Table of Contents:
A BETTER PERFORMANCE FROM ABC-TV
(I'm going into an in-depth discussion of this matter this week, much as I did two weeks back with the earlier ABC-TV presentation. Forgive me for this, but I believe it's important.)
Last Thursday, ABC-TV News presented Peter Jennings hosting "The UFO Phenomenon — Seeing Is Believing." I was looking forward to this with mixed expectations to see if the network could produce a valid coverage of the subject; the recent "John of God" episode indicated a strong possibility that they were probably not going to attain that ideal. I was pleasantly surprised.
Michael Shermer, Frank Drake, and James McGaha, among other skeptics, appeared on the show to have their say. The segment dealing with the "Roswell Incident" was rather well done. In fact, their coverage of this subject — so popular with the UFO addicts — could serve as a good example of a proper examination by a TV outlet on a highly controversial subject. Mind you, finding evidence to dispel the Roswell myth is not all that hard to accomplish, but we must give credit where it's due.
One aspect that I feel ABC missed examining adequately is the Confirmed Believer Syndrome, and I'll go into this in detail. The early part of this two-hour program threw at us a number of gee-whiz "abductees" and UFO witnesses, without going into the angle of just why these people are so absolutely dead certain either that they've been kidnapped and taken aboard a space craft, or have seen something in the night sky that is unquestionably from outer space.
When it comes to witness reliability, I have a very specialized expertise, and I'll spend some time here explaining that talent. As a magician (more correctly, a conjuror — but that's a matter for discussion elsewhere) I am well aware of two important facets of human experience: how people are fooled by others, and how they fool themselves. That last angle enters in here strongly. With some individuals it appears to be easy to not only ignore that their perception has departed from what they should expect of the real world, but that their memory and interpretation of a perceived set of sensory inputs is infallible and certainly represents actuality. Let me share with you two of my personal experiences with such individuals that illustrate the fallacy of that conviction.
Before I go into these examples, I'll say that by-and-large our sensory input is reliable; otherwise we'd find survival a much more difficult job. However, we're not always aware of just how inaccurate our perceptions can be, and for very good reasons. We can't handle more than a certain amount of data at any given time. Think of the computer analogy: some tasks we assign to the device slow it down or will not be carried out when the RAM or processor speed are insufficient. Software is often designed to cut corners or otherwise bypass unimportant steps in order to get the job done — in the same way that the marvelous computer located just behind our eyes — that 1,300-gram (46-ounce) lump of grey jelly known as the encephalon — the brain — does. The sense of sight is a good example of this. Though we take in with the eye a view some 170 degrees wide, only about one degree of that view is sharply focused. Moving the eye about, scanning the field of view, provides sufficiently more data to us — but if all that field were in focus, and we were to have all that data available to us at any given moment and at every moment, we'd have sensory overload and perhaps revert to catatonia. Next, consider the sense of hearing. We've all noted that a mother will automatically tune out a screeching child whose performance hammers on the ears of bystanders, because through experience the mother has learned to evaluate the significance of the sensory input, and has decided that it can be safely ignored. Also, in noisily-conversing crowds we can sort out the words of the one speaking to us, particularly if we can see the speakers mouth to match lip movements with the sounds we're searching for. My point is that our senses (a) don't provide the accuracy or volume of data we think they do, and (b) we censor/edit/trim the sensory input so that we can handle it.
The witnesses featured on the ABC UFO show were unshakeable, resolute in their certainty about what they'd reported, unable to imagine that their personal sensory input did not exactly represent reality. They defied anyone to suggest that they were mistaken. Consider these two examples I offer here from my own experience — and at the same time, remember that my life has been very much involved in studying how humans deceive themselves, and how they can arrive at and remain in that condition.
Example one: I performed often on the NBC-TV "Today" show, particularly in the show's early days with Dave Garroway in the '50s, to the present. One of the show's directors — who I will refer to as "Paul C." in case he is still alive — was present when I did a stunt at the swimming pool of the Shelton Hotel in NYC, replicating Harry Houdini's survival demo in a sealed metal coffin underwater. Later, when Paul recounted that episode to a colleague at NBC with me present, he enthusiastically described how I'd been handcuffed and then tied into a straitjacket before being placed in the coffin and lowered beneath the water. At this point some of my more astute readers will see a major problem with this description. It is impossible — topologically and anatomically — to be handcuffed and in a straitjacket. See the illustration (me in a straitjacket hanging over Niagara Falls many moons ago) for verification of that fact.
