While we typically hold up scientist , especially those who have made important discoveries , as paragon of rationality , numerous scientists have had fascinations with cryptids , psychic phenomenon , and other aspect of the occult . And what some of these peculiar people trust may surprise you .
Top photo : A sitting held by Eusapia Palladino at the base of stargazer Camille Flammarion in France on November 25 , 1898 . Photo by H. Mairet , viaMusees de la Ville de Strasbourg .
Ot may storm folks who are intimate only with Sir Issac Newton ’s mathematical and scientific contribution that Newton was deeply interested in the occult . Newton was a dear Anglican and an alchemist — neither of which was strange for an English scientist in the 17th and 18th centuries . ( Although many of Newton ’s special spiritual beliefs , peculiarly his anti - Trinitarianism , would have been considered dissident at the time . ) Still , it ’s can be difficult for some forward-looking referee to reconcile Newton ’s numerical description of the universe withhis compulsion with scriptural numerology , astrology , and a quest for the Philosopher ’s Stone .
Newton made no differentiation between the scientific and the orphic . He believed that the world could be understood through mathematics as well as through secrets hidden in the Bible . ground on his interpretations of the Scriptures , he even estimated the date of the end of the world . ( He pegged it at around 2060 , although he was himself fishy of people who thought they had the accurate class down . ) He consider he could divine the size of the Earth by studying the geometry of Solomon ’s Temple . He conducted numerous experiments in his quest to make the legendary Philosopher ’s Stone . And his body of work in religion and alchemy was just as detailed as his work in what we would today conceive science .
8 of the Weirdest anticipation for the End of the World
There are some writers who consider that Newton made such powerful contribution to our discernment of the world not in spite of his more occult feeling , but because of them . His studies on optics had their groundwork in alchemy . In trying to identify the demeanor of the cosmea , he was taste to unlock the enigma of God ’s chemical mechanism . He just used whatever cock he could find : maths , the Bible , alchemy , and other “ sciences ” we would now reckon occult . Some of them exploit out better than others .
It ’s really concentrated to fault the eighteenth century plant scientist , zoologist , and taxonomist Carl con Linné , easily known as Carl Linnaeus , for considering the existence of the occasional mythological creature ( which , admittedly , is less supernatural than cryptozoological ) . After all , when Linnaeus gather his Systema Naturae , a great many new metal money of creature were just come to luminance — and once you ’ve identify a narwhal , the possibilities of the fauna realm seem pretty endless . And to his not bad recognition , Linnaeus ’ piece of work did a great deal to eradicate superstitions surrounding mythical animals . System Naturae included a subdivision titled Animalia Paradoxa , which list fantastical brute as well as animals that had been described by explorers , but whose existence seemed somehow suspect . Legendary animals like the forest god , the phoenix , and the manticora ended up on this list . ( Linnaeus also engaged in some cryptozoological debunkery , once famously examining the “ corpse ” of a hydra and apace hold it a fake . ) So did a few animals that turn out to be real , like Pseudis paradoxa , the shrinking frog , and the pelican , which Linnaeus thought was the product of some Explorer ’ overactive resource .
Carl Linnaeus Debunked A Rumored Hydra Corpse
But there was one mythical animal that fascinated Linnaeus so much that he believed it just might be tangible : the mermaid . In the tenth edition of System Naturae , he describes a “ siren ” specimen put up in a museum in Leyden , although he does call the animal “ paradoxical ” ( mostly because it was theorise to be a marine mammal with large ears and a neck ) . The temptress was only bring out as a fake much , much later , thanks to XTC - rays of the specimen . In a letter of the alphabet to the Swedish Academy of Sciences , Linnaeus profess that he was timid of the existence of such a animal , but it was clear that he had a profound pursuit in their possible beingness .
