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

by James Randi

  Premonition

  See prophecy.

  Presidential Curse

  Beginning in 1840 with William Henry Harrison, and at twenty-year intervals up until 1960, each president of the United States elected or reelected in those years died in office. Fans of this notion choose to ignore the fact that President Zachary Taylor, elected in 1848 (not a twenty-year interval) died sixteen months after taking office, on July 9, 1850. He does not fit the expectation, so is excluded.

  Those who search for cycles confidentially expected Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980, to suffer the same fate. Reagan, it seems, has broken the “curse.” Thank you, Mr. President.

  See also Jeane Dixon.

  Price, Harry

  (1881-1948) A prominent British “ghost hunter” whose major investigation was of Borley Rectory, Price lived a life which was a strange mixture of fact and fraud. He claimed to be descended from an aristocratic family, to have inherited wealth, and to be an expert archaeologist, bibliographer, numismatist, and — most importantly — a psychic researcher.

  Price organized the National Laboratory of Psychical Research in 1927, in direct opposition to the London-based Society for Psychical Research. He wrote on numismatics for a short time, and then extensively on his psychic interests. Among his books are Leaves from a Psychist's Case-Book (1933), Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter (1936), Fifty Years of Psychical Research (1939), The Most Haunted House in England (1940), Search for Truth (autobiography, 1942), and The End of Borley Rectory (1946).

  Among the many rare books in Price's extensive library were several volumes dealing with conjuring, and a number that discussed specific techniques applicable to the spiritualistic type of trickery that can be used to approximate ghost phenomena. Price was well versed in conjuring, belonged to a well-known conjurors' organization, and served there as a librarian.

  Even during his lifetime, Price was exposed as a charlatan. A brilliant and competent researcher, he apparently wished to add to his reputation by fraud. Following his death, investigations showed that Price had been more of an adventurer than what he had purported to be. He had faked, plagiarized, and bluffed his way into the confidence of his many and enthusiastic supporters, along the way accomplishing some valuable and genuine research.

  To quote Dr. Eric J. Dingwall, who knew and collaborated with Price on various projects: When I first knew him [Price] showed no signs of the ability to present psychic material in a way which appealed not only to the popular press but to the intelligent general reader who wanted to know what was being done in this field. At the end of his life he was by far the greatest master of this type of narrative. The most trivial incident or haphazard meeting could be made into an enthralling tale through the imaginative pen of Harry Price.

  His very extensive and valuable library, amounting to 4,376 books and thousands of pamphlets, photographs, and periodicals, filled eighty-seven packing cases when it was accepted by the University of London, where it resides today.

  Prima Materia

  See philosopher's stone.

  Project Alpha

  See psychokinete.

  Prophecy

  This general term encompasses a wide range of claimed phenomena — prediction, premonition, prognostication — all of which can be defined as the ability to foretell events, more limited to an ability not related to induction or deduction from known facts. Many studies have been made to determine whether the ability exists, and if so, how accurate it might be. One of the most extensive is the Premonition Registry, where records are kept of thousands of predictions that are sent in. Not much has been heard from the registry in recent years.

  Research in this matter is subject to the element of selective recall, whereby individuals tend to remember when a dream or hunch turns out correctly and forget it if it fails. Therefore, anecdotal reports are not of much value.

  In 1983, an examination was made of the evidence offered by 127 persons who responded to a U.K. newspaper feature on premonitions. A questionnaire was accompanied by a personality test. Most who answered were female, average age was forty-six years, and 80 percent of them said that they were correct 70 percent of the time. The personality test showed that these persons were significantly more neurotic than average and scored high on a “lie scale.” Some 85 percent of their predictions involved death or other tragedies. The investigator concluded that the ability to have premonitions is important since it warns females and thereby provides a “survival advantage to the species.” No comment.

  Large-scale studies of prophetic ability have failed to provide sufficient dependable data to support claims that it is valid. Mystics have offered strange rationalizations of this fact, as demonstrated in The Magician's Companion, a comprehensive volume by Bill Whitcomb dealing with magical formulas and systems. Mr. Whitcomb observes:

  One point to remember is that the probability of an event changes as soon as a prophecy (or divination) exists. . . . The accuracy or outcome of any prophecy is altered by the desires and attachments of the seer and those who hear the prophecy.

  The obvious paradox provided by these caveats is quite acceptable in the pursuit of magic, it seems.

  The prophecy business was once fraught with danger. While modern practitioners are forgiven over and over again for failures, Henry VIII of England meted out a nasty death to Elizabeth Barton, the “Holy Maid of Kent” who predicted His Majesty's immediate death for having married Anne Boleyn. The punishment was for treason, not for having been wrong by fourteen years.

