Derek Heron, from Falkirk, in Scotland, read about the "Resonance Key" here last week, and decided to follow up on the wondrous technology that might bring about this performance. He e-mailed the company, Cutting Edge Health Products:

I read about the Resonance Key on your website. As one who has a PhD in electrical engineering I would be grateful if you could tell me what components are used to detect Homeopathic Resonance Patterns. My wife is a doctor of medicine and we have had many long conversations with regard to your Resonance Key.

Derek admits to us:

I'm not an electrical engineer (I'm a network administrator and close-up magician) and my wife isn't a doctor of medicine (she's a nurse) but I thought this ploy might get an informed response. This reply arrived a few hours later — spelling as in the original:

The Resonance key is a combination of you and your wife's professions but adding quantum to you and energetic vibration to your wife. Were talking worm holes here. As to the components I have no idea. Having used it however I can say its an awesome piece of Star Trek equipment that works.

Regards, Steven Lee www.electronichealing.co.uk Cutting-edge health products

Says Derek:

Not the answer I was hoping for, it does however reflect the engineering behind the Resonance Key — it's a piece of Star Trek equipment!

This would be hilarious, if it were not for the fact that the innocent invest in such claptrap and depend on it to help them.

"Dan in Wisconsin" writes us:

There is one more thing that I have learned from you — understanding simple experiments and basic statistics. You will enjoy this story. A co-worker of mine heard that I was going to do some landscaping and that digging was involved. The conversation got around to the fact that my plans were backed up because the local utility couldn't get out to mark my underground water pipes and electrical lines. The co-worker said no problem, all I needed was a couple of hangars — you guessed it — the divining rod. Well, I told him he was daft. He insisted he was quite capable of proving his worth with the tool, so I asked him to put his money where his mouth was. $100 later, he sings the blues.

Here's what I came up with: In my garage with one other co-worker (a neutral party — he brought the hangars, too) three small identical boxes at one end of the garage, under one of the boxes was a styrofoam (I had plastic and metal cups ready in case the styrofoam interfered with the operation of the rod) cup full of water — placed under the box by the third party, neither of the participants knowing which box the water was in. Participant with divining rod stood at one end of the garage and "zeroed in" on which box had the cup of water. Third party recorded both which box the water is in, and which was chosen by the diviner. Repeated 20 times. Also, between guesses, third party rotated each box slightly so the diviner could not get a hint from the placement of the boxes. We repeated the 20-trial set 5 times. I told my friend that if he were right half the time that he would win. He hit just under statistical average, of course. But wait — there was more — he said there had not been ENOUGH WATER!!! I asked him how much was enough? A gallon? Unfortunately for him, he agreed. The next week we repeated the experiment with five gallon pails full and he hit almost dead on, statistically speaking.

Again, thanks for educating me and others with your site!!!

Dan, remember that dowsers are almost always among the self-deluded. They're prepared to innocently make excuses because they really believe they can do what they claim. But they don't often come upon someone like yourself who actually calls the bluff….!

Reader Bryan Sink comments on our recent Falun Gong item. He opines on the real motives of their leader, Li, and on the conflict with the Chinese government:

There's a lesson to be learned here, about how to educate people and effect change in the midst of a system that's far from perfect: As far as Li Hongzhi is concerned, this has never been about spiritual health and betterment. This has been about him having a platform to stand toe-to-toe against Beijing in a hostile staredown. Don't be fooled. Behind Li's peaceful guise of mass prayer and public meditation is one singular goal: get in Beijing's face and force a confrontation. And Beijing has, quite understandably, responded the one way they know how.

We have no business pitying the Falun Gong.

There are a hundred other "spiritual" groups in China who are in essence hardly any different from the Falun Gong. But they get no press, and suffer no persecution, because they cause no such trouble. I've been in China myself only long enough to know that there's a right way to effect change, and a wrong way. The right way is to work with the system and let the system clean itself out over time. People in positions of power see wrongs and in good conscience move to correct them, and to educate their successors for the better. The wrong way is to barge in declaring war, trying to humiliate the powers that be.

Make no mistake: China is liberalizing; this is a fact. This has been happening and will continue to happen slowly and painfully, but it will happen peacefully, without riot or revolution. That fact was settled once and for all in 1989. China successfully entered the space race last week, and it did not happen as a result of any kind of violent overturning of the system. It happened because people long ago determined that they would willingly work with the system and allow change and progress to take place slowly but surely, a lesson we would all do well to learn.

Bryan, during my visits to China I've seen that process of liberalization in action. When I first went to that country in 1988, it would have been unthinkable that I could have been sought out by anyone in authority, but less than ten years later, during a visit to China, I received a personal invitation from a substantial gentleman who wanted my input, and I shared that with him. I saw signs of capitalism everywhere — not that I admire everything that results from that system! — and the generally more free atmosphere was very evident everywhere. Yes, China is evolving politically, as the Soviet did, and though The Great Wall won't come down as a result, that invisible wall between theory and reality will be blown away as the people of that land begin to be released from what I believe is a seriously — fatally — flawed system.

