An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural
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Along with descriptions of strictly magical procedures that he took as having some value, he made observations which indicated his grasp of both human nature and correct methodical thinking. Though he was inescapably subject to the superstitions of his day and the necessity of catering to popular prejudices — including a tendency to immolate those who doubted scriptural declarations — he was frequently able to rise above those burdens, as when he discoursed on medical matters and public attitudes. In his fourth book on diseases, A Paramiric Treatise, he closed with these words:
You have seen how natural bodies, through their own natural forces, cause many things [believed to be] miraculous among the common people. Many have interpreted these effects as the work of saints; others have ascribed them to the Devil; one has called them sorcery, others witchcraft, and all have entertained superstitious beliefs and paganism. I have shown what to think of all that.
One might believe those to be the thoughts of a thinker of this century.
Paranormal
An adjective referring to events, abilities, and matters not yet defined or explained by science. From the Greek, it translates as “beside/beyond normal.” All of what is popularly classified as psychic can be placed in this class, though serious parapsychologists may choose to exclude some, like spoon-bending.
Parapsychological Association
(PA) Founded in 1957, the PA is a private international nonprofit organization of some three hundred scientists devoted to the study of psi and related subjects. The PA was admitted to membership in the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1969. The Association
seeks to increase knowledge and obtain a better understanding of the full extent of humankind's potential for awareness, communication and action. The primary emphasis of the membership involves the investigation of psi
Parapsychologist
A properly qualified scientist who works in parapsychology. More strictly, a full member of the Parapsychological Association.
Parapsychology
Among all the sciences, there is one known as parapsychology. It studies certain reported but unsubstantiated events (such as ESP, psychokinesis, dowsing, prophecy) that have no presently known explanation. Like all other sciences, it develops theories to explain these claimed events and attempts to test those theories by experimentation. See also science.
However, unlike in other sciences, none of the parapsychologists' experiments have both shown positive results and have been replicated by independent researchers. Even the Guinness Book of Records, listing the single most astonishing performance in ESP, apologizes and reports that the episode fails to meet even their standards. Data in some important basic parapsychological experiments that yielded apparently positive results have been shown to be falsified — though parapsychology is not alone in this respect.
Some students of paranormal matters say that such claims cannot be examined rationally. If that is the case, then their studies do not belong with science, but in the same category as flat-Earth theories and perpetual-motion machines, none of which can have the slightest importance to anyone except, perhaps, students of abnormal psychology or editors of the sensational press.
Psychologist Dr. David Marks, who has done extensive investigation of the parapsychologists' work, has said:
Parascience has so far failed to produce a single repeatable finding and, until it does, will continue to be viewed as an incoherent collection of belief systems steeped in fantasy, illusion and error.
The U.S. National Research Council in 1988 concluded a well-funded two-year study by a special committee and published a report, Enhancing Human Performance, which concluded:
The committee finds no scientific justification from research conducted over a period of 130 years, for the existence of parapsychological phenomena. In the committee's view, the best scientific evidence does not justify the conclusion that ESP — that is, gathering information about objects or thoughts without the intervention of known sensory mechanisms — exists. Nor does scientific evidence offer support for the existence of psychokinesis — that is, the influence of thoughts upon objects without the intervention of known physical processes.
Nonetheless, courses in parapsychology are offered in more than two hundred colleges and universities in the United States alone, and degrees in parapsychology are offered at several schools, in particular at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California. Their Graduate School of Consciousness Studies offers a parapsychology master of science degree.
Parsimony
Aside from its usual meaning of “frugality,” this word expresses a very important philosophical and logical concept. Also known as Occam's (or Ockham's) razor, it is a philosophical principle usually credited to William of Occam (1285-1347/9), and Galileo used it when he preferred the heliocentric solar system over a geocentric one. Sir W. Hamilton (1788-1856) stated it:
The law of Parcimony [sic], which forbids, without necessity, the multiplication of entities, powers, principles, or causes; above all, the postulation of an unknown force, where a known impotence can account for the effect.
(The rule was originally stated by Occam as, “Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.”)
In effect, this rule states that if there exists more than one answer to a problem or a question, and if, for one answer to be true, well-established laws of logic and science must be re-written, ignored, or suspended in order to allow it to be true, and for the other answer to be true no such accommodation need be made, then the simpler — the second — of the answers is much more likely to be correct.
