Disputed Statements

Mentalism, Hermetic Principles

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Origin of the Name

Currently States The name asserts a descent from antiquity; it does not record one

Brian P. Copenhaver's Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius, Cambridge University Press, 1992, is a critical translation of the actual surviving ancient Hermetic texts, against which the Kybalion's claimed seven Hermetic Principles, Mentalism among them, can be directly checked. Copenhaver's edition establishes exactly what the ancient Greek Corpus Hermeticum and Latin Asclepius contain, and the seven-principle scheme, first published as the Kybalion in 1908, appears in neither. That direct textual comparison is the method and the finding together: a work presenting itself as ancient wisdom descending from Hermes Trismegistus does not appear in the ancient corpus it claims to descend from, which is why the atlas treats the descent claim as false while still recording the principle as a real feature of the modern text.

Source Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius, Brian P. Copenhaver tier 1

Mesmerism, Disciplines

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Key Experiment

Currently States A French royal commission including Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier tested Mesmer's associate Charles Deslon in 1784 using blindfolding and sham as well as genuine procedures, and concluded in a report presented to Louis XVI on 11 August 1784 that no physical magnetic fluid could be detected and that the treatment's effects came from imagination.

In 1784 Louis XVI convened a royal commission, drawn from the Faculty of Medicine and the Academy of Sciences and including Benjamin Franklin, Jean-Sylvain Bailly and Antoine Lavoisier, to investigate animal magnetism as practiced by Franz Mesmer's associate Charles Deslon. The commission's report, presented to the king on 11 August 1784, is the primary record of the investigation. The method was blinded and controlled experimental testing, among the earliest on record: subjects were blindfolded and exposed to sham magnetizing alongside genuine procedures, so that any effect produced without an actual application of the claimed fluid could be identified. The commission found subjects responded to whichever procedure they believed was genuine regardless of whether it was, and concluded no physical magnetic fluid could be detected and that the effects came from the subjects' own imagination. Because the finding isolates belief from any physical agent, animal magnetism's causal claim is treated as debunked.

Source Report of Dr. Benjamin Franklin and Other Commissioners Charged by the King of France with the Examination of Animal Magnetism, Benjamin Franklin, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, Antoine Lavoisier, and the Commission of the Faculty of Medicine and the Academy of Sciences tier 1

Michael Faraday, Historical Figures

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Test Result

Currently States Debunked

In 1853, at the height of the table-turning craze, Michael Faraday built a simple apparatus of card sheets linked by soft cement between a sitter's fingers and the tabletop, so any sideways pressure from the fingers would show as a visible displacement before the table itself moved. He found sitters who sincerely believed they were only resting their hands on the table were applying small involuntary pressure in the direction they expected it to move, and that the table stopped moving once a sitter's expectation of the direction was removed. He published the result in a letter to The Times in June 1853 as Experimental Investigation of Table-Moving (also printed in the Journal of the Franklin Institute), naming the mechanism later called the ideomotor effect rather than any force external to the sitters.

Source Experimental Investigation of Table-Moving, Michael Faraday tier 1

Michigan History Center, Custodians & Museums

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Relevant Holding

Currently States Mormonism's Encounter with the Michigan Relics (Mark Ashurst-McGee, David W. Grua and Robin Scott Jensen, BYU Studies, 2010) documents the Michigan Relics, a large body of inscribed clay, copper and slate objects produced as a hoax from the 1890s onward and long since exposed as fabrications, which the Michigan History Center, the state government agency responsible for Michigan's historical museum and archival collections in Lansing, now preserves as a documented case of historical fraud rather than as authentic ancient artifacts.

Source Mormonism's Encounter with the Michigan Relics, Mark Ashurst-McGee, David W. Grua, Robin Scott Jensen tier 1

Michigan Relics, Artifacts & Relics

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Makers

Currently States Manufactured by James O. Scotford

The Bentley Historical Library's Frauds in the Field, University of Michigan, 2019, draws on eyewitness testimony collected in 1911, when associates of James O. Scotford described watching the clay and copper objects being manufactured and planted for later discovery, and on a 2001 re-examination of the objects' manufacturing technique and materials. Both lines of evidence point the same way: the 1911 testimony names who made them and how, and the 2001 material analysis found tool marks and fabrication methods consistent with nineteenth century workshop production rather than any ancient technique, which is why the maker is established rather than debated.

