Providentia

Bigotry and the human–animal divide: (Dis)belief in human evolution and bigoted attitudes across different cultures.

A new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology tested if people’s basic belief in the notion that human beings have developed from other animals (i.e., belief in evolution) can predict human-to-human prejudice and intergroup hostility. Using data from the American General Social Survey and Pew Research Center (Studies 1–4), and from three online samples (Studies 5, 7, 8) we tested this hypothesis across 45 countries, in diverse populations and religious settings, across time, in nationally representative data (N = 60,703), and with more comprehensive measures in online crowdsourced data (N = 2,846). Supporting the hypothesis, low belief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes, and support for discriminatory behaviors against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ), Blacks, and immigrants in the United States (Study 1), with higher ingroup biases, prejudicial attitudes toward outgroups, and less support for conflict resolution in samples collected from 19 Eastern European countries (Study 2), 25 Muslim countries (Study 3), and Israel (Study 4). Further, among Americans, lower belief in evolution was associated with greater prejudice and militaristic attitudes toward political outgroups (Study 5). Finally, perceived similarity to animals (a construct distinct from belief in evolution, Study 6) partially mediated the link between belief in evolution and prejudice (Studies 7 and 8), even when controlling for religious beliefs, political views, and other demographic variables, and were also observed for nondominant groups (i.e., religious and racial minorities). Overall, these findings highlight the importance of belief in human evolution as a potentially key individual-difference variable predicting racism and prejudice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

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Grounding The Electric Girl

While Andy Warhol may have popularized the "everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes " meme,  it was hardly original.  Long before the modern era,  newspaper stories often did an excellent job of spreading the kind of stories that could propel obscure individuals to instant fame for a variety of reasons.   Though this often involved bizarre mishaps or significant personal achievements,  anyone with a strange new talent could frequently capitalize on it to achieve, if not fame and fortune, at least a certain name recognition.  For a while, anyway.

And so it was with Angelique Cottin, a.k.a. the "Electric Girl".  

Though her exact birth date is not recorded,  Angelique's early years seemed unremarkable enough.  Growing up as part of a  poor farm family in the northwestern French village of La Perrier, she likely had little education aside from the basic schooling that all rural children received at the time.   But that all changed on January 15, 1846, at 8 pm in the evening while 14-year-old Angelique was doing her customary weaving with other girls in her village.   As reports later describe, the oaken frame on which Angelique was working suddenly began jerking so violently that none of the girls could hold it in place.   Alarmed by what was happening, the girls ran off to tell their parents.   When the skeptical adults ordered them to resume their spinning, nothing unusual occurred until Angelique sat down as well.  Which was when the jerking movement began again.   

When the same thing happened on the following morning,  villagers accused Angelique of being possessed and insisted that she be taken to the local priest to see if an exorcism was needed.  Fortunately, the priest was sensible enough to dismiss the fears of the villagers and decided to observe what was happening directly.   Among the strange happenings, he observed was Angelique's chair suddenly jerking away from her whenever she tried to sit down.  Also, the very touch of her hand seemed enough to repel the table at which she was sitting.  Impressed by what he saw, the priest then referred her to the local physician who, along with the girl's parents, brought Angelique to Paris to be tested scientifically.  Among the scientists who agreed to participate was prominent astronomer Francois Arago who arranged for the testing to be carried out at his observatory.   There, along with several other savants,  Arago conducted different tests which were later included in a report presented to the Paris Academy of Sciences. 

The report, which later received international newspaper coverage, made the following conclusions:    "1st.   It is the left side of the body which appears to acquire this sometimes attractive, but more frequently repulsive property.   A sheet of paper, a pen, or any other light body, being placed upon a table, if the young girl approaches her left hand, even before she touches it, the object is driven to a distance as if by a gust of wind.  The table itself is overthrown the moment it touches her hand, or even by a thread which she may hold in it.   2nd.  This causes instantaneously a strong commotion in her side which draws her towards the table.  3rd.  As had been observed, the first day, if she attempted to sit, the seat was thrown far from her with such force that any person occupying it was carried away with it.  4th.  One day, a chest upon which three men were seated, was moved in the same manner.  Another day, although the chair was held by two very strong men, it was broken in their hands."    There were additional points (thirteen in all), but I think you get the idea.

While Arago ruled out magnetism or electricity in trying to explain what was happening during Angelique's demonstration, he eventually concluded that she was somehow generating a new force "unknown to science".  Another savant added that "under peculiar conditions, the human organism gives forth a physical power which, without visible instruments, lifts heavy bodies, attracts or repels them, according to a law of polarity, and overturns them."   Also, bear in mind that spirit mediums were already gaining considerable popularity across North America and Europe with table-tipping and spirit-rapping being commonly reported during countless seances.   Newspapers reporting on Angelique Cottin and the apparent verification of her remarkable powers had no trouble making a connection between her case and assorted spiritualist claims already being made.

