Open Questions

Open Hubert Pearce

Why It Is Open The parapsychological literature records his trial results to several decimal places and almost nothing about the man. This atlas could not verify a birth date, a death date, or any account of his later life from an accessible source, and records no dates at all rather than estimating them.

What Would Settle It Duke Divinity School enrolment and graduation records for the early 1930s, or the Rhine Research Center's own archive of laboratory correspondence, which would identify him well enough for ordinary genealogical work.

Expertise Needed Archival research; genealogy

Question posed in A Review of the Pearce-Pratt Distance Series of ESP Tests, J. B. Rhine and J. G. Pratt.

Open William Crookes

Why It Is Open Writers since the 1960s have argued that Crookes either knew the materialisations were produced by Cook herself or was personally involved with her, and that this explains his willingness to vouch for phenomena he would have tested rigorously in any other setting. The arguments rest on circumstantial reading of his published accounts and on later recollection, and no documentary proof has been produced in either direction.

What Would Settle It Contemporary correspondence between Crookes and Cook, or household records establishing the arrangements at the sittings, if any survive in family or institutional archives.

Expertise Needed History of Victorian science; archival research

Question posed in The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Ruth Brandon.

Open Frank Podmore

Why It Is Open The 1910 inquest could not establish how Podmore entered the water and returned no verdict of intent. Suggestions of suicide, tied to the risk of a scandal over his private life, have circulated since among historians of the Society for Psychical Research but have never been substantiated, and no further inquiry has been undertaken.

What Would Settle It A search of the original coroner's inquest papers and the Malvern and Worcestershire newspaper coverage of August 1910, which may hold testimony not yet examined by SPR historians.

Expertise Needed Archival research, history of science

Question posed in The Founders of Psychical Research, Alan Gauld.

Open Sabian Symbols

Why It Is Open The phrasing in general circulation, including every row stored in this atlas, is Dane Rudhyar's from An Astrological Mandala (1973), verified verbatim against the book for all 360 degrees. Jones published his own text in The Sabian Symbols in Astrology (1953), but no accessible per-degree transcription of it was found. Without it, Jones's contribution cannot be distinguished from Rudhyar's rewriting for any individual degree.

What Would Settle It A copy of Jones 1953, or a scholarly edition collating the two. This would also let the atlas describe the symbols in wording that is not in copyright until 2069.

Expertise Needed History of twentieth century astrology, and archival or library access to a 1953 imprint.

Question posed in An Astrological Mandala, Dane Rudhyar, Page 19.

Open Iridology

Why It Is Open The owl story is repeated in nearly every account of iridology's origin and is presented as its founding moment, but the accounts trace to later iridological literature rather than to anything Peczely wrote. It has the shape of a foundation legend.

What Would Settle It A statement by Peczely himself, or a contemporary account, describing the observation. Absent that, the earliest attestation of the story would at least date the legend.

Expertise Needed History of medicine, and Hungarian-language archival sources.

Question posed in Ignaz von Peczely, Inventor of Iridology, Edzard Ernst, Chapter 19, abstract.

Open Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God

Why It Is Open The commonly cited figure of about 778 dead is assembled from counts taken at the Kanungu church and several satellite grave sites, not from an identified register, and the victims at the satellite sites were killed over a period of months before the fire. Credonia Mwerinde and Joseph Kibwetere were sought and never produced. The Ugandan investigation was not completed, the remains were never comprehensively examined, and no identification exercise was carried out, so the total and the fate of the leadership are both unresolved rather than disputed.

What Would Settle It Forensic examination and DNA identification of the remains recovered from the Kanungu site and the satellite graves, matched against surviving relatives, together with release of the Ugandan police investigation file and the 2000 post-mortem records.

Expertise Needed Forensic anthropology and forensic genetics; Ugandan criminal records and archival research; history of religion in East Africa.

Question posed in World Religions and Spirituality Project, David G. Bromley (founding director) and the profile authors of record.

Open Gallium

Why It Is Open The discoverer gave the patriotic reason, that he had named the element for Gallia, the Latin name for France. The coincidence that gallus is Latin for a rooster, and that his own surname, Lecoq, is French for the rooster, was pointed out at once and has been repeated ever since. Whether the second reading was intended, quietly enjoyed, or only ever imagined by other people cannot be settled from the naming announcement, which offers the patriotic reason alone.

What Would Settle It A statement of intent in Lecoq de Boisbaudran's own correspondence or working papers. Failing that, the question concerns a private intention and may simply not be answerable.

Expertise Needed History of chemistry, and French archival work on the Lecoq de Boisbaudran papers.

Question posed in Periodic Table: Gallium, Royal Society of Chemistry, History section of the gallium entry.

Open The Pearce-Pratt Distance Series

Why It Is Open C. E. M. Hansel examined the buildings in the 1960s and argued that a route existed by which the subject, unobserved in the library, could have reached a position from which the cards were visible. Rhine and Pratt disputed the sightlines, the timing, and whether such an absence would have gone unnoticed. Neither side conceded, and the buildings have since been altered, so the question can no longer be settled by inspection.

What Would Settle It Original architectural plans of the Social Sciences building and the campus library as they stood in 1933 and 1934, together with any contemporaneous record of Pearce's whereabouts during the sessions.

Expertise Needed History of science; architectural history; archival research at Duke University

Question posed in ESP: A Scientific Evaluation, C. E. M. Hansel.