Anomalous Events That Can Shake One’s Skepticism to the Core

I just witnessed an event so mysterious that it shook my skepticism

Sep 16, 2014 |By Michael Shermer  Blogger Ref http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science

Credit: Izhar Cohen

Often I am asked if I have ever encountered something that I could not explain. What my interlocutors have in mind are not bewildering enigmas such as consciousness or U.S. foreign policy but anomalous and mystifying events that suggest the existence of the paranormal or supernatural. My answer is: yes, now I have.
The event took place on June 25, 2014. On that day I married Jennifer Graf, from Köln, Germany. She had been raised by her mom; her grandfather, Walter, was the closest father figure she had growing up, but he died when she was 16. In shipping her belongings to my home before the wedding, most of the boxes were damaged and several precious heirlooms lost, including her grandfather's binoculars. His 1978 Philips 070 transistor radio arrived safely, so I set out to bring it back to life after decades of muteness. I put in new batteries and opened it up to see if there were any loose connections to solder. I even tried “percussive maintenance,” said to work on such devices—smacking it sharply against a hard surface. Silence. We gave up and put it at the back of a desk drawer in our bedroom.
Three months later, after affixing the necessary signatures to our marriage license at the Beverly Hills courthouse, we returned home, and in the presence of my family said our vows and exchanged rings. Being 9,000 kilometers from family, friends and home, Jennifer was feeling amiss and lonely. She wished her grandfather were there to give her away. She whispered that she wanted to say something to me alone, so we excused ourselves to the back of the house where we could hear music playing in the bedroom. We don't have a music system there, so we searched for laptops and iPhones and even opened the back door to check if the neighbors were playing music. We followed the sound to the printer on the desk, wondering—absurdly—if this combined printer/scanner/fax machine also included a radio. Nope.
At that moment Jennifer shot me a look I haven't seen since the supernatural thriller The Exorcist startled audiences. “That can't be what I think it is, can it?” she said. She opened the desk drawer and pulled out her grandfather's transistor radio, out of which a romantic love song wafted. We sat in stunned silence for minutes. “My grandfather is here with us,” Jennifer said, tearfully. “I'm not alone.”
Shortly thereafter we returned to our guests with the radio playing as I recounted the backstory. My daughter, Devin, who came out of her bedroom just before the ceremony began, added, “I heard the music coming from your room just as you were about to start.” The odd thing is that we were there getting ready just minutes before that time, sans music.
Later that night we fell asleep to the sound of classical music emanating from Walter's radio. Fittingly, it stopped working the next day and has remained silent ever since.
What does this mean? Had it happened to someone else I might suggest a chance electrical anomaly and the law of large numbers as an explanation—with billions of people having billions of experiences every day, there's bound to be a handful of extremely unlikely events that stand out in their timing and meaning. In any case, such anecdotes do not constitute scientific evidence that the dead survive or that they can communicate with us via electronic equipment.
Jennifer is as skeptical as I am when it comes to paranormal and supernatural phenomena. Yet the eerie conjunction of these deeply evocative events gave her the distinct feeling that her grandfather was there and that the music was his gift of approval. I have to admit, it rocked me back on my heels and shook my skepticism to its core as well. I savored the experience more than the explanation.
The emotional interpretations of such anomalous events grant them significance regardless of their causal account. And if we are to take seriously the scientific credo to keep an open mind and remain agnostic when the evidence is indecisive or the riddle unsolved, we should not shut the doors of perception when they may be opened to us to marvel in the mysterious.

This article was originally published with the title "Infrequencies."




Here is the Wikipedia entry on Michael Shermer. It is quite long! RS

Michael Shermer

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"Shermer" redirects here. For the American soccer player, see Kirk Shermer.

