This reports appeared in the June 1996 issue of Phactum, the newsletter of the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking. It is copyright © PhACT, 1996. All rights reserved.
This topic was presented by CSICOP Fellow, Dr. Stephen Barrett, M.D. on Saturday, May 4. PhACT members and guests were treated to an excellent show.
Dr. Barrett started the program by asking how many in the audience took vitamins. Roughly half did. He then asked the vitamin takers why they took vitamins. Answers ranged from it being a habit, to being a form of nutritional insurance. He pointed out that the "vitamin pushers" are frequently guilty of fraudulent claims that take money out of victim's pocketbooks without giving any benefits. Sometimes these claims are harmful to the victim's health such as when large doses of vitamins produce toxic effects. He then explained that most people should receive their necessary vitamins through a balanced diet, and that the vitamin industry is taking advantage of the current health craze to make a huge profit. He finished his remarks on vitamins by urging the audience to re-evaluate their use of them.
After discussing vitamins, Dr. Barrett then explored the world of Chiropractors. It seems that chiropractic is rife with quackery. Dr. Barrett related some of his "undercover" exposés of chiropractors. One example was when he sent one of his "patients" to various chiropractors for help with an ear disorder. In every case the diagnosis and subsequent treatment was wildly different, exposing the lack of standards and integrity in this field of medicine. He also noted that chiropractors had become licensed not by their merit, but by their political power. A highlight of the discussion on chiropractors was a video that showed one in action. On the tape a woman with an eye problem was treated by a chiropractor who spoke in scientific sounding mumbo-jumbo while performing fancy hand motions around her face. He also had the woman hold out her arm and then pushed it up and down, much like a water pump. This amusing action was supposed to be part of the diagnosis and healing process! In the end the chiropractor declared that the woman had an imbalance of fluids in her eyes or something to that effect! Dr. Barrett left the topic of chiropractors by acknowledging that there were a small core of legitimate practitioners, but they were essentially doing the work of a physical therapist.
Dr. Barrett concluded his presentation with a pot-pourri of health claims, the most interesting being homeopathy. He amused the audience by pointing out that after diluting the homeopathic drugs that patients take in order to cure the symptoms of a disease, there are no molecules left of these drugs! Where is the benefit?
Dr. Barrett also brought a special children's homeopathy kit which elicited numerous chuckles and prompted PhACT President Bob Glickman to try a tube full of the pills contained in the box. Bob said they tasted sugary, but seemed to give him no medical benefit.
After the program Dr. Barrett answered numerous questions, and sold a number of health quackery and related books to the grateful skeptics.
If you missed his presentation this time, keep checking the newsletter. We'll certainly ask him to speak again in the future.
On April 20th at the Bensalem Library, a number of us were treated to a riveting talk about the criminal aspects of fortune telling and other crimes by Officer Louis Sgro, a thirty-year veteran of the Philadelphia force and a member of several law enforcement groups concerned with confidence crimes. Officer Sgro focused on the ancient race of people known as Gypsies. He said they constitute the majority of fortune tellers and use a rather standard con to take advantage of people who have fallen on tough times or are lonely. He reported that this uncounted group of people are not merely "banjo playing buffoons" but are raised believing that it is their god-given mission in life to cheat the rest of us.
Although it didn't sound politically correct, he went on to say that, unlike us, they don't obey laws or attend more than seven years of school. He reported that they are inbred, are loaded with money, constantly move, frequently jump bail, attempt to bribe their way out of jail (sometimes with phoney bonds) and are involved in far more crime than the Mafia.
He said that there are many different clans of gypsies, for example the Tinkers (aka Travellers) come from the northern UK and specialize in repair scams (this reporter had some of them try to rip him off in a massive driveway repair scam in Upper Dublin).
Although Officer Sgro has put many gypsies behind bars, including a Gypsy policeman who tried to bribe him, he said it is very difficult to hold them responsible for their crimes because they have had thousands of years of practice, they change names, they move around, they hide behind a facade of religion, and they speak a language only they know. Sgro says they try to rationalize their crimes because they don't use violence. However the deep hurt that people go through is severe. Some people caught in faith healing scams have ended up losing both their vision and tens of thousands of dollars.
The gypsy fortune telling scam mostly takes advantage of educated women. It involves the following deceptions. At an initial meeting a "cold reading" convinces the victim that "evil" is following them, but that it can be stopped with help from the gypsy. Simple slight of hand tricks (making an egg appear to transmogrify, making water appear to boil etc) enhance the gypsy's appearance of power. A donated envelope of money is quickly swapped with a fake which is burned. Candles are purchased and burnt at $100 apiece. A large sum of money is requested so that it may be buried somewhere. Apparently, in New Jersey, all that Gypsies need are pictures of Jesus everywhere and the law won't touch them but in Pennsylvania one need only prove fraud to convict faith healers, fortune tellers, phrenologists, graphologists, or astrologers.
Officer Sgro sounds like a seasoned skeptic, he has remarked to alleged psychics, "If you are a psychic, why didn't you know I was coming to arrest you?"
As an open-minded skeptic, I don't know for sure if the majority of gypsy people are dishonest. I'd like to explore the question farther. The book The Secrets of Gypsy Fortune Telling may offer more thoughts. checked out gypsy web sites at: http://metro.turnpike.net/R/rtracy/romright/rrwmain.html/ and http://www.cybergypsy.com/AGRI.html. One of the sites responded to my inquiries by saying that there are many maligning stereotypes of other groups of people and requested that we pray for the persecuted gypsy people.
Because I missed the copy deadline for the April issue, there have been four Council meetings -- February through May -- since my last report. Much of that time has been spent planning public programs under Craig Olsen's skillful direction. Some of these programs have now taken place and have been reported on in the pages of Phactum: Philip Klass on UFO's, Philadelphia Police Officer Louis Sgro on psychics and the law, and Dr. Stephen Barrett on health frauds and quackery.
We won't be meeting at the Bensalem Public Library through the summer, but hope to arrange some pleasant affairs elsewhere. For example, there's been talk of a slight-of-hand demonstration for skeptics. Stay tuned.
On Saturday 7 September we will present a program ripped from the headlines of today's newspapers: a talk by a representative of the Philadelphia-based False Memory Syndrome Foundation. The issue is the production of often bizarre and sometimes impossible memories by over-zealous and unscrupulous therapists and others, and the enormous harm that this has caused. Related issues include ritual Satanic abuse and multiple personalities. Great stuff!
The Amazing Randi will be appearing at Bloomsburg University, probably this fall. We hope that we can get him to speak here while he's in the area. We're working on other entertaining and informative programs as well.
A certain amount of Council time has been spent on plans for attending the CSICOP World Skeptics Congress in Buffalo from Thursday to Sunday June 20-23. As of this writing it's still unclear how many PhACT members will be going, and what they'll do as a group while there.
The April meeting was the general meeting of the PhACT membership, at which Council members were elected for a one-year term. For the coming year, the Council will have one more member than last, Nick Yutko of Bethlehem. The newly elected Council returned Battlin' Bob Glickman to the Presidency, and Scribblin' Bill Wisdom to the Secretariat. Ken Barnes will take over as Treasurer. Tom Napier will continue as newsletter editor. Eric Krieg will chair the Media (Publicity) Committee, and Craig Olsen the Program Committee.
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