Encyclopedia of American Loons

Joan Ocean comes across as a really nice but stunningly crazy lady who, according to her bio, has a degree in Counseling Psychology and is “internationally known for her work in the field of human-dolphin and whale communication.” Apparently she realized she had these abilities in the 80s when she experienced a life-changing communication between her and a whale somewhere off the coast of BC. At present she “experiences the gentle communication of the dolphins and whales as sound holography [yeah, you think you’ll get a further explanation? Good luck with that], a language that intensifies physical senses, bypasses rational-cognitive paradigms [indeed], resonates directly with our cellular intelligence, and awakens multiple levels of perception and consciousness.” Precisely (it sounds a bit like what the rest of us calls “imagination”, though the “cellular intelligence” bit is novel). Ocean is currently “regarded as an authority on the subject of Dolphin Tel-Empathic Communication, she has developed the methodologies of her work, entitled Participatory Research, in which human and cetacean species are equally conducting research with each other,” and “has dedicated her life to studying cetaceans by respectfully joining them in their natural habitats and becoming their friend and colleague.”

That’s why she has been arranging her own gatherings in Hawaii for the last ten years: The Power of Sound Conference, Dolphins and ET Civilization Conference and the Dolphins and Teleportation Symposium (described here). Yes, you read that right. The 2011 invitation is here. It is absolutely gorgeous. The symposium apparently provides the participants (including Andrew Basiago) with “momentous revelations and personal experiences of Time Travel, dolphins and our evolving paradigm for 2012 in harmony with Earth.” Now, “paradigm” is rather obviously not the only word she doesn’t quite understand in that word salad.

Ocean has determined that “the cetaceans are able to encode frequencies to resonate with our personal patterns as we swim among them in the ocean,” and the information they convey is apparently therefore “translatable by us, because they are using our own neurological fibers, non-verbal, non-cognitive, emotional programs as the medium for communication.” But we should let Ocean explain: “It is through our feelings and intuition that we are able to access this transmission. The cetaceans are advanced in the science of esoteric, multi-dimensional intelligences which include both the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations, desires and universal blueprint/patterns/sigils of others and the capacity to understand themselves in the same way.” And the upshot, you may ask (or not)? “Once we begin to experiment with this, we can access vibrational-frequency-environments that exist beyond Time. Once beyond Time, we can travel anywhere in the local Universe.” Hence teleportation. According to herself, Ocean “and the dolphins have been visiting the many futures of planet Earth and using the knowledge obtained there to awaken people to the powerful significance of their own futures and its relationship to their present lives. Implementing the teachings of the dolphins, Joan facilitates Week With Joan Ocean Seminars where people visit future worlds and parallel realities accompanied by the dolphins.”

Diagnosis: And whenever you thought you’d reached the limits of sheer crazy with, say, Gene Ray or William Schnoebelen, they prove you wrong. At least Ocean’s woo seems entirely harmless, and it’s hard to imagine that it has had a lot of impact.

Dan O’Dowd is the general manager for the moderately successful Colorado Rockies baseball team, and a severe godbot. Now, it is not a particularly uncommon among this type, but O’Dowd believes God has a hand in the victories of his team (and, to emphasize, O’Dowd reallyseems to actually believe this – not just for show): “You look at some of the moves we made and didn’t make,” O’Dowd says “[y]ou look at some of the games we’re winning. Those aren’t just a coincidence. God has definitely had a hand in this,” and has provided long, tortured arguments for why the apparent coincidences related to his team playing can’t really be mere coincidences, and therefore God (and, one assumes, if the coincidences had worked out slightly different, that would have entailed that God is O’Dowd’s buddy as well). In other words, the Colorado Rockies win because God’s on their side.

I’m not saying this attitude is uncommon, but it’s so stunningly crazy that we have to cover it. O’Dowd will serve as our representative.

Diagnosis: Deeply delusional fanatic, but presumably a mirror of a culture rather than a driving force.

Marvin Olasky is editor-in-chief of WORLD Magazine, author of more than 20 books (including The Tragedy of American Compassion), and Distinguished Chair in Journalism and Public Policy at Patrick Henry College (“God’s Harvard”) – that’s not a real educational institution, if anyone wondered, but an unaccredited fundamentalist religious diploma mill that teaches a literal interpretation of the Bible (e.g. in their “biology” courses). He was also advisor to Bush during his first Presidential election campaign in 1999. Olasky is a defender of “compassionate conservatism”. He is also a sworn Dominionist, which puts his “compassion” in a particular light (the idea is basically that good Christians, not the government, should have the responsibility to help those in need, since that was how it was in the old days and it worked so much better).

Among his other antics, Olasky edited the 16-book Turning Point Christian Worldview series funded by Howard Ahmanson, Jr.’s Fieldstead Institute, which champions and funds the cause of “total integration of Biblical law into our lives.” His views on journalism also diverge from mainstream schools of theory. According to Olasky (e.g. in his 1996 book Telling the Truth) God created the world, knows more about it than anyone else, and explains its nature in the Bible, so therefore “biblical objectivity” accurately depicts the world as it is, whereas conventional journalistic objectivity shows either a blind materialism or a balancing of subjectivities. The ideas of freedom of the press and investigative journalism are apparently also of Biblical origin, though it is hard for anyone but a perceptive fundamentalist like Olasky to draw the connection.

His magazine, WORLD, has apparently become – after a long time – a bit wary of David Barton’s lies, however. Why did it take so long? They had to wait for the right people to make the criticisms: “Left-wing historians for years have criticized Barton. We haven’t spotlighted those criticisms because we know the biases behind them. It’s different when Christian conservatives point out inaccuracies,” which must be one of the most blatant ad hominem arguments ever made.

