SKEPTICAL National Capital Area E YE

SKEPTICAL EYEVol. 13, No. 1

2001

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• encourages critical and scientific thinking • serves as an information resource on extraordinaryclaims • provides extraordinary evidence that skeptics are cool

National Capital Area

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Dazzling. Dashing. Dishonest?Definitely. Jamy Ian Swiss isthe honest liar. Dapper in athree-piece black suit with aperiwinkle blue shirt and

matching tie, earring glittering in his left ear,Jamy stepped onto the stark stage of theCecile Goldman Theater in Washington, DC,on April 21, 2001, and proceeded for the next90 minutes to stun and captivate the packedaudience with his up-close prestidigitation,mentalism, and informative patter.

Pulling out a deck of cards, Jamy stated,“We begin at the beginning with incontrovert-ible evidence of a misspent youth.” Mirandacame up on stage from the audience afterJamy learned the last game of cards sheplayed was bridge. He proceeded to changethe card she selected to a 2 of diamonds.How’d he do that? Then Phil came up and cutthe deck. After contemplating it for a moment,Jamy guessed there were 29 cards in the pile.He was right. “This is a skill with absolutelyno practical value except to come here and

Jamy IanSwiss IstheHonest Liar

show you,” he said, andproceeded to do just that . . .show us, dazzle us, educate us.

“For almost as long as I have been inter-ested in magic, I have been interested in para-psychology, and I have concluded they[spirits] don’t exist.”

“I am a professional liar,” says Jamy. “Asfar back as we can remember people havetried to determine a way to tell when peopleare lying. Back in Elizabethan times there wasa dunking stool. If the person drowned, theywere innocent, and if they floated, they wereguilty and put to death. Now we have stressrates, we use the polygraph to measure ner-vousness: heart rate, pulse, and galvanic re-sponse (sweating). According to these tenets,I am a mythical creature. I am a professionalliar. Sometimes people get nervous when theyare telling the truth. The modern lie detector ispseudoscience, and is no more reliable thenthe dunking stool.”

Charlene, another audience member, cameup on the stage, stating she was a professionalliar too. “I’m a lawyer,” she said, which got a

by Helen Hester-Ossa

letters 2

prez sez 3

Festschrift for S.J. Gould 4

The Skeptic’sFaust 6

UnderstandingBelief—How WeKnow What Isn’tSo 8

The Amazing ChiMachine 9

FortFest 2000 11

the write stuff 15

media notes 16

Newman EnergyMachine Report

17

One Cosmos,Two VeryDifferent People

18

The Man Behindthe Curtain 20

Notes from NewYork: the Day 24

The Mind of aTrue Believer 26

Skeptical Eye Vol. 13, No. 1 2001○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○2

lettersSensitivity Survey

Through my work in the field of indoorair quality, I have noted cases where peoplehave evidently become severely sensitized totheir environment—through exposure tochemicals, biological contaminants, or electro-magnetic fields. I suspect that people who de-velop (or inherit) such a heightened sensitivitymay be more likely to report ‘psychic’ experi-ences. Migraine sufferers and people with al-lergies may also fit the profile. Myconversations with environmental physicianslend credence to this hypothesis. However,more systematic inquiry is needed.

In order to identify the common factors(if any) that may be at work in these cases, Ihave developed a survey. My goal is to have itcompleted by those who consider themselvespsychically sensitive and people who considerthemselves environmentally sensitive—andcompare the results.

Of course, a control group is needed, andhere is where I hope my NCAS membershipand yours—will prove beneficial. I encourageyou to take 10 minutes to complete the sur-vey. I especially need women to participate.Complete confidentiality is assured: I will beaggregating the results. Ultimately those re-sults will be shared with NCAS, as well aswith the other organizations that have offeredto publicize this project.

National Capital Area Skeptical Eye (ISSN 1063-2077)is published by the National Capital Area Skeptics,PO Box 8428 , Silver Spring, MD 20907.

Copyright © 2001 National Capital Area Skeptics. Signedarticles are the opinions of the authors. Opinions ex-pressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position ofthe editors, the Board of Directors, or the National Capi-tal Area Skeptics.

24-hour phone number: 301-587-3827e-mail: [email protected] Eye input: [email protected]: http://www.ncas.orgNCAS discussion group: [email protected]

NCAS Board of DirectorsPaul Jaffe, presidentGary Stone, vice presidentMarv Zelkowitz, secretaryGrace Denman, treasurerChip Denman, spokesman

Barry BlyveisJonathan BoswellHerb M. FederhenJim GiglioStephen J. GoodsonRita Malone

Editor/DesignerHelen Hester-Ossa

recycled paper

Eugene OssaMary PastellScott SnellJamy Ian SwissWalter Rowe

I thank NCAS members in advance fortheir assistance, and for any ideas or com-ments they may wish to offer, either before orafter completing the survey.

Because of the length of the survey, we ask thatyou contact Michael Jawer directly if you areinterested in participating.

Michael Jawer8624 McHenry StVienna, VA [email protected]

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prez sez

Dear Skeptical Eye reader,

Since 1987, NCAS has worked to pro-mote critical thinking and the under-standing of science. Last year was no

exception. Here are a few of our accomplish-ments from last year:

� Adding to our burgeoning online library ofdocuments the National Bureau ofStandard’s report of Joseph Newman’s“energy machine”

� Providing judges and special awards forlocal and regional science fairs to encour-age science literacy and enthusiasm in thecoming generation

� Sponsoring monthly public programs on awide variety of science, pseudoscience,and related subjects, featuring speakerssuch as author, Washington Post writer,and NPR commentator Joel Achenbach

� Leading and encouraging government andmedia feedback and activism through let-ter, email, and phone campaigns, such asour input to the strategic plan for NIH’sNational Center for Complementary andAlternative Medicine (NCCAM)

� Acting as an information resource for lo-cal, national, and international media, in-cluding Mexican TV and FOX 45

� Supporting author, Skeptic magazine pub-lisher, and Scientific American columnistMichael Shermer in his programs at theVirginia Festival of the Book and the Na-tional Memorial Holocaust Museum

� Covering original UFO investigations,bible code debunking, reviews of booksand local events, and other issues in theSkeptical Eye.

These achievements were made possiblethrough the efforts of NCAS volunteers andyour regular membership fees and tax-deduct-ible contributions. In 2001, we continue ourongoing activities and expand with the additionof new projects. These include:

� Continuingour popularmonthlyprogramsand lectures

� Continuingour supportof area sci-ence fairswith judgesand awards

� Presentingthe annualworkshop: Understanding Belief—Howwe know what isn’t so

� Participating in the Committee for the Sci-entific Investigation of Claims Of theParanormal’s (CSICOP) network of localskeptic organizations

� Continuing to serve the media as an infor-mation resource

� Increasing the availability of videos of ourpast public programs

� Making past issues of the Skeptical Eyeavailable online

� Further expanding our offering of webaccessible research and educational re-sources, including the addition of the pro-ceedings of the Congressional UFOSymposium.

Please make a tax deductible donation inaddition to your membership fee or volunteerto help support NCAS in 2001. NCAS has nopaid staff, and all donations go directly to sup-port NCAS activities and projects. As a501c(3) nonprofit organization, all donationsto NCAS are fully tax deductible.

If you have any questions, comments, orsuggestions, please contact me at 703-329-0270 or [email protected].

Yours truly,Paul JaffePresident, National Capital Area Skeptics


The Skeptics Society annual meeting onOctober 7, 2000 was a festschrift tohonor Stephen Jay Gould, the Harvard

paleontologist who, after 26 years and 300consecutive columns, is ending his monthlycolumn “This View of Life” in Natural Historymagazine.

Professor Gould is probably today’s fore-most expert on evolution, a skeptic who is aFellow of CSICOP and on the Editorial Boardof Skeptic magazine, and a lifelong NY Yan-kees baseball fan. The meeting was held inBeckman Auditorium on the California Insti-tute of Technology campus in Pasadena, Cali-fornia. The day consisted of a dozen talks,either in tribute to Professor Gould’s accom-plishments or on the importance of skepticismin today’s world.

What I learned at FestschriftA chronology of the day would be boring,

so instead I’ll concentrate on what I learned atthe meeting. Various themes were repeated byseveral speakers.

� Gould’s major contribution to evolu-tion is the “Theory of Punctuated Equilib-rium.” Rather than slowly evolving over time,organisms are stable for millennia, and thenover a few generations change rapidly. Thisaccounts for the lack of the “missing link”

Festschrift forStephen Jay Gouldby Marvin V. Zelkowitz

because change is not gradual, but rapid,when it occurs.

� Contingency, or accidents happen, iscrucial to account for some evolutionaryevents. Evolution often takes a path that is“good enough” and not necessarily the best.The “thumb” on the panda is one such ex-ample. Unlike humans whose thumb is one ofthe fingers of the hand, the panda’s thumb isactually an elongated wrist bone that over timehas become flexible. The meteor that wipedout the dinosaurs 65 million years ago wasanother. By eliminating these giant animals,nature allowed the small mammals to grow insize and eventually dominate the earth. Cre-ationists use intelligent design as a rationalethat life is too complex to happen by chance.The panda’s thumb is one example where in-telligent design was not so intelligent.