Against the advice of the scientists themselves, Angelique's parents, who likely saw their daughter's strange talents as a way of making money, started making arrangements to have her repeat her performance before a paying audience.  Before this could happen though, Arago called on the Academy to conduct more stringent testing to determine what was actually happening    Responding to Arago's  requet, the Academy appointed a formal committee of esteemed scientists to make the investigation.  And it was quite a committee.  Along with Arago, the other committee members were: Henri Becquerel (a pioneer in radioactivity and a future Nobel laureate), zoologist, and author Isidore Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, physicist Jacques Babinet, physician Pierre Francois Olive Rayer, and psychiatrist Etienne Pariset.   

Conducted at the Jardin des Plantes at Paris' Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (National Museum of Natural History) just days after Angelique's previous test, the tests devised by the appointed committee were specifically intended to rule out any possibility of fraud.   This time, however, the Committee was less than impressed by what Angelique could apparently accomplish.   About the only real effect, she could demonstrate was having the chair she was trying to sit on being forcibly thrown back as previous witnesses had attested.  Unfortunately, the Committee wasn't so easily fooled.   As they noted in their final report, "Upon serious suspicions arising as to the manner in which these movements occurred, the committee has decided that they shall be submitted to an attentive examination. It frankly announces that the investigations tended to discover the fact that certain habitual manœuvres hidden in the feet and hands could have produced the observed fact."  

Apparently unnerved by Angelique's failure to repeat her previous performance, not to mention the accusation of fraud, her guardians suddenly announced that her powers had failed.  Certain that Angelique's powers would return in time, they offered to notify the Academy so they could resume the testing.   But, as the Committee noted in their report, "Many days have passed since, yet the committee has received no intelligence. We have learned, however, that Mdlle. Cottin is daily received in drawing-rooms where she repeats her experiments."   The report ended with the recommendation that "the communications transmitted to the Academy on the subject of Mdlle. Angélique Cottin should be considered as never having been sent in."   Being scientists, they couldn't accuse Angelique of being a fraud but their conclusion came as close to this as they could get.

And, that was pretty much it for the Electric Girl.   Months later, Angelique's parents announced that her powers were gone for good and she faded back into complete obscurity.   Still, despite the science behind magnetism and electricity becoming better understood,  the public fascination with Electric Girls remained as strong as ever.   Hence the popular appeal of Lulu Hurst, aka the Georgia Wonder,  whose brief career during the 1880s had her amazing audiences with her apparent feats of impressive strength (using powers gained during an electrical storm, according to her publicity agents).  Though Hurst would later admit that all of her stunts were due to basic physics, she claimed that her powers were genuine at the time.   Despite Hurst's popularity inspiring various copycats, none would ever match her popularity, or Angelique Cottin's, for that matter...

While children claiming mysterious powers don't attract the attention they once did given our more skeptical age, instant celebrities seem more common than ever thanks to the power of social media.  Perhaps these instant celebrities should pay closer attention to Angelique Cottin's story and how rapidly that fame can slip away.   People are always searching for the Next Big Thing, whether it involves Electric Girls or American Idol winners, and today's marvel becomes yesterday's news much sooner than anyone realizes.

How To Be A Nazi Bride

How To Be A Nazi Bride

It must have seemed like a splendid idea (at least to the Nazi ideologues who first came up with it).

When the Nazis first came to power in pre-WWII Germany, it was essential that they reshape German society and discard anything they considered to be "decadent" or dangerous.   And that meant redefining what constituted "proper roles" for German women.   While generally tolerated in menial positions (eg., secretaries and factory workers), women were banned by law from any of the more "masculine" professions such as medicine, law, or academics.   But women were regarded as being primarily suited for three things:  "kinder, küche, kirche" ("children, kitchen, church") and any training they received had to prepare them for those roles alone.   In other words, to stay at home and produce as many children as possible for the glory of the Fatherland.  

As Adolf Hitler himself told various women's groups, the very concept of "female emancipation" was a plot by Jewish intellectuals aimed at undermining traditional values.   Instead, he insisted that German women had no need for emancipation given how well-treated they were.   It was Herman Goering who summarized the Nazi view best when he wrote in 1934 that women needed to "take hold of the frying pan, dustpan, and broom, and marry a man."    Granted, there were highly placed women in the Nazi hierarchy, primarily working through organizations such as the NS-Frauenschaft for older women, and the League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel) for younger women, but they were primarily entrusted with upholding Nazi ideals for how women needed to behave.

