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Skeptical Inquirer magazine, January 2006

Volume 30, Number 1
January/February 2006

Articles

THE MEMORY WARS

Part One

It was a tragic mental health scandal: accusations resulting from supposedly long-repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse brought to light by self-deluded therapists and questionable and suggestive techniques such as hypnotism. The false memory wars, which raged throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, are slowly subsiding, but they are far from over.

Why Did They Bury Darwin in Westminster Abbey?

Charles Darwin is often pictured not only as the author of a controversial scientific theory but also as a nonbeliever and a menace to traditional values and beliefs. Why, then, was he honored with a burial in Westminster Abbey?

R.G. WEYANT

Paranormal Beliefs

An Analysis of College Students

This study examines the paranormal beliefs of college students along thirteen dimensions relating to age, area of study, and education level. Are college students more apt to believe in the paranormal? Does education level have an effect on beliefs?

BRYAN FARHA and GARY STEWARD JR.

Ogopogo the Chameleon

Lake Okanagan’s resident lake monster has undergone many transformations over the centuries. Will the real Ogopogo please rise up?

Benjamin Radford

The Ethics of Investigation

The sciences have recently begun to demand the development of codes of ethics and ethical instruction for students and practitioners. Skeptical inquiry and investigation now constitute a mature science that requires the same level of ethical self-criticism and oversight as other sciences.

David Koepsell

What ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know

An Analysis of Kevin Trudeau’s Natural Cures Infomercial

Kevin Trudeau’s book, Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About, has spent months on the best-seller lists and has been heavily promoted in Trudeau’s ubiquitous infomercials. But just what is Trudeau’s rhetoric, and how accurate are his claims?

STEPHEN BARRETT

The First Ibero-American Conference on Critical Thinking

BENJAMIN RADFORD

Columns

Editor's Note

Memory Wars and Monster Stories

News and Comment

Kennewick Man Made Available for Study by Court Order
Florida Study Dismissed ‘Celestial Drops’ to Treat Citrus Blight
New Collection of Martin Gardner’s Mathematical Recreations
Something Seen, but What? Quebec’s ‘Wippi’ Whips Up a Minor Monster Flap
Science Sheds Light on Giant Squid
SI Editor Kendrick Frazier Elected a Fellow of the AAAS
Science Looks for Bigfoot but Finds Bison
Understanding Evolution Web Site Expanded
‘Psychic’ Sex Offender Sentenced to Prison
Phantom Photos: Credulity at the Met Exhibit
Paranormal Researcher Selected as President of National Taiwan University
“Toward a New Enlightenment” World Congress

Investigative Files

Ogopogo: The Lake Okanagan Monster

Joe Nickell

Thinking About Science

Planet X and the Issue of Definitions in Science

Massimo Pigliucci

Notes on a Strange World

The Walrus Was Paul!

Massimo Polidoro

Psychic Vibrations

Will Hack for Extraterrestrials

Robert Sheaffer

The Skeptical Inquiree

Geller Revisited

Benjamin Radford

Science Best Sellers

Letters to the Editor

Guide for Authors

Reviews

Natural Health, Natural Medicine

By Andrew Weil

Harriet Hall

Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About

By Kevin Trudeau

Robert L. Park

Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie

By Barbara Goldsmith

Greg Martinez

Pseudoscience and the Paranormal

By Terence Hines

David Ludden

Strange Angel

By George Pendle

Howard Schneider