Perry DeAngelis and Steven Novella

In 1996, Perry DeAngelis, a real estate manager, and Steven Novella, an assistant professor of neurology at the Yale School of Medicine, started the New England Skeptical Society so that New Englanders interested in the paranormal would have a forum for considering topics such as ghosts in a rational and scientific manner. The founders also hoped to counteract what they felt was the media's unquestioning treatment of these controversial topics. DeAngelis and Novella lived near a well-known ghost-hunting couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren, who claimed to have encountered ghosts and other paranormal entities many times over the past several decades.

DeAngelis and Novella paid a visit to the Warrens to investigate their claims and examine their evidence for the paranormal. They found that the Warrens, like many other people who claim to be...