy of near Swedish High Voltage Power skeptics' attention as ghosts and goblins Lines," by M. Feychting and A. Ahlbom are. {American Journal of Epidemiology, 13: A study of power-line magnetic fields 467-481, 1993), concludes: and cancer by the Swedish investigators Maria Feychting and Anders Ahlbom received great attention in the press last Overall, it seems that the results of this study provide more support for year because it claimed to have found an association between magnetic a positive relation between increasing fields and childhood leukemia than field strength and leukemia. In fact, this against it. What characteristic of the study of 690 cancer cases in a population

Summer 1994 435 of 436,503 Swedes living within 300 that evidenced problems from radio- meters of high-voltage lines found no frequency (RF) and microwave. One of statistically significant increase in over­ the most interesting involved the death all cancer risks for children or leukemia at work of a technician in an electro- risks for adults with proximity to these magnetically shielded measurement lines. (The field strength goes from high enclosure. His lifetime exposure had to low as one goes from 0 to 300 meters been unusually well documented, and from a line.) never involved proximity to sources The study did place six cases of exceeding +15dpm (less than 0.1 the childhood leukemia in the high-field power of a cellular phone). His internal category, when the expected number organs showed "cooking" type damage was two. This led the authors to assign due to long-term RF exposure at very a childhood leukemia risk of between 1.0 low levels. and 6.3 (confidence level 95%) for high fields ( > 0.2 uT). And even this small David A. Crossley effect mysteriously vanished for chil­ Albuquerque, N.M. dren living in apartments (2 high-field cases/2 expected) or who had lived at the same address since birth (1 high-field Sid Deutsch responds: case/1 expected). This "sheep and goat" effect failed to With regard to the comments of Charles alert the authors to any flaw in their Polk: A frequency of 60 Hz is so low that methodology, which uses calculated the induced currents, at the IEEE/ANSI rather than measured fields because low-frequency levels, are neglibly small. For only the calculated fields give an asso­ example: in a magnetic field of 200 fiT, ciation with leukemia. Studies like this the total induced voltage around a human one are in great need of skeptical torso is 15mV. The resulting current de­ analysis, because they are widely pends upon the path—less current in high- believed by credulous journalists and resistivity bone and fat, more in low- politicians. resistance blood. The resistivity of the most vulnerable component, axoplasm of the Alan Cromer nervous system, yields a current density of Department of Physics 0.5 microampere/cm2. This level is below Northeastern University perception by the nervous system; it is a Boston, Mass. feeble current that cannot penetrate a cell membrane, and it certainly cannot result in DNA mutation. Nevertheless, as 1 In "Electromagnetic Field Cancer pointed out, for 60-Hz fields, the IEEE advo­ Scares," Sid Deutsch attempts to assure cates further research. the reader that concerns over possible In a 60-hz electric field, the body can health effects from low-level environ­ he regarded as one plate of a capacitor. At mental electromagnetic effects are the 600 V/m, the corresponding induced cur­ product of ignorant hysterics and rent density is 0.0002 microampere/cm2. practitioners of "fringe science." This is so small that it requires a heroic Many studies over two decades have degree of self-deception to imagine that it shown significant (although prelimi­ could cause a DNA molecule to mutate. nary) indications of health problems Epidemiological studies have been largely associated with environmental electro­ inconclusive for two reasons. First, none of magnetic fields. . . . the studies show more than a small increase I am chief engineer for an electronic- in the cancer rate for people living near warfare equipment manufacturer. power-transmission lines. In each case, the Twenty-five years ago, as a new grad­ "increase" can be the result of statistical uate, my first job assignment at the variation. (For example, if you honestly toss Naval Avionics Facility, Indianapolis, a coin into the air 10 times, the chances was collecting cases from the literature are that only around 25 percent of the time

436 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 will it land with five heads and five tails; precise prophecy that was falsified by 38 percent of the time there will he more the passage of time" (p. 167) are areas heads than tails, and 38 percent of the time that theologians, historians, and much there will be more tails than heads.) Second, of the Christian Church have addressed the increase in cancer rate has not been shown for approximately the past 20 centuries. to be repeatable. In some surveys there is Tremaine does not appear to be aware no increase at all; in some there is a slight of this particular body of literature. increase in the incidence of leukemia in In the Nero International Version: Ryrie children; in others, a small increase in the Study Bible (NIV), the passage and the breast cancer rate; and so forth. Conse­ accompanying notes for the passage quently, this has become a fertile field for that Tremaine quotes (Mark 13: 14-30) the elements in our society that feed on sen­ read as follows: "I tell you the truth, sationalism. this generation will certainly not pass 1 am grateful to Alan Cromer for away until all these things have hap­ supporting these conclusions. In the neces­ pened" (v. 30). The footnotes for this sarily limited length of an article in the passage indicate that a generation can SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, it was not possible be referred to as a normal lifespan, but to adequately discuss specific epidemiological it might also refer to the generation research like "the Swedish study." in which Jesus lived while on earth or With regard to the comments of David to the generation when these signs A. Crossley: There is no scientific explana­ began to occur (NIV, p. 1521). A tion for how a power level one-tenth that companion scripture from Luke 21:32, of a cellular phone can somehow cook a with identical wording, "I tell you the technician. In the absence of a viable theory, truth, this generation will certainly not the Crossley Effect should be labeled as pass away until all these things have "fringe science." happened," has notes that indicate "generation" refers to the Jewish race, or it can refer to the future generation Assessing Bible prophecy alive at the beginning of "these things." The reference note clearly indicates that I have been a long-standing subscriber Jesus did not have a mistaken notion he to the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER and have was going to return immediately (NIV, used it in my teaching, in clinical p. 1581). consultation, and as a personal reminder In the Dictionary of the Bible, by to be objective, logical, and of course J. L. McKenzie, SI, the parousia, the "skeptical." actual Second Coming of Jesus, is In "Fortune-Telling and Bible Proph­ discussed at some length. A thorough ecy," by Terry Tremaine (SI, Winter and balanced theological discussion is 1994), I find a good example of clear contained between pages 638 and reasoning that is not correct reasoning. 640, and addresses the exact area of In this article, Tremaine has helped concern that Tremaine appears to have foster a discussion and debate regarding had, i.e., that Jesus did not return as was the Second Coming of Jesus. Unfortu­ "said." nately, Tremaine limited his literature The article is precisely the kind review to a relatively narrow group of that would find its way into the authors (many of whom were notorious SKEPTICAL INQUIRER as something to be for their atheistic stance) and, by his viewed with skepticism. You have an conclusions, made it clear that he is a excellent publication, and it serves to dilettante in the area of theology. make all of us mindful of our limitations. Specifically, Tremaine indicates that Please receive this letter in that same the words of Jesus that predict he would spirit. return "... within the lifetime of at least some of his contemporaries" (p. 167) and James D. Lange Tremaine's conclusions that "this clearly Licensed Psychologist did not happen and must count as a Mesa, Ariz.