The Falun Gong would do well to sail with this wind, not against it. And abandon any attempts to use tricks to sell their philosophy. But maybe that's asking too much.

Reader Fred Ramirez of Miramar, Florida, celebrates the perception of his boy, Andres:

Just want to share my kid's awakening experience. Last year, he asked about the existence of Santa Claus. I had a difficult task balancing my skeptical nature with my parenting efforts to maintain his innocence. I threw the question back to him, asking "What do you think?" After some discerning moments, he replied "it's impossible for one person to give gifts to every kid in the world in one single day." He was only six when he came up with that explanation. It's so good to see critical thinking at a very early age.

Agreed, Fred. In recognition of your son's reasoning, we're sending him an honorary membership in the JREF, but that means he'll get a terrible rash if he starts to believe in ghosts, the Easter Bunny, or spoon-bending. Just wait and see….!

David Blaine has finished his bizarre boy-in-a-box project in London, and was taken to a hospital to be repaired after the ordeal. As expected, every teenie-bopper within miles hastened to visit his bedside. One, however, was banned. Uri Geller, who says that he "inspired" Blaine, and that they're close friends, was banned by Blaine from visiting him. Blaine says he's had nothing to do with him recently, calling him a "hanger-on." Small wonder. As I predicted, Geller showed up at the site where Blaine was hanging in the box, on 30 of the 44 days he was starving inside. Blaine now thinks that Geller is after publicity for himself. Really?

A source close to Blaine said: "Geller has been hanging around David during this project so much that it is really starting to annoy him. It's fair to say David is finding Geller a pain. He couldn't do much about it when he was in the box, but he would not want to see Uri in hospital." A security officer guarding New Yorker Blaine during the stunt said: "We've been told to treat Uri like any member of the public. He tells people he's David's mate. But Blaine's complained he is a 'hanger-on' and wants nothing to do with him."

Maybe, despite having previously signed an affidavit stating that Geller is the real thing, David is now having second thoughts….?

Reader Andrew Berkshire, Stuttgart, Germany, scolds me — rightly — for an assumption, one based on my admittedly sparse experience of the Martial Arts. This was echoed by several other practitioners who are students of other branches of the same arts.

Being an avid reader of your website and a true supporter of all things rational and "provable" (I use this world tentatively however, as I was taught a long time ago that theories can only be supported by evidence rather that unequivocally proven…but I digress), I must take issue with a statement from your Commentary dated 24.10.2003. Quote: "However, it would be quite a surprise for me to find any martial arts group that does not use supernatural claims and old tricks to sell its philosophy." I have trained for a number of years in the "Ashihara" style of Karate, which is regarded as one of the most practical forms of the martial arts. Not once has my Sensei promised that I will be able to perform supernatural "tricks" or anything that I perceived to be beyond laws of physics. To the contrary, everything that we taught and trained for were clearly thought-out actions according to the situations presented to us. Every newly taught movement/defence/attack technique was thoroughly backed up with logical explanations and practical examples. The basic premise of our training had nothing to do with the supernatural, quite the opposite. Rather, it was based around quick and clear thinking appropriate to the circumstances, regardless of what they may be. The only belief system we were "indoctrinated" in was hard work and self-discipline, valuable qualities not just in the Dojo, but in all aspects of life.

Depressingly, martial arts and the supernatural are continually portrayed by the media (and even more depressingly many martial arts groups themselves) as being categorically bound. I prefer to think of the martial arts, for its creators, as being a product of necessity and practicality, or at the very least a form of exercise.

A similar view was expressed by Tim Norfolk, of Atwater, Ohio:

I have practiced the martial arts off and on for 37 years, and for the past 18 have taught in one of the schools of the Kwanmukan, based in Akron, Ohio, with style head Mr. George Anderson. While there are some instructors in other schools who discuss "chi" and other silly ideas, the only "philosophy" that I teach is that we can get fitter and make more efficient use of our bodies, and show that the basic ideas of leverage can help a smaller, weaker opponent have a better chance against a bigger, stronger one.

Admittedly, on those occasions when we do demonstrations for the parents, we do break wood (1" pine boards) and patio block, which I frankly find wasteful. However, these are for entertainment, and no claim of "special powers" is made.

My reasons for practice are that it is one of the forms of exercise that I don't find boring, and karate is certainly a good cardiovascular workout. Please don't tar all of us with the "gullible and stupid" brush.

