- •Table of Contents
- •Author’s Note
- •Preface to the Original Edition
- •Preface to the Current Edition
- •Acknowledgements
- •Acknowledgements for the Digital Edition
- •Introduction The Deadly Misinformation
- •Isaac Asimov
- •Fairies at the Foot of the Garden Come out, come out! Come out upon the hill! Up there, down there— Fairies—everywhere!
- •"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax— Of cabbages—and kings— And why the sea is boiling hot"
- •Into the Air, Junior Birdmen! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
- •The Giggling Guru: a Matter of Levity
- •Chariots in Flames The Paper Seven eighths of everything is unseen
- •The Laurel and Hardy of Psi
- •The Great Fliess Fleece There is a time in the tides of men, Which, taken at its flood, leads on to success. On the other hand, don't count on it.
- •The Medical Humbugs To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think.
- •Homo vult decipi; decipiatur. "Man wishes to be deceived; deceive him."
- •The Will to Believe Man's capacity for self-delusion is infinite.
- •Off the Deep End
- •It is the quality rather than the quantity that matters.
- •Gods with Feats of Clay
- •Put Up or Shut Up Nothing ever becomes real until it is experienced.
- •Epilogue
- •Appendix
- •Winners for 1980 were:
- •Winners for 1981 were:
- •Selected Bibliography
- •Periodicals
- •The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge
- •About the Author
- •About the jref
Winners for 1980 were:
Isaac Bashevis Singer, for declaring belief in demons.
The Millennium Foundation, who gave $1 million to parapsychological research. (In 1982, the award was withdrawn when the foundation decided, instead, to invest the million in a "psychically discovered oil site.It was dry.)
The "That's Incredible" TV show, for declaring a simple magic trick, since admitted as such by the performer, James Hydrick, to bet he real thing.
Dorothy Allison, the housewife/psychic who was called to Atlanta, Georgia, to solve a string of murders. She failed to do anything but "showboat" around town, giving the police 42 different names for the murderer, and was sent home.
Winners for 1981 were:
Charles Tart, parapsychologist, for discovering that the further in the future events are, the more difficult it is to predict them.
The Pentagon, for spending $6 million on a project to determine if burning a photo of a Soviet missile would destroy it.
TV station KNBC, Los Angeles, for accepting the Tamara Randhoax as the real goods without troubling to check it.
Tamara Rand, who claimed she had predicted an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan months before the event; she actually did it 24 hours after.
Selected Bibliography
I have compiled this bibliography with a view to acquainting the reader with what I consider to be some of the more blatant examples of promotion of the paranormal, and also with skeptical analyses of alleged supernatural phenomena.
Periodicals
Pro-paranormal
Fate. Curtis Fuller, ed. 500 Hyacinth Place, Highland Park, Illinois 60035. $10/year.
Anti-paranormal
The Skeptical Inquirer. Journal of The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, 923 Kensington Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14215. $15/year.
Books
Pro-paranormal
Cayce, E. V., and H. L. Cayce. The Outer Limits of Edgar Cayce's Power. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Coming of the Fairies. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1921, Reprint New York Weisner 1975
The World of Ted Serios. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1967.
Fuller, John G. Arigo: Surgeon of the Rusty Knife. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1974. London: Hart Davis, MacGibbon, 1975. Gardner, Edward L. Fairies. London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1945.
Geller, Uri. My Story. New York: Praeger, 1975.
Krippner, Stanley, and A. Villoldo. The Realms of Healing. Millbrae, Calif.: Celestial Arts, 1976.
Panati, C., ed. The Geller Papers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976.
Puharich, A. Uri. New York: Doubleday, Anchor Press, 1974.
Taylor, John. Superminds. New York: Warner Books, 1975.
Thommen, George. Is This Your Day? New York: Crown Publishers, 1964.
Vandenberg, Philipp. The Curse of the Pharaohs. New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1975.
Wilson, Colin. The Geller Phenomenon. London: Aldus Books, 1976.
Anti-paranormal
Angela, Piero. Viaggio el Mondo del Paranormale. Rome: Aldo Garzanti Editore, 1978.
