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April 1987 issue of "BASIS", newsletter of the Bay Area Skeptics
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         Bay Area Skeptics Information Sheet
                   Vol. 6, No. 4
                Editor:  Kent Harker



CSICOP PRESS RELEASE: JAL UFO INCIDENT

[The recent furor over the well-publicized UFO encounter of a JAL
flight reached its zenith on the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.
The story featured a "dramatization" of the incident with a
cockpit-view of the alleged UFO. It looked like banks of stadium
lights on either side of the front windows about 50 feet away! This
from the pilot's description of two small UFO's and a larger one.
I asked our own UFO expert and Chair of BAS, Robert Sheaffer, to
check the celestial arrangement in the area of the occurrence at
the time and date indicated by the pilot. The first paragraph is
Robert's comment. -- Ed.]

November 16, 1986, 4:48 P.M., 35,000 feet above Ft. Yukon, Alaska.
The sun has sank to 13 1/2 degrees below the horizon, meaning that
while many stars have become visible, the sky is not yet fully
dark. Jupiter is an extremely brilliant object shining at magnitude
-2.6 in the southeastern sky, and it is only about twelve degrees
above the horizon. Mars is also visible about 20 degrees west of
Jupiter, but it is much fainter, at magnitude - 0.1, and it is only
seven degrees above the horizon.

A brilliant planet such as Venus or Jupiter is by far most likely
to be perceived as a "UFO" when it is within about 20 degrees of
the horizon. Bright planets high in the sky are more readily
overlooked by casual observers, and even if spotted appear to be
"up high" where they belong. But when they are at lower angular
elevations, people imagine them to be close to the ground, and
scintillation effects due to the long light path through the
atmosphere make them appear to flash and change colors. The Jimmy
Carter UFO, the Incident at Exeter, and the Betty and Barney Hill
UFO are but a few well-known examples of brilliant planets low in
the sky being taken for a "UFO".

Buffalo NY -- An investigation of the incident in which a UFO
reportedly paced a Japan Airlines 747 en route to Anchorage,
Alaska, for nearly forty minutes on November 18, 1986, reveals that
at least one extraterrestrial object was involved: the planet
Jupiter, and possibly another, Mars.

The investigation was conducted by Philip J. Klass, an
internationally recognized skeptical UFOlogist and chairman of
CSICOP's UFO Subcommittee. His investigations have yielded prosaic
explanations for many famous UFO cases during the past twenty
years.

At the time the UFO incident began near Ft. Yukon, the JAL airliner
was flying south in twilight conditions so that an extremely bright
Jupiter (-2.6 magnitude) would have been visible on the plane's
left-hand side, where he first reported seeing the UFO, according
to Klass. Jupiter was only ten degrees above the horizon, making
it appear to the pilot to be at roughly his own 35,000 ft.
altitude. Mars, slightly lower on the horizon, was about twenty
degrees to the right of Jupiter but not as bright.

Although the very bright Jupiter and less bright Mars had to be
visible to JAL Captain Kenjyu Terauchi, the pilot never once
reported seeing either -- only a UFO that he described in his
initial radio report to FAA controllers at Anchorage as being a
"white and yellow" light.

Many of the colorful details of the incident carried by the news
media, largely based on the six-week-old recollections of the
pilot, are contradicted by a transcript of radio messages from the
pilot to the FAA controllers while the incident was in progress.

For example, media accounts quoting the 747 pilot said that when
he executed a 360 degree turn, the UFO had followed him around
during the turn. But this claim is contrary to what the pilot told
the controllers at the time. During the pilot's interviews, he
"remembered" some details that did not actually occur, judging from
his earlier reports, and he forgot several important events that
would challenge his claim of being paced by an unknown craft.

