by Joe Nickell
REFERENCES
Antonacci, Mark. 2000. The Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical and Archeological Evidence. New York: M. Evans.
Binga, Timothy. 2001. Report in progress from the Director of the Center for Inquiry Libraries, 19 June.
D’Arcis, Pierre. [1389] 1979. Memorandum to the Avignon Pope, Clement VII. Translated from Latin by Rev. Herbert Thurston; Reprinted in The Shroud of Turin, by Ian Wilson, 266-72. Rev. ed. Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books.
Garza-Valdez, Leoncio A. 1993. Biogenic Varnish and the Shroud of Turin. Cited in Garza-Valdez 1999, 37.
———— . 1999. The DNA of God? New York: Doubleday.
Humber, Thomas. 1978. The Sacred Shroud. New York: Pocket Books.
Larhammar, Dan. 1995. Severe flaws in scientific study criticizing evolution. Skeptical Inquirer 19, no. 2 (March/ April): 30-31.
McCrone, Walter C. 1993. Letters to Joe Nickell, 11 June and 30 June.
———— . 1996. Judgement Day for the Turin ‘‘Shroud/ ’ Chicago: Microscope Publications.
Nickell, Joe. 1989. Unshrouding a mystery: Science, pseudoscience, and the Cloth of Turin. Skeptical Inquirer 13, no. 3 (Spring): 296-99.
———— . 1998. Inquest on the Shroud of Turin: Latest Scientific Findings. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
Pickett, Thomas J. 1996. Can contamination save the Shroud of Turin? Skeptical Briefs (June): 3.
Schafersman, Steven D. 1982. Science, the public and the Shroud of Turin. Skeptical Inquirer 6, no. 3 (Spring): 37-56.
Van Biema, David. 1998. Science and the shroud. Time, 20 April, 53-61.
Whanger, Mary, and Alan Whanger. 1998. The Shroud of Turin: An Adventure of Discovery. Franklin, Tenn.: Providence House.
Wilcox, Robert K. 1977. Shroud. New York: Macmillan.
Wilson, Ian. 1979. The Shroud of Turin. Rev. ed.. Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books.
————. 1998. The Blood and the Shroud. New York: Free Press.
23
“Pyramid Power” in Russia
Still the largest country in the world, Russia retains more than 76 percent of the area of the former USSR, which collapsed in 1991. The collapse, along with the suspension of activities of the Communist Party, increased glasnost (“openness”) in the new federal republic. With personal freedom, however, has come a rise in pseudoscientific and magical expression.
I became increasingly aware of this through the visits of three Russian notables to the Center for Inquiry-International: Valerii Kuvakin (professor of philosophy at Moscow State University), Edward Kru-glyakov (a distinguished physicist at Novosibirsk, Siberia), and Yurii Chornyi (Scientific Secretary, Institute for Scientific Information, Russian Academy of Sciences). Subsequently, 1 was one of several CS1COP speakers at an international congress, “Science, Antiscience, and the Paranormal,” held in Moscow (October 3-5, 2001) and co-sponsored by the Russian Academy of Sciences. There I learned more about the public’s newfound glasnost toward all things mysterious. I stayed on for several more days in order to investigate some of these. (See also chapters 30,37, and 39.)
Psychic Discoveries
If it is true that the mystically oriented New Age movement began about 1971 (despite having its roots in earlier periods) (Melton 1996), perhaps its most immediate harbinger was a book by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain (1970). Its claims, which dominated interest in the paranormal for years, included many that remain familiar (and continue to provoke skeptical response).
There was Russian (via Chinese) acupuncture, a form of medical therapy that supposedly influenced the flow of qi (pronounced chee) or “life force” (although skeptics suspect that the beneficial, pain-relief effects are largely due to the body’s production of narcotic-like chemicals called endorphins [Barrett 1996, 18]). There was also Kirlian photography, a noncamera technique in which a high-voltage, high-frequency electrical discharge is applied to a grounded object (such as a leaf, finger, etc.) to yield an “aura” that can be recorded on a photographic plate, film, or paper. (Actually, the supposed aura is only “a visual or photographic image of a corona[1] discharge in a gas, in most cases the ambient air,” and the result is influenced by moisture, finger pressure, and other physical factors [Watkins and Bickel 1986].)
Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain also touted dowsing (which has failed repeated scientific tests elsewhere and is attributed to unconscious muscular activity [Vogt and Hyman 1979]); demonstrations of psychokinesis and dermo-optical perception (accomplished by Russian ladies using simple conjuring tricks [Randi 1995, 40]); and other fanciful, and now discredited, “psychic” topics, including “pyramid power.”
Pyramid Power
In the wake of the new glasnost, pyramids sprang up across the Russian landscape. These are a modern expression of a craze, fostered by Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, involving “the secrets of the pyramids.” Citing the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt—“one of the seven wonders of the world and one of the strangest works of architecture in existence”—the authors claimed that small cardboard models of the Cheops pyramid could preserve food (especially “mummify meat”), relieve headaches, sharpen razor blades, and possibly perform other wonders (Ostrander and Schroeder 1970, 366-76).
The specific claims came from a Czechoslovakian radio engineer, Karel Drbal, who obtained Czech patent 91304 for the Cheops Pyramid Razor-Blade Sharpener. It supposedly generated some unknown and mysterious “energy.” Unfortunately, what Ostrander and Schroeder seem to mean by that term is mystical power, but they call it “energy” as if to give it a semblance of scientific legitimacy.
Alas, subsequent tests of the claims failed to substantiate them. Pyramids preserved organic matter no better than containers of other shapes did; nor did placing razor blades in pyramids restore the blades’ sharpness, despite the subjective judgments of people fooled by their own expectations (Hines 1988,306-7). Ostrander and Schroeder (1970, 372-73) tried pyramid power on their own razor blades and thus were able to “attest” that the “blades sharpened up again and remained sharp if kept in the pyramid between uses,” but they made no mention of using controls (i.e., other shapes of containers for comparison of results), scientific methods of determining sharpness, or double-blind procedures.
Nevertheless, boosted by claims that pyramid power had been unleashed “behind the iron curtain,” the pyramid craze flourished in the United States. One company marketed a kit with eight wooden sticks that formed a pyramidal frame when glued in place. Even without being covered (say, with paper or foil), this little structure could allegedly retard food spoilage, remove the bitterness from coffee, impart a mellower taste to wine, sharpen razor blades, perk up houseplants, and perform other wonders—according to the kit’s guide book, that is, which claims, “The Pyramid is a geometric focusing lens of cosmic energy” (Kerrell and Goggin 1974; see also Toth and Nielsen 1985, 139-50).
A similar wire-frame “magic pyramid” was made to be worn on the head (where it looked rather like a dunce cap) in order to concentrate the wearer’s alleged psychic or healing powers (Randi 1982, 206-7). Larger frames were available for one to sit inside in the lotus position as a means of improving meditation, or to place over the bed to gain enhanced vitality (Kerrell and Goggin 1974, 6-7). There were even pyramid-shaped doghouses that supposedly rid their occupants of fleas (Hines 1988).
The pyramid craze lasted through the 1970s (Randi 1995, 194) and then declined, although it has never entirely gone away. New Age merchants still offer small gemstone pyramids that focus the “energy” of the particular stone (e.g., tigereye for enhancement of “psychic abilities”), as well as plastic “Wishing Pyramids” (into which is placed a paper with one’s wish written thereon), and other items.
In Russia, pyramid power is on the rise—almost literally: I was able to visit one that towered 44 meters (about 144.4 feet or some 12 stories). Built in 1999 by Alexander Golod, it is the tallest of about 20 s
uch pyramids intended for alleged scientific and medical purposes. I was taken to the site—about 38 kilometers northwest of Moscow—by Valerii Kuva-kin (who also translated various interviews) and his wife, Uliya Sen-chihina (see Figure 23-1). Valerii heads the Center for Inquiry-Moscow.
Although it resembles a stone structure from the outside, from the interior the pyramid is seen to be constructed of translucent Plexiglas panels over a wood framework. It was closed when we arrived (late one afternoon), but a custodian consented to let us in and show us around.