Michael Shermer
Shermer on the Skeptics Society Geology Tour on June 8, 2007.
Born	Michael Brant Shermer (1954-09-08) September 8, 1954 (age 60)
Residence	Altadena, California, USA
Alma mater	Pepperdine University (B.A., 1976) California State University (M.A., 1978) Claremont Graduate University (Ph.D., 1991)
Occupation	Academic historian of science and editor
Title	Editor-in-Chief of Skeptic, Senior Research Fellow at Claremont Graduate University and Adjunct Professor at Chapman University
Website
www.michaelshermer.com

Michael Brant Shermer (born September 8, 1954) is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic,^[1] which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. The Skeptics Society currently has over 55,000 members.^[2] Shermer also engages in debates on topics pertaining to pseudoscience and religion in which he emphasizes scientific skepticism.
Shermer is also the producer and co-host of the 13-hour Fox Family television series Exploring the Unknown. Since April 2001, he has been a monthly columnist for Scientific American magazine with his Skeptic column. He is also a scientific advisor to the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).^[3]
Shermer states he was once a fundamentalist Christian, but ceased to believe in the existence of God during his graduate studies. He accepts the labels agnostic,^[4] nontheist,^[5][6] atheist and others.^[7][8] He also describes himself as an advocate for humanist philosophy^[9] as well as the science of morality.^[10] He has expressed reservations about such labels for his lack of belief in a God, however, as he sees them being used in the service of "pigeonholing", and prefers to simply be called a skeptic.^[7]

Contents

 [hide] 

• 1 Early life
  • 1.1 Competitive bicycling
  • 1.2 Graduate studies and teaching
• 2 Skeptics Society and Caltech Lecture Series
• 3 Published works
• 4 Media appearances and lectures
  • 4.1 Exploring the Unknown
• 5 Personal life
• 6 Works
  • 6.1 Bibliography
  • 6.2 Television
  • 6.3 Radio and Web appearances
• 7 See also
• 8 References
• 9 External links

Early life[edit]

Shermer grew up in Southern California.^[11][12] His parents divorced when he was four^[11] and later remarried, his mother to a man with three children, who became Shermer's stepsiblings, and his father to a woman with whom he had two daughters, Shermer's half-sisters. His father would later die of a heart attack in 1986, and his mother of brain cancer in 2000.^[13]
Although Shermer went to Sunday school, he says that neither his biological nor stepparents or siblings were religious nor non-religious, as they did not hold much discussion on the topic, and did not attend church nor pray together. In 1971, at the beginning of his senior year in high school, Shermer announced he was a born again Christian, which came about through the influence of his best friend, George. For the next seven years he would evangelize door-to-door as part of his profoundly held beliefs.^[13]
Shermer was raised with guns. His stepfather was a hunter who took Shermer and their black Labrador hunting dogs with him on hunting excursions half a dozen times a year, shooting game such as dove, duck and quail with a 20-gauge and 12-gauge shotguns. They ate everything they killed, for which Shermer's stepfather also displayed culinary skills. Growing up Shermer owned a BB gun, then a pellet gun, then a 20-gauge shotgun, and then a 12-gauge shotgun.^[14]
Shermer graduated from Crescenta Valley High School in 1972. He began his undergraduate studies at Pepperdine University, initially majoring in Christian theology, later switching to psychology.^[12][15] He completed his bachelor's degree in psychology/biology at Pepperdine in 1976.^[16]

Competitive bicycling[edit]

Shermer is a cycling enthusiast and has been involved in the development of cycling gear.

