The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) will award its 2011 Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in Critical Think­ing to psychologist Richard Wiseman for his book Paranormality: Why We See What Isn’t There.

Wiseman holds Britain’s only Chair in the Public Understanding of Psy­chology, at the University of Hertford­shire (UK). He has written several best-selling books, including The Luck Factor, Quirkology, 59 Seconds, and Paranormal­ity. More than two million people have taken part in his mass participation experiments, and his YouTube channel has received more than thirty million views. He is one of the most frequently quoted psychologists in the British media and was recently listed as one of the Inde­pendent on Sunday’s top 100 people who make Britain a better place to live. He is also a Committee for Skep­tical Inquiry fellow and a Skeptical Inquirer consulting editor.

Paranormality is not like a good number of skeptical books looking at paranormal claims. Wiseman is not simply interested in looking at a claim, gathering the evidence, and debunking the claim. He goes a step further. He is interested in showing us how easy it is for us to be deceived and how easily we can be fooled and fool others. He includes do-it-yourself activities that allow you to learn some of the basics and share in the experiences for yourself.

As the book jacket says: “Richard Wise­man is clear about one thing: Para­normal phenomena don’t exist. But in the same way space travel yields technology that transforms our everyday lives, so research into telepathy, fortune-telling, and out-of-body experiences produces remarkable insights into our brains, behaviour and beliefs.” Exactly.

The Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in Critical Thinking is a $1,500 award given to the author of the published work that best exemplifies healthy skepticism, logical analysis, or empirical science. Each year, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, publisher of the Skeptical Inquirer, selects the paper, article, book, or other publication that has the greatest potential to create positive reader awareness of important scientific issues.

The prize will be presented to Wiseman during CSICon Nashville, October 25–28, 2012.

This prize has been established through the generosity of Robert P. Balles, an associate member of CSI, and the Robert P. Balles Endowed Memorial Fund, a permanent endowment fund for the benefit of CSI. CSI’s established criteria for the prize include use of the most parsimonious theory to fit data or to explain apparently preternatural phenomena.

This is the seventh year the Robert P. Balles prize has been presented. Previous winners of this award are:

• 2010: Steven Novella for his tre­mendous body of work, including the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, Science-Based Medicine, Neurologica, Skeptical Inquirer column “The Science of Medicine,” and his tireless travel and lecture schedule on behalf of skepticism
• 2009: Michael Specter, New Yorker staff writer and former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, for his book Denialism: How Irra­tional Thinking Hinders Scientific Pro­gress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives
• 2008: Leonard Mlodinow, physicist, author, and professor at Caltech, for his book The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
• 2007: Natalie Angier, New York Times science writer and author of the book The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science
• 2006: Ben Goldacre for his weekly column, “Bad Science,” published in the Guardian newspaper (U.K.)
• 2005: Shared by Andrew Skolnick, Ray Hyman, and Joe Nickell for their series of articles in the Skeptical Inquirer on “Testing ‘The Girl with X-Ray Eyes’”

One of the things we are most proud of is that for at least fifteen years we have supported the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching program (PAEMST). This is the United States highest presidential honor for the teaching of mathematics and science. Each year 108 outstanding teachers of mathematics and science at the elementary or secondary level are honored for their contributions to teaching and learning. Each year we donate a gift subscription of Skeptical Inquirer to each and every recipient of this award. We feel it is important for us to support these wonderful teachers as they educate our future generations.

Over the years we have provided scholarships to a number of students (both high school and college) attending various CSI events, including our national and regional conferences, as well as events like the Skeptic’s Toolbox held annually at the University of Oregon. We have also provided a number of Research Fellowships to students studying in the fields of science and anomalistic psychology at locations such as Goldsmiths College in London and the University of Hertfordshire under the Direction of such famed lectures as Christopher French and Richard Wiseman. As I write this update, we have the Center for Inquiry Institute going on here in Amherst. Joe Nickell is conducting a workshop on investigating the paranormal. Along with a number of participants from around the United States, we have helped sponsor three students from Russia, as well as two people from China. We have also had an internship program where young people can come here learn about science and reason and work with us on projects such as running a conference and establishing local groups.

Speaking of education, over the last few years we have received well over 300 requests from textbook publishers, university professors, as well as newspapers, magazines, local skeptical and humanist groups, and even television shows and movie producers, to include material originally published in the Skeptical Inquirer in their works. We try and accommodate as many of these requests as we can, for we know this material will continue to have reach and effect long after you’ve put down the magazine.