Another airliner, United Airlines Flight 69, heading north from
Anchorage to Fairbanks, had agreed to deviate slightly from its
course to allow FAA radar controllers to vector it to the vicinity
of the JAL 747 to see if the United crew could spot the UFO. At
approximately 4:48 pm. Terauchi reported that the UFO was about
ten miles distant and to his far left -- in the direction of
Jupiter. At roughly 4:50 pm, the United pilot reported he could
now see JAL but a short time later said: "I don't see anybody
around him." Shortly afterward, the JAL pilot reported that the
UFO was "just ahead of United" which is where Jupiter would appear
to be from Terauchi's location. The United pilot would not notice
Jupiter because it was to his right, while his attention was
focussed on JAL which was to his far left.

At about this time, the pilot of a USAF C-130 transport in the area
volunteered to be sent to the vicinity of the JAL airliner to see
if he could see any object nearby. The C-130 crew readily spotted
the JAL 747, but they too could see nothing in its vicinity.

"This is not the first time that an experienced pilot has mistaken
a bright celestial body for a UFO, nor will it be the last," Klass
said. In one case in the early 1950s, investigated by the late Dr.
J. Allen Hynek, a military pilot chased a UFO for more than thirty
minutes and the UFO turned out to be the bright star Capella. In
this case, as with the recent Alaska incident, a radar operator
reported briefly seeing an unknown blip on his radar screen.

During World War II, B-29s on night bombing raids from the Mariana
Islands to Japan reported being paced by a mysterious "ball of
fire." Attempts to shoot down the object were unsuccessful. After
much speculation as to what kind of secret Japanese weapon might
be at work, the mysterious glowing object was identified as the
planet Venus, which was particularly bright at the time.

More than 25 percent of all UFOs reported to the Center for UFO
Studies (created by Dr. Hynek in 1973) during a fifteen
month period turned out upon investigation to be a star or bright
planet. Some eyewitnesses in these cases reported that the
celestial UFO "darted up and down," or "wiggled from side-to-side,"
and a variety of shapes were described.

In Captain Terauchi's account to the media some six weeks after the
incident, he described seeing two small UFOs in addition to a large
one. But the transcript reveals that the pilot only briefly
reported seeing TWO lights and thereafter referred to only one
light in his communications with FAA controllers.

News accounts of the incident stressed that USAF radar had detected
an unidentified object in the vicinity of the JAL 747's "blip" --
 which seemed to confirm the pilot's sighting. However, radar
operating in mountainous areas, such as that where the UFO incident
occurred, can receive false echoes when radar bouncing off an
aircraft is reflected a second time off mountains and snow-covered
terrain.

When the pilot first reported the UFO, FAA controllers -- ever-
concerned over the possibility of mid-air collision -- asked
controllers in an Air Force Regional Operations Command Center to
examine their displays for an unknown intruder. A radar operator
spotted something, but was unsure whether it might be a spurious
echo. However, the echo appeared only briefly and was BEHIND the
747, whereas the pilot had reported that the UFO was in front or
to the left of the aircraft. Later, as the JAL 747 approached
Fairbanks International Airport -- even though the pilot was still
reporting a UFO -- the radar controller at the airport found no
unknown blips in the vicinity.

On January 11, 1987, Captain Terauchi reported seeing another UFO
while flying in approximately the same area of Alaska, but after
an FAA spokesperson in Anchorage suggested that this UFO might be
the lights from a distant village bouncing off clouds, the pilot
acknowledged that this might be the case.

"My suspicions that this UFO might be a bright celestial body were
prompted by the fact that the pilot reported seeing the object for
more than thirty minutes," Klass said. "Experience has shown that
when a UFO remains visible for many minutes, it almost always
proves to be a celestial object." Another clue, he said, was the
fact that when the plane descended 4000 feet, the UFO appeared to
stay at the plane's altitude. At Jupiter's great distance, an
airplane's altitude change would produce no change in the planet's
apparent altitude.

Klass, who was a senior editor with "Aviation Week and Space
Technology" for nearly 35 years, has been investigating famous UFO
cases as a hobby for more than twenty years. His most recent book
on the subject is "UFOs: The Public Deceived", (Prometheus Books,
Buffalo N.Y.).



EDITOR'S CORNER

It has several names and many manifestations. Deja vu,
synchronicity are a couple. The occurrence of some synchronous
event can produce an eerie feeling as we try to sort out what has
happened and find some causal connection.

