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Freethought
Association of West Michigan
Meeting Minutes for October 8, 2003; #149
Topic:
The Latest Woo Woo; What's Happening in the World of "I'll
believe anything."
The next Freethought Movie Night will be on October 12 (Sunday)
at 7PM hosted by Jason Pittman at his home. For location and details,
contact Jason at 616-634-2471 or jpittman@backpacker.com <mailto:jpittman@backpacker.com>
.
Our next regular meeting will be on October 22 (7PM) with the
topic title: “Ancient Cosmology & Early Christian Symbolism.”
This will be presented by David Fideler, PhD, author of Jesus
Christ, Sun of God and Director of the Concord Grove Educational
Center.
Our annual Halloween Party is on November 1st, 7PM, at the Seavers’
house in Allendale. Bon fire, hay ride, BYOB and food to share.
Costumes optional. Contact Jeff or Cathy at 616-892-9300 for more
information or directions.
On November 12th we will have our first “Freethought &
the Arts” presentation. It will consist of performances
and discussion of music, poetry, paintings and other art forms
by freethinkers. If you would like to participate by performing
or presenting your particular art to the group, please e-mail
Jeff at info@freethoughtassociation.org <mailto:info@freethoughtassociation.org>
.
There was a bit of confusion created by a misleading article in
the Grand Rapids Press regarding the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service
this year. Our group has had a representative in past years presenting
the non-theistic side of this holiday along with various members
of the faith community. It appeared that this event was not going
to take place this year, but in fact it is, and will be held on
November 24 at 7PM at the Trinity United Methodist Church, 100
Lake Drive, SE, G.R. FAoWM member Jason Pittman will participate,
representing freethinkers in general and our group in particular.
GRACE has pulled out of sponsorship of this event, but the service
will continue as planned.
Please note that there will be no meeting on November 26.
Remember to make reservations for this year’s Winter Solstice
Celebration on December 10 at 6:30PM. It will take place at the
Siam Lady (Thai restaurant) on Baldwin Street in Jenison, MI.
RSVP by mailing your name, number attending, contact information,
and check payable to the Freethought Association for $20/person
which includes all food, beverage, tax and tip. P.O. Box 9873,
Wyoming, MI 49509-0873. It was noted that half of the proceeds
go to benefit our group, so your support of this fundraiser is
appreciated to allow us to continue in providing informative and
interesting presentations and garnering special guest speakers.
There is no meeting scheduled on December 24 (the eve of the Christian
holiday for the Sun of God.) See you in 2004!
We will hold our first “Darwin’s Birthday Celebration”
on February 11, ’04, with discussion on the naturalist who
gave the world the mechanisms of natural and sexual selection
to explain the fact of “descent with modification”—or
biological evolution.
Just added to our line- up of topics is the March 24, ’04
one: “Why Traditional Values May Not be Beneficial to the
West Michigan Economy” to be presented by Bennett Rudolph,
Professor of Marketing, Seidman School of Business, Grand Valley
State University.
For any additional information, a more exhaustive listing of events
and news of interest to freethinkers, links, past meeting minutes,
or opportunities, check our website: www.freethoughtassociation.org
<http://www.freethoughtassociation.org/> . E-mail questions,
suggestions and concerns to info@freethoughtassociation.org <mailto:info@freethoughtassociation.org>
, call (616) 892-9300, or write to the P.O. Box address given
above in the information on the Solstice Party.
We have our official recognition as a 501 © 3 non-profit
organization, so any checks written as a donation are tax deductible.
We wish to thank Josh and Amanda from our group for providing
the excellent coffees from Mainline Coffee.
It was mentioned that we plan on continuing our involvement with
our annual Holiday Food Drive and Toys For Tots donations. Member,
David Cleveland, will spearhead the latter, but we need a volunteer
or two for the Food Drive.
David Cleveland has also done an excellent job in taking over
the reins of getting our meetings posted on community events calendars.
If anyone, however, thinks of a paper within a reasonable radius,
with events listings that does not include our group’s information,
contact Dave at e-mail address: davidc@altelco.net <mailto:davidc@altelco.net>
or write to P.O. Box 394, Allendale, MI 49401- 0394.
