Investigating Paranormal Mysteries
Presented by Joe Nickell, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Inquiry, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
About the Speaker
Joe Nickell, Ph.D. (University of Kentucky, 1987), is Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a division of Center for Inquiry, and an investigative columnist for Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
A former professional stage magician (he was Resident Magician at the Houdini Magical Hall of Fame for three years) and private investigator for a world-famous detective agency, Dr. Nickell taught technical writing for several years at the University of Kentucky before taking the full-time position with CSICOP at its offices at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York. Utilizing his varied background, Nickell has become widely known as an investigator of myths and mysteries, frauds, forgeries, and hoaxes. He has been called “the modern Sherlock Holmes,” “the original ghost buster,” and “the real-life Scully” (from “The X-Files” ). He has investigated scores of haunted-house cases, including the Amityville Horror and the Mackenzie House in Toronto, Canada.
Nickell has appeared on numerous national TV including “Dateline NBC,” “Oprah,” and “20/20,” in addition to several documentaries on the Discovery and National Geographic Channels, and numerous other shows. Nickell has been profiled in the New Yorker magazine and on the Today show. He is also the author (co-author and editor) of nearly 20 books.
About the Event
Summary with Commentary for the 259th meeting of CFI- Michigan, held
on August 27, 2008.
Our topic for this meeting was: Investigating the Paranormal and was
presented by Joe Nickell, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, Committee for
Skeptical Inquiry (CSI); Center for Inquiry. He is also an
investigative columnist for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. He is a
former stage magician (he was Resident Magician at the Houdini Magical
Hall of Fame for three years) and was a private investigator for a
world famous detective agency. Dr. Nickell taught technical writing
for several years at the University of Kentucky before taking the
full- time position with CSICOP (now CSI) at its offices at the Center
for Inquiry in Amherst, New York. Utilizing his varied background,
Nickell has become widely known as an investigator of myths and
mysteries, frauds, forgeries, and hoaxes. He has been called the
modern Sherlock Holmes, the original ghost buster and the real- life
Scully (X-files). He has investigated scores of haunted- house cases,
including the Amityville Horror and the Mackenzie House in Toronto,
Canada.
The internationally- known Dr. Nickell has appeared on numerous
national TV programs, including Dateline NBC, Oprah, and 20/20, in
addition to several documentaries on the Discovery and National
Geographic Channels, and numerous other shows, Nickell has been
profiled in the New Yorker magazine and on the Today show. He is the
author, co- author, or editor of nearly 20 books.
In his talk to us, he shared his experiences from four decades in
investigating paranormal mysteries from around the world. He is
possibly the world’s only full- time investigator of claims of the
paranormal. He shared with us his unique insider view of how hoaxes
are perpetrated, how reasoning goes wrong, perceptual aberrations, and
tricks of the trade for producing miracle claims. Nickell provided for
us a rare glimpse into how scientific methodology and open-minded but
rational thinking is used in investigating the paranormal in all its
variety.
This last sentence may sound redundant for adding open minded with
scientific and rational thinking. Surely they are concomitant
ingredients; but as Dr. Nickell pointed out, too often those who tout
themselves as rationalists, merely write off all claims of the
paranormal as the product of gullible and foolish minds without
bothering to actually look into the root causes of the phenomenon
under question. They will feel that the paranormal claims are silly
and absurd on the face of it, so why waste time examining the
phenomenon? But even though a real-world explanation is all that is
ever uncovered (so far) for claims of the paranormal, and therefore
the likelihood of ever coming across a counter example- one where
supernatural events are actually demonstrated to have taken place- is
vanishingly small, still, if only dismissed out of hand without clear
scientifically- motivated investigation, that real- world solution
will never be brought to light. The believers will then be justified
in saying of skeptics that they are, as as they in fact do often dub
them, closed- minded.
