SI DIGEST 4-23-98

SkeptInq (SkeptInq@aol.com)
Thu, 23 Apr 1998 15:29:49 EDT 

 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER ELECTRONIC DIGEST
 For free Digest subscriptions, go to:
 http://www.csicop.org/list/index.html#subscribe

 April 23, 1998

 SI Electronic Digest is the bi-weekly e-mail news update of the Committee for
 the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.)

 Visit http://www.csicop.org.

 The Digest is written and edited by Matthew Nisbet and Barry Karr.  SI Digest
has over 2000 readers worldwide, and is distributed via e-mail from the Center
for Inquiry-International, Amherst N.Y., USA.

 PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR SKEPTICAL FRIENDS.

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 http://www.csicop.org/list/index.html#subscribe
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 Send comments, media inquiries and news to:
 SINISBET@aol.com (716-636-1425)

 CSICOP publishes the bi-monthly SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, The Magazine for Science
and Reason. To subscribe at the $17.95 introductory price, call 1800-634-1610.
The March/April issue features "Houdini and Conan Doyle: The Story of a
Strange Friendship" by Massimo Polidoro.

 In this week's SI DIGEST:

 --MEDIA ALERT: Unproven Claims of Best Selling Author Caroline Myss
 --OPINION: Paul Kurtz on the New Mediacracy.
 --SKEPTICAL INQUIRER MAY/JUNE PREVIEW
 --SKEPTIC NEWS FROM DOWN UNDER

 MEDIA ALERT: Unproven Claims of Best Selling Author Caroline Myss

 OPINION:  PAUL KURTZ ON THE NEW MEDIACRACY

 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER PREVIEW: THE ALIEN FILES

 "Like it or not, the aliens are among us.  The theme of crashed saucers,
alien visitations, alien abductions, and related folderol are embedded in
modern popular culture" writes SKEPTICAL INQUIRER editor Kendrick Frazier in
the introduction to the May/June 1998 issue of SI.

 The bi-monthly magazine tackles the alien infatuation with a special section
titled "The Alien Files."  Articles include:
 ____
 Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis?
 Susan Blackmore

 A Roper poll claimed that nearly four million Americans have had certain
"indicator" experiences and therefore had probably been abducted by aliens.
But a study of 126 school children and 224 undergraduates shows knowledge of
aliens is related more to watching television than to having the relevant
experiences.

 Blackmore is in the Department of Psychology at the Univ. of West England,
Brisol UK.
 ____
 Investigative Files Column:  Alien Abductions as Sleep-Related Phenomena
 Joe Nickell

 CSICOP Senior Research Fellow and SI Investigative Columnist Nickell analyzes
Whitley Streiber's _The Communion Letters_ (1997) for instances of sleep-
related phenomena.
 _____
 Before Roswell:  The Meaning Behind the Crashed-UFO Myth
 Robert E. Bartholomew

 Stories about a crashed saucer in the New Mexico desert are part of a broader
myth dating back to at least eighty-five years before Roswell.  What makes
this myth so appealing?

 Bartholomew is in the Department of Psychology at James Cook University,
Australia.
 ______
 Case Closed: Reflections on the 1997 Air Force Roswell Report
 Bernard Gildenberg and David E. Thomas

 The Air Force Crash dummy explanation of the Roswell "bodies" was not a
desperate attempt to preserve the Roswell coverup, as UFO promoters would have
us believe.  Rather, clues that anthropomorphic test dummies may have been
mistaken for "aliens" came from testimonies of the Roswell "alien body"
witnesses themselves.  The 1997 Air Force Case Closed report, and new findings
presented in this article, provide intriguing new speculations on the origin
of various parts of the Roswell legend.

 Gildenberg (USAF, ret.) served for thirty years as a meteorologist, engineer,
and scientist at the Holloman Air Force Base Balloon Branch in Alamogordo, New
Mexico.  He contributed to the Air Force Case Closed report and was also
involved in Project Blue Book.  Thomas is a physicist and SKEPTICAL INQUIRER
Consulting Editor, and President for New Mexicans for Science and Reason.