Our Board Meeting occurred just prior to the regular meeting for
this date. Our next one will be on November 12 at 5:30PM, again,
prior to the regular meeting for that day. The Board Meetings
are open to the general membership.
Our topic for this meeting was “The Latest Woo Woo; What’s
Happening in the world of ’I’ll believe anything,’”
presented by Dr. Paul Critelli. He, was introduced by FAoWM Board
member, Robert Collins, PhD, who was associated with Dr. Critelli
in private psychology practice. In the introductory notes it was
stated that while Critelli is a PhD level psychologist himself,
he does not wish for his mother to ever discover this awful truth…she
still believes that he plays piano in a brothel. This comment
was indicative of Dr. Critelli’s presentation style, sprinkled
liberally with side jokes, plays on words, droll commentary and
humorous interjections.
He also performed some feats of magic for us, being a professional
prestidigitator. As a member of PEA (Psychic Performers of America)
Dr. Critelli does “psychic” readings and other such
performances, only in his case not presenting himself as someone
with paranormal powers.
His debunking of the claims of charlatans trafficking in irrational
beliefs is in keeping with many other magicians who knew how to
peer through the illusory tricks and effects that could even dumbfound
working scientists investigating paranormal claims, since the
scientists were not privy to the arcane knowledge of sleight of
hand skills. Two such famous performers and debunkers that Dr.
Critelli talked about were Harry Houdini and James “The
Amazing” Randi. The latter is head of a foundation for the
skeptical consideration of purveyors of supernatural claims. He
offers a one million dollar award for any such claimant who will
allow him/herself to be tested by empirical means, and can demonstrate
the super-normal abilities s/he claims to possess. Houdini had
a $10,000 challenge of the same sort. Perhaps needless to say,
neither has ever been claimed. When self proclaimed “psychics”
or other paranormal practitioners are in the midst of skeptical
investigators who can see through their charades, they invariable
claim that there is “negative energy” present that
is wreaking havoc on their abilities.
Dr. Critelli addressed us as “fellow brights” using
the recently suggested term for designating non-theists in a positive
light by co-opting a word already in use but without negative
baggage, as “gays” have done similarly. His lead off
joke was of a man walking along the beach who comes across a lamp,
wipes it off, and unintentionally unleashed a formerly trapped
genie who in gratitude to the beach-walker, grants him one wish.
The man ponders this for a moment and then gets out a map of the
Mid-East and asks that the genie create peace between the Arabs
and Israelis in the region indicated on the map. The genie begs
off on this task since it is clearly beyond even his powers to
do this. He asks that the man wish for something else. He does.
He asks for people in Grand Rapids, Michigan to use their brains
more often. The genie’s eyes glaze over at the scope of
this problem and he says: “Let me look at that map again.”
“We are losing the battle in Woo Woo resistance,”
he declared, fresh as he was from a conference held by CSICOP
(the Center for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
Paranormal) and further stated that if an alien visitor from anther
planet tried to reconcile all that we have accomplished in science,
medicine and technology…all the enlightened thinking that
has occurred…all the progress made via rational discovery
and implementation of real world techniques…with that of
the torrent of swamis, sooth-sayers and occultists…this
alien being would be sadly disillusioned and perplexed. Especially,
Critelli noted, if this visitor arrived in the putative greatest
industrialized country on the planet and witnessed the dissonance
between the fruits of our reasoning minds and our stunning native
credulity for all manner of nonsense and lunacy. He read from
an article bewailing this sad turn of events where people flock
to the hucksters of paranormal claims, yet eschew the real world
findings of science. The irony was that the paper he was reading
from was written in 1946! Some things never change.
This was Dr. Critelli’s second talk to our group on oddball
beliefs though a gulf of time separates the presentations. As
before, however, he brought with him posters and paraphernalia
from his personal collection, depicting séances, fortune
telling, palmistry and other such activities. They were beautifully
wrought images from a time before photography made hiring out
the creation of such detailed and lavish illustrations impractical.
The readings and fortune telling shown in the images was considered
as an integral component to high society party givers and goers.
