Dr Abraham. T. Kovoor was free thinker, rationalist and psychiatrist, from Kerala, South India who later spent his life in Sri Lanka. He was the president of the Rationalist Association of Sri Lanka where he and Dr Carlo Fonseka held regular meetings at Thurston College, Colombo. He came to the conclusion that there was absolutely no objective truth behind such claims and beliefs in all types of alleged psychic, para-psychological and spiritual phenomena based on his intensive scientific researches for over half a century.

He was one of the first and the only scientist among psychical researchers in the world at that time to be awarded a doctorate for his research by the Minnesota Institute of Philosophy of U.S. for his thesis on psychic and para-psychic phenomena.

I was told by a teacher in Sri Lanka how Dr Kovoor used to distribute the so-called "Holy Ash" in the same manner some self-appointed Hindu gurus do. "Sathya Sai Baba" one of those Gurus from Karnataka, India , whose performance of "Holy Ash" distribution among his followers was considered to be very miraculous. His assertion was that all those who claim to possess psychic, para-psychic and spiritual powers were either hoaxers or mentally deranged persons suffering from cryptesthesia. He said, " nobody has and nobody ever had supernatural powers. They exist only in the pages of scriptures and sensation-mongering newspapers. "

Dr. Kovoor's main aim was to enlighten people and teach them to go by reason and scientific verification. He was born at Tiruvalla in Kerala, (South India) on 10th April, 1898 in a Christian family. His father was Rev. Kovoor Eipe Thomma Katthanar, the Vicar General of the Mar Thomma Syrian Church of Malabar. He completed his basic education at the Syrian Christian Seminary in Kerala and and received his higher education along with younger brother Dr Behanan Kovoor (who was at Yale University and United Nations), at the Bengabasi College, Calcutta, where he specialised in Botany and Zoology. He was the only scientist in Asia took part in an expedition to the Indian Ocean along with other scientists at the invitation by the " Ernst Haeckel Ecology Center" of U.S.A

Dr Kovoor was very much attached to the rational teaching of Buddha because Buddha was a great social and religious reformer of India, rebelled against Hindu dogmatism and taught a more rational and tolerant philosophy than any others. He disregarded his Christian faith and tradition as he couldn't accept the Bible as the word of an omniscient god. As he gradually matured he became a free thinker and adopted rationalism as his philosophy. He passed away on September 18, 1978 in Colombo, Sri Lanka at the age 80

(From next week onward Lankadissent intends to post a weekly column on rationalist thinking in Sri Lanka as well as in other parts of the world).