Studiekring voor Kritische Evaluatie van Pseudo-wetenschap en het Paranormale v.z.w. (Study Circle on Critical Evaluation of Pseudoscience and the Paranormal)

Incorporated as non-profit association (v.z.w.) under Belgian law, with statutes published in the official state gazette

Expertise: responsible for contacts with the media; journalist; topics: astrology, theories of pseudoscience, pseudoscience in history

Expertise: philosopher; topics: cosmology, archaeo-astronomy, philosophy of science

Expertise: logician and philosopher of science; topics: argumentation with pseudoscientists

Expertise: physician; topics: alternative medicine

Expertise: jurist; contact only for administrative matters

Expertise: biologist, philosopher of science, writer; topics: medicine, biology & evolution

Expertise: Psychologist and magician; topics: claims about the paranormal, also head of the Illuseum: see http://users.skynet.be/sky38298

Membership: 82

• 20 effective members with the right to vote
• 54 ordinary members
• 4 honorary members
• 4 special members (esp. from foreign organisations)

(newsletter going to all the members and a number of journalists and interested persons; five issues a year)

SKEPP co-operates also with the Dutch review Skepter.

non-profit registered society

Membership: over 1100

(quarterly magazine)

Pages: 48 (average)

No. of subscribers: 1100

Distribution: 1100

Printed: 1500

110 Fmk a year for 4 issues

All

Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften e.V. (Society for the Scientific Investigation of Para-Science)

non-profit registered society (eingetragener Verein)

Membership: 600

(quarterly magazine)

Pages: 40 (average)

No. of subscribers: 1360 (excluding members)

Distribution: 2500

Printed: 3500

DM 34 a year for 4 issues

DM 40 a year for subscriptions outside Germany

(regular newsletter for GWUP members), 4 - 6 times a year

Editors

Brochure with overview of various para- and pseudosciences

Singe issue only

http://www.gwup.org

Hungarian Skeptics

Civil society (official registration in the pipeline)

Expertise:

Expertise:

Expertise:

Expertise:

Membership: 120

Székesfehérvár

Termmészet Világa (World of Nature, science magazine)

(The magazine contains a regular skeptical column, every third month an attachment "skeptical pages" is included)

publication: monthly

founded: 1869

No. of subscribers:

Distribution:

(Newsletter of the Székesfehérvár local branch)

(none)

Comitato Italiano per il Controllo delle Affermazioni sul Paranormale (Italian Committee for the Investigation of the Claims of the Paranormal)

non-profit organisation

Expertise: Psychologist, author. Responsible for CICAP's Investigative dept.; historical research and laboratory experimentation; editor of ''Scienza & Paranormale''; Topics of expertise: psychology and techniques of deception in parapsychology; history of Spiritualism and Psychical Research; Magic (Houdini)

Expertise: Chemist, University of Pavia; Laboratory experimentation; Topics of expertise: Miracles (Liquefying bloods, weeping statues, Turin Shroud...),parapsychology, fakirism, fortiana.

Membership:

(bimonthly magazine of CICAP)

No. of subscribers: 1400

Distribution: 2400

Lit. 60.000 (6 issues/year) in Italy

Lit. 80.000 (all other countries)

payment should be made by International Money Order to: CICAP P.O. Box 1117, 35100 Padova, ITALY

These are some of the major activities of CICAP during 1997:

• CICAP held its V National Conference at Padua University (attendance: 500 people)
• organized about 40 public lectures all over Italy (thanks to the cooperation of 10 local groups of the Committee);
• appeared in over 30 national TV programs and various local ones;
• conducted various tests and experiments with psychic claimants at Pavia's University and published the results in various publications (including: Skeptical Inquirer, Skeptic, Swift, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Journal of Scientific Exploration);
• obtained major publicity in the newspapers thanks to some of these investigations, to the annual check-up of astrological predictions, to the National Conference and to the Italian equivalent of the Uri prize (The Golden Blunder);
• took official action against courses in some Universities acritically promoting Omeopathy and Earth Rays and prevented an Italian major to invest public money in the activities of an expert in the ''detection of E-Rays'';
• contributed to the birth of the first Italian publishing house devoted to the critical examination of pseudoscience and the paranormal: Avverbi (Rome)
• members of CICAP published six books dealing with paranormal claims;
• the frequency of CICAP's journal, Scienza & Paranormale, was raised from quarterly to bimonthly.

non-profit registered corporation (foundation)

Expertise:

Special topics: parapsychology, sects

Special topic: UFOs

Dr. M. van Genderen

Dr. E. Jacobs,

Ir H.D. van Lohuizen

mr G. Molewijk

Prof. Dr. J. van Noordwijk

All persons mentioned can be approached for any topic, the indicated topics are those for which the person has a very extensive knowledge.