On this, he wrote in his book: Adventures in Paranormal Investigation;
University of Kentucky Press (which will be this summary- writer’s
main source for extra- presentation material, unless otherwise noted):
I travel around the world, lured by its strangest enigmas, but I
engage in neither the hype of so many mystery- mongering writers nor
the dismissals of self- styled “debunkers.” Instead, I investigate the
claims with the intent of solving them. I take a rational, scientific
approach, following the evidence objectively and remembering certain
basic principles: that the burden of proof is on the claimant; that
extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof- that is, the
evidence must be commensurate with the nature of the claim; and that
the simplest tenable explanation- that is, the one that requires the
fewest assumptions- is most likely correct (the rule of Occam’s
razor). End of quote, from the Introduction to his book.
Dr. Nickell, whose PhD is in literary investigation and folklore,
makes a distinction between the paranormal, that he professionally
investigates, and other conjectured agents, entities, etc. For
example, Bigfoot, whether this atavistic manlike creature exists or
not, would not be considered a supernatural being. He has, however,
investigated lakes supposedly inhabited by mysterious serpentine
creatures, and has even co-authored a book, with Benjamin Radford:
Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World’s Most Elusive
Creatures (‘06). These beings are the lake equivalent of mythical sea
serpents and, as such, while believed to be organic entities instead
of supernatural ones, they still fall within the scope of folklore
which is well within Nickell’s purview. Also, Lake Simcoe’s Igopogo
(derived from the name of Lake Champlain’s more famous Ogopogo) and
other related monsters, are imagined to be a form of plesiosaur, which
existed many tens of millions of years ago. The lakes that they are
supposed to inhabit, however, are no older than 10,000 years old, and
some reports of sightings are even from man- made lakes!
Dr. Nickell also noted the problem with believing in a hitherto
unknown species that continues to reproduce over time, which
necessitates a sizable breeding herd, while no beached or floating
carcasses have ever been discovered. So what is the explanation for
what is seen in these sightings? Oddly enough, they may all be the
result of otters swimming in a line; diving then resurfacing, which
creates the illusion of a single, elongated, undulating, serpent- like
creature. The illusion is a powerful one, and Nickell reported that
even a biologist mistook a swimming otter train for some sort of lake
monster, and was startled when they emerged on the shore as mammals,
one after another. On the History Channel’s Monster Quest program, Dr.
Nickell was asked to lend his expertise to determining the veracity of
what was believed to be a giant eel lurking in a certain waterway. It
behaved in the same manner as other supposed lake monsters and, once
again, otters were the source of the phenomenon. In any event, it
could not have been a giant eel, since eels do not grow to such
lengths and are bottom feeders, Nickell explained, and swim in a side
to side- not up and down- manner.
The former blackjack- dealer and riverboat manager (among his vast
number of other unusual occupations Dr. Nickell has held) took sharp
aim at those who use what is called The Argument from Ignorance. This
is where, in the absence of a more prosaic explanation being
immediately found and verified, the claimant makes a leap to an extra-
normal explanation for what is claimed. As an example: if one saw
strangely moving bright lights in the sky that have yet to be
scientifically investigated, and then claims that since no terrestrial
cause had been identified, the lights MUST therefore be of extra-
terrestrial origin.
In his exploration into what have been referred to as real life X-
Files, he stresses that he focuses on investigation rather than
debunking. He is not out to belittle or demean those who sincerely
believe in the paranormal phenomena that they feel they have
experienced. He educates the public in critical thinking as well as
offering them an awareness of how hoaxes, frauds and other deceptions
are perpetrated and how to avoid being sucked in by them. Too often,
people attempt to force the facts into fitting into their pet causes
and beliefs. The scientific method makes use of evidence. The very
second that a claim involves the natural world, it is under the
purview of scientific investigation. Therefore, if one claims: There
is a God, this bare assertion does not provide anything to work with
for the investigator who uses scientific naturalism as a tool for
investigation. She cannot add to or detract from that statement as it
stands. However, if the claimant goes further and says that he
believes in God because of the apparent design in the natural world,
and then gives examples of this, then there is something that may be
scrutinized via scientific methodology.
