The presence of her co-author, Bruce Thyer, comes as no surprise, as he was her Ph.D. advisor.

Many people are still waiting for Pignotti to do something original. So far, she has criticized two cults she belonged to (L. Ron Hubbard’s Scientology and Roger Callahan’s Thought Field Therapy). She is also a very late arrival to the criticism of the “therapy” that killed Candace Newmaker.

In the interim, Pignotti seems content to engage in pointless and protracted Internet debates; this does nothing, whatsoever, to advance her position in the skeptical community.

This, in and of itself, is astonishing, given that Pignotti, a Ph.D. in social work, ought to have a certain level of competence in statistics herself. At this point, no comment on her motivations is possible.

She cites postings made by an entity using the name TRANSREMAXCULVER, a frequent poster, like Pignotti, to alt.religion.scientology.

The simple truth of the matter, anonymous statistical analysis notwithstanding, is that Monica Pignotti appears obsessed with posting legal trivia about herself to diverse Usenet groups.

What is her basis for this claim-that Larry Sarner had designed WORKING voting machines?

Did she take an “evidence based” approach to determine that the voting machines worked, or was it “authority based,” probably in the form of a hasty email from Larry Sarner?

Yet, in a somewhat older post (excerpt shown), she claims, as an area of expertise, the examination of claims made by mental health practices.

It would be very interesting to see if Monica Pignotti could, using her own standards, justify her status as an expert in this area.

She lists 16 publications. Of the 16, 5 seem to focus on Thought Field Therapy (a specific discipline developed by Roger Callahan) or the generic term for this type of therapy, Energy Psychology.

It is to be noted that Pignotti spent several years as a practitioner, advocate and instructor of Callahan’s techniques. There is no doubt whatsoever that she has drawn on her “inside knowledge” when writing these papers.

The mathematics of the situation are simple and inevitable.

Just under one third of Pignotti’s publications (and note, significantly, that she prepared this list) deal with a “quack” therapy she both practiced and subsequently abandoned.

Interestingly, Monica Pignotti is representing herself as an “expert” on international adoptions these days. She lists exactly one paper in this field. Even a cursory review of her CV suggests she has little, if any, substantive experience with international adoptions.

Caveat Emptor!

Palmer decided not to pay Scientology’s royalties, was sued, and lost.

Palmer then had “revelations” that he claimed (somehow) completed the work of L. Ron Hubbard.

The result-Avatar. Even the name betrays Palmer’s ignorance, and the “sequel,” called “wizards” shows it even more.

Avatar is nothing more than multi level marketing Scientology. About the only good thing to be said about it is that it is cheaper than Scientology.

But make no mistake-the ridiculous “quack” content of Scientology is there. You are infested by alien beings, and Palmer is the messiah of an enlightened planetary civilization.

Harry Palmer has a company called Star’s Edge. That’s an interesting concept, as a star is a mass of burning gas. Harry Palmer probably knows a thing or two about hot air, so maybe that’s an inside joke.

Avatar is a waste of money, and there is no business opportunity.

Unfortunately, Avatar produces rather misguided people like Eldon Braun. Braun used to “deliver” the Avatar courses. Like Palmer, he decided not to pay royalties. Like Palmer, he cloned the material. Braun’s version of Avatar was (is?) called the Source Course. Braun sold this from France. Braun was sued by Palmer. Braun lost. Braun fled to France.

Palmer continues, with diminishing success, to promote Avatar.

Braun is in France, and spends a great deal of time antagonizing people on the Internet.

At some point, Pignotti abandoned her studies of the cello and joined Scientology. She saw the folly of it (no more than that need be said about the subject), and left. She has written a very interesting account of her time there. One might think she would walk away, say what she had to say and move on.

That has not been the case. She spends a great deal of time on the Scientology Internet discussion group and has attracted supporters such as Eldon Braun.

Some time after leaving Scientology, Monica became an adherent and practitioner of Roger Callhan‘s “Thought Field Therapy” and its advanced version “Voice Technology.” She saw the folly of these as well, and went so far as to demonstrate their flawed foundations.

To this point in her career, it would be hard to claim that she had spent a great deal of time as a practitioner of quackery and pseudoscience in the forms of Scientology, Thought Field Therapy and Voice Technology.

She enrolled in a Ph.D. program in social work, and received her degree in 2009. Congratulations!

Along the way, though, she has become involved with a “fringe” group attacking therapists who help orphans.

This group is led by the husband and wife team of Larry Sarner and Linda Rosa.

Sarner is described as a mathematician and cryptographer. The only locatable work in these or related fields relates to a scandal involving voting machines. This resulted in quite a bit of litigation, and, unfortunately, Sarner handled matters so poorly his wife was dragged in as well.

Their cause is perceived as defamatory as many, so they have become involved on the wrong side of an Internet free speech debate. They need to learn that the First Amendment is not a license to libel!

In the both the short and long term, these associations can only harm Monica Pignotti. She would be well rid of them!