The Trickster and the Paranormal

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The Trickster and the Paranormal Page 56

by George P. Hansen


  31

  Howe, 1989/1993, p. 137-143. See p. 142 for quote.

  32

  Telephone call to Barry Hennessey, 28 February 1999.

  33

  Letter from Richard L. Weaver to George P. Hansen, 18 March 1999.

  34

  See Vallee, 1991, p. 229.

  35

  Hiding the Hardware by Bruce Maccabee, International UFO Reporter, Vol. 16, No. 5, September/October 1991, pp. 4-10, 23; see pp. 10 & 23.

  Gulf Breeze Double Exposed: The “Ghost-Demon “ Photo Controversy by Zan Overall, Chicago, IL: J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, 1990; Anatomy of the Gulf Breeze (Walters’) UFO Case by Carol A. Salisberry and Rex C. Salisberry, April 18, 1992.

  37

  Skeptics UFO Newsletter, No. 5, Sept. 1990, p. 1.

  38

  The Gulf Breeze Sightings: The Most Astounding Multiple Sightings of UFOs in U.S. History by Ed Walters and Frances Walters, New York: William Morrow and Company, 1990.

  39

  James Moseley raised the very same point in Saucer Smear, Vol. 47, No. 5, June 15th, 2000, p. 6, saying “Bruce Maccabee is either very gullible indeed, or else he is deliberately spreading disinformation.”

  40

  The report was printed in Third Eyes Only, No. 14, July, 1993, pp. 1-14.

  The following issue carried a lengthy response by Maccabee.

  41

  Skeptics UFO Newsletter, No. 24, November 1993, pp. 1-2.

  42

  Even Richard Hall, a close colleague of Maccabee at the Fund for UFO Research, admitted that Maccabee was very taken with William Moore and, as he put it: “lacks some perspective.” See Hall’s letter reproduced in the MUFON UFO Journal, No. 254, June 1989, p. 10.

  43

  An entire chapter is devoted to Gordon Novel in The Kennedy Conspiracy: An Uncommissioned Report on the Jim Garrison Investigation by Paris Flammonde, New York: Meredith Press, 1969, pp. 96-109.

  44

  On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison, New York: Warner Books,

  1991, see pp. 208-211. (First published 1988)

  45

  Bizarre Rome Case Ends with Man Pleading Guilty by Betsy Neal, Atlanta

  Constitution, November 6, 1977, p. 15-B (page depends on edition).

  46

  See the review of The Secret File on J. Edgar Hoover produced by William Cran and Stephanie Tepper, Frontline, 1993 by Athan Theoharis, Journal of

  American History, Vol. 80, No. 3, December 1993, pp. 1201-1203.

  47

  A picture of Alexander with Novel was printed in Saucer Smear, Vol. 41,

  No. 9, December 5th, 1994, p. 6.

  48

  Victorian formerly used the name Henry Azadehdel. On June 6, 1989, he

  was convicted of smuggling orchids into England.

  49

  Alexander’s memo was reproduced in Third Eyes Only, No. 19, MarchApril, 1994, pp. 33-38.

  Britain in the 90s: Up Against the State by Armen Victorian, Lobster, No. 28, 1994, pp. 12-13. Victorian sent me copies of police reports he filed. If he had filed false ones, he would have been subject to prosecution.

  Secret Service ‘Targets’ Military Writer by William Goodwin, The Observer (London), January 1, 1995, p. 10.

  52

  The paper Will the Real Scott Jones Please Stand Up? was printed in Third Eyes Only, No. 1, Vernal Equinox, 1992, pp. 26-51.

  53

  Durant [& Hansen], 1992, p. 7, Third Eyes Only printing, p. 34. See also Prince Has a Way To Save Democracy: A Stronger Monarch by Greg Steinmetz, Wall Street Journal, July 22, 1997, pp. A1, A6.

  54

  “Controlling Government Response: Self Interest in a Nation State System” by C. B. Scott Jones, Proceedings of the International Symposium of UFO Research edited by Maurice L. Albertson and Margaret Shaw, May 22-25, 1992, pp. 59-83.

  55 Ibid., p. 68.

  Jones’ threat seemed to lack substance. A year later another protest was held in front of the White House, and I marched in it.

  57 Mute Evidence by Ian Summers and Dan Kagan, New York: Bantam Books, 1984. See pages 346-371.

  See letter from Gerald E. Weinstein to Harrison H. Schmitt, 15 January 1979, this from FBI-Albuquerque file, 198-541-B-1, Apr 27, 1979.

