THETHE SECONDSECOND COMINGCOMING All the best from the Skeptic, 1986–1990 Psychics Edited by Barry Williams Compiled by Richard Saunders New Cartoons by Penny Rowe (Funny Penny) & Richard Saunders THE SECOND COMING All the best from the Skeptic, 1986–1990 Psychics Vol 6 No 1 - 1986 A Skeptical View of Creative Abundance William Grey Stuart Wilde is a self-styled metaphysician who claims to have discovered a way to blend ancient wisdom with modern technology, to teach you how to create more money in your life. Denise Linn is a reincarnationist who claims to connect you with your past lives to make you more "abundant" in this one. They toured Australia in November 1985 under the auspices of International Health Promotions, presenting seminars in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. Canberra provided the team with its warm-up opportunity. Wilde and Linn appeared on the local ABC Morning Show (hosted by Wendy Wicks) on Friday 1st November. Linn explained that she had become interested in previous incarnations, and realised their value as a resource for abundance, as a result of a visionary "near death experience" which led her to radically alter her views about reality. Wilde’s account of his discovery of the secret of "creative abundance" was a little different. Having 1 THE SECOND COMING All the best from the Skeptic, 1986–1990 Psychics made a fortune in the rag trade in Carnaby Street in invariably claims about prior existence in this world: the sixties he became filled with the emptiness of no one reported a previous incarnation in another material success, and set out to discover deeper truths dimension.) about the meaning of our existence. The Canberra seminar presented by Wilde and Linn The truth he discovered after his long search seemed (on Sunday 3rd November) was slick, polished and very close to the starting point of his disillusion. The delivered with enthusiasm and panache. Linn conducted secret to life lies in making pots of money, indeed in the morning session and Wilde the afternoon. persuading people to give you as much of it as possible. Problems about reincarnation were swept aside by But it is important not to feel the least guilty about it. Linn as she explained that we are spirits whose purpose Twenty years ago Wilde made a fortune and felt is to return bodily again and again "to polish the jewel" terrible. Now he is making a fortune and feels terrific. which we essentially are. Linn suggested that many As long as you approach people in the right fashion, of our hang-ups are the product of difficulties Wilde suggested, they will just love to make you rich. experienced in previous incarnations. Coming to terms His faith seemed amply justified. Two days later with what we were is (she claimed) a means of coming about 120 people each paid $20 to hear his to accept what we are. To relive is to relieve. contradictory blend of Taoist philosophy and North Linn's presentation concluded with an exercise to American materialism. bring the seminar participants in touch with their Reincarnation presents a lot of problems, and I posed previous lives. After a "deep relaxation" preliminary, the following for Linn on Wendy Wicks' program. everyone was invited to imagine themselves at twenty Three hundred years ago the population was about years, at ten, at five, at six months, then back to birth one-eighth its present size. So there were just not and the womb. And then beyond. enough people in the comparatively recent past for For this participant the nature of the imaginative everybody alive today to have been alive before. task changed radically as the exercise progressed. I Linn was puzzled by this problem (which had not can recollect, albeit vaguely, five-year-old experiences. occurred to her before), but Wilde came to her rescue, Prior to that, however, I found myself wholly dependent suggesting that "other dimensions" provided a on old family photo albums, and reports derived from convenient source of disembodied souls to resolve the memories other than my own. difficulty. (This is patently an ad hoc artificial Linn appeared to be aware of this problem. If nothing manoeuvre. Reincarnation claims made subsequently "came to mind" participants were invited to "pretend, by participants in Wilde and Linn's seminar were create, imagine" experiences. With a generous range 2 THE SECOND COMING All the best from the Skeptic, 1986–1990 Psychics of cues about the kinds of experiences that others had The placebo effect guarantees that a number of reported (World War II pilots, pilgrims, Chinese people will read the claims, listen to the tapes, and peasants) we were provided with a helpful delineation swear by their efficacy. It would of course be a of the scope of the imaginative exercise. straightforward matter to set up a simple double-blind The participants in this fantasy exercise of imagining test to evaluate their effect. (I wonder