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Psychosocial Hypothesis
In ufology, the psychosocial hypothesis, abbreviated PSH, argues that at least some UFO reports are best explained by psychological or social means. It is often contrasted with the better-known extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), and is particularly popular among UFO researchers in the United Kingdom, such as David Clarke, Hilary Evans, the editors of ''Magonia'' magazine, and many of the contributors to ''Fortean Times'' magazine. It has also been popular in France since the publication in 1977 of a book written by Michel Monnerie, (''What if UFOs do not exist?''). UFOlogists claim that the psychosocial hypothesis is occasionally confused with aggressive anti-ETH debunking, but that there is an important difference in that the PSH researcher sees UFOs as an ''interesting'' subject that is worthy of serious study, even if it is approached in a skeptical (i.e. non-credulous) way.''"Ritual Debunker Abuse"'', the Hierophant, ''Fortean Times'' issue 216 (November 2006), page 13. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ufology
Ufology ( ) is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins (most frequently of extraterrestrial alien visitors). While there are instances of government, private, and fringe science investigations of UFOs, ufology is generally regarded by skeptics and science educators as a canonical example of pseudoscience. Etymology Ufology is a neologism derived from ''UFO'' (a term apparently coined by Edward J. Ruppelt), and is derived from appending the acronym UFO with the suffix ''-logy'' (from the Ancient Greek ''λογία'' (''logiā'')). Early uses of ufology include an article in ''Fantastic Universe'' (1957) and a 1958 presentation for the UFO "research organization" The Planetary Center. Historical background The roots of ufology include the " mystery airships" of the late 1890s, the "foo fighters" reported by Allied airmen during World War II, the "ghost fliers" of Europe and North America during th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metachoric Experience
Charles Anthony Selby McCreery (born 30 June 1942) is a British psychologist, best known for his collaboration with Celia Green on work on hallucinatory states in normal people. Biography Charles McCreery was born at Stanton St. John in Oxfordshire. He is the son of General Sir Richard McCreery and Lettice, daughter of Major Lord Percy St. Maur and granddaughter of Algernon St Maur, 14th Duke of Somerset. During the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 Charles McCreery was a page to Field Marshal Viscount Alan Brooke, Alanbrooke, and took part in the ceremony in Westminster Abbey. McCreery was educated at Eton College (1955–60) and New College, Oxford (1961–64), where he read Philosophy and Psychology. Since 1964 he has collaborated with Celia Green on a series of studies of hallucinatory experiences in ostensibly normal people, including studies of out-of-body experiences, in which people seem to perceive their own physical body ‘from outside’. From 1987 to 200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skeptic's Dictionary
''The Skeptic's Dictionary'' is a collection of cross-referenced skeptical essays by Robert Todd Carroll, published on his website skepdic.com and in a printed book. The skepdic.com site was launched in 1994 and the book was published in 2003 with nearly 400 entries. As of January 2011 the website has over 700 entries. A comprehensive single-volume guides to skeptical information on pseudoscientific, paranormal, and occult topics, the bibliography contains some seven hundred references for more detailed information. According to the back cover of the book, the on-line version receives approximately 500,000 hits per month. ''The Skeptic's Dictionary'' is, according to its foreword, intended to be a small counterbalance to the voluminous occult and paranormal literature; not to present a balanced view of occult subjects. Contents According to Carroll, :“The Skeptic’s Dictionary is aimed at four distinct audiences: the open-minded seeker, who makes no commitment to or disavowa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cultural Tracking
In ufology, cultural tracking is the tendency of UFO reports through time to change their content in line with cultural changes. Examples Unidentified flying objects have long been reported through history, but the claimed craft are always a perversion of the technology or fiction of the day, and "the UFO technology tracks what our culture has but rarely exceeds it by a great deal." When aviation was limited to hot-air balloons, UFO reports consisted of claims of mysterious airships. Reported in the 1890s, these airships were distinguished from our technology by their giant size, but they nevertheless needed propellers. The later flying saucers were also a weird version of then-current aerospace technology; as John Spencer notes in ''The UFO Encyclopedia'': "Witnesses aboard flying saucers have reported, for example, chunky number counters on the saucer control panels, but we did not have reports of liquid quartz readouts until we ourselves invented them." Reports also track th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interdimensional Hypothesis
The interdimensional hypothesis is a proposal that unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings are the result of experiencing other ''"dimensions"'' that coexist separately alongside our own in contrast with either the extraterrestrial hypothesis that suggests UFO sightings are caused by visitations from outside the Earth or the psychosocial hypothesis that argues UFO sightings are best explained as psychological or social phenomenon. The hypothesis has been advanced by UFO enthusiasts such as Meade Layne, John Keel, J. Allen Hynek, and Jacques Vallée. Proponents of the interdimensional hypothesis argue that UFOs are a modern manifestation of a phenomenon that has occurred throughout recorded human history, which in prior ages were ascribed to mythological or supernatural creatures. Jeffrey J. Kripal, Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, writes: "this interdimensional reading, long a staple of Spiritualism through the famous 'fourth dimension', would ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extraterrestrial Hypothesis
