April Fools Day – The Psychic Connection
Allison Mac asked:
For most of us around the world we know April Fools day to be a day of pranks and trickery. It can be great fun to trick someone into believing something that isn’t true. James Randi however takes this one step further and what many may not know is that April Fools day is also the day that the Pigasus Award is announced.
The Pigasus Award has gone as far back as 1979 and is given annually by James Randi who is a noted skeptic of psychic energy. The award seeks to expose paranormal, parapsychological or psychic frauds that have been noted over the previous year. Appropriately given on the first of April, Randi awards the trophy to candidates chosen by himself from a list of nominees.
The trophy has been noted as being a stainless steel spoon bent in a curve and supported by a plastic base. It is flimsy at best and done so on purpose. There is also a plaque with a flying pig on it. Randi has stated sarcastically that the winners are published immediately after being announced on April Fools and are notified telepathically. He has also said that the famous Flying Pig trophies are sent via psychokinesis and if not received then it is probably due to their lack of paranormal talent.
April Fools day may be a day of pranks and laughter for some. For James Randi however it is an opportunity to ridicule some poor unsuspecting person or institution that he feels has promoted fraudulent paranormal claims. To all of us who are believers in psychic energy – beware of the Pigasus award! As an April Fools day joke from Randi, it may telepathically wind up on your doorstep.
Find out who the winners of the 2009 Pigasus Awards are and decide for yourself whether their psychic claims are real or a hoax. A complete list of recipients can be found at YourPsychicResource.
For most of us around the world we know April Fools day to be a day of pranks and trickery. It can be great fun to trick someone into believing something that isn’t true. James Randi however takes this one step further and what many may not know is that April Fools day is also the day that the Pigasus Award is announced.
The Pigasus Award has gone as far back as 1979 and is given annually by James Randi who is a noted skeptic of psychic energy. The award seeks to expose paranormal, parapsychological or psychic frauds that have been noted over the previous year. Appropriately given on the first of April, Randi awards the trophy to candidates chosen by himself from a list of nominees.
The trophy has been noted as being a stainless steel spoon bent in a curve and supported by a plastic base. It is flimsy at best and done so on purpose. There is also a plaque with a flying pig on it. Randi has stated sarcastically that the winners are published immediately after being announced on April Fools and are notified telepathically. He has also said that the famous Flying Pig trophies are sent via psychokinesis and if not received then it is probably due to their lack of paranormal talent.
April Fools day may be a day of pranks and laughter for some. For James Randi however it is an opportunity to ridicule some poor unsuspecting person or institution that he feels has promoted fraudulent paranormal claims. To all of us who are believers in psychic energy – beware of the Pigasus award! As an April Fools day joke from Randi, it may telepathically wind up on your doorstep.
Find out who the winners of the 2009 Pigasus Awards are and decide for yourself whether their psychic claims are real or a hoax. A complete list of recipients can be found at YourPsychicResource.
Skepticism – Disbelieving the Theorists
October 14, 2009 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
John W. Martin asked:
Skepticism – Disbelieving the theorists
http://www.yallways.com
Skepticism – An attitude of doubt towards the veracity of a certain concept. With reference to the paranormal, skeptics make up a significant portion of those who express interest in such phenomena. Skepticism does not refer to those who refuse to believe in the paranormal. Rather, it applies to people who remain unconvinced until presented with adequate proof. Thus, the skeptic’s position is perhaps best summed up by author Carl Sagan who stated, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
Although anyone can experience skepticism, some researchers have made this concept a personal philosophy. They have established themselves as self-proclaimed skeptics and even formed professional communities. The goal of the “scientific skeptic” is not to blindly reject claims, but, rather, to apply reason to every event. Essentially, scientific skepticism involves utilizing critical analysis to confirm or deny claims lacking conclusive support. This field specifically focuses on those phenomena which seem implausible but are accepted by many.
Some skeptics have actually aided the cause of paranormal research. Most notably, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry aims to promote the rational, scientific investigation of paranormal phenomena. The Committee was founded in 1976 by a self-proclaimed scientific skeptic, Paul Kurtz. Since then, it has published articles, organized conferences, produced documentaries, and created a network of researchers devoted to logically evaluating paranormal claims. Topics they have analyzed include UFOs, cryptozoology, psychic abilities, alternative medicine, and astrology.