It is not an old wive's tale that old wives' tales die a hard
death. (I suppose the term is a sexist explanation for notions that
have been passed around for years until they acquire the enduring
trait.) One such false notion is that we only use 10% of our brains
when in fact more than 10% of our brain is functioning even when
sleeping. It is perhaps a poor choice of terms to call the
subconscious unconscious, for it is probably one area of the brain
that is "conscious" (functioning) all the time.

In any event, if we were fully aware of all the information being
processed at a given time we would be unable to function, so
complex is the maze of material going through our biocomputer. So
the brain hardware and software is selective for what is displays
on our consciousness. Perhaps 10% of the information is even an
overestimate.

With this in mind (tune up your consciousness) let's look at
coincidence. We learn a spelling error we have made for our whole
lives and wonder why we haven't seen it all these years when it
literally jumps out of the page at us now that we are aware of it.
We have been thinking about a high school friend and at the same
time he/she phones. The list is long -- life is full of these
occurrences. What, if anything, do they mean? Is there any control
over them?

Psychologist Carl Jung coined the term "synchronicity" so intrigued
was he with coincidental phenomena. His writing indicates that he
felt there must be some causal mechanism; this began with an
experience which turned him on his head: "A certain M. Deschamps,
when a boy in Orlean, was once given a piece of plum pudding in a
Paris restaurant and asked if he could have a piece. It turned out,
however, that the plum pudding was already ordered by M. de
Fortgibu.

Many years afterwards, M. Deschamps was invited to partake of a
plum pudding as a special rarity. While he was eating it he
remarked that the only thing lacking was M. de Fortgibu. At that
moment the door opened and an old, old man in the last stages of
disintegration walked in: M. de Fortgibu, who had got hold of the
wrong address and burst in on the party by mistake."

Assuming the story is true (tales of coincidence are often heavily
embellished by design or by unconscious desire to make the mundane
a little more remarkable), the first question usually asked is,
"How can this be explained?" Some parapsychologists have postulated
a "hidden force" that links otherwise unlikely events.
Given the enormous number of things that happen in the course of
our daily lives a certain amount of coincidence is to be expected
just by the Laws of Averages: play roulette long enough and you
are certain to have a run in which you do nothing but win on every
bet. Still, the really bizarre events plague us.

Jung worked closely with physicist Wolfgang Pauli (discoverer of
the "exclusion principle" of quantum mechanics) when he (Jung)
wrote, "It is only the ingrained belief in the sovereign power of
causality that creates intellectual difficulties and makes it
appear unthinkable that causeless events exist or could ever
occur." QM was the basis for this thinking -- a type of "quantum
weirdness" -- In which causeless and unpredictable transitions of
matter from one quantum state to another were postulated.

Einstein proposed the thought experiment known today as the EPR
Paradox to try to show that QM theory was incomplete at least or
totally wrong at most; thus began the search for "hidden variables"
to explain some of the quantum strangeness. Alas, some
parapsychologists and laypersons have take Bell's inequality, the
EPR Paradox and come up with a "theory" of synchronicity.

But this is only our psychological excuse for insisting that
unusual events cannot occur but by some design. If we had recall
like a tape recorder the vast majority of deja vu would be exactly
that: already seen, and we would remember where and when. For the
"residual effect," those small number of cases which are truly
anomalous, it is perfectly sane to ascribe them to nothing more
than anomalous cases.



RAMPARTS

[Ramparts is a regular feature of BASIS, and your participation is
urged. Clip, snip and tear bits of irrationality from your local
scene and send them to the EDITOR. If you want to make some comment
with the submission, please do so.]

Well here we are at the end of March and there is not much from O.
Roberts' camp. Since he didn't make a personal call to
headquarters, may we safely assume his coffers were in receipt of
the requisite funds? Heaven only knows. From the Associated Press
a reporter from the Dallas Morning News announced that he had a
tape in which Roberts was under orders to collect $8 mil by
DECEMBER 31, 1986 or be looking at eternity.

