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               The REALL News

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The official newsletter of the Rational Examination Association
              of Lincoln Land

Volume 2, Number 5                                      May 1994

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Electronic Version

If you like what you see, please help us continue by sending
in a subscription.  See the end of newsletter for details.
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In This Issue:

From the Chairman -- David Bloomberg
Spawn of Inseminoid -- Martin Kottmeyer
A Night of Magic and Skepticism with Randi -- Bob Ladendorf
REALLity Check -- David Bloomberg
Letter to the Editor

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Purpose:
The Rational Examination Association of Lincoln Land (REALL)
is a non-profit educational and scientific organization.  It is
dedicated to the development of rational thinking and the application
of the scientific method toward claims of the paranormal and fringe-
science phenomena.

REALL shall conduct research, convene meetings, publish a newsletter,
and disseminate information to its members and the general public.
Its primary geographic region of coverage is central Illinois.

REALL subscribes to the premise that the scientific method is the
most reliable and self-correcting system for obtaining knowledge
about the world and universe.  REALL not not reject paranormal claims
on a priori grounds, but rather is committed to objective, though
critical, inquiry.

_The REALL News_ is its official newsletter.

Membership information is provided elsewhere in this newsletter.

Board of Directors:  Chairman, David Bloomberg; Assistant Chairman,
Prof. Ron Larkin; Secretary-Treasurer, Wally Hartshorn; Newsletter
Editor, Bob Ladendorf; At-Large Members, Prof. Steve Egger, Frank
Mazo, and Kevin Brown.

Editorial Board:  Bob Ladendorf (Newsletter Editor), David Bloomberg
(electronic version editor), (one vacancy).

REALL
P.O. Box 20302
Springfield, IL 62708

Unless stated otherwise, permission is granted to other skeptic
organizations to reprint articles from _The REALL News_ as long
as proper credit is given.  REALL also requests that you send
copies of your newsletters that reprint our articles to the
above address.

The views expressed in these articles are the views of the individual
authors and do not necessarily represent the views of REALL.

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             From the Chairman
            -- David Bloomberg

   Our first Champaign-Urbana presentation was a success!
I'd like to thank, first and foremost, Ranse Traxler for
making the trip and giving a great talk! I'd also like to
thank Ron Larkin and George Kieffer for taking the lead in
getting everything organized for Ranse's presentation. Great
job!
   For those who couldn't make it, there were approximately
25 people there (very good, considering there were only two
weeks 'til finals!), including a mix of students and
professors in education and various sciences. Discussion got
lively at the end of the lecture, during Q&A, when several
creationists started arguing that evolution is "just a
theory." Several interested "undecideds" stuck around after
the overall Q&A to talk to a few of us about the overall
evolution/creation debate, and I think they were interested
in learning more about the subject.
   Ranse has also asked me to let everybody know that he is
willing to "go on the road" with his presentation. If you
have a group who you think would be interested in his talk,
he "has slides, will travel."  Just contact him at P.O. Box
462, O'Fallon, IL 62269-0462.
   In other news, this month's meeting will be on May 16
(Lincoln Library, 7:00). We will be having our annual
elections, but don't let that scare you away!  We will also
be featuring a videotape of the _Frontline_ program which
investigated Facilitated Communications. I think a lot of
our members will find it very interesting!

    Also, remember folks that we still have the 20%
discount available on Prometheus Books! We only need a few
more books to send it in, so hurry up and get your order to
us ASAP!

