Dear Faithful Reader, it is spring here in New England, but the season has yet to kick the doors open. The buds are on the trees, and the daffodils are in full glory. But I look forward to the end of sweater weather. Perhaps soon.

I have been busy since my last missive. Most recently, I wrote about the scandal surrounding Woody Brown’s bestselling book Upward Bound in my April column for Skeptical Inquirer. The book was written using the Rapid Prompting Method, a discredited form of communication that strongly suggests his mother was the real author. That hypothesis is supported by the video of Brown’s April 1 appearance on the NBC Today Show, which shows that his pointing at a letter board bears no relation to the words attributed to him by his mother.

In late March, I wrote a short piece about an unusual amicus brief in a death row case. The famous magicians, Penn & Teller, filed a brief in support of Charles Don Flores, who was convicted of a 1998 murder solely on evidence obtained using hypnosis. Due to the unreliability of the evidence it produces, hypnosis in police investigations is now illegal in many states—including in Texas, where Flores was convicted—but because his trial took place before the law was changed, he remains on death row. Penn & Teller called the evidence against Flores “junk science of the worst sort.”

Finally, at the beginning of March, I wrote a piece called “Yes, Cognitive Dissonance Is Still Actually a Thing” in response to revelations that the famous book When Prophecy Fails by Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter may have been based on false reporting and manipulation of the participants in a UFO cult. This and other factors prompted a New Yorker magazine reporter to question whether the concept of cognitive dissonance was still “actually a thing.” I reviewed the current literature and concluded that it is too soon to discard cognitive dissonance as a psychological concept. It still happens, and the theory is still scientifically useful.

That’s all for now. In the hope that spring will bring warmer temperatures and happier times, I will leave you with “a host of golden daffodils” sent to me by a friend. See you next time.

SV

I write you from frozen February in New England. I hope you are cozy and warm wherever you are.

In my latest column for Skeptical Inquirer, “Will Narrative Defeat Reason?” I discuss the appeal of heroic stories and argue that democracy does not provide for participation in a heroic narrative. Almost all of human existence is a long history of emperors and kings, but self-government has had a much shorter and more fragile history.

I also wrote a short news item for Skeptical Inquirer, “RFK Jr. Puts Facilitated Communication Users on the HHS Autism Panel,” about the Secretary of Health and Human Services’ latest anti-science move. RFK Jr. recently announced the appointment of 19 new members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), and two of them are non-speaking young adults with severe autism who have been subjected to a version of the discredited communication technique, facilitated communication. We probably shouldn’t be surprised. RFK Jr.’s appetite for pseudoscience appears insatiable.

Finally, in late May, I will be in Fresno, California, to speak at LiliCon, which is the annual conference of the Lilienfeld Alliance, a group of college professors who teach critical thinking. This is a great organization named after one of my professional role models, Scott Lilienfeld. My talk is entitled, “Changing Beliefs by Not Changing Beliefs.” If you teach critical thinking and are free May 26-28, consider coming to the conference. There are some great speakers on tap.

That’s it for now. Stay warm!

SV

Happy December. This will undoubtedly be my last message of the year.

My October column for Skeptical Inquirer, “‘Have You Seen My Wallet?’ Civic Honesty around the Globe,” was a bit of good news. According to a remarkably ambitious field experiment conducted in forty countries, people are more altruistic than you might think. The authors of the study turned in over 17,000 “lost” wallets at reception desks at museums, public offices, or other institutions. The wallets contained either no money at all or the equivalent of US$13.45, and the “owner’s” email address was clearly displayed. The crucial measure was contacting the owner (actually, the experimenters) or not. Contrary to standard economic theory, people virtually everywhere were MORE likely to contact someone they thought was the owner if the wallet contained money than if it didn’t. Not what the experimenters expected, but good news nonetheless. One country took issue with their results in the study, but I will leave that episode for you to discover in the article.

A modern ECT machine.

My latest “Behavior & Belief” column, “Profound Autism and Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Neglected Resource,” is on the use of ECT with children whose severe behavior has not responded to other therapies. It features the story of Amy S. F. Lutz and her son Jonah, who greatly benefited from ECT. In Jonah’s case, the improvement in his behavior after ECT meant the difference between being institutionalized and continuing to live at home. Unfortunately, ECT’s scary reputation, fostered by films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, has led to severe restrictions in some states, which means that many families whose children might benefit from ECT have difficulty accessing it.

That’s it for 2025. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, and may 2026 be a better year for us all.

SV

Welcome to autumn. The calendar says that summer is over, but here in New England, we are enjoying a warm spell. The swimming has been some of the best of the year.

