The Skeptic is a United Kingdom magazine and is billed as "the UK’s longest running and foremost sceptical magazine, which examines science, scepticism, secularism, critical thinking and claims of the paranormal."
History, format and structure
It was founded in 1987 by Wendy M. Grossman, and subsequently edited from 1988 to 1998 by Toby Howard (The University of Manchester, UK) and Professor Steve Donnelly (University of Salford, UK).
The magazine is now edited by Professor Chris French[1] (Editor-in-Chief) and Lindsay Kallis (Managing Editor)[2] from the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit of Goldsmiths, University of London. It is a quarterly publication which aims to serve "journalists, teachers, psychologists, and inquisitive people of all ages".
There are eleven regular columnists and authors contributing articles to the publication; Julian Baggini, Jon Cohen, Jon Donnis, Mark Duwe, Chris French, Wendy M Grossman, Mike Heap, Lindsay Kallis, Tracy King, Paul Taylor and Mark Williams.
The magazine is also supported by an Editorial Advisory Board consisting of the following thirty seven individuals: James Alcock, Julian Baggini, Susan Blackmore, Derren Brown, Scott Campbell, David Clarke, David Colquhoun, Brian Cox, Richard Dawkins, Sergio Della Sala, Edzard Ernst, Richard J. Evans, Stephen Fry, Wendy M. Grossman, Simon Hoggart, Bruce Hood, Ray Hyman, Robin Ince, Paul Kurtz, Stephen Law, Andy Lewis, Scott Lilienfeld, Elizabeth Loftus, Richard McNally, Tim Minchin, P Z Myers, Mark Newbrook, Charles Paxton, Phil Plait, Massimo Polidoro, Benjamin Radford, James Randi, Ian Rowland, Karl Sabbagh, Simon Singh, Karen Stollznow and Richard Wiseman.
Previous Volumes
The man who invented UFOs; The new demonology; Reflections on past life regressions; What is scientology?; Polywater.
Paul Daniels interview; Canals on Mars; Nostradamus and the Middle-East crisis; Potty training; The case for super-skepticism.
The New Age and the crisis of belief; The Mary Celeste mystery; N-rays; Wet and dry skepticism;
Why not to test a psychic-1; Speaking in tongues; Another look at Scientology; Sharp blades or sharp practice?
James Randi interview; Why not to test a psychic-2; The Freethinker : 1881-1991; Medjogorje; Dualism, ESP and belief.
The documentation of a miracle?; Psychics and semantics; Smith and Blackburn: hornswagglers extraordinaire; Spirits at large.
The summer of '91; Seeing is believing?; Assessing evidence; Alternative medicine in Europe.
Paranormal trends in the USSR; Faking an alien; Where do we file flying saucers?; Psychic questing; Sea-bands.
Brainwashing a skeptic; Dianetics; Who invented the Loch Ness monster?; The medium, not the message.
Premanand: Scourge of the Godmen; Women and the New Age; Do-it-yourself UFOs; Chapman Cohen: freethinker.
Physics and the New Age
Vampires in Cumberland; Is light getting slower?; Euro-cerealogy; Physics and the New Age - Part 2.
Great balls of fire; Quackupuncture; Cold comfort for cold fusion; The fasting woman of Tutbury; Skeptics and scoffers.
The truth about tarot; Across the great divide; Obituary: Charles Honorton; A healthy dose of sarsaparilla; A test for reincarnation.
The myths of meditation; Vicious circles; The Cyril Burt affair; Carlos Castaneda; Skepticism-1895 style; Equine pseudoscience.
Cold-fusion heats up; Rajneesh: the failed guru; Beyond the near-death experience; Meditation; Spirit guides and after-images.
The face on Earth; Neural networks and NDEs; Francis Galton; Cyril Burt reconsidered; The computer conspiracy.
The mysteries of creativity; A Supernatural IQ?; The Big Bang Controversy; Write your own pseudoscience.
Science and nonsense; The Marie Celeste "mystery"; Who's that on the line?; Close encounters of the cult kind.
Crop circles: the full story.
