Well, folks, I'm off today for Canada for a nine-city speaking tour, sponsored by our friends at Centre for Inquiry Canada. For the full schedule, see JREF's outreach coordinator Brian Thompson's announcement. I look forward to seeing any of our fellow skeptics in Canada at these talks, and I invite you to be sure that you come up and say hello, and I assure you I will not bite. In fact, I may well even sign a book or two for you!
Speaking of other skeptic news, I was overjoyed to see the science writer Chris French's exposure of famed UK "psychic," "Psychic Sally," in yesterday's The Guardian.
You can read the full story here.
There is mention in the article of our earlier work exposing a similar charlatan, the so-called "Reverend" Peter Popoff, who used the same sort of unscrupulous methods to ascertain and then reveal details about his congregants' lives — all the while pretending it was God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit talking to him. Instead, it was his wife backstage at a transmitter talking to him via his concealed earpiece, reading data from cards that the believers had filled out as they entered Popoff's "Healing Crusade." I wrote a book about this topic -- The Faith Healers. Such holy fakery is the most vile form of falderal, because it is perpetrated at the expense of the most needy, vulnerable, and helpless in our society. You can read a digital copy of The Faith Healers for your digital book device.
And so I must close my quick note to you as I head off for the Great White North. I leave you to enjoy the exposure of Peter Popoff so many years ago on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. While it can sometimes discourage us at the JREF that scam artists like "Reverend" Popoff can and will continue to rake in millions of dollars, even after such devastating public exposures, that fact motivates us to redouble our efforts, work harder and work smarter, to combat the frauds. I hope that you feel the same.
And thank you for your excellent run-down on this rascal, Chris!