                    /s/ David Bloomberg

                ==============================

                     Spawn of Inseminoid
                     by Martin Kottmeyer

       "Her memory swirled back. She found herself
   lying naked on a brilliantly glowing rectangular
   table. Her limbs were slightly spread to the side
   and she was motionless. Paralyzed. Her next memory
   is of her knees bent upwards and her legs are slowly
   being parted. A face becomes visible in front of
   her. Its shape is unambiguously alien; a humanoid
   possessing huge eyes, a vestigial nose, and no ears
   or hair. It is staring into her eyes and she is
   powerless to look away or flee. Terror is rising in
   her. The alien says nothing. A clear tube is placed
   at the entrance to her womb. There is fluid in the
   tube with little round things, presumably embryos or
   soft eggs floating down it. She wakes screaming and
   the doctor is there to try to calm her. He remarks
   on her deep trauma and inspects a bruise on her arm.
   In the aftermath of these memories, she repeatedly
   relives the experience and the horrific image of the
   alien even though she has been sedated. When she
   looks in the mirror later she discovers a second
   mark on her forehead beneath her hair. Combined with
   dramatic changes in her behavior, it is obvious
   evidence of a mind control operation."

   This story of alien abduction will undoubtedly sound
very familiar to most UFO buffs. The staring alien and the
embryo implantation should lead some to guess it is
post-_Communion_ and post-_Intruders_, a case from the late
Eighties or early Nineties.
   In truth, this account is a description of a segment of
the 1980 British film _Inseminoid_ (released in the U.S.
under the title _Horror Planet_). It is little known and
can't be found in some film catalogs.
   Phil Hardy, science fiction film historian, considers
this film a failure because of vapid, one-dimensional
characters and an absence of narrative clarity. Horror film
historian Kim Newman singles it out as one of the best of a
group of _Alien_ rip-offs. Its hectic lunacy reminded him of
kids rushing around with plastic bags over their heads
playing spaceman. The influence of _Alien_ more involves the
look of the film than the plot. Subsequent to the
impregnation scene the film is an almost formulaic killfest,
a rip-off of dozens of slasher flicks.
   _Inseminoid_ presents a conundrum for those who believe
in the reality of alien abduction accounts. It shouldn't
exist. Read David Jacobs' _Secret Life_ (1992). According to
this book, science fiction movies have never portrayed
aliens that were uncommunicative or that refused to discuss
their origins, missions, or methods. "Nor have any shown
aliens collecting eggs and sperm from their human victims
with the intent of producing hybrid offspring." _Inseminoid_
comes close enough since _Secret Life_ also describes embryo
implantation accounts. His more general claim that "none has
been released with themes or events similar to abduction
accounts" is refuted in a dozen ways by _Inseminoid_.
   Let's limit ourselves to motifs that _Inseminoid_ shares
with just the abduction cases in Jacobs' own book:
nakedness, paralysis, examination table (high tech --
nonwooden; plasticlike or metallic), staring/eye contact,
parting the legs, insemination, little round things, huge
eyes, human-like face, human-like body with two arms and two
legs and an upright stance, a business-like or clinical
manner (unaggressive and unrushed), no communication,
doorway amnesia, reliving the terror and imagery.
   Jacobs' unawareness of _Inseminoid_ allows him to deny
there are any possible science fiction cultural sources for
abductees to draw upon for the experiences they report.
While this is now clearly proven false, there is a rather
obvious rejoinder he can legitimately offer. So what? Few
people ever saw this film. It isn't credible that all his
abductees are drawing on forgotten memories of this film.
More, the context of the scene is unfavorable for recurrent
borrowing since it does not involve a saucer visitation but
happens in the tomb-like complex of an extinct race on a
frigid, distant world in a binary star system.
   All true, but direct lineal descent isn't the only
possibility. _Inseminoid_ after all did not spring from a
vacuum but was a product of the human imagination an
culture. The similarities could reflect a type of convergent
evolution involving common ancestry, common processes, and
adaptations to similar environments or selection pressures.
How might this work with the cluster of similarities shared
by _Inseminoid_ and _Secret Life_?
   Paralysis is a constant of nightmares, and they are a
resource for horror writers. Abductees often have
nightmares. Faces, often grotesque and felt as alien, are
also a recurrent feature of nightmares (see Peter McKellar's
_Abnormal Psychology_, 1989, p. 92.). Large eyes are a
recurrent feature of horror imagery with deep psychological
roots (see my article "Eye-yi-yi" in _Magonia_, November
1991).
   _Communion's_ best-seller status cultivated a cultural
environment seeded with material borrowed from the genre of
horror he worked in and from which _Inseminoid_ was a part.
This favored the recurrence of the staring eyes and scary
forms of sex. Emotionless aliens have a long history, and we
need only mention the status of _Invasion of the Body-
Snatchers_ as but the most widely known source of influence.
   Procreation is a common concern found in fictional
aliens. A screenwriter back in 1925 did a rewrite of H.G.
Wells' _War of the Worlds_ involving abduction for the
creation of an earthling-Martian hybrid, but it was never
filmed. The film tradition relevant here includes _Devil
Girl from Mars_ (1955), _The Mysterians_ (1957), _I Married
a Monster from Outer Space_ (1958), _The Outer Limits'_ "The
Children of Spider County" (1964), _Frankenstein Meets the
Space Monster_ (1965), _Mars Needs Women_ (1966), _Night
Caller from Outer Space_ (1966), _Star Trek's_ "The
Menagerie" (1966), _God Told Me To_ (1976), and _The
Stranger Within_ (1979). The most critically praised work
was _Village of the Damned_ (1960), and it involved the
impregnation of a whole village of women who subsequently
give birth to hybrid offspring. The actual act of
insemination is not visualized and one would not expect it
to be given the more modest sensibilities of that time. The
graphic nature of _Inseminoid_, _Intruders_, and _Secret
Life_ share in the coarser aesthetics of more recent times.
   The hairless humanoid is virtually stereotypical and
outnumbers creative and exotic variants by a wide margin.
The high-tech table conforms to our expectations of the
futuristic quality of alien possessions. The suggestion of
mind control is similarly futuristic and preceded by a long
tradition in films, TV, comics, and SF literature.
   The embryos being visualized as "little round things" is
not mandatory since we could imagine implantation of a
larger, more fetal appearing hybrid, but it doesn't buck the
odds for both creations to choose the simpler or smaller
form.
   I think one can see from this exercise that alien
abduction experiences are not beyond human imagination. In
fact it seems quite probable that Jacobs' collection of
stories are fundamentally as fictional as _Inseminoid_ for
there is one more similarity they share. They both require
dramatic license to work.
   Any alien sophisticated enough to be able to make an
earthling carry alien biological tissue without miscarriage
is probably going to be able to make the embryo grow in
their own bodies or incubation devices. They would probably
not be dumb enough to choose humans with their myriad faults
as ideal surrogates. Would they risk having the pregnancy
terminated? Would aliens actually return an impregnated
woman to the hazards of human society rather than keep her
under controlled conditions? _Inseminoid_ would never take
place in real life. Neither would _Secret Life_.

