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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Maggiore-0.md

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+title: "Christine Maggiore"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Maggiore"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:36.045771+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Christine Joy Maggiore (July 25, 1956 – December 27, 2008) was an HIV-positive activist and promoter of HIV/AIDS denialism. She was the founder of Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, an organization which disputes the link between HIV and AIDS and urges HIV-positive pregnant women to avoid anti-HIV medication. Maggiore authored and self-published the book What If Everything You Thought You Knew about AIDS Was Wrong?
+Maggiore's promotion of HIV/AIDS denialism had long been controversial, particularly since her 3-year-old daughter, Eliza Jane Scovill, died of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, which is an AIDS-defining illness. Consistent with her belief that HIV was harmless, Maggiore had not taken medication to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV to her daughter during pregnancy, and she did not have Eliza Jane tested for HIV during her daughter's lifetime. Maggiore herself died on December 27, 2008, after suffering from AIDS-related conditions.
+
+== Early life and career ==
+Born in Chicago, Illinois, Maggiore grew up in Southern California. After graduating with honors from Reseda High School, she worked in advertising and marketing in Los Angeles, California until 1984. She traveled through Europe and North Africa in 1984 before settling in Florence, Italy, where she lived from 1985 to 1987. By the late 1980s, she was earning a high salary at the Alessi International clothing company.
+
+== HIV diagnosis and activism ==
+In 1992, as part of a routine medical exam, Maggiore tested positive for HIV, as did a former boyfriend. Subsequently, Maggiore became involved in volunteer work for a number of AIDS charities, including AIDS Project Los Angeles, L.A. Shanti, and Women at Risk. However, following an interaction with prominent AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg in 1994, Maggiore began to question whether HIV causes AIDS. Maggiore came to believe that her positive test may have been due to influenza vaccination, pregnancy, or a common viral infection.
+In 1995, Maggiore left the clothing business to work as a freelance consultant for US government export programs. At the same time, she founded Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, an organization denying the connection between HIV and AIDS and urging pregnant HIV-positive women to avoid HIV medications for themselves and their children. Maggiore herself drew criticism for breast-feeding her children, as breast feeding has been shown to increase the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
+In a 2002 article entitled "My Bout of So-Called AIDS", Maggiore wrote that she had an abnormal Pap smear (a "Grade 3 Pap smear with cervical dysplasia"), which she wrote would qualify her for an AIDS diagnosis. Maggiore's doctors recommended further evaluation with colposcopy; Maggiore writes that she instead followed a naturopathic program and had additional Pap tests performed under an assumed name by another doctor, ultimately obtaining what she described as a normal result.
+In a 2005 article in the Los Angeles Times, Maggiore claimed to be in excellent health without taking anti-retroviral treatment. Maggiore's husband and partner, filmmaker Robin Scovill, has repeatedly tested negative despite what Maggiore describes as "a decade of normal, latex-free relations". Their son Charlie, born in 1997, has also tested negative for HIV.
+Maggiore's inclusion as an exhibitor at the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa has been criticized by AIDS activists. Her influence on Thabo Mbeki's decision to block medical treatment of HIV-positive pregnant women was criticized following her death, with medical researchers noting that an estimated "330,000 lives were lost to new AIDS infections during the time Mbeki blocked government funding of AZT treatment to mothers."
+
+== Daughter Eliza Jane ==
+
+Christine Maggiore chose not to take antiretroviral drugs or other measures which reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV during her pregnancies. Maggiore also breastfed her children, despite evidence that breastfeeding can also transmit HIV from mother to child. Her youngest daughter, Eliza Jane, was never tested for HIV, nor did she or her older brother Charlie receive any of the recommended childhood vaccines. Maggiore later reported Charlie to have tested HIV-negative three times, and asserted that both were in good health.
+In April 2005, Eliza Jane, then three and a half years old, became ill with a runny nose. She was seen by two physicians, one of whom reportedly knew of Maggiore's HIV status. Eliza Jane was not tested for HIV and was diagnosed with pneumonia. When Eliza Jane failed to improve, Maggiore took her to see Philip Incao, a holistic practitioner and board member of Maggiore's organization Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, who described Eliza Jane as only mildly ill and prescribed her amoxicillin for a presumed ear infection.
+On May 16, 2005, Eliza Jane collapsed and stopped breathing. She was rushed to Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, California, where, after failed attempts to revive her, she was pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed that Eliza Jane was markedly underweight and under-height (consistent with a chronic illness), exhibited pronounced atrophy of her thymus and other lymphatic organs, and died of pneumonia caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii, a common opportunistic pathogen in people with AIDS and the leading cause of pediatric AIDS deaths.
+The postmortem examination of Eliza Jane's brain showed changes consistent with HIV encephalitis; protein components of HIV itself were identified in Eliza Jane's brain tissue via immunohistochemistry. The coroner concluded that Eliza Jane had died of Pneumocystis pneumonia in the setting of advanced AIDS.
+Maggiore rejected the coroner's conclusion, ascribing it to political bias and attacking the personal credibility of the senior coroner. Maggiore had the autopsy reviewed by Mohammed Al-Bayati, a veterinary pathologist who holds a Ph.D. in animal disease pathology, but is neither a medical doctor nor board-certified in human pathology. Al-Bayati argued that Eliza Jane had died from an allergic reaction to amoxicillin, a conclusion Maggiore embraced. Al-Bayati's report has been dismissed as medically unsound by independent pathology experts, who agreed with the coroner's conclusion that Eliza Jane had died of complications of untreated AIDS.

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+title: "Christine Maggiore"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Maggiore"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:36.045771+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Reaction to Eliza Jane's death ===
+Controversy ensued in the wake of Eliza Jane's death; as Eliza Jane had acquired HIV from Maggiore perinatally or via breastfeeding, her HIV infection might have been prevented had Maggiore taken antiretroviral drugs or avoided breastfeeding, and her death may have been preventable with proper medical care. John Moore, a prominent HIV/AIDS researcher speaking at the 16th International AIDS Conference, described Eliza Jane's death as a concrete example of the human harm that can result from pseudoscientific beliefs such as AIDS denialism:
+
+... infants whose HIV infected mothers listen to AIDS denialists never got the chance to make their own decisions. The Maggiore case received wide publicity. Christine Maggiore is a person who’s proselytized against the use of antiretrovirals to prevent HIV/AIDS. She's a classic AIDS denialist, and she gave birth to a child who died at age three late last year of an AIDS-related infection. The coroner’s report clearly reports that the child died of AIDS. That was another unnecessary death.
+During this controversy, Maggiore had held fast to her views on HIV/AIDS and to Al-Bayati's conclusion. She received support from others in the AIDS-denialist community; journalist Celia Farber wrote an article in June 2006 in the independent paper Los Angeles CityBeat arguing Maggiore's case and alleging incompetence, conspiracy, and coverups on the part of the coroner, the mainstream AIDS community, the mainstream media, and the medical community. In particular, Farber claimed that the coroner's office had not disclosed the records of Eliza Jane's HIV serology test, and quoted another denialist who claimed Eliza Jane's total lymphocyte count was elevated at the time of her death.
+Eliza Jane's death was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Department of Child Protective Services as a possible case of medical neglect or child endangerment. In September 2006, the L.A. County District Attorney's office announced that it would not file charges against Christine Maggiore, noting that Maggiore did take her sick child to several physicians. In September 2006, the Medical Board of California filed charges of gross negligence against Eliza Jane's pediatrician, Paul M. Fleiss.
+The board argued that Fleiss had failed to test Eliza Jane for HIV (or to document her parents' refusal of testing), failed to counsel Maggiore to avoid breastfeeding given the risk of transmitting HIV, and committed similar violations of standard medical practice in Fleiss' care of a second HIV-positive child. Ultimately, Fleiss conceded a failure to keep adequate medical records and was sanctioned with 35 months of probation, but was not found grossly negligent by the Board.
+Maggiore and her husband, Robin Scovill, sued Los Angeles County in 2007 for allegedly violating their daughter's civil rights and privacy by releasing her autopsy report, which indicated that she was HIV-positive. A settlement was reached in 2009.
+
+== Death ==
+On December 27, 2008, Maggiore died at the age of 52. She was under a doctor's care and was being treated for what was originally reported as pneumonia. The Los Angeles County coroner's office stated that Maggiore had been treated for pneumonia in the six months prior to her death as well. A doctor familiar with the family noted that anti-HIV drugs could have prevented her death, but Maggiore's fellow AIDS denialists argued that her pneumonia was not AIDS-related and suggested instead that she died as a result of a toxic alternative medicine "holistic cleanse", stress, or the cold and flu. Maggiore's death certificate states that the cause of death was disseminated herpes virus infection and bilateral pneumonia, with oral candidiasis as a contributing cause, all of which is related to HIV infection. The death certificate also states that no autopsy was performed.
+
+== See also ==
+The Other Side of AIDS
+House of Numbers: Anatomy of an Epidemic
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+A Mother's Denial, A Daughter's Death: from the Los Angeles Times.
+Did HIV-Positive Mom's Beliefs Put Her Children at Risk? An ABC News Primetime special.
+AIDS denial: A lethal delusion Jonny Steinberg, New Scientist 2009.
+Obituary from the Los Angeles Times.
+Debunking the AIDS Denialist Movie House of NumbersMy by Myles Power mainly criticizing Christine Maggiore and her role in this movie and during its making. (Youtube)

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridology-0.md

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+---
+title: "Iridology"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:21:50.546586+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Iridology (also known as iridodiagnosis or iridiagnosis) is an alternative medicine technique whose proponents claim that patterns, colors, and other characteristics of the iris can be examined to determine information about a patient's systemic health. Practitioners match their observations to iris charts, which divide the iris into zones that correspond to specific parts of the human body. Iridologists see the eyes as "windows" into the body's state of health.
+Iridologists claim they can use the charts to distinguish between healthy systems and organs in the body and those that are overactive, inflamed, or distressed. Iridologists claim this information demonstrates a patient's susceptibility towards certain illnesses, reflects past medical problems, or predicts later health problems.
+As opposed to evidence-based medicine, iridology is not supported by quality research studies and is considered pseudoscience. The features of the iris are one of the most stable features on the human body throughout life. The stability of iris structures is the foundation of the biometric technology which uses iris recognition for identification purposes.
+
+== History ==
+Medical practitioners have been searching the eyes for signs of illness since at least 3,000 BCE.
+The first explicit description of iridological principles, such as homolaterality (without using the word iridology) are found in Chiromatica Medica, a famous work published in 1665 and reprinted in 1670 and 1691 by Philippus Meyeus (Philip Meyen von Coburg).
+
+The first use of the word Augendiagnostik ("eye diagnosis", loosely translated as iridology) began with Ignaz von Peczely, a 19th-century Hungarian physician who is recognised as its founding father. The most common story is that he got the idea for this diagnostic tool after seeing similar streaks in the eyes of a man he was treating for a broken leg and the eyes of an owl whose leg von Peczely had broken many years before. At the First International Iridological Congress, Ignaz von Peczely's nephew, August von Peczely, dismissed this myth as apocryphal and maintained that such claims were irreproducible.
+The second 'father' to iridology is thought to be Nils Liljequist from Sweden, who greatly suffered from the outgrowth of his lymph nodes. After a round of medication made from iodine and quinine, he observed many differences in the colour of his iris. This observation inspired him to create and publish an atlas in 1893, which contained 258 black and white illustrations and 12 colour illustrations of the iris, known as the Diagnosis of the Eye.
+In Germany, Pastor Emanuel Felke developed a form of homeopathy for treating specific illnesses and described new iris signs in the early 1900s. However, Felke was subject to long and bitter litigation. The Felke Institute in Gerlingen, Germany, was established as a leading center of iridological research and training.
+Iridology became better known in the United States in the 1950s, when Bernard Jensen, an American chiropractor, began giving classes in his method. This is in direct relationship with P. Johannes Thiel, Eduard Lahn (who became an American under the name of Edward Lane), and J Haskell Kritzer. Jensen emphasized the importance of the body's exposure to toxins, and the use of natural foods as detoxifiers. In 1979, in collaboration with two other iridologists, Jensen failed to establish the basis of their practice when they examined photographs of the eyes of 143 patients in an attempt to determine which ones had kidney impairments. Of the patients, 48 had been diagnosed with kidney disease, and the rest had normal kidney function. Based on their analysis of the patients' irises, the three iridologists could not detect which patients had kidney disease and which did not.
+
+== Criticism ==
+Scientists dismiss iridology given that published studies have indicated a lack of success for its claims. No clinical study to date has demonstrated a correlation between illness in the body and coinciding observable changes in the iris. In controlled experiments, practitioners of iridology have performed statistically no better than chance in determining the presence of a disease or condition solely through observation of the iris. 
+Iridology is based on a premise that is at odds with the fact that the iris does not undergo substantial changes in an individual's life. Iris texture is a phenotypical feature that develops during gestation and remains unchanged after infancy. There is no evidence for changes in the iris pattern other than variations in pigmentation in the first years of life and variations caused by glaucoma treatment. The stability of iris structures is the foundation of the biometric technology, which uses iris recognition for identification purposes.
+James Randi has argued that despite the lack of clinical efficacy, iridology remains unfalsifiable since iridologists do not provide a distinction between current physical defects and "future" defects; thus, iridiagnostic claims cannot be proven wrong.

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+---
+title: "Iridology"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:21:50.546586+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Scientific research into iridology ==
+Well-controlled scientific evaluation of iridology has shown negative results, with all rigorous double blind trials failing to find any statistical significance to its claims.
+In 2015, the Australian Government's Department of Health published the results of a review of alternative therapies that sought to determine if any were suitable for being covered by health insurance. Iridology was one of 17 therapies evaluated for which no clear evidence of effectiveness was found.
+A German study from 1957, which took more than 4,000 iris photographs of more than 1,000 people, concluded that iridology was useless as a diagnostic tool.
+In 1979, Bernard Jensen, a leading American iridologist, and two other iridology proponents failed to establish the basis of their practice when they examined photographs of the eyes of 143 patients in an attempt to determine which ones had kidney impairments. Of the patients, 48 had been diagnosed with kidney disease, and the rest had normal kidney function. Based on their analysis of the patients' irises, the three iridologists could not detect which patients had kidney disease and which did not. One iridologist, for example, decided that 88% of the normal patients had kidney disease, while another judged through his iris analysis that 74% of patients who needed artificial kidney treatment were normal.
+Another study was published in the British Medical Journal which selected 39 patients who were due to have their gall bladder removed the following day, because of suspected gallstones. The study also selected a group of people who did not have diseased gallbladders to act as a control. A group of five iridologists examined a series of slides of both groups' irises. The iridologists could not correctly identify which patients had gallbladder problems and which had healthy gallbladders. For example, one of the iridologists diagnosed 49% of the patients with gallstones as having them and 51% as not having them. The author concluded: "this study showed that iridology is not a useful diagnostic aid."
+
+Edzard Ernst raised the question in 2000:Does iridology work? ... This search strategy resulted in 77 publications on the subject of iridology. ... All of the uncontrolled studies and several of the unmasked experiments suggested that iridology was a valid diagnostic tool.  The discussion that follows refers to the 4 controlled, masked evaluations of the diagnostic validity of iridology. ... In conclusion, few controlled studies with masked evaluation of diagnostic validity have been published. None have found any benefit from iridology.A 2005 study tested the usefulness of iridology in diagnosing common forms of cancer. An experienced iridology practitioner examined the eyes of 110 total subjects, of which 68 people had proven cancers of the breast, ovary, uterus, prostate, or colorectum, and 42 for whom there was no medical evidence of cancer. The practitioner, who was unaware of their gender or medical details, was asked to suggest a diagnosis for each person, and their results were then compared with each subject's known medical diagnosis. The study conclusion was that "Iridology was of no value in diagnosing the cancers investigated in this study."
+
+== Methods ==
+
+Iridologists generally use equipment such as a flashlight and magnifying glass, cameras, or slit-lamp microscopes to examine a patient's irises for tissue changes, as well as features such as specific pigment patterns and irregular stromal architecture. The markings and patterns are compared to an iris chart that correlates zones of the iris with parts of the body. Typical charts divide the iris into approximately 80–90 zones. For example, the zone corresponding to the kidney is in the lower part of the iris, just before 6 o'clock.  There are minor variations between charts' associations between body parts and areas of the iris.
+According to iridologists, details in the iris reflect changes in the tissues of the corresponding body organs. One prominent practitioner, Bernard Jensen, described it thus: "Nerve fibers in the iris respond to changes in body tissues by manifesting a reflex physiology that corresponds to specific tissue changes and locations." This would mean that a bodily condition translates to a noticeable change in the appearance of the iris, but this has been disproven through many studies. (See section on Scientific research.) For example, acute inflammatory, chronic inflammatory and catarrhal signs may indicate involvement, maintenance, or healing of corresponding distant tissues, respectively. Other features that iridologists look for are contraction rings and Klumpenzellen, which may indicate various other health conditions, as interpreted in context.
+In Canada and the United States, iridology is not regulated or licensed by any governmental agency. Numerous organizations offer certification courses.
+
+== Possible harms ==
+Medical errors—treatment for conditions diagnosed via this method that do not exist (false positive result) or a false sense of security when a serious condition is not diagnosed by this method (false negative result)—could lead to improper or delayed treatment and even loss of life.
+
+== See also ==
+Moleosophy
+Phrenology
+Reflexology
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+The Skeptics Dictionary
+Quackwatch
+Your-Doctor.com
+James Randi Educational Foundation

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+---
+title: "Irlen syndrome"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irlen_syndrome"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:21:51.734310+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Irlen syndrome (or scotopic sensitivity syndrome) is a purported medical condition defined by disordered visual processing. It is proposed that it can be treated by wearing colored lenses. The ideas of Irlen syndrome are not supported by scientific evidence, and psychologists and medical professionals have described its treatment as a health fraud.
+
+
+== History ==
+
+The condition was proposed in the 1980s, by Helen Irlen, an educational psychologist. Irlen found that certain children and adults who had reading difficulties improved upon overlaying coloured acetate sheets on top of the text that was being read. Irlen defines the Syndrome as a light-based visual processing problem. She theorizes that the brain is unable to process light and visual stimuli efficiently, leading to visual stress and poor reading comprehension. The symptoms of Irlen Syndrome can include behavioural difficulties, reading difficulties, headaches, fatigue, and light sensitivity.
+The diagnostic test for Irlen Syndrome was developed by Irlen, and consists of a questionnaire of 32 questions, a series of visual tasks, and an assessment where coloured lenses are presented to the patient to see if there is any reading improvement when using them. Irlen has not provided any data related to the diagnostic test or released a comprehensive diagnostic criteria. 
+In 1985 Irlen submitted a patent for coloured lenses, to be used in glasses frames, for dyslexics and people with Irlen syndrome.
+The Irlen method uses tinted lenses. The method is intended to reduce visual distortions, eye strain, and fatigue.
+
+
+== Criticism ==
+
+Some psychologists and medical professionals say that the ideas of Irlen syndrome are pseudoscientific and not supported by scientific evidence. Others say that the treatment of Irlen syndrome is a form of health fraud, that takes advantage of vulnerable people.
+Medical organisations that don't recognise Irlen Syndrome include the World Health Organization, American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. 
+The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO) released a statement in 2018, stating that there is no scientific evidence that Irlen Syndrome exists, or that the supposed treatments help people who struggle with reading difficulties.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Dyslexia – Learning disability affecting reading
+
+
+== References ==

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+---
+title: "Isochronic tones"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isochronic_tones"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:21:52.921365+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Isochronic tones are regular beats of a single tone that are used alongside monaural beats and binaural beats in the process called brainwave entrainment (synchronization of brainwaves). At its simplest level, an isochronic tone is a tone that is being turned on and off rapidly.  The sounds are played in both ears. They create sharp, distinctive pulses of sound.
+Isochronic tones are tones of any frequency that recur at regular intervals, usually rapid. Isochronic tones can quantitatively be distinguished by both the frequency or pitch of the tone itself, and by the interval or frequency of repetition of the tone.
+While listening to isochronic tones is a technique often employed in the theoretical practice of brainwave entrainment, there has been very little research related to any claims of health benefits by listening to isochronic tones.
+A form of auditory beats stimulation that uses alternating tones may be considered a derivative of isochronic tones; alternatively, isochronic tones can be considered, along with monaural beats and binaural beats, to be a subtype of auditory beats stimulation.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Audio–visual entrainment
+Hemi-Sync
+Trance
+
+
+== References ==
+
+‌

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+---
+title: "Japhetic theory"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japhetic_theory"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:21:55.348105+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In linguistics, the Japhetic hypothesis or Japhetic theory (Russian: яфетическая теория, yafeticheskaya teoriya) of Soviet linguist Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr (1864–1934) postulated that the Kartvelian languages of the Caucasus area are related to the Semitic languages of the Middle East. The hypothesis gained favor in the 1930s and '40s among some Soviet linguists for ideological reasons as it was thought to represent "proletarian science" as opposed to "bourgeois science", but also had numerous detractors, most notably Arnold Chikobava. The hypothesis finally fell into disrepute and was largely discarded after 1950, when Joseph Stalin published a scathing critique of the views of Marr and his supporters, titled "Marxism and Problems of Linguistics".
+
+
+== Term ==
+Marr adopted the term "Japhetic" from Japheth, the name of one of the sons of Noah, in order to characterise his hypothesis that the Kartvelian languages of the Caucasus area were related to the Semitic languages of the Middle East (named after Shem, Japheth's brother). Marr postulated a common origin of Caucasian, Semitic-Hamitic, and Basque languages. This initial hypothesis pre-dated the October Revolution (the first reference to it is made in Pan Tadeusz written by Adam Mickiewicz in the 1830s). In 1917, Marr enthusiastically endorsed the revolution, and offered his services to the new Soviet regime. He was soon accepted as the country's leading linguist.
+
+
+== Hypothesis ==
+Under the Soviet government, Marr developed his hypothesis to claim that Japhetic languages had existed across Europe before the advent of the Indo-European languages. They could still be recognised as a substratum over which the Indo-European languages had imposed themselves. Using this model, Marr attempted to apply the Marxist theory of class struggle to linguistics, arguing that these different strata of language corresponded to different social classes. He stated that the same social classes in widely different countries spoke versions of their own languages that were linguistically closer to one another than to the speech of other classes who supposedly spoke “the same” language. This aspect of Marr's thinking was an attempt to extend the Marxist theory of international class consciousness far beyond its original meaning, by trying to apply it to language. Marr also insisted that the notion that a people are united by common language was nothing more than false consciousness created by “bourgeois nationalism”.
+To draw support for his speculative doctrine, Marr elaborated a Marxist footing for it. He hypothesized that modern languages tend to fuse into a single language of communist society. This hypothesis was the basis for a mass campaign of "Latinisation" in the 1920s and 1930s to replace the existing Cyrillic alphabets of minority languages with Latin alphabets.
+Obtaining recognition of his hypothesis from Soviet officials, Marr was permitted to manage the National Library of Russia from 1926 until 1930 and the Japhetic Institute of the Academy of Sciences from 1921 until his death in 1934. He was elected vice-president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1930.
+In 1950, sixteen years after Marr's death, an article titled "Marxism and Problems of Linguistics", written by Joseph Stalin, was published in major Soviet periodicals. It was inspired by the writings of Marr's most energetic opponent, Arnold Chikobava, In the article, Stalin rebuts the Japhetic hypothesis, stating that "N. Ya. Marr introduced into linguistics another and also incorrect and non-Marxist formula, regarding the ‘class character’ of language, and got himself into a muddle and put linguistics into a muddle. Soviet linguistics cannot be advanced on the basis of an incorrect formula which is contrary to the whole course of the history of peoples and languages." Since then, the Japhetic hypothesis has been seen as deeply flawed, both inside and outside the former Soviet Union, but some of Marr's surviving students continued to defend and develop it into the late 1960s.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Georgy Danilov
+Dené-Caucasian languages
+Khazar theory
+Lemurian Tamil
+Lysenkoism
+Proto-language
+Sun Language Theory
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+The Soviet Linguistic Theory (chapter 4 of Roman Smal-Stocki, The Nationality Problem of the Soviet Union): a hostile but thorough exposition of Japhetic hypothesis

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+title: "Jewish astrology"
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+
+Astrology in Jewish antiquity (Hebrew: מזלות, romanized: mazzalot) is the belief that celestial bodies can influence the affairs of individuals and of entire nations upon the earth. This involves the study of the celestial bodies' respective energies based on recurring patterns that change by the hour, by the week, month,  year or by several years (time categories). In each of these time categories one of the seven planetary spheres, or what are known as the seven classical planets: the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, or Mars, along with the month's current Zodiac constellation, come into play and influence the sublunary world. At times, it involves a complex combination of several of these factors working together. In Judaism this belief is expressed by the biblical affirmation: "Do you know the laws of heaven / Or impose its authority on earth?" (Job 38:33), from which statement the Sages of Israel have inferred, "There is no single herb below without its corresponding star above, that beats upon it and commands it to grow."
+Complementary to the records of past civilisations, the corpus of Jewish literature has preserved many of the details instructive of the determining factors involved in rendering any astrological forecast, although astrology in terms of modern science is understood to be a pseudoscience.
+
+== Rabbinic belief ==
+
+A famous meme that underscores the importance with which Judaism views the influences of the horoscope is found in the Idra of the Zohar:Everything is dependent upon mazzal (astral influences), even the Torah scroll in the ark. (הַכֹּל תָּלוּי בְּמַזָּל, וַאֲפִילּוּ סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה בָּהֵיכָל)
+In the Babylonian Talmud, a controversy is presented among the sages of Israel as to whether the changing signs of the zodiac affect a person's destiny. The supportive opinions are of Joshua ben Levi, who lists the types of people according to their various zodiac signs, and of Hanina bar Hama, who believes that the astrological constellations (mazzal) can make a person wise and can even make a person wealthy. Conversely, Johanan bar Nappaha held the view that "Israel is not bound by the effects of the changing horoscopes." He assayed to bring proof from a verse taken from the prophet Jeremiah: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them." 
+The opinions of Abba Arikha, of Samuel of Nehardea and of Rabbi Akiva, however, seem to be supportive of applied astrology, even though the people of Israel are not bound by the influences of the constellations. Other rabbis have vaunted their knowledge of applied astrology. Said Samuel of Nehardea, "I know the pathways of heaven as I do the pathways of Nehardea, excepting the comet, about which I know nothing." 
+
+Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi reported that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said in the name of Bar Kappara: Anyone who knows how to calculate astronomical seasons and the movement of constellations and does not do so, the verse says about him: "They do not take notice of the work of God, and they do not see His handiwork" (Isaiah 5:12).
+In several places in the Talmud it is stated that every man has a celestial body (mazzal), i.e. a particular star which is his patron from conception and birth (Shabbat 53b; Baba Kama 2b) and which perceives things unknown to the man himself (Megillah 3a; Sanhedrin 94a). Two people born under the same star are also said to have a bodily and spiritual kinship (Nedarim 39b; Baba Metzia 30b).
+Rava says, "Duration of life, progeny, and subsistence are dependent upon the constellations."  
+The great men of Israel in the Middle Ages, viz., Saadia Gaon, in his commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah; Solomon ibn Gabirol in his Keter Malkhut, and Abraham bar Hiyya, ha-Nasi and Abraham ibn Ezra considered astrology to be true wisdom and even expressed this belief in their works. Judah Halevi also acknowledges in his magnum opus, the Kuzari, that the celestial bodies have an influence on earthly affairs, but does not admit that the astrologers have the ability to determine the mode of operation of the star systems on human beings and other living creatures in the terrestrial world.
+Maimonides, who lived in the late twelfth century, took a more critical approach to the topic of astrology, ruling that man was entirely incapable of foretelling futurities by observing the celestial bodies, especially if those same astrological formulae were faulty. He, therefore, cancelled its practice altogether. Among the rabbis of the Middle Ages, Maimonides was the sole antagonist of such practices.
+One of his contemporaries and disputants, Abraham ben David, in his glosses to Maimonides' Mishneh Torah (Hil. Teshuvah 5:5), asserts the influence of the stars upon destiny, while contending that by faith in God man may overcome this influence.
+Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, during the Age of Enlightenment and although never actually having used his knowledge of the occult to foretell futurities, speaks about the influences of the stars in his book, Derekh Hashem (II, chapter 7 – The Influence of Stars).

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+title: "Jewish astrology"
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+---
+
+== Proscription against idolatry ==
+The rabbis have distinguished between gaining an occult knowledge of the stars' influences on human beings (which is permitted) and the actual worshipping of the stars (which is prohibited), a view that is also met with the Scripture; cf. [the stars and all the host of heaven] "which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations" (Deut. 4:19), that is to say, the stars, which God appointed to be the means of governing His creatures, and not the objects of man's worship.
+The Midrash HaGadol (on Deuteronomy 4:19) clarifies what is meant by, "[And beware] lest you raise your eyes to heaven, etc." It is hereby inferred that you are not to say, 'since these stars and constellations govern the world, and they provide light unto the entire universe, and they serve before their Creator on High, it is fitting that we serve them and bow down unto them, just as the king would want [all] human beings to behave with respect towards his servants and ministers.' For this reason it says, lest you raise your eyes to heaven, beware that you do not err in this manner, on account of what [is written], which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations. They (i.e. the astrological horoscopes) have been delivered into the hands of the nations, so that they may live [thereby] and their beings be sustained [thereby], [without] suffering loss, as is the custom of the world. But you (i.e. the nation of Israel) have been given over to me, and I do not behave towards you as is customarily practised with all the world, as it says, But the Lord has taken you (Deut. 4:20), etc. Likewise he says, Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens; for the gentiles are dismayed at them (Jer. 10:2). The nations of the world are alarmed by them, but Israel is not alarmed by them."  
+A similar theme is found in other rabbinic literature concerning Abraham the patriarch, who, although wise in the astrological sciences, and who saw thereby that he would not beget any children, was reprimanded by God who said to him: "Break away from your astrological speculations, for [the people of] Israel are not bound by the influences of the horoscope." By this Rashi learnt that through prayers, repentance and meritorious deeds (sometimes also through a change of name), they are able to alter what has been determined for them.
+The people of Israel are prohibited by Jewish law to consult the astrologers and star-gazers for guidance, but are commanded to be perfect in their awe of God and to consult him for guidance, even when they are told by astrologers what might happen.
+
+== Astral influences and how they are determined ==
+The day is divided into 12 equal hours. The night, likewise, is divided into 12 equal hours. In both cases, the method of configuration used in measuring the hour is known as the Relative hour. To determine the length of each relative hour, one needs but simply know two variables: (a) the precise time of sunrise, and (b) the precise time of sunset. Although in Talmudic literature one begins to reckon the beginning of a day some 72 minutes before sunrise and where each day ends 13½ minutes after the sun has already set, here, in the case of astrological computations, it was only necessary to reckon the day from the moment of sunrise. Rashi, however, alludes to the day beginning at dawn (עמוד השחר‎). By collecting the total number of minutes in any given day (from daylight hours) and dividing the total number of minutes by 12, the quotient that one is left with is the number of minutes to each hour. In summer months, when the days are long, the length of each hour during daytime can be as much as 77 minutes or more, whereas the length of each hour during nighttime can be less than 42 minutes.
+To each hour of the day and night is assigned one of the seven planets or spheres, which same planet governs the world during that hour. The names of these planets are: Saturn (shabtai), Venus (nogah), Jupiter (tzedek), Mercury (kokhav), Mars (ma'adim), Moon (levanah) and the Sun (ḥamah). [Note: The ancients conceived that there were only seven primary planets. The moon, although a satellite rather than a planet, was also numbered among them; the sun, which is a star rather than a planet, was also numbered among them. The earth was not numbered among them since it was central to the rest. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, as well as the other recently discovered planets and satellites, were not known to the ancients, and therefore are considered trivial to the rest]. The star or planet that begins the first diurnal hour of a particular weekday, or the first nocturnal hour of a particular weeknight, it is the same star or planet that broadly governs that entire day or night.

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+title: "Jewish astrology"
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+---
+
+The observance and reckoning of the movements of the 12 constellations are believed by some scholars to have been learnt from Hellenistic culture, after first being divested of influences that were deemed idolatrous. Accordingly, it was believed that God determined that each of the seven planets be subordinate to the twelve constellations of the Zodiac, and work in conjunction with them. For example, the Sun is directly subservient to the influences emanating from the constellation known as Leo, while the Moon is subservient to the influences emanating from the constellation known as Cancer. Mars is subservient to the influences emanating from two constellations, namely, Aries and Scorpio. The planet Venus is also subservient to the influences emanating from two constellations, namely, Taurus and Libra. The planet Mercury is, likewise, subservient to two constellations, drawing its influences from them, namely, that of Gemini and Virgo. The planet Saturn is subservient to two constellations, those being Capricorn and Aquarius, whence it draws its influences. Finally, the planet Jupiter is directly subordinate to the influences emanating from Sagittarius and Pisces. Weekly nocturnal duties: Each of the seven planets takes turn governing one day of the week, with the active involvement of all the planets on that same day working in concert, hour after hour, day by day, night by night, such that on the evening that commences Sunday (i.e. Saturday night), the night is governed by Mercury (kokhav), which begins its turn of duty in the first hour of the night, followed by all the other planets one after the other. On the evening that commences Monday (i.e. Sunday night), the night is governed by Jupiter (tzedek), which begins its turn of duty in the first hour of the night, followed by all the other planets one after the other. And so it is in this manner all throughout the week, the evening that commences Tuesday (i.e. Monday night) is governed by Venus (nogah); the evening that commences Wednesday (i.e. Tuesday night) is governed by Saturn (shabtai); the evening that commences Thursday (i.e. Wednesday night) is governed by the Sun (ḥamah); the evening that commences Friday (i.e. Thursday night) is governed by the Moon (levanah); the evening that commences Saturday (i.e. Friday night) is governed by Mars (ma'adim). The mnemonic used to denote this order is כצנ"ש חל"ם‎. Hourly nocturnal duties: Since each planet takes its turn of duty in the 12-hour night, the order taken in their hourly rotation is as follows: When Mercury (kokhav) finishes the 1st hour of the night, it is joined by the Moon (levanah) who takes up the 2nd hour of the night, followed by Saturn (shabtai) who takes up the 3rd hour of the night, followed by Jupiter (tzedek) who takes up the 4th hour of the night, followed by Mars (ma'adim) who takes up the 5th hour of the night, followed by the Sun (ḥamah) whose influence takes up the 6th hour of the night, followed by Venus (nogah) who takes up the 7th hour of the night, and in this order it is repeated until the 12-hour night has concluded for each of the seven nights. This hourly rotation is denoted by the mnemonic כל"ש צמח"ן‎. Fixing their rotation in such a way, hour by hour, was seen as vital in order to determine the character of the child who is born at any given hour of the night, based on the hour's acting "mazzal" (astrological influence), in accordance with the principle laid out by Rabbi Hanina: "Not the constellation of the day but that of the hour is the determining influence."
+Weekly diurnal duties: As in the night, so, too, each of the 12-hour weekdays has a set order pre-determined for it, while each of the seven planets rotating and serving in its respective hour. However, the planet that began to serve in the first hour of the night is not the same planet that begins in the first hour of the day. During the weekdays, the first hour of the first day of the week (Sunday), starts with the influences of the Sun (hence: Sunday); the first hour of the second day of the week (Monday) starts with the influences of the Moon (hence: Monday); the first hour of the third day of the week (Tuesday) with Mars, and the first hour of the fourth day of the week (Wednesday) with Mercury, while the first hour of the fifth day of the week (Thursday) with Jupiter, and the first hour of the sixth day of the week (Friday) with Venus, and lastly, the first hour of the seventh day of the week (Saturday) with Saturn. The mnemonic used to denote this order is חל"ם כצנ"ש‎. Hourly diurnal duties: When the Sun finishes the 1st hour of the day on Sunday, it is joined by Venus who takes up the 2nd hour of the day on Sunday, followed by Mercury who takes up the 3rd hour of the day on Sunday, followed by the Moon whose influence takes up the 4th hour of the day on Sunday, followed by Saturn who takes up the 5th hour of the day on Sunday, followed by Jupiter who takes up the 6th hour of the day on Sunday, followed by Mars who takes up the 7th hour of the day on Sunday, and in this order it is repeated until the 12-hour day has concluded. Again, fixing their rotation in such a way, hour by hour, was seen as vital in order to determine the character of the child who is born at any given hour of the day. The mnemonic used by the Sages of Israel to remember their order of rotation is שצ"ם חנכ"ל‎ = ShaTzaM ḤaNKaL (shabtai [= Saturn] → tzedek [= Jupiter] → ma'adim [= Mars] → ḥamah [= Sun] → nogah [= Venus] → kokhav [= Mercury] → levanah [= Moon]). Although each of the seven planets will rotate one after the other on an hourly basis, whether by day or whether by night, it is only the planet or orb that began to serve in the first hour, whether by day or whether by night, that is considered the principal planet and master of that entire day (if it began its turn of duty in the first hour of the day), or the principal planet and master of that entire night (if it began its turn of duty in the first hour of the night). The participation of all the other planets on that same day or that same night is inconsequential to the fact that the mazzal (= astral influences) for that day, or what is called mazzal yom, belongs to the planet that began serving in the first hour of the day, or in the first hour of the night, while the other planets are only concerned with their specific hour, or what is called mazzal sha'ah.

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+title: "Jewish astrology"
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+
+Since the Moon begins its turn of duty in the first hour of every Monday morning, and Jupiter begins its turn of duty in the first hour of every Thursday morning, and since both these planets are considered planets possessing good influences, it follows that Mondays and Thursdays are considered auspicious days in the Jewish calendar.

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+title: "Jewish astrology"
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+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Energies emanating from the seven classical planets ===
+
+By saying, "on the night of such-and-such a weekday," the sense here is to the idea in Jewish tradition, where nightfall ushers-in a new day, as is written (Gen. 1:5): "And the evening and the morning were the first day." Therefore, the "night of Sunday" is to be understood as beginning on Saturday night, when the first three stars appear in the night sky; the "night of Saturday" is, likewise, to be understood as beginning on Friday night, when the first three stars appear in the night sky, and so forth, and so on.
+
+=== Other factors taken into consideration ===
+To accurately determine the time in which each of the classical planets are in their respective line of duty, per hour, one must either have access to a printed lunar calendar showing the Jewish months, and know the precise starting point for each day and night, or else be familiar with the ever-changing aspects of the Jewish months, as the planetary influences will change with the conjunction of the moon with the sun, also known as the New Moon (occurring every 29 days, 12 hours and 793 parts of an hour), as also with the intercalation of the lunar month during a Jewish Leap Year (occurring seven times in a 19-year period), when the lunar month Nisan and its influences will be delayed by one month on account of an additional lunar month Adar. Moreover, the length of each 12-hour day fluctuates, depending on summer and winter. Several online websites provide conversion tables for converting a known date in the Gregorian calendar with the corresponding weekday, day and month in the Hebrew calendar. 
+
+=== Events attributed to the influences of the constellations ===
+In Jewish thought, the destruction of, both, the First and Second Temples which  happened in the lunar month of Av is linked to the astrological influences of Leo (arieh), which are generally considered to be bad. For this reason, the use of the rabbinic dictum, "When Av ushers-in, happiness is diminished" (Hebrew: משנכנס אב ממעטין בשמחה), is commonly heard in the mouths of the Jewish people. The month is marked by the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) fast day. During the same lunar month and its astral influences, the Jewish populous of Betar met their destruction under the Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd-century CE.
+King Edward I of England issued his decree (Edict of Expulsion) on 18 July, in the year 1290 CE (a date corresponding with the 9th-day of the lunar month Av when the month's influences were under the sign of the Zodiac Leo), that all Jews in his kingdom will be expelled from the country, and whosoever remained in the country beyond November of that same year would be executed.
+The outbreak of World War I began on 28 July, 1914 (a date corresponding with the 5th-day of the lunar month Av when the month's influences were under the sign of the Zodiac Leo); the Austro-Hungarian Empire having then declared war on Serbia. On the 7th-day of the lunar month Av, Russia joined the war. On the 9th-day of the lunar month Av, Germany joined the war.

