National Capital Area Skeptics

(Daytime Lectures & Demonstrations) 1:00 - 5:30 PM

and

(Evening Performance) 7:30 pm

1:00-5:30 PM - Science, Magic, & Skepticism: A Natural Relationship Workshop/Lectures and Demonstrations - AAAS Auditorium

Using discussion and demonstration, we'll explore the connection between magic and skepticism. Joining Jamy will be D.J. Grothe, magician, skeptic, and host of Point of Inquiry, CFI's radio show and podcast, and D.C.'s own Chip Denman, a founder of the National Capital Area Skeptics

• D.J. Grothe, The History of Magic in Skepticism
• Chip Denman, If the Spirit is Willing: Séance mediums and the scientists who investigated them
• Jamy Ian Swiss: The Illusion of Psychic Powers
• Q&A on Magic, Skepticism, Science, and Reason - with Swiss, Grothe, Denman.

7:30 PM - HEAVY MENTAL Show - AAAS Auditorium

Witness an amazing performance of baffling, unnerving, "mind reading" phenomena - accomplished with pure, psychology, subtle influence, deft illusion, uncanny intuition, and a healthy dose of downright deception - what Jamy calls "sleight of mind."

Get More Info & Register Today!

Workshop: $35 ($30 for CFI and NCAS members and $15 for students) HEAVY MENTAL Show: $20 ($15 for CFI and NCAS members and $10 for students)

Workshop & Heavy Mental Show Package: $50 ($40 for CFI and NCAS members and $20 for students)

SPECIAL NOTES:

• The HEAVY MENTAL show is not recommended for children under 12 and no one under 8 will be admitted.
• This one-time performance will not be video recorded or repeated. Don't miss it.

Saturday October 10 1:30 pm - Public & Free

William T. Bridgman, Ph.D., Global Science & Technology, Greenbelt, MD

Bethesda Library, 7400 Arlington Rd., Bethesda, MD (map) Near Bethesda metro (directions) (flyer)

Saturday September 19 1:30 pm - Public & Free

Robert Park, Ph.D. Professor of Physics University of Maryland

Bethesda Library, 7400 Arlington Rd., Bethesda, MD (map) Near Bethesda metro (directions) (flyer)

From uttering a prayer before boarding a plane, to exploring past lives through hypnosis, has superstition become pervasive in contemporary culture? Robert Park, the best-selling author of Voodoo Science, argues that it has. In Superstition, Park asks why people persist in superstitious convictions long after science has shown them to be ill-founded. He takes on supernatural beliefs from religion and the afterlife to New Age spiritualism and faith-based medical claims. He examines recent controversies and concludes that science is the only way we have of understanding the world.

Park sides with the forces of reason in a world of continuing and, he fears, increasing superstition. Chapter by chapter, he explains how people too easily mistake pseudoscience for science. He discusses parapsychology, homeopathy, and acupuncture; he questions the existence of souls, the foundations of intelligent design, and the power of prayer; he asks for evidence of reincarnation and astral projections; and he challenges the idea of heaven. Throughout, he demonstrates how people's blind faith, and their confidence in suspect phenomena and remedies, are manipulated for political ends. Park shows that science prevails when people stop fooling themselves.

Compelling and precise, Superstition takes no hostages in its quest to provoke. In shedding light on some very sensitive--and Park would say scientifically dubious--issues, the book is sure to spark discussion and controversy.

Robert L. Park is professor of physics at the University of Maryland. He is the author of Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud.

Princeton University Press

Visit Bob Park's "What's New" Blog