Summer 1994 437 Your Winter 1994 issue seemed to date was wrong, but that the event contain an unusually large number of (Christ's Second Coming) was correct, articles I found interesting. Paul Kurtz's and until Miller's death he continued to "The New Skepticism" and "Philosophy expect Christ to come to the earth. and the Paranormal, Part 1: The Problem of 'Psi/ " by William Grey, were espe­ Arlin Baldwin cially outstanding. I am looking forward Coarsegold, Calif. to the second article by Grey with anticipation. Terry Tremaine's article, "Global Someone like myself, a skeptic who is Fortune-Telling and Bible Prophecy," also a practicing Christian, approaches contained some interesting material set the skeptical community with the same in an interesting setting, but unfortu­ trepidation a bastard child feels at a nately it was marred by at least one family reunion. We're not sure what historical factual error. Tremaine, while kind of reception to expect. So it was discussing the Great Disappointment of gratifying to read Terry Tremaine's William Miller and his followers in open-minded and unbiased assessment October 1844, states: "This time, how­ of fundamentalism and biblical proph­ ever, in spite of the disappointment, ecy. Miller and the inner core of his followers I have always felt that skeptics con­ concluded that they were only partially cede too much of the argument to funda­ mistaken. Although Christ had not mentalists. While focusing on the truth returned to earth, he had returned to or falsity of a fundamentalist claim, the an invisible heavenly sanctuary. His skeptics seldom challenge the basic coming to earth then became imminent" fundamentalist premises that (1) accept­ (Jordan 1988). ance of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy The historical fact is that neither is essential to Christian belief, (2) that Miller himself nor "the inner core" of the Bible should be read literally and his followers believed in the idea of "an means what fundamentalists say it invisible heavenly sanctuary" to which means, and (3) that the Bible, taken as Christ had returned in 1844. It is true a whole, presents a clear and consistent that this idea was developed among a theology. In fact, none of these premises small group of Millerites after the Great holds up under the most casual scrutiny. Disappointment, and that this idea later Historically speaking, the Christian became part of the beliefs of the church has never, from its early begin­ Seventh-Day Adventist denomination. nings to the present day, asserted either It is not true, however, that "Miller and that the Bible was inerrant or that it the inner core of his followers" believed should be interpreted literally. Neither or taught such a doctrine. After the doctrine has ever been taught by the Great Disappointment, Miller and the Roman Catholic church, nor the various majority of his followers who met at the Eastern Orthodox churches, nor by the Albany Conference admitted their error traditional Protestant sects. Biblical as to the time, and continued to look for inerrancy and literalism are products of the Coming of Christ in the near future. fundamentalism, which is a phenom­ Miller died in 1849, but before his death enon of the late nineteenth and early he dictated his Apology and Defence twentieth centuries. Their reading and (Boston: 1845), in which he made his interpretation of the Bible are vastly views very clear. The view that Christ different from those of mainstream came on time on October 22, 1844, but Christians. Fundamentalists preach to the invisible second apartment of the tradition, but they are not traditional. heavenly sanctuary rather than to the They are, in fact, "fringe religion," earth, was a view held only by a small analogous to fringe science. (The more fanatical fringe group among Miller's traditional term would be heresy.) followers, and it was specifically rejected So three cheers to Tremaine for by Miller. He freely admitted that the noting that the biblical prediction of a

438 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 Second Coming within a human lifetime poses little problem for orthodox Chris­ tians, who question its authenticity and interpretation, but must be fatal for fundamentalists. Intelligent. Mark S. Painter, Sr. Mont Clare, Pa.

Thank GOD (Great Opponents of Thoughtful. Deism) that someone has the courage to stand up and tell it like it is about religion!

Ian Wood Charleston, Va. Curious.

Terry Tremaine replies:

James Lange states that 1 "limited" my "literature review to a relatively narrow Concerned. group of authors." In fact, 1 was not conducting a literature review. 1 was presenting an argument in favor of a point of view. I cited other authors for three reasons: (l) to state that the observation that Second Coming predictions had failed was . . . That's a good description not original on my part; (2) to establish of our readers and . . . that a body of scholarly opinion accepts that Jesus may not have been responsible for at least some of the erroneous predictions made in the Synoptic Gospels; (3) to give a sense {} SKEPTICAL of the pseudoscientific nature of "end-time" claims currently being made. INQUIRER 1 grant that 1 have not paid much THE MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND REASON attention to the study footnotes in the New International Version, to which Lange refers. My primary sources of the Bible study have been the Greek text of the New For incisive coverage Testament (Nestle's 21st edition, published and commentary. by Regency), the Greek-English Diction­ ary of the New Testament, and the Unique insights Revised English Bible (Oxford University and information. Press). The methodology I have employed involves examining the Greek phrase for "this generation" and how it is used in its A generation of knowledgeable, various contexts. The conclusion 1 have reached is that stated in the original article. demanding readers has found us Lange states that I must be a "dilettante an indispensable resource. in the area of theology." In fact 1 have no intention of practicing theology. With my article I was attempting to bring a scientific point of view to a body of writings that

