IIG Celebrates Ten Years of Independent Investigation
The Custom IIG Awards
On August 21st, CFI hosted the ten year anniversary of the IIG (Independent Investigation Group) with a huge bash. It was wonderful. Dedicated to the memory of Martin Gardner and with over 100 people there to celebrate, it was a non-stop brainstorming session jam packed with fun, thrills and excitement. Special guests who presented and recieved awards included our own Michael Shermer and Brian Dunning, as well as Brian Dalton (Mr. Deity), and esteemed experts such as Carol Tavris, Harriet Hall and Eugenie Scott. Good friends and fellow IIG members Wendy Hughes, Dave Richards, and Ross Blocher were honored with special awards for their hard work which has helped put the IIG at the top of its game and at a position in paranormal investigation that few groups can top. Thanks to them and many other IIGers, we are moving into an era when affiliate IIG cells are multiplying all over the country. The grassroots skeptical movement is growing steadily and these new investigative groups are spreading the word that they want to get involved like never before.
The Three Brians: Hart, Dalton & Dunning
Never without theirsharp sense of humor intact, leaders like Jim Underdown and Brian Hart are moving us all into the spotlight. We are leaping forward with growing list of projects that will unfold in the next few months including: Power Balance videos, The Odds Must Be Crazy web site, (an on-line compendium of coincidence stories with an eye to drawing in new skeptics) further efforts into the California Board of Registered Nurses reform and several new challengers for the $50K. There's way too much to put in print here. Let's just say we have our work cut out for us and there's no rest for the weary. What the IIG is actively doing is what the Skeptologists should be presenting and I'm proud to a part of the group. Until something big happens, we can only step back to thank those few and far between television series that have been successful in managing to sneak the critical thinking message into the mass media.
Television shows “The Mentalist “and “Eureka” received big time awards for their indiviual efforts on behalf of science and thinking rationally about paranormal issues. Both were given an outstanding IIG SurlyRamics trophy designed by Amy Roth of Skepchick. These are really beautiful pieces of one-of- a-kind art! As Bob Cassidy, world famous master mentalist told his audiences last week when I saw him at The Magic Castle; up until last year nobody knew what a mentalist was. The confusion that has often been a contentious issue between what is a psychic entertainer or a mentalist and what masquerades as the “real thing” in the guise of a “psychic medium” has been clarified for millions of television watchers and that's a major boost for all of us. Now, thanks to the producers of that show, we have a little less explaining to do when we get onstage.
Pitching the Woo
To remind everyone just how powerful a “psychic” reading can be and where it can go, I did tarot readings for those who dared. What fun! Now that was an unexpected pleasure. I don't think many of the folks had any idea how “accurate” a reading could be. Not that I was trying to convince anybody or anything. There were some amazed faces. It just goes to show that anyone can be taken in by the methods and seductions of woo. The picture below of the wide-eyed sitter was snapped when I just happened to “hit” on one of those coincidental moments that make these mini-psycho-dramas seem all seem so real. Fortunately, those present all knew better than to believe in such rubbish…
The Skeptic Gets a Reading
Close-up magic was skillfully supplied by IIG member Dan Bowen, who held court for several hours of prestidigitation. Between the two of us, we seriously confounded a lot of people. Later on we sat around and shared tricks with those who were still sober enough to pay attention. It was great to see a fellow magician using his powers for good. I'm hoping that in the future, Dan and other people with a knowledge of deception and what it can do will choose to join up with the CFI/IIG affiliates and strive to brighten the image of magic and magicians by using truth to show illusion and illusion to show truth.
Dan Bowen Amazing the Crowd
Sharing a Few Miracles
There were literally hundreds of photographs taken by the lovely, talented and indefatigable Susan Gerbic, and a rocking slide show with a crunchy soundtrack by Roxy Music can be viewed at:
“…which has helped put the IIG at the top of its game and at a position in paranormal investigation that few groups can top.”
I’ve been thinking this over for awhile and I can’t think of any group that can challenge the IIG in this area.
I’d like to thank Derek Bartholomaus for managing the live ustream for this event. It was nice for us newb east-coast IIG-ers (and others who couldn’t be there physically) to share in this wonderful event. Congratulations IIG-LA!
wonderful! A well deserved party, and who said skeptics are boring?
Has the IIG ever given Psych, the show that The Mentalist stole the concept and several ideas for episodes from, a “big time award”?
Yes… here is a link to the IIG page for our IIG Awards that refers to the pilot episode of Psych that won an award.
http://www.iigwest.com/iigawards/2006/index.html
Thank you for the link Ms. Hughes.
How I found my way to this blog today (altho you know I read it), ironically enough, was because I have a google alert for our “Power Balance” investigation, even tho the tireless Susan Gerbic posted the link on IIG’s Yahoo Group, too :-)
Thank you, again, Mark, for your kind words… and for entertaining at our amazing 10th Anniversary party. The memory of it is almost like a dream! There is so much that I want us to accomplish in the next couple of years… It seems like such a short time ago that I didn’t even know there was a word for what I am… skeptic was not a word with which I was familiar. The first time I heard it was from a friend who is a Presbyterian pastor, and who heard me talking about what I thought! (Wendy, you are a skeptic.)
I learned about critical thinking in college — night school; but I put that to use, I have fun with it, in IIG! We put our heads together and try to solve problems… that’s better than just complaining or feeling depressed all the time. And the sociability is sure fun :-) OK… I’m done now.
What a great idea! There should be tarot readings at every skeptics event. A skeptic who have never been targeted by a skilled cold reader can have no idea how compelling such an experience can be….
I watched this happen over and over that day. The skeptic would sit down and tell Mark, “I’ve watched/read all about cold-reading”. They swore that they would give no feedback to Mark, then proceeded to nod their head, smile and lean forward throughout the whole thing. It was so funny.
Many people think it is going to be like someone trying to hit on names of your dead family members, “give me a B” kind of thing. Mark is so personable and engaging that you find yourself agreeing and helping to make the hit.
He told one man that he would be making “life and death decisions” and that man told Mark that he was currently sitting in a jury for a murder trial.
Another man Mark told had Jimmy Cricket sitting on his shoulder, the wife watching freaked out because she later told us that Jimmy Cricket was her husband’s nickname in high school.
We humans are so amazing, we find patterns and hits in just about everything. Add that we are social creatures and LOVE hearing all about ourselves, this stuff is really compelling. People who are unprepared for skepticism and faced with a good reader can easily be sweep up in this woo.
All skeptics interested in why people fall for this should experience it first hand.
If you haven’t already seen Mark do a reading you might just like this free reading he recorded recently just for YOU.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cHl81nArng