Joe Nickell, PhD, is a skeptical demonologist. His many books include The Science of Miracles and The Science of Ghosts.
The horror movie The Conjuring (2013) focused on the “demons” that allegedly plagued the Perron family—Roger, Carolyn, and their five daughters—at their Rhode Island farmhouse. The movie was a major box-office success.
In an article in the Skeptical Inquirer (Nickell 2014) and in the book American Hauntings (Bartholomew and Nickell 2015, 57–77), I analyzed the Perrons’ claims of demonic activity and showed that they were consistent with the effects of strong winds, misperceptions, schoolgirl pranks, vivid dreams, simple suggestion, role-playing, and other factors—including one child’s having had an imaginary playmate— and the effects of memory after some thirty to forty years. Then there was the influence of Ed and Lorraine Warren—“demonologist” and “clairvoyant,” respectively—who made a dubious career of convincing such troubled people that they were plagued by demons while seeking book deals and encouraging their coauthors, some admit, to fabricate elements to make the books “scary” (Nickell 2014, 23).
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