� Darwin never used the term “evolu-tion” in his Origin of Species. Evolution in1860 meant progress and improvement. Oncethe term was applied to his “Theory of NaturalSelection,” the concept of an evolutionary lad-der, with humans on top, developed. Ofcourse once people thought in terms of thisladder, the concept of man being a “higher”form of life than apes was a natural deduction,and has led to countless arguments since.

But Darwin thought more about an evolu-tionary “bush” as each species evolved fromsome earlier species. Thus, man and apes areon different branches on this bush of life.There is no concept of high or low, and na-ture has a way of pruning unsuccessfulbranches from the bush. Being higher orlower in the bush has no real meaning.

Highlights of the dayIts difficult to give a brief synopsis of the

day without inadvertently slighting somespeaker, but I’ll try anyway:

� Letters were read from Daniel Goldin,NASA Administrator; Arthur C. Clarke; andSteve Allen.

� Donald Prothero, Associate Professorof Geology at Occidental College, gave the

Festschrift: avolume of writingsby different authorspresented as atribute ormemorial,especially to ascholar

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Beckman Auditorium onthe California Institute ofTechnology campus inPasadena, California


Scientific papers 479 Books 22 Reviews 101 Essays in Natural History 300 Words (in 300 essays) 1,253,013 U.S. Presidents since essays began in 1974 7

NY Yankee managers since essays began 19

Table 1. Summary of Professor Gould’s writing (by M. Shermer)

first talk and described the changes in geologyand paleontology in the past 50 years.

� Michael Shermer, Director of theSkeptics Society, gave an analysis of Gould’sachievements (briefly summarized in Table 1).

� Randi was perhaps the most enter-taining. He presented a video clip of how towork with psychics and entertained the audi-

festschrift continued from previous page

ence with some real magic. (Well, they weretricks really, but the effects were great.)

� Louis Friedman, a founding directorwith Carl Sagan of the Planetary Society, de-scribed the search for extraterrestrial life. “Ei-ther we are alone in the universe or we arenot; either prospect is mindboggling.”

� Bill Nye, the science guy, gave a briefhistory of his transformation from mechanicalengineer at Boeing to TV star on PBS. Hismessage to the audience “you need to makeskepticism fun,” which is his creed on his TVshow.

� As with last year’s meeting, RichardMilner, Senior Editor of Natural History, en-tertained with songs about evolution andGould.

� At last, around 7pm, Stephen JayGould had to “pay” for his tribute with thekeynote address, his history on the develop-ment of some of the major tenets of evolution,science, and skepticism.

Around 9:00 pm, the 500 or so attendeesstaggered out of the auditorium. It was a long,but successful, meeting.

Eating lunch outsidethe auditorium.Stephen Jay Gould isin foreground.


I believe there was a real Faust. You cancontend it. The sources tend to mentionhim as if you know who they mean, often

only referring to him as Faust. And thesesources are the pan-Germans of their time.Telling evidence?

Maybe not. However, I make no extraor-dinary claims for Faust. He is more suited toskepticism than belief—a con man who, onlythrough urban legends, gradually metamor-phosed into the scholar who sold his soul tothe Devil.

My source is Philip Mason Palmer andRobert Pattison (eds. and trans.), The Sourcesof the Faust Tradition: from Simon Magus toLessing (1936, 1965). It gives a compilationof documents authored by some of the 16thcentury’s greatest Germans.

Faust was first mentioned in 1507 byJohannes Tritheim, a.k.a., Trithemius. Hewent by the name George Sabellicus, theyounger Faustus. Who knows what happenedto the older Faustus. By the way, Faustus, inLatin, is a lucky or happy person.

Tritheim complained that Sabellicus/Fausthad ducked a 1506 meeting with him at

viner, and much more. That Sabellicusboasted if Plato and Aristotle passed from thememory of man, he, Sabellicus, could recon-struct their philosophy—as the prophet Ezrareconstructed much of the Old Testament.Also that the miracles of Christ were not sowonderful and that he could reproduce them.And that he was the most learned alchemist ofall time.

Tritheim scoffed at this and consideredhim a fool and ignorant of learning, commonaccusations. It galled Tritheim that theseboasts were believed. In Kreuznach, the mag-istrate, Franz von Sickingen, a man very fondof mystical lore, had him appointed schoolmaster. However, Sabellicus could not resist,a “most dastardly lewdness” with his charges.When found out, he fled.

Before his death, Faust sighters treatedFaust (going under the names George Faust,Dr. Faust, and Faust) to a similar parade ofdenunciations, epithets, and vices, and he waskicked out of city after city. One detractortold him to “spend his penny elsewhere.”There were, however, a few important peoplewho were satisfied with his fortunetelling.

Then there was a report of his death byJohannes Gast, a Protestant clergyman, awitty and entertaining man despite the reputa-tion of Protestant clergy then. He stated thatFaust had been strangled by the devil, and onthe bier his head kept twisting behind hisback, though righted five times. The twistedhead was Dante’s punishment in Hell forfortunetellers. Gast remarks, “God preserveus lest we become slaves of the Devil.” It waslater added that at that instant the houseshook.

After his death fantastic tales grew aboutFaust. All Gast could claim in life was thatFaust had somehow been able to acquire forhis party platters of fowl Gast had never seenin that region.

Several tales about Faust concerned hispartying. In one, Faust invited the guests to a

by Richard Dengrove

The Skeptic’sFaust

Johannes Gast: a Protestant clergyman. . .reported Faust had been strangled by thedevil, and on the bier his head kepttwisting behind his back, though rightedfive times. The twisted head was Dante’spunishment in Hell for fortunetellers.

Gelhausen. He described Faust with a stringof epithets, vices, and denunciations: “a vaga-bond, babbler and rogue who deserved to bethrashed for his irreverence.” He saidSabellicus claimed to be king of the necro-mancers, an astrologer, magus, palmist, di-

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party, but there was no sign of preparation.Dr. Faust knocked with a knife on the table.

Someone entered and asked, “Sir, whatdo you wish?”

“How quick are you?” asked Faust inturn.

“ As an arrow.”“You will not serve me,” replied Faust.

“Go back to where you came from.”Then he knocked again and another ser-

vant entered and also asked: “Sir, what do youwish?”

“How quick are you?” Faust queried.“As the wind,” he replied.“That is something,” remarked Dr. Faust,

but the servant wouldn’t do.Faust knocked a third time and yet an-

other servant entered. He said he was quick asthe thoughts of man.

“Good,” said Dr. Faust, “You’ll do.” Andhe went out with him.

During the party, the servant and two oth-ers served thirty-six courses: game, fowl,vegetables, meat pies, other meat, fruit, con-fections, cakes, etc. This included whateverdrink the guest wished. These magically ap-peared, as did the most charming music theguests had ever heard. It was a most pleasantnight.

This obviously is not a cautionary tale.But it provided fodder for cautionary tales.

Curiously, I have only found one talewhere Faust was associated with a university,the University of Erfurt. He talked his wayinto lecturing on Homer. In the lecture hall, heclaimed to describe the real Priam, Hector,Ajax, Ulysses, and Agamemnon. Some stu-dents requested that he make these notablesappear. Faust did so in the school auditoriumat a designated time.

Each Homeric hero appeared as if stillfighting the Trojan war. Also, the CyclopsPolyphemus, the giant with the single eye inhis forehead, appeared, a leg hanging out of

his mouth. Fear-ing he would de-vour somestudents, Faustmotioned him togo. Polyphemushammered on thefloor with his greatiron spear, the buildingshook, and then he vanished.

The faculty were lesswilling to test Faust. Faustrecited several quotations,which, he claimed, camefrom the lost comediesof the Ancient play-wrights Terence andPlautus, and offered tobring manuscripts of themback for a few hours. Thefaculty suspected that the Devil would slip inoffensive passages and declined.

I wonder if this story inspired Marlowe’smarriage of Faustus to Helen of Troy, or atleast her demonic double.

There are quite a few other urban legendsabout Faust. One had to do with a high flyinghorse, another with Faust himself flying, a laSimon the Magician.

Some tales dealt with the Protestant-Catholic conflict. In one, Faust made thingsunpleasant for some inhospitable monks. Inanother, the Franciscan, Dr. Klinge, valiantlytried to reform him. In still another, PhilippMelanchthon, Martin Luther’s successor,proved himself unafraid of Faust’s darkpowers.

Faust the con man was not completelylost, but these tales grew up around him, andultimately completely displaced him.

Faust continued from previous page

Richard Dengrove is the librarianfor the Food and NutritionService, Department ofAgriculture. He lives with hiswife, Heidi, in Alexandria,Virginia. His ambition is to write ahistory of occult magic one ofthese days.