This is a problem for the Intelligent Design proponents. If they
simply stated that God created everything by divine fiat which is not
open to exploration by natural scientific means, then that would be
that. But when they present arguments based on natural organisms and
claim that certain mechanisms cannot be explained by natural means, an
embarrassment of riches in technical papers explaining those very
mechanisms, as naturally evolved structures, is often produced. See
the Dover ID trial in PA, where Professor Behe’s claim that the rotary
flagellum is irreducibly complex and that there are no data to support
it arising through natural, evolutionary processes. Behe was forced to
peer around and from behind the towering stack of papers on the
subject; all of which showed precisely what he claimed could not be
produced.
Nickell makes use of a lab and the expertise of working scientists in
his investigations. In many cases, magicians have been able to discern
how a hoax has been perpetrated better than even a skilled observer,
such as a scientist. Houdini in the past and James Randi in modern
times are but two examples. Nickell, with his investigator’s skill set
and having worked as a magician, provides the perfect background to
augment the expert knowledge of the scientists he works with. In his
book he mentions that science is from the Latin scientia, which means
knowledge.
He gave us many examples of the types and variety of alleged
paranormal events that he has investigated. Coal walking is one of
these. There is no trick to this and it can be done by almost any
ambulatory person; so long as that individual is able to maintain a
steady and brisk pace. The analogy that has been given as to how one
may accomplish this without sustaining severe burns is with cake in a
cake pan in an oven. Coals, like cake, do not conduct heat efficiently
enough to burn one if briefly touched, while the metal pan itself
does, and may not even be quickly touched without risk of a bad burn-
even though both were in the same oven set at the same temperature. He
has investigated countless UFO cases, too. Those that were not
constructed as hoaxes tend to turn out to be misinterpretations of
ordinary events. One example of this was when balloons from a party
became released into the sky. Nickell reproduced this event,
demonstrating an exact match. He referred to these balloons as IFOs—
Identified Floating Objects.
Weeping statues have been produced by such simple means as a priest
wielding a squirt gun and firing water into the face of the statue.
Some of the more sophisticated ruses occur when certain gels are used
to mimic tear or blood flow. Some substances, Nickell reported in his
book, liquefy when warmed by massed body heat or candles, etc.; both
of which are often brought near to these holy statues. He notes, too,
how a candle’s flicker can make static substances appear to be fluid,
especially to a mind steeped in holy iconography and supernatural
agency in the world. Nickell wrote about how there are also thixitropc
gels that liquefy when agitated then solidify again when allowed to
stand, so that vibrations introduced into the vicinity of a statue
will seem to cause a statue to bleed or weep.
Nickell wrote, regarding animated effigies, that belief that an effigy
is in some way animated [...] not only challenges science’s natural
world view but also crosses a theological line. It moves from
veneration (reverence toward an image) to idolatry (image worship), in
which the image is regraded as the tenement or vehicle of the god and
fraught with divine influence. End of quote. He also wrote of the
ancient prohibitions against idolatry.
It may seem odd that religious leaders would purposely engage in acts
of deception (what Dr. Nickell refers to as pious frauds), if they
believe there is an all-knowing God looking down on them (one would
assume without approbation) as they perpetrate these acts of
charlatanism on Its behalf. In his Adventures in Paranormal
Investigation book that I draw from throughout this summary, he tells
of how they feel that even if the effect (animated statues, etc.) is
not true, if it garners more converts to The Word, it is OK. Nickell
writes on this: But such an end- justifies- the- means approach is
untenable, especially given the seriousness of the matter: an affront
to science, religion, ethics, good sense, and truth, all rolled into
one. End of quote (pages 229-230). Most of these statues that weep,
bleed or are believed to have heartbeats are of the Virgin Mary. In
this last instance, Dr. Nickell actually used a stethoscope to try to
detect the beating heart in the statue of the Holy Mother. He
concluded (when no heartbeats were forthcoming) that the phenomenon
was due to the influence of the masses gathered and the religious
atmosphere upon those who experienced this phenomenon. He also
speculated that one may be feeling one’s own pulse in one’s fingertips
when touching the stature, and then erroneously attributing it to
detecting a living heartbeat in the chest of the statue..
