SI DIGEST 8-11-98
SkeptInq@aol.com
Tue, 11 Aug 1998 09:35:01 EDT
SI DIGEST AUGUST 11 1998
SI Electronic Digest is the biweekly e-mail news update of the Committee for
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This week's SI DIGEST includes:
--SKEPTICAL INQUIRER September/October Preview
--RELEASE: Allen and Nickell Track Dorothy Allison and JonBenet Ramsey
--FEATURE: Myth and Mystery in Southern Climes
--Atlanta Journal-Constitution Measures Paranormal Belief in the American
South
_____________________________________________________________________
SKEPTICAL INQUIRER September/October PREVIEW
SPECIAL SECTION: Remarkable or Random?
COINCIDENCES: REMARKABLE OR RANDOM?
Most improbable coincidences likely result from play of random events. The
very nature of randomness assures that combing random data will yield some
pattern
BRUCE MARTIN is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of
Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.
NUMEROLOGY: COMES THE REVOLUTION
Strange things can happen by coincidence. Strange things must happen by
coincidence. Fifty-sevens in the American Revolution provide an example.
UNDERWOOD DUDLEY is Professor of Mathematics at DePauw University.
CALCULATED RISKS
We are notoriously bad at assessing risks. Cultural context and human
psychology come into play at least as much as statistical realities. For
instance, our perceptual apparatus is geared towards exotic, personal,
dramatic threats. This doesn't mean we're ignorant; just human. K.C. COLE is
a science writer at the Los Angeles Times.
ARTICLES
HOW TO STUDY WEIRD THINGS
Many students are asking to study unconventional topics. There are
strategies for working with these students that increase their critical
aptitude and analytical reasoning without disenchanting them with science and
traditional disciplines. FRANK TROCCO teaches at Lesley College,
Massachusetts and Vermont College, Vermont.
WHY WOULD PEOPLE NOT BELIEVE WEIRD THINGS
Instead of being appalled at the gullibility of the general public, perhaps
we should be surprised that they believe so few strange things. Compared to
widely held religious beliefs and the even more astounding notions of physics,
things like ESP, UFOs, and astrology seem rather plausible. WAYNE R. ANDERSON
teaches physics and astronomy at Sacramento City College, CA.
STARKLE, STARKLE, LITTLE TWINK
There is an informal, effective way to challenge astrology that is neither a
disdainful dismissal nor a tedious, scientific recital. It is just a matter
of asking some simple questions. JUDITH HAYES is a freelance writer and
currently Senior Writer at the American Rationalist.
OF PLANETS AND COGNITIONS: THE USE OF DEDUCTIVE INFERENCE IN THE NATURAL
SCIENCES AND PSYCHOLOGY
Inferences of unobserved cognitive events in psychology are not the same as
the inference of the recently discovered, but unobserved extrasolar planets in
astronomy. Unlike astronomy, or the other natural sciences, psychology has no
experimental foundations of laws that justify such inferences. HENRY D.
SCHLINGER JR. is an associate professor of psychology at Western New England
College.
COLUMNS
NOTES OF A FRINGE WATCHER: What's Going On at Temple University
Martin Gardner
INVESTIGATIVE FILES: Alien Implants: The New "Hard" Evidence
Joe Nickell
PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS: Apocalypse Foiled Again: UFOlogists Shoot for the Moon
Robert Sheaffer
____________________________________________________________________
FEATURE: MYTH AND MYSTERY IN SOUTHERN CLIMES
Joe Nickell
Matt Nisbet
As the world shrinks and modern technology advances, the lands to the south
continue to intrigue. With their vast, remote regions and rich cultural
history, Mexico and Latin and South America naturally evoke mystery.
It is, however, a short step from the lure of genuine enigmas to the plagues
of mystery mongering, conspiracy theorizing, and outright hoaxing -- plagues
that have often victimized the truth behind the legacies of these tropical
civilizations. Here are several examples from the files -- the "ex-files" --
of Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
ANCIENT EFFIGIES. Certain masterworks of the native population have been both
deservedly celebrated and greatly misrepresented. These include the massive
stone heads that stare vaguely skyward from Easter Island, and Peru's Nazca
drawings, figures of birds and other creatures so large they can only be
properly viewed from an airplane -- or a spaceship. To Erich von Däniken,
author of the 1970s bestseller Chariots of the Gods, these are evidence of
visits by "ancient astronauts." Supposedly it was their advanced technology
that helped the "primitive" natives produce the effigies -- possibly as
landing beacons or as offerings to the extraterrestrial "gods."