Summer 1994 contain (upon analysis) certain falsified by an editor for being limited to a tiny predictions. In my conclusion 1 stated that portion of the readership. since Jesus made false predictions he could The reason the "controversy" has therefore have no divine authority. 1 grant declined over the past ten years is that the notion of divine authority is difficult because of lack of interest. Rational to pin down scientifically. However, if it people laughed at the allegations of means anything, it must be that whoever gaming material teaching players how has it must either make no predictions at to cast spells and worship Satan, game all or only those that eventually come true. designers weren't as sexy as rock I thank Arlin Baldwin for his correction musicians, and as with most branches of the historical error in my article of science fiction and fantasy fandom, concerning William Miller. That Miller most of the early participants grew up himself rejected the "upper story" interpre­ and went on to things rooted in reality. tation now seems clear. Given a choice between role-playing a It is important to realize, however, that dinner date with Natasha Richardson as Baldwin states, the idea of an invisible and having a real dinner with my heavenly sanctuary "was developed among girlfriend, I know which one I'd pick. a small group of Millerites after the Great Disappointment and that this idea later Paul T. Riddell became part of the beliefs of the Seventh- Dallas, Tex. Day Adventist denomination." My purpose in referring to the Millerites in my article was to illustrate the pseudo- Although I prefer the more conventional scientific nature of refusing to acknowledge strategy and simulation games, on rare that a prediction has failed and subsequently occasions I participate in role-playing reinterpreting the prediction so that it is games. By curious coincidence the day consistent with any set of facts whatsoever. the Winter SI arrived was one of those occasions, and our conversation soon turned to the article on RPGs. Role-playing games An interesting point was raised among us. The nature of role-playing After reading Paul Cardwell, Jr.'s article games is that each of the players takes on role-playing games (SI, Winter 1994), on the "role" and persona of an imagi­ I had mixed feelings. On one side, I nary person or character. Exciting, agreed with him about the media heroic situations in that character's distortion of Dungeons & Dragons, imaginary life are resolved using the among other games; on the other, his complicated rules that each game pro­ article read like too many other pro- vides. gaming articles in that he is a bit too As would be expected, such games close to the subject matter to offer an hold a special appeal for many people objective view. At the very least, he's who are quite often unsatisfied with a bit too close to gaming to understand their own day-to-day real-life situation. why reporters produce so many anti- Although most RPG gamers are well- gaming articles or simply present the adjusted people with full lives, anyone unquestioned claims of opponents. who has spent much time around RPG Simply put, while gaming was a big conventions, clubs, or specialty shops hit over a decade ago, its interested will soon be left with the impression that constituency now resides with a few a sizable minority of hard-core gamers thousand participants in the United do not seem to have much of a social States. Gamers offer no easy hook for life outside of their role-playing-game a "look at the freaks" report as Trekkies activities. Some, as evidenced by Bink do, such as wearing silly costumes, and Pulling and Dallas Egbert III (the tragic very few reporters today are willing to suicide victims mentioned in Cardwell's spend the time, the energy, or the money article), are not particularly emotionally for an article that will most likely be cut well adjusted.

440 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 This leads to our point. How many have been adequately explained by other of these people might be even more factors in their lives. Further, the buyers unhappy, lonely, and depressed if they I encountered seemed to have no trouble did not have this social activity, its distinguishing the fantastic worlds of personal interaction, and the escapism the games from reality, and were, in fact, and feeling of positive accomplishment among the most politie, intelligent, and that often come through these games? enjoyable of my customers. In short, how many potential suicides While those of us who spoke to D&D may have been prevented by role- fans on a daily basis never noticed any­ playing games? thing disturbing about them, we fre­ Peter Huston quently remarked that another, larger Schenectady, N.Y. clique of teens of the same age did seem to be engaging in obsessive behavior and to have trouble distinguishing reality Cardwell notes that "the statistics are from fantasy. These were the boys in actually arguing that gaming prevents combat gear who were fascinated by the suicides rather than causing them" and "Rambo" image presented in popular then later concludes, "Of course it does movies and such publications as Soldier neither." He explains that the statistical of Fortune magazine. As I read today's result occurs because fewer potential headlines, and remember those adoles­ suicide victims engage in RPGs. While cents toting their toy Uzis while their there seems to be plenty of evidence that parents worried about role-playing RPGs don't increase suicide rates, I have games and the pernicious effects of not seen evidence to discount that RPGs science fiction, I can't help but think that prevent suicides. As a person who plays the doom-sayers of a decade ago may both board RPGs and live-action RPGs, have focused on the wrong threat to I find both to be excellent as stress re­ their children's psyches. lievers and social outings. I've observed that players naturally form peer/support Mario E. Donnenwirth groups. Additionally, gaming provides a Cedar Rapids, Iowa temporary break from the problems of the real world. Any of these factors could be mechanisms to provide alter­ Chernikov pattern puzzle natives to individuals who are contem­ plating suicide. I couldn't resist trying to answer Devin Ross Clifford A. Pickover's test question No. Dravosburg, Pa. 1 about the Chernikov Pattern Puzzle (SI, Winter 1994, p. 171). My-47-word solution, which I believe to be definitive Although I have never played any of except for size ratios, is as follows: these games, I have long since come to "Four quarter-sized circles, arranged much the same conclusions as Cardwell. with four-fold symmetry, each touch At the time role-playing began to come two others. Inside each lie six other under attack, in the late seventies and circles of decreasing size plus an even early eighties, I was working in various smaller black dot, all touching the larger nonspecialty bookstores. I sold a great circles at points nearest the center of deal of role-playing paraphernalia, most an even larger, heavier circle, partially of it to boys in their early teens. . . . obscured by others." It seemed clear to me that if the stores Perhaps you could determine if where I worked were typical, there must anyone might be able to (a) find any be many youngsters involved in this other pattern that would fit this des­ hobby. Meanwhile, the media were cription, or (b) describe it in even fewer highlighting a small number of cases of words. players who committed suicide or ran J. Richardson Guadagno away from home, problems that might Paonia, Colo.