Another prominent organization is The Skeptics Society, which seeks to use science to counteract the spread of superstition and pseudoscientific theories. The Society conducts its own investigations and sponsors informational lectures. It also publishes Skeptic magazine, which debuted more than fifteen years ago. The magazine boasts approximately 50,000 readers and posts regular podcasts on the internet. Topics of interest to the Society range widely from paranormal claims to conspiracy theories to diet fads.
Some paranormal skeptics have taken on the official role of “debunkers.” These researchers focus specifically on disproving paranormal claims. Rather than conduct objective inquiries, debunkers seek only to expose fallacies within the phenomena they study. Due to their passionate disapproval, debunkers frequently cause debate and controversy. In extreme cases, debunkers neglect to accept evidence which contradicts their beliefs. Such persons are referred to as “pseudoskeptics” and generally meet with disapproval from the greater skeptic community.
Skepticism requires an open mind. It is not the stubborn rejection of ideas, but, rather, a desire to see compelling proof before admitting acceptance. The skeptic will accept any claim that can be confirmed with substantial evidence. Thus, skepticism is a rational approach to inquiry used by many who refuse to accept phenomena for which there is no proof.
Skepticism – Disbelieving the theorists
http://www.yallways.com
Skepticism – An attitude of doubt towards the veracity of a certain concept. With reference to the paranormal, skeptics make up a significant portion of those who express interest in such phenomena. Skepticism does not refer to those who refuse to believe in the paranormal. Rather, it applies to people who remain unconvinced until presented with adequate proof. Thus, the skeptic’s position is perhaps best summed up by author Carl Sagan who stated, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
Although anyone can experience skepticism, some researchers have made this concept a personal philosophy. They have established themselves as self-proclaimed skeptics and even formed professional communities. The goal of the “scientific skeptic” is not to blindly reject claims, but, rather, to apply reason to every event. Essentially, scientific skepticism involves utilizing critical analysis to confirm or deny claims lacking conclusive support. This field specifically focuses on those phenomena which seem implausible but are accepted by many.
Some skeptics have actually aided the cause of paranormal research. Most notably, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry aims to promote the rational, scientific investigation of paranormal phenomena. The Committee was founded in 1976 by a self-proclaimed scientific skeptic, Paul Kurtz. Since then, it has published articles, organized conferences, produced documentaries, and created a network of researchers devoted to logically evaluating paranormal claims. Topics they have analyzed include UFOs, cryptozoology, psychic abilities, alternative medicine, and astrology.
Another prominent organization is The Skeptics Society, which seeks to use science to counteract the spread of superstition and pseudoscientific theories. The Society conducts its own investigations and sponsors informational lectures. It also publishes Skeptic magazine, which debuted more than fifteen years ago. The magazine boasts approximately 50,000 readers and posts regular podcasts on the internet. Topics of interest to the Society range widely from paranormal claims to conspiracy theories to diet fads.
Some paranormal skeptics have taken on the official role of “debunkers.” These researchers focus specifically on disproving paranormal claims. Rather than conduct objective inquiries, debunkers seek only to expose fallacies within the phenomena they study. Due to their passionate disapproval, debunkers frequently cause debate and controversy. In extreme cases, debunkers neglect to accept evidence which contradicts their beliefs. Such persons are referred to as “pseudoskeptics” and generally meet with disapproval from the greater skeptic community.
Skepticism requires an open mind. It is not the stubborn rejection of ideas, but, rather, a desire to see compelling proof before admitting acceptance. The skeptic will accept any claim that can be confirmed with substantial evidence. Thus, skepticism is a rational approach to inquiry used by many who refuse to accept phenomena for which there is no proof.
Confessions of a Skeptic
September 13, 2009 by admin
Filed under Spirituality
Ken Gross asked:
How shall I put this? I do not believe in reincarnation. Not in this lifetime. I think Fitzgerald got it right; there are no second acts. One day I will die and that will be that.
Thus stands like a rock my unflinching opinion on the subject.
So, when my agent — who believes in everything except me — asked me to write a book about reincarnation, I said, “Sure.”