In fact, Easter Island's quarries contain unfinished, abandoned statues --
believed to honor ancestral rulers -- that provide mute testimony of their
stone-ax creation. In 1955 explorer Thor Heyerdahl commissioned the island's
inhabitants to re-erect one of the fallen statues. Through sweat and toil they
accomplished the task by using the "heave-ho" approach von Däniken disparaged.
Despite such convincing counter-evidence, Von Däniken's conjecture lives on as
fantasy fodder for numerous books and cable television documentaries on the
unexplained.
Similarly, the Nazca effigies -- which may have had astronomical/religious
significance -- are clearly associated with the ancient Nazca Indian culture.
A front-cover story in Skeptical Inquirer (Spring 1983) demonstrated how such
giant figures -- like the 440-foot-long "condor" -- could be duplicated using
only sticks and cord, together with some "native" ingenuity. As to the
possibility of extraterrestrials landing on the soft desert, the late Nazca
expert Maria Reiche commented: "I'm afraid the spacemen would've gotten
stuck."
SKULL OF DOOM. A remarkable rock-crystal death's head, supposedly fashioned
without the aid of tools, has been attributed to the mythical sunken continent
of Atlantis. Its owner, Anna Mitchell-Hedges, claims she found it on her
seventeenth birthday during her adoptive father's excavation of the lost Mayan
city of Lubaantun in Belize (then British Honduras). Once said to bode ill to
anyone who would mock it, the crystal skull has been rehabilitated by New
Agers who ascribe to it the powers of fortune telling and healing.
Actually the artifact, which does show evidence of tool work, resembles rock-
crystal skulls made by the Aztecs as a symbol of death. Not only is there no
proof Miss Mitchell-Hedges was at Lubaantun but documentary evidence proves
her father simply bought the item at a Sotheby's sale. And there is no
scientific evidence that the famous skull has properties different from other
crystalline quartz. (See Joe Nickell with John F. Fischer, Secrets of the
Supernatural, Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1988, pp. 29-46.)
IMAGE OF GUADALUPE. A portrait of the Virgin Mary, said to be "made without
hands" and to be scientifically inexplicable, is enshrined in a Mexico City
church. Attracting more pilgrims than any other Catholic shrine except the
Vatican, the image is widely reproduced in the form of icons, religions
medals, neon signs, even tattoos. According to pious legend, it appeared as a
"sign" on a peasant's cloak, just after the Spanish conquest. Due in part to
confusion of the image with that of their own Virgin goddess, Tonantzin, the
Aztecs were soon converted to Catholicism.
In fact, if the image were scientifically inexplicable it would be because
independent scientists are not permitted to examine it. However, photographic
enlargements show obvious signs of artistry, including some places where paint
has obscured the cloth's weave and others where it has cracked. Infrared
photos reveal preparatory sketch lines beneath the paint. Also, the image
copies traditional Spanish portraits of Mary, and there is a report from an
investigation of 1556 that the work was done by an Indian painter named
Marcos. (See Skeptical Inquirer, Spring 1985, pp. 243-55.)
EL CHUPACABRAS. In 1995, reports of a bloodthirsty beast known as El
Chupacabras ("the goatsucker") spread from Puerto Rico to Mexico and the
southern United States. The bulging eyed, reptilian creature-variously
assigned an extraterrestrial or supernatural origin-reportedly attacked goats,
rabbits, dogs, and cattle, sucking all the blood from them.
Investigation, however, soon showed the animals were not drained of blood,
and stakeouts invariably yielded nothing more exotic than wild dogs. The rest
was mass hysteria spread largely by sensationalized media reports.(See
Skeptical Inquirer, September/October 1996, pp. 12.)