Mary’s presence isn’t always detected in bodily fluid emissions from
statuary or imagined heartbeats; she is seen in everything from a
tortilla chip to an oil stain on a service garage window. In his book,
Nickell wrote that figures detected in random patterns are called
simulacra. Examples include perceiving beings in foliage or specific
identifiable shapes in clouds or inkblots. Nickell wrote, further,
that the tendency to see common forms in random patterns is known as
pareidolia- which he describes as: a neurological- psychological
phenomenon by which the brain interprets vague images as specific ones
(pg.18). Infants recognize faces as soon as they are able to see—even
the iconic smiley face- with two dots and a bowed line- is perceived
as a face to the newborn and s/he is hardwired to smile back upon the
crude visage. This capacity is carried with us all the days of our
lives, as witnessed by how many people see a face in some random
topographical features on Mars, the Man in the Moon, and
anthropomorphic shapes in worn rock walls, as examples.
He writes further (page 19) that religious simulacra are perhaps more
often associated with Catholic or Orthodox traditions, which emphasize
icons and other holy images, and that the Virgin Mary is probably the
most popular simulacrum, appearing in such disparate places as a
splotch of tree fungus in Los Angeles, a fence post in Sydney, a tree
stump and a refrigerator door in New Jersey, a mottled rust stain on a
water heater in Arizona, a bedroom wall in Nova Scotia, the bark of an
elm tree in Texas, and so on. One of Nickell’s favorites is the form
of the Virgin of Guadalupe in spilled ice cream. I have often thought
how easy it is to have a pareidolic interpretation of biblical figures
in splotches and stains, etc, since they are always portrayed wearing
loose, shapeless garb. Such amorphous attire may readily be pressed
into nearly any blob or smear or ovoid natural phenomenon. If, on the
other hand, the perceived figures were of a time and culture where
they wore three piece suits with bow ties, glasses, a pipe and sported
a cane and spats, we would likely have a greatly reduced number of
such interpretations of random splotches, scorch marks, etc.
His first important case involving a putative haunting was the
MacKenzie House in Toronto, Canada. Since then he has investigated
numerous other supposedly ghost- infested dwellings and vessels. In
his book he quoted Robert Baker’s adage: There are no haunted places,
only haunted people. This refers to fantasy- prone personality types
and their propensity for witnessing paranormal events. Even more
common than ghost sightings are strange sounds heard that are believed
to be the result of a spirit being. Early in his book, however,
Nickell wonders how a nonphysical entity such as a ghost would be able
to produce these noises and other physical phenomena. This is
something I have argued myself when dealing with believers in ghosts.
I tell them that there may well be a spirit realm; a plane that is
apart from nature and that is undetectable by natural means… but
that means that such a plane or realm and the inhabitants therein are
forever never to be observed, heard, felt, or otherwise experienced so
long as we inhabit the natural world. They would never be able to
access or influence our environment and we would be barred from
peering into theirs. Having no properties of matter, they could not
act upon matter. Sightings of ghosts never report nudes. Where do they
acquire the fabrics needed for clothing and who does the manufacture
of their duds in the afterlife?
Again, about the MacKenzie House and its supposed ghostly presence,
Nickell calmly examined each of the reasons claimants had for
believing the place was haunted. If he had merely dismissed the claims
as wild- eyed foolishness, sheer gullibility and/or prevarication, he
would never have uncovered the REAL sources of the sights and sounds
that were misinterpreted as ghosts. Furthermore, if he had made his
own deductive leap of explanation for the mysterious happenings, he
would be doing the same thing that the claimants do when they
immediately seize upon paranormal explanations without truly
investigating the matter—only his answers would be naturally- based.
One example he gave of this was that people said that they heard a
printing press running without a human operator in the MacKenzie
House. It turned out that the alleged haunted house was right next to
a major publishing house! Case closed, right? Wrong. It turns out that
there were no presses of that type in there either! The real source
for the sounds ended up having nothing to do with printing presses.