            -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
          [The following is a sidebar to the
           above article, also written by M.K.]

                           Rejects

   Look at some abductees and you might conclude aliens
have no standards in their selection of breeding stock.
However, there is at least one case of an abductee being
'thrown back.' Alfred Burtoo, 77, was fishing on the
Basington Canal Bank in the county of Hampshire, England, on
August 12, 1983, when he witnessed a saucer landing and two
figures waving for him to come inside. They ordered him to
stand under a light and turn around. After a few minutes
deliberation, they tell him, "You can go, you are too old
and too infirm for our purpose."
   Cinematic aliens offer a rather severe precursor of this
motif. Nyah, _Devil Girl from Mars_ (1955), annihilates a
handicapped man as her first act on Earth. Asked later if
she knew if the guy was alive, she tersely informs the
questioner, "No, he was superfluous, a hopeless specimen."
Her opinion of an aging scientist among the contact group
wasn't any more tactful: "You are a very poor physical
specimen." She reveals her world had experienced a decline
in the birth rate since women won the War of the Sexes and
so she planned to land in London, paralyze the population,
and choose our strongest men to take back with her.
   London would not be my first choice for shopping for
breeding stock, but it still beats the places "real" aliens
have been visiting. For example, if you were going to land
in Florida, would you select Gulf Breeze or Fort Lauderdale
during Spring Break when thousands of perfect specimens
conveniently gather for one-stop shopping?