I told Paul C. that there were no straitjackets or handcuffs involved in that performance, at all. He demurred, insisting that his memory of details of the show — which had taken place only a few months previously — was correct. He insisted vehemently that he remembered the clicking of the handcuff ratchets, and the heaving actions of those who had strapped me into the jacket! No amount of explanation about the impossibility of the account would shake him, because, as he said, he had a very firm memory of the event. He recalled that he'd jumped into the shallow end of the pool holding his microphone, and had received a nasty shock due to a poor grounding-connection in the circuitry; that was quite true, and I agreed with that recollection. With some trepidation, I invited him to take us to a room in NBC where we could view the archival record of that show, at that time, in the form of a "kinescope" recording, a black-and-white film. He agreed, and was in for a devastating experience.
Paul ordered the viewing in a small room at NBC, and we watched the program on a projection screen. Of course, no handcuffs nor straitjacket showed up. As we watched, Paul became increasingly agitated, and was astonished that his memory could have played him so falsely, he being an experienced and intelligent observer. We finally worked out that he had recalled another set of appearances by me that he'd seen, and he'd melded them all together. It was very difficult for him to have to admit that he'd not only so badly mis-related the event, but had also persisted in his error despite the clear logic I'd offered him of the impossibility of his account. His faith that his memory truly represented the actual event had overwhelmed any common sense that he could have applied to the situation. Most importantly: if that kinescope of the show had not been available, he would have — I'm sure — continued to maintain his delusions. And the fact that he'd gladly agreed to view the film when I made the suggestion, showed his honest error in giving his account!
My second example: At a videotaping some years ago by CBS-TV of a performance of Peter Popoff, the evangelist "healer" who I later effectively blew away on one of my Johnny Carson appearances, the video team approached a woman who had earlier been summoned out of a wheelchair by Popoff to be healed, and was now leaving the auditorium. She'd exhibited to the audience evidence of having been healed of arthritis by arising from the wheelchair at Popoff's command, and walking straight across the stage waving her hands over her head. Popoff had told the audience that the woman had been unable to walk or to raise her hands in that way, until "Jeeesus!" had brought her 
a miracle cure. That had been a very convincing demonstration of the evangelist's connection with heaven, yet we now found the woman doubled over in pain, making her way out of the auditorium slowly and with great difficulty. We asked her if that had been her own wheelchair; she said that she'd never been in a wheelchair before, and that Popoff's handlers had brought it to her before the show and told her to sit in it. We asked if her discomfort was gone, and she admitted that it was now even worse that it had been before; we attributed that to her holding herself in an unnatural erect position and walking during the show despite the agony she was experiencing. When she'd raised and waved her hands, she admitted, she was aware that it was no miracle at all; she'd always been able to do that.
Naturally, we asked this woman if she felt that it had been misleading for her to have risen from a wheelchair she'd never been in before, and dishonest for Popoff to invent an inability for her to move her arms and to walk erect. She nodded that, yes, it probably was. "But," she firmly avowed, "I still believe that I've been healed!" and she laboriously shuffled to the exit of the building, head down, helped by a volunteer posted there. That woman knew that it was all a farce. She was fully aware that she had not been healed, and had in fact been further damaged. She now knew for certain that Peter Popoff was a fake. But she also knew that if those facts really got through to her, that if she had to acknowledge that she'd been swindled and lied to, she would have to recognize that her conviction that a healing could be given to her by supernatural means, was actually a delusion; she was unwilling for that to become part of her reality. She stuck with her original belief, despite the overwhelming evidence against it that she'd just experienced — and I'm sure she still maintains that certainty to this day. The facts had became inconvenient and a threat to her delusion.
I recount these two examples of my experience — there are many more I could give you — to illustrate how honest people simply cannot believe that they could be wrong, that their memories and perceptions just must be true and must represent how things really are, and that they can and will stretch their accounts and embellish them, because they believe that's the way it could or should have been. Those eager persons appearing on the ABC-TV show "The UFO Phenomenon — Seeing Is Believing" who confidently recounted their encounters with strange phenomena and gave their sensory impressions of events and circumstances, were not necessarily lying, at all. I remind you of what Francis Bacon wrote:
...upon the like reason a credulous man is a deceiver: as we see it in fame, that he that will easily believe rumours will as easily augment rumours and add somewhat to them of his own; which Tacitus wisely noteth, when he saith, Fingunt simul creduntque: so great an affinity hath fiction and belief.
Our friend Teller translates the Latin Tacitus quote as: "They make (it) up, and at the same time, they believe (it)."