But that wasn't enough to satisfy the Nazi high command, many of whom felt that the rise in divorces and drop in birth rates since World War One represented a threat to the very existence of the Aryan race.   To counter what they saw as the corrupting influence of degenerate Western ideas, they implemented a multi-prong approach:   not only did membership in the Nazi female-led organizations become mandatory, but they also implemented a special award for any woman having multiple children, the  Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter or cross of Honour of the German Mother.  Women having eight or more children got the medal in gold but there were bronze and silver versions as well.

Still, the most bizarre strategy for training women involved the Reichsbräuteschule (Reich bride schools) which were first introduced during the late 1930s.  Supposedly inspired by the bride schools commonly seen in Japan during that era, bride schools were already in place in some parts of Germany though they were largely aimed at educating women about birth control as well as better health care to reduce infant mortality and malnutrition.  A special order from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler  in 1936 soon changed all that, however.  

Organized under  Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, the head of the NS-Frauenschaft, the new Reich bride schools were as much about indoctrination into the Nazi philosophy as it was about educating them.   While the schools for mothers still continued (albeit with more ideology as well as "training" in race and genetics), bride schools focused on encouraging women to forget their previous lives and preparing themselves for their new role in life.   According to a 1937 Associated Press story on the schools:  "in circles of twenty students, the young girls should attend a course at the institute, preferably two months before their wedding day, to recuperate spiritually and physically, to forget the daily worries connected with their previous professions, to find the way and to feel the joy of their new lives as wives."  

Though the first attendees were =women engaged to be married to prominent members of the Nazi party, this was quickly expanded to include women from across Germany.   All "proper" women, that is. That meant that only women of "pure" Aryan stock were allowed to attend.  Anyone deemed to have "defective" genes or who were of Jewish or Roma heritage were typically weeded out (and likely recorded as potential candidates for sterilization or imprisonment).  

For six weeks, the attendees of the bride school lived together in a three-room structure where they would be thoroughly grounded in all the skills expected of them, i.e., cooking, cleaning, and managing a household.   They were also required to swear an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler and his party and to accept the various dos and don'ts associated with being a proper Nazi wife.  These included not working outside the home, NEVER wearing trousers, not wearing makeup, not wearing high-heeled shoes, and not dying their hair or otherwise altering their appearance to make themselves more "sultry".    They were also ordered to have as many children as possible and to ensure their blood was kept "pure" by only marrying men of proper Aryan stock.  They were also pledged to raise their children to abide by Nazi codes of conduct.   Each graduate of the school also received a subsidy (around $400  U.S.) to help set the happy couple up for married life.

The earliest bride schools were used as propaganda tools with extensive media coverage (including being distributed to newspapers around the world).   The pictures that were often displayed, with young women learning to arrange flowers, cook, and sew, helped give the Nazi movement a more human face, particularly considering the horrific stories that refugees were spreading as they fled for safety.   Still, the concept of a school for brides certainly seemed to resonate overseas as similar establishments sprang up in other parts of Europe and North America (albeit without the Nazi indoctrination).   

Granted, it's hard to say how well the bride schools worked in actual practice, especially after the outbreak of World War II when labor shortages forced many women to return to their factory jobs to help the German war effort.  Also, as the first wounded veterans began returning home, the curriculum at the schools underwent a subtle change/  This included training unattached women as brides and then arranging them to meet these wounded ex-soldiers at fashionable resorts for potential marriage (Hitler remained determined to have men with "good genes" continue fathering as many children as possible).  

By 1944, most of the bride schools had been either closed or were on the verge of closing at the end of the war drew near.   Even Gertrud Scholtz-Klink accepted that there were more important priorities for women than being perfect brides.   By the end of the war, the Nazi bride schools were virtually forgotten with virtually no reference to them in the extensive media coverage about Germany's defeat and reconstruction.   Aside from what little information there is to be found in historical archives,  it's as if they had never existed.

But the concept of "bride schools" hasn't been wholly forgotten.  For example, in post-WWII Japan, the Red Cross set up special bride schools for Japanese women marrying American soldiers to prepare them for life in the U.S. This included "training films" describing life for interracial couples as well as mandatory health and military certification.   More recently, the South Korean government has launched a crackdown on schools preparing Vietnamese women for mail-order marriages to South Korean men (training included learning to speak Korean and how to show proper respect for a mother-in-law).    

Still, while marriage preparation courses remain popular, they have become a bit more egalitarian with both men and women being invited.   No Nazi oaths of loyalty required...

Does Personality Affect Belief in Astrology?

