The Outer Edge

by Joe Nickell (Editor)

This book is an introduction to the important work of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). One of its most effective instruments has been its journal, the Skeptical Inquirer, from the pages of which we have selected thirteen articles. We consider these "skeptical classics" because they are among the best and most memorable articles the magazine has published over the years.

133 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1990

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

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

While watching the public pandemic reactions and reading Religion of the Oppressed I came to feel the immense stress and lure of magical thinking on a societal scale will have some emergence, perhaps bizarrely, in religiosity of one sort of another such as a up start doomsday sect.

Then, I read this from CNN's Fareed Zakaria (one of the few reasons I miss cable):

"High Time for Conspiracy Theories"

Global crises are fertile ground for conspiracy theories, Budapest-based social psychologist Péter Krekó writes for Eurozine and the pandemic is no different.

Amid moments of upheaval, “a sense of losing control, the information and knowledge vacuum, and anxiety triggered by negative events” drive the tendency, Krekó writes, pointing to events like 9/11, the London bombings, Princess Diana’s death, and US forces’ killing of Osama bin Laden. “When people feel they cannot influence happenings that pose a threat to their daily lives, they may try to recreate an illusion of control by overzealously seeking explanations. … Extraordinary events require extraordinary interpretations that reach beyond traditional and official narratives. Further, in historical times riddled with frustration and uncertainty, the need to identify an enemy or culprit can be overwhelming.”

This is a baker's dozen of articles from the CSICOP journal Skeptical Inquirer from the '80s. I actually subscribed back then and some I believe I recall reading, such as "The Moon was Full and Nothing Happened" and a pair of astrology debunking articles. It is refreshing to see basic science and math in a clear sense of bunk. The further archive research in sussing out the details of fake Majestic 12 and simple surveys and behavioral experiments exposing cold reading techniques employed by psychics is also engaging. At this point, it feels like - where were the engaged investigative journalists or at least responsible reporters? These feels even more underscored in the studies of "spontaneous human combustion", faked Bigfoot evidence, and especially in the sensational photographed poltergeist activity of Tina Resch. It appears even after a significant period of time those originally on the scene, professional or bystander, find something mysterious just too good a story to fact check. This predilection for illusion over the landing on Earth via "disillusionment" seems to be an enigma even CSICOP dare not address.

[David Layton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Outer Edge collects articles published in early editions of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, most published in the 1980s, with a couple published in the early 1990s. Here, some of the luminaries of the skeptical movement exercise their thinking skills on "classic" subjects of the extraordinary. Included are articles by Carl Sagan, Martin Gardner, James Randi, Joe Nickell, Ray Hyman, and several others. Subjects include spontaneous cumbustion, bigfoot, UFOs, firewalking, poltergeists, near-death experiences, and so on. Some articles recount investigations into specific cases. Others review the scientific and statistical evidence related to a phenomenon, such as whether strange things happen more frequently on full moons (answer: they don't, and statistics show that they don't). Still others are humorous undermining of ridiculous claims. None of this is compelling reading, but I found all of it interesting and entertaining enough.