September 9 - Combating Psychic Fraud

Presented by Mark Carlon and Catherine Woytowicz

Society of American Magicians

Paranormal Investigation Committee

Fraud Awareness Program

Saturday, September 9, 2023 at 2:30 PM ET (note special time)

Central Library

Barbara M. Donnellan Auditorium

1015 North Quincy Street

Arlington, VA

(Virginia Square-GMU Metro station)

FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members

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.

Carlon and 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.

This event will also be livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ8A1drUslw

Shadow of a Doubt - May 2023

 

• May NCAS lecture- The Great Psychic Prediction Project with Rob Palmer
• April Shadow?
  
• April SkepTour Recap
  
• NCAS board elections
  
• Bay Ara Skeptics Lecture
• Torn from Today's Headlines
  
• Shadow Light
• Time to Renew? 

 Read Shadow here

Shadow of a Doubt - May 2023

 

May 2023

NCAS Public Lecture Series

The Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project

Rob Palmer
Skeptical Inquirer Columnist ("The Well-Known Skeptic")

Saturday, May 13, 1:30pm US/Eastern (UTC-04:00)

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:

https://youtu.be/dR3PtgRl-vM

In 2021, "The Skeptic Zone" producer and CSI Fellow Richard Saunders completed his 12-year project dubbed the "Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project" (GAPPP) – an analysis of 3811 published paranormal predictions made by 207 people claiming paranormal powers in Australia during 2000 to 2020.

The scoring of the predictions was performed by an international team of volunteers, including Rob Palmer. In this presentation, an expanded version of the talk he gave at CSICon 2022, Rob will share details and the results of this unique investigation into the precision (or lack thereof) of the published predictions of prominent, public, paranormal practitioners.

Rob Palmer is a retired aerospace engineer. He has been a spacecraft designer, spacecraft tester, computer programmer, and software systems engineer. Rob became a skeptical activist in 2016 upon joining the "Guerrilla Skeptics on Wikipedia" team, and in 2018 became a columnist for Skeptical Inquirer. To date he has had over 70 articles published by Skeptical Inquirer as well as in other publications, and the Wikipedia articles he's written have garnered over 13 million pageviews.

Mr. Palmer will be joining us remotely via Zoom.

Refreshments will be available.

https://www.ncas.org/2023/04/may-13-great-australian-psychic.html

April Shadow?

Was there an April 2023 Shadow of a Doubt?  No, there was only an email to our members announcing the April 1 NCAS SkepTour.  Speaking of which...

April NCAS SkepTour Recap

The latest NCAS SkepTour brought a group of 14 into the Museum of Illusions Washington, where skeptical eyes and minds were tricked to the brink of believing unbelievable sights on (appropriately enough) April Fool's Day.

There were plenty of gasps and laughs at the various ways human perception can fall prey to human ingenuity (and mischief).

After the SkepTour concluded, many of the participants proceeded to Clyde's of Gallery Place for food, drink, and conversation.

Those of you who couldn't join us that morning, by all means make time to visit the museum when you can!  (And trust our good judgment to eat *after* the visit, not before!)

NCAS president Scott Snell was served in "Head on a Platter" at Museum of Illusions Washington.

NCAS Board Elections: Electronic Voting
The 2023 NCAS election is underway.  In mid-April, your e-mail inbox should've received a single-cast secret ballot from "elections@ncas.org via SurveyMonkey <member@surveymonkeyuser.com>".  (NCAS will receive information indicating who voted, but nothing to indicate who cast each ballot.)  Please vote by May 15, 2023.

Note that voters will not be at risk for spamming as a result of participating...SurveyMonkey has a zero-tolerance spam policy:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/legal/acceptable-uses-policy/

Be sure to check your spam folder if you didn't receive the election email.  A reminder was sent on May 1 to anyone who didn't cast a ballot yet.

Bay Area Skeptics Lecture
The [San Francisco] Bay Area Skeptics, now in their 41st year(!), will host their next online event on Thursday, May 11 at 10:30 PM ET.  Alex Filippenko, Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, will present "Extraterrestrials?"  This will be livestreamed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qjQsJR7svY

Torn From Today's Headlines
By Scott Snell
Lessons from the Covid War: An Investigative Report

Released on April 25, 2023, written by a team of 34 experts calling themselves the "Covid Crisis Group," Lessons from the Covid War: An Investigative Report is intended to be the best possible substitute for a report from a National Covid Commission that may never be formed.

