Ray Hyman - Quotes

Quotes

• "I have never, never met a proponent of the paranormal that didn't always preface their introduction to me with, 'I'm a skeptic too'."

• On, "scientists with outstanding minds, people who are first-class scientists... who at the same time were peddling some sort of horrible paranormal nonsense.... What I think is going on here is that we emphasize the individual, make a hero out of an individual scientist." What they forget is that "they attribute their success not to the fact that they are a part of a discipline, which has its peer review, and has checks and balances. They attribute it to something inside themselves. Which means they feel they can walk outside their discipline... they can do whatever they want and it will still be good science, because they are good scientists. It does not work that well. A micro-biologist can not walk into an observatory and do good astronomy."

• "As a psychologist I know that it is not normal to be a skeptic 'we are mutants'". "Its more normal to be a believer."

• James Underdown explains Hyman's maxum "Don't try to explain HOW something works until you find out THAT it works". Hyman's maxum was named by James Alcock.

• "They (skeptics) keep building centers all over the world... which are very expensive. Always doing fundraisers... the skeptic movement (focuses on) fighting amongst themselves... They have done nothing towards outreach where they can do the most... Give people the tools to think, help them to become better thinkers".

• Concerning science and replication, "That's how you know somethings 'there'. Parapsychology doesn't have a 'there', they can not replicate. They respond with 'That is the nature of psi, just when your closing in on it, it takes off in a different direction...' then they throw in some quantum mechanics".

• "I don't have the sex appeal Geller has, that's why I'm making my money as a college professor. I also can't lie conveniently."

• "Garbage in, garbage out" speaking to graduates at Simon Fraser University "If you are going to have any chance at all to solve any problem, first make sure your facts are correct."

• On parapsychology - It is "essentially a scientific enterprise. It's practitioners are serious scientific researchers, often at the PhD level... the problem with most... is that after the dust settles on an argument, they still have hope that 'something is there'. A skeptic's position... is not anti-psi, its agnostic. A skeptic's 'belief' is that a claim has a normal explanation".