Paranormal

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“The tooth comes out” (Tooth Fairy Science)

tooth

When my children put teeth under their pillow, they wake up with substantially more money than I did at their age.

If attempting to ascertain why, I could examine various factors, such as whether the amount the Tooth Fairy leaves has kept up with inflation, if the Fairy values incisors more than molars, and if the time in between lost choppers impacts the amount left. I could query 1,000 children, analyze results for socio-economic trends and determine if there is a correlation between the frequency of Tooth Fairy visits and the sell of home security systems. I may even endeavor to conclude once and for all if the Fairy is male, female, or androgynous. The findings could be put in a snazzy hardcover book with impressive graphics and detailed footnotes. Yet none of this would establish that a stealthy, mobile spirit is replacing extracted calcified objects with cash.

Tooth Fairy Science refers to doing research on an unverified phenomenon to determine what its effects are, rather than to ascertain if it exists. It is post hoc reasoning in research form. The phrase was coined by Dr. Harriet Hall.

This shoddy science is a regular feature of studies into ghosts, cryptozoology, reincarnation, alien visitors, alternative medicine, parapsychology, and creationism.

I have three co-workers who believe our office is haunted. Curiously, this spirit only manifests itself when the workers are by themselves at night. Perhaps he is nocturnal and dislikes crowds. We have ample video and audio equipment in the office, and we could set these up and record what times bumps most occur, detect any unexplained shadows, and note any high-pitched whistles. This data could by analyzed and a conclusion reached about the ghost’s characteristics. But this would not take into account wind, pipes, electromagnetic interference, or a worker on floor above coming in at 11 p.m. We would have to assume the ghost’s existence and attribute these factors to it.

Similarly, cryptozoologists will shoot sonar into Loch Ness or look for disturbed vegetation in Bigfoot’s supposed stomping grounds, then attribute any findings they consider consistent with their monster to be proof the animal was there. As such, they do not consider other explanations, such as the sonar detecting a bloom of algae and zooplankton, or a warthog beating Sasquatch to the trap.

That’s because when Fairy Tale scientists uncover data that is consistent with their hypothesis, they assume the data confirms it. For example, psychiatrist Ian Stevenson spent years collecting stories from people who claimed to be reincarnated. He used these anecdotes to support his belief in reincarnation, and he used reincarnation to explain the stories, a textbook case of circular reasoning.

Moving onto alien abduction, John Mack talked with persons who claimed to have been taken by extraterrestrial beings. He assumed the stories to be real instead of considering that he might have implanted the ideas by asking leading questions, such as, “Was the alien about four feet tall,” as opposed to “How tall was the alien?” The mental state and susceptibility of the subject was not considered, nor were explanations like fraud, attention-seeking, or sleep paralysis. 

Alien abductees aren’t the only subjects that spend time on a Tooth Fairy scientist’s couch. So do alternative medicine patients. Chi, meridians, and blockages are assumed to exist in “energy” medicines such as craniosacral therapy, iridology, therapueitic touch, reflexology, chiropractic, Reiki, Ayuvedic, and more. I have addressed the rest of these in previous posts, so we’ll address Therapeutic Touch here.

First, Therapeutic Touch is neither. The practitioner’s hands are close to the patient, but are never on them. As to the therapy part, practitioners claim to be able to sense a patient’s “human energy field” with their hands, then manipulate the field by moving their hands near a patient’s skin to improve their health. Scientists have detected and measured minute energies down to the subatomic level, but have never found a human energy field. Nine-year-old Emily Rosa designed a controlled test of the practice which Therapeutic Touchers failed spectacularly. Any seeming success is because of the fluctuating nature of many illnesses, the placebo effect, confirmation bias, and nonspecific effects. The latter is a common error and refers to confusing the effects of practitioner-patient interaction with the supposed effect of the treatment.

In a test that proponents claimed proved Therapeutic Touch’s validity, researchers gauged the effects of the technique on reducing nausea and vomiting in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. All patients were on the same chemotherapy regimen and they were randomly divided into three groups of 36 patients. The first group received usual Therapeutic Test treatment, the second group got a similar treatment except the practitioners’ hands were farther from the patients, and the third group received no treatment. A single practitioner performed all the treatments, which was fatal to conducting a proper study because he should not have known which patients were receiving which treatment.

Since there is no evidence the energy field exists, there can be no evidence that how far the practitioner’s hands are from the patient would make a difference. The alleged energy can’t be measured, so there’s no reason to believe any energy was transferred to, or benefited, any patient. While the authors claimed the study showed Therapeutic Touch worked, they had failed to establish that the central feature of the practice even existed.

Likewise, parapsychologists are quick to point to rare instances of a subject performing better than chance as proof that various forms of ESP are legitimate. Unsatisfactory results are considered as the power being unable to be accessed due to cosmic interference, negative energy from a skeptical observer, or some other ad hoc reason. They look to justify the failure as owing to a particular cause rather than the cause being that the power doesn’t exist.

Then we have the creationists. The Institute for Creation Research website informs us, “The very dependability of each day’s processes are a wonderful testimony to the design, purposes, and faithfulness of the Creator. The universe is very stable. The sun always rises in the east and sets in the west. Earth turns on its axis and always cycles through its day at the same speed every time.”

All of these phenomenon are explicable through known laws of physics and astronomy, and the ICR has affirmed the consequent by saying if there is order in the universe, there has to be a god controlling it, and since we see that order, a god exists. They attribute any majesty to this deity without bothering to prove his existence first. It’s one thing to do this as faith in one’s religion. It’s quite another to claim this as science while bypassing the entire Scientific Method.