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+title: "Jewish astrology"
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+---
+
+== Kabbalah ==
+The Kabbalist and rabbi Hayyim ben Joseph Vital explained the seven classical planets in a more conceptual and esoteric sense. While ranking ten spheres (realms) (Hebrew: גלגלים) from the highest to the lowest, he describes the Ninth Sphere as having nothing in it, and which rejects the presence of any star. As for the Eighth Sphere (Hebrew: גלגל השמיני), he states that all the stars of the universe, with the 12 constellations of the Zodiac, are contained therein, being below the Ninth Sphere, while each of the Seven classical planets occupies a space or realm below them: In the Seventh Sphere there is only one planet, Saturn (shabtai); in the Sixth Sphere there is only one planet, Jupiter (tzedek); in the Fifth Sphere there is only one planet, Mars (ma'adim); in the Fourth Sphere there is only one star, the Sun (ḥamah); in the Third Sphere there is only one planet, Venus (nogah); in the Second Sphere there is only one planet, Mercury; and in the First Sphere there is only the Moon (levanah). Hayyim Vital does not speak about their physical distance in relation to the earth, seeing that, besides the Moon (a satellite), the planet Venus is the closest planet, physically, to the earth. Rather, everything is expressed in relative spiritual distances, by virtue of their rank.
+Hayyim Vital, when speaking of their relative influences, wrote: "It has already been explained in the books on the science of astrology that all the changing occurrences which take place and which appear anew in the world, they are in accordance with the encounter of one of the Seven Planets standing in proximity to a certain star (Hebrew: מזל) of the twelve astrological constellations (Hebrew: מזלות) located in the Eighth Sphere, or else in accordance with the encounter of some of those planets which belong to the Seven, when they are found together in one place. Moreover, any encounter of the Seven Planets with the other [celestial] forms found in the [vast] open space of the Eighth Sphere will cause a little of the instructions [relegated unto it] to surge, although not with the same vigor as in the place of those twelve astrological constellations that are synchronous with the Eighth Sphere."
+One of the more arcane and mystical writings on the subject, Sefer Yetzirah "Book of Creation", a book that endeavors to show the interconnection between all things, says that God created the classical planets by means of seven Hebrew letters, which are בג"ד כפר"ת (being the sole double-sounding consonants in the Hebrew alphabet), and that the 12 constellations of the Zodiac were also created by means of 12 ordinary Hebrew letters. The author of this work, without divulging the influences of the horoscopes, names simply those things created by means of the letters, naming also the weekdays, seven groupings of words and their opposites (life and death; peace and evil disturbances; wisdom and foolishness; wealth and poverty; fertility and desolation; beauty and ugliness; governance and servitude), among other things. According to Judah Halevi, the seven planets and the 12 constellations, and the various other examples mentioned in the book, are the means by which man is capable of understanding the unity and omnipotence of God, which are multiform on one side and, yet, uniform on the other.
+
+== Fatalism ==
+While astrology in Jewish thought is generally acknowledged to mean that "every happening related to man, whether small or great, has been delivered into the power of the stars by the blessed Creator," it still allows for self-determination and free will of the individual in what concerns his choice of right and wrong actions, in spite of fate governing other aspects of man's life. This is expressed by the rabbinic dictum: "Everything is determined by heaven, except one's fear of heaven," meaning, everything in a person's life is predetermined by God —except that person's choice to be either good or bad; righteous or wicked, which is left up entirely to his own free will. Under this principle, as articulated by 13th-century rabbinic scholar, Menachem Meiri, a man that is born under the influences of Mars will have a default inclination to shed blood, and if he were the son of a king born under the same Martian influence, he will grow-up to wage wars on other countries, and when victorious, he will sentence the defeated enemy to be executed. Even so, an ordinary man that is born under such influences should be instructed to take-up the profession of ritual slaughter, or livestock butcher, or similar skill crafts (e.g. mohel, surgeon). So, too, with all the other signs of the Zodiac which incline to a certain unwanted trait, man is able to choose between right and wrong, and between good and bad.
+In some instances, a person can alter what has been seen by an astrologer concerning his fate, simply by performing a charitable deed. The Jerusalem Talmud relates a story where two men were saved by giving a portion of their bread to a hungry man. In other cases, a person's fortune may be altered by a change of place or by a change of name. Rabbi and philosopher Joseph Albo (c. 1380–1444) wrote in his Sefer ha-Ikkarim that "the stars determine the destiny at some point, but can be changed by free will or merit."
+
+== See also ==
+Beth Alpha – Astrological symbols found at Beth Alpha synagogue
+Hebrew astronomy
+Hebrew calendar
+Jewish views on astrology
+Mazzaroth
+Relative hour
+Western astrology
+Zodiac
+Zodiac mosaics in ancient synagogues
+
+== References ==
+
+== Notes ==
+
+== Bibliography ==

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+---
+title: "Jewish astrology"
+chunk: 7/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_astrology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:21:57.914324+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Further reading ==
+Bar-Ilan, Meir [in Hebrew] (2010). Astrology and Other Sciences among the Jews in Land of Israel During the Hellenistic-Roman and Byzantine Periods (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Bialik Institute.
+Charlesworth, J.H. (1977). "Jewish Astrology in the Talmud, Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Early Palestinian Synagogues". The Harvard Theological Review. 70 (3/4). Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Harvard Divinity School: 183–200. doi:10.1017/S0017816000019908. JSTOR 1509628. S2CID 163300042.
+Rubenstein, Jeffrey L. (2007). "Talmudic Astrology: Bavli Šabbat 156a–b". Hebrew Union College Annual. 78. Hebrew Union College Press: 109–148. JSTOR 23508945.
+Schwartz, Dov (1993), "Astrology and Astral Magic in the Writings of Solomon Alconstantin", Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore (in Hebrew), vol. 15, Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies, JSTOR 23356290, OCLC 5542562900 [Solomon Alconstantin (or Alcostantin) is the author of the book Megalleh ʿAmuqot, which exists in manuscript only and consists of two parts. The first and shorter part, written in 1352 in Burgos, defends the legitimacy of astrology; its text appears at the end of this paper].
+
+== External links ==
+Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) – Astrology
+David Clive Rubin, Astrology in the Torah: A Comparative Study of Astrological Themes in the Hebrew Bible and Babylonian Talmud, Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of an M.A. in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology, University of Wales Trinity Saint David (January 2019)

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+title: "John Major Jenkins"
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+---
+
+John Major Jenkins (4 March 1964 – 2 July 2017) was an American author and pseudoscientific researcher. He is best known for his works that theorize certain astronomical and esoteric connections of the calendar systems used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. His writings are particularly associated with 2012 millenarianism and the development of Mayanism in contemporary and popular culture, as an outgrowth from the New Age milieu. He is one of the principal figures who have promoted the idea that the ancient Maya calendar ends on 21 December 2012 and that this portended major changes for the Earth. He has self-published a number of books through his Four Ahau Press.
+He died on 2 July 2017 from cancer of the kidney at the age of 53.
+
+
+== Alternative view of cosmology ==
+Jenkins considered scientific approaches to cosmology a byproduct of limited thinking. In Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies, he writes, "I primarily wish to promote a visionary approach to these matters, as there is much more to the Sacred Calendar than can be seen with the rational intellect," and that these visionary perspectives "can more closely touch the spirit of the calendar" than does the anthropological literature.
+Jenkins also maintained that, in order to accept and understand his cosmological theories, one must also accept the premise that the Mayan kings journeyed to “distant places,” and continuously “renewed” their kingdoms at specific points in the Maya calendar. Jenkins is also a supporter of “The Lost Star” theory which extrapolates the existence of a binary companion of the Earth’s sun based on a believed mathematical discrepancies in “earth wobble.”
+
+
+== Appearances ==
+In October of the year 2000, Jenkins work was featured on two episodes of Places of Mystery series on the Discovery Channel.
+Jenkins was interviewed and appears in the film Manifesting the Mind a film by Andrew Rutajit.
+Jenkins is featured speaking in the documentary 2012: Science or Superstition. The film explores the interpretations of the ancient Mayan predictions by researchers and scholars.
+Jenkins is also featured in the documentary/film 2012: Startling New Secrets.
+
+
+== Publications ==
+Journey to the Mayan Underworld (Four Ahau Press, Boulder, CO: 1989)
+Mirror in the Sky (Four Ahau Press, 1991)
+Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies (Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, Garberville, CA: 1992/1994)
+Mayan Sacred Science (Four Ahau Press, Boulder, CO: 1994)
+Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 (Bear & Company, Santa Fe, NM: 1998)
+Galactic Alignment: The Transformation of Consciousness According to Mayan, Egyptian, and Vedic Traditions  (Inner Traditions International (Rochester, VT) 2002)
+Pyramid of Fire, co-authored with Marty Matz, Bear & Company, 2004
+The 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History (Tarcher/Penguin 2009)
+Three Plumes of Judas (fiction) self-published, 2017
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Alignment 2012 John Major Jenkins own website. Accessed April 2009
+John Major Jenkins video interview Archived 2009-10-10 at the Wayback Machine, John Major Jenkins discusses 2012 in a two-part video interview with his editor at Tarcher Books

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Traditional_Chinese_Medicine-0.md

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+---
+title: "Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Traditional_Chinese_Medicine"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:21:59.109961+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine was the first English-language journal on the subject of traditional Chinese medicine, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, homeopathy, massotherapy, mind-body therapies, palliative care and other topics in complementary and alternative medicine.
+The journal was original established in Chinese as Chung i tsa chih ying wen pan in 1955. The English edition of the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine was first published in 1981. It is jointly sponsored and published by the China Association of Chinese Medicine and the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Its headquarters are in Beijing. The journal is also published in German, Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese editions.
+
+
+== Abstracting and indexing ==
+The journal is abstracted and indexed in the following bibliographic databases:
+
+EMBASE
+MEDLINE
+Science Citation Index Expanded
+Scopus
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Website of the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine Archived 2018-06-26 at the Wayback Machine
+Website of JTCM on Elsevier Archived 2018-06-26 at the Wayback Machine
+Website of the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine http://journaltcm.cn

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Baigorri_Velar-0.md

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+---
+title: "Juan Baigorri Velar"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Baigorri_Velar"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:00.268321+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Juan Pedro Baigorri Velar (1891 in Concepción del Uruguay – 24 March 1972 in Buenos Aires) was an Argentine engineer; known for his claims that he had invented a rain-making machine.
+
+
+== Career ==
+His father was a military officer. Raised in Buenos Aires, he studied at the Colegio Nacional. Later, he travelled to Italy, where he attended the University of Milan and received a degree in engineering, with a specialty in geophysics. He worked for several fuel companies, which involved trips to numerous countries, investigating soil composition and exploring for oil. During the course of these trips he made his own instruments, for detecting minerals and electromagnetism.
+In 1929, he was invited by Enrique Mosconi to join the newly created YPF, a state-owned Argentine energy company. He had been working primarily from the United States but, at that time, he returned to Argentina and settled there permanently.
+
+
+== The Rain-Making Machine ==
+According to the newspaper Crítica, its invention came about accidentally, when he was in Bolivia using his mineral detecting device. When it was connected, a light rain suddenly began to fall. He apparently concluded that was due to the "electromagnetic congestion" it produced. After that, he spent much of his time attempting to make it more effective. The final version was about the size of a 14" TV set, with a battery and two antennas...one negative, one positive. It was presented at the offices of the Central Argentine Railway, for publicity purposes.
+The company manager proposed that he make it rain in Santiago del Estero Province, which was going through one of the worst droughts in its history. In 1938, he travelled to Pinto with a representative of the company. According to witnesses, when the machine was turned on the wind changed direction, it became cloudy, and twelve hours later there was a brief downpour. He was encouraged to create a higher-power device and, later that year, took it to Santiago del Estero, the provincial capital. After fifty-five hours of being in operation, 2.5 inches of rain fell.
+Upon returning to Buenos Aires, he was interviewed by several newspapers and magazines, local and foreign. He also received criticism from Alfredo Galmarini, head of the Meteorology Directorate, who called the machine a "parody" and didn't believe that Baigorri was serious. In response, he promised to make it rain in Buenos Aires in three days, activated the machine, and sent an umbrella to Galmarini. Clouds began to gather on the first night and, the following morning, there was a downpour. After claiming another successful demonstration in Carhué, he returned to his regular career, saying that he was tired of the publicity.
+In 1951 Raúl Mendé, the Minister of Technical Affairs, asked him to put his machine back into use. The following year, he claimed to have caused rain in Caucete, where there had supposedly been a drought for eight years. In 1953, he made a similar claim for La Pampa Province. Eventually, interest in him and his device waned, and he went into seclusion. He had never revealed exactly how his device worked, and suggested that only he could put it into operation properly. He was gradually forgotten.
+His refusal to patent his machine led to suspicions that it was a fraud. Eduardo Piacentini, of the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, declared that Baigorri's machine might be able to predict rain, but not cause it. There was also the possibility that his work was affected by confirmation bias, whereby people would remember when it rained, but not when it had failed to. Nevertheless, similar experiments in other parts of the world, such as the United Arab Emirates, indicated that his basic theory might be correct.
+He died in poverty and was buried at La Chacarita Cemetery. Few people attended his funeral, as it was raining heavily that day. His house in the Villa Luro district has not been preserved, and the fate of his device is unknown.
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Baigorri hacía llover by Diego Huberman, Ediciones La Buena Nueva, 2008 ISBN 978-987-98573-1-1
+
+
+== External links ==
+Baigorri, el mago de las lluvias, short documentary (9 mins.)
+Brief interview with Baigorri. (3 mins., 1969)
+"Recreating a Century-old Argentinian Rainmaking Machine" @ Arduino

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_science-0.md

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+---
+title: "Junk science"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_science"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:01.480829+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Junk science is spurious or fraudulent scientific data, research, or analysis. The concept is often invoked in political and legal contexts where facts and scientific results have a great amount of weight in making a determination. It usually conveys a pejorative connotation that the research has been untowardly driven by political, ideological, financial, or otherwise unscientific motives.
+The concept was popularized in the 1990s in relation to expert testimony in civil litigation. More recently, invoking the concept has been a tactic to criticize research on the harmful environmental or public health effects of corporate activities, and occasionally in response to such criticism.
+In some contexts, junk science is counterposed to the "sound science" or "solid science" that favors one's own point of view. Junk science has been criticized for undermining public trust in real science. Junk science is not the same as pseudoscience.
+
+== Definition ==
+Junk science has been defined as:
+
+"science done to establish a preconceived notion—not to test the notion, which is what proper science tries to do, but to establish it regardless of whether or not it would hold up to real testing."
+"opinion posing as empirical evidence, or through evidence of questionable warrant, based on inadequate scientific methodology."
+"methodologically sloppy research conducted to advance some extrascientific agenda or to prevail in litigation."
+
+== Motivations ==
+Junk science happens for different reasons: researchers believing that their ideas are correct before proper analysis (a sort of scientific self-delusion or drinking the Kool-Aid), researchers biased with their study designs, and/or a "plain old lack of ethics". Being overly attached to one's own ideas can cause research to veer from ordinary junk science (e.g., designing an experiment that is expected to produce the desired results) into scientific fraud (e.g., lying about the results) and pseudoscience (e.g., claiming that the unfavorable results actually proved the idea correct).
+Junk science can occur when the perpetrator has something to gain from arriving at the desired conclusion. It can often happen in the testimony of expert witnesses in legal proceedings, and especially in the self-serving advertising of products and services. These situations may encourage researchers to make sweeping or overstated claims based on limited evidence.
+
+== History ==
+The phrase junk science appears to have been in use prior to 1985. A 1985 United States Department of Justice report by the Tort Policy Working Group noted:
+
+The use of such invalid scientific evidence (commonly referred to as 'junk science') has resulted in findings of causation which simply cannot be justified or understood from the standpoint of the current state of credible scientific or medical knowledge.
+In 1989, the climate scientist Jerry Mahlman (Director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory) characterized the theory that global warming was due to solar variation (presented in Scientific Perspectives on the Greenhouse Problem by Frederick Seitz et al.) as "noisy junk science."
+Peter W. Huber popularized the term with respect to litigation in his 1991 book Galileo's Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom. The book has been cited in over 100 legal textbooks and references; as a consequence, some sources cite Huber as the first to coin the term. By 1997, the term had entered the legal lexicon as seen in an opinion by Supreme Court of the United States Justice John Paul Stevens:
+
+An example of 'junk science' that should be excluded under the Daubert standard as too unreliable would be the testimony of a phrenologist who would purport to prove a defendant's future dangerousness based on the contours of the defendant's skull. Lower courts have subsequently set guidelines for identifying junk science, such as the 2005 opinion of United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Judge Frank H. Easterbrook:
+Positive reports about magnetic water treatment are not replicable; this plus the lack of a physical explanation for any effects are hallmarks of junk science.
+As the subtitle of Huber's book, Junk Science in the Courtroom, suggests, his emphasis was on the use or misuse of expert testimony in civil litigation. One prominent example cited in the book was litigation over casual contact in the spread of AIDS. A California school district sought to prevent a young boy with AIDS, Ryan Thomas, from attending kindergarten. The school district produced an expert witness, Steven Armentrout, who testified that a possibility existed that AIDS could be transmitted to schoolmates through yet undiscovered "vectors". However, five experts testified on behalf of Thomas that AIDS is not transmitted through casual contact, and the court affirmed the "solid science" (as Huber called it) and rejected Armentrout's argument.
+In 1999, Paul Ehrlich and others advocated public policies to improve the dissemination of valid environmental scientific knowledge and discourage junk science:
+
+The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports offer an antidote to junk science by articulating the current consensus on the prospects for climate change, by outlining the extent of the uncertainties, and by describing the potential benefits and costs of policies to address climate change.
+In a 2003 study about changes in environmental activism regarding the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem, Pedynowski noted that junk science can undermine the credibility of science over a much broader scale because misrepresentation by special interests casts doubt on more defensible claims and undermines the credibility of all research.
+In his 2006 book Junk Science, Dan Agin emphasized two main causes of junk science: fraud, and ignorance. In the first case, Agin discussed falsified results in the development of organic transistors:
+
+As far as understanding junk science is concerned, the important aspect is that both Bell Laboratories and the international physics community were fooled until someone noticed that noise records published by Jan Hendrik Schön in several papers were identical—which means physically impossible.
+In the second case, he cites an example that demonstrates ignorance of statistical principles in the lay press:

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_science-1.md

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+---
+title: "Junk science"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_science"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:01.480829+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Since no such proof is possible [that genetically modified food is harmless], the article in The New York Times was what is called a "bad rap" against the U.S. Department of Agriculture—a bad rap based on a junk-science belief that it's possible to prove a null hypothesis.
+Agin asks the reader to step back from the rhetoric, as "how things are labeled does not make a science junk science." In its place, he offers that junk science is ultimately motivated by the desire to hide undesirable truths from the public.
+The rise of open-access (free to read) journals has resulted in economic pressure on academic publishers to publish junk science. Even when the journal is peer-reviewed, the authors, rather than the readers, become the customer and the source of funding for the journal, so the publisher is incentivized to publish as many papers as possible, including those that are methodologically unsound.
+
+== Misuse in public relations ==
+
+John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton of PR Watch say the concept of junk science has come to be invoked in attempts to dismiss scientific findings that stand in the way of short-term corporate profits. In their book Trust Us, We're Experts (2001), they write that industries have launched multimillion-dollar campaigns to position certain theories as junk science in the popular mind, often failing to employ the scientific method themselves. For example, the tobacco industry has described research demonstrating the harmful effects of smoking and second-hand smoke as junk science, through the vehicle of various astroturf groups.
+Theories more favorable to corporate activities are portrayed in words as "sound science". Past examples where "sound science" was used include the research into the toxicity of Alar, which was heavily criticized by antiregulatory advocates, and Herbert Needleman's research into low dose lead poisoning. Needleman was accused of fraud and personally attacked.
+Fox News commentator Steven Milloy often denigrates credible scientific research on topics like global warming, ozone depletion, and passive smoking as "junk science". The credibility of Milloy's website junkscience.com was questioned by Paul D. Thacker, a writer for The New Republic, in the wake of evidence that Milloy had received funding from Philip Morris, RJR Tobacco, and ExxonMobil. Thacker also noted that Milloy was receiving almost $100,000 a year in consulting fees from Philip Morris while he criticized the evidence regarding the hazards of second-hand smoke as junk science. Following the publication of this article, the Cato Institute, which had hosted the junkscience.com site, ceased its association with the site and removed Milloy from its list of adjunct scholars.
+Tobacco industry documents reveal that Philip Morris executives conceived of the "Whitecoat Project" in the 1980s as a response to emerging scientific data on the harmfulness of second-hand smoke. The goal of the Whitecoat Project, as conceived by Philip Morris and other tobacco companies, was to use ostensibly independent "scientific consultants" to spread doubt in the public mind about scientific data through invoking concepts like junk science. According to epidemiologist David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environment, Safety, and Health in the Clinton Administration, the tobacco industry invented the "sound science" movement in the 1980s as part of their campaign against the regulation of second-hand smoke.
+David Michaels has argued that, since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., lay judges have become "gatekeepers" of scientific testimony and, as a result, respected scientists have sometimes been unable to provide testimony so that corporate defendants are "increasingly emboldened" to accuse adversaries of practicing junk science.
+
+== Notable cases ==
+American psychologist Paul Cameron has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as an anti-gay extremist and a purveyor of "junk science". Cameron's research has been heavily criticized for unscientific methods and distortions which attempt to link homosexuality with pedophilia. In one instance, Cameron claimed that lesbians are 300 times more likely to get into car accidents. The SPLC states his work has been continually cited in some sections of the media despite being discredited. Cameron was expelled from the American Psychological Association in 1983.
+
+== Combatting junk science ==
+In 1995, the Union of Concerned Scientists launched the Sound Science Initiative, a national network of scientists committed to debunking junk science through media outreach, lobbying, and developing joint strategies to participate in town meetings or public hearings. In its newsletter on Science and Technology in Congress, the American Association for the Advancement of Science also recognized the need for increased understanding between scientists and lawmakers: "Although most individuals would agree that sound science is preferable to junk science, fewer recognize what makes a scientific study 'good' or 'bad'." The American Dietetic Association, criticizing marketing claims made for food products, has created a list of "Ten Red Flags of Junk Science".
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Agin, Dan (2006). Junk Science – How Politicians, Corporations, and Other Hucksters Betray Us. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0312374808. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
+Huber, Peter W. (1993). Galileo's Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0465026241.
+Mooney, Chris (2005). The Republican War on Science. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0465046751.
+Kiss Sarnoff, Susan (2001). Sanctified Snake Oil: The Effect of Junk Science on Public Policy. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0275968458.
+
+== External links ==
+
+Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy(SKAPP) DefendingScience.org
+Michaels, David (June 2005). "Doubt is Their Product". Scientific American. 292 (6): 96–101. Bibcode:2005SciAm.292f..96M. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0605-96. PMID 15934658. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
+Baba, Annamaria; Cook, Daniel M.; McGarity, Thomas O.; Bero, Lisa A. (July 2005). "Legislating 'Sound Science': The Role of the Tobacco Industry". American Journal of Public Health. 95 (1): 20–27. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2004.050963. hdl:10.2105/AJPH.2004.050963. PMID 16030333. Archived from the original on 2008-05-10. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
+Michaels, David; Monforton, Celeste (July 2005). "Manufacturing Uncertainty: Contested Science and the Protection of the Public's Health & Environment". American Journal of Public Health. 95 (1): 39–48. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.620.6171. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2004.043059. PMID 16030337. Archived from the original on 2008-05-10. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
+Yach, Derek; Aguinaga Bialous, Stella (November 2001). "Junking Science to Promote Tobacco". American Journal of Public Health. 91 (11): 1745–1748. doi:10.2105/ajph.91.11.1745. PMC 1446867. PMID 11684592.
+Thacker, Paul D. (May 11, 2005). "The Junkman Climbs to the Top". Environmental Science & Technology. Archived from the original on June 20, 2005. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
+Baloney Detection Kit on YouTube (10 questions we should ask when encountering a pseudoscience claim)

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambo_(drug)-0.md

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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keraunography-0.md

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+---
+title: "Keraunography"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keraunography"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:03.951919+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Keraunography or keranography is the belief that lightning, when striking an object (generally a human body), can leave markings which constitute a photographic image of surrounding objects.  It is generally considered a myth: lightning can leave markings, called Lichtenberg figures, but they are not photographic.
+
+
+== Origins ==
+Like most folklore, it is impossible to trace the origins of keraunography.  However, it seems to have attracted scientific and media attention in England in the early 19th century, and by Victorian times the term "keraunography" had been coined to describe numerous unconnected events.  With increasing scientific understanding of electricity and the popularity of photography, the time was right in the 19th century for keraunography, which seems to combine both concepts, to enter the public consciousness.  However, it is likely that anecdotal accounts of keraunography had existed long before there was a word for it.
+
+
+== Modern perception ==
+Although to some degree science has still not fully explained all the behaviours of lightning, very few people currently accept keraunography as truth. It is evident that lightning strikes do indeed produce burn marks, and like any basically random shape (clouds, birthmarks, inkblots, etc.) it is human nature to see shapes in them. The lightning often leaves skin marks in characteristic Lichtenberg figures, sometimes called lightning flowers; they may persist for hours or days, and are a useful indicator for medical examiners when trying to determine the cause of death. Although humans being struck by lightning is of course rare, it is nonetheless possible that over a wide period of time, certain cases of burn marks would exist which could be said to resemble objects nearby the point of the lightning strike. However, these cases are almost certainly the product of coincidence, or the tree-like appearance of Lichtenberg figures, rather than evidence of any photographic property of lightning.  No supposed case of keraunography has been investigated by modern science, and unless further evidence is presented, it remains a strange object of 19th-century British folklore.
+
+
+== Keraunographic markings ==
+In modern medical literature, "Keraunographic markings" also can refer to signs of a lightning strike injury on the skin, roughly synonymous with Lichtenberg figures or ferning patterns. These patterns can appear on a number of other materials, including wood and grass.
+
+
+== Sources ==
+
+
+=== References ===
+
+
+=== General sources ===
+Pilkington, Mark (2004-06-03). "Keranography". the Guardian. Retrieved 8 June 2021.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimodameshi-0.md

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+---
+title: "Kimodameshi"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimodameshi"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:05.115456+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Kimodameshi (肝試し or きもだめし, pronounced [kʲimodaꜜmeɕi]; lit. "testing one's liver"), known in English as a test of courage, is a Japanese activity in which people explore frightening and potentially dangerous places to build up courage.
+At night, usually during the summer, a group of people visits an ominous place such as a cemetery, haunted house, or secluded forest path to carry out specific missions there. The exercise teaches the group that, working together, they can overcome their fear.
+
+
+== History ==
+In Ōkagami, a Japanese historical tale from the early 12th century, it is written that Emperor Kazan sent three of Fujiwara no Kaneie's sons to a house purportedly haunted by oni at 3 o'clock in the morning; only Fujiwara no Michinaga succeeded in visiting the house, returning with a sword-damaged wooden post as evidence. This suggests that the idea of a "test of courage" had existed near the end of Japan's Heian period.
+
+
+== Modern day ==
+Kimodameshi may be overseen and carried out by school clubs or summer camps. In such instances, some preparation may be involved, and others may assume the role of scaring the participants.
+
+
+=== Law ===
+Without proper consideration, kimodameshi can result in crimes being committed, such as trespassing (per Article 130 of the Penal Code of Japan), vandalism (Article 261), and intimidation or coercion of those unwilling to participate (Articles 222 and 223).
+
+
+== See also ==
+Ghost hunting
+Haunted house
+Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai
+Kaidan, Japanese ghost stories
+Legend tripping
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirlian_photography-0.md

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+---
+title: "Kirlian photography"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirlian_photography"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:06.287636+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Kirlian photography is a collection of photographic techniques used to capture the phenomenon of electrical coronal discharges. It is named after Soviet inventor and researcher of Armenian descent Semyon Kirlian, who, in 1939, accidentally discovered that if an object on a photographic plate is connected to a high-voltage source, an image is produced on the photographic plate.
+The technique has been variously known as
+electrography,
+electrophotography,
+corona(l) discharge photography (CDP),
+bioelectrography,
+gas discharge visualization (GDV),
+electrophotonic imaging (EPI), and, in Russian literature, Kirlianography.
+Kirlian photography has been the subject of scientific research, parapsychology research, and art. Paranormal claims have been made about Kirlian photography, but these claims are rejected by the scientific community. To a large extent, it has been used in alternative medicine research.
+
+== History ==
+In 1889, Czech Bartoloměj Navrátil coined the word "electrography". Seven years later in 1896, a French experimenter, Hippolyte Baraduc, created electrographs of hands and leaves.
+In 1898, Polish-Belarusian engineer Jakub Jodko-Narkiewicz demonstrated electrography at the fifth exhibition of the Russian Technical Society.
+
+In 1939, two Czechs, S. Pratt and J. Schlemmer, published photographs showing a glow around leaves. The same year, Soviet electrical engineer Semyon Kirlian and his wife Valentina developed Kirlian photography after observing a patient in Krasnodar Hospital who was receiving medical treatment from a high-frequency electrical generator. They had noticed that when the electrodes were brought near the patient's skin, there was a glow similar to that of a neon discharge tube.
+The Kirlians conducted experiments in which photographic film was placed on top of a conducting plate, and another conductor was attached to a hand, a leaf or other plant material. The conductors were energized by a high-frequency high-voltage power source, producing photographic images typically showing a silhouette of the object surrounded by an aura of light.
+In 1958, the Kirlians reported the results of their experiments for the first time. Their work was virtually unknown until 1970, when two Americans, Lynn Schroeder and Sheila Ostrander, published a book, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. High-voltage electrophotography soon became known to the general public as Kirlian photography. Although little interest was generated among western scientists, Russians held a conference on the subject in 1972 at Kazakh State University.
+Kirlian photography was used in the former Eastern Bloc in the 1970s. The corona discharge glow at the surface of an object subjected to a high-voltage electrical field was referred to as a "Kirlian aura" in Russia and Eastern Europe. In 1975, soviet scientist Victor Adamenko wrote a dissertation titled Research of the structure of High-frequency electric discharge (Kirlian effect) images. Scientific study of what the researchers called the Kirlian effect was conducted by Victor Inyushin at Kazakh State University.
+Early in the 1970s, Thelma Moss and Kendall Johnson at the Center for Health Sciences at UCLA conducted extensive research into Kirlian photography. Moss led an independent and unsupported parapsychology laboratory that was shut down by the university in 1979.
+
+== Overview ==
+ 
+
+Kirlian photography is a technique for creating contact print photographs using high voltage. The process entails placing sheet photographic film on top of a metal discharge plate. The object to be photographed is then placed directly on top of the film. High voltage current is momentarily applied to the object, thus creating an exposure. The corona discharge between the object and the plate due to high-voltage is captured by the film. The developed film results in a Kirlian photograph of the object.
+Color photographic film is calibrated to produce faithful colors when exposed to normal light. Corona discharges can interact with minute variations in the different layers of dye used in the film, resulting in a wide variety of colors depending on the local intensity of the discharge. Film and digital imaging techniques also record light produced by photons emitted during corona discharge (see Mechanism of corona discharge).
+Photographs of inanimate objects such as a coins, keys and leaves can be made more effectively by grounding the object to the earth, a cold water pipe or to the opposite (polarity) side of the high-voltage source. Grounding the object creates a stronger corona discharge.
+Kirlian photography does not require the use of a camera or a lens because it is a contact print process. It is possible to use a transparent electrode in place of the high-voltage discharge plate, for capturing the resulting corona discharge with a standard photo or video camera.
+Visual artists such as Robert Buelteman, Ted Hiebert, and Dick Lane have used Kirlian photography to produce artistic images of a variety of subjects.
+
+== Research ==
+Kirlian photography has been a subject of scientific research, parapsychology research and pseudoscientific claims.
+
+=== Scientific research ===
+Results of scientific experiments published in 1976 involving Kirlian photography of living tissue (human finger tips) showed that most of the variations in corona discharge streamer length, density, curvature, and color can be accounted for by the moisture content on the surface of and within the living tissue. 
+
+Konstantin Korotkov developed a technique similar to Kirlian photography called "gas discharge visualization" (GDV). Korotkov's GDV camera system consists of hardware and software to directly record, process and interpret GDV images with a computer. Korotkov promotes the device and research in a medical context. Izabela Ciesielska at the Institute of Architecture of Textiles in Poland used Korotkov's GDV camera to evaluate the effects of human contact with various textiles on biological factors such as heart rate and blood pressure, as well as corona discharge images. The experiments captured corona discharge images of subjects' fingertips while the subjects wore sleeves of various natural and synthetic materials on their forearms. The results failed to establish a relationship between human contact with the textiles and the corona discharge images and were considered inconclusive.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirlian_photography-1.md

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+---
+title: "Kirlian photography"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirlian_photography"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:06.287636+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Parapsychology research ===
+In 1968, Thelma Moss, a psychology professor, headed University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)'s Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI), which was later renamed the Semel Institute. The NPI had a laboratory dedicated to parapsychology research and staffed mostly with volunteers. The lab was unfunded, unsanctioned and eventually shut down by the university. Toward the end of her tenure at UCLA, Moss became interested in Kirlian photography, a technique that supposedly measured the "auras" of a living being. According to Kerry Gaynor, one of her former research assistants, "many felt Kirlian photography's effects were just a natural occurrence."
+Paranormal claims of Kirlian photography have not been observed or replicated in experiments by the scientific community. The physiologist Gordon Stein has written that Kirlian photography is a hoax that has "nothing to do with health, vitality, or mood of a subject photographed."
+
+=== Claims ===
+Kirlian believed that images created by Kirlian photography might depict a conjectural energy field, or aura, thought, by some, to surround living things. Kirlian and his wife were convinced that their images showed a life force or energy field that reflected the physical and emotional states of their living subjects. They thought that these images could be used to diagnose illnesses. In 1961, they published their first article on the subject in the Russian Journal of Scientific and Applied Photography. Kirlian's claims were embraced by energy treatments practitioners.
+
+==== Torn leaf experiment ====
+A typical demonstration used as evidence for the existence of these energy fields involved taking Kirlian photographs of a picked leaf at set intervals. The gradual withering of the leaf was thought to correspond with a decline in the strength of the aura. In some experiments, if a section of a leaf was torn away after the first photograph, a faint image of the missing section sometimes remains when a second photograph was taken. However, if the imaging surface is cleaned of contaminants and residual moisture before the second image is taken, then no image of the missing section will appear.
+The living aura theory is at least partially repudiated by demonstrating that leaf moisture content has a pronounced effect on the electric discharge coronas; more moisture creates larger corona discharges. As the leaf dehydrates, the coronas will naturally decrease in variability and intensity. As a result, the changing water content of the leaf can affect the so-called Kirlian aura. Kirlian's experiments did not provide evidence for an energy field other than the electric fields produced by chemical processes and the streaming process of coronal discharges.
+The coronal discharges identified as Kirlian auras are the result of stochastic electric ionization processes and are greatly affected by many factors, including the voltage and frequency of the stimulus, the pressure with which a person or object touches the imaging surface, the local humidity around the object being imaged, how well grounded the person or object is, and other local factors affecting the conductivity of the person or object being imaged. Oils, sweat, bacteria, and other ionizing contaminants found on living tissues can also affect the resulting images.
+
+==== Qi ====
+Scientists such as Beverly Rubik have explored the idea of a human biofield using Kirlian photography research, attempting to explain the Chinese discipline of Qigong. Qigong teaches that there is a vitalistic energy called qi (or chi) that permeates all living things.
+Rubik's experiments relied on Konstantin Korotkov's GDV device to produce images, which were thought to visualize these qi biofields in chronically ill patients. Rubik acknowledges that the small sample size in her experiments "was too small to permit a meaningful statistical analysis". Claims that these energies can be captured by special photographic equipment are criticized by skeptics.
+
+== In popular culture ==
+Kirlian photography has appeared as a fictional element in numerous books, films, television series, and media productions, including the 1975 film The Kirlian Force, re-released under the more sensational title Psychic Killer. Kirlian photographs have been used as visual components in various media, such as the sleeve of George Harrison's 1973 album Living in the Material World, which features Kirlian photographs of his hand holding a Hindu medallion on the front sleeve and American coins on the back, shot at Thelma Moss's UCLA parapsychology laboratory.
+"Multiplanar Kirlian emanations" are referenced in the 1989 film Ghostbusters II, during a scene where Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler are conducting a spectral analysis of photographs taken of a portrait painting, which is possessed by the malevolent spirit of medieval tyrant Vigo the Carpathian.
+The artwork of David Bowie's 1997 album Earthling has reproductions of Kirlian photographs taken by Bowie. The photographs, which show a crucifix Bowie wore around his neck and the imprint of his "forefinger" tip, date to April 1975 when Bowie was living in Los Angeles and fascinated with the paranormal. The photographs were taken before consuming cocaine and 30 minutes afterwards. The after photograph apparently shows a substantial increase in the "aura" around the crucifix and forefinger.
+The Cluster novels by science fiction author Piers Anthony uses the concept of the Kirlian Aura as a way to transfer a person's personality into another body, even an alien body, across light years. The book The Anarchistic Colossus (1977) by A. E. van Vogt involves an anarchistic society controlled by ‘Kirlian computers’.
+The opening credits during the first seven seasons of the television series The X-Files shows a Kirlian image of a left human hand. The image appears as the 11th clip in the introductory video montage and is formed by a bluish coronal discharge as the primary outline, with only the proximal phalange of the index finger shown cryptically in red.  A human silhouette, in white, seemingly falls towards the hand.
+The Italian electronic darkwave band Kirlian Camera was named after the device used for Kirlian photography.
+British industrial band Cabaret Voltaire's first album Mix-Up features a track called Kirlian Photograph.
+
+== See also ==
+Aura (paranormal) § Aura photography
+Bioelectromagnetism
+Cherenkov radiation § Medical imaging of radioisotopes and external beam radiotherapy
+L-field
+List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
+Magnetic particle inspection (Magnaflux)
+Thoughtography
+Timeline of Russian innovation
+
+== Notes ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Becker, Robert; Selden, Gary (1985). The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life. Quill/Williams Morrow.
+Iovine, John (1993). Kirlian Photography: A Hands on Guide. McGraw-Hill.
+Krippner, S.; Rubin, D. (1973). Galaxies of Life. Gordon and Breach.
+
+== External links ==
+
+Kirlian Photography and the "Aura", Dr. Rory Coker, Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin
+Bioenergetic Fields at the Wayback Machine (archived May 8, 2016), Victor J. Stenger, University of Hawaii at Manoa