Belief in astrology is on the rise, although the reasons behind this are unclear. A new study in Personality and Individual Differences examined whether individual personality traits could predict such epistemically unfounded beliefs. Data was collected for 264 participants through an anonymous online survey shared on social media. The survey consisted of four instruments: Belief in Astrology (BAI), the Big Five personality traits (IPIP-30), narcissism (SD3) and intelligence (ICAR16-R3D). Data analysis was done with multiple linear regression. Narcissism was surprisingly the strongest predictor, and intelligence showed a negative relationship with belief in astrology. Overall, our novel results suggest that something as innocent as astrology could both attract and possibly reinforce individual differences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Why Do People Believe in Astrology?

Belief in astrology is on the rise, although the reasons behind this are unclear. A new study published in Personality and Individual Differences tested whether individual personality traits could predict such epistemically unfounded beliefs. Data was collected for 264 participants through an anonymous online survey shared on social media. The survey consisted of four instruments: Belief in Astrology (BAI), the Big Five personality traits (IPIP-30), narcissism (SD3) and intelligence (ICAR16-R3D). Data analysis was done with multiple linear regression. Narcissism was surprisingly the strongest predictor, and intelligence showed a negative relationship with belief in astrology. Overall, these vel results suggest that something as innocent as astrology could both attract and possibly reinforce individual differences.

For the abstract

 

Late NASA Engineer Identified as Original Inspiration for "The Exorcist"

When Ronald Edwin Hunkeler died last year at his Maryland home at the age of 86, official obituaries described his long career at NASA, including his work on the Apollo space missions of the 1960s and his expertise in developing heat resistant tiles.   But, a recent issue of the Skeptical Inquirer announced that Hunkeler was the real name for "Ronald Doe,"  the fourteen-year-old boy whose repeated exorcisms in 1949 helped inspire the 1973 classic film, "The Exorcist."

Born in Cottage City, Maryland, in 1935, Hunkeler first reported experiencing paranormal activities at the age of fourteen. This supernatural activity reportedly occurred following the death of a favorite aunt who had been a spiritualist.   Allegedly, she had introduced him to the supernatural along with how to use an Ouija board.   

The paranormal phenomena Ronald began experiencing reportedly included hearing knocking and scratching sounds coming from behind his bedroom walls.  He also became the center of apparent poltergeist activity including heavy furniture moving and images of Christ vibrating on walls.  

It was the Hunkelers's family minister, the Reverend Luther Schulze, who wrote to Duke University in 1949 to describe the bizarre phenomena occurring whenever Ronald was nearby.  During the night Ronald spent at Schulze's house, also described how “chairs moved with [Hunkeler] and one threw him out [of it.] His bed shook whenever he was in it.”  This led S the reverend to conclude that  "evil was at work" and arranged for a Lutheran rite of exorcism to be carried out.   When this failed, Ronald's family then turned to the Catholic Church for further help.

Ronald's family then sought the help of Jesuit exorcist William Bowdern.  Bowdern carefully documented what occurred during the course of the more than twenty exorcisms he and his colleagues carried out that year on Ronald  Hunkeler.  Along with describing how Ronald entered a "trancelike" state in front of witnesses, there were also reported episodes of religious relics being thrown to the floor, mysterious scratching noises, and mysterious messages being written on the boy's ribs.

Based on the messages, one of which involved the word "Louis" being written in deep red scratches, Ronald was then transferred to the Alexian Brothers Hospital St. Louis, Missouri to be treated for demonic possession.  While at the hospital, Ronald "broke into a violent tantrum of screaming, cursing, and voicing of Latin phrases."   Also, in a diary that Reverend Bowden kept of the exorcisms, he reported that words such as "evil" and "hell" erupted on Ronald's skin, and he broke the nose of one of the priests during his violent thrashing.   When the final exorcism was complete, witnesses reported a loud noise in the hospital.  Though Ronald himself had o apparent memory of the exorcisms, all of the priests in attendance were consistent in their belief that it was an actual possession.

While skeptics noted various discrepancies in the accounts provided by the priests, rumors about Along with inspiring William Blatty's book and the movie of the same name, the case of  Ronald Doe was also depicted in the 2000 movie Possessed and a 1997 documentary In The Grip of Evil.   Since then, the exorcism fervor the book and movie helped inspire has taken on a life of its own, driven by countless other films and television shows that have helped drive belief in demonic possession.

As for Ronald Hunkeler, the role that he had played in the entire exorcism phenomenon continued to haunt him for the rest of his life.   According to one source close to Hunkeler,  his long career at NASA was marked by a continuing fear that his colleagues would discover his past.   While all published accounts gave his name as either "Ronald Doe" or "Robert Mannheim,"  his true identity was well known in many circles and the prospect of some enterprising journalist revealing the truth was never far from his mind. “On Halloween, we always left the house because he figured someone would come to his residence and know where he lived and never let him have peace,” the unnamed source said.  “He had a terrible life from worry, worry, worry.”  Even shortly before Hunkeler's death, a priest arrived unexpectedly to administer the last rites.   Whether this was related to his long-ago history is unknown.

