MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Sunday November 8: Pamela Freyd and Eleanor Goldstein, THE MEMORY WARS: Recovered v. False Memories

Sunday December 13: David Skal, SCREAMS OF REASON: Mad Science and Modern Culture

Sunday January 17: Bob Friedhoffer, MAGIC TRICKS, SCIENCE FACTS: The Scientific Magic Show

All events are held at 2:00pm in Baxter Lecture Hall, California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Sunday November 8

THE MEMORY WARS
Recovered v. False Memories

Dr. Pamela Freyd
Founder and Executive Director, False Memory Syndrome Foundation
Research Associate, Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, University of Pennsylvania
"Changes in the Recovered Memory Turmoil: For Families, Professionals, and the Law"

Eleanor Goldstein
Founder, Social Issues Resources Series
Author, Confabulations: Creating False Memories, Destroying Families and True Stories of False Memories
"The Social Milieu That Fostered False Memories."

Arguably one of the most volatile social issues of our time, the "memory wars" involves the ongoing controversy over the nature of memory, particularly with regard to the theory that memories can be "repressed" and later "recovered" through special therapeutic techniques such as hypnotic regression, fantasy role playing, and dream interpretation. The American Psychological Association has gone through upheaval and turmoil as psychologists from both experimental and therapeutic fields have chosen sides in this war. Far more than an academic dispute, however, individuals today sit in jail convicted for child molestation based on nothing more than evidence taken from these "recovered" memories. But families are fighting back, suing therapists and winning. Is it the end of the beginning for the Recovered Memory Movement, or the beginning of the end?

Dr. Pamela Freyd and Eleanor Goldstein are two of the foremost authorities in this field and are pioneering activists in the fight against false accusations of the worst crime in America: child molestation. As head of the two most prominent organizations in the education about and fight against so-called recovered memories, Freyd and Goldstein will bring us up to date on the latest research into the nature of memory, the ramifications of recent legal decisions for families, professionals, and the law, and the social milieu that allowed this moral panic to take root and thrive in our culture.

Sunday December 13

SCREAMS OF REASON
Mad Science and Modern Culture

David Skal
Historian of Horror and Monster Films and Popular Culture
Author, Hollywood Gothic, The Monster Show, V is for Vampire, and Screams of Reason

Ever since Mary Shelley created Victor Frankenstein and Victor Frankenstein created a monster, mad scientists have been an indispensible part of our cultural landscape. Noted film historian, acclaimed author, and frequent radio guest, David Skal, explains these larger-than-life icons and reveals the mad scientist's greater cultural significance as a high-tech bogeyman, a lightning rod for otherwise unbearable anxieties about the uses and consequences of modern technology. In his lecture based on his latest book, Skal explores:

--The icon of the mad scientist from cloning to AIDS to Heaven's Gate.
--The pseudoscience folklore of UFO and alien abduction myths (including Skal's own UFO encounter!).
--The cult of the computer v. the Luddite mania of the Unabomber.
--The demonization of doctors and modern medicine.
--How the film Frankenstein spurred the invention of the cardiac pacemaker.
--A hit parade of "Mad Scientists, Demented Doctors, and Assorted Evil Geniuses" to help readers catch up on their B-movie classics.

Don't miss one of the most unusual speakers and lectures in the history of the Skeptics Lecture Series!

Sunday January 17

A SPECIAL SHOW FOR KIDS, FAMILIES, SKEPTICS AND JR. SKEPTICS

MAGIC TRICKS, SCIENCE FACTS
THE SCIENTIFIC MAGIC SHOW

Bob Friedhoffer
Master Magician, aka "The Madman of Magic"
Author: Physics Lab in a Hardware Store, Physics Lab in the Home, Toying Around with Science, Magic & Perception, How to Haunt a House at Halloween, The Sorcerer's Apprentice Magic Series.

Hey Jr. Skeptics and Jr. Skeptics parents: Don't miss one of the most fun days you can ever have with science and magic, as Bob Friedhoffer, "The Madman of Magic," brings us his unique show of science and magic, showing how magic uses principles of science, and how science has its own form of magic. Jr. Skeptics and their parents will learn how to construct and perform science-based magic tricks with materials found around the house. As they learn magic, they will learn the scientific principles that make the tricks possible.

DON'T MISS THIS DAY OF FUN, FUN, FUN WITH SCIENCE AND MAGIC