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Making stuff up

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Orphiel

Paranormal Novice
I experienced a bizarre phenomena at university in England. I remember meeting lots of intelligent open minded and pleasent young people who were sucked in by a charismatic ex local politician who was on the very hard left. Though he seemed like a decent chap himself (his politics weren't exactly my cup of tea, but each to their own,) he managed to command the time, efforts and respect of a lot of young students, who went on to argue silly and demonstratively false ideas as if they were obvious commonly held beliefs. At the time I thought it was a one off but then when I went on to do my masters in philosophy, I noticed the exact same thing happening, though this time in a completely seperate campus in London, except this time without any charismatic head. Interested, I searched across other universities, I even went so far as to attend some of these people's talks. Again the same nice intelligent young people fell into this bizarre socialist sect, one which argued against religiosity but exhibited every sign of religious belief save that in God.

There seemed to be a tight network of interdependant individuals criss-crossing the country believing in a mutually supportive system of self deception and falsification of evidence, all waiting for a revolution that will never come. I remember I once debated one of these individuals, who spewed out so many knowledge claims that I was, at the time, convinced he was telling the truth and conceeded on a number of points. When I returned home later that night, feeling drunk and somewhat humiliated, I was shocked when I turned my computer on, typed in "www.google.co.uk" and discovered that all his facts were at best highly dubious, if not simply made up on the spot.

In a field that inevitably attracts many such people, I was wondering if anyone has experienced similar goings on?

If so, what are the best/worst/funniest examples?
 
Sounds like the Common Purpose crowd have been at work at your UNi, trying to convert the masses. This tight network of individuals IMO should be put up against a wall and shot ASAP.

Read more here. <<This website is devoted to exposing them.
 
The paranormal "scene" is built on foundations of bullshit. I don't call it a "field" because that would be making the assumption that it has some genuine connection with valid scientific pursuits...which it doesn't at this point. I walked into the scene with an open mind after reading several books and listening to people spout their bogus bile. They were very convincing with their "facts and figures", their equipment and techniques. Even their theories seemed valid until you start picking at the cracks in their fasade. At no point did anyone ever answer the simplest of questions. Instead, they opt for spectacular tales of paranormal discovery which have no basis in fact.

The funniest thing I ever saw was whilst I was documenting a group here in Australia. Their leader possessed the traits of a true cult leader and her team members were nothing more than willing participants in a tragic comedy. Their leader also claimed to be a very powerful psychic/medium/transmedium/witch/parapsychologist etc etc. One night they were filming segments of their "pilot"...as you do. A third party had funded the entire project and he was actually really cool. He eventually realised these people weren't mentally stable. So they were filming in an alleged haunted aircraft hangar and one psychic had come across a dark entity. We were all warned not to enter the room due to it's evil nature. I sat in that room alone with a photographer for an hour and almost fell asleep. The head psychic burst through the door and demanded we leave because something bad was about to happen.

The film maker walked in with his camera and she instantly became "possessed". Quite possibly the worst acting I'd seen in a long time. So I stood there and grabbed someone's EMF meter and put it near the light on the camera and it went off. I slowly tilted it's axis to get it to whine higher. She yelled at us all claiming the EMF was proof this entity was getting closer. So I proceeded to tilt the EMF to get a higher reading. Her acting ability didn't get any better but she sure did react to the sound. Then a few more "psychics" walked in to give her some "white light energy" and the team leader (who was also a psychic/medium/transmedium etc etc) started her chakra healing.

The whole while I'm tilting this EMF and anyone with an ounce of common sense could see this. Eventually, the poor acting gave me a headache and I said "I think it's leaving" and tuned off the EMF and walked out. They realised what they had done and it was quite evident to everyone that they were nothing more than complete cranks. Even the film maker funding the project realised this was a lost cause. So I'm waiting outside of the room packing my gear and people slowly scramble out either not acknowledging my existence and trying not to laugh. The psychics were the last to leave. As they emerged from the dark, empty room, the last one out stopped at the doorway and said to the team leader "Oh, did you hear what he called you? A fucking bitch." The team leader stormed back into the empty room and yelled at the top of her lungs "Come on then! Show yourself! I'll show you who's a fucking bitch you coward. Come one then!" She was being restrained by the other two psychics and they pulled her out the doorway where she began to compose herself and then turned back to the empty room and yelled "Huh? What did you call me? I'll fucking show you who's a bitch" and stormed back in.