I’m going to have to wrap this up. My daughter lost another tooth so I’ve got more research to conduct. 

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“Time slips, away” (Accidental time travel)

airplane horse

Time slips are the notion that persons and objects can be involuntarily whisked away to another era for an anachronistic holiday. It is distinct from time travel, which a person intentionally seeks.

This would explain why time slippers end up in lame locations and events, as opposed to ancient Greece, colonial Philadelphia, or 1871 Dodge City. Take this fellow, for instance, casually dressed as opposed to the gentlemen in fedoras and ties who surround him. This image was taken in 1941 at the re-opening of the South Fork Bridge in British Columbia. The subject in question is sporting shades and casual clothing more suited to the 1990s, and for excited believers, this is evidence of time slippage.

However, when an article of clothing or an accoutrement is introduced can be separate from when it is popular. In the case of the sunglasses, this style first appeared in the 1920s. As to his shirt, the claim is that it is relatively modern. But it is probably a sweater with a sewn-on emblem, which was common for sports teams at the times. Indeed, the logo on his shirt appears to be the one belonging to the Montreal Maroons hockey team in the 1940s.

This picture is genuine and the website humansarefree.com argues that time slips have always occurred and that the advent of photography allows the slipper to be accidentally documented. However, the era of computer manipulation makes it easy to plant a person or object from one time into another. For instance, the website offered this photo of a 1960s sports car in the days of Model Ts and horse-drawn trolleys. However, this was merely a manipulation of this photo, to which the car was added.

Time slips are among the least-discussed supernatural topics among both skeptics and believers. For the latter, I think that’s because there’s really nothing they can try and do with them. Unlike Chupacabra tracks or alien wreckage, there’s nothing to look for. Unlike Reiki or applied kinesiology, there’s no power to try and harness. Unlike a séance or telepathic communication with middle Earth inhabitants, time slips aren’t presented as a means of intentionally contacting someone.

As to the skeptics, there’s really not much to respond to. Other than pointing out PhotoShop or noting that time slips would violate the known laws of physics, there’s not much to say.

The most well-known assertion of a time slip was the YouTube phenomenon that featured a woman outside a Charlie Chaplin film who seemed to be talking on a cell phone. Beyond the extraordinary nature of the claim, there is also the obstacle of how someone with a cell phone would have anyone to speak with unless a cell phone tower also slipped through the time warp.

Since the video has the typical grainy look of those from the era, it’s hard to get a clear picture of what she’s holding, although the most likely answer is that it’s a portable hearing aid. A competing claim from humansarefree.com holds that the object is indeed a cell phone and that this time slip occurred because “our souls are connected to our bodies from another dimension.”

Before this  bi-level spirit travel, the most well-known time slip claim was from the turn of the 20th Century. It centered on friends Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, who toured the Palace of Versailles and came across a chateau that had been used by Marie Antoinette. They got lost on the massive grounds and ran into persons wearing the garb associated with 18th Century aristocracy. They later reported they had seen Antoinette sketching.

The pair were respected educators so there story was given more credibility, an instance of appealing to authority. This is where extra weight is given to a claim because of who is saying it rather than what evidence is supporting it. It is an ad hominem in reverse. One example of this was what happened when Linus Pauling asserted that vitamin deficiencies were responsible for all sickness and disease, and he recommended massive doses of Vitamin C for everyone. Pauling was a great chemist who won the Nobel Prize for his research into the nature of the chemical bond, but his orange juice overload suggestion was not backed by research. His assertions about the cause of disease could not be validated by other scientists. Since no evidence backed up what Pauling said, alternative medicine practitioners relied on his unrelated Nobel Prize for substantiation.

Similarly, because of their prominent positions, pilots and astronauts are put forth as reputable sources if they claim to have seen a flying saucer. Even persons far less accomplished than Nobel Prize winners and moon travelers can be given extra consideration due to their sincerity and honesty. It can take the form of, “My grandmother is an upright person, and if she says she saw Bigfoot, she did.” However, a person’s honesty and credentials are unrelated to their brain’s role in taking in perceptions, filtering through distortions, filling in blanks, and putting together a conclusion. A person can be distinguished, genuine, and mistaken. People may be well-meaning and still have fallible memories.

When the Moberly-Jordain story was first reported, it was examined by England’s Society for Psychical Research. Despite the name, it took a (relatively) skeptical look at fantastic claims and concluded this case was explicable through ordinary means. Most likely, they had stumbled upon a historical reenactment and no more saw French Revolution victims than persons today see Stonewall Jackson at a Civil War recreation. There is also reason to believe this experience became a shared delusion that was woven in retellings. For starters, it took 100 days for the two to initially compare notes, and it was only after much discussion, story swapping, and historical research that Moberly and Jourdain came up with a year of 1789 and assigned identities to the characters they saw, including Antoinette as the sketch artist.

This tale was added to, deleted from, rearranged, and embellished by subsequent storytellers until it became established in lore as a time slip. But unless you’re reading this prior to 2016, there’s no reason to think there is such a thing.

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“Skull-duggery” (Crystal craniums)

CSKULL
There are many crystal skulls out there, the overwhelming majority of which both skeptics and believers think were made in the last 200 years. The dispute centers on how many ancient, magic skulls there are, with believers saying 13 and skeptics saying zero.

The origins of these 13 enchanted quartz craniums have variously been described as Mayan, Aztec, or Cherokee. Bolder claims have them coming from down below (Atlantis) or up above (an exoplanet). There have been numerous persons asserting to be in possession of ancient crystal skulls, but all claims have withered under scientific scrutiny, and no such skulls have ever been found during an archeological dig.

