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

by James Randi

  Sympathetic Magic

  (also known as image magic) Best exemplified by the myth of the voodoo doll, usually made of wax or clay, in which injuries inflicted upon a figure representing the victim are simultaneously experienced by the real person. Thorns, pins, or needles are stuck into the doll, which has been identified specifically with the subject by having incorporated in it scraps of clothing, hair, fingernail or toenail parings, or other personal substances of the victim, or by being baptized in that person's name.

  Such dolls were also used in ancient Assyria and Egypt as early as the reign of Rameses III in the twelfth century B.C. The Greeks and Romans were also familiar with the practice. The Greek sorcerer Theocritus was said to have killed his enemies by performing magic rites over their images. In Latin, the dolls are called imaguncula.

  Another example of this sort of thinking was first written about by Baptista Porta in his Magiae Naturalis (1558), when he described “magic needles.” He wrote that if two needles were prepared from the same piece of iron then magnetized and placed upon pivots like compass needles, one needle would follow the same direction as the other if it were moved, no matter what distance was between the two. Cardinal Richelieu of France accepted this idea. The cardinal accepted almost anything.

  The Celtic witches used figures this way, and the Scots called them “clay bodies.” Today in Malaysia magicians still use such images.

  T

  Tabard

  Ceremonial robe worn during magic ceremonies. It consists of two rectangles sewn together at the top corners and then belted. Not flattering to the average sorcerer, nor practical in breezy weather.

  Table tipping

  (also, table tilting or table turning) Known as a form of “dactylomancy,” along with the Ouija board and other notions which make use of the ideomotor effect.

  This phenomenon takes place with one or more persons seated about a table, often a light card table. Placing their hands flat upon the surface, they “will” the table to move. In response, it either rises, tilts, or rotates. It can be found by experimentation that drawing back or pushing forward, horizontally, will cause the table to tilt up on two legs. Two persons seated at adjacent or opposite sides doing this together can cause the table to move even more dramatically.

  The scientist/inventor Michael Faraday devised an elegant system for demonstrating that table tipping was often an ideomotor effect. Unknown to the sitters, he placed a second wooden tabletop over the first one, separated from it by thin, round wooden rods the ends of which passed behind an adjacent curtain and were equipped with pointers. When the sitters attempted to make the table move, those pointers turned, showing that, unconsciously, horizontal pressure was being applied by the sitters, though they denied that they did so.

  A simple control method consists of placing pieces of smooth paper beneath the hands of the sitters. Since no grip can be obtained on the surface, the table does not move.

  Of course, other methods can be used, as when Palladino did her effective table tipping. In her case, she wore custom-made boots with wide soles that protruded beyond the edges of the boots. The edge could have been hooked beneath a leg of the table, the hand located over the leg pressing down, forming what is known in the trade as the “human clamp.” This is a means for lifting straight up on a table, a seemingly impossible maneuver.

  There are other methods, too, for moving and lifting a table, even a heavy one. Some are one-person methods, and some require a confederate.

  Taboo

  Any prohibition of a motion, a gesture, an item of clothing, a word or phrase, use of a substance, or indeed almost any human action which is thought to provoke a deity, a class of person, a demon, or any other entity.

  Many religions and other belief systems are loaded with such taboos as appearing outdoors with the head uncovered, eating certain foods on certain days of the week, allowing a cat (especially a black one) to cross one's path, showing the sole of one's foot to another person, or living on the thirteenth floor of a building. Entire books have been written listing improper actions, from simple discussions of table manners to serious warnings about divine retribution applied for transgressions.

  Talisman

  A disk, stone, or medal designed to confer some sort of power, as opposed to an amulet, which has more of protective purpose. The sale of talismans, as well as of books describing their manufacture and use, provided much of the income for those who dealt in such malarkey. In fact, it still does. New age and religious-goods shops deal in talismans.

  See also charms.

  Talking Plants

  See Backster, Cleve.

  Tantra

  A term referring to the sexual aspects of various Eastern religions, mostly concerned with conserving sexual energies and desires and directing them to other purposes. As might be expected, failure to attain this goal is frequent among practitioners. In the Western world, tantric arguments are often employed, by enthusiastic disciples, to rationalize a seduction.

  Tarot Cards

  A set of seventy-eight playing cards decorated with a variable set of fantastic and mystical diagrams, symbols, and illustrations. The earliest deck still in existence is dated circa 1432. Researcher Norman Schwarz has dated the Tarot to between 312 and 64 B.C., from various clues such as the inclusion of earlier astronomical constellations (such as the Lovers and the King).

  The cards are grouped into the Major Arcana (twenty-two trump cards) and the Minor Arcana (fifty-six suit cards). The four suits consist of fourteen cards each, ace through ten, page, knight, queen, and king. These cards were first in use in the mid-1400s and have been used ever since by gullible persons to cast fortunes.

