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Modern skeptics pride themselves on being immune to unreason. They present themselves as defenders of rationality, civilization, and good sense against what Freud famously called the "black mud-tide of occultism." But what if skepticism was more implicated in the phenomena it aims to banish than it might appear to be? What if no one could debunk anything without getting some of that black mud on their hands? In this episode, Phil and JF discuss the weird complicity of the skeptic and the believer in the light of George P. Hansen\'s masterpiece of meta-parapsychology, The Trickster and the Paranormal.
\\n\\nREFERENCES
\\n\\nGeorge P. Hansen, The Trickster and the Paranormal
\\nJames Randi, stage magician and paranormal debunker
\\nMichael Shermer, American science writer
\\nCSICOP, Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, Publisher of the Skeptical Inquirer
\\nRune Soup, Interview with George P. Hansen
\\nWeird Studies, Episode 24 with Lionel Snell
\\nWeird Studies, Episode 89 on Ishmael Reed\\u2019s Mumbo Jumbo
\\nVictor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure
\\nWouter Hanegraaff, Dutch professor of esoteric philosophy
\\nShannon Taggart, Seance
\\nSociety for Psychical Research
\\nWeird Studies, Episode 44 on William James\\u2019s Psychical Research
\\nG. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
\\nRobert Anton Wilson, American author
\\nAleister Crowley, Magic Without Tears