#976: Diana Napolis

A.k.a. Karen “Curio” Jones (Napolis’s Internet pseudonym)

Diana Napolis is an ex-therapist who believes there is a vast Satanic conspiracy attempting to cover up widespread ritual abuse. She is by far most famous for her online – let’s call it – “criticisms” of psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, and for apparently being sentenced to probation and mental health counseling for stalking Hollywood celebrities, including Jennifer Love Hewitt and Steven Spielberg. Napolis claimed that Hewitt and Spielberg were part of a satanic cult that was using psychotronic weaponry in which to control her mind – apparently Spielberg was responsible for implanting a microchip (a “soul catcher”) into her brain. In Napolis’s own words: “there were attempts by some to impact the bioenergetic fields around the human body and interior to the body and that the utter destruction of these fields results, ultimately, in complete technological possession. […], but various cult organizations have other agendas which include unique abuses personal to their own religious persuasion such as destroying the Chakra system and the actual astral body of the target.” But Napolis was unable to provide the required documentation for the courts. She subsequently made it onto popeater’s list of 10 worst celebrity stalkers of all times. Her website is here, but I don’t necessarily recommend going there (the Diana Napolis Watch webpage is here).

Now, the story is pretty much just a sad one (part of the early stuff is recounted here), and one could easily argue that Napolis shouldn’t really be included in our Encyclopedia. The reason she is, however, is primarily because of her absolutely batshit groupies on the Internet. Defense of Napolis is a mainstay at many of the fringe pits of the Internet, and includes at least the following:

“Investigative journalist” James F. Marino seems to believe Napolis’s own claims of being a “mind control victim and [herself a] target of organized stalking.” But then Marino is not obviously that good at distinguishing fact from his own muddled paranoid fantasies. When Napolis accounted for the alleged assaults being waged against her, as well as the NSA’s perceived ability to use its directed energy weapons to disrupt the natural energy meridians in the body (“the 7 chakras”), Marino sagely concluded that “those who perpetrate the use of this technology are now attempting to disrupt the spiritual realm within the bodies of their targets,” which is not the correct conclusion to draw.

Another defender is Ellen P. Lacter, who runs the website endritualabuse.org, devoted to fighting the ritual Satanic abuse and mind control that, in Lacter’s mind rather than reality, is apparently running rampant. Then there is Elana Freeland, of Subrosaamerica.com, who apparently thinks the Napolis story is proof of how the Conspiracy stalks and tortures dissenters – her source is, of course, Napolis herself, and the trustworthiness of the source appears to be that Napolis’s dissenters can obviously not be trusted since Napolis doesn’t trust them.

Diagnosis: Primarily a sad case, of course, but it would apparently be wrong to judge her “harmless”. The most fascinating element, however unsurprising, is the assertions of delusion and paranoia her case has evinced from the Internet.

#975: Sheri Nakken

Sheri Nakken describes herself as a “Hahnemann homeopath”, and even her own self-description rather brilliantly expresses the shortcomings of the woo she peddles. Whereas science-minded inquiries attempt to align the hypotheses with reality, and therefore evolve and change with incoming evidence, homeopathy has staid the same since its pseudo-scientific emergence some 150 years ago, which illustrates its core character pretty well – it’s a dogma for which aligment to reality and evidence was never a virtue or a goal. Nakken also promotes faith healing, and has herself been heavily promoted by many of the central pushers of quackery and fraud, such as the Mothering magazine.

Nakken is furthermore a signatory to the International Medical Council of Vaccination’s list of people (mostly quacks) who believe that vaccines pose a significant risk of harm to the health of children and that there is no real science backing the “vaccine mythology” which claims that vaccines are somehow good for children. The list is about as impressive as the Discovery Institute’s A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism list.

Nakken’s online courses in homeopathy have apparently contributed to the spawning of a range of crackpots; Rolando Arafiles was for instance a one-time student of Nakken’s.

Diagnosis: Sorry, there is no way around it: Sheri Nakken is an absolutely appalling human being. And it is a tragedy that people pay her any kind of attention.

