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Psychometry (paranormal)
In parapsychology, psychometry (from Greek language, Greek: ψυχή, ''psukhē'', "spirit, soul" and μέτρον, ''metron'', "measure"), also known as token-object reading,Psychometry – Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Parapsychological Association (2006-12-17) or psychoscopy, is a form of extrasensory perception characterized by the claimed ability to glean accurate knowledge of an object's history by making physical contact with that object.Leonard Zusne, Zusne, Leonard; Jones, Warren H. (1989). ''Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking''. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. pp. 193–194. Supporters assert that an object may have an Energy (esotericism), energy field that transfers knowledge regarding that object's history. There is no evidence that psychomet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Denton (geologist)
William Denton (8 January 1823 - 26 August 1883) was a self-taught geologist, author, preacher, and promoter of the occult practice of Psychometry_(paranormal), psychometry. He claimed that inanimate objects had souls or memories that he and other sensitive people could "read". He gave lectures on a wide range of topics. While returning from a speaking tour of Australia, he died of fever in Papua New Guinea. Life and work Denton was born at Darlington, Darlington, Durham. His parents were Robert Denton (1797-1851) and Jane Dixon Denton (1791-1854). Among his siblings were Annie Denton Cridge and Lizzie (later Seybold). He was educated by his mother's friend Nelly Sedgwick who ran a small school and then attended the British Penny School in Darlington. He began to read from the age of four. At the age of eight he could recite chapters of the Bible from memory. A Baptist teacher, William Shotton, made an impression on him, by demonstrating a home-made galvanic cell. At the age o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parapsychology
Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, teleportation, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry (paranormal), psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near-death experiences, synchronicity, apparitional experiences, etc. Criticized as being a pseudoscience, the majority of mainstream scientists reject it. Parapsychology has been criticised for continuing investigation despite being unable to provide reproducible evidence for the existence of any psychic phenomena after more than a century of research. Parapsychology research rarely appears in mainstream scientific journals; a few niche journals publish most papers about parapsychology. Terminology The term ''parapsychology'' was coined in 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir as the German . It was adopted by Joseph Banks Rhine, J. B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term ''psychical research'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universology
Universology literally means "the science of the universe." Popularizing universologic science was a life's work for 19th century intellectual Stephen Pearl Andrews, a futurology, futurist utopian. The word can be used synonymously with consilience, a term Edward Osborne Wilson has popularized with his writings elucidating the apparent unity of all knowledge. In recent years, Dr. Mamoru Mohri, Japan's first astronaut and Director of Japan's Miraikan, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, has popularized and expanded on universology. For Mohri the universological worldview was an epiphany after seeing the planet from space on two missions in the 1990s, and he has become the chief proponent of universology today. "Everything in this universe is part of an uninterrupted sequence of events" Mohri has said. In 1872 Stephen Pearl Andrews, Andrews published "The Basic Outline of Universology" which was subtitled "An introduction to the newly discovered science of the univers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Collection Of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, And Dangerous Delusions
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version is often written in one of two forms: the double-storey and single-storey . The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English, '' a'' is the indefinite article, with the alternative form ''an''. Name In English, the name of the letter is the ''long A'' sound, pronounced . Its name in most other languages matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables. History The earliest known ancestor of A is ''aleph''—the first letter of the Phoenician ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Todd Carroll
Robert Todd Carroll (May 18, 1945 – August 25, 2016) was an American author, philosopher and academic, best known for '' The Skeptic's Dictionary''. He described himself as a naturalist, an atheist, a materialist, a metaphysical libertarian, and a positivist. In 2010 he was elected a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He was a professor of philosophy at Sacramento City College from 1977 until his retirement in 2007. Life Carroll was born in Joliet, Illinois, on May 18, 1945. His father worked in a coal processing plant. In 1954 the family moved to San Diego, where Carroll grew up. He described his early years in Ocean Beach as an ideal childhood. He was raised Catholic. Carroll went to the University of San Diego High School and then received a Catholic education from the University of Notre Dame. He went into seminary in Notre Dame, but after a short time he left in 1965 and went back to San Diego. Carroll earned his PhD in philosophy in 1974 at the Univers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Kurtz
