Finding a writer I never read before is like connecting to a mind across the decades!

The Demolished Man – Alfred Bester (1953)

            Every once in a while a name will pop out of the daily skronk that enters my ears and remain as something to be explored.  That is what happened one day, years and years ago, when I happened to be watching a Simpsons episode.  In the episode, a nerdy character named Martin was speaking in front of the school in a bid for Class President (if memory serves) and shouted out, “As your president, I would demand a science-fiction library, featuring an ABC of the overlords of the genre: Asimov, Bester, Clarke! “

Another of the nerdy kids then asked, “What about Ray Bradbury?” and Martin replied condescendingly,

“I am aware of his work.” 

I laughed and laughed because I find Ray Bradbury’s writing interminably dull, and I have never seen fit to include him in any discussion of science fiction writers to admire.  Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke are all-time idols of mine.  However, in all the years I had read science fiction I never came across the name Alfred Bester.  I had to remedy that discrepancy.

            After doing a little research online I found that one of Mr. Bester’s most highly regarded works is the book The Demolished Man, which I proceeded to request through the Inter-Library Loan System that the Library I work at has in place.  There are a great many older sci-fi stories that entertain, but few that seem truly timeless, and this book is exactly that!  I found it hard to tell whether I was reading a 60+ year old book, or a cyberpunk novel! 

This image would fit either!

            The Demolished Man is structured as a murder/murder investigation in a future world where some people have psychic abilities, and are trained and hired for them.  The writing is so fast-paced, and whip-smart, reminiscent of Phillip K. Dick at his most ADD.  The typesetting is utilized to full effect as Bester shows us the mental conversations between “Espers,” the term used for those with psychic skills.  I got completely lost in this book and it was over far too quickly!  I will have to dig up more of Mr. Bester’s work.  Finding a quality science fiction writer that I had not yet read is like finding GOLD Jerry, gold.  It has been a while since I sunk my mental teeth into a work of fiction, and it felt great to be transported to another world.  I will have to dig up Bester’s novel The Stars My Destination next!

(This book can be read online here: http://ebooksbeus.weebly.com/uploads/6/3/0/8/6308108/the_demolished_man_-_alfred_bester.pdf )

(This book can be purchased here:  AMAZON  )

The more I learn about these con-artist quacks the more I hate them!

Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science – Martin Gardner (1957)

            Martin Gardner is a name I recognized referenced in many of the books I read about pseudo-science, quackery, and delusions.  This book, Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science, was the first work of the past 100 years that sought to include all the major nonsensical, seemingly scientific claims that many people at the time believed in.  Sadly, there are still many slightly-educated fools that believe these things up to today.

            The book is divided into chapters, each dealing with a specific subset of quackery.  One of the first topics explored are the claims that the Earth is not a spheroid, but flat.  Another of these pseudo-scientific fads which still has followers, and which had many more in the past, is the claim that the Earth is hollow, and that mysterious creatures and entities reside there.  Mr. Gardner does a great job describing the claims put forth and explaining just what the many logical and intellectual fallacies the proponents of this nonsense fall into, fooling themselves into certitude.

            There are chapters on the “flying saucer” nonsense, and chapters on the many medical quackeries that fleeced so much money from so many sick and suffering people between 1880-1950.  One of the ways in which these beliefs and ideas are kept alive is by removing some of the older verbiage and replacing it with seemingly well-researched scientific-esque language.  This is what allowed the full on lie that is chiropractic “medicine” to be practiced in the USA to this day.  Originally, the quack that invented the chiropractic claimed that all the body’s diseases and ailments were caused by “sublimations” of the spinal vertebrae, and that by manipulating them and applying heat or massage treatments, all manner of disease could be cured.  Of course, the wacko that created this flim-flam denied the existence of germs, and never accepted the germ-theory of disease.  These days the chiropractors in the USA hide their quackery under the words of physical therapy, and rehabilitation.  It is all bullshit, and chiropractic “care” is as effective as a sit in a hot tub.  Temporary “relief,” followed by renewed pain and symptoms.  The crooks in chiropractic care have survived to this day, milking the American health insurance cartels for millions of dollars in worthless care.

"Wait outside by the slender tree.  Your treatment will soon begin."

