Thursday, August 5th, the CBS-TV network trotted out heavy artillery in the person of Dan Rather, and offered us "The World Beyond," a golly-gee hour of pandering to the American public's hunger for supernatural nonsense. Perhaps prompted by last week's search-for-god special on Fox-TV, this was an episode of "48 Hours," which once was a legitimate documentary-style show that actually followed a subject for forty-eight hours to develop a "slice" of real life presentation. That format has obviously been abandoned.

I'll be preparing a fuller treatment that will appear here next week, but for the moment, this brief comment has been prepared to answer the expected raft of e-mail inquiries that the show will bring in. So, please bear with me.

Oh yes, the skeptics were brought in. Have to, you know. To be fair. Professor Ray Hyman and CSICOP investigator Joe Nickell showed up momentarily, but I have a strong suspicion that neither of these astute gentlemen were allowed to develop anything but the most superficial cases against the flummery about which they were questioned. That would have spoiled the story-line for CBS.

"Psychic" George Anderson--who talks to dead people, don't you know--was a big feature of this circus. Now, Anderson is just another of the long string of "cold readers" who are currently the darlings of those who can afford them at $1,000 a pop. Cold reading is the process of asking questions, making guesses, and throwing out suggestions. The victims are encouraged to respond and react, to "help develop the impressions"--much as in that old party-game, "Twenty Questions." The procedure is much the same. There's no mystery about Anderson or the methods he uses. And, of course, the CBS interviewers hastened to explain the outright wrong guesses, and to search desperately for possible correlations--ANY correlations!--that could save the blunders.

That's enough for now. When I've had a chance to analyze the videotape, I'll develop a more detailed account, which you'll see on the JREF Web as soon as it's ready. Until then, please hold the questions on this program. Okay?

Aside: to all of you who have responded to my request for feedback on the new web page, many thanks. We've noted your problems and comments, and designer Chip Denman is incorporating additions and changes. Your response has been most gratifying.