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• To prepare bibliographies of published materials that carefully examine such claims.

• To encourage and commission research by objective and impartial inquirers in areas where it is needed.

• To convene conferences and meetings

• To publish articles, monographs, and books that examine claims of the paranormal.

• To not reject on a priori grounds, antecedent to inquiry, any or all such claims, but rather to examine them openly, completely, objectively, and carefully.

This last objective implies an important principle which I have had to hammer home repeatedly to lecture audiences and to critics: The CSICOP does not deny that such things may exist, nor do I, personally. However, in light of my considerable experience in examining such matters, I will say that my assigned probability for the reality of paranormal powers approaches zero very closely. I cannot prove that these powers do not exist; I can only show that the evidence for them does not hold up under examination. Furthermore, I insist that the burden of proof be placed not on me but on those who assert that such phenomena exist. Unusual claims require unusual proof. A related matter is the opposition's claim that I seek to prove that "psychics" use trickery by duplicating their wonders by trickery. I have never claimed—nor could I, as a logical person, claim—that my duplication of "psychic" feats shows that "psychics" use similar trickery. What it does show is that it is more rational to suspect trickery than to adopt the preposterous alternative.

We critics of supernaturalism are accustomed to having words put into our mouths by the opposition and by the media, and it is about time that we struck back. In this book I will hit as hard as I can, as often as I can, and sometimes quite bluntly and even rudely. Good manners will be sacrificed to honesty, and the Marquis of Queensbury be damned. Too long have many voices been unheard and unheeded. In these pages you will discover that logic and rationality are powerful forces that cannot be contradicted by the great volume of pseudoscientific and near-religious claptrap that the public has mistaken for fact. The tinkling noises you will hear as these pages are turned are the scales falling from many eyes. The groans are from the charlatans who are here exposed to the light of reason and simple truth. It is a light that pains them greatly.

It was fourteen years ago, during a heated discussion with a member of the parapsychology elite, that I was challenged to "put my money where my mouth is," and I've done just that. I am always in possession of my check in the amount of $10,000, payable to any person or group that can perform one paranormal feat of any kind under the proper observing conditions. Not one nickel has ever been forfeited; my money has never been safer, though many have tried to collect the prize. To date, more than six hundred people have offered to submit to tests, and only fifty-five have gotten by the preliminaries.

I must explain. Years of experience have taught me that I need not waste my time traveling to far places to deal with most contenders. I have established a method of preliminary testing that very quickly eliminates the weaker contenders, and I've never had any complaints from the losers, though they invariably drag in the usual silly cop-outs to explain their failures. But in these strange pursuits, that's to be expected.

As a professional magician who has performed in every part of the world for more than thirty years, I have endured long sessions with persons who claim to have psychic or magical abilities. There are only two kinds: those who really believe they have these powers, and those who think I am so dense that I will not detect their trickery. Both groups are wrong.

An example of the first type is Vince Wiberg, a "dowser"—one who uses a rod or other simple device to detect the presence of various materials, notably underground water and minerals. He also professes to be an "auragramist"—one who is able to diagnose ailments