Olasky is no fan of equal rights either, and particularly not of high-achieving women. Apparently, women joining the workforce has had “dire consequences for society,” according to Olasky (though, once again, he hasn’t really elaborated on said consequences). He later said in response to criticism that he was actually praising the high achievements of women in major philanthropic organizations. Notice that the response does not contradict his earlier statement. “God does not forbid women to be leaders in society,” says Olasky, “but there’s a certain shame attached to it.” Precisely. Now everyone is presumably satisfied.

Of course, Olasky is a staunch creationist. Darwinism – which for Olasky is equivalent to atheism – fails because, it seems, well, because there was a column in the New York times written by a journalist that Olasky found stupid.

Diagnosis: Another fundie liar-for-Jesus, Olasky is actually one of the movers and shakers in the dominionist branches of radical wingnuttery. He has quite a bit of political clout, and must be considered a serious threat to civilization.

Project Blue Beam is an elaborate conspiracy theory according to which NASA is attempting to implement a New Age religion with the Antichrist at its head and thereby start a New World Order via a technologically-simulated Second Coming. It was started by legendary Canadian madman Serge Monast who, according to the theory’s proponents, was assassinated by the Canadian government for revealing the truth.

David Openheimer is among the true believers, and he has his presentation proudly displayed on this informative geocities page, along with reports of a multitude of other secret weapons and technologies that the powers that be are just waiting to unleash on America’s own citizens. These include all the usual suspects: chemtrails, HAARP, and ominous stuff such as the Montauk project and Philadelphia experiment.

According to Openheimer, the first implementation of Project Bluebeam, is “the breakdown of all archaological knowledge [by] staging earthquakes at certain precise locations around the planet where supposed new ‘discoveries’ will finally explain (for them) that the meanings of the basic doctrines of all the world’s major religions are ‘wrong’ [I’m sure that will convince them all]. This falsification will be used to make the population believe that all religious doctrine has been misunderstood and misinterpreted. The falsification started with the film 2001: A Space Odessy, the TV-series STAR TREK, the STAR WARS films, E.T., all of which deal with space ‘invasion’ and ‘protection.’ JURASSIC PARK, was to push the theory of evolution.” Yes, the theory of evolution is part of the propaganda machinery, obviously. “The second step deals with the gigantic space show: 3D optical holograms and sounds, laser projections of multiple holographic images in different parts of the world, each receiving a different image, according to its predetermined original national religious faith […].” And that paves the way for the third step, which “deals with telepathic electronic two-way communication, where ELF, VLF (Very Low Frequency), and LF (Low Frequency) waves will reach the people of the earth through the insides of their brains, making each person believe that his own God is speaking to him from within his owm soul.”

The fourth step is the big one. It “involves universal supernatural manifestations using electronic means [… 1] to make mankind believe that an alien invasion is about to occur upon every major city on the earth. This is to push each major nation into using its nuclear capability to strike back [and] put each of these nations in a state of full disarmament before the United Nations after the false attack; [2] to make the ‘christian’ believe that a major rapture is occurring, […] to get rid of all significant opposition to the NEW WORLD ORDER; [3] [by] a mixture of electronic and supernatural forces [to] allow supernatural forces to travel through fiber optics cable, coaxial cable, electric and telephone lines in order to penetrate all electronic equipment and appliances that will by then all have a special microship installed. The goal of this step deals with the materialization of satanic ghosts, spectres, and poltergeists all across the globe in order to push all populations to the edge of a wave of suicide, killing and permanent psychological disorder. After that night of the THOUSAND STARS, HUMANITY IS BELIEVED TO BE READY FOR THEM TO ENTER IN A ‘NEW MESSIAH’ TO REESTABLISH PEACE EVERYWHERE AT ANY COST, EVEN AT THE COST OF FREEDOM.’”

Quite elaborate, in other words. It has been pointed out that all the elaborately described steps of Monast’s original conspiracy theory were described in the script of an unmade Star Trek episode presented in Joel Engel’s biography Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek, which was released in 1994 shortly before Monast presented his theory. Even other conspiracy theorists noticed the connection, and most have hence concluding that Monast had been fed deceptive information by the CIA, thereby brilliantly illustrating the mechanics of conspiracy theories (here, courtesy of Secret Sun’s Christopher Knowles and Richard Dolan).

Diagnosis: Lucky us to have people such as David Openheimer to tell us how it all hangs together.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a relatively small but notoriously loud group of “conservative” cranks and batshit crazy fundies who wail against, in particular, abortion, vaccination, the idea of universal health care coverage, and the fact that evidence- and science-based medicine as placing unacceptable limits on physician autonomy (it is obviously listed by Quackwatch). Jane Orient is the executive director. The physical address of the organization in Tucson (a suite in a medical center) is also the address for the equally insane Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, the American Health Legal Foundation, the AAPS Educational Foundation, Physicians for Civil Defense, the Southwestern Institute of Science, and the Southern Arizona Association for Play Therapy. Jane Orient is also listed as contact for the majority of these other organizations. Common to all is that they defend all the extreme religious right positions (usually denial) related to any topic in science and medicine, andvarious forms of woo and anti-vaccine propaganda. In short, Jane Orient may hence be one of the most comprehensive crackpots in our Encyclopedia thus far. You can read about her arguments against vaccines, citing the Geiers, here. Her claims have been cited by various anti-vaccine organizations, who wouldn’t recognize a crank if they ate one.