Ghostly figures were felt by those who slept in the house. There are
also countless cases of people claiming that extraterrestrial beings
visit them in their sleep, and of course, there were the incubi and
succubi of older folklore. Dr. Nickell humorously made a distinction
between folklore and what he referred to as fakelore. One must keep in
mind that paranormal beings evolve over time and are even culture-
specific. One would think that there would be more consistency in what
is observed, with geographic location and temporal influences not
making much of a difference as to how they manifest themselves. But
there is one commonality with regards to the bedtime reports of
paranormal visitations. It involves the hypnopompic and hypnogogic
states of being. The former referring to the process of waking up and
the latter to drifting off to sleep; times where one is particularly
susceptible to hallucinations. These states are often referred to as
waking dreams: a common type of hallucination that occurs in the
twilight between wakefulness and sleep and typically includes bizarre
imagery. (as Nickell reports on pg.5 of his book). These waking dreams
are often accompanied by sleep paralysis, where the mind is awake but
the body is still in sleep mode. This disconcerting state of affairs
helps to promote a sort of panic and a feeling that an unseen or
hallucinated presence is restraining one or holding one down. This
summary writer wonders if the waking dream state has any effect or
influence upon the temporal lobes of the brain. People who have
temporal lobe epilepsy or whose temporal lobes are artificially
stimulated, report sensing separate, disembodied presences that are
typically perceived as religious figures (again, these are shaped by
the times, places and cultural upbringing of the person experiencing
the presences, which goes to show that they exist only in the minds of
the individual).
Nickell writes that apparitional experiences can occur when a mental
image wells up from the subconscious and is momentarily superimposed
on the visual scene- analogous to a photographic double exposure.
(page 80). Furthermore, once an idea of a haunted place has taken
hold, anything unusual that occurs is taken as evidence of ghosts or
other paranormal agency. A joke Nickell told in his book on page 270
regards a man visiting a city who questioned a woman native to the
area as to the veracity of tales regarding ghosts in the city. She
replied: I’ve lived here for 500 years and never saw one.
To continue on with what I was writing about before the previous
paragraph; natural beings have a common appearance, common behaviors
and may be represented cross-culturally and over human timeframes
without significant discrepancies. A wolf is a wolf is a wolf, for
example. Supernatural entities have no such form or behavior that is
commonly and globally agreed upon. Even in modern films, one will see
a disparate array of ghosts, often in the same movie! They are
different in behavior, motivation, and looks from one representation
to the next. Even vampires which are thought to, at least some of the
time, manifest themselves in human form, are all over the place for
how they are represented. And it depends on what version of them the
believer subscribes to as to what powers they possess. Some think they
can transmogrify into bats, others that they have superhuman strength,
others that they create no reflection in a mirror, others that they
are terrified of religious icons, etc., etc. If there had been such
beings with us and sighted for millennia, would we not have an
archetypal and commonly agreed upon view of them? Even alien
visitation should be subject to this common vision of how these
travelers from deep space look and operate, unless we are to believe
that there is a space-based superhighway connecting dozens and dozens
of far flung worlds, with all manner of different beings native to
them, popping over to our own planet, and in sufficient numbers that
we are practically besieged by anal- probing, crop- circle producing,
cattle mutilating sex-obsessed abductors from other worlds.
There are all sorts of personality types, but when referencing a
natural being, we see that people of all different backgrounds and
from various time periods and who operate under a wide variety of
cultural and other influences, let alone personality types, converge
upon a single depiction of a given creature, and, have a consistent
understanding of how it operates and other distinct characteristics of
it. But, tellingly, there are personality types that are prone to
seeing all manner of supernatural agency and entities where other
types do not. If they existed, it should be like when two very
different types of people approach an aquarium containing an octopus.
Both will see the same basic organism. What they will observe will be
more or less consistent, no matter their backgrounds/experiences and
genetic propensities. Since there is a personality type- or profile-
for those who interpret the natural world in paranormal ways, this
indicates that it is an artifact of their own minds, not of the actual
environment around them.
