---
alias:
- James E. Alcock
category: Skeptics & Critics
created: 2026-09-22
location: Toronto, Ontario
summary: 'York University social psychologist, CSICOP founding participant and author
  of Parapsychology: Science or Magic?, named by the National Research Council in
  1995 as a prospective reviewer of Star Gate.'
tags:
- Person
- JamesAlcock
- Skeptic
- CSICOP
- YorkUniversity
updated: 2026-09-22
---

James E. Alcock, professor of psychology at York University in Toronto from 1973 and former director of its graduate program in psychology, took an honours physics degree at [McGill University](/organizations/mcgill-university/) and a doctorate in social psychology at McMaster, with post-doctoral training in clinical psychology, and was a registered psychologist from 1974. He was "invited to the initial conference where the organization was formalized" of the CSICOP, later a fellow and member of its executive council, a member of the editorial board of the *Skeptical Inquirer* and of the advisory board of the American Council on Science and Health, and the author of *Parapsychology: Science or Magic?* (1981) and *Science and Supernature* (1990) and co-editor of *Psi Wars* (2003). Of the 1970s: "This led to such crazy things as 'spoon bending parties' among some American congressmen, the use of 'biorhythm analysis' by some companies with regard to vetting their employees, and even at one point the use of horoscopes to help a judge decide on terms of punishment." [John Palmer](/people/john-palmer/) answered his book in *Zetetic Scholar* in 1983. The CIA's chronology of the Star Gate transfer records that on March 15, 1995, "Jessica Utts, John Palmer, James Alcock, and Ray Hyman contacted by NRC and agree to act as commissioned reviewers," and that on May 10 the NRC "formally rejects" the study.[^1]

[^1]: "James Alcock," speaker biography, European Skeptics Congress 2005, alpha.uhasselt.be/~gjb/esc2005/Alcock_James.html, Wayback Machine capture; Gerbic, Susan, "James Alcock - an Interview with Susan Gerbic," Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, September 6, 2017. https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/james_alcock_-_an_interview_with_susan_gerbic "Star Gate Transfer Chronology: 1995," CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190017-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.