by James Randi
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.