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 between ...

professor at

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted ...

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""T ...

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 ...

, the biochemist Anne Beloff-Chain, and the journalist Nora Beloff. 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 Univer ...

, and then enrolled to a doctorate program at Queen's University Belfast, 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 co ...

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. Not ...

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 thin ...

. 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 Lew ...

dismissed Beloff as credulous and willing to believe. Beloff had endorsed some fraudulent mediums such as Helen Duncan. 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 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''. 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 * Secon ...