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Originally Posted by Open Mind  I don't have any books on Joe Nickell, an oversight perhaps, do these publish his own research, protocol and statistical outcomes? Or is it more just revision of others claims or like the pseudo-skeptics at the psychic fair? |
Joe Nickell is publishing is own investigations.
He did a lot (really a lot) of field investigations about haunted houses, relics, and debunking famous psychics.
What he's doing is
field investigations (he was a detective before becoming a CSI fellow), and I think it's also a very important job. If you want to explain why people think that a house is haunted, you have to go at that house and look for plausible explanations. Same for relics or psychics. Joe Nickell is always stressing the importance of field work, and I completely agree with him on that point (that's why I go and interview ufo witness for exemple, or I go and look for myself at crop circles).
I think what he's doing is great, and it's a good example that skeptics do a lot of actual investigations, and that Alexis was completely wrong in his podcast claiming otherwise.
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like the pseudo-skeptics at the psychic fair?
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The skeptic team did a great job at the psychic fair. When you hear the stupid protocol Alexis is proposing (go to 3 psychics, have 3 readings, scoring "objectively"
and so on), and pretending no skeptic would do that, it was great that the SGU was refuting is claim the week he posted it on his podcast. Skeptics go the psychic and have readings all the time. They're not just easily convince by cold reading and hot reading. Alexis is just an "easy believer": he doesn't need a lot for convincing him of the reality of anything. A few testimonies, a charismatic speaker... I mean a guy that believe that a woman can hear the voice of animals in her head... Well, that speaks for himself from my point of view...