SI DIGEST 10-28-98
SkeptInq@aol.com
Thu, 29 Oct 1998 15:42:20 EST
SKEPTICAL INQUIRER ELECTRONIC DIGEST
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
OCTOBER 29, 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:
--ABC 20/20 Promotes Poor Science with "Goggle Therapy" Segment
--Nov. 14 CSICOP Conference on the Paranormal and the Media
--"Skeptics Confront the X-Files" at Harvard on Monday, Nov. 2
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
--FEATURE: Haunted Places or Haunted Minds?
--OPINION: Why Are We Pushing Witchcraft to Girls Instead of Science?
ABC 20/20 PROMOTES POOR SCIENCE WITH "GOGGLE THERAPY" SEGMENT
On Tuesday, October 20, the ABC 20/20 news program ran a segment on a new
therapy for depression and anxiety dubbed "goggle therapy." The therapy
involves placing a pair of taped goggles over the eyes. Each pair of goggles
has a small aperture on either the extreme left or right side. Wearing these
goggles is supposed to "stimulate" either the left or right hemisphere, and
therefore induce positive emotions.
Evidence featured in support of the therapy's effectiveness consisted
entirely of anecdotal testimony and poorly designed studies. After much hype
and fanfare, ABC 20/20 host Sam Donaldson suggested that viewers could "try
this at home."
Read a transcript of the segment at:
<A HREF="http://www.abcnews.com/onair/2020/transcripts/2020_goggles981021_tran
s.html">
http://www.abcnews.com/onair/2020/transcripts/2020_goggles981021_trans.html
</A>
The following is a summary and critique by Scott Lilienfeld, a psychologist
at Emory University and consulting editor with SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Lilienfeld
has sent a letter of protest to ABC 20/20 segment producers Meredith White and
Victor Neusfeld. He requests that ABC 20/20 retrack their story on goggle
therapy and provide an explicit apology to the public for poor science
reporting.
______________________________________________________________________
ABC's 20/20 Features Segment on "Goggle Therapy" for Depression and Anxiety
On October 21st, 1998, ABC's 20/20 news magazine program aired a
segment entitled "Can taped goggles heal emotional disorders?"
The segment was introduced by host Sam Donaldson, who proclaimed
goggle therapy as "an amazing medical discovery," a "cutting-edge
therapy," and "a breakthrough treatment for depression and
anxiety."
As ABC medical correspondent Dr. Timothy Johnson went on to
explain, the developer of goggle therapy is Dr. Fredric Schiffer,
a psychiatrist at Boston's McLean Hospital and author of the
recently released book, "Of Two Minds: The Revolutionary Science
of Dual Brain Psychology." The technique of goggle therapy is
disarmingly simple: the patient is asked to wear a pair of taped
goggles that contains a small opening over either the extreme
left or right side. Although some individuals report an increase
in anxiety after wearing the goggles, others report a decrease.
According to Schiffer, one has to "experiment" to find the
correct side on which to place the opening on the goggles,
because approximately an equal number of individuals prefer
"left-sided" goggles as "right-sided" goggles.
On the show, Dr. Johnson interviewed two patients who reported
dramatic improvements in mood after wearing the goggles. With the
exception of one sentence ("Some neuroscientists are skeptical"),
the 20/20 segment offered no hint that the efficacy of goggle
therapy had yet to be demonstrated. In fact, according to Dr.
Johnson, Schiffer's results showed that approximately 30% of
patients "report an intense response" to goggle therapy, "overall
about the same response reported with Prozac." Sam Donaldson
concluded the segment by encouraging viewers to "try [goggle
therapy] at home."
According to Schiffer's book, the rationale underlying goggle
therapy derives largely from the research of Richard Davidson
and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin, who have
found that the left and right hemispheres of the brain appear to
be specialized for positive and negative emotions, respectively.
According to Schiffer, the opening in the goggles stimulates the
hemisphere on the opposite side of the head, along with this
hemisphere's corresponding emotional state. Strangely enough,
however, Schiffer's findings concerning the marked differences
in left vs. right-sided goggle preferences across individuals
contradict Davidson's findings, which reveal the same pattern of
laterality across virtually all individuals.
After watching the 20/20 segment, I decided to investigate goggle
therapy in greater depth. My literature search turned up a total
of one article published in a peer-reviewed journal. This
manuscript, which was published by Schiffer in the journal
Comprehensive Psychiatry in 1997, examined 70 psychiatric patients
who wore both the goggles developed by Schiffer and a pair of
"control" goggles, which permitted monocular vision. Schiffer
found that most patients reported changes (either increases or
decreases) in anxiety after 45 seconds when wearing the former
sets of goggles, but not the control goggles. There was no overall
difference in anxiety produced by left-sided versus right-sided
goggles, although many preferred one side over the other.
