List of alternative, speculative and disputed theories
This list of alternative, speculative and disputed theories includes examples of fields of endeavor that many in
academia consider to be fringe or pseudoscientific, beginning from
theories considered crackpot by all but their handful of followers and ending in respectable theories that are simply the
minority view. Many of these practices are often quite popular, in part because they sometimes work. Opinion on the validity of
these practices is extremely diverse. Many may qualify as protosciences.
In addition to a postulated theory, inclusion in the list is possible because that theory is:
- Asserting claims without supporting experimental evidence;
- Asserting claims which contradict experimentally established results;
- Failing to provide an experimental possibility of reproducible results; or
- Violating Occam's Razor (the principle of choosing the simplest
explanation when multiple viable explanations are possible).
- Adhered to by a limited group.
Many of these theories are considered pathological
science: a psychological process in which believers in a theory, who may have originally conformed to the scientific method, unconsciously veer from that method and begin a
pathological process of wishful data interpretation.
The term ironic science was used by John Horgan in his book The End of Science to describe a "speculative,
non-empirical mode" that mainstream science sometimes enters.
Note that historically, some currently respected theories would have appeared on this list, e.g. plate tectonics or the idea that stones could fall from the sky. Equally, a number of these concepts have in the past been regarded as mainstream
theories (like luminiferous aether) or as strong hypotheses
deserving of further study (like polywater).
In all of these cases experimental study has demonstrated the strength or weakness of the hypothesis.
Theories
- See also Medicine below.
- Creationism is the religious belief that the origin of everything
in the universe is due to an event of creation brought about by the deliberate act
of a creator god; such are generally opposed to the scientific theory that life arose by
evolution.
- Intelligent Design scenarios hold that life and
living things show signs of having been designed. ID's primary argument is that life is too complex to have simply "happened";
Intelligent Design is generally considered to be a form of creationism.
- Superficial anatomy researches forms and
proportions of the human body and the surface landmarks which correspond to deeper structures hidden from view.
- Biophotons, a postulated communication mechanism of cells by the means
of light, sometimes claimed to be the scientific substrate of Qi.
- Vitalism, theories claiming that understanding of the living matter
should be radically different from that of non-living matter, e.g. biodynamic agriculture.
- Morphogenetic fields supposedly radiate from
living things to influence the growth of other living things.
- Biological Transmutation, see Corentin Louis Kervran, the hypothesis that organisms can convert chemical elements, e.g.
copper to iron.
- Astrology refers to any of several systems of understanding,
interpreting and organizing knowledge about reality and human existence, based on the relative positions and movement of various
real and construed celestial bodies.
- Cartomancy is a form of fortune telling -- divination -- using a deck of cards.
- Channeling supposed special ability of a person to receive
information from an unknown sources.
- Chiromancy evaluates a person's character or future life by
"reading" the palm of that person's hand.
- Dowsing divination method which dowsers say empowers them to find water,
metals and hidden objects by carrying some form of stick and watching its motion.
- Fortune telling is the practice of predicting the future,
usually of an individual, through mystical or supernatural means.
- Geomancy has always been a method of divination that interprets markings
on the ground or how handfuls of dirt land when you toss them.
- Numerology is an arcane study of the purported mystical relationship
between numbers and the character or action of physical objects and living things.
- Pyramid power theory states that pyramids have healing power
and spiritual energy.
- Remote viewing is a form of clairvoyance by which a viewer
is said to use his or her clairvoyant abilities to "view" which is hidden from physical view of the viewer.
- Scrying is the name given to the ancient technique of gazing into an
object for the purpose of remote viewing.
- The Catastrophism theory is that Earth has been affected by
sudden, short-lived, violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope. Immanuel Velikovsky's theories fall under this category. (An exception, one specific type of
catastrophism that is no longer significantly disputed, is the theory that the Earth has occasionally experienced collisions from
astronomical objects such as asteroids and comets large enough to temporarily effect global climate and cause extinction events.)
- The Hollow Earth theory claims that the Earth is hollow, and is
possibly populated by a race of superbeings, humans or aliens, and possibly dinosaurs.
- Ley lines are alignments of a number of places of geographical interest,
such as ancient megaliths.
- The Flat Earth theory is the idea that Earth is flat, as opposed to
the view of modern science that Earth is very nearly spherical.
- Acupuncture, in the traditional sense, is the practice of
inserting very thin needles in particular points on the body to redirect qi thereby
improving health and well-being. This is one component of traditional Chinese medicine.
- Applied kinesiology is a method of diagnosing
malfunctioning organs and what the effect of substances on the body is or would be by testing whether certain muscles are
weakened or not.
- The Bates method of vision improvement, based on a theory of how
the eye accommodates which is not accepted by mainstream ophthalmology or biology.
- Biorhythm theory researches patterns of alterations in physiology,
emotions, and intellect.
- Some Chiropractic theories that ascribe ailments unrelated to
the spine to spinal maladjustments.
- Crystal power theory states that crystals have alleged healing
and mystical paranormal powers.
- The Duesberg hypothesis claims that recreational
and pharmaceutical drug use, rather than HIV, is the primary cause of AIDS. See also AIDS reappraisal.
- Food faddism refer to the tendency for idiosyncratic diets and
eating patterns.
