desires a decent university, government, or corporate position; and entertains publishing in the most prestigious scientific journals, which in turn are taken by the popular media as dogmatic truth worthy of reporting. Shunned subjects include non-traditional medicine, crop circles, UFOs, intelligent de- sign, alternative archaeology (including the concept that some ancient peoples were much more sophisticated than traditionally believed), and paranormal (parapsycholog- ical) studies.


Purported excavation at “Bosnia Pyramid Site”


agenda, using science as the means. On a different scale, I have seen the cor- rupting effects of money in Bosnia. I am re- ferring to the so-called “Bosnian Pyramids” located in Visoko. Initially I was excited about the prospect of very ancient pyramids (claims circulated that they were 10,000 or more years old). Upon visiting the site, I discovered a massive hoax fueled by money, power, in- fluence, and patronage. The major player is Semir Osmanagich, a Bosnian-American who continues to promote several natural hills as human-made ancient pyramids. He has solic- ited private, corporate, and government backing and funds to continue excavations there, excavations that only perpetuate the fraud by actually shaping the hills into what appear superficially to be step-pyramid struc- tures. Osmanagich brings high-level politi- cians to the site, touting the great “discov- eries” being made, and organizes “conferences” about the “pyramids.” While in Visoko exploring the site first- hand in 2006, I briefly met a former head of state of Yugoslavia, there to support the “pyr- amids” (Bosnia/Herzegovina is one of the countries that resulted from the breakup of Yugoslavia during the 1991-1995 wars), and I attended one of Osmanagich’s conferences. The conference was a farce with no hard evi- dence corroborating the reality of the “pyra- mids” but rather a lot of mumbo-jumbo and ambiguous comments generated by people claiming to be scientists (archaeologists, geo- physicists, chemists, geologists—you name it) who were present simply because they were being paid, and jobs were difficult to come by in the ravaged Bosnian economy. The politicians apparently knew nothing about science, and could care even less. All they were concerned about was bringing in money, and the so-called pyramids formed a


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major tourist attraction, with small busi- nesses, restaurants, and hotels sprouting up to serve the needs of the pilgrims to the site. And pilgrims they were, for they were coming to a virtually sacred site, one that en- gendered national loyalty and pride in the antiquity and sophistication of Bosnia’s ori- gins—supposedly older than Egypt or per- haps any other civilization. To question the authenticity of the Bosnian pyramids was to insult the Bosnian people and their heritage. Nationalism can trump scientific evidence and reason. The paradigm, the accepted dogma, in the case of the so-called Bosnian pyramids was that they are authentic. Evi- dence to the contrary was ignored, or worse yet, those advocating a different view were vilified and persecuted. I was re- minded of the Inquisition. This brings us to a major problem with science today: The dominance of certain ruling par- adigms. Those who control the money, jobs, prestige, technical publication outlets, and popular media (whether directly or sub- tlety) have a low tolerance for ideas that may challenge the de- sired result or accepted status quo. In modern America if one wants to fit in, one does not question certain sacred cows. Among these are human-induced global warming, Dar- winian evolution, gradualism, global plate tectonics, Big Bang cosmology, various as- pects of materialism, and historical progres- sionism (the general concept that history is a one-way street going from dumb old “them” to modern enlightened technologically so- phisticated “us”). Various other topics are anathema and shunned by any “serious” sci- entist who expects to receive grant funding;


Parapsychology is an interesting case. Tel- epathy (direct mind-to-mind communica- tion), psychokinesis (mind-over-matter), and precognition have been studied extensively for over a century by some of the best minds, including Ph.D. scientists and even Nobel laureates (for example, Charles Richet, Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine, 1913, and Brian Josephson, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1973). The basic phenomena have been dem- onstrated over and over again and even been put to practical use. There is a vast scientific literature on parapsychology, with specialized journals and societies. Yet, despite these facts, the “average scientist” does not con- sider parapsychology a science, and knowing nothing about the subject and evidence, feels free to make disparaging statements about the field and any of its practitioners. If any- thing concerning parapsychology makes it to the popular media, the press is sure to inter- view some mainstream “acknowledged au- thority” and will be fed a bunch of rubbish supposedly debunking parapsychology. To be- little parapsychology even more, the media may include comments about crystal balls, fortunetellers, false séances, or quack astrolo- gers, thus further condemning parapsy- chology by association.


Brian Josephson


Given its low status, parapsychology has never been the recipient of adequate funding. In the early 1990s it was estimated that the total expenditures devoted to parapsycholog- ical studies worldwide since 1882 (the year when the Society for Psychical Research was established, begin- ning systematic scientific studies of the paranormal) were at most equal to two months of psychology funding in the United States. In the last 20 years the situation has only be- come more dire as the Princeton Engineering Anoma- lies Research (PEAR) laboratory has shut down and the United States government and military are no longer (at least not pub- licly) funding parapsychological research or applications.


Between 1972 and 1995 the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), the DIA (Defense Intel- ligence Agency), INSCOM (U.S. Army Intelli- gence Support Command), the NSC (Na- tional Security Council), and other federal departments funded, studied, and applied parapsychological techniques to military and


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