Chapter 12—CSICOP and the Debunkers

Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus. Translated by Rex Warner. New York:

Heritage Press, 1966, p. 41.

Circulation figure from Skeptical Inquirer, November/December 1999, p.

21.

Personal communication from Barry Karr, CSICOP Executive Director, August 19, 1991.

The size of the building is unclear. Skeptical Inquirer, Spring 1993, p. 249 gave it as 25,000 square feet; the September/October 1995 issue, p. 55, gave 20,000 square feet; the July/August 1995 issue, p. 8, gave 15,000 square feet.

CSICOP announced that it had raised $4,200,000 exceeding its fundraising goal; see Skeptical Inquirer, May/June 1995, p. 8.

Circulation figure from March 1997 issue.

Nicholas Wade, A Pyrrhonian Sledgehammer, Science, Vol. 197, 1977, pp. 646—647, see p. 646 for quote.

Astrology and Gullibility by Paul Kurtz, The Humanist, 1975, November/December, Vol. 35, No. 6, p. 20.

Policy on Sponsoring Research, Testing Individual Claims, and Conducting Investigations of Alleged Paranormal Powers and Phenomena, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 6, No. 3, Spring 1982, p. 9. The CSICOP Executive Council approved the policy October 22-24, 1981.

Pinch and Collins (1984).

10 Kurtz, 1986, p. 146.

Kurtz’s book Toward a New Enlightenment: The Philosophy of Paul Kurtz (1994) contains a list of his publications. Though hundreds of articles are listed, I found no reports of empirical research, of any type, that were published in refereed

scientific journals.

I refer here to the Full Members. According to CSICOP’s by laws these comprise the Fellows, Scientific and Technical Consultants, Board of Directors,

and Executive Council.

McClenon, 1982, 1984.

I wish to thank Jennie Zeidman for bringing this to my attention.

15 Berger, 1990, p. 4.

16 Sheler, 1994.

17 Berger, 1990, p. 182.

18 Gibbs, 1993.

Otto, 1917/1975, p. 4.

See Stillings, 1984.

Ben-Yehuda, 1985, p. 91.

Ben-Yehuda, 1985, p. 93.

Wren-Lewis, 1974, p. 43.

Schumaker, 1990, p. 82.

Lopez-Pedraza, 1977/1989, p. 61.

For Kurtz’s interpretation of Prometheus, see Promethean Love: Unbound, in his Toward a New Enlightenment: The Philosophy of Paul Kurtz (1994, pp. 279291).

Hansen (1991). For other statistical errors by Hyman, see On Hyman’s Factor Analysis by David R. Saunders, Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 49, No. 1,

1985, pp. 86-88. See also Rejoinder by Jessica Utts, Statistical Science, Vol. 6, No.

4, 1991, pp. 396-403, especially pp. 398, 399.

Hansen, 1990a, p. 56.

Hansen, 1992d.

Chapter 13—Small Groups and the Paranormal

Social repercussions occur even if putative supernatural events are almost entirely due to trickery. A good example is the British crop circle phenomenon. Evidence indicates that hoaxers produce virtually all of the formations. See Schnabel (1993).

2 Ellis, 1982-83.

For more detail than Kubler-Ross revealed, see the exposé by Coleman

(1979).

See Lamar Keene’s The Psychic Mafia (1976) and Eric Dingwall’s account of the lurid “Angel Anna” in his Some Human Oddities (1947/1962).

Black Elk was one of the spirits contacted by the SORRAT. In real life, he was a trickster figure; see The Wisdom of the Contrary: A Conversation with Joseph Epes Brown, Parabola, Vol. 4, No. 1, February 1979, pp. 54-65, see p. 56.

6 McClenon, 1994; Richards, 1982; see Duke & Hansen, 1991 for a bibliography of works on SORRAT.

Hansen & Broughton, 1991.

His remarks were quoted by Dennis Stillings in a 1991 issue of Artifex devoted to the SORRAT. See Stillings, 1991.

Richards, 1992.

The early SRI work did not escape the problems of trickery. Uri Geller was one of the early subjects, and numerous allegations of fraud followed him. He has been covered in an earlier chapter.

The full story of the secret government psychic programs since the 1970s has not yet been told, but for the past several years, there have been many rumors of books in preparation. The first issue of the 1996 Journal of Scientific Exploration (Vol. 10, No.1) carried several reports on some of the recently declassified material and controversies surrounding them. Also of interest are: Mind-Reach: Scientists Look at Psychic Abilities by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, New York: Dela-corte, 1977. The Mind Race: Understanding and Using Psychic Abilities by Russell Targ and Keith Harary, New York: Villard Books, 1984. To Kiss Earth Good-Bye by Ingo Swann, New York: Hawthorn Books, 1975. Miracles of Mind: Exploring Nonlocal Consciousness and Spiritual Healing by Russell Targ and Jane Katra, Novato, CA: New World Library, 1998. Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America’s Psychic Spies by Jim Schnabel, New York: Dell, 1997. Parapsychology in

Intelligence: A Personal Review and Conclusions by Kenneth A. Kress, Studies in

Intelligence, Vol. 21, Winter 1977, pp. 7-17, (declassified 1996).

A transcript of a radio interview Dames did with radio station KIRO (Seattle) on November 18, 1991 was published in Third Eyes Only, No. 2, April 1992, pp. 88-95.

Dames’ talk was tape-recorded, and eventually a transcript was posted on

his web site.

Stubblebine became romantically involved with psychiatrist Rima Laibow (a reported UFO abductee), later divorcing his wife. Laibow had organized the TREAT conference. For some information on Laibow, see Saucer Smear, Vol. 38, No. 3 (March 1st, 1991), p. 3 and Vol. 40, No. 4 (May 15th, 1993), p. 3.

Alexander was a protégé of Kubler-Ross and did his doctoral dissertation in thanatology under her direction.

Ryan Wood is the son of McDonnell Douglas physicist Dr. Robert M. Wood. Robert Wood is known for his interest in UFOs, and he was the boss of Jack Houck, who in the 1980s popularized metal-bending PK parties. A number of military personnel, including Alexander and Stubblebine, attended those parties, and Alexander later organized parties himself (In 1982 I assisted both Houck and Alexander in organizing parties). Stubblebine was excited by the possibilities of psychic metal bending and became a vocal supporter of it; he subsequently was sometimes referred to as General Spoon-bender. Robert and Ryan Wood later became notorious for touting some ludicrous UFO documents which suggested, among other things, that Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, and J. Edgar Hoover were killed because of their knowledge and involvement with UFOs.

Jim Schnabel wrote a piece on remote viewing for Esquire magazine, but the editors decided not to publish it. He revised the article, focussing on More-house, and posted it on the Internet with the title “An American Hero: The Truth About Dave Morehouse and Psychic Warrior” 7 November 1996. Schnabel’s report was based in part on his review of 700 pages of legal proceedings against Morehouse. Morehouse claimed that the remote-viewing program caused his problems.