The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry also publishes a number of books, anthologies of Skeptical Inquirer articles. At least two of these books, The Outer Edge and Bizarre Cases, have been used by several colleges across the United States for use in courses ranging from psychology to logic and critical thinking. One book that CSI published was a book for young children called Bringing UFOs Down To Earth, by Philip J. Klass. Over the years CSI and the Skeptical Inquirer field voluminous requests from school children around the world for information on UFOs. It got to be too much for us to photocopy selected articles to send them in response to their questions. This book was commissioned by CSI to act as a primer on UFOs in term and examples that children would find useful, entertaining, and educational. We must have given away hundreds of this booklet over the years, and at one point Prometheus Books published a version in their children’s book series for far wider distribution. We still send copies of the book even now.

One of CSI’s crowning achievements in reaching and teaching young skeptics is our involvement with the Camp Inquiry program. This year was our fourth year of participation in the program and we are delighted to report that this was the biggest year ever, with forty-five campers ages 7-16 taking part in the week long event. The Camp Inquiry Web site states: “We think kids are uniquely situated to enjoy a new ‘Age of Discovery.’ Where others may see turbulent seas and dangerous impasses, we see opportunities—to create, to forge new paths, to open new communications, to tell new stories. And the best part is, the tools have been around for ages: science, reason, and skepticism remain the best means by which to navigate these unpredictable waters.”

Another activity with which we help sponsor is the Campus Outreach program run by the Center for Inquiry. This program helps establish and maintain groups, programs, and activities at hundreds of colleges and universities across North America, as well as a number of other countries. We send these groups issues of the Skeptical Inquirer and information flyers for use as promotional material and handouts at their meetings and events, assist them with bringing in speakers, training in running events and community organizing. Each year we help bring in a number of leaders of these groups to our headquarters in Amherst, NY for training lectures and workshops, as well as providing them with the chance to meet others just like them who share the same issues and experiences.

Finally, a number of years ago CSI developed a fun event for the whole family. It was called the Superstition Bash, and included such things as running a superstition obstacle course; psychic misreadings, and misfortune cookies. We were overjoyed to see this concept used and adapted by the Exploratorium in San Francisco last year, exposing the public to critical thinking about dangers and fallacies of superstition and magical thinking. Educating the next generation of skeptics is an important task, and one which we can all contribute.

Leonard Mlodinow received his doctorate in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, was an Alexander von Humboldt fellow at the Max Plank Institute, and now teaches about randomness to future scientists at Caltech. He has written for the television series MacGyver and Star Trek: The Next Generation. His previous books include Euclid’s Window: The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace, Feynman’s Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life, and, with Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time.

According to Mlodinow, “The Drunkard’s Walk comes from a mathematical term describing random motion, such as the paths molecules follow as they fly through space, incessantly bumping and being bumped by, their sister molecules. ... The surprise is that the tools used to describe the drunkard’s walk can also be employed to help understand the events of everyday life. The goal of this book is to illustrate the role of chance in the world around us and to show how we may recognize it at work in human affairs.”

Mlodinow was to be presented the award at a ceremony June 7, 2009, at the Center for Inquiry/Los Angeles.

The Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in Critical Thinking is a $1,300 award given to the author of the published work that best exemplifies healthy skepticism, logical analysis, or empirical science. Each year, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry selects the paper, article, book, or other publication that has the greatest potential to create positive reader awareness of important scientific issues.

CSI established the criteria for the prize, including use of the most parsimonious theory to fit data or to explain apparently preternatural phenomena.

This prize has been established through the generosity of Robert P. Balles, an associate member of CSI, and the Robert P. Balles Endowed Memorial Fund, a permanent endowment fund for the benefit of CSI.

This is the fourth year the Robert P. Balles prize has been presented. Previous winners of this award are:

2007: Natalie Angier, New York Times science writer and author of the book The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science

2006: Ben Goldacre for his weekly column, “Bad Science,” published in The Guardian newspaper (U.K.)

