An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural
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In all of these applications the “galvanic skin effect” is ineffective in determining anything except skin resistance.
End of the World
A notion preached endlessly by religious fanatics and almost always said to be due “soon.” The cartoon eccentric parading about with the sign saying THE END IS NIGH actually exists, an unreal character mislocated in the real world.
The predictions of a final cataclysm are numerous; see Appendix III of this encyclopedia for a listing of forty-four of them.
See also Armageddon.
Enochian
A language and alphabet of angels which Dr. John Dee said was used to communicate prophecies to him. It actually has a syntax and though very cumbersome could serve as a means of communication.
E-Rays
These are known in Germany, where the idea originated, as “Erdstrahlen” or “earth rays.” E-rays are the German equivalent of the French discovery, N-rays, and are just as real. They are said to be radiations that are emitted from unknown sources deep in the ground, giving rise to “hot spots,” and causing cancer. These rays, say the believers, cannot be detected by any sort of instruments, but are believed to exist because dowsers — and only dowsers — can sense them.
In Germany, these invisible rays and hot spots are accepted by almost everyone, even governmental agencies, who pay dowsers to indicate to them how to relocate the desks of federal employees away from the positions where E-rays can intercept them; hospital beds are similarly moved about to protect patients from cancer.
Professors H.L. König and H. D. Betz of Munich, two German authors of a highly supportive 1989 book on the German government tests, have refused to identify any of the dowsers they tested in preparing their book, or even to put the dowsers in touch with other researchers. Their reasons for this lack of cooperation are not clear.
See also N-rays.
Erdstrahlen
See E-rays.
ESP
See Extrasensory Perception.
ESP cards
See Zener, Dr. Karl.
Eva C.
See Carrière, Eva.
Evil Eye
The glance of certain individuals, described in the Malleus Maleficarum as “fiery and baleful eyes,” was said to induce curses and even death. The Latin term was fascinatio, and it was said to be prevented from doing damage to any intended victim about whose neck a band of multicolored threads had been fastened.
Pliny the Elder prescribed spittle as an antidote to the evil eye, and the wearing of a fleur-de-lis amulet was believed to be effective for that same purpose. In modern Italy, the evil eye is generally known as mal d'occhio, but in the south, especially in Naples, it is jettatura, and in Corsica, innochiatura. Along the Mediterranean and in the Arab countries, the effect is taken quite seriously.
The Frankish queen of the sixth century, Fredegund, was said to be endowed with the evil eye. Perhaps she merely lacked regal charm.
Exorcism
The expulsion of the Devil, spirits, and demons from persons, animals, or places by occult or religious rites.
The Roman Catholic exorcism rite first came into use at the end of the third century, and in A.D. 341 it is mentioned in church writings. A specifically ordained order of exorcising priests was created, and the process is still practiced by the Roman Catholic church today.
As recently as 1972, Pope Paul VI affirmed the existence of demons and the Devil:
Sin, on its part, affords a dark, aggressive evildoer, the Devil, an opportunity to act in us and in our world. . . . Anyone who disputes the existence of this reality places himself outside biblical and Church teachings.
Perhaps inspired by this declaration, in 1976 Germany's Bishop Stangl instructed two priests to perform the rite of exorcism upon a twenty-three-year-old epileptic Bavarian girl, Anneliese Michel. The local newspapers reported that the church had decided her body was being inhabited by various demons, including Lucifer, Adolf Hitler, Judas Iscariot, and Emperor Nero. Anneliese, an epileptic, died in the process of being exorcised, and the autopsy showed she suffered beating and starvation. Her parents and the two priests were convicted of negligent homicide and given suspended sentences.
Significantly, when Bishop Stangl died during the trial, his death was attributed to a stroke, not to demonic possession.
In recent years, similar exorcism farces have taken the lives of children in the United States, too.
Christians who believe in the Holy Bible must also believe in demons, devils, and other such creatures, and they must believe that those entities cause disease and that they can be “cast out” by proper ceremonies — exorcism — simply because it's in the Book. If they deny the reality of those entities, they deny the Bible, and thus their faith. It is not a matter of choice, but dogma.
Extrasensory Perception
(ESP) A term invented by Dr. J.B. Rhine and used by him to refer to supposed abilities such as telepathy, which involves being able to tell the thoughts of another person without the use of the recognized senses. Clairaudience, clairvoyance, and precognition (all of which see) also fall under this term.
See also parapsychology.
Eyeless Vision
See blindfold vision.
