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			B.C. SKEPTICS MEETING

		      Friday 3 February, 7:30 pm

			 Halpern Centre, SFU

		Debunking the Famous Red Running Shoe

	  Hayden Ebbern, Sean Mulligan, and Barry Beyerstein

		        Open to the public, free.


Barry Beyerstein has appeared on The Oprah Show, The Shirley Show,
Unsolved Mysteries, Forces Beyond, CBC Newsworld, and Town Meeting
to debate authors such as Raymond Moody, Betty Eady, Maurice Rawlings,
John Mack, and Melvin Morse.  The latter believe that in out-of-body
experiences (OBEs) the mind or soul really leaves the body (rather than
that they are complex hallucinations that feel like that).  In such
debates occultists usually concede that OBEs like those reported in
so-called Near Death Experiences (NDEs) or alien abductions can be due to
natural causes in the brain, but they reject this as an explanation for
all such events by claiming that some experiencers have "brought back"
information that they could not possibly have obtained unless they were
really out of their bodies and could still see, hear, remember, etc.

The most often cited case of this sort, is that of "Maria," a patient who
suffered a cardiac arrest several years ago while in a Seattle hospital.
As believers re-tell the story, upon being resuscitated, Maria immediately
asked why there was a running shoe on an outside window ledge of an upper
floor of the hospital.  Supposedly, the shoe would have been invisible to
anyone who was not floating in space outside the building.  If true, this
would be very strong evidence that OBEs are not merely vivid hallucinations
generated by a traumatized brain.  

Because of the importance of this case to the NDE and alien abduction
debates, two SFU students, Sean Mulligan and Hayden Ebbern undertook a
thorough investigation with Barry Beyerstein's assistance.  Hayden and Sean
journeyed to Seattle several times, interviewing many key players and
carefully reconnoitering the hospital and its environs.  As they will show
at our next meeting, the believers' "best case" is riddled with errors,
exaggerations, and improbabilities.  While in Seattle, Sean and Hayden
attended a meeting of a group dedicated to proving the objective reality of
NDEs.  Come and hear what these people accept as "scientific" evidence for
an afterlife.

The Halpern Centre is a small building at Simon Fraser University just
north-east of the Bookstore and just north-west of the Academic Quadrangle.

For a map, and for further information about the BC Skeptics, see:
http://www.wimsey.com/BC_Skeptics/
or send me email.

-- 
ted@eslvcr.wimsey.com   ...!van-bc!eslvcr!ted   (Ted Powell)