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My Brother the Debunker
My Brother The Debunker
One is the editor of a renowned magazine devoted to debunking UFOs, psychics,
and astrology. The other believes that a superior intelligence will
transform the human race. What's more, they're brothers. Kendrick Frazier,
44, and James Frazier, 39, admit they have "lively disagreements" whenever
they get together for reunions at the family home in Greeley, Colorado. Ken
edits THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, a quarterly magazine published by the Committee
for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and the
scourge of the "new nonsense," including the beliefs of brother James. [SEE
"CENSORING THE PARANORMAL," CONTINUUM #1.] But Jim, who works as editor of
the local GREELEY NEWS, insists that his beliefs are neither new nor
nonsense. "Our benefactors have been here as long as we have," he declares,
"initiating the likes of Gilgamesh and Socrates into the mysteries of the
cosmos."
To Ken, this sort of statement represents a threat to the progress of
science. In the mid-70s, as editor of the respected publication SCIENCE
NEWS, he grew alarmed when readers wrote in asking for stories on the
paranormal. Not long afterward he began to correspond with longtime debunker
Martin Gardner. Their idea: the formation of a skeptical, scientific
organization "to correct public misunderstanding." 2 years later, CSICOP was
born.
Jim's odyssey began in the mid-70s as well. On May 17, 1976, around 3:30 AM,
he says, he was awakened from sleep by the voice of Beelzebub booming from
his clock radio. Apparently, Beezlebub was speaking through radio show host
Brian Scott, who said he'd been abducted by giant thick-skinned, long-eared
aliens back in 1971. Ever since, Scott claimed, disembodied ETs had been
borrowing his vocal cords to express ideas of their own. Jim, a psychologist
and would-be film producer, listened till dawn, utterly fascinated. 6 weeks
later he introduced himself to Scott, and several months after that, in
December 1976, he accompanied his new friend on a visit to Inca ruins at
Tiahuanaco, Bolivia. There, Jim Frazier says, he saw Scott become possessed
by a mysterious being "with the presence of a king." In fact, he was more
than a king -- he was Ticci Viracocha, the god who brought the Incas
civilization from on high.
According to Jim, Brian Scott is just one of many humans who have been
visited by alien forms. But, he says, "Scott alone has survived the
experience with all his faculties intact. If we only listened to him, he
would help us create a new world, a new philosophy, new forms of language, a
new relationship between man and the unknown." One thing's for sure: The
relationship between Jim Frazier and Brian Scott continues to this day. Jim
now owns the rights to Scott's life story and has even written a TV
miniseries about his friend.
Ken Frazier is reluctant to discuss his brother's unusual beliefs outside the
immediate family. But, he states, "it's possible for people to have vivid
personal experiences from which belief systems stem. I don't question the
seeming realness of these experiences."
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