Al Seckel

Al Seckel
Seckel in 2009
Born
Alfred Paul Seckel

(1958-09-03)September 3, 1958
Died2015 (aged 56)
France
EducationCornell University, no degree
Occupation(s)Writer, scientific skeptic
Known forPopularizer of optical illusions
Spouses
Laura Mullen
(m. 1980, divorced)
(m. 2004, separated)
Alice Klarke
(until 2007)
PartnersIsabel Maxwell
(2007–2015; his death)
Parents

Alfred Paul "Al" Seckel (September 3, 1958 – 2015) was an American collector and popularizer of visual and other types of sensory illusions, who wrote books about them. Active in the Freethought movement as a skeptic in the 1980s, he was the co-founder[1] and executive director of the Southern California Skeptics.[2] News coverage arising from his connection to Jeffrey Epstein has stressed Seckel's misrepresentation of his education and credentials.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference bridgetread was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Stewart_1986 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Armstrong, Stephen (December 30, 2021). "The stranger-than-fiction history of the Maxwell madhouse". The Telegraph. Retrieved April 16, 2022. . . . Epstein's Mindshift conference – a TED Talk rival co-founded with Al Seckel. As befits a suitor for arguably the strangest family in the world, Seckel socialised with the likes of Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, Elon Musk and Dudley Moore, and convinced many people that he was a cognitive neuroscientist with ties to Cal Tech. In fact, he was a top-notch charlatan who had failed to graduate from college – but he delighted in delivering TED Talks and publishing books on the science of visual illusions.