It hardly seems to matter that many of the reported details of the Hunkeler possession case seem either made up or exaggerated, as the recent Skeptical Enquirer article points out.   The original Exorcist movie (and its planned remake) are likely to shape the dialogue surrounding demonic possession and exorcism for years to come.   Sadly enough, the devil is in the details.

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The Rise and Fall of the "German Rasputin"

The mystery began with the discovery of a bullet-ridden body in a wooded area about 53 kilometres south of Berlin, Germany in May, 1933.   It didn't take long for Berlin police to identify the body as 44-year-old Erik Jan Hanussen, a self-proclaimed mystic and the man often feted by the press as "Europe's most famous clairvoyant."   That he was murdered nobody had any doubt, but the question of who had killed him, and why, would remain mysteries for years afterward.   Still, given his close association with Adolf Hitler and his rising Nazi party, the possibility of a Nazi connection could hardly be ignored.   For a little while, anyway.

Along with the mystery of his death and how Hitler might have been involved, there was also the central mystery surrounding who Hanussen really was.   According to his official biography, he was born in Vienna in 1889, supposedly of Danish aristocratic parents though this, along with so much else about his early life was pretty much invented.   In reality he was born Hermann (Herschel Chaim) Steinschneider, the son of a Jewish synagogue attendant living in Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic).   

For much of his life, he kept his Jewish roots carefully hidden to avoid the rising anti-semitism that was gripping much of Central Europe at the time.  After "reinventing" himself, including adopting a less Jewish name, Hanussen carefully played up his pro-German sentiments, including fighting with the Axis forces during World War One.  According to his biography, his "psychic powers" first developed during the war as a result of his experience with combat and soon established himself as an eerily accurate psychic who was regularly consulted by criminologists and medical doctors.   He also made a public prediction that "hard times" lay ahead for Germany though, since this was shortly after the end of the war and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, nobody really questioned him on this.  

Still, Hanussen's reputation as a psychic attracted thousands of desperate people, all panicking over post-war conditions in Germany, and he soon set himself up in Berlin as the official "mesmerist" for the courts.   But he didn't stop there.  When he wasn't presiding over his adoring fans in Berlin, Erik Jan Hanussen took his act on the road with shows across Europe and the United States.   Part of his appeal stemmed from his piercing black eyes and shaggy eyebrows, a combination that had his female fans swooning.    Dubbed the "human question mark" by the press, Hanussen often gave the impression that he could hypnotize anyone and probe their deepest thoughts, something that police in Berlin often relied on when they had him present while they questioned suspects.   His knack for cold reading and his unnerving reputation for mind reading proved very handy during interrogations.  

Not surprisingly, numerous legends sprang up (all likely encouraged by Hanussen and his publicists).  Stories of his meeting wealthy and powerful patrons and dispensing personal advice were carefully planted in the press by Hanussen and he even launched his own occult journal, as well as a biweekly tabloid which featured his own predictions as well as a popular astrology column.  Once, in 1930, Hanussen was charged with fortune-telling and dragged into court but he won an acquittal after a panel of experts failed to prove that he was a fraud.  The 131-page court decision even described Hanussen as the "possessor of strange powers,"  something that only reinforced what his fans believed of him.

It was around this time that he first met Hitler and the other members of the Nazi inner circle.   Whether they really believed in Hanussen's psychic powers or were simply impressed by his ability to draw crowds, the Nazis were sufficiently impressed to have him train Adolf Hitler in public speaking and mass psychology.   In fact, early Nazi insider Otto Strasser said these lessons began in 1926 and continued for years afterward.  There doesn't seem to be any actual evidence that Hanussen had any real interest in the movement but these  lessons certainly helped launch Hitler as a rising political star. 

Unfortunately for Hanussen, he didn't stop there.   Recognizing that Hitler would be a major player in Germany's future, he made elaborate public predictions about the Nazi star's future, including a 1932 "prophecy" that he would be appointed Reichchancellor within a year.   Since many of his other predictions came true, Hitler seemed impressed enough to recruit Hanussen as a psychic advisor as well as a media coach.   Hanussen also likely introduced Hitler to many of his astrologer colleagues, helping to jumpstart Adolf's fascination with the occult.  

Another Nazi supporter who developed a fascination with Hanussen was Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff.  A Prussian aristocrat who joined the Nazi movement in 1924, Helldorff was also a believer in the occult (not to mention a sadistic racist).   According to some stories, Hanussen was drawn by Helldorff's political power and encouraged these occult beliefs, even going so far as to conduct bizarre rituals for Helldorff and some other Nazi insiders.   It also helped that Helldorff had serious gambling debts which Hanussen helped pay off, something he also did for other prominent Nazis such as Hermann Goering.  

