The Questionable Research of Hans Holzer, Dean of Ghost ...engagements promoting skepticism. Lancaster explored many of Browne’s failures not covered in the press, for exam-ple the

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER September / October 2009 5

N E W S A N D C O M M E N T

The Questionable Research of Hans Holzer, Dean of Ghost Hunters (1920–2009)

JOE NICKELL

During the second half of the twentiethcentury, “Dr.” Hans Holzer, a self-styledparapsychologist who died April 2,2009, at the age of eighty-nine, was thedean of ghost hunters. Attracted to thesupernatural in childhood, he went onto pen over a hundred books on occultsubjects. He was also a Wiccan highpriest and claimed to have had pastlives—for instance, supposedly havingbeen present at the 1692 “Battle” ofGlencoe (“Hans Holzer” 2009a).

Dubious BackgroundHolzer—who was born in Vienna,Austria, on January 26, 1920—used toenthrall his fellow kindergarten pupilswith ghost tales that he pretended toread but actually only “made out ofwhole cloth” (Holzer 1963, 9). By agesix he was guilty of “regaling mymother’s family in Moravia with talestold me, allegedly, by the wood spritesin the trees along the little river thatflows through the city of Bruenn”—tales “about as far from factuality as youcan go” (Holzer 1968, 10). Such anticsset the stage for Holzer to become notthe scientific “parapsychologist” heposed as but one of the most successfulraconteurs of “true” hauntings.

After a brief career as associate editorof a “scientific” antiquities magazine, hebecame a freelance writer and—byabout 1951—a ghost hunter (Holzer1963, 14–15, 211). Of uncertain date,his alleged doctorate in parapsychologywas from what The Daily Telegraph inLondon (May 4, 2009) called “an elu-sive London College of Applied Science(not, it appears, London, England).”Holzer (1963, 10) stated:

I am a professional investigator ofghosts, haunted houses, and other“spontaneous” phenomena, to use thescientific term—that is, anything of asupernormal nature, not fully ex-plained by orthodox happenings, and

thus falling into the realm of parapsy-chology or psychic research.

Holzer cranked out book after mys-tery-mongering book, such as HauntedHouse Album (1971) and America’sHaunted Houses (1991), in which hereported on his “investigations” of sup-posedly haunted sites.

He is credited by Wikipedia withcoining the terms The Other Side and(for the title of his first paranormalbook, published in 1963) Ghost Hunter(“Hans Holzer” 2009c). In fact, how-ever, the first term appears in the title ofat least one nineteenth-century book, “IAwoke”: Conditions of Life on the OtherSide Communicated by AutomaticWriting (1895), and Holzer’s antece-dent, Harry Price (1881–1948), pub-lished a book in 1936 titled Confessionsof a Ghost Hunter.

“Investigations”Holzer decried today’s so-called para-normal investigators, whom he por-trayed as “running around with Geigercounters and cameras and instrumentsthat can measure cold spots”—a methodhe noted that “really is bullshit” (2005).

His own “scientific” approach was atleast as bogus. He took along an alleged“medium” who, after getting “impres-sions” and supposedly going into atrance, invariably claimed to substantiatethe haunting, sometimes even letting thealleged spirit speak using her vocal cords.Holzer’s most famous case was the“Amityville Horror,” in which he reliedon a reputed medium named EthelJohnson Meyers and wrote several bookson the subject. Meyers asserted that thehouse—wherein Ronald DeFeo mur-dered his parents and siblings—hadbeen built atop an ancient ShinnecockIndian burial ground and was hauntedby the angry spirit of Chief “RollingThunder.” In fact, the AmityvilleHistorical Society could find no connec-tion between the site and Native

Americans and pointed out that in anycase it was not the Shinnecocks but theMontaukett Indians who had settled thearea. Worse, the Amityville haunting taleproved to have been a hoax (Nickell2004, 73–77).

In trying to sell Amityville spooki-ness, Holzer also published “photo-graphs of bullet holes from the 1974murders in which mysterious halosappeared” (Grimes 2009). Actually, thesingle bullet-strike photo appearing inMurder in Amityville (Holzer 1979,158) is labeled a “psychic photograph,”was made under questionable (certainlynot forensic) conditions, and exhibitsoverall blurring (apparently due tomovement of the camera when the pic-ture was snapped). What Holzer termsan “auric imprint” may be nothing morethan, say, light reflecting from impact-beveling around the bullet hole—if,indeed, it is a bullet hole. (Holzer neverused that term, referring to “strangehaloes exactly where the bullets hadstruck” [Holzer 1991, 177].)

