We mentioned recently that Cherie Blair, the colorful wife of British P.M. Tony Blair, had attended the opening of an "alternative therapy center" in London run by Ms. Bharti Vyas, Ms. Blair's favorite on-call New Age guru. But it now appears that the guru's ministrations to Ms. Blair to "defeat inner tension by expunging the body's toxins" have not been as effective as hoped. Cherie's inner tensions were clearly anything but defeated when the two women met recently to discuss a karma crisis.

According to the London Daily Mail, some observers have described Ms. Vyas, who specializes in medieval Indian Ayurvedic treatments, as "an innovative health therapist," while other less kind souls have called her "a glorified leg waxer."

When Ms. Blair arrived at the New Age healer's premises for the opening ceremony, she found that the media had showed up in strength, when she had expected "a quiet family affair." She described the proceedings as "disorganized and shambolic," and wrote Ms. Vyas a very sharp letter about it. The acupuncture needle Ms. Blair was seen to be wearing in her left ear to help her relieve stress, prescribed by her guru, seemed to have been ineffective. Ms. Vyas declined to discuss the letter when contacted at her London headquarters.

Consider: Cherie Blair is an attractive, well-educated, intelligent, socially-aware woman. She's a QC (Queen's Counsel) and the wife of the Prime Minister of the UK. You might rightly expect that this lady would be immune to belief in irrational claims. But as I tell my lecture audiences, you must not think for a moment that it's only uneducated, unintelligent, people who embrace quackery, superstition, and pseudoscience. We are all subject to falling for nonsense. We must all be vigilant.

Homeopathy (UK spelling, "homoeopathy") is newly popular, since it now promises cures for anthrax, bubonic plague, smallpox, and radiation sickness (?) following the September 11 incident. As we've said before, that's a totally quack claim. But I am recalling a statement, an unfulfilled commitment made by an advocate of "alternative" medicine....

I was reading through "Follies and Fallacies in Medicine," a book by Petr Skrabanek and James McCormick, published by Tarragon Press, Glasgow, which should be on library shelves but is difficult to find here in the USA. While thus educating myself, I was reminded that the UK's Dr. David Taylor Reilly, an eminent defender of "scientific" homeopathy and official homeopath to the royal house of Windsor, wrote in Nature Magazine immediately after the appearance of the French findings in 1988:

If we prove the observations [made by Dr. Jacques Benveniste, and published in Nature] wrong we will have exposed homoeopathy as one of medical science's greatest misadventures - a folly so massive it will merit study in itself.

It's time that Dr. Reilly got up-to-date on quack news. Nature and other scientific publications have firmly established by now that Benveniste was quite wrong, and his observations are on the trash pile. Now, it's being rumored about that a very definitive test of his claims is being planned, so we have that to look forward to. That is, if it ever materializes. Claimants, as we well know, are eager to offer, but reluctant to consummate, proper tests. Which brings me to Sylvia Browne. Remember her?

My, how time flies! Can you believe that it's been 75 days since Sylvia agreed - for the second time - to be tested by the JREF for the million-dollar prize? There's been much speculation about how she might - and I'm sure will - manage to wriggle out of being tested, and I'll admit that I'm just a tad curious about how that might be accomplished. My best guess is that she'll just forget about it, and will hope that everyone else does, too. We have lots of suitable and eager volunteer subjects for her test, and she has the possible dates when we could conduct the test, but we've not heard from her! Hmmm.

I'll give you here a typical "out" of the sort that these clever folks come up with, and I'll suggest that there may be valuable pointers here for Sylvia, as well. A reader has sent me an account of his epiphany in regard to the deviousness of the "psychics" and their bizarre notions.