But not everybody was taken in by Hanussen's charisma.   Joseph Goebbels, the soon-to-be Propaganda Minister for the Nazi Party, was deeply suspicious of Hanussen and the way he monopolized Hitler's time.   Carefully collecting a file on  Hanussen and his Jewish roots, Goebbels had no difficulty convincing Hitler that he was a threat.  Not only was Hanussen clearly sympathetic to Jewish concerns, but Goering and Helldorff, among others, were already deeply in debt to him.  To make matters worse, Hanussen had also made a public prediction about the Reichstag fire on February 27, 1933.    By blaming the fire on communist agitators, the Nazis were able to assume absolute power in Germany but the fact that Hanussen had used his inside connections to bolster his own reputation as a psychic showed how much of a danger to the new regime he really was.   

This was Hanussen's final mistake and what likely led to Hitler agreeing to have him eliminated (something which the psychic obviously failed to see coming).   Erik Jan Hanussen was taken into custody on March 24, 1933.  After  being  badly beaten, he tried to go into hiding but he was too much of a public figure for him, or his newly disfigured face, to escape notice.   Soon afterward, his body was found in a field near Berlin though came of it.   Since  the chief of police for that area happened to be Count Helldorff himself, closing the case was painfully easy.    Thoughthe murder remained unsolved, Germany soon moved on to other matters.

Aside from a brief mention whenever Hitler's fascination with the occult comes up, Erik Jan Hanussen remains as much of a mystery in death as he was in life.   That didn't stop him from entering popular culture with a number of different films being based on his life and his strange career.  The most recent of these was Invincible which came out in 2001 to mixed reviews.  Directed by Werner Herzog, the film featured Tim Roth playing Hanussen as a somewhat deluded figure who fails to recognize the Nazi threat in time to save his life.   Though largely fictionalized, this film represents a fitting memorial for a supposedly clairvoyant showman who failed to see the dangers of pandering to absolute power. 

Family in India Digs up Dead Child after Occultist Promises to Bring Him Back to Life

After an unnamed nine-year-old boy died of a viral infection earlier this year, his family dug up his grave in the hope of restoring him to life.

Soon after the boy's death, his family in the Indian province of Uttar Pradesh was contacted by a woman who claimed that she knew someone who could restore him to life by witchcraft.  After consenting to the rituals to be used, the family then dug up the child's body from the cemetery near the village of  Ganeshpur and sent it to the still-unnamed occultist.  According to reports, the occultist performed the promised rituals over five days. When the resurrection attempt failed, family members assaulted the occultist and took a video of them tearing off his clothes. 

After the video went viral on social media, local police began investigating the case.    According to India.com, the occultist has been charged was charged under different sections of the Indian Penal Code. This includes "defacing the graves" and "instilling dread in the people."  Half a dozen of the child's relatives have also been charged for the assault on the occultist and "spreading superstitious beliefs.".  Most of the case details, including when the child died and when the body was disinterred, still haven't been made public.

Belief in the supernatural, and the power of many occultists, remains common in India's rural regions.  This includes going to occultists for magical cures rather than seeking out medical help.  A reported human sacrifice occurred in India's Assam province a month ago as part of an occult ceremony to heal a priest's mysterious illness.  The victim's father and a temple priest have since been detained over the killing.  

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Zimbabwe Exorcism/Baptism Deaths Attributed to "Mermaids"

“I am shaken. I am beside myself. This has never happened in my life, and I do not know how to tell people about this, including my own relatives."

For self-styled prophet  Amos Chituri of Agness Access Apostolic Church (AAAC) based in Zimbabwe's Mutasa district, the combination baptism/exorcism he conducted last July likely seemed like a simple matter.   Instead, it resulted in three deaths and propelled Chituri and his fellow congregation members into a mystery that has generated international attention.  

Though the 49-year-old Chituri had been called to the nearby village of Tazvigwira to see a mentally ill child, he met with village elder Victor Tazvigwira as a courtesy.   Until Chituri "prophesized" that the elder was being haunted by the spirit of a man whose bones he had once found and needed to be cleansed as a result.   As a result, Chituri, Tazvigwira, the elder's wife, and two children, along with several youth members of Chituri's congregation, all went to the nearby Musogwezi River on July 21, 2021, for a combination baptism/exorcism ceremony.  

All nine people gathered at a shallow pool by the river and removed their shoes to prepare for the ceremony.  The pool itself was not considered dangerous and local children often swam there.  While Chituri stood at the pool's edge, other congregation members then began "speaking in tongues" and plunged into the pool.   They then reportedly heard "huge trembling noise from the pool and the hills above" and reportedly felt a force pushing them under the water.   According to Tazvigwira in an interview with media, "We could see each other as we struggled to escape from the bottom of the pool. Surprisingly we never bumped against one another, and we never gulped any water. I raised my hands to try and alert those outside of our predicament. After a while, I mysteriously found myself thrown out of the pool and lying on the ground. I still don’t know how I came out."  