Summer 1994 441 Fix responsibility ing organization recognized by the American Psychological Association and It has occurred to me that we have a the American Psychiatric Association. In partial remedy for the kind of transpar­ addition, I have been certified at the ent nonsense about the search for the ASCH's highest level, that of consultant Ark described in your Winter 1994 issue. qualified to train and supervise other We have an obligation to identify licensed clinicians in hypnotherapy. Had precisely the person responsible for the Gardner taken the time as a "scientific broadcast. That TV program was not inquirer" to ask me, before publishing planned by CBS. It was a person. CBS his derogatory and incorrect character­ is a corporation, and the shareholders ization, I would have been glad to were not polled. The program was furnish any relevant documents in approved by some Tom, Dick, or Harriet relation to my qualifications. Surely a in the office. We are remiss if we allow basic of responsible journalism is to him or her to hide behind the corporate check the accuracy of one's assertions— shield. Let the name shine clear so that especially potentially defamatory ones— the public may be wary about future before publishing them. products of the same mind. This is a principle. Let's try to ob­ Marian Kaplun Shapiro serve it. Licensed Psychologist Lexington, Mass. Harold Mayfield Toledo, Ohio Martin Gardner responds:

Shapiro vs. Gardner, round two Freud began his career as a hypnotherapist, hut soon abandoned hypnotism as a worthless I could respond at great length about technique, an opinion shared by most the content of Martin Gardner's "reply" psychiatrists today. Nevertheless, 1 apologize (Winter 1994) to my letter regarding to Marian Kaplan Shapiro, who has a False Memory Syndrome. However, in doctorate in education, for using the adjective this letter I will, with difficulty, restrict "self-proclaimed." She has indeed been myself to a response to his inaccurate thoroughly trained in the use of hypnotism references to me, as these are potentially for treating the mentally ill. injurious to my professional reputation. It is telling that Gardner needs to bolster his arguments with an artful but Science's big ideas deceptive end run on my credentials. First, he says that my doctorate does not Wayne Rowe and Edmund A. Marek qualify me "to practice psychiatry"; (Letters, Winter 1994), in response to however, it is only he who looks foolish my article on "the textbook problem" (SI, here, since I clearly identified myself not Summer 1993), say that it is fantasy to as a psychiatrist, but as a licensed expect that improving the content of K- psychologist. Next, and far worse, he 12 instructional programs in science employs character assassination by would either remedy the lack of interest labeling me a "self-proclaimed hypno­ in science (which I did not contend) or therapist," which is tantamount to being raise the deplorable level of critical called an unethical clinician, practicing thinking in our society. They regard this a specialty without appropriate training. view as simplistic and elitist, and say that I cannot allow that statement to go it does not distinguish between stand­ uncorrected: After about 200 hours of ards for learning and how much is postdoctoral training in hypnotherapy, actually learned. I have been certified as a hypnotherapist My contention is that the business by the American Society of Clinical Hyp­ of science education should be to nosis (ASCH), a well-established train­ explicate the major theories of science

442 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 (the "big ideas") to students, and to show Fighting talk-show flimflam their interrelationships in the fabric of scientific knowledge and methods. While I applauded James Randi's "Secrets Curricula should be built around these of the Psychics" broadcast on NOVA in ideas, using the concepts and strands October (SI, Winter 1994), I couldn't appropriate for each child's grade level, help contrasting it with an episode of and using scientific methods and the Oprah Winfrey show I saw last year. "science processes" to do so. However, On that program, I watched an astron­ this is not what published programs do, omer from nearby Colorado State and it is likely that the culture does not University get cut to ribbons by crude exist either in the publishing houses or astrologists when he calmly tried to in the teacher-training programs to debunk their practice. remedy this. No one can guarantee that Talk shows, time and time again, are students' interest in science would the largest carriers of nonsense in this thereby be raised, but increased empha­ country. These shows offer a patina of sis on "hands-on" learning cannot respectability for the latest lines of guarantee this either. It seems to me that pseudoscientific patter and are where we have a right to demand that our the proponents of pseudoscience should children be provided competent instruc­ be fought. Randi may reach tens of tional materials. What does it matter thousands of viewers on PBS, but full- how much they learn about or enjoy time obscurantists are pulling the wool what passes for "science" in their class­ over the eyes of millions on shows like rooms if so much of it is as silly and Oprah Winfrey's. disconnected as the examples I gave? I suggest that CSICOP put together It is also difficult to understand why a schedule of upcoming appearances on it is "elitist" (instead of the reverse) to talk shows by cranks or flim flam artists advocate the increased involvement of (the newsletter of the American Book scientists in science education. Certainly Association lists just such matters) and scientists could use the help of science invariably offer a prepared representa­ educators to make their teaching more tive to appear on these programs in effective. Why shouldn't this go both rebuttal. ways? And how can publishers and science-education specialists justify Steve Olson printing or teaching anything as Loveland, Colo. "science" if it does not, first and fore­ most, reflect the best of the current understanding of science, its methods, The 10-percent solution? and its philosophies? 1 showed that a large part of the national problem of The Winter 1994 issue includes a most science illiteracy can be traced to interesting letter to the editor by publishing houses and the education Dwight Decker, speculating on the schools, but the historical apathy of origin of belief that "we use only 10 scientists to educational standards and percent of our brain." He traces this practices is equally responsible. As a belief to the fact that scientists at one society we should do everything possible time understood the functions of only to shore up this erosion at all points if 10 percent of the brain. That is, perhaps we want future generations to make people at the time assumed that the 90 intelligent decisions in the voting booth percent with unknown functions was and the marketplace. actually doing nothing. That's a plausible explanation, but I Kevin Padian have found another possibility that I like Department of Integrative better. Consider the following quotation Biology from R. S. Woodworth, Psychology, 3rd University of California ed., Henry Holt 1934, p. 194: "The total Berkeley, Calif. number of nerve cells in the cerebral