The AAPS also has its house journal, the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JPANDS). The journal is not considered a valid, peer-reviewed journal for inclusion in major scientific databases, for obvious reasons, and has been listed by Quackwatch as “Fundamentally Flawed” (There is a meticulous analysis of the journal here). JPANDS has for instance published (this is a short list) a rather famous and extensively debunked article on the supposed link between breast cancer and abortion,and between oral contraceptives and cancer (the AAPS has filed a lawsuit against FDA to overturn approval of ‘Plan B; morning after pill’ for over the counter use by women over 18 – the “study” linking them to cancer appeared after that lawsuit was unsuccessful), various defenses of Lupron therapy by the Geiers, articles defending HIV denialism (a mainstay with the AAPS), articles denouncing randomized controlled trials in favor of single case studies (by Donald & Clifford Miller), articles defending hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat multiple sclerosis, articles (infomercials, really) pushing nutritional treatments for ADHD and herpes; an article (from late 2008) claiming that Barack Obama uses neuro-linguistic programming to exercise mind control over people at his rallies, and articles used to justify the importance and significance of the Oregon petition as evidence against global warming.

There is an obvious reason for publishing that last one. Orient is a faculty member at Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine, a denialist think tank run by Arthur Robinson, and – of course – the institution behind said petition. And yes, Orient is, of course, also a vehement global warming denialist. To make sure she has maxed out her commitment to denialism and hatred of science, Orient is also a creationist and signatory to the sadly silly Discovery Institute initiated petition A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism.

But the thing is: the organization is actually influential and has a significant say in policy decisions. Members include Ron & Rand Paul, Paul Broun and former Louisiana congressman John Cooksey, as well as Joe Mercola and Russell Blaylock, which is an impressive and rather frightening lineup.

Diagnosis: A brilliant example of crank magnetism, Orient seems determined to reject absolutely anything that has to do with reason, truth or evidence. She is pretty active and pretty zealous about it, and her various organizations have done quite a bit of damage to civilization already.

Leonard Dietrich Orr is a spiritual writer known for developing Rebirthing-Breathwork, a system or technique of breathing that allegedly helps one to overcome the “trauma” of being born. Apparently he learned some of his stuff from the twelve immortal yogis he claims to have met (the one he names, Haidakhan Babaji, died in 1984). Orr’s claims that humans are not only immortal, but physically immortal, has thus far not gained widespread recognition.

Orr is also one of the earlier proponents of “prosperity consciousness” the idea – most famously promoted by The Secret – that your beliefs about yourself are a key factor in magically pulling more money to you. Apparently your magical abilities may be undermined by what Orr calls “emotional energy pollution,” however. So if you experience, say, financial troubles in your life, it is because you have the wrong attitude.

According to his bio Orr spent a large part of his early career in the bathtub – literally hours every day – where he had frequent flashes of memories of being in the womb or being born, and he subsequently founded “Theta House”, a Rebirthing Center where enthusiastic Rebirthers would be breathing with a snorkel in a hot-tub while floating face down to stimulate womb memories. Orr noticed – rigorous science here – that a certain breathing rhythm would occur, which subsequently led him and co-enthusiast Sondra Ray to develop the Rebirthing-Breathwork technique, a therapeutic technique that can heal suppressed emotions regardless of at what point in one’s life they became suppressed (that is, induce these emotions, though Orr and Ray don’t put it quite like that). Indeed, according to Orr, if you learn how to breathe energy well, you can breathe away diseases and physical or emotional pain. As expected, Orr’s and Ray’s writings on the subject mixes most forms of woo, New Age beliefs and religious fundamentalism into a highly delusional mass of gibberish. Their book Rebirthing in the New Age barely, according to critics, “edges out The Miracle of Psycho-Command Power as the most ludicrous piece of shite ever to come out of the whole self-help/new age mess. Claims you can achieve physical immortality.” (Rebirthing in general is discussed here, with a focus on the work of James S. Gordon. Rebirthing also has an entry here).

Sondra Ray is also the author of Essays on Creating Sacred Relationships: The Next Step to a New Paradigm, which apparently helps you create your own paradigm – some serious misunderstanding of Kuhn’s writings going on here, in other words.

Rebirthing has apparently gained some popularity. You can for instance have a rather overwhelming experience of poorly matching colors if you visit the rebirthing promoting website of Petrene Soames here. Rebirthing practices have also caused some serious real harm, but that can, once again, probably be blamed on the victims.

Diagnosis: Astonishing bullshit. Orr and Ray are among the most delusional people on the planet, but have a knack for fluffy terminology that makes a certain segment of the population pay not only attention to them, but money to undergo treatments based on their bullshit at their centers. It should beggar belief, but it doesn’t anymore.

Another day, another delusionally insane gay marriage opponent. Rev. Ariel Torres Ortega is apparently involved in Radio Visión Cristiana. When New York started suggesting legalization of gay marriage in 2011, Ortega told the participants at an anti-gay rally in Bronx that those who practice anything but heterosexual sex within the confines of marriage “are worthy to death. […] God bless this earth. That is the word of God.” The focus of the rally was apparently the Christian message of “love”.

Diagnosis: Another moron who is blaming God for his own hatred and bigotry. Probably relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but deserves to be called out nonetheless.

Food fads are a great source of woo, and among the stupider ones you’ll find rawfoodism. Alex Ortner is the executive producer of the “documentary” Simply Raw (primarily an infomercial for Doctor of Divinity Gabriel Cousens), and Chief Operating Officer for the Simply Raw website. The guiding idea is that the way to the light is through a raw vegan diet, and the main claim of the movie is that raw veganism can cure diabetes (indeed, the movie’s subtitle is “Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days”). The methodology is to interview six diabetes patients about their experiences at Cousens’s clinic (needless to say the long-term effects are left a bit in the dark). The anecdotes are then augmented with claims by what they judge to be qualified experts (including such luminaries as Michael Beckwith, Gary Null and Julian Whitaker).

