Ancient Baths

Hydrotherapy-the internal or external use of water for treating disease-is among the earliest “healing” practices. Indeed, drinking or bathing in springs, streams, or pools for therapeutic purposes predates recorded history.

There is archaeological evidence of mineral springs in Asia during the Bronze Age (circa 3000 b.c.), and biblical references allude to the practice. For example Joshua (19:35) refers to the city of Hammath (from the Hebrew word for “hot springs”) located at Tiberius in Israel, one of the world’s oldest spas. And II Kings 5:10 tells of Elisha instructing a Syrian to wash seven times in the Jordan River to cure his “leprosy.”

In ancient Greece springs were believed to have supernatural powers because they were supposedly the dwelling places of gods. Therapeutic centers called Asclepieia-after Asclepius, the mythological God of Health-were built at mineral springs throughout the Greek realm. The Romans followed the practice, translating the deity’s name to Aesculapius, and establishing baths across their empire (Swanner 1988, 16-20). One was at Bath, England, so named for its hot springs attended by a great temple.

In the Americas, the native peoples also believed in the miraculous curative powers of mineral waters. Aztec emperor Montezuma was carried on a litter from Tenochtitlan (today’s Mexico City) across a mountain to a spa called Agua Hedionda. There he bathed in the invigorating spring and sipped the waters to recuperate from his strenuous life. In 1605, the conquering Catholic Spaniards established a health-cure community at the site, transforming it into a spa that later became fashionable to both Europeans and Americans (Swanner 1988, 20).

The Mohawks of the Iroquois Nation, in what is now Saratoga County, New York, held the mineral springs of that area to be sacred, a gift of their great deity Manitou. According to spa physician Grace Maguire Swanner (1988, 20, 95), they attempted to keep the existence of the springs a secret from the White invaders.

Later Spas

In 1326 an ironmaster in southeastern Belgium learned of a secluded spring that was reputed to have healing properties. When he received relief from his own ailments, he founded a health resort there named Spa, from an old Walloon (French dialect) word meaning “fountain” (Swanner 1988, 14). It gained fame in the sixteenth century for both its water and climate, and the term spa began to be applied to similar resorts. By the eighteenth century, Spa had become “the most fashionable resort in Europe for the medicinal use of such waters” (Encyclopedia Britannica 1960, s.v. Spa; see also Collier’s Encyclopedia 1993, s.v. Spa).

In my travels I have visited several famous spas-both in Europe and the United States. In Italy, for example, during the October 8-10, 2004, World Skeptics Congress in Abano Terme (near Padua), I stayed at one of the numerous spa-hotels in the city, which calls itself “the world’s spa capital.” The naturally heated springs there were important in Roman times, according to reports by Pliny the Elder (Colli 2004, 7; Abano n.d.). Today, thermal- and mud-bath health and beauty treatments promise that “You can regain your vigor, relax and achieve that lost sense of well-being” (Colli 2004, 6; Abano n.d.). While I did not partake of the treatments, I felt reinvigorated by simply being in Abano!

Another historic spa site I encountered, along with Italian paranormal investigator Luigi Garlaschelli, was at Pozzuoli, only a few miles from Naples and Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that destroyed Pompeii. In fact, the ancient healing waters at Pozzuoli are actually in a volcano! Known as the Vulcano Solfatara, it formed 4,000 years ago and last erupted in 1198. Today it spouts sulphurous steam, small “volcanoes” of hot mud, and jets of bubbling sand (Benvenuto 2004, 15).

A well in the crater became famous in the late Middle Ages for its mineral waters that supposedly cured sterility and ulcers. “Natural Saunas” elsewhere in the crater yielded sulphurous vapors that were considered beneficial for respiratory ailments, and hot mud was used to treat rheumatism (Il Vulcano n.d.). The crater is in the region known as the Phlegraean Fields, which contains thermo-mineral waters, anciently said to be capable of “healing wounds both old and new, relieving the whole body, ridding the heart of evil and arthritis, slimming heavy limbs, making the sad rejoice” (Benvenuto 2004, 7).

Germany is rife with spas. In 2002, I traveled with skeptic Martin Mahner to southern Bavaria to visit one, the spa at Bad Tšlz, a colorful, baroque town at the foothills of the Alps (figure 1). There in 1845 a farmhand found a spring, and, in time, the realization that people who lived in the area had no incidents of goiter led to the discovery that the water contained iodine, an essential element needed by the thyroid gland (Bad Tšlz n.d.).