               ==============================

         A Night of Magic and Skepticism with Randi
                      by Bob Ladendorf

   The magician called himself a "cheat, a fake, and a
fraud," but with "panache," then further qualified that
description by saying it refers to his "entertainment" only.
That entertainment was memorable, but his lessons in
skeptical and critical thinking lingered in my mind for days
to come.
   James ("The Amazing") Randi, a magician and a skeptic,
skewered popular beliefs, from astrology and faith healing
to homeopathy and perpetual motion machines, in his 2 1/2-
hour talk held on April 8 at the St. Louis Community College
at Merrimac. REALL Chairman David Bloomberg and his wife,
Sharri, and I drove down that night to see his lecture,
called "Search for Chimera."
   The white-bearded Randi led off his lecture with style
and humor. As he talked into the podium microphone, he
greeted late arrivals by asking them to send him an excuse
note, quipped to a front-row listener who appeared to be
leaving_"It gets better!," and after a few minutes, revealed
his first illusion by moving away from the podium microphone
to show that it wasn't on and that he was using a radio mike
the whole time!
   A major point Randi illustrated with the mike was that
we can be fooled in our assumptions. However, in gaining
knowledge, one would become catatonic if not making
assumptions, which can be tested scientifically for falsity.
   Randi then launched into a review of some of the world's
questionable activities: channelling, astrology, facilitated
communications, false memory syndrome, and even perpetual
motion machines, which just didn't seem to work when he
arrived on the scene. He also discussed the use of purported
"expert witnesses" in lawsuits, illustrating that damaging
use of expert testimony in the alleged Audi car failures.
Further research indicated that it was driver error, not
mechanical error, in accidents, but by then Audi has lost
its American market. He said that dowsing was not
scientific, which was proven through tests. Later on, he
tackled homeopathy (diluted medicines) at length, concluding
that it "simply doesn't work," and that the German "E"
(Earth) rays purported to cause cancer are as unproved as
the "N" rays that caused such a flap in France in the early
part of this century. He also showed the famous clip on the
Johnny Carson Show proving that  self-proclaimed faith
healer Peter Popoff used a radio mike that his wife used to
feed him information about the audience! Randi talked about
Popoff and other faith healers and all the money donated to
them by people who could ill afford it. What's more, some of
these faith healers exposed over the years have been getting
back into the business by concentrating on certain ones on
their lists of donors.
   During his talk, he did reflect on his own beginnings in
critical thinking. At age 15, he was somehow arrested for
exposing the games of street scam artists, and his father
had to be called from the golf course, which was not a good
thing to have happen, Randi cracked. From that point on,
though, Randi said, he vowed to become an investigator and
expose fraud and pseudoscience.
   Scattered throughout his lecture, the magician took over
and performed some wonderful tricks for the hundred
spectators. He successfully guessed what two of five symbols
used in psychic testing were hidden by an audience member in
a black envelope, and in what sequence; caused time to
advance an hour in a minute on someone's watch, then
reenacting his trick in a hilarious slow motion sequence;
bent a spoon through sleight of hand, which he called the
"easy way", rather than through an alleged psychic cause;
and maneuvered an audience member to pick the word "oxidize"
from a line near a cut he made in a clipping with a
scissors, which was then confirmed when he asked the man to
reach under his sheet and read a notarized statement in an
envelope made weeks before that indicated that the man would
pick "oxidize"! (REALL is still debating that one.)
   Randi ended his talk by reflecting on the wonder of moon
rocks. To think that man travelled in space and returned
home with rocks from another world for all to see in museums
was wonderful. "That's enough magic for me," he added.
Following a lengthy question and answer session, he showed
those remaining another Carson clip on how "psychic surgery"
is done through sleight of hand tricks using animal parts
and illusion techniques, and he then signed autographs for
his books, including The Faith Healers.

                 ==============================


                         REALLity Check
                       by David Bloomberg

   Where to begin? Well, there was such a blitz these past
few weeks, but here we go.

