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BOOK DESCRIPTIONS
SOCIAL SCIENCE
Anthropology
Folklore
Psychology
Religion
Sociology
LITERARY
Literary Criticism
Reflexivity
Semiotics
PARANORMAL
Near-Death Experiences
Parapsychology
Ufology
Witchcraft (modern)
SKEPTICS
Magic
Martin Gardner
Skeptics

 
 
 

 

 

Skeptics

The book includes a number of chapters of direct interest to skeptics:

  • Shamanism And Its Sham
  • Prominent “Psychics”
  • Conjurors and the Paranormal
  • Hoaxes and the Paranormal
  • CSICOP and the Debunkers
    Deception and trickery have accompanied psychic phenomena for millennia.  Proponents are oblivious to this fact.  Skeptics point it out, and make an important contribution in doing so.

    The paranormal is also associated with religion and the irrational.  Again, skeptics have brought this point to the fore.  The reasons for all this are explained by anthropological studies of the trickster figure.

    The chapter on CSICOP reviews its history, demographics, constituency, agenda, and organizational structure.

    Many magicians (professional tricksters) have joined the skeptical movement.  A full chapter is devoted to their involvement with paranormal controversies.  There is a brief sketch of James Randi; a 15-page biographical piece on Martin Gardner is included.

    Paul Kurtz founded Prometheus Books, naming it after a trickster of the Greeks.  Kurtz produced an  interpretation of Prometheus, and he has many implications for debunkers.

    The Trickster and the Paranormal explains why controversies over psychic phenomena continue and why they show no signs of abating.
 

Author’s Background

    The author has published critiques of Robert Jahn’s Princeton University remote-viewing research and Budd Hopkins’ UFO investigations.  He helped start a New Jersey skeptics group and has presented at the New York Area Skeptics.

Click here for critique of Budd Hopkins’s case
 

Links to Other Descriptions -- Alphabetically
 

Anthropology     Folklore      Literary Criticism     Magic Martin Gardner      Near-Death Experiences     Parapsychology
Psychology     Reflexivity     Religion      Semiotics     Skeptics     Sociology     Ufology       Witchcraft (modern-day)

 
 
 
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