Talk:List of pseudosciences and pseudoscientific concepts/Draft

This is a list of fields of endeavor and concepts that have been regarded as pseudoscientific by (1) organizations that are representative samples of the international scientific community and/or (2) mainstream scientific skeptical bodies. The organizations may have explicitly called a field or concept "pseudodscience" or used words to that effect: instances of the latter are identified in the references section. Also included are important concepts associated with the main entries, as well as notable parodies and concepts that, while notable, are still too obscure to catch the serious attention of mainstream scientific bodies.

Main topics

The following have broad consensus concerning their pseudoscientific status. Indicative of this are assertions by mainstream, specialized scientific bodies (e.g., a society of plasma physicists) or, better yet, one or more national- or regional-level, cross-discipline Academies of Science.

• Astrology refers to any of several systems of understanding, interpreting and organizing knowledge about reality and human existence, based on the relative positions and movement of various real and construed celestial bodies.^[C][I][R]
• Creation science is the belief that the origin of everything in the universe is the result of a first cause, brought about by a creator deity, and that this thesis is supported by geological, biological, and other scientific evidence.^[C][I][X]
  • Biblical scientific foreknowledge asserts that the Bible makes accurate statements about the world that science verifies thousands of years later.
  • Creation biology is the subset of creation science that tries to explain biology without evolution.
  • Creationist cosmologies are ones which, among other things, allow for a universe that is only thousands of years old.
  • Flood geology is the creationist form of geology that advocates most of the geologic features on Earth are explainable by a global flood.
  • Modern geocentrism, citing uniform gamma ray bursts distribution as evidence that we are at the center of the universe, and other ideas of this type.
• Intelligent design is a version of creation science stated in secular terms, viz. that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection."^[C][X]
  • Irreducible complexity is the claim that some systems are so complex that they cannot have evolved from simpler systems. It is used by proponents of intelligent design to argue that evolution by natural selection alone is incomplete or flawed, and that some additional mechanism (an "Intelligent Designer") is required to explain the origins of life.
  • Specified complexity is the claim that when something is simultaneously complex and specified, one can infer that it was produced by an intelligent cause (i.e., that it was designed) rather than being the result of natural processes.
• Levitation (paranormal), in this sense, is the act of rising up from the ground without any physical aids, usually by the power of thought.^[I]
  • Anti-gravity refers to devices which allow a craft to maneuver in a gravitational field free from the effects of its force.
• Parapsychology is the study of purported paranormal mental phenomena.^[R]
  • Cold readings are supposed psychic feats whereby a "reader," without any advanced relevant knowledge, recalls various facts about a person's life.
  • Dowsing is a paranormal ability to garner a simple, yes/no answer to almost any question.
  • Extra-sensory perception is the paranormal ability to acquire information by means such as telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition. ESP is not dependent on the five main senses, nor on deduction from previous experience.
  • The ideomotor effect is the paranormal ability to move another person's limbs by suggestion or even mere expectation of the movement.

• Ufology is the study of unidentified flying objects (UFO) and frequently includes the belief that UFOs are evidence for extraterrestrial visitors.^[I]
  • Close encounters are events where persons witness UFOs.

Purported pseudoscience

The following are subjects regarded as pseudoscientific by mainstream scientific skepticism bodies but not by an Academy of Sciences or specialized organization. The lack of attention to these subjects by the latter groups may be due to either or both of the following:

1. The subject has yet find its way into education, law, and/or business to the extent that it motivates an organization to make a statement on it.
2. The subject is not regarded as pseudoscientific by a sufficiently large number of scientists (from multiple fields), which would be necessary for a statement on it to pass.

Unless otherwise noted, the following entries are from The Skeptics Society's The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience. Finally, some of these items are not considered pseudoscientific in and of themselves: only certain aspects, explanations, and/or applications of them. See an item's description text for more information on this.

