April 15, 2005

Hollywood In Bondage, A Dragon In Your Drawers, Translating Officialese, TT Revisited, Look Here, Acorah Comeuppance, The Perfect "Out," Pezaro's Record, Questions About Astrology, A Serious Warning, A Good Example of Our Burden, Notice for Capital-Area Residents, and In Conclusion....


Table of Contents:


HOLLYWOOD IN BONDAGE

Actor Ashton Kutcher is apparently a devotee of the silly red string Kabbalah bracelet, or perhaps he's just following instructions from his press agent to get with the current stupidity that such brain trusts as Madonna have embraced to titillate the teeny boppers. According to a posting on the Kabbalah website, the string has these wondrous magical powers. It:

....protects us from the influences of the Evil Eye. Evil Eye is a very powerful negative force. It refers to the unfriendly stare and unkind glances we sometimes get from people around us.

Kutcher was filmed wearing the string for his latest movie, "Guess Who," and test audiences "were really annoyed" by the bracelet, so Sony spent about $100,000 to use digital imaging technology to remove it from his wrist, which appeared in most scenes. Believers might well conclude that the removal of the bracelet contributed to the subsequent negative reviews for the movie....


A DRAGON IN YOUR DRAWERS

Reader Heino Lepp writes:

I live in Canberra, Australia. A little while ago the newspaper here had a short news report about some Hong Kong group selling "feng shui underpants." The newspaper report was basically just a page filler, a few sentences long, and so without any detail.

Was this a joke? No, a web search turned up various reports, and these guys are serious. Get real! What next? Homeopathic underpants? But since the essence of homeopathy is that there's virtually nothing there — what would you be wearing? Uri Geller underpants? I suppose his bending abilities would give meaning to getting "your knickers in a knot"? Don't know if that's a common American expression as well, meaning to get uptight or tense — usually over trivia.

The mind boggles at all the other sartorial possibilities — and the associated advertising slogans.

Thanks, Heino. I looked them up, and decided I'd have to struggle along without a dragon on my drawers, though I realize that I'm flying in the face of ancient tradition, mythology, and well-established superstition. I'll have to depend on Jockeys....


TRANSLATING OFFICIALESE

Reader David Crawford of Calgary, Canada, is surprised. He writes:

[I sent] email to the Chief Superintendent of the Calgary Public School Board. Chinook Learning Services is their Continuing Education arm, offering all sorts of courses including the ridiculous. I didn't expect a reply, but lo and behold, I got one — lame though it is. Here's the letter I sent:

I recently read in the Calgary Herald one of your course designers (Donna Crowe) state that "the best way to educate yourself is to have an open mind" ('Psychic Revelations', Jan 7). The article also states that Chinook Learning Services initiates new classes based on public demand. Your Winter 2005 schedule shows several courses that are obviously on offer due to this public curiosity — courses such as Reiki, Tarot Card Reading, Feng Shui, Reflexology, Magnetic Therapy, and so forth.

Following this line of reasoning, I would like to see the following courses added to your calendar as soon as possible: Prostitution, Gambling, Fraud, Drug Abuse, Internet Pornography, Quackery In Alternative Medicine (sorry — that's already on offer), Pyramid Schemes, Naivete in the Academic Community (oops! — that's there also), and Educational Institutions Suspending Rationality and Logic in Exchange for The Mighty Dollar (ditto).

Please reassure me that this crepuscular reasoning will not dictate or influence the course offerings in the regular school system, and/or that these offerings are under review with an eye to their suspension. Substituting logic and reasoning for quackery and fraud appalls me and should alarm anyone who cares for the educational standards in this community.

And the reply was:

Dear Mr. Crawford: In response to your email of Wednesday February 2nd, I would like to clarify that the Continuing Education courses provided by Chinook Learning Services of the Calgary Board of Education comprise a variety of topics of interest to Calgarians from different walks of life and with different belief systems. We review course content on a regular basis. Only individuals who are interested in the courses and who pay the corresponding fees are enrolled in them. The courses are offered on a cost-recovery basis and are not funded with the basic education dollars provided by the province. The course offerings and specific curriculum for K-12 education is governed by Alberta Education and the Calgary Board of Education adheres to those guidelines.

