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

by James Randi

  See Halloween.

  Satan

  The Devil, in Christian belief the opposite in every way to Jesus Christ, and the ruler of the region of hell. Satan is known by many other names, such as Lucifer (“Light-bearer”), Asmodeus (“Creature of Judgment”), The Adversary, Behemoth (“Beast”), Diabolus, Belial, and Beelzebub (“Lord of the Flies”). These names are often used for various demons as well and are not necessarily applied to the King of Demons. Demonology is not an exact science.

  Satanism

  This belief is a directly opposing power structure to Christianity. The Devil replaces Jesus Christ, demons replace angels. The kingdom of Satan is below the Earth, that of Christ above it.

  Satanism was so strongly accepted as real by ecclesiastics in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries that they declared some fifty specific prohibitions against the belief. Though simple banishment was sometimes the penalty for convicted Satanists, burning alive was the more frequent punishment. For the church, that has always been an effective deterrent to opposition and/or rivalry.

  Today, the new agers and other such dilettantes toy with the naughty notion. Trashy magazines and tabloids feature advertisements and lurid articles dealing with the Dark Powers, confident that there are enough silly people around to support a limited industry devoted to Satanism. Their confidence has not been poorly placed.

  Scapulimancy

  See I Ching.

  Scarab

  An ancient Egyptian rendering of the common scarab beetle, often fashioned of green stone, marble, or limestone, was usually buried with the deceased as part of the interment ceremony. It was placed in the position formerly occupied by the heart of the person, which had been removed during the embalming process.

  The scarab, also known as the dung beetle, is often seen in nature rolling a small sphere of cattle dung into its nest. This event was perhaps taken by the Egyptians to symbolize the passage of the Sun across the sky, and in their writings and decorative motifs they represented the scarab as holding the sun-disk between its legs, in a similar pose they had observed in nature.

  Carved scarabs, in all sizes from one centimeter to more than a meter in length, are seen in museums around the world and small versions are still sold to unsuspecting tourists at souvenir stands in Egypt, and in new age bookshops.

  Schmeidler, Dr. Gertrude

  A parapsychologist known for her discovery of the “sheep/goats effect” in ESP testing. She found that believers (“sheep”) doing standard card-guessing tests had 0.4 percent more “hits” than nonbelievers (“goats”), who obtained 0.3 percent less that what would be expected by chance alone. The total number of tests was 250,875 guesses.

  Schneider, Rudi

  (1909-1957) An Austrian-born spirit medium who became famous for psychokinetic phenomena. He had two brothers, Karl and Willi, who also claimed mediumistic powers.

  Rudi was extensively tested by Eric J. Dingwall, Schrenck-Notzing and others. He claimed to be in a trance when he caused objects to move in the séance room, often while he was secured and controlled by the sitters.

  Later in his career, when more stringent controls were applied to him to guard against trickery during his demonstrations, and perhaps as a direct result of these controls, Schneider's phenomena dramatically decreased in regularity and effectiveness. With the decline in Rudi Schneider's ability to produce physical phenomena began the end of the “golden age” of spiritualism.

  Schrenck-Notzing, Dr. Albert Freiherr Von

  (1862-1929) An undistinguished German medical doctor who married into a very wealthy family, Schrenck-Notzing was able to devote himself entirely to his hobby, psychic research. He had a penchant for flamboyance and was a devoted self-publicist and a dilettante without peer.

  Séances held at the Schrenck-Notzing home in Munich were much more entertainments than serious investigations. They were attended by royalty and the cream of German society, in a period when séances were popular evening pastimes and these people could afford the heavy fees demanded by the performers.

  Schrenck-Notzing flitted blissfully from medium to medium, seeing such sought-after celebrities as Eva C. and Willi and Rudi Schneider, and pompously declared them all to be absolutely genuine. When damning evidence of fraud was produced by other investigators, Schrenck-Notzing was able to rationalize away the contrary data in ingenious ways and to influence researchers into suppressing the awkward data. He also occupied a position which made him impervious to criticism; he had no fear of losing sponsors.

  In spite of his obvious lack of expertise and his consummate, willful gullibility, Schrenck-Notzing's observations were quoted by others and accepted as positive evidence of the phenomena he was presenting.

  Science

  From the Latin scientia, meaning “knowledge.” Science is a search for knowledge of the universe.

  Scientists observe, draw conclusions from their observations, design experiments to examine those conclusions, and end up stating a theory which should express a new fact or idea. But if new or better evidence comes along, they must either discard that theory or amend it to accommodate the new evidence.