• Anthroposophy/Anthroposophical medicine refers to homeopathic remedies for illnesses of a person's non-physical "soul."
• Attachment therapy is a psychotherapeutic treatment for aggressive, disobedient, and/or unaffectionate children. A minor version (relative to most other attachment therapies) involves the child being physically restrained by adults who then attempt to maintain prolonged eye contact. Perhaps the most extreme is "rebirthing," in which the child is wrapped tightly in a blanket and then made to simulate emergence from a birth canal. This is done by encouraging the child to struggle and pushing and squeezing him/her to mimic contractions.
• Ball lightning is a slow-moving, luminous sphere which is up to 30cm in diameter. While many scientists find the existence of these at least minimally plausible, evidence of them are often unreliable, anecdotal reports, and explanations for them have ranged from combusted hydrocarbon gas to "Will o' the wisp" creatures.
• The Bermuda Triangle is a region of the Atlantic Ocean that lies between Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and (in its most popular version) Florida. Frequent disappearances and ship and aircraft disasters in this area have led to claims of paranormal phenomena and extraterrestrial attacks and abductions.
• Biorhythms are alleged periodic cycles of human physiology and behavior that govern physical, emotional, and intellectual well-being.
• Crop circles are geometric designs of crushed or knocked-over crops apparently created overnight in a field. Aside from skilled farmers or pranksters working through the night, explanations for their formation include anomalous, tornado-like air currents and UFOs.
• Cryptozoology is the study of animals whose existence is suspect. Famous examples include Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, and the goat-killing "Chupacabra."
  • Animal mutilations are cases of domestic livestock with seemingly unexplainable fatal wounds. Sources of these wounds are said to be supernatural, malevolent forces or bizarre—but terrestrial—creatures.
• Cydonia Mensae is a rock formation on Mars asserted to be evidence of intelligent, native life on the planet.
• Dietary supplements are products marketed as health-promoting despite little or no evidence. They are usually derived from exotic(-sounding) plant life and are often sold over the Internet.
• Earthquake prediction is the ability to accurately forecast the time, place, and size of earthquakes.
• Elves, fairies, gnomes, pixies, and other creatures of fantasy are periodically alleged to be found in nature or near homes. The testimonials, which are sometimes even accompanied by photographic evidence, are normally outed as hoaxes after some time.
• Faith healing is the act of curing disease by such means as praying and laying on of hands.
• Faster-than-light travel, sometimes referred to as superluminal travel, is the feat of breaking the light speed barrier of 299,792,458 meters per second.
• Feng shui is the practice of aligning gravesites, buildings, and furniture a certain way with the aim to positively affect one's health and fortune.
• Handwriting analysis/graphology is the practice of gleaning information about a person's personality through examination of his or her handwriting.
• Hypnosis is an extremely relaxed state in which a person is unusually responsive to suggestions made by the hypnotist. While hypnosis in some sense is almost universally regarded as real, explanations of the phenomenon invoking anything more than just an especially cooperative subject have far less scientific support. In addition, certain applications of hypnosis in psychotherapy, such as smoking cessation and self-esteem improvement, also lack empirical support.
• Laundry balls are spherical or toroidal objects marketed as soap substitutes for washing machines.
• Magnetic therapy is the practice of using magnetic fields to positively influence one's health.
• Meditation is the quieting and calming the mind, often as a religious practice, to produce transcendental experiences. While there are copious amounts of experimental data demonstrating positive and interesting effects of meditation, most traditional explanations of the associated experiences and benefits are of a prescientific nature.
• Mobile phone radiation and health concerns have occasionally be raised as possible causes of immune system dysfunction and cancers of the nervous system and blood.
• Multiple personality disorder
• Near-death experiences
• Out-of-body experiences
• Phrenology
• Planetary alignments
• Polygraph/Lie detection
• Pseudoarcheology is the investigation of the ancient past using alleged paranormal or otherwise scientifically dubious means.
  • Ancient astronauts are extraterrestrials said to have initiated the rise of human civilization.
• Reincarnation
• Séance
• Shamanism
• Shroud of Turin
• Spiritualism
• Stock market pseudoscience
• Subliminal perception and advertising
• Synchronicity
• Therapeutic touch
• Tunguska event
• Tutankhamun's curse
• Ufology
• Witchcraft/Magic

Obscure and parody pseudoscience

The following are subjects that are sufficiently notable to warrant mention yet still too obscure for any mainstream group (of the sort cited above) to comment on them. They are nonetheless uncontroversially regarded as pseudoscientific: the only people insisting on the topics' scientific status appear to be their lone, respective proponents and, perhaps, a single digit quantity of devotees. Also included here are notable parodies of other pseudosciences and pseudoscientific concepts.

• Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of a parody religion founded by Oregon State University physics graduate Bobby Henderson. He created it in response to the 2005 evolution controversy sparked by Kansas's State Board of Education.
• Time Cube is a proposed theory of everything which holds that time is cubic. Its creator, Gene Ray, finds those who are ignorant of his theory to be "stupid and evil."

See also

• Anomalous phenomenon
• Crank (referencing a disagreeable person)
• List of minority-opinion scientific theories
• List of protosciences
• Non-standard cosmology
• Occam's razor
• Paradigm
• Paradigm shift
• Pathological science
• Philosophy of science
• Protoscience
• Pseudoscience
• Pseudoskepticism
• Scientific consensus (describes the majority views of scientists)
• Superseded scientific theory

Further reading

• Abell, George O. and Barry Singer, Science and the Paranormal: Probing the Existence of the Supernatural, Charles Scribner's, 1981, ISBN 0-684-17820-6
• Collins, Paul S. (2002) Banvard's Folly: Thirteen Tales of People Who Didn't Change the World. Picador. ISBN 0-312-30033-6
• Gardner, Martin, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
• Gardner, Martin, Science, Good, Bad, and Bogus
• Randi, James, Flim-Flam: Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and other Delusions, Prometheus, 1982, ISBN 0-87975-198-3
• Sagan, Carl, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark. Ballantine Books, March 1997 ISBN 0-345-40946-9, 480 pgs. 1996 hardback edition: Random House, ISBN 0-394-53512-X, xv+457 pages plus addenda insert (some printings).
• Schick, Theodore and Lewis Vaughn. (1998) How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age. Mayfield. ISBN 0-7674-0013-5
• Shermer, Michael. (2002) Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. Owl Books. ISBN 0-8050-7089-3

Notes and references

• ^Note [C] : statement from the California Academy of Sciences.[1]
• ^Note [I] : statement from the Iowa Academy of Sciences.[2]
• ^Note [R] : statement from the Russian Academy of Sciences.[3]
• ^Note [X] : statement from the International Council for Science.[4]

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