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The following is a list of fields of endeavor and concepts that critics have characterized as being pseudoscientific or having pseudoscientific aspects. Some of these fields, or parts of them, may be the subject of scientific research and may not be wholly dismissed by the scientific community. Note that the pseudoscience label may be applied by disputants working in the same field to disparage a competing theory or form of argument used by a rival; by commentators from outside a field to disparage a whole field; merely to characterise the fact that a theory published in a popular book has no academic credibility whatsoever; or in reference to a theory now discarded. See the individual articles for more information.
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Reasons for inclusion as pseudoscientific
Inclusion in the list is due to the fact that a given concept or field of endeavor is considered by scientific critics and a significant portion of the scientific community to be:
Asserting claims without supporting experimental evidence;
Asserting claims which contradict experimentally established results;
Failing to provide an experimental possibility of reproducible results.
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Obsolete scientific theories
Pseudoscience should not be confused with obsolete scientific theories, such as luminiferous aether or the steady state theory of cosmology. The fact that a scientific theory has fallen into disfavour does not render it pseudoscience.
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Pseudoscience as stubbornly held obsolete or prescientific ideas
An obsolete or prescientific phenomenon can follow at least one of three paths leading to extremely different conclusions:
It can be disproven and rejected after much experimentation shows negative results. Such phenomena are relegated to the history books as historic artifacts.
It can, in spite of a lack of scientific validation - and even in spite of clear rejection - be preserved and believed, thus becoming a current pseudoscientific phenomena. In medicine, such phenomena are often labeled quackery by the medical community and skeptics.
Such stubbornly held ideas fail to become totally obsolete, simply because often large numbers of true believers keep them alive.
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Minority-opinion scientific theories
Pseudoscience should not be confused with unpopular or minority-opinion scientific theories. For example, some currently respected theories, such as the big bang theory, plate tectonics, or the idea that stones could fall from the sky (meteorites) were rejected simply because there was insufficient empirical evidence to support them at the time of their proposal; however, none of these theories were ever regarded as "pseudoscience"; rather they were scientific hypotheses which had insufficient evidenciary support for wide-spread acceptance.
As a practical matter, the topics of heated debate between scientists are rarely pseudoscience, even when the opinion is held by an extremely small minority of the scientific establishment. Notable exceptions are polywater and N-rays, although these might be more appropriately called scientific fraud, than pseudoscience. The label of pseudoscience is usually reserved for (pseudo-)theories advanced by non-scientists or those lacking in formal training or practical experience in matters of science. Philosophers have long considered it difficult if not impossible to develop a strict criteria to distinguish between science and pseudoscience (see demarcation problem).
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Pseudoscience as pathologial science
A small number of pseudoscientific concepts are considered pathological science: a psychological process in which believers in a position, 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. Such theories are non-verifiable but not necessarily pathological (string theory for example), and are not listed here.
Because the term pseudoscience is almost universally regarded as a pejorative label (usually because it implies that the concept being criticized is not what it represents itself to be), those who adhere to such concepts almost always challenge them, often on either epistemic grounds (challenging the diagnosis), or by pointing out that many mainstream fields of science can fail the same criteria. This last resort is an expression of a logical fallacy of the tu quoque variety.
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List
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Anthropology and Archaeology
Ancient astronaut theory, the theory that ancient extraterrestrial contact was involved in some way with the origin or development of human culture.
Lemuria, and Atlantis, the theory that sunken continents in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans were once home to lost civilizations.
Mount Ararat, the theory that the Biblical Noah's Ark was real and ended its journey on the mountain known now as Mount Ararat. Theories about the survival and location of Noah' Ark often form the core of creationist archaeological programs.
African Olmecs theory, the theory that the Olmec civilization, which was the first high civilization of the Americas was of African origin. This theory is a part of the Afrocentric way of thinking.
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Astronomy
These topics are listed by Andrew Franknoi and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific as common cases of astronomical pseudoscience *
Astrology - the ancient belief that the position of celestial bodies affects personal lives and events on Earth
Crop circles - consideration of these objects as being messages from intelligent aliens
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Biology
See also Medicine below.
Biophotons, a postulated communication mechanism of cells by the means of light, sometimes claimed to be the scientific substrate of Qi.
Erototoxin, a neurological chemical postulated by Judith Reisman, PhD, an anti-pornography activist. It is triggered in the brain by exposure to pornography, and "mimics the 'high' from a street drug". She considers erototoxins addictive substances which represent the alleged link between pornography and such things as serial murder, rape, child molestation, and erectile dysfunction.
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 by random chance" or evolved via millions of years. (Intelligent Design is sometimes considered to be a form of Creationism, though many who advocate ID suggest it may be the other way around.)
Irreducible complexity is a concept which considers that the generally accepted scientific theory that biological Evolution by natural selection alone is incomplete or flawed, and that some additional mechanism is required to explain the origins of life.
Odic force is a theory that all life is permeated and bound together by a vital property.
Specified complexity is a concept which considers that modern information science can only deal with the probabilities of genetic evolution if it considers the context of the information contained within a gene.
