Peter Hurkos
Encyclopedia
Peter Hurkos born Pieter van der Hurk, was a Dutchman
who allegedly manifested extra-sensory perception
following a head injury and coma resulting from a fall from a ladder when he was age 30. During World War II
he was a member of the Dutch Resistance
against the Nazis 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.
Hurkos once described his psychic impressions in this way: "I see pictures in my mind like a television screen. When I touch something, I can then tell what I see."
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 Dr. Charles Tart
of the University of California at Davis. Dr. Tart's tests were negative.
Andrija Puharich, MD, a noted physician and researcher of ESP was so impressed by the stories about Hurkos that he invited Hurkos to the USA in 1956 to study what seemed to be Hurkos’ unique psychic abilities under laboratory conditions. Hurkos was studied at Dr. Puharich’s Glen Cove, Maine, medical research laboratory under what Dr. Puharich considered to be very tightly controlled conditions. The results convinced Dr. Puharich that Hurkos’ psychic abilities were far greater than any he had ever tested (before or thereafter) . . . a remarkable 90% accuracy. After two and one-half years of testing Hurkos, Dr. Puharich said, “I am convinced that Peter Hurkos is the greatest of anyone I have ever tested as a psychic. His abilities are so far reaching that he hasn’t even scratched the surface of what he can do with his abilities and mind."
Hurkos in his later years admitted that his psychic TV Screen was such that he could not control when it came "on" or turned "off." As a result, when it was "off" Hurkos used cold reading techniques to convince his audience of his psychic powers. Sometimes without warning, his psychic TV screen would turn "on" and he would suddenly be able to uncover facts and history about those he was interviewing.
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. The Skeptical Inquirer published a transcription of such a reading in their fall 1978 issue:
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 you pick a typical number and allow yourself 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.)
During the 1970s, Hurkos sold readings for $200 each. His official site claims that he found a crashed plane by looking at an upside-down map for the late General Omar Bradley.
," Home Secretary
Chuter Ede declared:
Hurkos also claimed to have identified the Boston Strangler
, and he did in fact travel to Boston and spend time with the police there. However, he was not of help to them. Several days after he concluded his consultation, he was arrested (and eventually convicted) for impersonating a police officer. Hurkos allegedly posed as a police officer in order to gather information that he could later claim to be psychic revelations.
In the case of John Norman Collins, he sometimes claimed the killer was blond and at other times brown-haired so that he could claim victory either way. He made other claims about the killer that were simply wrong. He claimed to have identified Charles Manson
to police, but this was not true; Manson was identified by his supporter Susan Atkins
to a cellmate while she was in jail for a different crime. In fact, Hurkos had been to the Tate residence to do a "reading," but his guesses, including descriptions of how the "killings erupted during a black magic ritual known as 'goona goona,'" were inaccurate.
He also appeared three times on The Tonight Show
with Johnny Carson
.
His story was told on the television program One Step Beyond as "The Peter Hurkos Story: Parts 1 and 2".
Numerous periodicals reported Hurkos's exploits throughout his lifetime: Time, Newsweek, Omni, Life, True, Reader's Digest, Playboy, The National Enquirer, Ladies Home Journal, et al. Hurkos himself published three books: Psychic (Bobbs-Merrill), The Psychic World of Peter Hurkos, (Doubleday), and Peter Hurkos: I Have Many Lives (Doubleday). Various authors have described and examined various details of Hurkos's life and alleged ESP in more than 75 published books.
He also appeared in several motion pictures as himself, including The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena (Sunn International), Mysterious Monsters (David Wolper), and Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (Paramount). George Voskovec portrayed Hurkos in The Boston Strangler, the 1968 film adaptation of Gerold Frank's 1966 book of the same name. His life may also have been the basis for the Stephen King
novel The Dead Zone
.
Hurkos's hobbies included gardening and oil painting. At one time, one of his paintings was on display in New York's Museum of Modern Art. The personal art collection of Ronald Reagan
reportedly includes multiple Hurkos paintings, as does the General Omar N. Bradley Museum in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
.
At the time of his death, Peter Hurkos resided in Studio City, Los Angeles, California
. He failed to predict accurately the date of his own death: Although he prophesied that he would die on 17 November 1961, he did not die until 1 June 1988, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in West Hollywood, California.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
who allegedly manifested extra-sensory perception
Extra-sensory perception
Extrasensory perception involves reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with the mind. The term was coined by Frederic Myers, and adopted by Duke University psychologist J. B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities such as telepathy, clairaudience, and...
following a head injury and coma resulting from a fall from a ladder when he was age 30. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he was a member of the Dutch Resistance
Dutch resistance
Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized by its prominent non-violence, summitting in over 300,000 people in hiding in the autumn of 1944, tended to by some 60,000 to 200,000 illegal landlords and caretakers and tolerated knowingly...
against the Nazis and was imprisoned in Buchenwald. With the help of businessman Henry Belk and parapsychologist
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
Andrija Puharich
Andrija Puharich
Andrija Puharich, MD original name is Henry K. Puharich, . He was an Army officer in the early 1950s. During that time, he was in and out of Edgewood Arsenal Research Laboratories and Camp Detrick, meeting with various high-ranking officers and officials, primarily from the Pentagon, CIA, and Naval...
