Joe Nickell “the world’s only full-time professional paranormal investigator” has died. He studied weeping statues, ghosts, poltergeists, crop circles, flying saucers, Elvis sightings, the Loch Ness myth and the Turin Shroud. For almost all he found there were logical or scientific explanations or they were hoaxes.
Born 1 December 1944 11.30pm Lexington, Wisconsin, he took an English degree, joined the civil rights struggle, and fled to Canada when he was drafted for Vietnam, earning a living as a magician in Toronto, a private investigator, a blackjack dealer and gold prospector. Once pardoned as a draft dodger he took a PhD in literary mysteries. Eventually he was invited to start writing for Skeptical Inquirer and appeared on many TV shows. He set out to explain rather than debunk, and always sought to keep an open mind. “I urge sceptics … not to be as closed-minded as the other side is ridiculously open-minded,” he once said. Most paranormal mysteries he attributed to natural phenomena, wilful disbelief or fantasy-prone personalities.
He had Uranus in his 10th opposition a 4th house Sun Mars in Sagittarius which would make him opt for an unconventional career. His Neptune in Libra was emphasised on the focal point of a T square to Mercury opposition Moon Saturn in Cancer.
A 12th house Pluto would make him curious about mysteries and keen to dig below the surface and it sat on the midpoint of Uranus trine Neptune giving him influence.
It is a chart which could as easily made him an astrologer and drawn to Neptunian realms. Though perhaps his Sun inconjunct Saturn pulled him towards an overly rational view of events and people. Not that there are not myriads of gullible types who would believe anything but I distrust a career built on scepticism.
The Fixed stars were precisely aligned for him with the destructive Algol conjunct his Midheaven; his Sun exactly opposition Aldebaran; his Neptune exactly conjunct Lilith with Chiron conjunct as well. His Venus was conjunct his South Node.
Paul Kurtz, 21 December 1925 3pm Newark New Jersey, founder of the Sceptical Inquirer, was also a Sun Sagittarius; and had an emphasised Neptune on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Uranus sextile Jupiter. He had Algol opposition his Mars in Scorpio exactly which was conjunct Saturn in Scorpio as well. His Pluto was conjunct his Black Moon; and his Jupiter conjunct South Node was square his Chiron. A harder, more aggressive personality than Nickell, he was known as the father of secular humanism.
James Randi, another former magician turned sceptic and member of the paranormal-trashing CSICOP organisation (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) 7 August 1926 1.20 am Toronto, Canada, had an entrepreneurial chart, full of Fire and lacking in realism. His Leo Sun was square Jupiter, trine Uranus and trine Saturn in self-righteous Sagittarius. His Mars in Taurus conjunct Algol was in a publicity-attracting square to Neptune. His Chiron was conjunct his Jupiter and his Black Moon conjunct his South Node.
All three have planets on their South Nodes as well as strong Neptunes – I may be biased but it does not suggest a progressive approach. Part of my dislike of the CSICOP tribe relates not only to the attacks on astrology but also because both Kurtz and Randi were on the American False Memory Society Advisory Board which did a great deal of damage in the abuse field in the 1990s.
The post Joe Nickell – desperately seeking an explanation first appeared on Astroinform with Marjorie Orr – Star4cast.
