Imposters

I have a bad feeling about something I heard in the news today. People posing as inspectors showed up at hospitals in Los Angeles, Boston, and Detroit in the middle of the night, asking unusual questions. They wanted to know about the "depravity" of each institution. They even requested guided tours. Fortunately, security guards were suspicious, and the “inspectors” ran away.

The news report called the intruders “impostors.” Thankfully, they were not the kind of impostors I interviewed during my stint as a forensic psychiatrist. If they had been, they probably would have gotten their guided tour--and perhaps invited back to lecture.

Impostors of the kind forensic psychiatrists study are almost always males- talkative males. They make up incredible tales—starring themselves—of supposed, personal accomplishments and adventures. They pretend to be doctors, attorneys, spies, airline pilots, astronauts, or members of other professions the general public likes to glamorize. Sometimes, they claim that they are royalty; impostors bask in the glory of their own fabrications.

In 1989, an impostor-astronaut was arrested in Boston. He had just returned from a tour of Ireland, where he'd thrilled admiring audiences with lectures about his adventures as a space shuttle pilot. He even sported a NASA jacket to support the character he invented. He charred kitchen tiles and presented them to his fiancé as a gift. They were tiles form the space shuttle, he declared, scorched on re-entry. She eventually realized the truth when she received a bill containing fraudulent charges he'd made on her credit card. It was as though the person she thought she knew had died, she said.

Impostors say “I” a lot. It is remarkable how many times you'll hear that word, if you concentrate on their stream of talk. They seem to exude boundless self–confidence. Because of this, they often attract admirers with diminished self-esteem. The impostor’s performance seems to make his admirers feel better about themselves for a while. That's why it is generally unwise to expose an impostor. The admirers end up venting their anger not on the impostor but on the person who revealed the truth. It is sometimes better to leave the admirers alone until they have found their own way out of the imposter's web.

The impostor phenomenon is a truly fascinating mental disorder, and one which is quite difficult to treat. Once an impostor is discovered in one guise, he will most likely move on to another. And imposters will always be able to find vulnerable people who will believe them.

Consolation and the Afterlife

Profound arguments are no help. -Socrates.
Only what gets down to my level consoles me. -Axiochus

Rational inquiry into the afterlife originated as an attempt at consoling those who were facing imminent death. This is evident in the works of Plato, who wrote the first, rational discussions of immortality. In Apology for example, he attributed the following argument to Socrates.

“There are two possibilities as to the nature of death. Firstly, it maybe a complete cessation of all consciousness. In that case, it is comparable to a deep, dreamless and restful sleep. Secondly, it may be a transition to another world, the abode of the spirits of the dead. In that case, it will be a joyous experience of communion with all the great and wise human beings of the past. Either way, death is a blessing”.

Books brimming with arguments of this kind were a major genre of popular literature in antiquity. The books supposedly soothed about the inevitability of death. Many of the arguments even addressed the prospect of a life hereafter. Philosophers of all the major schools wrote consolation literature, although the Stoics were most noted for such books.

The authors of some consolation books took a scattershot approach. They threw in every argument they could find or dream up that they felt might comfort someone. Sometimes, the arguments in a single book would even be inconsistent with one another! Truth did not seem to matter to the authors, as long as their arguments had the intended emotional impact on their readers.

Thus began the quest to apply reason to prove life after death. Unfortunately, few modern investigators have been unable themselves oft his historical taint. Several years ago, a noted, parapsychologically-minded researcher explained the motivation for his “scientific” study of mediums. He said that he launched his study because he wanted to comfort his girlfriend who was grieving after a major loss! Of course, even with such a motivation, it would be possible for an investigator to proceed objectively. In this particular case, though, the results of the” experiment” speak for themselves. Finding out the truth and alleviating sorrow are distinct goals. However, it is not easy to keep them separate when investigating the afterlife. So, anyone who puts forward “evidence” of life after death needs to be honest about which goal is uppermost in his or her minds. The failure to do so ought to be plainly labeled as what it is: intellectual dishonesty.

Aliens, etc.

The search for intelligent extraterrestrial life is now a legitimate scientific enterprise. Directly relevant knowledge is piling up so quickly that one of the biggest discoveries of all time may soon take us by surprise. I have been closely following the progress of astronomy since 1952, and I sense that something is in the air. At least, I believe that it is prudent to be prepared for what will truly be a major turning point in history.

More than 150 extra solar planets have been detected since the first ones were found a few years ago. New ones are being discovered at the rate of about three a month. In April 2005, The New York Times Featured the first photographs of a planet orbiting another star. Progressively smaller planets are showing up out there, and the race is on to find the first, earthlike planets circling distant suns. An array of planet-finding satellites is scheduled for launch soon. Powerful telescopes aboard these spacecraft will photograph ear-sized planets, even showing major geological features. Spectroscopic analysis will determine the makeup of their atmospheres. Perhaps the chemical signatures of alien life will be seen. Meanwhile, radio telescopes are sweeping the skies, listening for electromagnetic signals that distant civilizations may be emitting. Soon, the planet-finders will be giving radio astronomers better and better clues as to where to aim their telescopes.

Concurrently, biologists have determined that life thrives under a far wider range of conditions that they once believed. It has been found in scalding hot salt springs, in the water that jackets nuclear reactors, in rocks brought up form miles beneath the surface of the earth. The odds that life exists elsewhere in the universe are increasing with each passing month.

It is astonishing that most people seem to be hiding their heads in the sand about what is going on in astronomy. By and large, most people do not seem to know or care about these truly epoch-making events. But society cannot afford to be taken off guard by the discovery that we are not alone in the universe. After all, nothing will ever be the same, from that point on. Philosophy, science, religion, the very way people think about themselves, will be transformed forever.

There needs to be a good, public airing of the possibilities, and a blue-ribbon panel, as it were, of the wisest scholars from every discipline. One problem they may well need to address is why so many seem determined to hide form what is possibly the biggest question of existence. It looks to me like people avoid the issue in four main ways. Firstly, some ridicule the question, “Life in outer space! Har, har, har! You mean little green men? Har, har, har!” Secondly, some open their Bibles and pontificate, “Why, it says right here in the book of whoever, verse whatever, that there is no life beyond the earth!" Thirdly, we are trying collectively to confine extraterrestrials to the realm of fiction. The more science fiction books on this topic the better, I suppose. Perhaps they are preparing us for the big day by picturing a wealth of different possibilities for our consideration. Still, one function of presenting extraterrestrials as fiction, is to comfort us with the thought that they are just fiction. Fourthly, some are avoiding the issue of extraterrestrials by affecting to believe that extraterrestrials are already here! Conspiracy theorists taunt us with the claim that the aliens are pickled in tanks in Nevada and the government is covering it up. UFOlogists would have us believe that the red and white flashing lights Aunt Florence saw from her veranda one night last week were alien spaceships out for a ride. “Believing” in baloney like that is just an entertaining way of not having to face up to the very real, accelerating scientific developments that portend to change humankind forever. I predict that when ET Day comes, conspiracy theorists and UFOlogists will be the first to deny the validity of the new discovery. Information that explosive and far-reaching in its implications will likely collapse all existing presuppositions and ways of thinking about sentient extraterrestrial life. It will be the end of human society and history, as we know them.