The Scams of Millenia

By Knight Albert

Back in the Second Century, there was this clever fellow named Alexander of Abonutichus in Greece. He was quite the looker and pretty smart, but when it came to playing fair, he was a bit of a lost cause. You see, Alexander made a living by pretending to have supernatural powers.

One day, he dressed up like a wild man, all gold and raggedy hair, and gave a rousing speech about a soon-to-be-arriving god. After his speech, he led the excited crowd to a temple under construction, where he “found” a goose egg with a baby snake inside — something he’d planted himself. He told everyone this snake was the god they’d been waiting for.

To make the story even better, Alexander locked himself away for a few days and emerged with a massive snake sporting a linen mask that made it look somewhat human. The room was dark and crowded, so no one could get a good look at the creature. Everyone believed Alexander had brought a god into the world.

Now, this god-snake, according to Alexander, would answer people’s questions if they wrote them down and sealed them in envelopes. Alone, he’d sneak a peek at the questions, then come up with some divine answers. Folks came from far and wide, even from Rome, to witness this spectacle. If the god-snake’s predictions turned out to be wrong, Alexander just changed the record. And when people’s questions revealed their secrets or weaknesses, he wasn’t above blackmailing them.

So, through lies and manipulation, Alexander made a fortune equivalent to millions of dollars in today’s money and became quite the celebrity. The high and mighty just couldn’t resist the mystery he spun around himself.

Now, we might look back at Alexander the Oracle-Monger and chuckle, thinking we’re too smart for such tricks these days. But really, who’s to say we couldn’t be fooled by a clever ruse like that today?

Let me tell you about a chap named M. Lamar Keene. He was a spiritualist medium for 13 years, pastor of a church in Tampa, and a trustee of a big spiritualist association. But guess what? He admits he was a complete fake. Just like our old friend Alexander, Keene would answer sealed-envelope questions using hidden lights or lighter fluid to make the envelopes see-through. He’d find lost things, reveal secrets about people’s lives, and even produce ghostly goo called ectoplasm. All it took was some simple tricks, confidence, and the willingness of his followers to believe. Keene claimed that not only was this kind of fraud common among spiritualists, but they’d also share info on clients to make their séances seem even more convincing. And just like with Alexander’s snake-god, these séances were held in the dark, so no one could see the deception. At the height of his career, Keene made over $100,000 a year for his church.

It seems that from Alexander’s time to ours, and probably since humans first walked the earth, there have always been folks who’ve found ways to make a buck by pretending to know secret or mysterious things. A fascinating book from 1852, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay, talks all about these scams. It covers everything from alchemy and prophecy to haunted houses and how politics and religion influenced hair and beard styles.

People have always been easy to fool, and even though we like to think we’re too clever for that kind of thing nowadays, the truth is that tricksters are still out there, just changing their act to fit the times. We might read about the old cons and think, “How could anyone fall for that?” But then we look around at our own world and see that not much has really changed. Emotions still run high, and being skeptical isn’t exactly popular. So it’s no surprise that there are plenty of modern-day scams just waiting for us to fall for them.

Back in the days of Alexander and Mackay, religion was where most people looked for answers about the world. If you wanted to trick folks, you’d often use religious language. Sure, that still happens today, but science has become the main way we try to understand the universe. So it’s no surprise that a lot of modern scams have a scientific twist.

Nowadays, there are loads of claims on the edge of science that grab people’s attention and make them think, “What if?” These claims usually promise something amazing, like hidden powers within us or secret forces that could save us from ourselves. Real science has made some mind-blowing discoveries, like DNA, gravity, and nuclear energy, so it’s hard to know when to be skeptical.

Take, for example, the idea of levitation — floating in the air without any help. Some people claim they can do it, but it’s their job to prove it, not ours to disprove it. We’ve never seen a photo of someone levitating 15 feet up in the air without any tricks involved.

Or how about astral projection? That’s when people say they’ve left their bodies and floated around the room, usually during religious experiences, right before falling asleep, or after taking certain drugs. If it were true, it would change how we think about life and even what happens after we die. But just because people feel like they’ve had these experiences doesn’t mean they’re real. It could be that our brains are wired in a way that sometimes makes us feel like we’re floating outside our bodies.

The point is, we’ve got to stay sharp in a world where tricksters are always changing their game to keep up with what we know about the universe. Our feelings and desires haven’t changed much, so we’re still drawn to the amazing and mysterious. We need to be skeptical and ask for proof before we believe something that sounds too good to be true.

