presley@mhuxj.UUCP (Joe Presley) (03/25/84)
*The Skeptical Inquirer* Winter 83/84 Issue
NEWS AND COMMENT
Report on the 1983 National Creation Conference. Columnist ignores
proof that she was fooled by a California spiritualist. Short report
on Project Beta (followup to Project Alpha). USSR reveals location of
space center after pseudo-UFO flap. "Prophet" Alan Vaughan. Formation
of Dallas Society to Oppose Pseudoscience. Obits on astronomers George
Abell and Bart Bok. Formation of Northwest Skeptics. "The Edges of
Science" symposium at May 84 meeting of AAAS. Batir, the 'Talking'
elephant.
NOTES OF A PSI-WATCHER, Martin Gardner
Comments on Harry Collins, a University of Bath sociologist, who
believes magicians should not be allowed to monitor psychic
experiments. Gardner lists six misconceptions about magicians and
refutes them.
PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS, Robert Sheaffer
The International Society of Cryptozoology (ISC). An experiment on KGO
(ABC) TV station in San Francisco, where three psychics gave readings
about a woman; the one who was most accurate was chairman of the Bay
Area Skeptics, who explained to the audience the art of "cold reading".
Dolphins not only understand human speech, but answer back in English,
with a Hungarian accent. Short review of "Bible-Science Newsletter" of
June 83.
ARTICLES
Sense and Nonsense in Parapsychology, Piet Hein Hoebens
Parapsychology spans a spectrum from sophisticated skepticism to
pro-psi gullibility.
Magicians, Scientists, and Psychics: The Foot is Quicker than the
Mouth, William H. Ganoe and Jack Kirwan
How we are so easily fooled.
A New Controlled Dowsing Experiment, Michael Martin
Putting the president of the American Society of Dowsers to the test
An Investigation of the Reported Effect of Transcendental Meditation on
the Weather, Franklin D. Trumpy
A correlation between days of good weather and TM-expressed need for
them turns out to have a surprising explanation
The Haunting of the Ivan Vassilli, Robert Sheaffer
This supposed 'haunted' Russian ship may have been ghostly all right,
but not in the way claimed
Venus and Velikovsky: The Original Sources, Robert Forrest
Detailed examination of the original contexts of Velikovsky's
references shows a picture strikingly different from the one he
presented
BOOK REVIEWS
The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries, by Ruth Brandon
UFOs - The Public Deceived, by Philip J. Klass
UFOs and Outer-Space Mysteries, by James E. Oberg
The Loch Ness Mystery Solved, by Ronald Binns with R.J. Bell
Know Your Own Psi-Q, by Hans Eysenck and Carl Sargent
SOME RECENT BOOKS
Superstition and the Press, by Curtis D. MacDougall
ARTICLES OF NOTE
List of psi-related articles
FROM OUR READERS
[The following information from a letter to the editor and
the editor's reply I found very amusing.]
Ironically, the Fall 80 issue of S.I. had an article exposing the
psychic powers of Steve Shaw. Steve Shaw was one of the "psychics" who
worked with Randi to fool parapsychology researchers at Washington
University. The authors of the article didn't know about Project Alpha
at the time. Randi at first thought that his project had been
compromised, but bet that the believers would ignore such information,
which they did.
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Journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
Paranormal (CSICOP)
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--
Joe Presley (mhuxj!presley, ihnp4!j.presley)