When a supposed mermaid was cover to have been caught off the seacoast of Jutland , Linnaeus excitedly hoped it prove a breakthrough in natural chronicle , but the body was expose as a fake before he could make the journey to see it himself . It was n’t that he needfully conceive in mermaid — even as he urge on the Academy of Sciences to set in motion an expedition to beguile a specimen , he admitted that sightings of mermaid might be “ fable and fantasy ” — as that he believe such a creature was possible . Even a calling sceptic like Linnaeus could concord out hope of come across a echt mermaid . And he was n’t the only naturalist of the age to suspect that a folkloric fauna might be real ; his educatee Anders Sparrman suspected that tale of unicorns spotted on the Namibian plains might , if on-key , explain the descriptions of such wight in medieval bestiary .
Warning : There are going to be a lot of Victorians on this lean . Magic and science , often pop off hand in hand in early eras of westerly skill ( just await at the number of Renaissance astronomers who also wreak as astrologers ) , but during the nineteenth and early twentieth century , a keen many scientists were specially unbelieving of the spiritualism fad . William Crookes was not one of them .
William Crookes was a pioneer of vacuum tubes , discoverer of the light James Mill ( also known as the Crookes radiometer ) , identifier of the first known sample of He , and an important researcher into cathode rays and radioactivity . He was also obsess with seances and paranormal phenomena .
Like a lot of people who have been interested in spiritualism , Crookes see an untimely death in his folk . He lost his 21 - yr - onetime comrade Philip to yellow febricity . short after Philip ’s death , Crookes began attending seances . He consider mediums and declared their powers real . He join the Society for Psychological Research , the Theosophical Society , and the paranormal research association recognise but as the Ghost Club .
One suppose paranormal phenomenon which Crookes famously claim was genuine was the materialization of a emotional state known as Katie King . The average Florence Cook was supposedly able-bodied to cause the feel of a young woman name Katie King to happen , and the suppose flavor ’s existence was a topic of enceinte debate during the 1870s . William Crookes lay claim that he had inquire Cook and the Katie King phenomenon and published a news report asserting that she was a genuine feel . Perhaps Crookes was inordinately gullible ; perhaps he was having an affair with the metier .
Crookes also had someinfluence on fellow scientist Nikola Tesla ’s ideas of the psyche . Tesla was n’t a believer in paranormal phenomenon , but he respect Crookes and thought earnestly about Crookes ’ ideas of the spirit and living after death .
Although few masses know about him have it away , Alfred Russel Wallace was , during his lifetime , famous for being one of the co - developer of the hypothesis of innate selection , along with Charles Darwin . In fact , Darwin used Wallace ’s writings to inform On the Origin of Species , after which the two develop a friendly relationship that lasted the eternal sleep of Darwin ’s life .
While Darwin may have value Wallace ’s evolutionary theories , he was not such a fan of Wallace ’s views on spiritualism . Wallace did n’t just hang seances and charter with supposed extrasensory phenomena ; he , like Crookes , was an advocate of spiritualism , a full - on convert who wrote about the subject . Wallace enjoyed famous person status thanks to his theories on born excerption , but his view on spiritualism alienated him from the scientific community . It did n’t help that Wallace would bring up otherworldliness in what his compeer considered improper locale . Darwin remained a truehearted booster of Wallace , even if he did n’t agree with Wallace ’s opinion .
Wallace was also an opposer of variola vaccination , but not because of his more paranormal interests . He felt that instinctive choice mean that everything , even smallpox , had a place in the world . Vaccination , he feared , could disturb the balance achieved by instinctive pick .
Ross A. Slotten has written a life story of Wallace , aptly titledThe Heretic in Darwin ’s Court .
British physicist Oliver Lodge ’s research aided in the development of the telegraph , but he also wondered if not just heart rate and vocalism , but literal human thought , could be sent over farsighted distances . Lodge is another scientist who come to spiritualism in the wake of a family tragedy , attending seances after the death of his son . His particular interestingness , however , was in view transfer , and he even wrote a book on the subject , titled Spontaneous Telepathy and Clairvoyance .
As with Wallace and Crookes , Lodge ’s interest in unscientific phenomena and his role in legalize these phenomena for a credulous populace earned him the ire of many of his scientific peers . However , others , like physicists Heinrich Hertz and Max Planck , were more sympathetic to Lodge ’s probe into the unknown .