If you watch the movie (which I hope you won’t) you’ll also encounter one Dr. Joel Fuhrman claiming that cooking somehow destroys living antioxidants, phytochemicals, and a variety of other compounds, without which the body can’t be healthy and “must break down.” Fuhrman describes processed food as “foods whose life has been taken out of them,” and makes the claim that, without these micronutrients cells accumulate “toxins” that need to be “detoxified,” while touting broccoli and various vegetables as having “incredible medicinal power.” Yes, it’s as complete bullshit as it sounds. Add to that Cousens talking about live cell analysis and Super Size Me star and delusional crackpot Morgan Spurlock failing desperately in an attempt to assess evidence, and you have a good mix of woo and silly.

The movie might not seem to be as crammed with woo as you’d expect (although it provides absolutely no evidence for any of its claims). If you go to the website, however, you’re in for something different. In his mailing list about the movie Ortner promotes “super immunity,” which is longevity and “detoxification” pseudoscience featuring Joe Mercola and David Wolfe; the tapping solution, allegedly a form of “meridian tapping;” or a variety of emotional freedom techniques

and “thought field therapy” – utter quackery claiming that finger tapping along meridians “releases the body’s energy flow” – and not the least Dr. Joe Vitale’s “blood pressure miracle,” which claims to be able to reverse hypertension “naturally” without drugs. Then there is the “seven day back pain cure,” which promises to cure your back pain without drugs, surgery, or much of anything else; and promotion of “holistic” doctor and homeopath Mark Stenger, who is push a method to “balance your hormones”, all naturally.

Diagnosis: Complete and utter bullshit, promoted with zeal and ignorance. As usual. Dangerous.

A.k.a. The Doctor Within

Tim O’Shea might not be among the most famous altmed practitioners in the US, but he is surely one of the most consistently delusionally wrong (and has been awarded with a substantial presence at whale.to for his efforts). O’Shea is into, well, pretty much everything and anything. He is for instance a germ theory denialist. That’s right. Bacteria and viruses don’t cause disease. Evidence? We still get sick, and there are companies that earn money off of antibiotics – and, to make sure no one would think of him as anything but a loon, O’Shea also claims that Pasteur recanted his theory on his deathbed, and then Deepak Chopra has, according to O’Shea, also shown that there is little association between germs and disease. Actually conducting research couldn’t fit worse with O’Shea’s agenda, so you get none of that, of course.

Primarily, O’Shea is an anti-vaccinationist, Director of the World Association for Vaccine Education (WAVE), and author of Vaccination is Not Immunization (praised by David Ayoub). As you’d expect O’Shea holds vaccines responsible for all sorts of ills, from autism to peanut allergy (as well as measles), and as you’d also expect, he doesn’t have much idea about how to find or use evidence or research. Primarily, his “evidence” is his own use of his good common sense (that sense that also led him to germ theory denial), and various appeals to perceived but undocumented correlations.

The board of directors for WAVE – which is a significant player in the antivaxx movement – includes Boyd Haley, Sherri Tenpenny, HIV denialist Andrew Maniotis, Marc Girard (another whale.to mainstay), Dan N. Schultz, Eileen Nicole Simon, KP Stoller, and Mary Tocco (yet another whale.to hero).

Diagnosis: Absolutely astonishing madman, who is fully unable to distinguish evidence from his own powers of intuition – which seem to be calibrated toward giving him idiotic results.

William Owens jr. is the founder and president of a tiny outfit that goes by the name of the Coalition of African-American Pastors (CAAP). He is also National Organization for Marriage’s (NOM) religious liaison, and as such just as unhingedly crazy as you’d imagine. Owens is a True Christian™. President Obama, on the other hand, is not a True Christian (but probably more of a Muslim thing), largely because Obama “is intent on ending capitalism with his communist policy of redistribution of wealth.” And that gives you an idea about where Williams Owens comes from, or at least where he has been standing in more recent years – he was once a civil rights leader in Nashville; not much left of that at present, though Owens doesn’t seem to be aware of his fall).

CAAP, a small, strange group, which exists solely for the purpose of attacking African-American leaders and organizations from the right, in particular on the topic of the relationship between democrats and gays. Indeed, the group – or project – is associated with NOM’s plan (according to internal planning documents) to “drive a wedge between gays and blacks.” Owens, on his side, thinks a man having sex with another man is like a man having sex with a dog and that homosexuality is a contagious disease caused by and spread through molestation, which of course makes him perfect for NOM’s morality agenda, and he does not hesitate to draw a connection to the Democratic party. Indeed, not only is Obama not a Christian according to Owens (I mean, he supports gay marriage – that should silence all doubts) but the Democratic Party is also a “demonic party” that must be stopped (some of his statements to that effect are discussed here). Apparently Obama wants a “dictatorial-style rule” (and “has rejected God”), which is, of course, synonymous for disagreeing with Owens and which makes Obama just like a white supremacist.

When marriage equality was on the Maryland ballot in the 2012 election Owens, never one to shy away from hyperbole, warned voters that if we “change God’s law” by legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption then “the whole gamut of the family is going to be destroyed and all areas of the social life will be destroyed from what has been for thousands of years.” Indeed, gay marriage will “deteriorate the black family more than anything else” (no further explanation given, but his wife, Deborah Owens, made a similar assertion in a Washington Times op-ed where she warned that the “homosexual agenda” will “erode the very foundation of our society”). Fortunately, Owens said,black voters are turning against Obama because of this issue.