Why do people believe and perceivewhat they do? How does science“know” what is or isn’t? What

perpetuates beliefs that have no basis in fact?What can and should you do?

About 40 people joined NCAS in scenicWinchester, Virginia, on May 19 and 20,2001 as we explored these issues and morein our annual workshop. Sessions began at

Understanding Belief—HowWe Know What Isn’t SoThe 2001 NCAS Weekend Workshop, May 19 & 20, 2001

8:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 19, and brokearound noon on Sunday, May 20. We exam-ined how people arrive at their belief systems,how science works in practice, how false be-liefs are carried through pseudo-history, thebasics of logical reasoning, and much more.

Recommended reading: How We KnowWhat Isn’t So, by Thomas Gilovich.

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I am frequently up late at night and early inthe morning. With two small children, it’soften the only opportunity I have to read,

work on my projects, or just relax. Duringthese wee hours, the nature of television pro-gramming takes on a different face. Almostevery channel has some type of “sponsoredprogramming,” i.e., infomercials.

Judging by their content, advertisers feelthat we insomniacs are a truly pathetic bunch.We lug our pendulous abdomens and saggingbuttocks to miserable jobs that we long to quitby making a fortune in no-money-down realestate ventures. We seek magic shortcuts tohealth, wealth, beauty, and happiness. We arein desperate need of “ab rollers,” “butt blast-ers,” “fat burners,” and the like. One particu-larly interesting gadget that we all need is “TheAmazing Chi Machine,” an appliance thatwiggles your feet in a figure-8 movement,which is said to “oxygenate the blood” andincrease the metabolism (curiously, withoutraising the heart rate). It also raises the body’slevel of “chi,” hence the name of the machine.

I wondered what kind of person falls forsuch obvious nonsense.

It did not take long for me to find out theanswer to my question, and it was not at allwho I expected. Audrey (not her real name)has been a patient of mine since she came tothe area about a year ago. At age 78, she istruly remarkable for her youthfulness, energy,and enthusiasm. Her figure, skin, hair, hermental sharpness, all are that of a muchyounger woman. She appears to be in her 60s,maybe even in her late 50s, definitely not al-most 80.

And Audrey is nobody’s fool. This is awoman who has started and run several suc-cessful retail businesses, and has been herown general contractor and built two houses.She was the sole breadwinner supporting her-self and her children. In short, she is exactlythe kind of “mark” that every unscrupulousoperator dreams about. Her lack of any formaleducation in physiology makes her credulous,her contagious enthusiasm makes her believ-able, and her remarkable appearance makespeople think, “I sure hope I look that goodwhen I’m her age.”

With her smile, her wisdom, her sincerity,she could say, “I use ‘The Amazing Chi Ma-chine!’ I’m almost 80 years old and I’venever felt better!” And people would believeher. Never mind 78 years of good diet, regularmedical and dental care, and regular exercise,the effects of which certainly must pale incomparison to the benefits of increased “chi ”

Audrey brought me a promotional video-tape and printed material about the product.Because of my chiropractic training and mymaster’s degree in exercise physiology, shewas pretty sure I would be impressed. Afterall, there were “over 30 years of research byDr. Inoue Shizuo, chairman of the OxygenHealth Association.” The printed materialquotes from a supposed book by Dr. Shizuo,Health and Oxygen Efficient Aerobic Exer-cise, which was supposedly written originallyin Chinese. I’m a little confused about whythe Japanese doctor publishes in Chinese, butI read on anyway. Essentially, the doctor’scontention is that having one’s feet passivelymoved back and forth is a highly effective

by Fred Kourmadas, D.C., M.S.

The Amazing ChiMachine


Fred J. Kourmadas is a chiropractor with an MS in exercise,fitness, and health promotion. “When I embarked on mychiropractic career, I thought I was entering a profession that wasscientifically based, and would soon be getting the kind ofacceptance from the scientific community that it was due. Twentyyears later, the ‘leadership’ (if you want to call it that) of theprofession seems to have lost interest in science, now that allforms of pseudo-science quackery are in vogue.” Chiropractors posess a unique set of psychomotor skills for theanalysis and treatment of musculo-ligamentous afflictions. Thepseudo-scientific element in the profession holds that we are not“back doctors,” but rather are a comprehensive system of healthcare that can treat a broad range of organic and even infectiousdisorders, all by adjusting the spine. This faction will not ‘go away’until the public becomes more savvy and seeks out practitionerswho practice on firm scientific foundations.” Fred plans to write about what chiropractors can and can’t do,and how to avoid practitioners who will lead you down a primrosepath of pseudo-scientific dogma.


aerobic exercise. He goes on to name a laun-dry list of diseases that can be improvedthusly, including lung cancer, heart disease,ulcers, arthritis, and allergies.

Audrey goes on to tell me of the very mo-tivational multilevel marketing meeting she hadattended. The “expert” who spoke that nightinformed her that the result of all this extraoxygen that the machine brings in is the deathof all pathological bacteria and even canceroustumors. “Nothing (bad) can live in pure oxy-gen” she was told. I told her that, unless onehas heart or lung disease, blood leaves thelungs essentially fully saturated with oxygen.You can’t “cram” any more in. I went on toexplain that oxygen certainly wouldn’t kill allpathologic bacteria, and that, in fact, cancer-ous tumors had an increased need for oxygenand nutrients. But surely, she felt, with herlimited knowledge of physiology, she wasn’tdoing justice to all the wonders of “TheAmazing Chi Machine in her explanation. She

felt I should watch the videotape, where theprocess is explained by a true expert.

That night at home, I just couldn’t go thedistance. About half way through the tape, Icould watch no more. The “expert” turned outto be an up-line, multilevel marketing rep. Shetold all the standard miraculous cure stories,and told of how the machine increased the“chi” in one’s “chakras,” blissfully unawarethat she was mixing her imaginary metaphors.

“Chi” of course, is the imaginary “energy”that flows through the 12 imaginary “merid-ians” of Chinese acupuncture. Chakras, on theother hand, apparently originated with “polar-ity therapy,” an invention of a Dr. RandolphStone, a naturopath, osteopath, and chiroprac-tor, who was heavily influenced by Easternmysticism and ancient systems of medicine.There are eight of these imaginary structures,which are said to be “energy centers” for anas yet undocumented form of electromagneticenergy. The incongruency sounds to me a bitlike talking about Buddha giving his life on thecross for the sins of mankind.

A few weeks pass, and I see Audreywhile I’m out shopping. We exchange ourgreetings, but nothing is mentioned of the ma-chine. A month later, she is back in my officewith a minor ache. She seems a little down.Nothing is mentioned of the machine. Has herinitial enthusiasm waned? Does she see thetruth now? I am frankly too chicken to askher. At her age, she knows there are moreyears behind than ahead. For a short time, thethought of “The Amazing Chi Machine” madeher feel more alive. Some would argue thatthere is an emotional benefit to a strong, posi-tive belief, even one that is wrong. But for me,a hard truth is better than a comforting lie.

chi machine continued from page 9

Some would argue that there is anemotional benefit to a strong, positivebelief, even one that is wrong. But for me, ahard truth is better than a comforting lie.

. . . she is exactly the kind of “mark” thatevery unscrupulous operator dreamsabout. Her lack of any formal education inphysiology makes her credulous, hercontagious enthusiasm makes herbelievable, and her remarkableappearance makes people think, “I surehope I look that good when I’m her age.”


According to one description, CharlesFort (1874-1932) was an “iconoclast,pioneer and poet-philosopher, (…) a

champion of the freedom of the human mind,”a man of “simple courage and honesty (…)who thought for himself and wished the samesane openmindedness in others.”

Following his example, modern-dayForteans are devotees of weird and inexpli-cable phenomena. Their areas of overlap withskepticism are, as you might expect, numer-ous: spiritualism, crop circles, hauntings, pol-tergeists, and UFOlogy, to name a few. Whileskeptics and Forteans alike track Bigfootsightings, Forteans delve more deeply intocryptozoology, and delight in the (rare) dis-covery of new species or reappearance ofthose long feared extinct.

In another break from the CSICOP ap-proach, Forteans enjoy news stories aboutplucky dogs and cats that survive falls fromtall buildings and other near-death experiences.“Suppressed knowledge” (over-unity energy,perpetual motion machines) is another petsubject; the work of unsung scientists (Tesla,etc.) a favorite theme. Forteans stake a specialclaim to the borderlands of science (cold fu-sion, etc.) where skeptics too must pause andponder the evidence. Last but not least, theysubscribe to Fortean Times magazine. . . .

Politically, FT subscribers range fromhardcore believers to CSICOPers. AlthoughFT editor Paul Sieveking told me in Londonthat he found the CSICOP leadership “closed-minded,” he and fellow editor Bob Rickardtake an inquisitive approach that is fresh anddistinctive. The FT letters column, wherereaders sound off about their psychic experi-ences and weird coincidences, has been de-scribed as an escape valve for the lunaticfringe. FT’s feature-length articles vary inquality, but are graced by a sense of fun toooften lacking in Skeptical Inquirer. There isnone of the Geller-style “what-I-do-is-real”bullying. Forteans find bizarre occurrencesinherently fascinating in their own right, re-gardless of the eventual explanation; no skep-tic need disagree with that.