It was only while recovering from the ordeal that the group noticed that three were still missing.  They were  Cosmas Mvicha, Witness Chirombo of Silas Village, and Fungai Berevedzai, a 14-year-old Form 2 girl at Mapakomhere High School.   After spending most of the day praying for their safe return, apparently in the belief that the others had been taken away by "mermaids"  (part of local folklore).  Realizing that their prayers were not effective, Chituri and the remaining group members finally contacted local authorities.  

A week-long vigil followed as people waited by the pool to see if the missing villagers would be returned.  Though police attempted to send in divers to investigate the pool and river, villagers blocked them, hoping that their traditional rituals might work in getting the three returned safely.   Spirit mediums also conducted ceremonies with no real results.  Finally, after seven days, the bodies of the three floated to the surface, one at a time over the course of several hours.   One of the emerging bodies was even photographed by local media.

While police are still investigating, villagers remain terrified about the mystery surrounding the three deaths.  Suffice it say, children are not swimming in that pool, anymore.

For more information.

 

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Blinding Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest musical geniuses of all time.    Though better recognized during his lifetime as an organist than as a composer, his musical skills kept him in demand well into old age.   Unfortunately, while he was extremely healthy for most of his life, the great composer's health declined rapidly in 1749.  Years of writing musical manuscripts with insufficient light had damaged his eyes to the point that he became almost blind.    He may also have developed problems with cataracts and possibly diabetes mellitus as well.   

Bach's fame, and the financial support he received from his patrons, were enough for him to receive the finest help available at the time.   Unfortunately, that help took the form of a consultation with English oculist, John Taylor, self-styled "Opthalmaiter" to the Pope and "every crowned head in Europe."   Taylor had become famous for practicing a radical eye operation for removing cataracts.   This operation, called "couching" actually has a venerable history and may have been practiced as early as 2000 BCE.    Since cataracts are due to a clouding of the lens in the eye, the couching operation involved dislodging the clouded lens and breaking it up into pieces.    Considering John Taylor used unsterilized instruments, the immediate results were usually good but his patients were at grave risk of developing infection afterward.    Many went blind completely or died of infections though this hardly derailed the Opthalmaiter's glorious career.

 Born in Norwich in 1703, John Taylor was the son of a prominent surgeon (also named John Taylor).   After studying at St. Thomas' Hospital in London under the prominent eye surgeon, William Cheselden, Taylor decided to become an eye specialist in his own right.   Following a brief stint in a Norwich hospital, he established a traveling practice that took him across the United Kingdom and, eventually, across much of Europe.   An accomplished showman, Taylor traveled in style in an ornate coach which was painted all over with eyes.    Along with managing to become appointed official oculist to King George II, Taylor tended to many of Europe's royal families as well as some of the most prominent members of the arts, including composer Georg Handel and writer Edward Gibbon.   

It was quite a life for John Taylor,  who along with being "the greatest of travelers" as he described in his autobiography, was also an ardent womanizer who boasted of his conquests.   In promoting his traveling practice, the routine was always the same.  After arriving in a new town, he always gave a public lecture on eye disease and then offered his services to anyone with vision problems.   Like many oculists of the time, Taylor needed to keep moving since the improvements produced by his couching operation were usually only temporary.   While he prescribed eyedrops for his patients after the operation, that was all the postoperative care they ever received.  By leaving town before the inevitable medical complications arose, Taylor was able to avoid the nasty backlash that would follow.   In an era before social media, word of his failures was often slow to spread and Taylor never found himself short of patients.  

Along with carefully controlling the news of his arrival in various towns (through planted news stories and flyers), Taylor often arranged for untreated patients to arrive in town ahead of him to spread the word of his services.    Even when surgeons' guilds tried to act against him, they were usually overruled by town council members who felt that Taylor's royal patronage made him untouchable.    Taylor also flaunted his various medical degrees though he faced a running battle with medical organizations across Europe over whether he was actually qualified to perform operations in their countries.    It was a battle that Taylor usually won since he was rarely in any city long enough for serious opposition to develop.

But Taylor didn't just do cataract operations.   He had treatments for nearly any eye problem posed to him, though many of his remedies seem like quack remedies today.  The greatest demand was for couching however and Taylor continued to use the same standard operation for all his cataract patients.   While he had to be aware of the complications that often set in, the good doctor showed no interest in changing his preferred way of treating patients.   Though a better surgical procedure was already becoming available which involved complete extraction of the lens,  Taylor seemed unwilling to try it with his own patients.  