I define lying as the purposeful mis-telling of an event or circumstance, which does not include errors of description or exact qualities, though augmenting accounts must be looked upon as at least "little white lies." The abductees and UFO-visited witnesses on the ABC show insisted that they "knew" they were taken aboard spaceships, and/or that what they saw were really visitors from outer space. I believe that they were not lying, but where is the evidence that the events they described were actually real and of the nature they insisted was true? The NBC director Paul, described above, was in every way as absolutely certain that he was telling us the truth. He was not lying. The Popoff victim had deceived that audience because she believed it was the better thing to do, and she easily dismissed clear evidence of Popoff's perfidy so as to make her case better. Not handling that aspect of the fallibility of witness testimony was a failing of the "The UFO Phenomenon — Seeing is Believing" show.
Reader Mark Dotson has an observation on this same phenomenon, in a note he sent to me before the show aired:
If the title of the upcoming ABC Primetime Live program "The UFO Phenomenon — Seeing is Believing" is an indication of what the content will be, I fear that the viewing public is in for another tabloid-like journalistic hack job. The physical truth is that our eyes, through evolution, have evolved to see just a tiny fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum. I'm not a physicist, nor do I have any formal scientific training, yet I know enough about the spectrum to know that it is the universal information carrier through which we perceive our world, indeed our entire universe. Visible light, comprising only a small fraction of this universal carrier, is by definition totally unreliable in telling the truth or revealing the whole story behind any "phenomenon." So, as I watch this program with a skeptical eye, I'm looking forward to seeing another intellectually lazy piece of ratings-driven drivel. Thanks for all of your good work in trying to educate, you must at times feel as if you are "tilting at windmills." Rest assured that there are some of us nameless out here for whom your efforts do not go unnoticed.
Mark, bear in mind that the sensory systems of other animals have access to other areas of the electromagnetic spectrum that are not within the reach of humans through their built-in senses. Some animals can pick up electrical discharges in their environment — sharks, for example — while others can see in the ultra-violet or infra-red parts of the spectrum. Elephants "read" ultra-low-frequency vibrations in the ground, and bats and dogs hear ultrasonic sounds of which we remain unaware. Besides, we conjurors are never more amused than when we hear that canard, "Seeing is believing." We, above all others, know well that such a claim is not necessarily true...!
Our buddy Bob Park commented on the ABC show in his weekly website update. (To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to: join-whatsnew@lists.apsmsgs.org and enjoy — it's free!):
Yawn! ABC advertised it as "a fresh look at the UFO phenomenon," but there was Stanton Friedman, author of Crash at Corona and a major creator of the highly-profitable Roswell myth. ABC called it, "the enduring mystery of Roswell." There was no mystery, but it was a gold mine, shamelessly exploited on TV documentaries, and nothing has changed. It ended with "one of the world's leading physicists," who looked a lot like Michio Kaku, saying "You simply cannot dismiss the possibility that some of these objects are from a civilization millions of years ahead of us in technology." Sigh.
Well, Bob, to give ABC the credit due, you must admit that Dr. Kaku provided a provocative illustration of the "folding space" concept that provides the woo-woo contingent with ammunition against the more down-to-Earth of us who are rooted in reality. After all, he's one of the String Theory originators, and that's a pretty heavy bona fides. Going to Arcturus by "folding" there, is hardly just around the corner, but it's an exciting view of our universe, and serves to get young folks interested in science. I can't bomb Kaku on that, really.
However, I agree with you that there's no mystery at all about the Roswell matter except why anyone ever believed it to be a mystery, and ABC could have introduced more compelling evidence that it was farcical.
We also received a few authoritative comments from USAF Captain Michael McNeill:
As an Air Force member who works on special projects, I know that the Air Force is not covering up crashed alien craft or hiding alien bodies. I also must say that the government has been pretty poor at handing out explanations for pilots or the public on what those UFOs could be. The B-52 pilots who were told that they were seeing stars, was a good example of that. I would highly suspect that the craft witnessed by the pilots was a secret reconnaissance blimp of some sort that the pilots were not at liberty to know about.
However, I must commend Peter Jennings for presenting a realistic take on what UFO sightings probably are. He also appeared on John Stewart's "Daily Show" the night before and said that he "entered the show skeptical, and came out skeptical." I was also VERY impressed to see some relativity and wormhole theory discussed, as well as the mention of just how difficult space travel actually is.I was somewhat pleased by the ABC's "Seeing is Believing" show last Thursday, perhaps because I was expecting, as many skeptics and JREF readers were, that it would be similar to the horrid infomercial "John of God." Although the UFO show didn't present enough skeptical rebuttals, it did present more than I have ever seen on any prime network show. Also, Michael Shermer got more than the usual 15 seconds of air time — his comments at the end while the credits were rolling were a welcome bonus.
