The fraud that is psychism

I was watching Home and Away tonight (don't judge me) and I noticed that they've now brought a psychic into the story. It got me thinking about just how ridiculous the whole idea of psychism is. And just as I was struggling to find the words to write a snarky blog entry about it, I happened across this piece by Charlie Brooker. It's probably a harsher than I would have gone with, but nice nevertheless.

If I walked into a single mother's house and said I could read her baby's mind, then started shouting four-letter words, claiming I was simply voicing her offspring's thoughts, I would expect to be arrested the moment I stepped outside.

And if, during my "psychic reading", I also speculated about the mother's sex life, and a potentially abusive relationship with a former boyfriend, claiming her toddler was concerned about "men who want to touch mum's privates", and I went on and on in this vein until the mother burst into tears, there in the living room, in front of her child, I'd expect to be arrested, sectioned, and beaten in the back of the van.

And if I allowed a TV crew to broadcast what I was doing, I'd expect to be attacked by a mob, who'd pull me apart and kick my remains around the street, pausing only to spit on any bits of my face that got stuck to their shoes.

But no. In fact the outcry would be muted at best and Ofcom would turn a blind eye - as it did last week, while clearing Channel 5's unbelievably disgusting Baby Mind Reader of any wrongdoing.

I've never fully understood the public's docile acceptance of psychics, or why, when it comes to their supposed abilities, the burden of proof is assumed to lie with the sceptic, as opposed to the sort of shrieking idiot who claims to be able to contact the spirit world (or in Derek Ogilvie's case, communicate telepathically with kids too young to talk).

I'm quite hardcore on this. I think every psychic and medium in this country belongs in prison. Even the ones demented enough to believe in what they're doing. In fact, especially them. Give them windowless cells and make them crap in buckets. They can spend the rest of their days sewing mailbags in the dark.

The audiences that psychics prey on are equally infuriating, albeit less deserving of contempt. They're just disappointing, like a friend who's let you down. Often, they're simply grieving and desperate.

I mean, if you want to believe in psychics, fine. You're a dangerous idiot and I wouldn't trust you to operate a spoon without putting an eye out ... but fine. Your choice. Delude yourself silly. Your world is probably more fun than the real one. There's no death, just an afterlife filled with magic spirits who like to communicate with eerie, ugly, otherwise-unemployable bottom-of-the-barrel "showmen" back on Earth.

But don't accuse anyone with the temerity to question your sad supernatural fantasies of having a "closed mind" or being "blind to possibilities". A closed mind asks no questions, unthinkingly accepting that which it wants to believe. The blindness is all yours.

(If you want to feel your eyes pop rudely open, swot up on the "cold reading" techniques fake psychics use - a combination of guesswork and sly conversational tics which give the impression that the "psychic" is magically receiving accurate information from the ether. A fantastic (albeit pricey) step-by-step guide is available from Ianrowland.com.

Anyway, back to my psychic prison fantasies. The problem with trying to jail all the mediums in Britain is they'd a) see it coming, and escape overseas to somewhere even more gullible, like Narnia, before you'd passed the legislation, or b) call on their ghostly friends in the spirit world to whisk them from harm's reach.

Except they couldn't because ghosts - unlike scumbags and conmen - don't exist. Pity. But that's the real world for you. Often disappointing. But real. At least it's always real.

IgnopediA

Continuing our uniquely unreliable interactive knowledge resource.

Creationism (requested by Matthew Roberts)

Creationism, simply put, is the heartfelt conviction that man was created by God, using some kind of celestial putty. This is perhaps the most arrogant belief a human skull can contain without exploding. After all, God has far better things to do than creating self-important little species such as ours. He's got wars, deaths, disasters and diseases to ignore for starters. And a fair bit of not-exist-ing-at-all to be getting on with.