Here’s a simple way to test whether astral projection is real. Ask a friend to place a book facing upwards on a high shelf in a library while you are away. If you have an astral projection experience and manage to float to the book and read its title, then later on, when you’re back in your body, you can tell your friend the book’s title. If you haven’t seen the book before, and no one has told you its title, then this would support the idea that astral projection is real. However, to make sure this experiment is fair, your friend should be someone who has no idea what book they have placed and should not know anything about your attempts at astral projection. There have been no documented cases of astral projection happening in such controlled circumstances, so it’s hard to say for sure whether it’s real or not.

There are bizarre instances of young children in India remembering details of a previous life in a place they have never been before. They can even describe a recently deceased individual who matches their account. However, this study was not done under strict conditions, so it’s possible that the children heard about the person they described without realizing it.

While it’s true that some claims in the world of science are fraudulent, most seem to be a result of people believing something without being skeptical enough or because the phenomena they’re studying are hard to understand. Take the case of Clever Hans, a horse that lived in Germany in the early 1900s. Its owner claimed that the horse had a deep understanding of math and politics and could even answer questions by tapping its hoof. The horse became famous, and many respected scientists even witnessed its supposed abilities. However, a closer investigation revealed that the horse was simply responding to subtle cues from its owner and not actually doing any math or understanding politics.

Pfungst’s investigation of Clever Hans uncovered some interesting patterns. The horse took longer to answer more complex questions and couldn’t answer at all when von Osten, its owner, didn’t know the answer or when the horse was blindfolded. It turned out that von Osten was unknowingly giving the horse subtle cues that let it know when it had given the right answer. Despite this discovery, stories of animals with human-like abilities persist in different parts of the world, including horses, pigs, and geese.

More recently, people have become fascinated with stories of flying saucers, ancient astronauts, and the Bermuda Triangle. While some of these stories may be based on genuine scientific research, most are unverified and lack rigorous evidence. Nonetheless, these claims continue to flourish, fueled by the public’s desire for the extraordinary and the unknown.

As a society, we are naturally curious and seek answers to life’s mysteries, but it’s important to approach such claims with skepticism and demand solid evidence. While the possibility of extraterrestrial communication is a tantalizing idea, we must remain diligent in our pursuit of genuine scientific understanding. Through critical inquiry and a relentless pursuit of knowledge, we can uncover the truths that lie beyond our current comprehension. Let us continue to explore the cosmos with open minds, but let us also remain vigilant and avoid getting caught up in unfounded conjecture.

Ancient astronaut enthusiasts — Erich von Däniken being the most famous with his book “Chariots of the Gods?” — claimed that heaps of archaeological discoveries can only be understood if we think about our ancestors meeting aliens. They point to things like the iron pillar in India, a plaque in Palenque of Mexico, Egypt’s pyramids, Easter Island’s monoliths, and the geometric shapes in Nazca, Peru — all supposedly having some alien touch. But really, each of these things can be explained in simpler, more believable ways. Our ancestors might not have had fancy technology, but they were clever, hardworking folks who managed to create things that still amaze us today.

Lately, people have been talking about the Dogon people from Mali, who apparently know a thing or two about the star Sirius that they shouldn’t have known without a telescope. The most likely explanation is that some Europeans with telescopes — or at least some knowledge about them — had a chat with the Dogon folks.

And, of course, pyramids get a lot of attention in these ancient astronaut stories. Since Napoleon invaded Egypt, people in the West have been fascinated by these massive structures and have come up with all sorts of wild ideas. Some think there are secret messages hidden in the pyramids’ measurements, like how the Great Pyramid of Giza’s height and width can tell you the time between Adam and Jesus in years. One fellow even tried to file down a part of the pyramid to make it fit his theory!

We can see how people who believe in ancient astronauts give credit to aliens for the amazing things our ancestors did. But let’s not forget the real smarts and determination of those who came before us.

As for the Bermuda Triangle and all those stories about ships and planes disappearing in the ocean around Bermuda, the most logical explanation (when the disappearances really do happen, as many cases have been debunked) is that the vessels sank.

Flying saucers, or UFOs, are pretty well-known. But just because you see a strange light in the sky doesn’t mean it’s aliens from Venus. It could just be a car headlight bouncing off a high cloud, a weird-looking airplane, or a normal airplane with unusual lights, like a bright searchlight used for studying the weather. When it comes to “close encounters” where people say they’ve been on an alien spaceship and poked with odd medical tools, these stories don’t have much proof and usually involve only one or two people. As far as I know, out of the million UFO reports since 1947, there isn’t a single case where a bunch of people separately and reliably reported a close encounter with a clearly alien spacecraft. There’s very little in the way of stories, and no physical evidence at all. Our labs are really good, so if there were any alien bits and pieces, we’d probably know. But so far, not even a tiny piece of an alien spaceship has passed the test, let alone the captain’s log.