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundali_(astrology)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Kundali (astrology)"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundali_(astrology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:07.479275+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Kuṇḍali (also called janmapatra) is the Indian term for the astrological chart or diagram representing the positions of the navagraha-s of Indian astrology at a particular moment like the moment of the birth of a child. The navagraha-s are the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, and the two nodes of the Moon. The nodes of the Moon are the points on the celestial sphere where the orbit of the Moon intersects the orbit of the Sun. At a particular moment the navagraha-s will be at different points in the sky and they will be located in one of the 12 zodiacal signs (rāśi-s in Indian astrology), namely:
+
+1. Meṣa (Aries), 2. Vṛṣabha (Taurus), 3.Mithuna (Gemini), 4. Karka (Cancer), 5. Siṃha (Leo), 6. Kanyā (Virgo), 7. Tulā (Libra), 8. Vṛścika (Scorpio), 9. Dhanuṣa (Sagittarius), 10. Makara (Capricornus), 11. Kumbha (Aquarius), 12. Mīna (Pisces)
+A kuṇḍali will show diagrammatically which one of the navagraha-s are located in which one of the rāśi-s at a particular moment. A kuṇḍali has twelve cells to represent the 12 zodiacal signs. Practitioners of astrology in different parts of India follow different conventions regarding the exact form in which the kuṇḍali is constructed. Essentially there are three different ways in which these cells are represented in a kuṇḍali, the one followed by people of South India, the one followed by people of North India and the one followed by people of Eastern India (West Bengal and Odisha).
+
+The practice of constructing a kuṇḍali per se is not unscientific or pseudo-science as the kuṇḍali is only a diagram depicting the positions in the zodiac of the nine entities  called the navagraha-s  at a particular moment of  time, and the navagraha-s are associated with true astronomical entities. But, the practice of "reading" a kuṇḍali and interpreting or using it to predict the future events or the personality traits of individuals, has no scientific basis and is a pseudo-science.
+At the same time, some traditional practices also consider palmistry (the study of hand lines) as a complementary way to understand an individual’s tendencies and life patterns. While a kuṇḍali reflects planetary positions at birth, hand lines are believed to change over time, symbolically representing personal growth, choices, and experiences, offering another perspective alongside astrology.
+
+
+== The different types of kuṇḍali-s ==
+In astrology, the ascendant, lagna or rising sign at a specified moment (like the moment of birth of a child) is the rāśi  on the eastern horizon at that particular moment. The ascendant is specific to a particular time and place. The kuṇḍali format followed in northern India is ascendant-centric in the sense that it gives primacy to the ascendant and assigns a fixed location to the ascendant. But, the kuṇḍali format followed in the southern and eastern India are rāśi-centric in the sense  that they give primacy to the rāśi-s. In these formats, the various rāśi-s occupy fixed positions whereas the position of the ascendant changes depending on time and place.
+
+
+=== The kuṇḍali in southern India ===
+
+The kuṇḍali format followed in southern India is essentially a depiction of the zodiac exactly as it is laid out in the sky. The only difference is that instead of a circle a square is used and twelve smaller squares or cells are drawn inside the square to represent the rāśi-s. The earth may be imagined as situated at the center of the larger square. The rāśi-s are always in the same boxes. The Meṣa rāśi is in the second cell from the left in the top row of the diagram (marked 1 in the figure). The remaining rāśi-s are the remaining cells in the successive cells in the clockwise direction (marked 2, 3, 4, etc.).
+The  South Indian kuṇḍali is a rāśi-centric format. The navagraha-s are placed in the boxes corresponding to the rāśi-s in which they are located. The ascendant is marked in the appropriate box. It is denoted either by a diagonal line or by writing  Lagna in the appropriate box.
+One advantage of this chart format is that it more closely resembles the actual astronomy of the sky. Another advantage is that, since each rāśi has been allotted the same area in the chart, this chart is much easier to populate with names of the navagraha-s. As in the kuṇḍali formats of the other regions, there are no odd-shaped smaller sections that one has to squeeze the navagraha-s into.
+
+
+=== The kuṇḍali in eastern India ===
+
+The kuṇḍali format followed in eastern India is depicted in the attached figure. The format is sometimes drawn with a square showing the outer boundary (in the attached figure, the square drawn using dashed lines segments). As in the format followed in southern India, this format is also rāśi-centric. The first rāśi, Meṣa occupies the central cell in the top row of the diagram (the cell marked 1). The other rāśi-s are represented by the remaining cells selected in the anti-clockwise direction. In the format followed in southern India, the cells are assigned rāśi-s in the clockwise direction. This format has the same advantages as the format followed in southern India.
+
+
+=== The kuṇḍali in northern India ===
+
+The kuṇḍali format followed in northern India is bhāva-centric (or, house-centric). In traditional practice, each rāśi is a house or bhāva.  The beginning of each house is the 0th degrees of the rāśi and the end is the 30th degree of the rāśi. What varies from is the enumeration of these bhāva-s, i.e., which rāśi is the first bhāva, which is the second, and so forth. This is determined by the position of the Lagna (the Ascendant) The house in which the Lagna falls is usually the first bhāva, and the other bhāva-s follow it, counter-clockwise, in the sequence of the zodiac. In the kuṇḍali format followed in northern India, the first bhāva is always in the topmost middle diamond. In this format, the bhāva that each section denotes is static. The rāśi-s assigned to the sections change. This  format is more of an astrological perspective than an astronomical one. The format is meaningless without numbering as the rāśi of each house cannot be determined without numbers.  The rāśi-s  are numbered as follows: 1. Meṣa (Aries), 2. Vṛṣabha (Taurus), 3.Mithuna (Gemini), 4. Karka (Cancer), 5. Siṃha (Leo), 6. Kanyā (Virgo), 7. Tulā (Libra), 8. Vṛścika (Scorpio), 9. Dhanuṣa (Sagittarius), 10. Makara (Caprocornus), 11. Kumbha (Aquarius), 12. Mīna (Pisces).
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBTQ_chemicals_conspiracy_theory-0.md

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+---
+title: "LGBTQ chemicals conspiracy theory"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBTQ_chemicals_conspiracy_theory"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:21.699910+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Conspiracy theories emerged in the 2010s alleging that governments were introducing endocrine disrupting chemicals into the water supply to increase the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ) population. The claim was popularized by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who cited studies on the herbicide atrazine, known to induce spontaneous sex reversal or hermaphroditism in certain frog species, to assert that the U.S. government was 'putting chemicals in the water that turn the "friggin’ frogs gay" as part of a "chemical warfare operation"'. Spontaneous sex change is a naturally occurring phenomenon in some frog species even in unpolluted environments.
+In animal studies, exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals during gestation can interfere with prenatal hormones and consequently sex differentiation of the brain. This has led some scientists to speculate about the impact of endocrine disruptor exposure during human pregnancy on later sexual orientation or gender identity, though evidence is currently lacking.
+
+
+== History ==
+Animal testing in the 2000s suggested that the herbicide atrazine, an endocrine disruptor, may have a feminizing effect on male frogs causing them to become hermaphrodites. Other research failed to reproduce these results in frogs, though reports of reproductive impact has been reported for other animals, and a meta-analysis conducted in 2010 on selected amphibians and freshwater fish showed sublethal reproductive effects at ecologically relevant concentrations. Reviewing 19 studies in total, the United States Environmental Protection Agency concluded in 2013 that atrazine has no consistent effects on development in amphibians.
+According to Lambert and Packer:
+
+A direct link between EDCs and sex-reversed frogs has been observed only in the laboratory, not in the wild. What’s causing sex reversal in these wild frog populations is not yet clear, but our latest data suggest that natural temperature variation, occurring independently of urbanization or climate change, may be a catalyst.
+
+In 2015, American conspiracy theorist and radio personality Alex Jones claimed that atrazine had caused a majority of frogs in the US to become homosexual, and that the US government was waging a "chemical warfare operation" to increase rates of homosexuality and decrease birth rates. This claim goes far beyond what was reported in the scientific literature. A quote from Jones's monologue, "I don't like 'em putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin' frogs gay!" subsequently became an internet meme.
+The idea of a link between atrazine and sexual development was later revived by American environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., during his 2024 presidential campaign. In various podcast appearances, Kennedy claimed that atrazine contamination was causing widespread delayed puberty or precocious puberty in the Midwest, and speculated that it was causing "sexual confusion" and "gender confusion" in children. Kennedy's theory was criticized in various popular media outlets.
+A 2016 review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest argues that there is "no persuasive evidence that the rate of same-sex attraction has varied much across time or place". In contrast to claims about chemicals in the water, the effects of hormones on sexual orientation appear to occur at the prenatal stage, during organization of the brain. Endocrine disruptor exposure during fetal development has been shown to affect sexual differentiation of the brain in animals, however any effect on human sexual orientation or gender identity requires further research.
+
+
+== See also ==
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+"'They're Turning the Frogs Gay': the Psychology Behind Internet Conspiracy Theories – New Statesman
+Weed Killer Makes Male Frogs Lay Eggs - National Geographic

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_secessionism-0.md

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+---
+title: "Language secessionism"
+chunk: 1/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_secessionism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:09.851113+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Language secessionism (also known as linguistic secessionism or linguistic separatism) is an attitude supporting the separation of a language variety from the language to which it has hitherto been considered to belong, in order for this variety to be considered a distinct language. This attitude was first analyzed in Catalan sociolinguistics but it is attested in other parts of the world.
+
+== In Arabic ==
+
+=== Sociolinguistic background ===
+The Arab world is characterized by diglossia: local dialects dominate the sphere of daily communication, while Standard Arabic carries high prestige and is used in formal writing and speaking. 
+This situation has important political and social implications. Modern Standard Arabic is the official language of all Arab countries, and enjoys the status of a global language. Standard Arabic is also the lingua sacra of Islam, which further increases its importance. However, a claim could be made that it is no one's first language, since Arab children acquire their local dialect in the natural process of generational language transmission, and learn Standard Arabic later, when they begin formal education. Proficiency in Standard Arabic provides insight into a vast literary tradition spanning over 1,500 years. However, proponents of recognizing local Arabic dialects as official languages claim that the discrepancy between spoken vernaculars and Standard Arabic is just too wide, rendering proficiency in Standard Arabic unattainable for most.
+
+=== In Egyptian Arabic ===
+Egyptian linguistic separatism is the most well-developed linguistic separatism in the Arab World. The most popular platform diffusing the idea of the Modern Egyptian Language (rather than the Egyptian dialect) is the Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia also known as Wikipedia Masry or Maṣrī. It was the first Wikipedia written in one of the many Arabic dialects. Importantly, the idea of Egyptian linguistic separatism goes further back, to thinkers such as Salama Musa, Bayyūmī Qandīl, Muḥsin Luṭfī as-Sayyid, and the Liberal Egyptian Party.
+Egyptian linguistic separatism does not simply claim that Egyptian Arabic should become the official language of Egypt, which in and of itself is a matter decided by politicians, not linguists. However, proponents of Egyptian linguistic separatism, such as Bayyūmī Qandīl, substantiate their political demands with pseudoscientific claims.
+Linguistic separatism remains a fringe movement within Egyptian society. The idea remains particularly attractive to Coptic Christians and liberals, who see Egyptian nationalism as an alternative to Pan-Arabism and Pan-Islamism.
+
+== In Catalan and Occitan ==
+
+=== Common characteristics ===
+In the Occitano-Romance languages, language secessionism is a quite recent phenomenon that has developed only since the 1970s. Language secessionism affects both Occitan and Catalan languages with the following common features:
+
+A breakaway from the tradition of Occitan and Catalan 19th century revivalist movements, which usually support the internal unity of each of these languages.
+An often deliberate ignorance of the tradition of Romance linguistics.
+An exacerbation of the cultural identity linked to dialects, which secessionism considers as separate languages.
+A lack of success (or a very marginal position) in linguistic scientific research.
+An active lobbying in regional political circles.
+The support of a writing system or of any prescription, which breaks up linguistic unity and exaggerates dialectal particular features.
+
+=== In Catalan ===
+In Catalan, there are three cases:
+
+Valencian language secessionism, or blaverism, appeared during the democratic transition of 1975–1981, after the fall of Francoism. It is supported by some conservative circles of Valencian society, who are branded "post-Francoist" by their rivals who consider Valencian and Catalan one and the same language. It has a variable impact on the population: Valencian people usually call their language "Valencian" but are divided about the unity of Catalan: some people agree that "Valencian" is just the regional name for "Catalan" but others consider "Valencian" a distinct language from "Catalan". Blaverism has very little impact in the linguistic community. Valencian institutions and Valencian partisans of Catalan unity use the official norm of Catalan (as codified by Institut d'Estudis Catalans and Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua), while "Blavers" (partisans of blaverism) mostly write Valencian using an alternative standard called "Normes del Puig" (codified by the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture).
+Balearic language secessionism vis-à-vis Catalan is quite marginal and is supported by a few cultural groups. It has very little impact on the population. It is included in a wider (but unorganized) tendency called "gonellisme", which struggles against the standardization of Catalan.
+In Franja de Ponent (a Catalan-speaking strip in eastern Aragon), language secessionism is quite marginal. It appeared during the 2000s. It is supported only by a fraction of the already minority pro-Aragonese movements, who overstate a so-called Aragonese ancestry in the Catalan spoken in Aragon.
+
+=== In Occitan ===
+There are three cases in Occitan:

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_secessionism-1.md

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+---
+title: "Language secessionism"
+chunk: 2/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_secessionism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:09.851113+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In the Auvernhat dialect, language secessionism has been supported since the 1970s by Pierre Bonnaud, who founded the Bonnaudian norm, the group Cercle Terre d'Auvergne and the review Bïzà Neirà. It has negligible impact in the population, where knowledge of the language is in any case at best residual. Auvernhat cultural circles are divided between the unitary vision of Occitan (associated with the Occitan classical norm) and secessionism (associated with Bonnaudian norm).
+In the Provençal dialect, language secessionism appeared during the 1970s with Louis Bayle and has been reactivated since the 1990s by Philippe Blanchet and groups like "Union Provençale" and "Collectif Provence". This secessionism supports the Mistralian norm (but it does not represent all Mistralian norm users, since some of them claim traditionally the unity of Occitan). It has little impact in the population, whose knowledge of the language is anyway residual. Provençal cultural circles are divided between the unitary vision (supported by users of both Mistralian norm and classical norm) and the secessionist vision (supported by some users of the Mistralian norm). The Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur voted a resolution on 5 December 2003 that approved the principle of the unity of "Occitan or Langue d'Oc" and the fact that Provençal is a part of it.
+In the Gascon dialect, language secessionism is claimed since the 1990s by Jean Lafitte, who created during the 2000s a group called "Institut Béarnais et Gascon". It has negligible impact in the population. Lafitte's secessionism supports two original writing systems: one is a nonstandard spin-off from the classical norm and the other one is a nonstandard spin-off from the Mistralian norm. Gascon cultural circles almost unanimously support the unitary vision of the Occitan language. In Aran Valley (a little Gascon Occitan-speaking area in Spain), Aranese, the local variety of Gascon, is officially recognized as a part of the Occitan language. The status of semi-autonomy of Aran Valley (1990) presents Gascon Aranese as "Aranese, the variety of the Occitan language peculiar to Aran ("Er aranés, varietat dera lengua occitana e pròpia d'Aran"). Similarly, the status of autonomy of Catalonia, as reformed in 2006, confirms it with the following expression: "The Occitan language, which is named Aranese in Aran" ("Era lengua occitana, denominada aranés en Aran").
+
+== In Spanish ==
+
+In Andalusia, there is a fringe movement aimed at promoting the Andalusian dialect as a separate language from Spanish.
+
+== In Hindi and Urdu ==
+
+The national language of Pakistan and official languages in many parts of India, the Delhi dialect has become the basis of Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu. Grammatically, Hindi and Urdu are the same language, Hindustani, but they differ in their literary and academic vocabulary. Hindi tends to adopt Sanskrit words and purges literary words borrowed from Persian, while Urdu does the opposite. In essence, apart from their scripts, the lexicon is what distinguishes Urdu and Hindi. There are additional Indo-Aryan languages that are counted as Hindi but are not the same as Hindustani. They are considered Hindi languages but may not be close to the Delhi dialect.
+
+== In Romanian ==
+
+The official standard language of Moldova is identical to Romanian. However, Vasile Stati, a local linguist and politician, has asserted his opinion that Moldovan is a separate language in his Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc (Moldovan–Romanian dictionary).
+During the Soviet era, the USSR authorities officially recognized and promoted Moldovans and Moldovan as a distinct ethnicity and language from Romanians. A Cyrillic alphabet was introduced in the Moldavian ASSR and SSR to reinforce this claim. Since 1989, the official language switched to the Latin script and underwent several of the language reforms of Romanian.
+Nowadays, the Cyrillic alphabet remains in official use only on the territories controlled by the breakaway authorities of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (most commonly known as Transnistria), where it is named "Moldovan", as opposed to the Latin script version used elsewhere, which the local authorities call "Romanian".
+
+== In Serbo-Croatian ==
+
+Serbo-Croatian, as a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, has a strong structural unity, according to the vast majority of linguists who specialize in Slavic languages.  However, the language is spoken by populations that have strong, different, ethnic consciousnesses: Bosniaks, Croats, Montenegrins, and Serbs.
+Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbo-Croatian has lost its unitary codification and its official unitary status. It is now divided into four official languages which follow separate codifications: Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian. This process has been accused of being grounded on pseudoscientific claims fueled by political agendas.
+Indeed, linguists and sociolinguists have not ceased to speak of a common Serbo-Croatian. It is a pluricentric language being cultivated through four voluntarily diverging normative varieties, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian, which are sometimes considered Ausbau languages. However, Ausbau languages must have different dialect basis, whereas standardized Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian have the same supradialect basis (Shtokavian with regional differences).
+
+The problems of the so-called Ausbau-languages in Heinz Kloss's terminology are similar, but by no means identical to the problems of variants. In Ausbau-languages we have pairs of standard languages built on the basis of different dialects [...]. The difference between these paired Ausbau-languages and standard language variants lies in the fact that the variants have a nearly identical material (dialectal) basis and the difference is only in the development of the standardisation process, while paired standard languages have a more or less distinct dialect base.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_secessionism-2.md

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+---
+title: "Language secessionism"
+chunk: 3/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_secessionism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:09.851113+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Kloss contrasts Ausbau languages not only with Abstand languages but also with polycentric standard languages, i.e. two variants of the same standard, such as Serbo-Croatian, Moldavian and Rumanian, and Portuguese in Brazil and Portugal. In contrast, pairs such as Czech and Slovak, Bulgarian and Macedonian, and Danish and Swedish, are instances of literary standards based on different dialects which, at a pre-literate stage, would have been regarded by linguists as dialects of the same language.
+On the contrary, the Serbo-Croatian kind of language secessionism is now a strongly consensual and institutional majority phenomenon. Still, this does not make it legitimate to say that such secessionism has led to "Ausbau languages" in the cases of Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian, because such diversion has not taken place:
+
+The intercomprehension between these standards exceeds that between the standard variants of English, French, German, or Spanish.
+
+The four varieties - Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian - are all totally mutually comprehensible [...] What there is, is a common, polycentric standard language - just like, say, French, which has Belgian, Swiss, French, and Canadian variants but is definitely not four different languages. [...] Linguistic scientists are agreed that BCSM is essentially a single language with four different standard variants bearing different names.
+
+== In Galician-Portuguese ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_secessionism-3.md

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+---
+title: "Language secessionism"
+chunk: 4/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_secessionism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:09.851113+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Portugal, a former southern county split from the Kingdom of Galicia and fief of the Kingdom of León, was created by Afonso I of Portugal in 1126 and expanded towards the Islamic south, like its neighbouring kingdoms. That part of Galicia, named Portugal, became independent while the northern part of the country remained under the Kingdom of León during the 12th century and early 13th century. Northern Galicia would later be ruled by the Kingdom of Castile, which would become the core and ethnic base for the future Spain; but the culture was the same on both sides of the political border. Galician-Portuguese culture attained great prestige during the Low Middle Ages. In the late 15th century, Castilian domination became more severe, banishing their language in all official uses, including the church.
+Galician-Portuguese survived diglossically for the following centuries among the peasant population, but it experienced a strong Spanish influence and had a different evolution. Meanwhile, the same language (by the reintegrationist view) remained fully official in Portugal and was carried across the world by Portuguese explorers, soldiers and colonists.
+During the 19th century a revival movement arose. This movement defended the Galician language, and created a provisional norm, with a Castilian orthography and many loanwords. When autonomy was granted, a norm and orthography (based in rexurdimento writers) (Galician literature) for a Galician language was created. This norm is taught and used in schools and universities of Galicia. But most writers (Castelao, Risco, Otero Pedrayo) did not support the traditional Galician forms; some of them based on Spanish orthography even if they recognized the essential linguistic unity, saying that the priority was achieving political autonomy and being read by the population. Other writers wrote with a Portuguese-like orthography (e.g. Guerra da Cal and Carvalho Calero).
+Reintegrationists claim that the official norm (released in 1982) was imposed by the Spanish government, with the covert intent of severing Galician from Portuguese. But this idea is rejected by the Real Academia Galega, which supports the official norm.
+Reintegrationist and Lusist groups are protesting against this so-called language secessionism, which they call Castrapism (from castrapo, something like "patois") or Isolationism. Unlike in the case of Valencian Blaverism, isolationism has no impact in the scientific community of linguists, and it is supported by a small number of them but still has clear political support.
+Galician-Portuguese linguistic unity until the 16th century seems to be consensus, as does both Galician and European Portuguese being closer to each other, and also closer in the 19th century than in the 20th century and now. In this period, while Galician for the most part lost vowel reduction, velarization of /l/ and nasal vowels, and some speech registers of it adhered to yeísmo, all making it phonologically closer to Spanish. For example, European Portuguese had splits that created two new vowel phonemes, one of them usually an allophone only in the case of vowel reduction and the other phonetically absent in any other variant. Some dialects had a merger of three of its oral diphthongs and another three of its nasal vowels, and together with Brazilian Portuguese absorbed more than 5000 loanwords from French as well as 1500 from English.
+It seems that the debate for a greater integration among Portuguese-speaking countries had the result of a single writing standard (1990 Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement), often shunned by some segments of Portuguese media and population but long waited and cheered by Brazilians despite occasional criticism to some aspects and that changed the spelling of between 0.5% and 1% of the words in both former varieties, with minor respect to major dialect phonological differences. The other debate, whether Galician should use the same standard of Portuguese (Lusism), a standard with minor differences (Reintegrationism), a re-approximation of both through another Lusophone spelling agreement that would give particular regional differences such as that of Galician as well as major diverging dialects of Portuguese (especially in South America) more room (Reintegrationism), or the present standard based on the Spanish orthography, still did not cast official attention of government authorities in any of the involved countries, even if Lusophone support is expected to be strong in any of the first three cases.
+A point often held by minorities among both Reintegrationists/Lusists and Lusophonists is that Portuguese should have a more conservative and uniform international speech standard that at the same time respects minor phonological differences between its variants (such as a free choice between the various allophones of the rhotic consonant /ʁ/, [a ~ ɐ ~ ɜ ~ ə] for /a ~ ɐ/ or [s ~ s̻ʲ ~ ʃ ~ ɕ] for the voiceless allophone of /S/) that would further strengthen Lusophone integration, but this is not especially welcomed by any party in Europe.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_secessionism-4.md

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+---
+title: "Language secessionism"
+chunk: 5/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_secessionism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:09.851113+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== In Tagalog ==
+Republic Act No. 7104, approved on August 14, 1991, created the Commission on the Filipino Language, reporting directly to the President and tasked to undertake, coordinate and promote researches for the development, propagation and preservation of Filipino and other Philippine languages. On May 13, 1992, the commission issued Resolution 92-1, specifying that Filipino is the...indigenous written and spoken language of Metro Manila and other urban centers in the Philippines used as the language of communication of ethnic groups.
+Though the Commission on the Filipino Language recognizes that a lot of the vocabulary of Filipino is based on Tagalog, the latest definition given to the national language tries to evade the use of the term Tagalog.
+According to some Filipinologists (people who specialize in the study of Filipino as a language), the main reason that Filipino is distinct from Tagalog is that in Filipino, there is a presence of vocabulary coming from other Philippine languages, such as Cebuano (such as bana – husband), Hiligaynon (such as buang – insane) and Ilocano (such as ading – little brother). They also maintain that the term Tagalog is the language of the Tagalog region and puristic in a sense. It lacks certain phonemes like /f/ and /v/, which makes it incapable of producing some indigenous proper nouns Ifugao and Ivatan. Curiously, proponents of language secessionism are unable to account for the glaring absence of long vowel, phonemic in Tausug, in Filipino phonology or for the absence of a schwa. Arguments for secessionism generally ignore the fact that the various languages of the Philippines have divergent phonologies.
+
+== In Chinese ==
+
+=== Mandarin versus other Chinese varieties ===
+Among Chinese speakers, Yue Chinese (Cantonese), Hokkien and other varieties of Chinese are often referred to as dialects (Chinese: 方言), instead of languages (simplified Chinese: 语言; traditional Chinese: 語言), despite the fact that those varieties are not mutually intelligible with Mandarin, spoken by the majority of Chinese. However, the languages are reportedly significantly more mutually intelligible in written form as all varieties continue to use the same set of Hanzi (Chinese characters); i.e. Yue and Mandarin differ primarily in tonal differences and different pronunciations of various sounds which would be largely negated in writing.
+
+=== In Hokkien ===
+In the Hokkien topolect (Chinese: 閩南語), which is widely used in Fujian, Taiwan, and in the Chinese diaspora, it is debated that whether Taiwanese dialects (Chinese: 臺灣閩南語) should be separated from the Hokkien language as the Taiwanese language (Chinese: 臺灣話 or 臺語), although people from Fujian and Taiwan can communicate with each other despite some differences in vocabulary. Such debates may be associated with politics of Taiwan.
+In Taiwan, there is a common perception that Hokkien preserves more archaic features from Classical Chinese than Mandarin, thus allowing poetry from the Tang dynasty to rhyme better. Amongst Hokkien nationalists in Taiwan, this perception is sometimes elevated into stronger claims about the identity of Hokkien and Mandarin. One common name for Taiwanese Hokkien in Taiwan, especially among elderly speakers, is Chinese: 河洛話; pinyin: Héluòhuà, derived from a folk etymological reading of Hok-ló, Ho̍h-ló, or Hô-ló. The character reading is interpreted to be a reference to the Yellow River Map and the Lo Shu Square and taken as evidence that the ancestors of Hokkien-speaking people came from the Central Plain, and in preserving their identity over the centuries, Hokkien speakers have also better preserved their language. Some fringe scholars claim that modern Hokkien is a faithfully preserved archaic variety of Chinese once used in the imperial courts dating back as early as the Shang dynasty. Another claim based on folk etymology is that the word Mandarin is based on the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese phrase Chinese: 滿大人; pinyin: Mǎndàrén; lit. 'important Manchu person or Manchu official'. This is taken as evidence that Mandarin has been corrupted by foreign influence from Manchu, Mongolian, etc. and is thus not fit to be the official language of a Chinese-speaking country. This is in contrast to more mainstream views that Taiwanese Hokkien, as a variety of Southern Min, is a descendant of Proto-Min, a language that split from late Old Chinese, and Mandarin descended from Middle Chinese, and that it is not meaningful to say that one modern language is older than another.
+
+== See also ==
+
+== Notes ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laundry_ball-0.md

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+---
+title: "Laundry ball"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laundry_ball"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:11.012124+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A laundry ball or washing ball is a product made of solid, insoluble material promoted as a substitute for laundry detergent. Producers of laundry balls often make pseudoscientific claims about their mechanisms of action and exaggerate the extent of their benefits.
+Washing with laundry balls is as effective or less effective than washing without detergent. Their observed cleaning effects can largely be attributed to the mechanical interactions with the laundry or to using hot water instead of cold. For mechanical agitation, no evidence exists that using a specialized laundry ball is superior to using a different, cheaper solid object, such as a golf ball.
+The Federal Trade Commission has taken action against manufacturers for making misleading claims, while customer protection organizations have recommended against buying this type of product.
+
+== Types ==
+Laundry balls come in several shapes: disks, spheres and toruses (doughnut shapes). Some contain ceramic pieces, magnetic material, or coloured liquid claimed to be "activated water", none of which have been demonstrated to improve effectiveness. Some balls can be refilled with pellets of detergent or other ingredients.
+In the United States, laundry balls have been sold on home shopping channels or by participants in multilevel marketing. They can also be found in retail stores with an ecological or environmental focus. During the initial marketing boom, balls were manufactured for other market niches, like washing cars. For the purpose of washing a car, a normal cloth or sponge will have the same effect of mechanical removal of dirt and grime.
+
+== Claimed mechanisms of action ==
+Manufacturers rarely agree on why their laundry balls work, which suggests that each manufacturer makes these claims up. Some claims are not backed by science, while others are an exaggeration of benefits. Balls that contain detergents may offer more cleaning power than water alone because their ingredients are comparable to normal washing powder, but in smaller quantities.
+The effect of the laundry balls may be explained by simple mechanical action and by the usage of hotter water. Some manufacturers claim that their products reduce energy consumption, but their pamphlets recommend using hot water. Hot water will clean some types of spots better than cold water, and mechanical agitation by any solid object can assist in cleaning, leading some people to conclude that the balls worked. 
+Although laundry balls are marketed as economical, environmentally friendly alternatives that can reduce water and energy consumption, they have not been demonstrated to be more effective than washing without detergent. Their observed cleaning effects can largely be attributed to the mechanical interactions with the laundry or to using hot water instead of cold. The mechanical action of the laundry balls can help clean some types of spots, but a golf ball will achieve the same effect for much less money.
+Apart from issues with effectiveness, there is also a risk of the balls breaking open during washing, which could damage the machinery of the washing machine.
+
+=== Infrared ===
+Some manufacturers claim that the components inside their balls emit far infrared rays, which are claimed to reduce the surface tension of water and facilitate washing. All materials emit thermal radiation, and at room temperature or washing machine temperature, this is in the far infrared range. It is also true that heating reduces the surface tension of water, but this energy comes from the water heater; otherwise, it would violate the law of conservation of energy.
+
+=== Magnetic properties ===
+
+Magnetic water softeners claim that their magnetic fields can help remove scale from the washing machine and pipes and prevent new limescale from adhering. Some companies claim to remove hardness ions from hard water or to precipitate the molecules in the water so they will not "stick" to the pipes or to reduce the surface tension of water. The claims are dubious, the scientific basis is unclear, the working mechanism is vaguely defined and understudied, and high-quality studies report negative results. The reputation of these products is further damaged by the pseudoscientific explanations that promoters keep putting forward.
+A laundry ball containing magnets could be used in niche applications for the removal of magnetic material, such as iron filings on a steel worker's clothing, in which case the benefit would be clearly visible in the form of collected iron filings. For the typical consumer, however, there would be no benefit, and such a device may get stuck on a washing machine with a steel drum, disrupting its engineered balance and increasing vibration, decreasing the machine's lifespan.
+
+=== Changes to water structure ===
+Some magnetic products claim that they "change the molecular structure of water", a pseudoscientific claim with zero scientific basis. There is no such thing as "magnetized water". Water is not paramagnetic, so its water molecules do not align in the presence of a magnetic field. Water is weakly diamagnetic (so it is repelled by magnets), but only to an extent so small that it is undetectable to most instruments.
+
+=== Special detergent ===
+Some balls are refillable with small pellets of detergent which are sold only by the manufacturer of the ball. Critics question whether the amount and type of detergent released by these balls is sufficient to generate significant cleaning effects.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laundry_ball-1.md

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+---
+title: "Laundry ball"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laundry_ball"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:11.012124+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Customer protection ==
+In 1997, Amway offered a ceramic washing disk on its catalog but removed it after concluding that it had "no measurable impact on overall cleaning."
+In 1997, Trade-Net sold a laundry ball product (the Blue Laundry Ball) in various states. Trade-Net claimed that the blue liquid inside their balls was structured water "that emits a negative charge through the walls of the container into your laundry water." "This causes the water molecule cluster to disassociate, allowing much smaller individual water molecules to penetrate the innermost part of the fabric." Dennis Barnum, a professor of inorganic chemistry at Portland State University, said that the liquid was just water with a blue dye and could not possibly have the effect claimed by the manufacturer. Barnum also said that the claims were "gibberish" and used scientific terms in ways that sounded educated to the layman but did not make any real sense. The Oregonian tested the balls and found they washed marginally better than hot water with no detergent and worse than using detergent.
+After complaints, Trade-Net's claims were investigated by customer protection departments in Utah, Oregon, and Florida, among others, and the company was prohibited from making certain claims, including that "such product cleans as well as conventional laundry detergent". Trade-Net offered a 'new' laundry ball product after this, but were forced to pay fines, including $190,000 to Oregon's Department of Justice, $10,000 to Utah and then in April 1999, $155,000 to the states of New York, Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma and the FTC. The company disappeared shortly thereafter. The Federal Trade Commission has levied fines against other companies for similar fraudulent claims. However, other companies kept selling similar products over the Internet.
+The judge ruling against Trade-Net, issued in April 1999, said the manufacturers failed to substantiate their claims and hadn't informed consumers about reports showing that the claims were incorrect.
+The Australian Consumers' Association published a report in the April 1998 issue of its magazine Choice. It concluded that laundry balls were no better than cold water.
+The US Federal Trade Commission published in 1999 about laundry balls, rings, and discs: "Tests show that these gadgets do little more than clean out your wallet. At best, they’re marginally better than washing clothes in hot water alone and not as effective as washing them with laundry detergent. At worst, the products are completely useless."
+In 2000 the magazine Good Housekeeping tested several laundry balls sold in the US and concluded that "these gizmos do little more than clean out your wallet."
+In April 2009 the Italian consumer association Altroconsumo carried a small test and concluded that laundry balls didn't wash better than plain water.
+In 2009 the Spanish customer protection organization OCU studied ecobolas (a type of laundry ball marketed in Spain). It compared the efficacy of the laundry ball, normal detergent, and no detergent at all. It concluded that laundry balls were no better than using just water, and it recommended that consumers simply use a minimum amount of detergent.
+In November 2011, the Hong Kong Consumer Council published a report on the effect of using washing liquid, washing powder, and washing balls. The former two were effective in removing stains, while the washing balls were not more effective than plain water.
+Some organizations recommending against their use are Consumers Union, International Fabricare Institute (now called Drycleaning and Laundry Institute), Maytag, Soap and Detergent Association, and Spanish OCU.
+In February 2011, the Spanish National Institute of Consume (Instituto Nacional del Consumo INC) ordered 14 manufacturers to cease their deceptive advertising after testing the wash balls and concluding that they are only as effective, or even less effective, than washing with water alone.
+In August 2012, the Portuguese Consumer Rights Council requested a ban on the washing balls because none of the advantages advertised were proven in tests.
+The Australian customer advocacy group Choice Australia gave a "Shonky Award" to Nanosmart Laundry Balls in October 2015, stating that they "don't work" and that they should be renamed "Nano-not-so-smart" after testing the balls against plain water and finding they had no effect and that their scientific claims were simply untrue. Choice Australia states that they will refer the product to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission for investigation over Nanosmart's misleading claims.
+By making very vague claims, marketers can continue to sell laundry balls without running afoul of customer protection laws that require veracity in advertisement.
+
+== See also ==
+Dryer ball
+Stainless steel soap
+List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+Do laundry balls really work?, July 25, 1997, The Straight Dope
+The ABI Laundry Ball and The Laundry Solution and The Laundry Clean Disk & about twenty others just like them!, an entry in The Skeptic's Dictionary
+Laundry Discs Aired on Market Place, November 17, 1998, CBC News, Marketplace program on scams section.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaky_gut_syndrome-0.md

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+---
+title: "Leaky gut syndrome"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaky_gut_syndrome"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:12.197286+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Leaky gut syndrome is a hypothetical and medically unrecognized condition that is distinct from the scientific phenomenon of increased intestinal permeability commonly known as "leaky gut". Claims for the existence of "leaky gut syndrome" as a distinct medical condition come mostly from nutritionists and practitioners of alternative medicine. Proponents claim that a "leaky gut" causes chronic inflammation throughout the body that results in a wide range of conditions, including myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus,  migraines, multiple sclerosis, and autism. There is little evidence to support this hypothesis.
+Stephen Barrett has described "leaky gut syndrome" as a fad diagnosis and says that its proponents use the alleged condition as an opportunity to sell a number of alternative-health remedies – including diets, herbal preparations, and dietary supplements. Promoters of pseudoscience have claimed that the passage of proteins through a "leaky" gut is the cause of autism. Evidence for claims that a leaky gut causes autism is weak and conflicting.
+Advocates tout various treatments for "leaky gut syndrome", such as dietary supplements, probiotics, herbal remedies, gluten-free foods, and low-FODMAP, low-sugar, and/or antifungal diets, but there is little evidence that the treatments offered are of benefit.
+None have been adequately tested to determine whether they are safe and effective for this purpose. The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) does not recommend the use of any special diets to manage the main symptoms of autism or leaky gut syndrome.
+
+
+== See also ==
+List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_pyramid-0.md

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+---
+title: "Learning pyramid"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_pyramid"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:13.417113+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The learning pyramid (also known as “the cone of learning”, “the learning cone”, “the cone of retention”, “the pyramid of learning”, or “the pyramid of retention”) is a pseudoscientific group of ineffective learning models and representations relating different degrees of retention induced from various types of learning. 
+
+
+== Description ==
+The earliest such representation is believed to originate in a 1954 book called Audio-Visual Methods in Teaching.
+A pyramid model was supposedly developed by the National Training Laboratories Institute in the early 1960s, on its main campus in Bethel, Maine, for which the original, internal research is said to have been lost. Despite this, NTL's learning pyramid model became a central representation of this concept with a large number of models drawing from it. NTL's model generally used the following divisions: 
+
+
+== Criticisms ==
+Criticism emerged on early versions of the model such as Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience. Critics reported inconsistencies between the pyramid of learning and research. The NTL learning pyramid study being lost, the field largely stands on an unknown methodology of unknown quality, with unknown mitigation of influential parameters such as time, population tested, etc., making the original study's results untrustworthy. 
+
+
+== See also ==
+Educational aims and objectives
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectin-free_diet-0.md