The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) proposes that some unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are best explained as being physical spacecraft occupied by extraterrestrial life or non-human aliens, or non-occupied alien probes from other planets visiting Earth. Etymology Origins of the term ''extraterrestrial hypothesis'' are unknown, but use in printed material on UFOs seems to date to at least the latter half of the 1960s. French ufologist Jacques Vallée used it in his 1966 book ''Challenge to science: the UFO enigma''. It was used in a publication by French engineer Aimé Michel in 1967, by James E. McDonald in a symposium in March 1968 and again by McDonald and James Harder while testifying before the Congressional Committee on Science and Astronautics, in July 1968. Skeptic Philip J. Klass used it in his 1968 book ''UFOs--Identified.'' In 1969 physicist Edward Condon defined the "extraterrestrial hypothesis" or "ETH" as the "idea that ''some'' UFOs may be spacecraft sent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religious studies. Jung worked as a research scientist at the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital, in Zurich, under Eugen Bleuler. During this time, he came to the attention of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. The two men conducted a The Freud/Jung Letters, lengthy correspondence and collaborated, for a while, on a joint vision of human psychology. Freud saw the younger Jung as the heir he had been seeking to take forward his "new science" of psychoanalysis and to this end secured his appointment as president of his newly founded International Psychoanalytical Association. Jung's research and personal vision, however, made it difficult for him to follow his older colleague's doctrine and they parted ways. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mad Gasser Of Mattoon
The Mad Gasser of Mattoon (also known as the "Anesthetic Prowler," the "Phantom Anesthetist," or simply the "Mad Gasser") was the name given to the person or people believed to be responsible for a series of apparent gas attacks that occurred in Mattoon, Illinois, during the mid-1940s. More than two dozen separate cases of gassings were reported to police over the span of two weeks, in addition to many more reported sightings of the suspected assailant. The gasser's supposed victims reported smelling strange odors in their homes which were soon followed by symptoms such as paralysis of the legs, coughing, nausea and vomiting. No one died or had serious medical consequences. Police remained skeptical of the accounts throughout the entire incident. No physical evidence was ever found, and many reported gassings had simple explanations, such as spilled nail polish or odors emanating from animals or local factories. Victims made quick recoveries from their symptoms and suffered no long- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic
The Seattle windshield pitting epidemic is a phenomenon which affected Bellingham, Seattle, and other communities of Washington state in April, 1954; it is considered an example of a mass delusion. It was characterized by widespread observation of previously unnoticed windshield holes, pits and dings, leading residents to believe that a common causative agent was at work. It was originally thought to be the work of vandals, but the rate of pitting was so great that residents began to attribute it to everything from sand flea eggs to nuclear bomb testing. Originating in Bellingham in March, police initially believed the work to be vandals using BB guns. However the pitting was soon observed in the nearby towns of Sedro Woolley and Mount Vernon and by mid-April, appeared to have spread to the town of Anacortes on Fidalgo Island. Within a week, the news and the so-called "pitting epidemic" had reached metropolitan Seattle. As the newspapers began to feature the story, more and more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paradigm Shift
A paradigm shift, a concept brought into the common lexicon by the American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn, is a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline. Even though Kuhn restricted the use of the term to the natural sciences, the concept of a paradigm shift has also been used in numerous non-scientific contexts to describe a profound change in a fundamental model or perception of events. Kuhn presented his notion of a paradigm shift in his influential book ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' (1962). Kuhn contrasts paradigm shifts, which characterize a Scientific Revolution, to the activity of normal science, which he describes as scientific work done within a prevailing framework or paradigm. Paradigm shifts arise when the dominant paradigm under which normal science operates is rendered incompatible with new phenomena, facilitating the adoption of a new theory or paradigm. As one commentator summarizes: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenneth Arnold UFO Sighting
The Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting occurred on June 24, 1947, when private pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw a string of nine, shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds that Arnold estimated at a minimum of 1,200 miles an hour (1,932 km/hr). This was the first post-World War II sighting in the United States that garnered nationwide news coverage and is credited with being the first of the modern era of UFO sightings, including numerous reported sightings over the next two to three weeks. Arnold's description of the objects also led to the press quickly coining the terms ''flying saucer'' and ''flying disc'' as popular descriptive terms for UFOs. Sighting On June 24, 1947, Arnold was flying from Chehalis, Washington, to Yakima, Washington, in a CallAir A-2 on a business trip. He made a brief detour after learning of a $5,000 reward (equivalent to $ today) for the discovery of a U.S. Marine Corps C-46 transport airplane that had crashed near M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David M
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the third king of the United Kingdom of Israel. In the Books of Samuel, he is described as a young shepherd and harpist who gains fame by slaying Goliath, a champion of the Philistines, in southern Canaan. David becomes a favourite of Saul, the first king of Israel; he also forges a notably close friendship with Jonathan, a son of Saul. However, under the paranoia that David is seeking to usurp the throne, Saul attempts to kill David, forcing the latter to go into hiding and effectively operate as a fugitive for several years. After Saul and Jonathan are both killed in battle against the Philistines, a 30-year-old David is anointed king over all of Israel and Judah. Following his rise to power, David ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