  One of the familiar Tarot cards, number zero in the Major Arcana.

  The modern deck of fifty-two cards used in gambling was derived from the Tarot deck, the suits being transmuted so that “swords” became spades, “cups” became hearts, “wands” became clubs, and “coins” (or “pentacles”) became diamonds. (In Spain, these suits were “palomas,” “rosas,” “conejos,” and “dineros”; in France, “piques,” “cœur,” “trèfles,” and “carreaux.”) These are the cards that were called the Minor Arcana. Originally, there were four “court” cards, but the knight (or cavalli) card was dropped in the modern deck, resulting in 4x13 cards, while the Tarot retained 4x14.

  The Major Arcana of twenty-two cards are individual figures:

  (In some versions of the Tarot, the Fool is given the number XXI and the World becomes XXII. There is no known difference in accuracy between the two systems as far as prophetic value is concerned.)

  For use as a divinatory device, the Tarot deck is dealt out in various patterns and interpreted by a gifted “reader.” The fact that the deck is not dealt out into the same pattern fifteen minutes later is rationalized by the occultists by claiming that in that short span of time, a person's fortune can change, too. That would seem to call for rather frequent readings if the system is to be of any use whatsoever.

  The form of deck most used today is the Golden Dawn, designed by A. E. Waite, a mystic, and drawn by artist Pamela Coleman Smith about 1900. The art of reading the cards has been referred to as the “ars notoria.”

  Tart, Dr. Charles

  (1937- ) Parapsychologist/psychologist at the University of California at Davis, Dr. Tart obtained his degree at Duke University under the prominent psychologist Norman Gutman.

  Dr. Tart has contributed much to parapsychology, including a “10-choice Trainer” which he constructed to test ESP. This setup consisted of two isolation booths and a system whereby one of ten digits was randomly chosen by an experimenter in the first booth and then transmitted to a subject in the other booth by ESP.

  After his book on the experiments appeared reporting successful results and causing a great sensation in psi circles, an independent, skeptical researcher visited the laboratory and examined the device and how it was used. He pointed out that there were methods by which sensory leakage might
have occurred during the tests. Then mathematicians at Davis discovered that there were faults with the randomizer of exactly the nature that would tend to produce positively biased results. And there were several modes available if the subjects chose to cheat.

  Dr. Tart's book on the Trainer experiments continues in circulation and is still quoted in the literature to prove the existence of ESP.

  Tea Leaf Reading

  (also, tasseography) An old, quaint notion that the patterns formed by tea leaves in a cup are indicators of a deeper truth. The tea is drunk and the cup is drained, inverted, and turned around three times left to right, using the left hand. (This turning process, whether done with either hand or a foot, does not in any way redistribute the tea leaves, but it can't hurt, either.) The reader then examines the leaves and prognosticates.

  Leaves on the bottom, we're told, indicate the distant future, those on the rim the immediate future. Tea leaf stems represent persons. Fat stems are fat people, for example.

  The use of tea bags has not only made the art more difficult, but less accurate. Coffee grounds are also read, but there is no record of Shredded Wheat or coleslaw being so employed.

  Not yet.

  Telekinesis

  See psychokinesis.

  Telepathy

  Often redundantly referred to as “mental telepathy.” The term was originated by researcher F. W. Myers (1843-1901) in 1882. It refers to the supposed ability of humans or animals to perceive the thoughts or emotions of others without the use of the recognized senses. It is one of the specific facets of extrasensory perception (ESP).

  Tenhaeff, Wilhelm

  (1894-1981) Chairman of the parapsychology department at Utrecht University, this cantankerous Dutch investigator had all sorts of problems getting along with his colleagues, who always suspected him of hyperbole in matters of psychic reporting. Nonetheless, he was widely published in parapsychology.

  He took as a pet the clairvoyant/police psychic and general performer Gerard Croiset (1909-1980), for whom he obtained considerable media coverage. For years, parapsychologists and general believers in psychic matters pointed to the exploits of Croiset as examples of undoubted powers, in particular his work as a police psychic. Then Dutch journalist Piet Hein Hoebens looked into the reports that Tenhaeff had made, and discovered that he had exaggerated them and in some cases had lied. There were many examples in which Tenhaeff had solved a trick method used by Croiset and had chosen not to report it.

  Tenhaeff died a few months after his protégé, revealed as a fraud.

  Testing Psychic Claims

  It has been said that it would be very difficult to design a test for psychic claims. Not knowing very much about how proper scientific tests are designed, objectors have claimed that it would be impossible to come up with a test that would be satisfying to “both sides,” as if a scientific experiment should or could have two “sides.” A properly designed test has no preferred results, and no decision in advance — or bias — is allowed to influence the design or conduct of the test, nor the reporting of the results. These provisions must be written into any proper scientific test, in advance. The result obtained must be accepted and binding to “both sides.”