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+---
+title: "Lectin-free diet"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectin-free_diet"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:14.566275+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Lectin-free diet (also known as the Plant Paradox diet) is a fad diet promoted with the false claim that avoiding all foods that contain high amounts of lectins will prevent and cure disease. There is no clinical evidence the lectin-free diet is effective to treat any disease and its claims have been criticized as pseudoscientific.
+
+
+== Overview ==
+
+The lectin-free diet forbids all foods that are high in lectins including legumes (beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas), grains, fruit, nightshade vegetables (tomatoes and potatoes), nuts, seeds and many others. The first writer to advocate a lectin-free diet was Peter J. D'Adamo, a naturopathic physician best known for promoting the blood type diet. D'Adamo has argued that lectins may damage people's blood type by interfering with digestion, food metabolism, hormones and insulin production so should be avoided. 
+The lectin-free diet has been popularized by cardiologist and former professor of surgery and pediatrics Steven Gundry, who wrote the book called The Plant Paradox. Gundry claims he has discovered that lectins cause most human diseases, and erroneously claims that his diet will prevent and cure them. His book argues that eating tomatoes incites "a kind of chemical warfare in our bodies, causing inflammatory reactions that can lead to weight gain and serious health conditions." When questioned about the high consumption of beans and grains amongst long-lived people in the blue zones, Gundry says that such lectin foods are countered by their large intake of olive oil polyphenols, fish and red wine. Gundry has stated that his lectin-free diet consists of a "cornucopia of vegetables, like kale, spinach, broccoli and sprouts, avocados, limited amounts of high-quality protein sources, and some dairy products and olive oil." He says that "arthritis, most coronary artery disease, acne, eczema, and the autoimmune diseases are all caused or worsened by lectins."
+Gundry has a conflict of interest, because he sells supplements that purportedly protect against effects of lectins. In one infomercial that lasted almost an hour, he pronounced that supplies are running low, and told viewers to act immediately and order as much as they could store. The necessity of supplements is similarly the crucial argument of his book, in which he writes "getting all of the nutrients you need simply cannot be done without supplements." Gundry sells a "lectin shield" that is "designed to neutralize the effects of lectins" for $79.99.
+
+
+== Reception ==
+For Science-Based Medicine, Harriet Hall said that Gundry's diet was not science-based and that following it risked dietary deficiencies.
+Preliminary studies have revealed health benefits from lectin consumption and minute evidence of harm. Foods high in lectins such as beans and grains are soaked and boiled to significantly reduce their lectin content. Megan Rossi, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association has commented that lectins are relatively easy to remove by cooking and preparing in the right way so are not a concern for most people. She also noted that studies have shown that lectins possess "potential anti-cancerous effects".
+A 2019 article in the World Journal of Gastroenterology suggested that lectin-restricted dieting could become a "big food fad".
+
+
+== See also ==
+Antinutrient
+Quackery
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+New Food Fad: Lectin-Free Diet Archived 2021-08-25 at the Wayback Machine

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let's_trim_our_hair_in_accordance_with_the_socialist_lifestyle-0.md

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+---
+title: "Let's trim our hair in accordance with the socialist lifestyle"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let's_trim_our_hair_in_accordance_with_the_socialist_lifestyle"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:15.751081+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Let's trim our hair in accordance with the socialist lifestyle (Korean: 사회주의적생활양식에 맞게 머리단장을 하자; alternatively translated as Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle) was a television program broadcast on state-run Korean Central Television in North Korea between 2004 and 2005 as part of a longstanding  government propaganda against haircuts and fashions deemed at odds with "socialist values". The program claimed that long hair could adversely affect human intelligence.
+
+
+== North Korea's fashion restrictions ==
+Such dress and hair standards have long been a fixture of North Korean society. Kim Jong Il was known for his "Speed Battle Cut" crew cut when he first came to prominence in the early 1980s, though he later reverted to the short sided bouffant favored by his father. After Kim Jong Il succeeded his father, some of the state's restrictions on Western fashion were relaxed. Women were allowed permanent waves, men could grow slightly longer hair, and public dancing was allowed. Despite such slight concessions during the early years of Kim Jong Il's rule, obvious emblems of Western fashion such as jeans are occasionally banned, and long hair on men could lead to arrest and forced haircuts.
+According to the North Korean daily Rodong Sinmun (Worker's Newspaper), the leadership was fighting a guerrilla war against the possible incursion of capitalism into the sphere of personal appearance. Along with long hair, untidy shoes were identified as the epitome of Western culture which, by imitation, would lead the country to ruin.
+
+
+== Television series ==
+
+The series began in 2004 as part of the regular television program Common Sense. In the autumn of that year, a larger media campaign (print and radio as well as television) began promoting proper attire and neat appearances for men. The show encouraged short hairstyles, such as the flat-top crew cut, middle hairstyle, low hairstyle, and high hairstyle. It said that hair should be kept between 1 and 5 cm (0.4 and 2.0 in) in length, and recommended haircuts for men every 15 days. The country's official hairstyles did allow men over 50 years old to grow their upper hair up to 7 cm (2.8 in) long, to disguise balding.
+An initial five-part series of the show featured officially endorsed haircut styles, while a later series went a step further by showing certain men as examples of how not to trim one's hair. With each example, the show conveyed the person's name and where they lived (or worked) via subtitles and/or voice. For example, in one episode (shown in January 2005) a North Korean citizen named Mr. Ko Gwang-hyun, whose unkempt hair covered his ears, was shown as a negative role model, with the voiceover commentary: "We cannot help questioning the cultural taste of this comrade, who is incapable of feeling ashamed of his hair style. Can we expect a man with this disheveled mind-set to perform his duty well?"
+In the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang, hidden cameras were placed to catch citizens with improper hairstyles. This was part of a television programme broadcast at the same time as Let's Trim Our Hair in Accordance with the Socialist Lifestyle. The offenders would then be interviewed by the presenter and asked to explain themselves. Their name, address and workplace would be announced to embarrass them in the hopes that fear of such social ostracism would influence others' behavior.
+
+
+== See also ==
+
+Propaganda in North Korea
+Beard and haircut laws by country
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==

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+title: "Leuchter report"
+chunk: 1/4
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:18.136628+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Leuchter report is a pseudoscientific document authored by American execution technician Fred A. Leuchter, who was commissioned by Ernst Zündel to defend him at his trial in Canada for distributing Holocaust denial material. Leuchter compiled the report in 1988 with the intention of investigating the feasibility of mass homicidal gassings at Nazi extermination camps, specifically at Auschwitz. He traveled to the camp, collected multiple pieces of brick from the remains of the crematoria and gas chambers (without the camp's permission), brought them back to the United States, and submitted them for chemical analysis. At the trial, Leuchter was called upon to defend the report in the capacity of an expert witness; however, during the trial, the court ruled that he had neither the qualifications nor experience to act as such.
+Leuchter cited the absence of Prussian blue in the homicidal gas chambers to support his view that they could not have been used to gas people. However, residual iron-based cyanide compounds are not a categorical consequence of cyanide exposure. In addition, the walls and ceilings of the gas chambers were covered with plaster. The Prussian blue would have remained on the surface of the plaster and would not have left a substantial presence on the bricks, mortar, or cement beneath. By the time Leuchter arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau to take these samples, the plaster had long since disappeared due to aging and exposure. By not discriminating against that, Leuchter introduced an unreliable factor into his experiment, and his findings were seriously flawed as a result. In contrast, tests conducted by Polish forensic scientists (who discriminated against iron-based compounds) confirmed the presence of cyanide in the locations, in accordance with where and how it was used in the Holocaust. In addition, the report was criticized as Leuchter had overlooked critical evidence, such as documents in the SS architectural office which recorded the mechanical operation of the gas chambers and others which verified the rate at which the Nazis could burn the bodies of those gassed.
+
+== Background ==
+In 1985, Ernst Zündel, a German pamphleteer and publisher living in Canada, was put on trial for publishing Richard Verrall's Holocaust denial pamphlet Did Six Million Really Die?, which was deemed to violate Canadian laws against distributing false news. Zündel was found guilty, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. This led to a second prosecution.
+Zündel and his lawyers were joined by Robert Faurisson, a French academic of literature and Holocaust denier, who came to Toronto to advise the defense, having previously testified as expert witness at the first trial. He was joined by David Irving, an English writer and Holocaust denier, who was to assist the defense and testify on Zündel's behalf. Faurisson claimed that it was technically and physically impossible for the gas chambers at Auschwitz to have functioned as extermination facilities, based on comparisons with American execution gas chambers; he therefore suggested getting an American prison warden who had participated in executions by gas to testify. Irving and Faurisson therefore invited Bill Armontrout, warden of the Missouri State Penitentiary, who agreed to testify and suggested they contact Fred A. Leuchter, a Bostonian execution equipment designer. Faurisson reported that Leuchter initially accepted the mainstream account of the Holocaust, but after two days of discussion with him, he stated that Leuchter was convinced that homicidal gassings never occurred. After having met Zündel in Toronto and agreeing to serve as an expert witness for his defense, Leuchter traveled with them to spend a week in Poland. He was accompanied by his draftsman, a cinematographer supplied by Zündel, a translator fluent in German and Polish, and his wife. Although Zündel and Faurisson did not accompany them, Leuchter said that they were with them "every step of the way" in spirit.
+After arriving in Poland the group spent three days at the former Auschwitz concentration camp site, and another at the former Majdanek concentration camp. At these, they filmed Leuchter illicitly collecting what he regarded to be forensic quality samples of materialsfrom the wreckage of the former gas extermination facilities, while his wife and the translator acted as lookouts. Drawings of where the samples were taken from, the film footage of their physical collection and Leuchter's notebook detailing the work were surrendered to the trial court as evidence. Leuchter claimed that his conclusions were based on his expert knowledge of gas chamber operation, his visual inspection of what remained of the structures at Auschwitz, and original drawings and blueprints of some of the facilities. He said that the blueprints had been given to him by Auschwitz Museum officials.
+
+== Report ==
+The compiled report was published in Canada as The Leuchter Report: An Engineering Report on the Alleged Execution Gas Chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Majdanek, Poland, by Zündel's Samisdat Publications, and in England as Auschwitz: The End of the Line. The Leuchter Report: The First Forensic Examination of Auschwitz by Focal Point Publications, David Irving's publishing house. However, the court accepted the report only as evidentiary display and not as direct evidence; Leuchter was therefore required to explain it and testify to its veracity in the trial.
+Before Leuchter could do this, he was examined by the court. He admitted that he was not a toxicologist and dismissed the need for having a degree in engineering:
+
+THE COURT: How do you function as an engineer if you don't have an engineering degree?
+THE WITNESS: Well, I would question, Your Honour, what an engineering degree is. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree and I have the required background training both on the college level and in the field to perform my function as an engineer.

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+title: "Leuchter report"
+chunk: 2/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leuchter_report"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:18.136628+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+THE COURT: Who determines that? You?
+Leuchter admitted under oath that he only had a Bachelor of Arts degree and implicitly suggested that an engineering degree was unavailable to him by saying that his college did not offer an engineering degree during his studies. Boston University actually offered three different kinds of such qualification when he was a student there. When asked by the court if the B.A. he obtained was in a field that entitled him to operate as an engineer, he confirmed that this was so, even though his degree was in history. Similarly, Leuchter claimed that he obtained most of his research material on the camps (including original crematoria blueprints) from the Auschwitz and Majdanek camps' archives, and testified that these documents had a far more important role in shaping his conclusions than the physical samples he collected, yet after the trial the director of the Auschwitz museum denied that Leuchter had received any plans or blueprints from them.
+Judge Ronald Thomas began to label Leuchter's methodology as "ridiculous" and "preposterous", dismissing many of the report's conclusions on the basis that they were based on "second-hand information", and refused to allow him to testify on the effect of Zyklon B on humans because he had never worked with the substance, and was neither a toxicologist nor a chemist. Judge Thomas dismissed Leuchter's opinion because it was of "no greater value than that of an ordinary tourist", and in regards to Leuchter's opinion said:
+
+His opinion on this report is that there were never any gassings or there was never any exterminations carried on in this facility. As far as I am concerned, from what I've heard, he is not capable of giving that opinion....He is not in a position to say, as he said so sweepingly in this report, what could not have been carried on in these facilities.
+When questioned on the functioning of the crematoria, the judge also prevented Leuchter from testifying because "he hasn't any expertise". Leuchter also claimed that consultation relating to sodium cyanide and hydrogen cyanide with DuPont was "an on-going thing". DuPont, the largest American manufacturer of hydrogen cyanide, stated that it had "never provided any information on cyanides to persons representing themselves as Holocaust deniers, including Fred Leuchter", and had "never provided any information regarding the use of cyanide at Auschwitz, Birkenau or Majdanek."
+
+== Claims and criticism ==
+The contents of the report, in particular Leuchter's methodology, are heavily criticized. James Roth, the manager of the lab that carried out the analysis on the samples Leuchter collected, swore under oath to the results at the trial. Roth did not learn what the trial was about until he got off the stand. He later stated that cyanide would have only penetrated to a depth of around 10 micrometers, a tenth of the thickness of a human hair. The samples of brick, mortar and concrete that Leuchter took were of indeterminate thickness: not being aware of this, the lab ground the samples to a fine powder which thus severely diluted the cyanide-containing layer of each sample with an indeterminate amount of brick, varying for each sample. A more accurate analysis would have been obtained by analyzing the surface of the samples Leuchter collected. Roth offered the analogy that the investigation was like analyzing paint on a wall by analyzing the timber behind it.
+
+=== Prussian blue ===
+Leuchter's opposition to the possibility of homicidal gassings at Auschwitz relies on residual cyanide remains found in the homicidal gas chambers and delousing chambers at Auschwitz. While both facilities were exposed to the same substance (Zyklon B), many of the delousing chambers are stained with an iron-based compound known as Prussian blue, which is not apparent in the homicidal gas chambers. It is not only this disparity that Leuchter cites, but accordingly from his samples (which included measurements of it) that he claims he measured much more cyanide in the delousing chambers than in the gas chambers, which he argues is inconsistent between the amounts necessary to kill human beings and lice. This argument is often cited by Holocaust deniers, and similar claims are also made by Germar Rudolf.
+According to Richard J. Green:
+
+In order for Leuchter or Rudolf to demonstrate the significance of their findings, it is necessary for them to prove the necessity of Prussian blue formation under the conditions that the homicidal gas chambers were operated. Showing that the delousing chambers have Prussian blue and that the homicidal gas chambers do not, proves nothing, if it cannot be shown that conditions in the gas chambers were such as to produce Prussian blue.
+In other words, Green states that Leuchter failed to show that Prussian Blue would have been produced in the homicidal gas chambers in the first place—meaning its absence is not in itself proof that no homicidal gassings took place.

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+title: "Leuchter report"
+chunk: 3/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leuchter_report"
+category: "reference"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:18.136628+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The problem with Prussian blue is that it is by no means a categorical sign of cyanide exposure. One factor necessary in its formation is a very high concentration of cyanide. In terms of the difference between amounts measured in the delousing chambers and homicidal gas chambers, critics explain that the exact opposite of what deniers claim is true. Insects have a far higher resistance to cyanide than humans, with concentration levels up to 16,000 ppm (parts per million) and an exposure time of more than 20 hours (sometimes as long as 72 hours) being necessary for them to succumb. In contrast, a cyanide concentration of only 300 ppm is fatal to humans in a matter of minutes. This difference is one of the reasons behind the concentration disparity. Another exceedingly sensitive factor by which very small deviances could determine whether Prussian blue may form is pH. pH could be affected by the presence of human beings. Also, while the delousing chambers were left intact, the ruins of the crematoria at Birkenau had been exposed to the elements for over forty years by the time Leuchter collected his samples. This would have severely affected his results, because unlike Prussian blue and other iron-based cyanides, cyanide salts are highly soluble in water.
+Since the formation of Prussian blue is not an unconditional outcome of exposure to cyanide, it is not a reliable indicator. Leuchter and Rudolf claim to have measured much more cyanide in the delousing chambers than in the homicidal gas chambers, but since they did not discriminate against an unreliable factor, Green maintains that instant bias is introduced into their experiments. Similarly, Rudolf acknowledges that Prussian blue does not always form upon exposure to cyanide and is thus not a reliable marker, yet continues to include the iron compounds in his analysis. Green describe this as "disingenuous". Since a building that contains Prussian blue staining would exhibit much higher levels of detectable cyanides than one without any, Green writes that Leuchter's and Rudolf's measurements reveal nothing more than what is already visible to the naked eye.
+
+==== Polish follow-up investigation ====
+In February 1990, Professor Jan Markiewicz, director of The Institute for Forensic Research (IFRC) in Kraków conducted an experiment where iron compounds were excluded. Given that the ruins of the gas chambers at Birkenau have been exposed to a cumulative 35 meters of precipitation based on climatological records since 1945, Markiewicz and his team were not optimistic at being able to detect cyanides so many years later; nevertheless, having the legal permission to obtain samples, they collected some from areas as sheltered from the elements as possible.
+Leuchter's report stated that the small amounts of cyanide he detected in the ruins of the crematoria are merely the result of fumigation. However the IFRC points out that the control samples they took from living areas which may have been fumigated only once as part of the 1942 typhus epidemic tested negative for cyanide, and that the typhus epidemic occurred before the crematoria at Birkenau even existed.
+
+Accordingly, the IFRC demonstrated that cyanides were present in all of the facilities where it is claimed that they were exposed, i.e. all five crematoria, the cellars of Block 11 and the delousing facilities. Critics state that any attempt to demonstrate that the crematoria could not have functioned as homicidal gas chambers on the basis that they were not exposed to cyanide is unsuccessful, given that its presence in what remains of these facilities is incontrovertible, and write that all of the gas chambers were exposed to cyanide at levels higher than background levels elsewhere in the camp, such as living areas, where no cyanides at all were detected. In addition, tests conducted at Auschwitz in 1945 revealed the presence of cyanides on ventilation grilles found in the ruins of Crematorium II (thus also demonstrating that the Leuchter report was not the first forensic examination of the camp as purported in the title of the London edition). The historian Richard J. Evans argued that due to Leuchter's ignorance of the large disparity between the amounts of cyanide necessary to kill humans and lice, instead of disproving the homicidal use of gas chambers, the small amounts of cyanide which Leuchter detected actually tended to confirm it.
+
+=== Other criticisms ===
+By order of Heinrich Himmler, the crematoria and gas chambers at Birkenau were destroyed by the SS in order to hide evidence of genocide. Nothing more than the bases of Crematoria IV and V can be seen: the floor plans of both facilities are indicated by bricks laid out across the concrete foundations, and Crematoria II and III are in ruins. Professor Robert Jan van Pelt labels Leuchter's comment that the facilities have not changed at all since 1942 or 1941 as "nonsense".
+
+==== Zyklon B ====
+Because hydrogen cyanide is explosive, Leuchter maintained that the gas chambers could never have been operated due to their proximity to the ovens of the crematoria. It is correct that hydrogen cyanide is explosive, but only at concentrations of 56,000 ppm and above – over 186 times more than the lethal dose of 300 ppm. Critics estimate conservatively that within 5 to 15 minutes, gas chamber victims were exposed to 450 – 1810 ppmv – again considerably lower than the lower explosion limit.
+
+==== Gas chamber ventilation ====
+If Leuchter had gone to the archives, if he had spent time in the archives, he would've found evidence about ventilation systems, evidence about ways to introduce Zyklon B into these buildings, evidence of gas chambers, undressing rooms.

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+title: "Leuchter report"
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+category: "reference"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:18.136628+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Leuchter incorrectly assumed that the gas chambers were not ventilated. The basement gas chambers of Crematoria II and III were mechanically ventilated via motors in the roof space of the main crematorium structure capable of extracting the remaining gas and renewing the air every three to four minutes.
+When ventilation was not used such as in Crematoria IV and V (although a ventilation system was later installed in Crematorium V in May 1944), Sonderkommando prisoners wore gas masks when removing the bodies. When presented in court with a document by the chief Auschwitz architect SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Bischoff, Leuchter misconstrued aeration (Belüftung) and ventilation (Entlüftung) as part of the furnace blower systems, when they were actually in reference to the ventilation channels in the walls that straddle the gas chambers. These are visible on blueprints, and can still partly be seen in the ruined east wall of the Crematorium III gas chamber.
+
+==== Body disposal ====
+
+Leuchter was also prepared to act as expert witness regarding crematoria ovens despite admitting during cross examination that he had no expert knowledge. Leuchter presented his own estimate of 156 corpses as the total daily incineration capacity of the installations at Auschwitz. During cross-examination, he was presented with a letter written by the Auschwitz Central Construction Office (Auschwitz Zentralbauleitung) of June 28, 1943, from SS-Sturmbannführer Jahrling to SS-Brigadeführer Hans Kammler stating that the five crematoria installations had a collective daily capacity of 4,756 corpses. Leuchter conceded that this was quite different from his own figure, and that he had never seen the document in question before.
+A patent application by the makers of the ovens, (both of which were made during the war) and two independent testimonies confirmed the capacity of the crematoria. The 4,756 figure is evidence of the Nazis equipping a camp of a maximum of 125,000 prisoners with the facility to cremate 140,000 of them per month. Critics of Leuchter explain that this reveals extermination was the true purpose of Auschwitz: a camp with the capacity to reduce its entire population to ash on a monthly basis was not merely a benign internment camp.
+At various times (such as in the summer of 1944 when the crematoria couldn't keep up with the extermination rate), bodies were burnt in open-air pits. Accordingly, the capacity of the crematoria was never a limiting factor, and the pits yielded practically no limit to the number of corpses that could be burnt.
+
+== See also ==
+Jean-Claude Pressac
+Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
+
+== References ==
+
+== Bibliography ==
+Lipstadt, Deborah. Denying the Holocaust – The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. Free Press, 1993, ISBN 0-02-919235-8
+
+== External links ==
+The Leuchter Report by Fred Leuchter
+Rebuttal of The Leuchter Report at the Nizkor Project

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+title: "Levashovism"
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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levashovism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:19.278735+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Levashovism is a doctrine and healing system of Rodnovery (Slavic neopaganism) that emerged in Russia, formulated by the physics theorist, occultist and psychic healer Nikolay Viktorovich Levashov (1961–2012), one of the most prominent leaders of Slavic Neopaganism after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The movement was incorporated in 2007 as the Russian Public Movement of Renaissance–Golden Age (Russian: Русское Общественное Движение "Возрождение. Золотой Век"; acronym: РОД ВЗВ, ROD VZV). Levashovite doctrine is based on a mathematical cosmology, a melting of science and spirituality which has been compared to a "Pythagorean" worldview, and is pronouncedly eschatological. Levashovism is influenced by Ynglism, especially sharing the latter's historiosophical narrative about the Slavic Aryan past of the Russians, and like Ynglism it has been formally rejected by mainstream Russian Rodnover organisations. The movement is present in many regions of Russia, as well as in Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Moldova and Finland.
+
+== Overview ==
+
+Nikolay V. Levashov was educated in advanced physics and quantum mechanics. He began to practise psychic healing in Russia in the 1980s, and in 1990–1991 he held seminars on the subject. In 1991 he moved to California, in the United States, where he lived until 2006 and where he wrote his main books. In 2006 he returned to Russia where in 2007 he founded the Russian Public Movement of Renaissance–Golden Age, formally incorporating the movement of his followers. A few months before dying, Levashov ran for the 2012 Russian presidential election.
+Levashov claimed to be a bearer of genuine "Vedic" sacred knowledge of the "Slavic Aryans", and called on his followers to live in rational harmony with nature following the path of evolution represented by ancient Vedic culture. Levashovism is based on the Book of Veles and on the Slavo-Aryan Vedas first popularised by the Ynglist Church in the 1990s; Levashov reworked the teachings of these books into original publications, including some—such as The Tale of the Bright Falcon—presenting such teachings in the style of the Russian fairy tale. Levashov referred to the Slavo-Aryan Vedas as carriers of the "innermost knowledge of the first ancestors".
+The Levashovite worldview has been likened to Pythagoreanism by Barbara G. Koopman and Richard A. Blasband, for its being "a rare meld of science and spirituality". However, Levashovism, together with Ynglism, was condemned in a joint statement issued in 2009 by the major Russian organisations of mainstream Rodnovery, which deemed it a non-genuine doctrine detrimental to the whole Rodnover movement.
+
+== Beliefs ==
+
+=== Cosmology of Svarog ===
+
+According to Levashovite doctrine, all the universe is living matter in quantised space. The universe, all universal creation itself, is the visible manifestation of the absolute God, Rod (Род); this visible manifestation is Svarog (Сварог), the supernal God in the heights of Heaven—Svarga—, the abode of the gods—Asgard—, and the Slavic Aryan paradise—Iriy—, which correspond to the north celestial pole and its circumpolar stars, especially the seven-starred constellations of the Bear or Chariot (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Great Chariot and the Small Chariot) at the centre of the zodiac. Svarog and the universal process of creation are represented by the swastika. The universe has three dimensions, Prav, Yav and Nav: Prav, meaning "Right", is the abode of the gods itself, from which all the right laws of nature come from; Yav is the "manifested" world of the living; while Nav is the "unmanifested" world where the dead go before being born again in Yav.
+Quantised space is the cradle of all creation and is anisotropic, that is to say non-uniform or non-homogeneous in its architecture, characterised by different qualities and properties in different directions, in which matter interacts in different ways taking different shapes. Qualities and properties of space in its different regions are constantly changing. This view is strongly supported in astrophysics, and is opposed to the classical view according to which the universal space is isotropic, that is to say uniform in its qualities and properties in all directions, in which matter manifests itself in similar ways.
+In the Levashovite worldview, anisotropy has a central role in all creation, both microcosmic and macrocosmic; the process of creation unfolds through the eternal interplay, or "cosmic dance", between matter and the anisotropic space, governed by quantifiable parameters. The architectural patterns of any of the regions of space are quantised, and therefore expressible in numerical values. These architectural patterns "actually define and impose the limits within which its chaotically moving matter may exist and the degree of stability it may maintain". The architectures of quantised space, expressible in numerical parameters, are continuously changing, or fluctuating, due to perturbations exerted by electromagnetic waves, both in the microcosmic world of atoms and in the macrocosmic world of stars, and their fluctuations are "responsible for every expression of nature that happens in the universe". Levashov left a mathematical formulation for the representation of the architectural patterns of space.

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+title: "Levashovism"
+chunk: 2/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levashovism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:19.278735+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+==== Seven primary matters ====
+Based on the presumed ancient Vedic knowledge of the Slavic Aryans, Levashov theorised that matter itself is differentiated into seven types, or "building blocks" of creation, which he called the "seven primary matters" or "seven primordial matters" (семь первичных материй, sem' pervichnykh materiy), conventionally identified by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G, and by the seven colours, respectively red, violet, blue, azure, green, yellow and orange. The seven primary matters are nonphysical, or subtle matter, that is to say not perceivable to the ordinary human state of consciousness. Primordially, they move chaotically in space, "ignoring" each other, but each of them has its own distinctive properties or qualities and a specific energetic potential that allow them to respond to the ever-changing patterns of space. Red matter A is the most important, functioning as a structural and energetic foundation for all the other matters when they coalesce to form entities.
+Local areas of anisotropy are created by fluctuations in the architectural patterns of space—likened to a stone tossed into water creating ripple effects—and these fluctuations influence the relationship between space itself and the seven primary matters. When the latter find themselves in a given region of space in proportions that match the numerical parameters of that given region of space, the seven building blocks become empowered to interact and coalesce with other blocks of compatible quality and energetic potential to form structures of hybrid matter, providing endless opportunities for cosmic creation. While the fluctuations of space mould the otherwise free-flowing matter within it, simultaneously matter itself generates further fluctuations, engaging in a continuous "cosmic dance" until this dance reaches an equilibrium and creates a stable system.
+In other words, when the quantity of change in spatial parameters becomes critical, a quality emerges, as matter coalesces and stable manifestations of reality are created, such as the planet Earth, also called Midgard in Levashovism, borrowing the concept from Germanic Heathenism. Contrariwise, when the balance between the architectural parameters of the surrounding space and the qualities and energetic potential of the seven primary matters within it is broken, the structures of hybrid matter that were formed lose stability and disintegrate, returning to be chaotic matter.
+
+==== Sevenfold bodies ====
+
+According to Levashovite cosmology, when they are organised, the seven primary matters constitute seven "layers" of reality. Each layer is composed of different hybrids of the seven primary matters and they are separated from each other by almost unpenetrable qualitative barriers; for instance, the planet Earth has its physical body—its innermost sphere—, and six other interdigitating nonphysical (invisible) spherical bodies. Any entity and the human being itself is constituted by seven interpenetrating bodies, including the innermost densest physical body and six other bodies of subtler matter, referred to as the "subtle bodies" or "spiritual bodies".
+The seven bodies are, from the densest to the subtlest, the physical body, the ethereal body, the astral body, the mental body, and three supramental bodies. Each of them is constituted by different combinations of the seven primary matters, though with a different one of them being dominant in each body, each of them expressing distinctive qualities and characteristics and representing a stair of spiritual evolution; together, they constitute the spirit, or higher consciousness, of an entity. The physical body is constituted by a balance, grounded on red matter A, of all the other matters; the ethereal body is entirely of orange matter G; the astral body is dominated by yellow matter F prevailing on G; the mental body is dominated by green matter E prevailing on F and G; the first supramental body is dominated by azure matter D prevailing on E, F and G; the second supramental body is dominated by blue matter C prevailing on D, E, F and G; and the third supramental body is dominated by violet matter B prevailing on C, D, E, F and G. Orange matter G is present on all levels, as the ethereal body is the first and lowest stage in the evolution of living, conscious entities: the animal consciousness. Each one of the subtle bodies is structurally a copy of the physical body on the corresponding subtle body of the planet Earth. They all possess the same structure—cells, organs, organic systems—corresponding to that of the physical body. Most humans have developed, in addition to the physical body, only the first two subtle bodies, while all the other four are rudimentary and inactive. A human has to develop all the seven bodies to complete the cycle of evolution and break out of the reincarnation cycle on the Earth.
+In the Levashovite system, the seven matters dominating in each one of the seven bodies are associated to seven energetic centres in the body—chakras in Hindu terminology—functioning as antennas which convey the associated matter. The coccyx is the centre associated with red matter A, is the fundamental one, and red matter A corresponds to the Kundalini in the Hindu system, the fundamental cosmic force of all creation represented by the snake, which is necessary to awaken and steer for ascending towards the higher levels; the sexual organ is associated with orange matter G; the navel is associated with yellow matter F; the heart is associated with green matter E; the throat is associated with azure matter D; the forehead is associated with blue matter C; and the crown is associated with violet matter B. Levashov's seven matters and seven bodies have been compared to William A. Tiller's cosmological model, itself telling about seven levels of substances interpenetrating each other with minimal interaction until triggered by the mind; Tiller's cosmology itself was inspired by the Hindu system of the seven chakras.
+
+=== Twofold time cycle ===
+
+==== Bright Forces and Dark Forces ====

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+---
+title: "Levashovism"
+chunk: 3/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levashovism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:19.278735+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Levashovite doctrine tells that reality is orchestrated by gods, cosmic forces which can be either creative and life-giving "Bright Forces" (Светлые Силы, Svetlye Sily) or destructive and life-sucking "Dark Forces" (Темные Силы, Temnye Sily). The influence of either Bright Forces or Dark Forces and the behaviour of people, and the manifestation in them of certain qualities and emotions, depend on which one of the seven primary matters prevails in a given configuration of space–matter.
+Wherever and whenever—in a given region of space and in the cycle of time—primary matter E dominates, there is a "Day of Svarog" (День Сварога, Den' Svaroga), characterised by the complete development of the third and fourth subtle bodies (the astral and the mental body) of the human being, with the development of consciousness and of high spiritual and moral qualities. Conversely, wherever and whenever primary matter G dominates there is a "Night of Svarog" (Ночь Сварога, Noch' Svaroga), characterised by the hypertrophied development of the second and incomplete third subtle bodies (the ethereal and the lower astral body) of the human being, with a regression of consciousness and the expression of low destructive qualities in human beings (such as aggressiveness, cruelty, greed and envy). During the Nights of Svarog, the Dark Forces get the opportunity to influence people of G quality and through them influence all the Midgard.
+While mankind and the Midgard would be fundamentally the expression of the Bright Forces, which are best expressed in history by the Russians or Aryans, some parts of humanity, notably the Jews and the Christians would be, instead, mostly—though unconsciously—prey to the Dark Forces and agents of their will.
+
+==== Eschatology ====
+In Levashovite eschatology, the "driving forces of the Apocalypse are rooted in the depths of natural being" itself. Time is a cycle alternating Days of Svarog and Nights of Svarog, depending on the movement of the Solar System in the Milky Way galaxy; the duration of each Day of Svarog and Night of Svarog is uneven, due to the uneven concentrations of the seven primary matters in different regions of the universal space. Levashovite historiosophy fixes the beginning of the latest Night of Svarog in 988 CE, with the official Christianisation of Kievan Rus' orchestrated by Vladimir Sviatoslavich. Otherwise, among Levashovite followers there is no consensus about the dating of the end of the latest Night of Svarog: according to some it ended in the mid or late 1990s, according to others it ended in 2012, and yet others consider the shift from the latest Night of Svarog to the new Day of Svarog to be a gradual transition.
+The Russians are called to be the first to wake up, to free themselves from the slavery of the Dark Forces, contributing to the beginning of the new Day of Svarog and to the construction of a new spiritual civilisation different from both Western materialism and Eastern uncritical religiosity. Russia is explained in Levashovite historiosophy as the "Land of the Holy Race" of an ancient "Slavic Aryan Empire", which is said to have only fallen with Pugachev's Rebellion:
+
+The name of the country—Russia, arose from another word—Rasseia, which, in turn, was formed from the name of Rassenia. Rassenia was the name of a part of the ancient Slavic Aryan Empire which lay west of the Riphean Mountains (the Urals). The lands east of the Urals to the Pacific Ocean and further from the Lukomorye (Russian North) to Central India were called the Land of the Holy Race. Foreigners called this country differently. One of the last names known in Europe until the end of the eighteenth century was the Great Tartary.
+
+== Healing practice ==
+
+=== Healer training ===
+According to the Levashovites, as fluctuations in the architectural patterns of space dictate everything that happens in the cosmos, from the creation and decay of atoms to the creation and decay of stars, also the entire biogenesis on the Midgard and the development of conscious humanity is determined by them. A Levashovite healer must master the Levashovite cosmological theory, "tune in to the eternal interplay between matter and spatial architecture", be able to "mentally navigate" the seven levels of reality, to "do what nature does": to "orchestrate the creation and dissolution of matter", "choreograph the regeneration and ablation of living matter", for healing purposes all "in accordance with natural law".
+To do this, it is necessary that a Levashovite healer has activated their higher subtle bodies and has fully awoken their consciousness; however, in an ordinary person's life it is difficult for this to happen, if unaided, and it is generally a slow and unpredictable process. When this happens, there is a quantum leap in brain potential and psychic ability, and the acquisition of a new thought style free from linear and binary modes, opening to a broader perspective on reality. Sensitivity to the necessary spiritual transformation for becoming a healer varies from person to person; there are those who by genetic endowment are able to evolve almost instantaneously, and those for whom it requires years of preparatory work.
+Levashov devised a technique to train would-be healers, providing them with the mental "apparatus" to develop their subtle bodies, increasing their energetic potential, thus becoming able to access and sustain a high state of consciousness and work with the seven primary matters. He created a body of disciples practising and spreading his technique to other neophyte healers. One of the biggest hurdles for the spiritual evolution of a healer is narcissism; if the would-be healer is motivated by a desire of power and self-aggrandisement, the path turns counter-evolutionary and leads to spiritual downfall.

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+---
+title: "Levashovism"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:19.278735+00:00"
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+---
+
+=== Healing treatment ===
+Any mental or strictly physical illness is due to a disruption of the harmony between the seven bodies, and the latter may be due to genetic defects, infections, karma and environmental factors. To support their healing purpose, the Levashovite healer has to mobilise the appropriate quantity of energetic potential and the correct quality of primary matter, and influence the architectural patterns of the treated subject's microcosm. The healing work should take place first on the six subtle bodies, in order to influence and transform the denser physical body, since the primary matters from the subtle bodies flow down to the physical level and the structures of the subtle bodies are the architectural templates for the physical body. Healing conducted merely on the physical body may afford palliation but not a complete relief, as pathological organisations remain in place on the subtle levels and eventually reassert themselves on the physical level.
+The healing procedure comprises a phase of scanning and detoxification, in which the healer inspects the treated subject, finds the causes of the problem and cleanses the subject's body from the symptoms of the problem. This is followed by a phase of disintegration and regeneration, in which the healer decomposes the sick structure in the subject's subtle bodies into the constituent seven primary matters, and re-sets the numerical parameters of the target's microspace, causing a regeneration of the structure in a healthy form. Finally, the healer restores the homeostasis of the organism, that is to say the harmonious working of all its parts in unison, or the "thermostat" of the energy flow between the brain, the nervous system and the organs, which was disrupted by the illness.
+
+== Symbolism ==
+
+A symbol used by the Levashovite movement is the swastika, especially in the guise with dragons at the ends of its prongs, which was put on display many times by Nikolay Levashov himself during his conferences, and which he reclaimed as a symbol which gave him the right to discuss about the Slavic Aryan past. According to Levashovite worldview, the swastika—or kolovrat in Slavic language—represents Svarog, the supreme north pole of the sky with its circumpolar stars.
+Another symbol used by Levashovites is the representation of a warrior riding a horse while slaying a dragon, featured in the coat of arms of the Renaissance–Golden Age organisation, that is a refashioning of the symbol of Saint George and the Dragon representing, in the reinterpretation given by the Levashovites, the Aryan champion of the Bright Forces triumphing over the Dark Forces. In the coat of arms of the organisation, the warrior slaying the dragon is drawn over a trefoil or fleur-de-lys, which according to Levashov represents the "fighting symbol of the Slavic Aryans", with the three petals representing Prav, Yav and Nav.
+
+== Sociology ==
+
+=== Relations with other religions ===
+Levashovism strongly refutes the Abrahamic religions and Christianity in particular, deeming its official adoption in Kievan Rus' in 988 CE as the beginning of the latest Night of Svarog of Levashovite cyclical eschatology. Christians are deemed responsible for the destruction of ancient chronicles about the true history of the Russians. The writings of Levashov also contain more general antisemitic theories. According to Levashovite doctrine, the world is dominated by Bright Forces and Dark Forces; the Jews, the Christians—especially ministers of the churches—, some politicians, and any other entity exerting some kind of control on the populations, would be unconsciously slaves of the Dark Forces and vehicle for the latter's will to dominate all Midgard.
+In turn, Levashovism is rejected by other movements of Rodnovery; in 2009, two among the largest Russian Rodnover organisations, namely the Union of Slavic Native Belief Communities and the Circle of Pagan Tradition, issued a joint statement which deemed Levashovite doctrines as "pseudo-Pagan teachings, pseudo-linguistics, pseudo-science, and outright speculations" harmful to the development of the mainstream movement of Rodnovery.
+
+=== Organisation and controversies ===
+The organisation of the Russian Public Movement of Renaissance–Golden Age was described by Natalya V. Prokopyuk as having a "wide public life", producing films, holding meetings, courses and seminars, holding conferences in schools and colleges, and printing newspapers including VeRa and RuAN. The purposes of the organisation, as expressed in its official documents, are:
+
+Awakening the genetic memory of the Russian people and of the other indigenous peoples living in the territory of modern Russia;
+Restoring the truth about the glorious past of these peoples, and about their role in the creation of a highly developed earthly civilisation;
+Showing to these peoples the way of evolution out of the dead-end to which they were led by the Dark Forces;
+Saving civilisation, the planet Earth, and the universe.
+Two among the books written by Nikolay Levashov have been banned as extremist in some regions of Russia: Russia in Distorted Mirrors (Россия в Кривых Зеркалах) was banned in 2010 by the Obninsk City Court, while the collection of articles Abilities of Mind (Возможности Разума) was banned in 2013 by the Omsk District Court, a decision later appealed but upheld in 2014 by the Omsk Regional Court. In 2014, a Levashovite follower in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, in the Sakhalin Oblast of the Russian Far East, opened fire on the parishioners of the city's Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, after which six people were wounded and two were killed—a nun and a local parishioner.

