Crusaders against weird stuff

The Finnish Association of Sceptics, Skepsis ry, aims to critically analyse paranormal phenomena, and shoot down unscientific claims. But is there really a need for this kind of scientific watchdog in such a rational country as Finland?

“As a voluntary organisation, Skepsis doesn’t have the time and money to conduct extensive research into paranormal phenomena, even though this was originally our purpose – so today we mainly serve as an expert network evaluating such claims, and providing critical comment and advice for the media,” explains Skepsis board member Jukka Häkkinen.

According to Häkkinen, the image of scientific sceptics as a bunch of cynical old men is far from the truth, and the association’s 1,400 members include men and women of all ages from many fields. “Although our problems in Finland with claims about paranormal phenomena are fairly small compared to those in other countries, there is still a real need for consumer education, as there always seem to be new unscientific medications, miraculous electronic gadgets with health-giving powers, and other weird stuff coming on to the market,” says Häkkinen.

Miracle cures
The critical assessment of alternative medicines and therapies makes up a large part of the association’s work. “Homeopathic remedies, for instance, are completely unscientific, as in practice they only contain water and sugar, so it’s amazing how popular they’ve become,” says Häkkinen. As a psychologist, Häkkinen is interested to see how many people are convinced that such miracle remedies really help them. He believes that many factors can contribute to this illusion. Aches, pains and colds usually disappear sooner or later in any case, and this may coincidentally happen soon after such treatments. The comforting discussions patients have with their therapists can also often help, as does the placebo effect – where even in the absence of any effective medical ingredient a drug can sometimes work if patients believe strongly enough that they will be cured.

Where herbal remedies are concerned, Häkkinen stresses that the sceptics approach all claims with an open mind, since many conventional medicines use chemicals originally derived from plants. “We’re most concerned where we feel people are being conned into wasting their money, or where they are persuaded not to seek the professional medical help they really need.”

Sceptics are often also atheists, but the Finnish association maintains a neutral position on religious beliefs, unless religious groups make claims relating to such phenomena as crying statues or visions of spiritual figures, which can be verified or disproved through empirical trials – at least for the scientifically minded. Such events seem to be more common in fervently Catholic countries than in more secular societies like Finland.

Not just a bunch of killjoys
Skepsis do not worry too much about exaggerated advertising claims, but they will contact the authorities when bogus claims about paranormal phenomena are included in publicly funded educational materials or courses.

Every year Skepsis presents a “Huuhaa [Humbug] Award” to an organisation responsible for promoting pseudoscience. In recent years the prize has gone to evening schools teaching astrology; to the Helsinki University of Technology’s biology department for including creationism in a scientific seminar; and to the Finnish magazine Minä Olen. The website linked to this ‘new age’ periodical sells an amazing range of products from old-fashioned tarot cards, through glass beads that radiate healing energy, to protective plates bearing symbols that cancel out harmful electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones.

“We don’t want to spoil people’s fun if they want to read horoscopes or mystical articles in magazines, but where astrologers or marketing people make scientific claims, we feel that they must be prepared to prove them,” says Häkkinen.

Are you an ET?
Skepsis also offers a €10,000 scholarship award to anyone who can prove they have extra-terrestrial origins by submitting a sample of their DNA – or the equivalent substance… No one has yet attempted to claim this cash.

Häkkinen points out that UFO sightings seem to have become scarcer in recent years everywhere around the world, joking that perhaps the ETs have finally realised how stupid we humans really are. He believes that widespread reports from people abducted by aliens while they sleep can be put down to a recognised psychological phenomenon known as sleep paralysis, which may affect as many 1 in 10 of us at some time. In a mixed state of dreaming and wakefulness, sufferers can project their dreams or nightmares into their bedroom, making them seem all too real.

“It’s interesting that people have interpreted this differently at different times and in different cultures, becoming convinced that they have seen ghosts, goblins, devils, or today more often extra terrestrials,” says Häkkinen. “Such people should not be told that their experiences are real, but they might need reassuring that they are not going mad, and are suffering from a recognised condition.”

Water diviners
There have been plenty of willing claimants for another reward of €10,000 promised by Skepsis to anyone who can reproduce a paranormal phenomenon under scientific conditions.

According to Häkkinen, the most common claims of paranormal powers in Finland concern the ability to find water or metal objects underground by using dowsing sticks. “Sometimes it seems that in every Finnish village there’s an old man somewhere who is convinced he can find water by dowsing – and people still ask these men for advice when they are deciding where to build a well, for instance,” says Häkkinen. “But when systematic scientific experiments have been run to test such abilities in barns with water pipes moved to different locations beneath them, their results have always been entirely random.”

Häkkinen puts these powers down to an illusion, through which the diviner’s small unconscious hand movements are amplified by the dowsing sticks, and seem to come from some mysterious external source.

Call for the insulator
“There has also been a peculiarly Finnish tradition of asking people known as Insulators to test your house for harmful channels beneath it that give off ‘earth radiation’ that can cause sleeplessness or illness. This can supposedly be avoided by moving your bed, or putting a copper plate beneath it,” says Häkkinen, adding that all these would-be insulators have so far failed to prove their skills under controlled tests.