Holzer’s work was once examined inthe Journal of the Society for PsychicalResearch (December 1970). He hadtaken two mediums to a reputedlyhaunted house, where they made certainpronouncements:

They identified the ghost as NellGwyn and gave the cause of thehaunting as the murder of one of herlovers on orders from Charles II whohad given the house to her. She wassupposed to have acted at the adja-cent Royalty Theatre. It was alsostated that the house had formerlyhoused the Royal Stables.

Unfortunately, however,

The JSPR article reveals that justabout everything the mediums saidwas incorrect, the house not havingbeen built until after Nell Gwyn’sdeath, the theatre not having beenbuilt until about 150 years later, andthe Royal Stables never having beenlocated anywhere near the site.“Whatever may be the truth about the

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6 VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER


ESP investigations carried out by Mr.Holzer, his treatment of his historicalsources is so unsatisfactory, on the evi-dence of this case, as to cast consider-able doubt on the objectivity and reli-ability of his work as a whole.” (quotedin Berger and Berger 1991, 183)

I reached a similar opinion of Holzer’swork, especially after I reinvestigated hisclaims regarding Ringwood Manor innorthern New Jersey. Holzer had arrivedat Ringwood with Ethel Johnson Meyersin tow. There she supposedly made con-tact with the spirits of two former servantsbut without proof that either had everexisted. One was said to be responsible forghostly footsteps in the house, while theother, “Jeremiah,” “complained bitterlyabout his mistress,” Mrs. RobertErskine. Of the latter, Holzer stated:“The ghost lady whose manor we werevisiting was not too pleased with ourpresence. Through the mouth of themedium in trance, she told us severaltimes to get off her property! She maystill be there,” Holzer added glibly, “forall I know” (Holzer 1991, 125).

When I visited Ringwood in 1993, Ifound the curator, Elbertus Prol,annoyed with Holzer’s account. As asenior historic preservation specialistwho had been at Ringwood for a quar-ter of a century, Prol discounted claims

that the house was haunted. He hadnever seen anything of a paranormalnature about the house and insisted, “Idon’t believe in ghosts.” He emphati-cally discounted the Meyers/Holzerclaim that Mrs. Erskine mistreated a ser-vant—whether named “Jeremiah” ornot. He observed that the present housewas never seen by Mrs. Erskine. In fact,he added, “the area of the house isn’teven near the location of the originalhouse!” (quoted in Nickell 1995, 62).Thus when Holzer wrote, “The centerof the hauntings seems to be what wasonce the area of Mrs. Erskine’s bed-room” (Holzer 1991, 126), he betrayedan utter lack of historical credibility.

From Beyond?Holzer was a skeptic of religion, muchof which he termed “man made,”although he advocated having “a spiri-tual concept of life” and, of course,believed in “the other side.” From there,according to one of his two daughters(possibly Alexandra, who fancies she ispsychic), Holzer communicated soonafter his death on April 26. He report-edly sent “his heartfelt ‘thanks’” toLondon’s The Daily Telegraph (“HansHolzer” 2009a) in anticipation of hisobituary. But what if that alleged com-

munication is as bogus as those thatemanated from Holzer on this side?

AcknowledgmentsI am grateful to CFI Libraries directorTimothy Binga and librarian Lisa Nolan fortheir research assistance.

ReferencesBerger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. 1991. The

Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and PsychicalResearch. New York: Paragon House.

Grimes, William. 2009. Hans Holzer, “Amityville”writer, dies. New York Times, May 2.

“Hans Holzer.” 2009a. Obituary, London DailyTelegraph, May 4.

———. 2009b. The Economist, May 7.———. 2009c. Available online at http://en.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Holzer. Accessed May6, 2009.

Holzer, Hans. 1963. Ghost Hunter. New York: AceBooks.

———. 1968. Psychic Investigator. New York:Hawthorn Books.

———. 1971. Haunted House Album: A GhostlyRegister of the World’s Most Frightening HauntedHouses. New York: Dorset Press.

———. 1979. Murder in Amityville. New York:Tower Publications.

———. 1991. America’s Haunted Houses. Stamford,Connecticut: Longmeadow Press.

———. 2005. Interview by Jeff Belanger, February7. Available online at www.ghostvillage-.com/legends35_02072005.shtml; accessed May6, 2009.

Nickell, Joe. 1995. Entities: Angels, Spirits, Demons,and Other Alien Beings. Amherst, N.Y.:Prometheus Books.