Cheryl C.Wilson and Theodore X. Barber (1983) listed certain
identifying characteristics of people who fantasize profoundly
(information on this was gleaned in large part from page 251 of
Nickell’s book). They fantasize more readily and more energetically,
and tend to have more of the aforementioned hypnopompic and hypnogogic
hallucinations. They are more susceptible to hypnosis and exhibiting
paraidentity; that is, a dual identity. And they are more likely to
have imaginary companions, believe that they have lived past lives,
and possess mental states that lead to a loss of awareness of their
own identity. They report having more psychic experiences, floating-
or out of body- experiences, vivid waking dreams, visions and
hallucinations than other personality types. They experience
hypnotically generated apparitions; report the receipt of special
messages— directed by higher intelligences— gods, aliens from other
worlds, etc., and many report having the ability to heal. A Roman
Catholic upbringing is influential in many of the reported paranormal
claims. This personality type is also more concerned, obsessed, or
interested in a quest for meaning in life and they often feel that
they are in a relgio-philosophical limbo. Involvement in the arts as a
vocation or avocation is a strong predictor of having the tendency to
see the paranormal in everyday occurrences.
Not only is the environment/culture/family that one grows up in (and,
of course, one’s innate tendencies) a powerful factor in shaping both
the degree to which one is likely to perceive paranormal happenings
and what type or subset of these one perceives, but also one’s
immediate environment at the time. People can be swept up in a
powerful experience collectively; each feeding upon the other’s
apparent experiences. In such settings, with the power of suggestion
and peer pressure holding sway, one is primed to experience even the
most strange notions credulously, emotionally, and with little- if
any- rational critique taking place. For the faithful in a evangelical
church service, complete with glossolalia (babbling of nonsense
syllables that pass as an unknown language but are actually
pseudolanguage) and all manner of gyrations… one not experiencing
this is more likely to question himself as to how strong his faith is,
or if he has fallen short of God, rather than simply acknowledging
that his fellow parishioners are caught up in a form of mass hysteria
and that all that they are experiencing is emanating from their own
minds, not from without. This may play out in such churches when
fellow congregants are slain in the spirit, as the phrase goes. In any
other setting, if that same preacher came up to the person and slapped
the other’s forehead or chest, there would be no evidence of his
spirit being slain (so to say); but mix in a whole congregation of
believers, and it becomes very hard not to lose rationality and
autonomy of thought and behavior.
It was discussed in this summary, how Nickell does not simply wave a
dismissive hand at even the most outlandish claims reported to have
happened in contemporary times. Furthermore, he spoke about his
investigation of cold cases. But his methodology may also be applied
to really distant reports of supernatural events. When such events
show themselves to be thematic or reoccurring, there is often a core
reason why they keep continuing to surface. One could write a lengthy
book on all the folklore generated- and psychological issues people
have- regarding snakes. But just one item on these creatures, taken
from Dr. Nickell’s book (page 32) about a remarkable feat recorded in
the Bible will be mentioned here, showing how a modern, scientific
approach can be used to explain an apocryphal event from long ago. The
biblical miracles of a rod, staff or stick transforming into a snake
is explained by the the fact that if one grasps a snake’s head and
tail in either hand, stretching it out straight, with firm pressure on
its head by use of thumb and index finger, this will cause the snake
to stiffen. Once it is released (such as when it is dramatically
tossed upon the ground) it recovers and assumes a more serpentine form
again, appearing to have transformed from a straight stick into a
living reptile. One more note about snakes and miraculous occurrences:
St. Patrick is credited with expelling snakes from Ireland but there
were never any such creatures living there to drive away in the first
place.
Science is new. As CFI member, Dr. Gregory Forbes, has noted: there
are more living scientists today than there have been, collectively,
in all the history leading up to contemporary times. Religion,
contrariwise, is ancient. Our perceptions were forged in the
Pleistocene. It is simply natural for us (in an ironic phrase) to see
the supernatural in the world. This is why, while there are complex
and sophisticated hoaxes that are perpetrated, the bulk of reports of
paranormal events/beings are misperceptions/misinterpretations of
quite ordinary and simple natural events. Some of these that Dr.
