Wellllll, no. It was dark and Joe Nickell is the country’s most experienced paranormal investigator, but the rest of that is just not true.

It started when Eva Clarke in the Old Dominion University Psychology Department received a phone call looking for a parapsychologist to investigate strange happenings at a local house. There are no parapsychologists at most universities but Eva, a member of Science and Reason in Hampton Roads (SRHR), knew who to call.

Right after “George” and “Mary” and their five pets (all names have been changed to protect confidentiality) moved into their home that summer, a neighbor told them horrible stories about the person who was shot in the house and about the little boy who lived there but died of cancer. When a door slammed by itself when George and Mary separately saw a large bright form move across the kitchen at night, Mary thought her new house was haunted.

In November, when they moved into their new bedroom and were just going to bed, Mary heard a child giggling at the foot of the bed. Then they both saw the window blinds swaying violently. Mary was “really starting to frighten” herself. She wasn’t scared of physical harm but she hated the feeling of being watched: “I didn’t want to be naked in my house because I thought someone was spying on me.”

They started looking around for help. The call to the spiritualist in Virginia Beach produced an offer to chase out the bad spirits for $140 per hour with no guarantee of success.

Fortunately, Joe Nickell, Ph.D., a Senior Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and author of sixteen books, including Inquest on the Shroud of Turin and Looking for a Miracle, was coming to Norfolk to help launch Science and Reason in Hampton Roads (SRHR, www.physics.odu.edu/~weinstei/srhr.html), the newly formed local group which cooperates with CSICOP. Nickell, who has investigated dozens of haunted houses, agreed to take on the case.

Together with Sandy Brenner and and Larry Weinstein of SRHR, he visited the house and listened carefully to George and Mary. Joe, as he likes to be called, didn’t question their sincerity or sanity for a moment. Instead, he discussed the limitations of human perception and pointed out possible physical causes of each of the events they witnessed. For example, only one door slammed and only during the summer. Joe noted the nearby wall-mounted air conditioner and the fire place with the open flue, both of which could cause pressure changes, slamming the door. Similarly, the large bright form seen moving across the kitchen could well have been caused by headlights shining through the living room window behind the chair they were sitting in.

Mary also admitted that most of the sightings were seen out of the corner of her eye. Joe explained that peripheral vision is very sensitive and can easily mislead, especially late at night, when the brain is tired and more likely to misinterpret sights and sounds.

Joe pointed out repeatedly that “the least likely explanation for something like this is a ghost” since there is no scientific evidence for ghosts. “Once the idea of a ghost appears in a household . . . no longer is an object merely mislaid. . . . There gets to be a dynamic in a place where the idea that it’s haunted takes on a life of its own.” One-of-a-kind quirks that could never be repeated all become further evidence of the haunting.

He counseled that “If you enjoy having a household friend” then enjoy it. But “if you want it to go away, just ignore it. . . . Look for an explanation; don’t let it bother you. . . . The only harm I've seen from ghosts in thirty years is what people make of them.” A followup call to Mary found her thinking very differently about the mysterious phenomena. She had thrown back the bedcovers and discovered that they could make the blinds sway. She was quite thankful for Joe’s visit, “I feel more comfortable. . . . He did us a great service.”

A villager in Karandih died of tuberculosis. Hours later, ten frenzied men, waving swords in the dark, battered at the frail wooden door of Manikui Goipai’s mud and thatch house. “Kill the witch,” they screamed. The attackers broke open the door, and hacked Goipai’s husband to death. They sliced through her son’s arm, but he escaped to summon police before bleeding to death. Then a sword came down on Goipai’s forehead, causing a grievous wound. The attackers fled. Goipai is one of only a few women to survive an attack after being branded a witch in Bihar, India’s most lawless state. According to the Free Legal Aid Committee, 536 women have been killed in the past ten years in just two districts of Bihar. Unofficial estimates say at least 200 women are killed as witches across India every year.

Accused women are dragged into the forest and hacked, hanged, or burned to death. Heads of children have been smashed on rocks. Women suffer smashed teeth, shaved heads, or chopped off breasts. Others have been forced to eat excrement, or to strip and walk naked through the village. Many of the killers are related to the victims, and attack out of fear of a witch’s powers, and the possibility of social rebuke for having a witch in the family.

“Those who kill do not think they are committing any crime,” said Girija Shankar Jaiswal (a lawyer who argues cases for victimized women). “They think they are becoming martyrs. They do not mind going to jail.”

