Nickell should know. His entire career has been based on illusion.

A Senior Research Fellow with the Center for the Scientific Investigation of the Paranormal (CSICOP), Nickell is a world- renowned paranormal investigator. Headquartered in the new Center for Inquiry building on Sweet Home Road, across the street from the North Campus, Nickell and his fellow CSICOP skeptics specialize in finding scientific, rational explanations for "unsolved mysteries." He was the guest speaker Thursday, April 18, at the Senior Alumni Program luncheon, held in the new Inquiry building.

Once a resident magician at the Houdini Magical Hall of Fame, and a former private investigator with the world's largest detective agency, Nickell today travels the globe clarifying claims of close encounters, taking the gas out of suspected ghouls and truncating tall tales. If he looks familiar, it is because he has a long list of television credits, from guest appearances on talk shows including "Oprah," and "Larry King Live," to Learning Channel and Discovery Channel programs, such as "In Search Of, with Leonard Nimoy."

In the late 1970s, Nickell gained fame, or as he points out, "infamy," for his research into the Shroud of Turin, an ancient cloth in which it was alleged Jesus was laid to rest. In fact, Nickell showed the gathered UB alums how they, too, could leave their own lasting impression on their own holy shroud...without having to rise from the dead.

Nickell explained that his book, "In Search of the Shroud of Turin," made him "an international whipping boy" and "drew plenty of hate mail." Nevertheless, based largely on Nickell's research, the Catholic Church later conceded that the Shroud was not the genuine burial cloth of Jesus.

Nickell easily recited the entire, 20-century history of the Shroud, pointing out inconsistencies in the story along the way. "First of all, this was clearly not the style in which the Jews buried their dead at the time," he explained. "What's more, the Gospel of John says Jesus was buried with multiple cloths. So far, there have been a reported 40 'true Shrouds' discovered."

But the most damning evidence came when Nickell created his own likeness on a Shroud, using chemical and photographic techniques known to have existed for centuries. The "Shroud of Nickell" appears on the cover of his book, and is such a good likeness that it was once inadvertently circulated by the Associated Press at Easter time as a photo of the Shroud of Turin.

Nickell alleges the Shroud was created by using glass-plate negatives. "A positive image, or photograph, has highlights in white and shadows in darkness," Nickell explained, showing slides of the real shroud and his likeness. "So, it follows logically that the image on the cloth, with dark highlights and light shadows, was a negative image." Nickell went on to explain that he and other researchers carbon dated the Shroud, finding it to be far younger than the burial cloth of Jesus would have been. Also, they discovered traces of tempera paint on the cloth. Thus, they were able to date the age of the cloth to the exact era when a forger is known to have confessed to forging a Shroud of Turin.

Nickell's unofficial anthem when investigating ghosts, UFO sightings or supernatural occurrences, is "Maybe there is a simpler explanation." With that in mind, Nickell showed the alums how he solved other long-tenured mysteries, including an allegedly haunted house in Toronto and mysterious thousand-foot-long drawings etched into plateaus high in the Andes Mountains. "Not everything is explained," conceded Nickell, "but that doesn't mean there is anything out there that is unexplainable."

The "Ghost of MacKenzie House" had chased two sets of caretakers from the historic Toronto home of a Canadian patriot. However, Nickell discovered the mysterious noises and sightings had rational explanations; most emanating from the echoey offices of a publishing firm next door.

In South America, using simple rope and sticks and techniques known to be available at the time of the ancient Peruvians, Nickell recreated, from the ground, drawings which most believed could only be seen from thousands of feet in the air. "Did I solve that mystery? No. I just showed one technique, using nothing but cross sticks and knotted cords, that could have been used to make these drawings from the ground."

Drawings like these were declared products of alien visits to the earth in "Chariots of the Gods," a 1970s book by Erich Von Daniken. However, consider the source, Nickell cautions. "Von Daniken is now serving a prison term for fraud and forgery," he said.

Known psychological events such as "waking dreams" frequently explain unexplained sightings of ghosts. Nickell's latest work, due to be published soon, examines 13 people who have had the most widely reported UFO abduction experiences. He found that all suffer from classic symptoms which psychiatrists would say make them "fantasy-prone."

"Think about the dramatic similarity in the stories told of alien abduction and the likeness one person's drawing of an alien has to the next," suggests Nickell, explaining that fantasy-prone people are more open to suggestion about things they recollect than most.

Nickell impressed upon his guests that paranormal investigation is serious work. Nevertheless, he related one story of going to a "seance" in which all the participants were instructed to remain still and hold hands in the darkness to summon spirits, who would speak through a vase in the center of the table.

"You only need to free your hand for a minute, by telling your neighbor you have to scratch your nose, in order to dump some soot from your pocket into the vase," explained Nickell. Then, imagine everyone's surprise at the conclusion of the seance when your medium's face is blackened. "But, remember, we don't have any fun at this."