Source Frauds in the Field (Bentley Historical Library), Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan tier 2

Michigan Relics, Artifacts & Relics

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Makers

Currently States Promoted by Daniel E. Soper, c. 1890-1920

The Bentley Historical Library's Frauds in the Field, University of Michigan, 2019, draws on eyewitness testimony collected in 1911, when associates of James O. Scotford described watching the clay and copper objects being manufactured and planted for later discovery, and on a 2001 re-examination of the objects' manufacturing technique and materials. Both lines of evidence point the same way: the 1911 testimony names who made them and how, and the 2001 material analysis found tool marks and fabrication methods consistent with nineteenth century workshop production rather than any ancient technique, which is why the maker is established rather than debated.

Source Frauds in the Field (Bentley Historical Library), Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan tier 2

Micro-Psychokinesis, Psi Phenomena

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Replication Status

Currently States The PEAR laboratory closed in 2007 after 28 years without its results being accepted by the wider scientific community; a coordinated multi-laboratory replication effort produced inconsistent results across sites.

Source ESP Research Lab Closes After 28 Years, NPR tier 2

Moon Stone, Gemstones

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Origin Period Start Year

Currently States 1970

According To Modern crystal healing, from the 1970s

Wouter J. Hanegraaff's New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought (Brill, 1996) traces the specific modern crystal-healing framework, cleansing and charging stones, programming them with intention, correspondence to the chakras, crystal grids, and the accompanying Atlantean and Lemurian origin story, through its twentieth-century New Age sources, and shows the vocabulary and practices appearing and developing within that documented literature rather than being continuous with antiquity. Hanegraaff does not dispute that stones were worn, carved and credited with virtues in ancient societies, a separate and much older practice attested archaeologically, but the specific modern framework's own textual history is what this property records as recent. That the ancient-provenance claim is false is a historical finding about when the current framework appeared, not a judgement on the practice's legitimacy.

Source New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought, Wouter J. Hanegraaff tier 1

Moon Stone, Gemstones

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Origin Period End Year

Currently States 1990

According To Modern crystal healing, from the 1970s

Wouter J. Hanegraaff's New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought (Brill, 1996) traces the specific modern crystal-healing framework, cleansing and charging stones, programming them with intention, correspondence to the chakras, crystal grids, and the accompanying Atlantean and Lemurian origin story, through its twentieth-century New Age sources, and shows the vocabulary and practices appearing and developing within that documented literature rather than being continuous with antiquity. Hanegraaff does not dispute that stones were worn, carved and credited with virtues in ancient societies, a separate and much older practice attested archaeologically, but the specific modern framework's own textual history is what this property records as recent. That the ancient-provenance claim is false is a historical finding about when the current framework appeared, not a judgement on the practice's legitimacy.

Source New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought, Wouter J. Hanegraaff tier 1

Mugwort, Plants

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Origin Period End Year

Currently States 1653

According To Culpeper, The Complete Herbal

Agnes Arber's Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670 (Cambridge University Press, 1938) surveys the printed herbals of that two-century period and documents how the doctrine of signatures, that a plant's form, colour or habit declares its medicinal use, a yellow flower for the Sun, a perforated leaf for light, a plant of wet ground for the Moon, was applied inconsistently from one compiler to the next. Comparing planetary and use attributions for the same plants across different herbals, Arber finds no agreement between authors, direct evidence the method is a theory of resemblance rather than one of observation or testing. Where a signature plant does have a real effect, as St John's Wort, willow and the poppy do, Arber traces that activity to the plant's chemistry, unconnected to its appearance. The instability she documents between compilers is why this atlas gives no single planetary attribution as settled.

Source Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670, Agnes Arber tier 1

Mugwort, Plants

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Origin Period Start Year

Currently States 1653

According To Culpeper, The Complete Herbal

Agnes Arber's Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670 (Cambridge University Press, 1938) surveys the printed herbals of that two-century period and documents how the doctrine of signatures, that a plant's form, colour or habit declares its medicinal use, a yellow flower for the Sun, a perforated leaf for light, a plant of wet ground for the Moon, was applied inconsistently from one compiler to the next. Comparing planetary and use attributions for the same plants across different herbals, Arber finds no agreement between authors, direct evidence the method is a theory of resemblance rather than one of observation or testing. Where a signature plant does have a real effect, as St John's Wort, willow and the poppy do, Arber traces that activity to the plant's chemistry, unconnected to its appearance. The instability she documents between compilers is why this atlas gives no single planetary attribution as settled.

