An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural Page 13

  Other boxes designed and manufactured by De la Warr were used to actually treat patients, and one even photographed “thought forms.” A disastrous court case brought against De la Warr revealed testimony of just how silly his procedures were, and though he won the case, the event brought his practice to an end. By then he'd made his fortune and didn't much care.

  See also Dr. Albert Abrams and Ruth Drown.

  Delphi (also, Delphos)

  The Oracle of Delphi, probably the best known of the Greek divining agencies, was essentially a political force. The women in charge were not above accepting bribes to give appropriate answers to inquirers. It was believed that the god Apollo spoke through the Pythian priestesses while they were in various states of drug-induced trance.

  The ambiguous nature of their utterances became a popular joke, as when they were asked to tell King Croesus the outcome of an upcoming battle to be fought across a river. The response: “When Croesus passes over the river he overthrows the strength of an empire.” The questioner was pleased and left a generous offering at the temple. A great empire did fall that day, but it was his own. Such procedures gave rise to the expression “Delphic statement,” used to designate anything that can be taken two or more ways.

  Today, investment advisors and meteorologists are the tamer versions of the Oracle of Delphi.

  Demon

  (or daemon, from the Greek daimon) A malevolent spirit. Demons are often invisible, but can see, usually have wings and can fly, know the future, can propagate (with other demons or with humans), and can die. Demons come in all sizes, so they can enter and inhabit the bodies of humans and animals, but are inhibited from this by properly-selected charms and they fear fire, water, light, salt, and certain herbs. Sneezing is said to provide a demon with the opportunity of flying up one's nose, thus the expression, “Bless you!” or “Bonne santé!” or “Gesundheit!” as a response to a sneeze. It's not known to help, but it can't hurt.

  The Lesser Key of Solomon, the Lemegeton manuscript now in the British Museum, lists seventy-three demons in hierarchial progression, but there are so many other menus to choose from, one is hard put to decide which listing to accept. These head demons, former rebellious angels, bring about storms, shipwreck, earthquakes, and other cataclysms.

  Demons, as drawn by Hans Holbein the Younger.

  Occultists, with their uncanny wisdom, have estimated that there are 7,250,000 demons currently in action, who are controlled by some seventy-nine higher powers. The hierarchy of demons is as follows:

  One emperor

  Seven kings

  Twenty-four dukes

  Thirteen marquis demons

  Ten counts

  Eleven presidents

  There are thirteen other less fancy officers in this court, and the regular common demons are under the control of this royalty.

  The Talmud, not to be outdone, declares that there are 7,405,926 demons in existence. The Greek philosophers Porphyry and Thales believed in demons. The Templars, a group of French knights dedicated to protecting Christians on their way to slaughter infidels during the Crusades, adopted the demon Baphomet as part of their strange religious rites, a fact all the more mysterious because the name is a corruption of Mahomet.

  Demons are believed to inhabit deserts in preference to most other zones, perhaps favoring the closer resemblance to their home clime.

  See also Johannes Weyer.

  Demonology

  The study and classification of the hierarchy of demons, their powers and limitations, attributes, multiple names, and derivations. Not considered a very useful pursuit, but a good conversation piece.

  Dermo-optical Perception

  (DOP; in Russia referred to as “bio-introscopy”) In the 1950s, this was a popular subject for sensational news stories and for parapsychology. It was claimed that some persons were able to “see” without using their eyes, scanning printed matter with their fingertips, with their noses, or even with their feet. At one point, in 1990, it was even claimed that some children in China were able to “read” bits of paper crumpled and placed in their armpits or their ears, or even by sitting on the paper!

  In Mexico, the Instituto Mas Vida (“More Life Institute”) took up teaching DOP to the children of wealthy patrons. Blindfolded, the children specialized in reading large-type books opened at their feet while they were seated. It seems no accident that this is the perfect position in which to peek down the sides of the blindfold. When a piece of blocking paper was inserted below the chin, the child was always struck blind.

  One famous practitioner of the art was a Russian psychic named Rosa Kuleshova, who, like the Chinese children, also read with her posterior. Another Russian, also famous for moving small objects with fine, invisible nylon threads, was Nina Kulagina, who can be seen in a black-and-white film made decades ago at a Leningrad laboratory, reading letter cards posted on the wall behind her. To a conjuror, the method is obvious: She brings her right hand up before her eyes, then it dips into her pocket, emerges and is casually shown empty. This suggests that she was peeking into a small mirror held in that hand, then the mirror was dumped when she'd had her glance. As if to verify this theory, she read off the cards — and even one two-digit number — in reverse order. Certainly there was no reason for her to have held her hand before her eyes, except to accomplish the trick as described.

