Customer Reviews

Investigating the Paranormal

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Despite the title, readers looking for a book that proves Mulder right and Scully wrong are going to be disappointed. Nickell agrees that "the truth is out there"--he just thinks that it's a lot more mundane than most people realize.

Nickell investigates 47 "mysteries," including the Turin Shroud, spontaneous human combustion, crop circles, the Oak Island treasure, the Flatwoods UFO monster, the Roswell flying saucer crash and an assortment of hauntings, miracles and lake monsters. True believers be warned: Nickell concludes that each of these events can be explained rationally and without resort to space aliens or the supernatural.

Nickell has an agreeable style, although at times it's a bit academic. He doesn't talk down to his readers--he thinks that each mystery is worth investigating carefully and he is clearly having fun with his work. In his own words, "if we steer between the extremes of gullibility and dismissiveness--in other words, if our minds are neither too open nor too closed--we may learn more about our world and ourselves. We may even have some fun doing it" (p. 135). I'm a card-carrying skeptic, so I love this stuff, but I think that an open-minded "true believer" might enjoy this book as well.

If you like "Real-Life X-Files," I recommend any of Nickell's other books ("Secrets of the Supernatural," "Entities" and "Ambrose Bierce is Missing"), as will as Hogart and Hutchinson's "Bizarre Beliefs." Each tells the skeptic's side of the story, but each is open minded and entertaining.

I read Fate and Fortian Times every month so I am definitely not a skeptic and fully expected to hate this book. The typical "skeptical inquirer" is a closed minded snob and ultimately just as silly as the most gullible "believer". However, Nickell is an exception. He approaches his cases open minded and without an attitude.

Most important is that this book is a fun read. The topic rarely attracts such coherent yet enjoyable writing. I had a blast reading it.

I find it hard to believe that this book has gotten so many negative reviews, and thus such a low average. I really don't think it deserves it. I found this a competent, readable book that provided a lot of answers for things I may have always wondered about, or had never even known of before. I appreciated that each topic only had a few (anywhere from three to fifteen or so) pages on the subject, so that if it was something I wasn't particularly interested in, I knew soon enough I'd be past it and on to something new.

My only real complaints would be to say that, first, some of the topics do get a bit repetitive (although, as I said, they don't last for too many pages, so it's easy to get by them). Second, I found chapter 3 ("Magicians Among The Stars") almost unbearably boring due to all the 'facts' I found very uninteresting. Thus, it seemed to drag on, and I had to force myself through it, which is unfortunate since it's in the beginning of the book. However, once past that, I was typically quite content to continue reading to the end.

If you've ever wondered just how some of the most common 'paranormal' claims were/are likely pulled off, or just want to gain a bit of knowledge on some interesting topics in the area, this is a pretty nice book to add to your collection.

I would have to agree somewhat with the last reviewer.

I like to read both paranormal/strange occurence books and debunking/skeptical books to get both sides of the story.

Unfortunately for the Nickell, debunking camp, they always seem to be a bit more hysterical in their denials and more willing to bend the evidence to support their beliefs than the people they are trying to discredit.

Some of the mysteries that he investigates he does a pretty good job on and provides reasonable explanations for. Others, where he can't prove any clear fraud or provide a reasonable explanation for, he resorts to the old 'I don't think it could have happened, so it didn't' arguement, or provides explanations that couldn't possibly be true, such as the Doug/Dave claim to have produced hundreds of crop circles, rather than just saying the verdict is still out.

I love mysteries and I love more a good explanation for them. This is about 1/2 way there. There are some good explanations, excellent bibliography (for further studies) and a lot of arrogant, patronising statements which are there, seemingly, just to show Joe Nickells brillance and superiority to the poor benighted fools that might believe differently than him.

All in all, not a bad book, and the bibliographies at the chapter ends are worth the price alone.

Over the years, Joe Nickell of skeptic organization CSICOP has written or co-written a large amount of books, and several of them are a lot like Real X-Files: large anthologies where numerous paranormal and mysterious cases are described and investigated, cases that Nickell has investigated personally and in most cases, at least according to himself, has solved. (And several of these books have appeared on UFO-Sweden's review sections.)

One thins is for sure: Nickell's books are always very educational. He's definitely a skilled investigator with a lifetime's worth of experience, he knows people all over the world, and most important of all, he's extremely scientific in his methodology which he applies to ALL his investigations. Pseudo-science and spirituality don't get along very well with Nickell, but that's something he's the first to admit. What he tries to tell his audience - in book after book - is that in HIS world the scientific approach is the only approach worth while, and even the most bizarre of cases usually have both simple and/or natural explanations when the famous razor of Occam has been applied.

In other words, Joe Nickell is every Skeptic's household god and every Believers worst nightmare.

And therefore, some people will always hate him while others while always love him. However, no matter what your personal opinion about him may be, you still cannot ignore the fact that his books - at least the ones who resemble Real-Life X-Files - continually show the same weakness: they always contain cases and investigations that are either described very briefly or have no real conclusions, which makes them all seem redundant.

A few examples from Real-Life X-Files: the Roswell incident are dealt with on three (3!) pages, the story about the founders of "suicide cult" Heaven's Gate is described on only a few pages and has nothing very relevant to add to the whole picture, the different ideas about extraterrestrials representing different eras is interesting but extremely brief, alien abductions are almost ridiculed, no buildings have ever been haunted, there is no such thing as a sea monster, and so on. As usual Nickell makes sure to offer a large bibliography, but the stale and almost annoying belief that science is everything and the people behind the reports are nothing makes the book just as frustrating as any other similar works by Joe Nickell.