———. 2004. The Mystery Chronicles: More Real-Life X-Files. Lexington, Ky.: University Press ofKentucky.

In October, a Hollywood-based Website selling psychic consultations andother products acquired a notable skep-tic’s Web site while he recovered from astroke. Beginning in 2006 Robert Lan-caster, a Web designer and skeptic,authored StopSylviaBrowne.com, exam-ining alleged psychic Sylvia Browne.That original Web site has been replacedby a pseudo-skeptical site that promotespsychic readings from LifePsychic.com.Prior to this, Lancaster critically exam-ined Browne’s predictions, fraud convic-tion, missing-persons claims, and herbooks, earning a wide audience of skep-tics and sowing doubt in believers.

In early 2007 Lancaster’s Web sitebroke the story of Browne’s failed ShawnHornbeck prediction in which Brownetold the parents of the missing child hewas dead, but he was later discoveredalive (See “Sylvia Browne’s BiggestBlunder” in the May/June 2007 SKEP-TICAL INQUIRER). Lancaster subsequentlyappeared with James Randi on CNN’sAnderson Cooper 360. From this, Stop-SylviaBrowne.com received nationalattention, and traffic to the site rapidlyincreased. Noticing the bad publicity,Browne’s publisher Hay House contactedLancaster via an attorney threatening tosue over copyrighted material and use of

the name Sylvia Browne. Lancaster’sattorney replied, in part: “There is simplyno place in a free society for the suppres-sion of dissent about a subject of publicinterest,” and no legal action was taken.

Ministers in Browne’s church (andeven her ex-husband, father of psychicChris Dufresne) came forward and addedinformation to the Web site. Interest con-tinued to build as Lancaster conductedmore media appearances and speakingengagements promoting skepticism.

Lancaster explored many of Browne’sfailures not covered in the press, for exam-ple the story of Gwendolyn Krewsonwhose daughter, Holly Krewson, went

Skeptic’s Web Site Becomes Advertising for Psychic Business




missing in 1995. In 2002, Gwendolynappeared on the Montel Williams Show forinformation about Holly when Brownetold her, “She is in Los Angeles . . . ondrugs. But she’s still alive.” Browne thensaid Holly was working as a stripper. Thisled Holly’s family to spend many week-ends traveling from San Diego to searchHollywood strip clubs. As Lancasterreported, Browne was wrong. In 2006police matched Holly’s dental records to abody discovered near Descanso, in SanDiego County, in 1996. GwendolynKrewson never learned of her daughter’sfate, as she died of an aneurysm threeyears earlier in 2003. Despite this sadstory, Gwendolyn’s son and Holly’sbrother, Tim Krewson, wrote to Lancasterthanking him for the Web site.

In August 2008, Lancaster suffered astroke that paralyzed his left side, and hehas remained in the hospital ever since.James Randi promoted a fund to helpwith hospital expenses noting, “He is aresounding force in the skeptical worldand has fought the Bad Guys effectivelyand diligently.”

While he was recovering in the hos-pital, the domain registration forStopSylviaBrowne.com lapsed. Lan-caster’s wife was unable to check his e-mail accounts and thus received nowarnings about the expired registration.Subsequently, Web host GoDaddy.comauctioned the domain when it was notrenewed, and StopSylviaBrowne.comwas purchased by Boris Kreiman.Kreiman’s version of the site had apseudo-skeptical introduction thatwarns readers of “false psychics.” Yetnotably, links to LifePsychic.com for“tarot readings” or “psychic readings”from phone psychics are found on everypage. It should come as no surprise thatLifePsychic.com is also registered toKreiman, who owns nearly 200 domainnames of a wide variety of enterprises.

When Kreiman’s procurement ofStopSylviaBrowne.com generated interestfrom skeptics, he offered to sell it for$20,000 and then simultaneously listed itfor sale on eBay and SitePoint Market-

place. Both auction services pulled thesale when it was revealed that the domainwas being sold on two different Web sites.Following a public outcry from skeptics,the Web master replaced his pseudo-skep-tical format with comments criticizing hisdetractors, a psychic challenge promotingLivePsychic.com, and a challenge for achess game against James Randi.

Such behavior is not surprising fromthose who make money from people whoturn to psychics. With Web traffic fromLancaster’s site generating business, itdoes not appear that Kreiman will easilygive up the domain. Thus, Lancaster’swife, Susan, moved the old Web site toStopSylvia.com, allowing readers a chanceto examine Browne’s record. But it isworth pointing out the irony that a pro-moter of psychic claims is profiting from

interest in skepticism. Perhaps Lancaster’swork has such an impact that even thepsychics have been forced to pay attentionto the criticism. If so, it is remarkable tes-timony of what one skeptic can do withsome spare time and knowledge of theInternet. Lancaster is still recovering, butthe Web site will be updated when he getsbetter. In the meantime, readers can stilldownload video and examine Browne’spredictions at www.StopSylvia.com.