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+---
+title: "Levashovism"
+chunk: 5/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levashovism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:19.278735+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Levashovite texts ==
+1. The Final Appeal to Mankind (Последнее Обращение к Человечеству), 1994
+2. The Anisotropic Universe (Неоднородная Вселенная), 2002
+3. Spirit and Mind. Volume 1 (Сущность и Разум. Том 1), 1999
+4. Spirit and Mind. Volume 2 (Сущность и Разум. Том 2), 2003
+5. Abilities of Mind (Возможности Разума), 2006
+6. Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors (Россия в Кривых Зеркалах), 2007
+7. The Mirror of my Soul. Volume 1 (Зеркало моей Души. Том 1), 2006
+8. The Mirror of my Soul. Volume 2 (Зеркало моей Души. Том 2), 2008
+9. The Tale of the Bright Falcon (Сказ о Ясном Соколе), 2011
+10. Revelation (Откровение), 2010, by Levashov's wife Svetlana Levashova
+
+== See also ==
+Rodnovery
+Anastasianism
+Ivanovism
+Russian Authentism
+Ynglism
+Germanic Heathenry
+Shamanism
+
+== References ==
+
+=== Citations ===
+
+=== Sources ===
+
+==== Secondary sources ====
+Golikov, I. A. (2019). "О реконструкции летосчисления российского славянского неоязычества" [About the reconstruction of chronology in Russian Slavic Neopaganism] (PDF). Pivovarov Readings (in Russian). Yekaterinburg: Ural Federal University. pp. 181–182. ISBN 9785886872514. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2021.
+Kondrakov, Igor Mikhaylovich (2015). Учимся познавать мир (20 уроков познания) [Learning to know the world (20 lessons of knowledge)] (PDF) (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Mineralnye Vody, Russian Scientific-Technical Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 October 2021.
+Koopman, Barbara G.; Blasband, Richard A. (2003). "Psychic Healing and the Anisotropic Universe". Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine. 14 (2). ISSSEEM, Holos University: 103–133. Archived from the original on 31 July 2019.
+Popov, Igor (2016). Справочник всех религиозных течений и объединений в России [The Reference Book on All Religious Branches and Communities in Russia] (in Russian). Archived from the original on 22 March 2020.
+Prokopyuk, Natalya Valeryevna (2017). Неоязычество в современной России [Neopaganism in modern Russia] (Thesis) (in Russian). Tomsk: Tomsk State University.
+Shtyrkov, Sergey (2016). "'The Fight between Ases and Devas Runs through Our Whole Existence': The Conspirological Imaginary of North Ossetian Intellectuals and the Search for Meaning in National History" (PDF). Forum for Anthropology and Culture (12). Saint Petersburg: Kunstkamera, European University at Saint Petersburg: 230–252. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2021.
+Yakovlev, Aleksandr Vasilyevich (2018). "О мерности, как основном критерии в 'системе' Н. В. Левашова" [About dimensionality as the main criterion in the 'system' of N. V. Levashov] (in Russian). Russian Scientific-Technical Society. Parts: n. 1 Archived 2021-11-01 at the Wayback Machine (arch.), n. 2 Archived 2021-11-01 at the Wayback Machine (arch.), n. 3 Archived 2021-11-01 at the Wayback Machine (arch.), n. 4 Archived 2021-11-01 at the Wayback Machine (arch.), n. 5 Archived 2021-11-01 at the Wayback Machine (arch.).
+Yashin, Vladimir Borisovich (2016). "Эсхатологические мотивы в современном русском неоязычестве" [Eschatological motifs in modern Russian Neopaganism]. Colloquium Heptaplomeres (in Russian). III. Nizhny Novgorod: Minin University: 36–42. ISSN 2312-1696.
+
+==== Primary sources ====
+Levashov, Nikolay V. (2012). "О Трилистнике" [About the Trefoil]. ROD VZV.
+Levashov, Nikolay V. (2006). "Последняя Ночь Сварога" [The Last Night of Svarog]. Translated by Elena Lyubimova, Kelly McMullen. ROD VZV.
+
+== External links ==
+ROD VZV official website
+RuAN – Russian News Agency
+Nikolay V. Levashov official website
+Levashov Healing USA

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+title: "Ley line"
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+
+Ley lines ( or ) are straight alignments drawn between various historic structures, prehistoric sites, and prominent landmarks. The idea was developed in early 20th-century Europe, with ley line believers arguing that these alignments were recognised by ancient societies that deliberately erected structures along them. Since the 1960s, members of the Earth Mysteries movement and other esoteric traditions have commonly believed that such ley lines demarcate "earth energies" and serve as guides for alien spacecraft. Archaeologists and scientists regard ley lines as an example of pseudoarchaeology and pseudoscience.
+The idea of "leys" as straight tracks across the landscape was put forward by the English antiquarian Alfred Watkins in the 1920s, particularly in his book The Old Straight Track. He argued that straight lines could be drawn between various historic structures and that these represented trade routes created by ancient British societies. Although he gained a small following, Watkins' ideas were never accepted by the British archaeological establishment, a fact that frustrated him. His critics noted that his ideas relied on drawing lines between sites established at different periods of the past. They also argued that in prehistory, as in the present, it was impractical to travel in a straight line across hilly or mountainous areas of Britain, rendering his leys unlikely as trade routes. Independently of Watkins' ideas, a similar notion—that of Heilige Linien ('holy lines')—was raised in Germany in the 1920s.
+During the 1960s, Watkins' ideas were revived in altered form by British proponents of the countercultural Earth Mysteries movement. In 1961, Tony Wedd put forward the belief that leys were established by prehistoric communities to guide alien spacecraft. This view was promoted to a wider audience in the books of John Michell, particularly his 1969 work The View Over Atlantis. Michell's publications were accompanied by the launch of the Ley Hunter magazine and the appearance of a ley hunter community keen to identify ley lines across the British landscape. Ley hunters often combined their search for ley lines with other esoteric practices like dowsing and numerology and with a belief in a forthcoming Age of Aquarius that would transform human society. Although often hostile to archaeologists, some ley hunters attempted to ascertain scientific evidence for their belief in earth energies at prehistoric sites, evidence they could not obtain. Following sustained archaeological criticism, the ley hunter community dissipated in the 1990s, with several of its key proponents abandoning the idea and moving into the study of landscape archaeology and folkloristics. Belief in ley lines nevertheless remains common among some esoteric religious groups, such as forms of modern Paganism, in both Europe and North America.
+Archaeologists note that there is no evidence that ley lines were a recognised phenomenon among ancient European societies and that attempts to draw them typically rely on linking together structures that were built in different historical periods. Archaeologists and statisticians have demonstrated that a random distribution of a sufficient number of points on a plane will inevitably create alignments of random points purely by chance. Skeptics have also stressed that the esoteric idea of earth energies running through ley lines has not been scientifically verified, remaining an article of faith for its believers.
+
+== History ==
+
+=== Early prototypes ===
+The idea that ancient sacred sites might have been constructed in alignment with one another was proposed in 1846 by the Reverend Edward Duke, who observed that some prehistoric monuments and medieval churches aligned with each other.
+In 1909, the idea was advanced in Germany. There, Wilhelm Teudt had argued for the presence of linear alignments connecting various sites but suggested that they had a religious and astronomical function.
+In Germany, the idea was referred to as Heilige Linien ('holy lines'), an idea adopted by some proponents of Nazism.
+
+=== Alfred Watkins and The Old Straight Track ===
+
+The idea of "leys" as paths traversing the British landscape was developed by Alfred Watkins, a wealthy businessman and antiquarian who lived in Hereford. According to his account, he was driving across the hills near Blackwardine, Herefordshire, when he looked across the landscape and observed the way that several features lined up together. He subsequently began drawing lines across his Ordnance Survey maps, developing the view that ancient British people had tended to travel in straight lines, using "mark points" along the landscape to guide them.
+He put forward his idea of ley lines in the 1922 book Early British Trackways and then again, in greater depth, in the 1925 book The Old Straight Track. He proposed the existence of a network of completely straight roads that cut through a range of prehistoric, Roman, and medieval structures. In his view, these straight tracks were ancient trade routes. Watkins had drawn upon earlier research; he cited the work of the English astronomer Norman Lockyer, who had argued that ancient alignments might be oriented to sunrise and sunset at solstices.
+His work referred to G. H. Piper's paper presented to the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club in 1882, which noted that: "A line drawn from the Skirrid-fawr mountain northwards to Arthur's Stone would pass over the camp and southernmost point of Hatterall Hill, Oldcastle, Longtown Castle, and Urishay and Snodhill castles."
+Watkins referred to these lines as "leys" although had reservations about doing so. The term ley derived from the Old English term for a cleared space, with Watkins adopting it for his lines because he found it to be part of the place-names of various settlements that were along the lines he traced. He also observed the recurrence of "cole" and "dod" in English place-names, thus suggesting that the individuals who established these lines were referred to as a "coleman" or "dodman". He proposed that the Long Man of Wilmington chalk geoglyph in Sussex was a depiction of such an individual with their measuring equipment.

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+His ideas were rejected by most experts on British prehistory at the time, including both the small number of recognised archaeological scholars and local enthusiasts. His critics noted that the straight lines he proposed would have been highly impractical means of crossing hilly or mountainous terrain, and that many of the sites he selected as evidence for the leys were of disparate historical origins. Some of Watkins' other ideas, such as his belief that widespread forest clearance took place in prehistory rather than later, would nevertheless later be recognised by archaeologists. Part of archaeologists' objections was their belief that prehistoric Britons would not have been sophisticated enough to produce such accurate measurements across the landscape. British archaeologists were then overwhelmingly committed to ideas of cultural diffusionism, and thus unwelcoming to ideas about ley lines being an independent British development.
+In 1926, advocates of Watkins' beliefs established the Straight Track Club. To assist this growing body of enthusiasts who were looking for their own ley lines in the landscape, in 1927, Watkins published The Ley Hunter's Manual.
+Proponents of Watkins' ideas sent in letters to the archaeologist O. G. S. Crawford, then editor of the Antiquity journal. Crawford filed these letters under a section of his archive titled "Crankeries" and was annoyed that educated people believed such ideas when they were demonstrably incorrect. He refused to publish an advert for The Old Straight Track in Antiquity, at which Watkins became very bitter towards him.
+Watkins' last book, Archaic Tracks Around Cambridge, was published in 1932. Watkins died on 7 April 1935. The Club survived him, although it became largely inactive at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and formally disbanded in 1948. The archaeoastronomer Clive Ruggles noted that after the 1920s, "ley lines soon faded into obscurity". The historian Ronald Hutton similarly noted that there had been a "virtual demise" in the idea by the 1950s, in part due to "a natural weariness with a spent enthusiasm".
+There was academic work in the following period by e.g. Oxford engineer Alexander Thom that worked on the engineering feasibility of ancient metrology and archeo-astronomy. Thom lent the idea of leys some support; in 1971 he stated the view that Neolithic British engineers would have been capable of surveying a straight line between two points that were otherwise not visible from each other.
+
+=== Earth Mysteries movement ===
+
+From the 1940s through to the 1960s, the archaeological establishment blossomed in Britain due to the formation of various university courses on the subject. This helped to professionalise the discipline, and meant that it was no longer an amateur-dominated field of research. It was in the latter decade of this period that a belief in ley lines was taken up by members of the counterculture, where—in the words of the archaeologist Matthew Johnson—they were attributed with "sacred significance or mystical power". Ruggles noted that in this period, ley lines came to be conceived as "lines of power, the paths of some form of spiritual force or energy accessible to our ancient ancestors but now lost to narrow-minded twentieth-century scientific thought".
+In his 1961 book Skyways and Landmarks, Tony Wedd published his idea that Watkins' leys were both real and served as ancient markers to guide alien spacecraft that were visiting Earth. He came to this conclusion after comparing Watkins' ideas with those of the French ufologist Aimé Michel, who argued for the existence of "orthotenies", lines along which alien spacecraft travelled. Wedd suggested that either spacecraft were following the prehistoric landmarks for guidance or that both the leys and the spacecraft were following a "magnetic current" flowing across the Earth.
+Wedd's ideas were taken up by the writer John Michell, who promoted them to a wider audience in his 1967 book The Flying Saucer Vision. In this book, Michell promoted the ancient astronaut belief that extraterrestrials had assisted humanity during prehistory, when humans had worshipped these entities as gods, but that the aliens left when humanity became too materialistic and technology-focused. He also argued that humanity's materialism was driving it to self-destruction, but that this could be prevented by re-activating the ancient centres which would facilitate renewed contact with the aliens.
+Michell repeated his beliefs in his 1969 book The View Over Atlantis. Hutton described it as "almost the founding document of the modern earth mysteries movement". Here he interpreted ley lines by reference to the Chinese concept of geomantic energy lines which he transliterated as "lung mei", i.e., "dragon veins" (龙脉; 龍脈; lóngmài; lung2-mai4). He proposed that an advanced ancient society that had once covered much of the world had established ley lines across the landscape to harness this lung mei energy. Translating the term "lung mei" as "dragon paths", he reinterpreted tales from English mythology and folklore in which heroes killed dragons so that the dragon-slayers became the villains. Hutton later noted that Michell's ideas "embodied a fervent religious feeling, which though not Christian was heavily influenced by Christian models", adopting an "evangelical and apocalyptic tone" that announced the coming of an Age of Aquarius in which ancient wisdom would be restored. Michell invented various claims about archaeological evidence to suit his purpose. He viewed archaeologists as antagonists, seeing them as the personification of the modern materialism he was railing against.
+In the mid-1970s Michell then published a detailed case study of the West Penwith district of Cornwall, laying out what he believed to be the ley lines in the area. He presented this as a challenge to archaeologists, urging them to examine his ideas in detail and stating that he would donate a large sum of money to charity if they could disprove them. Hutton noted that it represented "the finest piece of surveying work" then undertaken by a pseudo-archaeologists in Britain. However Michell had included natural rock outcrops as well as medieval crosses in his list of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments.

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+---
+
+==== The ley hunting community ====
+In 1962, a group of ufologists established the Ley Hunter's Club. Michell's publication was followed by an upsurge in ley hunting as enthusiasts travelled around the British landscape seeking to identify what they believed to be ley lines connecting various historic structures. Parish churches were particularly favoured by the ley hunters, who often worked on the assumption that such churches had almost always been built atop pre-Christian sacred sites. The 1970s and 1980s also saw the increase in publications on the topic of ley lines. One ley lines enthusiast, Philip Heselton, established the Ley Hunter magazine, which was launched in 1965. It was later edited by Paul Screeton, who also wrote the book Quicksilver Heritage, in which he argued that the Neolithic period had seen an idyllic society devoted to spirituality but that this was brought to an end through the introduction of metal technologies in the Bronze Age. He argued that this golden age could nevertheless be restored. Another key book produced among the ley hunting community was Mysterious Britain, written by Janet and Colin Bord.
+
+Part of the popularity of ley hunting was that individuals without any form of professional training in archaeology could take part and feel that they could rediscover "the magical landscapes of the past". Ley hunting welcomed those who had "a strong interest in the past but feel excluded from the narrow confines of orthodox academia". The ley hunting movement often blended their activities with other esoteric practices, such as numerology and dowsing. The movement had a diverse base, consisting of individuals from different classes and of different political opinions: it contained adherents of both radical left and radical right ideologies. Ley hunters often differed on how they understood the ley lines; some believed that leys only marked a pre-existing energy current, whereas others thought that the leys helped to control and direct this energy. They were nevertheless generally in agreement that the ley lines were laid out between 5000 BCE and 2600 BCE, after the introduction of agriculture but before the introduction of metal in Britain. For many ley hunters, this Neolithic period was seen as a golden age in which Britons lived in harmony with the natural environment.
+Attitudes to the archaeological establishment varied among ley hunters, with some of the latter wanting to convert archaeologists to their beliefs and others believing that that was an impossible task. Ley hunters nevertheless often took an interest in the work of archaeo-astronomers like Alexander Thom and Euan Mackie, being attracted to their arguments about the existence of sophisticated astronomer-priests in British prehistory. In suggesting that prehistoric Britons were far more advanced in mathematics and astronomy than archaeologists had previously accepted, Thom's work was seen as giving additional credibility to the beliefs of ley hunters.
+Paul Devereux succeeded Screeton as the editor of the Ley Hunter. He was more concerned than many other ley hunters with finding objective evidence for the idea that unusual forms of energy could be measured at places where prehistoric communities had erected structures. He was one of the founding members of the Dragon Project, launched in London in 1977 with the purpose of conducting radioactivity and ultrasonic tests at prehistoric sites, particularly the stone circles created in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. The Dragon Project continued its research throughout the 1980s, finding that certain prehistoric sites did show higher or lower than average rates of radiation but that others did not and that there was no consistent pattern. Professional archaeologists, whose view of the ley hunters was largely negative, took little interest in such research.
+It was only in the 1980s that professional archaeologists in Britain began to engage with the ley hunting movement. In 1983, Ley Lines in Question, a book written by the archaeologists Tom Williamson and Liz Bellamy, was published. In this work, Williamson and Bellamy considered and tackled the evidence that ley lines proponents had amassed in support of their beliefs. As part of their book, they examined the example of the West Penwith district that Michell had set out as a challenge to archaeologists during the previous decade. They highlighted that the British landscape was so highly covered in historic monuments that it was statistically unlikely that any straight line could be drawn across the landscape without passing through several such sites. They also demonstrated that ley hunters had often said that certain markers were Neolithic, and thus roughly contemporary with each other, when often they were of widely different dates, such as being Iron Age or medieval. The overall message of Williamson and Bellamy's book was that the idea of leys, as it was being presented by Earth Mysteries proponents, had no basis in empirical reality. Looking back on the book's reception in 2000, Williamson noted that "archaeologists weren't particularly interested, and ley-line people were hostile".
+
+==== Schism in the community ====

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+---
+title: "Ley line"
+chunk: 4/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_line"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:20.506063+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Williamson and Bellamy's book brought two different responses from the ley hunter community. Some maintained that even if the presence of earth energies running through ley lines could not be demonstrated with empirical evidence and rational argumentation, this did not matter; for them, a belief in ley lines was an act of faith, and in their view archaeologists were too narrow-minded to comprehend this reality. The other approach was to further engage archaeologists by seeking out new data and arguments to bolster their beliefs in ley lines. Hutton noted that this pulled along "a potential fissure between rationalism and mysticism which had always been inherent in the movement".
+In 1989, a book that Devereux had co-written with Nigel Pennick, Lines on the Landscape, was published. It laid aside ideas of leys representing channels for earth energy, noting that this was beyond the realm of scientific verification, and instead focused on trying to build a case for ley lines that archaeologists could engage with. In particular, it drew attention to ethnographically recorded beliefs in the importance of lines running through the landscape in various communities around the world, proposing these as ethnographic comparisons for what might have occurred in prehistoric Britain. Hutton called the book "an important development", for it was "by far the most well-researched, intelligently written and beautifully produced work yet published on leys". Devereux pursued this approach in a series of further books.
+Reflecting his move towards archaeology, in 1991, Devereux published an article on sightlines from the prehistoric site of Silbury Hill, Wiltshire in Antiquity. By the 1990s, British archaeology had become more open to ideas about language and cognition, topics that Earth Mysteries enthusiasts had long been interested in. A prominent example of this was the work of Christopher Tilley, who devised the idea of phenomenology, or using human senses to experience a landscape as a means of trying to ascertain how past societies would have done the same.
+The Ley Hunter magazine ceased publication in 1999. Its last editor, Danny Sullivan, stated that the idea of leys was "dead". Hutton suggested that some of the enthusiasm formerly directed toward leys was instead directed toward archaeo-astronomy. He also noted that the ley hunting community had "functioned as an indispensable training ground for a small but important group of non-academic scholars who have made a genuine contribution to the study of folklore and mythology." Pennick for instance went on to write a range of short books and pamphlets on European folklore. Another prominent ley hunter, Bob Trubshaw, also wrote several books on these subjects and served as a publisher for others. Jeremy Harte, editor of Wessex Earth Mysteries, subsequently produced several books on folklore; his book on British fairy lore later won the Folklore Society's annual prize.
+
+==== Continuing belief ====
+
+In 2005, Ruggles noted that "for the most part, ley lines represent an unhappy episode now consigned to history". However belief in ley lines persists among various esoteric groups, having become an "enduring feature of some brands of esotericism". As Hutton observed, beliefs in "ancient earth energies have passed so far into the religious experience of the 'New Age' counter-culture of Europe and America that it is unlikely that any tests of evidence would bring about an end to belief in them." During the 1970s and 1980s, a belief in ley lines fed into the modern Pagan community. Research that took place in 2014 for instance found that various modern Druids and other Pagans believed that there were ley lines focusing on the Early Neolithic site of Coldrum Long Barrow in Kent, southeast England.
+In the US city of Seattle a dowsing organisation called the Geo Group plotted what they believed were the ley lines across the city. They stated that their "project made Seattle the first city on Earth to balance and tune its ley-line system". The Seattle Arts Commission contributed $5,000 to the project, bringing criticisms from members of the public who regarded it as a waste of money.
+
+== Scientific views ==

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+---
+title: "Ley line"
+chunk: 5/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_line"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:20.506063+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Ley lines have been characterised as a form of pseudoscience. On The Skeptic's Dictionary, the American philosopher and skeptic Robert Todd Carroll noted that none of the statements about magnetic forces underpinning putative ley lines has been scientifically verified.
+Williamson and Bellamy characterised ley lines as "one of the biggest red herrings in the history of popular thought". One criticism of Watkins' ley line theory states that given the high density of historic and prehistoric sites in Britain and other parts of Europe, finding straight lines that "connect" sites is trivial and ascribable to coincidence. Johnson stated that "ley lines do not exist". He cited Williamson and Bellamy's work in demonstrating this, noting that their research showed how "the density of archaeological sites in the British landscape is so great that a line drawn through virtually anywhere will 'clip' a number of sites".
+Other statistical significance tests have shown that supposed ley-line alignments are no more significant than random occurrences and/or have been generated by selection effects. The paper by statistician Simon Broadbent is one such example and the discussion after the article involving a large number of other statisticians demonstrates the high level of agreement that alignments have no significance compared to the null hypothesis of random locations.
+A study by David George Kendall used the techniques of shape analysis to examine the triangles formed by standing stones to deduce if these were often arranged in straight lines. The shape of a triangle can be represented as a point on the sphere, and the distribution of all shapes can be thought of as a distribution over the sphere. The sample distribution from the standing stones was compared with the theoretical distribution to show that the occurrence of straight lines was no more than average.
+The archaeologist Richard Atkinson once demonstrated this by taking the positions of telephone booths and pointing out the existence of "telephone box leys". This, he argued, showed that the mere existence of such lines in a set of points does not prove that the lines are deliberate artefacts, especially since it is known that telephone boxes were not laid out in any such manner or with any such intention.
+In 2004, John Bruno Hare wrote:
+
+Watkins never attributed any supernatural significance to leys; he believed that they were simply pathways that had been used for trade or ceremonial purposes, very ancient in origin, possibly dating back to the Neolithic, certainly pre-Roman. His obsession with leys was a natural outgrowth of his interest in landscape photography and love of the British countryside. He was an intensely rational person with an active intellect, and I think he would be a bit disappointed with some of the fringe aspects of ley lines today.
+
+== See also ==
+Apophenia – Tendency to perceive connections between unrelated things
+Archaeoastronomy – Interdisciplinary study of astronomies in cultures
+Cursus – Neolithic earthwork
+Earth mysteries – Range of beliefs regarding earthly supernatural phenomena
+Feng shui – Chinese traditional practice
+Dragon vein (a.k.a. dragon's line/track, 龍脈/龍脉)
+Geoglyph – Motif produced on the ground; observable only from a height
+Geomancy – Method of divination that interprets markings on the ground
+Huaca – Pre-Columbian South American spiritual markers
+Mandala – Spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism
+Pareidolia – Perception of meaningful patterns or images in random or vague stimuli
+Psychogeography – Creative view of the built environment that emphasizes playfulness and dérive
+Songline – Aboriginal Australian belief and practice
+Telluric current – Natural electric current in the Earth's crust
+Tunnels in popular culture – Appearance of tunnels in media
+Worship of heavenly bodies – Worship of stars and other heavenly bodies as deities
+
+== References ==
+
+=== Citations ===
+
+=== Works cited ===
+
+== Further reading ==
+Charlesworth, Michael (2010). "Photography, the Index, and the Nonexistent: Alfred Watkins' Discovery (or Invention) of the Notorious Ley-lines of British Archaeology". Visual Resources. 26 (2): 131–145. doi:10.1080/01973761003750666. S2CID 194018024.
+Devereux, Paul. "The Ley Story". The New Ley Hunter's Guide. Archived from the original on 9 August 2007.
+Hutton, Ronald (2009). "Modern Druidry and Earth Mysteries". Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture. 2 (3): 313–331. doi:10.2752/175169609X12464529903137. S2CID 143506407.
+Marcus, Clare Cooper (1987). "Alternative Landscapes: Ley-Lines, Feng-Shui and the Gaia Hypothesis". Landscape. 29 (3): 1–10.
+Thurgill, James (2015). "A Strange Cartography: Leylines, Landscape and "Deep Mapping" in the Works of Alfred Watkins". Humanities. 4 (4): 637–652. doi:10.3390/h4040637. S2CID 16166594.
+
+== External links ==
+
+Ley-lines. article by Alex Whitaker
+Moonraking: What does it all mean?

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+---
+title: "Limbic imprint"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbic_imprint"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:22.836153+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In psychology, limbic imprint refers to the process by which prenatal, perinatal and post-natal experiences imprint upon the limbic system, causing lifelong effects.  The term is used to explain how early care of a fetus and newborn is important to lifelong psychological development and has been used as an argument for alternative birthing methods, and against circumcision. Some also refer to the concept as the human emotional map, deep-seated beliefs, and values that are stored in the brain's limbic system. When a fetus or newborn experiences trauma, the brain will register trauma as normal affecting the newborn into adulthood. However, when a fetus or newborn does not experience trauma, the brain will develop healthy coping mechanisms that work effectively into adulthood.
+This phenomenon, since experienced during prenatal, perinatal and postnatal stages, generally affects children. Different types of perinatal and childhood experiences shape the future experiences of adults. This means that if a child is born under traumatic circumstances, then, as an adult, trauma will register as normal in the brain. Trauma will become expected and because of this early imprinting, adults may be more susceptible to dangerous or abusive situations. This also depends on the circumstance in which they were born and can negatively impact the adult through their lifespan.
+Prenatal psychologists have suggested that it is possible to “reverse” the effects of negative imprinting. To improve their future experiences, individuals that have been negatively impacted, need to recognize, accept, and change their perspectives on their past experiences. However, there are not currently any cures or much research done for correcting a negative imprint. There are such therapies as re-coding meditation, which seeks to reset the imprints that were made upon an individual during gestation and shortly after. Many of these therapies can be done individually or within a group setting. Some individuals experience lifelong prognoses such as lowered depressive symptoms or a happier psyche in general. More recently experimentation on psychedelic assisted therapy seems to offer a technique to address these issues.
+
+== Limbic system ==
+Limbic imprint is a psychological concept associated with the limbic system. The limbic system includes the structures of the brain that control emotions, memories, and arousal. Through the prefrontal cortex, the system plays a role in the expression of moods and emotional feelings. The structures most involved with Limbic Imprint are known as the hippocampus and amygdala. The hippocampus is majorly associated with memory. The process of imprinting emotional and physical experiences into the brain utilizes memory functions. While the emotional regulation and responses of these experiences are majorly associated with and controlled by the amygdala. The system's connections with the cerebral cortex allow an individual to experience negative or positive feeling through his perceptions and he remembers such event with accompanying feeling.
+It is said that male and female limbic systems are different. The use of the limbic system also differs in the sense that women use its more recently evolved part while the more ancient part showed more activity in men. These explain why women are more capable of remembering emotions and memories than men. Women are also more likely influenced by emotional attachments in their decision making.
+
+== Incidence ==
+As opposed to other psychological concepts, the limbic imprint is not specific to or more common in one group of people but is applicable to everyone. All human beings are affected, in some way, by their experiences in utero, their experiences during birth, and their first experiences after birth.
+
+== Causes ==
+Trauma is a form of damage to either the mind or body that results from a distressing event. Traumatic experiences can occur in utero, during birth, and/or after birth. Trauma experienced in utero includes maternal smoking, alcohol or drug use during pregnancy; exposure to toxins such as methylmercury; and even exposure to maternal psycho-social stress. Trauma in utero increases the risk of neurodevelopmental delays and disorders causing a long-term effect on limbic imprinting such as difficulty regulating and processing emotions. Trauma experienced during birth includes the use of interventions during labor such as obstetrical forceps or vacuum extraction, cesarean section, or exposure to medicines used to relieve maternal pain or induce labor. These experiences can cause both physical and psychological harm to the baby that also affects the limbic imprinting process. Finally, trauma experienced after birth can include malnutrition; neglect, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; and lack of a safe or healthy environment. Traumatic experiences after birth also have long-term effects on limbic imprinting.
+
+== Effects ==
+Stress and trauma experienced as a baby in the womb will turn into a normal expectation when born. As Freud has identified, infant development is affected severely by negative limbic imprints on the brain because at this stage, the "Ego" is vulnerable and susceptible adverse effects. This is in part due to an infant's brain being in a state of rapid development. Other effects include difficulty maintaining interpersonal relationships, dealing with overstimulation, and emotional regulation. On the other hand, a baby that is nurtured in hormones like Oxytocin will develop well physically.
+There are four stops in the trauma loop of the Limbic System in the brain that occurs when an individual is experiencing a negative imprint effect. The brain moves in the first stage called "Hyper alert to danger". This is when the individual is highly sensitive to the stimulus. The Limbic System then moves into the "Normal Cue or Danger Cue" comes in. This lets the individual know whether the situation is dangerous or if it is a safe condition. Thirdly, the brain experiences a "Fight or Flight Freeze" and the individual cannot process how to react to the situation or stimulus presenting itself. Lastly, the limbic system reaches a point where the brain cannot take in information to understand the cues that it is receiving. This cycle continues and can continually put an individual at an increased risk for traumatic experiences to reoccur.

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+---
+title: "Limbic imprint"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbic_imprint"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:22.836153+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Treatment ==
+There are therapists who recognize that body and emotions - facilitated by experiences - leave imprints in deep neuronal circuits of the limbic brain and use such position to devise psychological interventions such as the therapy within a group setting. Some therapists suggest a course of "limbic repatterning" to consciously rewrite bad limbic imprints and thus improve the patient's overall psychological health.
+Another suggested therapy is called "Limbic System Therapy". In this therapy, the patients participate in physical experiences that contradict the limbic imprint. For example, an individual that has low self-esteem may be given an activity to deliberately make them feel good about themselves like positive affirmation exercises. The more the patient participates in this "re-wiring" the better they will feel about themselves and thus correcting a negative imprint.
+According to psychologists, there are many more ways to help with re-coding a negative imprint. These strategies include things such as journaling, talking and sharing feelings, and participating in body therapies like a body massage. Other strategies psychologists suggest are spending time with loved ones, positive thinking, breathing awareness, body awareness, relaxation, meditation, and/or prayer. Regular exercise and warm baths are also suggested by professionals.
+
+== Criticisms ==
+The major problem with limbic imprint is that there is very little scientific research done specifically on the concept. There is plenty of research on trauma and how it affects people as they develop which is useful to explain limbic imprint. However, standing alone, limbic imprint is fairly new and more common in pop-culture psychology than in research/scientific psychology.
+
+== References ==

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+---
+title: "Liquid oxygen supplement"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_oxygen_supplement"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:24.005085+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Liquid oxygen supplements are products that claim to add extra oxygen to the human body, most often through a chemical process in the digestive system, like the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide or magnesium peroxide. While the FDA describes these products as being inert, and has penalized some producers who made explicit medical claims, it has not prohibited their sale.
+
+
+== Liquid oxygen ==
+Liquid oxygen is the name of a product that is a solution of hydrogen peroxide and other compounds including sodium chloride (common salt) that claims to help with "jet lag, fatigue, altitude sickness, headaches, hangovers, youthful skin, energy, and insomnia". 
+Professor Ken Harvey, a member of the World Health Organization team that formulated criteria for the promotion of medicinal drugs and a member of Auspharm Consumer Health Watch, states that the product is "no more than salty water", and that most forms of water carry some dissolved oxygen.  The Federal Trade Commission has prosecuted some makers of such products for making "blatantly false and unsubstantiated health claims", although it has not banned the sale of such products.
+The product claims to have an effect through increasing the amount of oxygen in the body but this is unnecessary as oxygen is absorbed by the lungs via breathing. Among the ingredients sometimes listed by makers are magnesium peroxide, or "deionized water and sodium chloride [salt]". It cannot contain simple liquid oxygen, which would boil at −183 °C (−297.4 °F; 90.1 K) at normal pressure, but ostensibly contains oxygen in some other form, like hydrogen peroxide, that will be released after consumption.
+
+
+== Vitamin O ==
+Vitamin O is a dietary supplement marketed and sold by Rose Creek Health Products and its sister company The Staff of Life (doing business as R-Garden) since 1998. Despite its name, the product is not recognized by nutritional science as a vitamin. In 1999, the Federal Trade Commission fined the manufacturer for making false statements claiming health benefits resulting from the use of the product.  The manufacturer had claimed that taking the supplement had beneficial effects on a wide variety of ailments, including angina, anaemia, and various forms of cancer, and that it also increased vigor and provided for a more positive state of mind. The company states that Vitamin O is "a special supplemented oxygen taken in liquid form and produced through electrical-activation with a saline solution from the ocean," and that the substance increases the amount of oxygen present in the blood.
+While Rose Creek Health Products complied with the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 in that the product was sold without approval by the Food and Drug Administration because no claims about its medical efficacy were made by its producers, Rose Creek collected statements from users who attributed wide-ranging benefits to taking their supplement. However, subsequent ads also ran statements allegedly coming from experts and which provided anecdotal evidence from small-scale clinical trials showing positive results in several patients. Because of this, the Federal Trade Commission filed an injunction in March 1999 against Rose Creek Health Products Inc., stating that the ads being run in both print and online sources, including USA Today, were "blatantly false". Studies run on Vitamin O showed it to be composed largely of salt water as well as a small quantity of germanium, which would provide no benefits not attributable to the placebo effect.
+On April 28, 2000, Rose Creek Health Products Inc., agreed to pay a cash settlement of $375,000 for consumer redress, and to abstain from making claims as to the health benefits attributed to the supplement, or promoting its efficacy in treating illnesses. However, in 2005, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter to R-Garden, indicating that its product labeling, website, and literature that the company distributed with shipped product were promoting Vitamin O as drugs — i.e., agents intended for use in the cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease. These included testimonial claims that a person unable to walk because of congestive heart failure had been able to walk again and ceased taking "heart pills or pain pills" after a three-month course of the product, and that another was able to breathe very easily again despite chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and repeated prior bouts of chronic bronchitis and pneumonia thanks to the product. As of 2010, the product contains a disclaimer stating "This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease".
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acupuncture_points-0.md

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+---
+title: "List of acupuncture points"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acupuncture_points"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:25.378000+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+This article provides a comprehensive list of acupuncture points, locations on the body used in acupuncture, acupressure, and other treatment systems based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
+
+
+== Locations and basis ==
+
+More than four hundred acupuncture points have been described, with the majority located on one of the twenty main cutaneous and subcutaneous meridians, pathways which run throughout the body and according to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) transport qi. Twelve of these major meridians, commonly referred to as "the primary meridians", are bilateral and practitioners associate them with internal organs. The remaining eight meridians are designated as "extraordinary", and are also bilateral except for three, one that encircles the body near the waist, and two that run along the midline of the body. Only those two extraordinary meridians that run along the midline contain their own points, the remaining six comprise points from the aforementioned twelve primary meridians. There are also points that are not located on the fourteen major meridians but do lie in the complete nexus referred to as Jīngluò (經絡). Such outliers are often referred to as "extra points".
+There is no anatomical and physiological basis for acupuncture points and meridians. In practice, acupuncture points are located by a combination of anatomical landmarks, palpation, and feedback from the patient.
+
+
+=== Twelve Primary Meridians ===
+
+
+=== Eight Extraordinary Meridians ===
+The eight extraordinary meridians (simplified Chinese: 奇经八脉; traditional Chinese: 奇經八脈; pinyin: qí jīng bā mài) are of pivotal importance in the study of qigong, tai chi, and Chinese alchemy. Though many are listed, only the Governing Vessel and the Conception Vessel meridians have points not associated with the previous 12 meridians. 
+
+
+== Nomenclature ==
+Some acupuncture points have several traditional names, for example tài yuān (太渊) and gui xin (鬼心) are two names used for the 9th acupuncture point on the lung meridian.  The World Health Organization (WHO) published A Proposed Standard International Acupuncture Nomenclature Report in 1991 and 2014, listing 361 classical acupuncture points organized according to the fourteen meridians, eight extra meridians, 48 extra points, and scalp acupuncture points, and published Standard Acupuncture Nomenclature in 1993, focused on the 361 classical acupuncture points. Each acupuncture point is identified by the meridian on which it is located and its number in the point sequence on that channel.  For example, Lu-9 identifies the 9th acupuncture point on the lung meridian. The only ambiguity with this unique systemized method is on the urinary bladder meridian, where the outer line of 14 points found on the back near the spine are inserted in one of two ways; following the last point of the inner line along the spine (會陽) and resuming with the point found in the crease of the buttocks (承扶), or following the point in the center of the crease of the knee (委中) and resuming with the point just below that (合陽), found in the bifurcation of the gastrocnemius muscle.  Although classification of the extra points often tries to utilize a similar shortcut method, where a numbered sequence along an assigned body part is used, there is no commonly agreed-upon system and therefore universal identification of these points relies on the original naming system of traditional Chinese characters.
+The tables in this article follow the WHO numbering scheme to identify the acupuncture points of the main channels.  For extra points the tables follow the numbering scheme found in A Manual of Acupuncture.
+
+
+== Lung meridian ==
+Abbreviated as LU, named 手太阴肺经穴; 手太陰肺經 "The Lung channel of Hand, Greater Yin". This refers to the meridian starting in the arm, the lung's association with yin, and that it is considered more easy to find. 
+
+
+== Large intestine meridian ==
+Abbreviated as LI or CO (colon), named 手阳明大肠经穴; 手陽明大腸經 "The Large Intestine channel of Hand, Yang Bright".
+
+
+== Stomach meridian ==
+Abbreviated as ST, named 足阳明胃经穴; 足陽明胃經 "The Stomach channel of Foot, Yang Bright".
+
+
+== Spleen meridian ==
+Abbreviated as SP, named 足太阴睥经穴; 足太陰脾經 "The Spleen channel of Foot, Greater Yin".
+
+
+== Heart meridian ==
+Abbreviated as HE, HT or H, named 手少阴心经穴; 手少陰心經 "The Heart channel of Hand, Lesser Yin".
+
+
+== Small intestine meridian ==
+Abbreviated as SI, named 手太阳小肠经穴; 手太陽小腸經 "The Small Intestine channel of Hand, Greater Yang". 
+
+
+== Bladder meridian ==
+Abbreviated as BL or UB (urinary bladder), described in Chinese as 足太阳膀胱经穴; 足太陽膀胱經 "The Bladder channel of Foot, Greater Yang".
+An alternative numbering scheme for the "appended part" (beginning with Bl-41 in the list below), which places the outer line along the spine after Bl-35 (會陽) instead of Bl-40 (委中), will be noted in the Alternative names column.
+
+
+== Kidney meridian ==
+Abbreviated as KI or K, described in Chinese as 足少阴肾经穴 or 足少陰腎經 "The Kidney channel of Foot, Lesser Yin".
+
+
+== Pericardium meridian ==
+Abbreviated as PC or P, named 手厥阴心包经穴; 手厥陰心包經 "The Pericardium channel of Hand, Faint Yin".
+
+
+== Triple burner meridian ==
+Also known as San Jiao, triple-heater, triple-warmer or triple-energizer, abbreviated as TB or SJ or TE and named 手少阳三焦经穴; 手少陽三焦經 "The Sanjiao channel of Hand, Lesser Yang".
+
+
+== Gallbladder meridian ==
+Abbreviated as GB, this meridian is named 足少阳胆经穴; 足少陽膽經 "The Gallbladder channel of Foot, Lesser Yang".
+
+
+== Liver meridian ==
+Abbreviated as LR or LV, named 足厥阴肝经穴; 足厥陰肝經 "The Liver channel of Foot, Faint Yin".
+
+
+== Governing vessel ==
+Also known as Du, abbreviated as GV and named 督脉穴; 督脈 "The Governing Vessel".
+
+
+== Conception vessel ==
+Also known as Ren, Directing Vessel, abbreviated as CV and named 任脉穴; 任脈 "The Conception Vessel".
+
+
+== Notes ==
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_blood_analysis-0.md