To prepare you, "Reiki" (pronounced "ray-kee") is a combination of two Japanese words: Rei and Ki, meaning respectively, "supernatural force," and "life energy." A Reiki practitioner claims to be able to channel this "force" to places in a patient's body where healing is needed. The most common demonstration used to show this, is to suggest to the subject that a certain part of the body will feel warm, and it is well known that this sort of suggestion easily gives rise to the conviction that heat is being experienced. In testing this claim, I have found that when the subject does not know when or where the "force" is being generated and directed, he/she cannot detect any effect.

(Prometheus Books publishes "Alternative Healthcare," a book by Jack Raso, edited by Dr. Stephen Barrett, which I highly recommend. There you will find extensive accounts of this and other forms of quackery, from ayurveda and aromatherapy to zen shiatsu to zone therapy. And if you're not already consulting Dr. Barrett's web site regularly, please do, at www.quackwatch.com)

Shown here is the "antahkarana" reiki's "master frequency" symbol. The American Reiki Master Association's first-degree reiki manual states that "laying upon it for three minutes will reverse body magnetic poles and body polarity permanently" and thus transform one into "a channel for natural healing energies and chakra balance." Hey, I'm willing to be shown. My magnetic poles have been in need of reversal for years now.....

Here is the reader's account:

Perhaps you remember that several months ago I contacted you about a person - my girlfriend's Reiki master - who made a lot of claims even more fantastic than Reiki, and which could easily be tested. One of his claims is that he can enter a closed room via "astral dimensions" and lift objects in that room without being visible himself. I pointed out the existence of your million-dollar challenge to my girlfriend, who tried to convince him to participate. His main condition was that he would remain anonymous, a condition you generously accepted, although it was an exception to the rules. You also predicted that he would never accept, and I agreed, but I was curious which escape he would find.

I can answer that question now. His first strategy was to stall. For months he tried to ignore the issue, but my girlfriend insisted. Then he said that he needed more information about you. He needed your picture, so that he could examine you "in the astral plane" (I am not sure this is the correct terminology, but you get the idea), so we told him the address of your web site. He claimed he did not know how to use the Internet (although he has his own home page), so we printed your web page and mailed it to him.

Again a long silence followed, but finally when my girlfriend asked about it, he gave a reason for not participating. He claims to have examined you. He found that you would indeed pay him the million dollars if he succeeded, and he said that this would be easy, and that many people were able to do this. However, he claimed that he saw "dark forces" behind you, that would try to find out his identity. I did not talk to him. My girlfriend did, and as far as I know these "dark forces" were not explicitly identified, but my girlfriend is certain that she understands what he means.

It is all related to the events of 11 September. Apparently he believes that his talents would get the attention of the CIA (the dark forces), who could use him very well to find out where Bin Laden is and what he might be planning next. It is not clear why it would be such a bad thing to help prevent the killing of thousands more innocent people, but I guess he is worried that Bin Laden's organization would find out about him and go after him.

He has said similar things about ETA in the past (he claims he once helped the Spanish police, but stopped doing that when ETA tried to kill him). In any case, it seems that the story ends here, at least as far as the million dollar challenge is concerned. Unfortunately my girlfriend still believes every word of it.

How the ETA, a Basque separatist group, could be involved here, is an even greater mystery than Reiki itself....! My comments at the beginning of this item reaffirm that we offer the million-dollar prize for a successful demonstration of Reiki - especially the "heat treatment" claim.....

Sylvia, are you listening? Dear reader, please examine this escape technique and imagine Sylvia Browne in the same mode. Fits, doesn't it? As for this chap's closing inquiry, the "heat" phenomenon can certainly be tested, and we've done it before - without positive results, I might add. I'll reaffirm that we offer the million-dollar prize for a successful demonstration of Reiki - especially the "heat treatment" claim, but I'd like to know if there are other phenomena claimed by any Reiki practitioners that we could test more directly and definitively. Entering a closed room via "astral dimensions" and lifting an object in that room without being visible, would be a doozie, but in view of this rejection of our offer, perhaps this is one of those "elusive" talents with which we're so often confronted. Any other suggestions?

