You can't turn your back for a minute without the
sound of gibbering from beyond the circle of firelight. First you have the
Scientologists trying to use the flawed
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
to stop the
search engine Google listing sites that are less than flattering to
the cultists by illustrating their idiocies with quotes from the ravings
of Hubbard and others. (Past
View - Time Travel Clams) Then the Brits, who have made much fun of
the christian fundamentalists and their downright weird attempts to have
myth taught as fact in the USA, discover that the very same fairy tales
are
being taught in the UK. Can you imagine the next generation of say, budding
biologists, using borrowed Mesopotamian creation myths to do useful work?
No - the mind boggles.
Scientology in a nutshell - courtesy of
Wired
"Hubbard's secret scriptures teach that 75 million
years ago, an evil galactic overlord named Xenu solved the galaxy's
overpopulation problem by freezing excess people and transporting the
bodies to Teegeeack, now called Earth. After the hapless travelers were
defrosted, they were chained to volcanoes that were blown up by hydrogen
bombs -- and their disembodied spirits continue to haunt mankind today."
It all sounds so very believable does it not? It is little wonder they try
and hide this drivel behind copyright laws.
Money Talks
As those who have seen the notice on
80's
home page are aware
ASKE (Association for Skeptical
Enquiry) is offering a substantial cash prize - £11000 (approx. $15800) -
to any medium capable of proving their powers. For details please look on
the ASKE web site. 80 is a member of ASKE
but, as has been stated before, the views in the View are
80's sole responsibility. Having got that out
of the way it remains to state that in 80's
point of view there is something particularly unpleasant and despicable
about those who take advantage, financial or otherwise, of the grief and
loss of others. This applies not just to the psychic charlatans who fatten
themselves on the unfortunate, the gullible and the grieving but also to
those who haunt disaster scenes (do
your hear this Scientologists?) in order to give the victims the
benefit of their counselling. Don't misunderstand, there are many worthy
and good people who only wish to help those shocked by loss and their
efforts are to be applauded and supported, unlike those who wish only line
their pockets and feed their egos.
Cold Reading
There are many misconceptions about mediums and their
claims to communicate with the dead. They would like to appear as heirs to
a long tradition of mystics, sages and gifted people from
Apollonius of
Tyana onwards. The truth is that the modern form of mediumship
appeared in 1848 with the antics of the
Fox sisters. It
also received a boost from catering to the bereaved following the
horrendous carnage of the First World War when families tried to adjust to
the loss of a generation of young men. A look at the later career of Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle and the
rift between him and Harry Houdini illustrates the atmosphere of those
times. Sad to relate the mechanics of talking to the dead owe much more to
the techniques of the carnival and the con artist than communicating with
those who have "passed over". This is particularly true of today's big
earners with networked tv shows - in the US such charlatans such as
John Edward and
Sylvia Browne are
coining it in using an old and very effective technique called "cold
reading" amongst other underhand methods to fool the willing
believer. A very useful description of the method is given here
Psychic Sophistry and also
here.
Psychic Sting
With the advent of these big tv mediums obviously a lot of money at stake
and it is not unknown for audiences to be questioned by assistants so that
relevant information can be passed to the medium. It is instructive to
read a typescript of some of the typical question and answer sessions
involved in these readings - in cold print it is remarkably easy to see the
manipulation and "social engineering" involved. One telling point against
the reality of speaking to the dead is the incredible vagueness and
banality of the messages received from beyond. This is due to the
limitations of the information the medium can garner through cold reading
- better results are obviously obtained by some research on the
subject/dupe. Whilst this is harder to bring about it is not beyond the
resources of the high earning TV stars. In passing, one popular psychic
myth, repeated ad nauseam in the lower end newspapers and magazines, is
how mediums have
helped the police locate say, a corpse or some other sought after
item. There are no documented cases where this has happened and plenty
where the police say the involvement of a psychic was a positive hindrance
and diluted scarce resources by initiating wild goose chases with vague
(there's the v-word again) information. This kind of useless participation
is done for one thing - the massaging of the medium's ego - which is
usually more than big enough without further stimulation.
