The Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP) (English: ''Society for the Scientific Investigation of Pseudosciences'') is a non-profit organisation promoting
scientific skepticism
Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, the term most commonly refe ...
, headquartered in
Roßdorf
Roßdorf is a municipality in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg, in Hesse, Germany. It has a population of 12,619 (as of 2020). It is situated 8 km east of Darmstadt.
Geographic Situation
Neighbouring Towns and Municipalities
Roßdorf ...
, Germany.
Its estimated membership in 2016 is 1300
who are scientists or laypersons interested in science.
[ According to the Society. ] The GWUP annually hosts a conference with varying key subjects.
Goals and themes
The GWUP regards the critical contemplation of unproven claims in fields such as parasciences,
esotericism
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...
,
superstition
A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly applied to beliefs and ...
,
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
and
alternative medicine
Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...
as its main goal.
It strives to achieve
enlightenment in the sense of
popular education
Popular education is a concept grounded in notions of class, political struggle, and social transformation. The term is a translation from the Spanish educación popular or the Portuguese educação popular and rather than the English usage a ...
and
consumer protection
Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...
.
The GWUP underlines the importance of scientific procedures and critical thinking for societal challenges.
Besides a theoretical dispute, individuals like
dowsers
Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, claimed radiations ( radiesthesia),As translated from one preface of the Kassel experiments, "roughly 10,000 active dowsers in ...
,
telekinetics, proponents of energized water scams, practitioners of alternative medicine and
astrologers
Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Dif ...
are being criticised and their skills also partially put to empirical examination.
The stated goal of the GWUP is the promotion of critical thinking and the sciences including their methods.
Scientific method
The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific m ...
s should be disseminated, made understandable and applied to parasciences,
pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or falsifiability, unfa ...
s as well as related belief systems. This also includes educating the general public about the current state of scientific knowledge about parascientific claims.
The GWUP puts a strong emphasis on
health topics like complementary and alternative medicine, especially
homeopathy
Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dis ...
. In these areas critical attention is highly indicated, since belief in these inefficacious methods leads to omission of more effective treatments.
Furthermore, the GWUP discusses
occultism
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism an ...
,
spiritism
Spiritism (French: ''spiritisme''; Portuguese: ''espiritismo'') is a spiritualist, religious, and philosophical doctrine established in France in the 1850s by the French teacher, educational writer, and translator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Riva ...
, esotericism and
ideologies
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
that underlie e.g.
anthroposophy
Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...
. Additionally they cover topics like religion,
faith
Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion".
Religious people often ...
, superstition and
creationism
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 't ...
. Astrology,
fortune-telling
Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical w ...
and
prophecies
In religion, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divine will or law, or prete ...
are scrutinised in a yearly prognosis check. Further topics are
conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
,
paratechnologies,
cryptozoology
Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness ...
,
ancient astronauts
Ancient astronauts (or ancient aliens) refers to a pseudoscientific hypothesis which holds that intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited Earth and made contact with humans in antiquity and prehistoric times. Proponents suggest that this ...
and
UFO
An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
s.
In Germany, the GWUP has also engaged in school politics. In 2012, it tried to prevent a
state school in Hamburg from experimenting with
Waldorf education
Waldorf education, also known as Steiner education, is based on the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy. Its educational style is Holistic education, holistic, intended to develop pupils' intellectual, artistic ...
.
[ Open letter of the GWUP Science Council.]
The open letter of the GWUP Science Council demanded "to put an enlightened, modern and scientific worldview at the centre of school education instead of esoteric doctrines, without fuss or quibble.
[
]
Organisation
The GWUP was founded as an ''Eingetragener Verein
An (; "registered association" or "incorporated association"), abbreviated (), is a legal status for a registered voluntary association in Germany. While any group may be called a , registration as confers many legal benefits, because it con ...
'' in Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
on 11 October 1987. It is recognised in Germany as a charitable organisation for its dedication to popular education, and it is headquartered in Roßdorf near Darmstadt
Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...
. Since 2008, its chairperson is electrical engineer
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
and CSI fellow Amardeo Sarma
Amardeo Sarma (born 1955) is a Engineer's degree#Germany and Austria, qualified engineer for electrical engineering, electrical and telecommunications engineering, chair of the Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaf ...