The busiest time and place for these frauds was 19th Century England. Interest in ancient culture artifacts was high and dating techniques weren’t what they are now, so the fraudsters got away with it for a while, selling bogus pieces to museums and universities.

Faux archeologists have given way to New Age entrepreneurs as the main peddlers of crystal skulls. Powers attributed to them include healing, cancer eradication, gravity suppression, expanded psychic awareness, and providing holographic images of the holder’s past events.

The skulls also serve as a townhouse for souls of ancient Mayans. They entered the skulls in order to wait for someone with the ability to unlock their prophetic knowledge to happen along. The key, however, is to get all 13 skulls together and juxtapose them is such a way that will usher in an era of bliss, enlightenment, and twice-weekly taco days.

One of the more enthusiastic promoters is crystalskulls.com, a website so loose with the facts that it describes the Great Flood as “scientifically verified.” If anonymous testimonials are your passion, you’ll want to stop by. Here’s one: “I’ve always found your skulls to have a much higher vibration and love quotient than other skulls.” And another: “When I meditated with my new skull it gave me the name of A-Ma-Ru, meaning doorway or portal to higher consciousness.” You can bulk up your Good Vibrations and spirit travel for $298. Shipping is extra, as the website delivers through FedEx, not the higher consciousness portal.

An Ancient Aliens episode declared every tested crystal skull to be of comparatively recent origin and void of supernatural power. This seeming anomaly for the program is understandable once one realizes they were profiling Anna Mitchell-Hedges, who was in possession of a crystal skull found in 1924 that hadn’t been proven fake. However, this was because she had rejected all requests for testing from scientists and their annoying dating technology. She said the skull had given her a premonition of the JFK assassination, not bothering to explain why she made no attempt to stop it.

After her death, the skull was examined by the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, which tested it and determined it to be recent. Ancient Aliens stands by its story. Smithsonian vs. Ancient Aliens, you decide the winner. The program noted that another 12 skulls need to come together to usher in the grand new epoch, which should buy them another dozen episodes.

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“Tunnel vision” (Near Death Experiences)

HELL

While skeptic is the adjective I most use to describe myself, it would be fascinating to learn that there really are Yetis, Venusian visitors, or jasmine extracts that cure Multiple Sclerosis. And the most pleasant example of my doubts being proven unfounded would be to learn of irrefutable evidence of an afterlife. There is clearly death after life, but does another life or series of lives follow that?

Bill O’Reilly and Dennis Prager have touched on this subject and argued that if there is nothing to look forward to when this is over, then all life is ultimately pointless. I find that unnecessarily pessimistic. To me, hopelessness would be knowing there is an eternity and that it will be spent in a North Korean gulag. But the larger point is that O’Reilly and Prager are committing the Argument From Consequence fallacy. How much value there is in our Earthly existence has no bearing on whether it’s all we get.

The term Near Death Experience was coined by psychiatrist Raymond Moody, who interviewed hundreds of persons who had reported unusual experiences while hovering near death. The best-known elements are a light at the end of a tunnel, being detached from the body, and reviewing one’s life. Other than a buzzing or ringing sound, the experience is usually pleasant, though about 15 percent of respondents found the experience upsetting or even terrifying. Some report seeing deceased relatives or a religious figure, always someone from the dying person’s faith, as portrayed in their culture’s artwork. Some persons have increased religious fervor after these experiences, but there are no reported conversions. Muhammad has never appeared to a dying Jew, nor Buddha to a moribund Hindu.

These are NEAR death experiences since no one reporting them has died. This means they are not proof of an afterlife. The persons could be entering another plane, portal, or state of existence, but they could also be experiencing what happens to someone with a dying brain.

Vision researcher Tomasz Troscianko speculates that an overload of information in the visual cortex creates an image of bright light that gradually increases. NDE researcher Susan Blackmore, meanwhile, attributes the feelings of extreme peacefulness to endorphin release.

One of the stronger pieces of evidence that NDEs are all in the mind come from the experiments of Dr. Karl Jansen. He has produced the effects of Near Death Experiences using a short-lived hallucinogenic dissociative anesthetic. According to Jansen, this anesthetic reproduces features such as traveling through a dark tunnel toward light, communing with a higher power, and feeling detached from one’s body. Excessive release of dopamine and noradrenaline could explain seeing dead relatives and religious figures or watching key moments from one’s life pass before you.

Neurologist Kevin Nelson suggests a reduced oxygen supply is the main culprit in NDEs, as this causes various brain regions to slow down in order to conserve energy. This messes with the hypothalamus and temporal lobe, thereby impacting emotion, memory, and limb control.

While backed up by some data, these skeptic speculations involve some guesswork. The nature of NDE claims make them impossible to falsify, measure, or reproduce. This means they fall outside the scope of being dealt with by the Scientific Method. Thus, it is impossible to definitively conclude if NDEs are the result of persons entering a new consciousness that begins when biological functions cease.

But the same standard applies to the other side. P.Z. Myers exchanged online pieces with Salon writer Mario Beauregard, who had offered a series of vivid tales centering on NDEs. Myers explained why these anecdotes were inadequate evidence: “Beauregard could recite a thousand vague rumors and poorly documented examples with ambiguous interpretations, and it wouldn’t salvage his thesis.” Beauregard attempted a vague scientific spin by throwing in the word “Quantum,” which is the New Age version of God of the Gaps argument, where anything that can’t be explained is brushed away with this buzzword.

Meanwhile, Mike Adams at townhall.com related the tale of “Carl” and his NDE, and noted there are many such stories. He’s right, there are many undocumented, unverified, anonymous anecdotes out there. I hope Adams is right about Carl having glimpsed the unending bliss that awaits us all. Or really, even perpetual mediocrity punctuated by occasional doughnut breaks with Chuck Connors and Benjamin Franklin would be enough. But until proof is available, I’ll focus on making the best of this life, which is the one I’m sure I have.

