We're sorry to have to report this at this late date, but today's talk has to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. We hope that this can be rescheduled at a later date.
Combating
Psychic Fraud
Mark Carlon and
Catherine Woytowicz
Society of American Magicians
Paranormal Investigation Committee
Fraud Awareness Program
Saturday, September 9, 2:30pm - 4:30pm [NOTE
SPECIAL TIME]
Central Library
Barbara M. Donnellan Auditorium
1015 North Quincy Street
Arlington, VA [map]
[directions]
(Virginia Square-GMU Metro station)
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members
Also a YouTube
Live Event with Q and A
NCASVideo YouTube Channel:
The Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) is the oldest
fraternal magic organization in the world, founded in
1902. Several months after S.A.M.'s founding, Harry
Houdini was elected to membership. Houdini was well-known
for his escapes and magic acts, but he also worked to
expose frauds who claimed to have supernatural powers.
Based in part on his own experiences with psychics
attempting to contact the dead, Houdini helped form the
S.A.M’s Paranormal Investigation Committee (P.I.C.) and
establish its mission to investigate and expose those
“supernatural” frauds. Houdini even testified before
Congress, exposing a method fraudulent psychics used to
imply they were in communication with the dead. S.A.M.'s
P.I.C. has carried on that work for more than 100 years.
Mark Carlon and Catherine Woytowicz will
talk about P.I.C.’s current work to raise awareness of
fraud. They have created a presentation on typical fraud
cases and are partnering with community law enforcement
agencies to raise awareness of these scams – especially
psychics who are preying upon people who lost loved ones
during COVID.
Mr. Carlon will be joining us virtually while Ms.
Woytowicz will join us in person.
Mr. Mark Carlon is a member of the International
Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM) and S.A.M. who has
performed magic from Chicago to Las Vegas. He has a
degree in developmental psychology and is a retired
attorney. Mr. Carlon is the chair of the Paranormal
Investigation Committee.
Ms. Catherine Woytowicz is a magician, mentalist, and
comic who began her magic career at 14 in a girl-to-tiger
change illusion. She performs corporate magic and
facilitates critical thinking/structured thinking
techniques with her company, Just the Trick. She has a
PhD in pharmaceutical design and discovery. If you
believe she could talk about drugs for hours, she will
promise not to.
Refreshments will be available.
https://www.ncas.org/2023/08/september-9-combating-psychic-fraud.html
At the speakers' request,
this live-streamed event will not be recorded for the NCAS
YouTube channel.
October NCAS
Lecture
September PhACT Lecture
Our skeptical neighbors to the north, the Philadelphia
Association for Critical Thinking (PhACT), will host their
next online event on Saturday, September 16 at 2 PM ET.
CSI Fellow
Nathan H. Lents, PhD, Professor of
Biology and Director of the Cell and Molecular Biology
program at John Jay College of the City University of New
York, will present "Hacking Humanity - Advances in
Technology Lead to Big Breakthroughs in Medicine." Event
details at
http://www.phact.org/meetings.php.
September Bay Area Skeptics Lecture
The [San Francisco] Bay Area Skeptics will host their next
online event on Thursday, September 14 at 10:30 PM ET.
Michael
Worobey, Professor and the Head of the Department of
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of
Arizona, will present "Origins of the COVID-19 Pandemic."
This will be livestreamed on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg0OlyCRhww
Nanotechnology Symposium in DC
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