The fascination with UFOs and ancient astronauts might have something to do with people wanting to believe in something bigger than themselves. Aliens are often described as smart, powerful, kind, and human-like, sometimes even wearing long white robes. These descriptions sound a lot like gods and angels, except that they come from other planets and ride in spaceships instead of having wings. There might be a bit of science-y talk around these ideas, but you can still see the connection to religion: a lot of the supposed ancient astronauts and UFO passengers look like modern, thinly disguised versions of gods. In fact, a survey in Britain showed that more people believe in alien visits than in God.

When it comes to mysteries like the Bermuda Triangle and UFO encounters, we see a deep wish to connect with beings from the heavens — a desire for wisdom and guidance from above. But even though people have some wild ideas, there’s still no solid proof.

Back in the days of ancient Greece, folks had no shortage of stories about gods popping down to Earth for a chat with us mortals. But then, modern research suggests the way the Greeks made wine gave is psychedelic qualities. The Middle Ages saw its fair share of saint and virgin sightings, too. These heavenly beings were spotted time and time again by people who seemed as honest as the day is long. So, where have all the virgins gone? And what about those Greek gods? Have they given up on us in these more skeptical times, or were those early tales just a mix of superstition, gullibility, and less-than-honest witnesses? This brings up a concern with UFO believers: if we start thinking friendly aliens are going to swoop in and fix everything, we might not bother trying to sort things out ourselves — a common theme throughout history with those end-of-the-world religious types.

Now, let me be clear: Being skeptical about strange beliefs doesn’t mean we’re afraid of new ideas. Many of my pals and I would be thrilled to find out there’s life, intelligent or otherwise, on other planets. But we’ve got to be careful not to let our hopes and fears shape what’s really out there. Good science is about finding the truth, no matter how we feel about it. And if we’re all alone in the universe, well, that’s still a truth worth knowing. Frankly, if intelligent aliens were visiting Earth, it’d make my job a whole lot easier. I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit pondering UFOs and the like. There’s a bright side to the public’s interest in these matters, but we’ve got to balance our curiosity with a healthy dose of skepticism. Plenty of interesting ideas turn out to be wrong in the end. Being open to new ideas and asking the tough questions are both key to learning more about the world.

Considering the mystery of gods, saints, virgins, and otherworldly visitors, let’s remember to balance our excitement for the unknown with some good old-fashioned critical thinking. Whether in science or politics, our ability to ask the hard questions and separate truth from fiction is crucial for the well-being of our society. So let’s sharpen those skeptical skills and get to work uncovering the truth and keeping our civilization on the right track.

Scientists often find themselves at a crossroads when it comes to picking their research topics. Some goals could change the world, but they seem like such long shots that hardly anyone’s willing to give them a go. For ages, searching for extraterrestrial intelligence was one of those far-fetched ideas. But times have changed, mostly thanks to fancy radio tech that lets us build massive telescopes and listen for messages from far, far away. On the other hand, there are research questions that are easy to tackle, but so insignificant they’re hardly worth mentioning. That’s why most scientists choose a middle ground. And that, my friends, is why so few of them dip their toes into the murky waters of investigating or debunking fringe or pseudoscientific ideas. It feels like there’s not much to gain and a whole lot of time to lose. I reckon scientists should spend more time on these issues, but just because they don’t argue against a claim doesn’t mean they think it’s legit.

In fact, some beliefs are so absurd that scientists write them off without bothering to explain why. But that, I’d say, is a mistake. Science relies on public support, and our world is shaped by science and technology. Sadly, most folks don’t know much about these areas, which makes it hard for them to make informed decisions on the subject. Some pseudoscience can make a pretty penny, and those who cash in on it are more than happy to pour resources into defending their claims. Some scientists are hesitant to get into public spats about fringe science topics because they’re worried about the effort involved or the possibility of looking bad if they lose. But these debates can actually be a great chance to show folks how science works on the edge of the unknown and just how exciting it can be.

To sum it up, scientists shouldn’t be scared of tackling and scrutinizing pseudoscientific ideas, even if it’s tough and a bit risky. Public debates on these topics can help clear up misunderstandings, teach people about the scientific process, and show the importance of critical thinking. By joining these discussions, scientists can help create a more science-savvy society that appreciates the hard work and honesty that goes into research. And in doing so, they can protect society from falling for baseless claims and the dangers that come with believing in pseudoscience.