Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

Volume 23, Number 2, March/April 1999

• Buy this back issue
• The Ten-Percent Myth
• Investigative Files: The Silver Lake Serpent: Inflated Monster or Inflated Tale?
• Book Review: Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder

The Ten-Percent Myth
Someone has taken most of your brain away and you probably didn't even know it. Well, not taken your brain away, exactly, but decided that you don't use it. It's the old myth heard time and again about how people use only ten percent of their brains. While for the people who repeat that myth, it's probably true, the rest of us happily use all of our brains.
Benjamin Radford

Superstition and the Regression Effect
Whenever two variables are imperfectly correlated, an extreme value on one is likely to be matched by a less extreme value on the other. People's misunderstanding of this statistical fact results in a variety of superstitious beliefs, from the benign to the pernicious.
Justin Kruger, Kenneth Savitsky, and Thomas Gilovich

The Psychology of the Seance, From Experiment to Drama
In which the authors first conduct an experiment showing how suggestions and prior belief strongly determine what observers report seeing during a seance-then use the findings to perform five nights of public theater in a former Victorian prison as an entertaining way of communicating about skepticism and critical thinking.
Richard Wiseman, Clive Jeffreys, Matthew Smith, and Andy Nyman

Dowsing and Archaeology
Is There Something Underneath?
An examination of the available published evidence for dowsers' ability to trace hidden archaeological features shows that field tests were badly designed and executed.
Martijn van Leusen

Hidden Messages in DNA?
"Hidden messages" can be found in any text source, including the DNA code, whose four letters A, C, G, and T display certain patterns. However, the claimed DNA messages have trivial explanations and also emerge in artificial (randomly generated) DNA sequences.
Dan Larhammar and C. Aris Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann

The Real Chief Seattle Was Not a Spiritual Ecologist
Chief Seattle's 1854 Speech is widely accepted as demonstrating the superiority of Native American attitudes toward the environment. However, the chief never made the speech attributed to him.
William S. Abruzzi

Joint Pain and Weather
Despite the widespread belief in weather-related pain, and its acceptance as a real phenomenon by the medical community, how good is the evidence?
Donald C. Quick

Editor's Note

News and Comment

• Perspectives on the Media From Hollywood and Academia
• Candle in the Dark and Snuffed Candle Awards
• ABC's 20/20 Features Segment on 'Goggle Therapy' for Depression and Anxiety
• The Sagan Society of Georgia Celebrates Curiosity and Intellect
• Bennett Braun Case Update: Trials Set for May, July
• Six Psychics Offer Five Scenarios in Murder of JonBenet Ramsey
• Pioneer Balloonist Kittinger Agrees That Dummy Drops Spurred Some Roswell 'Aliens'
• Cryptozoological Web Sites Bring Out the Animal in Us

Notes of a Fringe-Watcher
Acupressure, Zone Therapy, and Reflexology
Martin Gardner

Investigative Files
The Silver Lake Serpent
Inflated Monster or Inflated Tale?
Joe Nickell

Psychic Vibrations
Aliens Menace Arizona and Attack Satellites While the Price of Exorcisms Keeps Rising
Rober Sheaffer

New Books

Articles of Note

Science Best Sellers

Forum
Straight Flush
Evolution, Complexity, and Progress
Ralph Estling

Letters to the Editor

Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder
By Richard Dawkins
Kendrick Frazier

Think to Win: The Power of Logic in Everyday Life
By S. Cannavo
Mark W. Durm

C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too
By John Diamond
Robert Lopresti

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