I hope this clears up any concerns you have regarding Continuing Education course content.

Yours truly, Cathi Ramsden
Associate, Continuing Education, Chinook Learning Services

I offer here my translation of this letter from Cathi. It was written in Officialese, a language with which I'm familiar, and one which requires much skillful interpretation to be expressed in real-world terms. What was actually being said, was:

The Continuing Education courses provided by Chinook Learning Services of the Calgary Board of Education comprise a variety of topics of interest to Calgarians from different walks of life and with different belief systems; to remain politically correct, we assume that all belief systems — such as chemistry, Hollow Earth Theory, mathematics, and Easter Bunny — are equally likely to be true. We review course content on a regular basis, but we have no responsibility for assessing whether courses make any sense. Only individuals who are interested in the courses and who pay the corresponding fees are enrolled in them; this brings in revenue, and we don't care if their lives are adversely affected by being fed nonsense. The courses are offered on a cost-recovery basis and are not funded with the basic education dollars provided by the province, so even though there may be no value at all in some of the Continuing Education courses offered, we're safe under the law. The course offerings and specific curriculum for K-12 education are governed by Alberta Education, and the Calgary Board of Education carefully adheres to those guidelines, while not caring one bit about whether quackery and pseudoscience are included in the Continuing Education curriculum. Calgarians should be smart enough to know whether or not what their Board of Education offers them is valid; after all, we are not in the business of educating people; we are in the business of making money.

I suspect that this is the last that David will be hearing from the Continuing Education Department....


TT REVISITED

Reader P.Z. Meyers, Division of Science & Math, University of Minnesota, tells tells us that the University of Minnesota has entered a new phase of higher education:

[The university] has several links to something called TTouch. This set off a few warning bells. My fellow skeptics will recall something called Therapeutic Touch, or TT, that was big news a few years back when a grade school kid, Emily Rosa, effectively debunked it and got the results published in a peer-reviewed journal. TT was a bizarre pseudoscientific practice that was getting peddled in nursing schools, in which people would touch or stroke and claim to be able to diagnose disease and even heal people. Rosa showed that they were full of crap, and after a few squalls of fury from some New Agers, I hadn't heard of it since.

Now it seems my university has a unit babbling about a new variant, called Tellington TTouch. Read this description. It's stock pseudoscience:

The foundation of the TTouch method is based on circular movements of the fingers and hands all over the body. The intent of the TTouch is to activate the function of the cells and awaken cellular intelligence — a little like "turning on the electric lights of the body." The TTouch is done on the entire body, and each circular TTouch is complete within itself. Therefore it is not necessary to understand anatomy to be successful in speeding up the healing of injuries or ailments, or changing undesirable habits or behavior.

Look at that gobbledygook. "Cellular intelligence"? Notice the other common signs of quackery: amazing effects, but requiring no understanding of anatomy. Why, you can be stupid and do this! As a matter of fact, stupidity may be a prerequisite. Despite requiring no knowledge of anatomy and demanding no prior training, the Center for Spirituality and Healing is offering a 3-day Tellington TTouch seminar...for $750. That's quite a sum of money to learn how to wiggle one's fingers in circular motions over people's bodies. And here are the wonderful powers you will acquire with this training:

TTouch is for you, whether to use on your family or for yourself. If you're a Massage Therapist, Physical Therapist, Nurse or in the healing arts, you will benefit personally and you will have new ways of helping clients.

The Tellington TTouch has been used successfully for:

  • Relieving stress
  • Releasing unfounded fears
  • Recovery from stroke
  • Pain relief in neck, back and legs
  • Pain relief from migraines
  • Depression
  • Arthritis

    Perhaps best of all is the general feeling of well-being that so many experience.

