Buzz
Certain individuals are globally celebrated for their intellect and societal contributions. From Alexander Graham Bell’s innovations to Pythagoras’ theories and Dickens’ literary works, their impact on the world is undeniable. However, some of these brilliant minds held peculiar, and at times, unsettling beliefs that offer a different perspective on their legacies.
10. Alexander Graham Bell Opposed Sign Language
Alexander Graham Bell’s mother was deaf, which profoundly influenced his career as an inventor and inspired his father to create Visible Speech, a system using symbols to teach speech to those who had never heard it.
Bell didn’t just advocate for Visible Speech; he traveled extensively, campaigning against sign language. He argued that sign language fostered a distinct cultural divide, isolating deaf individuals from mainstream society, encouraging marriages within the deaf community, and perpetuating deafness through generations.
In 1884, Bell authored Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race, criticizing sign language as a foreign tongue that divided humanity. Instead of supporting eugenics, Bell suggested banning sign language, prohibiting deaf teachers, and using Visible Speech to integrate deaf children into conventional education systems.
9. Isaac Newton’s Predictions of the Apocalypse
Newton never shared his alchemical writings publicly, and today we understand that alchemy wasn’t the only unusual pursuit he engaged in. He was also deeply invested in predicting the end of the world.
Newton produced approximately 4,500 pages of biblical analysis, convinced that the Bible contained all of the world’s secrets and divine guidance for humanity. From his studies, he deduced that the world would meet its end in the year 2060.
Following the apocalypse, Newton believed that the survivors would be ruled by saints returning to Earth. This saintly governance would endure for a millennium, and Newton was certain that he was destined to become one of these saints.
8. Carl Linnaeus’s Mermaids
Carl Linnaeus, an 18th-century botanist, revolutionized classification and taxonomy with a system still in use today. He identified patterns that grouped plants and animals into categories and held firm beliefs in mythical creatures that no one had ever encountered.
Among the creatures cataloged in his Systema Naturae was the kraken, which he scientifically named Microcosmus marinus. The kraken appeared in the early editions of his work, accompanied by a note admitting he had never personally observed one.
Linnaeus also documented mermaids, claiming he had seen such a creature. He detailed this in the 10th edition of his magnum opus, describing a mermaid displayed in a Leyden museum, originating from Brazil, and sustained on a diet of small fish and bread crumbs.
7. Aristotle’s Views on Women
Aristotle is frequently celebrated as one of antiquity’s greatest minds, often emphasizing the dominance of men. While such gender bias is not uncommon historically, Aristotle presented peculiar evidence to support his assertions.
The philosopher argued that while women were capable of managing households and should be regarded above children and slaves, true equality between genders was impossible due to women’s inherent inferiority. He referenced Sparta, where women held power, as an example of societal chaos and decline. Aristotle attributed this to biology, describing women as an incomplete and flawed version of men.
6. Carl Jung’s Concept of Self-Summoning
In 1889, Carl Jung began studying Miss S.W., a 15-year-old patient who experienced somnambulism episodes. During these episodes, she would communicate with spirits of deceased acquaintances, particularly her grandfather, who acted as her guardian. Her pulse would drop, and her eyes would become unresponsive to external stimuli. Upon waking, she expressed deep discomfort with these experiences.
Jung observed her during seances for years, concluding that occult phenomena provided a direct pathway to the hidden, profound layers of an individual’s true self. He believed that much of our personality development occurs unconsciously, and the fragments of our identity—referred to as complexes—emerged during occult events.
5. Robert FitzRoy’s Dinosaurs
Robert FitzRoy led a remarkable life. He pioneered the concept of weather forecasting by establishing foundational observations during his extensive time at sea and founded the Met Office. However, his struggling political career and the then-controversial claim of predicting the weather led to increasing criticism, ultimately driving him to take his own life.
FitzRoy’s theories were proven correct, as his diagrams of weather patterns and ocean currents align with modern satellite imagery. However, not all of his ideas were forward-thinking.
As the captain of the HMS Beagle, FitzRoy often disagreed with Charles Darwin. During the ship’s renowned voyage, the two clashed over evolutionary theories. FitzRoy dismissed evolution as absurd and proposed his own explanation for dinosaur extinction: Noah’s ark had doors too small to allow dinosaurs to board.
4. Henry Ford’s Advocacy for Slavery
Henry Ford’s admiration for Nazi Germany and Hitler is well-documented, but his involvement in slave labor is less known. Journalist George S. Schuyler extensively covered Ford’s “industrial plantation” in the 1930s, likening it to a modern-day Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Located in Detroit and overseen by Ford, it wasn’t until 2003 that correspondence between Edsel Ford and Ford’s French headquarters revealed the extent of their knowledge.
The letters indicate that the Fords were aware of Nazi Germany’s source of European labor: enslaved individuals from concentration camps. Historians cataloging wartime documents at Auschwitz discovered evidence that Siemens, IG Farben, and the Ford Motor Company utilized camp labor—and the letters directly connected the Fords to these practices.
3. Pythagoras’s Cult
Much of our knowledge about Pythagoras comes from secondary sources, with numerous texts praising his expertise in matters of the soul and reincarnation. His teachings were so influential that his principles on living correctly were followed for at least a century after his death around 495 BC.
The Pythagorean lifestyle included strict prohibitions, such as banning burials in woolen garments. Aristotle noted that Pythagoras’s followers avoided consuming sea anemones, rams, oxen, or the heart and womb of animals, believing these might house souls that were once human. Beans were also forbidden, as it was thought souls traveled through them to reincarnate.
The Pythagorean religion imposed additional rules, such as not breaking bread, putting on the left shoe first, avoiding public roads, picking up fallen objects, looking into mirrors near light sources, or stepping over crossbars. Some accounts suggest that aspiring Pythagoreans had to observe five years of silence before being accepted.
2. Charles Dickens and His Healing Powers
During the 1830s, mesmerism captivated Europe. The concept revolved around manipulating a person’s magnetic or mesmeric fluid to influence their health. Dickens claimed to have healed an injured friend using mesmerism.
Dickens was close to John Elliotson, a University College Hospital physician who faced discredit for his work in mesmerism. Despite the controversy, Dickens supported his friend and, after learning mesmerism techniques from Elliotson, began practicing on his own family.
In 1845, Dickens dedicated time to Augusta de la Rue, attempting to alleviate her headaches and general discomfort through mesmerism. When family friend John Leech suffered a head injury in 1849, Dickens quickly assisted him and later asserted that mesmerism played a key role in his recovery.
1. Tesla and Eugenics
Nikola Tesla has recently experienced a resurgence in popularity, particularly when contrasted with Edison’s controversial career tactics. However, Tesla held his own unusual beliefs. In 1935, he penned an article for Liberty magazine, detailing his vision for the future.
Among his proposals, he suggested that humanity should elevate the concept of 'survival of the fittest' by 2100, advocating for the sterilization of individuals deemed unfit to contribute to the advancement of the human race. He stated, 'Undoubtedly, only those who are suitable parents should be allowed to have children.'
For Tesla, this entailed the compulsory sterilization of individuals classified as mentally ill, insane, or those convicted of criminal offenses.