Some quotes from Roberts' voice on the tape: "Oral Roberts' life
is on the line. God has spoken to me twice, Jan. 26 and May 6. He
told me...I'm going to be gone before this year is out.... I know
it as much as I'm standing here."

Why he mentioned May in the past tense when he was speaking in
March isn't clear, but it must not matter much. His spokeswoman,
Jan Dargatz gave some "explanation" why Roberts is still among us
and why his announcements don't make much sense, but her explaining
is more confusing than Roberts' rambling.

DIANE MOSER (BASIS former co-editor) sends along the San Mateo
County Office of Education's announcement of their spring class
offerings. Irrationality is alive and well in S. M. Among classes
on math, landslides, writing, music, and technology is one called
"Healing Is An Inner Process."

As BASIS goes to press, regrettably you will have missed the
opportunity to "...discover how to sense and manipulate ENERGY
FIELDS, and share the experience of healing touch." (emphasis
added) because the last session of the course ended on March 25.
But you can call the Community Education Office at [phone]
and ask if anyone knows what an "energy field" is. The class was
held at the Nueva Learning Center in Hillsborough by one Terry
Attwood, CHT. For that matter, ask what a CHT is while you're at
it.

The two following items are not really "paranormal," but they are
beyond the pale. The AP wire service picked up the story from the
awards ceremony of the Committee on Doublespeak, a precocious
offspring of the National Council of Teachers of English. The
distinguished third place was awarded to the Department of Defense
for calling temporary coffins "aluminum transfer cases," a hammer
a "manually powered fastener-driving impact device" and a steel
nut a "hexiform rotatable surface compression unit." It's hard to
imagine anything beat that for first and second place.

Second bit was from a TV news broadcast in which the reporter,
absolutely straight-faced, announced that, "The medical community
is concerned that the occurrence of ovarian cancer was abnormally
higher than in women who had had their ovaries removed." Headaches,
I would wager, are more frequent in those who have not been
decapitated, too. Is the country in trouble?

WILLY WERBY of San Francisco sends us a picture of "psychic" healer
Elissa Heyman. This lady has perhaps learned something from the
psychic map dowsers: do your stuff in the comfort of home.
Evidently Ms. Heyman conducts much of her healing over the phone.
She places a bowl of fresh water near the phone "to collect the
energy transmitted from clients." Then again, maybe the fresh water
collects the diseases from her clients, in which case it should be
disposed of in safe toxic chemical containers.



CRYSTAL POWER
by Lawrence E. Jerome

[I asked Lawrence to research and write an article about "crystal
power" after receiving no less than five news articles about the
subject from BASIS readers. Lawrence is a BAS board member and
advisor to CSICOP; a materials engineer and science writer, he is
eminently qualified. Thank you, Larry. -- Ed.]

Would you like to increase your psychic abilities, improve your
powers of astral projection, be able to heal what ails you or your
loved ones? Or are you interested in making your astrological
talismans more powerful and effective, or perhaps just extending
the range of your prayers and good thoughts? All this is possible,
and more -- much more -- if we are to believe the proponents of
"crystal power," or crystal "work" as it's known to aficionados.

Crystals have long been associated with the psychic arts -- it's
a rare Psychic Fair that doesn't include a booth or two selling
expensive crystals and crystal jewelry -- but recently, crystals
and "crystal power" have been getting more press. In the last few
years, prices for quartz crystals have quadrupled, yet the demand
has remained so high that suppliers are hard pressed to keep up.
Why? What is it about crystals -- particularly quartz, the most
common mineral on earth -- that make them so valuable to mystics,
astrologers and psychic healers?

When I agreed to tackle this article, I thought my two degrees in
Materials Science, which included a fair amount of study about
crystals and crystallography, would be sufficient to understand
what all this "crystal power" fuss was about. Little did I know
that the subject would require all my years' accumulation of
knowledge concerning ancient magic, shamanism, Yoga, astrology,
psychic healing and the paranormal!