Figure 1: German spa at Bad Tšlz, Germany, is shown on a 1939 postcard. (Author’s collection)

Such cause-and-effect evidence represents the “nucleus of truth” that may be behind some spa therapies, according to a physician and professor of spa treatments I interviewed in Munich, Peter Kršling (2002). Germany, he observed, has approximately 300 spas, all licensed by the federal government, and each having a medical staff including a Badearzt ("spa doctor”).

Elsewhere in Europe and the United States, waters containing other inclusions (such as lithium, used to treat manic depression,1 and radon, a radioactive gaseous element reputedly effective in treating rheumatism) were promoted and, of course, thus increased the patronage at those spas.

American spas followed the popularity of the European resorts, and I have been able to visit, at one time or another, many of these. In fact, the historic former old Cole Hotel in my hometown of West Liberty, in the hills of eastern Kentucky, was a sort of poor-man’s spa, though its heyday was before my time. A 1911 advertisement for its “Health-giving Mineral Waters” typifies the claims of the era: “The water contains 25 grains of solid matter to the gallon, composed mainly of Carbonates of Calcium, Magnesium and Sodium, and traces of Chlorides and Sulphates of Sodium and Potassium, and a trace of Carbonate of Strontium.” The analysis, signed by “Alfred M. Peters, Chemist,” concluded, “This water is very wholesome and has great medicinal value” (Nickell 1988, 98).

Figure 2. “Island Spouter” depicted on a 1941 postcard is a natural geyser in the state park at Saratoga Springs, New York. (Author’s collection)

Actually, all except distilled water contained dissolved salts, and it became usual to set the level at fifty grains per gallon (twice that of the Cole Hotel water) in order to justify the designation mineral water (Swanner 1988, 32).

America’s “Queen of the Spas” was the celebrated Saratoga Springs of New York. By 1783 George Washington had sipped water from one of the several springs in the area, High Rock Spring, and later recommended it to one of his former Revolutionary War officers as a remedy for rheumatism. By 1790 taverns there were housing guests who were seeking the reputedly health-giving waters. In the 1820s spas (along with summer vacations) were becoming fashionable among the wealthy, and none would become more popular than Saratoga (White 1985, 86-87; Swanner 1988, 105-106).

The crude early taverns there were followed by larger and larger hotels, medical offices, and, by the 1880s, Dr. Strong’s Sanatorium, advertised as “A popular resort for health, change, rest or recreation of the year.” Amenities included “Elevator, electric bells, steam, open fireplaces, sun parlor and promenade on the roof, croquet, lawn tennis.” Family prayers were offered daily, “at no additional charge” (Swanner 1988, 128).

An article in the London Times of December 9, 1887, portrayed the spa in its grandeur:

Everybody who is anybody comes to Saratoga, because here can be found an aggregation of people of a character to be met nowhere else.

The throng is essentially cosmopolitan, and comes from all parts of the country, besides many who cross the Atlantic. . . . Saratoga is the place in America to see diamonds. Their glitter dazzles the eye at every turn, as they sparkle under the brilliant electric lights illuminating the evening scene. . . .

Figure 3. Various mineral-water bottles include one (front) from Saratoga Springs, New York. Others (rear, from left) are mineral water from Olympian Springs, Kentucky; Buffalo Lythia Water from Buffalo Lythia Springs, Virginia; and a drink from Cloverdale Spring, Newville, Pennsylvania (containing mineral water, Lithia, and lime flavor). Also shown is an antique drinking cup purchased near Sharon Springs, New York. (Author’s collection)

“Fine equipages” drove people about the area, and certain eateries provided “elaborate fish and game dinners at high prices” (American 1887).

The springs still flow at Saratoga (which I toured on one of my trips to search for the Lake Champlain monster [Nickell 2003]). I drank some of the salty, naturally carbonated water and sought out the famous Island Spouter-spewing from a tiny island in Geyser Creek in the nearby state park-shown in figure 2.

I also stopped at historic Ballston Spa, which had been flourishing as a resort while Saratoga was yet a wilderness. Some of its numerous springs-including one supposedly discovered through a seance with Benjamin Franklin, and two with a high lithium content-provided water that was bottled and sold for its allegedly healthful properties (Swanner 1988, 89-94). (Some unscrupulous companies are known to have sold ordinary tap water in bottles bearing counterfeit labels-e.g., from Saratoga [Saratoga n.d.].) (See figure 3.)

