---
aliases:
- Henry Belk
category: Philanthropists & Benefactors
created: 2026-05-15
summary: Henry Belk was a North Carolina department store magnate and wealthy funder
  of Andrija Puharich's Round Table Foundation who brought Dutch psychic Peter Hurkos
  to Maine for testing in 1956 and helped finance Puharich's Brazilian expeditions.
tags:
- Person
- PSI
- Parapsychology
- RoundTableFoundation
- 1950s
- 1960s
title: Henry Belk
updated: 2026-05-17
---

Henry Belk was a department store tycoon and a wealthy benefactor of [Andrija Puharich](/people/andrija-puharich/)'s research into [ESP](/concepts/extrasensory-perception/) and other anomalous mental phenomena. He was part of the elite circle of individuals who supported the [Round Table Foundation](/organizations/round-table-foundation/) in Maine[^1].

Belk was one of the wealthy individuals who joined the [Round Table Foundation](/organizations/round-table-foundation/), flying to Maine in his private jet for foundation meetings. His financial contributions helped keep the foundation afloat, particularly after it gained prestige from its affiliation with Samuel Rosen's groundbreaking surgical procedure[^1].

In the spring of 1956, Belk happened upon a *Paris Match* magazine article profiling [Peter Hurkos](/people/peter-hurkos/), a Dutch psychic who was gaining fame in Europe. Belk's idea was to bring Hurkos to the [Round Table Foundation](/organizations/round-table-foundation/) to be tested in the lab, which he did in the fall of 1956[^1].

In early 1963, Belk arrived at Puharich's Ossining estate with an enticing research proposition centered on [Arigo](/people/arigo/), a psychic healer in the jungles of Brazil who reportedly performed major surgeries with a pocketknife without anesthesia or pain. Puharich, eager to pursue this, left for Brazil with Belk, a decision that led to [Bep Hermans](/people/bep-hermans/) and their children leaving him[^1].

[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.