Investigations, Renaming and Ongoing Work

Over its history CSICOP and its successor organization have investigated a wide range of claims examined elsewhere in this Atlas, including remote viewing research at SRI International and the Stargate program, the statistical claims of laboratories such as PEAR at Princeton, astrology and dowsing, publishing its findings through Skeptical Inquirer and, through fellows including Ray Hyman and James Alcock, by direct participation in government and academic review panels. The organization was not without its own internal controversies: critics both outside and occasionally within the skeptical movement have argued that some CSICOP investigations, particularly early ones, approached claims with conclusions already reached rather than neutral inquiry, a tension the organization has continued to negotiate as it balances advocacy against paranormal belief with claims to disinterested scientific evaluation.

In November 2006 the organization shortened its name from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal to the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a change intended to read as less cumbersome, to drop the word paranormal from an organization whose scope had broadened to include fringe medicine and other pseudoscience, and to signal the more measured phrase skeptical inquiry rather than a narrower promise to debunk. The Committee continues to operate today under the Center for Inquiry, publishing Skeptical Inquirer roughly six times a year and running public outreach programs on scientific reasoning.