In 1913 , physiologist Charles Richet acquire the Nobel Prize for his work on anaphylaxis , but by then he was already fascinated by the idea of psychic phenomena . Richet suspect that human being could project their corporeal forces to trigger forcible events , that humans were capable of experiencing genuine premonitions , and that humans could take shape ectoplasm . He write extensively on his theories of the sixth sense in Book like Treatise on Metapsychics , Our 6th Sense , and The Future and Premonition .
Richet was so positive of extrasensory phenomenon that he , in at least one cause , cover up “ proof ” of the paranormal that he knew was fraudulent . As a penis of the Institute Metapsychique International , Richet was cognisant that picture taken of the medium Eva Carrière supposedly show ectoplasm were faked . Still , he and his fellow IMI fellow member covered up the fraud since it provided the public with “ evidence ” of the psychic phenomena they believe to be echt .
Richet is n’t the only Nobel laureate who think in the paranormal , not by a longshot . Pierre Curie , physicist and married man of Marie Curie , had a wakeless interest in mediumship . In special , he was take with Eusapia Palladino , an Italian religious mystic who claimed she could levitate tables and commune with tone . The Curies attend Palladino ’s seance , and were impressed to obtain no evidence of wile . Pierre , in special , seemed quite taken with the medium and her apparent powers . 24-hour interval before his death in 1906 , Pierre write to a friend about his late experience at one of Palladino ’s seances , saying , “ There is here , in my judgement , a whole world of entirely newfangled fact and physical states in space of which we have no creation . ”
If Pierre had live just a little longer , he might have seen Palladino expose as a pseud . The year Pierre died , two investigators discovered that she was secretly using her foot to manipulate object . The next class , she was caught using a strand of her hair to move things that were out of her reach .
French astronomer Camille Flammarion is a rather curious figure of speech . On the one hand , he did wonder to increase public interest in astronomy , drop a line extensively on the subject in script and pop magazines . On the other , sometimes he was just unconditional - out unscientific . Flammarion caused a panic in 1910 when he claimed that the gas in the tail of Halley ’s Comet would blow out all life on Earth ( a claim which may haveinspired The Poison Belt by Conan Arthur Doyle , another medium ) .
Flammarion was another worshipper in otherworldliness and reincarnation , but he also had a rather rummy possibility about life history on other planets . Certainly , Flammarion was not the only astronomer to speculate that there might be living brute in our solar system ; what ’s odd is how he get in at that notion . Flammarion ’s thought about extraterrestrial life were influenced by the body of work of Jean Reynaud , who believe that after demise , souls would travel to another planet , be reincarnated , unrecorded , cash in one’s chips , and start the process again . in effect , Flammarion combined the paranormal with the idea of extraterrestrial life . His ideas made it into some of his science fable novel , which described life on other worlds .
Do you know someone who seems to demolish electric equipment just by being in the same elbow room with it?Wolfgang Pauli was one of those people . According to superstitious notion , when the theoretical physicist walked into a room , lab equipment would simply fail . His friend Otto Stern actually banned Pauli from his science lab . And Pauli himself was a swelled believer in this special superstition .
https://gizmodo.com/the-sinister-pauli-effect-5981706
How did Pauli excuse his consequence on lab equipment?Well , Pauli believed that judgement and topic were interconnected , and that human consciousness could have an effect on the outdoor world . So essentially , Pauli believe he was psychokinetic .
Jack Parsonswas a founding phallus of NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Lab and make up a satisfying rocket engine fuel . He was also an acolyte of Aleister Crowley and a high up - ranking member of Crowley ’s Ordo Templi Orientis . parson claimed that he had once come up the Devil and that he had call down up his everlasting fair sex — who take the form of his muse Marjorie Cameron .
The strangely true connection between Scientology , the Jet Propulsion Lab , and Occult Sorcery
pastor also has a connection to another new spiritual movement : Scientology . The writer L. Ron Hubbard experience with Parsons and his girlfriend Betty for a while and take part in mystic rituals with Parsons . There is probably more than a minuscule of Crowley and Parsons in Scientology ’s DNA .
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