—Ryan Shaffer

Ryan Shaffer is in the department of his-tory at the State University of New York atStony Brook, where he is pursuing a PhDin British history. More information onRobert Lancaster can be found online atwww.skepticsunite.com.


8 Volume 33, I s sue 5 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER


NO ENERGY: MANY IDEAS BUT SOME WON’T WORK

Orbo, a perpetual motion machine promised by the SteornCompany in Dublin, is one of them. Orbo was to be demon-strated a year ago at the Kinetica Museum in London(www.bobpark.org/WN07/wn070607.html). It didn’t work.Steorn blamed the air-conditioning and said the demonstra-tion would be delayed a few weeks. Well, fifty weeks later,Steorn says they fixed the problem. Not unless they’ve changedthe first law of thermodynamics. Meanwhile, a jury of scien-tists convened by Steorn has issued a unanimous verdict:Steorn had “not shown the production of energy.” [June 27]

PEOPLE: SEVEN BILLION IS ALREADY WAY TOO MANY

When was it that the media stopped mentioning “population”?We read almost daily headlines about global warming fromCO2 in the atmosphere. It’s our own fault, we’re told; wecaused it by burning fossil fuels; we should have been drivingfuel-efficient automobiles, living closer to work, and usingnuclear and solar-power generation. That’s all true, but it won’thelp if we just let the population grow. Name a single worldproblem that isn’t made worse by population growth. BiologistPaul Ehrlich shook us awake in 1968 with The PopulationBomb, but in 1980 he lost a public wager with University ofMaryland economist and libertarian Julian Simon over theprice of minerals. Today, although population has risen to dou-ble that of 1968, the media avoids even mentioning it. TheJune issue of Scientific American, however, has “Population andSustainability” by Robert Engelman of Worldwatch. Everyoneshould read it. [June 19]

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: $2.5 BILLION LATER, STILL NO CURE

More than a third of all Americans use some form of alterna-tive health remedies. Associated Press reporter MarilynnMarchione has written a series of articles on the failure of alter-native remedies from herbals to acupuncture to demonstrateany measurable efficacy in placebo-controlled double-blindstudies conducted for the National Institutes for Health(NIH). The possible exception is ginger capsules to treat nau-sea from chemotherapy. What’s New strongly opposed the cre-ation of the National Center for Complementary andAlternative Medicine at NIH when it was created in 2000, onthe grounds that it would be seen as evidence that the medicalworld was taking alternative and complementary medicineseriously. It was. Nevertheless, when asked later to serve as thelone physicist on the steering committee, I agreed. The prob-lem had simply become too large to ignore. The directorStephen E. Straus was both rigorous and fair, and although halfthe steering committee members were from the alternativeworld, there was a consensus on most issues. Tragically,

Stephen Straus died of brain cancer in 2007. That desperatepeople still fall for these sham cures is also tragic. [June 19]

EVOLUTION: DARWIN’S GOLDEN RETRIEVER DOES IT AGAIN

Biologist Thomas Huxley was known as “Darwin’s bulldog” forhis spirited defense of Darwin’s theory. Darwin’s chief defendertoday is Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center forScience Education, who just won the inaugural Stephen JayGould Prize of the Society for the Study of Evolution. She wasranked by Scientific American as one of the top ten scienceleaders just a few weeks ago. [June 5]

THERMODYNAMICS: WHY CAN’TWE JUST BURN THE ASHES?

A friend at the BBC called my attention to an April 30 articlein the business section of the New York Times. To reduce theemission of carbon dioxide from power plants, there are plansto sequester it deep underground. You have to pay to extract itand then pay again to get rid of it. However, a company calledCarbon Sciences has an audacious plan: recycle the carbon byturning it into liquid hydrocarbon fuels. The author experi-ences a brief attack of self-doubt: “how much energy would ittake to recombine carbon with hydrogen to produce a fuel thatcould then substitute for gasoline?” But his self-doubts seem tobe swept away when the company assures him they have asecret biocatalyst that will combine the hydrogen in water withthe carbon in carbon dioxide without the usual large expendi-ture of energy. That’s the same claim that inventor Sam Leachmade almost forty years ago when he scammed investors out ofmillions with an automobile that ran on water. [May 22]

QUESTION: WHAT IS IT WE’RE LOOKING FOR?

