The worldâs leading paranormal investigator, Joe Nickell is a regular contributor to Skeptical Inquirer science magazine. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including Looking for a Miracle, Inquest on the Shroud of Turin, and most recently The Relics of the Christ. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Joe Nickell expounds on his unique kind of paranormal investigating, which is neither mystery mongering, nor debunking. He emphasizes how his humanist values carry over into his skeptical work, and how his notion of doing good is applied to skepticism as a movement. He criticizes many in the skeptical movement who seem not to care to honor claimants with on-the-ground investigations, instead dismissing from the armchair that a supernatural claim is impossible. He also challenges those with the ghost hunter mentality, who lack effective training in investigation and instead just promote belief in unsupportable paranormal claims, even while engaging in important field investigations. Nickell ends discussing the future of the skeptical movement and the odds he thinks it has to adopt the kind of humanistic skepticism he promotes.