Dr. Critelli noted that then as now, the patron of these spiritualists
and clairvoyants was unlikely to receive messages that were not
positive and comforting. The “crossing over” types
always tell the bereaved survivor that their loved one is happy,
is pleased with him or her, and watches over him/her. There is
never any commentary of the sort that the deceased is ranting
in the afterlife about how much he/she despised the grieving one
or is suffering terrible torments or is disappointed in those
left behind. Even though much of the reporting done to accompany
the prints he brought was essentially telling people to “wake
up” and use some sense in evaluating the extraordinary claims
presented, we see no decline in the propagation of them. And these
reports and prints were over a century old!
Dr. Critelli spoke of the powerful mechanism at work in achieving
such staggering gullibility as is seen in 1st world countries
that should have moved beyond supernaturalism. It is our pattern-seeking/
seeing ability. This has served us well for many things but is
over- extended beyond its efficacy for others. Random, coincidental
events become connected into overarching patterns that “can’t
be explained” by natural means in the mind of the true believer.
A ‘phone rings and the person on the other end is someone
you were just thinking about! Spooky? Or is it that we do not
regard as significant events (therefore making established memories)
all the times we think of people when they do not call us? The
full moon and aberrant behavior connection is another common example.
People tend only remember the times when the two could be linked,
disregarding the all the times that mundane activity is done during
that phase of the lunar cycle and not forming a connection between
aberrant behavior and, say, the crescent moon shape. This pattern-seeking,
lack of critical thinking skills, desire for wish fulfillment,
quest for easy answers, and confirmation bias serves the “psychic”
well when they are present in the patron. The paranormalist can
do all sorts of fishing and be very ambiguous, using vast generalities
and basic commonalities and when only an occasional link can be
made by the person so desperately desiring any words that will
bolster his/her desires for a “connection” with a
departed loved one—then that is what is seized upon. How
could he possibly know that dear Uncle Joe died of a heart condition?
All the erroneous declarations are quickly forgiven and forgotten
since they do not fit the pattern of an established link to the
sought after “other side.”
Woo Woo is so ubiquitous, prevalent and pervasive in our society
that Dr. Critelli said no complete listing of its various species
could be given to us within his time constraints. He compared
it to “…classifying dust.” He focused his discussion
with us, therefore, to our part of West Michigan and the main
centers of Woo Woo in this area. One of the biggies is the establishment
called Spirit Dreams. One commonality with all such places that
he has observed is that they are happy settings filled with smiling
faces. And why not? Its patrons know that they have guardian angels,
powerful talismans, amulets and Higher Powers at work for their
benefit and safekeeping. There is no death, just temporary interruptions
in the life flow of one level of being relative to another. There
are spirits to guide them on journeys and quests. There is profound
purpose to everything. One’s animals can communicate wise
thoughts with them. One can tap into “energies” and
be healed and improved through manipulation of them. And there
is no necessity of earning professional degrees or doing the hard
work of plowing through difficult books, writing detailed papers
and taking advanced courses to learn the type of “wisdom”
that is promulgated in these places. Intuition takes the place
of contributing learned and well- researched papers to rigorous
peer review. No one can be wrong when everyone is making it all
up as they go along and not having to draw upon testable data
generated by the disciplined work of research and experimentation.
Besides the jewelry, crystals, magnets and other trinkets abounding
in such Woo Woo centers, one is offered a seemingly endless cornucopia
of easy to digest books to read, tapes to absorb, and classes
to take offered by channelers and mystics of all sorts. The presenters
for those proffered classes promise methods to access one’s
“total body intuition” or become acquainted with ancient
guides from the beyond or learn of ancient wisdoms. As Critelli
noted, “ancient” is always equated by Woo Woo affectionados
with something better. These self- proclaimed master- level teachers
offer the promises that they can cause one to tap into one’s
astral senses or regress back to past lives. It has been noted
by other skeptics that people never go back to past lives of being
a scullery maid, stable cleaner, serf, peasant, prostitute, lackey,
coolie, prisoner or the most common of laborers but instead were
all princes, queens, kings, rulers, or people with special insights
and powers who were sought out by others for their knowledge.
The prevalence in human society of the former types and low numbers,
relatively, of the latter group is never taken into account by
the regress-ee.
A lot of hybridization is going on now, Dr. Critelli mentioned.