, who also presided the European Council of Skeptical Organisations
The European Council of Skeptical Organisations (ECSO) is an umbrella of skeptical organisations in Europe.
Goals
Founded on 25 September 1994, the ECSO aims to co-ordinate activities of European organisations and individuals that aim at critic ...
in 2000–2013. The GWUP regards itself as the oldest and largest skeptics' organisation in German-speaking Europe
This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the German-speaking area (german: Deutscher Sprachraum) in Europe, ...
and considers itself to be part of the international skeptical movement. As its predecessor organisations, the GWUP cites the informal Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Skeptiker zur Untersuchung von Pseudowissenschaften und Okkultem (ASUPO, "Working Community of Skeptics for the Investigation of Pseudosciences and Occultism", founded on 7 February 1987) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Bekämpfung des Kurpfuschertums
The Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Bekämpfung des Kurpfuschertums (DGBK; English: ''German Society for Fighting Quackery'') was a skeptical association founded in 1903 for consumer protection against quackery. It opposed the ''Kurierfreiheit'' ("Cur ...
("German Society for Fighting Quackery", founded in 1903, outlawed by the Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
in 1934).
The Society has a scientific advisory council at its disposal, currently presided by Peter Kröling and Wolfgang Hell. The Science Council has an interdisciplinary composition and comprises scientists, scholars and other people from fields such as medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
, psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
, physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
, religious studies, biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
, pedagogy
Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...
, folkloristics
Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...
and cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...
. The Science Council is intended to secure the scientific standards of the Society's work. A representative of the Science Council is delegated to the GWUP board of directors for this purpose.
In Roßdorf the GWUP maintains the Centre for Science and Critical Thinking (''Zentrum für Wissenschaft und kritisches Denken''), that is led full-time by Martin Mahner. Amongst other issues, inquiries by journalists and interested people are answered here. It was founded in 1999 and has around 200 enquiries per year. It contains a reference library.
Several regional groups of the GWUP exist in Germany and Austria. They are located in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...
(for the metropolitan region Rhine-Ruhr
The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region (german: Metropolregion Rhein-Ruhr) is the largest metropolitan region in Germany, with over ten million inhabitants. A polycentric conurbation with several major urban concentrations, the region covers ...
), Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
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, Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
, Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
, Würzburg
Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River.
Würzburg is ...
, Vienna
en, Viennese
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and Untersberg
The Untersberg is the northernmost massif of the Berchtesgaden Alps, a prominent spur straddling the border between Berchtesgaden, Germany and Salzburg, Austria. The highest peak of the table-top mountain is the Berchtesgaden Hochthron at .
T ...
(for the region Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the ...
/Freilassing
Freilassing (), until 1923 Salzburghofen is a town of some 16,000 inhabitants in the southeastern corner of Bavaria, Germany. It belongs to the "Regierungsbezirk" Oberbayern and the "Landkreis" (County) of Berchtesgadener Land.
Located very close ...
). The Viennese group appears in public as ''Gesellschaft für kritisches Denken'' (Society for Critical Thinking).
Activities
Conferences
Since 1989 the GWUP yearly hosts a conference to make the outcome of their efforts visible to the public. In July 2011 the conference took place with the title "Fact or Fiction" in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna and the Vienna University of Technology
TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...
. In 2012 the GWUP hosted the ''6th World Skeptics Congress'' from 18–20 May in Berlin. In 2013, the conference was arranged in Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
and was named "SkepKon" for the first time. The 2014 conference was arranged in Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
. 2015 the conference took effect in Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, while the next two years saw them in Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
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, utc_offset1 = +1
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, postal ...
and Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. 2018 SkepKon took place in Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
again. Notable speakers included Natalie Grams
Natalie Grams-Nobmann (born 12 April 1978) is a German physician and author. Formerly a practicing Homeopathy, homeopath, she became known throughout Germany as a whistleblower for her 2015 debut book ''Homeopathy ReconsideredWhat Really Helps P ...
, Lydia Benecke
Lydia Benecke (born in 1982 as ''E. C. Wawrzyniak'') is a German criminal psychologist and writer of popular science non-fiction.