Among other historic spa sites I have visited are Sharon Springs and Clifton Springs in New York, Cambridge Springs in Pennsylvania, and Lithia Springs in Georgia, among others-each worthy of an article by itself.

Conclusions

Seemingly supportive of the sweeping grandiose claims made for mineral springs is the fact that many visitors offered testimonials in their favor. However, according to psychologist Terence Hines (1988, 236-237), “One can find testimonials attesting to the effectiveness of almost anything,” such as those given for “snake oils” that allegedly cured even “consumption” (tuberculosis). Hines adds: “It is safe to say that if testimonials play a major part in the ‘come on’ for a cure or therapy it is almost certainly worthless. If the promoters of the therapy had actual evidence for its effectiveness, they would cite it and not have to rely on testimonials.”

Even some spa advocates who touted the beneficial effects of various inclusions in the water conceded they were not solely due to them. Benefits were also attributed to the water’s mechanical and thermal effects on the body-hot- and cold-water applications being commonly prescribed for various therapeutic purposes-not to mention, of course, psychosomatic benefits, the so-called placebo effect (Swanner 1988, 32-37; Kršling 2002).

Potential negative effects were rarely considered. For example, at Saratoga laws on radioactivity required the posting of signs warning that radium content might be harmful to health, while spa-advocate Swanner (1988, 37) found that “ridiculous,” saying, “If the mineral waters have deleterious physiologic effects, they have yet to be demonstrated.” This seems rather an attempt to shift the burden of proof and to suggest, counter intuitively, that a wide variety of positive effects could come from ingesting certain substances but never any negative effects.

Nonetheless, quite obviously the spas-offering a change of scenery, rest, the distraction from one’s ills provided by almost any physical treatment, and the power of positive thinking-represented a successful, if temporary, prescription for many ailments.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Timothy Binga, Director of CFI Libraries, for research assistance, and Andrew Skolnick, Executive Director of the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health, for peer review.

Note

1. According to Andrew Skolnick (see acknowledgments): “Levels of lithium that cause dangerous toxicity are rather close to therapeutic levels. This is especially so for people with severe cardiovascular or kidney disease. Therefore, it’s likely that any natural waters with high enough lithium levels to have any beneficial psychological effect would also cause substantial illness and death.”

References

• Abano in History. N.d. Typescript supplied by Abano Terme tourism office, October 2004.
• The American Spa. 1887. London Times, December 9; quoted in Swanner 1988, 136-137.
• Bad Tšlz. N.d. Tourist-information brochure, English version, current 2002.
• Benvenuto nei Campl Flegrel ("Welcome to the Phlegraean Fields”). 2004. Pozzuoli, Italy: The Tourist Office of Pozzuoli, October.
• Colli. 2004. Tourism brochure. Padova, Italy: Turismo Padova Terme Euganee, June.
• Kršling, Peter. 2002. Interview by Joe Nickell with Martin Mahner, Munich, Germany, October 16.
• Nickell, Joe. 2003. Legend of the Lake Champlain Monster. Skeptical Inquirer 27:4 (July/August), 18-23.
• Nickell, W. Lynn. 1988. The Changing Faces of West Liberty. Berea, Kentucky: Kentucke Imprints.
• Saratoga Springs Visitor Center. N.d. Display text, viewed August 2, 2002.
• Swanner, Grace Maguire. 1988. Saratoga: Queen of the Spas. Utica, N.Y.: North Country Books.
• White, William Chapman. 1985. Adirondack Country. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press.

Tampa Bay Skeptics Report (Tampa Bay Skeptics), Summer 2005, Gary Posner: Gary Posner takes an in-depth look at “psychic investigator” Noreen Renier’s account of her career. “I found the entire book an entertaining adventure-it’s a page-turner, and the writing isn’t half-bad,” he writes. “But are the author’s ‘psychic’ claims even half-true?”

Posner examines some of her more dramatic cases, such as those of New York’s Zodiac Killer, her predictions that Ronald Reagan would be shot in the chest, and the downed plane she “helped to locate.” In each case, Posner points out flaws or errors in her predictions.

Posner maintains a healthy sense of skepticism throughout the review, not least because he knows the specifics of some of the cases in the book. He has been following Renier’s activities for years-indeed, the book describes him as being on “something of a crusade to discredit [her]"-but he notes that she does not challenge anything he has written about her.

