Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

One of several islands that appeared and reappeared in the navigation charts through the 19th century, Bouvet Island is named for Pierre des Loziers Bouvet, the pioneer explorer of the Antarctic, who reported seeing the island in 1738 and noted its location at approximately 1,500 miles southwest of the Cape of Good Hope. He described…

A prominent psychical research organization of the 1920s and 1930s that grew out of a critical response to the Margery controversy. In opposition to claims made by the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) that authenticated the psychic powers of Mina Crandon, who was referred to as “Margery,” Walter Franklin Prince and his supporters withdrew…

Stars so massive that gravity attracts and holds everything in the vicinity, including light; if no light can escape, they appear black. Their possible existence is suggested by relativity theory applied to cosmology. The argument runs: If a massive star, with its high gravity, continues to mop up surrounding matter, it will eventually become so…

Popular name for a diagnostic machine originally created by Albert ABRAMS. In the late 19th century, as a professor of pathology at Cooper Medical College in San Francisco, California, Abrams turned his attention to cancer. Out of his study, he conceived the notion that each disease had a special vibration, and he built a machine…

The energy vesicle that is supposedly the basic unit of life. It is smaller than a cell, a liquid-filled membrane that pulsates continuously with orgone energy. The bion and orgone energy are both discoveries or inventions of Dr. Wilhelm reich, a 20th-century Austrian physician and psychiatrist. He believed that bions propagate like bacteria, and he…

An instrument developed by 19th-century French psychical researcher Hyppolite Baraduc to measure paranormal psychokinetic forces coming from the human body. Baraduc’s biometer consisted of a needle suspended by a thread. When a subject’s hand was brought near the apparatus, the needle’s movement supposedly indicated a variety of personal conditions physical, mental, and even moral. The…

A medical compound that was first patented by Samuel Lee, Jr., of Windham, Connecticut. Lee received his patent for “Bilious Pills” in 1796. A mixture of gamboge, aloes, soap, and potassium nitrate, the pills were touted for their curative value for bilious (liver) complaints and yellow fevers, jaundice, dysentery, dropsy (edema), worms, and “female complaints,”…

Huge, hairy hominid reportedly sighted throughout the North American continent. Some believe it to be a relative of the yeti, the almas, and other wild, fur- coated, humanlike creatures found in folklore and sightings around the world. Others think it is a creature of “monster envy,” either consciously or unconsciously created by those who want…