  The Chinese children were found at one point to be using a one-ahead method with the crumpled papers, and since the controls were nonexistent in any case, they had no problem cheating, if they had wanted to, when their magical powers failed them.

  Deva

  A term referring to a sort of angel or Hindu god. Yet another class of minor spirits.

  Devil

  A figure in religious mysticism depicted as a man-figure with horns, a tail, and cloven feet. Frequently, in Italian and French sculpture, the figure also has a conspicuous organ of procreation. The Devil is often synonymous with Satan.

  Despite his usual evil reputation, he was credited in medieval times with some good deeds as well as bad. In anthropomorphic form, he was said to work in deep silver mines where human beings could not go, to build massive bridges, and to assist sailors in navigating through hazardous waters — in response to appropriate prayers or incantations, of course.

  Some of the greatest support for belief in devils and demons was provided by St. Thomas Aquinas (circa 1225-1274), who endorsed as fact every fable that had ever been adopted by Christianity from other religions. Nothing, no matter how bizarre, was unacceptable to St. Thomas. He even claimed that devils could produce progeny:

  When children are born of the intercourse of devils with human beings, they do not come from the seed of the devil or of the human body he has assumed, but of the seed which he has extracted from another human being. The same devil, who, as a woman, has intercourse with a man can also, in the form of a man, have intercourse with a woman.

  Since no half-devils were extant, this explanation took care of that awkward fact; the devilish progeny would look just like real, regular persons.

  Devil's Mark

  (also, witch's mark) In books dedicated to the identification of witches, it is said that Satan places his mark upon the body of a witch, usually a red or blue spot, to more easily recognize his property. The mark was also believed to be insensitive to pain and to not bleed if pierced.

  Tertullian (circa 155 -222), one of the Latin Fathers, certified that witches were so marked, and this became the official and convenient manner of recognizing these evil folks, since no one is free of some sort of scar, mole, crease, wart, or bump that can be elevated to the status of a Satanic brand mark, especially when substantial rewards are available to the one who discovers such a sign. As a result, witch-hunters eagerly examined every part of a suspect's body, accepting the slightest suggestion of a mark as evidence. They were invariably successful.

  Devils of Loudun

  See Loudun, Devils of.

  Devil's Triangle


  See Bermuda Triangle.

  de Wohl, Louis

  (Ludwig Von Wohl-Musciny, 1903-1961) A Hungarian-born astrologer. Learning of the interest in astrology shown by the German Nazis, in 1940 the British put together their own — equally secret — group of astrologers, calling it their “black group,” within the Department of Psychological Warfare. They put Captain Louis de Wohl in charge.

  This man, who had arrived in England as a refugee in 1935, was chosen by the British because he said he knew the techniques used by Karl Ernst Krafft (the German Nazi astrologer) for making his forecasting, and it became his job to anticipate what their occultist might advise the warlords of Germany to do.

  It appears that de Wohl had misrepresented and hyperbolized his talents to the British, and they did not retain his services for long. He wrote some fake astrological articles that contained discouraging predictions for Nazi Germany, for use in equally fake astrological magazines. These were distributed throughout Europe by various means.

  Not ignoring the renewed German interest in the sixteenth-century French prophet Nostradamus either, de Wohl also invented some pro-British/anti-Nazi quatrains in an attempt to neutralize Krafft's work. He created a 124-page book titled Nostradamus prophezeit den Kriegsverlauf (“Nostradamus Predicts the Course of the War”), which of course predicted the fall of the Reich. The book was printed in huge quantities and dropped over occupied territories by the Allies in 1943.

  An interesting question is whether or not either side in this psychological World War II battle actually had any real belief in astrology or in Nostradamus; both sides have officially denied any such belief, even up to the present. In any case, the expensive and ludicrous campaign failed to have much effect for either of the warring factions.

  Diabolus

  See Satan.

  Dianetics

  See Hubbard, Lafayette Ronald.

  Dingwall, Dr. Eric J.

  (1890-1986) Born in Sri Lanka, an anthropologist by training, British scientist Dr. Dingwall became interested in psychical and parapsychological research at an early age, and was renowned as a major investigator of psychic claims. He knew many of the major figures in the field and was highly respected by believers and skeptics. He was an expert in conjuring techniques, and was a member of the London Magic Circle as well as of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). He was also associated with the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.