Why pick a hard-core skeptic, a journalist, (for God’s sake!), a Cassandra marinated in the smoky cynicism of H.L. Mencken to write a book about something as gauzy and hopeful as faith. It would be like turning the rationalist fox (no relation to the irrational media Fox) loose in the paranormal henhouse?
Obviously, he needed a doubting Thomas, a disbeliever, a cranky cynic to demonstrate that the fix wasn’t in. Who better to vouch for the integrity of Disney World than a certified grouch?
And then there’s this interesting other question: why would I take such a job?
The answer is simple. I don’t know. I do like to look into forbidden rooms, I watch Hannity (just to scream at the set), I poke at a sore tooth. I once told Ed Koch how I thought he was doing; (he didn’t appreciate the opinion, but as I always say, don’t ask and I won’t tell.)
Who should ghost the book? Bridey Murphy? Some gullible slave to the outré opinions of the occult?
No, me, a reliable nay-sayer. I saw my duty and backward into the past I marched.
There was, of course, a catch. In order to do this book, I would have to sort of “pass over,” in a manner of speaking. That is, the child who is the subject of this book lived in Lafayette, Louisiana — the Deep South — a part of the country in which I have had more than one near-death experience.
In 1971, when I was a reporter for Newsday on Long Island, I rode with Charlie Evers (the brother of the slain NAACP civil rights leader, Medgar Evers,) as he campaigned for governor of Mississippi. We rode all over the Mississippi Delta and as we drove across the exposed highway, I heard the sound of bullets whizzing past our windshield. Snipers in the trees. Charlie kept a loaded pistol on the seat of the car in case we got a flat. A spare tire in that part of Mississippi in the early ’70’s was not enough.
So that’s how I remembered the south. With fear and disbelief.
But this was 2007 and James Leininger lived in the quiet coastal plain of Louisiana — a town called Lafayette. There were no Obama posters, but there were storefront poker palaces and fast-food stretches and a decent hotel. (At one chicken restaurant, as I waited in line for lunch, the manager loudly fired the entire staff, then came out and asked if anyone on the line wanted a job. I went to find a McDonald’s.)
Bruce and Andrea Leininger were a handsome couple. Not unsophisticated. She had been a ballet dancer in New York and he studied political science at Columbia University under Zbigniew Brzezinski. Now he was working in human relations in the oil industry.
When I got down there, and we started to work on the book, they did not have a clear idea of how this story unfolded — just that something miraculous had taken place to their son James under their roof. It was a painful and awkward process — putting it all together, getting the sequences right, checking out the details, finding the right structure. Together, we drew up timelines and made charts and put it down on paper:
In the year 2000, when James had just turned two, he began to shout in his sleep — not always coherent — but it seemed to be about a World War II pilot killed in the battle of Iwo Jima. At first, it was just a kid having nightmares. But slowly, over a period of time, the child, James Leininger, began to deliver incredible accurate details, speak coherently, add uncanny facts — minutiae about the pilot — James Huston — his life and history. The information he divulged was of such breadth and diversity that it became impossible to dismiss, and even now, even as I still do not believe in reincarnation, I have no reasonable explanation for that unwinding story.
I’ve heard people say, oh, he must have been coached, or influenced by watching TV. But this was a child in his diapers, still ******* on a bottle. How could he be coached to know the flight characteristics of World War II era fighter planes? How could he know the names of the ships and the sailors who had taken part in a certain battle at a certain time?
James Leininger had been examined and tested by Carol Bowman, an authority on the subject of children who have supposedly experienced “past lives.” She vouched for his authenticity. James had already appeared on television (a media vetting that has popular, if not scientific standing), and was recognized by the paranormal community as the most authentic case of an American “past life.” Children experiencing “past lives” is a well-established (albeit controversial) field of paranormal studies. Several universities have departments devoted solely to its study.
It was always Bruce’s intention to debunk his son’s story. He was an evangelical Christian and thought that proof of reincarnation would damage his faith — one life, one soul, everlasting. Andrea accepted her son’s claims and didn’t attach any particular religious significance to the whole thing. But Bruce was dogged. Over time, he found that there was an annual reunion of members of the ship that his son had named as his own in his sleep. If he could prove that there were no Corsairs (the plane that James insisted he had flown in the war), he would have made his case that the story was not true and his faith was safe. Bruce began to attend the reunions of surviving crew members of Natoma Bay — an escort carrier that took part in the battle. He gathered up facts, all confirming the data fed by his son James, all also confirming that there were no Corsairs on Natoma Bay. He held onto that discrepancy as a holy chalice.
