Kenny Biddle
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Kenny Biddle is an investigator of paranormal claims. He is chief investigator at the
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the U.S. non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to " ...
and a fellow of the same organization. Initially interested in
ghost hunting Ghost hunting is the process of investigating list of reportedly haunted locations, locations that are purportedly haunted by ghosts. The practice has been heavily criticized for its dismissal of the scientific method. No scientific study has e ...
,
UFOs An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...
and other fringe pursuits, Biddle gradually adopted a scientifically minded approach to the study of a wide range of paranormal phenomena.


Ghost hunter

Biddle grew up in a Catholic household where spirituality was a given. He developed a keen interest in paranormal mysteries watching television programs such as In Search of.... He made his first on-site investigation in 1997 and joined forces with other ghost-hunters inspired by television. He founded a group called Paranormal Investigative Research Association in Pennsylvania. An experienced photographer, he collaborated with the
Mutual UFO Network The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) is a US-based non-profit organization composed of civilian volunteers who study reported UFO sightings. It is one of the oldest and largest organizations of its kind, claiming more than 4,000 members worldwide ...
. Biddle started to question his approach to investigations into paranormal phenomena when he attended a 1999 ghost hunting convention in Pennsylvania, where a group was claiming to have encountered a hostile entity the night before at the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield. From the description of the event, it became clear that Biddle himself was the ghost they were talking about. He had come out of the woods in the dark to chase a group that was disrupting a filming he was involved in; it became apparent they could not see him clearly and concluded he was a paranormal entity. That his fellow ghost hunters were not receptive to his version of the tale made him reevaluate his own attitudes.


Scientific approach to the paranormal

Biddle started to follow in the steps of science-based investigators, such as chief investigator for the
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the U.S. non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to " ...
Joe Nickell Joe Herman Nickell (December 1, 1944 – March 4, 2025) was an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal. Nickell was a senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and wrote regularly for their journal, '' Skeptic ...
. His expertise in photography and how optical phenomena generate peculiar images on film attracted the attention of
Benjamin Radford Benjamin Radford (born October 2, 1970) is an American writer, investigator, and skeptic. He has authored, coauthored or contributed to over twenty books and written over a thousand articles and columns on a wide variety of topics including urb ...
, who asked him to write for the Center of Inquiry's newsletter. He continued to be involved with the organization and eventually took over Nickell's position when he retired in 2022. Biddle has been quoted as an expert on the scientific study of paranormal phenomena in publications such as ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'', ''
Live Science Live Science is a science news website. The publication features stories on a wide range of topics, including space, animals, health, archaeology, human behavior, and planet Earth. It also includes a reference section with links to other websites ...
'', ''
the New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...
'', ''
Popular Mechanics ''Popular Mechanics'' (often abbreviated as ''PM'' or ''PopMech'') is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do it yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation an ...
'', ''People Magazine'' and ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...
''. His investigations and observations have been mentioned in a number of books on supernatural phenomena. He hosts the weekly podcast ''Skeptical Help Bar'' and writes a regular column for ''
Skeptical Inquirer ''Skeptical Inquirer'' (S.I.) is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle "The Magazine for Science and Reason". The magazine initially focused on investigating clai ...
''. With Sharon Hill, Biddle established the Anomalies Research Society, a network of professionals investigating claims of
paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...
and anomalous events. Biddle conducts on-site investigations, trying to determine the cause of phenomena reported as having paranormal causes. He developed an expertise in the more technical aspects of the work, such as photography and video editing, as well as the various hardware used to detect entities. He tends to be critical of the misuse of devices such as EMF meters by ghost hunters who do not understand the way they work, leading to
false positives A false positive is an error in binary classification in which a test result incorrectly indicates the presence of a condition (such as a disease when the disease is not present), while a false negative is the opposite error, where the test res ...
. He stated in 2015 that beyond the use of new gadgetry, ghost hunters still essentially use the same methods than they used a century ago. He continues to attend events of the ghost-hunting community, speaking about his experiences and discussing the proper use of technology in the field. In 2017, he helped a group led by Susan Gerbic expose the
cold reading Cold reading is a set of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, and mediums. Without prior knowledge, a practiced cold-reader can quickly obtain a great deal of information by analyzing the person's body language, age, c ...
techniques of psychic Matt Fraser. Biddle believes he never faced a situation where an actual ghost is the most probable explanation. "My goal is to gather enough information that will lead to a solid and honest conclusion that sufficiently explains a mystery," Biddle told ''Newsweek'' in 2021. With David Schumacher and Tim Vickers, he compiled a series of observations on what kind of electromagnetic measurements one can expect to get in a house (one that is presumably not haunted), to serve as control in paranormal investigations. The report was published in 2023 in the ''Journal of Scientific Exploration''.


References


External links


Kenny Biddle's Skeptical Inquirer articlesKenny Biddle's Youtube account
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biddle, Kenny Living people American science communicators American skeptics Critics of parapsychology Paranormal investigators Year of birth missing (living people)