Humans, tiny specks of self-replicating matter, have succeededin finding out just how insignificant we are. It’s not enough.We also need to understand the atoms we are composed of andhow they came to be assembled into life forms. The LargeHadron Collider may soon explain how the energy of the BigBang became atoms. Nicholas Wade in the May 15 New YorkTimes tells us that John Sutherland, a chemist at the Universityof Manchester, may have unraveled the chemistry of the originof life. We will, at a time perhaps not far distant, be able toexplain everything that exists, but we will still not know why.[May 15]

IT’S STILL COLD: BUT DO I STILL THINK IT’S SCIENCE?

A month before CBS aired the 60 Minutes program on coldfusion [next item], I commented that “I think it’s real science.”I still do. That doesn’t mean I think it’s good science. Scienceis conditional; everything is open to further examination.

What’s New? Observations on Science and Fringe Science from Bob Park




New Champ LakeMonster Video SurfacesIn May, new video footage of Champ, themonster said to inhabit Vermont’s LakeChamplain, was released on YouTube(www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT49-LQMxthg). The two-minute cell-phonevideo shows the silhouette of someobject—probably an animal—movingtoward the eastern shore.

The video has created a buzz amongmonster enthusiasts, some proclaimingit’s the best evidence for the creature sincethe famous 1977 Mansi photograph thatJoe Nickell and I investigated for ourSKEPTICAL INQUIRER articles on the sub-ject (see the July/August 2003 issue).

I was asked by ABC News to exam-ine the recent video, which holds severalclues about the creature’s identity. The

Some scientists think the community was too hasty in writingoff the claims of cold fusion in 1989. They believe there maybe important truths yet to be revealed. They have searched forthose truths for twenty years and have every right to continuedoing so. However, I think the likelihood of success isextremely low and, if asked, I would recommend against theuse of public funds for that purpose. Their case is not helpedby embracing any scientific-sounding nonsense that purportsto show excess energy. [May 1]

COLD FUSION: PLEASE, MAY I HAVE A CUP OF TEA?

The April 19 edition of the CBS News program 60 Minuteswas titled “Race to Fusion.” It was 1989; Fleischmann andPons are shown with the “cold fusion” test tube that wouldhave killed them had they been right. Because they lived, therace was called off. Michael McKubre of SRI apparently didn’tget the memo; he just kept doing it over and over for twentyyears. Lucky for him there’s still no fusion, but he says he doesget heat—except when he doesn’t. How does it work? He has-n’t a clue, but he showed a video cartoon of deuterium defus-ing through palladium and said it might be fusion. In factMcKubre called it “the most powerful source of energy knownto man.” Whew! But wait, Dick Garwin did a fusion experi-ment sixty years ago; it worked all too well. Garwin thinksMcKubre is mistaken. Just about every physicist agrees, so theAmerican Physical Society (APS) was asked to name an inde-pendent scientist to examine the claims of EnergeticsTechnology, according to 60 Minutes correspondent ScottPelley. An APS statement issued Wednesday says this is totally

false, and the APS does not endorse the cold fusion claims on60 Minutes. (Aside: This morning I thought I should watch thevideo on the 60 Minutes Web site one more time. Drat! CBStook it off. No matter, there’s a full transcript. Uh oh! The partwhere CBS says the APS picked Rob Duncan to look into theET SuperWave is gone. CBS can change history? My God,time travel! Now that is powerful.) [April 24]

SUPERWAVE: IMPALED ON THE SHARP STAKE OF REPLICATION

Rob Duncan, vice chancellor of research at the University ofMissouri, went to Israel with 60 Minutes to visit EnergeticsTechnologies (ET), which claims SuperWave Fusion will solvethe energy problem. It shouldn’t be necessary to remind scien-tists that neither visiting a laboratory nor peer reviewing amanuscript is enough. There must be independent replicationof the ET claims. Without replication, the claims are nothing.The genius behind ET is the CVO, chief visionary officer,Irving Dardik, MD. Dardik got into cold fusion after losinghis license to practice medicine in New York. It puts us inmind of Randy Mills of BlackLight Power, another MD whosays he can solve the energy problem. Is SuperWave Fusionanother scam? [April 24]

—Bob Park

Robert L. Park is a professor of physics at the University of Marylandand a CSI fellow. His latest book is Superstition: Belief in the Age ofScience (Princeton University Press). These items are taken with per-mission from his weekly “What’s New” electronic newsletter (archivesavailable at www.bobpark.org).




form resembles the back and head of aswimming mammal (probably of theCervidae family, which includes deer, elk,and moose) and moves toward the nearshore past what appears to be a buoy, pos-sibly suggesting shallow water. When ana-lyzing videos such as this, what we don’tsee is often just as important as what wedo see. In this case the video abruptlyends as the animal nears shore. The eye-witness was supposedly worried aboutrunning out of memory on his cellphone. That may be true, or perhaps hechose to edit out the last seconds of thesequence when we could all see whatclimbed ashore. Though I doubt a hoax,there are many unanswered questionsabout the sighting.