Creationists reject Darwin's theory of evolution on the grounds that it is "just a theory". This is a valid criticism: evolution is indeed merely "a theory", albeit one with ten billion times more credence than the theory of creationism - although, to be fair, the theory of creationism is more than just a theory. It's also a fairy story. And children love fairy stories, which is presumably why so many creationists are keen to have their whimsical gibberish taught in schools.

In recent years, creationism has been rechristened "Intelligent Design" (or ID), because that sounds more like proper science, which is precisely what it isn't. ID is largely supported by religious zealots who believe they can best serve God by clashing with school boards and scientists, instead of, say, spreading peace and goodwill or loving their neighbours, neither of are half as much fun.

 
Nice, huh?

A success so far

So, it's day one of my vegetarian month. Morale is high and there have not yet been any casualties, so it's a good start. I mentioned in my last post that there are a lot of meat replacements on the market, and I've since gone out and bought pretty much every one I could find:

Smoked deli slices. They look and feel like polony but taste like beef jerky.

BBQ sausages.

Hot dogs. I have to say, I'm a little apprehensive about these.

Gourmet sausages. Yep, it seems like they're big on the fake sausages.

Vegie kebabs. They look tasty enough.

Sweet chilli and lime vegie burgers. These are full of chickpeas and taste far better than regular burgers

Fake bacon. Fakon? Facon? This sounds all well and good until you see what it actually looks like ...

Eww.

Lentil burger 'meat'.

Casserole 'mince' ... in a tin?

I have no idea what nutmeat is supposed to be or why it's a tin, but I guess we'll see.

Vegetarian mince, in a box. I'm very curious to know how that works.

As you can see, I'm very well prepared! Also, Sanitarium ought to pay me for advertising their products ;)

I had dinner a little while ago and I can really feel the difference already. The vegie burger is a lot easier to digest than meat; my stomach isn't gurgling like it usually does and I don't have that heavy feeling in my gut. Also, the smell of the meat burger that my dad started cooking afterwards made me want to vomit. You could smell the fat just pouring out of it - practically feel it in the air - and I can't help but wonder how I ever would have wanted to eat that. Amazing on just the first day, right?

Let's just hope I can stay this positive for the next 29 days. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any artificial chicken products out there and god knows that's what I'm going to miss the most. How on earth does one survive without chicken?

Veggie September

I've decided to give up meat during September.

I keep hearing about all of the health benefits of a vegetarian diet. Meat is full of fat and other nasties that raise bad cholesterol and significantly increase your risk of heart disease and many different types of cancer, especially colorectal cancer. Then there are the growth hormones that the animals are pumped with so they're meatier. Are those flushed out of the system before the animals die? Nope, they're there in the meat for us to ingest too. God knows what sorts of toxins we're all inadvertently taking in from our food every day. Those working in the industry couldn't care less about the consumer; it's all about maximum efficiency and profit. If you do some research, you'll see just how scary it is.

So I'm doing it for the health benefits. Vegetarians have much lower incidences of cancers, strokes, diabetes, and heart disease. They also tend to be fitter, slimmer, and, from what I've seen, more energetic. My dad's side of the family has a history of diabetes and I have slight heart arrhythmias, so those are the sorts of things I tend to worry about. So I figure, why not give it a try? Cutting meat out for a month shouldn't be much of a problem, especially since there are so many good replacement products out there. There are soy burgers, soy bacon, fake ham, tofu etc. Last time I went shopping I even saw non-meat, non-soy sausages - I'm very curious to know what those are actually made of. Maybe some sort of vegetable protein? The point is, I won't even realise I'm not eating meat. I just want to see if it makes any sort of difference to the way I feel. I've felt incredibly unhealthy and sluggish lately and, with vegetarians raving about how awesome they feel, maybe this is exactly what I need.

I'm not, however, giving up fish. There are an infinite number of health benefits to be gained from eating fish. It's practically a superfood. Yes, certain types are higher in mercury and that can be risky, but at least they aren't injected with anything, force fed anything, or packed together in disgusting cages. Plus, they're delicious ;)

But also on the list of things to give up is alcohol. I've never really thought that my alcohol consumption was excessive - I drink maybe once a week and barely more than one drink per hour - but the UWA Alcohol eCheckup (don't do it if you're not a UWA student) has told me otherwise. To my great surprise, it listed me in the high risk category. So to give my liver a break, an alcohol detox is also on the cards.