            Other parts of the book discuss the lies of homeopathy, acupuncture, phrenology, and more.  It may seem sad that people fall for this stuff, but the real sadness lies in the hearts and minds of the assholes who sell the sick, infirm, and suffering quackery as medicine.  Those bastards are just as bad as the asshole that created Scientology once his science fiction books did not sell (because they sucked).  It seems if you couch any crazy idea in seemingly scientific wording, unsuspecting people will eat it up.  That is why it is important for everyone everywhere to have at least a working knowledge of science and the scientific method, and of logic and reasoning.  A desperate person will turn to anyone offering answers.  The assholes that prey on these desperate people deserve to suffer every possible pain imaginable.  This book, or this one by James Randi (http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-masterful-reference-for-those-of-us.html ), or this one by Harry Houdini (http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2014/09/houdini-was-trying-to-school-us-about.html ) , should be required reading in all public schools.  It would create a better educated citizenry, but then again, our political leaders may not want that!

(This book is available in .pdf format here: http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Martin-Gardner-Fads-and-Fallacies-in-the-Name-of-Science.pdf )

Nostril-dumbass and his "predictions"

The Mask of Nostradamus: The Prophecies of the World’s Most Famous Seer – James Randi (1993)

            Oh James Randi.  You fight the good fight and the dumb-asses still won’t listen.  Nostradamus is the single most famous prognosticator of recent history.  His obtuse quatrains are so vague and meaningless that they are fodder for every sort of claim the kooks wish to superimpose on them.  This makes it very easy to claim Nostradamus predicted whatever you wish to imagine.

            James Randi has taken up the grand fight to combat the ignorance spread by the lunatic fringe.  Houdini tried 100 years ago and failed.  In this book, Mr. Randi takes on the big dog.  He explores the history of Nostradamus and his quatrains, their creation, and the subsequent hype machine which made everyone believe that Nostradamus was a mystic of the highest order.  Quatrains were altered to suit people’s needs in the centuries after his life.  They were forged outright by the book publishers who needed new volumes to sell to the gullible sheep that ate this crap up but had already exhausted the originals.  James Randi details all of this with humor, righteous indignation, and diligent research.

The Eye of Truth destroys ignorance and wishful thinking

            If only people would read this book.  I know they will not, especially since a whole cottage industry makes serious money off of the name Nostradamus and his nonsense verse.  The worst part is that, as the saying goes, “Hindsight is 20/20.”  Almost no one ever focuses on psychics/seers failures, instead championing the one time out of a hundred where it appears they predicted something correctly.  Theoretical physicists make predictions based on their theories all the time that turn out to be empirically true, but are never given as much attention as a “psychic” predicting the death of a President, or that so-and-so celebrity will be married next year,  These scum are the worst.

Houdini was trying to school us about the liars 100 years ago

A Magician Among the Spirits – Harry Houdini (1924)

            Houdini is The Man!  I have already written about Harry Houdini and my idolization of the man here.  This book, which I found in the stacks of the Library I work for, is one I have wanted to read ever since I learned of its existence decades ago.  In this book Harry Houdini details his decades of exploration in the world of Spiritualism and psychic mediums.

            Houdini’s foray into Spiritualism began from a deep love of his mother, the single most important person in his life, an immigrant who never learned English and sacrificed so Harry’s brothers and sisters could have a better life in America.  When she dies it really breaks him up.  She lived to see him gain worldwide fame.  At that time, Spiritualism was in vogue in the USA, and mediums/psychics of all types were offering séances in which one could supposedly communicate with the recently dead.  Houdini began to seek these people out in an attempt to talk to his beloved mother, only to find that every single one was a full-on con, using all manner of tricks and lies to fool desperate people into giving away their money for a chance to chat with dear ol’ Uncle Larry in the afterlife.

 

These fools are on a road to nowhere.

            This, as you can imagine, made Harry Houdini irate.  He spent the remainder of his life visiting every medium he could, and educating the public about the deep bullshit they were being fed by these grifters.  This book describes his endeavors, and every manner of trick, sleight-of-hand, and psychological gambit utilized by so-called Spiritualists.  The sad part is that even 100 years after this, our society still accepts these hucksters with a winking eye.  The police bunko squads rarely raid these fuckers, and the truly charismatic ones are paid millions to do their song and dance on television.  Accepting the lies told by someone under the pretense of entertainment, or harmless fun, is a severe disservice to all of us.  Houdini would be rolling in his grave at the stupid sheep credulity of the ignorant masses, if he had not already escaped the shackles of a locked casket.  Ha!