It’s also interesting to note that thisfootage is unlike other alleged Champvideos and photographs. Many show around, dark form in the water, but noneso closely resemble a large swimmingmammal. It also seems odd that anaquatic creature would make such anobvious effort to keep its head abovewater. If Champ monsters exist and mustregularly surface to breathe (like dolphinsor whales), it’s amazing that they are notroutinely sighted on the populated lake.It seems far more likely that this andother Champ sightings are the result ofpeople mistaking natural phenomenon(including waves, logs, and animals) formonsters than that the lake is actuallyhome to dozens of huge, unknown crea-tures who somehow leave no physical evi-dence of their existence.

The debate about the new Champvideo will continue, with believers con-vinced it’s a genuine puzzle and skepticspointing out alternative explanations. Asoften happens with such videos, the qual-ity is too poor to conclusively identify whatwas in the water. It seems certain that if thevideo evidence was of better quality, themystery would vanish.

—Benjamin Radford

Benjamin Radford is co-author, with JoeNickell, of Lake Monster Mysteries:Investigating the World’s Most ElusiveCreatures.

On May 18, 2009, the IndependentInvestigations Group (IIG)—the pre-mier paranormal investigations teamon the West Coast—presented itsthird annual IIG Awards recognizingthe promotion of science in popularmedia. The yearly event draws come-dians, actors, producers, scientists,paranormal investigators, activists, andothers to the Center for Inqury’s SteveAllen Theater in Hollywood.

The event began with master ofceremonies Jim Underdown settingthe stage for the IIG’s traditionalannouncement of the non-winners—those productions that promote pseu-doscience. Underdown brought FrankConniff to the stage to present the

Truly Terrible Television Award andthe Massively Miserable Movie Award.Conniff is no stranger to exposing badmovies, thanks to his years on MysteryScience Theater 3000. The awards inthese categories consisted of a framedcertificate printed on “genuine imita-tion parchment.” First up was PsychicKids: Children of the Paranormal—adisturbing A&E television series inwhich youngsters who believe thatthey “see dead people” are encouragedto pursue their delusions. Clips fromthe show brought howls of ridicule

from the skeptical audience.Next up was Expelled: No Intell-

igence Allowed—Ben Stein’s execrablecreationist propaganda movie. Theaudience groaned when they viewedthe very ending of the film whereinStein made a cloying reference to hisFerris Bueller’s Day Off character. Afterpleading for someone to stand up tothe evils of Science, Stein asks,“Anyone? Anyone?”

The first half of a two-part “accep-tance speech” consisted of a video clipwith comments from two of the sci-ence experts interviewed in the film—science advocate Eugenie Scott andskeptic Michael Shermer. They bothexpressed their unequivocal disgust

with Stein and his film. Shermershowed the press kit that was distrib-uted at an industry screening of thefilm. The kit contained a full-sizedposter of Stein in a schoolboy’s uni-form, a booklet, a whistle (for blow-ing the whistle on scientific bias),and finally a bumper sticker with thename of the movie, which Shermerquipped is “apparently to let peopleknow that no intelligence is allowedinside the car.”

The audience was surprised to hearpresenter Frank Conniff announce

Third Annual IIG Awards: Mythbusters and Nickell Honored, Ben Stein Lampooned

Joe Nickell was inducted into the Houdini Hall of Honor at the third annual IIG Awards.

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that Ben Stein was at the theater toreceive his award (it was actually come-dian Ron Lynch doing a dead-on BenStein impression). In his “acceptancespeech,” Lynch (as Stein) made clumsyreferences to every project involvingBen Stein, and, after meekly declaring“Bueller,” he fled the stage.