Life
Benecke was born in Bytom, Poland and left for Germany at the age of 4 with her mother. She grew up in Bottr ...
, Anna Zakrisson and Nikil Mukerji. The 2019 SkepKon took place in Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
.
Das Goldene Brett vorm Kopf
The ironic award Das Goldene Brett vorm Kopf is awarded yearly in Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
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, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
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. During the 2011 GWUP-conference in Vienna, it was given for the first time, to film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
Peter A. Straubinger for his pseudoscientific documentary ''In the Beginning There Was Light
''In The Beginning There Was Light'' is a documentary film by Austrian director P. A. Straubinger on the subject of inedia. Straubinger visits several people who supposedly nourish themselves with "light" and tries to find possible explanation ...
'' about breatharianism. Straubinger received the award personally. In 2012 the prize was awarded to Harald Walach. The lifetime achievement award was bestowed to Erich von Däniken
Erich Anton Paul von Däniken (; ; born 14 April 1935) is a Swiss author of several books which make claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, including the best-selling ''Chariots of the Gods?'', published in 1968. Von D ...
.
In 2013 the prize was awarded to the organisation " Homeopaths Without Borders".
Psi test
Since 2004, the GWUP annually performs experiments to test purported paranormal skills. Initially the experiments were conducted in concordance with James Randi
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Rodrigues 2010p. ...
as part of the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge
The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge was an offer by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) to pay out one million U.S. dollars to anyone who could demonstrate a supernatural or paranormal ability under agreed-upon scientific testing ...
, later independently. The reward for proof of paranormal abilities is a prize money of 10,000 euro
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
s. The testing procedure is agreed upon in advance between the applicant and the GWUP. Until 2010, around 30 candidates have applied to be tested for their psi abilities, most of them dowsers
Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, claimed radiations ( radiesthesia),As translated from one preface of the Kassel experiments, "roughly 10,000 active dowsers in ...
. One Psi test was conducted on 12 August 2013 in the University of Würzburg
The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...
. The journalist and psychologist Sebastian Bartoschek observed this test. As of 2019 no one has successfully passed the challenge.
Prognosis check
Since 2002 the mathematician Michael Kunkel yearly publishes a retrospection on the astrological predictions of the past year The predictions are published on Wahrsagercheck ("Fortuneteller Check"). The predictions are mainly from the Internet (about 70%) while predictions in print (newspapers, magazines and books) make up the other 30%. In 2010, 110 predictions from more than 60 fortunetellers and astrologers were evaluated.
Homeopathy / 10:23 Campaign
The GWUP is a well-known critic of homeopathy
Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dis ...
. In the year 2005, a petition was initiated against the special treatment of homeopathy as a healing method in Germany. In 2011, the GWUP participated in the international 10:23 Campaign, in which critics of homeopathy took an overdose of highly potentised homeopathic dilutions in public, serving as a warning against the unscientific foundation of homeopathy and the scientifically disproven homeopathic products.
In 2014, the GWUP was mentioned as main critic of the planned bachelor's degree course in homeopathy in Traunstein by several newspapers. Norbert Aust was quoted as saying: "Homeopathy lacks the ambition of a science to study its own foundations. Research in homeopathy aims only to refute the allegation of ineffectiveness", while GWUP chairman Amardeo Sarma remarked that "the proposed College of Homeopathy in Traunstein is academic fraudulent labelling and gives a pseudoscience a higher reputation". In April 2014 the implementation of this course was discontinued.
In May 2018, GWUP issued an invitation to individuals and groups to respond to its challenge "to identify homeopathic preparations in high potency and to give a detailed description on how this can be achieved reproducibly." The first participant to correctly identify selected homeopathic preparations under an agreed-upon protocol will receive €50,000.
Skeptics in the Pub
Regular lectures in a pub atmosphere about scientific skeptical topics are held in Hamburg
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, Berlin and Cologne. There are currently over a 100 groups worldwide conducting this informal meeting format known as Skeptics in the Pub
Skeptics in the Pub (abbreviated SITP) is an informal social event designed to promote fellowship and social networking among skeptics, critical thinkers, freethinkers, rationalists and other like-minded individuals. It provides an opportunity ...