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“The Kids Are All Might” (Indigo children)

SKID

Indigo children are said to be youngsters who possess highly desirable supernatural abilities. These awesome offspring are variously suspected to be multidimensional beings, human-alien hybrids, super-evolved hominids, or prophets destined to lead humanity to full enlightenment. While none of these distinctions have been confirmed in indigo children, we can be certain of their parents’ traits, most notably a massive ego.

The concept of indigo children originated with Nancy Ann Tappe, who attributed her discovery to her synesthesia. This is an neurological phenomenon where a person is using one sense but has another stimulated. Everyone does this to some extent. For instance, if someone hears the word giraffe, they likely will “see” this giant animal in their mind. But synesthesia primarily refers to such experiences as hearing a car start and associating it with the color green, or looking at a circle and getting an itching sensation. Tappe, then, attributed synesthesia to her seeing an indigo glow around select children.

A fairly minor point here, but that would not be synesthesia since only sight was involved. Perhaps she was claiming the color was her “seeing” the sixth sense. In any case, whether or not she is seeing shimmering children would be easy to determine. A dozen partitions could be set up, and behind each would sit either a person she considers indigo, a person she does not consider indigo, or an empty chair. She could then tell testers which partitions had an indigo glow rising from them. However, New Agers don’t normally care for these types of tests, instead preferring feelings, intuition, and client gullibility. Boyued by these elements, Tappe writes books on the subject and holds seminars, where hundreds of disciples bathe in each other’s bluish brilliance.

In her writings, Tappe lists traits to look for to know if your child is indigo. It’s unclear why this is needed, since having Tappe look at the kids would seem enough. Also, the list of indigo traits is so long and vague it could apply to everyone and so the Forer Effect comes into play. These descriptions include being curious, headstrong, unusual, driven, intuitive, intelligent, and resistant to structure.

Thinking one’s child is a hyper-evolved multidimensional being is attractive to those whose credulity is matched by their vanity. But author Sarah Whedon suggests the indigo label also appeals to parents who seek to excuse their child’s behavior and their parental responsibility to do anything about it. For instance, pro-indigo authors Jan Tober and Lee Carroll say such children may function poorly in conventional schools due to their rejection of rigid authority, their being smarter than their teachers, and their inability to embrace discipline.

Whedon suspects that many children who have ADHD or autism are instead labeled as indigo by their parents. This also gives a fabricated reason to avoid Ritalin or other medication, a plus in this mostly anti-vax, anti-Big Pharma community. Here, autism is just another word for telepathy. Skeptic author Robert Todd Carroll said, “It’s much easier for them to believe their children are special and chosen for some high mission instead of having a brain disorder.” Anthropologist Beth Singler considers the movement as part of a moral panic about children, parenting, ADHD, autism, Big Pharma, and vaccinations.

From a list of identifiers at indigochildren.com, we learn, “If this seems to describe you, chances are you are an Indigo,” followed by an exhaustive list of personality traits. Most are positive, such as creative, honest, sympathetic, and confident. Like astrology, it is kept general, while also telling the listener what it wants to hear. There are handful of negative traits thrown in – rebellious, antisocial, strange – in order to have cover for ADHD and autism.

I doubt if anyone who has wanted to know if their child was indigo has looked into it and decided the answer was no. If someone has gotten to the point of seriously asking that question, it reveals their motivation and mindset.

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“Psichobabble” (Dean Radin and extrasensory powers)

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Polls have consistently shown that about two-thirds of Americans believe in some sort of paranormal phenomenon. About two in five believe in ESP, about the same number who think ghosts are real. Also, just over half think that mind over matter can heal the body. There is another poll, the unscientific one I have taken of paranormal proponents I’ve spoken with over the years. This poll shows that zero percent of believers come to their position after a review of controlled studies employing the Scientific Method and peer review. Rather, it is based on personal experience, a cousin’s anecdote, or regular History Channel viewing.

Of course, the numbers have nothing to do with what is real. If 100 percent of those residing on a remote Pacific Island believe in the same Cargo Cult god, this unanimity of 1,000 worshippers will not equal one deity.

Some psychic promoters attempt to put a scientific spin on alleged extrasensory phenomenon. Author and parapsychologist Dean Radin is one of the more prominent using this approach. His overarching assertion is that, “Information can be obtained in ways that bypass the ordinary sensory system.” He calls this mysterious force “psi.” In presentations, he has never demonstrated that this force works and, in two books, has provided no evidence for its existence.

And while Radin uses graphs, charts, and statistical analysis, the applied mathematics veneer quickly gives way to the babble used by most psychics. He puts a lot of stock in studies, which would be admirable if they were conducted using solid research methods, sound statistics, and a following of the Scientific Method. However, these studies fail to explain how ESP or remote viewing could be falsified, and make no attempt to do so. Moreover, many of them rely on a preposterous ad hoc explanation to shoo away any failure. If people perform better than chance, this is considered proof of psychic ability. But if they perform at, or worse than chance, this is touted as proof that a separate psychic phenomenon is leading the test subject astray.

Radin dismisses skeptical scientists due to the “insular nature of their disciplines. The vast majority of psi experiments are unknown to most scientists.” Indeed, the Nobel Prize committee seems to not know Radin’s e-mail address and he has not sent it to them telepathically.

