The Maya used mirrors as channels for supernatural communication. In this image, a supernatural creature speaks into a cracked, black mirror.
K2929 from the Justin Kerr Maya archive, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C.
Broken mirrors can be associated with bad luck, but for the ancient Maya, a cracked mirror was often desirable.
The detail of the demon in Sir Joshua Reynolds’ painting The Death of Cardinal Beaufort was revealed after extensive cleaning.
Petworth House / National Trust
The Enlightenment saw science and rational thought replace the religious superstitions of the previous century, and demons became metaphors for the human struggle between good and evil.
Remember the old saying: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
David Wall/Moment via Getty Images
In both ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, reflected images were thought to hold mysterious powers. Damaging a mirror was believed to invite the wrath of the gods.
The comet SWAN was spotted in January by an ESA/NASA satellite. It is currently passing overhead and is visible from the Southern Hemisphere.
Christian Gloor/Flickr
The idea of organized satanic witchcraft was invented in 15th-century Europe by church and state authorities, who at first had a hard time convincing regular folks it was real.
A crop circle in Switzerland.
Jabberocky/Wikimedia Commons
The internet has allowed pseudoscience to flourish. Artificial intelligence could help steer people away from the bad information.
Though illegal, fortune telling was only sporadically prosecuted. Here, two women set up tents at the 1913 Adelaide Children’s Hospital fete.
State Library of SA
In the early 1900s, fortune-telling provided entertainment, social connection and a job for some Australians. Its legal status made criminals of women, yet allowed others entry to the police force.
Knocking on wood may be a holdover from the pagan days of Europe, when tree spirits were believed to bring luck.
saiful bahri 46/Shutterstock.com
Fear of a disease that seemed to turn people into beasts might have inspired belief in supernatural beings that live on in today’s creepy Halloween costumes.