Terence Michael Hines (born 22 March 1951) is an American academic and researcher. He is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

Pace University Pace University is a private university with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York, United States. It was established in 1906 as a business school by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace. Pace enrolls about ...

, New York, and

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

neurology Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine) , medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous syst ...

at the New York Medical College; he is also a science writer. Hines has a BA from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, and an MA and

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

. A fellow of the

Committee for Skeptical Inquiry The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the U.S. non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to " ...

, Hines is the author of ''Pseudoscience and the Paranormal'' which focuses on the fields of

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...

and the

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

in the United States. He has also, controversially, authored papers expressing doubts about the existence of the G-spot.

''Pseudoscience and the Paranormal''

Hines is the author of the book ''Pseudoscience and the Paranormal'', which mostly focuses on

and the

in the United States. He distinguishes pseudoscience from science by describing it as a hypothesis inconsistent with the known laws of physics, but one which cannot be falsified. In his book, Hines argues that pseudoscience tends not to be updated in the face of newly obtained evidence, and he highlights the difficulty in clearly demarcating pseudoscience from the paranormal. He also postulates that if paranormal abilities such as

clairvoyance Clairvoyance (; ) is the claimed ability to acquire information that would be considered impossible to get through scientifically proven sensations, thus classified as extrasensory perception, or "sixth sense". Any person who is claimed to h ...

precognition Precognition (from the Latin 'before', and 'acquiring knowledge') is the purported psychic phenomenon of seeing, or otherwise becoming directly aware of, events in the future. There is no accepted scientific evidence that precognition is a ...

were possible, then surely one would expect casino and lottery incomes to be affected, although no such effect is observed. Hines is a fellow of the

, an organization that promotes skeptical inquiry of paranormal claims.

G-spot

In a 2001 comprehensive review article, Hines claimed that the evidence for the existence of the Gräfenberg spot (" G-spot"), a spot that 84% of women believe exists, was too weak, and that claims of its existence were based on small sample sizes and not supported by biochemistry or anatomy (particularly the lack of extra nerve endings in the region). * * The original article is Most of the studies at that time had also been conducted by a single team. Hines asserted that if such a spot exists, it is not particular to the Skene's glands. He described the G-spot as a "sort of gynecologic UFO: much sought for, much discussed, but unverified by objective means". The initial review resulted in a large controversy with three publications quickly defending its existence.

Works

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References

External links

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Publications by Prof. Terence Hines
– Pace University Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Hines, Terence 1951 births Living people American philatelists American critics of alternative medicine Critics of parapsychology