These data are difficult to interpret. First, they say nothing
about whether the effects of goggle therapy persist beyond
several minutes, let alone days or weeks, and are therefore
irrelevant to the therapeutic potential of goggle therapy for
depression and anxiety disorders. Second, because Schiffer
himself elicited reports of emotional changes from patients, his
findings are potentially attributable to experimenter expectancy
(i.e., cueing) effects. Third, Schiffer's findings may indicate
only that obstructing individuals' vision amplifies whatever mood
state they are currently experiencing. Because Schiffer did not
re-test his patients to ascertain the stability of their side
preferences, it is impossible to determine whether these
preferences were systematic or merely random.
The bottom line: goggle therapy remains entirely unsubstantiated
as a psychological treatment, and 20/20's uncritical promotion of
this technique was both scientifically and journalistically
irresponsible. Time will tell whether goggle therapy proves to be
a significant advance in the treatment of emotional disorders.
In the meantime, potential consumers of goggle therapy are well
advised to recall Hume's dictum that "extraordinary claims
require extraordinary evidence." As it currently stands,
Schiffer's evidence is surprisingly unimpressive.
- Scott O. Lilienfeld
Scott O. Lilienfeld is an assistant professor of psychology at Emory
University in Atlanta and a Skeptical Inquirer consulting editor.
_________________
NOV. 14 CSICOP L.A. CONFERENCE ON THE PARANORMAL AND THE MEDIA
THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!
Hollywood, the Media and the Supernatural
Saturday, November 14
Los Angeles, CA
LA Renaissance Hotel
9620 Airport Blvd.
310-337-2800
***To register, call 1-800-634-1610 or e-mail SINISBET@aol.com. Include
Credit Card Number, type and expiration date, as well as numbers attending.***
Daily the world public is offered a steady diet of uncritical media
presentations of the paranormal ranging from The X-Files to psychics on Larry
King Live and Oprah Winfrey. Lucrative media promotion of the paranormal
abounds with examples including blockbuster films like Independence Day and
Men In Black, Art Bell's top rated radio mystery mongering , syndicated
pseudo-documentaries like Dan Akroyd's Psi Factor, and network specials
including NBC's The Mysterious Origins of Man and Fox's Alien Autopsy.
Why is media promotion of the paranormal and pseudoscience so profitable?
What can be done about the negative portrayal of science and the uncritical
presentation of the paranormal? Do media presentations of the paranormal
influence what people believe?
Join CSICOP and the Council for Media Integrity for an informative and
entertaining discussion of these topics involving top media researchers,
scientists and members of the entertainment industry.
Launched in 1996 at the World Skeptics Congress, the Council for Media
Integrity is an international network of prominent scientists, academics and
members of the media dedicated to the balanced portrayal of science in the
media. The Council for Media Integrity is sponsored by CSICOP and Skeptical
Inquirer, the Magazine for Science and Reason.
<A HREF="http://www.csicop.org/cmi/">http://www.csicop.org/cmi/</A>
SCHEDULE
9-920 Introduction: The Council for Media Integrity
920-10 Critical Perspective from Hollywood
Author/Entertainer Steve Allen
10-1100 The Need to Sensationalize
Justin Gunn, host of Sci-Fi Channel's The Web
11-1200 Scientific Illiteracy in America and the Mass Media
Jere Lipps, Professor of Integrative Biology, Unversity of California,
Berkeley
12-100 Lunch
(Includes grilled breast of chicken with proscuitto ham and mozzarella,
marsala wine sauce)
1-200 Alien Autopsies from Across the Globe
Trey Stokes, special effects creator, whose credits include Starship Troopers
2-300 Science and Reason in Film and Television
William Evans, Professor of Communications, Georgia State University
3-400 Reflections from a Skeptic in Hollywood
Peter Bonerz, television director, whose credits include Friends, Murphy
Brown, and Home Improvement.
4-500 Media Portrayals of the Paranormal: Do They Effect What People
Believe?
Glenn Sparks, Professor of Communications, Purdue University
5-545 Roundtable Discussion and Q&A with Sparks, Evans, Stokes, Lipps,
Bonerz, Gunn and others
REGISTRATION IS $50 PER PERSON, PLUS $20 IF ATTENDING LUNCH.
***To register, call 1-800-634-1610 or e-mail SINISBET@aol.com to register.
Include Credit Card Number and expiration date, as well as numbers
attending.***
_________________
SKEPTICS CONFRONT THE X-FILES AT HARVARD ON NOV. 2
CSICOP Public Relations Director Matt Nisbet will be giving a multi-media
presentation at the Harvard Science Center at Harvard University, Boston on
November 2. The title of the talk is "Skeptics vs. The X-Files: The
Paranormal and the Media." Nisbet reviews the distortion of science in the
media and identifies a crisis of scientific illiteracy among twenty-somethings
living in a post-modern culture. The talk is part of the Skeptical Inquirer
Lecture series offered to universities across the country.