I have to say I'm a little worried about this whole thing though. I'll be taking a daily multivitamin, but I don't know if I need to take anything else. I've done a bit more research tonight and most sources say that you don't actually need any supplements, but I don't know. I'm not entirely convinced. I have no idea what other food groups I should be paying more attention to in lieu of meat, and I don't think I have a single vegetarian recipe up my sleeve. So if anyone reading this is a vegetarian, please, I would love some tips!

Fingers crossed it all goes well anyway. Who knows, maybe I'll even love it so much that I end up just sticking to it forever. Nobody I know would ever see that coming!

People-watching and nostalgia

Highlight: 95% on my linguistics assignment. Could have been more if it weren't for silly mistakes. Strangely enough, I realised one of those mistakes in my dream the other night. I was in class and my tutor had written the same answer as me, but then my best friend suddenly appeared in the class and pointed out that it was wrong. Upon waking, I realised she was right.  


Lowlight: Argument with another religious zealot who thinks people who say there is no evidence for a god don't actually know the meaning of 'evidence'. Wow, so what the hell was that stuff I valued so highly throughout my four-year psychology degree then? Also, people find my atheism very difficult to take seriously because I'm young; it's as though I'll one day grow up and realise how silly I was. Incredibly frustrating.


I really love Bibra Lake. The actual lake and its surrounding reserve, that is, not the suburb in general. When I was at Murdoch, I had a lot of free time. Between classes when all of my friends were busy, or after classes at the end of the day, or (on very rare occasions) when I didn't feel like going to class at all I would just drive around the corner and spend some time here. These days, at UWA, there's a lot less spare time. But when I'm bored, or just want to get away from it all, I'll still head on down. Sometimes I write, sometimes I read, sometimes I sketch, and other times I just sit there with some calming music playing and take in everything that's happening around me. It helps to put life into perspective and there's so much to learn just through observing.

There are always people exercising. The fitness freaks: beautiful slender people racing past on their second or third lap of the lake. The social walkers: mothers chatting merrily as they push their prams, or pairs of young women laughing about last Saturday's cocktail party as they powerwalk past. Those just getting back into fitness: aging men with beer guts, sweat-soaked shirts, and those tiny flap-shorts that show far more thigh than anyone is comfortable seeing. They've probably just been told by their doctors that their blood pressure is dangerously high and that they'll be looking at serious cardiac disease if they don't get active. All the more power to them, I suppose. 

And then there are the dog walkers. Well, one in particular. No matter what day or time I go, there is always a middle-aged woman wandering around with her beagle. I don't know if I have good timing or if she just has no life and spends all day here, but she's there every time without fail. It's weird how people you've never actually met can become familiar, isn't it? If I suddenly stopped seeing her, I'd probably worry. What if she were injured? What if her dog died? What if she died? It's not the nicest thing to think about. 

Of course, then there are those who come for recreation, not fitness. There are the picnic-goers; the happy families gathered around the wooden tables, running across the grass playing games that even they aren't sure the rules of, climbing across the playground, throwing bread to the ducks, cooking meat on the barbeque. Then there is the man who sits in his car making a business call, the woman wrapped up in a Tolstoy classic, and the truckie relaxing in the cab of his truck with some fast food and his music cranked. Again. One day he'll probably be the sweaty, overweight man struggling to run laps for his health.

What's even better is that this place knows no race. A tiny Asian girl laughs and screams as her mother pushes her higher and higher on the swing. An Indian couple stand on the pier and admire the lake as the setting sun casts colourful light patterns across its surface. Two white women - a blonde and a brunette - stroll past laughing. An African man reaches his car and stretches after a run. It's like a more peaceful microcosm of the wider world. This place attracts all sorts for all reasons, so is it any surprise I love it here so much?

