Skeptical Briefs
The Skeptical Briefs newsletter is only available to Associate Members of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. It is published four times per year (in March, June, September, and December), and includes articles; news from skeptical groups across the country and around the world; and regular columnists Joe Nickell ("Investigative Files"), Lewis Jones ("Inklings"), Victor Stenger ("Reality Check"), Henry Huber ("Group News"); and Benjamin Radford ("Briefs Briefs"). It also includes a Hidden Messages puzzle in each issue by New Mexico physicist and skeptic David E. Thomas.
Charles Fort: Purveyor of the Unprobed
by Joe Nickell
Volume 18.3, September 2008
Book Review
Review of Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural.
Will the LHC Destroy Earth?
by Victor Stenger
Volume 18.2, June 2008
Reality Check
In 2008, a suit was filed asking for a temporary restraining order prohibiting CERN from turning on the Large Hadron Collider.
Catching Ghosts
by Joe Nickell
Volume 18.2, June 2008
Investigative Files
Despite the popular antics of inept "ghost hunters," ghosts continue to remain elusive.
Why Visiting Alien Spaceships Are Impossible
by Sid Deutsch
Volume 18.2, June 2008
UFOs are in the news again. But it is high time that our media stop speculating that alien spaceships may have been sighted.
Alien Abductions and Mental Hygiene Films: A Possible Link
by Bob Abel
Volume 18.2, June 2008
An alleged paranormal phenomenon is the alien abduction popularized by books such as Communion: A True Story.
Is the Brain a Quantum Device?
by Victor Stenger
Volume 18.1, March 2008
Reality Check
In 1989, the Oxford mathematician and cosmologist Roger Penrose published a bestselling tome called The Emperor's New Mind...
Werewolves—or Weren’t?
by Joe Nickell
Volume 18.1, March 2008
Investigative Files
Among those creatures that inhabit the night, or at least the nightmares of the credulous, are vampires, zombies, and werewolves
A Case of Automatic Writing From Robert G. Ingersoll’s Spirit?
by Joe Nickell
Volume 17.4, December 2007
Investigative Files
Did famed orator Robert Green Ingersoll communicate posthumously through a spiritualist medium to recant his atheism?
ESP and Religion
by Victor Stenger
Volume 17.4, December 2007
Reality Check
In one example, I argue that almost all religions posit an immaterial spirit or soul separate from the body...