Conning Over
Sadly the sight of these tricksters conning the
willing believers is something that is unlikely to go away - and for one
reason - money. The big TV shows of the likes of John Edward do far too
well in the audience ratings. But not so well that the audience can't do
with a little coaching - this is from
SciFi.com's pages
plugging Edward's show "Crossing Over".
"Validation is important! Since John does not know
your friends and relatives, it's very important you give feedback. A
simple nod of the head, a yes or no answer goes a long way in a reading.
Please don't give more information than John asks for."
I would ask you read the above again and compare it with Tony Youens'
"Psychic
Sophistry" mentioned above - of course validation is important,
otherwise the medium is floundering for a reading. Here's a little
more..........
"Don't get "psychic amnesia." John coined this
phrase to describe what happens when he goes to someone in the audience
and they all of a sudden forget their family tree. Bring a copy of your
family tree to the show, just in case."
To 80's cynical mind the unspoken ending of
that last sentence is " just in case one of John's researchers can get a
sight of it." You can see how the social engineering begins long before
the audience arrives for the taping of the show. As a wonderfully blatant
example of the uses of contrived vagueness in psychic readings on this
same site do look at the Glossary supplied so the audience can know what
Edward is getting at - yes he has his own special vocabulary - here are a
couple of examples...............
"To The Side - Refers to a spirit or person who is
the same age as the guest who is being read. A sibling, friend or cousin.
(general terms but not specific to guest)" Note Edward does not
have to be specific - he will use clues that the guest will give him - see
Validation is Important above.
"Black Spots - Indicates the spirit had cancer. (or
severe health issues in that area)" Note that "severe health
issues" covers a lot of ground - and what the hell does "in that area"
mean?
"Flowing Blood - Indicates the cause of death was
some type of blood disorder. (leukemia, hepatitis, AIDS, and/or drug
overdose)" Note this handy scattergun phrase is good for multiple
targets.
Please note that John Edward is just being used as an example of the con
tricks and methods to exploit people - and because he has been doing very
well out of his deceptions.
Java Chat
The ASKE challenge mentioned above can be viewed
as the initial stage of
James Randi's Million Dollar Challenge - accepted very publicly on The
Larry King Live TV show by Sylvia Browne. Since that show Randi has
assiduously attempted to communicate with Browne but received no reply.
Now Browne says that Randi has never contacted her - a surprisingly blunt
lie unworthy of someone who has made considerable sums from more
sophisticated tricks. Using what little psychic power is available to
80 it is predicted that Browne will never submit to being tested -
she makes a good enough living without risking all for a crack at Randi's
million. On the subject of Randi one weekly treat is his
commentary where you
can follow the Sylvia Browne saga, read about the
talking coffee pot (believe me this is strange) and enjoy the
insights and comments from the man himself and his correspondents -
unmissable and frequently hilarious. Apart from the commentary, back
issues of which are archived, the James
Randi Educational Foundation's pages are full of fascinating
information and a regular port of call for 80.
Miscellany
There are many websites around that promote a rational or skeptical point
of view but their numbers are dwarfed by those who "stray
over the border into pseudoscience, flim-flam or irrational claims"
as 80's
homepage puts it. Here
is a quick roundup of some 80 has found
informative and/or amusing. First up is
CSICOP, the Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. This is a large and
useful set of pages with many items of interest which include the
Skeptical Museum of the
Paranormal, an annotated bibliography, and an online archive of
Philip J Klass'
Skeptics UFO Newsletter. John Edward crops up here as well as the
subject of a fine
article called
Hustling the Bereaved by Joe Nickell.
CSICOP is admirable in many ways but if you looking for something of a
more humorous nature
The Stand-up
Skeptic fits the bill. Here you will find one, two, three liners,
rhymes and observations ranging from a belly-laugh to a groan. An original
website and a place to pass an idle moment. Example - "A
Reflexologist told me that pressure on different parts of the foot
controls blood flow to various organs in the body. I said, in that case
shift your weight, I don't think enough blood's reaching your brain."