But something odd happened. During the course of his quest to debunk the story, Andrea tracked down the families of the dead crew members and eventually found James Huston’s sister, Ann. The sister had never had any contact with the ship or with the reunions. Still, she was curious about James Leininger, and, finally, sympathetic to his claims to be her brother. She was old and it was hard for her to travel from California, however, so she sent a batch of photographs of her brother taken during the war. And in a couple of the photographs, there was James Huston standing in front of a Corsair.
There were other odd things — when she sent James Leininger a drawing that her mother made of James Huston — the child asked where was the other picture? The other picture — buried up in the attic for sixty years — was a drawing of Ann. Her mother had made two drawings when they were children. How could James Leininger have known that? Ann was stunned. No one knew about that other picture. Except her dead brother.
As I say, I don’t believe in reincarnation. I hardly believe in carnation. I am a secular, rationalist skeptic. But I have no reasonable explanation for James Leininger/Huston.
©2009 Ken Gross, co-author of Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot
How shall I put this? I do not believe in reincarnation. Not in this lifetime. I think Fitzgerald got it right; there are no second acts. One day I will die and that will be that.
Thus stands like a rock my unflinching opinion on the subject.
So, when my agent — who believes in everything except me — asked me to write a book about reincarnation, I said, “Sure.”
Why pick a hard-core skeptic, a journalist, (for God’s sake!), a Cassandra marinated in the smoky cynicism of H.L. Mencken to write a book about something as gauzy and hopeful as faith. It would be like turning the rationalist fox (no relation to the irrational media Fox) loose in the paranormal henhouse?
Obviously, he needed a doubting Thomas, a disbeliever, a cranky cynic to demonstrate that the fix wasn’t in. Who better to vouch for the integrity of Disney World than a certified grouch?
And then there’s this interesting other question: why would I take such a job?
The answer is simple. I don’t know. I do like to look into forbidden rooms, I watch Hannity (just to scream at the set), I poke at a sore tooth. I once told Ed Koch how I thought he was doing; (he didn’t appreciate the opinion, but as I always say, don’t ask and I won’t tell.)
Who should ghost the book? Bridey Murphy? Some gullible slave to the outré opinions of the occult?
No, me, a reliable nay-sayer. I saw my duty and backward into the past I marched.
There was, of course, a catch. In order to do this book, I would have to sort of “pass over,” in a manner of speaking. That is, the child who is the subject of this book lived in Lafayette, Louisiana — the Deep South — a part of the country in which I have had more than one near-death experience.
In 1971, when I was a reporter for Newsday on Long Island, I rode with Charlie Evers (the brother of the slain NAACP civil rights leader, Medgar Evers,) as he campaigned for governor of Mississippi. We rode all over the Mississippi Delta and as we drove across the exposed highway, I heard the sound of bullets whizzing past our windshield. Snipers in the trees. Charlie kept a loaded pistol on the seat of the car in case we got a flat. A spare tire in that part of Mississippi in the early ’70’s was not enough.
So that’s how I remembered the south. With fear and disbelief.
But this was 2007 and James Leininger lived in the quiet coastal plain of Louisiana — a town called Lafayette. There were no Obama posters, but there were storefront poker palaces and fast-food stretches and a decent hotel. (At one chicken restaurant, as I waited in line for lunch, the manager loudly fired the entire staff, then came out and asked if anyone on the line wanted a job. I went to find a McDonald’s.)
Bruce and Andrea Leininger were a handsome couple. Not unsophisticated. She had been a ballet dancer in New York and he studied political science at Columbia University under Zbigniew Brzezinski. Now he was working in human relations in the oil industry.