Paul Kurtz (December 21, 1925 – October 20, 2012) was an American scientific skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism". He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, having previously also taught at Vassar, Trinity, and Union colleges, and the New School for Social Research. Kurtz founded the publishing house Prometheus Books in 1969. He was also the founder and past chairman of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI, formerly the ''Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal'', CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Center for Inquiry. He was editor in chief of ''Free Inquiry'' magazine, a publication of the Council for Secular Humanism. He was co-chair of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) from 1986 to 1994. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Humanist Laureate, president of the International A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcello Truzzi
Marcello Truzzi (September 6, 1935 – February 2, 2003) was an American sociologist and academic who was professor of sociology at New College of Florida and later at Eastern Michigan University, founding co-chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), a founder of the Society for Scientific Exploration, and director for the Center for Scientific Anomalies Research. Truzzi was an investigator of various protosciences and pseudosciences and, as fellow CSICOP cofounder Paul Kurtz dubbed him "the skeptic's skeptic". He is credited with originating the oft-used phrase "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof", though earlier versions existed. Early life and education Truzzi was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and was the only child of juggler Massimiliano Truzzi and his wife Sonya. His family moved to the United States in 1940 where his father performed with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Truzzi earned sever ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piet Hein Hoebens
Piet Hein Hoebens (29 September 1948, Utrecht – 22 October 1984) was a Dutch journalist, skeptic, and critic of parapsychology. Hoebens is most well known for debunking the claims of psychic detectives. He worked as a Dutch journalist and investigated claims of paranormal phenomena. He was a staff member for the newspaper ''De Telegraaf'' for 13 years and a member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He was an associate of Marcello Truzzi and contributed to the '' Zetetic Scholar'' regarding the claims of psychics such as Peter Hurkos and Gerard Croiset which he found to be bogus. Hoebens killed himself in October 1984.Gerd H. HövelmannPiet Hein Hoebens (1948-1984)/ref> Publications *Hoebens, Piet Hein. (1981). ''Gerard Croiset: Investigation of the Mozart of "Psychic Sleuths"''. ''Skeptical Inquirer'' 6: 18–28available online*Hoebens, Piet Hein. (1981). ''The Mystery Men From Holland I: Peter Hurkos' Dutch Cases''. '' Zetetic Scholar'' 8: 11–17, *Hoebens, Piet Hein. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confirmation Bias
Confirmation bias (also confirmatory bias, myside bias, or congeniality bias) is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or Value (ethics and social sciences), values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. Biased search for information, biased interpretation of this information and biased memory recall, have been invoked to explain four specific effects: # ''attitude polarization'' (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence) # ''belief perseverance'' (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false) # the ''irrational primacy effect'' (a greater relia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cold Reading
Cold reading is a set of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, and mediums. Without prior knowledge, a practiced cold-reader can quickly obtain a great deal of information by analyzing the person's body language, age, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc. during a line of questioning. Cold readings commonly employ high-probability guesses, quickly picking up on signals as to whether their guesses are in the right direction or not. The reader then emphasizes and reinforces any accurate connections while quickly moving on from missed guesses. Psychologists believe that this appears to work because of the Barnum effect and due to confirmation biases within people. Basic procedure Before starting the actual reading, the reader will typically try to elicit cooperation from the subject, saying something such as, "I often see images that are a bit uncl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psychic Reading
A psychic reading is a specific attempt to discern information through the use of heightened perceptive abilities, or natural extensions of the basic human senses of sight, sound, touch, taste and instinct. These natural extensions are claimed to be clairvoyance (vision), clairsentience (feeling), claircognisance (factual knowing) and clairaudience (hearing) and the resulting statements made during such an attempt.Reading – Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Parapsychological Association (2010-04-14) The term is commonly associated with -based consultation given for a fee in such settings as over the phone, in a home, or at |
Psychic
A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, such as psychokinesis or teleportation. Although many people believe in psychic abilities, the scientific consensus is that there is no proof of the existence of such powers, and describes the practice as pseudoscience. Psychics encompass people in a variety of roles. Some are theatrical performers, such as stage magicians, who use various techniques, e.g. prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot reading, to produce the appearance of such abilities for entertainment purposes. A large industry and network exist whereby people advertised as psychics provide advice and counsel to clients. Some famous psychics include Edgar Cayce, Ingo Swann, Peter Hurkos, Janet Lee, Miss Cleo, John Edward ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