As an FT subscriber, I attended the 30th

FortFest at the College Park Holiday Inn, luredby the keynote speaker, author, and fringe-meister extraordinaire, Colin Wilson (not to beconfused with Turin Shroud specialist IanWilson). Wilson did not disappoint, and theconference was a bonanza for connoisseursof the strange—especially for skeptics likeme, the son of a parapsychologist, for whomthe paranormal was a death star in the nightsky of my childhood imagination.

This year’s event was a zany tribute tothe Washington metropolitan area. Guestslearned that the forests of Maryland are a hot-bed of Bigfoot sightings and face-to-face en-counters with hairy beasties not found in anyzoology textbook. Another speaker recountedthe stampede of Beltway UFO sightings in theearly 1950s; mysterious blips, executing90-degree zig-zags, appeared on theAndrews Air Force Base radarscreens. In a Washington Postcartoon, the evergreenHerblock romanticallyportrayed two UFOs asairborne Presidentialcampaign banners forEisenhower and AdlaiStevenson.

Also continuing the theme of space-flight at FortFest was Ralph Rene—gadfly,

FortFest 2000

by Neil L. Inglis

Report on the 30th Conference onAnomalous Phenomena presented by

The International ForteanOrganization (INFO)November 3-5, 2000

College Park, MDHoliday Inn


Wilson did not disappoint, and theconference was a bonanza forconnoisseurs of the strange—especiallyfor skeptics like me, the son of aparapsychologist, for whom theparanormal was a death star in the nightsky of my childhood imagination.


Mensa member, and scourge of NASA. Renebelieves that the Apollo lunar snap-

shots (and by implication,the Apollo moonshotsthemselves)—were aconfidence trick foisted

on the American people andthe world at large. Such allegations

aren’t new—conspiracy theories never are—and if you’ve watched the movie CapricornOne (1978) (costarring James Brolin and O.J.Simpson), depicting a bogus space mission toMars, you’ll get the general drift. Find thispreposterous? Read on.

Described in the program as “a self-taughtstructural and mechanical engineer,” Reneasked us why the astronauts and the lunarmodule were not incinerated by solar radia-tion, and why astronaut boots did not liquefyon the roasting daylight lunar sand. Adopting aprofessorial demeanor, our speaker scrutinizedphotographs of the Apollo moonlandings forincriminating anomalies, incongruous effectsof light and shadow, suggesting that the “lunarhorizon” was not real but a painted backcloth.

These tendentious allegations were swal-lowed in silence. How I yearned to have aspace-flight specialist right beside me in thelecture room—someone who could ask sharpquestions, speak with authority on optical ef-fects in the lunar environment, analyze theprocessing artifacts that are a common featureof NASA space photography, or explain whyin one scene, the American flag seemed to beflapping in a breeze. But there was only me. . .

So I stood up and asked to speak; I de-manded to know why the USSR—then ourenemies, and rivals in the space race—hadfailed to reach the same conclusions as Reneregarding the Apollo launches—which the So-viets, after all, were independently monitoring.

True believers have answers for every-thing! According to Rene, the Yanks boughtthe Communists’ silence with low-cost wheatshipments. Would that America’s enemiescould be stunned into submission so easily!This explanation showed Rene to be ignorant,at least in most respects, of the fanatical qual-ity of the totalitarian mind; for the Sovietswould have taken our cheap grain first, thenthey would have proceeded to unmaskNASA’s imposture with savage unrepentantglee.

The confrontation with Rene made mequeasy; still, an occasional wrestling-match isgood for a skeptic’s soul. The acid test, per-haps, is whether critical thinkers can blast thetrumpet in our own fields of expertise, butalso debunk in unfamiliar terrain. At times likethis, clever and unexpected rebuttals can helpto knock the other side off their stride.

Ralph Rene is an extreme example, butfrom a skeptical perspective, Fortean speakersand authors share certain disquieting charac-teristics.

• A tendency to ignore mundane alterna-tive explanations for bizarre occurrences.James Randi’s “rubber duck” effect is alsomuch in evidence, with long-discredited evi-dence (the Piri Reis map, etc.) constantly bub-bling back to the surface.

• A casual attitude toward the discoveryand management of contested evidence (onespeaker spoke of “Bigfoot hair samples”—hewas vague as to their source and present loca-tion, although he was sure they existed).

• An addiction to seeking patterns in na-ture. In the Fortean world, mysterious ancientstructures (obelisks and monoliths) are invari-ably facing in some significant direction, ori-ented toward another ancient site. Usually thisis just a matter of drawing a straight line be-tween two points, and ignoring non-hits.

• An irresistible urge to carpet-bomb theaudience with arcane knowledge, worn in loudcolors on the speaker’s sleeve.

• A propensity to confuse cause-and-effect and coincidence, relation and correla-tion.

FortFest continued from page 11

➨➨➨➨➨

Rene asked us why the astronauts andthe lunar module were not incinerated bysolar radiation, and why astronaut bootsdid not liquefy on the roasting daylightlunar sand.


• Disarming honesty. Colin Wilson saidhe inserted the word “Atlantis” in the title ofhis latest book at the behest of his publisher,who thinks that the mere mention of Atlantiswill send bookstore cash registers a-tinkling.

Fascinating though he is, Wilson betraysall the pros and cons of the Fortean method.As I listened to his talk on pre-Egyptian civili-zations, I found his polymathy stimulating,even thrilling; but after a while, the tide ofnon-sequiturs and logical jumps began to grateon my nerves.

Remember, though, that we’re not talkingabout spoon-bending, teleportation, or theusual humbug of psi; some of the time,Forteans may be on to something big. Thefield of human origins, for them, is a perennialsource of curiosity.

Skeptics who fancy the history of humancivilization to be an open-and-shut case are infor a shock. Many efforts—some honest, oth-ers craven and duplicitous—are afoot to over-turn accepted assumptions regarding modernman’s origins and to push long-accepted mile-stones further and further back in time. Tocite only a few cases of scholarly fomentaround the world: the Chinese government’srecent claims regarding the great antiquity oftheir civilization; the dissolving consensusover the earliest human settlement of NorthAmerica; and the advent of anti-Semitic archi-tecture, a field that treacherously labels an-cient Israel “Palestine” and challenges the ideathat the Israelites ever existed as a cohesiveethnic group in any meaningful sense.

Whenever a scholarly void appears, re-sponsible researchers rush in (most of thetime); but charlatans and flimflam artists mayhave beaten them to it. Clamorous disputesand finger-pointing are sure to follow. Patchyevidence and hidden agendas make life diffi-cult for critical thinkers. Who are we skepticsto believe, where do we turn for guidance?(By the way, if you think the historical recordsettles the matter in these cases, you’re kid-ding yourself; as for the archeological evi-dence for the truth of the Old Testament, the“Palestine” academics are fond of describingthat record as “mute”—a loaded term).

Not all fringe scholarship is so dangerous.Pre-Egyptian civilizations are a hot topic forForteans, in part because such material allowsthe imagination to run riot. The works ofpopularizers such as Graham Hancock (Fin-gerprints of the Gods, The Message of theSphinx) are a wizard wheeze, a jolly romp—that is, until such time as the truth of the mat-ter is discovered and the historical puzzles aresorted out at last. (This may happen soonerrather than later; Hancock and his ilk havebeen violently attacked by skeptics). Still, no-one can be a critical thinker 24 hours a day,365 days a year, and the relaxed logical stan-dards of Forteana are what make it such en-joyable entertainment. (It’s also whyso many CSICOPers secretly—and Forteans openly—watchthe X Files, thatquintessentially Forteanshow).

The atmosphereat a Fortean confer-ence is not all peace,love, and understanding. Atlast year’s FortFest, an enter-taining “croppie” speaker showed usslides of the new generation of cropcircles—many of stunning geometric preci-sion and beauty. For some in the audience, thecrop circles had been etched out by “rays”projected from hedgehopping alien spacecraft.Ever the wet blanket, I rose to my feet and(politely and sweetly) asked if the latest de-signs might owe their origins to “crop circle”

FortFest continued from previous page

Skeptics who fancy the history of humancivilization to be an open-and-shut caseare in for a shock. Many efforts—somehonest, others craven and duplicitous—areafoot to overturn accepted assumptionsregarding modern man’s origins and topush long-accepted milestones further andfurther back in time.



software. Our speaker froze under my interro-gation, and later warned me in person that hewould give me a wide berth.

Furthermore, men like ColinWilson have giant egos,

and are more in themold of traditional

psi researchers, suchas my father Brian Inglis,

whose attitude was “here is the evidence,and you must believe”—even if that evidencewere little more than artfully sorted specula-tion. (Wilson and Inglis were not closefriends, but had collaborated on a couple ofmagazine projects decades previously.)