  • Grandiose claims, demands for money, too-good-to-be-true ease...is there anything to distinguish this from a Nigerian e-mail scam? Yes, a little hilarity. Brace yourself: the discoverer of this amazing ability is an animal trainer. Elsewhere on the site you will discover that:

    The Tellington TTouch can help in cases of:

  • Excessive Barking & Chewing
  • Leash Pulling
  • Jumping Up
  • Aggressive Behavior
  • Extreme Fear & Shyness
  • Resistance to Grooming
  • Excitability & Nervousness
  • Car Sickness
  • Problems Associated With Aging

    This gentle method is currently being used by animal owners, trainers, breeders, veterinarians, zoo personnel and shelter workers in several countries.

  • Not only will you be able to help people recover from strokes with this skill, but you can keep your dog from getting carsick. I hope their webmaster never makes the mistake of mixing up the contents of those two pages above.

    I am embarrassed. Why is my university hawking this snake-oil? Why, when money is tight, aren't we jettisoning this bit of quackery? The University of Colorado experienced something similar in 1994, investigated their nursing school's promotion of Therapeutic Touch, and despite concluding that TT was bunkum, decided to allow the School of Nursing to continue with it.

    The report itself gives us a clue as to the justification for this decision: "TT is potentially a source of considerable income. Training in TT is not complex and arduous and the practice of TT does not require a large investment in equipment or personnel." Indeed, Quinn's Healing Touch training brings in a substantial amount of money for the nursing school. A set of three HT videotapes featuring Quinn sells for $675. Healing Touch classes cost $225 each for the first three levels and $325 each for the next two levels.

    But training is not the only cash cow associated with TT. Recently, over half a million dollars of public tax money has been spent on Therapeutic Touch research. The National Institutes of Health has given $150,000 in grants, the Department of Health and Human Services has granted $200,000, and most recently the Department of Defense granted $355,000 to the University of Alabama at Birmingham — all for studies of TT. The study at UAB, to be conducted on burn patients, was billed as being the study that would finally settle the question as to the effectiveness of TT.

    I suspect something similar is going on here. The Center for Spirituality and Healing brags about bringing in the grant money.

    Dr. Meyers, thank you for this report. Please keep us informed if there is any reaction to your critique from the University of Minnesota....


    LOOK HERE

    Worth a good look: http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/2005/03/fifth-skeptics-circle.html


    ACORAH COMEUPPANCE

    From reader Harry Eastham of Burnley, Lancashire, England, we hear this rumor:

    From the Daily Express of Monday, April 4th, 2005: The author of the piece, Charlie Catchpole wrote, "I'm reliably informed that, during the [video] shoot at Bodmin Gaol [jail] for Living TV's 'Most Haunted' program, someone decided to have a laugh at resident psychic Derek Acorah's expense and loudly discussed a long-dead south African called Kreed Kafer. Sure enough, Acorah duly became possessed by this very spirit, seemingly unaware that Kreed Kafer is an anagram of...Derek Faker."

    P.S. I was going to say that we have as fine a crop of nutters as you guys, then I remembered George Bush. You win.


    THE PERFECT "OUT"

    Reader Anthony Barcellos of Davis, California, guesses correctly:

    Making a wild guess here, I'll assume you don't subscribe to Inside the Vatican. As a thoroughly lapsed Catholic, I nevertheless find reading RC publications and occasionally listening to RC radio programs a good way to keep tabs on the latest doings in hierarchical Christianity.

    Here's a statement that struck my eye in the March 2005 issue of Inside the Vatican: "[T]rue prophets never specify the time their prophecies will come true." Fabulous! In that one short sentence, Bishop Pavel Hnilica (beats me how you pronounce that) gives support to the observation that all prophets who do predict times have proved to be false prophets. Naturally, the good bishop does not even for a moment consider that this occurs because all prophets are false and do not know the future. Rather, he contents himself with the notion that prophets canny enough to avoid specifics may be truly gifted with prescience, a weak sort of gift if it cannot give any details.

    How true....


    PEZARO'S RECORD

    Reader Terry Spencer of Plantation, Florida, reminds us:

    Just looking through some of your old postings and saw the one from last July (www.randi.org/jr/070204another.html#1) about "psychic" Nikki Pezaro and her predictions for 2004. I notice she didn't do so well.

