BELLYWASH

The Hit Film close Encounters of the third Kind may have elevated unidentified flying objects tp their highest level of popular credibility in years .But UFO's aren't the only odd Phenomena we have been having close encounters with lately .

We've been intrigued by the Bremuda Triangle , mystifies by tales of ancient astronauts , entertained by the ecploits of paychokinetic key benders , bemused by advertisements for bio-rhythm calculators and unnerved by accounts of the Loch Ness monster . Books on these and other weird subjects sell by the millions (While scientific rebuttals gather dust ),

Why this sudden explosion of interest , even among otherwise sensible people ? . Are we in retreat from the scientific ideals of rationality , examination of evidence and sober experimentst that have made modern civilization what it is ? .Has the West lost its unique drive to find the closest approximation of objective truth ?

In the past , the raising and answering of such questions has been left to commentators and journalists. Scientists, a notoriously cool-headed fraternity , have fiddled with their test tubes and ignored such imbroglios as beneath their dignity..This time around , however, some scientists , together with educators , writers and ( to spot deception) magicians , are beginning to fight back. In the United States , they have even gone so far as to set up an organization - Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICP)- to investigate unusual phenomena with open-minded scepticism, and to help the public distinguish between fact and fiction .

Members include UFO authority Philip Klass , magician James Randi , astronomer Carl Sagan , boichemist Isaac Asimov and behaviourist B.F. Skinner . These experts like a good take as much as the next person, but they do not want people to be duped.

Astrology Becomes Popular : During its brief existence, CSICP has shown considerable tactical shrewdness with the US Federal Communications Commission alleging slanted coverage in a paranormal-phenomena TV presentation, published a journal called The Sceptical Inquirer , conducted news confeences challenfing som of the more absurd cultist claims and is sponsoring several investigations of its own .

Some scientists thinks that the recent tide of pseudoscientific irrationalism threatens to drown people in sheer nonsense . " In recent tears, there has been a tremendous epidemic of paranormal claims . Many traditional religions have lost significance for people, who then look to the paranormal for ne meaning " says Kurtz.

Take astrology, for example Kutz observes that " by the year 1900 , it was widely viewed in the Western World as a mere historical curiosity that had been contradicted by a whole body of scientific findings . Few intellectual oe educated persons thought it contained any truth at all . Today eve supposedly sophisticated people claim to belive in it , and many thousands look tobexplain their personalities and experiences , But it's all waste " .

Not all scientiss , however , dismiss all claims f paranormal phenomena- particularly in the field of extrasensory perception ( telepathy , clairvoyance and precognition ) , Some investigators using traditional experimentall techniques have reached the conclusion that some ESP claims may be plausible .

Sceptical Approach: The CSICP believes that even the nutties-soundin ideas deserve some kind of hearing . According to Asimov , it is not the subject matter of the paranormal that is controversial - much of it is provocative, and some elements are even amenable to experiments. Rather , the debate focuses on uncritical attitudes, the rigour of evidence-gathering techniques and the quality of analytical judgement.

Nowhere is a sceptical approach more necessary than with UFO's . New sightings are reported so often that it's hard to keep up with them . Even dedicated cultists admit that many can be explained by a variety of natural occurrences or man-made objects .

Another area which has captured a popular audience is birth date-determined biorhythms. It is beyond dispute that plants and animals, human beings included, exhibit a number of cyclical patterns, many of them influenced or synchronized by such external factors as the light/dark cycle, mealtimes, social schedules, Etc,. But biorhythm pedlars have gone a step further . They claim that for many people precise 23, 28 , and 33-day cycles affect physical emotional and intellectual performance.

Mysterious Universe : Advocates of the paranormal contend that too often scientists ignore reports that lie outside th usual realms of inquiry . That observation is correct . It seems, however , not from any conviction by scientists that they have a monopoly on abslte truth , but from the nature of science itself .

No one , least of all CSICP , claims final answers for allthe phenomena under contention. The universe is mysterious and our ignorance is like a vast terra incognita still to be illuminated by the beacon of experiment and reason .

As Einstein once wrote : "Imagination is good . But it must always be critically controlled by the available facts ."