Abraham Kovoor
| Abraham Thomas Kovoor | |
|---|---|
| Born |
10 April 1898 Thiruvalla, Kingdom of Travancore |
| Died | 18 September 1978 Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Family | grand nephew George Kovoor |
Abraham Thomas Kovoor (April 10, 1898 – September 18, 1978) was an Indian professor and rationalist who gained prominence after retirement for his campaign to expose as frauds various Indian and Sri Lankan "god-men" and so-called paranormal phenomena. His direct, trenchant criticism of spiritual frauds and organized religions was enthusiastically received by audiences, initiating a new dynamism in the Rationalist movement, especially in Sri Lanka and India.
Abraham Kovoor was born in a Saint Thomas Christian family at Thiruvalla, Kerala. Kovoor was the son of Mr. & Mrs.Kovoor Eipe Thomma Kathanar, Vicar General of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar. He was educated at Bangabasi College, Calcutta. After working briefly as a junior professor in Kerala, he spent the rest of his life in Sri Lanka, teaching botany in several colleges before retiring in 1959 as a teacher at Thurstan College, Colombo. He also practiced hypnotherapy and applied psychology.
After retirement Kovoor devoted his life to the rationalist movement. He spent most of his time building up the Ceylon Rationalist Association, and was its president from 1960 to his death. He edited an annual journal, The Ceylon Rationalist Ambassador. Kovoor died on September 18, 1978.
After his numerous encounters with god-men, astrologers, and other people who claimed to have psychic powers, Kovoor concluded that there was no objective truth to such claims. He wrote, "Nobody has and nobody ever had supernatural powers. They exist only in the pages of scriptures and sensation-mongering newspapers." His books Begone Godmen and Gods, Demons and Spirits, about his encounters with people claiming psychic powers, are still bestsellers in India.
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