Skeptics caution re: Channelers. Fair warning.

               SKEPTICS CHALLENGE TRANCE-CHANNELERS TO BE TESTED,
                           URGE PUBLIC TO BE CAUTIOUS


LOS ANGELES -- The Executive Council of the Committee for the Scientific 
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) is disturbed by the rapid 
rise of the latest New Age fad of "trance-channeling."

     Recent polls indicate that a considerable segment of the American 
population believes that it is possible "to have contact with the dead." In a 
poll published in "American Health" magazine (January/February 1987), some 244 
of the adult population now claims to have had contact with dead persons, as 
compared to 27% in 1973. The figure is 67% for widows. Trance-channeling no 
doubt contributes to this attitude.

     We submit that trance-channeling is nothing more than a chic renaming of 
what used to be known as "spiritualism."

     The spiritualist movement was launched in 1848 when two sisters from 
upstate New York, Margaret and Kate Fox, claimed that they were able to 
"communicate with the dead." Through a series of rapping noises,  the "spirits 
from beyond"  gave advice, made predictions, and consoled loved ones. The Fox 
sisters went on tour and performed in large arenas, charging clients for the 
opportunity to communicate with spirits. Within a few months of the Fox 
sisters' beginnings, thousands of mediums around the world were claiming the 
ability to communicate with the dead. Years later, Maggie Fox admitted that 
she and her sister had been perpetrating a hoax.

     The movement they created continued. By the mid-nineteen-twenties, 
however, the scientific community had thoroughly discredited "mediums" such as 
Eusapia Palladino and Margery Crandon, who were duping an unsuspecting public. 

     Although spiritualism had been on the decline in North American it has 
now reemerged as "trance-channelling." Included among the well-known trance-
channelers is J. Z. Knight, who claims that a 35,000-year-old man named 
"Ramtha" uses her body to speak words of wisdom. The famous actress Shirley 
MacLaine's use of channelers to gain information about her "past lives" has 
led to wide public acceptance of this practice.

     The Executive Council of CSICOP finds it surprising that trance-
channelers have been allowed to make uncorroborated and unverified claims, 
charge people hundreds or thousands of dollars for public and private 
audiences, and offer advice on business and personal matters without providing 
evidence that they indeed have contact with discarnate beings. Many people 
have been misled by such practices.

     We challenge the trance-channelers to offer proof of their abilities. The 
Executive Council of CSICOP is making a public offer to provide scientific 
inquirers to test, under controlled laboratory conditions, the claims of 
trance-channelers.

     We suggest that the public be extremely cautious about these claims 
unless and until they are corroborated by carefully controlled scientific 
testing.


                                      - 2 -



                                        Paul Kurtz, Chairman
                                        James Alcock
                                        Kendrick Frazier
                                        Martin Gardner
                                        Ray Hyman
                                        Phillip J. Klass
                                        Lee Nisbet
                                        Mark Plummer
                                        James Randi
                                        
                                         



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