And he certainly had his critics.  Samuel Johnson dubbed him as " the most ignorant man I ever knew", while more prominent physicians and professors of anatomy at various European universities denounced his methods and his "successes."    When Taylor operated on Bach in Leipzig on April 1, 1749, he was in the middle of yet another triumphant European tour with various news stories (planted by Taylor) touting the benefits of his eye operations.    After Bach's first operation,  news stories (planted by Taylor)  reported that the composer had "recovered the full sharpness of his sight."    A second operation on Bach was done a short time later and Taylor then left Leipzig on April 8 to travel to Berlin.   Even then, however, news of what was happening with his patients was already beginning to spread.   Taylor left Berlin not long afterward when the Prussian king personally ordered him to leave Prussia.

As for Johann Sebastian Bach, he began experiencing medical complications shortly after Taylor left Leipzig which left him completely blind.   While Bach was still able to dictate his last few compositions to his son-in-law,  his career as an organist was over.   Though Bach claimed to recover his sight in July in 1750, there is no evidence that this was anything more than a hallucination.  Within hours, he had a seizure and slipped into a week-long coma.   Bach died on July 28, 1750, without ever regaining consciousness.  Afterward, at least one newspaper suggested that his death was due to "the unhappy consequences of the very unsuccessful eye operation."   Though modern medical historians believe that Bach died as a result of a stroke linked to pneumonia, the medical problems linked to his eye operation are believed to have played a significant role in his death.

While Georg Handel went blind himself not long after Bach's death, there is less evidence linking his blindness to Taylor's treatment (though he had operated on both composers).    For whatever reason, Taylor's career as an oculist went downhill sharply by the time he published his autobiography in 1761.    The title of this epic tome likely says it all about the good Chevalier:

History of the Travels and Adventures of the Chevalier John Taylor, Ophthalmiater; Pontifical-Imperial and Royal--The Kings of Poland, Denmark, Sweden, The Electors of the Holy Empire-- The Princes of Saxegotha, Mecklenberg, Anspach, Brunswick, Parme, Modena, Zerbst, Loraine, Saxony, Hesse Cassel, Holstein, Salsborg, Baviere, Liege, Bareith, Georgia, &c. Pr. in Opt. C. of Rom. M.D.-C.D.--Author of 45 Works in different languages: the produce of upwards of thirty Years, of the greatest Practice in the Cure of distempered Eyes, of any in the Age we live--Who has been in every Court, Kingdom, Province, State, City, and Town of the least Consideration in all Europe, without exception. Written by Himself. Introduced by an humble Appeal, of the Author to the Sovereigns of Europe. Addressed to his only Son.

But time and the increasingly successful attacks of medical associations eventually put an end to Taylor's mobile practice.  Doctors became better able to warn other towns about him and Taylor found himself being forbidden to see any patients by town burgomeisters (who no longer had any fear of his "royal patrons").    He was eventually chased out of the Netherlands after being fined for practicing medicine without a license and the Amsterdam surgeon's guild denounced him as "an adventurer who earned his living by wandering about through the country to make money."    Eventually, the doors closed on him in most other countries as well.

Ironically enough, Taylor would spend the last few years of his life completely blind though this hardly prevented him from living well.   Beyond blinding hundreds of eye patients during his amazingly long career,  John Taylor's notorious reputation also ensured his literary immortality as well.   Along with Samuel Johnson, other prominent satirists heaped abuse on him in their writing.    The epitaph which likely described him best was one by satirist Charles Churchill who referred to Taylor as "As well prepared, beyond all doubt, To put eyes in, as put them out."

So how was John Taylor able to continue performing his dangerous eye operations for so long?   Though often denounced as a quack, he was no swindler and he certainly didn't try selling the various patent medicines that many of the medical confidence artists of his time often did.   Sadly enough, his couching operation was considered the standard remedy of the time, and his failure to clean his instruments before surgery was also typical of most 18th century surgeons.   If anything, the public lectures he always gave on arriving in a new town helped cement his reputation as a legitimate medical expert.   While other doctors objected to how he treated patients, it was the protection Taylor obtained from many grateful patients, including King George II, that kept him in business.   That, and his canny ability to leave town before patients began complaining about complications.  

Much of Taylor's success as an eye surgeon seems to have depended on the same kinds of publicity tricks practiced by medical hucksters before and after him.  Though he may not have been consciously trying to deceive his patients,  his wandering eye practice was obviously intended to avoid the problems he would have had by staying in one place.   That his more pedestrian colleagues often faced enormous barriers in preventing him from doing any more operations certainly resonates today with medical doctors trying to put modern hucksters out of business (and often failing).   While a John Taylor might have trouble operating today, his spiritual descendants are still with us.