Shermer began competitive bicycling in 1979, and spent a decade as a professional rider. Shermer's best known bicycling is in the very long distance ultramarathon road racing discipline.^[17]
During the course of his cycling career, Shermer worked with cycling technologists in developing better products for the sport. During his association with Bell Helmets, a bicycle-race sponsor, Shermer advised them on design issues regarding their development of expanded-polystyrene for use in cycling helmets, which would absorb impact far better than the old leather "hairnet" helmets used by bicyclists for decades. Shermer advised them that if their helmets looked too much like motorcycle helmets, in which polystyrene was already being used, and not like the old hairnet helmets, no serious cyclists or amateur would use them. This suggestion led to their first model, the V1 Pro, which looked like a black leather hairnet, but functioned on the inside like a motorcycle helmet. In 1982, Shermer worked with Dr. Wayman Spence, whose small supply company, Spenco Medical, adapted the gel technology Spence developed for bedridden patients with pressure sores into cycling gloves and saddles to alleviate the carpal tunnel syndrome and saddle sores suffered by cyclists.^[18]
During the decade in which he raced long distances, he helped to found the 3,000-mile nonstop transcontinental bicycle Race Across America (known as "RAAM", along with Lon Haldeman and John Marino), in which he competed five times (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1989), was assistant race director for six years, and executive race director for seven years.^[19] An acute medical condition is named for him: "Shermer Neck" is pain in and extreme weakness of the neck muscles found among long-distance bicyclists. Shermer suffered the condition during the 1983 Race Across America.^[20] Shermer's embrace of scientific skepticism crystallized during his time as a cyclist, explaining, "I became a skeptic on Saturday, August 6, 1983, on the long climbing road to Loveland Pass, Colorado"^[21] after months of training under the guidance of a "nutritionist" with an unaccredited Ph.D. After years of practicing acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, negative ions, rolfing, pyramid power, fundamentalist Christianity, and "a host of weird things" (with the exception of drugs) to improve his life and training, Shermer stopped rationalizing the failure of these practices.^[22] Shermer would later produce several documentaries on cycling.^[19]
Shermer still cycles actively (as of 2012) and participated in the Furnace Creek 508 in October 2011, a qualifying race for RAAM, finishing second in the four man team category.^[15][23]
Shermer has written on the subject of pervasive doping in competitive cycling and a game theoretic view of the dynamics driving the problem in several sports.^[24][25] He wrote specifically about r-EPO doping, which he saw as both widespread and well known within the sport,^[26] which was later shown to be instrumental in the notorious doping scandal surrounding Lance Armstrong.

Graduate studies and teaching[edit]

Shermer's graduate studies in experimental psychology at California State University, Fullerton, led to many after-class discussions with professors Bayard Brattstrom and Meg White. These,^[27] along with his studies in ethology and cultural anthropology, led him to question his religious beliefs, and by mid-way through his graduate training, he removed the Christian ichthys that he had been wearing around his neck.^[13][27] Shermer completed his master's degree from California State University in experimental psychology in 1978.^[16]
Shermer earned his Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University in history of science in 1991 (with his dissertation titled "Heretic-Scientist: Alfred Russel Wallace and the Evolution of Man: A Study on the Nature of Historical Change").^[16] Shermer later based a full-length, 2002 book on his dissertation: In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History.^[28]
Before starting the Skeptics Society, Shermer was an adjunct professor of the history of science at Occidental College, California. Since 2007, Shermer has been a senior research fellow at Claremont Graduate University. Since 2011, Shermer has been also an Adjunct Professor at Chapman University.^[29]

Skeptics Society and Caltech Lecture Series[edit]

Main article: The Skeptics Society

In 1992 Shermer founded the Skeptics Society, which produces Skeptic magazine and organizes the Caltech Lecture Series. It currently has over 55,000 members.^[2][30]

Published works[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Michael Shermer

Shermer in 2008.

Shermer is the author of books which attempt to explain the ubiquity of irrational or poorly substantiated beliefs, including UFOs, Bigfoot, and paranormal claims. In 1997 he wrote Why People Believe Weird Things, which explores a variety of "weird" ideas and groups (including cults), in the tradition of the skeptical writings of Martin Gardner. A revised and expanded edition was published in 2002. From the Introduction:

So we are left with the legacy of two types of thinking errors: Type 1 Error: believing a falsehood and Type 2 Error: rejecting a truth. ... Believers in UFOs, alien abductions, ESP, and psychic phenomena have committed a Type 1 Error in thinking: they are believing a falsehood. ... It's not that these folks are ignorant or uninformed; they are intelligent but misinformed. Their thinking has gone wrong.

— Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things, 1997, 2002, Introduction

In How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science, Shermer explored the psychology behind the belief in God. In its introduction Shermer wrote "Never in history have so many, and such a high percentage of the population, believed in God. Not only is God not dead as Nietzsche proclaimed, but he has never been more alive."
In February 2002, he characterized the position that "God had no part in the process [of the evolution of mankind]" as the "standard scientific theory";^[31] this was criticized by fellow scientist Eugenie Scott in January 2006, who commented that science makes no claim about God one way or the other.^[32]
In May 2002, Shermer and Alex Grobman published their book Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? which examined and refuted the Holocaust denial movement. This book recounts meeting various denialists and concludes that free speech is the best way to deal with pseudohistory.
Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown was released in 2005. Then his 2006 book Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design, marshals point-by-point arguments supporting evolution, sharply criticizing Intelligent Design. This book also argues that science cannot invalidate religion, and that Christians and conservatives can and should accept evolution.
In June 2006, Shermer, who formerly expressed skepticism regarding the mainstream scientific view on global warming, wrote that, in view of the accumulation of evidence, the position of denying global warming is no longer tenable.^[33]
The Mind of The Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics was released in 2007. In it Shermer reports on the findings of multiple behavioral and biochemical studies that address evolutionary explanations for modern behavior.
In February 2009, Shermer published The History of Science: A Sweeping Visage of Science and its History, a 25-hour audio lecture.
In May 2011, Shermer published The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies – How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths.
Prior to work on science and skepticism, Shermer published books on cycling and others on child education in the math and science disciplines. These include collaborations with Arthur Benjamin.^[15]

Media appearances and lectures[edit]

Shermer appeared as a guest on Donahue in 1994 to respond to Bradley Smith's and David Cole's Holocaust denial claims, and in 1995 on The Oprah Winfrey Show to challenge Rosemary Altea's psychic claims. Shermer made a guest appearance in a 2004 episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit!, in which he argued that events in the Bible constitute "mythic storytelling," rather than events described literally. His stance was supported by the show's hosts, who have expressed their own atheism. The episode in question, The Bible: Fact or Fiction?, sought to debunk the notion that the Bible is an empirically reliable historical record. Opposing Shermer was Paul Maier, professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University.^[34]
Shermer made several appearances on NBC's daytime paranormal-themed show The Other Side in 1994 and 1995. After getting to know that show's producers, he made a formal pitch to their production company for his own skepticism-oriented reality show whose aim would be to present points of view of both believers and skeptics. His proposals were not fruitful, but several years later, one of the executives of that company went to work for the then-newly formed Fox Family Channel, and impressed with Shermer's show treatment, requested he pitch it to the network. The network picked up the series, Exploring the Unknown, of which Shermer became a producer and cohost. The series, which was budgeted at approximately $200,000USD per episode, was viewed by Shermer as a direct extension of the work done at the Skeptics Society and Skeptic magazine, and would enable Shermer to reach more people. The equivocal title was chosen so as to not tip off guests or viewers as to the skeptical nature of the show.^[35] Various segments from Exploring the Unknown can be found on Shermer's YouTube channel.^[36]
Shermer has been a speaker at all three Beyond Belief events from 2006 to 2008. He also spoke at the 2006 TED Conference on "Why people believe strange things."^[37]
Shermer is an occasional guest on Skepticality, the official podcast of Skeptic.^[25]
Shermer has debated Deepak Chopra on multiple occasions,^[38][39] including during their March 2010 appearance on the ABC News program Nightline.^[40] He has named Chopra as his personal favourite debating partner.^[15]
On August 21, 2010, Shermer was honored with an award recognizing his contributions in the skeptical field, from The Independent Investigations Group during its 10th Anniversary Gala.^[41]

Exploring the Unknown[edit]

Shermer produced and was the co-host for the 1999 Fox Family TV series, Exploring the Unknown.