    1. "An earthquake in Rome, Italy, thousands effected [sic]." Nope.

    2. "A new Pope after the Pope passes on." It was the way to bet, but it turned out JPII held on longer than she expected.

    3. "An avalanche in Switzerland." I'm sure there was.

    4. "A lot of prosperity in 2004." For some, like oil execs, sure.

    5. "A terrorist attack: in Las Vegas, in New York, in Athens, Greece, in Canada, in London, England, in Scotland, in Paris, France, in Canada (repeated), in Chicago, at Mt. Rushmore, at Niagara Falls, in St. Louis, Missouri, and against Air Force One — the Presidential aircraft." Swung on and missed.

    6. "A quasi missile will hit North America (a what-missile?) and a suicide bombing in North America." Nada.

    If I had so many errors in one year, I'd be out of work.

    Ah, but only 18 major misses (at least) in one year won't slow down a really determined faker, Terry. Besides, I'm told that Nikki is "faith-based."


    QUESTIONS ABOUT ASTROLOGY

    Reader George Sime suggests two excellent references for us when we're asked about astrology:

    You probably have already read this as you and Dr. Phil are good friends but I would like to vote for a link being put in the next commentary www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/astrology.html. And on the same subject this link www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1266452.htm by Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki. Yeah, weird name, weird guy, but a bit of a local hero and a great Australian and a piss-funny guy. I have just watched the P&T Bullshit episode about creationism and am even more convinced about my published remarks in your commentary www.randi.org/jr/012805opinions.html#4 about varied versions of reality. It is amusing but scary that this is even being debated as a subject in a science classroom.

    Yes, George, and Phil Plait comments on this:

    After years of near-silence on the issue of astrology, I've finally written a web page debunking it. Of course, there are many other pages on astrology on the web, but I wanted to write my own take on it. And what the heck, as long as I have the domain name "Bad Astronomy," I really do need to cover some of the more basic anti-scientific nonsense. It was written to flesh out more thoroughly an article I wrote about astrology for Night Sky magazine www.nightskymag.com, which should be on newsstands now. I included links to many other sources of astrology information as well.


    A SERIOUS WARNING

    Reader Isabelle Vella Gregory alerts us:

    Here's yet another claim http://women.msn.com/1064781.armx that "alternative medicine" cures cancer. Frankly, this is scary and I shudder to think that people might be tempted to ditch their doctor in favor of the herbalist. The most startling claim is that the writer's aunt cured herself of cancer on a macrobiotic diet alone. Please, please warn your readers (again) that cancer is not a joke, it's a real disease and it needs real, professional, medical help. No amount of foodoo (food voodoo!) will cure anything. Granted, a good diet goes a long way to ensuring a healthy life style, but food does not "cure" cancer or any other ills. That this macrobiotic nonsense is consistently endorsed by celebrities simply makes it worse as a lot of people have this bizarre tendency to emulate their "idols".

    In the same vein, reader Travis Hurst of Plano, Texas, worked at a Whole Foods Market (see www.randi.org/jr/040105capitalizing.html#6) for about three years, starting in 2000. He writes, concerning those who serve the customers there:

    Keep in mind these are the people who advise customers on "nutritional" matters in the store. You'd be amazed at the amount of circumspection and backpedaling they train them to do in order to avoid trouble for practicing medicine without a license. Apparently if you tell someone that product X promotes healthy condition X that's fine so long as you don't say product X cures problem X. All sorts of other techniques and clever turns of phrase are also used to avoid this issue.

    On [one] occasion a fellow employee was complaining that her husband's doctors could do nothing to ease his back and neck pain. Apparently he had a rather serious ailment. "Luckily" for him he had vitamins and homeopathy to rescue him from the evil and inefficacy of modern medicine. After I gave her a quick rundown on the placebo effect I asked her a few questions about her husband's condition. Surprise! Her husband refused to take the medications his doctor's prescribed — apparently he didn't want to be "pumped full of drugs" — and neglected to follow their other orders. Surprise number two, upon embarking upon his journey into froo-froo "medicine" he initially enjoyed a brief reprieve from the pain — see placebo effect — followed by re- aggravation of the injury and no improvement whatsoever from then on.

