Looking For A Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions & Healing Cures

by Joe Nickell

The willingness of people to believe in magical icons, mystical relics, and miraculous pictures (like the Image of Guadalupe) is almost as curious as these phenomena themselves. Though they cry out for scientific investigation, millions of people blindly accept them as fact.

Historical and paranormal investigator Joe Nickell confronts such strange events, powers, and objects as the Shroud of Turin, bleeding or weeping statues, burning handprints, liquefying blood, ecstatic visions, miraculous cures, and people speaking in tongues in Looking for a Miracle. Departing from standard critiques of religion, Nickell carefully investigates the evidence relating to specific claims.

Religious believers and rationalists alike have much to learn from this revealing examination of the evidence for the miraculous.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Skepticism, Philosophy, Paranormal

253 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Joe Nickell was an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal.
Nickell was a senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and wrote regularly for their journal, Skeptical Inquirer. He was also an associate dean of the Center for Inquiry Institute. He was the author or editor of over 30 books.
Among his career highlights, Nickell helped expose the James Maybrick "Jack the Ripper Diary" as a hoax. In 2002, Nickell was one of a number of experts asked by scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. to evaluate the authenticity of the manuscript of Hannah Crafts' The Bondwoman's Narrative (1853–1860), possibly the first novel by an African-American woman. At the request of document dealer and historian Seth Keller, Nickell analyzed documentation in the dispute over the authorship of "The Night Before Christmas", ultimately supporting the Clement Clarke Moore claim.

Reviews

[Misty · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's fascinating to read about these cases from someone with Joe Nickell's skills. His background as a detective and a former stage magician allows him to come at things from a unique point of view. I especially liked all the sources he lists in detail at the end of each chapter.

But, it loses one star for me because the writing style was awkward at times, so many exclamation points!

[Glenn Gordon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yet again in his usual form, Joe Nickell contradicts himself by first lauding science, then dismisses it by saying that the sickness and disability of those cured is nothing more than misdiagnoses from the very science he glorifies and places his faith in. Nickell's books sell pretty well, although those who foolishly buy them and believe Nickell have missed one crucial aspect of research and investigation. It is `objectivity'. This is entirely absent from Joe Nickell, which in itself ought to alert any honest truth seeker. As author of the Apathy Kills blog, I have to challenge my own approach before publishing my articles, hence the reason for not writing a book, since my research is ongoing in the efforts to debunk myself. Otherwise, I would end up publishing several new editions to every book I wrote. It's a shame that Nickell, who's only motivation is the financial profit in his subjective consistency, cannot distinguish between earthly deception and something that is beyond human perception. However, that would only lead Nickell to another contradiction, space and the universe and the possibility that man was created by aliens or something else equally as unknown. At least Nickell has one thing in common with those he challenges most, Christians. Neither has truly grasped the concept of what "Faith" actually means, since it too is unearthly and therefore unknown and beyond human understanding.

[Eclaire-Moi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking for a miracle est un ouvrage de débunkage très efficace et quasi-unique, à ma connaissance, de la religion ou du moins ce sur quoi elle repose en partie : les miracles et les prétentions extraordinaires. Il est donc, selon moi, à ne pas mettre entre toutes les mains, notamment celles des personnes croyantes, qui pourrait être particulièrement perturbées à sa lecture.

Puisqu'il est uniquement disponible en anglais et que peu de travaux français ont été mené sur ce sujet, l'ouvrage est peu accessible au grand public. Ce que je déplore un peu au vu de l'importance des sujets traités. Néanmoins, certaines facettes ont été reprises et étudiées, notamment par Henri Broch, que l'on peut retrouver dans ces ouvrages Au Coeur de l'Extra-ordinaire et Le Paranormal. Il me semble, alors pour un public francophone et peu habitué de ces sujets, qu'il est préférable de commencer par ces deux ouvrages avant d'approfondir avec, par exemple, les travaux de Joe Nickell.

Je conclurai en disant que découvrir ce qui a pu se passer réellement lors de la production de miracles est particulièrement perturbant, surtout lorsqu'on a été bercé par ces histoires depuis notre tendre enfance. Ce livre est à consulter, alors que si vous en avez vraiment envie et que vous cherchez à rationaliser ces événements ou prétentions paranormales qui ont bel et bien une explication plus simple et plus rationnelle.

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[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was quite an informative book! Joe Nickell has investigated miracle claims around icons, statues and relics for a number of years. In this book, he examines a variety of "miracles" that turned out to be hoaxes and also shows the tricks and techniques that clergy and/or laymen use to create these illusions. Frequently, financial difficulties coincide with the production of these "miracles" in an effort to draw large crowds and monetary donations.