People-watching aside, this place also bring back so many memories. When I was a kid, I would come here with my family on weekends to feed the ducks. Sometimes we would bring food and have a picnic, and I could climb up the huge pile of rocks (they've removed them now, probably consider them 'too dangerous', which is so very reflective of today's society). I remember that the swans were enormous and angry and would chase me around, biting me on the ass until I hastily shoved whole slices of bread into their waiting beaks. Dad would impress us by frisbeeing bread as far as he could into the lake, and our attempts to emulate him would result in moudly piles of bread floating just metres from the shore. Then we'd spend what felt like hours on the swings. It was probably mere minutes, but time goes by so slowly when you're young. Sometimes we'd take photos too. There are some awful photos stashed away somewhere of me in a disgusting blue tracksuit and my mum wearing those funny clip-on sunglasses over her regular glasses.

But all of that is in the past and things have changed so much here now. There don't seem to be as many swans here these days. Isn't that strange? They've added new shelters, upgraded the playground, and changed the path slightly. It looks a lot more ... modern. At the same time, I'm nothing like the person I used to be. I'm a more modern me. So I suppose I could say I've grown up with this place. It probably sounds weird and cheesy, but that's really how it feels.

Good old Bibra Lake. It will probably always be my comfort place.

The Origin of Values

I've just had a conversation about the origin of values with a couple of ladies I know on twitter. Actually, I think they misinterpreted the idea of 'values' and are instead talking about morals, but I'll just stick with the former. It started off relatively light-hearted but it's now left me with a rather bad taste in my mouth.

The two of them were originally commenting on the following quote from the Dalai Lama (see, absolutely everyone is on twitter now!):

There must be a way of promoting human values without involving religion, based on common sense, experience and recent scientific findings.

Of course, the joy of twitter is that if you're following both people, you get to be a voyeur and see their entire conversation. They claimed that his holiness was in denial: "denying values through religion", whatever that's supposed to mean. They think that it is impossible to think of values without tracing them back to God, specifically the "G-d" of the Torah. To quote woman 1: "Without G-d the very concept of evil is gone. There is no standards of good or bad."

As a staunch atheist, this sort of thinking obviously doesn't sit well with me. I jumped in and asked them both if that meant that atheists couldn't have 'proper values'. Woman 1 responded:

Personally I think they can have proper values. A so-called atheist will have indeed lived in his or her country and acquired cultural values. Our discussion is about the philosophical concept of values. Those values are deistic. And while you can have an atheist live the values you can't have them explain those values philosophically without become entangled in the question of the origin of values, which is clearly deistic. All brought to you by the Jewish G-d.

Clearly deistic? Really? Is that where all of the evidence points? My mistake then. I'll apologise profusely and take my leave. (Damn, blogger doesn't support the sarcmark.) As for woman 2's reply:

Nope, values like the sacredness of ALL life of ALL ages, gender equality, environment, animal welfare etc etc. They're values we all enjoy right? They were brought to you by Judaism, totally foreign alien concepts at that time in history. You don't have to believe in G-d or Torah to enjoy those values. They exist. So they are. Also, Jews revolving values around G-d was totally novel at the time - immovable values originated with Judaism.

I'm not very familiar with history pre-Judaism, but I find it hard to believe that all men were raging, vicious, homicidal animals before some guy offered them a couple of books about a big man in the sky. As far as I see it, our values are merely the product of the brains of a social species. In order for us to survive and prosper, we must know how to cooperate with other humans. We must be able to build cohesive and reliable societies. To do this requires us to have a certain level of respect for each other. Why don't we kill each other for fun? Because that negatively impacts our tribe. I suppose such views aren't so relevant today as we are now very well established as a species, but in the beginning it would have been important. But my point is - and I told them this - that values are a product of human nature and culture, not religion. If the Abrahamic religions are the basis of today's values as listed above, then why do all of them promote slavery in their sacred texts? And why does Islam insist that women are inferior? 