(This book can be read in .pdf format here:  http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/A-Magician-Among-the-Spirits-1.pdf )

I love tell-all books, especially when they show psychics, mind-readers, and mediums as the criminal con-artists they are

The Psychic Mafia – Lamar Keene (1976)

            Hell yeah.  This is a bad-ass book!  How I love to stumble across books like this!  The Psychic Mafia is a detailed, frank, and incredibly eye-opening recounting of the methods, technologies, and subterfuge used by so-called psychics to fleece their victims of their money.  It straight-up tells the harsh truth that these con-artists work so hard to avoid exposing.  If everyone was assigned this book in school the vast majority of scam-fuck “gypsies”, palm-readers, psychics, and mediums would be out of business, leaving the world a much better place.

            The writer of this book, M. Lamar Keene, was himself a huckster psychic, and received death threats from the organized crime factions that control the “psychic” trade, forcing him to disappear.  Here is how James Randi describes this in his book, “Flim Flam” which will be covered in a later post.

            “In 1976 Lamar Keene, a spirit medium who had bilked thousands of Florida residents out of their fortunes, decided to give it up.  He confessed all to the IRS and to readers of his book, The Psychic Mafia.  In 1977 I interviewed him and discovered that he knew very little about the more subtle methods of chicanery.  He explained to me that he didn’t need to know much.  Anything he did would serve to convince the faithful, he said.  They fell for the most transparent ruses, many of which were thought up on the spur of the moment, and he and his fellow charlatans laughed themselves silly, at the end of an easy day’s work, as they recounted how simple it had been.  Keen’s book caused a storm in spiritualist circles.  Threatened by phone and letter, he moved from place to place to avoid his former friends in the business, who told him they were out to get him.  He went into the import trade, changed his name, and hoped to settle down.  But his book was not wrongly named.  One night, as he emerged from his shop, a car pulled up and shots roared out.  Lamar Keene fell to the pavement, hit in the midsection.  As of this writing he is recovering after long hospitalization.  His “friends” had attempted to make good their threat.”

            In this book he exposes the many ways psychics fake their visions, cheat people, and research their marks, using the “pigeon’s” own gullibility and “will to believe” against them.  It is a brutal thing, to prey on people when they are at their most vulnerable, when they have gone through trauma, lost loved ones, suffered terrible events, etc.  These psychics, ALL OF THEM, are experts in human psychology and they all share trade secrets in an underground network of connected grifters.  Fucking horrible.  They fleece the people for money and power, and all the while they laugh about it all behind everyone’s backs.

Those bastards will tell you they can see your future in this drawing, if you give them $1,000.00

            Mr. Keene goes into great detail showing the methods and debunking the claims with honest scientific information.  It is really infuriating for me to see people blindly follow the “advice” of these fucking con-artists.  So pathetic.  People are dumb as fuck and want to believe anything which may comfort them, or take blame away from them for their actions, if it sounds “right.”  This shit enrages me!         

            One of the greatest magicians of all time, Harry Houdini, sincerely believed in Spiritualism and mediums, until he began to frequent séances and readings in an attempt to contact his dear, departed mother.  He saw that every single one was a charlatan, using the same tricks he used, but to fool people into thinking their dead relation was communicating with them, not for entertainment.  He spent the last 30 years of his life visiting all the psychics he could in order to debunk their claims.  The sad truth of human gullibility and stupidity is that even after all the facts are laid out, after being told exactly how the psychic managed to fool them, they would continue to frequent them.  That is straight insanity. Only a desperate person would continue to visit a quack after being told how they have conned you, and psychics rely upon this desperation to steal your money.  Sadly, there are many such pathetic fools out there in the world, willing to hand over their hard-earned money to someone who tells them that “mommy forgives you.”  All the religions of the world have become rich as fuck following this exact same method.

(This book can be read/downloaded in .pdf form here: http://files.meetup.com/1509795/ThePsychicMafia.pdf )