I've not posted anything to the hotline for awhile as I've been on the skeptical highway breaking bread and sipping wine with fellow heathens. A couple of highlights:

At the Conference on World Affairs I was on a panel with my boyhood hero--the Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickert, and the British social commentator and pro-skeptic Simon Hoggart. For you on the other side of the pond, if you want a skeptic who is also a brilliantly funny speaker whose take-no-prisoners attitude toward the paranormal is second only to James Randi's, then Hoggart is your man. He was really something to behold. His books include AMERICA: A USER'S GUIDE and his latest book, apparently just brought out in America by Prometheus Books, is BIZARRE BELIEFS. Hoggart is first rate. Schweickert was skeptical but overly conciliatory for my tastes, and Hoggart and I were challenged with a long harrange from an NPR reporter who, in a classic straw-man mischaracterization of our position, said that we skeptics don't believe anything and that this isn't healthy. Of course it isn't! But whoever said THAT? I explained that we believe LOTS of things, like the theory of evolution, but this got an even bigger groan from some members of the audience!

At I-Con (Island Conference), a big Science Fiction shin dig on Long Island, amid all the exhibitors displaying their wares (Spock ears, Star Trek jammies, fantasy chess sets--one guy said he wanted to mix a Star Trek chess set with a Civil War chess set and have the South fight the Klingons) there was a fortuneteller! I watched her work for awhile, then after her mark left I asked her: "Aren't you just chatting with these people like a psychic hotline operator? Isn't this just a form of entertainment?" Amazingly she said: "Of course that's all it is! I get $20 a reading. I'll do 20-30 readings a day here. Plus I sell my New Age jewelry. It's a business." Of course, we all know this already, but it was surprisingly refreshing to hear her say it out loud.

What was especially interesting about this was that the national spokesman of the American Atheists, Ron Barrier, gave me a ride from Manhattan to SUNY, Stony Book where the conference was, and he was telling me about his alter ego--he is a referree for professional wrestling; you know, Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura, and those guys. Of course we all know its fake so what do you need a referree for then? Because, he explained, that's part of the magic act--the illusion of fairness. He explained to me how they orchestrate all the events for the evening, and how if they really want to insure that the audience returns the next night they'll have the bad guy win on some really unfair technicality, which sends these people into a frenzy! (Oh, by the way, those aren't special "breakable" chairs they hit each other with--they are real chairs. Ron explained that when someone hits you on the head with a chair it is best to look up at it so that it impacts your forehead at its thickest part. He also said most of these guys really enjoy the physical punishment they take and impart. So, while it is "fake," most of us would end up at the hospital in no time if we were not prepared.) The point is this: Yes we all know its fake, but it is interesting to hear about HOW the play is staged. For Barrier, who routinely deals with faith healers and the like, what these preachers are doing is really no different from professional wrestling--its a fake staged show production, complete with actors, props, and a script. But the audience for the faith healers are at far greater risk of giving up money or even their lives (many abandon their meds, as Randi discovered in going through the garbage behind the arenas after). At least the audiences at professional wrestling, even if they think it is somehow real, are going there to be entertained, not to have their cancer cured.