Personal life[edit]

Shermer lives in Altadena, California, on the edge of a cliff in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains atop which Mount Wilson stands.^[42]
Politically, Shermer has described himself as a lifelong libertarian. The first President he voted for was Richard Nixon in 1972, which in light of the Watergate scandal, he calls his "most embarrassing vote". In 2000 he voted for Harry Browne in order to "vote his conscience", on the assumption that the winner of the Al Gore-George W. Bush contest would be irrelevant. He later regretted this assumption, believing that Bush's foreign policy made the world more dangerous, and voted for John Kerry in 2004. Shermer names Thomas Jefferson as his favorite President, for his championing of liberty and his application of scientific thinking to the political, economic, and social spheres.
In an early 2013 issue of Skeptic Shermer stated that he opposes gun control measures, primarily because of his beliefs in the principle of increasing individual freedom and decreased government intervention, and also because he has owned guns for most of his life. As an adult, he owned a Ruger .357 Magnum pistol with hollow-tip bullets for a quarter century in order to protect his family, though he eventually took it out of the house when his marriage began to experience problems, and he eventually got rid of it entirely. Though he no longer owns guns, he continues to support the right to own guns to protect one's family.^[14] However, in column he wrote later that October, he indicated that the data on gun homicides, suicides and accidental shootings may make some gun control measures necessary.^[43]

Works[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Sport Cycling: A Guide to Training, Racing, and Endurance 1985 ISBN 0-8092-5244-9
• Cycling: Endurance and Speed (Sportsperformance) 1987 ISBN 0-8092-4775-5
• Teach Your Child Science 1989 ISBN 0-929923-08-1
• Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. (1997, 2nd Revision edition 2002) ISBN 0-8050-7089-3
• Teach Your Child Math and Mathemagics 1999 ISBN 0-7373-0134-1
• The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense 2001 ISBN 0-19-514326-4
• How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science 2001 ISBN 0-613-35413-3
• The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience (ed.) 2002 ISBN 1-57607-653-9
• Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? 2002 ISBN 0-520-23469-3
• In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History 2002 ISBN 0-19-514830-4
• The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule 2004 ISBN 0-8050-7520-8
• Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown 2005 ISBN 0-8050-7708-1
• Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician's Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks 2006 ISBN 978-0-307-33840-2
• Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design 2006 ISBN 978-0-8050-8121-3
• The Mind of The Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics 2007 ISBN 978-0-8050-7832-9
• The History of Science: A Sweeping Visage of Science and its History 2009 audio lecture
• The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths 2011 ISBN 978-0-8050-9125-0

Television[edit]

Exploring the Unknown

• "Michael Shermer and Out of Body Experiences"^[44]
• "Michael Shermer on How to Fake UFO Photographs"^[45]
• "Michael Shermer on Spoonbending"^[46]
• "Michael Shermer Firewalking Across Hot Coals"^[47]
• "Michael Shermer Tests the Polygraph and Lie Detection, Part 1"^[48]
• "Michael Shermer Tests the Polygraph and Lie Detection, Part 2"^[49]
• "Michael Shermer Learns the Art of Con Games, Part 1"^[50]
• "Michael Shermer Learns the Art of Con Games, Part 2"^[51]
• "Michael Shermer Decodes the Bible Code"^[52]
• "Michael Shermer Explores Graphology/Handwriting Analysis, Part 1"^[53]
• "Michael Shermer Explores Graphology/Handwriting Analysis, Part 2"^[54]
• "Michael Shermer Remote Viewing Experiment Part 1"^[55]
• "Michael Shermer Remote Viewing Experiment Part 2"^[56]

Other television and film appearances

• August 1983 news segment on Shermer bicycling in Race Across America^[57]
• Unsolved Mysteries, James Van Praagh segment, 1994
• The Phil Donahue Show, 1994
• "The Power of Belief", ABC News, 1998
• Politically Incorrect, December 22, 2000
• 20/20, December 5, 2003
• Dennis Miller, May 19 and May 20, 2004
• "The Bible: Fact or Fiction?", Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, 2004^[34]
• The Question of God: Sigmund Freud & C.S. Lewis, 2004
• The Eyes of Nye on "Pseudoscience", 2005
• The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, October 4, 2006
• "Doomsday 2012", Decoding the Past, 2007
• Larry King Live, July 13, 2007 and January 24, 2008
• Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, 2008
• "Does God Have a Future?", Nightline, ABC, March 23, 2010^[58]
• "What Were You Thinking?", Dateline NBC, April 25, 2010^[59]
• "Did You See That?", Dateline NBC, July 16, 2010^[60]
• The Colbert Report, July 11, 2011
• Paranormal Challenge, Linda Vista Hospital, August 26, 2011
• Conspiracy Road Trip: UFOs, BBC Three, 15 October 2012
• Stossel, Fox Business Channel, December 13, 2012