FIGURE 23-1. Valerii Kuvakin and his wife, Uliya Senchihina, approach a pyramid northwest of Moscow. It is one of several that dot the Russian countryside and supposedly utilize “pyramid power” for various beneficial purposes.
The pyramid was largely empty, although off to one side were cases of bottled water that were supposedly being energized for curative purposes.
A rope-cordoned central area, where the pyramid power is supposedly most concentrated, contained some crystal spheres that were also being “energized.” Despite being warned that the energy there was so intense that someone with a large “biofield” (or “aura”)—such as I supposedly have—could lose consciousness, I ducked under the rope to dare the awesome power. I stood there for a time (while Valerii photographed me, barely containing his amusement, and while we continued our conversation with the custodian), but I felt no effect whatsoever.
Adjacent to the pyramid, in a small outbuilding, was a small gift shop. A sign advertised (in translation) “Consumer Goods Energized by Pyramid.” I decided to forgo the “energized” gemstones: A woman at a store where we stopped en route for directions said she had bought some of the stones, which were supposed to cure headaches, “and they didn’t work,” she stated, disparaging the pyramid claims. I did buy a small “energized” lead-crystal (glass) pyramid and a booklet titled (in translation), Pyramids of the Third Millennium. It featured the various new pyramids, including the one we were then visiting.
According to this source, although the claims for pyramid power might seem like mysticism and shamanism to some, those with “intuition” would see in them the basis of a new physics, a new biology, and so on. It boasted that the new pyramids have reduced the incidence of cancer, AIDS, and other diseases in the areas surrounding them; have begun to cleanse their local environments; and promise to extend nearby residents’ longevity to more than 100 years. The booklet even promised that pyramids could help reduce religious and other conflicts (although we might note that they have not seemed effective in that regard, historically, in Egypt).
Valerii noted that the claims were published without any supporting scientific data. Physicist Edward Kruglyakov (2001), who had previously visited the site and suggested it to me, found the claims utterly outlandish, unsubstantiated, and scientifically without merit.
REFERENCES
Barrett, Stephen. 1996. “Alternative” health practices and quackery. In The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal, by Gordon Stein, ed. Amherst, N.Y. Prometheus Books, 18.
Hines, Terence. 1988. Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
Kerrell, Bill, and Kathy Goggin. 1974. Basic Pyramid Experimental Guide Book. Santa Monica, Cal.: Pyramid Power-V, Inc.
Kruglyakov, Edward. 2001. Personal communications, 6 April and 3-5 October.
Melton, J. Gordon, ed. 1996. Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, s.v. “New Age” (vol. II, pp. 922-24).
Ostrander, Sheila, and Lynn Schroeder. 1970. Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. New York: Bantam Books.
Randi, James. 1982. Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and Other Delusions. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
———— . 1995. An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.
Toth, Max, and Greg Nielsen. 1985. Pyramid Power. Rochester, Vt.: Destiny Books.
Vogt, Evon Z., and Ray Hyman. 1979. Water Witching U.S.A. 2d ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Watkins, Arleen J., and William S. Bickel. 1986. A study of the Kirlian effect. Skeptical Inquirer 10, no. 3 (Spring): 244-57.
24
Diagnosing the “Medical Intuitives”
Among the dangerous new, pseudoscientific fads is that of “energy medicine/ ’ practiced by self-styled “medical intuitives.” Actually, the practice is not new but only newly resurging, like most other aspects of the so-called New Age movement. It involves using some form of reputed psychic ability to divine people’s illnesses and, typically, recommend treatment for them.
The best-known exponent of this field was Edgar Cayce, who flourished in the first half of the twentieth century and offered medical diagnoses while hypnotized. He had many predecessors, though, notably the “Poughkeepsie Seer,” Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910), a forerunner of modern spiritualism who similarly diagnosed while in a supposed mesmeric trance (Doyle 1926, 42-59). Many other Cayce predecessors practiced in the heyday of spiritualism, as shown by advertisements in spiritualist journals. For example, one such publication included ads for a “Medical Clairvoyant,” a “Healing Mesmerist,” a “Clairvoyant, and Healing Medium” (who also diagnosed by correspondence), and the like. An “Electro-Magnetic Healer” worked via his “Spirit-Physicians” to become “a Powerful Healing Medium,” and a married couple of “Medical Clairvoyantes” offered “Medical Diagnosis by Lock of Hair” (Medium 1875).
