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+---
+aliases:
+  - Peter Hurkos
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Psychic
+---
+# Peter Hurkos
+
+Peter Hurkos was a Dutch psychic who gained international fame for his purported abilities, particularly psychometry—the act of divining information from an object through touch. A former house painter and [[World War II]] concentration camp survivor, Hurkos claimed his psychic powers manifested after he suffered a traumatic brain injury from a fall in 1941[^1].
+
+In the fall of 1956, Hurkos was brought to the [[Round Table Foundation]] in Maine by [[Henry Belk]], a department store tycoon and one of [[Andrija Puharich]]'s investors. Hurkos's arrival boosted morale at the foundation, and he formed a close bond with [[Harry Stump]], another psychic working there[^1].
+
+Puharich began regularly dosing Hurkos with hallucinogenic mushrooms, specifically *teonanáctl*, using himself as a control. Under the influence, Hurkos became fixated on outer space, claiming to see a flying saucer and extraterrestrials on Owl's Head beach. He also reported seeing ghosts and experiencing premonitions, including a poltergeist incident that coincided with the unexpected death of [[Alice Astor Bouverie]], a key financial supporter of the foundation[^1].
+
+Hurkos's psychometric talents were observed by [[Bep Hermans]], Puharich's au pair and later wife. Hermans recalled that Hurkos, while blindfolded, could provide detailed information about the owner of an object simply by touching it[^1].
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+After the death of [[Alice Astor Bouverie]], Puharich and Hurkos traveled to Mexico in search of more *God's flesh* mushrooms. Despite the turmoil, the [[Round Table Foundation]] continued its activities, with Hurkos participating in experiments involving [[Telepathy]], [[Map Dowsing]], palmistry, and [[Eyeless Sight]][^1].
+
+In the 1960s, Puharich and Hurkos traveled to the Sixth Naval District Personnel Conference in Charleston, South Carolina, to demonstrate [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and psychometry to submariners[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.