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+---
+title: "Live blood analysis"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_blood_analysis"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:26.561564+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Live blood analysis (LBA), live cell analysis, Hemaview or nutritional blood analysis is the use of high-resolution dark field microscopy to observe live blood cells. Live blood analysis is promoted by some alternative medicine practitioners, who assert that it can diagnose a range of diseases. It has its origins in the now-discarded theories of pleomorphism promoted by Günther Enderlein, notably in his 1925 book Bakterien-Cyklogenie. 
+There is no scientific evidence that live blood analysis is reliable or effective, and it has been described as a fraudulent means of convincing people that they are ill and should purchase dietary supplements. It is not accepted in laboratory practice and its validity as a laboratory test has not been established. Its practice has been described as a pseudoscientific, bogus and fraudulent, and the medical profession has dismissed it as quackery. The field of live blood microscopy is unregulated; there is no training requirement or recognised qualification for practitioners and no recognised medical validity to the results. Proponents have made false claims about both medical blood pathology testing and their own services, which some have refused to amend when instructed by the Advertising Standards Authority.
+In January 2014, prominent live blood proponent and teacher Robert O. Young was arrested and charged for practising medicine without a license. In March 2014, Errol Denton, a former student of his and a UK live blood practitioner, was convicted on nine counts in a rare prosecution under the Cancer Act 1939, followed in May 2014 by another former student, Stephen Ferguson.
+
+== Overview ==
+Proponents claim that live blood analysis provides information "about the state of the immune system, possible vitamin deficiencies, amount of toxicity, pH and mineral imbalance, areas of concern and weaknesses, fungus and yeast." Some even claim it can "spot cancer and other degenerative immune system diseases up to two years before they would otherwise be detectable" or say they can diagnose "lack of oxygen in the blood, low trace minerals, lack of exercise, too much alcohol or yeast, weak kidneys, bladder or spleen." Practitioners include alternative medicine providers such as nutritionists, herbologists, naturopaths, and chiropractors.
+Dark field microscopy is useful to enhance contrast in unstained samples, but live blood analysis is not proven to be useful for any of its claimed indications. Two journal articles published in the alternative medical literature found that darkfield microscopy seemed unable to detect cancer, and that live blood analysis lacked reliability, reproducibility, and sensitivity and specificity. Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter and University of Plymouth, notes: "No credible scientific studies have demonstrated the reliability of LBA for detecting any of the above conditions." Ernst describes live blood analysis as a "fraudulent" means of convincing patients to buy dietary supplements.
+Quackwatch has been critical of live blood analysis, noting dishonesty in the claims brought forward by its proponents. The alternative medicine popularizer Andrew Weil dismissed live blood analysis as "completely bogus", writing: "Dark-field microscopy combined with live blood analysis may sound like cutting-edge science, but it's old-fashioned hokum. Don't buy into it."
+
+== Common diagnoses ==
+There are several common diagnoses by LBA practitioners that are actually based on observation of artifacts normally found in microscopy, and ignorance of basic biological science:
+Acid in the blood:  When the red blood cells stack on top of one another and appear like stacks of coins, it is called 'rouleaux' formation. By observation of the rouleaux, the LBA practitioners diagnose 'acid in the blood', while other practitioners suggest a weak pancreas. Rouleaux of red blood cells under the microscope is an artifact which occurs when the blood sample at the edge of the coverslip starts to dry out; where a large number of red blood cells clump together; or when the blood starts to clot when contacted with the glass. These artifacts are observed in only small, selected areas on the slide, while near the center of the slide the red blood cells are free floating. Blood acidosis is a severe illness and can not be diagnosed by observation of blood, nor treated by dietary supplements.
+
+Uric acid crystals and/or cholesterol plaques:  Microscopic splinters of glass are often present when the slide is not cleaned thoroughly.  Observation of such shards is claimed by the LBA practitioners to be uric acid crystals or cholesterol plaques, and thus to be indicative of 'acid imbalance, stress or poor lymphatic circulation' among other vague ailments.  Uric acid crystals and cholesterol plaques, if present, are not visible in the blood samples.
+Parasites: Particles of dirt and debris, commonly found on glass slides not cleaned thoroughly, or slightly deformed red blood cells are mistaken to be parasites.  Patients with parasites in the blood stream would be very sick and in need of immediate medical care, not by nutritional or herbal supplements or life style change as often recommended by LBA practitioners.
+Bacteria and yeast: LBA practitioners observe small irregular shape on the red blood cell membrane, a common artifact, and claim it represents bacteria or yeasts budding off the edge of the cell membrane.  This claim violates the basic principle of biology that each living organism is unique and can not be transformed from one into another.  Presence of bacteria or yeasts in the blood indicates the patient is in danger of developing sepsis, a life-threatening condition.
+Fermentations: Light spots on some red blood cells are identified by LBA practitioners as fermentations caused by high sugar content in the blood.  Fermentation is a chemical reaction of breaking down sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide catalyzed by enzymes produced in yeast.  The red blood cells are not yeasts and cannot ferment sugar. 

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_blood_analysis-1.md

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+---
+title: "Live blood analysis"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_blood_analysis"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:26.561564+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Regulatory issues ==
+In 1996, the Pennsylvania Department of Laboratories informed three Pennsylvania chiropractors that Infinity2's "Nutritional Blood Analysis" could not be used for diagnostic purposes unless they maintain a laboratory that has both state and federal certification for complex testing.
+In 2001, the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General issued a report on regulation of "unestablished laboratory tests" that focused on live blood cell analysis and the difficulty of regulating unestablished tests and laboratories.
+In 2002, an Australian naturopath was convicted and fined for falsely claiming that he could diagnose illness using live blood analysis after the death of a patient. He was acquitted of manslaughter. He subsequently changed his name and was later banned from practice for life.
+In 2005, the Rhode Island Department of Health ordered a chiropractor to stop performing live blood analysis. An attorney for the State Board of Examiners in Chiropractic Medicine described the test as "useless" and a "money-making scheme... The point of it all is apparently to sell nutritional supplements." A state medical board official said that live blood analysis has no discernible value, and that the public "should be very suspicious of any practitioner who offers this test."
+In 2011, the UK General Medical Council suspended a doctor's licence to practise after he used live blood analysis to diagnose patients with Lyme disease. The doctor accepted he had been practising "bad medicine".
+In 2013, following several Advertising Standards Authority adjudications  against claims made by LBA practitioners, the Committee of Advertising Practice added new guidelines to their AdviceOnline database advising what LBA marketers may claim in their advertising material. These state that "CAP is yet to see any evidence for the efficacy of this therapy which, without rigorous evidence to support it, should be advertised on an availability-only platform."
+One of these practitioners, Errol Denton, who practised out of a serviced office in Harley Street, was prosecuted in December 2013 under the Cancer Act 1939, and chose to use a Freeman on the Land defence. On March 20, 2014, he was convicted on nine counts under the Cancer Act 1939 and fined £9,000 plus around £10,000 in costs. In April 2018, Denton was further convicted of two counts of "engaging in unfair commercial practice" and one of "selling food not of the quality demanded", for selling a bottle of colloidal silver drink to an undercover trading standards officer in February 2016, after examining a drop of her blood and claiming that it indicated that she had dislocated her shoulder. He was made the subject of a Criminal Behaviour Order, fined £2,250, and ordered pay £15,000 in costs.
+
+== See also ==
+List of ineffective cancer treatments
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_locator-0.md

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+---
+title: "Long-range locator"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_locator"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:28.988177+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A long-range locator is a class of fraudulent devices purported to be a type of metal detector, supposedly able to detect a variety of substances, including gold, drugs and explosives; most are said to operate on a principle of resonance with the material being detected.
+
+
+== Theory of operation ==
+Skeptics have examined the internals of many such devices and found those that have been examined to be incapable of operating as advertised, and have dismissed them as overpriced dowsing rods or similarly useless devices. Virtually all such devices claim to operate on a resonant frequency principle where the device is said to emit an electromagnetic signal, either through an antenna or a probe, that will respond to a specific substance such as gold, silver, or sometimes even paper money, and that the device will indicate the presence of such material by indicating a change in direction relative to the operator.
+This theory of operation is not supported by scientific theory; the devices have not been shown to work in blind testing, and the resonance principle invoked has not been shown to work in laboratories (and is not consistently employed by LRL manufacturers). In addition, the Inverse-Square Law limits the effective possible signal strength of any putative LRL; moreover, not only does this attenuation apply to the supposed emissions from the LRL devices, but the return signals from the sought-after targets are further attenuated by the same constraints. Since most of these LRL devices are powered by low voltage, low current AA, AAA or 9v cells, the resultant power available for emissions is quite minuscule at best, and the return signal would suffer even greater attenuation. Examples exist of LRL devices having no internal power source at all, and these are advertised as being self-powered or powered by ambient static electricity; these are indistinguishable from dowsing rods.
+
+
+== Scientific evaluation ==
+Many such devices contain non-functional circuitry or naively constructed approximations of radio transmitters. A few do have functional circuitry, putting out a weak signal with a function generator or a simple timer circuit, but are still largely useless in comparison with a coil-based metal detector; others have been found to contain intentionally obfuscated or completely superfluous components (from individual components such as inductors or ribbon cables up to, in some cases, pocket calculators), often indicative of intentional fraud, incompetence, or both, by the designer. Such functioning circuitry as exists in such devices usually has no obvious way (motor, solenoid, etc.) to connect to any rotating joint in the device either, meaning the devices are often entirely dependent on the ideomotor effect to function.
+
+
+== Media exposure and controversy ==
+Author Tom Clancy came under fire for including the DKL Lifeguard, a long-range locator purported to be useful for detecting people, in critical passages of his novel Rainbow Six. A study by Sandia National Laboratories proved the Lifeguard to be completely useless, and other designs by the Lifeguard's creator Thomas Afilani have been shown to contain numerous dummy components with no clear function.
+Accusing the manufacturers of fraud, the UK banned export of the GT 200, used by the government of Thailand, and the ADE 651, used by the government of Iraq, in January 2010.
+
+
+== See also ==
+ADE 651
+Alpha 6 (device)
+GT200
+Quadro Tracker
+Sniffex
+TR Araña
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Carl Moreland's skeptical website—dissects numerous models of LRL
+Dowsing for Dollars—Robert Todd Carroll's dissection of the LRL industry, with special emphasis on DKL
+Long-range locator Forward Gauss VR-1000B-II Exposing it as fraudulent dowsing device in Tanzania
+Long-range locator Is Fraudulent Long Range Locator is a Fraudulent in Pakistan

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_Medium-0.md

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+---
+title: "Long Island Medium"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_Medium"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:27.796196+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Long Island Medium is an American reality television series starring Theresa Caputo, a self-professed medium who claims she can communicate with the dead. Much of the program, which premiered on September 25, 2011, takes place in Hicksville, New York, though it often follows Caputo as she meets with clients in other areas.
+Scientific skeptics say mediumship performances are a con, and Caputo's specific claims have been deemed fictitious by critics, including magician James Randi, Inside Edition, and Jezebel.
+
+
+== Synopsis ==
+Each episode focuses on Caputo as she conducts private and group readings with both believers and skeptics. Her husband Larry and two children, Victoria and Larry Jr., have learned to live with her mediumship. In a 2011 interview, Caputo claimed she could communicate with dead people: "Things are just there. When I was younger I used to actually see images and hear things. As I got older and shut down, it has changed. Because it was frightening to see people standing there who actually weren't there."
+
+
+== Reception ==
+Scientific skeptics say mediumship performances are a con, and that Caputo's seemingly paranormal performances are simply the result of well-known exploits like the Forer effect, cold reading, selective editing of the show, and her subjects' eagerness to believe.
+In 2012, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) awarded Caputo its Pigasus Award for being, in its view, the "psychic" performer who fooled the greatest number of people with the least effort in the preceding year. A Pigasus award was also given to TLC for continuing to air the show.  In an article published by Wired Magazine the organization's founder James Randi explained why he believed shows like Long Island Medium were deceptive and potentially harmful to its participants:
+
+Why do these pseudo-psychic spectacles bother those of us at the James Randi Educational Foundation? First, and foremost: They are not true. [...] But much more importantly to us, such performances seem to prey on people at their most vulnerable moments — those who have suffered the loss of loved ones — and these mediums use such grief to make a buck. Psychologists tell us this keeps the grieving stuck in their grief, rather than going through the natural stages of acceptance that are healthy.
+In June of that year, Caputo appeared in a commercial for Priceline.com in which she portrayed herself "connecting" with the late Priceline Negotiator character previously played by William Shatner. JREF President DJ Grothe issued a statement asking Priceline.com to prove that Caputo has the abilities that she claims to possess.
+Inside Edition examined Caputo's claims of being able to talk to the dead and found them lacking as she performed live, saying they "watched her strike out time and again." Mark Edward, who used to portray himself as a medium, gave his opinion that Caputo does not have supernatural powers and explained several common techniques she could be using to pretend to have such abilities. She responded in a statement: "I respect and understand skeptics. I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone, that's not why I do what I do. I feel, and have been told by my clients, that my gift has really helped them, and that's all that matters to me."
+Ron Tebo, proprietor of the YouTube debunking channel SciFake, has argued that Caputo engages in several forms of deception, including sending staff members to interview audience members in advance to acquire knowledge to claim communication with the dead.
+In March 2018, skeptical activist Susan Gerbic published an article in Skeptical Inquirer summarizing several techniques that she says are used by psychics such as Caputo to achieve their effects.
+While noting that Caputo's claim of special powers "has been questioned", Variety's Gregg Goldstein described her in generally positive terms in a 2012 article, writing, "In an era of hit reality shows about families and denizens of New Jersey, the series' equally big selling point is the dynamic with her husband and two wisecracking teenagers, making it play like a combination of Real Housewives of New Jersey and Bewitched – particularly when their frustrations surface over her random communications with what she calls 'Spirit.'"
+In a 2019 segment of Last Week Tonight, which featured Caputo as well as other prominent TV psychics, John Oliver criticized the media for producing shows such as this because they convince viewers that psychic powers are real, and so enable neighborhood psychics to prey on grieving families. Oliver said, "...when psychic abilities are presented as authentic, it emboldens a vast underworld of unscrupulous vultures, more than happy to make money by offering an open line to the afterlife, as well as many other bullshit services."
+
+
+== Cast ==
+Main
+
+Theresa Caputo
+Recurring
+
+Larry Caputo Jr.
+Victoria Caputo
+Larry Caputo
+
+
+== Episodes ==
+
+
+=== Series overview ===
+
+
+=== Season 1 (2011) ===
+
+
+=== Season 2 (2012) ===
+
+
+=== Season 3 (2012) ===
+
+
+=== Season 4 (2013) ===
+
+
+=== Season 5 (2013) ===
+
+
+=== Season 6 (2014) ===
+
+
+=== Season 7 (2014) ===
+
+
+=== Season 8 (2015) ===
+
+
+=== Season 9 (2015–16) ===
+
+
+=== Season 10 (2017) ===
+
+
+=== Season 11 (2017) ===
+
+
+=== Season 12 (2018) ===
+
+
+=== Season 13 (2018) ===
+
+
+=== Season 14 (2019) ===
+
+
+== See also ==
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Official website
+Long Island Medium at IMDb
+Theresa Caputo's site

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_effect-0.md

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+---
+title: "Lunar effect"
+chunk: 1/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:30.169912+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The lunar effect is a link between different stages of the 29.5-day lunar cycle and the behavior and physiology of various species, purportedly including humans. The changing phase and position of the Moon in its orbit impacts night lighting and ocean tides on Earth. Various organisms have adapted to this repeating cycle.
+A considerable number of studies have examined the effect on humans. By the late 1980s, there were at least 40 published studies on the purported lunar-lunacy connection, and at least 20 published studies on the purported lunar-birthrate connection.  Literature reviews and metanalyses have found no correlation between the lunar cycle and human biology or behavior. In cases such as the approximately monthly cycle of menstruation in humans (but not other mammals), the coincidence in timing reflects no known lunar influence. The widespread and persistent beliefs about the influence of the Moon may depend on illusory correlation – the perception of an association that does not in fact exist. 
+In a number of marine animals, there is strong evidence for the effects of lunar cycles. Observed effects relating to reproductive synchrony may depend on external cues relating to the presence or amount of moonlight. Corals contain light-sensitive cryptochromes, proteins that are sensitive to different levels of light. Coral species such as Dipsastraea speciosa tend to synchronize spawning in the evening or night, around the last quarter moon of the lunar cycle. In Dipsastraea speciosa, a period of darkness between sunset and moonrise appears to be a trigger for synchronized spawning. Another marine animal, the bristle worm Platynereis dumerilii, spawns a few days after a full moon.  It contains a protein with light-absorbing flavin structures that differentially detect moonlight and sunlight. It is used as a model for studying the biological mechanisms of marine lunar cycles.
+
+== Human contexts ==
+Claims of a lunar connection have appeared in the following contexts:
+
+=== Fertility ===
+
+It is widely believed that the Moon has a relationship with fertility due to the corresponding human menstrual cycle, which averages 28 days. However, no connection between lunar rhythms and menstrual onset has been conclusively shown to exist, and the similarity in length between the two cycles is most likely coincidental.
+
+=== Birth rate ===
+Multiple studies have found no connection between birth rate and lunar phases. A 1957 analysis of 9,551 births in Danville, Pennsylvania, found no correlation between birth rate and the phase of the Moon. Records of 11,961 live births and 8,142 natural births (not induced by drugs or cesarean section) over a 4-year period (1974–1978) at the UCLA hospital did not correlate in any way with the cycle of lunar phases. Analysis of 3,706 spontaneous births (excluding births resulting from induced labor) in 1994 showed no correlation with lunar phase. The distribution of 167,956 spontaneous vaginal deliveries, at 37 to 40 weeks gestation, in Phoenix, Arizona, between 1995 and 2000, showed no relationship with lunar phase. Analysis of 564,039 births (1997 to 2001) in North Carolina showed no predictable influence of the lunar cycle on deliveries or complications. Analysis of 6,725 deliveries (2000 to 2006) in Hannover revealed no significant correlation of birth rate to lunar phases. A 2001 analysis of 70,000,000 birth records from the National Center for Health Statistics revealed no correlation between birth rate and lunar phase. An extensive review of 21 studies from seven different countries showed that the majority of studies reported no relationship to lunar phase, and that the positive studies were inconsistent with each other. A review of six additional studies from five different countries similarly showed no evidence of relationship between birth rate and lunar phase.
+In 2021, an analysis of 38.7 million births in France over 50 years, with a detailed correction for birth variations linked to holidays, and robust statistical methods to avoid false detections linked to multiple tests, found a very small (+0.4%) but statistically significant surplus of births on the full moon day, and to a lesser extent the following day. The probability of this excess being due to chance is very low, of the order of one chance in 100,000 (p-value = 1.5 x 10-5). The belief that there is a large surplus of births on full moon days is incorrect, and it is completely impossible for an observer to detect the small increase of +0.4% in a maternity hospital, even on a long time scale.
+
+=== Blood loss ===
+It is sometimes claimed that surgeons used to refuse to operate during the full Moon because of the increased risk of death of the patient through blood loss. One team, in Barcelona, Spain, reported a weak correlation between lunar phase and hospital admissions due to gastrointestinal bleeding, but only when comparing full Moon days to all non-full Moon days lumped together. This methodology has been criticized, and the statistical significance of the results disappears if one compares day 29 of the lunar cycle (full Moon) to days 9, 12, 13, or 27 of the lunar cycle, which all have an almost equal number of hospital admissions. The Spanish team acknowledged that the wide variation in the number of admissions throughout the lunar cycle limited the interpretation of the results.
+In October 2009, British politician David Tredinnick asserted that during a full Moon "[s]urgeons will not operate because blood clotting is not effective and the police have to put more people on the street.". A spokesman for the Royal College of Surgeons said they would "laugh their heads off" at the suggestion they could not operate on the full Moon.
+
+=== Human behavior ===
+
+==== Epilepsy ====
+A study into epilepsy found a significant negative correlation between the mean number of epileptic seizures per day and the fraction of the Moon that is illuminated, but the effect resulted from the overall brightness of the night, rather than from the moon phase per se.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_effect-1.md

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+---
+title: "Lunar effect"
+chunk: 2/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:30.169912+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+==== Law and order ====
+Senior police officers in Brighton, UK, announced in June 2007 that they were planning to deploy more officers over the summer to counter trouble they believe is linked to the lunar cycle. This followed research by the Sussex Police force that concluded there was a rise in violent crime when the Moon was full. A spokeswoman for the police force said "research carried out by us has shown a correlation between violent incidents and full moons". A police officer responsible for the research told the BBC that "From my experience of 19 years of being a police officer, undoubtedly on full moons we do seem to get people with sort of strange behavior – more fractious, argumentative."
+Police in Ohio and Kentucky have blamed temporary rises in crime on the full Moon.
+In January 2008, New Zealand's Justice Minister Annette King suggested that a spate of stabbings in the country could have been caused by the lunar cycle.
+A reported correlation between Moon phase and the number of homicides in Miami-Dade County was found, through later analysis, not to be supported by the data and to have been the result of inappropriate and misleading statistical procedures.
+A 2009 study of over 23,000 aggravated assaults in Germany between 1999 and 2005 found no correlation with lunar phases. A 2016 study comparing indoor and outdoor crime in the District of Columbia found that the intensity of moonlight had no effect on indoor crime, but a positive effect on outdoor criminal activity. The study's authors speculated that the effect may be due to criminals being better able to assess potential victims and unsecured properties, and there being more such victims out on the street on lighter nights.
+
+==== Motorcycle fatalities ====
+A study of 13,029 motorcyclists killed in nighttime crashes found that there were 5.3% more fatalities on nights with a full moon compared to other nights. The authors speculate that the increase might be due to visual distractions created by the moon, especially when it is near the horizon and appears abruptly between trees, around turns, etc.
+
+==== Stock market ====
+Several studies have argued that the stock market's average returns are much higher during the half of the month closest to the new moon than the half closest to the full moon. The reasons for this have not been studied, but the authors suggest this may be due to lunar influences on mood. Another study has found contradictory results and questioned these claims.
+
+==== Meta-analyses ====
+A meta-analysis of thirty-seven studies that examined relationships between the Moon's four phases and human behavior revealed no significant correlation. The authors found that, of twenty-three studies that had claimed to show correlation, nearly half contained at least one statistical error. Similarly, in a review of twenty studies examining correlations between Moon phase and suicides, most of the twenty studies found no correlation, and the ones that did report positive results were inconsistent with each other. A 1978 review of the literature also found that lunar phases and human behavior are not related.
+
+=== Sleep quality ===
+A 2013 study by Christian Cajochen and collaborators at the University of Basel suggested a correlation between the full Moon and human sleep quality. However, the validity of these results may be limited because of a relatively small (n=33) sample size and inappropriate controls for age and sex. A 2014 study with larger sample sizes (n1=366, n2=29, n3=870) and better experimental controls found no effect of the lunar phase on sleep quality metrics. A 2015 study of 795 children found a three-minute increase in sleep duration near the full moon, but a 2016 study of 5,812 children found a five-minute decrease in sleep duration near the full moon. No other modification in activity behaviors were reported, and the lead scientist concluded: "Our study provides compelling evidence that the moon does not seem to influence people's behavior." A study published in 2021 by researchers from the University of Washington, Yale University, and the National University of Quilmes showed a correlation between lunar cycles and sleep cycles. During the days preceding a full moon, people went to bed later and slept for shorter periods (in some cases with differences of up to 90 minutes), even in locations with full access to electric light. Finally, a Swedish study including one-night at-home sleep recordings from 492 women and 360 men found that men whose sleep was recorded during nights in the waxing period of the lunar cycle exhibited lower sleep efficiency and increased time awake after sleep onset compared to men whose sleep was measured during nights in the waning period. In contrast, the sleep of women remained largely unaffected by the lunar cycle. These results were robust to adjustment for chronic sleep problems and obstructive sleep apnea severity.
+As for how the belief started in the first place, a 1999 study conjectures that the alleged connection of moon to lunacy might be a 'cultural fossil' from a time before the advent of outdoor lighting, when the bright light of the full moon might have induced sleep deprivation in people living outside, thereby triggering erratic behaviour in predisposed people with mental conditions such as bipolar disorder.
+
+== Other organisms ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_effect-2.md

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+---
+title: "Lunar effect"
+chunk: 3/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:30.169912+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== In animals ===
+Many animals use moonlight for navigation and to time behavior. As an example of lunar navigation, numerous insect species, such as moths, use moonlight to stabilize their flight paths and maintain consistent trajectories.
+Corals contain light-sensitive cryptochromes, proteins that are sensitive to different levels of light. Corals at the Great Barrier Reef release their eggs and sperm simultaneously, always after full moon between October and December. Also, the Barau's petrel is known to time their mating season with the full moon.
+Spawning of coral Platygyra lamellina occurs at night during the summer on a date determined by the phase of the Moon; in the Red Sea, this is the three- to five-day period around the new Moon in July and the similar period in August. Acropora coral time their simultaneous release of sperm and eggs to just one or two days a year, after sundown with a full moon.
+Dipsastraea speciosa tends to synchronize spawning in the evening or night, around the last quarter moon of the lunar cycle.
+Another marine animal, the bristle worm Platynereis dumerilii,  also spawns a few days after a full moon. It is used as a model for studying cryptochromes and photoreduction in proteins. The L-Cry protein can distinguish between sunlight and moonlight through the differential activity of two protein strands that contain light-absorbing structures called flavins. Another molecule, called r-Opsin, may act as a moonrise sensor. Exactly how different  biological signals are transmitted within the worm is not yet known.
+Correlation between hormonal changes in the testis and lunar periodicity was found in streamlined spinefoot (a type of fish), which spawns synchronously around the last Moon quarter. In orange-spotted spinefoot, lunar phases affect the levels of melatonin in the blood.
+California grunion fish have an unusual mating and spawning ritual during the spring and summer months. The egg laying takes place on four consecutive nights, beginning on the nights of the full and new Moons, when tides are highest. This well understood reproductive strategy is related to tides, which are highest when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned, i.e., at new Moon or full Moon. 
+The rising and falling of tides creates the Intertidal zone. Intertidal organisms experience a highly variable and often hostile environment, and have adapted to cope with and even exploit these conditions. One example are Fiddler crabs, which stay in their burrows during high tide and venture out to feed during low tide. Fiddler crabs also take advantage of tides for reproduction, and release their fertilized eggs into the receding tide.
+In insects, the lunar cycle may affect hormonal changes. The body weight of honeybees peaks during new Moon. The midge Clunio marinus has a biological clock synchronized with the Moon.
+Evidence for lunar effect in reptiles, birds and mammals is scant, but among reptiles marine iguanas (which live in the Galápagos Islands) time their trips to the sea in order to arrive at low tide.
+A relationship between the Moon and the birth rate of cows was reported in a 2016 study.
+In 2000, a retrospective study in the United Kingdom reported an association between the full moon and significant increases in animal bites to humans. The study reported that patients presenting to the A&E with injuries stemming from bites from an animal rose significantly at the time of a full moon in the period 1997–1999. The study concluded that animals have an increased inclination to bite a human during a full moon period. It did not address the question of how humans came into contact with the animals, and whether this was more likely to happen during the full moon.
+
+=== In plants ===
+Serious doubts have been raised about the claim that a species of Ephedra synchronizes its pollination peak to the full moon in July. Reviewers conclude that more research is needed to answer this question.
+A growth component of the genus Sphagnum has been correlated to the lunar cycle, with accelerated growth during the new Moon. Increased cloud cover appears to disrupt this influence.
+The reproduction timing of various green (Chlorophyta) and brown (Phaeophyceae) seaweed species are influenced by the lunar cycles.
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==

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+---
+title: "Lunar effect"
+chunk: 4/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:30.169912+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Bibliography ==
+Abell, George (1979). Review of the book The Alleged Lunar Effect by Arnold Lieber, Skeptical Inquirer, Spring 1979, 68–73.  Reprinted in Science Confronts the Paranormal, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-314-5.
+Abell, George and Barry Singer (1981). Science and the Paranormal – probing the existence of the supernatural, Charles Scribner's Sons, chapter 5, ISBN 0-684-17820-6.
+Berman, Bob (2003). Fooled by the Full Moon – Scientists search for the sober truth behind some loony ideas, Discover, September 2003, page 30.
+Caton, Dan (2001). Natality and the Moon Revisited: Do Birth Rates Depend on the Phase of the Moon?, Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol 33, No. 4, 2001, p. 1371. A summary of the results of the paper.
+Diefendorf, David (2007), Amazing... But false! Hundreds of "facts" you thought were true, but aren't, Sterling Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4027-3791-6
+Foster, Russell G.; Roenneberg, Till (2008). "Human Responses to the Geophysical Daily, Annual and Lunar Cycles". Current Biology. 18 (17): R784–R794. Bibcode:2008CBio...18.R784F. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.07.003. PMID 18786384. S2CID 15429616. Lunar cycles had, and continue to have, an influence upon human culture, though despite a persistent belief that our mental health and other behaviours are modulated by the phase of the moon, there is no solid evidence that human biology is in any way regulated by the lunar cycle
+Packer, C.; Swanson, A.; Ikanda, D.; Kushnir, H. (2011). "Fear of Darkness, the Full Moon and the Nocturnal Ecology of African Lions". PLOS ONE. 6 (7) 22285. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...622285P. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022285. PMC 3140494. PMID 21799812.
+Palmer, JD; Udry, JR; Morris, NM (1982). "Diurnal and weekly, but no lunar rhythms in humans copulation". Human Biology; an International Record of Research. 54 (1): 111–121. PMID 7200945.
+Sanduleak, Nicholas (1985). The Moon is Acquitted of Murder in Cleveland, Skeptical Inquirer, Spring 1985, 236–242.  Reprinted in Science Confronts the Paranormal, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-314-5.
+Zimecki, Michał (2006). "The lunar cycle: effects on human and animal behavior and physiology". Postepy Higieny I Medycyny Doswiadczalnej. 60: 1–7. PMID 16407788. Archived from the original on 26 June 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2015. In fish the lunar clock influences reproduction and involves the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis. In birds, the daily variations in melatonin and corticosterone disappear during full-moon days. The lunar cycle also exerts effects on laboratory rats with regard to taste sensitivity and the ultrastructure of pineal gland cells. Cyclic variations related to the moon's phases in the magnitude of the humoral immune response of mice to polivinylpyrrolidone and sheep erythrocytes were also described. It is suggested that melatonin and endogenous steroids may mediate the described cyclic alterations of physiological processes. The release of neurohormones may be triggered by the electromagnetic radiation and/or the gravitational pull of the moon
+
+== External links ==
+The Skeptic's Dictionary on the lunar effect
+McGowan, Iain; Owens, Mark (2006). "Madness & The Moon: The Lunar Cycle & Psychopathology". German Journal of Psychiatry. 9 (1): 123–127. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.511.5967.
+McDowall, R. M. (December 1969). "Lunar Rhythms in Aquatic Animals: A General Review". Tuatara. 17 (3): 133–143.
+Linley, G. D.; Pauligk, Y.; Marneweck, C.; Ritchie, E. G. (2021). "Moon phase and nocturnal activity of native Australian mammals". Australian Mammalogy. 43 (2): 190. doi:10.1071/AM19070. S2CID 219918342.

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+---
+title: "Lung (Chinese medicine)"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_(Chinese_medicine)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:31.305799+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The lungs (Chinese: 肺; pinyin: fèi) is one of the zang organs described in traditional Chinese medicine. It is a functionally defined entity and not equivalent to the anatomical organ of the same name.
+
+
+== In the context of the zang-fu organs ==
+The Lung is a zang organ meaning it is a yin organ. Situated in the thorax, it communicates with the throat and opens into the nose. It occupies the uppermost position among the zang-fu organs, and is known as the "canopy" of the zang-fu organs. Due to the lung's position in the body, toward the back of the chest and in the upper half of the abdomen, it has yin within yang qualities and is more yang than other zang organs besides the heart. Each zang organ is paired with a fu organ, the lung's paired organ is the large intestine. Its meridians connects with the large intestine, with which makes it internally related. The lung and large intestine are connected by two meridians, Yangming large intestine meridian of hand and the Taiyin lung meridian of hand. The Lung and its paired organ are associated with the element of metal and the emotion of grief. Each of the Five Elements have a color associated with them. Due to its association with metal, the lungs are associated with the color white. The peak time for the Lungs according to the Chinese Horary body clock is from 3–5 am.  Illnesses that are rooted in the lung are most commonly due to weakness of wei qi or water regulation. Common symptoms indicating lung disease are coughing, weak voice, asthma, and fish smelling mucus or saliva.
+
+
+== Lung functions ==
+The Lung has five principle functions:
+
+governing qi and controlling respiration. They take in clear and expel turbid Natural Air Qi (Kong Qi)
+controlling disseminating and descending
+regulating the water passages
+controlling the skin and body hair
+opening into the nose
+housing the Po
+
+
+=== Dominating qi and controlling respiration ===
+Dominating qi has two aspects: dominating the qi of respiration and dominating the qi of the entire body. Dominating the qi of respiration means the lung is a respiratory organ through which the qi of the exterior and the qi from the interior are able to mingle. Via the lung, the body inhales clear qi from the natural environment and exhales waste qi from the interior of the body. Dominating qi of the entire body means that the function of the lung in respiration greatly influences the functional activities of the body, and is closely related to the formation of pectoral qi, which is formed from the combination of the essential qi of water and food, and the clear qi inhaled by the lung. When the lung's function of dominating qi is normal, the passage of qi will be unobstructed and respiration will be normal and smooth. Deficiency of lung qi may lead to general fatigue, feeble speech, weak respiration, shortness of breath and excessive perspiration.
+
+
+=== Dominating descending and regulating the water passages ===
+As a general rule, the upper zang-fu organs have the function of descending, and the lower zang-fu organs the function of ascending. Since the lung is the uppermost zang organ, its qi descends to promote the circulation of qi and body fluid through the body and to conduct them downwards. Dysfunction of the lung in descending may lead to upward perversion of lung qi with symptoms such as cough and shortness of breath. 
+Regulating the water passages means to regulate the pathways for the circulation and excretion of water. Circulation of body fluids is a function of many organs working together as a team, including the lungs. The role of the lung in promoting and maintaining water metabolism depends on the descending function of lung qi. Under normal circumstances, the lungs are capable of sending fluids downwards to the kidneys, which pass the fluids to the bladder for excretion. Dysfunction may result in dysuria, oliguria, and oedema.
+
+
+== Notes ==
+
+
+== Bibliography ==
+Cheng, X.-n., Deng, L., & Cheng, Y. (Eds.). (1987). Chinese Acupuncture And Moxibustion. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press
+Lu, Henry C. (1994). “Chinese Natural Cures” New York, NY: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishing
+Maciocia, G. (2005). The Foundations Of Chinese Medicine: A Comprehensive Text For Acupuncturists And Herbalists. Philadelphia, MA: Elseverier Churchill Livingstone.
+Zhiya, Z., Yanchi, L., Ruifu, Z. & Dong, L. (1995). Advanced Textbook On Traditional Chinese Medicine And Pharmacology (Vol. I) . Beijing: New World Press.
+Yin, H.-h., & Shuai, H.-c. (1992). Fundamentals Of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Beijing, China: Foreign Languages Press.
+Li, Zhongzi; (2010). Huangdi Neijing : a synopsis with commentaries. Y.C. Kong. Hong Kong.
+Pachuta, Donald M., (1991). Chinese Medicine: The Law of Five Elements. New Delhi, India: India International Centre.