  59

  His report Roswell in Perspective (1994) published by the Fund for UFO Research includes a page and a half summary of his career.

  Open letter to Steven Greer, published in Saucer Smear, Vol. 44, No. 6, June 20th, 1997, pp. 2-3.

  Establishment academics often naively participate in this. An example is the book UFO Crash as Roswell: The Genesis of a Modern Myth (1997). Two of its coauthors were Benson Saler and Charles A. Ziegler, who are professors of anthropology at Brandeis University. They analyzed the Roswell case as a myth, but they totally neglected the larger context of disinformation from government sources which permeates the UFO field. They mentioned William L. Moore, but Richard Doty was not listed in the index. A brief biographical mention of Pflock totally omitted his employment with the CIA. Saler and Ziegler were oblivious to the larger cultural context of the myths and the role the establishment played in promoting them.

  Chapter 19—Hoaxes and the Paranormal

  1 Those who wish to pursue the literature of ufology might start with John Keel’s The Mothman Prophecies (1975), Jacques Vallee’s Passport to Magonia (1969), Martin Kottmeyer’s articles, and the British periodical Magonia. James Moseley’s newsletter Saucer Smear is the best social chronicle of the events of U.S. ufology. The writings of Philip J. Klass can provide a much-needed critical perspective, though he often pushes the skeptical view too far.

  2

  Figures for the U.S. and Canada; see The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1998, Mahwah, NJ: World Almanac Books, 1997, p. 250.

  3

  Since the beginning of her notoriety, she has adopted the stage name Linda Cortile, and her proponents use it when referring to her.

  4

  The ironic implications of “Brooklyn Bridge” being in the title seem to have escaped Hopkins.

  5 Stefula, Butler & Hansen, 1993.

  The Great High-Rise Abduction by Patrick Huyghe, Omni, 16(7), April 1994, pp. 60-67, 96, 99. 7 Ibid., p. 144.

  Night eyes by Garfield Reeves-Stevens, New York: Doubleday, 1989.

  Ibid., p. 186.

  10 Clark made this statement in a paper he circulated dated October 24, 1992 entitled “The Politics of Torquemada; or, Earth Calling Hansen’s Planet.” See p. 1.

  11 The cover of that entertaining issue carried a picture of the Brooklyn

  Bridge, the irony of which was also missed by the Hynek Center. Humorously, the

  caption mistakenly stated that the Brooklyn Bridge runs to New Jersey.

  12 See p. 11 of House of Cards: The Butler/Hansen/Stefula Critique of the Cortile Case by Budd Hopkins, International UFO Reporter, March/April 1993, pp. 8-14, 21.

  13

  The Sixth Witness in the Linda Cortile Abduction Case by Budd Hopkins, MUFON 1996 International UFO Symposium Proceedings Ufology: A Scientific Enigma, Greensboro, North Carolina, July 5, 6, & 7, 1996, pp. 111-118.

  14

  Andrus’ major statement is Rejoinder to the Critique of Budd Hopkins by Walter H. Andrus, Jr., MUFON UFO Journal, No. 300, April 1993, pp. 8-9; Jacobs, Mack, and Hopkins published comments in the March-April 1993 issue of International UFO Reporter. See Stefula, Butler, and Hansen (1993) for discussion of Clark’s comments.

  15 John Mack was the only newcomer, with his interest in ufology beginning in 1989. His long career in psychiatry didn’t keep him from being duped.

  That guide was published by Prometheus Books, the primary purveyor of books debunking the paranormal.

  17 Fine, 1983, p. 28.

  18

  Fine, 1983, p. 99.

  19

  Turner suggested that full liminality is not seen in modern Western culture, and he proposed the liminoid as an attenu
ated version of the liminal. Turner’s concept of the liminoid was vague and undeveloped compared with the liminal, but it can sometimes be useful to consider his distinction. FRPGs are more liminoid than liminal.

  20 Fine, 1983, p. 55.

  21

  The Aquarian Guide to the New Age by Eileen Campbell and J. H. Bren-

  nan, Northamptonshire: The Aquarian Press, 1990, pp. 124-126.

  22

  I wish to thank Dennis Stillings for pointing this out.

  Part 5—Overview

  1 Spencer-Brown, 1969/1979, p. xxix. The quote appears in a section entitled “A Note on the Mathematical Approach” which may not be in all editions of the

  book.