Journalist Melanie Doel, interviewing Uri Geller for BBC Wales recently, was asked by Geller to participate in the old sealed-in-an-envelope-drawing process. Well, not to the surprise of any of us, of course, Geller was able to replicate the drawing very accurately. You might recall that previously I described the fact that every time he sets up this demonstration, Mr. Geller always seems to be right there in the room when the original drawing is prepared. We probably can suspect why.

Well, when Melanie did the thing with Uri this time, she rather let a heavily secret cat out of the bag. It appears that the procedure was exactly what we'd expect. She described the results: "The picture Uri Geller did was really similar to mine and the same size. I don't think he could see what I was doing and there was no one else in the room." That clearly says that she and Geller were in the room when the drawing was made, right? But the newspaper report on the event said something quite different. There, we read that Ms. Doel "was asked to draw something in secret to see if Geller could replicate it." What's this "in secret" modifier? With Geller in the room, and no one else present? Not what we'd call, "secret," is it?

In the UK, the Oxford United football team were chafing at 13 defeats in 17 games, so they did the only rational, logical, thing: they had the Right Reverend Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, perform an exorcism at their new field to lift a gypsy curse on it. You see, the £15 million Kassam Stadium was built on a farmer's field, from which gypsies had to be evicted before work could start on construction, and they put a curse on the property, so it was obvious that an exorcism was the only thing to do. Chairman Firoz Kassam was realistic about it all. He said, "The Bishop of Oxford has done his bit. Now it is down to the players to do theirs. The gypsy curse is lifted so we have no excuse." So there!

But the bishop denied that it was "really" exorcism, and said that nowadays the enlightened church doesn't use that term. "We call it the ministry of deliverance from evil," he said. "It was a serious prayer for God to bless the ground, including that [it] might be freed from evil. If any evil of any kind is around, obviously we are praying that it no longer be there." Oh. Okay. Thought for a moment there we were being superstitious, or using magic....

What's with football in the UK? Reading Football Club hired Uri Geller to use his magic on them, and they promptly sank almost out of sight. And now Oxford uses a "gypsy curse" as a rationale for losing, then buys a heavy incantation to improve their game?

Ah, but in the USA, we must admit that we have our teams offering up pre-game prayers for dominance over the opposition, so we can hardly claim not to be superstitious, or willing to use some divine bribery to come out on top.

Now we have a clue about the sudden re-emergence of "Chariots of the Gods?"author Erich Von Däniken. James Guttridge of "The X-Files"TV series, we're informed, will serve as executive producer on a new series that will see some of Von Däniken's famous crackpot theories of ancient visits to Earth by aliens, used a basis. This will be a one-hour, 22-episode series to start in January. The series will follow a team of scientific and archaeological experts in search of evidence of man's extraterrestrial heritage, following Von Däniken's clues). We're told that they will come up against forces who want these discoveries buried forever, and soon learn that these alien visits are still occurring, and what may have begun as a journey into the past might have dire global consequences for the future!

One of the producers, Michael Jacobs, says that the series

. . . offers global appeal to a wide audience demographic. Tie that with the marketability and franchise of Erich von Däniken's name, the investigative exploration of his theories, the action and, of course, the unknown, and you've got a series that can offer entertainment and longevity the world over. . . . This is the first time [Von Däniken] has had his name tied to a fictional rather than documentary series.

Come on, Mr. Jacobs! Get real! Erich Von Däniken is a fiction writer, and always has been. Yes, as with "The X-Files," you'll get a substantial viewing audience, because the public appetite for nonsense is insatiable. The series, as with "The X-Files," will take on a certain acceptability from the claim that it is "based on" news items and other often transitory statements. But there certainly was no "investigative exploration of [Von Däniken's] theories" done at all. It was and is a hoax, pure and simple. It's the product of lies and misrepresentations, wild speculation based on pseudoscience, and outright fraud.

But you don't care, Mr. Jacobs. It will be profitable. Bottom line.

