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ASSORTED LECTURES ON SKEPTICISM AND SECULAR HUMANISM of the Od force, this pattern centered almost exclusively on the countries of Germany versus Austria and rapidly became an issue of Prussian “Wissenschaft” versus Austrian “Gemütlichkeit.” Thus while the members of the Berlin Academy of Sciences demanded that Reichenbach experimentally demonstrate the truth of his claims, those of the Vienna Academy of Science were willing to allow him to give a series of lectures on his discoveries which he published in 1867 under the title of Die odische Lohe und einige Bewegungserscheinnugen als neuentdeckte Formen des odischen Princips in der Natur (The Odic Glow and Some Kinetic Phenomena as Newly Discovered Manifestations of the Odic Principle in Nature) (17). Likewise, when demonstrating his discoveries in Berlin, Reichenbach was puzzled at his inability to locate a significant number of sensitives among the professional and scientific classes of the city, since he had no problem finding them within the Austrian scientific community – a failure which he attributed, not to a difference in scientific standards, but to the cold and wet climate of Northern Germany, which he felt was not conducive to the requisite heightening of the senses. 9. The Legacy of Od If Reichenbach and the Od force have largely been forgotten by the literature dealing with the history and philosophy of science, the same is definitely not true of the literature dealing with occultism and mysticism. Just as the Od force was in many ways a relabeled version of Mesmer’s magnetic fluid, so aspects of Reichenbach’s work have been repeatedly revived since his death under a bewildering array of new labels. In the interests of brevity, I will simply list a few of the most significant of these subsequent developments: 1) 1891: de Rochas publishes a defense of the fluid theory of magnetism based on the experiments of Luys with hypnotized neurotics at the Charité hospital in Paris (figure 11) in which virtually all of Reichenbach’s earlier results are replicated (34). 2) 1896: Using both fake magnets and electromagnets Ernest Hart shows that Luy’s results are the product of suggestion and the use of leading questions, thus replicating the earlier refutations by Braid and Dove (35). 4) 1904-1910: Reprints of Reichenbach’s main books appear. 5) 1911: Walter J. Kilner claims positive detection of the human aura using dicyanine dye screens (36). Figure 11. Photographs of a group of Luys’ neurotics responding to the various poles of a bar magnet. 6) 1914: One Professor Haschek of the University of Vienna has some success in detecting Reichenbach’s Odic glow but attributes it to oxidation of oils and organic matter on magnets and hands (37): 7) 1919: Similar investigations of the Odic glow by A. Hoffmann find that the Odic glow of crystals is due to suggestion and that Kilner’s results on the human aura are due to retinal fatigue (38). 8) 1960: Sudre concludes that “Careful research subsequent to all this work seems to have finally discredited any belief in the Od and its successors” (22). 9) 1968-1978: Reprints of English translations of Reichenbach’s books appear, many of which now sell on the internet for several hundred dollars apiece. ! As a glance at the internet will quickly reveal, most of this is still very much with us in one form or another, be it claims for the existence of such phenomena as biomagnetism, bioradiation, therapeutic touch, auras, psychic fluids, crystal power, or Wilhelm Reich’s orgone energy (22) – all are direct descendants, in one way or another, of Reichenbach’s Od force and Mesmer’s original magnetic fluid. 10
THE REICHENBACH AFFAIR 10. Conclusion Since we have spent most of this lecture exploring the foibles of 19th-century science, it is only fitting that we allow one of its representatives to also provide our concluding remarks. These I have taken from the Recollections of the prominent Victorian physician, Sir Henry Holland (1788-1866), who also served as President of the Royal Institution for many years and whose evaluation of the problem of pseudoscience within the medical profession is as pertinent today as it was when he first uttered it over 140 years ago (37): ... those many Charlataneries I have witnessed in my professional career; coming rapidly in succession to one another; and each drawing largely for a time on public credulity. The name of physical science wrongly usurped, and the claim of curing every disease – a claim which carries its own refutation with it – are brought in to sanction what is purely imposture. Here, unfortunately, the tests of truth are of a kind easily overridden by extravagant pretensions, commonplace fallacies, or the strong seduction of novelty; and the particular folly or fraud is often corrected only by the intervention of some other deserving a like fate ... ! It is curious to note how periodical these epidemic visitations of miracle have become. Mesmeric visions and prophecies, clairvoyance, spirit-rappings, tableturnings and liftings, etc., succeed one another in popular fashion; with certain intervals between to allow prior detections to be forgotten, and to catch the credulous of a new generation. The reason disappears when the imagination is thus called into play. It was a shrewd observer of the foibles of the world who said that “Folly is like matter and cannot be annihilated.” 11. References and Notes ! 