To no one’s surprise Owens was deeply hurt by the DOMA decision; according to Owens the Supreme Court “neglected our most precious children who need a mother and a father united in marriage for healthy development,” and repeated his warnings about the erosion of society. He also called for anti-gay activists to launch a new Civil Rights Movement to fight and seek to repeal the civil rights of gay people (Owens wouldn’t have put it quite like that; indeed, Owens would say “think of the children”: “The adults are confused and they’re confusing the children,” Owens lamented, “how can two men rear a child? How can a man be a mother? Tell me that.” But that’s not quite how civil rights work.) In 2014 he seems to have been primarily devoted to pushing for the impeachment of Attorney General Eric Holder for “trampling the rule of law” by not defending DOMA, and therefore for trying “to coerce states to fall in line with the same-sex ‘marriage’ agenda;” indeed, according to Owens, Holder “shredded” the Constitution “in order to impose a radical homosexual agenda,” one that betrays “the black community and the values that we hold dear.” What? You miss reason and argument? Oh, but it was never about that for William Owens.

Diagnosis: It’s getting a bit tiresome, isn’t it? At least his impact appears to be limited.

A.k.a. “America’s Doctor”

Mehmet Oz is a TV doctor who first came to public notice through his appearances on Oprah. He currently hosts his own syndicated television talk show, “The Dr. Oz Show,” which is currently one of the saddest and most substantial threats to civilization imposed on the world through Television. The general format of the show consists of inviting many people who work in healthcare for the audience, go through some points that align with real medical science, and then ruin everything by promoting various altmed garbage (warning letters he receives from the FDA don’t carry the same weight with the public, who probably never gets to hear about them anyways). As a doctor, Oz is in fact one of the most accomplished cardiothoracic surgeons of his generation, which makes his journey to the dark side all the more tragic.

The show is currently filled with recommendations ranging from the dubious to the downright fraudulent, and Oz has even given time to batshit crazies such as Deepak Chopra and Joseph Mercola, the latter described as a “pioneer in alternative medicine” and “a man your doctor doesn’t want you to know.” Usually Oz stops short of explicitly endorsing charlatans (at least in the earlier seasons), but just giving them a platform at all borders on malfeasance and is definitely a violation of any Hippocratic Oath, as well as giving these cranks and quacks an opportunity to promote themselves with an “as seen on the Dr. Oz Show” tag. His interaction with Mercola, according to critics (who are right), marked the completion of his journey to the Dark Side. He sealed it further by embracing homeopathy publicly and promoting it on his show in a segment called The Homeopathy Starter Kit. And with his “15 Superfoods” segment he has entered something frighteningly reminiscent of Kevin Trudeau-land.

Oz has furthermore promoted faith healing, “energy medicine”, reiki, and appeared on ABC News to give legitimacy to the claims of Brazilian faith healer “John of God,” who uses old carnival tricks to solicit money from the seriously ill. He has hosted Ayurvedic (http://www.skepdic.com/ayurvedic.html) guru Yogi Cameron on his show to promote nonsense “tongue examination” as a way of diagnosing health problems, and in 2011 he more or less endorsed none other than John Edward (good portrait here) – Oz even suggested that bereaved families should visit psychic mediums to receive messages from their dead relatives as a form of grief counseling. The segment is discussed here. He has later followed that one up with a segment featuring Long Island medium Theresa Caputo, whom Oz promotes as somehow being able to help his viewers deal with anxiety by communicating with dead relatives on “the other side” – indeed, he even brought ultrapseudoscientist Daniel Amen to his show to argue that brainscans show that Caputo’s psychic powers are genuine (needless to say, the brainscans show no such thing). He has promoted Goodnighties sleepwear, which is said to be “impregnated with a substance that emits negative ions,” red palm oil, contributed to the distribution of the Açai scams, and featured an anti-vaccine-sympathetic episode on autism with Bob Sears as his guest. The list goes on. If you ever came to doubt that Oz is a quack, there is for instance this, or his speculation about a connection between cell phone use and cancer (no, there is no evidence of such, for crying out loud), or his support for grounding.

Why does he do it, one might ask, and I suspect a lot is revealed in his manifesto, a chilling combo of various postmodernist relativist bullshit: “Medicine is a very religious experience. I have my religion and you have yours. It becomes difficult for us to agree on what we think works, since so much of it is in the eye of the beholder. Data is rarely clean. You find the arguments that support your data, and it’s my fact versus your fact.” No, it isn’t – but the sentiment explains quite a bit about how woomeisters think.

One of his biggest controversies involved the chemical resveratrol. While pharmaceutical research on laboratory mice showed some potential as an anti-aging agent, Dr. Oz promoted it as some New Age miracle, pushing his own supplemental version of the chemical, despite a current lack of evidence of its benefits or risks for humans. In 2012 he also provided some false balance regarding reparative therapy, which suggested that this utterly discredited bullshit might have some merit (discussed here).

Dr Oz is the proud winner of the James Randi Educational Foundation's Pigasus Award (Media section) in both 2010 and 2011 for doing “such a disservice to his TV viewers by promoting quack medical practices that he is now the first person to win a Pigasus two years in a row.” The awards are discussed here.

There are some good discussions of his practices here, here, and here (though the latter is a bit mild).

Diagnosis: One of the most dangerous cranks alive. No less.

Insofar as he is still going strong (no really updated information located) Charles L. Pack must be pretty old. And, of course, and more notably, pretty dingbat insane. Pack is the founder, conference director and president of Thy Kingdom Come, Inc., author of multiple booklets on Bible prophecy, publisher of the bi-monthly Spirit of Prophecy newspaper, and one of the heroes of the RaptureReady site. Yes, one more of those.