Among Cayce’s more immediate predecessors was a now almost forgotten lady from western New York, Mrs. Antoinette Matteson. Here is her story, followed by a look at Cayce and then the modern medical intuitives. As we shall see, despite some differences, they represent a certain type of paranormal claimant who is prone to fantasizing.
“Clairvoyant Doctress”
Several years ago, I purchased from an antique dealer an old blown-in-a-mold medicine bottle embossed, “MRS. J. H. R. MATTESON. / CLAIRVOYANT REMEDIES. / BUFFALO, N.Y.” Later, from the same dealer, I acquired another, embossed “CLAIRVOYANT” and “PSYCHIC REMEDIES.” I believe the latter was an earlier one of Mrs. Matteson’s, but who was she? Well, as I discovered, she was a character.
Born Antoinette Wealthy in Baden, Germany, in 1847, she came with her parents to the United States at the age of five. In 1857, the family moved from Water Valley, New York, to Buffalo. “At an early age,” she found herself, she said, “subordinate to the control of certain occult influences” or “Spirit Vision” which “beholds and proclaims what the material eye does not and cannot see””(Matteson 1894, 9).
In 1864, Antoinette married Judah H. R. Matteson, a musician. Although blind, he “had remarkable ability in getting about the country alone” (Whitcomb 1923). He died in 1884 of “congestion of the brain,” possibly resulting from “the excessive use of liquor.” According to his obituary, his wife, by then “a well-known clairvoyant,” awoke that Sunday morning, and assumed that her husband was still asleep. “While the remainder of the family were at breakfast Mrs. Matteson, as she claims, went into a clairvoyant state, and while in that condition announced to her children that her husband was dead”—as indeed he proved to be (“The singular death” 1884). (Note the newspaper’s skepticism, evident in the phrase “as she claims.”)
After her husband’s death, Mrs. Matteson became the sole support of her family, and listed herself in the Buffalo City Directory as a “clairvoyant doctress.” According to a local newspaper’s retrospection:
She had hosts of patrons and her practice was to consult with a patron, learn their ailments and symptoms and then pretend to go into a trance state, during which excitement she uttered the number or numbers for the patient under observation. Each number appertained to certain alleged remedies she manufactured and sold to her patrons. After “emerging” from her alleged trance, she asked for the numbers quoted and dispensed her remedies accordingly [“Mrs. Matteson” 1929].
Mrs. Matteson’s remedies were herbal and she eventually self-
published The Occult Family Physician and Botanic Guide to Health (1894) (see Figure 24-1). In it she criticized the “old school of Medicine” for rejecting that which is different, and advanced her “remedies from the vegetable world” together with other natural methods, including “the grander forces of the Spirit, Magnetic, Clairvoyance, Psychoma or Hypnotism, Electricity, Water cure, and also the power of sun-light, etc., which,” she stated, “are beyond question, in advance of the old stereotyped process.”
As well, despite “skeptical science,” she touted spiritualism and insisted, “Short of spiritual manifestations by decarnated spirits, clairvoyance is one of the best scientific proofs of immortality we have.” She claimed, “During the twenty years of my mediumistic experience, many hundreds, in fact I may say thousands of remarkable cures have been made through the aid of my spirit guides.”
FIGURE 24-1. Antoinette (Mrs. J. H. R.) Matteson, “clairvoyant doctress,” from the frontispiece of her 1894 book, The Occult Family Physician and Botanic Guide to Health.
In fact, Antoinette Matteson exhibited many of the traits associated with a fantasy-prone personality. Such people are sane and normal but have a propensity to fantasize. Typically, they are easily hypnotized, believe they have special psychic and healing powers, think that they receive special messages from higher entities, and so forth. They often turn up as spiritualist mediums, religious visionaries, UFO abductees, or other such types (Baker 1990,245-50; Baker and Nickell 1992,221-24).