  Of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, eighteen are ascribed to prophets. The Hebrews, Muslims, and Mormons all have strong dependence upon the teachings of prophets.

  See also astrology, Edgar Cayce, I Ching, Jeane Dixon, Nostradamus, palmistry, and scrying.

  Prophet

  See prophecy.

  Prophet, Elizabeth Clare

  (1940- ) President of the Church Universal and Triumphant, founded in 1958 with her husband, Mark Prophet (1918-1973). The church moved its headquarters from Malibu, California, to Montana, where a massive underground bunkerlike construction has been established, with tons of arms and food supplies saved against an Armageddon that has been promised several times but delayed. The dismantlement of the Soviet Union has essentially dampened Ms. Prophet's hopes for doom, since she had designated that political entity as The Enemy.

  The church now claims that their chanting of mantras and use of “Violet Flame Decrees” has forestalled global disaster. Maybe. We'll see. If so, thanks, Liz.

  Psi

  The twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet (pronounced sy in America, but often p-sy in Europe) suggested by psychologists R. H. Thouless and W. P. Weisner in 1944 to denote paranormal events, abilities, and studies. Defined by the Parapsychological Association as

  the apparent ability of human beings and other species to acquire information about their environment and to affect it physically without the use of currently understood mechanisms.

  One parapsychologist who expresses disenchantment with psi is Dr. Susan Blackmore. Perhaps her opinion is best expressed in her own words:

  My ten years of research have left me an open-minded skeptic rather than a disbeliever, but I have come to one conclusion: The notion of psi is remarkably unhelpful. If we want to understand the higher potentials of human experience, we need a better notion.

  Psi Gap

  Borrowed from such expressions as “technology gap,” popular during the Cold War to denote the discrepancy between an advantage obtained or held by the Soviet or by the Western powers, the “psi gap” was used as a scare technique by the parapsychologists and the psychics. It was largely fed by various hoaxes such as those perpetrated by a reporter working for syndicated Washington columnist Jack Anderson. He had “psychotechtronic weapons” such as the “hyperspatial howitzer” and “SADDOR” — a satellite-borne mechanical dowsing rod — striking fear into the public mind.

  A leading psychic of the day, Uri Geller, was ac
tively promoting interest in the psi gap, urging members of the U.S. Congress to invest in probing these mysteries as a defense mode, until the Soviet Union collapsed and relations between the powers relaxed. It has since been determined that neither side had anything even vaguely resembling a psi weapon, psi technology, or psi power.

  Psychic

  As an adjective, describes a variety of supernatural forces, events, or powers. Telepathy, extrasensory perception (ESP), clairvoyance, spiritualistic phenomena, magical or divine healing, psychokinesis, levitation, prophecy, or fortune-telling could come under this label. As a noun, it designates a person said to be able to call upon any of many psychic forces.

  In this encyclopedia, the word should always be viewed as if enclosed in quote marks.

  Psychic criminology

  See police psychics.

  Psychic Portraits

  Some persons who believe they have psychic powers produce what they call “psychic portraits” of dead persons. They say that the evidence they have that the persons so represented have ever lived is the acceptance of the sitters for whom the images were produced, and they usually say that they are unable to produce a likeness of any specific person upon request.

  Frequently a sitter will accept a likeness as representing someone they have known. Since these performances are usually done for very large audiences and all present are challenged to come up with a correspondence between the portrait and someone who looked like the artwork, it is likely that the attempt will be successful. Sometimes sitters who are interviewed admit that they “went along” with the artist in order not to cause any conflict. They are, after all, believers, otherwise they most probably would not pay to attend such a gathering. Having paid their money, they have an interest in the performance being successful and want it to be a positive experience. Going along with it seems harmless enough and moves things forward.

  See also cold reading.

  Psychic Surgery

  Every week, increasing numbers of people from all over the world arrive in Manila, capital of the Republic of the Philippines, seeking magical aid from the curanderos, who claim they can heal every sort of malady. Apparently by means of psychic — or divine — powers, these native healers can reach their hands into the bodies of clients, extracting deadly tumors and other substances, along with quantities of blood. In most cases, there is no trace of an incision on the body of the patient.

  To any experienced conjuror, the methods by which these seeming miracles are produced are very obvious. But inexperienced observers quite naturally do not see the trickery, and if they are predisposed to believe in magic, they are prepared to accept that something supernatural has taken place.

  There are two distinct classes of this performance, which is now known as “psychic surgery.” The most common form is relatively free of direct and immediate physical damage and risk to the person treated. It consists of cheating, secretly introducing the blood and other materials onto the surface of the body by means of sleight of hand. No incision takes place, and any infection which occurs does so through minor abrasions or scratches. The second form of “psychic surgery” is simply a direct invasion of the body by means of small, shallow incisions, often made unobserved, under cover of distraction — in exactly the way that a conjuror would perform.

