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

  One-ahead Method

  OOBE

  Open Medium

  Order of the Golden Dawn

  Orgone

  Osteomyology

  Ouija Board

  Ouspensky, Peter Demianovich

  P

  Palladino, Eusapia

  Palmistry

  Paracelsus

  Paranormal

  Parapsychological Association

  Parapsychologist

  Parapsychology

  Parsimony

  Pendulum

  Pentacle / Pentagram

  Perpetual motion

  Petrie, Sir William Matthew Flinders

  Phantom Leaf Effect

  Philosopher's Stone

  Philtre

  Phrenology

  Physiognomy

  Piddington, Sydney and Lesley

  Pike, Bishop James A.

  Pio, Padre

  Piper, Leonora E.

  PK

  Placebo Effect

  Planchette

  Police Dowsers

  Police Psychics

  Poltergeist

  Poppet

  Possession

  Potion

  Poughkeepsie seer

  Powder of Projection

  Prabhupada, Swami

  Prayer

  Precognition

  Prediction

  Premanand

  Premonition

  Presidential Curse

  Price, Harry

  Prima Materia

  Project Alpha

  Prophecy

  Prophet

  Prophet, Elizabeth Clare

  Psi

  Psi Gap

  Psychic

  Psychic criminology

  Psychic Portraits

  Psychic Surgery

  Psychography

  Psychokinesis

  Psychokinete

  Psychometry / Psychometristx

  Psychotronics

  Puharich, Dr. Andrija

  Pyramid Inch

  Pyramid Power

  Pythagoras

  Q

  Qabala

  Qi

  Qi Gong

  Quack

  R

  Radionics

  Rampa, Tuesday Lobsang

  Ramtha

  Rapping

  Rasputin

  Reflexology

  Reich, Wilhelm

  Reincarnation

  Relics

  Remote Viewing

  Rhabdomancy

  Rhine, Dr. Joseph Banks

  Rhine, Dr. Louisa Ella

  Richet, Dr. Charles

  Roberts, Jane

  Roll, William G.

