The Demon-Haunted World_ Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan [115]
In a more controversial study, Stanford University psychiatrists divided eighty-six women with metastatic breast cancer into two groups - one in which they were encouraged to examine their fears of dying and to take charge of their lives, and the other given no special psychiatric support. To the surprise of the researchers, not only did the support group experience less pain, but they also lived, on average, eighteen months longer.
The leader of the Stanford study, David Spiegel, speculates that the cause may be cortisol and other ‘stress hormones’ which impair the body’s protective immune system. Severely depressed people, students during exam periods, and the bereaved all have reduced white blood cell counts. Good emotional support may not have much effect on advanced forms of cancer, but it may work to reduce the chances of secondary infections in a person already much weakened by the disease or its treatment.
In his nearly forgotten 1903 book, Christian Science, Mark Twain wrote
The power which a man’s imagination has over his body to heal it or make it sick is a force which none of us is born without. The first man had it, the last one will possess it.
Occasionally, some of the pain and anxiety or other symptoms of more serious diseases can be relieved by faith-healers - however, without arresting the progress of the disease. But this is no small benefit. Faith and prayer may be able to relieve some symptoms of disease and their treatment, ease the suffering of the afflicted and even prolong lives a little. In assessing the religion called Christian Science, Mark Twain - its severest critic of the time -nevertheless allowed that the bodies and lives it had ‘made whole’ by the power of suggestion more than compensated for those it had killed by withholding medical treatment in favour of prayer.
After his death, assorted Americans reported contact with the ghost of President John F. Kennedy. Before home shrines bearing his picture, miraculous cures began to be reported. ‘He gave his life for his people,’ one adherent of this stillborn religion explained. According to the Encyclopedia of American Religions, ‘To believers, Kennedy is thought of as a god.’ Something similar can be seen in the Elvis Presley phenomenon, and the heartfelt cry: “The King lives.’ If such belief systems could arise spontaneously, think how much more could be done by a well-organized, and especially an unscrupulous, campaign.
In response to their inquiry, Randi suggested to Australia’s Sixty Minutes that they generate a hoax from scratch, using someone with no training in magic or public speaking, and no experience in the pulpit. As he was thinking the scam through, his eye fell upon Jose Luis Alvarez, a young performance sculptor who was Randi’s tenant. ‘Why not?’ answered Alvarez, who when I met him seemed bright, good-humoured and thoughtful. He went through intensive training, including mock TV appearances and press conferences. He didn’t have to think up the answers, though, because he had a nearly invisible radio receiver in his ear, through which Randi prompted. Emissaries from Sixty Minutes checked Alvarez’s performance. The Carlos personality was Alvarez’ invention.
When Alvarez and his ‘manager’ - likewise recruited for the job with no previous experience - arrived in Sydney, there was James Randi, slouching and inconspicuous, whispering into his transmitter, at the periphery of the action. The substantiating documentation had all been faked. The curse, the water-throwing and all the rest were rehearsed to attract media attention. They did. Many of the people who showed up at the Opera House had done so because of the television and press attention. One Australian newspaper chain even printed verbatim handouts from the ‘Carlos Foundation’.
After Sixty Minutes aired, the rest of the Australian media was furious. They had been used, they complained, lied to. ‘Just as there are legal guidelines