In the village of Damaria, a young man chopped off his aunt’s head and took it to a police station to boast that he had killed a witch. But most such villages are located deep inside hilly and forest areas, and thus still inaccessible, so convictions are rare. By the time reports of the tortures and killings reach the police, all evidence leading to the culprits has been destroyed.

Witch killers are not interested in proof. A man who was merely suspected of practicing witchcraft was beaten to death by villagers at Kottkameta. In the village of Burrathogu, a woman, Korru Venkamma, died of ill health. Suspecting witchcraft, the villagers took her body to the house of Soyam Mutyalu, and searched for him. When they found him returning from the fields, they beat him to death with sticks.

But most of the victims are women. One of them was twenty-seven-year-old Chaibindia, a physically handicapped woman. About a dozen people, including one of her close relatives, raped her, then killed her and six members of her family, including her mother, father, and sister.

Most witch killings have their roots in sickness or death. In Bihar state, where only 52 percent of the men and 23 percent of the women are literate, there is only one primary care center for every 100,000 people. So the village exorcist doubles as a doctor. Ajitha George is doing research on witch killings for the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation. “Traditionally,” she says, “ojhas used to give medicine using herbal potions, but now the tribal health system is falling apart. Now there are many new diseases, and they don’t know the cure.”

But when they fail to treat a sick person, they attribute their failure to some woman, usually a widow or a childless woman, preferably one with some property. They claim that such a woman can harm a person by just looking at them, or by throwing something like a piece of driftwood towards their victim. A woman is said to acquire this power by killing someone close to her. Then, by going through some rituals, she can inflict injury on anyone without being visible.

The torture and execution of witches are not impulsive actions taken in the heat of the moment. In a planned operation lasting four hours, the single phone connection to the village of Timmapur was cut, then the five victims were bound, battered, and tied to a tree. They were then doused in kerosene and burnt alive.

Nor is the credulity always connected with belief in witchcraft. In the Bidar district, construction workers found the arms and legs of a six-and-a-half-year-old victim sticking out of a pit. They found the head separately “with scratch marks on it.” His grandfather said the boy was killed to appease the gods before commencing the construction of the building.

At Newasa, three children were kidnapped, but not for ransom. Their blood was needed to propitiate the gods, to reveal the spot where a treasure trove was said to have been hidden. The police recovered a pitcher used for carrying the children’s blood.

Some people who do not have a male child think they can get one by sacrificing a young child. This is the reason given by Tara, a Punjab woman, who sacrificed the five-year-old son of a neighbor at the suggestion of a local tantrik or baba. In the words of a local policeman, “the neck was twisted to draw out the blood. Then the toes and fingers were also cut to draw more blood to fill a vessel, to adhere to the tantrik’s directions of drawing out maximum blood.” The tantrik, Om Parkash, unhesitatingly confessed to presiding over the entire procedure.

He explained without emotion that the boy cried a little before he was felled by a swoop of the sharp-edged fodder-cutter.

The day started with meetings of local skeptics groups from around the country. Recently appointed Local Group Liaison Béla Scheiber moderated the discussions, which were generally productive. Topics ranged from how to develop better relations with the media to ways to improve the coordination of speakers on tour.

Several guest speakers entertained the attendees, including Paul Kurtz; Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell; Toronto magician and skeptic Henry Gordon; CSICOP Executive Director Barry Karr; head of the Rocky Mountain Skeptics Béla Scheiber; Professor of Philosophy at Medaille College and first CSICOP Executive Director Lee Nisbet; and Skeptical Inquirer managing editor Benjamin Radford.

Most of the talks centered around the early days of CSICOP, taking on challenges that ranged from leaky roofs (which threatened to destroy magazines) to lawsuits (which threatened to bankrupt CSICOP). But through it all, the grizzled, veteran skeptics managed to retain their sense of humor, camaraderie, and objectivity.

Because reaching out to local groups is one of the missions of the Skeptical Briefs, we provide here profiles of some of the local skeptics groups who participated in the forum. This list is not all-inclusive, and we had not received all the requested information as of press time. But we hope this survey of groups will help “lone skeptics” and others become more familiar with who’s who, who’s where, and who’s doing what. Readers are encouraged to contact their local groups directly; for information on starting a group, contact Béla Scheiber at P.O. Box 4482, Boulder, CO 80306.