If you don't believe in anything, you'll like this book. I like this book, because I don't believe in anything (not unless I can taste, touch, smell, hear, or see it). I don't know why, but a lot of people like to believe strange things, whether it's Santa Claus, Jesus, Buddha, psychic powers, UFOs, or monsters.

That being said, nobody has ever successfuly read my thoughts, I've never seen or heard Jesus, I've never been abducted or seen a UFO, I've never seen Bigfoot or Nessie, and I've certainly never heard or seen Buddha. So why do people continue to believe and preach this stuff? Because they're too frightened to believe nothing! If you believe nothing, like myself, then that means no comforting little stories about dying and going to heaven. It also means nobody can read your mind, or communicate with dead loved ones. But this is too much for people to handle, they can't live without their crutches. They HAVE to believe, otherwise their whole pathetic world will crumble down around them.

People have to believe in Roswell, although the only first-hand evidence is the testimony of Mac Brazel, who said it was simply sticks and tinfoil. What you would expect from a weather balloon, obviously.

People have to believe in Loch Ness monsters or bigfoot. Despite the fact none have ever been captured in over 50 years of searching!

People have to believe in psychics, but did any psychic ever predict 911? Did Sylvia Browne predict 911? Of course not. They only tell you what you want to hear.

How come the Bible doesn't mention the invention of guns? Couldn't God have told how lead bullets would be propelled in the air? Is that too much to ask for evidence? How come the bible doesn't predict the automobile? You think God could've put some actual predictions in the bible, right?

If Noah was the last guy on earth, then how did we get all the different races of people? Of course, the Bible doesn't explain any of this, how convenient!

So, if you're one of those people living in La-La land, then of course you're gonna hate this book. Your brains simply aren't capable of rational thinking. You must find patters where there are none. Make connections where there are none. Twist the facts to fit your myopic worldview.

I am fascinated with the paranormal. I don't like the extremists on either side. Joe Nickel should have been able to hit the spot quite easily, however, there were childish academic inconsistencies strewn throughout the book that left me feeling like I couldn't trust his scholarship. Out of the many many examples I will give you one that was typical of his errors; Chapter 16 'The Roswell Legend'. Nickel asserts, "The book claims that the U.S. government used alien technology to win the Cold War (Thurmond 1997)". What Nickel does not mention is that the book actually claims we beat UFO alien invasion!!! How can you trust or cite that book as a reasonable source in the first place? I wish there was some scholar I could turn to that doesn't need to omit or embellish when discussing these issues. Nickel makes paranormal investigation more fraught now because he has added more questionable 'facts' to the soup, that will have to be looked at, picked through and discarded before digesting.

I should have been forewarned when this $27.50 hardback was on the Barnes & Nobel's Bargain Table for $4.99. The author attempts to explain "scientifically" forty-seven paranormal phenomena, ranging from Spontaneous Human Combustion to Stigmata wounds. Rather than rebuff each of Mr. Nickell's explanations, I sought to find the commonality of the reasons given for each event.

A old saying is that "If you cannot attack the argument, attack the character of the person making the argument." This is very true throughout the book. For example, his Roswell Legend explanation introduces Charles Fort as "the crank named Charles Fort." Repeatedly, the author disparages the character of writers with whom he disagrees.

In his explanation of Stigmata events, Nickell mentions the 1972 Baptist, ten-year-old girl stigmata. However, Nickell fails to mention the case was discussed at length in the referred, highly respected Archives of General Psychiatry, Vol 30, Feb 1974. In the scientific literature, stigmata events are defined as psychogenic purpura. And the journal concludes that "the occurrence of psychologically induced bleeding is conclusively demonstrated."

Finally, there are 528 references cited in the book chapters (yes, I counted!). Nickell references his own publications 55 times, or 10.4 % of the time. I would not recommend this book.

I picked this book up at my local library on a whim, boy was I disappointed. While in some cases Mr. Nickell did appear to do a decent job of researching the selected subjects in some cases I think he let his own opinion take over. I don't require that a book find every, or even any, story to be true but I do want things to be approached in a respectful, thorough manner. In some of these things Nickell does a pretty good job of digging things out, in others he's more of an it doesn't seem likely type and doesn't dig enough for me. He can be pretty rough on his critics and his subjects (most of us would be) maybe even meaner than he says they are. I want an investigative book to look into things with an open careful attitude even if it doesn't give the result I want. You don't get that here, I think Mr. Nickelll went into it with an attitude of it's all fake and I WILL prove it so, that goes too far for me.

It's fine to be a believer; it's fine to be a skeptic. However, it is not fine to settle so staunchly on your viewpoint that all your conclusions are foregone--while representing to your readers that you undertake to proffer a balanced treatment. Nickell's treatment is in no wise balanced. One can say accurately of him, but generally of his entire organization (Committee for the 'Scientific' Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) that they have no interest whatsoever in disclosing any facts that might tend to point to a less-than-mundane explanation for a mysterious phenomenon. Nickell claims to advocate the scientific method, yet, in his 'scientific' method, solid identification of a single piece of 'evidence' as a hoax is justification for immediately discarding however many thousands of pieces of evidence may be aligned with the hoaxed item. That is not the scientific method. Rather, in the scientific method, each collected fact or assertion must stand on its own merits, while the entire investigation--whether or not one is fond of the likely outcome--is to be steeped in balance, fairness, and open-mindedness, not in ridicule. "In science," wrote Dr. Mark Carlotto, "one viewpoint requires as much impeccable proof or disproof as another. Science does not tolerate taboos, ridicule, a priori judgments ..." Bravo, Dr. Carlotto, and boo, Mr. Nickell.