Pseudoscience and the Paranormal

mysterious.

The legend of Flight 19 is enhanced by the fact that one of the planes sent to search for the five Avengers also was lost. The plane, a Mariner, took off about 7:30 P.M. and not, as is often claimed, during the late afternoon. Mariners were called “flying gas tanks” by flight crews “because of the fumes that were often present, and a crewman sneaking a cigarette, or a spark from any source could have caused [an] explosion” (Kusche 1980, p. 119). An explosion was seen in the air just where the Mariner would have been about twenty minutes after takeoff. Clearly, the Mariner had blown up. Another tragic, but not mysterious, loss of life.

The loss of Flight 19 turns out to be no less a manufactured mystery than any of the other nonmysteries described by the likes of Berlitz and Gaddis.

It is amusing and instructive to examine the explanations that Berlitz puts forward for the nonevents he has made up for his book. The Bermuda Triangle is a popular topic with UFO proponents, the idea being that the triangle is some type of prime hunting ground for the saucer people. As noted above, Berlitz describes the UFO kidnapping hypothesis as a reasonable one. In fact, over half of The Bermuda Triangle Mystery is devoted to UFOs, ancient astronauts, and even the tale of Atlantis. Berlitz, it turns out, has found out about a well-known structure called the Bimini Road or Wall. Of it he says, “Shape and placement of these monoliths, right-angled corners, and pillars underneath some of the stones are conclusive, although not yet universally accepted, proof that they are man made” (Berlitz 1974, figure caption following p. 134). He goes on to speculate that the builders were the Atlanteans, who had an advanced civilization.

The “columns” Berlitz refers to are actually a mile or so from the “road” and are of recent origin—they are cement that was stored in barrels and tossed into the sea. The barrels rotted away, leaving the “columns.” The actual rocks in the Bimini Road are known to be natural formations. They are just a little over two thousand years old (Shinn 1978). As Randi (1980) has noted, this is a little young for true Atlantean artifacts.

Berlitz claimed in Without a Trace (1977) that he has found a giant pyramid, like the ones in Egypt, in the triangle and that somehow it is responsible for all the disappearances in the triangle. No one else, including the U.S. Navy, has been able to locate this giant object, and the book contains Berlitz’s usual false statements, errors, and deceptions (Kusche 1977–78b; Klass 1977–78).

In 1979, Berlitz (Moore and Berlitz 1979) has turned his attention away from the Bermuda Triangle and toward a most amazing navy experiment. It seems that in the 1950s the navy managed to make an entire battleship invisible and transport it instantly from Newport News, Virginia, to a navy yard on the West Coast. Of course, only Berlitz has managed to ferret out the truth about this. It’s interesting that the navy seems utterly unconcerned about having the most spectacular defense secret of the century revealed.

In the end, the Bermuda Triangle mystery turns out to be one of the longest-running hoaxes of the twentieth century. Yet many people are surprised to hear this. They have “heard so much about it” that they assume “there must be something to it.” There isn’t, but the continued existence of the triangle hoax is another example of the power of irresponsible writers and the media to deceive the public.

IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY AND COSMIC COLLISIONS

The late Immanuel Velikovsky was a psychiatrist who, in the early 1950s, created a huge scientific controversy that continues to some extent today. Velikovsky, who died in 1979, put forth a view of the origin of the solar system radically different from that accepted by astronomers. His goal was to explain several biblical stories, which he believed were literally true, in terms of actual astronomical events. He believed the biblical stories were not reports of supernatural events but instead reflected actual physical happenings. Velikovsky’s several books (Worlds in Collision, 1950; Earth in Upheaval, 1955; Ages in Chaos, 1952; Oedipus and Akhnaton: Myth and History, 1960; and Peoples of the Sea, 1977) present his ideas in detail. His views will be summarized in the next few pages, followed by a discussion of the difficulties.

