Sceptics to scrutinise paranormal claims

Press, 8 February 1986, Page 8

Sceptics to scrutinise paranormal claims

A New Zealand organisation of sceptics is being formed to help counter pseudo-scientific claims and theories. A steering committee in Christchurch met yesterday to start work on setting up a Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (C.5.1.C.0.P.). The organisation will probably be known as the New Zealand Sceptics, and is modelled on similar movements overseas. A University of Otago psychologist, Dr David Marks, who has specialised in investigating the claims of mediums, chaired the first meeting. In August, the first annual conference of the Sceptics will probably be held in Dunedin. Dr Marks said the organisation would be able to help the news media and the general public to scrutinise practices which could pe disproved by

scientific tests. Members of the organisation would be available to conduct tests of mediums and other people, many of whom had been unwilling to be tested in the past. “If they will not be tested, we will take them to court,” he said. Under the Summary Offences Act, it is an offence to act as a medium with intent to deceive. Dr Marks said that provisions of the act had not yet been used in New Zealand. The act did not apply to any activity done solely for the purpose of entertainment Psychics usually maintained that they had special powers, and were not simply entertainers. Members of the steering committee included Dr Denis Dutton, a University of Canterbury lecturer in the philosophy of art who campaigned to have a Wellington® psychic, Mrs Mary F Fry,

stopped from what she said were communications with dead relatives and friends of callers over the radio. Mrs Fry’s Radio New Zealand contract was not renewed last year. Other committee members were a Victoria University biologist, a Massey University psychologist, and two Auckland humanists. Dr Dutton will get equal time on the radio to comment on psychics and claims of a British psychic consultant, Carmen Rogers, who is visiting New Zealand. Dr Dutton said the committee needed to bring out the positive aspects of scepticism, instead of just being negative about pseudo-scientific assertions. The Sceptics will produce a newsletter similar to those published in Australia and other countries. An international reward

of £250,000 was approved last year for anyone who could obtain a paranormal effect in front of impartial observers. Such an effect would be one that could not be explained scientifically. The New Zealand committee intends to provide reliable information about paranormal claims, and to encourage people to have a more critical attitude toward such claims and pseudo-scientific theories, such as creationism. Sceptics say they will keep an open mind until satisfactory explanations are found, and will not reject out of hand any paranormal claims without investigating them. They will avoid cynicism, which is not in the spirit of open-minded inquiry. C.5.1.C.0.P. is a nonprofit organisation formed in 1976 by the American Humanist Association. The Australian, branch was formed in 1981.