                         Witch Hunts

   Lawrence Wright has recently authored a book about
repressed memories, satanic ritual abuse, and the Ingram
family. Because of the skeptical nature, wide publicity of
the Ingram case, and the fact that he has won awards for the
reporting he did on the case earlier, there have been
several mentions of him and the book in the media lately.
The _Today_ show on NBC featured an interview with Wright
(4/6), and the _Chicago Tribune_ reviewed his book,
_Remembering Satan: A Case of Recovered Memory and the
Shattering of an American Family_ (4/17).
   Both the interview and the book review came down
squarely on the side of skepticism and Wright in this case
of "repressed" memories. Briefly, Ericka Ingram went to a
religious retreat at which a visiting minister told her of
divine visions of Ericka indicating abuse. Ericka turned
around and told counselors that she had been sexually abused
by her father, a police officer and clergyman. Out of
nowhere, her sister Julie also started making accusations.
Their father, Paul, said that he could not remember any such
crimes, but convinced himself that his daughters would not
lie, so he must be repressing the memory himself. He was
pressured into continually thinking about the accusations,
praying on them, etc. Eventually, he started to detail the
incidents to match those stories given by his daughters and
plead guilty.
   His daughters' stories became more embellished, accusing
other officers of being part of a sex ring which also
included satanic ritual abuse, sacrificing babies, etc.
There was (and still is) no evidence aside from their
statements.
   The prosecution hired Dr. Richard Ofshe, a U-C Berkeley
social psychology professor. But Ofshe was skeptical and
tried an experiment. He told Ingram the details of a crime
that nobody ever claimed happened. Ingram went into a prayer
trance, as he had been doing when trying to "remember" these
events, and confessed to this non-event, describing it in
great detail.
   With this and other evidence making it clear that no
crime had ever occurred, Ingram changed his plea -- too
late. He is now appealing his case, but appeals courts have
been hesitant to overturn guilty pleas.

   In unrelated stories on the false memory syndrome (FMS)
front, _60 Minutes_ did a piece on Roseanne Arnold (4/17)
and her claims of abuse by her parents. They interviewed her
family, all of whom said no abuse ever occurred, and showed
clips of earlier interviews with her from other shows. Among
the claims she makes is that she has memories of abuse
dating back to when she was *six months* old.

   Also, the (Springfield, IL) _State Journal-Register_
printed an editorial (4/18) in which they applaud the
scrutiny under which repressed memory therapy has recently
come. Three cheers for them and all of the above news
organizations!

           Hey, Kids, Psychic Hotlines Don't Work

   The _Chicago Tribune_, "Kidnews" section, ran an ongoing
test of the La Toya Jackson Psychic Network.  They asked
five questions of the "psychic" and reported the answers to
kids reading the paper. Unsurprisingly, all five were
incorrect (questions ranged from Michael Jordan in baseball
to movie and music rankings).  I applaud Kidnews for their
reporting, but wonder when they will examine astrology,
since they always print a weekly astrological column in that
same section.

                      More "Mysteries"

   CBS aired _Mysteries of the Ancient World_ (4/28), which
dealt with subjects like the Shroud of Turin, Egyptian
pyramids, the Bermuda Triangle, and Nostradamus. This was
another Sun Pictures production. 'Nuff said.

            Aliens and Cover-Ups and UFOs, Oh My!