Supporters: 400

(quarterly magazine)

Pages: 45 (average)

Dutch subscribers: 650

Belgian subscribers: 100

Total subscription including supporters: 1150

Also mentioned must be the various courses that aim at improving people's confidence in themselves. It is not clear how much science is claimed here, and most of it seems thinly veiled religion. Skepsis is much concerned about this, but as yet sees no way to become active in this field.

Society, in the process of changing to foundation.

Expertise: neonazism/the far right/conservative revolution, anything with regards with media, new religions, folklore. (editor, journalist, Historian of religions)

Expertise: science, media and the paranormal (in general), cryptozoology, NDOs ++ (all round science writer, biologist and journalist)

Expertise: (a) research based: New Religious Movements (esp. "occult" religions), Satanism scare (SRA etc.); (b) secondary: Recovered Memory Therapies, Contemporary Legends, general skepticism, anything in history of religions, esp. millennarian movements. (Research Fellow, History of Religions)

Expertise: folklore

Expertise: folklore

Expertise: UFOlogy, firewalking (Masterdegree student of astrophysics)

Membership: 760

(ideally a biannual, recently more like once pr. year)

No. of subscribers: 760

Distribution:

(1997 upgraded to a quarterly, intention for 1998: bimonthly)

No. of subscribers: 760

Distribution:

non-profit registered society

Membership: 100

(quarterly magazine)

Pages: 84 (average)

No. of subscribers: 210

Distribution: 500

Printed: 1000

3000 Pta (50 US$) a year (4 issues)

(quarterly newsletter)

Pages: 8 (average)

No. of subscribers: 100

Distribution: 100

Printed: 100

Included with the Membership

All

(Science and public education)

?

Expertise:

Expertise:

Expertise:

Membership: 500

(quarterly magazine)

No. of subscribers: 500

Distribution: 700

A geologist at Stockholm University who believes in dowsing and has taught pseudoscientific theories about it in his courses is perhaps the major event in Swedish pseudoscience recently. He has been challenged by Randi and others to prove that he (or anybody else) can dowse in a controlled experiment, but has declined. False memories and various forms of quackery are other major types of pseudoscience that the Swedish Skeptics have criticized in public.

The Association for Skeptical Enquiry

Private association. An application for charitable status is being considered.

Expertise: psychologist; hypnosis

Expertise: contact for administrative matters only

Expertise: Physicist

Expertise: molecular biology; creation/evolution; computer networks

Expertise: editor of The Skeptical Intelligencer; astrology; alternative medicine; psychology of the paranormal

Expertise: philosophy of science

Expertise: amateur conjurer; pseudo-psychic conjuring and mentalist techniques

Membership: 75

(quarterly magazine)

Pages: 70+

The Skeptical Intelligencer presents substantive original material plus reprinted articles from academic and other journals.

Subscription: £15 per year. Make cheques payable to 'ASKE'.

ASKE has also published a cautionary booklet by Tony Youens called Before You See a Psychic.

An evening of public skeptical talks and demonstrations was held at the University of Sheffield in March 1998.

In what is our first year, much of ASKE's members' available time and energy has been dedicated to establishing and consolidating the association. Other activities include:

• A talk on the history and psychology of astrology at the South Place Ethical Society, London
• The creation of an ASKE website
• The creation of an ASKE email discussion list (kindly hosted by the GWUP server)
• Kevin McClure's continuing critical investigation of alien abduction and other UFO claims (Kevin has published articles on these subjects in The Skeptical Intelligencer, Fortean Times, Magonia, and Abduction Watch, his own monthly newsletter)
• A major new critique of the Therapeutic Touch (an alternative medicine technique) by 4 ASKE members and a US Nursing Professor. This has now been submitted for publication in a nursing journal
• Meetings of members in Manchester and London
• Regular appearances on television and radio
• The continued improvement of The Skeptical Intelligencer. We have deliberately avoided the light-hearted approach seemingly preferred by The Skeptic, the UK's other avowedly skeptical periodical. Instead, we propose to make The Skeptical Intelligencer a new outlet for important and substantial material for the skeptical lay reader
• Initial planning of an international, peer-reviewed, academic journal of skeptical enquiry. We are keen to hear from ECSO member organisations and individual skeptics who are interested in working with us on this project

ASKE's members have a wide range of concern and interests. They include:

• Unfounded alternative medicine claims
• Psychics
• Pseudoscientific appropriation of concepts from the physical and other sciences
• Post-modern and other philosophical anti-science
• Misuse of hypnosis
• Alien abduction claims
• Creationism

international, non-profit organization dedicated to the critical examination and investigation of claims of the paranormal and fringe science

