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Peter Hurkos (born Pieter van der Hurk on 21 May 1911 in Dordrecht, the Netherlands; died 1 June 1988 in Los Angeles, California) was a Dutchman who allegedly manifested extrasensory perception (ESP) after recovering from a head injury and coma caused by a fall from a ladder when aged 30. During World War II, he was a member of the Dutch Resistance and was imprisoned in Buchenwald. With the help of businessman Henry Belk and parapsychologist Andrija Puharich, Hurkos became a popular entertainer known for performing psychic feats before live and television audiences. == Testing and analysis == Hurkos openly stated in a 1960 episode of ''One Step Beyond'', after giving a lecture at MIT to a scientific panel, that he would participate in any scientific experiment under any circumstances.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title="''One Step Beyond'': The Peter Hurkos Story: Part 1", 19 April 1960 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title="''One Step Beyond'': The Peter Hurkos Story: Part 2", 26 April 1960 )〕 However, author and stage magician James Randi contends that Hurkos refused to allow his skill to be tested by scientists except for one session with the parapsychologist Charles Tart of the University of California, Davis. Dr. Tart's tests were negative. Randi commented "If Tart can't find such powers, they certainly aren't there!".〔James Randi. (1982). ''The Truth About Uri Geller''. Prometheus Books. pp. 270-273. ISBN 0-87975-199-1〕 The parapsychologist Andrija Puharich was impressed by the stories about Hurkos and invited him to the USA in 1956 to investigate his alleged psychic abilities. Hurkos was studied at Puharich’s Glen Cove, Maine, medical research laboratory under what Dr. Puharich considered to be controlled conditions. The results convinced Puharich that Hurkos had genuine psychic abilities.〔Rosemary Guiley. (1991). ''Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience''. HarperCollins. p. 271〕 However the experiments were not repeated by other scientists and Puharich was described as a "credulous investigator".〔Mind over Matter. (1988). Time-Life Books. p. 28〕 Raymond Buckland has written "with the exception of Dr. Andrija Puharich, not a single recognized psychic investigator has been impressed with Hurkos's performances."〔Raymond Buckland. (2003). ''The Fortune-Telling Book: The Encyclopedia of Divination and Soothsaying''. Visible Ink Press. p. 246〕 In his early career as a psychic entertainer, Hurkos purported that he employed his psychic powers to discern details of audience members' private lives that he could not otherwise have known. However, the psychologist Ronald Schwartz wrote in the ''Skeptical Inquirer'' that Hurkos used cold reading methods and published a transcription of such a reading in their fall 1978 issue.〔Ronald Schwartz. (1978). ''Sleight of Tongue''. Skeptical Inquirer. Volume 3: 47–55.〕 : Hurkos: I see an operation. : Subject: ''(response )'' : Hurkos: Long time ago. : Subject: No. We have been lucky. : Hurkos: ''(angrily )'' Think! When you were a little girl. I see worried parents, and doctor, and scurrying about. : Subject: ''(response )'' : Hurkos: ''()'' Long time ago. : Subject: ''()'' I cannot remember for certain. Maybe you are right. I'm not sure. James Randi analyzed this and other transcripts of Hurkos performances and professed to have identified a number of standard cold reading techniques. For example, Hurkos might begin with something seemingly personal but actually quite common: a surgery. Hurkos would not specify that the subject underwent surgery—it could be any recent surgery of personal relevance to the subject.〔 If this approach failed, Randi maintains, Hurkos would qualify the statement with the phrase "long time ago." At this point, any operation to any family member or friend in the subjects's own life would have been a "hit" and yet would have looked psychic because an operation is thought of as a private matter. Randi adds that the tone in Hurkos's voice was also significant: Hurkos presented himself as confident and knowing and characterized the subject as obstinate.〔 Other common techniques included guessing numbers of people in families (easy enough if one picks a typical number and allows himself to add frequent visitors or exclude family members who have moved away from home as needed to match the target, as Hurkos did), including nonsense words in his presentation that could be interpreted by the subject to have any one of many meanings, and guessing on the importance of common names, which could be permutated as needed until he got a hit. (He most commonly used the name "Ann," which would give him a hit with anybody who had a relative or friend or teacher or boss or co-worker named Ann, Anna, Anastasia, etc., at any point in his or her life.) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Peter Hurkos」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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