Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Incorruptibility
Freedom from decay of a corpse that has been reported to extend for weeks, months, and even years in spite of the absence of any artificial preservative process such as embalming, freezing, or placement in a sealed metal coffin. In the Western Christian tradition, incorruptibility has been reported in the case of several saints, most…
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Hyperspace
Theoretical fourth-dimensional space that allows space travelers to circumvent the absolute speed of light. In 1887, U.S. scholars Albert A. Michael- son (1852-1931) and Edward Morley (1838-1923) showed that the speed of light in a vacuum was a constant. In 1905, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) further demonstrated that the speed of light was an absolute in…
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Ray Hyman (1925- )
A psychologist member of the committee for the scientific investigation of claims of the paranormal (CSICOP). He was very skeptical of much of parapsychology methodology. In particular, he criticized Puthoff and Targ’s method of control of experiments in telepathic communication of local views of the Stanford area. By enabling “viewers” to eliminate possible “targets” one…
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Hunza people
An immortal race of people living in a peaceful paradise high in the mountains of the Himalayas, as recounted by ancient Asian legends at the end of the 19th century. Novelist James Hilton based his book Lost Horizon on these legends. During the period of the British Raj in India, explorers in the far northeast…
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Hundredth monkey
A modern myth of the new age movement. The story of the hundredth monkey was first told by Lyall Watson in his book Life-tide: A Biology of the Unconscious (1979). According to Watson, four primatologists were observing monkeys living on the islands off Japan. They began to leave food for the monkeys to find and…
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Humoral theory
The ancient doctrine that elemental body fluids or humours (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) are the physiologic and pathologic basis of health and disease. Also called humorism, fluidism, humoralism. Stressing the unity of the body and the strong interaction between mental and physical processes, humoral theory suggests that, provided one can discover the…
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Thomas Jay Hudson (1835-1903)
U.S. journal ist, lecturer, and amateur psychologist. Hudson developed a two-level theory of mind that not only opposed spiritualist claims, but later provided theoretical underpinnings of a rival religious movement, New Thought. Hudson was born on February 22, 1835, in Windham, Ohio. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in his home state,…
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Sir Fred Hoyle (1915- )
An eminent British theoretical astrophysicist, Fellow of the Royal Society from 1957, and Cambridge University’s Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy from 1958 until his retirement. He has been extraordinarily productive in several areas of science, in particular in his work on nucleosynthesis, the processes by which the heavier elements have been formed in…
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Hoxsey treatment
One of many cancer cures that became available in the United States in the 20th century. It was devised and marketed by a medically unqualified licensed naturopathy practitioner, Harry Mathias Hoxsey and practiced in his Dallas, Texas, Hoxsey Cancer Clinic from 1936. Hoxsey’s father had devised a cancer tonic, and his son, realizing that there…
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Harry Houdini (1874-1926)
The most famous escape artist in the history of stage magic. He is also the key figure in the conjuring profession’s long history of antagonism to spiritualism’s claims to demonstrate spirit contact. Born Ehrich Weiss on March 24, 1874, he grew up in Wisconsin, joined the circus, and began adult life as a trapeze artist,…
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