Oliver L. Reiser

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Oliver Leslie Reiser (1895 - 1974) was an American philosopher known for his pseudoscientific views on evolution.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Reiser was born in Columbus, Ohio and attended Ohio State University. He later earned a BA in 1921, MA in 1922, and PhD in philosophy in 1924. He was a personal friend of Albert Einstein.[1]

Reiser is most well known in humanist groups because of his book Promise of Scientific Humanism (1940). He also founded the International Committee on Scientific Humanism in the 1950s. Reiser had used the term "Cosmic humanism" influenced by the work of Albert Einstein to define what he termed a pantheist philosophy of science.

[edit] Evolution

Even though Reiser was a well a respected philosopher he also advocated some pseudoscientific views about evolution and most of these ideas have influenced New agers and proponets of quantum woo as well as 2012 conspiracy theorists.

The main belief of Reiser was that geomagnetic forces were directing evolution of species based on a very specific complex cyclical process. He also advocated the view that a "memory field" existed around the earth which could also influence the evolution of organisms, he called this field the "psychosphere".[2][3]

[edit] Paranormal

Reiser was also an advocate of psychic phenomena as he believed things like telepathy were real. In a paranormal book titled Psychic Exploration by Edgar Mitchell (1974), Reiser contributed a chapter titled The Psychosphere: A Holistic View of Psychic Phenomena where he believed his model of the "psychosphere" could explain all paranormal events.

[edit] Religion

Reiser was a pantheist and a strong critic of organised religion.[4]

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. John R. Shook, Richard T. Hull The dictionary of modern American philosophers: A-C: Volume 1 2005, p. 2037
  2. Mark Heley The Everything Guide to 2012 2009, pp. 251-252
  3. Barbara Hand Clow, Carl Johan Calleman The Mayan Code: Time Acceleration and Awakening the World Mind 2007, pp. 114-155
  4. Pantheism: The Religion of Science by Oliver L. Reiser
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