  Romany

  Rosicrucians

  Royal Touch

  Runes

  Russell, Charles Taze

  S

  Sabbat

  Sai Baba

  Saint Elmo's fire

  Saint Germain, Claude Louis, Compte de

  Saint Joseph of Copertino

  Saint Malachy's prophecies St. Malachy

  Salamander

  Salem witch trials

  Sasquatch

  Samhain

  Satan

  Satanism

  Scapulimancy

  Scarab

  Schmeidler, Dr. Gertrude

  Schneider, Rudi

  Schrenck-Notzing, Dr. Albert Freiherr Von

  Science

  Scientology

  Scot, Michael

  Scot, Reginald

  Scrying

  Séance

  Séance Room

  Second Sight

  Secret Gospel

  Semothees

  Serios, Ted

  Seth

  Shaman

  Shaw, Steve

  SHC

  Shiatsu

  Shipton, Mother

  Showers, Mary Rosina

  Shroud of Turin

  Shut-Eye Medium

  Siddhis

  Sign, Astrological

  Silva Mind Control

  Simon Magus

  Sitter

  Skeptics Society

  Slade, Dr. Henry

  Slate Writing

  Smith, Hélène

  Smith, Joseph

  Smyth, Charles Piazzi

  Soal, Dr. Samuel George

  Society for Psychical Research

  Sorcery

  Sortilege

  Soubirous, Bernadette

  Southcott, Joanna

  Speaking in Tongues

  Speculum

  Spell

  Spirit

  Spirit Bell

  Spirit Guide

  Spiritism

  Spirit Medium

  Spirit Photography

  Spirit Sortraits

  Spiritualism

  Spiritualitis

  Spondylotherapy

  Spontaneous Human Combustion

  Spoon-Bending

  SPR

  Sprite

  Steiner, Rudolf

  Stigmata

  Stokes, Doris

  Subuh, Pak Muhammad

  Succubus

  Summerland

  Survival-After-Death

  Sylph

  Sympathetic Magic

  T

  Tabard

  Table tipping

  Taboo

  Talisman

  Talking Plants

  Tantra

  Tart, Dr. Charles

  Tea Leaf Reading

  Telekinesis

  Telepathy

  Tenhaeff, Wilhelm

  Testing Psychic Claims

  Tetragrammaton

  Thaumaturgy

  Theosophy

  Thoughtography

  Thouless, Robert Henry

  Thumb Writer

  Trance

  Transcendental Meditation

  Transvection

  Trial By Ordeal

  Trigram

  Tut, curse of King

  Twenty-year curse

  U

  UFO

  Umbanda

  Unicorn

  Universal Alkahest

  V

  Vampire

  Vibration

  Von Däniken, Erich

  Voodoo

  Voodoo doll

  Vril

  W

  Waldorf Schools

  Walpurgis Nacht

  Warlock

  Warner, William

  Water-witching

  Weeping statues

  Weishaupt, Adam

  Werewolf

  Weyer, Johannes

  White, Ellen G.

  Wicca

  Willard, Frances

  Witch

  Witchcraft

  Witch Doctor

  Witches' Sabbat

  Witch of Endor

  Witch's Garland

  Witch's mark

  Y

  Yeti

  Yin and Yang

  Yoga / Yogi

  Z

  Zancig, Julius & Agnes

  Zener, Dr. Karl

  Zodiac

  Zombie

  APPENDIX I

  APPENDIX II

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ABOUT THE JREF

  The mission of the James Randi Educational Foundation is to promote critical thinking by reaching out to the public and media with reliable information about paranormal and supernatural ideas, which are widespread in our society today.

  The James Randi Educational Foundation was founded in 1996 to help people defend themselves from paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. The JREF offers a still-unclaimed million-dollar reward for anyone who can produce evidence of paranormal abilities under controlled conditions. Through scholarships, workshops, and innovative resources for educators, the JREF works to inspire this investigative spirit in a new generation of critical thinkers.

  Your support helps the JREF to . . .

  • Expose paranormal and pseudoscientific frauds in the media, and hold media organizations accountable for promoting dangerous nonsense. />
  • Support scientific research into paranormal claims.

  • Provide grants and free teaching modules to help educators inspire an investigative spirit in the next generation of critical thinkers.

  • Award scholarships that encourage scientific skepticism among students.

  • Support grassroots skeptics’ groups with tools to help them organize and promote skepticism and critical thinking.

  • Digitally publish the important works of skepticism for distribution on the iPad, Kindle, and other e-readers.

  • Organize major conferences and other gatherings that bring the entire skeptical community together.

  The James Randi Educational Foundation relies on the support of people like you in order to carry out its mission. Whether it is our renewed support of grassroots skeptic outreach, our investment in resources for educators and students, our expanding digital educational offerings such as digital books and videos, or Randi’s lecture tours, your financial donations help make our programs possible.

  You may support the JREF by joining us as a contributor online at randi.org. You may find that you can be more generous by making a pledge of monthly support. For more information about pledges, please contact [email protected].

  ABOUT THIS ENCYCLOPEDIA

  An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural was originally published in 1995 in both the United States and United Kingdom (the U.K. version was titled The Supernatural A-Z: the Truth and Lies). This E-book is based on the online version of the encyclopedia and includes updated and expanded content not found in either print version.

  The online HTML version was created with David Joffe's dictionary compilation software TshwaneLex. with the generous assistance of Gilles-Maurice de Schryver. We are very grateful for their generous donation of talent, time, and dedication. The JREF Digital Edition converted and formatted by Michael Blanford.

  A

  Abaris

  Said to be the teacher of Pythagoras, Abaris was a magician of Scythia, an ancient culture on the north shore of the Black Sea. He claimed to possess a golden arrow, given to him by Apollo, by means of which he could travel through the air and become invisible. It is not clear how this was supposed to be accomplished, but such details are unimportant in comparison with the basic claim.