The key to understanding "crystal power" lies not in understanding
the physical or electrical properties of the crystals themselves,
but rather in understanding the terminology and thought processes
of those who promote the arcane practice of "working" with
crystals. The energies and "power" they claim to use and capture
in crystals have nothing to do with the everyday electromagnetic,
chemical or other energies we ordinary humans are familiar with.
The energies associated with "crystal power" lie on a higher astral
plane, and only those "in tune" with the astral plane can use and
feel the "energies of crystal power."

In short, we who would like to get hold of something solid,
something demonstrable we can test and use, are sadly at sea when
it comes to "crystal power." Proponents' claims are so far-
reaching, so broad in scope, and so interconnected with all the
other mystic arts, that it's hard to find a single claim that a
good honest skeptic would consider testable.

For instance, consider the claim that an object placed beneath a
"properly charged" crystal will itself become charged with
"energy." What kind of "energy"? Can we measure it? Can we see some
observable change in the object, or can we test to see if the
object has now become more useful? If this sounds a lot like
"pyramid power," you're right. Remember the claims that placing a
razor blade beneath a pyramid would keep it sharper? Yet, all
objective tests found no difference between ordinary blades and
"pyramid blades." A truly sharp and long-lasting blade was wrought
by metallurgical science with the introduction of the stainless
steel blade, not by "pyramid power"!

Today, "pyramid power" is out of fashion, and "crystal power" is
in, yet, both have a very long history. In a surprisingly clear
and objective article, "Fate" magazine recently ran a piece by Ron
Bodoh, "Quartz: Gem of Legend" (May, 1986, pp. 78-81), which
outlines the long and colorful history of quartz crystals. Not
surprisingly, crystals "were prized by the ancients as powerful
gems endowed with unique healing and visionary properties." The
ancients considered quartz to be a form of ice, congealed to super
hardness by intense cold. The Greeks used the word, ice, to refer
to quartz, and the word crystal comes from the Greek term,
"crystallos", for clear ice.

The Greeks utilized the physical property of quartz to refract
light as a magnifying lens to focus sunlight to start ritual fires
and, according to Pliny, to cauterize wounds. The "Fate" article
suggests the Egyptian pyramids were once capped by quartz, and
notes that many ancient civilizations mined and used quartz for
both artistic and utilitarian purposes. American Indians seemed to
have come closest to modern "crystal power," placing quartz
crystals on their eyelids to enhance the clarity of dreams and
visions. Of course, the familiar crystal ball appeared early on
the world scene, found in cultures ranging from Aztecs to
Babylonians to Persian and Chinese.

"Crystal power," in fact, IS closely allied to crystal gazing,
crying. Crystal gazers claim to actually see visions and pictures
within crystal and even glass balls. First, they "see" a clouding
within the ball, then an image will appear or change. Of course,
staring fixedly at a single point will usually produce some sort
of visual pattern; add desire, autosuggestion and/or unconscious
projection, and it's not hard to understand how crystal gazers can
soon "see" an image of some sort, just as automatic writers soon
learn to produce legible, readable script.

Real quartz crystal balls, which may range in size from 2-1/2
inches to the world's largest at 12-3/4 inches, are prized by
crystal gazers for their blue or purplish color, and especially
for milky or cloudy inclusions (which are easier to focus on).

Like crystal gazing, "crystal power" involves focusing on crystals
but, instead of focusing visual images, the crystal "worker"
focuses "energies": thoughts, prayers, magical symbolism, healing
"powers," Yoga practices, astrological talismans -- or any other
mystic art or arcane practice that appeals to the crystal "worker."

Uma Silbey's nicely written and illustrated book, "The Complete
Crystal Guidebook" (U-Read Publications, San Francisco, 1986. p.1),
sets forth these basic tenets of "crystal power": "Do you want to
do healings? Do you want to empower your meditations, your
affirmations, and/or your thoughts? You can energize the body and
balance its energies. You can develop many psychic abilities,
including clairvoyance, clairaudience and traveling on astral and
mental planes. You can use the crystals to change many unwanted
circumstances in your life and create new ones... You can meet
guides and beings from different dimensions and uncover ESP
abilities."