The creation - what really happened?
Animal rights: science or pseudoscience?; Vivisection: the case against; Water, water everywhere; The "saucer error".
Mysterious energies and martial arts
Can the hands heal?; Fantastic archaeology; Don't point that comet at me!; The Mary Celeste revisited.
Alternative medicine special
Ritual Satanic abuse; How not to win the national lottery; Tesla: eccentric scientist or neglected genius? Psychic surgery in Britain.
How to become a charlatan.
Fighting Creation "Science"
The social psychology of healing and therapy; Quackery old and new; Lies, damn lies and statistics; Arthur Conan Doyle: the unlikely Spiritualist.
Health-care for your Hi-Fi; The triumph of alternative therapy; The Age of Aquarius; Spiritualism, ancient and modern.
Is there anyone out there? Desperately seeking immortality; The myth of the flying saucer; The placebo effect; Patent medicines.
The mystery of the self; Investigating a haunted pub; Why your "IQ" may be misleading; The Cottingley Fairies; Fraud in science.
UFOs yesterday and today; Testing a guru; How not to get rich quick; Lucid dreaming: fact or fiction?; Do we only use 10% of our brains?
Why do people believe in the paranormal?; Investigating Yogananda, the "incorruptible guru"; Little grey aliens; The media and the pylon scare; Meet a psychic faker.
Multiple personality disorder: fact or fiction? The supernatural in detective fiction; The psychology of alien abductions; A critical look at children's books about the paranormal.
Music from beyond the grave? Millennium madness; Smart bombs or stupid people? The Delphic oracle; Meet the Extropians; The wandering womb; Penny dreadfuls and video nasties; Psychic con-men; Teaching sixth-formers about skepticism; Skeptics choose their favourite books.
Psychoanalysis: fact or fiction? Carl Sagan; The Mars Effect; Sleep paralysis or alien abduction? Runes and the New Age.
Organ snatchers: myth or reality? Ginseng; Regression hypnotism; Humanism - the atheist's religion?
Zeppelin hysteria; Analysing an "alien" implant; The Piri Reis map; Feng Shui fooey; In defence of Humanism.
Does astrology work?; Blue-green algae and truth; An experiment to test a psychic; Spontaneous Human Combustion.
Hilary Evans on alien "abductions" (part 1); Are women more gullible than men?; The Brahan Seer; Feng Shui revisited.
Rupert Sheldrake on Morphic Fields; Revisionist historians; Hilary Evans on alien "abductions" (part 2); Biorhythms.
Mars: The Mystery Planet; Radio psychics and cold reading; Searching for the Loch Ness monster; Near-death experiences; The strange astronomy of the Hare Krishnas; Scientists who go off the rails.
Satanic Cat Abuse? The last witchcraft trial; Asking awkward questions; Multiple personality disorder; Careers in pseudoscience.
Medjugorje Spectacular; Breatharians; World peace; Electromagnetism
God on the Brain; Requiem for Phyllis; John Diamond on Miracle Cures; Global Warming; Flying Saucers of the Third Reich
Weird Science at Goldsmiths; Psychic or Fantasy-Prone?; The Psychology of Psychic Readings; The Enigma of Florence Cook.
Would We Be Better Off Stupid? Simon Hoggart's life as a skeptic; The safety of mobile phones; UFO sightings.
Why Are People Still Threatened by Darwinism? The paranormal in women's magazines; Reinventing the past.
Watch Out Alien Big Cats About! The Sexual Orientation Controversy; Post-Modernism and Parapsychology; Nostradamus Said What?
An Interview with James Randi; The Missing Airmen; Mrs Gaskell's Elephant; Wild About Harry.
An Instructive Tale of Ear Candling. Science/Non science; A Case of Spirits; Do Astrologers have to Believe in Astrology?
The Psychological Reality of Haunts and Poltergeists: Part 1; In Search of Monsters? Secrets of Area 51
The Psychological Reality of Haunts and Poltergeists: Part 2; Reconsecration: Towards a Secular Church; Myths to Die For.