When I got down there, and we started to work on the book, they did not have a clear idea of how this story unfolded — just that something miraculous had taken place to their son James under their roof. It was a painful and awkward process — putting it all together, getting the sequences right, checking out the details, finding the right structure. Together, we drew up timelines and made charts and put it down on paper:
In the year 2000, when James had just turned two, he began to shout in his sleep — not always coherent — but it seemed to be about a World War II pilot killed in the battle of Iwo Jima. At first, it was just a kid having nightmares. But slowly, over a period of time, the child, James Leininger, began to deliver incredible accurate details, speak coherently, add uncanny facts — minutiae about the pilot — James Huston — his life and history. The information he divulged was of such breadth and diversity that it became impossible to dismiss, and even now, even as I still do not believe in reincarnation, I have no reasonable explanation for that unwinding story.
I’ve heard people say, oh, he must have been coached, or influenced by watching TV. But this was a child in his diapers, still ******* on a bottle. How could he be coached to know the flight characteristics of World War II era fighter planes? How could he know the names of the ships and the sailors who had taken part in a certain battle at a certain time?
James Leininger had been examined and tested by Carol Bowman, an authority on the subject of children who have supposedly experienced “past lives.” She vouched for his authenticity. James had already appeared on television (a media vetting that has popular, if not scientific standing), and was recognized by the paranormal community as the most authentic case of an American “past life.” Children experiencing “past lives” is a well-established (albeit controversial) field of paranormal studies. Several universities have departments devoted solely to its study.
It was always Bruce’s intention to debunk his son’s story. He was an evangelical Christian and thought that proof of reincarnation would damage his faith — one life, one soul, everlasting. Andrea accepted her son’s claims and didn’t attach any particular religious significance to the whole thing. But Bruce was dogged. Over time, he found that there was an annual reunion of members of the ship that his son had named as his own in his sleep. If he could prove that there were no Corsairs (the plane that James insisted he had flown in the war), he would have made his case that the story was not true and his faith was safe. Bruce began to attend the reunions of surviving crew members of Natoma Bay — an escort carrier that took part in the battle. He gathered up facts, all confirming the data fed by his son James, all also confirming that there were no Corsairs on Natoma Bay. He held onto that discrepancy as a holy chalice.
But something odd happened. During the course of his quest to debunk the story, Andrea tracked down the families of the dead crew members and eventually found James Huston’s sister, Ann. The sister had never had any contact with the ship or with the reunions. Still, she was curious about James Leininger, and, finally, sympathetic to his claims to be her brother. She was old and it was hard for her to travel from California, however, so she sent a batch of photographs of her brother taken during the war. And in a couple of the photographs, there was James Huston standing in front of a Corsair.
There were other odd things — when she sent James Leininger a drawing that her mother made of James Huston — the child asked where was the other picture? The other picture — buried up in the attic for sixty years — was a drawing of Ann. Her mother had made two drawings when they were children. How could James Leininger have known that? Ann was stunned. No one knew about that other picture. Except her dead brother.
As I say, I don’t believe in reincarnation. I hardly believe in carnation. I am a secular, rationalist skeptic. But I have no reasonable explanation for James Leininger/Huston.
©2009 Ken Gross, co-author of Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot
How does a true professional ‘Exorcist’ react to skeptics and debunkers ?
May 11, 2009 by admin
Filed under Spirituality
Anthony Cox asked:
Q. What do you as a professional Exorcist think about Skeptics and Debunkers?
A. Firstly, I’d like to make it clear that in my line of work, I also need to be a Skeptic, or should I say, be objective in my approach. There are many people passing themselves off as experts, and there are also many who make fraudulent claims for ‘fun’. I take my work extremely seriously and have no time or desire to go off on tangents or be led down paths wasting time. And in the case of people who honestly make mistakes about what they’ve experienced or whose problems are not Spirit caused, I have no interest in telling them that their problems are something that they are not. My interest is in the truth, and giving people the help that they need, be it through Spiritual means or otherwise.
Now, myself aside, there IS a real need for Debunkers to exist because as I said, not only are there many people passing themselves off as ‘Exorcists’ and experts in the field, but there is an incredible amount of ‘garbage’ out there being passed off as ‘Psychic Healing’, ‘Paranormal activity’, ‘ Religious healing’ etc. It is always a good day when some of this ‘stuff’ get’s properly ‘debunked’ , and disappears .