The first positive award trophy ofthe evening was presented by triple-

threat actor/comedian/producer DanaGould to the Discovery Channel’sMythbusters for its episode “NASAMoon Landing Hoax,” in which mythsabout the 1969 Apollo 11 mission areexamined. Conspiracy theories wereelegantly busted when the team simu-lated the conditions of the moon inseveral ways, even going into the low-gravity “vomit comet” just to see if theotherworldly gait of Armstrong andcompany could have been faked by anyother method. A pre-taped acceptancespeech from head ’busters Adam Savageand Jamie Hyneman was played.

Gould went on to present a specialhonor to actress Amanda Peet for herwork in promoting childhood vaccines.A video montage of her talk-showappearances was shown in which shepromoted vaccines specifically and sci-ence in general. In a possible referenceto Jenny McCarthy, she pleads withviewers to listen to scientists and doc-tors rather than celebrities. Her com-ment, “don’t take my word for any-

thing; I’m not a doctor,” broughtapplause. Gould followed the awardpresentation with some improvisedcomedy, including a plea for skepticismregarding airport security, suggestingthat instead of us taking off our shoesand placing them in the metal detec-tor, we place metal detectors on thefloor “where 100 percent of theknown shoes are.”

Next was comedienne KathleenMadigan, who quipped that whilemost of those present reject fantasy, shecan’t even accept reality. She was onhand to present Comedy Central’sLewis Black’s Root of All Evil with a tro-phy for an episode that dealt a mercilessblow to the CFI/Los Angeles’s neigh-bor—The Church of Scientology(CoS). Joining Kathleen on stage topresent the award was comedian/actor

Andy Kindler of Everybody LovesRaymond fame who is also a recurringguest on The Late Show with DavidLetterman. They jointly presented theaward, accepted by creator and execu-tive producer David Sacks. Sacks’s gra-cious speech acknowledged that theCoS is a toothless tiger no longer capa-ble of silencing their critics.

Andy Kindler stuck around to pre-sent the next award. His improvisedcomments had the crowd in stitches.After his riffs on the hazards of owningan awards shop (what do you do duringthe off-season? Cold call?) he managed

to present an award to Religulous—thefunny and insightful documentary onthe claims of religion starring BillMaher. Kindler joked that Maher wasunavailable to pick up the award in per-son because he was “spending a quietevening at home with his ego.”

For the second year in a row theIIG’s highest honor—induction intothe Houdini Hall of Honor—was pre-sented by another triple-threat actor/-comedian/producer, Paul Provenza. Thefourth inductee (following Harry Hou-dini, Carl Sagan, and James Randi) wasa familiar name—paranormal investi-gator Joe Nickell. Nickell flew in fromNew York, leaving his Committee forSkeptical Inquiry job to be present forthe induction. He was gracious butbalked at the obvious implications ofreceiving an award intended to recog-nize “lifetime achievement.”

The attendees, recipients, and pre-senters cavorted for hours in the lobby,plotting new skeptical schemes andhatching new creative projects. Mean-while, IIG Awards producer DavidRichards slowly uncrossed his crampedfingers, happy in the thought that itwould be nearly twelve months beforehaving to think about next year’sawards ceremony.

The evening was a hit, showingonce again that the skeptical commu-nity and the entertainment industrycan find common cause, if only for anevening of fun.

SI readers interested in obtaining aDVD copy of the event can order oneat www.iigwest.org/iigawards and willeventually be able to buy advance tick-ets for the fourth annual IIG Awards atthat same address.

—Owen Hammer

Owen Hammer is a filmmaker living inHollywood who works with the IIG toinvestigate psychics, UFOs, state-spon-sored pseudo-medicine (a real concern inCalifornia), and other scams that willnot be exposed if grassroots skepticalgroups don’t do it.

Paul Provenza, Joe Nickell, and JimUnderdown.

Producer David Sacks

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Changes in the leadership of the Center for Inquiry,including the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry(which publishes SKEPTICAL INQUIRER), were an-nounced at the end of a two-day meeting of the boardof directors of the organizations June 1–2.

Here is the text of the news announcement:

Amherst, New York (June 2, 2009)—The Centerfor Inquiry and its affiliate organizations, theCouncil for Secular Humanism and the Com-mittee for Skeptical Inquiry, announced today thatin support of its two-year succession plan Dr. PaulKurtz, the visionary leader and founder of all threeorganizations, will become chair emeritus. Kurtzin this capacity will continue as a voting memberof the boards of directors for the balance of histerms ending in 2013. In his new role Kurtz willhave time to concentrate on writing and numerouspublic speaking engagements on behalf of theCenter for Inquiry as the founder and face of theorganization.