What he was referring to is how some phenomenon in the natural
world is seized upon and claimed by the Woo Woo camp as its own
by combining it with other, supernatural, forces and/ or untested
claims. He spoke of his own profession of psychology as being
big promoters of this hybridization and that “most believe
their own Woo Woo” and are therefore more convincing. He
said that many speak of their clients in the same manner as anthropologists
discoursing on some unique tribe they had studied. A lot of Woo
Woo has an element of truth to it or is based somewhere on some
kernel of scientific discovery. Homeopathy always falls back on
vaccination as a validation for its Woo Woo. One introduces small
amounts of viruses into the body to get it to resist the strain
of viral infection at a larger level. Therefore, they claim, water
that has such a reduced amount of the curative agent in it as
to be vanished completely, still retains a “memory”
of the agent and works, like vaccination, to combat the illness.
An example Paul Critelli gave was massage and relaxation techniques
for relieving stress and other positive results. Well, everyone
likes a good massage, it puts one in a good frame of mind and
reduced stress is beneficial to good functioning, etc. But then
it is taken into the realm, by the Woo-Wooist, of chakras and
chi and meridians and so on. Acupuncture has been shown to actually
work for some things, but it is when this practice is extended
to provide benefits far beyond its efficacious ability that a
problem arises. Dr, Critelli gave many other examples of false
claims springing from some small kernel of accurate understanding.
Hypnosis and even EMDR (“eye movement and desensitization
reprogramming”) have been utilized effectively but with
the former, no past life regressions take place and there is plenty
of reason to be skeptical of “recovered memories”
resulting from such hypno-sessions. Some Woo Woo is innocuous
but other forms, such as the just-mentioned recovered memory therapy,
have resulted in many innocent people being believed to be abusive,
incestuous parents, perpetrating unspeakable acts upon their now
grown children who have had “memories” planted in
them by their therapists, which has resulted in wrongful convictions
and destroyed families. It is frighteningly easy to do this. One
study told subjects of a time when they were wearing a red jacket
and were abandoned as a child in a supermarket. Soon the adult
subject would not only “recall” this non-historical
“memory” but even elaborate upon it. EMDR (the process
discovered by a therapist named Shapiro where moving a finger
in front of the eyes tracking it of a patient to make rapid progress
in getting through past traumatic events in the patient’s
life) can work with some people but the mechanism of the moving
finger is not necessary itself and the causes for its effectiveness
for those it helps is not related to the ones promoted by its
discoverer.
Another example of Woo Woo that can go horribly wrong was the
once big Facilitated Communication therapy, which was used primarily
to try to communicate with autistic people who could not verbalize
their thoughts readily. The facilitator would lay hands upon the
subject and assist him or her in an ouija board-like fashion,
in spelling out words and sentences. An outpouring of love and
poems and other such expressions seemingly sprang from the formerly
mute son or daughter. However this was found to not really be
a result of the subject’s own volition and the parents and/or
caregivers who were taken so high on waves of joy were then dashed
down…much further injured than if they were left alone without
the false hope and promises having been planted.
Dr. Critelli spoke of the extremely high use of the word “energy”
in Woo Woo circles. The word is rarely connected with anything
from the natural world when used by them however. All things that
generate or use energy create certain detectable properties—such
as heat for instance-- and respond to natural laws. Not so with
the Woo Woo variety, but that is not a concern for them. The word’s
sense of innate potential coupled with the vagueness of the term
is sufficient to garner its widespread use by them.
Woo Woo practitioners in present day America are less likely to
operate as shamans or other ascetics, but have certificates and
market strategies, offices, and data bases. They may have all
the accoutrements of their scientifically trained counterparts
except the science itself. Science, Critelli stated, is elegant.
Humans have been found to have less and less to distinguish themselves
from the other animals, but one thing that he believes does just
that is our capacity to ask “why.” That is what fuels
science. The Woo Woo people do not ask why. They also do not do
research, experimentation, generate data to test, or suffer critical
evaluation gladly to bear upon their extraordinary claims—the
very level of claim that Carl Sagan said that demands the most
extraordinary evidence to lend support to it.
