IIG Public Update #4
November 2007
October saw CFI’s Halloween celebration – “Scary
Bible Stories.” The Hellfire and Brimstone was evocative, however, of
the wildfires in SoCal that have been even more frightening than the
bellicose Deity described in certain passages of the Old Testament.
This month, the return of thoroughly discredited psychics reminded us that
everything old is new again.
CARLA BARON (HER AGAIN?)
U.K. Skeptic (sceptic?) William Legge wrote us about Carla’s show
“Haunting Evidence.” He noticed that, while investigating the disappearance
of a District Attorney, it was stated that Baron’s team was going in blind,
and yet Baron has been “working” on the case for years. William, are you
implying that a professional psychic detective may be dishonest? What
happened to all the British politeness we heard about?
Actually, William picked up on something we already know about. In season
one (airing in 2005 and 2006) Baron “worked” on the disappearance of Amanda
Tusing and it was claimed that she was
"Provided
with little information" when,
in fact, she had known about the case since 2004. They also investigated the
death of Tim Stone, and the narrator implied that they were coming in fresh,
but in fact, Carla had aware of the “case” since 2004. In fact, she appeared
on CourtTV in 2005 to talk about it with Nancy Grace -- noted paragon of
intellectual rigor. Randi had more on this last year:
http://www.randi.org/jr/2006-07/072106gentle.html#i6
What’s amazing is that Baron’s fans – people who obsess about every detail
of her over-inflated exploits – never pick up on this.
PHENOMENON
No discussion of has-been psychics would be complete without a mention of
NBC’s “Phenomenon” featuring the skeptic’s arch-enemy Uri Geller. In this
new series, Geller and magician Criss Angel judge mentalists in a sadly
predictable “American Idol” format. Say what you will about Criss Angel, he
gave pretty good criticism. One contestant did a convoluted “Russian
Roulette” trick with nail-guns, and Angel astutely pointed out that the
trick is simpler and more effective if done with plain old revolvers. Here’s
the strange thing, while Angel critiques the performers as illusionists,
Geller critiques them as actual psychics! NBC made sure this major flaw with
the show’s concept was never addressed, even though we all wanted Criss to
turn to Uri and say, “Uh, grampa, these are tricks. Didn’t you get the
memo?”
Well, that wasn’t the end of Geller’s embarrassment. It’s difficult to tell
if NBC really wants to prop this guy up after all. They even ran the
famous
clip of Geller bombing on the Tonight Show and implied that Geller is
some kind of hero for persevering in the face of such, uh . . . proof of
mendacity? Our collective heads are still spinning.
This trend of making Geller look good by making him look bad continues when
he breaks into the competition to perform a mentalism trick with the Zener
card symbols. He shows the five symbols, and announces that he will
psychically send one of these images into the home audience’s collective
minds, and then the audience, using various methods, will “vote” on which
symbol was sent. Note that there’s nothing to stop people from voting
multiple times. Well, if Geller was able to cheat, he probably didn’t,
because “star” came in number one at a measly 28% (the second highest was
27%). Geller had picked “star” and he promptly declared that he had
succeeded. The audience was under whelmed.
From the point of view of L.A.’s top skeptics, it was disappointing. We were
planning to debunk another psychic claim, but the show was not only devoid
of pseudo-science, it was devoid of any content whatsoever. When
“Battlefield Earth” tanked, Roger Ebert claimed that the movie contained “no
scientology thought, or any thought.” “Phenomenon” was an equivalent
non-event, and the IIG will move on as quickly as the American public surely
will.
GLOWING GUY
Anthony C. of Wisconsin says that he can glow.
I know my claim isn't very plausible and I understand your skeptism [sic], so I'll be mailing a video of my own preliminary test here within the week. Granted there are many ways I could try and trick you's [sic] and theres [sic] no way for you's [sic] to know if I am, because, it is being done without the watchful eye of your affiliates. But I hope that you'll see that these "lights" in which I speak of, have different properties than a light you or I may think of. As they don't seem to have a source, They seem to happen in realitive [sic] close proximity to my body, and usually take on wierd [sic] shapes, usually lines; as I had mentioned in my earlier letter. So I hope my video will help alleviate any doubt as to whether or not I am wasting your time, and on that note, I would like to thank you for your time and I hope to get that video to you within the next two weeks. Thanks a million once again
If the video has merit, we will post a high quality copy on our website.
CREATIONIST MUSEUM
The IIG has the scoop! Coming soon.
That’s all until December 1st. Enjoy Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Peanut
Butter Lovers Month.
- IIG
