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."