  This Filipino practice has spread worldwide now, and in the states of California and Florida, psychic surgeons regularly visit on tour, untroubled by law enforcement agencies under the protection of the principle of Freedom of Religion. Since actual incisions are seldom made, the risk of infection is small. These practitioners, often assuming the titles “Reverend,” “Brother,” or “Doctor,” typically charge $100 per minute for their services. In other cases, they make no formal charge, but accept sizable “donations” that are carefully suggested by them, in writing, to their victims.

  One variety of “operation” performed by these people is actually a medieval procedure that involves actual invasion of the body. Known as “cupping,” it consists of first making a tiny incision with a knife, usually without any sterilization, anesthetic, or antiseptic. Then a bit of cotton wool soaked in alcohol is placed upon a coin near or upon the cut, and the cotton is ignited. A small glass is then quickly inverted over the site. At this point the area is often covered with a cloth, as if performing a conjuring trick and thus concealing from sight the process that now takes place inside the inverted glass.

  As the oxygen is consumed by the flame, a partial vacuum is created, drawing the flesh up into the glass. This causes the wound to bleed, and when the partial vacuum is thus equalized, the cloth is removed so that one can see that about one-fifth of the volume of the glass is now filled with blood. This process will, to an uninformed person, appear as if some magical force had brought the blood from the wound.

  Psychography

  See automatic writing.

  Psychokinesis

  (PK) Once known as “telekinesis,” PK is the claimed power to affect matter by mind alone. Such feats as spoon-bending, moving small objects, causing items to fall over or fly through the air, or changing the quality or quantity of any substance are included in this category.

  Many explanations have been offered for such feats, including certain mythic energies such as “ectenic force,” said to come from the body of the spirit medium during a séance, resulting in table tipping and apports. (The word ectenic was coined by two Swiss scientists, Count de Gasparin and Professor Thury, who convinced themselves that table tippers were generating a special force, rather than simply pushing the table about. This postulation denies the existence of ectoplasm and its more divine origins.)

  See also parapsychology.

  Psychokinete

  A term for a gifted person who can produce psychokinetic effects, invented by parapsychologist Michael Thalbourne to describe two young subjects, Michael Edwards and Steve Shaw, who in 1982 convinced parapsychologists at the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research (MacLab) in St. Louis, Missouri, that they could bend metal, impress images on photographic film, move objects, and use ESP.

  The psychokinetes proved to be ringers, sent in to show that simple conjuring techniques were sufficient to deceive the scientists. The parapsychologists easily accepted the boys as genuine psychics and until the hoax was voluntarily exposed in 1983 by the boys themselves, the scientists were sure they had proven the existence of supernatural forces and prepared a scientific paper on their investigation.

  Project Alpha, as the matter became known, was designed to show that scientists are easily deceived and that they usually have no adequate knowledge of conjuring techniques. Alpha cast no aspersions on the honesty of the researchers, but did question their competence. It was a great success and has resulted in some parapsychologists being more careful about their conclusions. Following the revelation of the hoax, the MacLab closed permanently.

  Though Mike Edwards got a real, traditional job and only performs occasionally in magic, Steve Shaw (1960- ) has gone on to become a ranking professional mentalist. He has been “buried alive” on network television and escaped from six feet down in the ground. In 1984 he performed another such stunt, being dug up after three days. He has developed many new angles to standard methods of the mentalists, and as a result has traveled internationally with his very clever and entertaining act.

  See also Dr. John Beloff.

  Psychometry / Psychometristx

  It is a common notion that “psychic vibrations” — of some unspecified and undefined nature — can be absorbed by places and by objects, particularly objects made of metal. This is referred to as “psychometry.” It was “discovered” by a Dr. J. R. Buchanan, who named it and called it a science.

  Many persons have had the experience of returning to a childhood location and feeling the “chill” of returning memories from long ago. Standing before an ancient monument can bring on strange feelings that seem to be the result of the edifice itself, and not merely of an awareness of the history and th
e personalities involved with that monument. It would be difficult to walk through Westminster Abbey and fail to be stirred by the memories thus invoked of famous persons.

  It is said that certain persons have an ability whereby they can sense vibrations taken up by objects, absorbed from persons and events that have been associated with those objects. If psychometry actually works, it should be possible for a practitioner (known as a “psychometrist”) to “read” vibrations from objects which have been intimately associated with a specific person, and to differentiate them from other similar objects owned by another person. The claim has been thoroughly tested and found false.