Source Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670, Agnes Arber tier 1

Mullein, Plants

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Origin Period End Year

Currently States 1653

According To Culpeper, The Complete Herbal

Agnes Arber's Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670 (Cambridge University Press, 1938) surveys the printed herbals of that two-century period and documents how the doctrine of signatures, that a plant's form, colour or habit declares its medicinal use, a yellow flower for the Sun, a perforated leaf for light, a plant of wet ground for the Moon, was applied inconsistently from one compiler to the next. Comparing planetary and use attributions for the same plants across different herbals, Arber finds no agreement between authors, direct evidence the method is a theory of resemblance rather than one of observation or testing. Where a signature plant does have a real effect, as St John's Wort, willow and the poppy do, Arber traces that activity to the plant's chemistry, unconnected to its appearance. The instability she documents between compilers is why this atlas gives no single planetary attribution as settled.

Source Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670, Agnes Arber tier 1

Mullein, Plants

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Origin Period Start Year

Currently States 1653

According To Culpeper, The Complete Herbal

Agnes Arber's Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670 (Cambridge University Press, 1938) surveys the printed herbals of that two-century period and documents how the doctrine of signatures, that a plant's form, colour or habit declares its medicinal use, a yellow flower for the Sun, a perforated leaf for light, a plant of wet ground for the Moon, was applied inconsistently from one compiler to the next. Comparing planetary and use attributions for the same plants across different herbals, Arber finds no agreement between authors, direct evidence the method is a theory of resemblance rather than one of observation or testing. Where a signature plant does have a real effect, as St John's Wort, willow and the poppy do, Arber traces that activity to the plant's chemistry, unconnected to its appearance. The instability she documents between compilers is why this atlas gives no single planetary attribution as settled.

Source Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670, Agnes Arber tier 1

Museo Cabrera, Custodians & Museums

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Relevant Holding

Currently States Ica Stones, engraved andesite cobbles almost universally regarded by archaeologists as a modern forgery

The Museo Cabrera in Ica, Peru, displays a large collection of engraved stones depicting, among other things, humans interacting with dinosaurs and undergoing advanced surgery, presented by the museum as ancient artifacts. HISTORY.com's editorial account, What Are the Ica Stones, and Are They Real? (2023), records that Basilio Uschuya, a farmer who was the primary documented supplier of stones to the museum's founder, Javier Cabrera, publicly stated that he personally carved the stones using modern dental tools and artificially aged them, including by burying them in manure, a direct firsthand account of the forgery method from the person who produced the objects. The method establishing the forgery is testimonial and documentary, Uschuya's own statement corroborated by the anachronistic and stylistically inconsistent imagery the stones depict, including species and technology no genuine ancient culture could have observed or possessed. The museum continues to present the stones as genuine ancient artifacts despite this documented supplier confession, which is why the relevant holding is recorded as debunked rather than merely disputed.

Source What Are the Ica Stones - and Are They Real?, HISTORY.com editors tier 3

Near-Death Experience, Psi Phenomena

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Key Experiment

Currently States The AWARE study (Sam Parnia et al., 2014), a multi-hospital trial placing hidden visual targets to test claimed veridical out-of-body perception during cardiac arrest, found no target correctly reported among tested patients.

Raymond Moody named and popularised the term near-death experience in his 1975 book Life After Life, and Pim van Lommel, a Dutch cardiologist, later gave the phenomenon its most cited prospective evidence base, publishing a study of 344 resuscitated cardiac arrest patients in The Lancet in 2001 that found 18 percent recalled some memory and 12 percent described a core near-death experience. Sam Parnia and colleagues' AWARE study, AWAreness during REsuscitation: A Prospective Study (2014), was designed specifically to test whether perception can occur accurately during clinically verified absent brain activity, placing hidden visual targets in resuscitation areas that only a genuinely out-of-body observer could report. The method was a large prospective multi-centre clinical trial with a pre-specified test the earlier studies had not included. One patient reported an apparently accurate account of events during resuscitation, but Parnia's own study reports this case could not be fully confirmed or ruled out by the trial's methodology, since the timing of verified absent brain activity relative to the recalled events could not be established with confidence. Because the one positive case does not meet the standard the trial was designed to test, it is not treated as a systematic finding.