The stuff he promotes is thus the expected ravings, but among his more personal touches is the promotion of The Hallelujah Diet®, consisting mainly of raw fruits and vegetables, as well as Barleygreen, a natural barley grass. After all, it cured him! At one point in his life, Pack apparently suffered from a delibitating disease that conventional medicine was unable to stop, and enter the Hallelujah Diet (®). As a result of his experiences, Pack founded the website Be In Health to provide answers to questions about his medical problems and their cure (biographer Nicole Balnius interestingly calls him “Dr. Pack” when talking about the promotion of woo – Pack has diploma in divinity), as well as questions about a host of other people whose physical ailments have been helped by diet, nutrition, and the use of natural products.

Aside from promoting “natural” treatments, Pack preaches about endtimes, hell and the end of the world – indeed, the “end-time events could happen within the span of the calendar hanging on your wall.”

Diagnosis: There is always something fascinating with interdisciplinary cranks, but apart from that Pack is probably pretty harmless.

Boyd K. Packer is a Mormon leader and president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is, needless to say, considered something of an authority within the Mormon church – indeed, he is currently the second most senior apostle among its ranks. He is also, as such, among the big architects behind the Church’s official positions on various matters.

As a religious fanatic, Packer is predictably obsessed with sex – that is, other people’s sex lives – and his views on homosexuality, though exactly what you’d expect, are abominable.

A more personal style is revealed in his claims about history (on which he has no expertise), having advocated that LDS historians should refrain from discussing history that does not promote faith – i.e., censor out whatever doesn’t fit with Packer’s predetermined ideas about what contributes to his particular version of the Mormon faith. In a 1981 speech to educators in the LDS Church Educational System, he cautioned that “[t]here is a temptation for the writer or teacher of Church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith promoting or not […] some things are to be taught selectively and some things are to be given only to those who are worthy.” Thus, with regard to all historians who are members of the LDS Church, he stated that “[o]ne who chooses to follow the tenets of his profession, regardless of how they may injure the Church or destroy the faith of those not ready for ‘advanced history,’ is himself in spiritual jeopardy. If that one is a member of the Church, he has broken his covenants and will be held accountable.” Yes, that’s how fundies do “science” – in the service of dogma. Intellectual honesty isn’t even on the radar. Of course, his statements drew some criticism – LDS member and historian Michael Quinn pointed out the obvious problems. It is not as obvious that LDS member C. Robert Mesle’s criticism – that Packer created what Mesle views as a false dichotomy “between the integrity of faith and the integrity of inquiry” – is much less loony when you think about what he’s actually trying to say. Packer’s views on art aren’t much different from his views on history, by the way.

Diagnosis: Probably in his nineties by now, but has – rather obviously – lost none of his reasoning powers, and retains a position of quite a bit of authority and power. A dangerous, evil old crank.

Yet another anti-gay fanatic. Michael Pakaluk is a former philosophy professor at Clark University in Worcester, and writes columns for the Catholic newspaper The Pilot. He is most famous for a 2010 piece defending the decision by a Hingham priest to rescind the acceptance of a child of a lesbian couple to a local parochial school. In the piece (described here) Pakaluk argued that one reason the children of gay parents should not be admitted to Catholic schools is the “real danger” that they would bring pornography to school. The danger is real, because pornographic items “go along with the same-sex lifestyle, which – as not being related to procreation – is inherently eroticized and pornographic.” He added that gay parents should not be called “parents” unless they are biologically related to their children.

The Pilot issued a classic not-pology: “we apologize if anyone felt offended by it.” Apologizing for people’s reactions to the shit they write is not apologizing.

Diagnosis: Dunghead. Probably of negligible importance.

Lawrence Palevsky is a pediatrician – “wholistic pediatrician”, according to himself – who has made a name for himself in the antivaccine underground. Apparently, Palevsky has a real medical degree, but he cannot have learned much about vaccines, since he clearly doesn’t know much about how they work – and, even more clearly, has no idea about how scientific testing works. That lack of understanding, combined with pseudoscience and a bit of conspiracy mongering earned him the prestigious “Visionary Award” from Barbara Loe Fisher’s antivaccine group the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC).

It also landed him a major role in the antivaccine movement’s propaganda movie – really their answer to the Intelligent Design movement’s Expelled – The Greater Good, which made its rounds on various film festivals back in 2011. In the movie, Palevsky manages to put in an impressive array of anti-vaccine pseudoscientific gambits, including the “toxins” gambit, conspiracy mongering about pharmaceutical companies, and claims that vaccines aren’t adequately tested. He even claims that because mortality from various infectious diseases was falling before vaccines for those diseases were introduced it must mean that vaccines are useless, one of the most intellectually dishonest arguments the movement has yet to come up with. In fact, Palevsky is even shown speaking (to parents!) about how amazed he was to discover that there was mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, antibiotics, and preservatives in vaccines, a point that proves once and for all that Palevsky is utterly incompetent at what he claims to be doing as a profession.

We won’t link to his website, but if you happened upon it you will encounter a plethora of woo, anecdotes and appeals to nature to rival any pseudoscientist. Indeed, according to his website, “[i]n using his “whole child” wellness philosophy, Dr. Palevsky recommends and incorporates the teachings and therapies of nutritional science, acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, chiropractic, osteopathy, cranial-sacral therapy, environmental medicine, homeopathy, and essential oils, along with natural healing modalities such as aromatherapy, yoga, Reiki, meditation, reflexology, and mindfulness.” Indeed. He also writes articles for the NVIC.

