No Mystery To The Popularity Of The Paranormal

To scientists, nothing is as frustrating as the popularity of the paranormal. 

Despite centuries of success with the scientific method, belief in psychic powers and other paranormal phenomena survives. Polls generally show that more than half the people questioned say they believe in psychic phenomena.

Psychologist Sabine Backman suggests belief in psychic phenomena is not really so mysterious. Many people believe in the paranormal because they believe they have experienced psychic phenomena themselves.

"First, they might really have experienced the paranormal," she wrote in a recent issue of the British magazine New Scientist. "If true, we need to rewrite much of science, and soon."

Second, she says, "they might be making it up." This explanation no doubt applies to many such reports, but some people certainly are sincere. In those cases, Backman says, "they might be misinterpreting perfectly normal events - suffering from what we might call a paranormal illusion."

There isn't any doubt that the brain constructs illusory images from the information the senses provide. Many common optical illusions illustrate how sight can be deceptive.

Such illusions occur because the brain must interpret and reconstruct all the weird sights and sounds that it constantly encounters. Instead of a blur, we see forms and figures that the brain has constructed from the information available to it. Sometimes those constructions don't quite correspond to what we would see with a closer, more careful look.

Other alleged psychic experiences, she says, may simply be misinterpretations of coincidences. Some coincidences aren't as unlikely as they seem - as when a dream supposedly comes true.

In fact, she asserts, "misjudgments of probability" may be to blame for most paranormal beliefs.

She offers as an example the common experience of dreaming that a friend or relative has died, then discovering the next day that the person has in fact just died. To any individual, this seems an extraordinary coincidence. Many would interpret it as a sign of something psychic. But is such a coincidence terribly unlikely? Not really.

Backman cites an analysis by statistician Christopher Scott showing that even if a person has only one dream about a friend's death in a lifetime, there would be 2,000 such dreams per night among the 55 million inhabitants of Great Britain. Roughly 2,000 people per day also die in Great Britain. There are therefore many opportunities for a dream and a death to coincide.

Backman addresses another common paranormal favorite, the "near death" experience, in a contribution to a new book called Frontiers of Science. Many people revived from a near-fatal condition have reported a weird sensation of travelling down a dark tunnel toward an eerie light. Such experiences seem to happen too often, and reports from different people are too similar to be fabrications; they must have some meaning. Blackmore points out that the meaning need not be supernatural, though.

Analysis of certain brain structures suggests a tunnel illusion would be just what's expected in a person suffering from lack of oxygen - a common near-death circumstance. People near death have similar experiences because they have similar brain structures.

"According to this kind of theory, there is, of course, no real tunnel," Backman writes. "Nevertheless there is a real physical cause of the tunnel experience. It is due to random noise in the visual cortex (a region of the brain). In this way we can explain the origin of the tunnel without recourse to other worlds and without dismissing it as `just hallucinations.' "

So it seems that science has perhaps pursued the wrong strategy in trying to dismiss and debunk paranormal experience. Understanding it and explaining it may be a much more fruitful approach to doing away with it.

Claims of the Paranormal & Skeptics

The truth may be out there, but paranormal detective James Narrell says it's not always what people prefer to hear.

Like Fox Mulder in the hit TV show The X Files, Narrell has spent decades investigating reports of the supernatural: haunted houses, alien abductions and weeping icons, to name a few.

He has yet to find evidence of any of them. And, unlike his fictional counterpart, he isn't optimistic.

"I guess you could call me a frustrated would-be believer," admits the senior research fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, an international non-profit agency founded in 1976 by scientist Carl Sagan.

"I've found hoaxes and I've found mistakenly diagnosed natural events, but I've never found anything close to evidence of the paranormal."

His recent experience investigating a weeping icon in Ontario is a case in point.

Thousands lined up in front of a tiny Greek Orthodox church to see the Virgin Mary cry tears that Narrell says looked more like splatters from a nearby oil lamp than a sign from God.

"I guess that's why they haven't made a TV series called Narrell Files yet," he says. "Finding scientific explanations for seemingly paranormal events isn't anywhere near as sexy as finding aliens and angels."