Monday, November 2
Harvard Science Center
Auditorium D
Harvard University, Boston MA
For more information about the Skeptical Inquirer Lecture Series, contact
Matt Nisbet at 716-636-1425 X219 or at SINISBET@aol.com.
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL:
HAUNTED PLACES OR HAUNTED MINDS?
Joe Nickell
Matt Nisbet
Tales of ghosts have fired the popular imagination since earliest times. Even
in today's technologically and scientifically advanced world, belief in ghosts
remains strong. A 1996 Gallup poll revealed that 33% of Americans believe that
houses can be haunted, and 30% believe that ghosts or spirits of dead people
come back in certain places and situations.
Given such healthy percentages, America has become a lucrative market for
ghost claims. Maybe the most famous, and certainly the most mass-marketed tale
of haunting is that of the alleged "Amityville Horror." In December, 1974,
George and Kathy Lutz moved into a new home in Amityville, New York, a
community on Long Island. Twenty-eight days later, the Lutzes fled the house,
claiming they had been driven from their home by demonic forces. The claimed
impetus for the demonic haunting? Little more than a year earlier in November
1973, the house had been the site of tragic murders. Ronald Defeo had shot to
death his parents, two sisters, and two brothers. At trial, Defeo had claimed
he had heard voices in the house instructing him to kill.
Soon a book was in the offing. The Amityville Horror, boldly subtitled A True
Story, came out in 1977 and promptly went through thirteen printings by 1978.
In July of 1979, the book was released as a box-office movie hit, leading to
multiple sequels still in video release today. But upon release of the film,
the Lutz's attorney, William Weber, revealed that the elaborate tale was a
hoax. "We created this horror story over many bottles of wine that George Lutz
was drinking," Weber told the Associated Press. "We were really playing with
each other. We were creating something the public wanted to hear about."
Since tales of ghosts can be alluring to the imagination and headline
grabbing, it is wise to hold to methods of inquiry that evaluate such claims
rationally and scientifically. In over twenty five years of ghostbusting, an
international organization, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of
Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) has yet to identify a haunted place, only
many psychological effects leading to haunted minds.
In some instances, the phenomenon is merely an illusion or misperception. For
example, at Toronto's historic Mackenzie House, late at night, ghostly
footfalls on the stairs were heard by different caretaker families even though
there were no intruders in the house at the time. Investigation revealed the
sounds were coming from a parallel iron staircase in the building next door,
and that the unknown entities were members of the cleanup crew.
Another common haunting phenomenon is a simple but powerful type of
hallucination. It is typified by another example from the Mackenzie House,
when a caretaker's wife woke to see a man in a frock coat standing by her
bedside. In such cases, although the witness' eyes are open, he or she may
nevertheless be dreaming, resulting in a vivid experience known as a "waking
dream."
In addition to the bedside phantom, some percipients report seeing
apparitions -- "as real as real" -- while clearly awake. Such persons
sometimes even have a personal, household ghost or "familiar", and may be
classified as fantasy-prone personalities. These individuals may also assume
identities as self-styled mediums or psychics, religious visionaries, or UFO
abductees.
Then there are the deliberate hoaxes. Poltergeist ("noisy spirit") cases tend
to be of this type. Often the disruptive phenomena, such as objects flung
across a room or lights turned off and on, can be traced to a child in the
household. While parapsychologists generally attribute the disturbances to
energy forces associated with puberty, the evidence of numerous cases reveals
the effects are actually deliberate acts of hostility or means of attracting
attention.
The power of suggestion is a major influence in spreading ghostly reports.
One witness may persuade another of an event, a phenomenon known by the French
expression folie a deux or "folly of two", or there may be a bandwagon effect
involving many persons, a type of influence called psychological contagion. In
the case of a haunted lodge near Santa Cruz, California, for instance, where
ghostly antics were reportedly proliferating, the owner recognized how the
"ghost" was really influencing his staff: "That's all they talk about," he
told SKEPTICAL INQUIRER magazine. As a centerpiece of conversation, tales of
ghosts and spirits fed off each other, prompting and supporting further
speculation among the staff about strange happenings and perceived
occurrences.
Over the centuries, perceptions of ghosts have evolved. Each historic period
perceives an apparition in terms of its own cultural attitude. During the
Inquisition, sightings featured souls trapped in purgatory. The Victorian age
brought visions of silent gray ladies, while modern day reports include
everything from sightings of tragically killed children to turn-of-the-
millennium demons. Skepticism of extraordinary claims like those of hauntings,
however, should remain constant. So next time you hear a tale of a haunted
house, or if at some astounding moment you think you have witnessed a ghost,
resist the temptation to instantly believe, and always insist that verifiable,
sound evidence be provided.