At least Rob Schneider is a fan. That is not an endorsement indicative of quality. More insidiously, Greg Marvel, president of the school board in San Ramon Valley, California, seems to be a fan as well.

Diagnosis: Ignorant denialist, who unfortunately possesses the formal credentials to lend some authority to his bullshit. Those credentials are apparently formal only.

Harry Palmer is the founder of the The Avatar Course, a series of Large Group Awareness Teaching (LGAT) self-development courses, and run by Palmer’s company Star’s Edge, Inc., which trains and licenses Avatar Masters (teachers) to deliver the bullshit worldwide. The Avatar course offers “belief management” – it claims to “identify and remove limiting beliefs” so that students can become more effective in life.

Palmer and his partner, Avra-Honey Smith, should be well qualified for this kind of thing. They ran the Elmira Church of Scientology officially for over 10 years prior to Avatar; that is, until Palmer ceased to make payments and was promptly sued by the Church of Scientology for trademark infringement. The lawsuit resulted in Palmer renaming his “Church of Scientology, Mission of Elmira, Inc.” to “the Center for Creative Learning”. He apparently never left the ideology behind – just changed the name – and the Avatar-related materials contains extensive selections from scientology, although Palmer appears to have gradually altered the terminology – the contents are pretty much the similar. Palmer’s “history of consciousness in the Milky Way galaxy” is a take on the Scientology’s Galactic Confederacy, according to which Earth is one of the planets seeded with life, and asserting that humanity is at risk of destroying itself through a “blight bomb” that stops photosynthesis. He also claims to have learned things from extraterrestrials’ records on Earth.

As most of people of this ilk, Palmer has been in certain troubles over his alleged credentials.

Diagnosis: It is a bit difficult to imagine that Palmer is acting in good faith, but if he is, then his Avatar Course is as pure bullshit as bullshit comes. “Execrable” is probably a relatively accurate diagnosis.

Que Te “Andre” Park is the head and founder of the enormously successful company QT, Inc. The success is based on the sale of the Q-Ray bracelets, perhaps the most famous piece of placebo jewelry on the market, which are marketed as “the world’s only ionized bracelet of its kind for balancing your body’s yin-yang (positive & negative ions).” According to Park and the QT folks, yin and yang are ions. Unfortunately there is no such thing as an “ionized bracelet,” because solid objects are not ionized, and there is no such thing as an ionic imbalance of the body. The product is discussed here. Indeed, during the Chicago court trial in 2006 (Park was ordered to turn over $22.5 million in net profits and provide up to $64.5 million more in refunds to consumers), Park admitted that he could not define the term “ionization” but picked it because it was simple and easy to remember.

According to the product description, Park is confident that the bracelets will “energize your whole body and relieve pains the natural way by boosting chi ...,” but unfortunately does not mention how they measure chi or how they know the Q-Ray increases it. Perhaps most importantly, wearing the bracelet has, as a double-blinded, randomized trial at the Mayo clinic showed, no effect (more here). Its apparent efficacy is rather explained here. During the 2006 trial, Park’s lawyers criticized the Mayo trial for not lining up with testimonials from Q-Ray customers.

The fact that the bracelets don’t work does not seem to impinge much on their commercial success, however.

Diagnosis: It is, of course, not entirely clear whether Park is actually a loon or more in the vicinity of the exact opposite. What is not in doubt, is that he has an overall negative impact on civilization.

Phil Parker of the Phil Parker Lightning Process is British, and hence disqualified. One might have considered Tara Parker-Pope for drivel like this, but I’ll give her the benefit of doubt for the moment.

There is no possible excuse for David Paszkiewicz. Now, Paszkiewicz may not be a celebrity figure or big name, yet he is another of those poor religious fundamentalist martyrs who were tyrannized into not forcing his religious views on children in public schools. You see, Paszkiewicz was a history teacher who used to teach his students that the literal truth of the Bible was unquestionable and that dinosaurs were aboard Noah’s ark. If you do not accept Jesus, Paszkiewicz argued to his class, “you belong in hell,” singling out (by name) in particular a Muslim student, lamenting what he saw as her inevitable fate should she not convert. Of course, he also promoted biblical creationism, dismissing evolution and the Big Bang as non-scientific (no, he would have no idea, but “not lining up with my fundamentalist delusions” doesn’t sound as good as calling something “non-scientific”), arguing by contrast that the Bible is supported by what he called “confirmed biblical prophecies.” (Also here)

As expected, and as decency demands, he ended up in some trouble for the contents of his lectures. When a student confronted him, Paszkiewicz denied ever having made any of the remarks. The remarks had, however, been recorded, and when thatwas revealed, Paszkiewicz commented that the student “got the big fish … you got the big Christian guy who is a teacher…!” As a good religious fanatic he did not seem to have any moral concerns about his own lying.

He has later tried to defend his actions by trying to argue that “the words ‘separation of church and state’ cannot be found in our Constitution,” as well as making a string of falsehoods about history (his alleged area of expertise) that might have made David Barton blush (but probably wouldn’t).

Of course, Paszkiewicz has never managed to grasp why he got in trouble. It is, in fact, unclear to what extent he got in trouble at all, and many of the townspeople of Kearney, New Jersey, certainly didn’t get it. The Kearney school district, where Paszkiewicz worked, did something, however: they banned recordings of their teachers to prevent similar embarrassments in the future.

Diagnosis: The living, breathing meaning of the phrase “Liar for Jesus”. As spineless, dishonest and morally corrupt as they come; when combined with a solid dose of self-righetousness the resulting sight is not pretty.