MIRACULOUS SURGERY. Called "the surgeon of the rusty knife," Brazil's José
Arigo (1921-1971) supposedly performed operations with little pain or blood
and no infection. Despite folktales of his prowess, however, it appears that
Arigo simply performed primitive surgeries like lancing boils or removing
cysts, while prescribing antibiotics and mumbo-jumbo remedies. (His brother
ran the only pharmacy in the village.)
Other Brazilian healers have practiced "psychic surgery" whereby "tumors" or
other diseased tissue are supposedly removed with bare hands. Common also to
the Philippines, such effects are fraudulently produced by sleight of hand
using animal tissue and blood. (See Skeptical Inquirer, Fall/Winter 1977, pp.
104-110.)
MEXICAN UFO WAVE. During the 1990s, Mexico City and nearby locales have been
abuzz with flying saucers -- or at least unidentified flying objects. For
example, in 1991 a total solar eclipse attracted numerous skywatchers whose
camcorders captured luminous UFOs hovering overhead. And subsequent years
brought additional amateur and commercial footage of various "inexplicable"
phenomena.
While some waxed eloquent about Mayan cosmology, skeptics observed that some
of the photogenic UFOs were positioned precisely where Venus and other planets
and stars had been, and that other video sequences were indistinguishable from
hoaxes. (For more on UFOs see Philip J. Klass, UFOs Explained, New York:
Vintage, 1976.)
CARLOS CASTANEDA AND DON JUAN. Feeding on the New Age infatuation and drug
culture of the 1970s, anthropologist Carlos Castaneda (1925-1998) claimed to
be America's firsthand chronicler of don Juan Matus, a Yaquis Indian sorcerer
in Mexico whose powers included dream transport and miraculous herbal healing.
Castaneda devoted his Ph.D. dissertation at UCLA and ten best-selling books to
the art, magic and life of don Juan. In the process, Castaneda's extraordinary
stories helped inspire a close following of devotees and the fad of spiritual
shamanism.
Allegedly based on field experience, observations, and interviews with the
sorcerer among the exotic flora and fauna of the Mexican desert, Castaneda's
accounts are undermined by discrepancies in narrative time flow and by
peculiar inconsistencies in language. For example, don Juan never speaks Yaqui
nor does he use Spanish. Few names of Mexican plants are provided other than
Jimson weed, mescal, and hallucinogenic mushrooms. As author Gordon Stein
points out, although a "smoking gun" proving don Juan a hoax has not surfaced,
strong circumstantial evidence shows Castaneda's books rely on information
borrowed from other published sources, and not on field observations of a
Yaqui sorcerer. (See Skeptical Inquirer, Spring/Summer 1977 and Spring/Summer
1978.)
* * *
As these examples indicate, the exotic lands to the south are intriguing in
their own right. Charlatans, mystery mongers, and hoaxers, many times in an
effort to package and sell sensationalism to the media, simply divert
attention from the genuine wonders and mysteries that are best left to the
pursuit of science and reason.
--30--
Joe Nickell is Investigative Columnist for SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, The Magazine
for Science and Reason.
Matt Nisbet is Public Relations Director for the Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.)
____________________________________________________________________
PSYCHIC SLEUTH DOROTHY ALLISON & THE JONBENET RAMSEY MURDER
Author/Entertainer Steve Allen and Leading Paranormal Investigator Joe
Nickell Question Validity of Psychic Detective Work
For Immediate Release
Contact Matt Nisbet at 716-636-1425 X219
AMHERST, NY -- Self-claimed "police psychic" Dorothy Allison is trying to
insinuate herself into yet another high-profile murder case, that of child
beauty princess JonBenet Ramsey, whose tiny body was bludgeoned and strangled
in her parents' Boulder, Colorado, home on Christmas night 1996.
The Nutley, New Jersey, great-grandmother was featured on the April 27 airing
of LEEZA (The Leeza Gibbons Show), a program titled "Dorothy Allison: Tracking
JonBenet's Killer." Allison insisted that the little girl's parents were
"absolutely not" involved, and that the real killer was a former handyman. She
perceived "connections" to Germany and Georgia, the numbers 2-8-9, and the
names "Martin" and "Irving" -- the latter, she said, being "the one I think
that did this" (the murder). Working with a police artist, Allison produced a
drawing of the alleged killer.
