| Barry Lane Beyerstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 19, 1947 Edmonton, Alberta |
| Died | June 25, 2007 Burnaby, British Columbia |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Education | Ph.D., University of California at Berkley (1973) |
| Occupation | University professor |
| Spouse | Susan Beyerstein |
| Children | Lindsay Beyerstein, Loren Beyerstein |
| Parents | Christine Beyerstein and Hilliard Beyerstein |
Barry L Beyerstein, Ph.D. (May 19, 1947 - June 25, 2007) was a noted scientific skeptic and professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. Beyerstein's research explored brain mechanisms of perception and consciousness, the effects of drugs on the brain and mind, sense of smell and its lesser-known contributions to human cognition and emotion.
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Beyerstein was born in Edmonton, Alberta. He died suddenly at age 60 in his office on Burnaby Mountain, of an apparent heart attack.[1]
He is survived by his brother Dale, his wife Suzi, his daughter Lindsay, and his son Loren. He is predeceased by his father, Hilliard Beyerstein.
Beyerstein received his B.A. from Simon Fraser University in 1968, and a Ph.D. in Experimental and Biological Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1973.[2]
In the 1970s Beyerstein collaborated with his colleague Bruce Alexander on the famous Rat Park study of addiction.
Beyerstein was a co-founder of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), now known as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He was chair of the BC Skeptics Society.
He co-authored a book about handwriting analysis and graphology,[3] and has been a public critic of such methods, which he identifies as pseudoscience similar to phrenology.[4]
He has been publicly critical of unsupported claims of techniques to improve brain function.[5]
He also made an appearance in the first season of the television show Penn and Teller: Bullshit! to discuss the scientific basis of near-death experiences.
In an article for Skeptical Inquirer magazine titled "Why Bogus Therapies Seem to Work", Beyerstein outlined ten errors and biases that can lead people to incorrectly perceive medical benefits from ineffective treatments. [6]
Beyerstein was close friends with Ray Hyman and together they founded an annual workshop in 1992 in Eugene, Oregon called Skeptic's Toolbox[7] which is still being held.[8]
Illustrator, author, skeptic Daniel Loxton credits Beyerstein for his interest in skepticism, in several interviews Loxton talks about attending a science fiction conference in British Columbia in 1991 and hearing Beyerstein speak on behalf of the BC Skeptics. "He calmly and kindly fielded questions from the audience—and I was shocked by almost everything he said. This wasn’t the usual fluff: this guy really knew what he was talking about, in a way that I had never encountered before. Even his “I don’t know”s were substantial in a way that I wasn’t used to hearing."[9] [10] William B. Davis from x-Files fame also credits Beyerstein for introducing him to the skeptical community. Davis also a Canadian had heard an interview with Beyerstein, became curious about the group and now lectures at skeptic conferences. [11]
Experts taken from "Skeptical Odysseys" edited by Paul Kurtz[12]
Raised on Fate (magazine) and Popular Science magazines as well as many paranormal TV shows, Beyerstein felt that this “enchantment...inclined me toward an eventual career in the study of consciousness”. Intrigued throughout high school with séances, handwriting analysis, hypnosis and other paranormal beliefs Beyerstein with the help of his friends, conducted many experiments. This was far before he learned about experimental controls, which explained the constant success of their tests.
Entering Simon Fraser University in 1965, Beyerstein declared his major in psychology with a minor in philosophy, “as I delved deeper into those subjects, I began to doubt the inevitability of an eventual happy marriage between science and the paranormal...after my first course in the philosophy of science...the fundamental assumptions and modus operandi of science were seriously at odds with most of what I knew of physical research.”
By his junior year in college he was hooked on studying the brain. Beyerstein moved to the San Francisco area to attend University of California at Berkeley in 1968. Where “party chit chat could accept a guest's description of his latest out-of-body experience or the need to have her chakras realigned as casually as one might receive the morning's weather forecast. I frequently found myself the odd man out...(they thought) I was a nice guy, but hopelessly 'linear' and 'left-brained', despite my de rigueur shoulder-length hair, tie-dye t-shirt, bell bottoms and cowboy boots.”
While working as a Professor at Simon Fraiser, Beyerstein was asked to oversee an approval of a pro-parapsychology class. He assembled the writings of “some of the leading figures in the nascent skeptics alliance that Paul Kurtz was in the process of forging.” This is when Beyerstein became aware of CSICOP “and got hooked on it”. After writing for Skeptical Inquirer magazine (1985-88) Beyerstein was elected to the executive council.
A reporter working on the story of a graphologist and the Vancouver School Board being discovered reviewing the handwriting of teachers to identify which were child molesters, he asked if there were any evidence to support the invalidity of handwriting analysis. Beyerstein responded with the help of his brother Dale, by editing the book “The Write Stuff” which interviews graphologists along with their critics.
Concerning Beyerstein's views of the skeptical community, “I have enjoyed my association with CSICOP so thoroughly as the opportunity it has afforded me to meet so many world scholars. I think the work that they do in the skeptical arena is often under appreciated in academic circles because many specialists fail to grasp the potential consequences of the strong antirational and antisciencific trends in modern society. They see no pressing need to oppose something publicly that they see as transparently ridiculous”.
The scientific community Beyerstein felt had an obligation to reach out and explain. “If we want the public to pay taxes to support research, we owe them understandable explanations of what we do and the significance it has for them.” He called the skeptical movement a “watchdog” and used the phrase when explaining CSICOP to the unknowing, “A sort of Consumer Reports of the mind”.