Nickell mentioned (in either the book I reference throughout this
summary or in his oral presentation) include people who perceived the
filmy or misty quality of a photograph in a series of photos hung by
it as something supernatural. In reality it was just the result of the
flash from the camera that caused the glass look gauzy on the picture
that was directly in front of the flash. Double exposures in older
photos explain faint ghostly scenes or people seeming to inhabit or
intrude upon another image. When a stationary light seems to vibrate
with some strange power— it is nearly always the result of tiny
involuntary eye movements. This is the autokinetic effect. There was a
mysterious, glowing, amorphous whiteness on a piano in one photo that
Dr. Nickell showed us, which had been attributed to a paranormal
essence. In actuality, it was the result of flashback from sheet music
on the piano— again, from a camera flash. There is the illusion of
eyes following one in a painting, when the eyes of the portrait
subject are painted so as to be forwardly fixed toward the viewer. As
a painter myself, I know that it is simple enough to produce and
involves no mysterious forces or effects.
Some of the intentional hoaxes are laughable if one but brings in only
a modicum of critical thinking to the phenomenon that has been touted
as an example of the paranormal. But, as just mentioned, we are primed
and prepared by long evolutionary development to see the extraordinary
in the ordinary and to create recognizable patterns out of random
abstractions in the environment. In one amusing item that Dr. Nickell
presented, images of people that were mocked up to lend an ethereal
aspect to the faces, were presented as spirit guides. But these
alleged ancient, exotic guides, in some cases, sported glasses and
earrings and other trappings of ordinary, contemporary middle class
Americans. Using an argon laser light, Nickell revealed a solvent ring
around the faces and was able to not only show how the trick had been
accomplished, but also to create his own spirit guide images, using
the same techniques employed in the original hoax.
Dr. Nickell often investigates the claims of so- called psychics. If
there were real life psychics, they would rule over the rest of us as
gods on Earth. They would not be involved in 2AM hotline call scams.
Nickell noted that mainstream science has never validated any psychic
ability. There is also James Randi’s still unmet challenge of 1
million dollars to be awarded to anyone who can exhibit psi power
under scientifically controlled conditions. As I have said in other
summaries, it should be an arresting thought for believers in psychics
that none of these gifted individuals had predicted the events of
9/11/2001. I guess they were too busy telling people that grandma from
beyond still loved them, or that they should be wary of the new love
interest in their lives or other such pressing and pertinent issues.
Dr. Nickell recounted, in the book referenced in this summary, how,
for thirty six years he has had a daughter that he had only recently
learned about—yet none of the psychics, palm readers, Tarot card
readers, etc. that he had encountered had ever mentioned this.
One prominent spiritualist, John Edwards (of the Crossing Over
program), Nickell caught cheating when they both appeared on Dateline
NBC. Edwards had gotten information (by thoroughly natural- if
deceptive and dishonest- means) on his subjects that he later revealed
as though it had been divinely received. Other spiritualists soon
tried to make sure that they could identify Dr Nickell visually, to
elude detection, should he be in the audience at one of their events.
So Nickell changed his appearance to thwart them. He showed us a few
pictures where he is in disguise among groups of people. He said he
often assumes a persona, or type of personality and look, rather than
dealing with more elaborate disguises and make-up.
Our presenter gave us several examples of the tricks of the trade
(that he first learned when working as a magician) used by psychics.
In his book, he provides transcripts of many exchanges between duped
subjects and putative psychics. In print form, it is quite obvious how
often the paranormalists make mistakes, try to convert (often using
the technique known as retrofitting) misses into hits, work the
subjects to get them to divulge information that can be capitalized
on, etc. But people in the heat of the moment, especially for those
who really want to believe that the gifted person before them is
communicating with their dead loved one, tend to forget the misses,
recall the hits and try to help the psychic intentionally or
unintentionally. Van Praagh’s techniques were entertainingly explored
in his book: Adventures in Paranormal Investigation, in the chapter:
Hustling Heaven (pages 87-94).
