Massimo Polidoro
Encyclopedia
Massimo Polidoro is an Italian
writer, journalist, television personality, and the co-founder and executive director of the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CICAP
).
and by the hype surrounding claims of psychic phenomena, Polidoro learned in his teens about the work of James Randi
and CSICOP through a TV series and a book by Piero Angela
investigating parapsychology from a critical, skeptical point of view. He wrote to both Randi and Angela and was invited to a meeting in Rome
in 1988.
Angela and Randi agreed that Polidoro, though still very young, appeared to have the talent and the passion to become a good apprentice of Randi. With a grant from Angela, Massimo left for the United States
and became Randi's only full-time apprentice in the art of paranormal investigation and psychic testing.
After a couple of years, in which he helped Randi in his investigations, research, writings and lectures all over the world, Polidoro returned to Italy in 1990 where he started CICAP
. He later studied psychology
, and graduated from the University of Padua
with a master thesis on the psychology of eyewitness testimony
of anomalous phenomena.
. In 2001 he became a member of the European Council of Skeptical Organisations (ECSO), and was nominated as a research fellow of CSICOP, the Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (now Committee for Skeptical Inquiry). When Martin Gardner
left his regular column "Notes from a Fringe Watcher" in The Skeptical Inquirer, the magazine of CSICOP, Polidoro was asked to take over, and the column was retitled "Notes on a Strange World".
Polidoro continued to investigate and test alleged psychics, astrologers, clairvoyants, dowsers, mediums, prophets
, psychic detectives
, psychic healers, psychic photographers, telepaths and many others. He has conducted historical investigations on famous cases and personalities of the past, including Eusapia Palladino
, Margery
and his childood hero Houdini. Some of this work is collected in his books, two of which, Final Séance and Secrets of the Psychics, have been published in America by Prometheus Books
.
Polidoro's passion for magic
led him to start a new magazine, Magia, devoted to the study of the history, the science and the psychology of conjuring.
In 2005 he became the first Italian to hold, at the Psychology Faculty of the University of Milan Bicocca
, a course on "Scientific Method, Pseudoscience and Anomalistic psychology
".
, Robin Hood
, the Pied Piper, Rennes-le-Château
, the Blood of Saint Januarius and the Man in the Iron Mask, was broadcast on Discovery Channel
.
In 2006 he created a podcast
in Italian titled I Misteri di Massimo Polidoro, dealing with investigation of mysterious subjects both by himself and by other colleagues that participate to the show.
to a dictionary of Parapsychology
, from the wreck of the RMS Titanic to a biography of Houdini, from famous unsolved crimes of the past to the legends related to the strange deaths of celebrities. In 2006 he published his first novel, Il profeta del Reich (The Prophet of the Reich), a thriller loosely inspired by the life of magician Erik Jan Hanussen
.
In the Summer of 2007 Italian newspaper La Repubblica
, which is one of the larger circulation in Italy for daily general-interest newspapers, reprinted six of Massimo's books in a series that was sold in newsstands along with the many local issues of the newspaper.
Final Séance (2001) deals with the strange friendship between Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
, their friendly exchanges first and then the quarrels over their opposing views of Spiritualism
.
Secrets of the Psychics (2003) is a collection of investigations done by Massimo on psychic phenomena, including tests of psychics, poltergeist
s, miracle
s and other strange phenomena.
Both books are published by Prometheus Books
, and have been translated into many languages.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
writer, journalist, television personality, and the co-founder and executive director of the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CICAP
CICAP
CICAP is an Italian, non-profit, skeptic organization, founded in 1989. CICAP's main goals are the promotion of the scientific analysis of alleged paranormal phenomena...
).
