John Beloff (19 April 1920 – 1 June 2006) was an English
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
professor at
Edinburgh University
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1582 ...
and
parapsychologist.
Biography
Beloff was born and brought up in London, and was from a Russian
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish family. His parents were Semion (Simon) Beloff (born Semion Rubinowicz) and Maria (Marie) Katzin. His paternal great-grandmother was Leah Horowitz-Winograd, the sister of
Eliyahu Shlomo Horowitz-Winograd and a descendant of the Hasidic master
Shmelke Horowitz of Nikolsburg (1726–1778). He was the brother of the historian
Max Beloff
Max Beloff, Baron Beloff, (2 July 1913 – 22 March 1999) was a British historian and Conservative peer. From 1974 to 1979 he was principal of the University College of Buckingham, now the University of Buckingham.
Early life
Beloff was born ...
, the politician and educationalist
Renee Soskin
Renee Rachel Soskin JP (''née'' Beloff; 16 December 1916 – 8 July 1998) was a British teacher, company director and Liberal Party politician.
Background
Soskin was daughter of merchant Semion (Simon) Beloff (born Semion Rubinowicz) and his w ...
, the biochemist
Anne Beloff-Chain
Anne Ethel Beloff-Chain, Lady Chain (26 June 1921 – 2 December 1991) was a British biochemist. She worked at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (1948–1964), Imperial College London (1964–1986) and the University of Buckingham (1986–1991). He ...
, and the journalist
Nora Beloff
Leah Nora Beloff (24 January 1919 – 12 February 1997) was an English journalist and political writer. She worked for ''The Observer'' for three decades, from 1948 to 1978, and became a political correspondent in 1964, making her the first woma ...
. He served in the British Army in the Second World War. He worked in an architect's office, then studied at
London University
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...
, where he graduated in 1952. Shortly after graduation he married Halla Parker, a fellow student of psychology who was ten years younger. Together, they spent a year at the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...
, and then enrolled to a doctorate program at
Queen's University Belfast
, mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back?
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, defending their PhDs in 1956. In 1962 they both were offered jobs at the same department of University of Edinburgh and worked there until retirement. John and Halla had a daughter
Zoe, who became an international artist.
Beloff had been interested in
parapsychology
Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near ...
from an early age and served as president of the
Society for Psychical Research
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...
from 1974-1976. He was an executor of
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...
's will in 1983 and was instrumental in setting up the first UK chair of parapsychology, the
Koestler Parapsychology Unit
The Koestler Parapsychology Unit is a research group established in 1985 at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, to teach and conduct research concerning various aspects of parapsychology.
It hosts the only endowed chair of parapsychology in ...
at Edinburgh in 1985.
Reception
Beloff's belief in
paranormal
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...
powers and parapsychological statements were heavily criticized by psychologist
Nicholas Humphrey
Nicholas Keynes Humphrey (born 27 March 1943) is an English neuropsychologist based in Cambridge, known for his work on evolution of primate intelligence and consciousness. He studied mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey in Rwanda; he was the fi ...
for being based on
wishful thinking
Wishful thinking is the formation of beliefs based on what might be pleasing to imagine, rather than on evidence, rationality, or reality. It is a product of resolving conflicts between belief and desire.
Methodologies to examine wishful think ...
.
Science writer
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...
dismissed Beloff as credulous and willing to believe. Beloff had endorsed some fraudulent mediums such as
Helen Duncan
Victoria Helen McCrae Duncan (née MacFarlane, 25 November 1897 – 6 December 1956) was a Scottish medium best known as the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act 1735 for fraudulent claims. She was famous for producing ectopla ...
. Gardner quoted Beloff as admitting "my own ignorance of conjuring techniques may have misled me", but Gardner noted despite this, he still went on believing. Beloff had endorsed levitations,
psychic surgery
An alleged psychic surgeon at work
Psychic surgery is a pseudoscientific medical fraud in which practitioners create the illusion of performing surgery with their bare hands and use sleight of hand, fake blood, and animal parts to convince t ...
, the "thoughtographs" of
Ted Serios
Theodore Judd Serios (November 27, 1918 – December 30, 2006) was a Chicago bellhop known for his production of "Thoughtography, thoughtographs" on Instant camera, Polaroid film.
He claimed these were produced using psychic powers. Serios's psy ...
and various spiritualist mediums as genuine evidence for the paranormal.
Beloff favoured
mind-body dualism. This view was criticized by
Margaret Boden
Margaret Ann Boden (born 26 November 1936) is a Research Professor of Cognitive Science in the Department of Informatics at the University of Sussex, where her work embraces the fields of artificial intelligence, psychology, philosophy, and c ...
a Professor of cognitive science in a detailed review.
[Boden, Margaret A. (1964). ''The Existence of Mind by John Beloff''. '']The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
''British Journal for the Philosophy of Science'' (''BJPS'') is a peer-reviewed, academic journal of philosophy, owned by the British Society for the Philosophy of Science (BSPS) and published by University of Chicago Press. The journal publish ...
''. Vol. 14, No. 56. pp. 366-368.
Publications
*''The Existence of Mind'' (1964)
*''Psychological Sciences (1973)''
*''Parapsychology: The Way Ahead'' (1974)
*''The Importance of Psychical Research'' (1988)
*''The Relentless Question: Reflections on the Paranormal'' (1990)
*''Parapsychology: A Concise History'' (1997)
References
External links
Bibliography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beloff, John
1920 births
2006 deaths
English Jews
English people of Russian-Jewish descent
Academics of the University of Edinburgh
Parapsychologists
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...