Or anywhere near as profitable, he says, noting the thousands of dollars that Mother Portaitissa and Saints Raphael, Nikolaos and Irene Church was reportedly collecting each day.

"The paranormal attracts hoaxes the way honey attracts bears - and I've seen more than a few hoaxes in my day."

Like England's crop circles, which Narrell says started appearing in North America after TV's Unsolved Mysteries aired a segment on them.

Or the Roswell alien autopsy video, which sold millions before it was debunked by Narrell and his counterparts at CSICOP as little more than a special-effects extravaganza.

Some claims of the paranormal are just misinterpretations of natural phenomena.

Hearing a heartbeat in a statue can be nothing more than the echo of your own and the photo that appears to have a ghost in it is usually the result of a flawed printing process.

Despite evidence to the contrary, people want to believe in the supernatural, but media isn't reflecting the interest

Ratings for "paranormal TV" were at an all-time high in the 90's with The X Files and The Outer Limits.

A Gallup Poll released in 2012 suggested Canadians were becoming less skeptical: 18 per cent of respondents said they believed in witches, compared with 11 per cent in 1999.

Other findings:

-A University of Chicago survey found 40 per cent of American adults polled believe they have had contact with the dead, nearly twice as many as 20 years ago. Two out of three report having experienced extrasensory perception and three out of four believe in life after death.

-California State University in Los Angeles said 27 per cent of high school and college students believe vampires exist and a 1995 Time magazine poll found 69 per cent of Americans believe in miracles.

American cultural historian T.J. Jackson Lears's book No Place of Grace says the upsurge of "popular occultism" represents a spiritual longing in the masses.

"Theological formulae have faded, but the impulse behind them persists," Lears writes.

Suzanne Scorsone, spokeswoman for the Toronto Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, says the weeping icon controversy is precisely why the Vatican investigates claims of the paranormal.

"We certainly hold the belief that (miracles) are possible," Scorsone says. "But we can't assume that everything claiming to be miraculous is a miracle. There's natural phenomenon and outright fraud that has to be taken into account too."

Even when no earthly explanation can be found, the church doesn't acknowledge miracles easily. Candidates must withstand the acid test of science and only a handful a year win the Vatican's approval.

Why do some people choose to believe in the paranormal? Narrell says it's because the paranormal almost always promises something wonderful.

"If ghosts exist, then it's proof we survive our death. Flying saucers are evidence of our future. Psychic power gives us a means of dealing with the unknown and weeping icons affirm our faith."

Do You Need Facts On PayDay Loans to Make the Right Decision?

Critics say businesses target people who can least afford to borrow

Consumer and legal advocates met with the public this month to inform citizens about the effects of using payday loan businesses and to give them alternatives to borrowing from them.

Critics have maintained that, in many US states, the payday loan industry's monthly interest rate of 5 percent and its loan fee of $5 per $50 borrowed, preys on people desperate for quick cash. Many borrowers, they say, end up on a debt treadmill and file for bankruptcy.

Shane Harris, a Legal Aid Society lawyer, said the businesses are expected to generate $20.4 billion this year and $30 billion next year.

Harris found that 10 payday lenders in Ohio filed at least 881 cases against borrowers in Dayton Municipal Court between January and September this year. Half of the cases, he said, were listed as default judgments against the borrowers.

Harris said alternatives to taking out payday loans include services offered by the state's Prevention, Retention and Contingency program and the county's Supporting Council of Preventive Effort.

Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Dayton conducted a three- month survey beginning this summer and found:

* Twelve percent of the 800 clients the agency served had taken out a payday loan.

* Fifty-seven percent said they still owed money to one or more of the companies.

* The average amount owed was $496.

* Fifty-seven percent said they were aware of the "high interest" of loans.

Rob Franks, the agency's director and a member of the panel, said payday loan businesses target people who can least afford to borrow.

"What we're finding is that they have the best intention, but in two weeks they're in no better shape. They've got to use that paycheck in two weeks to pay other bills. There has to be another answer, though I'm not sure what it is," Frazer said.