1.! A lecture given to the Cincinnati Free Inquiry Group, Cincinnati, OH on 23 February 1999 and to the Cincinnati Association for Rational Thought (ART), Cincinnati, OH on 12 February 2000. ! 2.! F. Franks, Polywater, MIT Press: Cambridge MA, 1981.! ! 3. G. Taubes, Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion, Random House: New York, NY, 1993. ! 4.! A.. Bauer, “Reichenbach als Beobacher,” Archiv. Geschich. Naturwiss. Tech., 1909, 1, 135-139. ! 5.! A. Bauer, “Erinnerungen an den Freiherrn von Reichenbach,” in Naturhistorisch-Biographische Essays, Enke: Stuttgart, 1911, pp. 1-26. ! 6.! M. Habacher, “Auf der Suche nach dem ‘Od’: Karl Ludwig Reichenbach (1788-1869) und Karl Wilhelm Mayrhofer (1806-1853, zwei Verbündete contra Justus von Liebig,” Clio Medica, 1980, 14, 105-118. ! 7.! This was so-called wood creosote and was mostly used in medicine in the 19th century. It should not be confused with coal-tar creosote, obtained from the destructive distillation of coal tar and traditionally used as a wood preservative for such things as railroad ties and wooden telegraph and telephone poles. Most of Reichenbach’s reported compounds ultimately proved to be mixtures. For an evaluation, see J. Partington, A History of Chemistry, Vol. III, Macmillan, London, 1963, pp. 401-404. ! 8.! K. von Reichenbach, “Untersuchungen über den Magnetismus und damit verwandte Gegenstände,” Ann. Chem. Pharm., 1845, 53 (Supplement); “Abwehr,” Ibid., 1850, 74, 362-363. This was translated into English as K. Reichenbach, Abstract of Researches on Magnetism and on Certain Allied Subjects, Edinburgh, 1846. ! 9. ! K. von Reichenbach, Physikalische-physiologische Untersuchen uber die Dynamide des Magnetismus, der Elektricitat, der Warme, des Lichtes, der Kristallisation, des Chemismus in ihren Beziehungen zur Lebenskraft, 2 Vol., Vieweg: Braunschweig, 1849. Translated as Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, Light, Crystallization, and Chemical Attraction in their Relations to the Vital Force, Taylor, Walton & Maberly: London, 1850 and yet a second time in the same year as Physico-Physiological Researches in the Dynamics of Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, Light, Crystallization, and Chemism in their Relations to Vital Force, Partridge and Brittan: New York, NY, 1850. ! 10.! K. von Reichenbach, Odische-magnetische Briefe, Cotta: Stuttgart, 1852. Translated as Odic Magnetic Letters, Blanchard: New York, NY, 1860 and as Letters on Od and Magnetism, Hutchinson: London, 1926. This latter translation also contains a good biographical introduction. ! 11.! K. von Reichenbach, Der sensitive Mensch und sein Verhalten zum Ode: Eine Reihe experimental Untersuchungen über ihre gegensteitigen Kräfte und Eigenschaften mit Rücksicht auf die praktische Bedeutung, 2 Vols., Cotta: Stuttgart, 1854. Partially translated as Somnambulism and the Cramp, Blanchard: New York, NY, 1860. ! 12. K. von Reichenbach, Köhlerglaube und Afterweisheit: Dem Herrn C. Vogt in Genf zur Antwort, Braumüller: Vienna, 1855. ! 13.! K. von Reichenbach, Odische Erwiderungen, Braumüller: Vienna 1856. ! 14.! K. von Reichenbach, Die Pflanzenwelt ihren Beziehungen zur Sensitivität und zum Ode, Braumüller: Vienna, 1858. ! 15.! K. von Reichenbach, Odische Begebenheiten zu Berlin in den Jahren 1861 und 1862, Schroeder & Kaiser: Berlin, 1862. ! 16.! K. von Reichenbach, Aphorismen über Sensitivität und Od, Baumüller: Vienna, 1866. ! 17.! K. von Reichenbach, Die odische Lohe und einige Bewegungserscheinnugen als neuentdeckte Formen des odischen Princips in der Natur, Braumüller: Vienna, 1867. ! 18.! D. Forrest, Hypnotism: A History, Penguin Books: 11
Page 1: Frankenstein’s Cat And Other Asso
Page 4 and 5: Copyright ! 2011 William B. Jensen
Page 6 and 7: V Winds of Delusion: Heat Engines a
Page 8 and 9: Dedicated to Joe Levee Who made it
Page 10 and 11: all of the devices and allusions th
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Page 42 and 43: IV Ludwig Feuerbach The Religious A
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VIII Some Recent Speculations on th
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WILLIAM B. JENSEN ! Guthrie then de
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IX Some Musings on the Nature of Ps
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X The Great Baking Powder War 1. In
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WILLIAM B. JENSEN geothermal energy
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WILLIAM B. JENSEN economic quality
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XII Atheism and Free-Thought in 19t
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WILLIAM B. JENSEN to look at their
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WILLIAM B. JENSEN which they profes
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WILLIAM B. JENSEN There was in Cinc
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WILLIAM B. JENSEN 8. Lincoln and Ci
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WILLIAM B. JENSEN Duhem (1861-1916)
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WILLIAM B. JENSEN Figure 4. Karl Ra
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WILLIAM B. JENSEN 4. David Hume Fig
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WILLIAM B. JENSEN Induction is foun
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Index A Adam 61 Adams, G. 31 Adler,
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Herschel, J. 99 Hesoid 13 Hicks, R.
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South Place Ethical Society 97 Spec
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