Eysenck, Dr. Hans J.
(1916 - ) Psychologist Eysenck studied in the U.K. with Sir Cyril Burt and invented the “Eysenck Personality Scale,” which is believed to measure a subject's basic temperament for purposes of evaluating results obtained in parapsychological tests.
In 1983, Eysenck, with Dr. Carl Sargent, produced Know Your Own Psi-IQ, a naive book designed to enable the layperson to design and perform extrasensory perception (ESP) tests. Attempting to provide a simple, convenient randomization method, for example, the authors instead gave users a highly biased procedure that would make experiments meaningless and certainly discourage further investigation by the amateur.
In 1957, before very much was known about the poor control and sometimes devious methods used by some scientists to develop their evidence for paranormal phenomena, Dr. Eysenck wrote:
Unless there is a gigantic conspiracy involving some thirty University departments all over the world, and several hundred highly respected scientists in various fields, many of them originally hostile to the claims of the psychical researchers, the only conclusion the unbiased observer can come to must be that there does exist a small number of people who obtain knowledge existing either in other people's minds, or in the outer world, by means yet unknown to science.
Such a “gigantic conspiracy” is not at all necessary to explain the fact that some scientists have seen what they expected and wanted to see and have accepted the conclusions of others without question. The fact that none of the findings of the paranormalists have been established but like the work of Soal, Lévy, Rhine, and so many others have instead fallen out of serious consideration upon subsequent examination, has apparently not altered Dr. Eysenck's conclusion.
F
Fairies
Miniature supernatural beings in the form of humans. The pixies of England and the brownies of Scotland are essentially the same creatures, and just as real. Specific fairies such as Robin Goodfellow (also known as Puck) are said to be helpful though mischievous and can be called upon to perform domestic services.
Incredibly, the famous author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle accepted the existence of fairies, elves, and other such creatures.
There is no agreement on the origins of the many varieties of fairies. One definition says they are the dispossessed spirits of humans not yet ready for heaven. Another describes them as a distinct life-form capable of the usual reproductive process, and in Devonshire, England, they are “pixies,” the spirits of infants who died before baptism.
The English version wears a red conical cap, a green cloak interwoven with flowers, green trousers, and silver slippers. Others are winged like dragonflies and dressed in filmy negligees. Some are said to dress in perfect miniatures of regular human clothing of
the current period. Ones choice of fairy appears to be a matter of taste.
In various cultures, there are both good and bad fairies. The Koran describes the delicate “peri” as the offspring of “fallen spirits,” and such a fairy is always benevolent, pointing out to the faithful the way to heaven. In contrast, a malevolent fairy lives in the mines of England, causing accidents and misleading the miners.
In general, fairies (and witches) fear iron.
See also Cottingley fairies.
Fairy Rings
Also known as “hag tracks.” Mushrooms found in the forest sometimes tend to grow in the form of circles, due to the fact that the old growths tend to die off from a central point, and often leave behind chemical residues that inhibit growth of other plants. Tradition has it that fairies or witches danced in these circles.
In Shakespeare's Tempest, he referred to the fairies and their artifact:
. . . You demi-puppets,that
By moonshine do the green-sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites.
Today, some of these rings have been labeled as sites of UFO landings, bringing a natural phenomenon up to date in the nonsense business.
Faith Healing
When organized medicine fails to supply a satisfactory answer, either through inadequate technology, the simple inability to provide a cure at that time, or the fact that not enough is presently known about the ailment, other modalities which promise miraculous results are often sought.
There are several religious sects who base their entire philosophy on healing modalities. It is found that the “cure rate” experienced by the believers is no higher than that of persons who receive no treatment whatsoever, and often much less. For example, the Christian Scientists forbid their followers to utilize any regular medical care or medication. A recent U.S. survey of students at the college level showed a significantly lower life expectancy for those who attended Christian Science schools than for those who did not. Faced by such revelations, the believers turn their backs on further examination of their convictions.
Faith healers have often answered, when asked for proper evidence of their claims, “God doesn't need to be examined or challenged.” The healers say, when the disease doesn't go away, that the subject has lost faith and thus has failed to “hold” his or her blessing. The guilt is borne by the subject. Saddest of all is the realization that these people subject their children to these restrictions as well, often with crippling or fatal results.
Reformer Martin Luther, among others in the sixteenth century, took credit for spontaneous, miraculous cures while Paracelsus and other savants were attempting — with highly varying degrees of success — to bring out of the superstition of magic, what we know today as the science of medicine. The Mormons and Episcopalians established a history of faith cures as part of their theologies.