  2

  Spencer-Brown participated in psychical research in the 1950s. He raised questions about probability theory and the adequacy of random number tables.

  He contributed to the Proceedings of the First International Conference of Parapsychological Studies, Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 30 to August 5, 1953, New York: Parapsychology Foundation, 1955, with a paper “Psychical Research as a Test of Probability Theory.” Only the abstract was published. The original paper discussed the idea of “retroactive PK” and was one of the first (and maybe the first) to do so. The Journal of the Society for Psychical Research for 1953 and 1954 carried discussion of his ideas and comments from him. In 1957 he published Probability and Scientific Inference (London: Longmans, Green and Co.) which continued the debate. That book was reviewed by Christopher Scott in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 39, 1958, pp. 217-234. Scott commented on the wild vacillations in his criticisms (perhaps a consequence of Spencer-Brown’s crossing the enchanted boundary). Nevertheless, Spencer-Brown raised fundamental issues that deserved discussion.

  Chapter 20—Reflexivity and the Trickster

  1 In a letter to his mother, 3 April 1950. Translated and quoted by Dawson,

  1997, p. 30. Emphasis is Dawson’s.

  2

  Quoted in Ashmore (1989, p. 24), citing: “Latour, Bruno, 1978, Observing scientists observing baboons observing … New York: Wenner Grenn Foundation for Anthropological Research, July. (Latour 1978:24, n. 14).”

  3

  Mehan and Wood, 1975, p. 167.

  4

  Ashmore, 1989, p. 234.

  5 Babcock, 1980, p. 2.

  6 Ashmore, 1989, p. 25.

  7 Ashmore, 1989, p. 22.

  8 Wallace, 1968, p. 125.

  9

  Garfinkel, 1967, p. 37.

  10 Ibid. p. 38.

  11 Mehan and Wood, 1975, p. 90.

  12

  Mehan and Wood, 1975, pp. 208-209. Although their book is jointly authored, Mehan and Wood use the singular voice. In the Preface they say “Whoever enters the form of life this book embodies becomes the ‘I’ who speaks here” (p. vii). This statement appears to have been derived independently of deconstruction-

  ist literary theory.

  13

  Mehan and Wood, 1975, p. 6.

  14 Leach, 1974, p. 34.

  15 Mehan and Wood, 1975, p. 209.

  16 Ibid. p. 223.

  17 Edmund Leach was one of the first to call attention to the fictional nature of Castaneda’s work. See his review of The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (Leach,1969). Leach was not the only British structuralist to comment on Castaneda. Rodney Needham’s book Exemplars (1985) has a relevant chapter; and it has another chapter on a confidence artist.

  18 De Mille‘s The Don Juan Papers also discusses Garfinkel and the Agnes

  case.

  19

  Woolgar, 1996, p. 828.

  20 Woolgar, 1988, p. 17.

  21

  An incident in Latour’s career demonstrates the antagonism SSK evokes. Clifford Geertz, the head of the school of social sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, wanted Latour appointed to a position at the Institute. There was such an outcry against him that the nomination was withdrawn, and eventually the school returned $500,000 to the foundation that would have sponsored Latour‘s position. See Undressing the Emperor by Madhusree

  Mukerjee, Scientific American, March, 1998, pp. 30, 32.

  22

  Sociology of Scientific Knowledge: A Source Book edited by H. M. Collins, Bath, U.K.: Bath University Press, 1982. Collins and Pinch (1982, 1993). Collins (1985, 1989).

  Those interested in the replicability issue in parapsychology may wish to examine The Repeatability Problem in Parapsychology: Proceedings of an International Conference Held in San Antonio, Texas October 28—29, 1983 edited by Betty Shapin and Lisette Coly, New York: Parapsychology Foundation, 1985.

  23

  Robert Rosenthal, 1966, 1994.

  24

  Pygmalion in the Classroom by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.

  25

  Letter and telephone call, 02 & 06 October 1998. See The Silent Languages of Classrooms and Laboratories by Robert Rosenthal, Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association Number 8, 1971 edited by W. G. Roll, R. L. Morris, and J. D. Morris, 1972, pp. 95-116, Copyright by the Parapsychological Association, Durham, North Carolina.

  See the article by Palmer, Honorton and Utts (1989, p. 38) for details.

  27

  Goleman, 1988, p. 105.

  28 Hofstadter, 1979, p. 251.

  29

  Psi and Internal Attention States by Charles Honorton (1977). A fair amount of this research involved groups of subjects, where the problems of deception were relatively minor.

