Pyramid power

Among these supposed properties are the ability to preserve foods,[1] sharpen or maintain the sharpness of razor blades,[2] improve health,[3] function "as a thought-form incubator",[4] trigger sexual urges,[5] and cause other effects.

[6][7][8] In the 1930s, a French ironmonger[9] and pendulum-dowsing author, Antoine Bovis, developed the idea that small models of pyramids can preserve food.

[1] In 1949, inspired by Bovis,[15] a Czechoslovakian named Karel Drbal applied for a patent on a "Pharaoh's shaving device", a model pyramid alleged to maintain the sharpness of razor blades.

[20] Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, authors of the paranormal, visited Czechoslovakia in 1968, where they happened upon a cardboard pyramid manufactured commercially by Drbal.

[23] However, the term "pyramid power" in its current usage first appeared in print in Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder's 1970 book Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain.

Pyramid power was used by the Toronto Maple Leafs and their coach Red Kelly during the 1975–76 quarter-final series, to counter the Philadelphia Flyers' use of Kate Smith's rendering of "God Bless America".

Kelly hung a plastic model of a pyramid in the team's clubhouse after a pair of away defeats at the start of the series, and each player took turns standing under it for exactly four minutes.

Nor did putting dull razor blades in a pyramid-shaped holder restore them to sharpness, contrary to a frequent claim of pyramid power promoters.