  Dr. Dingwall was a major investigator of Margery Crandon and served as a general gadfly to the SPR. In one instance, when he discovered that the SPR had developed incriminating data on the work of George Soal and had been withholding it, Dingwall insisted that they publish their findings or he would do so. Wisely, they did so.

  A respected and much-loved researcher, Dr. Dingwall abandoned parapsychology in 1969 and died at age ninety-six in 1986 with the conviction that, even though he had failed, ever, to find real evidence of psychic phenomena — especially of survival-after-death, which was the important subject for him — there was probably something there which he had merely failed to find.

  Discovery of Witchcraft, The

  (original spelling was “Discoverie of Witchcraft”) See Scot, Reginald.

  Divination

  Also called the “Mantic Art.” The process of determining the future; discovering hidden or lost articles, persons, or substances; deciding guilt or innocence by various means; and generally of finding out required knowledge. Dr. Charles Mackay, author of the remarkable book Extraordinary Popular Delusions (1841), lists there fifty-two species of divination claimed by practitioners.

  One form of divination is metoposcopy, determining one's destiny by analyzing the lines of the forehead in relation to the sun, moon, and planets. The process is as successful as casting a horoscope or reading the lines of the palm.

  Divination is attempted by means of forked sticks or pendulums (see also dowsing), by interpretation of almost any random event such as throwing dice, cloud formations, the configurations of the entrails of a sacrificed animal (known as augury), dreams, how a pack of cards is dealt out, the movements of insects and a great variety of other phenomena.

  In Genesis 44, there is a reference to a silver cup belonging to Joseph “in which [he] drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth,” which was another popular method similar to scrying, an art that involved looking into a bowl of water. Even today, crystal balls are used to try to see images of the future.

  See also I Ching, numerology, omens, palmistry, police psychics, prophecy, and Tarot cards.

  Divining

  See dowsing.

  Dixon, Jeane

  (née Pinckert, 1918?- ) Mrs. Dixon is a famous Washington seer who also claims healing powers. But her major claim to fame is that she is said to have predicted the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In its March 11, 1956, issue, Parade magazine reported, concerning the 1960 presidential election:

  Mrs. Dixon thinks it will be dominated by labor and won by a Democrat. He will be assassinated or die in office “though not necessarily in his first term.”

  The election was not “dominated by labor.” She was correct on the winner's party, and the death prediction was in line with the Presidential Curse (which see) since Kennedy fell into that pattern. But when 1960 arrived and the election was closer, Mrs. Dixon declared that Richard Nixon would win the presidency.

  The endless chain of Dixon's major failed predictions (such as Tom Dewey as “assistant president,” the fall of India's Nehru that never happened, Richard Nixon's return to office, germ warfare in 1958 with China, a monster comet striking the Earth, and the election of a female U.S. president — the last two to have taken place in the 1980s — and the dissolution of the Roman Catholic Church before 1990) establish that her actual, written record is hardly impressive. Nonetheless, she still has a large and enthusiastic following among credophiles.

  Djinn

  (plural noun, pronounced jinn; singular, djinni) In the Moslem religion, spirits with specific supernatural powers, the children of fire. They are corporeal, often taking the shapes of ostriches, snakes, or humans, and can become invisible. In Malaysian magic, there are 190 Black Djinn, evil mountain-dwelling spirits.

  The alternate versions of the djinn are the genii. The differences are nonessential to any person's knowledge of the real world.

  Doomsday

  See “end of the world”.

  Doppelgänger

  From the German, meaning “double walker.” A persistent fantasy is that each person has an identical “twin” somewhere, though they are unrelated. The chance of two identical DNA patterns existing at the same time, even if generated by the same two parents as the result of two different sperm/egg fusings, is inadequately described by the term “astronomically small.” For that reason, an actual doppelgänger is very highly unlikely.

  Legend says that if the two should meet, they will both die. That seems reasonable.

  Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

  See Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur.

  Dragon Bones

  Superstition and stupidity have scored victories against archaeology and anthropology in China, where dinosaur bones and other artifacts inscribed with historical records have been eagerly purchased from finders and ground to powder by apothecaries who then sell the useless substance as an aphrodisiac and general cure-all. It is called “dragon bone.”

  Drawing Down the Moon

  A witch's ceremony held on or near December 12. It is dedicated to Bacchus, the god of wine and fertility. Yet another reason for folks to get together for drinking, dancing and general carrying-on.

  Dreams

  The Greek scholar/historian Xenophon wrote about dreams as a form of divination and in the second century Artemidorus of Daldis set about collecting dream lore and published a book on their interpretation. Dreams also served the Greeks as diagnostic tools, being messages from the gods.