Early life and career
Fascinated as a child in the 1970s by magicMagic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
and by the hype surrounding claims of psychic phenomena, Polidoro learned in his teens about the work of James Randi
James Randi
James Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
and CSICOP through a TV series and a book by Piero Angela
Piero Angela
Piero Angela, Grand Officer OMRI is an Italian science journalist and writer, and pianist. He was born in Turin.- Music :...
investigating parapsychology from a critical, skeptical point of view. He wrote to both Randi and Angela and was invited to a meeting in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 1988.
Angela and Randi agreed that Polidoro, though still very young, appeared to have the talent and the passion to become a good apprentice of Randi. With a grant from Angela, Massimo left for the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and became Randi's only full-time apprentice in the art of paranormal investigation and psychic testing.
After a couple of years, in which he helped Randi in his investigations, research, writings and lectures all over the world, Polidoro returned to Italy in 1990 where he started CICAP
CICAP
CICAP is an Italian, non-profit, skeptic organization, founded in 1989. CICAP's main goals are the promotion of the scientific analysis of alleged paranormal phenomena...
. He later studied psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, and graduated from the University of Padua
University of Padua
The University of Padua is a premier Italian university located in the city of Padua, Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe. It is among the earliest universities of the world and the second...
with a master thesis on the psychology of eyewitness testimony
Eyewitness testimony
Research in eyewitness testimony is mostly considered a subfield within legal psychology, however it is a field with very broad implications. Human reports are normally based on visual perception, which is generally held to be very reliable...
of anomalous phenomena.
CICAP and CSI
Polidoro became the Executive Director of CICAP, and the editor of its journal, Scienza & Paranormale. In 1996 he became the European representative for the James Randi Educational FoundationJames Randi Educational Foundation
The James Randi Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 by magician and skeptic James Randi. The JREF's mission includes educating the public and the media on the dangers of accepting unproven claims, and to support research into paranormal claims in controlled...
. In 2001 he became a member of the European Council of Skeptical Organisations (ECSO), and was nominated as a research fellow of CSICOP, the Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (now Committee for Skeptical Inquiry). When Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner was an American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, literature , philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion...
left his regular column "Notes from a Fringe Watcher" in The Skeptical Inquirer, the magazine of CSICOP, Polidoro was asked to take over, and the column was retitled "Notes on a Strange World".
Polidoro continued to investigate and test alleged psychics, astrologers, clairvoyants, dowsers, mediums, prophets
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
, psychic detectives
Psychic Detectives
Psychic Detectives or Psychic Investigators is a television program produced by StoryHouse Productions for Court TV, as of 2006 in its 5th season. The program documents real-life cases of situations in which police departments have enlisted the aid of psychics in solving difficult cases...
, psychic healers, psychic photographers, telepaths and many others. He has conducted historical investigations on famous cases and personalities of the past, including Eusapia Palladino
Eusapia Palladino
Eusapia Palladino was a Spiritualist medium from Naples in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ....
, Margery
Margery
Margery is a hamlet in the Reigate and Banstead district, in the English county of Surrey. It is located close to the top of the north-facing dip slope of the North Downs. The hamlet is mainly located on the northern side of the M25 motorway, with access by road to the southern side only available...
and his childood hero Houdini. Some of this work is collected in his books, two of which, Final Séance and Secrets of the Psychics, have been published in America by Prometheus Books
Prometheus Books
Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co-founded the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is currently the chairman of all three organizations. Prometheus Books publishes a range of books, including many...
.
Polidoro's passion for magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
led him to start a new magazine, Magia, devoted to the study of the history, the science and the psychology of conjuring.
In 2005 he became the first Italian to hold, at the Psychology Faculty of the University of Milan Bicocca
University of Milan Bicocca
The University of Milan - Bicocca is a university located in Milan, Italy.The University of Milan-Bicocca was established in 1998. It is located in an area on the northern outskirts of Milan, which was occupied by the Pirelli industrial complex until the late 1980s...
, a course on "Scientific Method, Pseudoscience and Anomalistic psychology
Anomalistic psychology
In psychology, anomalistic psychology is the study of human behaviour and experience connected with what is often called the paranormal, without the assumption that there is anything paranormal involved....