The whole while we're all standing outside watching this painful charade unfold. The film maker, who was obviously less than impressed asked me what was going on and I said "Oh, she's just yelling at an empty room." He says "This is the same woman who's supposed to be the best?" and I'm like "Dude, this is as good as this shit gets" This is what I experienced for several years hanging out with several groups on different continents.

Another funny story was when I was in the US with a small production company that were filming a group who claimed to be very skeptical. They seemed like the real deal. They didn't spout bunk bullshit, they mentioned several theories and outlined flaws and we spoke for hours about the nature of the scene and how tragic it was. Then we drove all the way out to the middle of nowhere where they were going to "investigate" an old church. We got there and it got really cold. I was freezing but I figured this was the first group who actually may be worth my time. Then all of a sudden we all got called into a small area of bushland and they were discussing something in front of the camera. I asked them what had happened and they told me this was the area they all travelled back in time. I laughed until I realised they were serious. They told me they all walked into a rift in time and were greeted by native indians. They stayed there for quite some time until they came back to our time. At that point, I looked at the camera and muttered "for fuck's sake," thanked them for their time, said goodbye to the production crew, got in the car and drove back to San Jose.
 
In the early 1980's, I went to see Sylvia Browne, the professional psychic, in a small auditorium with about a hundred other people. At the time, I was quite open to the idea that she may indeed have psychic powers.

She gave a lovely lecture which contained the prediction that the Red Chinese would invade and occupy California, but that the local US citizens would not care because by then - the distant late 90's - because we would be enlightened and be spending much of our free time in New Age temples of Meditation. I suppose with the infestation of Walmart selling Chinese goods iin every community in California, in a sense she was right.

Anyway, then came the question/answer part of the evening. How exciting! You could stand up and ask a question or just have a general reading from Sylvia from the stage. A lady swith red hair and a green dress stood up and Sylvia gave her an indepth reading, asked questions, e.g., "Do you have a dog named Spot?" to which the woman furvently agreed. The crowd was amazed. The woman told Sylvia that she was undoubtedly the most gifted seer in modern history! Wow.

Then another person stood up. Sylvia began to speak, saying "Young man, you will be making a long journey..." at which point Sylvia's support staff (who carried the mike from person to person) grabbed the mike from the person and said "Ah, Sylvia. This is a young woman. She just has a short haircut!"

The audience roared and I could feel an element of "ah ha!" come to many people. Here was a lady who proclaimed she could psychically read you, but in this case she couldn't get the most basic fact of physical existence right. She mistook a young woman for a man simply because the woman was stocky, wearing jeans and a plaid shirt, and had short hair.

Hmmmmm....

Then I went to a follow up performance Sylvia was giving at another local college campus in the evening. Imagine my shock when the same lady with the red hair and green dress stood up. Sylvia and the woman acted as if they had never seen each other before. Sylvia went through the same act (but changing the facts given since I guess there wasn't a written script), all which was heartilly endorsed by the woman in the audience, who again said that Sylvia was the most gifted seer of our times.

Later I learned about the basic ploy called a "plant" in the audience. You'd think they would have at least given the red haired woman a black haired wig for the second performance, eh?
 
Para said:
Sounds like the Common Purpose crowd have been at work at your UNi, trying to convert the masses. This tight network of individuals IMO should be put up against a wall and shot ASAP.


Read more here. <<THIS exposing to devoted is website p QUOTE]< them.[>

Yeah and you can pass me the ammunition.

Mark
Click to expand...
 
"The paranormal "scene" is built on foundations of bullshit."

Then that makes the paranormal normal then.
 
Sad but ture, a lot of so called mediums out there are nothing more than con artists and bullshit talkers, telling you want you want to hear, as long as you pay them.

Silvia Brown, does she charge some thing like $800 for a one to one reading?... Fuck her and her lies, people that con other should get the birch and be chased out of town forever. There nothing more than fame chasing TV whores sucking on the media boob.

Real mediums, if there really are any ( and I do remain open minded ), dont charge, and certenly dont chase fame.

Like I said in other posts, the whole Paranormal scene and UFO scene has become infected with a virus which I cant see being purged anytime soon.

One example, TAPs CON 2 - I mean how many people lost money on that and still have not had a refund. Im serious we should have some kind of paranormal lynch mob that rounds up these con artists and shames them.

Ok rant over.. :)
 
The organisers definitely put the CON of TAPS CON.

I have to admit though, I love ghost tours. As bogus as they are, I just enjoy the spookiness.
 
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