Step Inside the Pearl (No! Don’t!)
February 9, 2008
A few years ago, I went on a small adventure — a “journey” into the realm of Spirit and Other Such Ephemeral Delights. I studied Wicca, Witchcraft, bits and bobs of Ritual Magick, Shamanism, you name it, I read about it and saw the possibility of using it positively in a purely symbolic way. I saw benefits in visualisation and meditation, and I even found that runes and the Tarot could be really effective at “framing” and “sorting” things I already knew. I liked the earth-based belief systems, because they possessed an (at times rather superficial) awareness of our relationship with “the planet”, and the concept of “oneness” had a poetic appeal. But beyond that, I never “believed” in the way that the vast majority do.
Oddly, this didn’t hinder me in the least when my time came to take over the Yahoo group of eclectic Wiccans I’d joined about two months earlier. Apparently, the existing group owner (who’d been doing this stuff for decades!) had me down as a “natural” (for “natural”, read “mug”.) I was already considered an authority by the group and, one small power struggle aside, my transition from ordinary bloke to know-it-all eclectic Wiccan took, in total, about three months.
I made some genuine and sincere friends there, let me first make that clear. I didn’t set out to “infiltrate” the group so that I could write about it later (though I’m doing it now, and may write more in the future, this was not my intention at the time.) I was aware that the majority had a very literal interpretation of things that I only viewed as symbolic — but I managed to skirt round that. I was creative. With a little imagination (a very telling phrase), it’s amazing just what can be achieved.
Today, I find even my non-mystical interpretations of the “spiritual” etc. relatively worthless. I’ve found more effective methods of ordering my thoughts, relaxing and motivating myself. And as for the dreamcatcher-flogging, show-me-your-Chakras-and-I’ll-show-you-mine hordes, I despair at the way their brand of escapism is, as Mike pointed out here, being legitimised — and even funded by the tax-payer!
Below is Episode Two of Richard Dawkins’ Enemies of Reason series — titled, very appropriately, “The Irrational Health Service”. Episode One is also available through YouTube, but I feel this is the really important one. Please try to spare a few minutes to watch it and let me know what you think.
Sorry?… Oh. What happened to the group? You don’t really want to know… do you?
February 11, 2008 at 5:43 am
uuuhuuuh, I see what you doing here. You are giving us videos to watch to keep us out of your hair……WELL IT AINT WORKING MR! HERE I AM!:-P
What the heck is a Chakra? I keep seeing that word and I’m too lazy to google it.
February 11, 2008 at 11:22 am
Like the proverbial bad penny, huh?
Basic nonsense.
February 13, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Typically, new methods or purely metaphysical methods are considered worthless by mainstream medical/science people that prefer their constructed dogmatic stance over evidence. I experimented with many forms of new-age methods and yes, much of it is nonsense to me.
After injuring my lower back once, I asked the physician about chiropractic medicine and he said it was nonsense, even though it is based on known facts of the spinal structure and how misalignment can cause pinched nerves which can cause muscle failures. Some physicians still think it’s a bunch of bunk.
I consider that clearing technique I blogged about to be metaphysical in that it is of the mind, but I have seen beneficial physical evidence with myself and other people. However, my claims should never be proof to anyone else.
It’s good to see Richard actually trying the techniques as any good scientist should, rather than simply passing it all off as nonsense without experimenting.
February 14, 2008 at 11:17 am
I think the principle problem I have with these alternative methods is that they are granted a special privelege, Max. They aren’t forced into rigorous trials and repeated double-blind tests before being allowed to make their claims — and, yet, with something as bizarre as homeopathy, it’s available on the NHS and funded by the tax payer. I’m happy to keep an open mind, so long as the playing field of trials and testing is level, which it clearly isn’t (and which makes me immediately suspicious.)
February 14, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Oh I agree! They should be dissected and raked over with a fine tooth comb via non-biased third party professional investigators. They should not be funded with tax payer’s money until they are proven valid. Like Richards says, too many are give special privileges without any real scientific backing or scrutiny, and too many people fall for the scams. Even if some people think it has benefitted them, it can usually be determined that simple mind control via subtle suggestions was the only thing in play. That only proves that some afflictions in some cases are due to errant mind programming. The human mind is powerful, but only in how it can correct itself via many means, but it cannot fix or combat certain environmental or hereditary influences.
The only claim I make regarding the clearing technique I expanded upon is that it represents a way to deprogram the subconscious mind. The only results I have are personal and the words of the people I’ve worked with directly. To make my clearing technique a valid process would require psychological prescreening of test subjects by doctors, use of control groups, and then post screenings to verify that mental changes really did happen.
February 15, 2008 at 11:13 am
This aspect, the obvious benefit of the placebo effect, is another reason for rigorous testing, IMHO. Something does happen, in many cases — and a scientific understanding of it would be of great value.
Understood, mate.