Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Alexander Thom (1894-1985)
A professor of engineering science at Oxford University who used his professional descriptive and analytical skills to examine the hundreds of prehistoric stone circles in England and Scotland. He later extended his surveys to include the many ancient megalithic sites in Brittany. Thom carefully mapped the positions of the stones in more than a hundred…
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Theosophy
The doctrine and teachings of the Theosophical Society. The literal meaning of the word is “sacred science” or “divine wisdom.” The society was founded in 1875 by a small group with a shared interest in Spiritualism and Occultism, centered around Madame Blavatsky and Col. Henry Steel Olcott. Olcott proposed to the group that they should…
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Wilhelm Tenhaeff (1894-1981)
Dutch psychical researcher whose career ended amid charges of large-scale fraud. Tenhaeff joined the Studievereniging Voor Psychical Research (SVPR) soon after its founding and in 1928 became a cofounder of the Tijdschrift voor Parapsychologie. All parapsychological research stopped during the Nazi occupation, but Parapsychology was reestablished in the Netherlands soon after the war ended. Tenhaeff…
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Teleportation
The movement of something, often a human, through solid objects or from one place to another through paranormal means. Teleportation was a popular feature of many 19th-century seances. The medium conducting the seance might disappear from the premises only to reappear later, or someone not initially involved in the seance would suddenly be present, his…
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Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881-1955)
Paleontologist and Roman Catholic priest. Born in Sarcenat, France, he entered the Jesuit order in 1899 and was ordained in 1912. He served as a stretcher bearer in World War I, during which was decorated for gallantry, and received his doctorate from the Sorbonne. Deeply interested in evolution theory, Teilhard sought to convince the church…
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Cyrus reed teed (1839-1908)
A propounder of the fantastic theory positing that the whole universe was contained in the hollow of Earth. Humans, along with all the plants and animals, were thought to be living on the inner surface of the shell. When we are observing the cosmos, we are not looking upward and outward but inwards. Teed was…
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John G. Taylor (1931- )
A mathematical physicist at King’s College, London, and an ardent believer in Uri Geller’s psychic abilities, particularly his metal bending by mental power. Taylor went further and believed that many children shared this power. So convinced was he that he appeared on television in Britain in support of Geller and this psychic phenomenon, and wrote…
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Tatzelwurm
A legendary animal reported to exist in the Swiss, Bavarian, and Austrian Alps that is the subject of cryptozoologic research. The modern record of sightings of the Tatzelwurm (literally “worm with claws”) began in 1779. A man named Hans Fuchs encountered two tatzelwurms and was so scared that he suffered a heart attack. He only…
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Tasaday tribe
Isolated Philippine natives discovered by Manuel Elizalde in 1971. The Tasaday were a small tribe of 24 people living on the Philippine island of Mindanao. They were so isolated from the 20th century that they believed that they were the only people living in the world. They practiced a Stone Age culture, knew nothing of…
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Tar water
Popular medical remedy of the 18th century recommended by philosopher, George Berkeley. Tar water was made by putting a quart of cold water and a quart of tar together, mixing them, and then allowing the tar to settle. A glass of the clear water that remained behind was then drawn off and mixed with an…
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