His-stories

At the 1989 NZCSICOP conference Dr Denis Dutton generalised that women's magazines contained horoscopes and men's magazines didn't. A female voice rightly objected that Broadsheet was horoscope-less. There is also a dubious exception to the generalisation about men's magazines (see box). Nevertheless, what Denis said was largely confirmed by a quick survey I made of women's magazines at a Whitcoulls newsstand. New York Woman doesn't carry horoscopes, neither does Moxie (but it does carry an advice column by a so-called psychic). These were the only additional exceptions I could find. However I discovered Australian Elle has not only horoscopes but a numerology page as well.

This is not to say that men have no interest in the paranormal. My guess was that while men may have relatively little interest in such personal paranormality as horoscopes, alternative healthcare, channelling and the like, they would be the more likely consumers of stories of UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, and ancient astronauts.

Having in Part 1 looked at Broadsheet and the New Zealand Woman' s Weekly as representing, respectively, alternative and conventional women's magazines, it would be fair to investigate two equivalent men's magazines. Unfortunately, there aren't any. For a start, there are no New Zealand men's magazines. While the Australian edition of Penthouse may serve as a "typical" man's magazine, I have had to take the well-bred American magazine Esquire as representing the alternative. Given that in 1978 almost half Esquire's editorial staff were women (admittedly the proportion steadily declined over the next six years) it perhaps may do.

A survey of Esquire from 1978 to 1984 turned up only five articles of Skeptical interest. Only one of them was a feature article. The rest were contributions to regular columns. They may be summarised thus:

14 March 1978 (Sports) Biorhythms and the Big Game by Ray Blount Jr.

The essay is a witty and sharply critical account of biorhythms. It adopts the simple but effective procedure of applying biorhythms to great moments in baseball, boxing and football, and finds the theory wanting. It could be objected the cases are selective. Perhaps for this reason its conclusion is ambivalent:

"No doubt there is something in biorhythms. According to what one reads, a great deal of enthusiastic research is being done on them, and the Japanese and the Swiss find them useful. But I wouldn't bet the rent—not if I wanted to go on paying it rhythmically."

January 1984 (Ethics) Looking for an answer by Anthony Brandt.

Not many magazines have "Ethics" columns. When it was written by Harry Stein I thought it one of the best things in Esquire. In this essay Stein's successor recounts a visit to a young astrologer whom he found utterly persuasive. "A scientist laughs at this kind of evidence—I should too. From the rational point of view it is indefensible." But Brandt goes on: "] find it hard not to believe that a spiritual system of some sort invests the world Science surely cannot explain everything."

Brandt endorses horoscopes, I Ching and reincarnation, but in the end confesses:

"Life may have a spiritual system behind it, but few can agree on what it is, where 'the truth' lies. So here I stand, possibly forever: halfway between skepticism and belief; one foot in Eden, one in the battlefield."

It is a self-indulgent, unenlightening piece, and has little discernible connection with ethics. Brandt may have 'one foot in Eden, one in the battlefield', but his weight is not evenly distributed between them.

January 1984 (Unconventional Wisdom) Walking on Fire by Adam Smith.

Smith, a highly regarded Esquire writer, normally writes, like his namesake, on matters of economics. However, in this article he deals with a topic close to N.Z. Skeptics' hearts.

"The usual rationalistic explanation is that fire walking is some sort of a hoax, or that there is a perfectly ordinary phenomenon involved to which no one pays sufficient attention. A 1977 article in Scientific American said the firewalkers' feet were protected by the 'Leidenfrost point,' the same effect that makes drops of water dance on a skillet. Heat vaporizes the bottom of the water drop as it nears the skillet, forming a thin cushion of vapor. But the author of the Scientific American article based his thesis on a study of drops of water, not of fire walking."

And so much for rationalistic explanations. Those who attended Dr John Cameron's excellent lecture at the 1989 N.Z. Skeptics conference will consider that particular explanation quite inadequate.

The article quotes Andrew Weill. Weill

"...a physician who has written on both conventional and alternative medicine, surveyed the fire-walking literature as part of his new book, Health and Healing. He found that the appeal of such explanations as the "Leidenfrost effect' to the scientists who propose them is that they avoid any reference to the mind and consciousness."