Barrett, Stephen, and Gilda Knight, eds. The Health Robbers. Philadelphia: G. F. StickleyCo., 1976.
Bok, Bart, and L. Jerome. Objections to Astrology. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1975.
Christopher, Milbourne. ESP, Seers & Psychics. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1970.
-Mediums, Mystics & the Occult. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1975.
Cohen, Daniel. The New Believers. New York: M. Evans & Co., 1975.
Condon, E.,etal. Scientific Study of UFO's. New York: Bantam Books, 1969.
Crosby, Jan. Sannheten om Uri Geller. Osol: Bjornsen & Schram, 1974.
Dingwall, E. J., and Harry Price. Revelations of a Spirit Medium. London: Kegan Paul, 1925.
Evans, Bergen. The Natural History of Nonsense. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946.
-The Spoor of Spooks and Other Nonsense. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1954.
Evans, Dr. Christopher. Cults of Unreason. London: George G. Harrap & Co., 1973.
Fair, Charles. The New Nonsense. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974.
Gardner, Martin. Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science. New York: Dover Publications, 1957.
-Science: Good, Bad and Bogus. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1981.
Goldsmith, D., ed. Scientists Confront Velikovsky. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1977.
Hansel, C. E. M. ESP: A Scientific Evaluation. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966. 2d ed., rev. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1980.
Houdini, Harry. A Magician Among the Spirits. 1924. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1972.
Jerome, L. Astrology Disproved. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1977.
Kammann, R., and D. Marks. The Psychology of the Psychic. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1980.
Keene, M. Lamar. The Psychic Mafia. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1976.
Klass, Philip. UFO's Explained. New York: Random House, Vintage Books, 1974.
Kovoor, Dr. Abraham. Begone Godmen! Bombay: Jaico Publishing House, 1976.
Kusche, L. The Bermuda Triangle Mystery—Solved. New York: Warner Books,1975.
MacDougall, Curtis D. Hoaxes. New York: Dover Publications, 1958.
Mackay, Charles, LL.D. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness ofCrowds. London: 1841. Reprints. Wells, Vermont: Fraser Publishing Co.,1963. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1970.
Majax, Gerard. Le Grand Bluff. Paris: Fernand Nathan, 1978.
Menzel, D., and E. Taves. The UFO Enigma. New York: Doubleday, 1977.
Mulholland, John. Beware Familiar Spirits. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,1938.
Nolen, William A., M.D. Healing: A Doctor in Search of a Miracle. New York:Random House, 1974.
Perera, Ramos. Uri Geller—A1 Descubierto. Madrid: Sedmay Ediciones, 1975.
Proskauer, Julien. The Dead Do Not Talk. New York: Harper Bros., 1946.
Randi, James. The Magic of Uri Geller. New York: Random House, Ballantine Books, 1975.
Rawcliffe, D. Illusions & Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult. New York:Dover Publications, 1959.
Ridpath, Ian. Messages from the Stars. New York: Harper & Row, 1978.
Sagan, Carl. Broca's Brain. New York: Random House, 1979.
-The Cosmic Connection. New York: Doubleday, 1973.
-The Dragons of Eden. New York: Random House, 1977.
-and Thorton Page. UFO's: A Scientific Debate. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1972.
Seabrook, W. Doctor Wood. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1941.
Sklar, Dusty. Gods & Beasts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1977.
Smith, Richard F. Prelude to Science. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975.
Standen, A. Forget Your Sun Sign. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Legacy Publishing Co., 1979.
Story, Ronald. The Space-Gods Revealed. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. Taylor, John.
- Science and the Supernatural. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1980.
Thiering, B., and E. Castel, eds. Some Trust in Chariots. New York: Popular Library, 1975.
Vogt, E. Z., and Ray Hyman. Water Witching, U.S.A. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959 and 1979.
Ward, Philip. Common Fallacies. Cambridge, England: Oleander Press, 1978.
White, Peter. The Past Is Human. New York: Taplinger Publishing Co., 1974.
Wilhelm, John L. The Search for Superman. New York: Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, 1976.