#974: Lawrence S. Myers

No one should doubt that Stuart Murray et al. are promoters of absolutely breathtaking nonsense (such as this), but they are also primarily Canadians and hence disqualified.

Lawrence S. Myers qualifies on all counts, however. Myers is an internet kook and defender of the hilariously silly Expanding Earth hypothesis. He defends his view on his website expanding-earth.org, which is characterized by the usual internet kook’s peculiar affection for unusual color schemes, font combinations, and unorthodox capitalization. According to Myers, he has “PROOF of Earth’s growth and expansion.” The proof in question is a map of the Earth 200 million years ago that Myers has interpreted himself (he also has to reject the generally accepted age of the earth to make his hypothesis work). At least his sentences are generally grammatical and semantically coherent, which is a step up from the usual standards achieved for this brand of pseudoscience.

There is a fine deconstruction of the expanding earth hypothesis, or subduction denialism, in three parts here, here, and here, showing pretty well how absolutely stunningly crazy the idea actually is. And no – although Myers has some cherry-picked quotes and assertions, he has of course not attempted to develop a unified theory that even begins to explain any of the phenomena such a theory would need to explain. But we’re not really waiting.

Diagnosis: Babbling internet kook. Probably harmless.

#973: Bill Murchison

Though he tries his best to spread the happy message, Bill Munro’s endorsement of hydrogen peroxide therapies for cancer (no, they don’t cure anything, and may be dangerous), and his claim to have cured his own prostate cancer in this manner, is – in the grand scheme of things – insufficient to grant him a separate entry, crazy as he may be.

William Murchison is a different matter. Murchison is an author and columnist for e.g. Chronicles, Townhall and The Lone Star Report, where he laments the absence of theocracy and compulsory religious activities for US citizens (and this guy has had a professorship in journalism, for crying out loud - at Baylor University, admittedly, but still). As most rabid fundies, his writings are permeated with paranoia, conspiracy theories and (predictable) distortions, typically: “The US. Supreme Court, in the ’60s, [determined] that the public schools enjoyed no right to allow prayer of any kind or the reading of the Bible,” which is a pretty baldfaced lie. But I guess those Biblical commandments apply to those who disagree with Murchison, not Murchison himself, for Murchison is lying for Jesus, and that makes it different.

He also laments the fact that some people are opposed to teaching Intelligent Design in public schools. The pushback from scientists is, in Murchison’s notoriously dense head, “evidence, if not of fear, perhaps of exasperation with folk who just won’t quit wanting to affirm the agency of God in creation.” The fact that Intelligent Design is completely bankrupt as a scientific theory is not an issue, for to Murchison it is all about the cage fight between Jesus and the atheists.

Diagnosis: I cannot really be bothered to research this severe case of Taliban-envy and denialism in much more detail. Murchison is stupid and evil, and that’s quite enough. 

#972: Ray Mummert

Ray Mummert is a Pennsylvania pastor and creationist, and an ardent roadie for the side against reason during the 2006 Kitzmiller v. Dover trial. A staunch creationist, Mummert defended the schoolboard’s decision to teach creationism (under the header “intelligent design”) – which was supposed to be neutral with respect to religion, mind – by pointing out that “if we continue to indoctrinate our young people with non-religious principles, we’re headed for an internal destruction of this society” (he probably didn’t help their case, in other words). Mummert’s levels of erudition are clearly on display in his argument that “evolution is just a theory and there are other theories,” which is followed by “there is such a complexity in life, and science wants to hang its hat on a belief that life somehow started – they say there is no creator, no order [no, he has not the faintest clue about what evolution entails or requires] ... I believe there is a creator.” It is amazing how many misconceptions about evolution creationists like Mummert manage to put into a few sentences.

His main claim to fame, however, rests with his extraordinarily pertinent diagnosis of the battle over creationism. “We’ve been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture,” Mummert said, adding that the school board’s declaration is just a first step in the counteroffensive.

Kinda says all that needs saying. A similar, more disconcerting assessment, is made by one Houston Friend here.

Diagnosis: You go get’em, Ray.