An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural

by James Randi

  Occam's razor

  See parsimony.

  Occult

  From the Latin occulere, meaning “to cover up.” Used as an adjective, mysterious, not revealed, secret, and obscure are all synonyms.

  Odic Force

  From the name of the Norse god Odin. The name given by Baron Karl von Reichenbach (1788-1869) to an unmeasurable and undetectable energy that he imagined came from crystals, magnets, and the bodies of certain adepts. This was a precursor to the notion of the equally imaginary aura.

  Ointment

  In witchcraft, any substance to be rubbed on the flesh to produce magical results. There were many formulas for flying ointment, for poisonous ointment, and for aphrodisiacs. A special flying ointment was prepared by boiling the fat from newborn, unbaptized children. It did not work.

  Olcott, Henry Steel

  (1832-1906/7) An otherwise respected agriculturist who took up the cause and theories of H. P. Blavatsky and cofounded the religion known as Theosophy.

  Om

  (or “aum”) A Sanskrit word often used in mantras and which is pronounced at the beginning and at the end of every lesson of the Vedas, the four sacred books of Hinduism.

  The Katha-Upanishad of Hinduism says of “om” that “whoever knows this syllable obtains whatever he wishes.” Well, now you know it, too. Good luck.

  Omens

  In attempts to discover meaning in every natural event or condition, we have used considerable imagination. There are many genuine clues provided by nature: The changing angle of the Sun charts the changing of the seasons, the reappearance of migratory birds heralds the advent of spring, and behavioral differences — what we could call “symptoms” — in animals and humans can indicate physiological situations.

  We should not be too surprised to find that our forefathers extended their observations beyond reasonable limits, believing that almost everything that occurred bore some relationship to upcoming events. Thus, not only the position of the Sun, but the configurations of the stars and the planets were also thought to hold significance. Even the general flight patterns of birds and indeed the arrangement and variations of their internal organs took on meaning to observers. Chosen “sacred” animals, by their most minor behavioral meanderings in a temple court, indicated important conditions that could be interpreted, with enough skill. Thereby were born such arts as astrology, phrenology, palmistry and augury.

  It might be hoped that we are now free of such impediments to progress. Not so. Most major modern office buildings omit the thirteenth floor, and highly paid lawyers and bankers avoid ladders and black cats. Astrology, worldwide, is a billion-dollar business. Palm readers are sought out by Wall Street brokers, and otherwise bright folks call unseen “certified psychics” by phone to ask their advice.

  Progress is often difficult to define. Perhaps it should involve the process known as growing up, as well.

  One-ahead Method

  In spiritualistic circles, a “sealed billet-reading” procedure is often used to convince the audience. One popular system for producing this effect is known as, “one-ahead.”

  A sitter is told, as he enters the room or church, to write out a question or phrase he wishes to be answered or interpreted, and is told to seal it in an envelope. Often he also writes his initials on the outside of that envelope. The medium accepts a basket full of these envelopes, takes one, and holds it to her head. She announces the contents and comments appropriately on the question or phrase. The medium then tears open the envelope to check how correct she was, then repeats the process with another sealed envelope.

  The trick lies in the fact that before accepting the basket of envelopes, the medium has secretly obtained one, opened it, and memorized the contents. It has then been destroyed. Upon picking up the first envelope, the medium misidentifies it as the one secretly peeked at. Opening the envelope as if to check, the medium is now aware of the actual contents of that envelope, and represents that data as belonging to the next one. She is always working “one-ahead.”

  This method is worked in every country, even to this day, and is very effective as a convincer.

  OOBE

  See out-of-body experience.

  Open Medium

  A term in opposition to closed medium. The open medium may seek assistance from, and cooperate with, others. He or she is totally aware of the flummery involved. The considerable amount of data available from the Blue Book is contributed to the publisher by the open mediums and used by them. Though the closed performer may compile his or her own data, they are not made available to others.

  Order of the Golden Dawn

  (more correctly, “Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn”) Founded in 1888 in London, this was a secret society that boasted as members Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Mrs. Constance Wilde (wife of Oscar Wilde), and Aleister Crowley. Founder S. L. MacGregor Mathers said that he obtained his esoteric knowledge for the order from “Secret Chiefs” and “Masters” while in trance.

  An icon of the Order of the Golden Dawn, incorporating symbols used by the Rosicrucians.

  The order broke up in 1900.

  Orgone

  A name given by psychologist Wilhelm Reich (1892-1957) to an imaginary substance he believed was normally evenly distributed about the body, but gathered into the genital area during orgasm, then was redistributed after that event. Lack of proper, satisfying orgasms, he said, led to orgone imbalance and attendant negative symptoms of every sort.