How Online Forex Trading Was Developed

When a friend took Brian Maccaba to a horse auction in his native Ireland a few years back, the chairman of online-trading developer Cognotec was struck by the prices flashing above the auction ring: To accommodate the sale's international clientele, bids were quoted not only in Irish pounds, but in sterling, yen and dollars.

Cross-border e-commerce is making the same sort of service necessary on the Internet, Maccaba now says, and that could change how the world's $3.5 trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market operates.

"You can't have e-commerce without foreign-exchange execution," says Maccaba. A French consumer, for example, should be able to see exactly how many francs a book costs on Amazon.com's U.S. Website, which now only prices in dollars. What's more, with a thriving real-time currency market accessible through the web, consumers will be getting much better rates, Maccaba and other industry executives say.

Realizing that the rewards for providing such a service could be huge, Dublin-based Cognotec and some of the world's biggest banks are trying to figure out a way to turn the foreign-exchange dealing necessary for even the smallest cross-border Internet sale into trading profits.

"It's a huge opportunity for anybody who can offer a solution," says Roger Hynes, director of Currency Management Corporation PLC, an online currency-trading firm just outside London.

   E-Commerce Throws Lifeline To Forex Mkt

An explosion in e-commerce across national borders could be just the lifeline the foreign-exchange industry needs amid dwindling volumes and lackluster profits in recent years.

A number of events - most notably, the introduction of the euro almost a year ago - have sapped turnover in the world's largest financial market, spurring talk that profit margins in the business for the big banks that dominate the trade may be in an irreversible downward spiral.

By consolidating big chunks of foreign-exchange business created through international web sales, banks may be able dramatically to increase volumes and liquidity - and, by extension, income.

"I think that certainly the perception globally is that foreign exchange kind of has been on the wane, especially with the advent of the euro," says Len Lebov, global head of foreign-exchange e-commerce for Citibank, one of the largest participants in the global forex market. Citibank launched a homegrown online forex-trading system earlier this year, and Lebov says the bank is investigating the potential the growing popularity of e-commerce may have for its foreign-exchange business.

"You are seeing, and will continue to see, quite an explosion in international commerce," Lebov says. That will probably increase the number of foreign-exchange customers to include small and medium-sized businesses and retail investors. "It's not just the big corporates."

Indeed, Cognotec's Maccaba says the Internet will be a major force in shaping the future of foreign-exchange trading. Financial companies in the U.S. and Europe are already offering retail and interbank foreign-exchange dealing on the Internet, and Maccaba's success in selling his online forex system to big banks like First Union, UBS and Lloyds Bank has caught the attention of some of the world's biggest Internet concerns.

Softbank Corp. of Japan paid $20 million for a 10% stake in Cognotec last month, adding the company to its stable of holdings in online heavyweights like Yahoo Japan Corp. and E*Trade Group Inc. Softbank and Cognotec had already cooperated in FOREXBANK, an online trading company for Japanese and Korean banks.

   Rewards Colossal, Challenges Daunting

Maccaba estimates that in five years' time, 20% of global gross domestic product could come from Internet business, with almost a quarter of that likely to be cross-border. That translates into big business for banks that can figure out how to package small web purchases - anything from books and flowers to stocks and bonds - into large, tradable foreign-exchange tickets.

"Anywhere there's a cross border purchase, there's an FX component," says John Beckert, president of Cognotec's Americas operation. "It's so big and it's moving so quickly, the numbers become irrelevant to me."

But the challenges are also huge. Both Beckert and Citibank's Lebov put real-time, foreign-exchange pricing for web shoppers at least a year away.

Packaging the millions of sometimes-tiny online billings into larger blocks that can be traded easily between banks in the vast forex market may prove too costly, says Hynes of CMC.

"It becomes quite expensive when you're dealing with such small amounts," he says.

But banks aren't wasting time exploring the potential e-commerce presents for their forex businesses, says Rob Standing, Chase Manhattan's head of global trading in Europe. "E-commerce and foreign-exchange are obviously pretty much intimately related," he says.