At this year’s FortFest, Colin Wilson pos-tulated the existence of an ancient race ofmathematicians, long extinct, whose knowl-edge of astronomy and architecture, if fullyknown today, would humble our pretensionsto modernity. Wilson linked these supermenwith the Neanderthals (!), and even spottedtheir descendants in today’s idiots savants,who (we are told) perform amazing feats ofnumber-crunching without the benefit ofcomputers or pocket calculators, involvingprime numbers and suchlike. Wilson’s argu-ments involve plenty of numerology, always a

Neil L. [email protected]

red flag for the skeptic; and why these ancientsorcerers’ vast brainpower gave them no evo-lutionary advantage is one of those boringquestions that spoil the fun, but that must beasked.

Still, there is much that we still don’tknow about Ancient Man; and there is nothinginherently skeptical about underestimating ourpre-Christian forebears. Indeed, for centuriesthe compulsion in the West was to gloss overthe achievements of those who had not be-longed to the post-Christian and late pre-Christian worlds (these scientists of yore havebeen championed by such skeptics as CarlSagan). Recent discoveries, such as a redochre mine in South Africa dated at 100 cen-turies B.C., suggest that our distant ancestorsdeserve more credit than they have received.As critical thinkers, we should always standready to reappraise our longstanding assump-tions in the event that fresh, verifiable evi-dence appears. In the meantime, we need tokeep our thinking-cap on!

FortFest continued from page 13

At this year’s FortFest, Colin Wilson postulated theexistence of an ancient race of mathematicians,long extinct, whose knowledge of astronomy andarchitecture, if fully known today, would humble ourpretensions to modernity.


Dangerous Claimsby James C. Giglio

October 4, 2000

J. Joseph Curran, Jr.Office of the Attorney GeneralState of Maryland200 St Paul PlaceBaltimore MD 21202

Dear Mr. Curran:The enclosed copy of Alternatives maga-

zine was received in the mail by a co-worker.

It contains a number of extraordinary medicalclaims, all directly tied to a solicitation to sub-scribe to the magazine on a regular basis. Oneclaim in particular is worthy of note by youroffice, as it is a deliberate lie. The lie in ques-tion is found on page 4 (I’ve highlighted it),and states that juvenile-onset diabetes can becured by a herbal treatment. The lie is ex-panded upon in pages 13 and 14, where theclear connection to the subscription solicita-tion is established.

Of all the extraordinary claims made in theenclosed magazine, this lie is especially dan-gerous. Juvenile-onset diabetes is not curable,

You Catch More Flies With Honey . . .by Neil Langdon Inglis

My colleagues in the translation fieldhave long wrestled with the problemof how to respond to ill-informed,

“gee-whiz” articles in the press about transla-tion—the parallels with skepticism/psi arestriking. Typical problems include the fact thatthe “purveyors of nonsense” tend to be morequotable and available for soundbites; also, the“purveyors of sense” are seen as being po-faced and boring. It’s hard, but not impossibleto get around these challenges.

Most journalists and editors like to thinkof themselves as smart, well-informed, andconscientious (even if they aren’t). Thus, Iand my colleagues in the translation watchdoggroup offer ourselves up as professionalsources for future consultation—good namesfor the journalist’s contact book.

But when that method doesn’t work —when you elicit a huffy or defensive responsefrom the publication concerned—you can al-ways ask the question, why in this field (of allfields) do journalists feel relieved of the needto perform thorough, in-depth research? Ionce wrote to a major financial publicationpointing out that their reporters, if comment-ing on the Microsoft trial (for example),would be expected to get their facts straight.Why should the standards be any different inthe translation/interpretation/languages indus-tries? (or with skepticism, for that matter?).

Pointing out that journalists have beenguilty of shortcuts in their research gets themin the raw. If this kind of dialogue is handledproperly, however, the writers may return toyou in future for use as a “talking head.” Un-fortunately, many writers *do* become defen-sive; I have seen e-mail strings in whichjournalistic reporters—their ignorance cruellyexposed—throw a tantrum and accuse thecomplaining reader of insulting them and hurt-ing their feelings. At this point, I for onethrow caution to the wind and get tough, ifthe journalist deserves it.

One last point that my watchdog group inthe translation/interpretation industry haslearned: just because a publication is “bigger”or “more prestigious” doesn’t make it any lessprone to printing nonsense. The FinancialTimes has been a major culprit in this respect;The New York Times is somewhat better.We’ve often found that local hometown pa-pers are the most clear-eyed, although eventhey can be flummoxed when the conceptsbecome difficult. But it is precisely then thatconstructive input from well-informedsources becomes valuable.


the writestuff f

skeptical correspondence


dangerous claims continued from page 15

Question Posed to the Post’s On-lineAstrologer...and her Answerby Gary Goldberg

Silver Spring, MD:

Long ago you asked if the $1 millionchallenge for proof that astrology—orany “paranormal” phenomenon—still

existed.I can tell you the offer is still good—see

www.randi.org-.Why haven’t other astrologers—or

YOU—taken advantage of this offer to con-clusively and objectively demonstrate whatyou claim to be able to do?

Think of the good you could do with themoney,even if you don’t want it!

Reply from Charlene Lichtenstein:I guess you have not been reading my

program intros each week. Tsk! Tsk! Eachweek in my intro I say “Astrology does notpredict the future. We must make our owndecisions based on the set of choices that lifedoles out. Astrology, however, can help ussee the choices.” Astrology to me is a per-sonal growth and enlightenment tool. Whether

others try (successfully or not) to predict thefuture with astrology is of no interest to me.That’s not what it is for.

That being said, I visited Mr. Randi’s site.It struck me that if Mr. Randi was truly inter-ested in discovering the value of astrology hewould read and recognize the work ofGallaquin and Jung, both of whom, in theirquest to discredit astrology, found its im-mense value and became “believers.”

Frankly, folks that offer suspiciously highrewards to debunk their own ingrained preju-dices are not sincerely seeking the truth; theyare seeking attention. A more extreme exampleis the Holocaust denier who offered $1millionreward to anyone who could “prove” the Ho-locaust really happened.

When the overwhelming and incontrovert-ible evidence came forward—from eyewitnesstestimony, photographs, films and even nazipaperwork—these supposedly objective “truthseekers” refused to accept the obvious andheld onto their mythical million.

Trying to convince folks who are nottruly interested in seeking the real answer is awaste of time. ‘Nuf said!

and any juvenile-onset diabetic under the delu-sion that he or she has been cured by the herbin question will die; this form of diabetes is100% fatal in the absence of insulin therapy.

Identifying information on the parties re-sponsible for this dangerous and fraudulentpublication is sparse, but I’m sure that youroffice has the resources to locate those partiesif you decide to take action. The PO box is in

Rockville, which ought to bring it under yourjurisdiction, or perhaps there would be jointjurisdiction with the USPS. Hopefully, you willdecide to take action before these people suc-ceed in killing somebody. I’m not sure whatlaws are being broken, but there must be atleast a few; telling lies in an attempt to getsomebody to buy something has to be illegal.

the writestuff

skeptical correspondence


medianotes

Folklore and Skeptics NCAS memberStephanie A. Hall’s article “Folkloreand the Rise of Moderation among Or-

ganized Skeptics” is available online in the e-journal New Directions in Folklore ImpromptuJournal Issue 4: March 2000 at: http://www.temple.edu/isllc/newfolk/skeptics.html

Skepchik and NCAS member SheilaGibson, chairchik of the New EnglandSkeptics Society (NESS), now has a

regular column called “For Entertainment Pur-poses Only” in Michael Shermer’s Skepticmagazine.

NCAS Founding Father Chip Denmangave a science/pseudoscience talkApril 11, 2001 for the Laboratory for

Physical Sciences, affiliated with University ofMaryland with some NSA connection. (Heactually was given a framed certificate of ap-preciation with both seals on it). Chip’s talkwas well received, especially by the programdirector.

Back in 1986 the Bureau of Standardstested the “Energy Machine” of JosephNewman. The tests were connected to

a court case involving Newman and the PatentOffice, and were designed to test Newman’sclaim that the machine produces more energythan it consumes. To the non-astonishment ofthe entire scientific world, NBS found that thedevice consumes more energy than it pro-duces. Of course that wasn’t the end of it,except for the Patent Office. A YAHOOsearch on “Joseph Newman” will produce nu-

Newman EnergyMachine Report

by Jim Giglio

merous hits, mostly in support of the originalclaim. Newman himself is auctioning off someoriginal models of the machine.

The NCAS web page now contains thefull text of the original NBS report.

Like the Colorado UFO report and theDOE cold fusion report, it’s a link off themain page (www.ncas.org). When you en-counter Figure 1, be sure to click through tothe original full-size photograph of the device;it’s quite a contraption.


A few weeks ago, I received a generaldistribution e-mail seeking writers tocontribute content to a new website

called OneCosmos.net. Having never heard ofthis site, and intrigued by the New Age sound-ing name, I did some research. What I foundwas, to say the least, most interesting.