    But back to Whole Foods Market itself. In addition to their anti-major food corporation and anti-conventional medicine rhetoric, anyone venturing into a Whole Foods will find all sorts of sensationalism and mystical nonsense. They sell crystals, magnetic therapy, aromatherapy, they used to sell ear candles (see www.randi.org/jr/02-02-2001.html) but stopped — at least at the store I worked at in Texas, I think there was a legal issue but don't recall exactly — and even anti-vaccination books and virtually anything else purporting to be alternative or holistic. Did I mention they sell Penta water?

    Thankfully I no longer work for their company, and can go home from my current employer with a clean conscience everyday.

    Incidentally, readers Markus Roder of Oakland, and Peter Ilott, of La Crescenta, California, both received the same response from Julie Merrill, Customer Communications Coordinator for Whole Foods, in answer to their letters of complaint:

    Thank you for being in touch with Whole Foods Market and for sharing your concerns about the efficacy of homeopathy and the presence of homeopathic remedies on our shelves. I'd like to thank you for sharing your opinion. We value our customer's feedback as we feel it improves our customer service. I've forwarded email to our Research and Support Team for response.

    With great interest, we await the results of the Research and Support Team....


    A GOOD EXAMPLE OF OUR BURDEN

    We've tried here to show our readers just how difficult it can be to reason with those who inquire about the JREF million-dollar challenge, or to discuss the matter with them in a rational fashion. What follows here is an example of a very recent exchange between myself and an inquirer.

    Bear in mind that such discussions are the special responsibility of Mr. Kramer, to whom I transfer primary inquiries. Occasionally, as with the one I will relate for you here, I try to handle an inquiry when it appears that it could be done succinctly and that Kramer could be spared the brief exchange needed. As you'll see, I soon learned that I was not dealing with a rational person who could express himself clearly, and I also saw that this might be an ideal example of our basic problem — communication — that I could share with readers. I decided to see it through to its final groan, and document it here. I hope that Kramer will be better understood as a result of your reading what follows, and that his occasional outbursts of dismay and impatience will be more understandable.

    It began on Wednesday, April 06, 2005. A reader we will call "Sam" wrote with an enigmatic comment:

    If I could demonstrate that EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) works, would I win the million bucks? It involves tapping on points while focusing on a problem.

    Not having heard of this recent boon to mankind from woo-woo land, I looked up "EFT" and found this site: www.emofree.com. I suggest that you might want to go there before reading further, to experience the effusive, New Age-flavored, mystical nature of this material. I can assure you, it did not bring me any fears that the JREF million dollars was going to be paid out for such fuzzy ideas, despite the list of 19 MDs and PhDs listed on the "EFT Advisory Board." A brief examination of the "Articles and Ideas" page will suffice to establish the nature of this course, which is offered on CDs or DVDs for US$360. The course inventor, Reverend Gary Craig, is not a health professional and offers EFT from the expertise of an ordained minister and a "personal performance coach."

    I responded to Sam's question, above, as both Kramer and I so often must, trying to clarify what our correspondent was getting at. I asked:

    What "points," what "problem"?

    He answered immediately:

    Thank you for your quick reply. There are various points on the body, the top of the head, near the eyebrow, the side of the eye, near the collarbone. They are listed in detail in the manual on the site. The problem can be emotional, like a phobia, or physical, like pain.

    I trust that the reader will share my puzzlement at this point. Sam was obviously familiar with this "tapping" routine, and has probably invested his money in the course. I wrote:

    I don't understand, and I'm not going to take a course in understanding what you're trying to get at. What's the claim, and who's making it?

    Sam:

    I'm making the claim. I'll use a headache as an example of a "problem." You rub a spot on your chest as you say, "Even though I have this headache, I totally accept myself." Then you tap on the top of your head with your fingers and say to yourself, "this headache." Then you tap near your eye, nose, collar bone, under your arm, on your fingers, and then a point on your hand. This will get rid of the headache.