Expertise:

Expertise:

Expertise:

Membership: Associate membership

(bi-monthly magazine)

No. of subscribers: 40,000

Distribution: 50,000

(To order back issues of SI call +1 716 636 1425)

32.50 US$ for 1 year (6 issues)

54.00 US$ for 2 years (12 issues)

75.00 US$ for 3 years (18 issues)

Add 8 US$ a year for non-US subscribers

CSICOP plans monthly workshops in cities across North America for 1998. Conferences and workshops that are already planned include:

• January 7-11 Center for Inquiry Institute, History and Philosophy of Skepticism, San Diego,CA.
• July Center for Inquiry Institute, Amherst N.Y.
• July 23-26 World Skeptic's Conference, Heidelburg, Germany.

The January/February issue featured one of SI's most popular cover stories to date. "The X-Files Encounters the Skeptics: Chris Charter Takes Questions" pictured David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI Agents Mulder and Scully with Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, highlighted with an inset photo. The interview with Carter was a reprinted transcript of a question-and-answer discussion from the First World's Skeptics Congress held in Amherst, N.Y., during the summer of 1996.

A tribute to Carl Sagan was the cover feature of the March/April issue with a photo portrait of Sagan. Tributes were written by Arthur C. Clark, Richard Dawkins, Martin Garner, Leon Lederman, David Morrison, James Randi, Jill Tarter, Nicholas Humphrey, Paul Kurtz and many others. Astronomer Alan Hale was featured in the inset with his article "Hale- Bopp Comet Madness."

"Is the Sky Falling? The Real Asteroid Threat" by David Morrison was the cover story for the May/June issue. An artistic rendition of a asteroid barreling downward upon a helpless metropolis comprises the cover. Also featured was the surprisingly controversial essay "Skepticism and Politics" by Barry Fagin.

A 1947 photo of Major Jesse Marcel posing with UFO "wreckage" from the alleged Roswell crash highlights the July/August cover story "What Really Happened at Roswell" by Karl K. Korff. The issue also contains a Special Report on the Heaven's Gate UFO Cult with contributions by Paul Kurtz, Joe Nickell, Martin Gardner, Thomas Casten and Tom Genoni.

The September/October issue features "Alternative Medicine in a Scientific World" with contributions from Robert Park, Barry Beyerstein, Wallace Sampson, Saul Green, Ursula Goodenough and Lynn McCutcheon. The articles were taken from a symposium held in Seattle at the 1997 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Also in the issue is Joe Nickell's "Extraterrestrial Iconography" featuring Nickell's well-publicized alien timeline.

"The Mars Effect in Retrospect" by Jan Williem Nienhuys finishes the year as the cover story of the November/December issue. The cover illustration features a NASA photograph of a rarely seen yellow Mars. In the inset is the cover of the controversial best-seller The Bible Code, as Dave Thomas tackles the book's alleged hidden messages.

In 1997, CSICOP continued its long standing efforts to support and build regional and local skeptic groups across the globe through the internet, newsletter exchange, international and regional conferences, media promotion and group summit meetings. CSICOP lists skeptics groups in each issue of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER and on the CSICOP web site, providing invaluable contact links to skeptics searching for a home and local media inquiries. CSICOP seminars like the Center for Inquiry Institute and Skeptic's Toolbox seek to educate, inform

and train the next generation of skeptical leaders in critical thinking and applied skepticism. At regional conferences like the Center for Inquiry-Midwest meeting held in October, CSICOP brought together the CSICOP Executive Council and skeptics from a half-dozen states to rally

around the development of a center for skepticism in Kansas City, Missouri. Also in October, skeptic group leaders from across the eastern and southeastern United States gathered at the Center for Inquiry-International to plan strategy for the future of the skeptical movement and to ignite development of regional Centers for Inquiry in cities like Boston, Atlanta, Toronto and St.Petersburg/Tampa.

Regional Centers for Inquiry promise to be the greatest catalyst for skeptical outreach in the future. Regional Center for Inquiry would enlist part-time or full-time paid staff and provide programming and resources for the community that may include:

• Lectures, symposiums, and conferences featuring leading experts and scholars.
• Book discussion groups.
• Programs for children on critical thinking, and science.
• Reference libraries for interested skeptics and members of the public.
• Clearinghouse for newsletters and other publications.

In Los Angeles, the million-dollar Center for Inquiry-West fund drive has exceeded its original goal of $1 million, and the Center for Inquiry-West outreach committee has just doubled the target to $2 million. On November 7, the new campaign was announced to a packed house of supporters at the Los Angeles Renaissance Hotel, prompting new contributions totaling over $50,000 in less than 24 hours.