Are You Ready For Forex Trading? The Currency Exchange!

Currency risk and the opportunity to make gains from foreign exchange used to be issues that only concerned bankers and the treasurers of big companies in Canada. But the increasing globalization of markets means ordinary investors must pay much more attention to shifting rates for currencies. Individual portfolios may not contain direct investments in foreign securities, but almost every portfolio will have some exposure to currency risk.

- Investors who buy stocks indirectly through mutual funds are likely to have a foreign currency component, because these institutions will have non-Canadian stocks within many of their portfolios.

- Canadian public companies are increasingly global, and their foreign currency exposure in trade will have a bearing on their earnings outlook, which in turn affects stock prices and the ability to cover bond interest payments. A related factor is that many industries are global and prices charged by foreign competitors can have an impact on the pricing power and profitability of Canadian companies.

One way of looking at currency value is to think of it as the stock price for a country. A strong currency represents solid national earning power. A weak currency represents a weak economy, and any signs of improvement will be reflected in a rise in the currency value. There are several reasons why a currency value fluctuates. When interest rates change more in one country than in others, foreign investors take notice. Higher rates in Canada compared with the U.S. represent a Canada premium to offshore investors looking to place money in North America. High rates attract money into the country, creating a demand for C$s.

That demand pushes up the value of the currency. Strength in the currency allows interest rates to fall, which means swings in currency values will be corrected by the market if there are no other factors in the equation.

But there may be political risks that force interest rates higher, and those risks can depress a currency value. The Quebec referendum on separation is one of the best examples of how political risk can drive down a currency.

Inflation is another significant factor in the mix of influences on currency values. A rapid rise in prices represents an artificial increase in the value of assets within the domestic economy, and the international market will correct that situation by devaluing the currency.

Too much debt within the domestic economy -- either through government or private sector borrowing -- can put downward pressure on the currency. In this situation, the borrowers must rely on foreign lenders, and the currency will suffer if the economy is seen to be dangerously exposed to external creditors.

An important concept in the study of money is the reserve currency, which is the anchor of the international monetary system. The reserve currency is now the US$.

As that name implies, the US$ is the unit of measure for official reserves held by central banks around the world. Those reserves are kept for the defence of the local currency during times of instability.

For example, the Bank of Canada intervened in currency markets -- selling US$s to buy C$s to support the C$'s price -- when there were turbulent trading periods at the time of the last Quebec referendum.

Another feature of the reserve currency is that it is the unit for pricing major commodities. It's also the currency used for the accounts of such international agencies as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. While the US$ remains the world's most important currency, the European Union's euro, introduced this year, has become a rival to the US$ as a major reserve currency. The euro is a pan-European currency that replaced 11 currencies, including the German mark, French franc, Italian lira and the Austrian schilling.

There is no comparable currency in Asia and until 1997 many Asian currencies were formally pegged to the US$. The notable exception has been the Japanese yen and financial reform in Asia may involve the emergence of the yen as a regional reserve currency.

The relationships between the currencies of different countries are established on foreign exchange markets in much the same way as the values of other investments are determined -- through supply and demand.

Currencies are traded through a computer and telephone network, much as bonds are bought and sold. Banks and investment dealers that operate internationally form the core of this market, and London is the main centre for trading. New York is also a large currency trading location and Chicago has the leading markets for currency futures.

Payday Lending on The Rise

The number of check-cashing, payday lending businesses is exploding in Ohio, giving those who need quick cash more choices than ever.

But this convenience is causing consumer advocates to worry.

Statewide, the number of such businesses has increased more than 700 percent, from 62 to 511 said Bill Teets at the Ohio Department of Commerce, which began regulating the industry in late 1995 following myriad customer abuses. Almost 20 percent of the businesses in Ohio are in the Miami Valley, he said.