Summer 1994 443 cortex is estimated to be about 'American Skeptics'? 14,000,000,000. Many of these are small and apparently undeveloped, as if they Do you folks have a popular shorthand constituted a reserve stock not yet term for CSICOP? If not, how about utilized in the individual's cerebral "American Skeptics"? activity." Several times, when proselytizing The quotation suggests that all the CSICOP, I have found myself tongue- brain's small neurons (whose function tied. The acronym "ksai-kop" or "sai- was then unknown) might simply be kop" has the undesirable associations undeveloped "baby" cells waiting for a "psy(chiatric)" and "cop." Even if my chance to grow and then start contrib­ listeners do not combine these terms and uting to cerebral activity. get "thought police," they still might envision Ollie North characters who James W. Kalat collect police pistols and test for LSD Department of Psychology in public water supplies. In contrast, the North Carolina State Univ. full title "Committee for the Scientific Raleigh, N.C. Investigation of Claims of the Para­ normal" is a jaw-breaker, guaranteed to put a damper on conversation. Well not quite Hugo S. Cunningham An astrological prediction that turns out Boston, Mass. to be somewhat inaccurate is not really news. Nonetheless, I happened to see one in an old newspaper that deserves The Editor replies: repetition. The Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express carried an article (p. Yes, we do have a jawbreaker of a name, A9) titled "Hitler's Fall! Astrologer but we are well known by the CSICOP Predicts It Next Summer." It said: acronym. Although we are not really looking "Hitler's downfall will occur this year, for a new official name, other ideas for according to the Hon. Ralph Shirley, a shorthand ways to refer to us are welcome. well-known English horoscope reader. The problem with "American Skeptics" as . . . Shirley successfully prophesied the a shorthand term for CSICOP is that we abdication of King Edward VIII. . . . are an international organization. We are Shirley writes . . . 'Hitler will, I am con­ internationalist in outlook. We have vinced, be right out of the picture after subscribers in 72 countries. We have next summer. Then the outlook will be CSICOP Fellows from at least nine different brighter. Watch the summer around countries, including Russia, China, and August in connection with Hitler.' " India, and Scientific Consultants from four At this point, the astute reader may additional countries, a total of 13 countries not be surprised to learn that this cheery represented. On the CSICOP Executive prediction was printed on March 21, Council, three members are from Canada 1939, during the dismemberment of and one from Britain. So, readers give us Czechoslovakia. "Around August" your ideas for other possible shorthand terms. (actually September l) was when Hitler invaded Poland, followed immediately by Britain and France entering World World's birthday? War II. Shirley ended his prediction by saying, "I do not believe in any repetition I fully intend to celebrate the six- of the Great War." thousandth birthday of the Earth as suggested by Bernard Howard (Letters, Neil A. Wells Winter 1994) but on October 23, 1996, Department of Geology rather than November 25, 1997. I got Kent State University the year 1996 by subtracting 4004 from Kent, Ohio 6000 and assuming that there was no

444 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 18 year with the number zero. The date explaining that his review inadvertently of October 23 came from Hatton Yoder's incorporated into his text material that article, "Timetable of Petrology" (Journal he had intended to quote. As he explains: of Geological Education, 41, pp. 447-489, ". . . When I picked up my notes to type 1993). He had someone from the Library up the manuscript, for some ungodly of Congress make a spot translation reason I erroneously typed merrily away from Ussher's 1650 book Annates Veteris and followed the script religiously, Testimenti, a prima mundi origini deducti forgetting both the direct quotation and for the exact citation. According to that, the reference citation." the good bishop fixed the beginning as Baker has apologized to me about this "the entrance of night preceding the oversight. He regrets this unfortunate 23rd of October, 4004 B.C." lapse in the standards of scholarly pro­ "The entrance of night" doesn't make priety, and so do I. much sense to me since "darkness was upon the face of the deep" and night William Grey had not yet been divided from day. University of New England October 23 seems to be as a good a day Armidale, Australia as any for a bang-up party, but I'm certainly not going to complain if peo­ ple want to start with the night The Editor reponds: preceding. Daniel J. Lynch We too regret this incident. We are grateful Tucson, Ariz. to those readers who have pointed it out to us. Clearly the nonattribution of quotations is unacceptable. We apologize to Professor Spontaneous human Grey and to our readers. combustion How did the two similar passages get into the same issue of the SKEPTICAL In my review of Randies and Hough's INQUIRER? To many, that seemed a miracle Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC) in in itself, worthy of the subject under the Spring 1994 issue of SI, I should have discussion. Well, Grey originally submitted mentioned that in some studies of sup­ his material to us as a four-article series posed SHC cases (American), such as in September 1992 and (after peer review that of Nickell and Fischer (SI, 11: 352), and at our request) as a shorter two-article the conclusion was that the only thing series in January 1993. In the meantime the 30 cases investigated had in common he used much of this material for an article was that an external source of fire was he wrote for the June 1993 New Zealand present in each case. In short, these Skeptic. We edited and proofed Grey's two- investigators deny that such a phenom­ article series nearly three months before enon as SHC has yet been shown to doing the same with Baker's review, and exist. that contributed to our not noticing Gordon Stein similarities in language that became Buffalo, N.Y. apparent to readers seeing the two pieces for the first time a few pages apart.

For the Record The letters column is a forum for views on A number of readers of SI have com­ matters raised in previous issues. Letters mented on the fact that a book review should be no more than 250 words. Due by Robert Baker (Spring 1994) on page to the volume of letters, not all can be 298 uses sentences almost identical to published. They should be typed double- ones that appear on page 289 in my spaced. Address: Letters to the Editor, article "Philosophy and the Paranormal, SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, 3025 Palo Alto Part 2." Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111. Professor Baker has written to me

Summer 1994 BELIEVE IT. You can make a lasting impact on the future of skepticism —

. when you provide for the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER in your will. CSICOP and the SKEPTICAL We would be happy to work with INQUIRER changed the terms of dis­ you and your attorney in the cussion in fields ranging from pseu- development of a will or estate plan doscience and the paranormal to that meets your wishes. A variety of science and educational policy. You arrangements are possible, in­ can take an enduring step to preserve cluding gifts of a fixed amount or a its vitality when you provide for the percentage of your estate; living SKEPTICAL INQUIRER in your will. trusts or gift annuities, which pro­ Your bequest to CSICOP, Inc., will vide you with a lifetime income; or help to provide for the future of a contingent bequest that provides skepticism as it helps to keep the for the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER only if SKEPTICAL INQUIRER financially your primary beneficiaries do not secure. Depending on your tax situa­ survive you. tion, a charitable bequest to CSICOP may have little impact on the net size For more information, contact of your estate—or may even result in Barry Karr, Executive Director of a greater amount being available to CSICOP. All inquiries will be held your beneficiaries. in the strictest confidence.

