Zoe Wassilko-Serecki (born July 11, 1897 in Czernowitz, died November 26, 1978 in Vienna) was an Austrian occultist and astrologer. [1] [2] [3]
Zoe Wassilko-Serecki (born July 11, 1897 in Czernowitz, died November 26, 1978 in Vienna) was an Austrian occultist and astrologer. [1] [2] [3]
She was born in 1897 to Stephan Graf Wassilko von Serecki and wife Rosa. [1] Her paternal grandfather was the Privy Councilor and Governor of the Duchy of Bukovina , Baron Alexander Wassilko von Serecki. The Wassilko family were Austrian Empire-born ethnic Romanian nobility.
In 1900, Stephan and his family moved to Vienna where her father pursued a career in the civil service. [1] In 1918, her father and his brothers were elevated to the status of "Count", and Zoe was described as a Countess. [1]
She achieved international fame for her supposed investigation into Eleonore Zugun and the so-called Talpa poltergeist. In 1926, at the invitation of Harry Price, Zoe traveled with the girl to London. [4]
In 1927, she was a founding member of the Austrian Society for Psychical Research. [5] By 1935, she had joined the Nazi party, and in April 1938 correspondence discussing unification of her Austrian society with its German counterpart, she wrote "Poor Winterstein is unfortunately not an Aryan, even in the best possible case he cannot remain the president of the society". [6]
She served as Vice-President of the Austrian Astrological Society. [7] In 1949, she became its president, a position she held until 1978. [7] In 1955, an English translation of her work appeared in American Astrology which argued for the space animal hypothesis: that reports of flying saucers or UFOs might be caused not by technological alien spacecraft or mass hysteria, but rather by animal lifeforms that are indigenous to Earth's atmosphere or interplanetary space. [8] That, in turn, inspired Ivan T. Sanderson who became a vocal proponent of the hypothesis. [2] [9] [3] In 1986, years after her death, her "space fish" theory was featured in the writings of Vincent Gaddis. [10] [11]
In 1973, she was recognized by Society for Psychical Research of Great Britain. [7]
Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near-death experiences, synchronicity, apparitional experiences, etc. Criticized as being a pseudoscience, the majority of mainstream scientists reject it. Parapsychology has also been criticized by mainstream critics for claims by many of its practitioners that their studies are plausible despite a lack of convincing evidence after more than a century of research for the existence of any psychic phenomena.
UFO conspiracy theories are a subset of conspiracy theories which argue that various governments and politicians globally, in particular the United States government, are suppressing evidence that unidentified flying objects are controlled by a non-human intelligence or built using alien technology. Such conspiracy theories usually argue that Earth governments are in communication or cooperation with extraterrestrial visitors despite public disclaimers, and further that some of these theories claim that the governments are explicitly allowing alien abduction.
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Josef Allen Hynek was an American astronomer, professor, and ufologist. He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific advisor to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three projects: Project Sign (1947–1949), Project Grudge (1949–1951) and Project Blue Book (1952–1969).
Unarius is a non-profit organization founded in 1954 in Los Angeles, California, and headquartered in El Cajon, California. The organization purports to advance a new "interdimensional science of life" based upon "fourth-dimensional" physics principles. Unarius centers exist in Canada, New Zealand, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and various locations in the United States.
Robert Sheaffer is an American freelance writer and UFO skeptic. He is a paranormal investigator of unidentified flying objects, having researched many sightings and written critiques of the hypothesis that UFOs are alien spacecraft. In addition to UFOs, his writings cover topics such as Christianity, academic feminism, the scientific theory of evolution, and creationism. He is the author of six books.
Gloria Lee was an American airline flight attendant and a follower of Oahspe who became part of the 1950s contactee movement in 1953.
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Douglas Scott Rogo was a writer, journalist and researcher on subjects related to parapsychology. Rogo was murdered in 1990 at the age of 40. His case remains unsolved.
The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States dedicated to parapsychology. It maintains offices and a library, in New York City, which are open to both members and the general public. The society has an open membership, anyone with an interest in psychical research is invited to join. It maintains a website; and publishes the quarterly Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research.
Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions is a 1980 book by magician and skeptic James Randi about paranormal, occult, and pseudoscience claims. The foreword is by science fiction author Isaac Asimov. Randi explores topics which he says that scientists and the media are too willing to promote without skepticism and proper expertise.
The interdimensional hypothesis is a proposal that unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings are the result of experiencing other "dimensions" that coexist separately alongside our own in contrast with either the extraterrestrial hypothesis that suggests UFO sightings are caused by visitations from outside the Earth or the psychosocial hypothesis that argues UFO sightings are best explained as psychological or social phenomenon.
Eileen Jeanette Vancho Lyttle Garrett was an Irish medium and parapsychologist. Garrett's alleged psychic abilities were tested in the 1930s by Joseph Rhine and others. Rhine claimed that she had genuine psychic abilities, but subsequent studies were unable to replicate his results, and Garrett's abilities were later shown to be consistent with chance guessing. Garrett elicited controversy after the R101 crash, when she held a series of séances at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research claiming to be in contact with victims of the disaster. John Booth, and others, investigated her claims, and found them to be valueless, easily explainable, or the result of fraud.
Meade Layne was an American academic and early researcher of ufology and parapsychology, best known for proposing an early version of the interdimensional hypothesis to explain flying saucer sightings.
Greta Andron Woodrew Smolowe was an author, psychic and healer, and purported contactee of extraterrestrial beings. Her books, On a Slide of Light and Memories of Tomorrow, and newsletter, The Woodrew Update, addressed her purported alien encounters, while her foundation, the Space Technology and Research Foundation (STAR), was established to carry out philanthropic work, including broadcasting messages she received from alien life; Woodrew would later become a donor to philanthropic organizations like Conservation International and the Sierra Club Foundation. Woodrew also published a children's book in her lifetime entitled Hear the Colors! See the Music!: A Tomorrow Book for Today. Some of her papers are held in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at Stanford University.
The 1947 flying disc craze was a rash of unidentified flying object reports in the United States that were publicized during the summer of 1947. The craze began on June 24, when media nationwide reported civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold's story of witnessing disc-shaped objects which headline writers dubbed "Flying Saucers". Such reports quickly spread throughout the United States; historians would later chronicle at least 800 "copycat" reports in subsequent weeks, while other sources estimate the reports may have numbered in the thousands.
"Have We Visitors From Space?" was an article on Flying Saucers by H. B. Darrach Jr. and Robert Ginna that appeared in the April 7, 1952 edition of Life magazine. The piece was strongly sympathetic to the hypothesis that UFOs might be the product of extraterrestrials. Publicity surrounding the piece is believed to have contributed to the 1952 UFO flap, a subsequent wave of reports that summer.
John Philip Bessor was a prolific correspondent and author for Fate Magazine. He is remembered for his space animal hypothesis, first put forward in 1947, that "flying saucers" might be biological animals rather than technological spacecraft.
The space animal hypothesis proposes that reports of flying saucers or UFOs might be caused not by technological alien spacecraft or mass hysteria, but rather by animal lifeforms that are indigenous to Earth's atmosphere or interplanetary space.