Radio and Web appearances[edit]

• Coast to Coast AM, September 1, 2007
• Mr. Deity and the Skeptic. YouTube. September 15, 2009^[61]
• Mr. Deity and the Believing Brain. YouTube. August 3, 2011^[62]
• Skepticality^[25][63]
• Coast to Coast AM, May 21, 2011^[64]
• KGO May 25, 2011

See also[edit]

• James Randi

References[edit]

1. Jump up ^ Shermer, Michael (ed.). "Masthead". Skeptic. Retrieved 2014-09-05. 
2. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} "Making a living of bullshit detecting". VUE Weekly. August 27, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-10. 
3. Jump up ^ "About ACSH: Scientific Advisors". American Council on Science and Health. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
4. Jump up ^ Michael Shermer. Why People Believe Weird Things ; Henry Holt; 2002 edition; Page 136
5. Jump up ^ Shermer, Michael. "Response To Positive Atheism's December, 1999, Column 'Atheism & Fundamentalism'", Positive Atheism, November 14, 1999
6. Jump up ^ Michael Shermer. "Testing Tenure " at skeptic.com
7. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Why I Am An Atheist, Michael Shermer, June 2005 (accessed 31 March 2008)
8. Jump up ^ Shermer was also identified as an atheist when he appeared on the December 16, 2010 episode of Stossel.
9. Jump up ^ "Humanist Manifesto III Public Signers". American Humanist Association. 2008. Retrieved 2012-04-09. 
10. Jump up ^ Shermer talks about the science of right and wrong
11. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Shermer, Michael. The Believing Brain. 2011. Times Books. Chapter 4
12. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Shermer, 2002, page 127
13. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c} Shermer, The Believing Brain, Chapter 6
14. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Shermer, Michael (2013). "The Sandy Hook Effect". Skeptic. Vol. 18 No. 1. p. 39
15. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d} "Michael Shermer". Meet The Skeptics. November 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2014. 
16. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c} "About Us: Michael Shermer". The Skeptics Society. 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-04. 
17. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer - Ultra Cycling Hall of Fame". UltraMarathon Cycling Association. Retrieved 6 February 2014.  Shermer is a founding member of the Ultra Cycling Hall of Fame
18. Jump up ^ Michael Shermer. The Mind of The Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics 2007 Pages 59 -61 ISBN 978-0-8050-7832-9
19. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} "Michael Shermer: Curriculum Vitae". michaelshermer.com. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
20. Jump up ^ Libby. "A Pain in the Neck: Shermer's Neck". UltraMarathon Cycling Association. Retrieved 28 May 2011. 
21. Jump up ^ Shermer, 2002, page 15.
22. Jump up ^ Shermer, 2002, page 13-15.
23. Jump up ^ "2011 Furnace Creek 508 - Great American Toad - team data". AdventureCORPS, Inc. Retrieved 7 February 2014. 
24. Jump up ^ "Nash Equilibrium, the Omerta Rule, and Doping in Cycling". True/Slant. 7 July 2010. Retrieved 7 February 2014. 
25. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c} "Skepticality: Episode 200. Michael Shermer". Skepticality. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 3 February 2014. , 1h20 onward
26. Jump up ^ "The Doping Dilemma". Scientific American. 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2014. 
27. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things, 2002, page 128
28. Jump up ^ In Darwin's Shadow. Amazon.com. accessed September 19, 2011.
29. Jump up ^ "Curriculum Vitae: Michael Brant Shermer". michaelshermer.com. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
30. Jump up ^ Skeptic: Lectures & Events: Caltech Lectures Skeptics Society
31. Jump up ^ Shermer, Michael. "The Gradual Illumination of the Mind". Scientific American. Retrieved 17 May 2014. 
32. Jump up ^ Scott, Eugenie. (2006). "Intelligent Design and the Creationism/Evolution Controversy" (00:42:42~00:43:53). University of Michigan. YouTube. July 12, 2013.
33. Jump up ^ Shermer, Michael (June 2006). "The Flipping Point". Scientific American. Retrieved 2006-12-11. 
34. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} "The Bible: Fact or Fiction?" Penn & Teller: Bullshit! Season 2
35. Jump up ^ Michael Shermer. The Borderlands of Science; 2001; Oxford University Press; Pages 10–13.