In both the aforementioned book and talk, Dr. Nickell discussed the
Nasca Lines (pages 151-158.), which are like paths in the desert
elaborately depicting animal forms and are composed of a continuous
line construction, with internal zigzagging lines that are consistent
w/ labyrinths. There are what appear to be extraneous appendages on
these huge animal images. Because they are readily viewed from the air
but not from the ground, these sprawling compositions inspired a spate
of ancient astronaut nonsense. Humans seem perpetually self
deprecating while giving all credit to beings from above— gods, alien
space beings, angels, etc. It was once thought that humans could not
have built the pyramids, the Easter Island heads, etc. unaided by such
agency (extraterrestrial or supernatural). Massive works like the
Nasca images, being from primitive— read: non-White- people seemed
inconceivable to those studying them. Yet no one says that
Shakespeare’s writings, Mozart’s compositions, or Michelangelo’s
Sistine Chapel frescoes were accomplished by superhuman agency, while
the flesh and blood men sat back and napped.
As is his usual approach, Dr. Nickell ran with his hypothesis for how
the creators of the Nasca imagery were able to accomplish their
amazing feats and without modern equipment, by recreating their
methodology. He is one to roll up his shirt sleeves, rather than
pontificate from the Ivory Tower. He found that one could make a
model, using very ordinary and simple materials that were readily
available and then mock it up from there, using plot points for
reference. He was able to determine with some degree of certainty that
these desert lines were formed as ritual walking paths, which explains
some of the unusual characteristics of them. The ritual walks probably
served to invoke the deities for assistance in bringing much- needed
water to the people of that arid region.
Adventures in Paranormal Investigation covers everything from stigmata
to Abe Lincoln’s writings from beyond the grave. In writing about
dowsers, he had this to say (page 49): [...] dowsers fare poorly in
properly controlled tests of their abilities [...]. The well-
established, scientific explanation for the movement of dowsing rods
and pendulums is ‘the unwitting translation of thoughts into muscular
action’- the same force responsible for various other phenomena such
as automatic writing, table tipping, and the movement of a Ouija
board’s planchette. End of quote. Among the solid and tangible
artifacts that Dr. Nickell investigated, were crystal skulls that were
thought to be formed by extra- normal means and to hold mysterious
powers. He quipped, on page 73: The chief power of the skulls seems to
be that of attracting the credulous. End of quote.
Dr. Nickell also surveyed therapeutic centers with healing waters
called Asclepieia, after a mythological god of health (192), to
determine their efficacy. There are various spas that are reported to
have beneficial properties far beyond what would be derived naturally.
Spa, Dr. Nickell wrote, is derived from an old Walloon (French
dialect) word meaning fountain (193). The chief support for the
healing spas are anecdotal, but as Nickell noted, those promoting
therapies that had objective evidence to back them up would cite such
evidence, instead of using subjective testimonials. There was the
story of the former Pope’s visit to Lourdes in ‘04, recounted in his
book on page 204. John Paul II was afflicted with Parkinson’s disease
and knee and hip debilities. Not only did he fail to become
rejuvenated and cured of his physical challenges but he died within a
year of the visit. This showed just how the putative healing powers of
Lourdes was ineffective even for the head of the church that professes
and promotes its miracle cures. People will say that there is
something there in those waters, however. Dr. Nickell wrote (page205):
That something is an aura of the miraculous attending ordinary water
set in a religious context and offered to the credulous- especially
those who are desperate for help. End of quote. Some have made the wry
observation that while crutches have been found abandoned at what are
touted as miraculous healing spa sites (if one uses crutches one still
has some ambulation) but no artificial limbs have yet been seen
discarded. There is an amusing website that declares waggishly: God
Hates Amputees. Regrowth of a limb? Now THAT would be a miracle that
even the most hard- nosed skeptic could be impressed by!
Many people ask what real harm does it do for people to be credulous
of claims of the paranormal. People have been duped out of their life
savings; been given false hope, only to have it dashed when the so-
called psychic comes up empty; without the development of critical
thinking skills— or the use of what has been called the baloney
detection kit- people fall prey to scams of all sorts, and squander
precious resources pointlessly. CSI public relations director Kevin
Christopher goes so far as to consider it a moral duty to report the
truth of unfounded claims, where evidence to back them up is
exceedingly poor or non-existent.
Synthesized by Charles LaRue.