  Reich preached that cancer was caused by a lack of orgone.

  In 1940 he built and marketed a box he called an Orgone Accumulator, and sales were brisk. It was simply a three-foot-square box made of two layers, wood on the outside and metal on the inside. The natural orgone from the sky, he said, was soaked up by the wood and transmitted to the metal and thus to the body of the owner, crouched inside. Orgone Blankets followed, as well as small orgone “shooters” that were said to direct concentrated orgone to needed areas.

  Only fourteen years later, in 1954, ever-vigilant investigators for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had discovered these devices and obtained an injunction against Reich selling his products. However, Reich continued, and in 1956 was tried, convicted, and sentenced to a $10,000 fine plus two years in prison. He died in prison, praised by his followers as a persecuted pioneer of progress.

  Osteomyology

  A peculiarly British form of quackery indistinguishable from chiropractic. Used when patients find out that chiropractic doesn't work, and need to be fleeced by something else.

  Ouija Board

  Bearing a name said to be derived from the French and German words for “yes,” the Ouija board is simply a flat, smooth board bearing the letters of the alphabet, numbers, and often the words “Yes,” “No,” “Maybe,” and “Goodbye.” A hand-sized, heart-shaped device perched upon three short legs, each of which has a pad or wheel to enable the instrument to slide freely across the board, is known as the planchette. This is used as a pointer, the tapered end of the heart shape indicating letters on the board.

  The Ouija board and heart-shaped planchette.

  One or more operators sit around the board, each lightly resting fingers upon the top of the planchette. It is said that spirits or other entities cause the planchette to move about the board, spelling out messages and answers to questions posed by the operators. (This process is a form of “dactylomancy,” or divination by means of finger motions.)

  Actually, the movement is due to the ideomotor effect and this can be shown by the fact that when the operator is properly blindfolded, only gibberish is produced.

  The Ouija board was patented in 1892 by a Maryland novelty company.

  See also planchette.

  Ouspensky, Peter Demianovich

  (1878-1947) A Russian mathematician and mystic, Ouspensky is best known for his interest in George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1877?-1949) and for his explanations of Gurdjieff's teachings. He also wrote on the Tarot, and in hi
s most popular work, Tertium Organum, he tried to reconcile Western rationalism with Eastern mysticism.

  He met Gurdjieff in 1915, was profoundly impressed, and became a disciple, but broke with him in 1924.

  Out-of-body experience

  (also, OBE or OOBE) Mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 by Saint Paul:

  I know a Christian man who fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of it, I do not know — God knows) was caught up as far as the third heaven.

  The word ecstasy is derived from the Greek, meaning “out of place” or “out of body.”

  Parapsychologist Charles Tart has defined the phenomenon as

  an event in which the experiencer (1) seems to perceive some portion of some environment which could not possibly be perceived from where his physical body is known to be at the time; and (2) knows at the time that he is not dreaming or fantasizing.

  However, this definition also matches (1) the experience anyone has of listening on the telephone, watching a television broadcast, or hearing a radio program, and (2) it is difficult to imagine how one can know that he “is not dreaming or fantasizing,” if Webster's definition of an hallucination is

  the apparent real perception of sights, sounds, etc., that are not actually present.

  Given the exceedingly complex nature of the cognitive process in human beings, it cannot be said with any degree of certainty that sensory/perception malfunctions do not occur that give the strong impression of being “real” while in actuality there is no corresponding situation or event.

  Parapsychologist Susan Blackmore covered the subject thoroughly in her books Parapsychology and Out-of-the-Body Experiences (1978) and Beyond the Body (1982).

  P

  Palladino, Eusapia

  (née Palladino, then Signora Raphael Delgaiz, 1854-1918) Born in southern Italy, spirit medium Palladino was accepted by many scientists, particularly those like Charles Richet and Schrenck-Notzing, who were devout believers in all spiritualistic claims. She specialized in levitation of tables.

  A cantankerous, vain, difficult person, she became an international celebrity, and sometimes sat for tests, though she was often caught cheating on these occasions and on other non-controlled sittings as well. The prominent investigator Hereward Carrington (né Hubert Lavington, 1880-1958) brought her to America, became her manager, and took her on tour. In America she continued to be caught cheating, and Carrington came to the conclusion that she sometimes cheated (when she was caught), but that the rest of her performance (when she was not caught) was genuine.

