New Article Warns of JZR

[Whatchamacallit]

http://www.ufoera.com/articles/skeptics ... 10897.html

SKEPTICS CHALLENGE TRANCE-CHANNELERS TO BE TESTED,
URGE PUBLIC TO BE CAUTIOUS


LOS ANGELES -- The Executive Council of the Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) is disturbed by the rapid
rise of the latest New Age fad of "trance-channeling."

Recent polls indicate that a considerable segment of the American
population believes that it is possible "to have contact with the dead." In a
poll published in "American Health" magazine (January/February 1987), some 244
of the adult population now claims to have had contact with dead persons, as
compared to 27% in 1973. The figure is 67% for widows. Trance-channeling no
doubt contributes to this attitude.

We submit that trance-channeling is nothing more than a chic renaming of
what used to be known as "spiritualism."

The spiritualist movement was launched in 1848 when two sisters from
upstate New York, Margaret and Kate Fox, claimed that they were able to
"communicate with the dead." Through a series of rapping noises, the "spirits
from beyond" gave advice, made predictions, and consoled loved ones. The Fox
sisters went on tour and performed in large arenas, charging clients for the
opportunity to communicate with spirits. Within a few months of the Fox
sisters' beginnings, thousands of mediums around the world were claiming the
ability to communicate with the dead. Years later, Maggie Fox admitted that
she and her sister had been perpetrating a hoax.

The movement they created continued. By the mid-nineteen-twenties,
however, the scientific community had thoroughly discredited "mediums" such as
Eusapia Palladino and Margery Crandon, who were duping an unsuspecting public.

Although spiritualism had been on the decline in North American it has
now reemerged as "trance-channelling." Included among the well-known trance-
channelers is J. Z. Knight, who claims that a 35,000-year-old man named
"Ramtha" uses her body to speak words of wisdom. The famous actress Shirley
MacLaine's use of channelers to gain information about her "past lives" has
led to wide public acceptance of this practice.

The Executive Council of CSICOP finds it surprising that trance-
channelers have been allowed to make uncorroborated and unverified claims,
charge people hundreds or thousands of dollars for public and private
audiences, and offer advice on business and personal matters without providing
evidence that they indeed have contact with discarnate beings. Many people
have been misled by such practices.

We challenge the trance-channelers to offer proof of their abilities. The
Executive Council of CSICOP is making a public offer to provide scientific
inquirers to test, under controlled laboratory conditions, the claims of
trance-channelers.

We suggest that the public be extremely cautious about these claims
unless and until they are corroborated by carefully controlled scientific
testing.


- 2 -



Paul Kurtz, Chairman
James Alcock
Kendrick Frazier
Martin Gardner
Ray Hyman
Phillip J. Klass
Lee Nisbet
Mark Plummer
James Randi




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[G2G]

It's about time! So will JRK merely hold up the meaningless glossies, or submit herself to the real deal?
It's going to be interesting - or not.

[tree]

neither.
What RSE will claim is a previsously scientifically proven "study".
Might we remind them it was so poor in its' findings and methods, it never
went up for peer review.

[Whatchamacallit]

.......and didn't JZ *pay* to have the study done ? The fact is that makes it quite biased.