--30--
Joe Nickell is investigative columnist for SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, The Magazine
for Science and Reason. He is author of fifteen investigative books including
Entities, Secrets of the Supernatural and the forthcoming Crime Science. He
has over twenty-five years experience investigating hauntings and haunted
places.
Matt Nisbet is Public Relations Director for the Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.) www.csicop.org
WHY ARE WE PUSHING WITCHCRAFT ON GIRLS INSTEAD OF SCIENCE?
Matt Nisbet
Sometimes the games that children play can have serious consequences. On
October 20, at a Maryland high school, fifteen-year-old Jamie Schoonover was
sent home from school with a referral slip noting that she was disciplined for
"casting a spell on a student." A classmate had accused Schoonover, an
admitted practicing witch and the daughter of a witch, of placing a hex on
her.
The news may sound bizarre or like something from Arthur Miller's The
Crucible, but the incident is the latest in a brewing national fascination
with witchcraft. Estimates vary, but there are between 400,000 to 3 million
practitioners of Wicca in the United States. Adherents to the religion, male
and female, call themselves witches or Wiccans, and are actively battling for
religious acceptance and tolerance for their beliefs. Some claim that Wicca
is the fastest growing religion in the country.
In sorting which witch is which in this matter, anthropologists identify four
types of witches common to popular Western imagination. The "satanic witch"
was persecuted as a devil worshiper during the Inquisition and the Salem
witchhunts, and the image still abounds among evangelical Christians who warn
of the existence of widespread satanic cults in the United States.
The "tribal witch" represents the dualism of good and evil magic found in the
native religions of American Indian, African-Carribbean, and Pacific Islander
cultures. The tribal witch is thought to be the opposite of the benevolent
healer or shaman and is often made the societal scapegoat for ill fortune or
hardship. Recent political turmoil in South Africa and Java have sparked
national witchhunts resulting in hundreds of murders fueled by jealously,
fear, superstition and prejudice. The "fairy tale witch" is the hideous crone
found in fables such as Hansel and Gretal and The Wizard of Oz.
Wicca, however, falls under the category of what anthropologists call "neo-
pagan witch," with most Wiccans tracing their origin to pre-Christian times
and Celtic druidism. Wicca has nothing in common with so-called satanic
witchcraft, and Wiccans do not profess a belief in Satan, but rather in a
female goddess that resides within all things natural. Most Wiccans maintain
a belief in psychic ability including clairvoyance, psychokinesis and spirit
communication. The feminist movement has found an agreeable companion in
Wicca, with the religion's emphasis on self-empowerment (often through
supernatural means), matriarchal deism, and female spiritual leaders.
Like many things in culture straddling the boundary between the mainstream
and the fringe, Hollywood and other sectors of the media, including book and
magazine publishers, have co-opted the rich subject matter of Wicca and
witchcraft into an explosion of books, films and magazine articles. Currently
in theaters is the sister-story-turned-supernatural-yarn Practical Magic with
Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock. Television has taken notice with the top-
rated ABC sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch and WB Network's Charmed. Book
sales have jumped since the late 1980s, with today's hottest titles in
witchcraft, typically a combination of memoirs and New Age self-help,
approaching 40,000 copies sold. Spin Magazine in its "Grrrl [sic} Power"
issue ranked witchcraft as the top interest among teenage girls. Even
advertisers are trying to charm consumers as Finesse Shampoo, Cover Girl
cosmetics and Camel cigarettes feature witches in their ad campaigns.
The result is that the cottage industry of Wicca, with its folksy word-of-
mouth growth, has been mutated into the latest Hollywood-driven fad. But do
we really need all this magical thinking? Why are we pushing witchcraft on
teenage girls when we desperately need to be selling girls on science and
math?
Even without the burden of the magical thinking of witchcraft, long-existing
cultural barriers already hold back girls from performing on equal ground with
boys in math and science. According to a 1992 report by the Wellesley College
for Research on Women, on Advanced Placement exams girls lag behind boys in
math, physics, and biology. On the 1991 SAT, girls scored 44 points lower
than boys in math. The National Sciences Foundation reported that in 1991
girls earned only 29 percent of the science and engineering doctorates awarded
in the United States.
Unfortunately, the late 1990s is a postmodern world where reality is
conceived as multitudinous, and taken as the latest image flashed across the
television screen or the hottest billion dollar ad campaign to arrive from
Madison Avenue. Parents and schools are responsible for providing a solid
grounding in the sciences and math and for teaching critical thinking. But
the media also shares some of the burden. Society is constantly and
relentlessly bombarded with media presentations of pseudoscience, fantasy and
the paranormal. Witchcraft is only the latest example of a media-driven
paranormal fad and certainly not the last.
--30--
Matt Nisbet is Public Relations Director for the Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.)
________________________