Inquiring Skeptics of Upper New York (ISUNY)

ISUNY was founded in the spring of 1994 by Michael Sofka, Robert Mulford, Sue and Alan French, and several Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students. The group serves the Capital Region area of New York, with members in Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Saratoga counties. The paid membership for the year 2000 was twenty-one members.

ISUNY no longer publishes its newsletter, The Why Files. Back issues, however, (up to October 1999) are available on the group’s Web site at www.rpi.edu/~sofkam/isuny.

The group has been holding roughly quarterly meetings since last spring. ISUNY is one of the skeptic groups in a “rebuilding phase.”

ISUNY’s interests have been far-ranging and included not just traditional pseudosciences and paranormal claims, but also issues of science in the news including life on Mars, global warming, and SETI. However, they have also had their share of UFO, creationism, and psychic power talks.

Given ISUNY may take a break for awhile, it is hard to say specifically what will happen in skepticism. However, they are on the whole optimistic about the recent efforts of the local groups to work more closely together, and to build official ties between themselves and CSICOP. As for the kind of claims skeptics deal with, they will most likely be the usual, with some impossible-to-predict surprises.

CONTACT: Michael D. Sofka, CIS/SSS Sr. Systems Programmer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, e-mail sofkam@rpi.edu.

The New England Skeptics Society (NESS)

NESS was founded in 1996 by Steven Novella, Robert Novella, and Perry DeAngelis. Current membership is 230, and the society publishes the The New England Journal of Skepticism quarterly. The group’s Web site can be found at www.theness.com.

NESS has worked on local investigations, including haunted houses, telekinesis, and a demonic possession case. The society also hosts lecture series in Connecticut and Massachusetts and social events for members, in addition to providing seminars on skepticism in various venues.

The group’s current paranormal and pseudoscience interests cover the gamut of claims. Steve Novella’s personal area of interest is alternative medicine. Novella sees the skeptical movement growing as a larger segment of the population becomes fed up with all the paranormal nonsense in our culture. “I also see that as a movement we are getting better at doing what we do. My hope for the next ten years is that we become more organized as a cohesive movement.”

The Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (PhACT)

PhACT was founded in 1994 by a group of twelve people after CSICOP held an open meeting. Their publication, PhACTUM, goes out to around 170 people. They serve eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. The PhACT Web site is at www.phact.org/phact.

PhACT hosts social events and lectures, and sponsors investigations. They have an interest in all paranormal claims, but have had special interest in claims of free energy, therapeutic touch, magnet therapy, and police use of psychics.

Looking into the future, PhACT spokesman Eric Krieg foresees a continued urgent need for skepticism. “Skepticism,” says Krieg, “will be just as needed then as now; I hope critical thinking can be a regular part of grade school curriculum.”

National Capital Area Skeptics (NCAS)

NCAS’s first meeting was held in March 1987. NCAS serves the National Capital Area. Most members live in Maryland (from Baltimore, south to D.C.), Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia, although there are a few members spread throughout the nation.

NCAS currently has about 275 members, and publishes a monthly calendar, Shadow of a Doubt, from September through June, which advertises monthly meetings plus other relevant skeptical events over the next month. Electronic copies of the Shadow are archived on the NCAS Web site.

In addition, the NCAS publishes a quarterly magazine-the Skeptical Eye- which is approximately 16-20 pages and has 3-4 page articles of interest, usually written by NCAS members.

The NCAS Web site is www.ncas.org. The Web site contains old Shadow calendars, links to other groups, information about upcoming and past meetings, and a few documents (e.g., the only electronic copy of the 1968 Condon report on UFOs).

The NCAS currently hosts monthly meetings with speakers from the Washington D.C. area and weekly meetings on Saturday afternoon at a local library. Other events and activities include “Friday 13th” movie nights; annual weekend workshops, such as Ghostbusting 101 (before Halloween-about ghosts and spirits); archiving of hard to get documents on the Web; and maintaining contacts with local media on skeptical issues.

The group is very diverse, and exhibits a wide range of interests. One board member is interested in spiritualism; two in pseudohistory and historical fallacies; one in growth of religious beliefs; many in “bad science,” alternative therapies, and psychobabble therapies. Monthly meetings cover UFOs, creationism, and other related topics.

In coming years, NCAS Secretary Marvin Zelkowitz foresees “a great revival” of pseudoscience, religious fanaticism, and alternative therapies. “I think skepticism is in for a rough few years,” says Zelkowitz. “Hopefully only a few.”

CONTACT: President Paul Jaffe, pjaffe@mindless.com.