36. Jump up ^ "Skeptic (Michael Shermer)". YouTube. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
37. Jump up ^ Michael Shermer: Professional Skeptic, TED Conference Nov. 2006
38. Jump up ^ "The Great Debate:Deepak Chopra v. Michael Shermer". Skeptic. September 28, 2005
39. Jump up ^ Shermer, Michael (April 5, 2011). "The Woo of Creation:My evening with Deepak Chopra". Skepticblog.
40. Jump up ^ Harris, Dan (March 23, 2010) "'Nightline' 'Face-Off': Does God Have a Future?". ABC News.
41. Jump up ^ "The IIG Celebrates its 10th Anniversary". Independent Investigations Group; Accessed September 5, 2010
42. Jump up ^ Shermer, Michael (2007). "The Skeptic's Chaplain: Richard Dawkins as a Fountainhead of Skepticism". Skeptic. Vol. 13. p. 47.
43. Jump up ^ Shermer, Michael (October 2013). "When Science Doesn’t Support Beliefs". Scientific American. michaelshermer.com.
44. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer and Out of Body Experiences", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, July 23, 2007, originally broadcast on a news program, August 1983
45. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer on How to Fake UFO Photographs", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, July 23, 2007, Originally broadcast on Exploring the Unknown, Fox Family, 1999
46. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer on Spoonbending", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, July 23, 2007, Originally broadcast on Exploring the Unknown, Fox Family, 1999
47. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer Firewalking Across Hot Coals", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, June 2, 2007, Originally broadcast on Exploring the Unknown, Fox Family, 1999
48. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer Tests the Polygraph and Lie Detection, Part 1", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, July 23, 2007, Originally broadcast on Exploring the Unknown, Fox Family, 1999
49. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer Tests the Polygraph and Lie Detection, Part 2", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, July 23, 2007, Originally broadcast on Exploring the Unknown, Fox Family, 1999
50. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer Learns the Art of Con Games, Part 1", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, July 23, 2007, Originally broadcast on Exploring the Unknown, Fox Family, 1999
51. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer Learns the Art of Con Games, Part 2", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, July 23, 2007, Originally broadcast on Exploring the Unknown, Fox Family, 1999
52. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer Decodes the Bible Code", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, July 23, 2007, Originally broadcast on Exploring the Unknown, Fox Family, 1999
53. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer Explores Graphology/Handwriting Analysis, Part 1", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, July 23, 2007, Originally broadcast on Exploring the Unknown, Fox Family, 1999
54. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer Explores Graphology/Handwriting Analysis, Part 2", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, July 23, 2007, Originally broadcast on Exploring the Unknown, Fox Family, 1999
55. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer Remote Viewing Experiment Part 1", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, July 9, 2007, Originally broadcast on Exploring the Unknown, Fox Family, 1999
56. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer Remote Viewing Experiment Part 2 ", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, July 23, 2007, Originally broadcast on Exploring the Unknown, Fox Family, 1999
57. Jump up ^ "Michael Shermer Abducted by Aliens in Race Across America", Michael Shermer's official YouTube channel, June 19, 2007, Originally broadcast on television news segment, August 1983
58. Jump up ^ "Does God Have a Future?", Nightline, ABC, March 23, 2010, Full debate on YouTube here
59. Jump up ^ "What Were You Thinking?", Dateline NBC, MSNBC, April 25, 2010
60. Jump up ^ "Did You See That?", Dateline NBC, MSNBC, July 16, 2010
61. Jump up ^ "Mr. Deity and the Skeptic". YouTube. September 15, 2009.
62. Jump up ^ "Mr. Deity and the Believing Brain". YouTube. August 3, 2011.
63. Jump up ^ Shermer appeared in Skepticality on 29 January 2013, May 24, 2011 and July 13, 2005
64. Jump up ^ "Show Summary". Retrieved 22 May 2011. 