, Hurkos became a popular entertainer known for performing psychic feats before live
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
and television audiences.
Hurkos once described his psychic impressions in this way: "I see pictures in my mind like a television screen. When I touch something, I can then tell what I see."
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.However, author and stage magician James Randi
James Randi
James Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
contends that Hurkos refused to allow his skill to be tested by scientists except for one session with Dr. Charles Tart
Charles Tart
Dr. Charles T. Tart is an American psychologist and parapsychologist known for his psychological work on the nature of consciousness , as one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology, and for his research in scientific parapsychology. He earned his Ph. D...
of the University of California at Davis. Dr. Tart's tests were negative.
Andrija Puharich, MD, a noted physician and researcher of ESP was so impressed by the stories about Hurkos that he invited Hurkos to the USA in 1956 to study what seemed to be Hurkos’ unique psychic abilities under laboratory conditions. Hurkos was studied at Dr. Puharich’s Glen Cove, Maine, medical research laboratory under what Dr. Puharich considered to be very tightly controlled conditions. The results convinced Dr. Puharich that Hurkos’ psychic abilities were far greater than any he had ever tested (before or thereafter) . . . a remarkable 90% accuracy. After two and one-half years of testing Hurkos, Dr. Puharich said, “I am convinced that Peter Hurkos is the greatest of anyone I have ever tested as a psychic. His abilities are so far reaching that he hasn’t even scratched the surface of what he can do with his abilities and mind."
Hurkos in his later years admitted that his psychic TV Screen was such that he could not control when it came "on" or turned "off." As a result, when it was "off" Hurkos used cold reading techniques to convince his audience of his psychic powers. Sometimes without warning, his psychic TV screen would turn "on" and he would suddenly be able to uncover facts and history about those he was interviewing.
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. The Skeptical Inquirer published a transcription of such a reading in their fall 1978 issue:
- Hurkos: I see an operation.
- Subject: [no response]
- Hurkos: Long time ago.
- Subject: No. We have been lucky.
- Hurkos: [somewhat angrily] Think! When you were a little girl. I see worried parents, and doctor, and scurrying about.
- Subject: [no response]
- Hurkos: [confidently] Long time ago.
- Subject: [yielding] 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
Cold reading
Cold reading is a series of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, illusionists, and con artists to determine or express details about another person, often in order to convince them that the reader knows much more about a subject than they actually do...
techniques. For example, Hurkos might begin with something seemingly personal but actually quite common: a surgery
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
. 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 you pick a typical number and allow yourself 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.)
During the 1970s, Hurkos sold readings for $200 each. His official site claims that he found a crashed plane by looking at an upside-down map for the late General Omar Bradley.
Refuted claims
Hurkos and his supporters maintained that he was a great psychic detective. By 1969, he cited the successful solution of 27 murder cases in 17 countries. However, in some cases the detectives assigned to these cases countered that Hurkos contributed no information unobtainable from newspapers and, in some cases, that he took no part in the investigations whatsoever. In response to Hurkos's claim that he located the stolen "Stone of SconeStone of Scone
The Stone of Scone , also known as the Stone of Destiny and often referred to in England as The Coronation Stone, is an oblong block of red sandstone, used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland and later the monarchs of England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom...
," Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Chuter Ede declared:
The gentleman in question whose activities have been publicized (though not by the police) was among a number of persons authorized to come to Westminster Abbey to examine the scene of the crime. He was not invited by the police, his expenses have not been refunded by the Government, and he did not obtain any result whatsoever.
Hurkos also claimed to have identified the Boston Strangler
Boston Strangler
The Boston Strangler is a name attributed to the murderer of several women in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, in the early 1960s. Though the crimes were attributed to Albert DeSalvo, investigators of the case have since suggested the murders were not committed by one person.-First Stage...
, and he did in fact travel to Boston and spend time with the police there. However, he was not of help to them. Several days after he concluded his consultation, he was arrested (and eventually convicted) for impersonating a police officer. Hurkos allegedly posed as a police officer in order to gather information that he could later claim to be psychic revelations.
In the case of John Norman Collins, he sometimes claimed the killer was blond and at other times brown-haired so that he could claim victory either way. He made other claims about the killer that were simply wrong. He claimed to have identified Charles Manson
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
to police, but this was not true; Manson was identified by his supporter Susan Atkins
Susan Atkins
Susan Denise Atkins was a convicted American murderer who was a member of the "Manson family", led by Charles Manson. Manson and his followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in California, over a period of five weeks in the summer of 1969...
to a cellmate while she was in jail for a different crime. In fact, Hurkos had been to the Tate residence to do a "reading," but his guesses, including descriptions of how the "killings erupted during a black magic ritual known as 'goona goona,'" were inaccurate.