The numbers Radin presents can seem overwhelming (in terms of their volume and complexity, not in terms of their evidence). But this reveals the problem. Far better than an exhaustive book of graphs would be providing us with one prescient person who can correctly guess what word is scribbled on the note James Randi has in his vest pocket. Show me someone who can fool Penn and Teller by using genuine magic to move a cup across the stage and that will blow me away with more than Radin’s analyses of 1,000 studies.

Being unable to produce such a person, Radin gives us a complex statistical overview of tons of data. Any seeming anomaly is attributed to psi, which skeptics recognize as the appeal to ignorance. In this case, it’s a New Age god of the gaps argument, whereby any unexplained phenomenon proves that psi is responsible.   

In classic pseudoscience tradition, Radin asserts the proof is coming someday. He insists that psi will eventually be explained as part of quantum mechanics. He anticipates people “pushing atoms around with their minds” and our bodies enjoying “mass mind healing” that will end disease and cure paraplegics.

He also anticipates miracles being verified, as we gain an understanding of how Jesus and Krishna used psi techniques to perform them. He also predicts we will see confirmation that mediums talk with the dead, although he failed to clarify if the deceased will finally talk back. He sees us being able to communicate telepathically with anyone, even our friend who now lives in another solar system, which will be possible due to psi’s contributions to the space program. The human mind will become as fast and capable as a supercomputer. Presumably a psychic will finally win the lottery, although the winnings will have to be split 200 million ways.

In his attempt to tie all this into quantum physics, he embraces the concept of entanglement as the key to understanding psychic phenomenon. Entanglement refers to connections between subatomic particles that persist regardless of them being separated by various distances. Radin therefore concludes that this must apply to all entities, be they microscopic, mammals, or moons. He wrote, “The fabric of reality is comprised of entangled threads that are consistent with the core of psi experience.” However, Skeptics Dictionary editor John Renish notes that, “Entanglement can be only of identical elementary particles”

Radin also misapplies the Uncertainty Principle, the idea that observing a particle will affect its behavior. He tries to project this notion onto every other entity in the universe. But the Uncertainty Principle only applies if the observation inputs energy into the system being observed. Put another way, viewing a comet through a telescope won’t cause it to veer off course. And thinking about a long-lost friend won’t prompt him to search you out on Instagram.

Just as astrologers have yet to find an exoplanet and Reiki practitioners have yet to discover any cures, parapsychologists like Radin have yet to make a contribution to neuroscience. Rather, they try to modernize what they consider the wisdom of the ancient mystics by misusing scientific terms and electronic equipment.

  

 

 

 

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“Bad connection” (Ley Lines)

DOTMAP

Ley lines emerged from the imagination of author and self-taught archeologist Alfred Watkins. He deduced that straight lines could be drawn that connected geographic features and ancient sites in Great Britain, and he thought these revealed Neolithic trade routes.

However, there are so many prominent geographic features and places of historic relevance in Great Britain that there seems an almost unlimited number of possible starting and connecting points. One could randomly draw a line connecting any two places and inadvertently have geographic or historic points at both ends.

The idea vanished until author John Mitchell took a break from decoding UFO messages to announce that Watkins was partially correct. The lines were not trade routes, but rather sources of magic energy portals. Since this revelation in the late 1960s, several other similar mystic interpretations have been drawn. Since these mystery spots exist solely in the minds of devotees, they can be anywhere, but usually involve major ancient sites such as Stonehenge, the Pyramids, the Nazca Lines, and the Moai. One could even draw a line from one of those sites to your kitchen and get Wonder Twin powers along with your sloppy joe.

The most costly example of this belief was when the Seattle Arts Commission gave $5,000 to a group of New Age dowsers to do a ley line map of their city. For its money, the commission received this Seattle ley line map, which I suspect was plagiarized from a preschooler’s connect the dots book: http://www.geo.org/qa.htm. They were also given this pronouncement: “The vision of the Seattle Ley Line Project is to heal the Earth energies within the Seattle city limits by identifying ley line power centers in Seattle, neutralizing negative energies and then amplifying the positive potential of the ley-line power centers.” As a bonus, this would lead to Seattle being “a center of power for good on Spaceship Earth.”

To believers, alignments of monuments and natural features are responsible for magic, psychic awareness, and special abilities. But the randomness and subjectivity of deciding which points to include was demonstrated by archaeologist Richard Atkinson who drew a set of similar lines, with each one including telephone booths.

These energies are said to be laid out around Earth in grid form, with significant geographic and manmade features being used to access this energy. This requires accepting that ancient cultures built these massive features without passing onto subsequent generation the reason for doing so.

Ley line energy cannot be detected by magnetometers or other measuring devices. Besides this lack of scientific evidence, there are other disqualifying considerations. How big a hill counts as an important one? Where is the historically relevant cutoff? Drawing these lines can require selecting a point of marginal historic importance while bypassing one of more relevance in order to make it fit. Plotting these lines requires pareidolia, determination, and use of artistic license with a psychic twist.

So what had been a novel but ultimately incorrect hypothesis involving Great British archeology transformed into a worldwide search for secret energy. But the significant ancient sites at the center of these searches were based on practical considerations of geography, culture, and available supplies. Builders of Angor Wat were unaware there was Stonehenge to intersect with. The Great Pyramid was built to ensure a pharaoh’s safe passage to immortality, not so future advanced societies could complete the magic energy triangle with Machu Picchu and the Eiffel Tower.

Some believers, primarily those at ancientwisdom.co.uk, have tried to tie ley lines into other New Age concepts. They introduced Feng Shui in an attempt to establish that major sites were built in order to interact with springs and rivers. Here’s the logic behind that, from the website: “Earth’s natural magnetism was believed to have been used to re-fertilize the soil. Water is extremely sensitive to electromagnetic fields, and as the fields are changed or influenced, so the chemistry of the water may be altered too.” To summarize, castles were meant not to protect from invaders, but from negative liquid energy.