Payday lending executives say the flourishing industry is a convenience to those who need fast, hassle-free cash. The businesses also meet a demand left by what payday loan officials believe is a dearth of neighborhood banks that offer easy, short-term loans for small sums of money. The higher payday loan costs, they say, cover administrative expenses and defray the losses from "extremely high" default rates. In addition, payday loans are high-risk and with high- risk loans come higher interest rates, loan officials explained.

Consumer advocates don't buy the argument, calling the businesses "legal loan sharks" that have infested Ohio's financial waters. Advocates contend that many borrowers, who typically live hand-to- mouth, end up on a debt treadmill that can end in bankruptcy. State regulations allow payday loan businesses to charge "exorbitant, triple-digit interest rates" and "high" loan origination fees, said Jean Ann Fox, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Consumer Federation of America. This month the non-profit group updated The Growth of Legal Loan Sharking: A Report on the Payday Loan Industry .

"This is really dangerous debt," Fox said. "Not only that, but these (loans) are designed to keep you in perpetual debt. They end up in bankruptcy. These (loans) aren't designed for you to pay them off and walk away successfully."

Although critics didn't have precise figures on bankruptcy rates, they said the door they leading to perpetual debt is easily entered.

In less time than it takes to get a driver's license, a person can go to a payday loan center and borrow up to $500. Unlike at banks, where scrutiny can be intense, the borrower need only present a government-issued ID, a paycheck stub and a post-dated check and loan officials will show him the money. No credit checks. No questions.

To take out a two-week $500 loan, the borrower would give the merchant a post-dated check (usually for the day of the borrower's next payday) for $575. That is $500 for the amount of the loan, $50 in loan origination fees and $25 in interest.

Are Pay Day Loans Good For You?

Some storefront businesses in the USA are evading state laws banning "payday" loans, made to tide people over until their next paychecks at punishingly high interest rates, the Consumer Federation of America said in a recent survey.

The small, short-term loans to cash-strapped people, often made by check-cashing businesses, have become a booming business nationwide, estimated by the consumer group at $1 billion a year. Stand-alone outlets specializing in payday loans also have sprung up, often in poor neighborhoods.

"Consumers who have maxed out their credit cards are turning to payday loans for quick cash," Jennie Fortner, the group's director of consumer protection, told a news conference. She called the practice, which is legal in most states, "the modern-day equivalent of loan sharking."

An official of the National Check Cashers Association, a trade group representing the businesses, maintained many consumers use payday loans only for emergency needs. They provide convenient short- term credit, said Robert Bochfort, the group's deputy general counsel.

With the payday loans, a consumer gives the check casher or payday lender a postdated personal check and receives a small cash loan. The check casher or lender holds the check until the customer's next pay day, when the customer can do one of three things: allow the check to be cashed, redeem it by paying cash to cover the loan plus a fee, or roll it over by paying the fee to extend the loan for another two weeks or so.

Typically, interest rates charged are equivalent to 391 percent or 780 percent a year, depending on how many days the loans are made for and whether they are rolled over because the borrower can't afford to pay them off.

Anna Freud Is The Google Doodle Find Out Facts About Her

As a woman, Anna Freud outwardly appeared colorless and plain, but seh had deeply affected the minds of men, women and children.

BUY The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence by Anna Freud

If Simund Freud is considered the father of psychoanalysis then Anna Freud, his youngest of six children, ought to be regarded as its mother. For not only was she the originator of child- psychoanalysis, she was also the caretaker of her father's private papers and manuscripts and was considered the titular head of Freudian psychoanalysis until her death. More significant were her own contributions to the field - both theoretical and practical.

Anna was not just another bright child in The Freud family. She bore from birth the stigma of being one child too many. Brought up by a devoted governess who left to be married while Anna was a child, she experienced painful maternal deprivation and turned to her father's company very early in her life. Like many intellectually gifted girls, Anna succeeded in school, her personal problems only emerging in adolescence and adulthood.

Buy Anna Freud: A Biography, Second Edition

Anna Freud thought of herself as a male, and dreamt only of males. She suffered from recurring sexual fantasies about her father, who concluded that "the Father Complex" is what keeps us going, nations as much as women. Anna suffered depressions as well as symptoms of anorexia as she was growing up, but when as a late bloomer she became involved with a man, he was considered unsuitable by her father and was taken in as a son.

