Theories?

[redwing]

I am going to be running a campaign within a city involving science vs. magic. I was needing any and all information on theories disproven (or still shrouded by mystery) over the years by science.

I know of:
feng shui (everything has it's perfect place)
chi (the power of the soul)
ley lines (similar to lines of lattitued and longitude but with magical properties)
"ghost limbs" (not sure what the technical term is but people that say they still feel thier leg there when it's been amputated and such)

Any others?

 

[Balgus]

*voodoo
*witchcraft
*cannibalism- believing that by eating choice parts of your enemy, you can gain their strengths
*eastern medicine-coining, tiger balm, herbalisms
*acupuncture- pressure points

basically, look to less "modern" societies for this sort of stuff.

 

[Crothian]

ghost limbs is actually called ghost pain. The brain thinks it's recieving nerve singles from nerves that are no longer there.

 

[Buttercup]

Actually, there's nothing mysterious about the 'ghost limb' phenomenon. The brain is still sending nerve impulses, but the destination isn't there any more. The signal gets confused, and the person interprets this as phantom limb pain. I think it goes away after a while, but I could be wrong about this.

Other ideas though:

crystal healing
magnet therapy
voodoo
lucky charms (not the cereal! )

 

[cptg1481]

Occult Lore

The Occult Lore book by Atlas and Penumbria has some cool stuff (d20 rules) on Astrology, geomancy (ley lines), lucid dreaming and my favorite, rules for rational magic.

Rational Magic has information on how one can dsipell magic and its efffects through logical disbelief in the effect or spell.

Think it was 30 dollars?

Anyway, it'd be cool for what you are trying....

 

[Tsyr]

Spontaneous Human Combustion

Elvis?

The "Unknown Armies" book has a ton of this type of stuff in it... it's not D20, but you might wanna take a look at it anyhow.

 

[NiTessine]

I've read that the ghost limb pain can be cured by opening the patient's head and softly stroke the brain with a needle from a certain spot.

Incidentally, I've also read that there is no sense of feeling in the brain. Then again, I'm not sure where that leaves headaches, so...

 

[Kevin O'Reilly]

ESP
Psychokinetics
Telepathy

Any form of sympathetic magic (eg Voodo)

Predictive Magic - Astrology, Tarot, Palm reading

Spirualism - Speaking with the dead

 

[Kibo]

Feng Shui, Chi, and and your Ley lines are related. Chi is a broader concept that the power of ones soul. There are three general catagories, Heaven Chi, broad unavoidable fate, earth Chi (which Feng Shui seeks to manage) where things are to best attract the beneficial cosmic breath of the dragon and avoid or blunt the powerful killing breath, and personal chi, that power cultuvated of ones self.

A basic book on Feng Shui should pretty clearly outline the above ideas. While it might not be disproven, the seriousness with which Feng Shui is occasionally taken and the extremely ambigious nature of the art make it prone to creating self fullfilling prophecies and circular reasoning.

You might want to look at Dieties and Demigods. While they don't address Magic Vs Technology, they do address a lot of cosmological choices and the effects that those might have. Which is pretty much what you're doing. Your choices don't have to be consistant with the real world (which is magic free) they just need to be consistant within the story you're telling, so why not pick something aethstetically pleasing?

 

[alsih2o]

spontaneous generation....leaves in water become fish, wet stones become toad, rotting meat becomes maggots.