The Skeptical Inquirer
leyden note:

There is a magazine called the Skeptical Inquirer --- whose mission is to punch holes in the "science" of faith healing; talking apes; out of body experiences; and all that pseudo-science stuff.

The purpose of The Skeptical Inquirer is to combat nonsense.

It does so by recourse to common sense, which means that it is accessible to anyone who can read English. It does not require any special knowledge or training to read its pages, in which nonsensical claims are routinely smashed to smithereens. . . . All that is required to read this maverick journal is curiosity about the nature of Truth. . . . Its pages are filled with lively and humorous writing--the combat of ideas in its most enjoyable form. . . The Skeptical Inquirer is flourishing and provides a refreshing antidote to the jargon-laden ( leyden-ed ? )journals of technical science, which often seem to be curiously irrelevant to concerns of everyday life. . . . The list of topics covered so far is astonishingly diverse. .

"Certainly one will never be able to eradicate the vast ocean of irrationality that all of us are surrounded by, but the ambition of The Skeptical Inquirer has never been quite that great; it has been, rather, to be a steady buoy in that tumultuous sea to which one could cling. It has been to promote a healthy band of skepticism in as large a number of people as possible."

"This journal has been a lone voice in a sea of irrationality. High-quality articles with plenty of references usually right on target."

THE LECTURE SERIES AT CALTECH

The Skeptics Society sponsors a monthly lecture series at Caltech, generally meeting once a month on Sunday afternoons. Past lectures have included ===

James "The Amazing" Randi on pseudoscience.

leyden note: Randi is a magician-turned-honest. He won one of the McArthur Awards ( the 'genius awards' and the non-genius Fourth Estate likes to call them ) -- and says scientists have a hard time disproving a lot of this stuff because scientists look for scientific reasons. He ( randi ) can disprove a lot of this because he knows there is a 'trick' involved -- no 'reasoning' is involved. Randi has actually recorded the voice of god on tape --- and found out god is a woman !

The society also sponsors science related social functions, including a private tour of the Griffith Observatory, a private evening at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, a science fair, a firewalk, a geology tour and even a "seance."

Caltech lectures are are available on audio and video tapes. SKEPTIC back issues - - @ $6

Vol.I,#l -- A TRIBUTE TO I.ASIMOV AND THE SKEPTICAL MANIFESTO -- Vol.1, #2 --

CAN SCIENCE CHEAT DEATH ?

Cryonics. Immortality, Near-Death Experiences

Vol.1, #3 -- REVOLUTION IN EVOLUTION ?

Could and Punctuated Equilibrium; Historic Darwrn Sketch; Edgar Cayce

Vol.1, #4 -- WITCHES, HERETICS, AND SCIENTISTS

How Science Encouraged Belief 0f Witchcraft; Copernicus; The Psychology of Resistance to Radical New Ideas in the Church and Science.

Vol.2, #1-- GENIUS THE MYTHS AND REALITY

Sieve Allen. Paul MacCready, lames Randi. Marilyn Vos Savant, Elie Shuenur; Arthur Benjamin on Genius; James Gleick on Richard Feynman.

Vol. 2, #2 -- SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND CULTS

Waco; Steve Allen; 25 Creationist Claims & 25 Evolutionist Answers; Contemporary Resurrection Myths; Physics & Religion; The Unlikeliest Cult.

Vol.2, #3 -- FAD PSYCHOLOGY

False Memory Syndrome; Facilitated Communication; William Reich; Real Sen Differences ; Pseudo-psychiatry; Flood Myths; The Great Ark Hoax

Vol.2, #4 -- THE HOLOCAUST REVISIONISTS

Revisionists--what they ray & why they ray it; Columbus Evireme Afro-centrism

Vol.3, #1 -- PSUEUDO-MEDICINE

Gould and Punctuated equilibrium; Historic Darwin Sketch; Edgar Cayce.

Vol.3, #2 -- THE AIDS HERETICS

Does HlV cause AIDS?; Murray Bell Curve Interview; skeptics & New Agers.

ARE YOU SKEPTICAL ?

Join the Skeptics Society And Find Out.

Are we living in the "Age of Science ?" Historically speaking it would seem so, but if so, why do so many non-scientific traditions abound ? Myths, superstition, mysticism, cults, new age beliefs, pseudoscience, nonscience, and nonsense have penetrated every nook and cranny of both popular and high culture.

A 1990 Gallup poll of 1,236 Americans show shocking % of belief in the paranormal:

52% -- Astrology

46% -- ESP

22% -- Aliens landed on Earth

41% -- Dinosaurs & humans lived simultaneously

42% -- Communication with the dead

59% -- Clairvoyance

67% -- Personal experience with psychic power

The Skeptics Society is an organization of scholars, scientists, historians, magicians and concerned citizens that sponsors a lecture series at Caltech and publishes the quarterly magazine Skeptic for the purpose of investigating extraordinary claims and controversial ideas, promoting science and critical thinking, and disseminating information on science, magic, superstition, and skepticism and the history of these traditions, in articles, essays, reviews, and letters. The magazine is an international publication, available to all members, as well as institutions, and university, college, and public libraries.

