Barry Beyerstein

Early life

The family moved frequently, and Barry relocated about thirty times within his neighborhood while growing up. Raised on magazines Fate and Popular Science and paranormal television shows, he later said this enchantment inclined him toward studying consciousness. In high school he conducted experiments on séances, handwriting analysis, and hypnosis with friends, though he had not yet learned about experimental controls.

Entering Simon Fraser University in 1965, he majored in psychology with a minor in philosophy. After his first philosophy of science course, he began to doubt that science and the paranormal would ever happily merge. In 1968 he moved to the San Francisco area to attend UC Berkeley, where he found himself out of step with peers who casually discussed out-of-body experiences and chakras.

Career

Beyerstein received his B.A. from Simon Fraser University in 1968 and a Ph.D. in Experimental and Biological Psychology from UC Berkeley in 1973. In the 1970s he collaborated with Bruce K. Alexander on the Rat Park study of addiction. He publicly criticized unsupported claims about brain function improvement, and in the book Mind Myths he presented seven kinds of evidence refuting the ten percent myth, including that even minor brain injury affects the subject.

At the Skeptic's Toolbox in 1993, he outlined the unified theory that all mental phenomena are products of the physical brain and that consciousness ceases when the brain is destroyed, a view supported by evolution, individual development, pharmacological experiments, and research on brain accidents. While at Simon Fraser, he was asked to oversee approval of a pro-parapsychology class and assembled writings from leading figures in the skeptics alliance Paul Kurtz was forging, which led him to CSICOP.

He wrote for Skeptical Inquirer from 1985 to 1988 and was elected to the Executive Council. He appeared on the first season of Penn and Teller: Bullshit! to discuss near-death experiences, stating they are generated by brain function and do not prove an afterlife.

Personal life

Beyerstein believed the scientific community had an obligation to explain its work to the public, and he called the skeptical movement a watchdog, describing CSICOP as a sort of Consumer Reports of the mind. His daughter Lindsay recalled growing up in the skeptical movement, attending meetings and helping with family newsletter-stuffing nights for the BC Skeptics.

Instead of hiring babysitters, her father took her to media interviews on topics such as Satanic music and out-of-body experiences. He was a do-it-yourself man who built his home from the ground up with his wife Suzi, and once sewed back the tip of his own finger after cutting it off. He died suddenly at age 60 in his office on Burnaby Mountain of an apparent heart attack.

Publications

Beyerstein authored numerous articles and books critiquing pseudoscience and paranormal claims. His publications include 'The Myth of Alpha Consciousness' (1985, Skeptical Inquirer), 'Neuroscience and Psi-ence' (1987, Behavioral and Brain Sciences), and 'The Brain and Consciousness: Implications for Psi Phenomena' (1987–1988, Skeptical Inquirer). He wrote 'Neuropathology and the Legacy of Spiritual Possession' (1988, Skeptical Inquirer) and 'Brainscams: Neuromythologies of the New Age' (1990, International Journal of Mental Health).

He co-authored 'On Avoiding Folly' (1991, Journal of Drug Issues) and edited The Write Stuff: Evaluations of Graphology – The Study of Handwriting Analysis (1992, Prometheus Books). He contributed chapters to The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal (1996) and to Mind Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain (1999). Later works include 'Graphology – a total write-off' and 'The Neurology of the Weird: Brain States and Anomalous Experience' (both 2007, in Tall Tales about the Mind and Brain).

Did You Know?

• In April 2011, Beyerstein was selected for inclusion in CSI's Pantheon of Skeptics.
• He once addressed the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health during discussions leading up to the passage of the Controlled Substances Act.