As research for an upcoming presentation a group of us decided to try cold reading some strangers. On our first day, skeptic Mathew Baxter became “psychic medium” Mathias. He chose to tackle the hardest clients of all: psychics. Wearing more rings than Ringo Starr and an eye of Horus pendant, he visited Spirit Wise, a metaphysical bookstore in Denver. Connie, the owner of the store and her friend Tim agreed to have readings from Mathias. Both work as “professional” psychics.

Connie set up a reading room for us downstairs. This was a cozy setting of couches complete with props, including a lemon-scented candle and an enormous amethyst cathedral geode. The geode was shaped like the hooded Mother Mary, and was an excellent example of pareidolia.

One of the most common impediments to learning is our seemingly innate tendency to overemphasize the usefulness of common sense. Although it may be quite useful with the mundane decisions of daily life, more complicated issues often contradict what seems intuitively likely. Thus, an important critical thinking exercise is convincing students that common sense can fail you.

In my experience, the three most instructive themes in this regard are: 1. Demonstrating the difference between correlation and causation; 2. Emphasizing the difference in value between anecdotal evidence and. replicated, peer-reviewed research; and 3. The importance of control groups and placebos.

Here is a rundown of the top stories in pseudoscience, anomalies and the mysterious from the past week courtesy of Doubtful News.

The top story that may make you want to bang your head against the wall is this device out of Egypt used for diagnosing hepatitis C. You will recognize it. It's a dowsing rod.

Prophecies are swirling about the next Pope. Will he be the last?

Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.  

Blame and Magical Thinking: The consequences of the autism “biomed” movement (David Gorski) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/blame-and-magical-thinking-the-consequences-of-the-autism-biomed-movement/ The vaccine/autism myth refuses to die; it continues to fuel costly, useless, and potentially harmful treatments. The new propaganda film “Canary Kids” characterizes all kinds of health problems as “almost autism” and attributes them to vaccines. Parents are being persuaded to blame themselves for their children’s autism and to feel guilty for having allowed them to be vaccinated.