Mystery of the crystal tears - reveals hoax behind the psychic phenomena of crystallized tears

Gosh, I thought after watching the new TV series Psi Factor, those Office of Scientific Investigation and Research (O.S.I.R.) types sure seem cool. "Case file 20168," they begin. They make sure their phone calls go out over "secure lines" - real Secret Agenty stuff! And the equipment they use, like Magnetometers - wow! According to the Psi Factor Web Page, these are used because "fluctuations in the magnetic spectrum are common in coincidence with anomalous activity." Really? I don't think there's evidence that ghosts have magnetic personalities, but I've always wanted to talk like that. I began to dream of the possibilities. . . .

Suddenly, I perceived a dark shape approaching. Was it real or -? I broke off in midthought to reach for an O.S.I.R. Spectral Photometer, a "sophisticated device" used to "determine whether unusual phenomena is [sic] real or if the phenomenon is a purely subjective experience." It showed I was right: I was dreaming. Then I realized I wasn't in a Psi Factor episode; and the dark shape wasn't the host, "actor/writer/producer/musician Dan Aykroyd, a lifelong student of the paranormal."

It was actually Barry Karr, CSICOP's executive director. Apparently I had fallen asleep at my desk again. I raised my head, pushed aside my Maltese Falcon paperweight, and asked, "What is it, shweetheart?"

"Martini lunch again?" he asked. I let that pass. "Here's the video from New York you've been expecting," and he walked off.

"Oh yeah." Now it was coming back to me. I had agreed to look into the case of a young Lebanese girl who "miraculously" produced "crystal tears" from her eyes. A Brazilian TV production company - the largest in South America - was doing the story and wanted CSICOP's view. They had rushed the video from their New York office.

Now I knew why I was thinking of Aykroyd. Episodes of his new Fox TV series Psi Factor are "fictionalized" from "closed cases" taken from the files of O.S.I.R., a group whose "methods and technical support run the gamut, from state-of-the-art science to folklore and mystic philosophy." Their "lab facilities" (and tarot-card divination quarters?) are located in "Central California." (Where better to mix science with mystic philosophy?) (Psi Factor Web Page 1996.)

It's pretty easy to see why they use the term "fictionalized." One episode features a meteorite that has brought with it some huge eggs. These hatch into gargantuan fleas that kill a team of NASA scientists (Psi Factor 1996). (Does NASA know about this?)

Aykroyd hosts the show, which is co-produced by his brother, another man, and a magician named Christopher Chacon. Chacon (to finally get to the point) is supposedly a professional conjurer who investigates paranormal claims. One of these claims was an earlier case of "crystal tears" that was featured on NBC's Unsolved Mysteries in 1990. This program gives us a chance to assess Chacon's critical acumen - or lack thereof.

The program heralded "a woman named Katie," whom her psychiatrist - paranormal-enthusiast Berthold Schwarz - described as "a great, classical physical medium" and "a medical marvel." She demonstrated a wide variety of alleged psychic phenomena, notably producing "apports" - such as a "glass stone, resembling a diamond" that supposedly materialized from her eye. Schwarz gushed his approval and stated he could not envision trickery being involved, although Katie's effects seemed to skeptics to be on a par with the efforts of a beginning conjurer. For example, the glass gem was never seen in her eye; rather, she covered her eye with her hand and then opened her fingers, whereupon the object fell from between them. Seen in slow motion, the effect was entirely consistent with the object having been hidden between her fingers. Indeed at the behest of CSICOP, magician Bruce Adams demonstrated the trick for the Unsolved Mysteries program.

However, before approaching CSICOP, the producer of the program had sought out Christopher Chacon. He responded to Katie's effects by stating: "From my observations I don't feel that she is, at present, utilizing magical abilities to produce the materials that she is producing. I don't think she is skilled in those particular aspects of sleight of hand or illusion" (Chacon 1990). I don't know whether or not Chacon works for O.S.I.R., but if Dan Aykroyd and his Psi Factor are relying on Chacon's critical skills, they might wish to reconsider. (Chacon's Unsolved Mysteries segment was not aired but was instead replaced by the one featuring CSICOP's duplication of Katie's major effects [Unsolved Mysteries 1990].)

I have presented this 1990 case not only for the light it sheds on the new television series but also because it serves as a useful introduction to the case at hand, that of the Lebanese girl who produces "crystal tears." As shown on a Globo International documentary, a twelve-year-old girl named Hasnah, who lives in Lebanon's fertile Bekaa Valley, has the apparent ability to produce small, crystal stones from her eyes. No sleight of hand is involved, since the camera zooms in close as the girl's father gingerly pulls down her lower eyelid and a crystal comes into view. It then pops out, whereupon it is shown to be a hard, faceted rock whose sharp points can cut paper. Her father believes the appearing crystals represent "a gift from Allah." Lebanese ophthalmologists say the stones are "crystal rocks," but otherwise they are reportedly unable to explain the phenomenon.