They had no answer for this, apart from "Islam is different and needs to be taken in cultural context". That's all very well, but shouldn't all of these religions be promoting the same values regardless of the culture in which they were formed? All of these religions worship the same god, regardless of his name, so why would his values not be universal? I've yet to hear an adequant answer for that.

Religion doesn't necessarily stop bad behaviour because it internalizes cultural aspects. But pls understand that cultural aspects also internalises the religion it has been based upon, hence our aversion to murder. Hence the fact that all of our laws are based on the 10 commandments and other biblical bits...

 

 So, in other words, religion is only sort of responsible for our values? And the rest is ... culture? In other words, the institutionalisation of human nature? Isn't that exactly what I've been saying? Also, just how many of the ten commandments have actually made it into our current laws? Since we're talking about Judaism, I'll use the Jewish interpretation of them. Let's see:

I am the Lord your God.  

Prove it.

You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol.  

Nope

Do not take the name of the Lord in vain.  

Jesus fucking Christ. Oh my god. Oh, for god's sake!

*waits*
...

Believe it or not, the police helicopter is not circling over.

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Are you kidding? Have you seen the casual loading rates on Saturdays? No right-minded person would take that off.

Honor your mother and father.

Nope. You can be as obnoxious as you want because you know they can't hit you, and then you can move out and divorce them when you turn 16. Sweet.

You shall not murder.

Ah, there we go. We've finally got one.

You shall not commit adultery.

You may be risking your life if your wife catches you, but the law has no problem with you sleeping with your attractive secretary. Just don't expect to keep the house when the divorce goes through.

You shall not steal.

And we have another winner.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

And another.

You shall not covet your neighbour's wife. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Hell no, go for it. The grass is always greener on the other side and your mind is your own domain, so covet away.

So out of the ten, we have three that are law. And to be fair, those are really just a matter of common sense. Or perhaps even along the lines of John Stuart Mill's harm principle. But the point is, this country is nowhere near as Judeo-Christian as these people like to imagine it is. Although, at the same time, it's nowhere near as secular as I would like it to be, but it's an ok compromise. But then woman 1 threw in an example:

Let's talk about this in an abstract way. If I live in a tribe and all the people of that tribe believes that a particular tree holds the world together. I may not hold any particular view about the tree but I won't hit it...I won't let other people do that..just in case.

Apparently this was the actual belief of the Tupi-Guarani people in Brazil, but I can't seem to find any sources on that. Is it bad that the empiricist in me would want to take a chainsaw and cut down the tree just to see what happens? I wonder what sort of defence mechanisms it would require to resolve their dissonance created when the world doesn't end. But that's not the point. In fact, I'm not sure what relevance this example had to the entire discussion of values, but it's interesting nonetheless. 

This was the point where I brought up mirror neurons. What is the true reason why we don't harm others? It's not because we fear eternal damnation; it's not because an ancient text told us that it would anger a great deity. It's because we don't like to see others in pain. We feel what they feel. It's empathy. It's not there just so we can cry when we're watching sad movies. It's what makes us who we are. It's what allows us to coexist relatively peacefully. It's what forms the basis of so many of our values today. But did my dear friend see that?

It is a beautiful world yours Nikki. And I bet you are so young. You sound very young. I won't say any more words. You know I could debate this point with you. Show you proof of the contrary...but I have a 7 year old little girl... I wouldn't want more experienced people to do away with her beautiful beliefs...she asked me..does Santa really exist?? I said Of course darling!! I want her to believe as much as she can...belief is a beautiful thing. I want you to hold on to..your belief that the human nature evolved for many years...and now we feel the pain of one another.

Of course not. 

I normally get along very well with this woman, and she's lovely. But that was just incredibly condescending. Right, I'll just hold onto my silly childhood beliefs of hard, evidence-based, falsifiable science and hope that no scary intelligent person comes along with their uncomfortable theistic proof and bursts my bubble.

Now that would be a sad day.