Such modest claims. Why not add creating world peace, eliminating
poverty and hunger, and just for kicks, cleaning up the
environment? In fact, one crystal advocate was quoted by the "New
York Times", "New York would be a more peaceful place if everyone
wore a clear quartz crystal over the solar plexus." No doubt New
York WOULD be a more peaceful place if everyone walked around
wearing a crystal and thinking "peace." Tell that to a mugger.

Serious "crystal work" involves much more than just staring at a
lump of clear rock or sleeping with pillows filled with magic
stones. First, you must learn how to "center" yourself, a Yoga-like
exercise described by Uma as "that state of being in which you are
just yourself. Rather than judging yourself to be this or that,
what or who, there is just a feeling of being here now.... When you
are centered, it is a feeling of being collected into your center
rather than being scattered." (ibid., p.14)

Next, you must "ground" yourself, permitting "the flow of energy
from the earth to move through the soles of your feet and up
through your body. This can then be joined with energy flowing from
the sky, through the top of your head and down through your body.
The coupling of energy from the 'heavens' and the 'earth' creates
the proper balance to do crystal work." (ibid., p.15)

Once you are "centered" and "grounded," the crystal must be
"cleared" by burying it in the earth (don't let the dog out!),
submerging it in salt or spring water, or simply by "thinking" it
clear. How do you know if a crystal is "clear"? Simple: it just
looks clearer to you!

Finally, you are ready to "program" your crystal, "locking in" your
intentions (prayers, thoughts, or magical "energies.") After
centering yourself while holding the crystal, "inhale and
forcefully exhale through your mouth... as if you are blowing your
intention into the crystal. Continue this process until you feel
satisfied that you have completely filled the crystal with your
intention." (ibid., p.20)

Wouldn't it be nice if programming a computer were that easy --just
"blowing" a program into the computer! Unfortunately, at least to
hard boiled skeptics, the real world is not that simple. Hard work
and adherence to the physical "rules" of the universe are still
required to program a computer -- or to accomplish any other
projects, from cleaning the house to passing a bill through
Congress. "Crystal power" appears to be just so much wishful
thinking. While some of the associated Yoga exercises might well
help one become more relaxed, I'm afraid any further crystal "work"
leads the practitioner into self delusion and alienation from the
real world.

For the most part, "crystal power" is probably harmless enough --
 after all, one knows the crystal workers cannot actually DO
anything in the real world (except sell crystal jewelry for
outrageous prices) -- but I do question the psychological effects
such self delusion can have on mental states and stability,
especially for those already a bit unbalanced and grasping at
magical straws in order to have some impact on this complex world
of ours.

Walt Disney's recent Sunday night movie, "The Young Houdini," is
a case in point: teenage Houdini teleports himself out of a falling
box with the help of "crystal power" provided by the mysterious
mute Indian, Gray Wolf, and even the adult Houdini is portrayed as
using the magic crystal to escape from his famous Chinese Water
Torture Chamber. This portrayal does the real Houdini a great
disservice; Houdini studied hard, worked hard, and practiced hard
to physically master his many feats of daring escape. No magic, no
mysticism, and certainly no "crystal power" was involved.



FROM THE CHAIR
by Robert Sheaffer

Congratulations once again to our dauntless editor Kent, who
weathered yet another crisis so smoothly that most of you probably
didn't even notice! Our volunteer effort was breaking down under
the laborious, old-fashioned process of coding, typesetting, and
paste-up for this newsletter. Kent fearlessly set out on the
seldom-trod path of IBM PC-based desktop publishing, evaluated the
available packages, picked out the best one, arranged to get it
delivered to us, got his system configured for it, FIGURED OUT HOW
TO USE THE DARN THING (no small task!!), found a shop that could
do the laser printing, turned out an excellent-looking March issue,
all this without skipping a beat. Way to go, Kent!

From here on, BASIS will be "desktop published," clearly the wave
of the future for small organizations such as BAS. The software
package was expensive, but we'll soon make back the cost in what
we had been spending on typesetting. Most importantly, the number
of hours spent in production will go down dramatically, AND we can
still deliver a quality, professional-appearing newsletter to you.