“Noreen Renier’s ability to enchant such an array of law-enforcement personnel, some to the point of praising the value of her assistance despite contrary evidence (as in the ‘missing plane’ case), is nothing short of astounding,” Posner concludes. “But as even a tasty meal begs dessert, A Mind for Murder leaves me hungry for a morsel of compelling scientific evidence to substantiate this sort of ‘psychic’ power as fact rather than fiction.”

A Scientific Test of Intelligent Design

The SORTified News (Sacramento Organization for Rational Thinking), June 2005, Kenneth E. Nahigian: Nahigian wrote about Paul Davies, the “hardheaded physical scientist with a spiritual streak,” popular author, and winner of the 1995 Templeton Prize. In his article, Nahigian looks at some of the “compelling and slick” arguments of the Intelligent Design (ID) advocates, and the scientific facts and theories that counter such arguments.

Simply put, the universe’s “fundamental forces” are thoroughly lopsided-but, were they not imbalanced just as they are, the stars and galaxies would never have formed. ID proponents argue that “some Grand Old Designer, GOD for short, has been tinkering-tuning things just so for [life as we know it].”

But life could well have adapted to these strange conditions; here on Earth, life has been documented in hot, dry deserts; in the sunless depths of the oceans; and even on nuclear control rods. If the universe’s background constants were even slightly different, a very different sort of life may evolve. A second option is that there might be multiple universes, a “multiverse” in which the cosmological constants vary from universe to universe, and we happen to be in a corner of a universe where conditions allow for life.

Davies crafted a test to differentiate a designed universe from a truly random one, by considering all the combinations of parameters and seeing how many are friendly to the development of life. But the majority of our universe does not seem “friendly;” we've only found one planet with life so far, and the life we've found so far tends to be “self-destructive” and inefficient.

“In short,” Nahigian writes, “[life as we know it] seems to live on the edge of possibility, hanging by a thread, tucked into the tiniest interstice, and facing cosmic blackness on either side. So based on Davies’s test, the data do indeed seem to lean towards the ‘megaverse’ or ‘infinite variation’ hypotheses. And away from ID.”

Skeptical of Skepticism

Rational Enquirer (B.C. and Alberta Skeptics), March 2005, Warren Davidson, M.D.: Davidson examines the importance of using “skepticism and critical thinking"-as a regular set of tools, not as a term of self-identification-and some of the difficulties involved. Along the way, he quotes notable thinkers like Soren Kierkegaard, Carl Sagan, Ray Hyman, and Michael Shermer, showing their concerns with this problem.

He notes that while the principles of critical thinking are objectified and abstract, the actual research is seldom so clear-cut: “Many skeptics utilize the ‘scientific method’ as though it were foolproof. In reality, we do not have one universal method of scientific analysis,” he writes. “Rather, we use a variety of techniques and methodologies for investigation. Prevalent factors such as human error, biases, and politics (micro and macro) complicate the rigorous application of the scientific method. Although these concerns do not nullify the scientific method, they remind us that limitations do exist.”

Davidson cites a 1977 study which shows that, all things being equal, people tend to react more favorably to information that supports their mindset-and to examine it less critically-than information that contradicts it. “Many skeptics state that critical analysis must be done in an environment free of bias, emotion, or pre-determined conclusions,” he notes. “They rely on strict logic and analytical thinking to examine issues at hand. Given that these are philosophical and mathematical concepts, they realistically do not encompass the complexity of human behavior.”

To complicate things further, researchers have to deal with other people’s biases as well: “The same scientific mind-set that thrives on high precision and critical thinking may actually hinder research into areas labeled as ‘fringe,’ ‘far-fetched,’ or ‘extraordinary.’ Many serious scientists are discouraged from investigating certain claims out of fear for their reputations. When this happens, who is left to conduct these investigations? Extreme skeptics? Extreme believers?” When mainstream science is afraid to address an issue, it is doomed to remain on the fringe.

Davidson concludes that while skepticism is still an essential technique to use, it must be tempered by an awareness of human shortcomings. “To truly utilize effective critical thinking,” he writes, “one must be honest about one’s own limitations.”

A few months ago, the Smithsonian Institution agreed to cosponsor a film called The Privileged Planet for a special showing at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The film was based on the 2004 book of the same title by astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez and theologian Jay Richards, but the story starts about four years earlier.

