Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Palingenesy
The resurrection of plants. Palingenesy was a concept held by some scientist-philosophers of the 18th century that offered a chemical understanding of ghosts and apparitions, an alternative to either supernatural or hallucinatory explanations. The idea of palingenesy derived from Greek philosopher Lucretius, who thought that ghosts were in fact thin filmlike products analogous to the…
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William Paley (1743-1805)
British theologian and moral philosopher. Paley studied mathematics at Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1759, was elected a fellow of his college in 1766, and ordained an Anglican priest the following year. Paley taught at Cambridge for nine years, until his marriage, and rose in the church to be the Archbishop of Carlisle. Paley authored three…
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Ouija board
A modern version of an ancient instrument for divination and communication with supposed spirit entities. The modern Ouija Board was invented by Elijah Bond in 1892. Its name was created from the French and German words for yes, oui and ja. It represented an improvement over the planchette, a similar spirit communication instrument that had…
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Antoon Cornelis Oudemans (1858-1943)
Prominent Dutch zoologist and pioneer cryptozoologist best remembered for his study of sea serpents. Oude-mans was born into a family known for its scientific and intellectual accomplishments. He developed an early interest in the study of animals. He completed his doctorate in zoology in 1885 and shortly thereafter became the director of the Royal Zoological…
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Orgueil meteorite
A shower of stones, of meteoric origin, that fell near the village of Orgueil, near Toulouse in the south of France, on the night of May 14, 1864. The stones were of the carbonaceous chondrite type, and about 20 were collected for examination. They were found to contain hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen in a material…
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Orgone energy
A discovery, more a revelation, by 20th-century Austrian physician Wilhelm Reich of the vital life force that explains everything. It is blue in color and is responsible for the color of the sky, sea, lakes, and much besides. It is the mechanism by which gravity acts and is responsible for the formation of galaxies at…
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Orffyreus’s wheel
A perpetual motion machine (also known as Orffyreus) invented by Jean Ernest Elie Bessler (1680—1742). The idea of a large overbalanced wheel, delivering more energy from a series of falling weights than is required to return the wheel to its original state and therefore gaining energy as it rotates, was first suggested by Villard de…
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Orchis extract
Early 20th-century product claiming the ability to revive male sexual prowess. At the turn of the century, a number of remedies tried to help men who could not hold a penile erection. During the 1920s, perhaps the most successful of these remedies, which were usually sold through the mail, was manufactured by the Packers Product…
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Orang-pendek
A mysterious humanlike creature reported to inhabit the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The orang-pendek is usually contrasted to other Sumatran animals such as the gibbon, the orangutan, and the sun bear. It is described as being between 76 and 152 centimeters (2½ – 5 feet) tall, covered with short hair, and possessed of a bushy…
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Oracle
A person, object, or shrine through which humans can communicate with the gods to learn the future; also, the divinely inspired forecast itself. Many ancient cultures (and a few remaining ones today) revered male or female holy people who were considered oracles and were consulted before many important events. Usually the person consulting the oracle…
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