My September “Behavior & Belief” column for Skeptical Inquirer is “Improving Psychological Science Through Adversarial Collaboration.” It is not uncommon for researchers to study the same topic and come to completely different conclusions. Rather than looking for a way to bridge these gaps, researchers often dig in and design studies that support their pet theories. Thankfully, a new technique, adversarial collaboration, has the potential to move researchers away from their opposing positions and closer to the truth. This movement is still quite new, but it is a very positive development.

And now for something a little different. Last week, I came across a photo that sent me on a sentimental journey about someone who briefly passed through my life over fifty years ago. I memorialized that interlude in a short essay on Medium called “One That Got Away.” 

If you want to go down a similar sentimental path, I recommend this version of the Tom Waits song “Martha” by Lisa Hannigan. It was performed live in Dublin on New Year’s Eve, 2012. The pianist is Cormac Curran. It is a wonderful song, and Hannigan’s version is—in my opinion—even better than the original. It makes me cry every time.

That’s all for now.

SV

These few news items mark the end of the Summer of 2025.

My July column for Skeptical Inquirer was a look back at two related bits of irrationality: the Hot Hand and the Gambler’s Fallacy, both of which are based on the mistaken belief that independent events are not independent. Recent research suggests that, with respect to the Hot Hand—the belief that certain athletes get “hot” and can’t seem to miss—the athletes were right all along and the scientists were wrong.

Although the date slipped past without my noticing it, back in December of 2024, I clocked ten years writing for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. Once I noticed the anniversary, I wrote a column to memorialize the event. Writing for SI has been one of the great joys of my career. As long as I am able, I hope to keep writing the “Behavior & Belief” column.

I am writing this on August 24, undeniably the last few days of summer. Labor Day weekend is a week away. For the last several days, I’ve been singing John Prine’s song, Summer’s End. I wanted to include a YouTube video of the song in this message, and I watched several versions before making a choice. As beautiful as the song is, it is quite sad, and I cannot watch these videos without crying. The “come on home” chorus brings out the emotions every time. Finally, I chose this arrangement by Irish singers Paul Noonan, Lisa Hannigan, and Gemma Hayes. They divide the parts nicely and sing in wonderful harmony.

S

I am particularly fond of several lines of the song, for example, this couplet:

Well, you never know how far from home you’re feelin’
Until you’ve watched the shadows cross the ceilin’

And this final verse:

The moon and stars hang out in bars just talkin’
I still love that picture of us walkin’
Just like that ol’ house we thought was haunted
Summer’s end came faster than we wanted

I hope you squeeze as much joy as possible out of these last days of summer.

SV

It is the midsummer of our discontent, and I have just a few items to report.

Ky Dickens

William James

In my June column for Skeptical Inquirer, “Ky Dickens, William James, and the Four Possibilities,” I revealed a surprising parallel between the dilemmas faced by the host and director of The Telepathy Tapes podcast and the early American psychologist. There is at least one important difference between the two: for Dickens, telepathy is a huge plus; for James, it was a major minus.

On June 26, I  had the privilege of guest-hosting an episode of Skeptical Inquirer Presents in which the Cambridge University psychologist Sander van der Linden talked about how to combat misinformation. Van der Linden is one of the top researchers in this field and has worked with both governments and social media companies to improve our information environment. He is the author of a terrific book, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity. Although I’m on record as not being sold on the immunity metaphor, it is undeniable that van der Linden is doing excellent and important work on a topic that couldn’t be more urgent. You can watch his presentation here.

Finally, I wrote an unusual piece for me—an art review of the exhibit “Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. I managed to catch this remarkable exhibit while in Washington over Memorial Day weekend, and Skeptical Inquirer was kind enough to publish my brief rave review.

That’s it for now. Try to stay cool. My old folks’ summer swimming group, The Stonington Loons, is fully engaged. I will leave you with a photo of some of us plying our way through Stonington (CT) Harbor. One of those heads is mine, but it is up to you to figure out which one.

SV

A quick note on the eve of June. Although it is not officially summer and the weather is still rainy and cool here in New England, I’m in a summery mood.

The Telepathy Tapes is the gift that keeps on giving. In a Skeptical Inquirer extra, I reveal how the producers of the wildly successful but thoroughly pseudoscientific podcast attempted to silence one of their critics—but failed. Janyce Boynton, a former facilitator turned advocate against the use of facilitated communication, operates the YouTube channel FCisNotScience, and since the arrival of the Telepathy Tapes podcast, she has been producing analyses of some of the videos posted on the podcast’s website. Boynton’s videos show how the nonspeaking people could easily be controlled by their facilitators. In a bullying move, the podcast producers leveled a copyright strike against Boynton, but with the help of pro bono legal support, she fought back and won.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I spoke at the annual convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis International in Washington, DC. The title of my talk was “Identity, Advocacy, & Autism Pseudoscience,” which is a topic I have been speaking about for the last year. Unfortunately, there is no publicly available video of the talk, but I can share a picture of me at the podium courtesy of my son, Graham Vyse.