   UFOs and alien abductions have gotten a lot of air time
lately. There's a new book out on the Roswell "crash" and
supposed cover-up, Harvard psychiatrist John Mack has
recently written a book on the "experiences" of his
patients, and a well-lit object appeared in the sky over
Michigan.
   All of the above, plus other strangeness, was covered in
the CBS news magazine _48 Hours_ ("Are We Alone?" 4/20).
They had five pieces on different aspects of UFOlogy.  The
first featured Mack and some of his patients, talking about
their "recovered memory" of alien abductions. Mack said he
just can't find any alternate explanation, other than that
it really happened. Well, John, maybe you need to read _The
REALL News_, because we've been reporting on FMS for months
now (Mack denies that hypnosis can implant memories of
anything significant). Although there were no well-known
skeptics, the show interviewed several other psychiatrists,
including another at Harvard, who said that hypnosis should
not be used to "recover" such memories. In addition, they
played back one of the patients' first hypnosis tapes, and
he was saying he couldn't tell fantasy from reality. The
therapist (not Mack) said it didn't matter and they'd sort
it out later. Hmmmmm.....
   Other segments featured the authors of the new Roswell
book, along with all sorts of new "witnesses" (where did
they come from all of a sudden?). There was no skeptical
viewpoint whatsoever given, even to the extent of pointing
out the conflicting stories of several of the witnesses!
Next came Dr. Steven Greer and CSETI (not to be confused
with SETI, a true scientific project). These guys were
running around a field pointing at every light they saw and
just generally acting, well, a bit loopy. Several scientists
were interviewed at the end of the story, pointing out that
the lights they videotaped looked exactly like airplane
lights, and that they were directly in the flight path of a
Mexican airport some 50 miles away. How odd.
   Carl Sagan was featured in the next portion, along with
others in the SETI project (Congress withdrew funding from
SETI, but it continues with private donations). This really
didn't seem to belong with the rest of the show, other than
a few comments from Sagan asking where the hard evidence is
for all these crashes and kidnappings and whatever else, but
it was pretty well done. The final spot focused on a recent
UFO spotted in Michigan. At first, this seemed to be a great
sighting, as it was apparently confirmed by radar. But once
the excitement died down, it turned out that the radar blip
was approximately 25 miles away from the sighting. Whoops.
The show mentioned this fact almost as an aside, but it
seems to me that it should have gotten a bit more attention.
In a related story, though not in this show, MUFON's head,
Walt Andrus, went on the Larry King Show soon after the
sighting and stated outright that it was an alien craft.
Where's the evidence, you may ask. So did a lot of other
people, and MUFON's credibility has once again dropped in
the eyes of many, especially those in UFOlogy itself.

   Also in UFO news, John Mack has recently been the object
of a number of articles. _The New York Times Magazine_ had a
story on him (3/20) which seemed to be of the "human
interest" variety. In other words, the author (who contacted
Martin Kottmeyer, but apparently did not use any of the
information he sent) took no viewpoint and relied mostly on
interviews. This is the type of "reporting" that tells the
reader almost nothing.
   However, others have not been so easy on Mack.
_Psychology Today_ magazine did an article (March/April) in
which they pointed out the unscientific methods used by
Mack. _Time_ and the _Boston Globe_ (4/21) published
articles discussing the case of a woman who went to Mack
with a bogus story, which he bought hook, line, and alien.
More importantly, she  exposed a number of what many
consider unscientific practices, such as his giving her
abduction literature to read before hypnotizing her. His
following is still strong, but many within and outside of
UFOlogy are realizing that his methods are weak.

                    Vitamins and Crystals

   _Eye to Eye_ with Connie Chung did a story on the claims
made by vitamin and supplement manufacturers. In particular,
they looked at the industry's fight against the FDA
regulations which stop those manufacturers from making
claims they can't prove.
    The vitamin industry has some heavy-hitters on its side-
-several Congressmen and well-known actors. They are trying
to take away the FDA's power to regulate the industry. While
some of their claims regarding the FDA have merit (that they
are often slow to approve claims even though they do have
scientific backing), the idea that they should be able to
make any claim they want simply does not follow logically.
    To show what kind of claims are made, the show sent a
reporter and hidden camera into a store. The manager
"diagnosed" the reporter by measuring the change in her
finger strength relatiing to the aura of the vitamins, waved
a plastic crystal over them to be sure it was correct, etc.
A National Center Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) rep. was
*not* amused. While the supplement industry claims they just
want people to have the freedom of choice, the NCAHF rep.
was on the money when he said, "freedom of choice only works
if people are given accurate information."

