The Laboratoire de Zététique (English: ''Zetetic Laboratory'') is a structure founded by professor in 1998.

Purpose and history

The laboratory is a research and information centre concerned with purported "

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 ...

" or "abnormal" phenomena. The goal is dissemination of the

scientific method The scientific method is an Empirical evidence, empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and ...

and ''

zététique Zététique (from Ancient Greek: ζητητικός ''zētētikós'', "inquisitive", "keen") is the application of the scientific method when investigating allegedly "paranormal" phenomena. It is often seen as equivalent to, or somewhat different ...

'' (defined as "the art of doubt", in English better known as

scientific skepticism Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking scientific evidence. In practice, the term most commonly ref ...

). The Laboratoire de Zététique is run by an association called the Centre d'Analyse Zététique (''Centre for Zetetic Analysis''), which publishes the ''CAZette'' (a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of ''

gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...

'' and its abbreviation ''CAZ'') since November 2011. Since 2005, it is affiliated with the

Center for Inquiry The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a U.S. nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal and to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 1991 by ...

as "Center for Inquiry–France", with Henri Broch as its spokesperson and ambassador of CFI–Transnational. Between 1987 and 2002, the laboratory offered the

International Zetetic Challenge {{Short description, Former proof of paranormal prize The International Zetetic Challenge (from Greek ζητεῖν ''zēteîn'', "to search") was an attempt to prove or disprove the existence of, or demonstrate events related to, the paranormal. It ...

for an award of €200,000; no one has ever succeeded in demonstrating a paranormal phenomenon under these controlled conditions, however.

Mediums Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...

and

clairvoyants Clairvoyance (; ) is the claimed ability to acquire information that would be considered impossible to get through scientifically proven sensations, thus classified as extrasensory perception, or "sixth sense". Any person who is claimed to h ...

were challenged to show their powers, but all 275 (or 264) candidates failed. In 2004, the

UFO 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 ...

skeptic

Claude Maugé Claude may refer to: People and fictional characters * Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Claude (surname), a list of people * Claude Callegari (1962–2021), English Arsenal supporter * Claude Debussy (1862–1918), F ...

presented on the site of the laboratory his Composite Reductionist Theory (TCR) about UFOs to explain this phenomenon. Following

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 ...

, Henri Broch once replicated the

Shroud of Turin The Shroud of Turin (), also known as the Holy Shroud (), is a length of linen cloth that bears a faint image of the front and back of a naked man. Because details of the image are consistent with depiction of Jesus, traditional depictions o ...

, demonstrating the bas-relief method as an easy explanation of how the Shroud could have been faked. In October 2007, became the first Doctor of Science Education on the subject of skepticism. His thesis, titled ''Pour une didactique de l'esprit critique – Zététique & utilisation des interstices pseudoscientifiques dans les médias'' ("For Education in Critical Thinking. Skepticism & Usage of Pseudoscientific Interstices in the Media"), was co-edited by codirected by Henri Broch and Patrick Lévy (Institut du sommeil et de la vigilance, faculté de médecine, Grenoble 1). Together with other French academics from other universities in Grenoble, Marseille, Montpellier etc., he founded the Collectif de recherche transdisciplinaire esprit critique et sciences (Cortecs) ("Interdisciplinary Research Collective on Critical Thinking and Science"). As of 2015, the Laboratoire de Zététique no longer offers courses on skepticism, but they have been transferred to the

Joseph Fourier University Joseph Fourier University (UJF, , also known as Grenoble I) was a French university situated in the city of Grenoble and focused on the fields of sciences, technologies and health. It is now part of the Université Grenoble Alpes. Importance ...

of Grenoble, where Monvoisin's lectures on "Zététique & autodéfense intellectuelle" ("Skepticism & Intellectual Self-Defence") attract up to 900 students.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laboratoire de Zetetique 1998 establishments in France Skeptic organizations in France Research institutes in France Universities and colleges in Nice Scientific skepticism organizations

Purpose and history

See also

References

External links