Durek Verrett (born November 17, 1974, as Derek David Verrett) is an American businessman, alternative therapist, self-professed shaman and author. He advocates several conspiracy theories and has been characterized by Norwegian media and other observers as a conman. He is engaged to Princess Märtha Louise of Norway.
El Niño Fidencio (October 17, 1898 – October 19, 1938) was a Mexican curandero. His birth name was José de Jesús Fidencio Constantino Síntora. Today he is revered by the Fidencista Christian Church. The Catholic Church does not recognize his official status as a saint, but his following has extended through the northern part of Mexico and the southwest of United States. This situation allows El Niño Fidencio to be recognized as a folk saint.
While in elementary school, he met Father Segura, as well as Enrique López de la Fuente, who was the janitor as well as his friend, and later, his protector. They both worked to help the priest with religious services, and it was at this time that Fidencio learned to work with herbs and how to cure.
Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault (1823–1904) was a French physician and is considered the father of modern hypnotherapy. Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault was born in Favières, a small town in the Lorraine region of France, on September 16, 1823. He completed his medical degree at the University of Strasbourg in 1850, at the age of 26.
He established a medical practice in the village of Pont-Saint-Vincent, near the town of Nancy.
He made many advancements for the field of hypnosis and hypnotherapy, such as co-founding the Nancy School of Hypnosis. The Nancy School — also known as the "Suggestion School", in contrast to the "Hysteria School", also known as the "Paris School", centred on the Salpêtrière Hospital — was oriented to a suggestion-centred approach to hypnosis in contrast to the previously used hysteria-centred approach promoted at the Salpêtrière Hospital. By contrast to the "Paris School", the main, fundamental belief of the "Nancy School" was that hypnosis was a normal phenomenon and not a consequence of a pathology analogous to hysteria.
Liébeault published several books on his theories, techniques, and results in working with hypnosis. On February 18, 1904, he died in Nancy, leaving behind a strong legacy and influence on the still developing field of hypnosis and hypnotherapy.
Joseph Rémi Léopold Delbœuf (30 September 1831, Liège, Belgium – 14 August 1896, Bonn, Germany) was a Belgian experimental psychologist who studied visual illusions including his work on the Delboeuf illusion. He studied and taught philosophy, mathematics, and psychophysics. He published works across a diverse range of subjects including the curative effects of hypnotism.
Friedrich Wolf (23 December 1888 – 5 October 1953) was a German doctor and politically-engaged writer. From 1949 to 1951, he served as East Germany's first ambassador to Poland.
Gerard Croiset (né Boekbinder; March 10, 1909 – July 20, 1980) was a Dutch parapsychologist, psychometrist and psychic. He was often asked to help police detectives trace missing persons, though authenticated successes were few, and compared against the failures, his success rate was ruled no better than chance.