Here is an example of a problem:
The claim: that a person can cause an ordinary spoon to bend merely by looking at it, using psychic powers that have not been established and which would violate many known rules (conservation and transfer of energy, etc.) and cause those basic laws of science to be rewritten.
There are two explanations available: one says that these basic physical laws have been suspended in this case — a unique event never before known in history — and the other says that the performer has employed sleight of hand and/or deceptive optical principles and/or psychological misdirection to provide the illusion of the spoon bending without the use of ordinary physical force.
The second of the two explanations is much more likely to be true.
To substitute another phenomenon for the previous example:
The claim: that a magician can saw a woman in two pieces and then restore her using special powers that have not been established and which would violate many known rules (physiological, biological, etc.) and cause those basic laws of science to be rewritten.
There are two explanations available: one says that these basic physical laws have been suspended in this case — a unique event never before known in history — and the other says that the performer has employed deceptive optical and/or mechanical principles to provide the illusion of the woman having been sawn in two and then restored alive.
In this case, which explanation is much more likely to be true? Is the likelihood not just as strong in both cases?
Pendulum
One method of divination uses a pendulum. A weight of any kind, the bob, is suspended at the end of a string or chain: crystals, real or fake, are currently popular. The device is held over a map or other object, and various movements of the bob are interpreted in different ways by different operators. Most pendulum swingers say that the bob swings clockwise over a person's right hand and counterclockwise over the left. They say that it swings to and fro over a male's body and in a circular pattern over a female's. But some of them say exactly the opposite.
In this phenomenon, it can always be seen that the subject moves his or her hand to set the pendulum swinging, though this will be vehemently denied. The event is a perfect example of ideomotor reaction. To-and-fro motions and circles are produced, often in answer to questions directed by the dowser at the pendulum itself. The operator speaks to the pendulum. Really.
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p; The bob of the pendulum is often hollow so that diverse substances — solid or liquid — can be retained inside, the idea being that the device with thereby become more sensitive to the contained substance. The French, who dignify the process with by term radioaesthesia, produce a wide selection of screw-together pendulums in various colors made of metal, wood, or plastic.
See also dowsing and map dowsing.
Pentacle / Pentagram
A five-pointed figure used as a talisman, with magic symbols. Also, a figure chalked on the floor by a magician, inside which he stands while invoking a demon or other dangerous entity; since the entity cannot enter that space, the magician is protected. Not proven.
See also magic circle.
Perpetual motion
This is a pervasive notion that has probably cost more time, money, and mental effort for the crackpots than any other pursuit except for the philosopher's stone.
The idea that a device, machine, or engine can be designed whereby free energy or work can be obtained simply by setting it into motion has preoccupied inventors for centuries. While “free” power is available through such forces as solar radiation, ocean tides, changes in atmospheric pressure, and flowing water, no device can be constructed that will operate without energy input or that will generate an energy output greater than the energy required to operate it.
In 1678, the Abbé John of Hautefeuille (1647-1724) designed a machine that would perform continually as a result of the energy provided by warping pine boards subjected to natural changes in humidity, and in 1751 a St. Petersburg inventor named Kratzenstein came up with a thermal energy scheme. These, of course, did not come under the definition of perpetual motion machines since they depended on a natural energy source, in the same way that solar cells, hydroelectric, and various wave- and tidal-change systems do. Similarly, several kinds of timepieces such as the Atmos clock perform continually, powered by changes in barometric pressure.
By far the larger proportion of inventors of such devices are self-deluded. The rest are intentional frauds. Somewhere in between are those who sincerely believe that their ideas are workable, but are not averse to improving the performance of their creations by means of a little hidden support.
One of the most famous — and successful — of the fraudulent class of inventors was John Worrell Keely (1837-1898), a Boston man of no appreciable education who managed to raise vast amounts of money from investors who witnessed, at Keely's home, a model of his machine — the Hydro-Pneumatic-Pulsating-Vacuo-Engine — merrily whirring away without an apparent source of energy. Though he spent a short time in prison, he died wealthy and only after his house was torn down was it discovered that a flywheel in the basement connected to concealed tubes in the floors and walls had delivered compressed air to power this and several other models of marvelous machines he had designed.
