Professional skeptic Shermer opens his mind! But 3 women say he is also a sexual predator

Here's one for the category How the mighty do fall

Professional skeptic Michael Shermer is the face of scorn you see on TV when anything paranormal is discussed. He is the Devil's Advocate called in to dismiss and disparage any and all mystical claims, whether about near-death-experiences, ESP, reincarnation or the afterlife.  Apparently in June, by his own admission, a mystical experience of his own did for Shermer what no amount of argument could ever have done -- it's opened his mind...at least a tiny bit.  See article below in regard to this story. 

But wait. It's not all good news. Now the atheist community to which he belongs is being rocked by revelations that Shermer is a sexual predator, as a woman has accused him of rape. Two other women have also agreed to go on the record with stories about how Shermer sexually harassed them.  Fellow skeptic James Randi is trying to make excuses for him, but is floundering in the attempt. Read about this at:  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2014/09/the-shermer-affair-erupts/  and http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2014/09/the-wall-of-silence-around-michael-shermer/

I feel very sorry for his new bride.

Powerful Coincidence Sways a Skeptic

Dr. Michael Shermer is the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, the executive director of the Skeptics Society, and a monthly columnist for Scientific American.

He wrote in his column on Sept. 16 about an experience that led him to conclude: "We should not shut the doors of perception when they may be opened to us to marvel in the mysterious."

His fiancé's belongings were shipped to the United States from Germany, and among them was her grandfather's 1978 transistor radio. She was very close with her grandfather, who died when she was 16.

The radio had been silent for decades, and try as he might Shermer could not get it working again. It continued its silence in the back of a desk drawer in the couple's bedroom.

Three months later (June this year), they were married. After the ceremony, his wife asked to talk with him alone. She was feeling lonely, missing her family back in Germany and also wishing her grandfather could have been alive to give her away. The couple walked to the back of the house where they heard music playing, a love song.

They searched in vain for the source of the music, then his wife "shot me a look I haven't seen since the supernatural thriller 'The Exorcist' startled audiences. 'That can't be what I think it is, can it?' she said."

It was the transistor radio in the drawer.

"My grandfather is here with us," she said, tearfully. "I'm not alone."

Shermer's daughter had heard music coming from the radio just before the ceremony started, though the couple had been in the room only moments before without hearing any music. The radio continued to work through the wedding night.

"Fittingly, it stopped working the next day and has remained silent ever since," Shermer wrote.