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+---
+title: "MV-media"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV-media"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:23:03.400794+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+MV-media, also known as MV??!!, formerly Mitä Vittua? ("What the Fuck?") and MV-lehti, is a Finnish fake news website founded by Ilja Janitskin. The website publishes disinformation and conspiracy theories with a racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Islam, anti-vaccine, pro-Russian and Eurosceptic agenda. The site has links to the far-right anti-immigrant group Soldiers of Odin. As of 2022, the publication is based in Russian-occupied Eastern Ukraine and regularly shares Russian state propaganda.
+By March 2015, MV-lehti was the target of five police reports regarding defamation. In January 2016, nine student and youth groups called for advertisers to boycott the site due to "hate speech and repeated lies". Janitskin was suspected of several crimes, including incitement to ethnic or racial hatred, libel and copyright infringement, and was taken into custody by the Andorran police in August 2017. He had several previous convictions for violent crimes between 2000 and 2011. He was later extradited to Finland, and in October 2018, Janitskin was convicted of 16 offences and given a 22-month prison sentence. According to the court, Janitskin was the chief editor and owner of MV-lehti, and as such he was responsible for its content. Among the convictions were defamation of the journalist Jessikka Aro and two other women. Janitskin was likely to be spared from any more prison time, however, as he had been in custody and in home arrest for almost a year, and as a first-timer he would have been released after completing half of his sentence.
+In January 2018, Janitskin left MV-media. The new owner, Juha Korhonen, said he would turn the website into a "cleaner" version. Since 2019 the editor in chief has been Janus Putkonen. Janitskin died of cancer in February 2020 at the age of 42. He had been appealing his convictions.
+
+
+== See also ==
+List of fake news websites
+Magneettimedia
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrobiotic_diet-0.md

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+---
+title: "Macrobiotic diet"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrobiotic_diet"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:33.731810+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A macrobiotic diet (or macrobiotics) is a restrictive dietary regime based on ideas about types of food drawn from Zen Buddhism. The diet tries to balance the food elements classified as yin and yang, a practice that also extends to cookware. Major principles of macrobiotic diets are to reduce animal products, eat locally grown foods that are in season, and consume meals in moderation.
+There is no high-quality clinical evidence that a macrobiotic diet is helpful for people with cancer or other diseases, and it may be harmful.  Neither the American Cancer Society nor Cancer Research UK recommends adopting the diet. Deaths have been reported from malnutrition on strict macrobiotic diets.
+
+== Conceptual basis ==
+
+The macrobiotic diet is associated with Zen Buddhism and is based on the idea of balancing yin and yang. The diet proposes ten plans which are followed to reach a supposedly ideal yin:yang ratio of 5:1. The diet was popularized by George Ohsawa in the 1930s and subsequently elaborated on by his disciple Michio Kushi. Medical historian Barbara Clow writes that, in common with many other types of quackery, macrobiotics takes a view of illness and of therapy which conflicts with mainstream medicine.
+Macrobiotics emphasizes locally grown whole grain cereals, pulses (legumes), vegetables, edible seaweed, fermented soy products, and fruit combined into meals according to the ancient Chinese principle of balance known as yin and yang. Some macrobiotic proponents stress that yin and yang are relative qualities that can only be determined in a comparison. All food is considered to have both properties, with one dominating. Foods with yang qualities are considered compact, dense, heavy, and hot, whereas those with yin qualities are considered expansive, light, cold, and diffuse. However, these terms are relative; "yangness" or "yinness" is only discussed in relation to other foods.
+Brown rice and other whole grains such as barley, millet, oats, quinoa, spelt, rye, and teff are considered by macrobiotics to be the foods in which yin and yang are closest to being in balance. Therefore, lists of macrobiotic foods that determine a food as yin or yang generally compare them to whole grains.
+Nightshade vegetables (including tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplant), spinach, beets, and avocados are not recommended or are used sparingly in macrobiotic cooking, as they are considered extremely yin. Some macrobiotic practitioners also discourage the use of nightshades because of the alkaloid solanine which is thought to affect calcium balance. Some proponents of a macrobiotic diet believe that nightshade vegetables can cause inflammation and osteoporosis.
+
+=== History ===
+Macrobiotics was founded by George Ohsawa and popularized in the United States by his disciple Michio Kushi. In the 1960s, the earliest and most strict variant of the diet was termed the "Zen macrobiotic diet" which claimed to cure cancer, epilepsy, gonorrhea, leprosy, syphilis and many other diseases. Ohsawa wrote that dandruff is "the first step toward mental disease". Ohsawa wrote about the diet in his 1965 book Zen Macrobiotics. The Zen macrobiotic diet involved 10 restrictive stages with the highest stage eliminating all foods in the diet apart from whole grains. Fluid intake was discouraged at all stages.
+In 1965, a young follower of the macrobiotic diet died from malnutrition. George Ohsawa was sued for malpractice and the Ohsawa Foundation in New York was closed after a raid by the Food and Drug Administration. In 1966, a Grand Jury who reviewed several cases of death from malnutrition among macrobiotic proponents concluded that the diet "constitutes a public health hazard". In 1967, the first case report of scurvy on the macrobiotic diet was reported. In 1971, the American Medical Association's Council on Foods and Nutrition commented that followers of the diet were in "great danger" of malnutrition. Their report concluded that "when a diet has been shown to cause irreversible damage to health and ultimately lead to death, it should be roundly condemned as a threat to human health".
+After the Ohsawa Foundation in New York was closed, Michio Kushi shifted operations to Boston, where he opened two macrobiotic restaurants. In the 1970s, Kushi established the East West Journal, the East West Foundation and the Kushi Institute. In 1981, the Kushi Foundation was formed as a parent organization for the institute and magazine. The Kushi Institute was located on a large site in Becket, Massachusetts where it hosted macrobiotic conferences, lectures and seminars. Kushi combined macrobiotics with numerous paranormal and pseudoscientific ideas including auras, astrology, chakras, oriental physiognomy, palmistry and extra-terrestrial encounters. The Kushi Institute closed in 2017.
+
+== Practices ==
+
+=== Food ===
+
+The macrobiotic diet is considered an unconventional or fad diet. Some general guidelines for the macrobiotic diet are the following.
+
+Whole cereal grains, especially brown rice: 50–60%
+Vegetables: 20–30%
+Beans and sea vegetables : 5–10%
+Small amounts of white fish and fruit may be eaten if desired. Nuts and seeds are not often consumed but are permitted as occasional snacks if they are lightly roasted. Beverages include herbal teas, cereal-grain coffee and roasted-barley tea.
+
+=== Kitchenware ===
+Cooking utensils should be made from certain materials such as wood or glass, while some materials including plastic, copper, and non-stick coatings are to be avoided. Electric ovens should not be used.

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+---
+title: "Macrobiotic diet"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrobiotic_diet"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:33.731810+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Cancer ==
+The macrobiotic diet has been advertised as an alternative cancer treatment but is ineffective to treat any type of cancer. Macrobiotics author Michio Kushi argued that conventional cancer treatments are "violent and artificial" and the macrobiotic diet should not be combined with conventional treatment. There is no clinical evidence to support the cancer claims of macrobiotic proponents. The American Cancer Society who reviewed 11 scientific data bases found no peer-reviewed evidence that the macrobiotic diet is effective for treating any type of cancer. The Office of Technology Assessment, examining both published and unpublished macrobiotic literature, failed to verify any claims of cancer cure.
+The American Cancer Society recommends "low-fat, high-fiber diets that consist mainly of plant products"; however, they urge people with cancer not to rely on a dietary program as an exclusive or primary means of treatment. Cancer Research UK states, "some people think living a macrobiotic lifestyle may help them to fight their cancer and lead to a cure. But there is no scientific evidence to prove this."
+
+== Safety ==
+
+=== Regulation ===
+Macrobiotic practitioners are not regulated, and need not have any qualification or training in the United Kingdom.
+
+=== Complications ===
+One of the earlier versions of the macrobiotic diet that involved eating only brown rice and water has been linked to severe nutritional deficiencies and even death. Strict macrobiotic diets that include no animal products may result in nutritional deficiencies unless they are carefully planned. The danger may be worse for people with cancer, who may have to contend with unwanted weight loss and often have increased nutritional and caloric requirements. Relying on this type of treatment alone and avoiding or delaying conventional medical care for cancer may have serious health consequences.
+Cases of vitamin B12 and iron-deficiency anemias have been reported as a result of the diet.
+
+=== Children ===
+Children may also be particularly prone to nutritional deficiencies resulting from a macrobiotic diet. A macrobiotic diet does not contain the nutrients needed by growing children.
+
+=== Pregnancy ===
+Macrobiotic diets have not been tested in women who are pregnant or breast-feeding, and the most extreme versions may not include enough of certain nutrients for normal fetal growth.
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrophagic_myofasciitis-0.md

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+---
+title: "Macrophagic myofasciitis"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrophagic_myofasciitis"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:34.928224+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF) is a histopathological finding involving inflammatory microphage formations with aluminium-containing crystal inclusions and associated microscopic muscle necrosis in biopsy samples of the deltoid muscle. Based on the presence of aluminium and the common practice of administering vaccines into the deltoid, it has been proposed that the abnormalities are a result of immunisation with aluminium adjuvant-containing vaccines. The findings were observed in a minority of persons being evaluated for "diffuse myalgias, arthralgias or muscle weakness" who underwent deltoid muscle biopsies. The individuals had a history of receiving aluminium-containing vaccines, administered months to several years prior to observation of MMF histopathology.
+It has been subsequently proposed that macrophagic myofasciitis is in fact a systemic disorder where various diseases develop in association and as consequence of vaccination with aluminium-containing vaccines in susceptible individuals, however, the World Health Organization has concluded that "[t]here is no evidence to suggest that MMF is a specific illness", and that "[t]he current evidence neither establishes nor excludes a generalized disorder affecting other organs."
+
+
+== Description ==
+According to the WHO, "There is no evidence to suggest that MMF is a specific illness. MMF is a lesion containing aluminium salts, identified by histopathological examination, found at the site of previous vaccination with an aluminium-containing vaccine".
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_motor-0.md

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+---
+title: "Magnet motor"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_motor"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:37.263393+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A magnet motor or magnetic motor is a type of perpetual motion machine, which is intended to generate a rotation by means of permanent magnets in stator and rotor without external energy supply. Such a motor is theoretically as well as practically not realizable. The idea of functioning magnetic motors has been promoted by various hobbyists. It can be regarded as pseudoscience. There are frequent references to free energy and sometimes even links to esotericism.
+Magnet motors are not to be confused with the commonly used permanent magnet motors, which are powered from an external electrical energy supply.
+
+
+== Working principle ==
+
+A hypothetical magnet motor works with permanent magnets in stator and rotor. By a special arrangement of the attracting and repelling poles, a rotational movement of the rotor is supposedly permanently maintained. Practical implementations fail because there is no substantial energy in magnets that could be employed for propulsion or to compensate for energy losses. The force between permanent magnets is conservative as the magnetic field follows a potential, so that there is no work done over a closed cycle. After a short amount of time, such a motor will stop moving and assume an equilibrium position.
+Rationalizations of proponents about the nature of the energy source vary. Some argue with magnetic force only, leaving questions of conservation of energy aside. Some argue that permanent magnets contain stored magnetic energy, which will be consumed by the motor. Such energy that exists is limited to the energy spent during the production of the magnet, which is rather small. Also, this would lead to a rapid reduction of the magnetization over time, which is not observed. Other rationalizations include references to so-called free energy and zero-point energy, without explaining how these energies are liberated. Others claim that their motors could possibly convert heat energy from the environment to mechanical motion (perpetual motion machine of the second kind).
+
+
+== History ==
+
+First ideas of a magnetic motor were put forward by Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt in 1269, who imagined a toothed wheel that is continually moving by the force of magnets. A popular example of a magnet motor, although without rotating axis, was put forward by John Wilkins in 1670: A ramp with a magnet at the top, which pulled a metal ball up the ramp. Near the magnet was a small hole that was supposed to allow the ball to drop under the ramp and return to the bottom, where a flap allowed it to return to the top again. This device was later called the “Simple Magnetic Overunity Toy”. The complete theory of electromagnetism was only formulated by James Clerk Maxwell in 1865, and has been found valid up until today.
+
+Since the middle of the 20th century, a number of inventors claimed to have constructed various magnet motors. In 1954, German mechanical engineer Friedrich Lüling claimed to have realized a motor which could run with its permanent magnets for 10 to 20 years without interruption. On 8 February 1966, the UFA-Wochenschau reported on the invention. American engineer Howard Johnson filed the U.S. patent 4,151,431 on a permanent magnet motor in 1973, which was granted in 1979. A prototype of his motor was presented in 1980 in the popular scientific Science & Mechanics Magazine. Further magnet motors were designed by the Japanese entertainer Kohei Minato, who applied for patents in 1988, 1997 and 2005.
+The European Patent Office has not recognized a patent application for a magnet motor. Starting in 2006, “inventor” Mike Brady and his company Perendev-Group marketed such a motor and was charged with serious fraud in 2010 and sentenced to 5 years and 9 months imprisonment.
+In para-scientific circles, the magnet motor is still propagated and construction manuals are still distributed despite the lacking proof of function. In the beginning of the 21st century, the idea of a magnet motor has been increasingly propagated on the internet and a number of fake videos showing pretended running magnet motors have appeared on online video-sharing platforms. Addressing the question, why the magnet motor is still not adopted by the industry, despite its supposedly great potential, conspiracy theories are put forward: Magnet motors would provide free energy for everyone, harm the existing energy industry, and would thus be suppressed.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_therapy-0.md

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+---
+title: "Magnet therapy"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_therapy"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:38.416476+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Magnetic therapy is a pseudoscientific alternative medicine practice involving the weak static magnetic field produced by a permanent magnet which is placed on the body.  It is similar to the alternative medicine practice of electromagnetic therapy, which uses a magnetic field generated by an electrically powered device. Magnet therapy products may include wristbands, jewelry, blankets, and wraps that have magnets incorporated into them.
+Practitioners claim that subjecting certain parts of the body to weak electric or magnetic fields has beneficial health effects. These physical and biological claims are unproven and no effects on health or healing have been established. Although hemoglobin, the blood protein that carries oxygen, is weakly diamagnetic (when oxygenated) or paramagnetic (when deoxygenated), the magnets used in magnetic therapy are many orders of magnitude too weak to have any measurable effect on blood flow.
+This is not to be confused with transcranial magnetic stimulation, a scientifically valid form of therapy, or with pulsed electromagnetic field therapy.
+
+
+== Methods of application ==
+
+Magnet therapy involves applying the weak magnetic field of permanent magnets to the body, for purported health benefits. Different effects are assigned to different orientations of the magnet.
+Products include magnetic bracelets and jewelry; magnetic straps for wrists, ankles, knees, and back; shoe insoles; mattresses; magnetic blankets (blankets with magnets woven into the material); magnetic creams; magnetic supplements; plasters/patches and water that has been "magnetized". These products generally use neodymium and ferrite magnets and the application is usually performed by the patient.
+It is similar to the alternative medicine practice of electromagnetic therapy, which uses the weak electric or magnetic fields as well, but generated by electrically powered devices.
+
+
+== Suggested mechanisms of action ==
+Perhaps the most common suggested mechanism is that magnets might improve blood flow in underlying tissues. The field surrounding magnet therapy devices is far too weak and falls off with distance far too quickly to appreciably affect hemoglobin, other blood components, muscle tissue, bones, blood vessels, or organs. A 1991 study on humans of static field strengths up to 1 T found no effect on local blood flow. Tissue oxygenation is similarly unaffected. Some practitioners claim that the magnets can restore the body's hypothetical "electromagnetic energy balance", but no such balance is medically recognized. Even in the magnetic fields used in magnetic resonance imaging, which are many times stronger, none of the claimed effects are observed. If the body were meaningfully affected by the weak magnets used in magnet therapy, MRI would be impractical.
+
+
+== Efficacy ==
+Several studies have been conducted in recent years to investigate what role, if any, static magnetic fields may play in health and healing. Unbiased studies of magnetic therapy are problematic, since magnetisation can be easily detected, for instance, by the attraction forces on ferrous (iron-containing) objects; because of this, effective blinding of studies (where neither patients nor assessors know who is receiving treatment versus placebo) is difficult. Incomplete or insufficient blinding tends to exaggerate treatment effects, particularly where any such effects are small. Health claims regarding longevity and cancer treatment are implausible and unsupported by any research. More mundane health claims, most commonly about anecdotal pain relief, also lack any credible proposed mechanism and clinical research is not promising.
+The American Cancer Society states that "available scientific evidence does not support these claims". According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, studies of magnetic jewelry have not shown demonstrable effects on pain, nerve function, cell growth or blood flow.
+A 2008 systematic review of magnet therapy for all indications found insufficient evidence to determine whether magnet therapy is effective for pain relief, as did 2012 reviews focused on osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.  These reviews found that the data was either inconclusive or did not support a significant effect of magnet therapy. They also raised concerns about allocation concealment, small sample sizes, inadequate blinding, and heterogeneity of results, some of which may have biased results.
+
+
+== Safety ==
+These devices are generally considered safe in themselves, though there can be significant financial and opportunity costs to magnet therapy, especially when treatment or diagnosis are avoided or delayed. Use is not recommended with pacemakers, insulin pumps, and other devices that may be negatively affected by magnetic fields.
+
+
+== Reception ==
+The worldwide magnet therapy industry totals sales of over a billion dollars per year, including $300 million per year in the United States alone.
+A 2002 U.S. National Science Foundation report on public attitudes and understanding of science noted that magnet therapy is "not at all scientific." A number of vendors make unsupported claims about magnet therapy by using pseudoscientific and new-age language. Such claims are unsupported by the results of scientific and clinical studies.
+
+
+=== Legal regulations ===
+Marketing of any therapy as effective treatment for any condition is heavily restricted by law in many jurisdictions unless all such claims are scientifically validated. In the United States, for example, U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations prohibit marketing any magnet therapy product using medical claims, as such claims are unfounded.
+
+
+== See also ==
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Magnetic Therapy: Can magnets alleviate pain? by Cecil Adams — The Straight Dope
+Magnetic Therapy: Plausible Attraction? by James D. Livingston — Skeptical Inquirer
+Magnet therapy in the Skeptic's Dictionary by Robert Todd Carroll
+Magnet therapy — editorial in the British Medical Journal
+Magnet Therapy: A Skeptical View by Stephen Barrett — Quackwatch

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_water_treatment-0.md

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+---
+title: "Magnetic water treatment"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_water_treatment"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:39.552197+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Magnetic water treatment (also known as anti-scale magnetic treatment or AMT) is a disproven method of reducing the effects of hard water by passing it through a magnetic field as a non-chemical alternative to water softening. A 1996 study by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found no significant effect of magnetic water treatment on the formation of scale. As magnets affect water to a small degree, and water containing ions is more conductive than purer water, magnetic water treatment is an example of a valid scientific hypothesis that failed experimental testing and is thus disproven. Any products claiming to utilize magnetic water treatment are absolutely fraudulent.
+Vendors of magnetic water treatment devices frequently use photos and testimonials to support their claims, but omit quantitative detail and well-controlled studies. Advertisements and promotions generally omit system variables, such as corrosion or system mass balance analyticals, as well as measurements of post-treatment water such as concentration of hardness ions or the distribution, structure, and morphology of suspended particles.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Fouling
+Laundry ball
+Magnet therapy
+Pulsed-power water treatment
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_hysteria-0.md

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+---
+title: "Male hysteria"
+chunk: 1/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_hysteria"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:40.728766+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, hysteria was a common psychiatric diagnosis made primarily in women. The existence and nature of a purported male hysteria (hysteria masculina)  was a debated topic around the turn of the century. It was originally believed that men could not suffer from hysteria because of their lack of uterus. This belief was discarded in the 17th century when discourse identified the brain or mind, and not reproductive organs, as the root cause of hysteria. During World War I, hysterical men were diagnosed with shell shock or war neurosis, which later went on to shape modern theories on PTSD. The notion of male hysteria was initially connected to the post-traumatic disorder known as railway spine; later, it became associated with war neurosis.
+
+== History ==
+In the second half of the nineteenth century, hysteria was well-established as a diagnosis for certain psychiatric disorders. Although the original anatomical explanation of hysteria, the so-called wandering womb, was by this point abandoned, the diagnoses remained associated with (gender stereotypes of) females and female sexuality in the minds of physicians. Hysteria was joined in 1866 by a diagnosis for a very similar set of symptoms: railway spine, a nervous disorder caused by witnessing the accidents that the dangerous railways of the time generated in large numbers. John Eric Erichsen, who first diagnosed railway spine, explicitly rejected the hysteria diagnosis for his patients. He argued that diagnosing men with hysteria was unreasonable, "this term [being] employed merely to cloak a want of precise knowledge as to the real pathological state". Herbert Page, by contrast, argued for the hysteria label, finding what Erichsen called railway spine a functional disorder that was too similar to hysteria to warrant a separate diagnosis.
+The situation gradually began to change: in 1859, Paul Briquet remarked that "we saw little hysteria in men because we did not want to see it", and between 1875 and 1902, some three hundred medical articles were devoted to the topic of male hysteria, as well as dozens of dissertations.
+
+Statistical work in the 1880s finally turned the conception of hysteria on its head. In 1882, Jean-Martin Charcot had made a "radical" move by citing Briquet's estimate of hysteria having a 1:20 ratio of incidence in males compared to females, and added a section for male sufferers of hysteria to his Paris hospital, the Salpetrière.
+A subsequent German study came up with a 1:10 ratio, Georges Gilles de la Tourette then published a 1:2 or 1:3 estimate, and finally Charcot and his student Pierre Marie did a study of 704 cases of patients displaying symptoms of hysteria, finding that 525 of them were males. Before long, the French army became interested in the diagnosis and the nervous condition of its soldiers. Despite the notion of hysterical soldiers clashing with nationalist and revanchist ideas of the time, diagnoses of hysteria were soon made by military medical personnel. Male "traumatic hysteria", as defined by Charcot, was a distinct disease from female hysteria in that it was linked to traumatic shock rather than sexuality or emotional distress, so the gendered stereotyping was still at work to an extent in Charcot's thinking. This new category subsumed what British and American physicians had understood as railway spine.
+From Paris, Charcot's theories traveled east, carried by visitors to Charcot's hospital: the Germans Max Nonne and Hermann Oppenheim, and the Austrian Sigmund Freud. Nonne was originally skeptical, but ultimately became a proponent of the male hysteria diagnosis when dealing with the neurotics produced by the First World War. Oppenheim, on the other hand, was critical of Charcot's theories and sought to distinguish "traumatic hysteria" from "traumatic neurosis"; he and his colleague Thomsen found that the symptoms in their cases of railway spine were different enough from what was regarded as the symptoms of hysteria, at least in severity.
+Freud, in 1886, gave a paper about the topic of male hysteria to the Imperial Society of Physicians in Vienna. By this point, the incidence of "classical" hysteria in males was accepted by Freud's audience, but Charcot's traumatic variant was still controversial and evoked discussion among the present medical doctors. In later works, Freud would reject Charcot's distinction between the two types of hysteria, arguing that trauma is the cause of hysteria in both men and women, though he broadened the definition of trauma to include repressed memories of sexual experiences, and believed that recalling traumatic memories could cure hysteria. Freud even diagnosed himself and his brother with hysteria, recounting how he faced opposition (and, supposedly, ostracization) from Vienna's doctors, that followed a gendered view of hysteria, mostly based on etymologism. His followers would exhibit a gendered view of hysteria, associating it with latent homosexuality and the Oedipus complex.
+In Britain, Charcot's theories took on a different guise when it was suggested that hysteria in men was a disease of the "Latin races", to which Anglo-Saxon men were virtually immune. In Germany, too, a majority of the medical profession rejected Charcot's ideas, and medical journals circulated papers that labeled French men as more prone to hysteria than Teutons – "which, in the context of the time, meant that they were weaker, less virile, and more susceptible to degeneration". An 1889 case study of hysteria in a German soldier gave the French doctors the ammunition they needed for a counterattack. Aside from French and Germans, indigenous inhabitants of various remote regions, colonial populations, Jews and (retroactively) pre-Civil War American slaves were charged with high incidence rates of hysteria by European and white American doctors and anthropologists.

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+---
+title: "Male hysteria"
+chunk: 2/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_hysteria"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:40.728766+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Toward the end of the century, female hysteria became increasingly an anti-suffragist label in the popular press and came under attack from rising feminism, while the wars of the early twentieth century brought new attention to the male variant. The Boer War and the Russo-Japanese War produced hysterical symptoms in veterans in large enough numbers that in 1907 the label "war neurosis" was introduced to describe their specific condition. For the disorders seen in World War I veterans, additional terms such as shell-shock (coined by Charles Samuel Myers), and (in France) pthiatiques and simulateurs were invented to prevent labeling soldiers with the "feminizing" label of hysteria. Charcot's earlier work, meanwhile, was ignored, and shell-shock sufferers were regarded by their physicians as displaying the symptoms of "womanish, homosexual or childish impulses".
+
+== Shell shock and war neurosis ==
+Shell shock or war neurosis are forms of hysteria that manifested in soldiers during war time, especially World War I.  Symptoms that were previously considered somatic were reconsidered in a new light; trembling, paralysis, nightmares, mutism and apathy were grouped together in a broad spectrum psychological disorder known as "war neurosis".
+By 1916 40% of casualties in fighting areas were diagnosed with shell shock. As a consequence twenty more military hospitals were established specifically to treat these sufferers. The physical and emotional symptoms of war neurosis varies based on the military rank of the sufferer. However, sexual impotence stemming from a sense of powerlessness was common to all. Some of the physical symptoms displayed by low ranking officers were:
+
+paralyses and limps
+blindness
+deafness
+mutism (most common)
+limb contractures
+vomiting
+The symptoms displaying by ranking officers were more emotional/psychological in comparison to their soldiers:
+
+nightmares
+insomnia
+fatigue
+dizziness and disorientation
+anxiety attacks
+World War I was the first instance in which a war neurosis and mental trauma was rampant and affected soldiers considerably. This could be attributed to the particular form of fighting – trench warfare – which was impersonal and constantly kept the soldier on edge for the next attack. Eric Leed writes that war neurosis was a result of the breakdown of the previously personal relationship of the soldier and his means of fighting. Rivers considered the idea that the traumatized men resorted to neurotic behavior because of a loss of their usual defense mechanism – physical hand-to-hand combat.
+It was especially difficult for officers to maintain British ideals of masculinity. They were expected to be perfectly dressed, always motivated, and have a hunger for enemy blood, even though they were just as afraid and disillusioned as their soldiers. It does not come as surprise that war neurosis occurred four times more in officers than ordinary soldiers. Showalter argues that mental breakdowns of soldiers during the war was a form of protest against pre-conceived notions of Edwardian manliness that demand unifying patriotism and stoic lack of emotion.
+Treatment also depended on rank. Soldiers had to undergo disciplinary, quick treatments while officers had the luxury of psychotherapy.
+
+== Important physicians ==
+
+=== Jean-Martin Charcot ===
+Charcot was born in 1825 and received his M.D. from the University of Paris in 1853. He was appointed as associate professor of medicine in 1860, followed by a position of Head of Hospital Service at Salpêtrière in 1862.  Charcot published over sixty case reports of hysteria in boys and young men between 1878 and 1893.  He was dedicated to breaking the stereotype that hysteria manifested in wealthy or homosexual men, and insisted that it occurred in manual laborers as well. He was of the belief that the physical signs and symptoms of hysteria were identical in both sexes but claimed that the condition presented itself differently in the minds of men and women. Most noticeable was that he did not attribute sexual factors to the conditions of his male patients. He was thus able to diagnose men with hysteria because he kept away from theoretically controversial issues such as sexuality.
+
+=== W.H.R. Rivers ===
+Rivers was a Royal Army Military Corps physician who was the first Englishman to support Sigmund Freud's work in psychoanalytic theory, and went on to pioneer the British Psychoanalytic Society after the war. He was a supporter of the "talking cure".  Rivers' treatment drew heavily from Freud's 'talking cure', because he focused primarily on discussing hidden memories of trauma and dissecting war nightmares. Siegfried Sassoon records that he would record his dreams to be dissected by Rivers. Both Freud and Rivers were united in their conviction that addressing traumatic memories was the only way to give full recovery.
+
+==== Relationship with Siegfried Sassoon ====
+Sassoon was diagnosed with war neurosis by the military review board following a dramatic anti-war declaration in May 1917. He was ordered to receive treatment at Craiglockheart War Hospital headed by Rivers. It is difficult to tell of Sassoon was truly suffering from war neurosis. Rivers diagnosed him as having a "strong anti-war complex", and thus Rivers set about trying to convince Sassoon to rejoin battle by hinting that pacifism was unpatriotic. Sassoon's interactions with Rivers along with his poetry hinted at a possible homoerotic element in the physician-patient relationship.
+
+==== Craiglockheart War Hospital ====
+Craiglockheart was the birthplace of innovation in psychoanalytic therapy as evidenced by Rivers' work. Unlike other shell shock hospitals of the time, Craiglockheart allowed officers to engage in therapeutic hobbies such as writing, sports and photography. The hospital magazine, Hydra was a wonderful insight into the minds of lower-ranked officers, physicians and nurses alike – "Within its pages are a series of fascinating and revealing cartoons depicting, among other things, the traumatic nightmares most of those at the hydro suffered, Rivers' mystical reputation, and the often mixed feelings of soldiers on leaving the place". The most famous anti-war poem, Dulce et decorum est, was written at the hospital in 1917 by a renowned poet and war neurosis sufferer, Wilfred Owen.

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+---
+title: "Male hysteria"
+chunk: 3/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_hysteria"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:40.728766+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Lewis Yealland ===
+A Canadian-born medic, Yealland was an aggressive supporter of disciplinary treatment for war neurosis. He worked in Queen's Square during the war and to has been established that he and other medics tortured patients into recovery. He was among the first British physicians to use electric shock treatment and has been criticized heavily for doing so. In Yealland's view, patients were more amenable to the suggestion that they suffered from a physiological disturbance that could be potentially remedied by a physical treatment such as faradism.
+
+== Representations in popular culture ==
+
+=== Regeneration by Pat Barker ===
+Regeneration (1991)  is the first of a series of novels that deals with the psychological trauma caused by World War I on English officers who fought on the front lines. The plot revolves around the character of Siegfried Sassoon, a decorated officer who is sent to  Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh because he is said to be suffering from "Shell Shock".
+
+=== Redeployment by Phil Klay ===
+Phil Klay is a graduate of Dartmouth College and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. He served in Iraq's Anbar Province from January 2007 to February 2008 as a Public Affairs Officer. Redeployment (2014)  is a collection of short stories that transports the readers into the minds of the soldiers in Afghanistan as well as those who have recently returned from the frontline. The book shows the struggle of its characters as they grapple with guilt, hopeless and fear as they try to rationalize life on the front lines and back home.
+
+== See also ==
+Female hysteria
+Histrionic personality disorder
+Vapours (disease)
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_effect-0.md

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+---
+title: "Mars effect"
+chunk: 1/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:41.924157+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Mars effect is a purported statistical correlation between athletic eminence and the position of the planet Mars relative to the horizon at time and place of birth. This controversial finding was first reported by the French psychologist and "neo-astrologer" Michel Gauquelin.  In his book L'influence des astres ("The Influence of the Stars", 1955),  Gauquelin suggested that a statistically significant number of sports champions were born just after the planet Mars rises or culminates. He also divided the plane of the ecliptic into twelve sectors, identifying two "key" sectors of statistical significance.
+Gauquelin's work was accepted by the psychologist Hans Eysenck among others but later attempts to validate the data and replicate the effect have produced uneven results, chiefly owing to disagreements over the selection and analysis of the data set. Since the phenomenon in question depends upon the daily rotation of the Earth, the availability and accuracy of time and place of birth data is crucial to such studies, as is the criterion of "eminence". Later research claims to explain the Mars effect by selection bias, favouring champions who were born in a key sector of Mars and rejecting those who were not from the sample.
+
+== Reception and replication ==
+Gauquelin's work was not limited to the Mars effect: his calculations led him first to reject most of the conventions of natal astrology as it is practised in the modern west but he singled out "highly significant statistical correlations between planetary positions and the birth times of eminently successful people." This claim concerned not only Mars but five planets, correlated with eminence in fields broadly compatible with the traditional "planetary rulerships" of astrology. However, partly because eminence in sport is more quantifiable, later research, publicity and controversy has tended to single out the "Mars effect".
+
+=== Belgian athletes – the Comité Para ===
+In 1956 Gauquelin invited the Belgian Comité Para to review his findings but it was not until 1962 that Jean Dath corroborated the statistics Gauquelin had presented and suggested an attempt at duplication using Belgian athletes. By this time Gauquelin had published Les Hommes et Les Astres (Men and the Stars, 1960), offering further data. The Comité Para tested the Mars effect in 1967 and replicated it, though most of the data (473 of 535) were still collected by Gauquelin himself. The committee, suspecting that the results might have been an artifact, withheld its findings for a further eight years, then cited unspecified “demographic errors” in its findings. Unpublished internal analyses contradicted this and one committee member, Luc de Marré, resigned in protest. In 1983 Abell, Kurtz and Zelen (see below) published a reappraisal, rejecting the idea of demographic errors, saying, “Gauquelin adequately allowed for demographic and astronomical factors in predicting the expected distribution of Mars sectors for birth times in the general population.”

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+---
+title: "Mars effect"
+chunk: 2/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:41.924157+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== The Zelen test ===
+In 1975 Paul Kurtz's journal The Humanist published an article on astrology criticizing Gauquelin, to which the latter and his wife Françoise responded. Then Professor Marvin Zelen, a statistician and associate of the recently founded Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP, now known as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI)), proposed in a 1976 article in the same periodical that, in order to eliminate any demographic anomaly, Gauquelin randomly pick 100 athletes from his data-set of 2,088 and check the birth/planet correlations of a sample of babies born at the same times and places in order to establish a control group, giving the base-rate (chance) expectation for comparison (The 100 random athletes later expanded into a subsample of 303 athletes).
+In April 1977 CSICOP researcher George O. Abell wrote to Kurtz stating that Zelen's test had come out in the Gauquelins' favour. The Gauquelins also performed the test that Professor Zelen had proposed and carried out and found that the chance Mars-in-key-sector expectation for the general population (i.e., non-champions) was about 17%, significantly less than the 22% observed for athletic champions. However the subsequent article by Zelen, Abell and Kurtz did not clearly state this outcome but rather questioned the original data. In a rebuttal of the Gauquelins' published conclusion, Marvin Zelen analysed the composition, not of the 17,000 non-champions of the control group, but of the 303 champions, splitting this secondary subsample (which was already nearly too small to test 22% vs 17%) by eliminating female athletes, a subgroup that gave the results most favourable to Gauquelin, and dividing the remaining athletes into city/rural sections and Parisian/non-Parisian sections.
+Before and after publication of Zelen's results astronomer and charter CSICOP member Dennis Rawlins, the CSICOP Council's only astronomer at the time, repeatedly objected to the procedure and to CSICOP's subsequent reporting of it. Rawlins privately urged that the Gauquelins' results were valid and the “Zelen test” could only uphold this and that Zelen had diverted from the original purpose of the control test, which was to check the base rate of births with Mars in the "key" sectors. It appeared to him that the test had minimised the significance of the Mars/key-sector correlations with athletes by splitting the sample of athletes and that the experimenters, who were supposed to be upholding scientific standards, were actually distorting and manipulating evidence to conceal the result of an ill-considered test.
+The Kurtz-Zelen-Abell analysis had split the sample primarily to examine the randomness of the 303 selected champions, the non-randomness of which Rawlins demonstrated in 1975 and 1977. Zelen's 1976 "Challenge to Gauquelin" had stated: "We now have an objective way for unambiguous corroboration or disconfirmation ... to settle this question", whereas this aim was now disputed. Rawlins made procedural objections, stating; "... we find an inverse correlation between size and deviation in the Mars-athletes subsamples (that is, the smaller the subsample, the larger the success) – which is what one would expect if bias had infected the blocking off of the sizes of the subsamples".
+CSICOP also contended, after reviewing the results, that the Gauquelins had not chosen randomly. They had had difficulty finding sufficient same-week and same-village births to compare with champions born in rural areas and so had chosen only champions born in larger cities. The Gauquelins' original total list of about 2,088 champions had included 42 Parisians and their subsample of 303 athletes also included 42 Parisians. Further, Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements, different economic classes and ethnic groups typically inhabiting different arrondissements. The Gauquelins had compared the 42 Parisian champions (who had been born throughout Paris) to non-champions of only one arrondissement. If the 22% correlation was an artifact partly based on factors such as rural recordkeeping, economic, class or ethnic differences in birth patterns, this fact would be blurred by this non-random selection.
+
+=== U.S. athletes – CSICOP ===
+At the same time CSICOP began a study of U.S. athletes in consultation with Zelen, Abell and Rawlins. The results, published in 1979 showed a negative result. Gauquelin contended the KZA group demonstrated an overall preference for mediocre athletes and ignored his criteria of eminence and that they included basketball players and people born after 1950.
+
+=== CFEPP test ===
+In 1994 the results of a major study undertaken by the Committee for the Study of Paranormal Phenomena (Comité pour l’Étude des Phénomènes Paranormaux, or CFEPP) in France found no evidence whatsoever of a "Mars Effect" in the births of athletes. The study had been proposed in 1982 and the committee had agreed in advance to use the protocol upon which Gauquelin insisted. The CFEPP report was “leaked” to the Dutch newspaper Trouw.
+In 1990 the CFEPP had issued a preliminary report on the study, which used 1,066 French sports champions, giving full data for the 1,066 as well as the names of 373 who fit the criteria but for whom birth times were unavailable, discussing methodology and listing data-selection criteria. In 1996 the report, with a commentary by J. W. Nienhuys and several letters from Gauquelin to the committee, was published in book form as The Mars Effect – A French Test of Over 1,000 Sports Champions. The CFEPP stated that its experiment showed no effect and concluded that the effect was attributable to bias in Gauquelin's data selection, pointing to the suggestions made by Gauquelin to the committee for changes in their list of athletes. The CFEPP report was criticized by Suitbert Ertel on similar grounds as the American study – for including too many mediocre athletes – and also for using a too high chance-expectancy level. According to Ertel, a Mars effect could be detected by dividing the athletes into groups of eminence grading.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_effect-2.md

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+---
+title: "Mars effect"
+chunk: 3/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:41.924157+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Statistical explanation ===
+Some researchers argued that Gauquelin did not adjust the statistical significance of the Mars Effect for multiple comparisons and did not address the issue in his publications. Simplified and illustrative showcase argument is explained here: There are 10 celestial bodies and 12 sectors for them to be in. Furthermore, there are 132 combinations of sector pairs and thus 1320 different combinations of a planet with two sectors. There is about a 25% chance to find at least one such combination (of one planet and two sectors) for a random dataset of the same size as Gauquelin's that would yield a result with apparent statistical significance like the one obtained by Gauquelin. This implies that after adjusting for multiple comparisons, the Mars effect is no longer statistically significant even at the modest significance level of 0.05 and is probably a false positive. But the multiple comparisons argument is countered or weakened if it is proven that an effect shows up in more than one study. Some argue that the latter is the case.
+Geoffrey Dean has suggested that the effect may be caused by self-reporting of birth dates by parents rather than any issue with the study by Gauquelin. Gauquelin had failed to find the Mars effect in populations after 1950. Dean has put forward the idea that this may be due to increases in doctors reporting the time of birth rather than parents. Information about misreporting was unavailable to Gauquelin at the time. Dean had said that misreporting by 3% of the sample would explain the result.
+
+== See also ==
+Scientific skepticism
+Outliers: The Story of Success - offers a simple explanation to a specific known relationship between season of birth and success in Canadian hockey leagues
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+George O. Abell, Paul Kurtz, and Marvin Zelen (1983).  The Abell-Kurtz-Zelen "Mars Effect" Experiments: A Reappraisal, Skeptical Inquirer Vol 7 #3, Fall 1983, 77–82.
+Michel Gauquelin (1969). The Scientific Basis for Astrology. Stein and Day Publishers. New York, 1969. Paperback version: Natl Book Network, 1970 ISBN 0-8128-1350-2.
+Paul Kurtz, Marvin Zelen, and George O. Abell (1979). Response to the Gauquelins, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 4 #2, Winter 1979–80, 44–63.
+de Jager, C (1990), "Science Fringe Science and Pseudo-Science", R.A.S. Quarterly Journal, 31 (1/MAR): 40–43, Bibcode:1990QJRAS..31...31D