Bay Area Skeptics in the news: We really don't toot our own horn
loudly enough. Some of you may not realize the impact that this
small group is having. Last month we gave you some of the "psychic
predictions" from our year-end press release, reviewing the
dismally bad predictions made twelve months earlier. We gave a
number of press interviews about that.

I was on Channel 5's 6:00 news on New Year's Eve, reviewing some
of the predictions. They chose to concentrate on Barbara Mousalam's
predictions, and even went to her house to interview her. They read
back to her some of her predictions for the year just past, asking
her why she did so poorly! Later that evening, I was interviewed
by Lee Rogers on KGO Radio, who always enjoys a good laugh. Yves
Barbero appeared on Channel 7 news New Years' Day, and made some
very good points. Bob Steiner and Larry Loebig also did a number
of radio interviews.

Another symptom of our morbidly excessive modesty: more than a year
has gone by, and I still don't think that we've told you about the
long (and funny) article on the Bay Area Skeptics in the "Berkeley
Monthly" of February, 1986, by B. Alvarez. "You're at a cocktail
party. Everyone's talking about computer auras, spiritual weight-
loss and custody settlement through witchcraft. You begin to sense
that right here, right now, you're present at the decline of
Western Civilization. Who You Gonna Call? FAITHBUSTERS!" The first
page has a drawing of Bob Steiner holding a fly swatter, trying to
swat astrological symbols as they fly by.

Other echoes of BAS activities: The February issue of "Popular
Communications" magazine, read by shortwave radio, ham radio, and
scanner radio enthusiasts, reprinted portions of Mr. Amazing
Randi's article about Peter Popoff from "Free Inquiry" magazine,
titled "Heavenly Contacts on 39.17 MHz?" The readers of that
magazine were no doubt most interested to learn about the creative
uses which Popoff found for his miniature scanner! Mention was made
of the Bay Area Skeptics, as well as of the contributions of Don
Henvick, Bob Steiner, and Alex Jason.

Reverend Michelina Russo is an aging Spiritualist who has succeeded
in convincing many people, including "Examiner" columnist Bill
Mandel, that she gets help from the Beyond when she reads messages
that have been sealed up in envelopes. When I observed her act in
1982, she was deftly opening one edge of the envelope, and stealing
a peek at the paper inside. (See "Best of BASIS," 1982-83, page
19-21). I even have some of the sliced-up envelopes to prove it.

She moved from Santa Clara to Santa Rosa, then somewhere after
that, and we lost track of her for a while. Well, she's back in the
South Bay. The "Cosmic Church of Life & Spiritual Science," a
"Christian Spiritualist Church," has been set up at 1035 Emory St.,
San Jose, in the Oddfellows Temple. She's advertising in the Los
Gatos paper; perhaps she figures that a community of the well-
heeled must contain many prepared to part with hefty sums for
Spiritual Enlightenment. Save your money, folks -- anyone with a
letter opener can do that trick.

Speaking of noted ecclesiastics, Channel 5's favorite "psychic,"
Sylvia Brown, whose 1986 "predictions" included "Dynasty" being
cancelled and the Pope getting pneumonia, has apparently left
Nirvanah (the Foundation, that is) in Saratoga. Now she has the
"Church of Novus Spiritus," a "Scottish Rite Temple," at 2455
Masonic Drive, San Jose. She has advertised in the Los Gatos paper,
too! Hmmmmmm.

                             -----

Opinions expressed in "BASIS" are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect those of BAS, its board or its advisors.

The above are selected articles from the April, 1987 issue of
"BASIS", the monthly publication of Bay Area Skeptics. You can
obtain a free sample copy by sending your name and address to BAY
AREA SKEPTICS, 4030 Moraga, San Francisco, CA 94122-3928 or by
leaving a message on "The Skeptic's Board" BBS (415-648-8944) or
on the 415-LA-TRUTH (voice) hotline.

Copyright (C) 1987 BAY AREA SKEPTICS.  Reprints must credit "BASIS,
newsletter of the Bay Area Skeptics, 4030 Moraga, San Francisco,
CA 94122-3928."

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