These ideas are too spacey for astrology to not rear its celestial head. The site also tells us, “The St. Michael Ley is aligned along the path of the sun on May 8, which is the spring festival of St. Michael. It can therefore be considered astronomical. This line passes through several megalithic sites before it reaches Glastonbury and Avebury, both significant English landscape features.” There are also many important features it does not pass through, as well as passing though areas without significance.

In fact, it happens that this alleged astronomical ley line does not include Stonehenge, which New Agers consider ancient Great Britain’s most significant astronomical feature. No worries, ad hoc thinking to the rescue: “Stonehenge, whilst not being a part of the St. Michael ley, is connected with both Glastonbury and Avebury through geometry, and also forms the crossing point of several prominent ley lines.”

So even though it passes through other lines, it still counts as being a part of the one they want it to. As we’ve seen, it’s easy to come up with any connection using ley lines, and even easier if you ignore the rules you established in the first place.

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“Eternal lie” (Reincarnation)

CAGED

I recently made my 150th post to this blog and I don’t believe any of them contain a claim that I have disproven anything. Whether the topic is ESP, ghosts, cryptids, or a healing quartz, one cannot prove a negative. I can simply highlight logical fallacies and other flaws in claims of supposed success. Or I can introduce points adding the mountain of evidence that indicate the unlikelihood of these phenomenon being genuine.

So when addressing reincarnation, we are limited to challenging the claims and critical thinking of those who say it’s real, and of analyzing the sociological and religious reasons behind its genesis and evolution.

Before going further, a definition. Reincarnation is the idea that when someone dies, the body breaks down, but a detached consciousness continues in some form or another on Earth. It is distinct from a belief in Valhalla, Heaven, or Hell, as these locales are reached after this person’s only life, with this postmortem fate being eternal and otherworldly.

The idea can be attractive, mostly because of the immortality. If a person is 52 with no real accomplishments, that’s no big deal since there will be a second chance, along with a 102nd. It also allows one to envision a romantic past in which they were a pioneer, a Revolutionary War officer, and a Paleolithic hunter-gatherer.

The notion of reincarnation likely had its beginnings when primitive peoples noticed that flowers, trees, and vegetation would die in the winter, then come back in the spring. Since humans are part of nature, I had once considered the possibility of this also applying to us. I jettisoned the idea when I realized that those other things weren’t actually dying. Trees, for instance, lose their leaves but not their status as living organisms. When they do die, they shrivel, don’t regain leaves, and never come back.

Reincarnation is mostly associated with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Wicca, with significant differences in each. In Buddhism, the person comes back as a baby and tries to get it right this time. When they accomplish this, they enter Nirvana, sort of like the characters in Defending Your Life.

The relevance of reincarnation varies significantly within different schools of Buddhist thought. Among Zen practitioners, it is scarcely more relevant than it would be to a Humanist. The Zen proponent would think reincarnation occurs, the Humanist would think it does not, but it would be equally irrelevant to both. Both are concerned only with being right here, right now, and doing what they can to better themselves and help their fellow beings. By contrast, reincarnation is of premium importance in traditional eastern Buddhism, most so when a new Dalai Lama is selected on the basis of a Tibetan toddler picking items belonging to his predecessor. The idea is to be Buddhist enough during life to reach Nirvana. Since even the embodiment of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, continues to fall short, this would seemingly be a depressing thought to the rest of the practitioners.

In Hinduism, the post-life smorgasbord features a much broader selection. You can come back as any living creature, including mammals, reptiles, deities, and demons. That is why Indian citizens have starved to death while their great-grandfather who is now a cow remained off-limits for consumption. In an additional misfortune, the cattle die a much worse death from their own starvation than they would if they were quickly slaughtered. The related concept of karma also allowed for an extreme case of state-sanctioned bigotry in the caste system. It was believed Untouchables had brought this on themselves with misdeeds in past lives. While no longer legally enforceable, the caste system still plagues those on the lower rungs. Hindu reincarnation continues until the soul reunites with the Source. I’m unsure what this really means. For further information, consult your local Brahmin.

In Wicca, there is usually not an equivalent of Nirvana or the Source, though some traditions tell of a blissful eternity called Summerland. For most Wiccans, people keep coming back and will continue doing so at least until the sun swallows Earth. A difference between Eastern religions and Wicca is that reincarnation is a relatively bad thing in the former since it means you failed to get it right. By contrast, Wicca teaches that reincarnation is part of the inevitable flow of nature and unrelated to a person’s merits.

Reincarnation is also taught by Taoists, Sikhs, Jains, Inuit, and voodoo worshippers. And it has been embraced by contemporary charlatans. It figures heavily in Scientology and is utilized by those who offer pricey therapy based on past lives, between lives, and future lives.

Per L. Ron Hubbard’s instruction, a spirit spots a woman in labor, then follows her and slips into the newborn’s body. At the risk of stating the obvious, Hubbard offered no evidence to support his obstetrics hypothesis.

Reincarnation is most explicitly rejected by Christianity, especially Protestant evangelicals. A few in the early Church took as literal Jesus’ exhortation that one must be born again, but this never gained favor. In times and places where church and state were inseparable, it was advantageous for the power brokers to teach that failing to follow their dictates guaranteed eternal damnation, rather than teaching that persons get repeated chances.

The closest thing believers have offered for evidence are stories from persons revealing their past lives. The ideas are mostly confined to children, consistent with their creative imaginations, suggestibility, and a desire to please the grownup in charge of the session. When experienced by adults, these manufactured memories are primarily an extension of the person’s ego, as previous incarnations are mostly of chieftains, explorers, and princesses.

