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Mysticism&Religion

“I believe we have been brought here from other planets”

by cimddwc · 2008-02-07

Proof and faith issues and the strange thoughts of Uri Geller

The quote in the title is from an exclusive interview with Geller on prosieben.de which forms the basis for this article (in German – all quotes are my (re-)translations).

The introduction says:

For almost 40 years, he is a closed book for the public. […]

Uri Geller portrait Or he’s trying to. For a “general public”, a “broad mass”, which corresponds to the target audience of the private TV stations and tabloid papers, this may hold true. Thanks to the internet, and YouTube & co. in particular, he can’t keep up his hard course that included many unfounded lawsuits against critics.

For instance the suit over 4 million US dollars in 1992 against book authors which was dismissed after two years with a (much smaller) punishment against Geller, which he had refused to pay, or a suit over 15 million against CSICOP (now CSI, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) because of a statement by James Randi who said he had found a trick that Geller used to fool even respected scientists on a cornflake box.

(In German, you can read this and much more on the GWUP’s page, the German equivalent to CSICOP.)

Of course this doesn’t keep ProSieben from the brainwashing track of “all real powers, no tricks”, for which they rightfully got the (unfortunately too unknown) “Dodo of the Month” (German), an award for brainwashing of the people.

Powers and Energy

So is there a logical, scientific explanation for where your supernatural powers originate?

No explanation, but there is evidence for my powers. […]

Braing for good – we don’t understand

by cimddwc · 2008-01-19

Three hours ago, someone came here from Spanish Google with this search phrase:

braing for good braing for love braing for peace we dont understand

I don’t really understand that either… I don’t understand it even if I replace “braing” with what I think is the most likely word they meant: “praying” – but that’s a matter of faith, of course.

Fittingly, today’s cartoon from SMBC Comics (via Pharyngula):

“Lucky charms help starting into the new year”

by cimddwc · 2007-12-29

Quote from the children’s page(!) of today’s Donaukurier weekend supplement (with above title, translation and emphasis mine):

„[The ladybug] is supposed to protect the children and heal the sick when it comes flying to them. Who brushes it off or even kills it will have bad luck. It’s not clear if this is always correct. But when it comes to turn of the year traditions, who really thinks about investigating everything seriously?“

Wrong! Especially when such superstitions and similar things are booming, it is a good time to investigate and scrutinize them – and not, on the contrary, uncritically downright endorse them, directly or indirectly!

(In the rest of the article about fireworks, pig and more, they managed to do it better, more explanatory.)

It surely would be hard to investigate that properly in a scientific way – on the one hand, the test person or observer would not always notice such small things as ladybugs, on the other hand, they might know about this superstition, which would bring effects like self-fulfilling prophecies, placebo effects (and its opposite) and selective perception into play.

Apart from the fact that science as well as common sense would not suspect any “real” causal connection, i.e. beyond the psychological effects mentioned above, anyway – not to say likely consider it completely absurd…

Update early Feb.: No reaction ever arrived to my mail to the editors.

Global Scaling Event… or Someone speak Turkish?

by cimddwc · 2007-12-18

I’m looking for information about the so-called “Global Scaling Event of the year” that took place on 1 Dec in Berlin, alledgedly presenting a new invention for secure data transmission (GSPIN) – and about which there’s hardly anything to find. (Which doesn’t have to be bad, actually…) The general Głobal Scaling site still shows the announcement; the dubious company’s site on morint.com = GSDI Cyprus Ltd. reports in the News from 6 Dec (German; the beginning seems to have been lost somehow) the following (my translation):

“The over 300 participants positively felt the crackling excitement when they witnessed the experiment. On a big screen, everybody could see that in Berlin and Nicosia the same security code was generated.”

I, personally, think that you can project a lot onto a screen… As long as it hasn’t been reliably verified and approved by independent scientists that indeed this technology created these codes as has been claimed, I got my doubts. And I think folks who offer a lotto prognosis deserve no trust in advance whatsoever, anyway.

Other than that, Google finds with GSPIN Berlin and GSDI Cyprus Berlin – thanks to the company’s location and aforementioned partcipation in Northern Cyprus – only several Turkish reports, e.g. Kibris Gazetesı, Mercek TV, TurkEkip, who look as like as two peas in a pod, which leads to the suspicion that they are just press releases from the GSDI company (from 1 Dec) which, of course, praise their own technology to the skies. (Another, not identical article: BRT.)

Since neither Google nor Altavista can translate Türkisch, and the attempt to translate word by word with online dictionaries is both cumbersome and error-prone as well as seems to confirm the praise to the skies, I’m asking, as the title shows, if you know Turkish and can have a look at the links above and tell me (in the comments here) what exactly they say – if it’s more than the typical press release blah-blah… (you don’t need to make a full translation, of course ).

And does anyone maybe know actual eye-witness reports, preferrably critical ones?

Update 3.2.2010: » Ermittlungen gegen zyprische Global-Scaling-Vermarkter

Quotes of the Day (9)

by cimddwc · 2007-12-07

zodiac The German TV magazine HörZu reports in its current issue about „fortune telling on TV“ on AstroTV and Co. under the headline “collusive game” (everything translated by me):

“But in truth, the pendulum swingers and card readers want one thing above all others: the money of those seeking counsel.”

They also mention a woman who spent 38.000 € in one year for phone calls and became indebted beyond hope.

I wouldn’t have anything to add to that if it wasn’t for the chairman of the German astrologers association, Dr. Schubert-Weller, being also quoted (emphasis mine):

“TV formats, hotlines and similar things in which astrological counsel is being offered raise considerable doubts in respectability. The time just is insufficient to properly understand the concerns of the consulter and work on a trustworthy horoscope.”

Horoscopes trustworthy, respectable? Pah! At most in the following sense, and the choice of the word “work on” above seems appropriate:

Let’s quote (and translate) more, this time from the (German) text of the GWUP about astrology (emphases mine):

“From a scientific point of view, any form of astrology appears unsustainable. […]

The quality of astrologic life coaching is highly depending on the competence of the astrologer, in any case, the astrologer does not take any information from the horoscope, instead he puts the information into it. By this, he can, of course, achieve correct statements and sensible advice. This just has nothing to do with astrology, it only feigns a “higher” legitimation of the statements and advice for the customer than a normal psychologist conducting a counseling interview.”

I think it’s a pity that despite all enlightenment, education and today’s life’s modernity there are still so many people who believe in zodiac sign influences & Co.

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