Skepbitch does the JREF (and Coral Castle)

“Florida in Summer is like standing in water”.

…I was once told. In Autumn’s October (“Fall” for the Yanks) it’s only like someone threw a hot, wet towel at you every time you emerge from the air conditioning…

In southern Florida for business, I also decided to have some pleasure (which is also business). I made time for two trips, to Coral Castle in Homestead near Miami, and to the (haunted) James Randi Educational Foundation in Ft. Lauderdale.

Coral Castle is a unique garden filled with bizarre weighty structures sculpted from coral rock. One monument alone contains 28 1/2 tonnes of coral.

Why was this incongruent garden built? So the story goes, Ed Leedskalnin, a diminutive Latvian fellow, was ditched at the altar by his jail bait bride-to-be Agnes Scuffs (which don’t sound particularly Latvian to me…perhaps it was Scuffovic?).

Anyway, this hermitic, obsessive compulsive and consumptive man relocated to the States, dedicating the rest of his life to building what was then known as Rock Gate, a romantic tribute to his lost love, his “Sweet Sixteen” (spawning the similarly named Billy Idol song). The question is…how did this frail man build the Castle - using magnets? Levitation? Superhuman powers?

(For some more background information, check out Ben Radford’s article at Live Science.)

I first learnt of Coral Castle through Leonard Nimoy’s cool, kitschy yet not-so-skeptical In Search Of series (see YouTube for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this episode). To me, this pathos-filled story has parallels with the heartbroken-eccentric-devotes-life-to-obsessional-cause theme of the Winchester Mystery House.

I’ve always found the tale alluring, surreal and magical, and the trip fulfilled a childhood dream. I would have had the chills as I wandered the quiet, mysterious garden (…had it not been so fucking hot).

But, perhaps, therein lies the explanation. Is this mystery all in my head?

Coral Castle is billed as America’s ‘most romantic historic site’, and meaning is ascribed to every statue, every carving, but after the fact. Like thanking ‘god’ for the surgeon’s steady hands, people attribute Ed’s humanly accomplishments to the paranormal and pseudoscietntific – it is claimed that he used a perpetual motion machine; he used magnets; he leviated the blocks of coral; he enlisted alien assistance; he harnessed the secrets of Atlantis, he availed himself of the forces of ley lines… and, of course, Coral Castle is haunted by the restless spirit of Ed, forever searching for his lost love.

These myths are perpetuated by the tour guides, who further claim that scholars have been baffled by the castle, branding it inexplicable and impossible. But, this is tourism, this is business, this is just another Floridian theme park.

It seems to me that Ed was an inventor, amateur engineer, mathematician, physicist, builder and sculptor who had nearly three decades to create his garden. This was his life’s work.

But I still love the stories, as stories…

Overall, my favourite part of the experience was a very earthly exchange with the po-faced tour guide, which went as follows:

Him: “Do you want your tour guide in English?”

Me: “You don’t have one in Australian?”

Him: “No.” (…pause…) ”But I have one in German…”

The following day I paid a visit to the house of JREF, where I was given a tour of the premises by the Amazing Randi himself, and his assistant Sean McCabe (whom I recalled fondly from Dragon*Con). We chatted about religion, Peter Popoff, Johnny Carson and James Hydrick.

 

I perused the Isaac Asimov library, saw the filing cabinets of some 500 failed Million Dollar Challenge applicants, and a bookcase of memorabilia including an E-meter, divining rods and astrology kits.

Sean kept producing curios, such as the original slides of the Cottingley Fairies, Scientology manuals and weird artifacts that make the JREf a Smithsonian of skepticism…

The best news is that the JREF offices are open to all visitors. Just let them know when you intend on visiting.

More indepth reports to follow in the usual skeptical magazines…