These memories require an expanded idea of the notion of the soul. It would require not just a detached consciousness, but an identical wiring of neurons that allow for memory preservation.

One attempt to put the idea of a soul to vaguely scientific test was undertaken by physician Duncan MacDougall, who tried to weigh it. He convinced six moribund patients to lie on their deathbeds while he hooked them to scales (That’s a conversation I’d like to hear). He weighed them before and after death, with most experiencing a reduction of about three-tenths of an ounce.

It would require extremely gracious post hoc reasoning to declare this evidence that persons have a soul of such a weight. MacDougall’s contemporary, Dr. Augustus Clark, noted that he failed to account for the sudden rise in body temperature at death when blood stops being air-cooled. This rise in temperature led to sweating and moisture evaporation that would account for the lost grams.

Another attempt to put a façade of science to the notion was made by psychiatrist Ian Stephenson. He collected several stories of past lives in a dogged attempt to prove that the plural of anecdote is most assuredly data. Since the cause of some diseases could not be attributed to heredity or environment, Stephenson determined it must have come from something brought from a past life. This represents perhaps the most extraordinary leap in the history of conclusion-jumping. While he attempted to frame his terms and methods in medical jargon, he never employed the Scientific Method and set out with his conclusion drawn and sought supporting evidence.

As stated in the opening, I can’t say with certainty whether I fought sabre-toothed cats in my past or will do the same against Andromedan invaders in my future. But in the present, I’m fighting for logic and reason.

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“Wrong number” (Numerology)

numberfearIn an attempt to stand out among the myriad of divination methods, numerologists present their practice as the most scholarly and learned of the paranormal arts. They point to patterns in a seashell or galaxy and attempt to tie this to someone’s job satisfaction or musical ability.

Or they will reference repeating trends in nature, such as those of the Fibonacci Sequence, and try to ride these mathematical coattails to relevance. They cite Newton, Kepler, Plato, and Erdős, taking their quotes about the beauty of numbers and twisting them horribly out of context. The most abused victim of this historical distortion is Pythagoras, with some even calling numerology a Pythagorean system, even though he had nothing to do with it.

He had some misguided followers who took his groundbreaking ideas and tried to make them into something esoteric. But there is no evidence that Pythagoras thought there was any relevance to this, and no reason to think he endorsed the idea that names and birthdays could reveal personality, interests, and fate. Even if he did think that, there is no reason to suspect it’s a correct conclusion, and is merely the appeal to irrelevant authority.

Another fallacy embraced by numerologists is the appeal to antiquity. This is always a strange one. Why would persons enamored by the deep past praise it using a computer? Why do they use electric lights instead of kerosene lamps or torches? As to its use in numerology, the appeal to antiquity has practitioners boasting it was used in one form or another by Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks, Hebrews, Armenians, and Arabs. In this case, the appeal to antiquity actually highlights one of numerology’s fatal flaws. All of these cultures had their own alphabet and not all had the same calendar, so the basic premise of numerology is snuffed out.

Numbers have often been seen to have mystic power. 3, 7, and 40 are common in the Bible. Greeks were fond of 12, the Chinese embrace 8, and 7 in a lucky number in the United States. But while numerologists highlight this history, the simple idea of using only name and birthdate is relatively new, probably dating to the early 20th Century.

Values are assigned to each number or letter, based on whim or guesswork. Despite this shaky foundation, numerologist.com calls the field a science. If so, it’s a science that lays out no predictions, describes no method, performs no tests, explains no hypotheses, and makes no attempt to replicate or falsify. Proponents offer no explanation of how a manufactured set of numbers, set to an arbitrary base of 10, would determine personality, interests, and life path. There is no explication about how it would work or why we should believe it, unless you count a bunch of testimonials.

These testimonials are the result of subjective validation, the law of truly large numbers, magical thinking, and selective memory. Few people who are satisfied with their lives will seek out a numerologist, and therein lies the appeal. They tell customers about their hidden strengths and powers, as well as laying out a thrilling vision of amazing love, financial security, and career success. Besides that obvious appeal, it can be reassuring and emotional to have someone talk with you about what matters most to you. It plays to primal urges to have someone reassure you that your life has meaning.

It is good to examine strengths, weaknesses, goals, and personality traits, but this should be realistic and based on deep reflection about who you are and where you want to go. This should be self-examination, or maybe done with a good friend who might know you better than you know yourself in some ways. It should never be done with a stranger who literally knows only two pieces of information about you, neither of which define you. Numerologists insist that one’s name and birth date determines that person’s destiny. You were meant to have a certain job, marry a certain person, play a certain sport, and pay a certain numerologist to tell you this.

Numerologist.com offers a free reading. I’m impressed, they know I wouldn’t pay for it. Many times, these free divination methods will reveal the same reading for every person. The readings usually apply to most people, since they are written vaguely enough and are full of contradictions, such as, “You are often timid, but not afraid to assert yourself if your ideas are being dismissed.”

With numerology this isn’t as possible since people have different names and birth dates. However, once your magic number is calculated, you will receive the same reading as someone with identical numbers. I deduced this because I received my exhaustive reading within five seconds. The system assigned numbers to my letters and birthday, providing no reason why those values were chosen or why they would influence what I’ll have for lunch, much less impact major life choices and events.

The reading rambles on for several tedious paragraphs, making me out to be a mix of Warren Buffet, Maurice Greene, and Johnny Depp. This would appeal to anyone who has the low self-esteem consistent with someone seeking out a mysterious stranger to fix their train wreck of a life.

