Introduction

The Magnet Guy

The Laser Guy

David John Oates (the Reverse Speech Guy)

Others

Introduction

On Saturday, April 18, 1998 I visited the Preparedness Expo, 98 here in Salt Lake. My goal was to interview 'alternative energy' gurus that I expected to be there based on radio ads (I was disappointed). I was impressed by the philosophical perspective, size, and several national mainstream businesses.

Philosophically, based on the exhibitors, the attendees have strong (often fundamentalist) Christian attitudes, jingoistic patriotism (where sometimes bizzare interpretations of the constitution are commonplace), conspiratorial, and militaristic views. Christian attitudes were fed by the several exhibitors who sold books on fundamentalist religion, the special place of the US mandated by God, the righteousness of preparedness, prophecy, etc. Patriotism was exhibited in t-shirt booths, copies of the constitution and other documents, and jingoistic histories of the US. Conspiracies were found in explanations of the Federal Reserve and a government cover-up of the death of a California man. Militarism was exemplified by the military surplus, blow gun sellers, texts on military tactics and on field dressing of wounds.

The size was smaller than I expected. For my 6 US$ I was admitted to one of the medium sized exhibit halls of the Salt Palace convention center which was only 2/3 filled with exhibitors. The brochure says 100 exhibitors, maybe so, but not much more. It felt reassuringly small.

Nearly all the booths were small. Easily the most profitable enterprise was the several companies that market freeze dried vacuum packed foods for long term storage. All their booths were staffed with attractively dressed young persons selling these foods at a brisk pace.

I was surprised to see some national mainstream businesses, specifically nationally recognized security companies. Other mainstream-type businesses (but not national manufacturers) were those who sold general sporting goods, binoculars, backpacking gear, etc. I didn't recognized the name brands, in general, for these goods, but they appeared to be of good quality.

I went there hoping to find some of the alternative energy gurus that promote zero point, greater than unity, and other 2nd Law violating energy systems. I was primed to ask the essential question, "If this machine makes more energy than it uses, why don't you simply plug it into itself and let it run itself?" Alas, they were not there (nor did it appear that they were supposed to be). The alternative energy products that were promoted were things that most would consider mainstream, if not common, nowadays: Solar and wind energy systems. They looked legitimate overall.

The Magnet Guy

The first vendor that I spoke with was the fellow who sold Nikken products. According to sales literature, Nikken is "A Leading Provider of Health Products & Technology in Japan." It claims it was founded in 1975. The main literature given to me was about how I could become a Nikken distributor, resembling a multilevel marketing system. The booth had a sign that said, "Ask why you should walk on magnets." So I asked. I was told that since we spent a good deal of the day indoors we didn't have adequate contact with the Earth's magentic fields. I was told that the reason that astronauts who return from space are weak is because they have lacked interaction with the Earth's magnetic field. He told me that these magentic insoles (see the picture) would help these problems.

He had me stand on one magnetic sole (the right foot). After a while, he asked if it made my foot tingle. I said, "yes", because it did. (The reason, I suspect, is that standing with one foot on a slightly higher (about 3/16th inch) rubberized pad makes that foot work harder, therefore the tingling. When I pointed that out to him, he then asked me to clasp my hands in front, outstreached. He pressed more or less perpendicular to my outstreached arms when I was standing on the magnet (therefore, I was able to resist better) and pressed more or less directly along the line of my arms when I was not standing on the magnets, making me topple back easily. I smiled, he knew I knew. I've been able to illustrate this process.

He then allowed me to take a picture of him and his products. Unfortunately you can't see the insole very well since it is the same color as his shirt.

He is wearing an "infrared" wrist band woven with 'bioactive' fibers and assists in healing sore joints. He showed me the fiber tag and it showed acrylic, nylon, and cotton. I guess the cotton could be considered bioactive. I suspect it does make the joints feel better, after all, it is providing warming insulation. The blanket he holds purportedly does the same thing. He offered for me to taste lemon slices that had been covered in the blanket, compared to slices from the "same lemon" that had not, saying the covered lemon wouldn't be as sour. I couldn't anticipate the trick he might be up to, so I declined his offer.

The Laser Guy

The Laser Guy was less forthcoming than the Magnet Guy, and he was eating lunch. Being as when I'm hungry I'm less than engaging, I cut him some slack and simply photographed his exhibit and the laser healing device he was selling.

He was also selling Kirlian photography as you can see in the banner in the picture. I didn't take the chance to engage him on Kirlian issues because those are routinely handled on other's web pages. I concentrated on the device he was selling that was unique to my eye. This was his laser healing device.

The Magna Pulstarr Laser appears to be simply a modified laser pointer pen. The cap has been modifed with a magnet and what appears to be a quartz crystal through which a light flashes. (I tried three photographs hoping to capture it in mid-flash but missed every time.) The woman who worked the exhibit with him was initially upset at me photographing the pen, but he quieted her since I'd asked permission while she wasn't there (we won't get into my cover story, but I feel a wee bit guilty).

