---
title: "List of topics characterized as pseudoscience"
chunk: 18/18
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:29:53.539791+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Scientology ===
Dianetics, a therapeutic technique promoted by Scientology, purports to treat a hypothetical reactive mind. There is no scientific evidence for the existence of an actual reactive mind, apart from the stimulus response mechanisms documented in behaviorist psychology.
Narconon and Purification Rundown are Scientology programs that purport to clean the human body of toxins and drugs respectively. Their method consists of very long saunas over many days, extremely large (possibly toxic) doses of vitamins including niacin, and Scientology 'training routines', sometimes including attempts at telekinesis. The programs have been described as "medically unsafe", "quackery" and "medical fraud", while academic and medical experts have dismissed Narconon's educational programme as containing "factual errors in basic concepts such as physical and mental effects, addiction and even spelling". In turn, Narconon has claimed that mainstream medicine is "biased" against it, and that "people who endorse so-called controlled drug use cannot be trusted to review a program advocating totally drug-free living." Narconon has said that criticism of its programmes is "bigoted", and that its critics are "in favor of drug abuse [...] they are either using drugs or selling drugs".

=== Other ===
Quantum mysticism – builds on a superficial similarity between certain New Age concepts and such seemingly counter-intuitive quantum mechanical concepts as the uncertainty principle, entanglement, and wave–particle duality, while generally ignoring the limitations imposed by quantum decoherence. One of the most abused ideas is Bell's theorem, which proves the nonexistence of local hidden variables in quantum mechanics. Despite this, Bell himself rejected mystical interpretations of the theory.
Transcendental Meditation (TM) refers to a specific form of silent mantra meditation and less commonly to the organizations that constitute the Transcendental Meditation movement. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created and introduced the TM technique and TM movement in India in the mid-1950s. It is not possible to say whether meditation has any effect on health, as the research is of poor quality, and is marred by a high risk for bias due to the connection of researchers to the TM organization and by the selection of subjects with a favorable opinion of TM.

== Idiosyncratic ideas ==
The following concepts have only a very small number of proponents, yet have become notable:

Aquatic ape hypothesis – the idea that certain ancestors of modern humans were more aquatic than other great apes and even many modern humans and, as such, were habitual waders, swimmers and divers.
Lawsonomy – proposed philosophy and system of claims about physics made by baseball player and aviator Alfred William Lawson.
Morphic resonance – The idea put forth by Rupert Sheldrake that "natural systems, such as termite colonies, or pigeons, or orchid plants, or insulin molecules, inherit a collective memory from all previous things of their kind". It is also claimed to be responsible for "mysterious telepathy-type interconnections between organisms".
N rays – A hypothesized form of radiation described by Prosper-René Blondlot in 1903 that briefly inspired significant scientific interest, but were subsequently found to have been a result of confirmation bias.
Penta Water – the claimed acoustically-induced structural reorganization of liquid water into long-lived small clusters of five molecules each. Neither these clusters nor their asserted benefits to humans have been shown to exist.
Polywater – hypothetical polymerized form of water proposed in the 1960s with a higher boiling point, lower freezing point, and much higher viscosity than ordinary water. It was later found not to exist, with the anomalous measurements being explained by biological contamination. Chains of molecules of varying length (depending on the temperature) tend to form in normal liquid water without changing the freezing or boiling point.
Time Cube – a website created by Gene Ray, in 1997, where he sets out his personal model of reality, which he calls Time Cube. He suggests that all of modern physics is wrong, and his Time Cube model proposes that each day is really four separate days occurring simultaneously.
Timewave zero – numerological formula that was invented by psychonaut Terence McKenna with the help of the hallucinogenic drug dimethyltryptamine. After experiencing 2012 doomsday predictions, he redesigned his formula to have a "zero-point" at the same date as the Mayan longcount calendar.
Torsion field – hypothetical physical field responsible for extra-sensory perception, homeopathic cures, levitation, telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, and other paranormal phenomena. Despite the several obvious contradictions with established physics along with associated statements by believers criticized as being "nonsensical" by reputable scientists, torsion fields have been embraced as an explanation for claims of such paranormal phenomena. The harnessing of torsion fields has been claimed to make everything possible from miracle cure devices (including devices that cure alcohol addiction) to working perpetual motion machines, stargates, UFO propulsion analogs, and weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Some such devices, in particular the miracle cure boxes, have been patented, manufactured and sold.

== See also ==

== Notes ==

== References ==

== Further reading ==

== External links ==
'The Reading room' by The Skeptics Society
Stories by Michael Shermer published in Scientific American Magazine.
Michael Shermer: Baloney Detection Kit on YouTube – a set of questions to distinguish truth from bogus claims.