.
''Fellows'' of GWUP
Since 2018, the German Skeptic journal ''Skeptiker'' listed Fellow Board members of international importance for the Skeptic movement. They are:
* Susan Blackmore
Susan Jane Blackmore (born 29 July 1951) is a British writer, lecturer, sceptic, broadcaster, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth. Her fields of research include memetics, parapsychology, consciousness, and she is best known fo ...
* Mario Bunge
Mario Augusto Bunge (; ; September 21, 1919 – February 24, 2020) was an Argentine-Canadian philosopher and physicist. His philosophical writings combined scientific realism, systemism, materialism, emergentism, and other principles.
He was ...
* Edzard Ernst
Edzard Ernst (born 30 January 1948) is a retired British-German academic physician and researcher specializing in the study of complementary and alternative medicine. He was Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, alleged ...
* Krista Federspiel
* Kendrick Frazier
Kendrick Crosby Frazier (March 19, 1942 – November 7, 2022) was an American science writer and longtime editor of ''Skeptical Inquirer'' magazine. He was also a former editor of '' Science News'', author or editor of ten books, and a Fellow of ...
* Harriet Hall
Harriet A. Hall (born July 2, 1945) is a U.S. retired family physician, former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon and skeptic who writes about alternative medicine and quackery for ''Skeptic'' and ''Skeptical Inquirer''. She writes under the name The ...
* Britt Marie Hermes
* Bernhard Hoëcker
Bernhard Hoëcker (; born Bernhard Hoecker-von Mühlenfels; 20 March 1970) is a German comedian, actor and television presenter. He is best known for the spoof show Switch, as well as being a permanent member of the previous Genial guessing team ...
* Wolfgang Hund
* Irmgard Oepen
Irmgard Oepen (February 25, 1929 – July 9, 2018) was a German physician and medical journalist. She was known for her steadfast criticism of alternative medicine, especially of homeopathy.Harder (2018)
Education and Career
Irmgard Oepen studied ...
* Elizabeth Loftus
Elizabeth F. Loftus (born 1944) is an American psychologist who is best known in relation to the misinformation effect, false memory and criticism of recovered memory therapies.
Loftus's research includes the effects of phrasing on the percep ...
* Mark Lynas
Mark Lynas (born 1973) is a British author and journalist whose work is focused on environmentalism and climate change. He is a contributor to ''New Statesman'', ''The Ecologist'', ''Granta ''and ''Geographical ''magazines, and ''The Guardian'' ...
* James Randi
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Rodrigues 2010p. ...
* Simon Singh
Simon Lehna Singh, (born 19 September 1964) is a British popular science author, theoretical and particle physicist. His written works include ''Fermat's Last Theorem'' (in the United States titled ''Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve th ...
* Susan Gerbic
Susan Gerbic (born 1962) is an American studio photographer who became known as a scientific skepticism activist, mostly for exposing people claiming to be mediums. A columnist for ''Skeptical Inquirer'', she is the co-founder of Monterey Coun ...
* Steven Novella
Steven Paul Novella (born July 29, 1964) is an American clinical neurologist and associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine. Novella is best known for his involvement in the skeptical movement as a host of ''The Skeptics' Guide t ...
* Eugenie C. Scott
Eugenie Carol Scott (born October 24, 1945) is an American physical anthropologist, a former university professor and educator who has been active in opposing the teaching of young Earth creationism and intelligent design in schools. She coined t ...
Publications, blogs and social media
Since 1987, the Gesellschaft's quarterly journal ''Skeptiker'' publishes articles and interviews that are about the core of the organisation's interests. As of 2011, Skeptiker has 2200 subscribers; its managing editor is Inge Hüsgen.
The GWUP and several of its members also maintain broadly themed skeptical blogs. The blogs serve the organisation as a supplement to its magazine ''Skeptiker''.
Notable members
* Lydia Benecke
Lydia Benecke (born in 1982 as ''E. C. Wawrzyniak'') is a German criminal psychologist and writer of popular science non-fiction.
