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

Paranormal

Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...

 phenomena. It is a member of the European Council of Skeptical Organizations.

History

CICAP was started by the Italian science journalist Piero Angela

Piero Angela

Piero Angela, Grand Officer OMRI is an Italian science journalist and writer, and pianist. He was born in Turin.- Music :...

 together with a group of scientists including Luigi Garlaschelli and others. The organization has always worked closely with Italian media to help insure accurate coverage of paranormal topics. At the moment, two Nobel prize winners are members: Carlo Rubbia

Carlo Rubbia

Carlo Rubbia Knight Grand Cross is an Italian particle physicist and inventor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Simon van der Meer for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN.-Biography:...

 and Rita Levi Montalcini. Other notable members include the philosopher, semiotician

Semiotics

Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...

 and novelist Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...

. , the executive director is Italian skeptic investigator and writer Massimo Polidoro

Massimo Polidoro

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 .-Early life and career:...

.

In October 2004, CICAP and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry co-sponsored a World Skeptics Congress in Italy.

Logo

CICAP's Logo is based on the grid illusion

Grid illusion

A grid illusion is any kind of grid that deceives a person's vision. The two most common types of grid illusions are Hermann grid illusion and the Scintillating grid illusion.-Hermann grid illusion:...

. Designed in 1992 by Franco Ramaccini, was amended in 2009 with the inclusion of the words Comitato Italiano per il Controllo delle Affermazioni sul Paranormale.

Investigations

The organization has investigated a number of paranormal phenomena including:

• The alleged San Gennaro blood miracle in Naples
• Russian psychic Nina Kulagina
  Nina Kulagina
  Nina Kulagina, Ninel Sergeyevna Kulagina was a Russian woman who claimed to have psychic powers, particularly in psychokinesis...
  
  
• The alleged miracles of Padre Pio
• Italian crop circles

In September 2005, National Geographic Channel

National Geographic Channel

National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...

's Is It Real?

Is It Real?

Is It Real? is an American documentary television series that originally aired from April 25, 2005 to August 14, 2007 on the National Geographic Channel. The program examines popular or persistent mysteries to determine whether the featured cryptozoological creature or supernatural phenomenon is...

program (episode 10) asked for a demonstration of "Knockout" Chi (a no-touch knockout technique), during which instructor Leon Jay was unable to knock-out Luigi Garlaschelli, an investigator from CICAP.

External links

• CICAP, official web site
• CICAP (English)