Popularization
Despite refutations, Hurkos remained famous. He has several successful television specials, including:- Japan: The Greatest Psychic in The World . . . Peter Hurkos, a six-hour two-part special on TV-TOKYO and NET-TV filmed at Dr. Puharich's lab in Dobson, North CarolinaDobson, North CarolinaDobson is a town in Dobson Township, Surry County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 1,457. It is the county seat of Surry County...
, where Hurkos was specifically tested for this special, and also on location in Japan
- The Netherlands: Peter Hurkos, a four-part nine-hour special for TROSTROSTROS is a Dutch television and radio organization part of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting...
television, highlighting Hurkos's attempt to use his abilities to help Dutch millionaire Maup Caransa find his former kidnappers
He also appeared three times on The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
with Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
.
His story was told on the television program One Step Beyond as "The Peter Hurkos Story: Parts 1 and 2".
Numerous periodicals reported Hurkos's exploits throughout his lifetime: Time, Newsweek, Omni, Life, True, Reader's Digest, Playboy, The National Enquirer, Ladies Home Journal, et al. Hurkos himself published three books: Psychic (Bobbs-Merrill), The Psychic World of Peter Hurkos, (Doubleday), and Peter Hurkos: I Have Many Lives (Doubleday). Various authors have described and examined various details of Hurkos's life and alleged ESP in more than 75 published books.
He also appeared in several motion pictures as himself, including The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena (Sunn International), Mysterious Monsters (David Wolper), and Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (Paramount). George Voskovec portrayed Hurkos in The Boston Strangler, the 1968 film adaptation of Gerold Frank's 1966 book of the same name. His life may also have been the basis for the Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
novel The Dead Zone
The Dead Zone (novel)
The Dead Zone is a horror novel by Stephen King published in 1979. It concerns Johnny Smith, who is injured in an accident and enters a coma for nearly five years. When he emerges, he can see horrifying secrets but cannot identify all the details in his "dead zone", an area of his brain that...
.
Hurkos's hobbies included gardening and oil painting. At one time, one of his paintings was on display in New York's Museum of Modern Art. The personal art collection of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
reportedly includes multiple Hurkos paintings, as does the General Omar N. Bradley Museum in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The name is traditionally pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2010 census, the borough...
.
At the time of his death, Peter Hurkos resided in Studio City, Los Angeles, California
Studio City, Los Angeles, California
Studio City is an affluent residential neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California in the San Fernando Valley. Studio City expands over four ZIP code areas: 91604 and sections of 91602, 91607 and 90210....
. He failed to predict accurately the date of his own death: Although he prophesied that he would die on 17 November 1961, he did not die until 1 June 1988, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in West Hollywood, California.
See also
- Arthur FordArthur FordArthur Ford was an American psychic spiritual medium, clairaudient and in 1955 founded the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship.- Biographical problems :...
- Char MargolisChar MargolisChar Margolis is an American psychic medium. She stars in her own show, Char, on Dutch television, in which she utilises her intuition to contact the spirits of deceased relatives of guests in her show...
- Clever HansClever HansClever Hans was an Orlov Trotter horse that was claimed to have been able to perform arithmetic and other intellectual tasks....
- Forer effectForer effectThe Forer effect is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people...
- Hot readingHot readingHot reading is the use of foreknowledge when giving a psychic reading in stage magic performances, or in other contexts. The reader can gain information about the person receiving the reading through a variety of means, such as background research or overhearing a conversation...
- James PikeJames PikeJames Albert Pike was an American Episcopal bishop, prolific writer, and one of the first mainline religious figures to appear regularly on television....
- James RandiJames RandiJames Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
- John EdwardJohn EdwardJohn Edward McGee, Jr. is an American television personality and professional psychic medium. He is best known for his TV shows Crossing Over with John Edward and John Edward Cross Country....
- JomandaJomandaJohanna Wilhelmina Petronella Damman, known under her nickname Jomanda , is a controversial Dutch New Age guru who refers to herself as the Lady of the light.- Background :...
- Mirin DajoMirin DajoMirin Dajo was the pseudonym of Dutch fakir Arnold Gerrit Henskes .He became famous for radically piercing his body with all kinds of objects and apparently without injury, even astounding the medical community at the time.-Early life:He was born in Rotterdam. He started out trying a career in the...
- Uri GellerUri GellerUri Geller is a self-proclaimed psychic known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other supposed psychic effects. Throughout the years, Geller has been accused of using simple conjuring tricks to achieve the effects of psychokinesis and telepathy...
Sources
- Ramsland, Katherine. "Chapter 6: Enter the Psychic." John Norman Collins: The Co-Ed Killer.
- Randi, James. An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural. St. Martin's Press, 1995.
- Randi, James. Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and other Delusions. Prometheus Books, 1982: pp. 270–272.
External links
- www.peterhurkos.com (official site)