Unfortunately though, there is an even greater amount of garbage passing itself off as ‘debunking’. The largest problem is that most active Skeptics are extremely narrow minded amateurs who are usually driven by their own negative experience that they wish to purge via a crusade to ‘prove’ that these things don’t exist, therefore no matter how much evidence they are provided with, their own fuzzy logic invariably refuses to accept it as such. For what it’s worth, the same can be said for many Medical professionals. These people are more embarrassing than those they are trying to debunk.
Many calling themselves ‘Scientists’ have the catch-cry “There is no proof” and approach the subject with a completely biased and closed mind . Well, there is plenty of proof , provided by Science, as well as the general public and people in the field that is equal or greater in quality than that in many other fields. A real Scientist would say “show me what you have” ,and view it with an open perspective.
For what it’s worth, I have had a fair share of ‘Skeptics’ and ‘Scientists’ amongst my clients over the years and in each and every case their viewpoint changed as they were faced with the reality of what they were experiencing and enlisted my help.
Another important consideration as to whether the Paranormal exists or not, is the fact that not only do many Police Departments around the World enlist the help of skilled Psychics to help with investigations, but the extremely well documented Paranormal research and Psychically based espionage programs sponsored by the US Department of Defense, The former USSR, China, The UK, and so on , to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The bottom line is that peoples own inner fears will ultimately guide their feelings on this subject. If someone chooses to not believe in these things that is their free choice, but if they wish to fancy themselves as a ‘Debunker’, they should do so in a sensible and professional manner with an analytical and open perspective and be willing to accept evidence when it is presented to them.
I myself am here not to judge, but to help those who know what they may be facing and have nowhere to turn.
Peace.
www.spiritentityremoval.com
Q. What do you as a professional Exorcist think about Skeptics and Debunkers?
A. Firstly, I’d like to make it clear that in my line of work, I also need to be a Skeptic, or should I say, be objective in my approach. There are many people passing themselves off as experts, and there are also many who make fraudulent claims for ‘fun’. I take my work extremely seriously and have no time or desire to go off on tangents or be led down paths wasting time. And in the case of people who honestly make mistakes about what they’ve experienced or whose problems are not Spirit caused, I have no interest in telling them that their problems are something that they are not. My interest is in the truth, and giving people the help that they need, be it through Spiritual means or otherwise.
Now, myself aside, there IS a real need for Debunkers to exist because as I said, not only are there many people passing themselves off as ‘Exorcists’ and experts in the field, but there is an incredible amount of ‘garbage’ out there being passed off as ‘Psychic Healing’, ‘Paranormal activity’, ‘ Religious healing’ etc. It is always a good day when some of this ‘stuff’ get’s properly ‘debunked’ , and disappears .
Unfortunately though, there is an even greater amount of garbage passing itself off as ‘debunking’. The largest problem is that most active Skeptics are extremely narrow minded amateurs who are usually driven by their own negative experience that they wish to purge via a crusade to ‘prove’ that these things don’t exist, therefore no matter how much evidence they are provided with, their own fuzzy logic invariably refuses to accept it as such. For what it’s worth, the same can be said for many Medical professionals. These people are more embarrassing than those they are trying to debunk.
Many calling themselves ‘Scientists’ have the catch-cry “There is no proof” and approach the subject with a completely biased and closed mind . Well, there is plenty of proof , provided by Science, as well as the general public and people in the field that is equal or greater in quality than that in many other fields. A real Scientist would say “show me what you have” ,and view it with an open perspective.
For what it’s worth, I have had a fair share of ‘Skeptics’ and ‘Scientists’ amongst my clients over the years and in each and every case their viewpoint changed as they were faced with the reality of what they were experiencing and enlisted my help.
Another important consideration as to whether the Paranormal exists or not, is the fact that not only do many Police Departments around the World enlist the help of skilled Psychics to help with investigations, but the extremely well documented Paranormal research and Psychically based espionage programs sponsored by the US Department of Defense, The former USSR, China, The UK, and so on , to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The bottom line is that peoples own inner fears will ultimately guide their feelings on this subject. If someone chooses to not believe in these things that is their free choice, but if they wish to fancy themselves as a ‘Debunker’, they should do so in a sensible and professional manner with an analytical and open perspective and be willing to accept evidence when it is presented to them.
I myself am here not to judge, but to help those who know what they may be facing and have nowhere to turn.
Peace.
www.spiritentityremoval.com