  30

  For a discussion, see Gödel’s Proof by Ernest Nagel and James R. Newman, New York: New York University Press, 1958.

  31

  Ellenberger, 1964/1968.

  32

  Dawson, 1997, pp. 29-30.

  33

  For his interest in demons, see Kreisal, 1980, p. 218. I examined some of Godel’s private papers now held by Princeton University and found references to demons. Relevant papers on demons in the Princeton University archives are found in the Godel collection in Box 7A, Folders 03/107 (Theology Notebook 1) and 03/108 (Theology Notebook 3). Unfortunately most, but not all, of his notes

  were made in an obscure German shorthand.

  34

  Wang, 1987, p. 5.

  35

  Deconstruction Reframed by Floyd Merrell, West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1985, p. 64.

  36 Rucker, 1982/1983, p. 2.

  37

  Smullyan is a mathematician, philosopher, and also a magician. Pound-stone’s connection with magic should not go unnoticed. He publicly revealed a number of conjurer’s methods in his books Big Secrets (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1983) and Bigger Secrets (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986), to the annoyance of magicians.

  38

  Gardner took issue with some of Rucker’s ideas on psychic phenomena.

  39

  Some biographical material is available. See the September 1979 issue of The Two-Year College Mathematical Journal, which carried a long autobiographical piece (Gardner, 1979) and an interview with him (Barcellos, 1979). John Booth’s Dramatic Magic (1988) has biographical material on Gardner, as well as on James Randi and Walter Gibson. All three have written extensively on

  the paranormal.

  40

  For a reprinting of that review of his The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener and an additional commentary, see Gardner’s The Night Is Large, 1996, pp. 481—487.

  41

  e.g., Science 81, July/August, pp. 32—37; Newsweek, November 16, 1981,

  p. 101.

  42

  The Mathematical Gardner edited by David A. Klarner, Boston, MA: Prin-dle, Weber & Schmidt, 1981.

  43

  Review by Marion Dearman, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 12, No. 4, 1973, pp. 484-485.

  44

  44 Ibid, p. 280.

  45

  Booth, 19
88, p. 194.

  46

  The source of information for his not attending the MAA meeting is John Booth’s Dramatic Magic (1988), p. 196.

  47

  Gardner is not the first to have such diverse interests. Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) wrote on mathematics and logic puzzles, dabbled in conjuring, and was a member of the Society for Psychical Research. Gardner did The Annotated Alice (New York: Bramhall House, 1960) which explained the subtleties of Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Gardner mentioned that he felt spiritual kinship with Carroll. See The Universe in

  a Handkerchief: Lewis Carroll’s Mathematical Recreations, Games, Puzzles, and Word

  Plays (New York: Copernicus An Imprint of Springer-Verlag, 1996), p. ix.

  48

  See A Bibliography of Martin Gardner in Magic by Dana Richards. In Martin Gardner Presents by Martin Gardner (Edited by Matthew Field, Mark Phillips, Harvey Rosenthal, and Max Maven). Published by Richard Kaufman and

  Alan Greenberg, 1993. Pp. 399-415.

  49

  Elsewhere I have discussed the differing safeguards required in research with groups as opposed to that with gifted individuals. See Hansen, 1990a.

  Jurgen Keil, How A Skeptic Misrepresents the Research with Stepanek: A Review of Martin Gardner’s How Not To Test A Psychic, Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 54, 1990, pp. 151-167. See also Milan Ryzl’s letter in the Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 54, 1990, pp. 282-284. Gardner responded to Keil in a letter in the Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 55, 1991, pp. 116, followed by a rebuttal by Keil in the same issue, pp. 116-118. John Beloff reviewed the book in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (Vol. 56, 1990, pp. 171-175) and seemed to admit the problems with the controls. However, Beloff’s ability to evaluate technical merits of experiments, and criticisms, might be charitably described as limited.

  My own article “The Research with B.D. and Legacy of Magical Ignorance” (1992) reinforced this message, and Gardner provided helpful information

  when I prepared that critique.

  52

  “The Ganzfeld Psi Experiment: A Critical Appraisal” in the Journal of Parapsychology, 1985, Vol. 49, pp. 3-49. That was immediately followed by a rebuttal by Charles Honorton, “Meta-analysis of Psi Ganzfeld Research: A Response to Hyman,” pp. 51-91.

  53

  Letter from Milan Ryzl, Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 54, 1990, p. 284.

 

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