OneCosmos Network is a new multimediajoint venture between Ann Druyan of CarlSagan Productions and Silicon Valley million-aire Joe Firmage that will, in the words of theFounding Charter posted on the website, “cre-ate, produce, and distribute eye, brain, heart,and soul-nourishing science-based entertain-ment across integrating media.” Druyan, ofcourse, requires no introduction in the scienceand skeptic communities. She cowrote andcoproduced the landmark Cosmos miniserieswith her late husband, the incomparable CarlSagan; served as secretary of the Federationof American Scientists for a decade; and con-tributed to many of Sagan’s books, includingThe Demon-Haunted World, their stirringtome against superstition and pseudoscience.

The other half of this joint venturecouldn’t be more different.

Actually, Joe Firmage and I have a fewthings in common. We’re about the same age,and we’re both interested in things like spaceexploration, cosmology, the future of human-ity, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.Where we differ is that he’s a few orders ofmagnitude richer than I’ll ever be (by some

estimates he’s worth at least $100-million),and he believes in and promotes a bunch ofstuff on which I have thus far thought the evi-dence to be less than convincing.

Firmage made his fortune as the founderand chief executive of USWeb, an Internetconsulting firm. In late 1998, he changed po-sition from CEO to chief strategist after wordof his unconventional beliefs surfaced in themedia. Firmage is apparently convinced thatnot only are extraterrestrials visiting the Earth,but that many of our recent scientific ad-vances can be attributed to the reverse-engi-neering of alien technology, such as thatallegedly recovered from the Roswell UFOcrash. A few months later Firmage steppeddown from the strategist position, but re-mained with the company in an unspecifiedcapacity.

According to Firmage, he had experienceda personal epiphany in 1997 when he was al-legedly visited by a glowing entity hoveringover his bed. A prosaic explanation, as offeredby Joe Nickell of the Committee for the Scien-tific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal(CSICOP), is that the encounter was simply awaking dream. Nevertheless, the experienceseemed to energize his beliefs. The next year,he reportedly spent about $5-million setting upa group called the International Space Sci-ences Organization that supports research inufology and fringe sciences like zero-pointenergy, reactionless propulsion, and faster-than-light travel. He also wrote a book ex-pounding his beliefs called, perhaps somewhatimmodestly, The Truth, which was at onetime posted on his website(www.thewordistruth.org). According toCNET News.com, he has spent close to $3-million promoting this book, which will likelybe print published in the near future.

Firmage approached Druyan 2 years agovia e-mail. He quickly impressed her by donat-ing $1-million to the Carl Sagan Foundation.The money went to a children’s hospital ➨➨➨➨➨

by Eric Choi

One Cosmos, Two VeryDifferent People

Firmage is apparently convinced thatnot only are extraterrestrials visiting theEarth, but that many of our recentscientific advances can be attributed tothe reverse-engineering of alientechnology, such as that allegedlyrecovered from the Roswell UFO crash.


project in the Bronx that Druyan was spear-heading. Through subsequent correspondenceand negotiations, the genesis of the joint multi-media venture was born. Originally code-named Project Voyager, the company wasre-launched as the OneCosmos Network ear-lier this year.

OneCosmos has about $23-million in ven-ture capital behind it, and the company is ex-panding. In August, it announced a strategicalliance with The Planetary Society, the Pasa-dena-based space interest group founded byCarl Sagan, Louis Friedman, and BruceMurray. Other groups have been less willingto work with Firmage. The SETI Institute,headed by Sagan’s longtime friend and col-league Frank Drake, declined a similar affilia-tion with OneCosmos. “Any connection withFirmage, no matter what disclaimers you puton your site, people will take this as an en-dorsement of the views of Firmage,” Drakewas quoted as saying in a Washington Postarticle. “This would damage our image in theminds of many of our scientific colleaguesand members of the general public.”

Druyan was reportedly angered by someof the criticism leveled against her for work-ing with such a controversial figure. I can un-derstand why. Anyone who doubts hercommitment to defending her late husband’slegacy should read her epilogue in Sagan’s lastbook, Billions and Billions. According toDruyan, a legal agreement is in place thatshould prevent Firmage from advancing hisfringe theories through the new venture.Druyan told writer Joel Achenbach that, “Itunequivocally states that if I feel that Carl’slegacy has in any way been besmirched byany statement made in the name of our com-pany, then I walk and I’ll take everything withme. Nothing less than that can protect thelegacy.”

There is no doubt in my mind that this isexactly what she would do. I do not worryabout pseudoscience being promoted throughOneCosmos. My real concern mirrors that of

Frank Drake. It is difficult for me to think thatsuch a venture, with names like Ann Druyanand Carl Sagan and The Planetary Society onthe ticket, will not unintentionally impartgreater credibility to Firmage in particular andto the fields of ufology and otherpseudosciences in general. I fear this mightalready be happening. In their version of theOneCosmos story that was recently posted onthe ufomind.com website, the United KingdomUFO Network Bulletin claimed it was Druyanwho contacted Firmage with the proposal be-cause she was “disgusted by what she calledthe ‘corporate persecution’ of Firmage.”

Carl Sagan’s legacy lives through AnnDruyan. I can think of no better keeper. But italso lives, in a much smaller way, within theminds of millions of people like me who wereinspired to see the wonders of the Universe,the nobility of exploration…and the absolutenecessity of reasoned skepticism. I am skepti-cal of Joe Firmage’s involvement in theOneCosmos Network. If I may be forgivenfor my conceit, I would like to think that CarlSagan would understand my thinking. I hopethat Ann Druyan does as well.

one cosmos continued from previous page

Eric Choi is anaerospaceengineer atHoneywellTechnologySolutions Inc. anda freelance writer.

I do not worry about pseudosciencebeing promoted through OneCosmos. Myreal concern mirrors that of Frank Drake. Itis difficult for me to think that such aventure, with names like Ann Druyan andCarl Sagan and The Planetary Society onthe ticket, will not unintentionally impartgreater credibility to Firmage in particularand to the fields of ufology and otherpseudosciences in general.


I would like to believe I could talk again tomy mother. She died 17 years ago, and Istill miss her.What a priceless gift: to be able to talk to

loved ones who have passed away, to knowthey still exist and that we, too, will continueto exist after our deaths, to understand thenature of the afterlife—not exactly angelsstrumming on harps, but not fire and brim-stone either. And to know that our loved oneshave forgiven us for all those things, large andridiculously small, that we have fretted aboutsince they left us so discourteously withoutthe chance to say all those things we now re-alize we should have said.

This is what we can get in return for ourbelief that John Edward can talk to the dead.It’s easy to believe because we want to.

And a lot of people do believe in JohnEdward’s brand of spiritualism. They fill theseats at his daily (weekdays at 8:00 and 8:30p.m.) television show on the Sci-Fi network,“Crossing Over with John Edward.” Heshowcases his talent at sold out eventsthroughout the country and has a book forsale that promises to help you develop yourown psychic powers and chronicles his story.

He has a large, adoring following who ap-plaud enthusiastically as he delivers messagesfrom those who have “crossed over.” He iswitty, charismatic and very good at what hedoes. He makes us want to be a part of themagic.

The Man Behind theCurtainby ZoAnn Lapinsky

John Edward states up front that he hasno previous knowledge of the people he“reads.” He acts as a conduit for the deadwho “come through” to be with audiencemembers they knew in life. John states hedoesn’t always know whom the message isfor, but apparently it is always for someonephysically in the studio.

Audience members are told up front thatthey cannot be “passive”—that by becoming amember of the audience they agree to be“read” by John, who has even received spiri-tual contacts for cameramen and sound tech-nicians.

At the beginning of the show, John ex-plains to the audience how to interpret thephrases he will use. For example, someonewho is “above” the audience member is some-one who was older such as a parent or grand-parent; “to the side” is someone of the sameage such as a sibling, friend, or cousin; and“below” is a child or younger person.

He then makes contact with the spiritsand receives information from the spirit suchas the spirit’s relationship to the living lovedone and the sound of their name. These cluesallow the audience members to determine ifthey are the one with the connection to thatparticular spirit. For example, he might statethat the audience member is sitting in a par-ticular section, that the deceased’s name has a“G” sound and that the deceased is a “hus-band/brother/cousin or friend” of the audiencemember. Once the audience member identifieshim or herself as the target, John proceeds tohave a conversation with the audience mem-ber, communicating messages and images he“receives” from the deceased. Audience mem-bers are always astounded by the accuracy ofthe information they receive, and seem con-vinced that there is no way that John Edward,a stranger to them, could know what he hascommunicated to them unless he is indeed incontact with the Other Side.

So what is going on here?Being a skeptic, I naturally look for the

man behind the curtain, furiously cranking thelevers and pulleys that control the Wizard’simage on stage, the same image that preservesDorothy’s illusion of the paranormal. Note

Cold reading involves making broad,sweeping statements that can often beinterpreted in a variety of ways, and thenallowing the person being read to put themeaning into the statement.