  In effect, science is a process of arriving, but it never quite arrives. A theory can perhaps be disproved, but it can never really be “proved.” Only the probability of a theory being correct can ever be properly stated. Fortunately, most of science consists of theories that are correct to a very high degree of probability; scientists can only establish a fact to the point that it would be obstinate and foolish to deny it. Since new data are constantly being presented, a theory or observation may have to be refined, repudiated, modified, or added to in order to agree with the new data.

  True science recognizes its own defects. That willingness to admit limitations, errors, and the tentative quality of any conclusion arrived at is one of the strengths of science. It is a procedure not available to those who profess to do science but do not: the abundant and prolific pseudoscientists and crackpots.

  And there is an important difference between pseudoscience and crackpot science: The former has some of the trappings, generally the appearance and much of the language used by real science, while the latter has no pretensions at all of appearing to be science. The present German fascination with imaginary E-rays and the speculations on how dowsing is supposed to work are pseudoscience; most perpetual motion ideas and things like reflexology, palmistry, and psychometry are crackpot science.

  Scientists aren't always right. And they don't always follow the rules exactly. The monk Gregor Mendel, performing his experiments in the mid-1880s which established the fundamental laws of heredity, apparently altered his figures slightly so that the results were somewhat more convincing — but in the long run, despite this “honest” fiddling with his data, he was right. The fact that other researchers can, even today, replicate his experiments and thus validate his conclusions has provided us with firmly established basic scientific laws about heredity.

  Newton, Kepler, Einstein, Curie, Galileo, and hundreds of other men and women of science — though they made some errors along the way — have provided mankind with knowledge that has made life richer, fuller, and more productive.

  Science and magic are exact opposites.

  See also testing psychic claims.

  Scientology

  See Hubbard, Lafayette Ronald.

  Scot, Michael

  (1175?-1234?) Scottish astrologer/magician who translated Aristotle's works and wrote on alchemy and on occult sciences. He was said to possess a demon horse and a demon ship. It is said that he accurately predicted his own death. Records on the man are at best sketchy.

  Scot, Reginald

  (1538?-1599) In English writer Reginald Scot's The Discouerie [sic] of Witchcraft (1584), we find an in-depth serious attempt to refute the superstitious belief in witchcraft, demons, and devils. The book, written in the vernacular, consists of sixteen divisions, with the last four devoted to charms and the tricks of jugglers and con
jurors; in the sixteenth century, even street performers were suspected of demonic powers, and Scot wished to show that what they did was merely clever trickery.

  The title page of Scot's 1584 book, a later (1665) edition.

  Conjurors recognize many familiar and still-popular tricks among those Scot mentioned: swallowing a knife, burning a playing card and reproducing it from the spectator's pocket, transferring a coin from one pocket to another, converting coins into tokens and back again into money, making a coin appear in a spectator's hand, passing a coin through a tabletop, making a coin vanish when wrapped into a handkerchief, tying a knot into a handkerchief and making it untie itself, removing beads threaded onto a cord while both ends of the cord are held, transferring rice from one container to another, turning wheat into flour, burning a thread and restoring it, pulling yards of ribbon from the mouth, sticking a knife into the arm, passing a ring through the cheek, and decapitating a person and restoring him. Wow. Let's hear that applause.

  Scot's book is very rare in its first edition, because when James I of England succeeded Elizabeth I to the throne in 1603, he ordered all copies burned. James was most eager to hang anyone suspected of witchcraft, and since Scot claimed that belief in witches was silly and illogical, that might have interfered with James's religious work. It was sixty-seven years later, in 1651, that Scot's book again appeared in print, well after the death of King James.

  See also conjuring, Johannes Weyer, and witchcraft.

  Scrying

  The process of gazing into a crystal, mirror, bowl of water, shiny metal object, or other device to see visions of the past, present, or future. Said to be an aid to clairvoyance.

  See also Dr. John Dee.

  Séance

  Correctly spelled “séance,” rather than “seance,” this word is from the French, derived from the Latin verb sedere (“to sit”) and meaning “a sitting.” It is a session during which attempts are made to contact departed spirits. A person who attends is referred to as a sitter. The person calling up spirits is called the medium.

  Séances are held by a group of persons usually seated about a table in the dark or semi-darkness. The medium is believed to go into a trance state in which he or she is able to contact dead persons. Various noises such as creaks, raps, clicks, and voices are said to come from beyond the grave. Props such as tambourines, horns, guitars, and drums are heard to play, and it is believed that they have been handled by spirits.

  Materializations, performed by only the most skilled mediums, are occasionally seen. Often a glowing figure, said to be made of ectoplasm, can be seen and felt moving about. A materialization séance is mentioned in the Bible, in 1 Samuel.