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 cause things (particularly, but not exclusively, living organisms) to grow or behave in patterns laid down by previous similar things.
Vibration theory of smell, the hypothesis that the sensation of smell arises from the nose's sensing of the rate of electron tunneling into the scent molecule.
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Divination
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.
Channeling is a supposed special ability of a person to receive information from a supernatural source.
Chiromancy evaluates a person's character or future life by "reading" the palm of that person's hand.
Dowsing is a divination method which empowers the dowser to find water, metals and hidden objects by carrying a form of stick (dowsing rod) and watching its motion.
Fortune telling is the practice of predicting the future, usually of an individual, through mystical or supernatural means.
Geomancy is a method of divination based on the interpretation of markings on the ground or the pattern of scattered dirt or pebbles. It also refers to a set of practices and theories based on the identification or manipulation of energies tied to the earth (see Sacred Geometry), including dowsing, feng shui, and ley lines / dragon lines.
Numerology is an arcane study of the purported mystical relationship between numbers and the character or action of physical objects and living things.
Ornithomancy is a form of divination using the flight of birds to predict future events.
Pyramid power theory states that the shape of the pyramid has healing power and spiritual energy.
Remote viewing is a form of clairvoyance by which a viewer is said to be able to perceive objects or events separated from the viewer in space or time.
Scrying is the name given to the ancient technique of gazing into an object for the purpose of clairvoyance.
Telepathy is the claimed ability for humans to communicate information from one mind to another without the assistance of outside tools such as speech or body language.
Levitation is the act of rising up from the ground without any physical aids, usually by the power of thought.
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Geology
Catastrophism claims 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 affect global climate and cause extinction events.)
Flood geology is the creationist form of geology that advocates most of the geologic features on Earth are explainable by a global flood.
Hollow Earthism theory claims that the Earth is hollow, and its inside 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.
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Medicine
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. While acupuncture has documented theraputic effects, mainstream medical science attributes the mechanism for these effects to sources other than qi. 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. See also Kinesiology.
The Bates Method of vision improvement, based on a theories of accommodation and myopia pathogenesis which are not accepted by mainstream ophthalmology or biology.
Biorhythm theory claims that there are measurable patterns of alterations in physiology, emotions, and intellect that can be charted over the course of days or weeks.
Crystal healing theory states that crystals have alleged healing and mystical paranormal powers.
Demon possession was a theory for explaining some forms of mental illnesses; the theory was once widely held and was believed by many to have had Biblical support; most modern mental health professionals, today, have rejected this theory.
Food faddism refers 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.
Magnet therapy is an alternative medicine based on the concept that certain medical disorders (particularly pain or muscle spasms) can be effectively treated by exposure to magnetic fields.
Prayer healing is the belief that praying for someone to get well from an illness or injury will cause them to get well, even if the object of the prayer is unaware of the prayer.
Psychic surgery is a type of apparent surgery performed by the healer with bare hands or unorthodox instruments.
Reflexology claims that by massaging specific parts of the foot, one can improve the health of various other parts of the body.
Reiki is the use of 'healing hands' to allow a patient to experience Universal Lifeforce Energy to create physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
Thought Field Therapy claims that it can heal of a variety of mental and physical ailments through specialized "tapping" with the fingers at meridian points on the upper body and hands.
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. (Not to be confused with more generic medical procedure of trepanation used in neurosurgery to access the cerebrum.)
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Planetary science
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Physics
Alchemy, the attempt to turn various metals, such as lead, into gold. This view still has adherents. (Some maintain that this is a mistaken view of alchemy, which often had more sophisticated goals. See the article for details.)
Creationist cosmologies offered by Young Earth Creationists as alternative ideas about cosmology to allow for a universe that is only thousands of years old.
Electric Universe, an idea that electricity plays a larger role in the universe than is commonly accepted.
Fine-tuned universe, a theory based on the claimed probability that the Cosmological constants could not have arisen by chance.
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. Its existence is not disputed, but the paranormal interpretations of some images thus produced are.
Modern geocentrism, citing uniform gamma ray bursts distribution as evidence that we are at the center of the universe, and other ideas of this type.
Perpetual motion machines are a class of hypothetical machines in which the inputs of energy (including the energy equivalent of any fuel) are less than the outputs, a result that would violate the principle of conservation of energy. These should not be confused with energy processes that use various forms of latent energy (such as nuclear fission) and may to an untrained eye appear to be energy from "nowhere".
Polywater is a supposed polymerized form of water.
Red mercury, code name for a supposed energetic substance that could allow creation of hydrogen bomb without preceding fission explosion, promulgated by Samuel Cohen, sometimes claimed to be a ballotechnic substance.
Riemannian Cosmology, proposed by Igor Bogdanoff, regarded as illucid or cranky by most mainstream physicists, but defended by a vocal minority.
Scalar field theory is a set of theories in a model which posits that there is a basic mechanism that produces the electric field and the magnetic field and which normal electromagnetic theory does not acknowledge or account for.