  Part of her success was probably due to her petulant attitude, which she used to discourage proper examination of her performances. As with others in her trade, she needed to control the circumstances around her and managed to do so very effectively, throwing temper tantrums and walking out of tests when things were not to her liking. She was also noted among investigators for her seeming lack of acquaintance with soap-and-water, being the source of a heavy variety of unpleasant body odors, especially in the closed séance room. She provided her examiners with plentiful reasons to regret having taken on such a formidable woman.In spite of all this, and her repeated exposures, Carrington remained thoroughly convinced for the rest of his life that Palladino was genuinely in touch with Summerland.

  Palmistry

  (also, chiromancy or chirognomy) An ancient notion that says a person's character, health, and destiny are portrayed in the folds, shape, size, and lines of the palm. In the nineteenth century, the writings of William Benham and Louis Harmon revived interest in the idea, which had somewhat waned since earlier times. William Warner, as Cheiro, was the great palmist at the turn of the twentieth century.

  Lines, mounds and proportions of the hand, shown with zodiacal and planetary signs. Used in palmistry.

  An interesting variation of the art, and every bit as accurate, is “podoscopy,” reading fortunes from the sole of the foot. It is popular in China.

  In the same way that reflexology, iridology, physiognomy, and similar systems try to establish that information is available in physical features, palmistry satisfies the human need to find meaning in any sort of natural pattern.

  Paracelsus

  (circa 1493-1541) He was grandly named Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombast von Hohenheim, a Swiss scholar/physician/mystic who called himself Paracelsus (para Celsus meaning “beyond” Celsus, an early Platonist and anti-Christian philosopher). Paracelsus was born to educated parents in Switzerland and was admitted to the University of Basel at age sixteen.

  His life's work took him to Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scandinavia, Spain, and Turkey. His philosophy was a curious mixture of mystical notions and hard thinking. He added a few facts to chemical knowledge, made some of the earliest attempts to organize medical information, and was among the first to use nonorganic chemicals to treat disorders, but by most measures he was a superstitious, argumentative, offensive braggart who alienated everyone with whom he came in contact.

  True to his calling as a physician of that day, he insisted upon applying his knowledge of astrological aspects to all healing processes. On a more realistic bent, he laid the basis for an understanding of psychologically based illness by teaching that negative attitudes and stress can invoke certain problems, while a positive attitude is more conducive to avoidance of those conditions and/or to recovery. That glimmering of the basic idea of psychological/psychosomatic causes and effects, widely accepted today, was expressed by Paracelsus thus: “A powerful will may cure, where a doubt will end in failure.”

  Paracelsus favored the use of magnets in curing patients, and was in that respect the inspiration for Franz Anton Mesmer, the French mountebank who, two hundred years later, discovered the principles of what we now call hypnosis, or suggestion. Mesmer at first believed that magnets were necessary for his induction of the “trance” state, but soon found that what became known as Mesmerism worked just as well without such aid.

  Paracelsus studied and recorded methods of discovering and recovering metals from the earth. In that time, diviners (dowsers) used their forked sticks, pendulums, and other devices to find not only water, but metallic ores. Then, as now, any success they enjoyed was due either to their knowledge of geology or just dumb luck.

  A natural wanderer and vagabond, this scholar managed to lose every friend he ever made, and his superiority complex soon earned him a terrible reputation. That reputation was well earned, as indicated in the preface to one of his books. He wrote:

  In this midcentury, monarchy of all the arts pertains to me, Theophrastus Paracelsus, prince of philosophy and medicine. For to this am I chosen by God that I may extinguish all fantasies of all far-fetched, false and putative works and presumptuous words, be they of Aristotle, Galen, Avicenna, Mesue, or any of their adherents.

  As a result of this attitude, though he taught at various centers of learning, Paracelsus stayed at each for only short periods of time before his superiors and his students decided they'd had enough of him.

  He tried to change even the primitive notions of what made up the basic elements of the Renaissance universe. He disallowed the four elements of fire, earth, water, and air, replacing them with sulfur, mercury, and salt. However, even in this matter he seems not to have ever made up his mind.

  In 1536 he published his Prognosticatio, a book of thirty-two illustrations that very much resemble the well-known Tarot cards. He claimed that the line drawings were magical, and wrote accompanying captions for them which he said were prophecies. Allegorical and symbolic in nature, these drawings and texts are as enigmatic as the Nostradamus writings, and may well have inspired the French seer in his style, since they were available to him well before he even produced his first almanac. This work of Paracelsus was referred to by his great admirer, another mystic named Éliphas Lévi, as “the most astounding monument and indisputable proof of the reality and existence of the gift of natural prophecy.”

  Paracelsus, the
flamboyant early scientist who revolutionized the medical treatment of his day.