".
TV
Polidoro is the host, special guest, author or consultant of many TV shows, both in Italy and abroad. His latest international series, Legend Detectives, devoted to the investigation of famous European legends, including DraculaDracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
, Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
, the Pied Piper, Rennes-le-Château
Rennes-le-Château
Rennes-le-Château is a commune in the Aude department in Languedoc in southern France.This small French hilltop village is known internationally, and receives tens of thousands of visitors per year, for being at the center of various conspiracy theories, and for being the location of an alleged...
, the Blood of Saint Januarius and the Man in the Iron Mask, was broadcast on Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
.
In 2006 he created a podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
in Italian titled I Misteri di Massimo Polidoro, dealing with investigation of mysterious subjects both by himself and by other colleagues that participate to the show.
In print
As a journalist, Polidoro is a contributor to the monthly Italian magazine Focus. He is the author of 27 books in Italian, dealing with many subjects related to the paranormal: from a critical history of SpiritualismSpiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
to a dictionary of Parapsychology
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
, from the wreck of the RMS Titanic to a biography of Houdini, from famous unsolved crimes of the past to the legends related to the strange deaths of celebrities. In 2006 he published his first novel, Il profeta del Reich (The Prophet of the Reich), a thriller loosely inspired by the life of magician Erik Jan Hanussen
Erik Jan Hanussen
Erik Jan Hanussen, born Hermann Steinschneider , was an Austrian Jewish publicist and clairvoyant performer who lied about his origins. Acclaimed in his lifetime as a hypnotist, mentalist, occultist, and astrologer, Hanussen was active in Weimar Republic Germany and also at the beginning of Nazi...
.
In the Summer of 2007 Italian newspaper La Repubblica
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
, which is one of the larger circulation in Italy for daily general-interest newspapers, reprinted six of Massimo's books in a series that was sold in newsstands along with the many local issues of the newspaper.
Final Séance (2001) deals with the strange friendship between Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Conan Doyle
Conan Doyle is a rugby player. His club is Garryowen. His usual position is inside centre, but he also plays out-half. He has made two appearances for Munster Rugby in the Magners League, but was released by Munster at the end of the 2008/2009 season. While at Munster he was selected for the...
, their friendly exchanges first and then the quarrels over their opposing views of Spiritualism
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
.
Secrets of the Psychics (2003) is a collection of investigations done by Massimo on psychic phenomena, including tests of psychics, poltergeist
Poltergeist
A poltergeist is a paranormal phenomenon which consists of events alluding to the manifestation of an imperceptible entity. Such manifestation typically includes inanimate objects moving or being thrown about, sentient noises and, on some occasions, physical attacks on those witnessing the...
s, miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s and other strange phenomena.
Both books are published by Prometheus Books
Prometheus Books
Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co-founded the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is currently the chairman of all three organizations. Prometheus Books publishes a range of books, including many...
, and have been translated into many languages.
External links
- "Massimo Polidoro's official website"
- "Massimo Polidoro's YouTube Channel in English"
- "Introducing Italy's Version of Harry Houdini"
- "Massimo Polidoro: A Champion of Skepticism in Italy"
- Review of "Final Séance" by David Britland on MagiWeek.co.uk
- "The Gullibility of Conan Doyle" Another Review of "Final Séance" in The Skeptical Inquirer
- A review of "Secrets of the Psychics" on Atheism.com
- A Report on the5th World Skeptics Congress organized by Massimo Polidoro and CICAP
- "No blood, sweat or tears" An interview on supernatural claims on The Guardian
- "Massimo Polidoro. 13 years of research among extraordinary claims"
- "Secrets of the Psychics. Massimo Polidoro"
- "The Art of Deception Revealed" Anecdotes and tricks revealed by Massimo Polidoro during his apprenticeship with James Randi