Great post Stephen -- thanks. I'll use it in my first year seminar class "Why people believe weird things". Marie
**************************************************** Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Department Chair and Associate Professor of Psychology Kaufman 168, Dickinson College Carlisle, PA 17013 Office: (717) 245-1562, Fax: (717) 245-1971 Office Hours: Tues and Thur 9:30-10:30, Wed 10:30-11:45 http://alpha.dickinson.edu/departments/psych/helwegm **************************************************** -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 8:41 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Colin Ross and his amazing psychic eye beam A recent item in the False Memory Foundation Newsletter alerted me to this rather usual claim by Dr. Colin Ross, the former president of the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality Disorder and Dissociation, and practitioner of repressed memory therapy. He believes he can send a beam of energy from his eye which plays a tone on a computer. His confidence in his psychic ability is such that he applied to the James Randi Educational Foundation to claim the one million dollar prize for a convincing demonstration of a paranormal ability. He didn't get far. His tacky-looking apparatus (EEG leads, goggles, and tinfoil) was found to make use of an EEG artifact, fed into a biofeedback device which detects it when he blinks his eye. This, not psychic ability, is what produces the sound. Big surprise, no cash. He agreed with the Randi Foundation assessment but nonetheless continues to believe in his amazing psychic power. A leisurely but amusing discussion of the Randi Foundation analysis is available in the podcase Skeptic's Guide # 161 at http://tinyurl.com/6l9rkr. It plays between minutes 26 and 40. I imagine he still believes in multiple personality disorder, with about the same amount of evidence in favour of it as for his eye beam. Wikipedia reviews his bizarre career, including his treatment of a patient for Dissociative Identity Disorder induced by the CIA which caused her to kill babies and drink their blood. He is now being sued by two former patients. I am sorry to report that Dr. Ross is Canadian- educated, having completed his psychiatry degree at the University of Manitoba. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_A._Ross Wall Street Journal article on his amazing ability here: http://tinyurl.com/5c2xu9 (Dallas Psychiatrist's Paranormal Abilities to Be Tested by Noted Debunker James Randi, July 30, 2008) See the video: http://www.vimeo.com/1449829?pg=embed&sec=1449829 Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
