1986 Spring - Skeptical Inquirer - Robert Sheaffer

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    Crashed-Saucer Claims I Creationist EvangelismKirlian Photography

    VOL. X NO.3 I SPRING 1986 55.00FubUshrd h\ lh1 fnmnlllll'f fnr tht s,unnJJc In' PSl!!fdUon of ( l m m ~ uf lhP Paranornml

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    ROBERT SHEAFFERPsychic Vibrat ions

    F OR SEVERAL months a pair ofescapees from the San Franciscozoo made monkeys of the local psychiccommunity and, some would say, oneof the members of the city Board ofSupervisors as well. A female patasmonkey and her 4-month-old babyescaped from the zoo's new PrimateCenter last July I I. Because the mon-keys can move very quickly and areadept at foraging nuts and fruits highin backyard treetops, they evadedattempts at recapture.Enter San Francisco City Super-visor Louise Renne. While on a visit toCork, Ireland, she was told by a citycouncilman there that, when a monkeyescaped from the zoo in Cork, "theycouldn't find a traee of him" until apsychic was called in, who allegedlylocated the monkey's hiding place withinminutes. Renne, obviously believing theSan Francisco psychic community tobe second to none, issued a call forhelp to local psychics in tracking downthe monkeys.

    Assistance was immediately forth-coming. Harold Hooper, a local seerwho claims to have heiped the poiicefind bodies and who lives in the areawhere the monkeys had last been spot-ted, was among the first to respond.He reported that he feared the babymonkey had been run over by his ownson riding his "Big Wheel" tricycle,

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    although the VICtim of the supposedaccident was nowhere to be seen.Another man called in who declined toidentify himself, claiming to be a psychicfrom nearby Stanford University. Aftertwo phone calls to Renne's officerequesting a map of the area and otherinformation, he caiied back with hisfinding: The monkeys were hanging out

    THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 10

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    in a Sunset District bar, eating ravioli.One caJJer, who thought the whole mat=ter was absurd, asked, "Are you peopleidiots or what?" Renne's aide replied, ,"No, we're not. This is the Board ofSupervisors."

    Throughout the escapade, zoo officials emphasized that psychic assistancewas not required. "We don't need a psychic. We've caiied in a primatoiogistand an expert trapper," said zoospokeswoman Ellen Newman. Besides,she said, the problem was not findingthe monkeys, the problem was catchingthe monkeys. Despite the proximity ofseveral world-class parapsychologyresearch centers, including SRI, DelphiAssociates, and John F. Kennedy University, not one shred of useful extrasensory information was received. Theescapees continued to romp in the city'streetops for a month, until the zoo'strappers successfully lured them into acage baited with fresh fruit.

    *

    The case of an alleged UFO landing,alien contact, and Men In Black harassment in the Rendlesham Forest, nearthe U.S. Air Force base in Suffolk,England, in December 1980, continuesto intrigue UFO believers and to greatlyentertain the skeptics. According toinitial reports, a brilliant light was seenhovering in the woods, leaving behindmarkings on the ground. This was invest igated by Ian Ridpath ofCSICOP/U.K., who found that theposition of the reported light coincidedexactly with the beam from the !ightchouse at Orford Ness and that theground markings attributed to the UFOwere in fact rabbit diggings, which couldbe seen scattered throughout the woods.

    Then stories began circulating thatcontact had been made between UFOaliens and U.S. Air Force personnel.The initial source of these stories wasan anonymous U.S. airman calling him-

    Spring 1986

    self "Art Wallace," who has since beenrevealed to be former airman LarryWarren. MUFON, the largest UFOGroup in the United States, stronglysupports the case, even though MUFONdirector Walt Andrus declined PhilipJ. Klass's offer to help fund a polygraphtest fo r Warren, admitting that Warrenwould probably fail if asked to reconfirm his earlier statements, since he"tends to embellish his story" each timeit is told. J. Allen Hynek, reviewing abook on the incident (Sky Crash: ACosmic Conspiracy by Brenda Butler,Dot Street, and Jenny Randles) in hisInternational UFO Reporter, said thatthe Rendlesham case "may come torank as one of the most significant UFOevents of all time." He said the bookwas "destined to become a classic workin the UFO literature," which it may,but not for the reasons he suggests.

    When UFO commentator and gadfly James Moseley shocked and upsetmany readers of his newsletter, SaucerSmear, by announcing that he was "losing the faith," the well-known UFO andFortean researcher Jerome Clark suggested that he might regain some of hislost "faith" if he were to look into areally excellent UFO case, such asRendlesham. Moseley did, and theresult eroded his confidence in UFOlogyeven further. He found that two Britishresearchers from the Swindon Centrefor UFO Research and Investigationmade a brief preliminary investigationand found five major discrepancies inthe published reports. Moseley alsofound that MUFON appeared to bekeeping damaging information aboutthe case from its members and nowrefers to the whole matter as "RendleSHAM." Jerome Ciark, however,reviewing Sky Crash for Fate, says that"this story is different" from other UFOyarns, being based upon "a large bodyof testimony." He concludes that"something very important, it is cleai,took place in Rendlesham forest late in

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    1980," providing yet another illustrationof how UFO proponents cling to im-plausible tales of saucer crashes andcontact, even as the pillars supporting their claims crumble at their feet.

    The Wall Street Journal reportsbelieve it or not- that the supermarkettabloid National Enquirer is "goingstraight-or at least going straighter."It seems that the Enquirer is havingtrouble selling ads to large nationaladvertisers because of the perception

    that its readers, while easily persuaded,are not exactly affluent and couldn'iafford to buy advertisers' products evenif they wanted to. To project a more"upscale" image to its advertisers, andhopefully snare more affluent readers,the Enquirer reportedly wi!! be pub-lishing less celebrity gossip and fewersensationalized stories about UFOs andthe like. Owner Generoso Pope says thatthe paper has no choice but to be"groping" toward a new identity because of the crowded field for gossipsheets and the increasing cost of defending against libel lawsuits.

    A Reminder . . .All suhscrip1iun correspondence (new subscriptions. renewals. back-issueorders. billing problems) should be addressed to the Subscription, Headquarters office in Buffalo: .

    Skeplical/nquirer: Bux 229. Cemral Park Sw1ion. Buf{alu. N r 14215All edilorial correspondence (manuscripts. letters to the editor. books forreview. author's queries) should be addressed to the Editor's office inAlbuquerque:

    Kendrick Frazier. EdiiUr. 3025 Palo Alto Dr. N.E . Albuquerque. NM87111

    Inquiries concerning CSICOP programs or policies should be addressed toDr. Paul Kurtz. chairman. at the Buffalo address.

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