    This, while not a huge surprise, had to rank with the top silliest notions we've ever come upon. Admittedly impatiently, I informed Sam:

    I'm not about to read any manual! I'm far too busy for that, and it's your job to tell me what you'd do to "prove" this idea.

    Sam:

    I first wanted to know that IF I could prove it works, if would get the million bucks or not. I can prove I can pass gas, but I assume I wouldn't get a million bucks for that.

    That's quite correct, though the therapeutic effects are probably about the same. I still wanted to have a complete protocol for examination, and had to start — as we usually must — trying to extract the information bit by bit:

    Try thinking, just for a change.

    He assured me:

    I am thinking. Again, I was just trying to establish if EFT would qualify for the challenge! That's it.

    I approached with a response that would examine each of his points:

    "I'll use a headache as an example of a problem." What "headache"? Who has the headache? How will you establish that the person — whoever — has a headache?

    Sam:

    And you claim I just want to play games? Anybody on earth could have the headache, and you'd establish that the same way one always does, by asking. That is how it's established, no?

    I asked about the second point:

    Why am I saying, "Even though I have this headache....?"

    Sam:

    It's the EFT protocol.

    I asked:

    Does the person with the headache have to be in the room?

    Sam:

    Yes.

    I asked about:

    "Then you tap on the top of your head with your fingers and say to yourself, 'this headache'." Whether I have the headache, or someone else does, either in the room or at a remote location? Does the person with the headache have to know that I'm saying this?

    Sam:

    Yes.

    I asked about:

    "Then you tap near your eye, nose, collar bone, under your arm, on your fingers, and then a point on your hand. This will get rid of the headache." How will you establish this?

    Sam:

    How do they do it will all other headache treatments? Don't they just ask?

    I was getting frustrated with trying to make sense of this dizzy notion. I fired back:

    YOU HAVE GIVEN A FUZZY DESCRIPTION OF A SILLY, MAGICAL, SONG-AND-DANCE.

    Sam:

    When I point you to a step by step detailed description of the process, you say you don't have time to read it. When I try to give a quick overview, you say the description is "fuzzy."

    Randi:

    And, if I am the "subject" with the headache, how do you know whether (a) I have or don't have a headache, or (b) that it's gone away, or is still there?

    Sam:

    I had always assumed when they do studies for headache medicines, they just ask the people if they have a headache or not.

    Randi:

    I can see this will take a long time to get through to you....

    For a control, simply arrange to have the "tapping" done in the wrong way — just as acupuncture test controls are done by inserting the needles in the wrong spots....

    Sam suggested:

    So you use a placebo to control for suggestion. Maybe a phrase like "Alakazam you're cured," or a "sugar pill." You have one group of people get the EFT treatment, and one get the placebo. Compare results.

    Randi:

    But since you say that the subjects have to know what you're saying, they would have to be unaware of what the correct "magic words" are supposed to be: "Even though I have this headache, I totally accept myself." Would "Though I actually have this headache, I absolutely accept myself" be a "control" because it's not the same words?

    Sam:

    The exact words are not important. It's the focusing on the problem and accepting yourself while tapping that's important.

    I asked:

    If, instead of "tapping" near the eye, nose, collar bone, underarm, on the fingers, and a point on the hand, we tapped near the eyebrow, lip, neck, and elbow — would that be a satisfactory "control"?

    Perhaps beginning to see the light, Sam answered:

    I'd have to see where.

    Then he seemed to give up:

    Good. From the start you tried to make this a personality contest between the two of us, just putting me down. Yawn. I'm just interested in the truth. I don't care if those who read your site think I'm the stupidest thing to ever walk the Earth, or even if I AM the stupidest thing to have ever walked the Earth, I am not the topic, EFT is. I just hope they go to the site, read the info, and test the technique for themselves.

    Gee, now I know why nobody has won the million bucks! Somebody makes a claim, and you just call it a silly game and say you're not interested! Everyone else I've explained EFT to understands it. And I even gave you a link to the site that has a manual to download that gives all the details, instructions and claims. I've read claims and counter claims on the net WRT your challenge. Now I know the truth, you are just plain full of it!