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michael Shermer.

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• Official website
• Official YouTube Channel
• Skeptic.com – Official website of The Skeptics Society
• Skepticality – Official podcast of The Skeptics Society
• Michael Shermer at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Shermer on Twitter

[show] v t e Parapsychology Outline Topics Apparitional experience Astral projection Auras Bilocation Clairvoyance Deathbed phenomena Dermo-optical perception Dream telepathy Extrasensory perception Ganzfeld experiment Ghosts Kirlian photography Mediumship Near-death experience Out-of-body experience Past life regression Plant perception (paranormal) Poltergeist Precognition Psychic Psychic abilities Psychic detective Psychic reading Psychic surgery Psychokinesis Psychometry Pyrokinesis Reincarnation Remote viewing Retrocognition Second sight Sensory leakage Spoon bending Telepathy Zener cards Organizations American Society for Psychical Research College of Psychic Studies Institute of Noetic Sciences International Association for Near-Death Studies Koestler Parapsychology Unit National Laboratory of Psychical Research Parapsychological Association Parapsychology Foundation Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory Rhine Research Center Society for Psychical Research Parapsychologists William F. Barrett Daryl Bem Hans Bender Stephen E. Braude Whately Carington Hereward Carrington Tony Cornell William Crookes Eric Dingwall Peter Fenwick Camille Flammarion Nandor Fodor Bruce Greyson Erlendur Haraldsson John Hasted Rosalind Heywood Richard Hodgson Hans Holzer Charles Honorton James Hyslop Brian Inglis Robert G. Jahn William James Raynor Johnson Brian Josephson Stanley Krippner Thomas Lethbridge Oliver Lodge James McKenzie Edgar Mitchell Raymond Moody Gardner Murphy Frederic Myers Karlis Osis Sam Parnia Michael Persinger Guy Lyon Playfair Frank Podmore Joseph Gaither Pratt Harry Price Walter Franklin Prince Andrija Puharich Harold Puthoff Dean Radin J. B. Rhine Charles Richet D. Scott Rogo William Roll Helmut Schmidt Gary Schwartz Rupert Sheldrake Henry Sidgwick Samuel Soal Ian Stevenson Ingo Swann Russell Targ Charles Tart Jessica Utts Karl Zener Publications Extrasensory Perception Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century Journal of Consciousness Studies Journal of Near-Death Studies Journal of Parapsychology Journal of Scientific Exploration Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon—Survival of Bodily Death Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives Mental Radio Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence For Past Lives Parapsychology: Frontier Science of the Mind The Roots of Coincidence Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation Varieties of Anomalous Experience Skeptics James Alcock Robert Baker Barry Beyerstein Susan Blackmore John Booth Derren Brown Mario Bunge William Carpenter Robert Todd Carroll Sean Carroll Milbourne Christopher Edward Clodd Brian Dunning Bergen Evans Antony Flew Kendrick Frazier Chris French Martin Gardner Thomas Gilovich Henry Gordon G. Stanley Hall Trevor Hall C. E. M. Hansel Daniel Webster Hering Terence Hines Bruce Hood Harry Houdini Nicholas Humphrey Ray Hyman Joseph Jastrow Paul Kurtz Daniel Loxton Charles Mackay David Marks Joseph McCabe Albert Moll Joe Nickell Steven Novella Robert Park Henry Maudsley Massimo Pigliucci Massimo Polidoro George Price Benjamin Radford James Randi Graham Reed Joseph Rinn Milton Rothman Carl Sagan Theodore Schick Michael Shermer John Sladek Gordon Stein Victor Stenger John Taylor Ivor Lloyd Tuckett John Wheeler Richard Wiseman Category Commons

[show] v t e Criticism of religion