Reader Rhett Aultman directs us to:

. . . SCARS Combatitives and the Scientific Fighting Congress, both martial arts groups with systems based on studies of documented combat scenarios. Their main concept of taking effective ideas where they find them has produced some basic, non-metaphysical martial systems that don't purport to do anything other than help you learn how to survive should you be in a combat situation. It's very refreshing.

My apologies. I'm now better informed. Thank you.

And, similarly, I'm now better informed on the Tarot-card reader who was in court in Norway. Reader Christian Berg amplifies and corrects for us the media account upon which I based my report last week:

Your information about Tarot card readers in Norwegian court needs some comments. Although we have our share of flim-flam here in Norway, the story about the Tarot card reader is not exactly true the way it was presented.

Eva Nyberg was not used as an expert-witness. It was not her ability (or lack of it ) as a Tarot card reader that brought her into court. She was there because she gained information from the woman during a Tarot-card reading; Gry Hosein told Eva Nyberg about her love life. It was this information the court was interested in hearing, not what cards might have popped up during the reading. But she could not help herself and started to babble about the "reading" she performed. The defendant's lawyer seized the opportunity, made her look like a fool and thus probably made her a very unreliable witness in the eyes of the court!

The newspapers never made any attempt to clarify this — what a surprise! In other situations, however, I can report that a TV-series "Fornemmelse for mord" which attempt to solve murder cases by using clairvoyant "detectives," is a complete fiasco — another surprise for you. After two seasons they have still not produced any new information which turns out to be valuable. The TV company still brand the series as "a success." I wonder why.....

Reader Paul G. Wenthold shares his wonder with us:

Very often in your weekly column, you make reference to fortune tellers, or similar such folk who claim to be able to predict the future. A great example a couple of weeks ago was the woman who predicted the winners of the Emmy awards, and, of course, did a horrible job. In fact, if you compared her predictions with those of the most prominent TV critics, you found that the critics did a very good job of predicting the results, while she bombed out. In other words, people who have more knowledge about the field provide better predictions about such outcomes than does a supposed psychic. What a surprise.

Yet, the media falls all over itself to provide a forum for these random guessers but does nothing to publicize the real, successful, "see-ers." I am talking about the people who make detailed predictions of the future, with an accuracy so high that you have to squint to see the errors.

Imagine if 60000 years ago, someone were to make a pronouncement that in coming weeks, one of those lights in the sky would become exceedingly bright, much brighter than usual. It would become its brightest on a specified day, after which it would diminish back into its normal state. What would be the response when it came pass, as the Earth and Mars passed close to each other? Would not this person be hailed as having a great ability to see the future? Yet, as we anticipated the near encounter with Mars in the recent months, and the absolutely spectacular display that resulted, the only predictions that were considered remarkable involved speculation about whether Ben and J-Lo would get married.

No, accurate prediction of the future occurs all the time, and it is called science. Imagine a psychic who could make a prediction as accurate as "The sun will rise above the horizon tomorrow morning at 6:43 a.m., and will set below the horizon at 7:28 p.m.," and have it be correct, to the minute? Shoot, a random psychic would kill to have a track record as good as the meteorologists, the scientists that everyone loves to laugh at. Imagine, on a nice, sunny day 300 years ago, that someone told you that there was a cold front coming that night and that the morrow will be cold with rain or possibly snow — would you have believed them? Today, we see the weather map and can see it coming as that line with the triangles on them. We consider it mundane when scientists predict the future to a level unimaginable for any so-called psychic.

Let's recognize it for the remarkable achievement that it is. Celebrate science, not superstition.

(Just some thoughts that developed as I was out running at night, under the stars, and watching Mars shine in the sky during the recent close encounter. It was beautiful.)

Reader Paul K. Egell-Johnsen in Norway tells us:

I'm not a regular reader, I browse your site for a few weeks out of each year, and it seems it is about that time again. Therefore I comment on an older Swift newsletter. In it Trevor French of Hitchin, UK, wrote about his problems at the unemployment office. There was, according to him, a course offered in Reiki. The problem with such courses, apart from the obvious quackery, is that in some countries, like in Norway where I reside, you will lose your benefits if you do not follow the recommendations of the unemployment office.

These recommendations might be to actively apply for a job (which is after all the one sure way to get a job, which is supposedly the goal of the help you receive) and to attend courses in order to increase your value in the job market. This leads to a theory, of which I myself am the originator: people can lose benefits if they do not take courses in quackery.

To my own experiences: I've worked for one month for the administration of an elected assembly here in Norway. To my astonishment I found a very entrenched belief in astrology, and other supernatural phenomena. The president of the assembly, Nystø, recently said this to a Norwegian newspaper, and it was repeated on radio, though I can't find a link to that:

[The claim that] the Sámi [a people indigenous to the northern parts of Sweden, Norway and Finland and north-west of Russia] and others can exhibit phenomena of a nature which falls outside what is called normal in an urban context, is something with which I don't have any problems. We have oral traditions relating to those events. They are a natural part of the Sámi culture.