The pen purports to remove symptoms of joint aches and pains. It is described in the brochure as a 'soft' laser. I suppose this terminology removes some fear that might be associated with using a laser. It is used in conjunction with a cone shaped cup that has gold colored metal buttons around the wide rim.

I saw a rather sad looking soul seated at a table using the pen on his wrist. He had the pen inserted into the narrow opening of the cup with the wide end against his wrist. I asked him what he was doing and why. He said that he was using the pen to help his carpal tunnel syndrome pain in his wrist. He cast about the magic words associated with the pen: the powerful magnetic force, the laser, the crystal combination, etc. as if this would really work. I don't feel it is my place to tell a desperate person that a given device is unlikely to work, so I left him to his pain.

I suspect that this 'works' by holding some heat within the cup. I don't know about these laser pointers, but they may generate a little heat due to inefficiency in their design. Therefore, it gets warm under the cup, making the joint feel better.

David John Oates, The Reverse Speech Guy

I think most skeptics have heard of David John Oates. He is an Australian fellow who has developed an idea that the real meaning of a person's utterances can be found by listening to them backwards. He calls it Reverse Speech.

Australian Skeptics have done a nice job debunking Reverse Speech.

There are several problems with this proposition. One is that not all the forward utterances can be intelligibly reversed. Since only a small portion of a person's utterances can be reversed to find true meaning, what does this suggest about those utterances that can't be reversed?

That there is no true meaning to them?

That unreversable statements are truthful?

Reverse speech goes against every theory of cognitive and information processing psychology that exists. These standard (and even the less standard) theories have a substantial body of empirical and computer simulation research behind them. Validty for Reverse Speech requires a lot of already measured phenomenon to be false.

But to Oates at this show. He spoke before a small crowd, I'd estimate about 70 to 100 people were in attendance in a space that could have seated about 400. Nominally everyone was supposed to pay $5 to attend. But since I was late to his talk (about 30 minutes) I walked in for free, as did others. He put on two talks of this type plus a half-day workshop on reverse speech. His booth sold tape recorders modified for easy reversals. I almost bought one because I'd already purchased tapes of his talks at the show. (No, I don't like knowing he is getting money from that, but how else can I eventually do reversals on him? Anyone who wants to help me with that task should contact me via email.)

Oates showed off his usual reversals, of the words as Armstrong stepped onto the moon (which apparently reverses to "Man Will Space Walk"). But then he went off on Clinton (he apparently loves this and I think this is where he gets a lot of his popularity, from bashing Clinton). He plays one reversal of Clinton purportedly saying (in reverse), "The Mormon is in the sheets, fuck her." He claims this (nearly unintelligible to my ear) reversal is saying that Clinton has a Mormon girlfriend. I guess saying this in Utah is meant to inflame passions against Clinton even more, and promote buying more Reversal stuff so you can catch that cagy politician on your own!

The Use of Infrared

As skeptics, I think it is our job to determine the tricks used to fool folks and expose them. The use of infrared may be such a trick employed in a large number of apparently effective pseudo-scientific products on the market. By generating, or containing and concentrating, a bit of heat, aches can be relieved. So, are they necessarily fraudulent? I'd say yes, because they are not doing anything unique based on their puported method of operation. A similarly structured object lacking the special contraption (the laser pen in the case of the Magna Pulstarr) will probably function as well and with less cost.

Based on my more careful examination of the products offered by the Magnet guy and the Laser Guy, I'm convinced the reason that some of the products feel effective is that they contain and concentrate body heat. This is not to say that I think the products are uniquely effective. Just that simply warming an afflicted area will often make it feel better to the sufferer.

The Magnet Guy sold various infrared products. He made it sound very scientific, but in reality it was ordinary clothing and blankets. I suspect a double blind test of his special products compared to ordinary clothing of similar insulating properties would yield no difference in how the wearer subjectively felt. The cup with pointer sold by the Laser guy could probably be substituted by a closed cup with a small light bulb and work as well.

Other Booths

Other booths were mostly for fallout shelters, blow darts, freeze dried foods (easily the biggest booths and doing the biggest business), and religious/jingoistic books.

From a skeptics perspective were the several booths selling products that purportedly would help you think better. One company was selling 'Brainfood' which was a granola-ish nut, seed, and grain mix. I asked how it would help me think better and he said something about common physiology that was not particularly unique to the foods in the mix. When he saw I was unimpressed he glanced at my less-than-svelt waist and told me it would help me loose weight! Wow! That is some stuff!

Another booth was selling a silly exercise system. The fellow claimed it was an aerobic chair. I tried to take a picture but he gave me a pretty evil look, so I wimped out. Basically it was a cloth over metal frame chair suspended by bungee cords to a tubular metal frame. You bounced in the chair for this apparently wonderously easy aerobic exercise. For a couch potato like me, this looked great, but my skeptical mind kicked in and reminded me that there was no exercise in simply bouncing in a bungeed chair. He had a lot of foot traffic through his booth, mostly from folks that appeared over 60 years of age.

The End

(and thanks, I hope you enjoyed my view on this expo.)