(101) Wed 31 Dec 97 5:39 By: Christopher Baker To: All Re: Randigram - More Lucent stuff St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:fa66 239f2ce0 Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 02:34:14 -0500 (EST) Mailing-List: contact jrefinfo-help@ssr.com; run by ezmlm Delivered-To: mailing list jrefinfo@ssr.com From: James Randi --- Wizard To: broadcast-JREFInfo@ssr.com Subject: Readers comment on Lucent, part II. A second batch of excerpts from comments of readers who are concerned with the Lucent Technologies admission of pseudo-science to their training sessions..... ********************************************* I suppose this is not too different from the logic by which business leaders start using graphology, biorhythms, horoscopes, and all the rest. They don't see much to lose if it doesn't work; they see some chance to gain if it does work; and trying anything sends a message about what results they value. Maybe the presenter had so much respect for the intelligence of the Lucent people that she didn't expect any of them would conclude "paranormal" from her little show. I don't know. Anyway, it looks like your problem with Lucent and this instructor is a case of conflicting values. They want to improve performance and don't care as much what people believe -- you (and I) abhor irrationality and the thought that such a high-class operation would promote it. This is a good example of the greatest problem I find in trying to stand up for rationality -- it's so hard to do so without telling very nice and well-meaning people who are acting like fools what you think of what they are doing in a way that they might take personally. ********************************************* A comment about Lucent technologies. The idea that perception is reality is false but the actions people take as a result of this fallacy are not. To wit, witches were perceived as "real" and "evil" Fallacy yes, but they were burned at the stake. Ultimate reality to the poor women. Why should this fallacy be a surprise?...As a pragmatic libertarian I see this all the time. A couple of examples: "A woman has the right to her own body". Very popular notion. Yet most groups espousing this are against prostitution. Hmmm?...For the most part I think we are still in the dark ages of philosophical technology yet we have 21st century tools at our disposal. This is more dangerous than the first Dark Age. Thanks for shedding some light on the situation. ********************************************* I'm usually on your side. But this time I think you've gone a bit off the deep end. There is no mention of applied kinesiology on Marilyn Wheeler's Web site. It is quite conceivable, and I know of no evidence to the contrary, that Lucent called in Marilyn Wheeler while completely ignorant of her interest in applied kinesiology. So she's there, giving a talk. She mentions her interest in applied kinesiology, and gives a demo. Do you expect that she should be kicked out because she believes in something that is nonsense? ...stretching the reality of the situation the way you have doesn't do the cause of skepticism any good. There are a lot of important battles out there to be won; this is NOT one of them. ********************************************* I am sad to say that your recent report on Lucent Technologies and applied kinesiology comes as no surprise. Have been around Universities for the last 20 years, first as a student, then as an instructor, I am constantly amazed at the ignorance of apparently highly educated people if you step just a little outside their discipline. ********************************************* Having spent 26 years in the military, I've had a lot of experience in the various management/leadership fads that come and then disappear without a trace. A couple of years ago there was a fad for "TQM." The training film started with the developer (and profit maker) in Galileo's home town. (Message: "I'm like poor persecuted Galileo"). He went on to claim that "ideas came from the edge" (of what and what ideas wasn't very clear). His only other claim to fame was that he'd invented the ultimate bike seat, which no manufacturer would buy. My friend and I asked the "Just how does this fad differ from..." then listed some 20-some years of programs that had been tried then discarded. The answer was that we'd "see by the end of class." Well, in fact, yes we did see. It came in the form of a general and his statement "If you're not part of the team, you'll have to leave." Oh yes, TQM did disappear. At least at the organization when the general moved on. "There's nothing more horrible then a brutal gang of facts mugging a beautiful theory." ********************************************* With regard to the recent fiasco at Lucent Technologies in which a pseudo-scientific technique was reportedly presented to employees forced to attend the conference, I offer these thoughts. First, I did not attend and cannot therefore make any definite statements about what actually took place. By the same token, with an undergraduate degree in Biology and later a masters degree in Counseling as a background, I would point out that in some "Training Programs," metaphor is occasionally used in an effort to encourage participants to free themselves from convention ("out of the box thinking") in order to consider alternatives not then in vogue (as in developing a transistor to replace the vacuum tube). It would sound from the reports that the trainer may have either misunderstood this concept, actually believed the pseudo-science, or perhaps failed to exercise sufficient care in explaining that the technique was a metaphor rather than an actual physical phenomenon. Thanks to James Randi for spreading information on our increasing culturally mandated ignorance. ********************************************* I recently attended a presentation by Paul Pearsall at University of Michigan Medical Center. His topic was "The heart can think--not figuratively but literally." Rolled into a presentation with a series of hula dances (he's from Hawaii) were a bunch of claims, including that he was going to present us with a bunch of new data. What in fact he presented was a series of short quotes out of context which he tried to use to support the vague thesis that energy fields radiate from our hearts and communicate information heart to heart. Now, people have in fact known of energy fields in our hearts---it takes sensitive galvanometry to detect them externally, but that's what an ECG is -- and the ability of the heart to respond to a high-voltage shock. UMMC did not make attendance mandatory but did have all employees sign in to get "credit" for having attended. On other fronts, I acknowledge that I use Franklin-Covey Corp's time-management tools, having been sent to one of their seminars again by a supervisor at University of Michigan Medical Center. Their training includes some thought-provoking notions like consciously relating your daily grind to your personal values. But they go one step further and claim that their tautological homilies are natural laws, and they define natural laws as universal truths so there can be no mistaking their intent. Their prime example of a natural law is: "If you do not control the events in your life, they will control you." Common sense? A friend of mine attended one of their seminars recently and the presenter acted like a condescending preacher, thumping his daily planner instead of a bible. Hmmm. Their paper goods bear copyright notices but are in fact calendars, and the inapplicability of copyright law to calendars is explicitly spelled out in Title 17. Funny. Franklin-Covey is run by a couple of guys from Salt Lake City who make no secret of the fact that they're religious. I had some hopes that they were on the road towards factoring out their own personal nonsense from their training, but I'm afraid it ain't so. ********************************************* Still no further reaction from Lucent. One wonders if they have e- mail. James Randi. **************************************** Subscribe to SWIFT! **************************************** SWIFT our quarterly (hardcopy) newsletter, is $10/annum Checks payable to JREF (address below). Tax deductible in the USA. 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