News media organizations are covering the report (see, for example, this Washington Post editorial and review) and some of the authors are discussing the book at public and/or online events:

Wednesday, May 3, 7 PM: Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC.  https://www.politics-prose.com/philip-zelikow

Thursday, May 4, 6 PM: George Mason University, Van Metre Hall Auditorium, 3341 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA. https://ibi.gmu.edu/event/book-launch-lessons-from-the-covid-war-an-investigative-report/

Most thorough were the panels discussions at the National Academy of Sciences Building on April 24: https://vimeo.com/819923414

Shadow Light

Some members and contacts of NCAS receive a postal notification of this and every new monthly Shadow of a Doubt.  The Shadow Light postcard announces the monthly lecture and highlights of the electronic Shadow of a Doubt, which is available online at ncas.org/p/shadow.html.  NCAS thereby reduces Shadow production and postage costs.  To further reduce costs, members and contacts can opt out of postal notification altogether, while continuing to receive Shadow of a Doubt via e-mail.  To opt out, send us an e-mail at ncas@ncas.org.


Time to Renew?
Be sure to check your renewal date above your postal address on the Shadow Light postcard. Send any queries to ncas@ncas.org.  Use the online membership form to renew.
https://www.ncas.org/p/shadow.html

May 13 - The Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project

 Presented by Rob Palmer, "Skeptical Inquirer" Columnist

Saturday, May 13, 2023, 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Central Library
Barbara M. Donnellan Auditorium
1015 North Quincy Street
Arlington, VA
(Virginia Square-GMU Metro station)
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members

The speaker will be joining us virtually.  This event will also be live-streamed at https://youtube.com/live/dR3PtgRl-vM?feature=share

In 2021, "The Skeptic Zone" producer and CSI Fellow Richard Saunders completed his 12-year project dubbed the Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project (GAPPP) – an analysis of almost 4,000 published paranormal predictions made by over 200 people claiming paranormal powers in Australia. 

The scoring of the predictions was performed by an international team of volunteers of which Rob Palmer was a member. In this presentation, an expanded version of the talk given at CSICon 2022, Rob will share details and the results of this unique investigation into the precision (or lack thereof) of the published predictions of prominent, public, paranormal practitioners.

Rob Palmer is a retired aerospace engineer. He has been a spacecraft designer, spacecraft tester, computer programmer, and software systems engineer. Rob became a skeptical activist in 2016 upon joining the Guerrilla Skeptics on Wikipedia team, and in 2018 became a columnist for "Skeptical Inquirer." To date he has had over 70 articles published by "Skeptical Inquirer" as well as in other publications, and the Wikipedia articles he’s written have garnered over 13 million pageviews.

Rob writes about contemporary skeptical issues and has interviewed individuals as diverse as scientists Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, and Robert Bartholomew, Penn Jillette, Ann Druyan (producer and writer for the modern Cosmos series), Seth Andrews (host of "The Thinking Atheist" podcast), and John de Lancie (Star Trek’s Q).

Rob is registered with the Center for Inquiry’s Speakers Bureau and has given presentations for various skeptic and humanist groups and conventions, including: We Can Reason, Dragon Con, and three times at CSICon (the annual science and skepticism conference in Las Vegas). His topics have included: Critical Thinking, the Wikipedia editing project he volunteers for (GSoW), the harm in believing in psychics and mediums, and the Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project. He has been interviewed about these subjects on various podcasts and YouTube shows, including "The Skeptic Zone," "Big Picture Science", "Be Rationable," "The Phil Ferguson Show", "Banachek’s Brain,"" 502 Conversations," Recovering from Religion, Point of Inquiry, and "The Thinking Atheist."

All of Rob’s skeptical work can be found at: https://linktr.ee/thewellknownskeptic.

Shadow of a Doubt - March 2023

 

• March NCAS lecture- How to talk to a science denier, presented by Lee McIntyre, Ph.D.
• April 1 visit to Museum of Illusions, Washington, DC
• The Woman who saw it all coming to Bethesda
• March Phact Lecture, March 18
  
• NCAS board elections soon
• Stuart Vyse Interim Editor of Skeptical Inquirer
  
• Shadow Light
• Time to Renew? 

 Read Shadow here