    Randi:

    Enjoy your delusions.

    Sam:

    And they would be what, exactly?

    Randi:

    Your choice.... That you now "know why nobody has won the million bucks," or that saying magic words and tapping will cure headaches....

    I'm now suspecting that this is a joke, though April 1 has passed. That anyone who can spell and operate a computer, actually believes that just saying magical words and tapping can cure a headache, has to be unbelievable.

    Sam:

    Not a very scientific approach.

    Randi:

    Also aside: If the magic words were spoken in French, and the person wore gloves or "tapped" using a stick, would it still work? I'm trying to find out just how silly this can get. I'm also trying to imagine how one would find a group of people with simultaneous headaches, and I'm unable to....

    I received no response to this last entry, and told Sam that I was terminating the discussion because we were getting nowhere. I left him with this, regarding our exchange:

    Probably next week it will appear on the web page — the 15th, so I'll have the background to ask my readers whether I should have even entered into a discussion with you.... This is going to be a hoot when it runs on the web page. I just hope the readers will believe that I didn't make it up....!

    Sam answered one last time before I shut off the matter altogether:

    Just don't forget to post the web site www.emofree.com so people can read the manual and get the full explanation of how to use the technique. Then they can judge for themselves.

    I assured him that it would appear, and that's that. Again, I urge you to visit the page, see just how silly it is, and try to be more sympathetic to both Kramer and myself as we slog our way through all this rubbish. Handling it is tough, it's time-consuming, and it's thankless. These people just can't understand reality, cause-and-effect, and how the real world works. Sam's beliefs are mirrored currently by visitors to the crypt where the remains of Pope John Paul II are interred. Typically, a visitor purchases a commemorative medallion, then hands it to a guard at the tomb, asking that the medallion be touched to the enclosure where the body is located; this, in the magical way of thinking, transfers some "vibrations" or "aura" to the medallion and makes it somehow enchanted. That metal disc will be proudly and reverently displayed as having been imbued with some holy power or special quality because it was once in contact with the enclosure in which a set of boxes containing the body of John Paul II, is located....

    Sir James Frazer (1854-1941) was a British anthropologist, historian of religion and classical scholar who traced the evolution of ancient myths, human behavior, magic, religion, ritual, and taboos, in his book, The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion, which first appeared in 1890. He would have recognized this sort of magical thinking that Sam has embraced; it's identical to notions that primitive societies adopted and perpetuated, far back in our early history. The "EFT" idea is simply a more recent version of the delusion — adapted to the Computer Age. The imaginary miraculous points on the human body, the ritual tapping of these spots accompanied by incantations, are not at all new; they were probably believed in by tribes who had not yet discovered how to write down their ideas.

    Of course, if this EFT notion can be shown to work, it will win the JREF prize — but it appears that it just can't be defined, applied, and tested by any means we can find. Prove me wrong.


    NOTICE FOR CAPITAL-AREA RESIDENTS

    NCAS — the National Capital Area Skeptics — will be presenting "April ANTI-Fools" — an afternoon and evening devoted to not being fooled. It takes place on Saturday, April 30th at the NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency] Auditorium at 1301 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland.

    You'll learn about "Scams, Cons, Fakes, and Frauds — and How to Avoid Getting Taken," "Spotting Bogus Information on the Web," "Journalism Gone Bad — Fakes and Frauds in the Media," "Sideshow Humbuggery," "Pros of the Cons — A History of Professional Confidence Games, Swindles and Cheats," and "Street Scams — Three Card Monte & the Shell Game"! Such luminaries as Todd Robbins [www.toddrobbins.com] and our very own Jamy Ian Swiss, will be on hand to entertain and inform you. For reservations or more information, please contact: 301-587-3827, e-mail april30@ncas.org or visit on the Web: www.ncas.org/april30.


    IN CONCLUSION.....

    Next week, the BBC goes bad, where the "voices" come from, and an immortal witch....!