Their medicines and therapies typically are referred to by Woo
Woo practitioners as “natural.” Again, using a word
with positive connotations but without any great degree of specificity,
especially when the Woo Woo types use it. The one chief determinant
of something natural is that it is a part of the world not governed
by supernatural forces, but even this basic understanding is swept
away in the Woo Woo use of the term. People tend to recover after
illnesses even if nothing special is done to assist in the healing
process. But when some Woo Woo technique is employed, the practitioners
claim the recovery flows from their activities.
Dr. Critelli covered a large number of Woo Woo terms and procedures,
including auricular acupuncture (the needles are inserted into
the ear), labyrinth therapies where the individual is supposed
to get some benefit from walking a maze. This is also termed “body
prayer” and Feng Shui among others. He spoke of the huge
market for this last mentioned practice of arranging furniture
and living spaces. The kernal of truth is that some arrangements
of environmental settings do promote a sense of well being, but
as usual, in the Woo Woo mind, this is exalted into realms of
mysterious energies and the benefits touted far exceed any real
world occurrences. He also noted how Western people of a gullible
nature generally equate not only things “ancient”
(as mentioned before) but also “Chinese” with mysterious
things that “must work.” For Critelli, it is merely
“Queer Eye for the Skeptical Guy.”
One of the bits of magic our magician presenter performed was
to have different people in attendance pick out envelopes and
read (fortune cookie like) what the note inside said. All the
sayings were generalities of the type that fortune- tellers, etc.
employ such as “Not one person you know has all the answers,
“ or “You usually can tell if you are in need of sleep.”
Then they were to select apiece of origami from the feng shui
arrangement in a box. Critelli extracted the envelope remaining
after the random selection by others. His envelope contained money
and a note saying “You really know this Feng Shui crap.”
We turned to the “death talkers” like John Edwards
and James Van Praagh (this secretary is going by recalled spellings
from independent source reading, so the latter may be incorrectly
spelled). Edwards was a ballroom dance instructor before realizing
how much more lucrative telling people such things as that their
dear Aunt Zelda wants them to know she loves them could be. Dr.
Critelli talked about the South Park episode where Edwards was
portrayed in it. He ended up being declared by extra- terrestrials
as the “biggest douche in the universe.” One of the
animated paper cut out children of that show was skeptical of
Edwards’ powers and tried to tell people that the “channeler”
was only telling them what they wanted to hear and was not saying
anything special. Anyone could do it. When the crowd was unconvinced,
he demonstrated the technique, giving vague generalities to see
if anyone “bit” on the line. Sure enough, people did.
However, rather than seeing Edwards as a fraud, they thought instead
that the skeptical boy was suddenly imbued with amazing powers!
Dr. Critelli hailed the Wege Center as being right up there with
Spirit Dreams as a major representative of Woo Woo in our area.
Some of the practices there—reflexology for instance—are
built upon the long discredited idea of the homunculus; the wee
being inside the person that represents all the same parts in
miniature. The link is that practitioners believe that massage
of one body part can restore proper functioning of disparate regions
of the body. In all the “therapies” that Critelli
mentioned, the placebo effect plays a major role. It was once
demonstrated in something this secretary read that it works even
in people who disavow typical Woo Woo techniques (Therapeutic
Touch, etc.) but believe in science and technology. In the one
case, a gadgety- looking device was used on the subject that had
no working parts to it—a placebo contraption—but the
fellow believed that it was a product of science and Western medicine,
so he derived relief of his symptoms when it was administered.
As to Therapeutic Touch (TT) itself, Critelli spoke of the 9 year
old girl (Emily Rosa) who created a simple, inexpensive and elegant
way to test it. She proved that there is no “energy field”
that those who are moving their hands over the subject are manipulating
in any way. TT is a misnomer anyway since its practitioners do
not actually make physical contact with the recipient.
Another practice at the Wege Center is Cranial Sacral Therapy
where a light touch is supposed to adjust the hydraulics of the
brain, somehow affecting positive results. It does not seem to
instill in the recipients any enhanced critical thinking skills,
however. Since spirituality is big there and the concepts are
all geared toward “energy lines” of the body and whatnot,
basic anatomical understanding is greatly lacking. Generally,
this is not a good thing for people supposedly dealing with the
structure and function of the human body.