Synchronicity is the claim by Carl Jung that some mysterious alignment of forces in the universe create apparent coincidence which according to Jung are imbued with profound meaning. In a strange aberration, late in his life (age 55), the prince of skeptics, Wolfgang Pauli, coauthored a book on this topic with Jung.
Time Cube, the idea that we live four actual days for every one perceived day, a fact not apparent to us because of a vast academic conspiracy.
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Probability
Gambler's Fallacy, the claim that truly random events which have happened less often than the frequency expected by random chance in the past are more likely than random chance to happen in the future.
Luck, the claim, common in fiction and folk wisdom, that random events not causally linked to a person or ritual happen in a way that systemically favors or disfavors the interests of that person, or someone who has carried out a ritual. One important subtype of luck belief is a popular version of the concept of karma which asserts that good things are more likely to happen in the future to people who have been good, and that bad things are more likely to happen in the future to people have been bad, as a result of a cosmic principle of balance.
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Psychology
Couéism, or the Coué Method, method of healing and self-improvement through autosuggestion.
Engrams, a phenomenon claimed by Dianetics (see Scientology), are claimed to be mental 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.
Indigo children refers to a New Age concept used to classify children with certain "unusual" psychological characteristics or abilities
Phrenology claims to be able to determine personality traits and criminality on the basis of the shape of the head.
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.
Recovered memory is the act of discovering repressed memories and therapy to achieve such ends.
Sentience Quotient is a concept invented by Robert A. Freitas Jr. The theory defines sentience according to a relationship between information processing rate and brain mass, yet there is no evidence that such a relationship is in any way related to the measure of sentience.
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Sociology
Eugenics, a term variously defined but generally meaning attempts to use social control to improve the human gene pool, is often labeled as a pseudoscience when referring to its status in the first half of the twentieth century as practiced in the United States and under Nazi Germany, which rested on methodologically problematic assumptions and very sloppy data. Depending on the definition of the term, though, it is not necessarily pseudoscience.
Social Darwinism is a set of theories which proponents argue govern the natural sociological relations of humanity; these theories are putatively an application of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection to society as a whole. They generally claim that current social structure is governed by purely biological considerations (i.e. the poor are poor and the rich are rich because they are biologically inclined to fall into those categories).
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Xenology
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.
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Miscellaneous
Anthroposophy, also called spiritual science by its founder Rudolf Steiner, is an attempt to investigate and describe spiritual phenomena with the same precision and clarity with which natural science investigates and describes the physical world.
Bible codes research states that the future can be predicted by examining Hebrew letters arranged in blocks and making various skips (every 4th letter or every 6th letter, etc). Critics say that similar "codes" can be found in any book of similar length (for example: ''War and Peace'').
Facilitated communication is viewed 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. Critics charge that actual communication is only done by the facilitator.
Ghost hunting aka Paranormal investigation, collecting and measuring evidence of paranormal activity using a variety of electronic gadgets, such as EMF Meters, digital thermometers, infrared and night vision cameras, handheld video cameras, digital audio recorders, and computers.
Materialization creation of matter from nowhere and out of nothing by somebody's will power or concentration.
New Chronology consists of various competing theories which claim that currently accepted chronology presents a history that lasts either much longer or much shorter than it should (e.g., that Jesus was born around 1000 years ago).
Novelty Theory An eschatology-like theory proposed by its creator, ethnobotanist Terence McKenna to have a firm mathematical basis (McKenna is not a mathematician), although its rationale and sources are primarily numerological, for example the Maya Calendar and a list of numbers from the I Ching. Its main feature is a plotted waveform McKenna calls "Timewave Zero," which he claims shows that "something" significant will happen in the year 2012, which corresponds to an abbreviated form of the date which marks the end of the Maya Calendar.
Reincarnation, a doctrine or mystical belief, that holds the notion that one's 'Spirit' ('Soul' depending on interpretation), or critical parts of these returns to the material world after physical death to be reborn in a new body.
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.
Yin and Yang is the theory that everything is based on a constant struggle between two opposing forces.
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See also
Crank (referencing a disagreeable person)
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Further reading
Abell, George O. and Barry Singer, Science and the Paranormal: Probing the Existence of the Supernatural, Charles Scribner's, 1981, ISBN 0-683-17820-6
Collins, Paul S. (2002) Banvard's Folly: Thirteen Tales of People Who Didn't Change the World. Picador. ISBN 0-312-30033-6
Gardner, Martin, Science, Good, Bad, and Bogus
Randi, James, Flim-Flam: Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and other Delusions, Prometheus, 1982, ISBN 0-87975-198-3
Sagan, Carl, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark. Ballantine Books, March 1997 ISBN 0-345-40946-9, 480 pgs. 1996 hardback edition: Random House, ISBN 0-394-53512-X, xv+457 pages plus addenda insert (some printings).
Schick, Theodore and Lewis Vaughn. (1998) How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age. Mayfield. ISBN 0-7674-0013-5
Shermer, Michael. (2002) Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. Owl Books. ISBN 0-8050-7089-3
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