Claiborne Pell: the senator from outer space

Interest in psi phenomena and other New Age folderol has always been part of the circus inside the Beltway. The Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation all have people strongly supportive of psi funding. Both the Army and Navy have sponsored such research, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Usually the work has been top secret, listed under code names that conceal the nature of the investigations. The secrecy is due in part to fear of ridicule by skeptics, and especially by Christian fundamentalists who suspect the agencies are in league with Satan.

In 1984 the Army Research Institute, fearful that the Soviets were decades ahead of the United States in paranormal research, funded an investigation by the National Academy of Sciences. Psychologist Ray Hyman was placed in charge of a subcommittee to report on the status of parapsychology. The study concluded there is no good evidence that psi phenomena exist. Some of the psi research conducted by CIA officials is hard to believe, the academy found. The CIA had tried training psychics to look at photos of Soviet cars and tell what was going on inside them. The officials considered seriously the technique of puncturing tires by sticking pins into photographs!

A full report was published in 1987 by the National Academy Press under the title Enhancing Human Performance. (For a summary, see Kendrick Frazier's article "Improving Human Performance: What About Parapsychology?" in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Fall 1988.) The report was of course roundly blasted by parapsychologists and by Pell as a misuse of government funds.

U.S. News and World Report (December 5, 1988), in an article titled "The Twilight Zone in Washington," estimated that "one-fourth of the members of Congress are actively interested in psi, be that healing, prophecy, remote viewing, or physical manifestations of psychic powers." Texas Democrat Jim Wright, former house speaker, said he believes he has strong psi abilities to see future events. We all remember how former White House residents Ronald and Nancy Reagan were devout believers in astrology. Dates of the president's important meetings were scheduled by Joan Quigley, their San Francisco astrologer. In my opinion, however, no one in Washington has rivaled Senator Pell in combining ignorance of science with extreme gullibility toward the performances of psychics.

Born in New York City in 1918, and a graduate of Princeton University, Pell has a record of being one of the Senate's most liberal Democrats. Although an Episcopalian, he is strongly pro-choice on abortion rights, a brave stance considering Rhode Island's large Roman Catholic constituency. His pro-labor record is consistent. He has been awarded almost forty honorary degrees. Other honors include Italy's Grand Cross of the Order of Merit and France's Legion of Honor. He was one of the founders of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Pell's efforts to combat environmental pollution led him in 1988 to introduce a bill for government funding of a New Age organization named the National Committee on Human Resources. Senators Albert Gore and Nancy Kassebaum were co-sponsors. The committee was to have included two members "with training and experience in extraordinary performance results," a euphemistic way to describe parapsychologists. Ridiculed by other senators as a "spoon-bending bill," it quickly died. As one congressman put it, "The giggle factor is off the meter on this one."

Pell buys almost everything on the paranormal scene. His office shelves are jammed with books on the paranormal, including the many autobiographies of Shirley MacLaine.

Pell is on the advisory board of the International Association of Near-Death Studies - studies purporting to establish that persons close to death often get peeks into the hereafter. He is also on the board of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, an organization devoted to psi research.

In 1987 Pell invited Uri Geller, the self-proclaimed psychic, to Capitol Hill to demonstrate his alleged powers in an electronically bugproof room. Hanging on his office walls Pell has a spoon bent by Geller, a framed photo of Geller, and drawings of a "smiley face" made by Pell alongside a duplicate made by Geller, supposedly using ESP.

Pell admits that on occasion Geller may use magic. "Geller was a magician when he was younger," Pell told a reporter. "Maybe when his intuitive processes fail, he can back them up with sleight of hand." This is a commonplace remark made by psi researchers whenever a medium or psychic is caught cheating.

In the late 1980s the magician James Randi was in Washington to receive an award for excellence in public speaking. The award was presented by fellow conjuror Harry Blackstone, Jr. Sitting in the audience, lean and frail, was Pell. When he watched Randi bend a spoon until it broke, Pell became visible agitated. One of Pell's associates took the two spoon pieces to Pell who carefully wrapped them in a handkerchief. After the ceremony Pell visited Randi backstage. Pell was angry because Randi had presented the spoon-bending as a magic trick. Pell had seen Geller perform this feat and I believe Pell was absolutely persuaded it could only be done by psychic means.