2005: Shared by Andrew Skolnick, Ray Hyman, and Joe Nickell for their series of articles in the Skeptical Inquirer on “Testing ‘The Girl with X-Ray Eyes’”

Nominations are now being accepted for 2009. Please send submissions to:

From: Jamye Johnston
IPC 9^th Grade - Grand Prairie, TX

Please help! I am a 9^th grade science teacher and I am desperately seeking ways to teach my students to be skeptical of the world around them, but there are limited resources available to high school teachers to do this. I visited your website and found a ton of stuff available for college students and I worked with college students in the past, even acting as the advisor for an atheist student group) but I’m looking for something that I can share with a class of 14-15 year olds that they will enjoy and that I can legally have in the classroom, and that’s tough!...

Of course, we agreed to send her some materials, as much anyway as our budget would allow, and she responded:

Thank you so much for your offer of Skeptical Inquiry issues. Just

having a few books and magazines for the classroom can go a long way. I wish we could request and supply budget money for more materials like the ones you have to offer, but even the pens and pencils and paper that I supply to my students (66% of whom are below the poverty line) come out of my own pocket. Last year the budget for our particular school didn’t even cover the cost of any chemicals for the chemistry labs, which I feel (sadly) is where our science education system is heading.

Gone are the cold war days when science education was considered a vital priority.

I would love to have the kids do reports and projects on pseudoscience and I’m very excited for the opportunity to work with you in raising a generation of students who aren’t afraid to question things around them!

We shipped her out a package of materials right away, and a couple of months later we were overjoyed to receive further communication from her:

Dear Skeptical Mentors!

I wanted to drop you all a line to thank you all for the inspirations (and materials - Thank you Skeptical Inquirer and Center for Inquiry!!) to bring the concept of skepticism to my high school science classroom.

Inspired by Brian Dunning’s Skeptoid podcast, my class and I put up a "Be Skeptical” board at the back of the room and when students have questions I encourage them to write them directly on the board. The questions the students come up with are so interesting and demonstrate some of the creativity and superstition that the students have running around in their heads! At the end of the six weeks, each student picked a question off of the board and researched it to find an answer to their question. Some of the students wrote about ghost photography, some of them about cryptozoology, some about the legalization of marijuana, and even how rainbows are made but it made for a very useful science tool to get the kids interested in asking questions and teaching them how to find the answers. I want to thank all of you for helping to make these projects possible. If you would like a list of the questions the students asked I would be happy to forward them to you! I’m attaching some pictures of our lab library (complete with the donated Skeptical Inquirer collection!) and a picture of our completed “Be Skeptical!” board. I hope this project is something the students will take with them as they move on throughout their lives, and I’m indebted to you for all of your help!

——
Thanks again!
Jamye Johnston
Grand Prairie 9^th Grade Center

Integrated Physics and Chemistry

Subj: Re: Good News from the Home of High School Skeptics!

Date: 11/17/2008 2:17:22 P.M. Eastern Standard Time

From: SkeptInq

This is wonderful - THANKS!!! I really got a kick out of the board!

This really makes me happy and we are so pleased to be able to help!

Best.

Barry Karr

CSI

Subj: Re: Good News from the Home of High School Skeptics!

Date: 11/17/2008 11:03:30 P.M. Eastern Standard Time

To: SkeptInq

I would be thrilled if you could use our information in any of your work. Feel free to use my name and school name as well, my school principal is proud of our project and our kids would get a kick out of our class getting the publicity.

I hope that our work might be inspiring to some other teacher, administrator, or student out there!

Jamye Johnston
GPISD

Can't wait that long? Well, according to Harold Camping, operator of the Family Network Radio, it is “very likely” the world will end this month—September 1994. In a New York Times article, reprinted in the July 16 Buffalo News, Camping said: “I keep checking and checking and listening to everyone that wants to speak to the issue. Is there anything I've missed? Is there anything I've overlooked? Is there anything that [my debate opponents] could offer that I've missed? And, frankly, I didn’t hear that.” The article goes on to mention that if Christ doesn't return in September, “it is a win-win situation since Family Radio and supporters have gotten better at proclaiming the Gospel. Family Radio’s giving is up 15 percent this year. Its annual budget is $12 million.”

Number of end-of-the-world predictions reported throughout all of recorded human history that have (so far) come true: 0. And counting. They keep makin’ ‘em, and we'll keep reportin’ ‘em.

I come to you, Dorothy Lea...

I find myself drawn into your life, today, June 29, 1994. I am going to use my power to put you in a world I believe you have never known. A world of big money. Exciting people. Happiness. Well-being.

So begins an 8-page letter addressed to Mrs. Dorothy Lea of Kelowna, British Columbia.

Is it possible for me to do all this?