In Kansas City, an initial three-year campaign target of $300,000 was announced for the Center for Inquiry-Midwest offices. The eventual goal is to launch a million-dollar follow-up campaign to fund a new Center for Inquiry. An open public meeting was held on October 25 with members of the CSICOP board participating. Over $10,000 was raised.

Meanwhile, CSICOP chair Paul Kurtz, Executive Director Barry Karr and Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell traveled to La Coruna and Zaragoza, Spain to attend international conferences sponsored by CSICOP and European skeptics groups. Exploratory discussions are underway to start a Center for Inquiry in Barcelona, Spain, and to translate skeptical publications into Spanish for the entire Spanish-speaking world. Similarly, a new Center for Inquiry has been opened at Moscow State University with an exchange program initiated with students and faculty at the Moscow Center.

In 1997, the media turned to CSICOP as the world source for critical analysis and skepticism of the paranormal and pseudoscience. April's Heaven's Gate cult suicides pushed CSICOP into the news stream as the media turned to founder Paul Kurtz, Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell and other CSICOP fellows for critical commentary on the nature of UFO belief and new age religion. In July, the hoopla surrounding the 50th anniversary of the alleged UFO crash at Roswell, N.M. once again brought skepticism to the fore. In both cases, CSICOP fellows were called upon for dozens of radio, print and television interviews with highlights including coverage on NBC Dateline, National Public Radio Science Friday, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox Television News and Associated Press articles that ran in dozens of newspapers across the country.

All told for 1997, CSICOP fielded over 500 media inquiries that resulted in thousands of print items and news stories. Inquiries ranged from the need for expert opinion and research information to story ideas and reprint permission. The following is a sample of some of the radio programs, television shows, and publications:

Art Bell Show, ABC Radio News, BBC Radio Network, CBS Radio Network, G. Gordon Liddy Show, Jim Bohannon Show, Roger Hedgecock Show, Michael Reagan Show, NPR Science Friday, Talk of America Radio Network, Victoria Jones Show, Wisconsin Public Radio.

Television (national and syndicated)

ABC News, ABC Good Morning America, ABC 20/20, ABC Politically Incorrect, ASCII Productions (Japan), Arts and Entertainment (A&E), CBC News (Can.), CFTO-TV (Can.), CFMT-TV (Can.), Channel 4 (England), CNBC Hollywood Today, CNN News, Fox News, Discovery Channel, Entertainment Tonight, Fox News, Global News Service (Can), MSNBC, NBC Dateline, NOVA, Paramount Television, PBS, VH1 Pop-Up Video, WGBH-TV Boston PBS.

American Medical News, Atlanta Journal, Boston Globe, Buffalo News, Chicago Tribune-Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Columbia Journalism Review, Dallas Morning News, Denver Post, El Correo (Spain), El Nuevo Herald (Spain), Florida Today, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Globe and Mail (Can.), Houston Chronicle, Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Minneapolis Star Tribune, New York Times, Newsday, Newsweek, Orange County Register, Portland Oregonian, Sacramento Bee, San Diego Union Tribune, San Juan Star (PR), Seattle Times, Scientific American, The Scientist, Science, The Science News, Science Writers Journal, Toronto Sun, Toronto Star, USA Today, Wall Street Journal.

Since its formation in 1976, CSICOP has advocated a balanced, critical and scientific treatment of pseudoscience and the paranormal in the media. At the World's Skeptics Congress in 1996, CSICOP founded the Council for Media Integrity, a network of distinguished scientists, academics and members of the media committed to monitoring media treatment of science. The Media Stock Fund was started in 1997 to finance the acquisition of stock in large media conglomerates so that CSICOP as a stockholder might gain input on programming. The Stock Fund has been featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and CNBC television news.

CSICOP also took to the editorial pages in 1997 with opinion-editorials on the topics of Heaven's Gate, astrology, and superstition published in leading U.S. newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Sacremento Bee, Buffalo News, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Finally, in an effort to keep readers, skeptics and members of the media informed of the latest CSICOP news and developments in pseudoscience and the paranormal, CSICOP launched the SI Electronic Digest, a weekly e-mail news update that is sent to over 1600 e-mail subscribers worldwide.

CSICOP is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to the critical examination and investigation of claims of the paranormal and fringe science. Founded in 1976, CSICOP is always receptive to departures in thought, yet insists that they be tested before they are accepted. The bi-monthly journal the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, The Magazine for Science And Reason, is the main forum for publication of these inquiries. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER magazine now has over 80,000 readers worldwide. Headquartered at the Center for Inquiry – International, Amherst N.Y., CSICOP is a non-profit organization that employs an expanding staff of over 30 full and part-time employees. CSICOP is a charitable, tax-deductible organization.

All