  Séance Room

  The location of the séance. Each medium has his or her own requirements for this setup, and often the sitters are forced to use a room within the house of the medium, which of course provides opportunities for specialized preparation, if cheating were to take place. Curtains are often hung about the walls, even covering doors, and total darkness can be achieved easily.

  See also Eusapia Palladino, Daniel Dunglas Home, and Sir Oliver Lodge.

  Second Sight

  This was the designation of the act whereby two partners were seemingly able to know one another's thoughts. The team of Mercedes and Mlle. Stantone headlined vaudeville with an act in which Mlle. Stantone, seated onstage at a piano, was able to play any tune whispered to her partner in the audience. Similarly, the Svengali Trio used the musical idiom in such an act from 1900 to 1925, playing the United States and Europe. An American act, Liz and Tom Tucker, were equally successful with this sort of performance, until quite recently appearing on television to the acclaim of both press and public.

  From a less realistic point of view, the term “second sight” refers to clairvoyance, often claimed by Scottish Highlanders. The Gaels called it “shadow-sight,” or “taischitaraugh.”

  See also Julius & Agnes Zancig.

  Secret Gospel

  The Secret Gospel refers to a document rediscovered in 1958 by Dr. Morton Smith of Columbia University, the brilliant biblical scholar who upset many previous views of the life of Jesus Christ. It is a lost portion of the St. Mark Gospel, and the contents can be disturbing, according to one's personal philosophy and interpretation of what appears there.

  The Secret Gospel appears to repeat the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead (as told in John) but without using the name. It also adds an event not previously known and certainly not included in the Gideon's Bible. To quote:

  . . . going in where the youth was, [Jesus] stretched forth his hand and raised him, seizing his hand. But the youth, looking upon him, loved him and began to beseech him that he might be with him. And going out of the tomb they came into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days Jesus told him what to do and in the evening the youth [came] to him, wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God.

  Clement of Alexandria, one of the early fathers of the church, writing in the late eighteenth century about this document (only part of which has been recovered), tells his reader that other references to “'naked man with naked man' . . . are not found [in his copy].” He adds that he has found in his copy the statement:

  And the sister of the youth whom Jesus loved and his mother and Salome were there, and Jesus did not receive them.

  He went on to give his own interpretation of the story, “the true explanation and that which accords with the true philosophy.” He was anxious to deny any support that this document might offer the Carpocratians, a Gnostic sect that he particularly detested. The faction was prominent in the second century and taught that the Earth was made by angels, but more importantly that one should abandon oneself to every lust with indifference, since by experiencing all varieties of sin, one could become satiated and therefore free of further desire for such activities.

  This notion has been diligently pursued by many, not all of them Carpocratians.

  Semothees

  See Druids.

  Serios, Ted

  See thoughtography.

  Seth

  A spirit channeled through author Jane Roberts (1929-1984), who taught that each person creates a separate reality by desires and needs. Because of the nature of this claim, it is an ideal new age notion in that it cannot be examined, proven, or disproven.

  Roberts, using a Ouija board, said that Seth was an “energy personality essence” that had been a caveman, a pope, a Roman, a citizen of Atlantis, and a “Lemurian,” in its various lives.

  Roberts dictated the Seth material at weekly sessions of the course in creative writing that she taught.

  Shaman

  Originally referring to a Siberian or generally north or central Asian witch doctor, sorcerer, or medicine man, the term is now also used for anyone working for his social group to cast fortunes, go into trance to divine the future, diagnose illness, or perform other magical services. The trance can be brought about by fasting or by hallucinogenic substances. The purpose of the trance is to contact spiritual forces or entities, often in the form of animals.

  The shaman is essentially a “wise man,” one sought out for advice and healing. The position is often hereditary, though by experiencing certain “ecstatic” experiences, a tribal member can be elected to the post. When a youth becomes alienated from his family and tribe, wanders away and seeks solitude for long periods, or exhibits severe antisocial behavior, he may be expected to become a shaman.

  There are emotional and sociological problems common to all cultures, and it appears that some individuals subject to these differences find the position of shaman to be a release from the restrictions imposed upon other tribe members. The shaman is sometimes a socially inept or poorly integrated citizen, often homosexual, crippled, or epileptic, and the exalted station of shaman allows him to fit into the social picture and survive. This would seem to be an excellent metho
d of providing for and accommodating those with disabilities and/or unique lifestyles.

  The shaman is an integral and honored member of most American Indian tribes, and as such serves an important function.

  Shaw, Steve

  See psychokinete.

  SHC

  See spontaneous human combustion.

  Shiatsu