Pseudoscience and the Paranormal

Nickell (1978 1999) has been able to produce images that look exactly like the image on the shroud. They even duplicate the “photographic negative” quality of the shroud image that proponents of the authenticity of the shroud state could not have been produced by any artistic means. The rubbing technique was known to artists as early as the 1100s (Mueller 1981–82), more than two hundred years before the shroud appeared.

The shroud appeared at a time when the manufacture, sale, and collection of Christian relics was big business (Nickell 1983; MacRobert 1986). It has been said with considerable truth that there were enough pieces of the True Cross floating around Europe at the time to build the ark. Wealthy nobles and merchants collected relics. There were many other shrouds to be found in Europe; the Shroud of Turin is simply the most famous.

The conclusion from the historical and scientific analysis of the shroud is clear: It is a fake relic created sometime in the early or mid-1300s. In 1989 this conclussion was dramatically confirmed by carbon dating of the shroud (Damon et al. 1989). Until that time the church had not permitted any such testing of the shroud. The results dated the shroud to the year 1325, plus or minus sixty-five years.

Appendix SKEPTICAL WEB SITES

There are many Web sites that provide updated information on the various topics discussed in this book. Rather than attempt the certainly futile task of listing them all, I’ve provided below a list of the major sites and organizations that support them. Going to these sites and clicking on the relevant links will easily take you to specific topics of interest.

• The Australian Skeptics: www.skeptics.au

• The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal: www.csicop.org

CSICOP publishes the excellent bimonthly magazine Skeptical Inquirer.

• The James Randi Educational Foundations: www.randi.org

• The Museum of Hoaxes: www.museumofhoaxes.com

The National Center for Science Education www.natcenscied.org

The NCSE supports the teaching of evolution in public schools. Its Web site contains information to counter creationist arguments.

• The National Council Against Health Fraud: www.ncahf.org

• Quackwatch: www.quackwatch.org

This is a major site on the Web for critical analyses of the claims of New Age, “alternative,” and quack medical practitioners, including chiropractic.

• Skeptic magazine: www.skeptic.com

• Skeptical Dictionary: www.skepdic.com

Run by Robert Carroll, this site is a treasure trove of information.

Illustrations

^{Figure 1. One of the Cottingley fairy photographs.}

^{Figure 2. Cold Fusion: The evolution of a pratical joke. (Cartoon by Karen Hopkin.)}

^{Figure 3. Typical fortification illusions of migraine. (From Sacks [1985].)}

^{Figure 4. Examples of the illusions of the eleventh-century Hildegard showing their similarity to migraine fortification illusions From Sacks [1985].)}

^{Figure 5. A simple way to bend a key when your audience is distracted—but certainly not the only way. (Photo by Mike Ackerbauer.)}

^{Figure 6A. A spoon held at points 1 and 2.}

^{Figure 6B. A spoon held at points 1 and 3. (Photos by Mike Ackerbauer.)}

^{Figure 7. A typical phrenological map of the brain. (Author’s collection.)}

^{Figure 8. Vastly different patterns of compatible and incompatible sun signs used by four leading astrologers. (From Culver and Ianna [1984].)}

^{Figure 9. What is this figure?}

^{Figure 10. Illusory contours. The brain creates the contours of a white triangle that isn’t really there.}

^{Figure 11. Lowell’s illusory Martian canals. (From Lowell [1908].)}

^{Figure 12. Drawings of UFOs by witnesses. All these sightings were actually due to misperceptions of advertising aircraft. (From Hendry [1979].)}

^{Figure 13. Impressive looking, but faked, UFO photos. (From Sheaffer [1981].)}

^{Figure 14. The fake Brazil UFO photo.}

^{Figure 15. One of the fake Heflin UFO photos.}

^{Figure 16. One of the fake Trent UFO photos.}

^{Figure 17. 1955 commemorative stamp showing New Hampshire’s “Old Man of the Mountains.” (Scott CataLog #1068.)}

^{Figure 18. 1990 Sierra Leone stamp showing the “face” on Mars. (Scott catalog #1171.)}