  If any claim is so vague, imprecise, and/or ambiguous that it cannot be examined rationally, then it cannot be tested and it probably cannot have the slightest importance to anyone except students of abnormal psychology. And it most probably has no merit whatsoever.

  Tetragrammaton

  In the kabala, this is the term for the four-letter name of God. If effect, it is the name of a name.

  It varies from text to text. Some versions are JHVH, IHVH, JHWH, YHVH, and YHWH. Since these are too sacred to be spoken aloud, the word “Adoni” is used when the name is spoken. This has led to a serious misunderstanding, since in Hebrew texts only the consonants of Adoni (or of “Elohim” — this makes it more confusing) are printed. Thus are produced the reconstructions such as Yahweh or Jehovah.

  Thaumaturgy

  The general, and poorly limited, term covering almost all practices such as witchcraft, sorcery, or magic. Often wrongly and facetiously used by eighteenth-century conjurors to describe their art.

  Theosophy

  Formed from the Greek words theos meaning “god” and sophia meaning “wisdom.” The religion founded in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky teaching that matter, spirit, and consciousness are the basis for the universe and the individual. Borrowing from the kabala and Indian religious ideas, Theosophy rails at Christianity and most other organized religions and invokes images of secret societies, “Tibetan Masters,” “lost” Indian philosophy, and “ancient wisdom.” Madame Blavatsky was constantly being visited by astral beings and other spirits who imparted to her the rules of the religion. Astrology, clairvoyance, and other powers are not only automatically accepted in Theosophy, but are important factors in its dogma.

  See also Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.

  Thoughtography

  Ted Serios (born circa 1920) is said to have the ability to project his thoughts onto the film inside a Polaroid camera.

  There is a method involving a simple handheld optical device that can accomplish this by trickery. If Mr. Serios used such a method, the trick managed to convince a Freudian psychiatrist named Jule Eisenbud (1908- ), several parapsychologists, and a number of other persons, in spite of definitive exposure of the trick. If Mr. Serios did not use a trick method, all the rules of physics, particularly of optics, everything developed by science over the past several centuries, must be rewritten to accommodate Eisenbud's opinion. No such revisions have been found necessary.

  In Dr. Eisenbud's 1967 book The World of Ted Serios, the photographs shown are stark evidence, not only of the very strong indication that the simple handheld optical device was indeed used by Mr. Serios, but also of the wishful, convoluted reasoning process by which parapsychologists sometimes decide in favor of paranormal explanations. This is a valuable book in this regard.

  Thouless, Robert Henry

  (1894-1984) Thouless was a well-known British psychologist who turned, in his later years, to parapsychology. He became well known for his most successful book, Straight and Crooked Thinking (1930), which in the United States was titled How to Think Straight.

  Thouless's attempts to reproduce the Dr. Joseph Banks Rhine ESP card tests failed, and he was far from satisfied with the standards adopted by parapsychologists in their laboratory protocols. He was one of the first to discover that early versions of the famous Zener symbol cards favored by Rhine in his ESP tests could actually be read from the backs of the cards. He also introduced the term psi to parapsychology.

  Although he was still unsatisfied with experimental procedures that were being used, Dr. Thouless became convinced of the existence of ESP. He became president of the Society for Psychical Research in 1942.

  In 1948, he established a “survival” test. Similar tests had been set up by Sir Oliver Lodge, F. W. H. Myers, and others, and all had failed. The Thouless test specified that his test of survival-after-death was designed so that:

  1. The test would have no concealed object or writing that might be determined by subterfuge or by clairvoyance.

  2. It would “allow the possibility of an indefinitely large number of checks of the attempted solutions.”

  3. It would provide for any solution to be quite definitely “right” or “wrong,” without any ambiguity.

  4. It would leave no uncertainty about whether or not the solution was the correct one.

  This test consisted of two “Vigenere” cipher code passages:

  INXPH CJKGM JIRPR FBCVY WYWES NOECN SCVHE GYRJQ TEBJM TGXAT TWPNH CNYBC FNXPF LFXRV QWQL

  and

  BTYRR OOFLH KCDXK FWPCZ KTADR GFHKA HTYXO ALZUP PYPVF AYMMF SDLR UVUB

  It was stated in the Thouless challenge that a third set of characters would provide the key to understand these lines. This third set was not recorded in writing, since Thouless feared the possibility, as stated in hi
s first provision, that some gifted clairvoyant might sense such a record, thus destroying the “survival” aspect of the test. Also:

  The key to the first is a continuous passage of poetry or prose which may be indicated by referring to its title, and the key to the second consists of two words.

  The first cipher was quickly solved (the “key” word was SURPRISE) and Thouless withdrew it from the test, but the second remains unsolved.