➨➨➨➨➨

If you’re interestedin watching a “coldreading” in action,check out“Crossing OverWith John Edward”on the SciFiChannel at 11:00p.m. weeknights.Edward alleges anability to talk withthe deceased,although he hasno control overwho “comes over”(if you’re in thestudio, you’re fairgame). He usesthe typical coldreadingtechniques,interesting to listento from a skepticalpoint of view. The show isbilled as “TheOther Side of Talk,”which yougrudgingly have toadmit is a cleverline.


that there is no way to prove that John Ed-ward is not in contact with the spirit world,short of finding proof of fraud—and I haveabsolutely no reason to think he is engaging inanything of the kind. However, finding thatthe levers and pulleys exist, whether or not wecatch John Edward pushing and pulling them,should certainly cause the logical among us toquestion his claim of the miraculous.

In this case, the levers and pulleys are anold technique, used for years and years bymindreaders and spiritualists, called “coldreading.”

Cold reading involves making broad,sweeping statements that can often be inter-preted in a variety of ways, and then allowingthe person being read to put the meaning intothe statement. The psychic reader makes edu-cated guesses based on their knowledge ofhuman nature, and relies on our natural ten-dency to remember the “hits” and forget the“misses” when we later evaluate the reader forhis or her accuracy.

Consider this example from The Skeptic’sDictionary: (http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~btcarrol/skeptic/coldread.htm):

The psychic says something at oncevague and suggestive, e.g., “I’m getting astrong feeling about January here.” If the sub-ject responds, positively or negatively, thepsychic’s next move is to play off the re-sponse. (e.g., if the subject says, “I was bornin January” or my mother died in January,”then the psychic says something like “Yes, Ican see that”—anything to reinforce the ideathat the psychic was more precise than he orshe really was). If the subject responds nega-tively (e.g., “I can’t think of anything particu-larly special about January”), the psychicmight reply, “Yes, I see that you’ve sup-pressed a memory about it. You don’t want tobe reminded of it. Something painful in Janu-ary. Yes, I feel it. It’s in the lower back[fishing]...oh, now it’s in the heart[fishing]...umm, there seems to be a sharppain in the head [fishing]...or the neck [fish-ing].” If the subject gives no response, thepsychic can leave the area, having firmly im-planted in everybody’s mind that the psychicreally did ‘see’ something but the subject’s

suppression of the event hinders both the psy-chic and the subject from realizing the specif-ics of it. If the subject gives a positiveresponse to any of the fishing expeditions, thepsychic follows up with more of “I see thatvery clearly, now. Yes, the feeling in the heartis getting stronger.”

What we see from John Edward seemsvery similar. For example, in a recent show hesaid the deceased “showed me ‘dog treats’.Any reference, before you got here today,with something with the dog, dog treats, ordog related?”

“I have a dog.”“Is there anything, before you left today,

did you go grab a ‘Pupperoni’ and throw itdown?”

“ I always give the dog treats.”“Right. Before you left. Ok.”Some other recent examples of general

questions:“Who has a C or K name connected to

you?”“They’re indicating something wrong

with the chest, or the chest area.”“They told me to talk about the house

painter or the house being painted.”“I need to talk about the month of April.”“I have a younger person who is either

responsible for their own actions or their ac-tions brought about how they crossed over.”

Spiritualist’s responses to general ques-tions can be made to sound like the reader“knew all along.” For example, an audiencemember identified the friend she was with asbeing an “ex” wife of the deceased. John said,“not to be personal, but did you leave him?”When the woman answered in the affirmative,John replied, “he’s making me feel that he

The psychic says something at oncevague and suggestive, e.g., “I’m getting astrong feeling about January here.” If thesubject responds, positively ornegatively, the psychic’s next move is toplay off the response.


man behind the curtain continued from previous page


might have brought you to that point, butyou’re the one who left.” Most divorcedwomen who left their husbands will be able tosee a connection in this statement.

Using fragments of information to makeeducated guesses is also a useful tool for thecold reader. Consider another example:

“Who had the alcohol problem?”“My dad.”“Did you come to terms with it before his

passing?”“No.”“You did some introspective thinking.

He’s claiming you know his image, the projec-tion shown to other people, more than youknow him. To the public, he was a kind car-ing man…”

“But not at home.”“Exactly. What happened when you were

16 or 17 years old, for you, with him?”“We had a really bad fight.”“Was that the first time he got a really

good dose of you owning yourself?”“Exactly. It was the first time I stood up

to him.”The first question, “who had the alcohol

problem?” says nothing about the spirit beingthe man’s father, but the son will probably beleft with the impression that John knew hisfather had an alcohol problem. Once the spiri-tualist knows that there is a father-son rela-tionship in which the father was an alcoholic,he can make some educated guesses about therelationship between the father and the son.What son in that situation would not engage in“introspective thinking”?

And what about “knowing” about thefight? “What happened” might have been theteenager leaving home, the father breaking afavorite object, or even the father becomingsober for a time. The conversation might havegone down any of those paths had the answerbeen different. But once he knew a big fighthad happened, it’s reasonable to assume that a16 or 17 year old boy would finally stand upfor himself—if he didn’t, there wouldn’t havebeen such a memorable fight for the son torecall.

Edwards continues with further messagesfor the son of the alcoholic:

“There’s a major imbalance emotionallywith him. He’d go from being in a great moodto being, like, unbelievably hostile and angry.He’s not the same energy now. You made astatement after he passed. You hated the manthat he was.”

“When you were about 10 years old hetook you out to a place where it would be likea father and son bonding. You look back ontothat day.”

No big surprises here, once we know therelationship between the father and son. Butwhat does this look like to the son? To him,its as if John Edward knew the darkest part ofhis “soul,” a part of his past shared only byhis deceased father. And if the informationdidn’t come from him, it had to come fromhis father. And if it came from his father,John Edward had to be in contact with thespirits.

Another believer is born.In John Edward’s world, it is always pos-

sible for the deceased family and friends ofaudience members to cross over just when thecameras are rolling. He never does explainhow they know that their particular loved oneis in the audience that day, or how they decidewhether to make an appearance.

Now it seems to me that the entire popu-lation of Dearly Departed must either be for-ever milling about in some sort of cosmicspirit stew, just waiting for John to initiate theconnection, or they are perpetually attached totheir loved one like a thetan on flypaper. Thislast idea is vaguely disturbing—I don’t mindmy mother watching over my shoulder while

Now it seems to me that the entirepopulation of Dearly Departed must eitherbe forever milling about in some sort ofcosmic spirit stew, just waiting for John toinitiate the connection, or they areperpetually attached to their loved onelike a thetan on flypaper.

➨➨➨➨➨

man behind the curtain continued from page 21


I’m at work, but I sure don’t want her joiningme as I surf the less reputable side of the net!And, of course, one would wonder howthey’d decide which still-living loved one toattach themselves to—I’m sure those “momloves me best” confrontations would not be awelcome addition to the traditional peace andtranquility of Eternity.

And this is just one of the many problemswith contacts from the Great Beyond. How dothe dead retain their memories if they nolonger have the brain’s neurons and synapses?If the answer to this is that their memories arepart of the “soul,” then I’d want to knowwhen this mirror image of the brain is created.At death? If so, would an Altzheimers soul ora brain-damaged soul lack the memories ofearlier life that made that person who he orshe was? But we never seem to see spirits thathave faulty faculties. So if the soul “im-printed” earlier, what causes the imprint? Andwhat of the memories of later experiences thatwould be lost?

And how do the messages from the de-ceased enter the mind of John Edward? Is

there some sort of energy field that he keysinto that we cannot detect? Is it part of theelectromagnetic spectrum, and if so, whycan’t we measure it? If not, what kind of en-ergy is it?

And why are the messages from the de-ceased filled with so many details—crypticsometimes, but details nonetheless—once thetarget is established, but to establish the iden-tity of the target they can only croak out theconsonants in their names and their generalrelationship to the living? Do they get smarteras their time in the physical world increases?

So I’m going to stick with seeing theflesh and blood Wizard busily cranking out theillusion backstage, while the fantasy Wizardentertains the citizens of Oz center stage. Iknow that he doesn’t have anything in his bagfor me—but somehow I know my motherwould approve.

SciFi Channel page on “Crossing OverWith John Edward:” http://www.scifi.com/johnedward/

John Edward’s website: http://www.johnedward.net/

And why are the messages from the deceasedfilled with so many details. . . once the target isestablished, but to establish the identity of thetarget they can only croak out the consonantsin their names and their general relationship tothe living? Do they get smarter as their time inthe physical world increases?

man behind the curtain continued from previous page


good laugh from this Capital City audience.Jamy said that the way to become a profes-sional liar is to prepare: “Step 1 is to gatheryour stories together ahead of time. Step 2 isto practice. When people say ‘How’d you dothat?’, it’s really an exclamation, a rhetoricalquestion.” Why? “These are tricks!” saidJamy emphatically.