Yes, Dorothy Lea.

I’m not called “The Amazing Kreskin” for nothing.

Add one more name to the legion of bulk-mail psychics, astrologers, and human potential, self-improvement, motivational gurus popping up in mailboxes throughout the land.

Need a psychic/astrologer? Well, there’s Contessa Di Maria from Torino, Italy, who has been “blessed by God with clairvoyant abilities.” The Contessa says she has helped many people win enormous amounts of money playing lotteries and sweepstakes. She must be good because writing to a man in Sturgis, South Dakota, she claims to know the winning lottery numbers. “Remember,” she writes, “I’m not talking about the daily 3-digit or 4-digit number, but the weekly 6-digit lottery.” Apparently, psychics in Italy are well versed in the South Dakota state lottery.

Need guidance but think Italy is too far to go? How about Katherine, with a P.O. Box in Brooklyn, New York. Katherine tells the addressee:

Do not ask me who I am or how I know. Nor do I want to embarrass you by going into details. Suffice it to say that I can sympathize with what you are going through and believe I possess the knowledge you need to help you out of your present difficulty.

What difficulties does Katherine know about? Well, there are dangerous alliances and entanglements in the future, a staggering debt to repay, a downturn in physical health, bad news from a distant source, and doubts concerning performance in an area where once there was pride and confidence.

Katherine wants to reach out and offer her hand in friendship and guidance. She knows what’s coming: World War! Epidemics! Mass Hysteria and Confusion! All you need to do is reach out and send her $20.00. She will guide you through the stormy and frightening times ahead. You are on the brink of greatness, so hurry. She is anxiously awaiting your reply so that you can rejoice together.

Then there’s the world’s #1 astrologer June Penn, who wrote to my mother to tell her that she traveled halfway around the world, from Sussex, England, to Park Ridge, N.J., because something wonderful is happening in my mother’s life right now. How do we know that June Penn is #1? Well, she said so. June Penn said she knew that my mother needed a lot of money and was about to enter her “Time of Power.” With information like that, Penn just had to write.

Penn guaranteed that my mother could expect $1 million to come into her life during this Time of Power. For only $20.00 Penn will devise an action plan that is guaranteed to bring my mother the CHANCE to enjoy $1 million. Mom saved the $20.00 and sent Penn’s letter on to me, I assumed Mom’s personal Time of Power wouldn’t be the same as mine, so the letter went into my bulk-mail- psychic file.

In a postcard that is likely to get June Penn’s dander up, Norvell, the “world’s #1 astrologer” and “advisor to U.S. Presidents and Hollywood stars” will compute your lottery winning numbers for only $7.00. Within 90 days, you will win at least $10,000, or double your money back!

In a curious bit of shared office space, Lynne Palmer, astrologer and numerologist to the stars, who will for $20.00 make you rich and happy, shares the same address as the Lottery Research Center, who for $15.00 will send you the Winners System. This system will enable you, as a group participant: (1) to enjoy a 75 percent chance of hitting a major $200,000 to $40-million-plus lottery pot, (2) to win the lottery again and again. Someone should tell Lynne Palmer she needs to drop her price if she’s going to continue to pay her half of the rent.

My file is a lot thicker, but the time is right to return to Kreskin.

Kreskin writes Mrs. Lea that he got to be famous “for how I’m able to come into people’s lives ... and move them out of a rut, shake them out of a stagnant existence, through a living performance. I can get into a person’s mind and awaken their sleeping phenomenological power. I’m talking about a strange wonder-power that defies rational explanation. A power that’s been called a fourth-dimensional force....”

Kreskin informs Mrs. Lea that he can show a person how they can, among other things, have “the power to enable a certain kind of special person to Ôpull’ money, success, love, happiness ... even good health into their lives.” This is, Kreskin points out, the best way he can help out Mrs. Lea.

Kreskin goes on to say: “So, now it is my turn to ask you to show your good faith: I need to know that you are serious about wishing to change your life and that you will take directions from me.” All of the wonderful Kreskin services are available for a modest $20.00, with money back-guarantee.

Did I mention that Kreskin’s “fourth-dimensional force” failed to pick up on the fact that Mrs. Lea has been dead for more than two years?

In his promotional material Kreskin includes a quote from Phyllis Diller that reads: “Kreskin is a male witch and should be burned at the stake.” I don’t totally agree with this statement: I don’t think Kreskin is a witch!