- Homeopathy is a system of alternative medicine involving the use of
highly diluted substances with similar (i. e. homeo-) characteristics to the condition being treated. In many cases not a
single molecule of the substance remains in the diluted solution.
- Iridology theory that diagnoses the health of a person by examining
the pattern of the Iris of the eye.
- Magnet therapy is an alternative medicine based on the
concept that certain medical disorders can be effectively treated by exposure to magnetic fields.
- Psychic surgery is a type of apparent surgery performed by
the healer with bare hands or unorthodox instruments.
- Trepanation is the act of drilling a hole in one's head to release
built-up pressure and move the person to a higher plane of consciousness.
- Autodynamics (AD) is a theory proposed as a replacement for special relativity, which is claimed to have been based on erroneous assumptions.
- The Cold fusion (or cold nuclear fusion (CNF)) theory
claims that hydrogen can undergo nuclear fusion at room temperature in palladium.
- Nikola Tesla's Dynamic theory of gravity that was never published but has been modified.
- Hidden variable theory is urged by a
minority of physicists who argue that the statistical nature of quantum mechanics implies that it is really applicable only to
ensembles of particles.
- Hydrino theory proposes the hydrino, or miniature hydrogen
atom with the electron pushed closer than usual to the nucleus.
- Kirlian photography is high-voltage contact print
photography.
- Luminiferous aether is the classical medium for
the propagation of light.
- Mirror matter is a candidate for dark matter, proposed in 1956 but now largely passed over in favor
of axions or other particles.
- Wilhelm Reich's Orgone energy is an unproven form of energy.
- Perpetual motion machines are a class of hypothetical
machines which produce useful energy "from nowhere".
- Plasma cosmology is a sub-set of plasma physics which attempts to explain large scale structure in the
universe.
- Polywater is a supposed polymerized form of water.
- Reciprocal System of Theory purports to be a new system of theory based on motion as opposed to matter. See: RST
Wiki (http://www.rstheory.com/articles/i/n/index.php/Main_Page)
- The Steady state theory holds that the universe
has always existed, and will always exist, in the same macroscopic state.
- Synchronicity refers to the alignment of forces in the
universe to create an event or circumstance.
- Heim-Theory, currently redirects to Burkhard Heim, a Theory of
everything with small, mostly german and austrian following.
- Modified Newtonian Dynamics, or
MOND, Mordehai Milgrom's theory that modifies Newtonian dynamics
for small accelerations as an alternative to dark matter.
- Characterology method of character reading developed in the
1920's.
- Engrams, a phenomenon claimed by Dianetics (see Scientology), are neurons patterns connected
through activation at the same time.
- Enneagram is a classification of personality characteristics claimed
to give insight into intra- and interpersonal relationships.
- Graphology is the study of handwriting and its connection to
behavior, personal information and other human traits.
- Parapsychology is the branch of science concerned with the
study of mental phenomena, whether actual or purported, that are not currently explainable within the framework of mainstream,
conventional science.
- Pathognomy is the study of passions and emotions.
- Phrenology claims to be able to determine personality traits and
criminality on the basis of the shape of the head.
- Photoreading is "mentally photographing" printed pages.
- Physiognomy is based upon the belief that the study and judgement
of a person's outer appearance, primarily the face, reflects the contents of their personality.
- Brainwashing or mind control theory says a person can have his belief system and basic values changed involuntarily by the
use of sophisticated manipulation techniques.
- Recovered
memory is the act of discovering repressed memories and therapy to achieve such ends.
- Democide Theory that Totalitarian Governments cause more deaths than
wars.
- Memetics is what proponents argue a scientific approach to evolutionary
models of information transfer based on the concept of the meme.
- Social Darwinism is a set of theories which proponents
argue govern the natural sociological relations of humanity; these theories are derived from Darwin's theory of evolution.
- Cryptozoology is the study of rumored or mythological animals
that are presumed by many to exist, but for which proof does not yet exist.
- Pseudoarchaeology refers to the ideologically-driven,
usually sensational interpretation of the past outside of a critical, scientific framework. Pseudoarchaeology also includes forms
of protosciences.
- Ufology is the term describing the study of the UFO (unidentified flying
object) phenomena, including claims that some UFOs are extraterrestrial vehicles manned by aliens.
- Vril - maybe best described as Aryan
Ufology plus some Hollow earth
thrown in.
Miscellaneous
- Facilitated communication is
alternative means of expression for people who cannot speak, or whose speech is highly limited (e.g. echoed, limited to one or a
few word utterances), and who cannot point reliably.
- Gene Ray's Time Cube,
which states that there are 4 simultaneous days in a single rotation of Earth, and that Time is Cubic, not linear. Some people
doubt whether this concept qualifies as a theory as they consider it to lack testable
constructs.
- Bible codes research states that the future can be predicted by
examining statistics of the Biblical text in various skips.
- Laws of Form, to the extent that it is claimed to be anything
more than an unorthodox presentation of propositional
logic
- Materialization creation of matter from nowhere and out of
nothing by somebody's will power or concentration.
- New Chronology, a theory which claims that currently
accepted chronology presents a history which lasts much longer than it should
(for example, that Jesus Christ is born around 1000 years ago).
- Welteislehre is the theory developed by Hanns Hörbiger in the early 20th
century. It states that the universe is based on a constant struggle between ice and fire.
See also
External links
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