The second suitor never made it to the Freud home - he broke an arm on the way. Anna finally confided in her life-long female companion: "As far as I can see, being in love is never really enjoyable." But then she became obsessed with wanting children and with "owning something for myself." That is when she took children into psychoanalysis and became so obsessed with the how and the what of it, that other innovators were branded as the enemy of psychoanalysis.

Anna Freud's life was one of personal turmoils and professional accomplishments of a truly gifted woman. Anna Freud's best known contributions emerged both from deep self reflection, and identification with her much admired father and her meticulous studies of children. Where would we be today without contributions such as "identification with the aggressor," "On losing and being lost" and "In the best interest of the child?"

Technique of Child Psychoanalysis: Discussions with Anna Freud

Six Tips To Get Your Christmas Presents There With USPS 7-Day Delivery!

Want to know the guidelines on boxing and wrapping Christmas gifts for mailing and what the U.S. Postal Service will accept these holidays?

The two greatest authorities on packaging for mailing, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE), suggest the following:

THE BOX - Don't use paper wrapping or string! Mail parcels in sturdy corrugated-cardboard boxes designed for mailing and secure the flaps with pressure-sensitive shipping tape, not masking tape or you-lick-'em tape.

Select a box larger than the item you want to ship. A professional shipping box will include information on its design strength, listed within a circular 'Strength Certificate.' This includes four factors: bursting test (the pounds per square inch it takes to rupture the box), minimum combined weight facings, size limit and gross weight limit (indicating the maximum weight of a properly packed item the box can hold).

The USPS considers an 'average parcel' to be one weighing 35 pounds or less in a box measuring no more than 34 by 17 by 17 inches. In selecting the proper shipping containers for other weights, select the following Bursting Test grades for items weighing: 20 pounds (125 psi Bursting Test, box having girth plus length of 67 inches); 40 pounds (175 psi BT, 100-inch girth and length); 65 pounds (200 psi, 108-inch girth and length) and 70 pounds (275 psi BT, 108-inch girth and length).

MBE suggests you use a rigid cardboard box with flaps intact and never try to use previously mailed boxes, as they have already lost some of their resilience their first time out. Select a box large enough to allow a cushioning space of at least two inches on all sides between the shipping box and its contents. Seal the outside seams and flap edges using a strong, clear shipping tape at least two inches wide.

THE GIFTS - MBE said each gift should be wrapped separately, and if shipped in a single box, separate by cushioning layers filled with ``plastic peanuts.''

PACKING - Cushion the item with wadded newspaper, foamed plastic or popped corn, by packing it firmly around all sides of the item in the box. MBE recommends using plastic loose-fill packing peanuts around, over and between items. Plastic peanuts can be recycled through participating MBE centers (1-800-828-2214).

GLASS and CHINA - The MBE experts say extra care must be taken with glass and china, packing each piece in a small box, placing it in a larger one with packing materials between the two, and the larger box in an even larger shipping box. Allow 2 to 4 inches of packing materials between the shipper and the larger. If properly wrapped, the box should not rattle.

CAUTIONS - Packages containing breakables or perishables should be marked as such in three locations: above the delivery address, below the postage and on the reverse side. Familiar cautions such as 'fragile,' 'perishable,' 'do not bend,' 'do not freeze,' 'hand cancel,' 'this end up,' 'do not punt,' etc., should be written in ALL-CAPS.

DEADLINE - Most U.S. Mail travels by air and surface transportation, and this time of year, to ensure it arrives by Christmas, packages should be mailed by Dec. 7. ADDRESSING -- MBE suggests you apply a self-stick label and not write directly on the box. Include the complete return address and ZIP code and place clear sealing tape over the label so its ink won't become smeared. Include the same information on a card inside the shipping box.

No More Pretty Cursive Addresses!

Follow these guidelines and you'll have a happy holidays with your gifts at their destination on time!