Leeza emphasized that Allison had gone far out on the proverbial limb, and
some audience members seemed quite skeptical of the clairvoyant's "clues." One
woman challenged Allison to tell where the alleged murderer was, as Leeza
tactfully took the opportunity to go to a commercial break.
Psychics thrive on the media attention they can get from high-profile cases.
According to celebrated author and entertainer Steve Allen, co-chair of the
Council for Media Integrity:
"The important question, in cases of this sort, is to determine whether a)
the alleged psychic is a barefaced liar or b) honestly self-deluded, in the
way that many religious fanatics are. In the meantime television producers
must be urged to consult scientists and other authorities who are perfectly
aware of the essential absurdity of claims made by psychics, fortunetellers,
tarot-card readers, or astrologers. It is relevant to quote here a little
quatrain I wrote years ago in an album for children titled 'How to Think':
Look for the evidence. Look for the proof. Or else you're acting like an awful
goof."
Although Allison was billed as a "police psychic who helped solve 5,000
cases," the truth is quite different. A look at some of her prior "successes"
is revealing.
For example, in various media venues Allison is touted as having located a
missing child's body in 1967. According to an episode of TV's Crackdown on
Crime (1997), "Nutley Police asked her to find a missing five-year-old boy.
She did. He had drowned in a pipe during a storm."
In fact, every one of those statements is untrue. It was Dorothy Allison who
approached the police with her "vision." She did not find the boy's body, nor
did she in any way assist others in doing so. The body was not even in a
drainage pipe, as Allison alleged, and the police wasted considerable effort
and manpower in digging up a pipe she identified. The child's body was
actually discovered later, floating in a pond, by a man looking for a place to
bury his dead cat.
What self-styled psychics typically do is simply toss out some vague "clues."
Those invariably prove meaningless until after the crime is solved or the
victim located, whereupon the psychic interprets the statements in light of
the true facts. As an unimpressed Georgia police chief summed up a case in
which Allison had made pronouncements: "She said a whole lot of things, a
whole lot of opinions, partial information and descriptions. She said a lot.
If you say enough, there's got to be something that fits."
This process of after-the-fact matching, what critics call "retrofitting," is
the explanation for Allison's reputed success in another case, the murder of
Susan Jacobson. In fact, Jacobson's body, discovered in 1976 on Staten Island,
was found neither by Allison nor the police, but rather by a 13-year-old boy
who had been playing with friends. Allison's prior statement that she had
clairvoyantly seen "horses along a trail" was subsequently interpreted as a
"hit" because the cemetery where the victim was finally laid to rest had,
Allison stated, "once been a bridle path."
Psychics have other means of scoring apparent successes, including making
exaggerated or false claims about previous cases to uncritical reporters,
shrewdly studying local newspaper files and area maps, gleaning information
from family members or others associated with a tragedy, even impersonating
police and reportedly attempting to bribe detectives. Some credulous police
officers even help the psychic in the reinterpretation necessary to convert a
failure into an apparent success. The result is like painting a bullseye
around an arrow after it has lodged somewhere.
The fact is, there is no proof that Dorothy Allison - or anyone -- has ever
psychically located a body or solved a crime.
--30--
STEVE ALLEN, the creator of the "Tonight Show," is known as Hollywood's
"Renaissance Man." He is the author of several detective novels as well as
Dumbth and Gullible's Travels, guides to critical thinking (Prometheus Books.)
JOE NICKELL is recognized as the world's leading paranormal investigator and
is the author or editor of fifteen books including the forthcoming Crime
Science (University Press of Kentucky.)
_____________________________________________________________________
ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION MEASURES BELIEF IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH
In a three-part series published July 26-27 and August 1, the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution covered the results of a recent poll that compared
Southerner's attitudes towards God and the paranormal with belief levels in
other parts of the US You can read the results and articles by going to:
<A HREF="http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/bigstory/080198/force.html">http://w
ww.accessatlanta.com/ajc/bigstory/080198/force.html</A>