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(Investigator 13, 1990 July)
Skeptic Allan Lang expects silliness and nuttiness to reach new and spectacular levels in the 1990s. This is because many religions predict doomsday by 2000 and are thereby adding their weight to the avalanche of nonsense now coming from the New Agers. Writing in The Southern Skeptic in March Mr Lang noted, "The trends also appear to be getting wilder." In the case of
UFOs the
sightings of the
1940s were followed by "contactees" of the 1950s, "abductees" of the
1960s
and "interferees" of the 1980s.
"Interferees"
are alleged
aliens from Space
who supposedly perform surgery on humans they kidnap.
Lang bases his
prediction
for the 1990s on
an analysis of trends and cycles". He says, "fringe literature occurs
in
a 20 year cycle" and, "interest in all types of nonsense...tends to
peak
at the same time".
The cycle
that Lang
perceives has risen and
fallen twice since World War II as follows:
Lang bases his cycles on an analysis of
the number of authors writing books on particular nonsense topics in
each
year.
Lang did not
use
comprehensive listings
of books but relied on a haphazard examination of bibliographies and
bookshops.
Books on the Shroud did not quite follow the expected trend because of "the activities of the Shroud of Turin Research Project" explained Lang.
The "Face on
Mars" craze
of 1986 showed that
society was entering the "receptive" phase again. Lang laments that in
February of 1990 a local New Age shop had in stock: "17 different books
on crystals."
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