Category: C

A propounder of the fantastic theory positing that the whole universe was contained in the hollow of Earth. Humans, along with all the plants and animals, were thought to be living on the inner surface of the shell. When we are observing the cosmos, we are not looking upward and outward but inwards. Teed was…

One of the most famous U.S. scientists of this century and an outspoken critic of claims of the paranormal. He earned a degree in physics from the University of Chicago in 1954, received his Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics in 1960, and taught at Harvard before moving to Cornell where he became Director of the…

Puritan clergyman, investigator of withchcraft, and early proponent of vaccination. Cotton Mather is probably best remembered in history for his role in the Salem witch trials of 1692-93. Although he publicly supported some of the executions, Mather opposed admitting the spectral evidence brought against many of the accused. Instead, he recommended prosecution only for cases…

A 19th-century Italian physician, who believed that there is a gene that predisposes its possessors to criminal or aberrant behavior. He claimed to have identified features that characterize criminals: “the enormous jaws, high cheek bones, prominent superciliary arches, solitary lines in the palms, extreme size of the orbits, handle-shaped ears.” He maintained that these characteristics…

A French nobleman whose race theories influenced the Nazis. Gobineau believed that some races were superior to others the tall, blond, blue-eyed Nordic type was the most superior; the brown Negroid type was the least. Composer Richard Wagner (1813-83) was attracted by Gobineau’s theories; they were also seized on and developed by his son-in-law Houston…

Writer and speculator about the paranormal. Fort was the second of three sons born to a family of Dutch ancestry in Albany, New York. His mother died when he was four and the children were raised by his father, who was a strict disciplinarian. Fort never went to college. For a time, he worked as…

Spacecraft that are thought to have been operated by extraterrestrials and to have crashed into Earth. There have been many reports of crashed flying saucers worldwide, particularly in the last half of the 20th century but few of these alleged extrater restrial craft have left any solid evidence behind them. Some have subsequently been identified…

The search by scientists of several nations for some sign of intelligent life on other worlds. Some believe that intelligent life exists on other planets. With an estimated 400 billion stars in our own galaxy and a guess (based on present theories of star formation) that a tenth of them may have planets one per…

The belief that there are still dinosaurs roaming the earth today. Dinosaurs became extinct by some catastrophic event or major change in the environment 65 million years ago. There are, of course, many saurians still extant that have existed more or less in their present form since before the dinosaur extinction: crocodiles, alligators, lizards. They…

Cycles theories have emerged in a number of scientific disciplines. In biology, Wilhelm fliess theorized that two cycles governed living cells. In men the male cycle of 23 days was dominant; in women the dominant female cycle was 28 days. These cycles affected every¬ thing from birth to death, physical and mental health, career prospects,…