As many of you know, I have an interest in 19th-century spiritualism. For quite some time, I have been trying to get access to the archives of the American Society for Psychical Research in New York City with no luck. Recently, I took a deep dive into the goings-on at the ASPR, and what I discovered was shocking. My May column for Skeptical Inquirer recounts “The Demise of the American Society for Psychical Research.” A sad tale.

That’s all for now.

SV

Here in New England, spring has finally arrived with sunny skies and warm temperatures. The political world is a nightmare, but good weather helps. It has been a while since I bothered you with a report of my latest activities, so here are just a few items.

I have published two articles for Skeptical Inquirer in recent months. The first was entitled “Worse Than Murder on Fifth Avenue,” which is a reference to the president’s famous statement that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any supporters. I discuss his use of various lies and bullshit and argue they have done far more harm than a single fatality in New York City.

My most recent article is an interview with an old hero of mine. C. Eugene Emery was a longtime reporter for the Providence Journal newspaper back in the heyday of that august publication, often covering the science and pseudoscience beat. He has also worked for Reuters news agency and, more recently, PolitiFact. In addition to all that, in the 1990s, he wrote a “Media Watch” column for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, critiquing various alien abduction cable news shows and other paranormal content. As life would have it, in the 1970s and 80s, I lived in Providence and was a subscriber to the ProJo. Long before I knew what skepticism was, I was a fan of Gene’s work, but I had never met him. This interview gave me a chance to make contact and get to know Gene a bit. He is a great guy who has made important contributions to the fight for science and against misinformation, superstition, and fraud.

Finally, I had the pleasure of appearing on Brian Kerby’s public access television show, 502 Conversations, to talk about the wildly popular podcast, The Telepathy Tapes, which purports to show evidence that nonspeaking people with autism have psychic abilities. Brian’s show is very well produced with clips from the Telepathy Tapes interspersed to make the conversation more understandable. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

That’s it for now. I hope you get a chance to get outside and enjoy the springtime.

SV

Since my last missive, Donald Trump has been inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States, and I have returned from a trip to California. I leave it to you to judge which of these events is more important.

I had a wonderful visit to Los Angeles. I spent time with my dear friends Hank Schlinger, Alex Hybel, and their families, and I gave a talk at the Center for Inquiry West. At CFI West, I got to spend some time with the amazing Executive Director, James Underdown. It was quite a thrill.

My talk was entitled, “The Latest in Autism Claptrap,” and it is now available on YouTube. Among other things, I covered the immensely popular Telepathy Tapes podcast. See below. I enjoyed using the word claptrap in the title of the talk, but more importantly, it was an honor to give a presentation in CFI West’s Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Theater. Carl Sagan was the greatest inspiration for my interest in skepticism, and he remains a model of how to present science to the general public,

My latest article for Skeptical Inquirer, “Why I’m Not Sold on Mental Immunity,” may earn me

some blowback. Mental Immunity is a new theory of how we defend against misinformation and fake news, but in my opinion, it is not supported by evidence. The supporters of mental immunity theory are aimed at a noble goal, the rejection of misinformation, but I believe it is important to speak the truth. As of this moment, there is no evidence of a mental immunity system. I argue that the mental immunity theory is a metaphor in search of an anchor in reality. We shall see what others say.

I leave you with some pictures from my trip to California.

My friends Alex & Jan Hybel

Hank Schlinger is both a psychologist and a remarkably talented musician.

That’s it for now. Happy Spring.

SV

2025 began with a bang. The pseudoscience of the enormously popular podcast The Telepathy Tapes inspired me to write my first column of the year for Skeptical Inquirer on the topic. The premise of the podcast is that many severely disabled people with autism have psychic abilities. The hitch is that their telepathy is revealed through the discredited communication technique known as spelling to communicate. The quality of investigation presented in the show is quite poor, but the podcast is likely to promote false and potentially dangerous methods of communication. Not a good beginning to the year.

Back in December, I wrote on a lighter topic, “Fear of Flying and the Search for Gate 13.” Of course, we know that many buildings skip the thirteenth floor due to superstition, but it is less well known that many airports also avoid Gate 13. Some people are nervous about flying, and it appears that the designers of many—though not all—airports have sought to reduce the fear of flying by skipping Gate 13. In the article, I interviewed a man who took it upon himself to identify all the airports in the United States that do and do not have a Gate 13. I also take the opportunity to make an enthusiastic airport hotdog recommendation.

Finally, if the horrendous fires allow, next month I will be coming to the western offices of the Center for Inquiry in Los Angeles to give a talk on, “The Latest in Autism Claptrap.” The event will be on Sunday, February 16 at 11:00 am PT. For anyone who is in the area and would like to attend, the details can be found here.

That’s all for now. Stay safe.

SV