According to Velikovsky, in about 1500 B.C.E. a comet was ejected from the planet Jupiter. This comet became the planet Venus. To get from Jupiter to the present orbit of Venus, the comet approached Earth, which passed through the tail of the comet. This caused a range of effects on Earth, including a fall of red meteoric dust. The rivers turned blood red. Petroleum fell from the sky in great quantities, creating the oil fields of the Middle East. Fires raged everywhere, started by meteorites from the comet. As Earth passed deeper and deeper into the comet’s tail, the Sun disappeared and Earth was plunged into a darkness that lasted for days. Due to the gravitational influence of Venus, Earth’s rotation slowed and earthquakes took place. New mountain ranges were born. Hurricane-strength winds and enormous tidal waves left some areas dry. This is the explanation of the Red Sea parting when Moses led the Israelites out of the land of Pharaoh.

So much heat was caused by the change in Earth’s rotation that rocks melted, lava flowed from a host of volcanoes, and the seas boiled. As Earth left the comet’s tail, the heat caused various “vermin” such as rats and frogs to reproduce at a great rate. A plague resulted. Eggs and larvae of extraterrestrial species of insects were in the comet’s tail, and they dropped to Earth and reproduced. That’s where flies come from.

The “manna from heaven” described in the Bible was produced when dust clouds, water vapor, and carbon and hydrogen—the latter two elements being found in the comet’s tail—combined and reacted to form carbohydrates, which promptly fell from the sky to feed the Israelites.

The comet receded from Earth, but about fifty years later it came very close again. This time Earth’s rotation was halted by the comet, and Joshua and the Israelites defeated their enemies while the sun stood still in the sky, as recounted in the Bible. Then Earth began rotating again. Again meteorites fell in great abundance, and Earth was torn by more earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanoes, and other phenomena. For about six hundred years, from 1400 B.C.E. to 800 B.C.E., all was well. Then Venus and Mars passed near each other, and Mars moved from its old orbit into a new one. Mars came near Earth four times before both planets adopted their present orbits.

According to Velikovsky, these dramatic events happened well within the period of recorded history. So why is there no written record of any of these events? The events were so traumatic that they resulted in worldwide amnesia. This prevented any clear statement of what happened from being written down. The events are, however, to be found recorded in symbolic form in myths and legends.

A bit of reflection on the ideas outlined above will suggest to the reader that Velikovsky was one of the greatest crackpots of the twentieth century. When I teach a course on pseudoscience at Pace University, the common response is, “Why bother with this? No one could ever really have taken such nonsense seriously.” But Velikovsky’s ideas were taken seriously—very seriously—by many people when his books were first published. The ideas still have a small band of dedicated followers.

Why did such patently absurd beliefs achieve such acceptance? One clue comes from an examination of where Velikovsky’s ideas found initial support. Worlds in Collision received surprisingly favorable reviews in Harper’s and other literary magazines. These were magazines written for intelligent readers, but readers who had no scientific background. The magazine reviewers were apparently impressed with the symbolic interpretation of myths and legends that was one of Velikovsky’s strengths. They were largely unaware that symbolic interpretations of anything—literature, dreams, myths, or legends—are almost entirely subjective and do not constitute acceptable evidence for anything. The readers of these magazines were also largely ignorant of scientific matters. They were impressed by Velikovsky’s scientific jargon, but couldn’t spot it for the gibberish that it was. It should be remembered in this regard that in the early 1950s general scientific education in the schools was much more primitive than in the 1960s during the post-Sputnik era. Finally, there was little popular interest in space and astronomical topics then, as opposed to the period since the development of the space program. Thus, the public in general was less well-informed in areas that would enable people to see through Velikovsky’s claims.

The response of the scientific community to Velikovsky was, as might be expected, one of scorn and hostility. Worlds in Collision was first published by Macmillan, a company that also published many science textbooks. College professors threatened to stop using Macmillan textbooks if the publisher continued to print Velikovsky’s book. The pressure was so great that Macmillan sold the book to another publisher. This enabled Velikovsky to paint himself as a martyr whose ideas the scientific establishment had tried to suppress. This further endeared him to the literati, who were probably already somewhat hostile to the scientific community,