<^ SKEPTICAL CSICOP INQUIRER

P.O. Box 703, Buffalo, New York 14226-0703 716-636-1425 Local, Regional, and National Skeptics Organizations The organizations listed below have aims 4828 (504-766-4747). similar to those of CSICOP but are indepen­ MASSACHUSETTS. Skeptical Inquirers of dent and autonomous. They are not affiliated New England. Contact Laurence Moss, with CSICOP, and representatives of these Ho & Moss, 72 Kneeland St., Boston organizations cannot speak on behalf of 02111. CSICOP. MICHIGAN. Great Lakes Skeptics, Carol UNITED STATES Lynn, contact, 1264 Bedford Rd., Grosse ALABAMA. Alabama Skeptics, Emory Kim- Pointe Park, MI 84230-1116. brough, 3550 Watermelon Road, Apt. MINNESOTA. Minnesota Skeptics, Robert W. 28A, Northport, AL 35476 (205-759- McCoy, 549 Turnpike Rd., Golden Valley, 2624). MN 55416. St. Kloud ESP Teaching ARIZONA. Tucson Skeptical Society Investigation Committee (SKEPTIC), (TUSKS), James McGaha, Chairman, Jerry Mertens, Coordinator, Psychology 5655 E. River Rd„ Suite #101-127, Dept., St. Cloud State Univ., St. Cloud, Tucson, AZ 85715. Phoenix Skeptics, MN 56301. Michael Stackpole, Chairman, P.O. Box MISSOURI. Kansas City Committee for 60333, Phoenix, AZ 85082. Skeptical Inquiry, Verle Muhrer, Chair­ CALIFORNIA. Bay Area Skeptics, Wilma man, 2658 East 7th, Kansas City, MO Russell, Secretary, 17723 Buti Park Court, 64124. Gateway Skeptics, Chairperson, Castro Valley, CA 94546. East Bay Steve Best, 6943 Amherst Ave., Univer­ Skeptics Society, Daniel Sabsay, Presi­ sity City, MO 63130. dent, P.O. Box 20989, Oakland, CA 94620 NEW JERSEY. (See New York Area Skeptics, (510-420-0702). Sacramento Skeptics New York.) Society, Terry Sandbek, 3838 Watt Ave., NEW MEXICO. New Mexicans for Science & Suite C303, Sacramento, CA 95821-2664 Reason, John Geohegan, Chairman, 450 (916-488-3772). Montclaire SE, Albuquerque, NM 87108; COLORADO, WYOMING, UTAH, and MON­ John Smallwood, 320 Artist Road, Santa TANA. Rocky Mountain Skeptics, Bela Fe, NM 87501 (505-988-2800). Scheiber, President, P.O. Box 7277, NEW YORK. New York Area Skeptics Boulder, CO 80306 (303-444-5368). (NYASk), Wayne Tytell, contact person, CONNECTICUT. (See New York Area Skep­ 159 Melrose Ave., E. Massapequa, NY tics, New York.) 11758, (516) 798-6902. Western New DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, DELAWARE, MARY­ York Skeptics, Tim Madigan, Chairman, LAND, and VIRGINIA. National Capital 3965 Rensch Rd., Buffalo, NY 14228. Area Skeptics, c/o D. W. "Chip" Denman, OHIO. South Shore Skeptics, Page Stephens, 8006 Valley Street, Silver Spring, MD 6006 Fir Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44102 20910. (216-631-5987). Association for Rational FLORIDA. Tampa Bay Skeptics, Gary Posner, Thinking (Cincinnati area), Joseph F. 1113 Normandy Trace Rd., Tampa, FL Gastright, Contact, 111 Wallace Ave., 33602 (813-221-3533). Covington, KY 41014 (606-581-7315). GEORGIA. Georgia Skeptics, Becky Long, PENNSYLVANIA. Paranormal Investigating President, 2277 Winding Woods Dr., Committee of Pittsburgh (PICP), Richard Tucker, GA 30084. Busch, Chairman, 8209 Thompson Run ILLINOIS. Midwest Committee for Rational Rd., Pittsburgh, PA 15237 (412-366- Inquiry, Danielle Kafka, President, P.O. 4663). Box 2792, Des Plaines, IL 60017-2792. TEXAS. Houston Association for Scientific Rational Examination Assoc, of Lincoln Thinking (HAST), Darrell Kachilla, P.O. Land (REALL), David Bloomberg, Chair­ Box 541314, Houston, TX 77254. North man, P.O. Box 20302, Springfield IL 62708 Texas Skeptics, Joe Voelkering, President, (217-787-9098). P.O. Box 111794, Carrollton, TX 75011- INDIANA. Indiana Skeptics, Robert Craig, 1794. West Texas Society to Advance Chairperson, 5401 Hedgerow Drive, Rational Thought, Co-Chairmen: George Indianapolis, IN 46226. Robertson, 4700 Polo Pky., Apt. 183, KENTUCKY. Kentucky Assn. of Science Midland, TX 79705-1542. Educators and Skeptics (KASES), Chair­ WASHINGTON. The Society for Sensible man, Prof. Robert A. Baker, 3495 Cas- Explanations, P.O. Box 7121, Seattle, WA tleton Way North, Lexington, KY 40502. 98133. LOUISIANA. Baton Rouge Proponents of Rational Inquiry and Scientific Methods ARGENTINA. CAIRP, Director, Ladislao (BR-PRISM), Dick Schroth, Director, 425 Enrique Marquez, Jose Marti, 35 dep C, Carriage Way, Baton Rouge, LA 70808- 1406 Buenos Aires. (continued on next page) AUSTRALIA. National: Australian Skep- Marmaros, Chairman, P.O. Box 8481, tics. P.O. Box E324 St. James, NSW 2000. Jerusalem. Regional: Australian Capital Territory, IRELAND. Irish Skeptics, Peter O'Hara, P.O. Box 555, Civic Square, 2608. New­ Contact, St. Joseph's Hospital, Limerick. castle Skeptics, Chairperson, Colin Keay, ITALY. Comitato Italiano per il Controllo Physics Dept., Newcastle University, delle Affermazioni sul Paranormale, NSW 2308. Queensland, P.O. Box 2180, Massimo Polidoro, Editor, Scienza & Para­ Brisbane, 4001. South Australia, P.O. Box normale, P.O. Box 60, 27058 Voghera (PV). 91, Magill, 5072. Victoria, P.O. Box 1555P, JAPAN. Japan Skeptics, Jun Jugaku, Chair­ Melbourne, 3001. Western Australia, 25 person, 1-31-8-527 Takadanobaba, Headingly Road, Kalamunda 6076. Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo 169. BELGIUM. Committee Para, J. Dommanget, MEXICO. Mexican Association for Skeptical Chairman, Observatoire Royal de Bel- Research (SOMIE), Mario Mendez- gique, Avenue Circulaire 3, B-1180 Acosta, Chairman, Apartado Postal 19- Brussels. SKEPP, W. Betz, Secretary, 546, Mexico 03900, D.F. Laarbeeklaan 103, B1090 Brussels (FAX: NETHERLANDS. Stichting Skepsis, Rob 32-2-4774301). Nanninga, Secretary, Westerkade 20, BRAZIL. Opcao Racional, Luis Gutman, Av. 9718 AS Groningen. Nossa Senhora de Copacabana, 830/904 NEW ZEALAND. New Zealand Skeptics, Rio de Janeiro 22050.000. Vicki Hyde, Chairperson, South Pacific CANADA. Alberta Skeptics, Heidi Lloyd- Publications, Box 19-760, Christchurch 5, Price, Secretary, P.O. Box 5571, Station N.Z., Fax: 64 3 384-5138. A, Calgary, Alberta T2H 1X9. British NORWAY. NIVFO, K. Stenodegard, Boks 9, Columbia Skeptics, Lee Moller, contact, N-7082, Kattem. Skepsis, Terje Ember- 1188 Beaufort Road, Vancouver V7G1R7. land, Contact, P. B. 2943 Toyen 0608, Manitoba Skeptics. Contact John Toews, Oslo 6. President, Box 92, St. Vital, Winnipeg, RUSSIA. Contact Edward Gevorkian, Ulya- Man. R2M 4A5. Ontario Skeptics, Henry novskaya 43, Kor 4, 109004, Moscow. Gordon, Chairman, 343 Clark Ave West, SOUTH AFRICA. Assn. for the Rational Suite 1009, Thornhill, Ontario L4J 7K5. Investigation of the Paranormal (ARIP), Sceptiques du Quebec: Jean Ouellette, C.P. Marian Laserson, Secretary, 4 Wales St., 202, Succ. Beaubien, Montreal H2G 3C9. Sandringham 2192. SOCRATES, Leon CZECH REPUBLIC. Contact Milos Chvojka, Retief, contact, 3 Hoheizen Crescent, Inst, of Physics, Czech Academy of Sci­ Hoheizen, Bellville 7530. ences, Na Slovance 2, 1 80 40 Prague 8. SPAIN. Alternativa Racional a las Pseudo- ESTONIA. Contact Indrek Rohtmets, Hori- sciencias (ARP). Javier Armentia, Presi­ sont, EE 0102 Tallinn, Narva mnt. 5. dent, Apdto. 