The U.S. Patent Office, much to its shame, has actually issued patents on perpetual motion devices and systems, though these “inventions” have never been shown to work. This, in spite of a decision years ago that no patent for such a device would be considered unless a working model was submitted. Recently, a Mississippi man named Joe W. Newman actually obtained signatures from thirty scientists who said his “free energy” machine, which is in actuality a huge direct-current motor powered by a massive stack of batteries, is a valid invention. Newman himself says that when his creation is finally able to be put to work,
there will be no more pollution, no more Ethiopias. Deserts will become oases. People will work only one hour a week and have all the material goods they need. Children will have hope. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that my machine is going to bring peace, prosperity and happiness.
Newman, who holds other valid patents for ideas that really do work — one is a cigarette-making machine, thus showing another of his contributions to mankind — refuses to accept the “perpetual motion” label for his design, insisting that it is a “free energy” idea. However, if the output of his machine is simply connected to the input, he should have an ever-running system. This he has apparently never managed — or tried — to do.
Perpetual motion/free energy remains a vain notion in the minds of eccentric folks who are intent upon wasting their time and other people's money on a dream. As Arthur Ord-Hume, in his fascinating book Perpetual Motion — the History of an Obsession, says:
There must be something in the make-up of the perpetual motionist which, while urging him on in his quest for the impossible, encourages him not to deviate from the well-trodden path to certain failure. . . . Even the alchemist . . . knew when he was beaten.
Petrie, Sir William Matthew Flinders
(1853-1942) A genuinely talented archaeologist who laid the foundation for much of today's methodology in excavation techniques, Sir William was also a mystic who believed that the Great Pyramid of Giza was constructed in the form of a prophetic message, with the entire past, present, and future of Earth represented in the structure and design. Some religious sects such as the Jehovah's Witnesses have adopted this notion as part of their philosophy.
Phantom Leaf Effect
See Kirlian photography.
Philosopher's Stone
(also, Azoth, Elixir of Life, Grand Catholicon, Lapis Philosophicus, Powder of Projection, Prima Materia, or Universal Alkahest) The substance, spirit, or symbol by which base metals — iron, lead, copper — can be changed into gold or silver. It also imparts immortality, cures disease, and performs other miracles. It is said to be the material from which all metals derive. A charming alchemical notion not supported by reality.
The search for the elusive substance has led to the discovery of several processes of variable merit: the German Bötticher developed the method of making what is now known as Dresden porcelain, Roger Bacon came up with an improved form of gunpowder, and Johann Rudolf Glauber invented Glauber Salts.
See also alchemy.
Philtre
See potion.
Phrenology
The German physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) invented the idea of studying the bumps on the human head, from which he believed character traits could be read. His theory of phrenology (meaning “mind system”) was first known as “organology” and was announced by Gall in Vienna in 1796, when he mapped twenty-six areas of the head that he said were assigned to certain aspects of human personality.
After a falling-out with Gall, Dr. Johann Kaspar Spurzheim, a disciple of Gall's, took his own version of phrenology to America, where it became very popular, now with thirty-five areas of the head marked out. U.S. President Martin Van Buren, Henry Ward Beecher, Walt Whitman, and Daniel Webster endorsed it. Horace Mann declared:
I look upon phrenology as the guide to philosophy and the hand maid of Christianity. Whoever disseminates true phrenology is a public benefactor.
Jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes, known for his common sense, denounced the whole idea.
In 1836, the Fowler brothers, Orson and Lorenzo, started a publishing house for the American Phrenology Journal. The business was expanded to include instruction centers, a museum, and all manner of props and devices. It continued to flourish until 1932 under the name Fowler & Wells, and original phrenological busts in porcelain made by the firm are sought after by modern devotees of the idea.
A ponderous machine called the Psycograph was soon developed. It consisted of a huge hemispherical frame with thirty-two probes pointing inward at the victim's head. The contraption produced a printed tape that evaluated the character of the person whose head had been poked at. Several varieties of the machine are still in operation at the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where genial proprietor Robert McCoy demonstrates a variety of admittedly quack devices.
The Psycograph, a quack device.
An exceptionally fatuous notion popular well into this century, totally unsupported by the most superficial examination of the evidence but therefore still quite popular among the uninformed, phrenology is an
other “science” that seems to satisfy the human need to solve the enigmas of character and fate.
Physiognomy
The art of reading character and fate from the features of the face. It was once widely believed that one's true qualities were mirrored in the configuration, size, and condition of the facial features. Criminologists of the nineteenth century seized upon this possibility and squandered a great amount of study and money on the shape of the criminal ear.
The Oscar Wilde story The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) was based on the premise that a highly realistic painting of a young man, rather than the man himself, took on all the physiognomical changes associated with an evil life.