  Abaris is said to have lived without eating or drinking. This, coupled with the fact that his pupil Pythagoras is supposed to have stolen his golden arrow, must have resulted in a certain dissatisfaction with his life.

  Abdelazys

  (also, Alchabitius) A tenth-century Arabian astrologer whose book on astrology, Alchabitius cum commento, was first published in Latin in 1473, and then in 1503 in Venice. The book is no clearer or more useful than any other book on the subject. It is merely old.

  Abominable Snowman

  Known in various localities by names such as Yeti, Bigfoot, Meh-Teh, and Sasquatch, this unsubstantiated creature is said to be seven to ten feet tall, with feet twice the size of a human's, and with a noticeably disagreeable aroma. It has been reported in Tibet, Nepal, China, Siberia, Canada, and the U.S. Northwest.

  In 1832, a report from the U.K. representative in Nepal described a hirsute creature who reportedly had attacked his servants. The natives called the beast “rakshas,” which means “demon.” This appears to be the first report of the Snowman made by a Westerner.

  An impressive report was made by mountaineers who crossed a Himalayan glacier in 1951 and photographed giant footprints measuring thirteen by eighteen inches. However, tracks left in snow tend to enlarge when exposed to direct sun, and this may well explain many of the accounts of Snowman tracks, since smaller tracks of native animals tend to spread under warmth.

  Other tracks found in Canada and the United States are the admitted results of hoaxers, even though the “experts” called in have sometimes validated the artifacts as genuine tracks of an unknown species. A short piece of movie film made in 1967 by Roger Patterson at Bluff Creek, California, appears to show a female Bigfoot casually walking away from the camera. The film has been hotly contested over the years and is the best of all the evidence ever offered.

  It is possible that Patterson himself was hoaxed; the figure he saw and filmed might have been a person in costume. In the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, most viewers were not aware that the apes shown were actors in costume holding real baby chimpanzees. The 1989 film Gorillas in the Mist used actors in costumes that were totally convincing. The Patterson figure is nowhere nearly as good as those representations, though we cannot expect that a genuine Bigfoot must move like an ape, and it may very well move like a human dressed in an uncomfortable costume.

  While the existence of such a creature is not at all impossible, two elements speak against it: First, there would need to be a very considerable number of them available to maintain the gene pool and to thus ensure survival of the species; it is difficult to imagine that a population of such a large animal could so successfully avoid detection. Second, the fact remains that to date, not one bit of material evidence (hair, skin, bones, droppings) of this creature has ever been produced, though a chimpanzee scalp was once offered and is still occasionally brought up by devotees of this fascinating legend.

  Abracadabra

  While the actual origin of the word is uncertain, it has been said that it was the name of the supreme deity of the Assyrians, but it may also be an Aramaic phrase. It is a magical word often appearing on amulets, and was first mentioned by the third-century physician Quintus Severus Sammondicus. It is often seen in the configuration of a diminishing triangle:

  It was believed that certain evils would diminish and vanish in the same way the word did. The word was often used by conjurors as an exclamation at the culmination of a trick. Now not so often employed, and in any case totally ineffective.

  See also charms.

  Abraham the Jew

  (1362?-1460?) An alchemist/magician from Mayence, a town west of Koblenz, Germany. He came from a family of magicians and traveled through Austria, Hungary, Greece, the city of Constantinople, Arabia, Palestine, and Egypt, where he met and studied with a mentor magician, Abra-Melin. He finally settled in Würzburg, Germany, where he married.

  He performed his wonders before Henry VI of England, Pope John XXIII (the first one), and Emperor Sigismund of Germany.

  A tome supposed to have been written by Abraham titled The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin, as delivered by Abraham the Jew unto his son Lamech, tells the reader how to “excite tempests,” have visions, “retain familiar spirits,” raise the dead and walk under (not on) water. Instructions on how to summon these convenient powers are followed by observations on “comedies, operas and all kinds of music and dances.” All these abilities are said to be attained by means of the kabala.