1516, 50080 Zaragoza. El FINLAND. Skepsis, Lauri Grohn, Secretary, Investigador Esceptico. Contact Felix Ojahaanpolku 8 Bl7, SF-01600 Vantaa. Ares De Bias, Gamez/Ares/Martinez, P.O. FRANCE. Comite Francais pour l'Etude des Box 904, 20080 Donostia-San Sebastian. Phenomenes Paranormaux, Claude SWEDEN. Vetenskap & Folkbildning Benski, Secretary-General, Merlin Gerin, (Science and People's Education), Sven RGE/A2 38050 Grenoble Cedex. Ove Hansson, Secretary, Box 185, 101 23 GERMANY. Society for the Scientific Stockholm. Investigation of Para-Science (GWUP), TAIWAN. Tim Holmes, San Chuan Road, 98 Amardeo Sarma, Convenor, Postfach Alley, #47, Fengyuan. 1222, D-64374 Rossdorf (FAX: +49 6154 UKRAINE. Perspective, Oleg G. Bakhtiarov, 81912). Director, 3-B Khmelnitskogo St., 252001 HONG KONG. Hong Kong Skeptics. Con­ Kiev. tact Rebecca Bradley, P.O. Box 1010, UNITED KINGDOM. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Shatin Central Post Office, Shatin, NT. Representative, Michael J. Hutchinson, 10 HUNGARY. Hungarian Skeptics, Janos Crescent View, Loughton, Essex IG10 Szentagothai, Termeszel Vilaga, P.O. Box 25, 4PZ. The Skeptic magazine. Editors, Toby Budapest 8, 1444. Fax 011-36-1-118- Howard and Steve Donnelly, P.O. Box 7506. 475, Manchester M60 2TH. London INDIA. Indian Skeptics, B. Premanand, Student Skeptics, Contact: Bill Harman, Chairman, 10, -Chettipalayam Rd., 21 Manville Rd., London SW17 8JW. Man­ Podanur 641-023 Coimbatore Tamil nadu. chester Skeptics, David Love, P.O. Box Indian Rationalist Association, Contact 475, Manchester M60 2TH. Wessex Sanal Edamaruku, 779, Pocket 5, Mayur Skeptics, Robin Allen, Dept. of Physics, Vihar 1, New Delhi 110 091. Southampton Univ., Highfield, Sou­ ISRAEL. Israel Skeptics Society, Philip thampton S09 5NH. The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Paul Kurtz, Chairman Scientific and Technical Consultants George Agogino, Dept. of Anthropology, Eastern New Mexico University. William Sims Bainbridge, professor of sociology, Illinois State University. Gary Bauslaugh, dean of technical and academic education and professor of chemistry, Malaspina College, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. Richard E. Berendzen, astronomer, Washington, D.C. Martin Bridgstock, lecturer, School of Science, Griffith Observatory, Brisbane, Australia. Richard Busch, magician, Pittsburgh, Pa. Shawn Carlson, physicist, Berkeley, Calif. Charles ]. Cazeau, geologist, Deary, Idaho. Ronald J. Crowley, professor of physics, California State University, Fullerton. Roger B. Culver, professor of astronomy, Colorado State Univ. J. Dath, professor of engineering, Ecole Royale Militaire, Brussels, Belgium. Felix Ares De Bias, professor of computer science, University of Basque, San Sebastian, Spain. Michael R. Dennett, writer, investigator. Federal Way, Washington. Sid Deutsch, Visiting Professor of electrical engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa. J. Dommanget, astronomer, Royale Observatory, Brussels, Belgium. Natham J. Duker, assistant professor of pathology, Temple University. Barbara Eisenstadt, educator, Clifton Park, NY. John F. Fischer, forensic analyst, Orlando Fla. Frederic A. Friedel, philosopher, Hamburg, West Germany. Robert E. Funk, anthro­ pologist, New York State Museum &. Science Service. Eileen Gambrill, professor of social welfare. University of California at Berkeley. Sylvio Garattini, director, Mario Negri Pharmacology Institute, Milan, Italy. Laurie Godfrey, anthropologist, University of Massachusetts. Gerald Goldin, mathematician, Rutgers Uni­ versity, New Jersey. Donald Goldsmith, astronomer; president, Interstellar Media. Clyde F. Herreid, professor of biology, SUNY, Buffalo. Terence M, Hines, professor of psychology, Pace University, Pleasantville, N. Y. Philip A. Ianna, assoc. professor of astronomy, Univ. of Virginia. William Jarvis, professor of health promotion and public health, Loma Linda University, School Public Health, California. I. W. Kelly, professor of psychology, University of Saskatchewan. Richard H. Lange, M.D. Mohawk Valley Physician Health Plan, Schenectady, N.Y. Gerald A. Larue, professor of biblical history and archaeology, University of So. California. Bernard J. Leikind, staff scientist, GA Technologies Inc., San Diego. William M. London, associate professor of health education, Kent State University. Thomas R. McDonough, lecturer in engineering, Caltech, and SETI Coordinator of the Planetary Society. James E. McGaha, Major, USAF; pilot. Joel A. Moskowitz, director of medical psychiatry, Calabasas Mental Health Services, Los Angeles. Robert B. Painter, professor of microbiology, School of Medicine, University of California. John W. Patterson, professor of materials science and engineering, Iowa State University. Steven Pinker, assistant professor of psychology, MIT. James Pomerantz, professor of psychology, Rice University; Gary Posner, M.D., Tampa, Fla. Daisie Radner, professor of philosophy, SUNY, Buffalo. Michael Radner, professor of philosophy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Robert H. Romer, professor of physics, Amherst College. Milton A. Rothman, physicist, Philadelphia, Pa. Karl Sabbagh, journalist, Richmond, Surrey, England. Robert J. Samp, assistant professor of education and medicine, University of Wisconsin- Madison. Steven D. Schafersman, geologist, Houston. Bela Scheiber,* system analyst, Boulder, Colo. Chris Scott, statistician, London, England. Stuart D. Scott, Jr., associate professor of anthropology, SUNY, Buffalo. Erwin M. Segal, professor of psychology, SUNY, Buffalo. Elie A. Shneour, biochemist; director, Bio- systems Research Institute, La Jolla, California. Steven N. Shore, associate professor and chair, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Indiana Univ. South Bend. Barry Singer, psychologist, Eugene, Oregon. Mark Slovak, astronomer. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Gordon Stein, physiologist, author; editor of the American Rationalist. Waclaw Szybalski, professor, McArdle Laboratory, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ernest H. Taves, psychoanalyst, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sarah G. Thomason, professor of linguistics. University of Pittsburgh, editor of Language. 'Member of CSICOP Executive Council