Not so. If the physics is adequate who needs mind and consciousness? The article is at pains to promote the spiritual side of firewalking. It quotes a firewalker who has 'seen the light':

"I think this is a time in world history... when we have to look at the invisible limitations placed on us by our assumptions. If we can walk across fire, why can't we solve some of our basic problems? Why can't we control the proliferation of arms... If I had to tell you what that experience did for me, I would Say it made me aware that we limit our own potential ourselves, because we exclude it by our beliefs. We can do far more than we think we can."

I find this frightening.

June 1984 (Sports Clinic) Art of control by Michael Keiffer.

The article is about the Eastern martial arts and in particular the astounding physical feats martial artists can achieve supposedly through control of "Ki"—life energy.

"By focusing energy, or Ki, martial arts masters can make themselves too heavy to be moved and can knock a man down with a punch whose trajectory is shorter than two inches."

The Eastern martial arts could prove a novel area of research for skeptics. Bruce Lee himself said "Ninety per cent of oriental self-defence is baloney"! and it is pleasing to see the 'mystical powers', including the one inch punch, being given the heave-ho in the magazine Australasian Fighting Arts (see Vol.12, No. 2, page 45 and Vol.12, No. 4, page 76).

One full-length article which appeared in this period may be on the periphery of the skeptic's area of interest. The Power of Trance by Thomas B. Morgan (January 1983, p.74) enthusiastically describes self-hypnosis and how it has helped the author in, among other things, writing that very article. Following Julian Jaynes, Morgan seems to reject the notion that hypnosis is no more than an expression of normal human suggestibility and to endorse hypnosis as an altered state of mind. Many skeptics would think otherwise.

The earliest of the Esquires examined contains a letter from a doctor responding to an article, "What your Eyes tell you about your Health" January 1978). He said "(Iridology's) major benefits appear to be of an economic nature to those audacious enough to practice this dubious speciality." The author of the article, a Ms Maxwell, gave this odd reply:

"Dr. Klaus Kuehn appears to be suffering from a peculiar myopia that causes certain members of the American medical community to resist diagnostic techniques they don't themselves practice—and can't bill for."

It does appear that the incidence of paranormal/New Age articles in Esquire increased during the period looked at. More recent issues of the magazine seem to be loaded with fashion plates and smell of perfume. This prevents me investigating whether the magazine has further imitated conventional woman's magazines by providing its readers with a regular diet of paranormality. I am certainly sceptical about Esquire's claim to present "Man at his best".

Recent issues of Penthouse, our ‘conventional man's magazine', have include the following articles of skeptical interest:

The Prophets of Profit by James Randi (February 1987)

The Tao of Sex Part I by John Masters (May 1988)

The Tao of Sex Part II by John Masters (June 1988)

Mindbending made easy by Ben Harris (June 1988)

an article on the New Age by Jean Norman (October 1989)

Abducted? by Bill Chalker (November 1989)

There may well be others.

Randi's exposure of faith-healing scams is justly famous. "How to be a psychic' and, judging from a subsequent letter to the editor, the Jean Norman article take a light-hearted, skeptical look at psychics and aspects of the New Age.

The Tao of Sex articles will interest anyone seeking the Ki to an improved love life.

Despite the question mark in its title Bill Chalker's six-page article devotes only one paragraph to a skeptical viewpoint (Philip Klass's). Chalker tries to counter it by referring to Jenny Randles' book Abduction which is said to give details of "over 200 abductions reported from 35 countries". (See p.10 for a comment on Randles' book.) Clearly, the skeptical viewpoint is not given justice.

Conclusion

I was surprised to find that UFOs (apart from their connection with abductions) and ancient astronauts figured not at all in men's magazines. The latter subject is obviously passe. The channelling boom, on the other hand, is too recent to have featured in the Esquire sample. There seems to be much less interest in alternative health amongst male readers, than female.

I was surprised that the two men's magazines dealt with the paranormal as much as they did. However neither of them did so anywhere near as obsessively as the N.Z. Woman's Weekly. My impression is that Esquire is even less inclined to debate the paranormal than Broadsheet. The most active questioner of the paranormal is clearly Penthouse.

Envoie

The March 1990 Broadsheet devoted more than one page to Alternative Approaches to the Treatment of Cervical Dysplasia. The alternative approaches were acupuncture, naturopathy and homeopathy. A 'strong note of caution' regarding the use of these therapies was sounded by Sandra Coney the following month. The alternative therapy advocates responded in the June/July issue. Another letter with syntax as weird as its content also appeared in the June/July issue giving the impression that alternativists are strong amongst Broadsheet's readership.

1. Sinclair, Marianne They died Young London 1976, p.160.