He goes on to say, at the end of the article:

It is important that those who approach these problems [in mental health] are educated and experienced with Sámi culture, history and tradition. The University Hospital of Northern Norway does take these issues into consideration when they treat Sámi patients.

First, I'm a Sámi myself (although only recently moving back into the "heartland" of our culture), so I know something about their oral traditions. What is said here is that people who hear actual voices from things/creatures in nature (not a vague feeling of being in touch, which also would be suspect, btw) should be afforded more leeway than others when treated — if treatment is needed at all, Nystø also says in the article. I mean that he also used specific Sámi terms for some of these things on the radio, though transcripts are not readily available, so I'm hopefully mistaken.

In the canteen I rose to the bait, the same day I heard it. I asked, why should the Sámi be afforded more leeway in regards to mental health than others who believe in supernatural things and act on their beliefs? One person objected to me calling it supernatural beliefs, instead of folk beliefs, cultural beliefs or religion where appropriate, and wouldn't discuss it any more, on the grounds that I bunched everything into the same bag — supernatural beliefs.

There was no one else offering either support or opposition, though for a while there was a distinctly subdued atmosphere in the room. I think I should learn when to fight on their turf and when to fight on mine (i.e. when to use their language and when to use mine) because though I got my flag up high enough for all to see, and seemed to make people uncomfortable (hopefully some thought about the idea), I didn't succeed in arguing my point.

I also know people who believe they have dreams which alert them to future events: the death of a loved one, for example. Among other Sámi beliefs, which to my sadness are very prevalent, are Kofitar (simplified spelling used), some kind of underground entity which will move ordinary things to another place. Miraculously they will, if spoken to (told about the error of their ways), return those things to their original places afterwards.

As stories in a book, and documentation of the culture and history, I have no problem with this. But when we start making policies based on these beliefs we're no better off than a theocracy.

At the next parliamentary session, if I'm asked to be there and assist with the proceedings as during the last, I will confront the President with my views and ask exactly what he meant and if he thinks catering to the beliefs of mentally ill people is a good way of helping them, which is ultimately how I see this issue.

Paul, that should be really interesting. Please keep us informed….!

Readers will be interested in what Walt Owen, a science teacher at University Heights Middle School, Riverside, California, was able to accomplish. He reports:

Once again it has happened. Your site was being blocked by 8e6 Technologies Web Filter Corporation for "paranormal content." It was temporarily unblocked at my school district level last year, but when the list was updated, you were blocked once again. My students could not access your site. Last year my complaints went nowhere. This year, I went all the way. If necessary, I was prepared to call and visit the corporate offices and speak with the president of the company. As my note below stated, they had your site categorized for the wrong reasons. This had to be changed. Last year I used as part of my argument, first amendment access. That was unsuccessful, primarily because it could be applied to the paranormals as well. I hoped that contextualizing the information would be more successful. And it was.

Here is what Walt sent to Ms. Diana Taylor, at 8e6:

Subject: Re: Blocking of valuable website

Ms. Taylor,

If www.randi.org is restricted because it lists paranormal information, then I must question the value of your technology. I stated earlier that you wisely block hate organizations, such as www.kkk.com. You do not, however, block www.tolerance.org, which is just the opposite of the hate groups, a group that investigates and refutes the efforts of hate groups. According to your assesment of www.randi.org, you should block www.tolerance.org because "this site contains racist content and information about hate speech."

Obviously, this is not truly the case. The intentions of www.tolerance.org are directly opposed to www.kkk.com. Granted, much of the information on both websites would appear the same, but the intention behind the information is what we must examine.

The intentions of www.randi.org are the antithesis of the paranormal websites you mention. To group www.randi.org with the paranormal sites is the intellectual equivalent of grouping www.tolerance.org with www.kkk.com and other racist websites.

I urge you to reconsider your restriction of www.randi.org, one of the very few voices on the internet working AGAINST the paranormals you are filtering. This valuable resource should be available to ALL students everywhere.

Walt Owen

I was going to suggest that readers who had opinions on this blocking of our site might wish to contact Ms. Diana Taylor at: dtaylor@8e6.net. But just this hour, I heard again from Walt:

8E6 Technologies has met and decided that your website is not "paranormal". They will be opening it up to all students as of tomorrow.

Hey! Just the vibrations of this possible deluge of complaints seem to have done the job for us! You might now want to drop Ms. Taylor a SHORT note of thanks….

Next week, we'll tell you more about Ed Lu and his adventures, plus the big news that Sylvia Browne has been impatiently waiting for! Yes, all obstacles to her acceptance of the JREF test have now been removed. Hallelujah! And only 969 days into her acceptance!!!