Subcommittees Astrology Subcommittee: Chairman, I. W. Kelly, Dept. of Educational Psychology, University of Saskat­ chewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 0W0, Canada. Electronic Communication Subcommittee: Chairman, Page Stephens, 6006 Fir Ave., Cleveland, OH 44102. E-Mail: Jim Kutz [email protected] Health Claims Subcommittee: Co-chairmen, William Jarvis, Professor of Health Promotion and Education, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 93350, and Stephen Barrett, M.D., P.O. Box 1747, Allentown, PA 18105. Parapsychology Subcommittee: Chairman, Ray Hyman, Psychology Dept., Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97402. UFO Subcommittee: Chairman, Philip J. Klass, 404 "N" Street S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024. F0^™fj^QplgG^p"ELECTRIC CURRENTS OF HIGH FREQUENCY AND POTENTIAL.

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal encourages the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and disseminates factual information about the results of such inquiries to the scientific community and the public. It also promotes science and sci­ entific inquiry, critical thinking, science education, and the use of reason in examining important issues. To carry out these objectives the Committee: • Maintains a network of people interested in critically examining paranormal, fringe- science, and other claims, and in contributing to consumer education • Prepares bibliographies of published materials that carefully examine such claims • Encourages research by objective and impartial inquiry in areas where it is needed • Convenes conferences and meetings • Publishes articles that examine claims of the paranormal • Does not reject claims on a priori grounds, antecedent to inquiry, but examines them objectively and carefully The Committee is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization. The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is its official journal.