Team Dubious

Mainstream America hasn't decided whether to believe in ritual abuse, recovered memory, homeopathy, conspiracy theories, revisionist history, acupuncture, angels, or aliens, but all of them are seeping into our culture anyway. The Skeptics of America want you.

by Ellen Barry

If there is, as reported, an incubus in Danbury, Steven Novella is not getting within 100 yards of it. Not now. The collaboration between Novella's Connecticut Skeptical Society and Lorraine and Ed Warren's ghost-hunting operation began in an atmosphere of copious good will, with both parties vowing that they could learn from one another, that they could swap methodology, and that maybe -- just maybe -- they could change each others' minds.

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What we believe

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But the lovefest came to an abrupt end at a meeting two weeks ago, as the three charter members of the Connecticut Skeptical Society -- Novella, his younger brother Robert, and Perry DeAngelis -- made it clear that they rejected every ball of light, videotaped miasma, and heartfelt eyewitness account the Warrens provided. The skeptics say that after careful study, they have concluded that the Warrens' organization, the New England Society for Psychic Research, is "naive of scientific method"; that their claims "blurred the distinction between science and pseudoscience"; and that "they are typical of the majority of people, who are compelled by a gripping story and lack a deep understanding of how flimsy and unreliable human memory and perception really is."

It went without saying that the Skeptics have doubts about the existence of ghosts.

And the Warrens, who have been called into 8000 haunting cases over a period of 40 years, have a similarly jaundiced view of the Skeptics.

"I would consider [skeptics] at this point evil," says Ed Warren, a certified demonologist and devout Roman Catholic. "I would consider them as Antichrist as the Antichrist himself."

That's pretty Antichrist. But if there's one thing the Skeptics are prepared for, it's criticism from the spiritualists, homeopaths, astrologists, recovered-memory therapists, and alien abductees they spend their free time discrediting. The Skeptics' mission -- "to investigate claims made by scientists, pseudoscientists, and pseudohistorians" -- has been gaining momentum in the 20 years since the group was founded, and some say skepticism has now achieved movement status. When the Connecticut Skeptical Society joins forces this fall with the Boston-based Skeptical Inquirers of New England, the armchair debunkers hope to take their message to the people. They're trying to save the world from credulity. A little demonization is all in the line of duty.

Part 2

Ellen Barry can be reached at ebarry[a]phx.com.