In their 2000 book Rare Earth, paleontologist Peter T. Ward and astronomer Donald Brownlee argued that complex forms of life are uncommon if not exceedingly rare in the universe. Gonzalez was at the time a colleague of these authors at the University of Washington and a major scientific consultant for Rare Earth.

Rare Earth did not represent the views of most investigators in the fledgling field of astrobiology, who are generally more optimistic about the chances of other forms of intelligent life in the universe. In his follow-up 2001 book, Life Everywhere, astronomer David Darling rebutted the arguments in Rare Earth one by one. While not concluding outright that complex life fills the universe, Darling pointed out that we simply do not yet have sufficient knowledge to conclude that such life is rare. Both sides of the debate actually agree that simple, primitive forms of life may be common. However, even today’s most optimistic estimates place Earthlike planets hundreds if not thousands of light-years apart on average.

The Privileged Planet ignores Darling and the consensus of astrobiologists in adopting the Rare Earth position. However, Gonzalez and Richards go much further. They contend that conditions on Earth, particularly those that make human life possible, have been optimized for scientific investigation and that this constitutes “a signal revealing a universe so skillfully created for life and discovery that it seems to whisper of an extraterrestrial intelligence immeasurably more vast, more ancient, and more magnificent than anything we've been willing to expect or imagine.” Makes you wonder what intelligence they have in mind.

Following this line of reasoning, the atmosphere of Earth is not only transparent in the visible spectral band so that humans can see with their eyes, but it is also designed in this way so that astronomers can build telescopes and thereby observe the fruits of intelligence in the heavens.

Have you ever wondered why the angular diameters of the moon and sun as viewed from Earth are almost exactly the same, though the two celestial objects differ greatly in size and distance from Earth? Without that coincidence, we would never experience the type of total eclipse of the sun in which we can actually view starlight near the edge of the sun’s disc as the moon blocks off the sun’s light.

Gonzalez and Richards marvel at the fact that we happen to live on a planet where total solar eclipses are observable and present this as a prime example of design for discovery. Indeed, science may have been triggered when, in 585 b.c.e., Thales of Miletus predicted a total eclipse that supposedly ended a war. In more recent times, observations made during total eclipses have been used to verify Einstein’s theory of general relativity, specifically the bending of starlight near the sun’s rim. Gonzalez and Richards seem to think general relativity would not have been discovered (assuming that the theories of physics are “out there” to be discovered) had we lived on a planet without the coincidence of angular diameters. That is very dubious, since many other tests of general relativity have been made that do not involve eclipses.

At the time that Gonzalez worked with Ward and Brownlee, he was also a frequent contributor to the newsletter Connections and other pamphlets published by Hugh Ross’s evangelical organization, Reasons to Believe. In these writings, Gonzalez presented many of the arguments for cosmic design later published in The Privileged Planet.

Darling discloses that Ward and Brownlee were apparently unaware of Gonzalez’s theological views, which Gonzalez admits he kept to himself at the University of Washington “because of the open hostility to such views among many faculty.” Gonzalez has since moved to Iowa State University, where he presumably finds the atmosphere more congenial.

The Smithsonian was also apparently unaware of the fact that the Discovery Institute, the well-funded organization based in Seattle that is leading the political battle to weaken the teaching of evolution in the schools and install Intelligent Design pseudoscience, had produced the film. The Smithsonian initially accepted a $16,000 fee for the showing, not realizing that their own rules against presenting political or religious material were being violated.

The well-documented purpose of the Discovery Institute and its arm, the Center for Science and Culture (originally the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture), is to drive “wedges” between materialistic science and the rest of society and to redraw science and culture along evangelical-Christian lines. Gonzalez and Richards are fellows of the Center. Other fellows include Intelligent Design gurus Michael Behe and William Dembski and master debater William Lane Craig.

When, after intense media attention, the religious nature of the film came into the open, the Smithsonian withdrew its cosponsorship, stating: “We have determined that the content of the film is not consistent with the mission of the Smithsonian Institution’s scientific research.” They allowed the film to be shown but turned down the payment.

Of course, Gonzalez and Richards are entitled to their views, but this tale provides yet another illustration of the stealthy nature of the strategy behind the Discovery campaign to “renew science and culture.” The Privileged Planet represents a new, cosmic wedge in the Discovery arsenal. (Why can’t one have an arsenal of wedges?) It joins with Intelligent Design as another form of stealth creationism, claiming to be science but motivated by religion. We can only wonder why a group of people who claim a special pipeline to the source of truth and morality feel they can’t be honest with the rest of us.