if "Mystic a possible past life appeared quite happy to accept Traders", the company marketing the tapes, would their inventions as genuine reports of previous agree to such an evaluation?) incarnations. We were, in effect, asked to invent a The "theta metronome" is another cassette tape past life and then to accept the invention as reality. which provides gentle repetitive tones recorded at 4-6 There were plenty of grounds for doubting the truth cycles per second (theta rhythm) or 7-13 cycles per of the reports. For one thing there were plenty of second (alpha rhythm). The rhythms are said to improve anachronisms. ("Roman soldiers", for example, mental abilities, memory, healing, inspirational creativity, solemnly reported having lived in castles.) relaxation and "accelerated rest". For an evaluation of After a break for lunch the second component of these claims, see Barry Beyerstein's paper "The Myth the seminar was conducted by Wilde. His exposition of Alpha Consciousness" in The Skeptical Enquirer, of the secrets of "creative abundance" was an Vol 10, No 1 (Fall 1985). extraordinary blend of Dale Carnegie's entrepreneurial There were many more cassette tapes prepared by fervour, Billy Graham's evangelism, and some Wilde and Linn to help one to develop techniques for entertaining wisecracking reminiscent of Morecombe making money, nurturing health, increasing power. and Wise. altering states of consciousness, and to help one to Wilde's essential message was: get other people to become more sensuous and radiant. build up confidence in you, and then "bill them". If Creative abundance, which has been on sale in they like you they'll pay you. This simple message was North America for several years, is seeking to establish wrapped up in a lot of dubious - often incomprehensible an Australian market. It looks set for good business. - guff about physical planes, abundant forces, infinite sources of energy, vibrancy, destiny, high intention, William Grey has taught philosophy at the Australian resonance, clarity, total potential, crescendos of National University and Temple University, Philadelphia. understanding, spiritual growth, and bumping against He works in the Department of Science in Canberra and is the roughness of other dimensions. It was exasperating Secretary of the Canberra Branch of Australian Skeptics. rubbish. Wilde in effect presented a short course of motivational therapy wrapped up in a confusion of Taoist philosophy and spurious science. Some of the claims which he made are at least testable. Two items which he vigorously promoted were "subliminal" tapes, selling for $20 to $25, and a so-called "theta Predictions Revisited metronome". Janet de Silva Subliminal tapes purport to contain messages or affirmations embedded in a musical background. Lindy Chamberlain will be moved to a NSW prison Similar tapes have been examined by the National from Darwin. Bob Hawke would be the target of an Acoustic Laboratory (NAL) in several ways, using assassination attempt before March 1986. spectral analysis, filtering and autocorrelation. NAL These were the predictions from English-born was unable to find any evidence of messages buried clairvoyant, Zandra-Marie, in Australia last year. in the "noise". Not only is there no evidence that the A slender blond woman in her mid-thirties, this subliminal tapes which have been examined contain bubbly psychic travels throughout the United States, any auditory message, there is also no evidence that England, Australia and New Zealand lecturing and subliminal auditory stimulation can affect behaviour in giving personal consultations using her "psychic the manner claimed. For a critical evaluation of the powers". According to Zandra-Marie, she has displayed claims, see "Subliminal Perception: A discussion psychic power since she was 10 years old when she with Special Relevance to the Use of Subliminal Audio sketched the location of victims in the "moors murders" Tapes", by Robert A. Cummins, the Bulletin of the in England. And, at times when people annoyed her at Australian Psychological Society, November, 1985, school, she wished they would fall down stairs - and it pp 28-35. all came true. 3 THE SECOND COMING All the best from the Skeptic, 1986–1990 Psychics Previously, when the clairvoyant arrived in Australia, parcel requiring her signature. When she turned to get the media embraced her enthusiastically and there were a pen, she was murdered and her killer returned to his numerous reports of past triumphs and her latest three-storey house by car. He was six foot, 29 years "predictions". According to many newspapers, Zandra- old, and was dark haired. Marie is noted throughout the world for her famous Indeed, it doesn't require extensive research to prove criminal cases such as the "Yorkshire Ripper" case in that Zandra-Marie has bungled nearly every prediction Britain and the "Atlantic Murders" in the US.