In the 1600s, one practitioner known as “Greatraks the Stroker” (or Greatrakes, b. 1628) was astounding England with his performances. A remarkable English author, Charles MacKay, who in 1841 wrote his classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, observed in that book that
Mr. Valentine Greatraks . . . practised upon himself and others a deception . . . that God had given him the power of curing the king's evil. . . . In the course of time he extended his powers to the curing of epilepsy, ulcers, aches, and lameness. . . . Crowds which thronged around him were so great, that the neighboring towns were not able to accommodate them.
(MacKay's reference to the “king's evil” refers to scrofula.)
One can be grateful that MacKay recognized that Greatraks was deceiving both his patients and himself. As with fortune-tellers, healers often begin to believe in their own powers because their subjects tend to give them only positive feedback. Thus they can excuse and forget their many failures, and their legends grow.
Greatraks made a huge impression on the public and accumulated a fortune in the process. In this respect, he helped to establish the precedent for modern faith healers. And in several other important respects he mirrored the modern faith healers, as evidenced in an account written by a contemporary in 1665:
A rumour of the prophet's coming soon spread all over the town, and the hotel . . . was crowded by sick persons, who came full of confidence in their speedy cure. [Greatraks] made them wait a considerable time for him, but came at last, in the middle of their impatience, with a grave and simple countenance, that shewed no signs of his being a cheat. [The host] prepared to question him strictly, hoping to discourse with him on matters that he had heard of. . . . But he was not able to do so, much to his regret, for the crowd became so great, and cripples and others pressed around so impatiently to be first cured, that the servants were obliged to use threats, and even force, before they could establish order among them. . . . The prophet affirmed that all diseases were caused by evil spirits. Every infirmity was with him a case of diabolical possession. . . . He boasted of being much better acquainted with the intrigues of demons than he was with the affairs of men. . . . Catholics and Protestants visited him from every part, all believing that power from heaven was in his hands. . . . So great was the confidence in him, that the blind fancied they saw the light which they could not see — the deaf imagined that they heard — the lame that they walked straight, and the paralytic that they had recovered the use of their limbs.
To anyone who has actually witnessed a modern faith healer in action with crowds of worshipers around and about, that scenario will be familiar.
Sometimes psychics who do the usual ESP, reading, prophecy, and clairvoyance demonstrations eventually turn to claims of healing powers.
See also royal touch.
Fakir
(also, fakeer) From the Arabic word for “poor man,” a fakir is technically a person who begs professionally. Itinerant fakirs in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka often perform conjuring tricks to earn their gifts. On occasion, one may be charismatic and adept enough to become a “god-man” such as Sai Baba.
Fakirs are better known for their self-mutilation stunts, sitting on beds of nails and otherwise invoking the astonishment and contributions of generous tourists. The bed-of-nails trick depends upon the number of nails per square unit of fakir posterior. Sometimes there are a sufficient number of nails that the area is hardly more than a rough spot and a piece of leather judiciously placed in a loincloth can provide considerable comfort to the performer. Suggestions that the demonstration should begin with only one nail are not looked upon favorably by the fakirs.
Falkenstein, Glenn
See Davenport brothers.
Familiar
A demon, usually assuming the form of a cat, dog, spider, pig, rat, rabbit, or toad, that acts as companion and assistant to a witch or magician. Trials of witches often included a pet as codefendant, and these animals were just as often executed along with the condemned human. A silly concept cannot be made sillier by expanding it; the quality of silliness is totally saturating and all-encompassing.
Oliver Cromwell, accused by the British Royalists of being a wizard, was said by them to have a familiar named Grimoald. Agrippa's familiar was a black dog named Monsieur, and Simon Magus had a similar companion. It was said that these familiars could be kept in a hollow ring worn by the magician and released upon command. Apollonius of Tyana wore several such rings, and Paracelsus (Bombastus) carried about his familiar in the hilt of his sword:
Bombastus kept a devil's bird
Shut in the pommel of his sword,
That taught him all the cunning pranks
Of past and future mountebanks.
— Hudibras, Samuel Butler
The Malaysians say that their magicians each have an hereditary spirit/familiar inherited from generation to generation. In Egyptian demonology, a familiar known as a “karina” is assigned to each child at birth.
In medieval times, ventriloquism was explained by assuming the existence of a familiar — known as a “kobold” — accompanying the performe
r. There are better explanations available.
Faustus, Dr.
(stage name) See Hoy, David.