Law and Magic Blog

Point of Inquiry (POI) Podcast On Houdini

An October 30, 2009 Point of Inquiry podcast on Houdini's work. Skeptic and former magician Joe Nickell conducts a seance, and discusses Spiritualism, the paranormal, and magicians. Here are prior podcasts on Houdini: October 2008, November 2007, and October 2006.

Center For Inquiry Member Faces Lawsuit In Nigeria

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) has announced that one of its members, Leo Igwe, is facing a lawsuit brought by Helen Ukpabio, head of the Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries in Nigeria. Ms. Ukpabio claims that Mr. Igwe and other members of humanist groups are interfering with her right to practice her faith. Mr. Igwe counters that Ms. Ikpabio is a witch hunter, and "has repeatedly targeted and persecuted the most vulnerable members of society. She is the one who should face justice and answer for her crimes." Here is more from the CFI's recent press release.

The suit, scheduled for a hearing on Dec.17, is seeking an injunction preventing Igwe and other humanist groups from holding seminars or workshops aimed at raising consciousness about the dangers associated with the religious belief in witchcraft. The suit aims to erect a legal barrier against rationalist or humanist groups who might criticize, denounce or otherwise interfere with their practice of Christianity and their “deliverance” of people supposedly suffering from possession of an “evil or witchcraft spirit.” The suit also seeks to prevent law enforcement from arresting or detaining any member of the Liberty Gospel Church for performing or engaging in what they say are constitutionally protected religious activities. These activities include the burning of three children, ages 3 through 6, with fire and hot water, as reported by James Ibor of the Basic Rights Counsel in Nigeria on August 24, 2009. The parents believed their children were witches.

Ukpabio is seeking damages of 200 billion Nigerian Naira, more than $1.3 billion, for supposedly unlawful and unconstitutional infringement on her rights to belief in “God, Satan, witchcraft, Heaven and Hell fire” and for the alleged unlawful and unconstitutional detention of two members of her church.

Along with the full support of the Center for Inquiry, Igwe has been offered legal representation from Stepping Stones, a charity registered in the UK dedicated to defending alleged witches, primarily in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

CFI’s anti-superstition campaign is continuing strong. The campaign began May 29 of this year with a groundbreaking seminar titled “Witchcraft and its Impact on Development” in Ghana. Campaign organizers say that they hope to educate the public about the dangers of superstitious beliefs while highlighting the abuse of children and exposing the "false prophets" who spread dangerous misinformation.

“The persecution of alleged child witches underscores the importance of our anti-superstition campaign in Africa,” said Norm R. Allen Jr., executive director of African Americans for Humanism and CFI’s Transnational Programs. “Superstition has dire consequences to individuals and societies, and often contributes greatly to gross human rights abuses. Those who continue to view superstition as benign must think again.”

Allen says that plans are underway to lead marches aimed at combating superstition and to work with governments, NGOs, traditional rulers, and women and childrens’ groups to promote rationality and universal human rights.

Igwe remains optimistic and full of resolve. “I am convinced that at the end of the day, reason, justice and human rights will prevail,” he said.

Another Strange Image In An Inanimate Object

MSNBC.com reports that a woman says she has spotted a picture of Jesus in the bottom of her iron. I just don't see the resemblance, myself. The image looks more like William Shakesepare. Or maybe Sir Isaac Newton. Willie Geist plumps for the Mona Lisa.

Albinos Living in Tanzania, Other East African Areas Continue To Fear For Their Lives

CNN reports that many albinos living in Burundi and Tanzania have gone into hiding after the numbers of attacks on them have increased. Some people living in the area believe that body parts belonging to those individuals suffering from albinism have special powers and are useful in the practice of witchcraft. Recently, a court in Tanzania sentenced seven people to death for killing persons suffering from albinism and harvesting their body parts for use in witchcraft. Al-Jazeera reports that persons convicted of similar offenses in Burundi have received prison sentences.

Skeptic Stuff On Sale

Skeptic is having a five-day, 25 percent off sale. Among the hot items on offer: VHS tapes, audio books of Michael Shermer's bestsellers, back issues of Skeptic Magazine, and "Skeptic Swag" (T-shirts, stickers, et al.).