Try your hand at the following True-False quiz:

1. Some individuals can walk barefoot across red-hot coals without getting burned because they have protected themselves through mental power.

2. We only use 10% of our brains.
3. The Near-Death Experience where people seem to float out of their bodies and see a white light at the end of a tunnel is a real experience.
4. Physicists do not know what gravity is.
5. Science cannot explain how bumblebees fly since they violate the laws of aerodynamics.
6. Humans could not have evolved from apes since apes and humans live simultaneously.
7. Scientists do not know how the universe began or how it will end.
8. Faith healers prove that the powerof belief can cure disease.
9. Many people have experienced ESP, deja vu, ghosts, haunted houses, and many other paranormal phenomena.
10 Alien intelligences probably exist elsewhere in the universe and may have visited the Earth.



ANSWERS

1. FALSE! -- Anyone, with or without mental preparation, can 'firewalk" over a properly prepared bed of coals without getting burned as long as they move briskly. The secret is that the coals do not conduct heat fast enough to burn. Touching a good heat conductor like a pan in an oven will burn, while a poor conductor like cake in the pan will not.
2. FALSE! -- This is a folk myth promoted by motivation speakers and seminar organiz- ers who claim that their courses will "release" the other 90% of your brain. Neuro sci-entists claim that we use 100% of our brains, with different parts allocated for different purposes, and functioning at different intensities depending on the mental task.
3 TRUE !-- The experience is real, as are most hallucinations, but there is no evidence that this is proof of life after death. Science is not equipped to answer such religious questions. The Near-Death Experience, however, can be replicated with drugs.
4. TRUE ! -- While the laws of gravitation are well understood, and the effects of gravitation can be precisely predicted, other than calling it a "force" no one yet knows yet what gravity is and no one has yet to discover a graviton! Stay tuned.
5. FALSE ! -- It was proposed by one scientist in the 1890s that bumblebees should not be able to fly because of aerodynamic complications. (He was wrnng!) This story developed into a folk-myth often used by promoters of unscientific ideas to explain why their claims have been rejected. Science, they say, ignores contrndictory evidence.
6. FALSE !-- This is a common misunderstanding of evolution. No one ever said humans evolved from apes. Humans and apes evolved from a common ancestor between 6 and 8 million years ago, and thus might be considered evolutionary "cousins."
7. TRUE !-- For many decades the Big Bang and Steady State theories of the universe competed for scientific consensus. Through the 1980s the Big Bang theory was well supported, but recent findings indicate that stars may be older than the universe itself, calling for a major revision of cosmology.
8. FALSE !-- While it is possible that belief and personality may make a significant difference on the effect of disease on the human body, so-called faith healers have been proven to use artificial techniques and magicians' tricks to make it appear that they can heal people.
9. TRUE ! Most of us at some time in our lives will have such experiences. What these experiences mean, however, is open to debate. Scientists believe that these can all be explained through natural processes of the mind and nature.
10. TRUE AND FALSE ! -- There may very well be intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, considering the billions of galaxies, each of which contains billions of stars, some of which may contain planets with intelligent life. But we have yet to find any, and there is no evidence outside of personal testimonies and suspect photos that aliens have arrived.
WELL, HOW DID YOU DO ON THE SKEPTICS SOCIETY TRUE-FALSE QUIZ ?
Whether you got all of them right or none of them right, or whether you agree with our answers or not, if you are interested in the questions then you will he interested in joining the Skeptics Society and reading Skeptic magazine, devoted to the investigation of extraordinary claims and controversial ideas, and promoting science and critical thinking.
HERE IS WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT SKEPTIC MAGAZINE: "Skeptic is the premier rag of the REALLY smart set." -Teller, of Penn & Teller
"The best journal in the field." -Stephen Jay Gould, renowned paleontologist and science essayist from Harvard University leyden note: gould is a super scientist you'll remember as "ripping into Feynman for being "too damn smart"

"One of the years' 10 best new publications." -Library Journal

Skeptic magazine is now in over 5,000 bookstores and newsstands. In the last six months we have offered rational explanations for apparently paranormal claims on television shows such as

and we have been featured in major newspapers and magazines, including a story in the Los Angeles Times Magazine. Now available are over 30 different lectures on video and audio tapes from Skeptics Society presentations at Caltech. On March 25th we hope you will join us for our all-day conference on "The Physics of God and Immortality," and evening Awards Ceremony, Banquet, and magic show with James "The Amazing" Randi.

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