ABSTRACT
What harm can it do? People ask skeptics this all the time about all kinds of beliefs. When you're talking about astrology or spoon-bending, maybe it's reasonable to claim that skeptics are just being purist intellectual snobs to carp. Many, maybe even most, paranormal beliefs are mostly harmless, other than creating a sort of background noise that Simon Hoggart has called 'interference with the truth'. But the consequences of some claims are too serious to take lightly. Most of these are in the medical field: even a treatment as simple as faith healing can cost lives if believers favour it over medical care. Just as serious in their impact on families and the social fabric are false memory syndrome and memories of child abuse 'recovered' under hypnosis.