That's $25 For Your Fortune, $100 For More Info, and $1250 To Remove That Curse

Suffolk County (New York) police arrested a Florida woman on a number of counts last month after she tried to convince an eighteen year old that the teen was suffering from a curse; for $1250, the woman said, she could rid the girl of the problem. The teen had alerted police, who were watching the exchange, and pounced on 22-year-old Tiffany Evans. In New York, the relevant penal code section prohibiting fortune telling is § 165.35 which reads:

A  person is guilty of fortune telling when, for a fee or compensation which he directly or indirectly  solicits  or  receives,  he  claims  or pretends  to  tell  fortunes,  or  holds  himself  out as being able, by claimed or pretended use of occult powers, to answer questions  or  give  advice  on  personal  matters  or  to exorcise, influence or affect evil spirits or curses; except that this section does not apply to  a  person who  engages  in  the  aforedescribed  conduct  as  part  of  a  show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement. Fortune telling is a class B misdemeanor.

Notice the exemption for entertainment.

Here's more from the Times Beacon Record.

Ailuromelanotriskaidekaphobia

  Happy Friday the Thirteenth.

From I Can Has Cheezburger.com

The Failure of Psychic Detection

From Benjamin Radford on LiveScience, "Jaycee Dugard Abduction Case Highlights Failure of Psychics."

Tanzanian Court Sentences Four To Death For Witchcraft Killings

A Tanzanian court has handed out a death sentence to four persons convicted of murdering albino individuals for their body parts. Some people believe albino body parts can be used in charms by witch doctors to bring good luck.

The death sentences are the second handed down in trials conducted in Tanzania over this kind of murder. Last September the same court sentenced three to death by hanging for the same crime. Read more here, and read more here and here in previous posts about killings of those murdered for body parts in Tanzania and other countries.

Will Health Care Insurance Plans Include Complementary/Alternative Medicine Coverage?

So, have you thought about whether any of the health care bills would require that insurance plans cover alternative or complementary medical treatments? No? Check out this story from Newsweek magazine, which suggests that the CAM lobby has already made its arguments to the Hill.

Requiring insurers to cover therapies with unknown outcomes runs counter to the White House's push for medicine with a proven track record. The basic idea behind evidence-based medicine is that doctors ought to use treatments that have the best possible evidence that they work. What counts as the best possible evidence? Randomized clinical trials.... Clinical trials work fine for drugs, where trials can quantify and compare outcomes. But for alternative treatments, things like prayer or even yoga, the evidence gets much less clear; randomized trials are more difficult to conduct. "For drugs you have placebos and double-blinded studies," says Timmermans. "But you cannot have a placebo for testing behavioral interventions." So alternative treatments are essentially on an uneven playing field when it comes to evidence-based medicine. Timmermans admits that "it's not an equal-opportunity methodology."

...

Requiring insurers to cover prayer treatment may be a bit too extreme for health-care reform. More interesting to explore though, are other forms of nontraditional medicine, floated in reform bills, that have a stronger claim to an evidence base. Take, for example, complementary and alternative medicine, a field often criticized for unproven therapies. Some 38 percent of Americans use some form of it. Moreover, the field has increasingly embraced traditional research methods. Just a decade ago, the government established a National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The center studies "alternative healing practices"—anything from the use of echinacea to treat colds, to acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome—"in the context of rigorous science." They use that gold standard Timmermans mentioned: randomized, clinical trials.

Here's a link to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Now, I admit to practicing yoga, off and on, and I think (I think) it helps me feel less stress and it helps me calm down after a long day of magical legalizing. I know it helps my flexibility, but then so would, I suspect, going back to my ballet exercises. I do feel better when I downward dog and make like a tree, even though I don't Om. It annoys the felines. But I don't try to bill my health insurance company for my trips to the yoga studio. I'm not certain there's cause and effect there. Hey, I tried feverfew for my migraines, too, but I didn't see any amelioration there. Zippo. One of my primary care physicians explained that outcome--there's no quality control in the feverfew you buy OTC. Better to rely on the meds the neurologist prescribes, and mirabile dictu, my migraines have decreased significantly over the past few years. Hooray for modern medicine and Big Pharma (waving imaginary flag).