We congratulate Cedarville student Ken Patrick with the publication of his paper “Geomorphology of Uluru, Australia” in the Answers Research Journal, the pseudojournal published by Answers in Genesis, and award him an honorable mention in our Encyclopedia.

He can’t compete for sheer derangement with Alice Patterson, however. Patterson is a leader in the New Apostolic Reformation, and one of the leadership team members at Rick Perry’s infamous prayer rally (Patterson was in charge of of “Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma Church Mobilization”). She is known for claiming (on stage at the rally, for instance) that the Democratic Party is a “demon structure”, which is standard batshit fundie for “I disagree with their politics.” As it turns out, it is not only the Democratic Party that is controlled by such spirits – the Republican Party is as well. But whereas the Democrats are controled by “Jezebel” through a “network of demonic principalities that demanded allegiance, worship, and the shedding of innocent blood,” the Republicans are controlled by “Ahab” which makes GOP leaders passive and yield to intimidation instead of standing up on Godly principles. So there. It is all described in her book Bridging the Racial and Political Divide. According to Patterson this “[p]assivity caused the court cases that removed prayer from our public schools to remain, causing the protective wall around the United States, our schools and our government to crumble. The very next year President John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.” There’s got to be a connection there. Demons also explains why President George W. Bush did so many ungodly things, like appointing “an open homosexual to high office,” meeting with Muslims, and failing to pass a federal marriage amendment. (I am not sure Patterson knows what “explanation” means). Her historical revisionism (to a large extent based on the lies of David Barton) has gained her some attention, at least.

Patterson is currently leader of Justice at the Gate, an evangelical Christian political organization that sponsors prayer coordination campaigns in which participants pray for divine influence to sway federal court decisions – the program includes an “Adopt a Judge” campaign in which specific justices are selected as the object of prayer campaigns, and it is closely connected to the Texas Republican Party through David Barton. Part of Patterson’s daily duties is “racial healing” with the purpose of getting African Americans to leave the Democratic Party.

Diagnosis: I’ve sort of run out of these. Patterson’s belief world, which fuels her hate and deranged zeal, doesn’t have the faintest trace of a connection to anything in reality. She has some influence, and must be considered dangerous.

Ron Patton is yet another whale.to mainstay, specializing in mind control. Patton runs the site mkzine.com, and gives you a brief history of mind control here, where he focuses on all the usual (and some less usual) suspects: The Roman Catholic church, the Nazis, and The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, the apex having been reached with the Project MKULTRA and the non-existent Project Monarch.

Apparently these are all pieces in Illuminati attempts to control the general population. “A majority of the victims/survivors come from multi-generational Satanic families (bloodlines) and are ostensibly programmed to fill their destiny as the chosen ones or chosen generations,” says Patton. “Physical identification characteristics on victims/survivors often include multiple electrical prod scars and/or resultant moles on their skin,” so be on the outlook for people with these characteristics.

Patton’s theory even yields predictions. “Non-biological ‘twinning’” occurs when “two young non-related children would be ceremoniously initiated in a magical [it is worth pointing out that for Patton, mind control is not a matter of technology but of magic] ‘soul-bonding’ ritual[; they] essentially share two halves of the programmed information, making them interdependent upon one another. Paranormal phenomenon [sic] such as astral projection, telepathy, ESP, etc. appear to be more pronounced between those who have undergone this process.” Science cannot explain these phenomena. Patton can. What more validation could you ask for? You can see Patton interview Marion Knox on mind control here.

But Patton does of course not limit himself to mind control. Here is his take on aliens and demons. Essentially, UFOs and aliens are really Satanic demons – the Nephilim – and they founded most of the ancient civilizations “Egyptians, Babylonians, Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas.” Proof? Look at all the characteristics they shared: primarily that “they believed they had aquired metaphysical knowledge from the ‘gods’, whom they perceived as coming from the stars and also the subterranean level of the earth” (the other purportedly shared characteristics are demonstrably false; read them in Patton’s screed).

Mkzine is apparently a regular periodical that publishes articles that wouldn’t have been published elsewhere (because they are exposing the conspiracies, according to the authors, but we have to admit sympathy for a competing hypothesis). Its goal is “to be a nexus for psychological, occult, and religious perspectives, Christian and non-Christian, as well as experiential and scientific, on the vast subject of coercive mindcontrol.” This is, in other words, the place to go if you wish to read Roger Tolces talk about “Electronic Harassment” or “Our Isolation: Survivor Conferences and My Personal Experiences” by Neil Brick, not to mention “Voice-to-Skull Microwaves: Air Force Patent” by Dr. Allen Barker, “The Semiotic Deception of September 11^th” by Phillip Darrell Collins, “The Age of Etherics and Reconfiguring the UFO Question, or Does Janus Shave with Ockham’s Razor?” by Columbia Jones, or the balanced “An Empirical Look at the Ritual Abuse Controversy” by Dr. Randall Noblitt. All very enticing.

Diagnosis: I’m inclined to agree that there may be mind-related issues in the case of Patton and his associates. He is probably harmless, however.

#996: Joan Ocean

#997: Dan O'Dowd

#998: Marvin Olasky

#999: David Openheimer

#1000: Jane Orient

#1001: Leonard Orr & Sondra Ray

#1002: Ariel Torres Ortega

#1003: Alex Ortner

#1004: Tim O'Shea

#1005: William Owens jr.

#1006: Mehmet Oz

#1007: Charles L. Pack

#1008: Boyd Packer

#1009: Michael Pakaluk

#1010: Larry Palevsky

#1011: Harry Palmer

#1012: Que Te "Andrew" Park

#1013: David Paszkiewicz

#1014: Alice Patterson

#1015: Ron Patton