Phrenological Studies

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Phrenological Studies

Eleven years Peter Dunov traveled the country and gave lectures on the informative value of sciences such as phrenology, chiromancy, and astrology. After each lecture, he met new people and answered their questions. This is how he carried out his study of the Bulgarian national character, applying the scientific methods of phrenology. He measured the skulls of his interlocutors and determined the features of their character. The results of these studies were used for the development of phrenological charts. Each new chart revealed further the Bulgarians' potential, the features that would assure the nation's future.

In 1901 Dunov wrote for the Rodina magazine a series of five articles on phrenology entitled Sculls and Faces."

As a science, phrenology is based on observation. Its principles are simple and plain truths, open to every eye and mind. Therefore, they can be verified and proved just like the laws of chemistry or natural science. In that, it differs from all other systems, preceding it in the field of psychology, for it is founded not on hypotheses but on facts, proved and accepted as true", he explained.

With his phrenological studies, Peter Dunov checked the "installation" through which the energy of the New Philosophy would pass. Faithful to his spiritual programme of 1896, he used the means of both science and education. Science was important in his public activity, in his travels and lectures, and education, in his relationship with the small group of disciples in the Fellowship of Love. Both methods aimed to awaken in people's souls a desire for the development of more sophisticated senses. Dunov remarked modestly: "We are sowing the good seed, and God will make it germinate as He deems right."

 

A phrenological chart showing the location of the different faculties in the human head by R. N. Fowler.

1. Attraction to the other sex.

A. A propensity for matrimony and married life.

2. Love for children, desire to produce an offspring.

3. A propensity for communication and friendship.

4. Patriotism, love for the home and the native land.

Б. Vitality: thirst for life, steadiness, endurance.

5. Persistence, staunchness.

6. Self-preservation, self-protection, courage.

7. A propensity for destruction, violence, rage, irritability, and contentiousness.

8. A propensity for eating, drinking, and voracity.

9. Propensity and aspiration for making money, accumulating wealth, frugality and parsimony.

10. Surreptitiousness, suspiciousness, inquisitiveness, self-possession, taste for investigation.

11. Cautiousness, fear.

12. Selfishness, self-approval, self-assertion, ambition.

13. Self-respect, self-esteem, dignity, pride, haughtiness, leadership.

14. Perseverance: eagerness to complete every undertaking.

15. Conscience, justice.

В. The ability to grasp the great, the vast, the lofty, the perfect, the ideal.

16. Faith, hope, confidence, unconditional trust, and devotion.

17. Inspiration, a desire for spiritual activities, believing in the immortality of the soul and in the existence of angels, higher worlds, and spiritual beings.

18. Loving God and every living being. Aspiring after a high morality, an ability to grasp and understand the reason of the divine providence in all nature. A desire to serve God and humankind.

19. Benevolence, affection, kindness, compassion, charity.

20. Creativeness, inventiveness, and discoveries in science, art and technology.

21. Love of fine art, ability to discover, see and give expression to beauty in music, poetry, and             images.

22.The ability to imitate phenomena, actions and states in action and sound (acting).

23. Good humour, wit, ability to see the funny side of things and to make others laugh.

24. Being observant and inquisitive, a desire to get to know nature.

25. The ability to recognize and remember drawings, images, faces, things, etc.

26. The ability to estimate size and quantity.

27. The ability to estimate the weight of things, balance.

28. The ability to arrange, make plans and develop working rules.

30. The ability to calculate.

31.The ability to remember places, conditions, directions, roads, etc.

32.The ability to remember events.

33.The ability to remember dates and estimate time.

34. Musical talent, love of harmony in general.

35. The ability to express one's thoughts and intentions with words and gestures.

36. The ability to reason and philosophize.

37. The ability to compare, analyze, explain and express graphically.

Г. The ability to concentrate, contemplate, have presentiments and adjust.

Д. Tenderness, gentleness, politeness, suaveness.