(UPDATE - 80 looked in at the The Stand-up
Skeptic in March 2003 and was pleased to find much new material -
definitely worth a look - recommended.)
This next website has two things in common with the Stand-up, humor and,
regrettably, a lack of any regular updating. Don't be put off by this as
The Happy Skeptic
has some good stuff. 80 recommends the
quotations page and also the part-work described thus,
"Ever sat in the pub and had to listen to some
dullard gushing on about how their granny's piles were cured at Lourdes;
how amazing dowsing is; how crystal power can change your life? Wish you
had the relevant facts at your fingertips so that you could shut them up
and get on with your beer in peace? Well now you can! You're
Talking Complete Bollocks™ is a part-work that
builds week-by-week into a handy reference to all things supernatural."
Totally politically incorrect and good fun! (Update - sadly the Happy
Skeptic has gone to the Happy Hunting Ground as of July 13th 2002)
It is worth noting that the
Links from Number
80 page is a list of various websites that have appealed - as the page
intro says " Below is a list of links that 80 has
found useful and informative (and reassuring). It is in no particular
order and 80 takes no responsibility for dead links although these sites
are visited fairly regularly." This list is in fact far from
representative and suggestions for inclusion are most welcome, as is all
feedback. Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed a couple of links in this
issue to CICAP, the
Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims on
the Paranormal, whose website is highly recommended.
Burning Issue
Some supposedly paranormal phenomena seem to be
geographically limited - one such is
Spontaneous Human Combustion - which appears almost exclusively in the
USA and UK. That is not to say partially fire consumed corpses in
otherwise undamaged surroundings are not found elsewhere but the Brits and
the Yanks are the only ones to attribute these unpleasant tableaux to the
paranormal. Like so many "weird" or "unexplained" happenings SHC has been
fairly comprehensively debunked. The first point of interest is that many
SHC case studies are based on reports often from secondary and/or
unverifiable sources. The few cases that are better documented can be
explained by recourse to the mechanisms of everyday physics. Research into
the grisly workings of the
wick effect explains how a human corpse can be consumed by a
relatively low level fire more effectively than a modern crematory, given
enough time. Also this same research has demonstrated that surrounding
materials and furnishings can be left relatively unharmed as what heat
escapes from a "human candle" is of
insufficiently high temperature to cause ignition but often hot
enough to say, warp plastics. Naturally if there is a greater amount of
heat involved ignition would result in surrounding materials but then of
course you would just have a tragic house fire and not the decidedly
unmysterious mysterious SHC. As ever the
Skeptic's Dictionary has a
readable and concise entry on SHC with, at the bottom of the page, a link
to reader's comments which make for interesting reading. There are also
links to some excellent articles on the subject such as
this by Mark Benecke,
with pictures for the ghoulish and an
Investigative File by
Joe Nickell. Both of these are from the print magazine
Skeptical Inquirer, produced by CSICOP, which
is definitely worth a subscription as it tells you "what
the scientific community knows about claims of the paranormal, as opposed
to the sensationalism often presented by the press, television, and
movies." In fact if anything that description sells SI short as
there is a lively letters column, special issues on subjects such Science
and Religion and much more.
Quotes
"Assumptions are things you don't know you are making" Douglas Adams
"Superstition, which is widespread among the nations, has taken advantage
of human weakness to cast its spell over the mind of almost every man."
Cicero
"We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those
we don't like?" Jean Cocteau
"False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they
often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do
little harm, for everyone takes a salutory pleasure in proving their
falseness." Charles Darwin
"I told you I was ill" Spike Milligan's suggestion for his own headstone.
Spike, who died recently, was irreplaceable and an inspiration to many.
One of the few people capable of causing near asphyxiation in others by
reason of helpless laughter.