In an anomalous, more modest, tidbit, I am told, “You enjoy golf, chess, and equestrian pursuits.” I have never golfed. I have ridden horses maybe a dozen times. I played chess halfway regularly when I was in my teens and 20s. So here, the success of my reading is 0 percent, 60 percent, and 5 percent. But if I’m wanting to believe, I will remember the horse on the chessboard, but not the one that I rode. Or I will think, I only rode few times, but really enjoyed it when I did, so this guy has got me down. Golf will be dismissed completely, and eventually forgotten.

“You love nature and especially gardening and landscaping. Number 4’s often also own many pets.” I don’t garden and don’t have a pet. This guy isn’t even in any good. He makes it way too specific, in one case saying it was my fate to build an opera house. However, if someone wants to believe bad enough, this erroneous analysis will morph into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Your insistence on financial security, charity and the stewardship of the young often makes you a pillar of the community at a very young age.” Are they even trying here? I’m 47.

What follows are several leaflets for sale, including one that instructs on how to select fortuitous telephone numbers and hotel rooms. I see now why my reading included the line, “If you are stolen from, your highest spiritual calling is to forgive the debt. “

Numerologist.com gushes about how people and meaningful events in our lives can never be a coincidence. It chides skeptics and rationalists, describing us as persons who prefer to avoid this truth because it makes us feel safe.

However, people seek to avoid randomness, not patterns. The aversion to randomness, the desire to feel in control, and the wish to find meaning in life is what causes some to embrace divination.

Someone with a common name, such as Joshua James Franklin, born on the same day as someone with the same moniker, will not lead an identical life and have the same strengths, goals, and personality as his namesake. This has been shown in two studies, the only ones I know of that have attempted a scientific analysis of numerology. Links to those studies are here and here.

Both studies had negative results. The second of the two involved a professional numerologist and 200 volunteers. It was attempted thrice and failed all three times. Now those are numbers that mean something.

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“Believe it or Rot” (Channeling)

HEALTHSIGN

Esther Hicks does what the voices in her head tell her to. This usually means writing books, giving speeches, recording videos and CDs, and appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Her products and message promise bliss, and Hicks distinguishes herself from other peddlers of the gooey by channeling spirit creatures. She gives them the collective name Abraham, and they impart to her “The Secret,” which holds that positive thoughts will cause the universe to bestow unlimited bounty.

Here’s an example of what’s on Abe’s channel: “When your attention is upon the way you feel, your attention is upon your vibrational climate, your point of attraction, it’s where you stand, which is everything. The way you feel is an indication of what you’re doing vibrationally, and what you’re doing vibrationally is everything about who you’re with, the timing of it, and your ability to realize and translate it.” My vibrational attentions are unable to translate any of that.

There are three main themes to Hicks’ teachings: The universe loves us all; We can create anything with our mind; We are immortal souls. So we are supremely important, there is nothing to fear in life, or in death, and no effort is required for any of this. It would be hard to convince someone in the Third World that all they have to do is imagine running water, electricity, and health care and it will manifest. So Hicks targets the young and wealthy, who already have optimism, a wonderful present, and bright future, so her sales pitch seems more reasonable. Some of the customers have been following her for decades, even though per her teachings, one day of positive thinking is sufficient for lifelong change. It’s also curious that Hicks sells these products, since her overarching point is that persons can wish items into existence.

Here are a few more of Abraham’s gems:

“Avoid anything that causes you to feel any discomfort.” Don’t like work, quit. Aren’t getting along with your spouse, file for divorce. Don’t like Maroon 5, smash the iPod from which they emanate.

“Anything that you can imagine is yours to be or do or have.” Falsely imprisoned? Born blind? Homeless with four children? Play make-believe and it will all go away.

“Stop trying to figure it out.” Thinking, bad. Following Hicks, good.

She has a lecture entitled, “Using a pendulum to figure things out.” But unless she’s teaching physics concepts, I don’t think this will work. Besides the pendulum is unnecessary, since Hicks elsewhere asserts that if you write things down and pretend that you have them, they will manifest.

Positive attitude and belief in one’s self are good starting points. But thoughts must lead to action, which must lead to results, which must lead to consistency. Jonas Salk didn’t cure polio by thinking about it. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs didn’t meditate in their garage about a technological revolution, they built products that made it happen.

The flip side of this is that negative moods are natural, unavoidable, and a necessary part of the creative process. A sense of dissatisfaction with the current status spurs people to improve their personal and professional lives.

Abraham’s message is a rehash of the 19th century New Thought tradition, which taught that “Believing makes it so.” This takes the positive traits of optimism and a good attitude to absurdly impossible heights. I’m unsure if happiness can be bought, but apparently it can be sold, along with wealth, health, and eternal life.

There are obvious dangers to believing you can think away a disease or wish yourself to prosperity. Hicks convinces her followers that feeling empowered is the same as being so. And since she uses undefined terms and esoteric language, she can twist anything make it fit. She also employs Magical Thinking, where any positives are due to her teachings and any failures are due to not adhering to them.

Her husband, Jerry Hicks, had cancer, which the couple swore they would fight not with chemotherapy, but by changing vibrations. They claimed this would vanquish the rouge cells in an afternoon. Here is Hicks’ manifesto on medical care: “Your physical body is sick, what’s been bothering you? What are you worried about? What are you angry about? What are you frustrated about?’ Because that is what is at the root of all of this. And then say, ‘Let it go, let it go, let it go.’”

This wasn’t working, so Jerry ended up going with chemotherapy, but it was too late and he succumbed. The lesson here is, do what Esther says or you’ll die.