What are we to make of Exceptional Experience? Part 1: Remote Viewing; Michael Bentine: Behind the Door; Psychoanalysis: Science or Pseudoscience?; Coming Soon to an Office near You ...
What are we to make of Exceptional Experience? Part 2: Ganzfeld Studies; Life from Non-Life: Must We Accept a Supernatural Explanation?; The Misfit World of Derek Acorah.
Unseen Staring Detection and ESP in Pets; Domesticating the Beast of Bodmin; A Brief Introduction to Neuro-Linguistic Programming; Stupid Sceptic Tricks.
The Need For Open-Minded Skepticism; Power, Arcana, and Hypnobabble; Organised Religious Faith ... Why?
Death and the Microtubules; The Mosaic of Memory; From Medicine To Miracle.
The Truth About Rendlesham: Britain's Roswell; The Rendlesham Incident: Some Lessons for UFOlogy; Forgive us our Trespasses; Reflections on a Rendlesham Skywatch.
Freud and Religion; How (not) to talk to aliens; Scepticism and the Kennedy assassination; Motivated distortion of traumatic memories.
The Angels of Mons: Part One; An Anaesthesiologist Examines the Pam Reynolds Story; Overcooked; In Search of ET
Why Creation Science Must be Taught in Schools; An Anaesthesiologist Examines the Pam Reynolds Story Part 2: The Experience; The Angels of Mons and Elsewhere Part Two: Even More Tales of Supernatural Rescue.
How Do I Know What To Believe? The Mystery of Hellfire Pass: Part One; Who The Devil Are You? Skrapbook
Alien abduction or Bad Medicine?; The Mystery of Hellfire Pass: Part Two; The Problem of the Existence of God seen through the Eyes of a Physicist
Second Sight? Or Just the Blind Leading the Blind?; The Mystery of Hellfire Pass: Part 3; Just Your Imagination: Part 1; Engels on the Spirit World: Part 1
Natural Science and the Spirit World: Part 2; Just Your Imagination? Part 2; Discord; Mia Dolan on Granada's This Morning
Is a Grey Heavier than a Green ? 'God's Truth', Others' Confusion; Thomas Hobbes, Angels, Ghosts and Miracles
Just Who Wrote the Passion of Christ by Emmerich? What Colour is Four? The Perception of Synaesthesia in Art and Science; Alexander the Oracle-Monger; A Physiological Reason why Superman Behaves like a Boy Scout
From Psychic to Sceptic ; The Great Masturbation Delusion; Making up History; Darwin Died an Agnostic
The Evolution Controversy; An Open Letter to the Public about Young Earth Creationism; Do 17 percent of people in Britain really believe in "intelligent design"?
Psychics on eBay; Haunting the Bereaved; R. E. Ality Check: An Alternative Approach to Religious Education
Exposing the Myth of Alcoholics Anonymous. Part 1; Interview with Mark Vernon; Inside a Camphill Community
Reincarnation: Overview of the work of Ian Stevenson (1918-2007) ; Exposing the Myth of Alcoholics Anonymous: Part 2; Amazon's Amazing Admission
Towards a Cognitive Neuroscience of the Dying Brain ; Searching for Cressie, the Crescent Lake Monster; An Evening With James Randi and Friends.
Making UFOlogy History ; The Recovered Memory Debate: False Memories of the Memory Literature? Profits of the New Age
Includes: The Sceptical Medium: A course in Crossing Over (Benjamin Radford); The messengers of Lily Dale: An analysis of modern spiritualist meduims (Jon Donnis)
Official podcast
In 2008, an independent, rationalist talk show airing on London's Resonance FM called Little Atoms became The Official Podcast of The Skeptic Magazine[citation needed] . New episodes of the show are released on an almost weekly basis. The show has been produced by Neil Denny, Padraig Reidy, Anthony Burn and Richard Sanderson since September 2005[3][4][5].
Lecture Series
It is also linked to the long running London based monthly lecture series, Skeptics in the Pub[citation needed] , along with Prof Chris French's Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit lectures at Goldsmiths[6].
References
See also
External links
