Category: I

Best known as the author of Worlds in Collision (1950). He was born in Russia, emigrated to the United States in 1939, and emigrated again to Byelorus while it was still part of the USSR. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and Moscow universities, qualifying in 1921, then practicing in Pales¬ tine. In the 1930s he…

Professor of psychiatry and parapsychologist known primarily for his research on the evidence of survival after death through the examination of memories of past lives. Stevenson was born on October 31, 1918, in Montreal, Quebec, and received his medical degree from McGill University in 1944. He held various teaching positions prior to his becoming chairman…

Naturalist, cryptozoologist, world traveler, and Fortean. Scottish born and well educated (with degrees in zoology, geology, and botany), Ivan Terrence Sanderson began his life work by collecting animals for the British Museum. Perhaps it was his interest in exotic animals that led him to an interest in other exotic phenomena and, eventually, to found the…

Ratio of a person’s “mental age” to their physical age. In 1904 Alfred Binet, director of the psychology laboratory at the Universite de Sorbonne, devised a series of tests for the French government. The tests were intended to identify students who might require special attention because they were not performing well in regular classrooms. Originally…

Nude or seminude photographs, in front, side, and rear positions, required of freshman students at most Ivy League and Seven Sisters schools from the 1940s through the 1960s. At Harvard the practice started as early as 1880. While students were told that the photos were taken to assess posture, some participating schools and an archive…

The process through which a person or a thing can be rendered unseen. Science fiction has long offered the idea that invisibility is viable. One of the most famous works of British science fiction writer H. G. Wells is The Invisible Man (1897). The book tells of the adventures of a misanthropic scientist who discovers…

An organization founded in 1982 (one of its founders was Roy Mackal) to promote the study of cryptozoology. It publishes Cryptozoology and ISC Newsletter and acts as the discipline’s professional body. Its president is Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans, recognized as the founder of the discipline, a professor of zoology and the author of On the Track…

An organization, founded in 1965 by Ronald J. Willis, devoted to research and study of unexplained natural phenomena. INFO filled the vacuum left by the demise of the Fortean society five year previously. The books of Charles Hoy Fort and the efforts of the society had created a community interested in exploring strange, anomalous phenomena.…

The primary organization presenting scientific creationism. In 1970, Dr. Henry Morris left his career in electrical engineering to help found and become academic dean of Christian Heritage College; the college was to be built on an understanding of creationism, biblical authority, and a conservative Protestant, but transdenomenational, Christianity. At the same time, Morris founded the…

A male spirit or demon that visits a sleeping woman for purposes of having sexual intercourse with her; a female demon who likewise visits a sleeping man. This is a particularly vivid manifestation of two very basic and common ideas in human history: The first is that sexual intercourse can take place between mortals and…