After tricking and fooling the audienceand participants a while longer, Jamy said,“It’s a lot of fun to stand here and lie to you,but I can’t create matter. I’m an honest liar.The first time I was paid for magic I was 29years old. I finally realized it was more impor-tant than anything else to me.”

“Tricks are for kids,” said Jamy. “Magicoften brings up thoughts of childhood. As amagician, I have the heart of a child . . . Ikeep it in a jar on my desk. Magic is not just

Yesterday, Carol walked to work, won-dering about the menacing smoke vis-ible at the south of the island. She

saw both towers in place, as always. My

Notes from New York: the DaySeptember 12, 2001 4:20 p.m.by Jamy Ian Swiss

“The conjuror is the most honest of allprofessionals.

First he promises to deceive you, andthen he does so.” -- Karl Germain

honest liar continued from page 1

➨➨➨➨➨

The Honest Liar explores the deepest recesses of deception, be itcheating and crooked gambling, con men and scam artists, lying andlie detection, or phony psychics and the illusion of psychic powers. Andwhy is he fascinated with deception? Because he is obsessed with thetruth!Master of deception Jamy Ian Swiss is one of the original co-foundersof the National Capital Area Skeptics. Now based in New York, hebrings a sophisticated show of magic—honest lying—to audiencesaround the world. His special “Cracking the Cons” was recently seenon Discovery Channel.

the domain of childhood. The process ofgrowing up puts blinders on us.”

Mingling facts and information withamazing feats of dexterity, Jamy concluded bysaying, “The fantasy world I create as a magi-cian is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’twant to live there.”

friend Kramer phoned shortly after her depar-ture and woke me, telling me to turn on thetelevision. Both planes had already hit. Caroland I spoke, and shortly afterward she came


Visitwww.jamyianswiss.comFAX: 212.656.1684Monday Night Magic:212.615.6432Subscribe to Genii:www.geniimagazine.com/onlineorder.html

on line all day because all the local att dialupsare dead. Today I got online by connectingthrough out-of-town dialups. What phonecalls did get through were from all over thecountry, and indeed the world. Magicianscalling from all over, magicians trying to makeinventory of magicians in New York, thenemailing (this morning) a list of those ac-counted for. I got calls from Japan, Morocco... emails from all over the world today,checking, asking, wondering ... People’s con-cerns and generosity becomes the most des-perately needed and effective antidote againstthe evidence of our capacity for hatred andviolence. A close friend from Boston reachedon the cell, but six hours later his firstvoicemail suddenly paged through to me...”I’m hoping you’re alive.”

Although the city is mostly closed forbusiness today, Carol is in the office with aslender staff, doing the work of journalism,telling the stories we need to make sense ofthe senseless.

Second Avenue, in front of our apart-ment, was closed off early in the morning andused as a southbound route for emergencyvehicles and the like all day. The first fourhours were non-stop sirens ... we saw firetrucks from well out on Long Island ... to thepoint that by the time the end of the nightcame around, Carol and I were both imaginingthat we heard sirens where none existed, aneerie sensation. All day the avenue was filledwith streams of people, wandering, trying tofigure out what to do and where to go andhow to get out of the city. In the earlyevening the traffic changed to earth moversand the like on flat beds. Then later we sawflat beds hauling racks of huge lighting arrays,lots of generators, and emergency equipmentfrom Con Ed, phone, etc. Carol’s brother,Michael, is a fireman who works in Queens,and in the early evening his unit was movedby bus into the zone to work on the rescue; hecalled his wife at 8:00 pm to say he’d be thereall night, and for all I know he may still bethere now.

And as I finally lay in bed in the dark, Itried to determine if the sirens in my headwere real, or imagined.

home. In the course of her 20-minute walk,the first tower went down. I watched bothtowers go down live on camera ... at first itwas impossible to understand what had hap-pened when the first one vanished. It must beobscured by smoke, right? It must be there,right? It can’t be gone ... can it? This is notmerely an international symbol to the world ...this is the view in my home town.

We went out to donate blood but theywere turning people away. We walked toCentral Park to be out amid our city andamong other NYers. As we walked west,crossing each avenue we could look south andsee the smoke and ash, until we reachedviews where the towers had always existedand now were clearly missing.

Sitting in the park for a while, there wasno air traffic except for the distant roar ofmilitary fighter jets circulating the island athigh altitude.

We returned home, past long lines at ablood bank, to discover Carol’s sister, Chris,and shortly afterwards her boyfriend, Mike.We came upstairs, and I prepared a dinner forus all, while we spent the evening talking,watching, thinking. I was raised to believethat when the world is coming to an end, youeat as well as you can, so we did.

They left to make their way home, andhours later, past midnight, our friend, Tim,came by on rollerblades ... he needed to getout of the house.

Early in the morning, as soon as he heardsome news, he went out and brought a videocamera ... he reached the west side highwaydown around the Village level, and stopped.He took video of both towers going down.The worst of it was seeing the people jumpingout of the building, clearly different from thefalling debris ... and it made him wish hehadn’t seen it. He posted the video on hisweb site and sent a mass email to friends andcolleagues, and as the day wore on and wordspread, the web host phoned and explainedapologetically that his traffic was consumingtheir servers, and that they would have to takeit off line soon.

Phone service, both land and cell, wasintermittent ... some incoming, less outgoing,but with exceptions to both. We couldn’t get

notes from New York continued from previous page


I encounter an insurmountable difficulty incomprehending the mind of the True Be-liever, the person who believes that thou-

sands of Earthlings are being subjected to analprobes by aliens, or that a laying on of handscan cure disease, or out-of-body experiencesetc. I had an interesting experience recentlythat taught me something about the reactionsof True Believers without giving me any realinsight into their minds. I offer my story forwhat its worth.

I am on a Jewish Reconstructionistlistserve. Reconstructionist Judaism began asan attempt to create a branch of rational, hu-manistic Judaism without superstition. How-ever, the listserve has recently been floodedwith what I would call New-Age Jews, whoseem to be attempting to meld Judaism withvarious Eastern superstitions, alternative medi-cine, and virtually every other superstition thatcomes down the pike.

Some members began promoting homeo-pathic remedies and naturalpathy. I am par-ticularly upset by this kind of New-Age magicinasmuch as they may, for example, dissuadepeople with treatable cancers from seeking thecare of an oncologist before the cancer metas-tasizes.

I explained that homeopathic remedies arewater containing a minute quantity of some-thing that was diluted so many times that thesubstance is no longer present in a measurablequantity. I went onto the internet to discoverhow easy it is to become a doctor of

➨➨➨➨➨

naturalpathy. You pays your money, attendsclass for some weekends, and, voila, you is adoctor. I tried to explain that you can becomea doctor of naturalpathy without knowingmuch at all.

I was met with a barrage of vituperation.I tried to explain things in measured tones, butthey accused me of being rude and even ofthe worst possible crime in their eyes, thecrime of “SCIENTISM,” which I had neverheard before, but which sounds like a capitalcrime. I think it is a synonym for “rational-ism.” In fact, they specifically decried “ratio-nalism,” a dirty word in their eyes.

When I talked about double-blind, con-trolled studies, they again decried me as a ra-tionalist.

I tried humor. I began signing my e-mailswith, e.g.,

Barry BlyveisDoctor of FootpathySpecializing in Diseases of the Left Foot

orBarry Blyveis, Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D.,

Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D. (would have gotten aseventh Ph.D., but six weekends at the Insti-tute for Ayurvedic Medicine was all I couldtake) .

That got me kicked off the listserve for“rudeness.” The worst thing I had done in theeyes of the moderators was suggest that theaddress of the listserve be changed from “Re-con-J” to “Occult-J.”

Members sent me private e-mails con-demning me for being rude and closed-minded. I would respond by asking again andagain, as I asked on-line before I became anexcommunicated Jew, is it plain water or is itnot plain water? No one ever responded tothat question.

One women kept telling me how long shehad been studying homeopathic medicine, towhich I would reply, “Is it plain water or is itnot?” No answer. Just further condemnation.For example, she told me that I don’t know

The Mind of a TrueBelieverby Barry Blyveis

I had an interesting experience recentlythat taught me something about thereactions of True Believers without givingme any real insight into their minds.


Check the mailing label for your membership date . . .you’ll find a renewal form above

Don’t be mystified.

much math even though I claim to (I hadmade no such claim whatsoever and offeredno math, inasmuch as my mathematical abilitydoes not extend beyond ten fingers plus tentoes).

I do not believe that it is possible to influ-ence a True Believer to any significant extent.I will keep trying, however, through my Skep-tics membership, in what I cannot avoid con-cluding to be an almost hopeless endeavor.

mind of true believer continued from previous page

I went onto the internet to discover howeasy it is to become a doctor ofnaturalpathy. You pays your money,attends class for some weekends, and,voila, you is a doctor.

I see that if we attended, say, a homeo-pathic convention and tried to offer a contraryview, our lives would be in danger. You’llhave to go to the Homeopathic Conventionwithout me.

Any other opinions?

Barry BlyveisExcommunicated Reconstructionist Jew

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