Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [55]
Early in October 1978, a Dr. Robert Rabinoff, bearing a Ph.D. in physics, addressed a small group at the University of Oregon. He is an assistant professor of physics at Maharishi International University, and was in Oregon to speak on the unique educational program at MIU—including the "sidhis" program. Sidhis refers to claimed miracles such as levitation and invisibility. CSICOP member Dr. Ray Hyman was there, and was determined to press Rabinoff on the subject of levitation. (Dr. Hyman is a psychologist at the University of Oregon, and an experienced conjurer as well.)
The audience perked up when Dr. Rabinoff preached the Maharishi Effect, claiming that any city in which one percent or more of the inhabitants are TMers becomes a haven from crime. This, he told the folks, was an established fact, "scientifically demonstrated." Fairfield, Iowa, home of MIU, is unique in that some 13 percent of the populace are heavy TMers! Surely that concentration of goodness and omniscience, not to mention omnipotence, should produce wonders in the immediate neighborhood? Quite so, said the professor. Since "at least two hundred people on the campus have completed the sidhis program," Fairfield is multiply blessed. The Maharishi Effect is seen everywhere. The crime rate is so low, we are told, that the chief of police has now put several officers on part-time duty. Unemployment is nonexistent. Jefferson County, where this epitomical city is located, has become bountiful as a result. In spite of comparatively poor soil in the area, crops are growing beyond the most optimistic hopes. The automobile accident rate in the state of Iowa is now the lowest in the United States! And TM is to be given total credit for all this, according to Dr. Rabinoff.
Well, being the fuddy-duddy that I am, I decided to check with the folks over there in Iowa. I fired off a few letters and made a few phone calls. The results would not have pleased the small but uncritical audience that Dr. Rabinoff spoke to. The office of Fairfield Chief of Police Miller was only amused to hear that their crime rate was so low. Indeed, not only was there no plan to dump officers, but they were hiring more, early in 1979! Mayor Rasmussen's office could not explain where such notions as those expressed by Dr. Rabinoff had come from. The Department of Agriculture was equally mystified. Figures they supplied to me show an interesting sameness in yearly fluctuations between the state average and the county average. Allan L. Seim, Production Specialist with the Agriculture Department, searched in vain for any wondrous change as claimed by Rabinoff. "Jefferson County average yields follow the same fluctuations as state average yields," said Mr. Seim, "and have not experienced any dramatic increases... . Neither I nor our staff member stationed in Jefferson County are aware of any 'dramatic' yield increases near Fairfield."
But there was more. Rabinoff had claimed that the low auto accident rate was to be credited to the Maharishi Effect. Really? Authorities I contacted in Fairfield told me that any possible decrease since 1973 was attributable to two factors: fewer students at the college since the Maharishi took over (about one fourth as many), and the tendency of these students to stay on campus, in contrast to the former inhabitants. There certainly has been no decrease in off-campus population involvement in accidents. In fact, the claim made by Rabinoff was that the Maharishi Effect had radiated out into the rest of the state of Iowa, resulting in the "lowest accident rate in the U.S.A." I have no idea where the man got this startling information. It was unavailable to me, and the nearest the National Safety Council could come to such data was the death rate due to auto accidents for the United States as a whole and the state of Iowa in particular. An examination of these figures provides