Robert A. Baker--one of the world's preeminent authorities on such phenomena as ghosts, alien abductions, religious apparitions, and reincarnation--died August 8 at his home in Lexington, Kentucky, at age 84. He is survived by his wife Dolly and six children.
Dr. Baker--Bob to his many friends--worked at the MIT Lincoln Lab (1950-1952), conducted training research for the U.S. Army (1953-1968), and taught at the University of Kentucky (1969-1988), chairing the psychology department there until his retirement.
The author of more than a hundred professional journal articles, he also wrote fifteen books, including They Call It Hypnosis (1990), Hidden Memories: Voices and Visions from Within (1992), Mind Games (1996), Child Sexual Abuse and False Memory Syndrome (1998), and (with Joe Nickell) Missing Pieces: How to Investigate Ghosts, UFOs, Psychics & Other Mysteries (1992). He was a frequent contributor to SKEPTICAL INQUIRER and was a Fellow of CSICOP as well as the American Psychological Association.
A warm and witty man, he wrote of his formative years (in an essay in Paul Kurtz's Skeptical Odysseys, 2001):
Bob came to conclude that most of the thinkers and "psychological luminaries" of his day were offering little of value regarding mankind's important problems, the scene being dominated by "antiscientific Freudian beliefs and radical behaviorist exaggerations." He was so disillusioned that he almost abandoned his chosen career until he discovered the new "humanistic" psychology of Abe Maslow. Later, while still a research scientist for the Human Resources Research Office of Fort Knox, he was inspired by Paul Kurtz's Decision and the Condition of Man (1968).
Subsequently, his interest in humanistic and anomalistic psychology would never waver. He launched a ten-year research program that examined hypnosis and its impact on memory, eyewitness testimony, and the accuracy of recall, as well as investigating such applications as so-called past-life regression. He concluded that hypnosis was merely relaxation, suggestion, and the impetus to imagine, even to fantasize.
He was also an inveterate ghost-buster. While I was completing doctoral work at the University of Kentucky, he and I teamed up to investigate a number of paranormal cases, and in 1992, we published our investigative manual, Missing Pieces.
Bob was fond of saying, "There are no haunted places, only haunted people." A true inquirer, he believed paranormal claims should neither be accepted uncritically nor dismissed out of hand, but rather that they should be carefully investigated with a view toward solving them.
One of his favorite early cases involved a young married couple living in a small town close to Fort Knox. The wife was being haunted by the spirit of a beautiful little girl. Investigating, Bob discovered that no one else ever saw or heard the spirit. Further, he learned that the couple wanted desperately to have children but had not been successful. He counseled them to consider adopting a child, and when they did, the little ghost girl went away forever.
That case illustrates the two qualities I admired most in my best friend: wisdom and humanity. He again displayed both when he wrote (in Skeptical Odysseys):
That is probably as close to a sermon as the celebrated secular humanist ever got. Amen, Bob; farewell wise, human friend.
Joe Nickell is CSICOP's Senior Research Fellow and author of numerous investigative books--most recently Secrets of the Sideshows (University Press of Kentucky, 2005).
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