Tampa Bay Skeptics (TBS)

The Tampa Bay Skeptics group was founded in 1988 by Dr. Gary P. Posner. The group serves the west-central portion of Florida (with some members scattered about the state and country). Current membership numbers eighty-one. The group publishes the quarterly newsletter, the Tampa Bay Skeptics Report. Its Web site is www.tampabayskeptics.org. The group hosts quarterly meetings and conducts occasional controlled tests of psychic claimants. The group’s interests currently focus primarily psychic claims. Members are chronicling the record regarding the career of Florida-based “psychic detective” Noreen Renier.

Posner’s response to the question of what he sees in the future of skepticism in the next ten years: “Unlike the psychics, I cannot foresee the future.”

North Texas Skeptics (NTS)

The North Texas Skeptics began in 1983 as the “Dallas Society to Oppose Pseudo- science.” The founders included Chair Ron J. Hastings, Ph. D.; Co-chair James P. Smith, Ph.D.; Treasurer John Thomas, J.D.; Secretary Mary Hunter; and Liaison Vicki Hinson-Smith. The group’s name was changed to North Texas Skeptics in 1987 and was incorporated as a 501(C)3 in 1991.

The North Texas Skeptics serve Dallas-Fort Worth and the surrounding areas of North Texas. The group currently has forty-five members. Its monthly newsletter is The North Texas Skeptic, and its Web address is www.ntskeptics.org.

Current activities include hosting a lecture once a month, and meeting socially once a month-usually at a local restaurant when holding its board meeting.

The NTS focuses on all areas that deserve critical inquiry: UFOs, creationism, pseudoscience, faith healing, psychics, etc. President Curtis Severns focuses more on areas related to religious belief such as creationism, faith healing, exorcism, and biblical fallacy.

As to what the future holds for skepticism and rationality, “that’s hard to say,” says Severns. “But if the local groups and CSICOP all follow through with plans to cooperate, then science and rational thinking may stand a better chance. Building an international membership organization will allow us to begin to compete against the unlimited supply of nonsense. One thing is for sure: our jobs as skeptics are secure for many years to come. Now if only the pay would get better.”

The Georgia Skeptics

The Georgia Skeptics was founded in 1989 when Barry Karr suggested local Skeptical Inquirer subscribers meet, then facilitated that meeting. Officially the group has no members, says Rebecca Long, “since we're currently only operating on an informal basis and aren’t collecting dues.” She estimates, however, that between 150 and 200 people associate themselves with Georgia Skeptics. The group is working on restarting the publication of its newsletter and putting up a new Web site.

While the Georgia Skeptics currently sponsors no activities, some people are active as individuals, particularly in anti-quackery and in pseudoscience in psychology. Group associates support each other in these efforts. Rebecca Long’s interests include alternative medicine, pseudoscience in psychology, critical thinking and philosophy of science.

Long is not sure what the future holds for the skeptics movement, but emphasizes that the “Georgia Skeptics feels strongly that it should be kept separate from atheist and humanist groups.”

Carolina Skeptics (formerly Triad Area Skeptics Club)

Carolina Skeptics was founded September 30, 1998, at a meeting attended by Eric Carlson, Terry Blumenthal, Tom Concannon, and Miahuoa Jiang. The organization currently boasts about ninety members (depending on who has sent in their dues recently). Most of our members are from North Carolina, but we also have members in South Carolina and Virginia.

Their newsletter, Skeptically Speaking, appears quarterly (in March, June, September, and December). The club’s Web site is at www.carolinaskeptics.org.

Carolina Skeptics hold monthly social gatherings in the Triad Area (Winston-Salem, usually) and infrequent social gatherings in the Research Triangle area (of North Carolina). They have talks about every two months on topics of interest to skeptics, occasionally investigate paranormal claims, and have miscellaneous other activities at infrequent intervals (picnics, Friday the 13th bashes).

Eric Carlson looks forward to skeptics becoming “increasingly media savvy. The appearance of new technologies will reinvigorate public awareness of and interest in science.”

The Rational Examination Association of Lincoln Land (REALL)

REALL was founded in February 1993 by David Bloomberg, Wally Hartshorn, and Bob Ladendorf -all of whom are still active in the organization. The group currently has approximately sixty members, and publishes The REALL News newsletter on a monthly basis. Its Web site is www.reall.org.

