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Off the Deep End

One may be able to quibble about the quality of a single experiment, or about the veracity of a given experimenter, but, taking all the supportive experiments together, the weight of evidence is so strong as readily to merit a wise man's reflection.

—Professor William Tiller,

parapsychologist,

Stanford University,

commenting on psi research

It is the quality rather than the quantity that matters.

—Lucius Annaeus Seneca

(4 B.C.—A.D. 65)

Belief in the paranormal is not restricted to persons of lesser intellect. One would think that only children believe in Santa Claus, that witches are the delusions of rural bumpkins, and that astrology is the delight of the senile. Not so. Well-read, educated, intelligent people around the world desert common sense and learning to pursue such matters. What surprised me in the extreme was to find that an organization comprised of the intelligentsia seems overly committed to this brand of nonsense! The group is known as Mensa, and membership is limited to those who possess IQs in the upper 2 percent of the population.

I am not much deceived by the outward trappings of such an organization. Possession of a "high IQ" often has little to do with one's ability to function as a rational human being. It merely means that some admittedly imperfect tests indicate one has a better-than-average potential for good thinking. Like a scalpel that is never put to use by a skilled hand in a good cause, brainpower is often not put to work.

One unhappy Mensa member has kept me notified of current trends in the group. The lead article in the April 1978 Mensa Bulletin was entitled "Psi-Q Connection" and asked the pregnant question, "Is there a psychic component to IQ?" The author, Richard A. Strong, is Coordinator of the Psychic Science Special Interest Group and editor of its newsletter. His article wondered if high IQ scores could be due to ESP rather than intelligence—a disturbing thought indeed for Mensa, which may be composed of ordinary folks who cheat and pick up their smarts from others, a sort of cerebral shoplifting!

Some "M's" claim healing powers; many claim to see auras. One Dan Conroy was said to be learning the "sidhis" of Transcendental Meditation so that he could levitate his intelligent body in the air. If he is as successful as the other 39,999 people taught by TM's Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, he's still grounded.

The Special Interest Groups are listed regularly. The July-August 1978 listing contains—besides the "Psychic Science" bunch—Astrology, Dianetics/Scientology, Fortean Mysteries, Graphology, Transcendental Meditation, UFOs, and Witchcraft-Occult. The last group invites us to "Visit the realm of fairies; re-link with the ancient powers." Sure.

At a gathering in Norfolk, Virginia, "IQ Level and TM" and "The Paranormal" were subjects worthy of deep thought. In Rochester, New York, Mensa featured a graphologist and "Psychic Readings." In San Diego, intellects were recharged with "Parapsychology" and "Criswell Predicts"! But the New York City group topped them all with a double-header: "Astrology PLUS Biorhythms" followed by "Pornographic Peruvian Pottery"! And buried in the back pages of the Mensa Bulletin we find a seven-line notice from "M" Bob Steiner offering $1,000 to anyone who can perform a wonder of parapsychology that he can't explain or duplicate. There were no takers.

So, if you have in the past fallen for the hucksters of psi, and if you are embarrassed by it all, take hope. The smartest folks in the world are no smarter than you are when it comes to belief in the ridiculous.

The public has been badly served by scientists who lean upon their considerable reputations in other fields to give weight to their declarations on the subject of parapsychology. I have noted that possession of a driver's license permits one to drive an automobile only if the privilege is not abused; perhaps Ph.D.s should similarly be withdraw able in science.

The Computer Age came