Dr. Ronald A. Lindsay remains chief executiveofficer and president of the three corporations,with all rights and responsibilities associated withthose positions. “Transition is challenging for anorganization, but I believe because of the strengthand resources of the Center for Inquiry and itsaffiliate organizations, including most importantlythe quality and dedication of the staff, we will beable to carry out these changes successfully,”Lindsay said. “Indeed, I believe that these changeswill ultimately strengthen the organization.”

Board member Richard K. Schroeder has beennamed chair of the three boards, and board mem-ber Jonathan Kurtz has been named to the newposition of vice chair of the three boards. “I lookforward to working with the new board chair,Richard Schroeder, and the new vice chair,Jonathan Kurtz,” added Lindsay.

The Board reaffirmed the goals of the organi-zations, which are to foster a secular society basedon science, reason, freedom of inquiry, andhumanist values and to promote critical investiga-tion of controversial and extraordinary claimsthrough the use of responsible, scientific inquiry.From this point forward, the board will take amore direct role in overseeing their policies andoverall direction. Three new committees will beformed within the board: a Policy Committee, aNominations Committee, and a CompensationCommittee.

The Center for Inquiry/Transnational, a non-profit, educational, advocacy, and scientific-research

think tank based in Amherst, New York, is alsohome to the Council for Secular Humanism, found-ed in 1980; and the Committee for SkepticalInquiry (formerly CSICOP), founded in 1976. TheCenter for Inquiry’s research and educational pro-jects focus on three broad areas: religion, ethics, andsociety; paranormal and fringe-science claims; andsound public policy. The Center’s Web site iswww.centerforinquiry.net.

In a subsequent action, Paul Kurtz was elected toserve on all three of the new board committees.Each has four members.

Ronald Lindsay was appointed CEO and presi-dent of CFI, CSI, and CSH in a June 2008 meetingof the boards. At the time he was CFI vice president

Leadership Changes at the Center for Inquiry

Paul Kurtz, chairman emeritus

“I look forward to helping our

superb staff and dedicated

supporters realize Paul Kurtz’s vision

for a rational, science-based,

and humanistic world well into

the twenty-first century.”

— Richard Schroeder




and general counsel and a senior research fellow basedin CFI’s new Washington, D.C., office. Lindsay isboth a philosopher and a lawyer. His doctorate, fromGeorgetown University, is in philosophy (with a con-centration in bioethics). He has twenty-five yearsexperience as a lawyer in private practice advising cor-porations, universities, and other institutions, par-ticularly in employee relations. He has writtenextensively in scholarly and legal journals, and hisbook Future Bioethics: Overcoming Taboos, Myths,and Dogmas was published by Prometheus inSeptember 2008.

Richard Schroeder, the new chairman of theorganizations’ boards, joined the boards in 2007and is a longtime supporter of CFI’s Amherst head-quarters. A financial advisor and certified financialplanner, he is executive vice president of Schroeder,Braxton and Vogt, Inc., financial advisors inAmherst, New York. He also worked for fourteenyears as a business reporter for The Buffalo News and held other editorial positions over six years withthe former Buffalo Courier-Express and the Bing-hamton, N.Y., Sun-Bulletin. Schroeder’s academictraining was in financial and economic history. Hespoke on financial fraud at CSICOP’s 2002 FourthWorld Skeptics Conference in Burbank, California.

“I look forward to helping our superb staff anddedicated supporters realize Paul Kurtz’s vision for arational, science-based, and humanistic world wellinto the twenty-first century,” Schroeder said.

Jonathan Kurtz, named to the new position ofboard vice chair, is president of Prometheus Booksin Amherst, New York. Prometheus, an indepen-dent publisher founded by Paul Kurtz in 1969,publishes books for the educational, scientific, pro-fessional, library, popular, and consumer markets.

Barry Karr remains executive director of theCommittee for Skeptical Inquiry and vice presidentand chief financial officer of CFI. He has been withthe organizations since 1981. “I am looking for-ward to the next step in the evolution of CSI andthe SKEPTICAL INQUIRER,” Karr said. “We are luckyto have such a dynamic and committed group ofpeople to lead CSI into the future, while at the sametime having the wisdom and experience of PaulKurtz at hand to call upon, as will most certainly berequired, for years to come.”

Ronald A. Lindsay, CEO and president

Richard Schroeder, chairman

“We are lucky to have such

a dynamic and committed group

of people to lead CSI into the future,

while at the same time having

the wisdom and experience of

Paul Kurtz at hand to call upon,

as will most certainly be required,

for years to come.”

– Barry Karr

SI Sept/Oct 2009 pgs 7/29/09 11:18 AM Page 14

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