A center to facilitate communication between scholars and researchers concerned with scientific inquiry into the anomalous and the paranormal. The center was founded in 1981 by Marcello Truzzi and Ron Westrum, both sociologists at Eastern Michigan University at Ypsilanti, Michigan. In the early 1970s Truzzi had published a newsletter, The Zetetic, which opened a discussion on the scientific appraisal of paranormal and anomalous phenomena. Six years later, he became one of the founding members of the committee for the scientific investigation of the claims of the paranormal, and The Zetetic began to function as the committee\u2019s periodical. However, in 1977, Truzzi left the committee, which he saw as biased against anomalies rather than centered upon an open-minded skepticism based on the best scholarship.<\/p>\n
In 1978 Truzzi published a new periodical, the Zetetic Scholar, to continue the scientific study of the anomalous and paranormal. Three years later, he established the Center for Scientific Anomalies Research as an arena for the debate being nurtured by the new journal. Truzzi has suggested that the burden of proof for various claims for the paranormal and for anomalous phenomena rests with those supporting such claims and that the demand for proof must be equal to the extraordinary character of any phenomena advocated. While it was assumed that most claims would be denied, it was also assumed that such denial came after a period of discussion and that, on occasion, such phenomena might meet the standards of proof.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A center to facilitate communication between scholars and researchers concerned with scientific inquiry into the anomalous and the paranormal. The center was founded in 1981 by Marcello Truzzi and Ron Westrum, both sociologists at Eastern Michigan University at Ypsilanti, Michigan. In the early 1970s Truzzi had published a newsletter, The Zetetic, which opened a discussion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c"],"yoast_head":"\n