They hold monthly meetings at which they have speakers or videotaped presentations. “Most of our activity involves keeping in touch with the media when the opportunity presents itself. Hopefully,” says Bloomberg, “we will continue to make inroads with the media. Unfortunately, I suspect those inroads will not be as substantial as I’d like them to be, as all indications are that people will continue to believe things without evidence just as they have done in the past. But we still have to try.”

The Cincinnati Skeptics

The Cincinnati Skeptics was founded 1992; the founding organizer and leader was Joe Gastright, who organized the group after a meeting of CSICOP in Cincinnati. The group serves the Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Region, including three counties in North Kentucky, Dearborn County in Indiana, and the Miami Valley to Dayton, Ohio. The group currently has a membership of ninety-eight.

The group publishes the Cincinnati Skeptic newsletter every two months, maintains a Web site at www.Cincinnatiskeptics.org, and hosts monthly public meetings.

When asked about the the future of skepticism in the next decade, Wolf Roder says, “My crystal ball is cloudy, i.e., the only thing I know with certainty, I won’t be around in twenty years. I suppose eventually most religion-based pseudoscience will disappear. It took the Pope only 400 years to acknowledge Galileo, so Darwin has only 250 years to go. Astrology, dowsing, and similar non-religious driven ideas most likely will be around for another five thousand years.”

Central Ohioans for Rational Inquiry (CORI)

CORI was founded in 1996 by Ann Pratt. Current membership is approximately fifty. CORI publishes a newsletter-the CORI Bulletin and maintains a Web site at www.hazlett.net/cori. The group meets monthly. Current areas of interest include alternative medicine and UFOs.

Commenting on the future of skepticism and rationally inquiry, CORI’s Charlie Hazlett says, “Not good, the fuzzy thinkers will increase as science and knowledge increases.”

Oregonians for Rationality (O4R)

Oregonians for Rationality (O4R) was founded in 1994, holding its first organizational meeting in May. The group currently has about 150 members. Its quarterly newsletter is called the Pro Facto-Latin for “on behalf of the fact(s).” Their Web page is www.O4R.org. O4R serves all of Oregon and a corner of southwest Washington.

According to President Jeanine DeNoma, the group’s strengths lay in public education and critical thinking. “Although creationism has not been a big public issue in Oregon, it is floating freely around the state and there is a lot of interest in the topic among our members. Many of the group’s members are engineers with an interest in engineering claims such as free energy.” O4R sponsors quarterly speakers meetings. Public educational events are free and open to the public. They also hold two summer potlucks and have begun having informal restaurant dinners. “In the past we have held a Friday the 13th superstition bash, which was for members only but landed us an interview with the local paper.”

O4R also sponsors “big name” speakers that have brought out large audiences. Two talks by Eugenie Scott drew 250 people two nights in a row, once at Oregon State University and the next night at the University of Oregon. They also sponsored Dr. Wallace Sampson in Portland at the same time as the Naturopathic Physicians Conference was being held in town.

“I strongly believe that skepticism should maintain its scientific credibility by remaining focused on testable pseudoscientific claims and avoiding purely faith-based issues,” says DeNoma, when asked about skepticism in the next ten years. “This has also been the position of the Oregon skeptic’s groups board of directors. I suspect that in the coming years the biggest and hottest issues in pseudoscience will be those surrounding alternative medicine. Creationism will probably not go away anytime soon either.”

The Ottawa Skeptics

The Ottawa Skeptics were founded in 1996 by a group from the Humanist Association of Ottawa. The group serves Ottawa, Eastern Ontario, and Western Quebec. The group currently has about a dozen members. The Ottawa Skeptics Web site is at www.carleton.ca/~adalby/cats/skeptic.html. The current president is Earl Doherty.

Ottawa Skeptics are at the beginning of a campaign to have evolution taught in general (non-university oriented) public and high school science and biology courses in Ontario. They meet once a month, and have established a e-mail list on the evolution issue. Recent meetings have concentrated on evolution. They hope to start a campaign soon to attract more members and scientific and professional consultants.

The group’s focus tends more to critical thinking and scientific methodology-the positives. They like to deal more with the pseudosciences rather than the paranormal.

“As long as there’s scientific illiteracy, there will always be a critical mass of pseudoscientific belief,” says Ottawa Skeptics’ Derek Bauer. “I think skepticism in the next ten years might focus less on UFOs etc. and more on the consumer-oriented issues like bogus cures, scams, and pseudomedicine, as well as church-state issues, science education, critical thinking, and how to cut through BS, whether it is science, politics, statistics or other areas. Also the cohesion among groups and within groups should improve, otherwise we risk slow extinction.”