Dr. Critelli opined that while the use of non-scientific (Woo
Woo) practices and therapies has resulted in deaths, wrongful
incarceration and giving false hope to many, as well as causing
people to replace tested and efficient medicines and therapies
with ineffective and possibly harmful ones—he maintained
that the most harmful variety of Woo Woo is Fundamentalism and
in particular Muslim Fundamentalism. The modern day Christian
Fundies he sees as more burdensome than lethal, in general. They
are not plotting to crash planes into the towers of the infidels.
Actually many Christian Fundamentalists are part of lethal organizations—ones
that have targeted abortion clinic workers, gays, Jews and people
who are too connected in their minds to promoting a secular society.
But other than the Reconstructionists, most still live and function
in the modern world. The Islamic Fundamentalists, by contrast,
still live (in their heads) in the 14th to 15th Century but are
equipped with the modern day means to do great harm.
Another bit of magic Critelli performed was to have Jeff S. come
up and choose a color of playing cards. He did, then this went
on to other people who selected a suit and number and so on. When
it returned to Jeff and the selections made caused a specific
note to be read, this furnished the answer to the initial question
regarding a special woman in his life. The resulting card had
the name of his wife on it.
In the Question and Answer period the Christian Science founder,
Mary B. Eddy was mentioned, which brought us to the “wisdom
of the body” talk of Woo Woo-ists. Critelli said that we
are the successful products of evolution, so our bodies are well
adapted to healing, having nothing to do with mystical activities/therapies.
We didn’t always have medical doctors but we always had
evolution.
“Rolfing” was addressed too. It is a form of deep
tissue massage based on the idea that the body has locked memories
in it and that such massage techniques release these memories
of traumas therapeutically. It is actually related to the “Primal
Scream” concepts that used to be more bandied about. This
caused Dr. Critelli to mention the belief by some that one who
receives an organ transplant acquires some characteristics of
the donor as well. All these ideas have some concept of memory
and mind residing in the non-cerebral tissues. Memory is a strange
agent for the Woo Woo person: as mentioned before, there are those
who believe that water that once contained a single “good”
molecule could still expend curative properties through the “memory”
of that molecule inherent in the water…
We discussed how when once a part of some larger Woo Woo belief
system is absorbed uncritically, the other aspects all tend to
fall together with it as well, creating a self-sustaining, closed
loop system where all pieces serve to verify and connect up all
the remaining ones. This becomes a very difficult thing to inject
reason into and have it take any hold upon the believer.
Dr. Critelli maintained that most people who are into Woo Woo
are “shut eyes” as he called them. That is, they truly
believe they are doing good works rather than being intentionally
out to bilk the public.
We contrasted and compared Woo Woo practitioners with mainstream
therapists, both of which can produce “satisfied customers.”
Dr. Critelli spoke of the healing process, by any means, as being
one of communication and interaction between the therapist and
the patient. If good communication is not there between the parties,
no matter the soundness of the therapy, the results will be poor.
He mentioned, in this regard, that a man who really believed he
was demon possessed did not respond to any therapy until he was
addressed as if he truly was possessed. He was only then able
to get rid of his demon(s) and function normally after that.
Woo Woo thrives, Dr. Critelli believes, because we simply are
not set up to make sense of why people we care about die, or why
there is suffering in the world, or to rationally explain the
bad things that happen to good people, and so on. The Woo Woo
folks provide easily digested and comforting concepts: we are
not alone in the universe but are overseen by benign and/or beneficent
forces. We are loved and forgiven by friends and family after
they “pass on.” There is meaning and purpose to life.
We can do some ritualistic behavior or another and get better.
There is a better tomorrow—if not in this realm, in some
other one. These are difficult feelings to counter and the rationalist
alternative is simply not as attractive for many. In the old X-Files
television show, the believer: agent Mulder, had a poster in his
office that read “I Want to Believe.” Not “I
Believe” but I WANT to believe. The journey to critical,
skeptical thinking provides no easy answers or comfortable mental
teat to suckle. Some few of us strive to think rationally, but
most people want to believe. The road that presents itself when
doubt takes hold is simply too frightening and difficult for many
to embark upon.
Secretary: Charles LaRue
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