Source AWARE-AWAreness during REsuscitation: A Prospective Study, Sam Parnia et al. tier 1

Nettle, Plants

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Origin Period End Year

Currently States 1653

According To Culpeper, The Complete Herbal

Agnes Arber's Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670 (Cambridge University Press, 1938) surveys the printed herbals of that two-century period and documents how the doctrine of signatures, that a plant's form, colour or habit declares its medicinal use, a yellow flower for the Sun, a perforated leaf for light, a plant of wet ground for the Moon, was applied inconsistently from one compiler to the next. Comparing planetary and use attributions for the same plants across different herbals, Arber finds no agreement between authors, direct evidence the method is a theory of resemblance rather than one of observation or testing. Where a signature plant does have a real effect, as St John's Wort, willow and the poppy do, Arber traces that activity to the plant's chemistry, unconnected to its appearance. The instability she documents between compilers is why this atlas gives no single planetary attribution as settled.

Source Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670, Agnes Arber tier 1

Nettle, Plants

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Origin Period Start Year

Currently States 1653

According To Culpeper, The Complete Herbal

Agnes Arber's Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670 (Cambridge University Press, 1938) surveys the printed herbals of that two-century period and documents how the doctrine of signatures, that a plant's form, colour or habit declares its medicinal use, a yellow flower for the Sun, a perforated leaf for light, a plant of wet ground for the Moon, was applied inconsistently from one compiler to the next. Comparing planetary and use attributions for the same plants across different herbals, Arber finds no agreement between authors, direct evidence the method is a theory of resemblance rather than one of observation or testing. Where a signature plant does have a real effect, as St John's Wort, willow and the poppy do, Arber traces that activity to the plant's chemistry, unconnected to its appearance. The instability she documents between compilers is why this atlas gives no single planetary attribution as settled.

Source Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670, Agnes Arber tier 1

Newark Holy Stones, Artifacts & Relics

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Claimed Origin

Currently States Ancient Hebrew inscriptions proving Old World presence in America.

Bradley T. Lepper and Jeff Gill's The Newark Holy Stones: The Social Context of an Enduring Scientific Forgery (2000) examined the Hebrew inscriptions carved on stones reportedly excavated from Ohio burial mounds in the 1860s. Their method combined epigraphic analysis of the Hebrew script against nineteenth century printed Hebrew type which the letterforms closely match, and finds the modern Hebrew script style and the carving technique together indicate a forgery created around 1860 rather than an ancient Hebrew presence in North America, consistent with the social and religious motivations of the period Lepper and Gill document.

Source The Newark Holy Stones: The Social Context of an Enduring Scientific Forgery, Bradley T. Lepper and Jeff Gill tier 1

Nine worlds, Doctrines

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Origin Period

Currently States They do not enumerate them, and the lists in circulation are modern reconstructions

The Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition, Mircea Eliade founding editor, Lindsay Jones revising editor, Macmillan Reference, 2005, traces the standard nine-world list, Asgard, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Midgard, Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, Nidavellir, Muspelheim and Niflheim, back through its citation history and finds it nowhere in the medieval sources themselves. The Poetic Edda and Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda both say nine worlds exist but never list them; the encyclopedia's philological method, tracing when and where the specific nine-name list first appears in print, places its assembly from names scattered across different Eddic passages no earlier than the nineteenth century, after which twentieth century popular handbooks repeated it until it read as though the medieval text had supplied it directly. No medieval manuscript gives the list in that or any other complete form.

Source Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.) tier 1

Nine worlds, Doctrines

Standing Popular myth - corrected

Concerns Origin Period Start Year

Currently States 1200

The Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition, Mircea Eliade founding editor, Lindsay Jones revising editor, Macmillan Reference, 2005, traces the standard nine-world list, Asgard, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Midgard, Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, Nidavellir, Muspelheim and Niflheim, back through its citation history and finds it nowhere in the medieval sources themselves. The Poetic Edda and Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda both say nine worlds exist but never list them; the encyclopedia's philological method, tracing when and where the specific nine-name list first appears in print, places its assembly from names scattered across different Eddic passages no earlier than the nineteenth century, after which twentieth century popular handbooks repeated it until it read as though the medieval text had supplied it directly. No medieval manuscript gives the list in that or any other complete form.

Source Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.) tier 1