I recently commented on David Copperfield's prediction trick, which he says is not a trick. I'll give you here, in excerpted form, an account from a 1991 newspaper describing a similar demonstration performed by my good friend Bob Steiner, National President Emeritus of the Society of American Magicians.

Bob started the stunt by bringing the written predictions to the newspaper office and in front of a reporter and other witnesses, he placed it inside a small plastic box, which went into a paper bag. The bag went into a mayonnaise jar, which in turn was entombed in a block of Plaster of Paris in an empty orange juice carton. An officer of Burns International Security took the thus-sealed prediction and locked it in a safety deposit box at the local Wells Fargo Bank. He said that no one else had touched the predictions, and that he had kept both keys to the box.

Two weeks later, Steiner showed up at the newspaper office, and before opening the predictions, called for four volunteers, including the local mayor. Each volunteer took turns unsealing the predictions, which were then given to the mayor to be read. Neither Steiner nor anyone who was present when the predictions were sealed, had touched the carton or the predictions.

And the predicted headlines were: "Escobar Surrenders" and "Concord Weapons Base Threatened." Bang on!

"I'm a magician," Steiner said afterward. "I study the art of deception and the art of entertainment. So, unless you know how I did it, yes, you were deceived." Bob Steiner has written a book, "Don't Get Taken!" in which he exposes con- and scam-artists. Interested readers can obtain a copy for US$14.95 + US$2 for postage, sent to

Wide-Awake Books
P.O. Box 659
El Cerrito, CA 94530

(Overseas orders, US$4 for postage, please.)

When the Society of American Magicians (SAM) was founded back in 1902, their stance against supernatural claims was firm. One reason was that famous magician Harry Houdini was very much a presence there, and his views on such departures from artistic integrity were well known. Over the years, that stance softened, but members like Bob Steiner have stood firmly by the original tenets of the SAM.

"Anyone who does this for fun and entertainment, I applaud them," Steiner says. But his opinion of those who represent such a stunt as the "real thing," is not at all generous. Like any good magician, he would not say how he pulled off the trick, but he denied that he was a true psychic. "I lecture police and community groups warning them to stay away from frauds, and I do magic for fun," said Steiner, a founder of the Bay Area Skeptics. Now, dear reader, if that trick can be done by another magician and earn major newspaper and TV coverage, why did Copperfield have to misrepresent his performance? Steiner's trick was every bit as good as Copperfield's, and just as confounding....

David Copperfield is a prominent member of the SAM.....

Last week we reported that Miss Cleo had been fined $75,000 in Minnesota. And I brashly opined that other Attorneys General would not join the battle against the obvious scam being practiced by Cleo. Well, I have to apologize. Now she's not just in hot water, but boiling water. And she didn't see it coming....?

Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor's office has announced that Fort Lauderdale-based Access Resource Services Inc. (ARS) - known to the public as the "Psychic Hotline" featuring Miss Cleo - will have to settle claims that it used deceptive practices against Arkansans, to the tune of $3.2 million! ARS will issue refunds or forgive still unpaid bills in its settlement of the lawsuit filed by Arkansas officials.

That lawsuit claims that that the "psychic reading" service operated a 900-number toll service that wrongly billed customers at a rate of $4.99 per minute. The suit also accused ARS of charging Arkansans for calls they never made, or of charging exorbitant fees for "psychic services" that had been clearly represented as "free." Consumers who already paid the company are to receive a claim form within 30 days for a refund. "I am very happy that we have changed the business practices of ARS, the Psychic Hotline, and Miss Cleo," A.G. Pryor said. "I predict that many Arkansans will be getting an opportunity for a refund in the near future."

Well, that's one prediction that not only will come true, but didn't cost the customers a penny. And it wasn't made by mystical psychic means.

Congratulations, Attorney General Pryor. And thank you....

(I've received many inquiries about the recent media report that US intelligence agencies are reactivating some of their old "paranormal spies." Next week, I'll have ample comment on that latest example of craziness in high places.)