B. Premanand When the water-diviner feels the currents psychically, the Y-shaped twig starts moving. The persons who create motivating force through idiomotor response do not have any idea that they are the cause. It is these involuntary muscle movements, which cause the water divining stick to revolve and the planchet to work. Effect: Water divining by…
B. Premanand The jaundice patient goes to the tantrik or godman for a cure. After an incantation over the medicine, the patient is administered the medicine. He asks the patient to gargle for a few minutes and then spit it out. When he spits out a yellow liquid, which looks like a bile, the tantrik…
B. Premanand In the Philippines, psychic surgeons conduct surgery without any instruments and claim to cure patients. One such psychic surgeon came to India in the 1980s and the first surgery was conducted on a minister of Maharashtra State. The surgeon thus acquired much publicity in the news media. When he was confronted by skeptics,…
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Astrologers in India and abroad claim that their ancient discipline of study is to be recognized as a branch of science. The issue was resolved in Europe long ago. As early as the fourteenth century, a clear distinction had been drawn between astronomy and astrology, the first regarded as a science, the second…
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya In a recent speech delivered before the scientists attending the 102nd edition of the Indian Science Congress, Dr. Harsh Vardhan is reported to have said: “Our scientists discovered the Pythagoras theorem but we very sophisticatedly [!] gave its credit to the Greeks’ (The Times of India, 08 January 2015). Mr. Vardhan is not…
Ram Puniyani One of the best parts of childhood for me was to enjoy the mythological tales and become aware of the world where Lord Hanuman could fly, as the emergency herbal treatment is to be delivered to his master’s brother; Laxman. Lord Ram travelling by Pushpak Viman (aero plane), Lord Ganesha being planted with…
JV Narlikar With the New Year just around the corner, most people will now be taking stock of their performance in the current year and will be busy making fresh resolutions for the New Year. Anxious to perform better than in the past, they hope to foresee their future. Instead of making a rational assessment…
Narendra Nayak My first public encounters as a rationalist were with evangelists – the crusading ones claiming to heal the sick, the blind and the lame. It was in 1975 or so when I was a student at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal. I used to come to Mangalore on Saturdays and Sundays. One of these…
J V Narlikar [This essay, written by the eminent Cosmologist Jayant V Narlikar, first appeared in the April 1985 issue of Science Age, a magazine now defunct, brought out by Nehru Centre, Bombay. Though the essay is almost three decades old, it continues to be as relevant as most of the criticisms on pseudoscience are. While…
Book Review: Searching For The Sun In Candle Light…. (Wisdom of Vaastushastra) Arvind Pralhad Pakhale (Translated by Ms Suman Oak) Prabhakar Nanawaty (pkn.ans@gmail.com) As highlighted in the Forward written by Prof. R. V. Kolhatkar, Ex Director of Institute of Architecture and Design, Hyderabad, if one goes to any bookstall on airport, railway station or even…