- [Joe] I think, like everybody, I'm interested in stories
about ghosts or extraterrestrials.
Some people would say, "Well don't explain that,
"don't explain that.
"I wanna believe that."
People call me a debunker.
They say I'm trying to disprove;
I'm raining on their parade,
and you know what?
I don't apologize at all for trying to find the truth.
- [News Reporter] And Joe Nickell from the Committee
for Skeptical Inquiry.
- [Announcer] We've invited renowned skeptic, Joe Nickell,
to meet Cora Lorenzo.
- This medieval superstition has got to go.
And this is really just, just silly.
I'm Joe Nickell, and I'm a paranormal investigator.
I investigate everything from monsters, ghosts,
aliens, psychics, for a science organization
and the magazine, Skeptical Inquirer.
I knew at the age of eight that I was a detective,
but I eventually became a stage magician.
Oh my goodness!
My models were Harry Houdini and other magicians
who used their magic talents to expose trickery.
And meanwhile, like everybody, I was curious
about haunted houses and flying saucers,
and I decided I wanted to do something like that.
I've written about 40 books, primarily on mysteries.
A lot of cases were miracle claims
or some kind of religious claims.
Spontaneous human combustion, lake monster mysteries,
crop circles, UFO sightings, chupacabras,
ghosts, Bigfoot.
(paper shuffling)
What I'm trying to do is actually investigate,
looking for facts and clues.
As you begin to put together a case file,
you fill the file folder with what data you have,
and then trying to find actually corroborative evidence,
so that I can try to explain what's happening,
explain a UFO sighting.
My explanations are often quite mundane.
People report seeing these long-necked,
multi-humped lake monsters.
There are many things that can create the illusion
of a lake monster, including two, or three, or four otters
swimming in line,
which create the effect of one large creature.
Bigfoot is a tall, hairy, bipedal creature.
There is a creature that looks very much like Bigfoot.
That is a black bear or a brown bear,
standing, sniffing the air and walking about.
People driving by an old mansion in the little community
of Burt, New York sometimes reported seeing a ghostly figure
dressed in white.
As it turns out, they'd had a mannequin dressed in white
in the window and that was responsible
for many of those sightings.
I think part of me would like for there to be ghosts,
and for there to be extraterrestrials,
but I've done this a long time and I'm pretty sure
that ghosts don't exist.
Even the skeptics who like what I do will often,
their first reaction is hmm, that's pretty obvious.
Everything is obvious after it's been explained.
(fun chiming music)