 ______
 Gray Barker: My Friend, the Myth-Maker
 John Sherwood

 Gray Barker, who raised the "Men in Black" concept to prominence in UFO lore,
didn't mind if the sensational flying-saucer stories he published were made
up--as long as they were presented as fact.  To him it was all a joke.  Here
John Sherwood ("Dr. Richard Pratt") for the first time confresses his role in
Barker's flying-saucer, "Men in Black" myth-making.

 John C. Sherwood is opinion-page editor for the Battle Creek Enquirer in
Battle Creek, Michigan.
 ______
 A Skeptic Living in Roswell
 Martha Churchill

 Roswell residents generally regard the UFO hoopla as harmelss fun and a
source of tourist dollars.  Local civic leaders ignore the dark side of UFO
mania, especially its common roots with sex-abuse hysteria and urban legends
such as satanic cults.


 Martha Churchill was living in Roswell, New Mexico, in late 1997 when she
wrote this article.  She was an attorney with the Bennett Law Office, about
one block away from the UFO museum.

 ALSO FEATURED IN THE MAY/JUNE ISSUE OF SI:

 Zero Point Energy and Harold Puthoff
 Martin Gardner

 In his immensely popular column "Notes of a Fringe Watcher", Gardner examines
the latest efforts of physicist Harold Puthoff to tap the fluctuating energy
of supposedly empty space-time.  Puthoff is none other than the same Harold
Putoff who along with Russel Targ validated the psychic powers of Uri Geller
back in 1976.

 _______
 Multiple Personality Disorder: Witchcraft Survives in the Twentieth Century
 August Piper Jr.

 Since 1980, some psychotherapists have claimed that thousands of Americans
are afflicted with multiple personality disorder.  Believing such claims
requires ignoring their many serious deficiencies.


 SKEPTICS HIT THE AIRWAVES DOWN UNDER

 The following is a message from Barry Williams of the Australian Skeptics
detailing recent publicity for their group and the latest fringe claims from
down under.

 CSICOP sponsors a network of skeptics groups in more than 35 countries across
the globe.  If you have an interest in starting a skeptic group in your
country or are seeking contact information, e-mail Matt Nisbet, CSICOP Public
Relations Director, at SINISBET@aol.com.
 ____________________________
 As in the US, April 1 proved to be a very successful day for Skeptics in
Australia.

 On March 31, I pre-recorded an interview with the Australian Broadcasting
Company (ABC) radio network which was aired nationwide at 3.00am on April 1.
It was a general discussion about what April Fool's stunts the Skeptics had
participated in and I replied that every day was a bit like April Fools to a
full time Skeptic, in that the date seemed to have no bearing on the type of
unbelievable notions people kept calling me about.

 At 1pm, the National Press Club in Canberra broadcast (radio and TV) a talk
 by Prof Ian Plimer on his trials and tribulations with creationists and the
 court system.  He gave a glowing testimonial to Australian Skeptics as his
 main supporters, which resulted in a large number of calls to our phone
 from people wanting to become subscribers.

 On Saturday, March 28, Dr Richard Gordon (President), Harry Edwards
 (Secretary), Richard Lead (Treasurer) and I took part in a test of Infinity
 Ultima Thule "empowered water" at Channel 7 studios in Sydney. The results
 were shown on the "Today Tonight" current affairs programme on April 1
(appropriately).

 On April 2, a story broke about "poltergeist" activity in a house in the
vicinity of Darwin, Northern Territory.  The Darwin Skeptics (sounds like they
should be creationists with a name like that, but they aren't) have been
interviewed by the media, and the same journalist (Greg Quail) from Channel 7
who did the water story is flying to Darwin with seven cameras to cover the
story in depth. He is very skeptical of things like this, so we'll see how it
turns out. It is still breaking, and I might even get a trip to Darwin out of
it (which would be like you flying to Fairbanks,
 Alaska).

 Cheers
 Barry Williams

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