           ==============================

            Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:
     The _International Society of Cryptozoology_ is holding
its annual meeting at Illinois State University in Normal,
Illinois, on Saturday, June 11, 1994. The meeting is free
and open to the public and would be of interest to many
readers of this newsletter.
     The ISC is dedicated to the investigation of
cryptozoology, which they define as the study of animals not
currently recognized by science. This includes new species,
unusually large or small individuals of known species,
populations of known species outside known ranges of time or
space, and animals described in folklore. ISC embraces an
open-minded investigation of these issues and uses
techniques of zoology, anthropology, field research and
laboratory investigations. Members include academic
biologists, professional explorers, and dedicated amateurs.
This is a place where people who are sure that Nessie is a
real animal and those who are sure she is a myth meet and
politely (and enthusiastically) make logical cases for their
opinions.
     The morning sessions at the June meeting appear to be
general surveys of the state of cryptozoology, which would
be very interesting to anyone with an interest in natural
science. The afternoon sessions are technical papers, which
report four particular cases.
     I have read ISC publications for several years and
attended meetings sponsored by the ISC. The tone is open and
friendly, and full of wonder at the unknown and the thrill
of exploration. Many of the members have spent years in
exotic field expeditions, and the stories never fail to keep
my attention. This is a pretty cool group, and they are very
open to anyone who wants to get in on the fun. Come if you
can.

Robert E. McGrath
Member, ISC
Urbana, IL

[Note: Mr. McGrath attached information regarding the
specifics of the conference. Anybody who is interested can
write to us at the P.O. Box.]

         ==============================

              A Nod to Our Patrons

REALL would like to thank our patron members.  Through their extra
generosity, REALL is able to continue to grow as a force for critical
thinking in Central Illinois.  Patron members are those giving $50
or more.  To become a patron of REALL, please see the membership
form below.  Patron members are:

David Bloomberg, Springfield    John Lockard, Jr., Urbana
David Brown, Danville         Robert Smet, Ph.D., Springfield
Alan Burge, D.D.S., Morton    Edward Staehlin, Park Forest
Wally Hartshorn, Springfield    Ranse Traxler, O'Fallon
Bob Ladendorf, Springfield

           ==============================

            Letters to the Editor

    We at REALL encourage letters to the editor about any article
or topic covered in The REALL News.  We want to make this a forum
for _all_ our members.  (Letters may be edited if too long.  Name,
address and phone number must be included with the letter.)

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         Predictions for Future Issues

** Susan Blackmore book review
** Looking into the _Sun_ -- and other tabloids
** Loch Ness Hoax
** The Baby Train

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            Skeptics Online

If you have a computer and a modem, you owe it to yourself to
participate in the skeptic message areas on the computer BBS
networks.  Here in Springfield, call The Temples of Syrinx at
[phone].  David Bloomberg operates this BBS, which carries
the FidoNet SKEPTIC, EVOLUTION and UFO conferences, internationally
distributed message areas for discussing topics of interest to
skeptics.  He is also carrying ParaNet conferences, all dedicated
to UFO and paranormal topics.  You can also find a wide variety of
skeptic, scientific, UFO, evolution/creation, and urban legend
text files.

         The Temples of Syrinx -- [phone]
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             MEMBERSHIP FORM

Regular membership includes _The REALL News_ and all of the benefits
of membership.  A subscription to _The REALL News_, without membership,
is available.  Full-time students can join at the discounted rate.
A patron membership includes all of the benefits of a regular membership,
plus a listing in _The REALL News_ and our eternal gratitude (where
"eternal" is defined as "one year").

Name: _________________________________________________________

Address: ______________________________________________________

City, State, ZIP: _____________________________________________

Phone: ________________________________________________________

Interests: ____________________________________________________

        ___      Regular Membership ($20/Year)
        ___      Student Membership ($15/Year)
        ___      Family Membership ($30/Year)
        ___      Patron Membership ($50 or more/Year)
        ___      Subscription Only ($12/Year)
        ___      Trial or Gift Subscription ($3 for 3 issues)

Bring to a meeting or mail to:  REALL,
                P.O. Box 20302
                Springfield, IL 62708