Life
Benecke was born in Bytom, Poland and left for Germany at the age of 4 with her mother. She grew up in Bottr ...
* Edzard Ernst
Edzard Ernst (born 30 January 1948) is a retired British-German academic physician and researcher specializing in the study of complementary and alternative medicine. He was Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, alleged ...
* Natalie Grams
Natalie Grams-Nobmann (born 12 April 1978) is a German physician and author. Formerly a practicing Homeopathy, homeopath, she became known throughout Germany as a whistleblower for her 2015 debut book ''Homeopathy ReconsideredWhat Really Helps P ...
* Holm Gero Hümmler
Holm Gero Hümmler (born September 22, 1970) is a German nuclear physicist and skeptic, living in Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt am Main.
Biography
Hümmler was born in Hanau. He studied physics and meteorology at Goethe University Frankfurt, tog ...
* Walter Krämer
* Heinz Oberhummer
* Irmgard Oepen
Irmgard Oepen (February 25, 1929 – July 9, 2018) was a German physician and medical journalist. She was known for her steadfast criticism of alternative medicine, especially of homeopathy.Harder (2018)
Education and Career
Irmgard Oepen studied ...
* Amardeo Sarma
Amardeo Sarma (born 1955) is a Engineer's degree#Germany and Austria, qualified engineer for electrical engineering, electrical and telecommunications engineering, chair of the Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaf ...
* Gerhard Vollmer
Reception in the media
Actions of the GWUP are regularly featured in editor's pieces of the Germanophone mass media. For example, the psi tests of the GWUP and the 2004 One Million Dollar Challenge were presented in the WDR programme '' Quarks & Co'', amongst others. Especially immediately before and during the conference, daily newspapers and online media report on the topics and backgrounds. GWUP members are often invited as experts on television shows about subjects with which the organisation is concerned, for example, Heinz Oberhummer on the topic „Wieviel Unvernunft verträgt die Wissenschaft?“ ("How much irrationality can science tolerate?") in the Servus TV
ServusTV is a TV station based in Wals-Siezenheim in the Austrian state of Salzburg (state), Salzburg.
Its name is derived from the popular greeting servus common in many parts of Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. Together with the mag ...
programme ''Talk im Hangar-7
Hangar-7 is a building in Salzburg, Austria, hosting a collection of historical airplanes, helicopters and Formula One racing cars, and serving as home for the Flying Bulls, a private aircraft fleet stationed in Salzburg. Hangar-7 is owned by R ...
'', Amardeo Sarma was a guest in the ARD programme ''Menschen bei Maischberger'' about „Seher und Propheten“ ("Clairvoyants and Prophets"), Klaus Schmeh at the clairvoyance casting
Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...
in the RTL programme ''Punkt 12'', Bernd Harder in the SWR programme ''Menschen der Woche'' about the "end of the world" predictions concerning 2012.
In 2008, a television documentary about the GWUP's psi tests was shown. The film aired on several television stations within German-speaking Europe
This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the German-speaking area (german: Deutscher Sprachraum) in Europe, ...
under the title „Alles fauler Zauber!? Das Übersinnliche auf dem Prüfstand“ ("All Mumbo-Jumbo!? The Paranormal Put To The Test"). The Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...
reported on the psi tests of 2011 in their television programme ''Vor Ort – Die Reportage''. The Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk reported on the 2012 psi tests.
Impact area
A poll conducted in 2021 that almost replicated one from 2001 by Lutheran magazine Chrismon (magazine), Chrismon regarding beliefs in: alternative medicine
Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...
efficacy, Unidentified flying object, UFOs and other related subjects, showed a decrease in the specified beliefs as presented in the table below.
Criticism
The GWUP faces criticism from the sociologist Edgar Wunder, who has been a founding member. He criticises that the GWUP scarcely investigates paranormal claims and instead primarily promotes a Naturalism (philosophy), naturalistic worldview. He ascribes the GWUP of prejudiced thinking in "ingroup-outgroup" dichotomies. GWUP's chairman Amardeo Sarma states his position in an interview.
References
External links
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GWUP Konferenz SKEPKON
{{Authority control
Non-profit organisations based in Hesse
Skeptic organisations in Germany
1987 establishments in Germany