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_astrology-0.md

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+---
+title: "Medical astrology"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_astrology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:43.106242+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Medical astrology or astrological medicine (traditionally known as iatromathematics) is an ancient applied branch of astrology based mostly on melothesia (Gr. μελοθεσία), the association of various parts of the body, diseases, and drugs with the nature of the sun, moon, planets, and the twelve astrological signs. The underlying basis for medical astrology is considered to be a pseudoscience as there is no scientific basis for its core beliefs.
+Hippocratic Greek medical training included a doctrine of dies decretorii ("critical days"). Galen believed that heavenly bodies influenced human life but he had his misgivings about the predictions made by "horoscope-casters" (genethliakoi). Astrology was however considered as a foundation for medical practice in ancient Greece and Arabia. In Italy astrological studies as part of a training for medicine was routine in Bologna. The training was not that strong in England but in medical practice astrological circumstances were claimed in cases to absolve surgeons of any blame. In England, Robert Fludd in his Medicina Catholica (Frankfort, 1629) noted that medicine, theology, and astrology formed a single unified discipline. Astrological medicine declined after the 17th century but there were calls for its renewal in 1928 by Rudyard Kipling who considered modern medicine too narrow.
+
+
+== List of works ==
+Medical astrology was mentioned by Marcus Manilius (1st century AD) in his epic poem (8000 verses) Astronomica.
+Ficino, Marsilio, Three Books on Life (1489) [De vita libri tre] translated by Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark, Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton and The Rneaissance Society of America (1989.) ISBN 0-86698-041-5
+Lilly, William, Christian Astrology (1647)
+Culpepper, Nicholas, Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick (1655) ISBN 1-5381-0113-0
+Saunders, Richard, The Astrological Judgment and Practice of Physick (1677) ISBN 1-161-41322-7
+Cornell, H.L., M.D., The Encyclopaedia of Medical Astrology (1933), Astrology Classics [Abington, MD, 2010.]
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+=== Bibliography ===
+Greenbaum, Dorian Gieseler (2015). "Astronomy, Astrology, and Medicine". Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. pp. 117–132. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_19. ISBN 978-1-4614-6140-1. This chapter covers the topic of astronomy, astrology, and medicine from the Old Babylonian period to the Enlightenment.
+Harrison, Mark (2000). "From medical astrology to medical astronomy: Sol-lunar and planetary theories of disease in British medicine, c. 1700–1850". The British Journal for the History of Science. 33 (116 Pt 1): 25–48. doi:10.1017/S0007087499003854. PMID 11624340. S2CID 22247498.
+Resor, C. W. (June 3, 2020). "The Zodiac Man: How Astrology Guided Health Care". Primary Source Bazaar.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_intuitive-0.md

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+---
+title: "Medical intuitive"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_intuitive"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:44.275517+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A medical intuitive is an alternative medicine practitioner who is purported to be able to use their intuitive abilities to find the cause of a physical or emotional condition through the use of insight rather than modern medicine. Other terms for such a person include medical clairvoyant or medical psychic.
+
+
+== History ==
+The practice of claiming to use intuition or clairvoyance for medical information dates back to Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802–1866), whose intuitive healing practice began in 1854. Edgar Cayce (1877–1945) was known as one of the most well known medical clairvoyants. William M. Branham, the father of the Pentecostal Latter Rain Movement, was said by his followers to be able to discern the health condition of people that attended his services, and in many cases heal them of their affliction.
+
+
+== Reception ==
+Making a formal medical diagnosis is not a practice for many medical intuitives. In a few cases medical intuitives have been hired by hospitals, clinics and medical offices, particularly in California. Many medical professionals and psychologists attribute perceived anecdotal successes by medical intuitives to a combination of wishful thinking, confirmation bias, the placebo effect, and regression fallacy associated with self-limiting conditions.
+A few educational institutions offer graduate degrees that include "research-based training" and certifications for medical intuitives. Other medical intuitives may be licensed medical professionals and their ability to accurately diagnose diseases and heal may not be supported by scientific evidence.
+In 2009 Steven Novella, writing on Science Based Medicine, calls medical intuitive diagnosis as "purely magical thinking" and refers to a Huffington Post article about it as "a promotion of a dubious pseudoscientific medical claim".
+
+
+== See also ==
+Energy medicine
+Faith healing
+Psychic
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediumship-0.md

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+---
+title: "Mediumship"
+chunk: 1/13
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediumship"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:45.598694+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spirit channelling, including séance tables, trance, and ouija. The practice is associated with spiritualism and spiritism. A similar New Age practice is known as channeling.
+Belief in psychic ability is widespread despite the absence of empirical evidence for its existence. Scientific researchers have attempted to ascertain the validity of claims of mediumship for more than one hundred years and have consistently failed to confirm them. As late as 2005, an experiment undertaken by the British Psychological Society reaffirmed that test subjects who self-identified as mediums demonstrated no mediumistic ability.
+Mediumship gained popularity during the nineteenth century when ouija boards were used as a source of entertainment. Investigations during this period revealed widespread fraud—with some practitioners employing techniques used by stage magicians—and the practice began to lose credibility. Fraud is still rife in the medium or psychic industry, with cases of deception and trickery being discovered to this day.
+Several different variants of mediumship have been described; arguably the best-known forms involve a spirit purportedly taking control of a medium's voice and using it to relay a message, or where the medium simply "hears" the message and passes it on. Other forms involve materializations of the spirit or the presence of a voice, and telekinetic activity.
+
+== Concept ==
+
+In Spiritism and Spiritualism the medium has the role of an intermediary between the world of the living and the world of spirit. Mediums say that they can listen to and relay messages from spirits, or that they can allow a spirit to control their body and speak through it directly or by using automatic writing or drawing.
+Spiritualists classify types of mediumship into two main categories: "mental" and "physical":
+
+Mental mediums purportedly "tune in" to the spirit world by listening, sensing, or seeing spirits or symbols.
+Physical mediums are believed to produce the materialization of spirits, apports of objects, and other effects such as knocking, rapping, bell-ringing, etc. by using "ectoplasm" created from the cells of their bodies and those of séance attendees.
+During seances, mediums are said to go into trances, varying from light to deep, that permit spirits to control their minds.
+Channeling can be seen as the modern form of the old mediumship, where the "channel" (or channeller) purportedly receives messages from "teaching-spirit", an "Ascended master", from God, or from an angelic entity, but essentially through the filter of his own waking consciousness (or "Higher Self").
+
+== History ==
+Attempts to communicate with the dead and other living human beings, aka spirits, have been documented back to early human history, such as the Biblical account of the Witch of Endor.
+Mediumship became quite popular in the 19th-century United States and the United Kingdom after the rise of Spiritualism as a religious movement. Modern Spiritualism is said to date from practices and lectures of the Fox sisters in New York State in 1848. The trance mediums Paschal Beverly Randolph and Emma Hardinge Britten were among the most celebrated lecturers and authors on the subject in the mid-19th century. Allan Kardec coined the term Spiritism around 1860. Kardec wrote that conversations with spirits by selected mediums were the basis of his The Spirits' Book and later, his five-book collection, Spiritist Codification.
+Some scientists of the period who investigated Spiritualism also became converts. They included chemist Robert Hare, physicist William Crookes (1832–1919) and evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913). Nobel laureate Pierre Curie took a very serious scientific interest in the work of medium Eusapia Palladino. Other prominent adherents included journalist and pacifist William T. Stead (1849–1912) and physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930).
+After the exposure of the fraudulent use of stage magic tricks by physical mediums such as the Davenport Brothers and the Bangs Sisters, mediumship fell into disrepute. However, the religion and its beliefs continue in spite of this, with physical mediumship and seances falling out of practice and platform mediumship coming to the fore. 
+In the late 1920s and early 1930s there were around one quarter of a million practising Spiritualists and some two thousand Spiritualist societies in the UK in addition to flourishing microcultures of platform mediumship and 'home circles'. Spiritualism continues to be practised, primarily through various denominational Spiritualist churches in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, over 340 Spiritualist churches and centres open their doors to the public and free demonstrations of mediumship are regularly performed.
+
+== Terminology ==
+
+=== Spirit guide ===
+
+In 1958, American Spiritualist C. Dorreen Phillips wrote of her experiences with a medium at Camp Chesterfield, Indiana: "In Rev. James Laughton's séances there are many Indians. They are very noisy and appear to have great power. [...] The little guides, or doorkeepers, are usually Indian boys and girls [who act] as messengers who help to locate the spirit friends who wish to speak with you."
+
+=== Spirit operator ===
+A spirit who uses a medium to manipulate psychic "energy" or "energy systems."
+
+=== Demonstrations of mediumship ===
+
+In old-line Spiritualism, a portion of the services, generally toward the end, is given over to demonstrations of mediumship through purported contact with the spirits of the dead. A typical example of this way of describing a mediumistic church service is found in the 1958 autobiography of C. Dorreen Phillips. She writes of the worship services at the Spiritualist Camp Chesterfield in Chesterfield, Indiana: "Services are held each afternoon, consisting of hymns, a lecture on philosophy, and demonstrations of mediumship."
+Today "demonstration of mediumship" is part of the church service at all churches affiliated with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC) and the Spiritualists' National Union (SNU). Demonstration links to NSAC's Declaration of Principal #9. "We affirm that the precepts of Prophecy and Healing are Divine attributes proven through Mediumship."

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+---
+title: "Mediumship"
+chunk: 2/13
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediumship"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:45.598694+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Mental mediumship ===
+"Mental mediumship" is communication of spirits with a medium by telepathy. The medium mentally "hears" (clairaudience), "sees" (clairvoyance), and/or feels (clairsentience) messages from spirits. Directly or with the help of a spirit guide, the medium passes the information on to the message's recipient(s). When a medium is doing a "reading" for a particular person, that person is known as the "sitter".
+
+=== Trance mediumship ===
+In the 1860s and 1870s, trance mediums, also known as trance speakers, were very popular; this allowed female adherents, many who had strong interests in social justice, to speak in public in an era where doing so went against existing social norms. Many trance mediums delivered passionate speeches on abolitionism, temperance, and women's suffrage. Scholars have described Leonora Piper as one of the most famous trance mediums in the history of Spiritualism.
+Trance speakers believed that entering a trance gave them access to the spirits and, through them, to knowledge inaccessible in the waking world. Sometimes an assistant would write down the medium's words, such as in the early 20th century collaboration between the trance medium Mrs. Cecil M. Cook of the William T. Stead Memorial Center in Chicago (a religious body incorporated under the statutes of the State of Illinois) and the journalist Lloyd Kenyon Jones. The latter was a non-medium Spiritualist who transcribed Cook's messages in shorthand. He edited them for publication in book and pamphlet form.
+
+Castillo (1995) states, Trance phenomena result from the behavior of intense focusing of attention, which is the key psychological mechanism of trance induction. Adaptive responses, including institutionalized forms of trance, are 'tuned' into neural networks in the brain.
+
+=== Physical mediumship ===
+
+Physical mediumship is defined as manipulation of energies and energy systems by spirits. This type of mediumship is said to involve perceptible manifestations, such as loud raps and noises, voices, materialized objects, apports, materialized spirit bodies, or body parts such as hands, legs and feet. The medium is used as a source of power for such spirit manifestations. By some accounts, this was achieved by using the energy or ectoplasm released by a medium, see spirit photography. The last physical medium to be tested by a committee from Scientific American was Mina Crandon in 1924.
+Most physical mediumship is presented in a darkened or dimly lit room. Most physical mediums make use of a traditional array of tools and appurtenances, including spirit trumpets, spirit cabinets, and levitation tables.
+
+=== Direct voice ===
+Direct voice communication refers to the hypothesis that spirits speak independently of the medium, who facilitates the phenomenon rather than produces it. The role of the medium is to make the connection between the physical and spirit worlds. Trumpets are often utilised to amplify the signal, and directed voice mediums are sometimes known as "trumpet mediums". This form of mediumship also permits the medium to participate in the discourse during séances, since the medium's voice is not required by the spirit to communicate. Leslie Flint was one of the best known exponents of this form of mediumship.
+
+== Psychic senses ==
+
+Senses used by mental mediums are sometimes defined differently from in other paranormal fields. A medium is said to have psychic abilities but not all psychics function as mediums. The term clairvoyance, for instance, may include seeing spirit and visions instilled by the spirit world.  The Parapsychological Association defines "clairvoyance" as information derived directly from an external physical source.
+
+Clairvoyance or "clear seeing", is the ability to see anything that is not physically present, such as objects, animals or people. This sight occurs "in the mind's eye".  Some mediums say that this is their normal vision state. Others say that they must train their minds with such practices as meditation in order to achieve this ability, and that assistance from spiritual helpers is often necessary. Some clairvoyant mediums can see a spirit as though the spirit has a physical body. They see the bodily form as if it were physically present. Other mediums see the spirit in their mind's eye, or it appears as a movie or a television programme or a still picture like a photograph in their mind.
+Clairaudience or "clear hearing", is usually defined as the ability to hear the voices or thoughts of spirits. Some mediums hear as though they are listening to a person talking to them on the outside of their head, as though the Spirit is next to or near to the medium, and other mediums hear the voices in their minds as a verbal thought.
+Clairsentience or "clear sensing", is the ability to have an impression of what a spirit wants to communicate, or to feel sensations instilled by a spirit.
+Clairsentinence or "clear feeling" is a condition in which the medium takes on the ailments of a spirit, feeling the same physical problem which the spirit person had before death.
+Clairalience or "clear smelling" is the ability to smell a spirit. For example, a medium may smell the pipe tobacco of a person who smoked during life.
+Clairgustance or "clear tasting" is the ability to receive taste impressions from a spirit.
+Claircognizance or "clear knowing", is the ability to know something without receiving it through normal or psychic senses.  It is a feeling of "just knowing".  Often, a medium will say that they have a feeling that a message or situation is "right" or "wrong."
+
+== Explanations ==
+
+=== Paranormal belief ===
+Spiritualists believe that phenomena produced by mediums (both mental and physical mediumship) are the result of external spirit agencies. The psychical researcher Thomson Jay Hudson in The Law of Psychic Phenomena (1892) and Théodore Flournoy in his book Spiritism and Psychology (1911) wrote that all kinds of mediumship could be explained by suggestion and telepathy from the medium and that there was no evidence for the spirit hypothesis. The idea of mediumship being explained by telepathy was later merged into the "super-ESP" hypothesis of mediumship which is currently advocated by some parapsychologists.

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+title: "Mediumship"
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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediumship"
+category: "reference"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:45.598694+00:00"
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+---
+
+The British journalist Ruth Brandon published the book The Spiritualists (1983) which exposed the fraud of the Victorian mediums. The book received positive reviews and has been influential to skeptics of spiritualism. The British apport medium Paul McElhoney was exposed as a fraud during a séance in Osset, Yorkshire in 1983. The tape recorder that McElhoney took to his séances was investigated and a black tape was discovered bound around the battery compartment and inside carnation flowers were found as well as a key-ring torch and other objects.
+In 1988, the magician Bob Couttie criticized the paranormal author Brian Inglis for deliberately ignoring evidence of fraud in mediumship. Couttie wrote Inglis had not familiarized himself with magician techniques. In 1990 the researcher Gordon Stein discovered that the levitation photograph of the medium Carmine Mirabelli was fraudulent. The photograph was a trick as there were signs of chemical retouching under Mirabelli's feet. The retouching showed that Mirabelli was not levitating but was standing on a ladder which was erased from the photograph.
+In 1991, Wendy Grossman in the New Scientist criticized the parapsychologist Stephen E. Braude for ignoring evidence of fraud in mediumship. According to Grossman "[Braude] accuses sceptics of ignoring the evidence he believes is solid, but himself ignores evidence that does not suit him. If a medium was caught cheating on some occasions, he says, the rest of that medium's phenomena were still genuine." Grossman came to the conclusion that Braude did not do proper research on the subject and should study "the art of conjuring."
+In 1992, Richard Wiseman analyzed the Feilding report of Eusapia Palladino and argued that she employed a secret accomplice that could enter the room by a fake door panel positioned near the séance cabinet. Wiseman discovered this trick was already mentioned in a book from 1851, he also visited a carpenter and skilled magician who constructed a door within an hour with a false panel. The accomplice was suspected to be her second husband, who insisted on bringing Palladino to the hotel where the séances took place. Massimo Polidoro and Gian Marco Rinaldi also analyzed the Feilding report but came to the conclusion no secret accomplice was needed as Palladino during the 1908 Naples séances could have produced the phenomena by using her foot.
+Colin Fry was exposed in 1992 when during a séance the lights were unexpectedly turned on and he was seen holding a spirit trumpet in the air, which the audience had been led to believe was being levitated by spiritual energy. In 1997, Massimo Polidoro and Luigi Garlaschelli produced wax-moulds directly from one's hand which were exactly the same copies as Gustav Geley obtained from Franek Kluski, which are kept at the Institute Metapsychique International.
+
+A series of mediumistic séances known as the Scole Experiment took place between 1993 and 1998 in the presence of the researchers David Fontana, Arthur Ellison and Montague Keen. This has produced photographs, audio recordings and physical objects which appeared in the dark séance room (known as apports). A criticism of the experiment was that it was flawed because it did not rule out the possibility of fraud. The skeptical investigator Brian Dunning wrote the Scole experiments fail in many ways. The séances were held in the basement of two of the mediums, only total darkness was allowed with no night vision apparatus as it might "frighten the spirits away". The box containing the film was not examined and could easily have been accessible to fraud. And finally, even though many years have passed, there has been no follow-up, no further research by any credible agency or published accounts.
+
+=== Recent ===
+
+The VERITAS Research Program of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona, run by the parapsychologist Gary Schwartz, was created primarily to test the hypothesis that the consciousness (or identity) of a person survives physical death. Schwartz claimed his experiments were indicative of survival, but do not yet provide conclusive proof. The experiments described by Schwartz have received criticism from the scientific community for being inadequately designed and using poor controls.
+Ray Hyman discovered many methodological errors with Schwartz's research including; "Inappropriate control comparisons", "Failure to use double-blind procedures", "Creating non-falsifiable outcomes by reinterpreting failures as successes" and "Failure to independently check on facts the sitters endorsed as true".  Hyman wrote "Even if the research program were not compromised by these defects, the claims being made would require replication by independent investigators." Hyman criticizes Schwartz's decision to publish his results without gathering "evidence for their hypothesis that would meet generally accepted scientific criteria... they have lost credibility."
+In 2003, skeptic investigator Massimo Polidoro in his book Secrets of the Psychics documented the history of fraud in mediumship and spiritualistic practices as well as the psychology of psychic deception. Terence Hines in his book Pseudoscience and the Paranormal (2003) has written:

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+title: "Mediumship"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:45.598694+00:00"
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+
+Modern spiritualists and psychics keep detailed files on their victims. As might be expected, these files can be very valuable and are often passed on from one medium or psychic to another when one retires or dies. Even if a psychic doesn't use a private detective or have immediate access to driver's license records and such, there is still a very powerful technique that will allow the psychic to convince people that the psychic knows all about them, their problems, and their deep personal secrets, fears, and desires. The technique is called cold reading and is probably as old as charlatanism itself... If John Edward (or any of the other self-proclaimed speakers with the dead) really could communicate with the dead, it would be a trivial matter to prove it. All that would be necessary would be for him to contact any of the thousands of missing persons who are presumed dead—famous (e.g., Jimmy Hoffa, Judge Crater) or otherwise—and correctly report where the body is. Of course, this is never done. All we get, instead, are platitudes to the effect that Aunt Millie, who liked green plates, is happy on the other side.
+An experiment conducted by the British Psychological Society in 2005 suggests that under the controlled condition of the experiment, people who claimed to be professional mediums do not demonstrate the mediumistic ability. In the experiment, mediums were assigned to work the participants chosen to be "sitters." The mediums claimed to contact the deceased who were related to the sitters. The research gather the numbers of the statements made and have the sitters rate the accuracy of the statements. The readings that were considered to be somewhat accurate by the sitters were very generalized, and the ones that were considered inaccurate were the ones that were very specific.
+On Fox News on the Geraldo at Large show, October 6, 2007, Geraldo Rivera and other investigators accused Schwartz of being a fraud as he had overstepped his position as a university researcher by requesting over three million dollars from a bereaved father who had lost his son. Schwartz claimed to have contacted the spirit of a 25-year-old man in the bathroom of his parents house and it is alleged he attempted to charge the family 3.5 million dollars for his mediumship services. Schwartz responded saying that the allegations were set up to destroy his science credibility.
+In 2013 Rose Marks and members of her family were convicted of fraud for a series of crimes spanning 20 years entailing between $20 and $45 million. They told vulnerable clients that to solve their problems they had to give the purported psychics money and valuables. Marks and family promised to return the cash and goods after "cleansing" them. Prosecutors established they had no intent to return the property.
+The exposures of fraudulent activity led to a rapid decline in ectoplasm and materialization séances. Investigator Joe Nickell has written that modern self-proclaimed mediums like John Edward, Sylvia Browne, Rosemary Altea and James Van Praagh are avoiding the Victorian tradition of dark rooms, spirit handwriting and flying tambourines as these methods risk exposure.  They instead use "mental mediumship" tactics like cold reading or gleaning information from sitters beforehand (hot reading).  Group readings also improve hits by making general statements with conviction, which will fit at least one person in the audience.  Shows are carefully edited before airing to show only what appears to be hits and removing anything that does not reflect well on the medium.
+Michael Shermer criticized mediums in Scientific American, saying, "mediums are unethical and dangerous: they prey on the emotions of the grieving. As grief counselors know, death is best faced head-on as a part of life." Shermer wrote that the human urge to seek connections between events that may form patterns meaningful for survival is a function of natural evolution, and called the alleged ability of mediums to talk to the dead "a well-known illusion of a meaningful pattern."
+According to James Randi, a skeptic who has debunked many claims of psychic ability and uncovered fraudulent practices, mediums who do cold readings "fish, suggest possibilities, make educated guesses and give options." Randi offered $1 million US dollars for anyone who could demonstrate psychic ability under controlled conditions. Most prominent psychics and mediums did not take up his offer.
+The key role in mediumship of this sort is played by "effect of subjective confirmation" (see Barnum effect)—people are predisposed to consider reliable that information which though is casual coincidence or a guess, however it seems to them personally important and significant and answers their personal belief.
+The article about this phenomenon in Encyclopædia Britannica places emphasis that "... one by one spiritual mediums were convicted of fraud, sometimes using the tricks borrowed from scenic "magicians" to convince their paranormal abilities". In the article it is also noted that "... the opening of the wide ranging fraud happening on spiritualistic sessions caused serious damage to reputation of the movement of a Spiritualism and in the USA pushed it on the public periphery".
+In March 2017, medium Thomas John was targeted in a sting operation and caught doing a hot reading. The sting was planned and implemented by skeptical activist Susan Gerbic and mentalist Mark Edward. The unmarried couple attended John's show using aliases, and were "read" as a married couple Susanna and Mark Wilson by John. During the entire reading, John failed to determine the actual identities of Gerbic and Edward, or that they were being deceptive during his reading. All personal information he gave them matched what was on their falsified Facebook accounts, rather than being about their actual lives, and John pretended he was getting this information from Gerbic and Edward's supposedly dead—but actually nonexistent—relatives.
+As Jack Hitt reported in The New York Times:

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+
+"Over the course of the reading, John comfortably laid down the specifics of Susanna Wilson’s life — he named “Andy” and amazingly knew him to be her twin. He knew that she and her brother grew up in Michigan and that his girlfriend was Maria. He knew about Susanna’s father-in-law and how he died."
+These details were from the falsified Facebook accounts for the pair which were prepared by a group of skeptics in advance of the reading, and Gerbic and Edward were not aware of the specific information in these accounts. This blinding was done in order to avoid John later being able to claim he obtained the false information by reading Gerbic and Edward's minds. In her report, Gerbic also revealed that during an after-show private event, John disclosed in a group setting that at least one of the people in the audience which he did a reading about was actually his own student.
+The same week that the Thomas John sting revelation was made in The New York Times, John's claimed mediumship abilities portrayed in the Lifetime reality TV show called Seatbelt Psychic were challenged by Gerbic in an article published by Skeptical Inquirer. In the show, John is a ride-share driver who surprises "unsuspecting" passengers when he delivers messages from their deceased relatives. Gerbic investigated and revealed that John's passengers are actually actors, several of which are documented in IMDb. Gerbic concluded that the riders were likely hired to ride with John, but were probably not acting when talking with him. She concluded that the details about their lives mentioned by John were easily found on social media sources, and likely fed to John, making the readings actually hot readings. One rider, Wendy Westmoreland, played a character on Stalked by a Doctor, a TV show also produced by Lifetime.
+
+== See also ==
+Automatic writing
+Faith healing
+List of channelers
+List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
+Séance
+Spirit possession
+Spiritualism
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Edward Clodd. (1917). The Question: A Brief History and Examination of Modern Spiritualism. Grant Richards, London.
+Stuart Cumberland. (1919). Spiritualism: The Inside Truth. London: Odhams.
+Joseph Dunninger. (1935). Inside the Medium's Cabinet. New York, D. Kemp and Company.
+Willis Dutcher. (1922). On the Other Side of the Footlights: An Expose of Routines, Apparatus and Deceptions Resorted to by Mediums, Clairvoyants, Fortune Tellers and Crystal Gazers in Deluding the Public. Berlin, WI: Heaney Magic.
+Walter Mann. (1919). The Follies and Frauds of Spiritualism. Rationalist Association. London: Watts & Co.
+Joseph McCabe. (1920). Scientific Men and Spiritualism: A Skeptic's Analysis. The Living Age. June 12. pp. 652–57. A skeptical look at SPR members who had supported Spiritualism, concludes they were duped by fraudulent mediums.
+Joseph McCabe. (1920). Is Spiritualism Based On Fraud? The Evidence Given By Sir A. C. Doyle and Others Drastically Examined. London: Watts & Co.
+Georgess McHargue. (1972). Facts, Frauds, and Phantasms: A Survey of the Spiritualist Movement. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-05305-1
+Alex Owen. (2004). The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England. University Of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-64205-5
+Frank Podmore. (1911). The Newer Spiritualism. Henry Holt and Company.
+Massimo Polidoro. (2003). Secrets of the Psychics: Investigating Paranormal Claims. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-59102-086-8
+Harry Price and Eric Dingwall. (1975). Revelations of a Spirit Medium. Arno Press. Reprint of 1891 edition by Charles F. Pidgeon. This rare, overlooked, and forgotten, book gives the "insider's knowledge" of 19th century deceptions.
+Joseph Rinn. (1950). Sixty Years Of Psychical Research: Houdini And I Among The Spiritualists. Truth Seeker.
+Chung Ling Soo. (1898). Spirit Slate Writing and Kindred Phenomena. Munn & Company.
+Richard Wiseman. (1997). Deception & Self-Deception: Investigating Psychics. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-57392-121-3
+
+== External links ==
+Houdini v. The Blond Witch of Lime Street: A Historical Lesson in Skepticism – Massimo Polidoro
+How to Have a Séance: Tricks of the Fraudulent Mediums Archived 2012-06-23 at the Wayback Machine
+John Edward: Hustling the Bereaved – Joe Nickell
+Mediumship – Skeptic's Dictionary
+The 'Medium' Is Not the Messenger – James Randi
+Tricks of Fake Mediums – Harry Houdini
+Psychic Methods Exposed - Cold Reading Tricks
+Psychics: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

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+---
+title: "Mediumship"
+chunk: 3/13
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediumship"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:45.598694+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Scientific skepticism ===
+In their book How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age, authors Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn have noted that the spiritualist and ESP hypothesis of mediumship "has yielded no novel predictions, assumes unknown entities or forces, and conflicts with available scientific evidence."
+Scientists who study anomalistic psychology consider mediumship to be the result of fraud and psychological factors. Research from psychology for over a hundred years suggests that where there is not fraud, mediumship and Spiritualist practices can be explained by hypnotism, magical thinking and suggestion. Trance mediumship, which according to Spiritualists is caused by discarnate spirits speaking through the medium, can be explained by dissociative identity disorder.
+Illusionists, such as Joseph Rinn have staged fake séances in which the sitters have claimed to have observed genuine supernatural phenomena. Albert Moll studied the psychology of séance sitters.  According to (Wolffram, 2012) "[Moll] argued that the hypnotic atmosphere of the darkened séance room and the suggestive effect of the experimenters' social and scientific prestige could be used to explain why seemingly rational people vouchsafed occult phenomena." The psychologists Leonard Zusne and Warren Jones in their book Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking (1989) wrote that spirits controls are the "products of the medium's own psychological dynamics."
+A fraudulent medium may obtain information about their sitters by secretly eavesdropping on sitter's conversations or searching telephone directories, the internet and newspapers before the sittings. A technique called cold reading can also be used to obtain information from the sitter's behavior, clothing, posture, and jewellery.
+The psychologist Richard Wiseman has written:
+
+Cold reading also explains why psychics have consistently failed scientific tests of their powers. By isolating them from their clients, psychics are unable to pick up information from the way those clients dress or behave. By presenting all of the volunteers involved in the test with all of the readings, they are prevented from attributing meaning to their own reading, and therefore can't identify it from readings made for others. As a result, the type of highly successful hit rate that psychics enjoy on a daily basis comes crashing down and the truth emerges—their success depends on a fascinating application of psychology and not the existence of paranormal abilities.
+In a series of experiments holding fake séances, (Wiseman et al. 2003) paranormal believers and disbelievers were suggested by an actor that a table was levitating when, in fact, it remained stationary. After the seance, approximately one third of the participants incorrectly reported that the table had moved. The results showed a greater percentage of believers reporting that the table had moved. In another experiment the believers had also reported that a handbell had moved when it had remained stationary and expressed their belief that the fake séances contained genuine paranormal phenomena. The experiments strongly supported the notion that in the séance room, believers are more suggestible than disbelievers for suggestions that are consistent with their belief in paranormal phenomena.
+In a 2019 television segment on Last Week Tonight featuring prominent purported mediums including Theresa Caputo, John Edward, Tyler Henry, and Sylvia Browne, John Oliver criticized the media for promoting mediums because this exposure convinces viewers that such powers are real, and so enable neighborhood mediums to prey on grieving families. Oliver said "...when psychic abilities are presented as authentic, it emboldens a vast underworld of unscrupulous vultures, more than happy to make money by offering an open line to the afterlife, as well as many other bullshit services."
+
+== Fraud ==
+
+From its earliest beginnings to contemporary times, mediumship practices have had many instances of fraud and trickery. Séances take place in darkness so the poor lighting conditions can become an easy opportunity for fraud. Physical mediumship that has been investigated by scientists has been discovered to be the result of deception and trickery. Ectoplasm, a supposed paranormal substance, was revealed to have been made from cheesecloth, butter, muslin, and cloth. Mediums would also stick cut-out faces from magazines and newspapers onto cloth or on other props and use plastic dolls in their séances to pretend to their audiences spirits were contacting them. Lewis Spence in his book An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1960) wrote:
+
+A very large part is played by fraud in spiritualistic practices, both in the physical and psychical, or automatic, phenomena, but especially in the former. The frequency with which mediums have been convicted of fraud has, indeed, induced many people to abandon the study of psychical research, judging the whole bulk of the phenomena to be fraudulently produced.
+
+In Britain, the Society for Psychical Research has investigated mediumship phenomena. Critical SPR investigations into purported mediums and the exposure of fake mediums has led to a number of resignations by Spiritualist members. On the subject of fraud in mediumship Paul Kurtz wrote:
+
+No doubt a great importance in the paranormal field is the problem of fraud. The field of psychic research and spiritualism has been so notoriously full of charlatans, such as the Fox sisters and Eusapia Palladino–individuals who claim to have special power and gifts but who are actually conjurers who have hoodwinked scientists and the public as well–that we have to be especially cautious about claims made on their behalf.
+Magicians have a long history of exposing the fraudulent methods of mediumship. Early debunkers included Chung Ling Soo, Henry Evans and Julien Proskauer. Later magicians to reveal fraud were Joseph Dunninger, Harry Houdini and Joseph Rinn. Rose Mackenberg, a private investigator who worked with Houdini during the 1920s, was among the most prominent debunkers of psychic fraud during the mid-20th century.

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+---
+title: "Mediumship"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:45.598694+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== 1800s ===
+Many 19th century mediums were discovered to be engaged in fraud. While advocates of mediumship claim that their experiences are genuine, the Encyclopædia Britannica article on spiritualism notes in reference to a case in the 19th century that "...one by one, the Spiritualist mediums were discovered to be engaged in fraud, sometimes employing the techniques of stage magicians in their attempts to convince people of their clairvoyant powers." The article also notes that "the exposure of widespread fraud within the spiritualist movement severely damaged its reputation and pushed it to the fringes of society in the United States."
+At a séance in the house of the solicitor John Snaith Rymer in Ealing in July 1855, a sitter Frederick Merrifield observed that a "spirit-hand" was a false limb attached on the end of the medium Daniel Dunglas Home's arm. Merrifield also claimed to have observed Home use his foot in the séance room.
+The poet Robert Browning and his wife Elizabeth attended a séance on July 23, 1855, in Ealing with the Rymers. During the séance a spirit face materialized which Home claimed was the son of Browning who had died in infancy. Browning seized the "materialization" and discovered it to be the bare foot of Home. To make the deception worse, Browning had never lost a son in infancy. Browning's son Robert in a letter to The Times, December 5, 1902, referred to the incident "Home was detected in a vulgar fraud." The researchers Joseph McCabe and Trevor H. Hall exposed the "levitation" of Home as nothing more than his moving across a connecting ledge between two iron balconies.
+The psychologist and psychical researcher Stanley LeFevre Krebs had exposed the Bangs Sisters as frauds. During a séance he employed a hidden mirror and caught them tampering with a letter in an envelope and writing a reply in it under the table which they would pretend a spirit had written. The British materialization medium Rosina Mary Showers was caught in many fraudulent séances throughout her career. In 1874 during a séance with Edward William Cox a sitter looked into the cabinet and seized the spirit, the headdress fell off and was revealed to be Showers.
+In a series of experiments in London at the house of William Crookes in February 1875, the medium Anna Eva Fay managed to fool Crookes into believing she had genuine psychic powers. Fay later confessed to her fraud and revealed the tricks she had used. Frank Herne a British medium who formed a partnership with the medium Charles Williams was repeatedly exposed in fraudulent materialization séances. In 1875, he was caught pretending to be a spirit during a séance in Liverpool and was found "clothed in about two yards of stiffened muslin, wound round his head and hanging down as far as his thigh." Florence Cook had been "trained in the arts of the séance" by Herne and was repeatedly exposed as a fraudulent medium.
+The medium Henry Slade was caught in fraud many times throughout his career. In a séance in 1876 in London Ray Lankester and Bryan Donkin snatched his slate before the "spirit" message was supposed to be written, and found the writing already there. Slade also played an accordion with one hand under the table and claimed spirits would play it. The magician Chung Ling Soo revealed how Slade had performed the trick.

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+title: "Mediumship"
+chunk: 5/13
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:22:45.598694+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The British medium Francis Ward Monck was investigated by psychical researchers and discovered to be a fraud. On November 3, 1876, during the séance a sitter demanded that Monck be searched. Monck ran from the room, locked himself in another room and escaped out of a window. A pair of stuffed gloves was found in his room, as well as cheesecloth, reaching rods and other fraudulent devices in his luggage. After a trial Monck was convicted for his fraudulent mediumship and was sentenced to three months in prison.
+In 1876, William Eglinton was exposed as a fraud when the psychical researcher Thomas Colley seized a "spirit" materialization in his séance and cut off a portion of its cloak. It was discovered that the cut piece matched a cloth found in Eglinton's suitcase. Colley also pulled the beard off the materialization and it was revealed to be a fake, the same as another one found in the suitcase of Eglinton. In 1880 in a séance a spirit named "Yohlande" materialized, a sitter grabbed it and was revealed to be the medium Mme. d'Esperance herself.
+In September 1878 the British medium Charles Williams and his fellow-medium at the time, A. Rita, were detected in trickery at Amsterdam. During the séance a materialized spirit was seized and found to be Rita and a bottle of phosphorus oil, muslin and a false beard were found amongst the two mediums.
+In 1880 the American stage mentalist Washington Irving Bishop published a book revealing how mediums would use secret codes as the trick for their clairvoyant readings. The Seybert Commission was a group of faculty at the University of Pennsylvania who in 1884–1887 exposed fraudulent mediums such as Pierre L. O. A. Keeler and Henry Slade. The Fox sisters confessed to fraud in 1888. Margaret Fox revealed that she and her sister had produced the "spirit" rappings by cracking their toe joints.
+In 1882 C. E. Wood was exposed at a séance in Peterborough. While manifesting her Indian spirit control "Pocha" she was seized by a guest and revealed to be wrapped in muslin cloth. Wood never escaped the stigma and died two years later while touring Australia. 
+In 1891 at a public séance with twenty sitters the medium Cecil Husk was caught leaning over a table pretending to be a spirit by covering his face with phosphor material. The magician Will Goldston also exposed the fraud mediumship of Husk. In a séance Goldston attended a pale face materialization appeared in the room. Goldston wrote "I saw at once that it was a gauze mask, and that the moustache attached to it was loose at one side through lack of gum. I pulled at the mask. It came away, revealing the face of Husk." The British materialization medium Annie Fairlamb Mellon was exposed as a fraud on October 12, 1894. During the séance a sitter seized the materialized spirit, and found it to be the Mellon on her knees with white muslin on her head and shoulders.
+The magician Samri Baldwin exposed the tricks of the Davenport brothers in his book The Secrets of Mahatma Land Explained (1895). The medium Swami Laura Horos was convicted of fraud several times and was tried for rape and fraud in London in 1901. She was described by the magician Harry Houdini as "one of the most extraordinary fake mediums and mystery swindlers the world has ever known".
+In the late 19th century, the fraudulent methods of spirit photographers such as David Duguid and Edward Wyllie were revealed by psychical researchers. Hereward Carrington documented various methods (with diagrams) how the medium would manipulate the plates before, during, and after the séance to produce spirit forms. The ectoplasm materializations of the French medium Eva Carrière were exposed as fraudulent. The fake ectoplasm of Carrière was made of cut-out paper faces from newspapers and magazines on which fold marks could sometimes be seen from the photographs. Cut out faces that she used included Woodrow Wilson, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, French president Raymond Poincaré and the actress Mona Delza.
+The séance trick of the Eddy Brothers was revealed by the magician Chung Ling Soo in 1898. The brothers utilized a fake hand made of lead, and with their hands free from control would play musical instruments and move objects in the séance room. The physiologist Ivor Lloyd Tuckett  examined a case of spirit photography that W. T. Stead had claimed was genuine. Stead visited a photographer who had produced a photograph of him with deceased soldier known as "Piet Botha". Stead claimed that the photographer could not have come across any information about Piet Botha, however, Tuckett discovered that an article in 1899 had been published on Pietrus Botha in a weekly magazine with a portrait and personal details.
+The trance medium Leonora Piper was investigated by psychical researchers and psychologists in the late 19th and early 20th century. In an experiment to test if Piper's "spirit" controls were purely fictitious the psychologist G. Stanley Hall invented a niece called Bessie Beals and asked Piper's 'control' to get in touch with it. Bessie appeared, answered questions and accepted Hall as her uncle. The psychologist Joseph Jastrow wrote that Piper pretended to be controlled by spirits and fell into simple and logical traps from her comments. Science writer Martin Gardner concluded Piper was a cold reader that would "fish" for information from her séance sitters. The physiologist Ivor Lloyd Tuckett who examined Piper's mediumship in detail wrote it could be explained by "muscle-reading, fishing, guessing, hints obtained in the sitting, knowledge surreptitiously obtained, knowledge acquired in the interval between sittings and lastly, facts already within Mrs. Piper's knowledge."