All in all, I give ABC-TV an "okay" rating on this program, and I congratulate them on having called in adequate representation in the form of real scientists. Thank you, ABC.
USAF Captain Michael McNeill, heard from above, had an added comment on a different subject:
Changing topics to the TT [Therapeutic Touch] therapy now apparently endorsed by the Navy, I wrote a letter to the Navy myself, seeing as how Bethesda Naval Medical Center is my official health care facility and I go there quite often. I never received a response. However, my letter was worded a bit more harshly than the one you posted. I said that as an Air Force officer I was embarrassed at what the Navy had done by allowing quackery to get a foothold in their most respected medical facility.
Reader Commander Bob Vernon, Medical Service Corps, U.S. Navy Reserve, retired, also had a comment on this matter, and he did receive a reply. Commander Vernon has a background as both an RN and laboratory technologist, and has completed graduate study in health care management and public health. Over the past 30+ years, he's held various health care positions in intensive care and emergency nursing, laboratory management, quality data analysis, performance improvement, physician peer review, risk management and is currently involved in information systems. He's no amateur.
I noted with great interest your recent (2/25/05) follow-up posting about the "Healing Touch Therapy" offered at the Naval Hospital on the U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton, CA. I've related to you that I, too, confronted the Naval Hospital concerning their incredulous endorsement of this alternative medicine "Healing Touch" practice. I also pointed out to them that as a U.S. taxpayer, I felt government funding for such nonsense was akin to "waste, fraud & abuse" of federal funding. I received the exact same canned letter sent from Navy Captain Wilson after my initial input. It was not a surprise to me that both LCDR Baggott and Captain Wilson were a part of the Navy's Nurse Corps (NC). I have seen that nursing staff are the principal supporters of this practice in health care organizations, military or civilian, across the nation. Mr. Campagna's communication to LCDR Baggott was concise and "right on" — so much so that I must now re-write the response I was formulating to them! My time is limited for this but I am gathering additional pertinent information to send to LCDR Baggott at Naval Hospital. In particular, I will cite the very recent National Institute of Health's study that advocates that all "alternative medicine" therapies should be scrutinized by the same double blind scientific validation processes and peer review standards to which all mainstream medical treatments are subject.
The same "canned letter"? Interesting indeed. We wonder how many complaints of this sort Captain Wilson receives, that she has to use a form letter....?
Reader Susan C. Mitchell has a comment about the "John of God" infomercial, and sends us to see Geoffrey Cobb, who does a sword-swallowing-and-comedy act under the stage name "Thom Sellectomy," at www.swordswallowing.com/Business%20Side/index.html, where you can see him doing the "Blockhead" demo as in this photo. And she adds:
It's baffling. Could the producers at ABC possibly have been ignorant and gullible enough to genuinely believe that "John of God" has some magical-mystical powers? Or did they know the reality, but think it didn't matter as long as the viewing audience was impressed — and those all-important ratings stayed up?No one gets rich working Renaissance Faires. Geoffrey Cobb might be able to accumulate a fat nest egg by bilking the public in the same way "John of God" does. The difference is that Mr. Cobb is an honorable and decent human being.
Reader Jeff Trapp tells us:
I don't know what is happening to us out here in the Phoenix desert, maybe it is just a buildup of heat in our brains, but there seems to be an increase in these types of stories lately. Remember, we are the city that had the mysterious lights in the skies (military flares) that the local experts swore were UFOs. The funny thing I noticed about this ghost photography story is that the expert appears to unintentionally explain what the photos really show (flash back from dust, etc.) than actually capturing the image of a ghost. The news writer on this story is also still attempting to keep the story alive on the missing woman from the City of Tempe that the physics are helping to find. You are probably not surprised to learn that there has been no progress on finding her, even with all of the supernatural help that has been offered. I'm still monitoring that story for you and will send you updates if anything, yawn, exciting happens.
The article Jeff sent us was titled, "How To Photograph a Ghost," and had some interesting aspects not usually found in such accounts. It quoted Debe Branning, director of MVD Ghost Chasers, a group founded in 1995 and based out of Mesa, Arizona. The majority of the members are either employees or past employees of the State of Arizona Motor Vehicle Division, thus the "MVD" designation. Debe had recently taught a class in "Spirit Photography" in Scottsdale. She told her students that it doesn't take any special equipment to catch a ghost on film:
Any kind of camera will do. You can go get those throwaway ones from the drugstore and use those. You can use a home video camera with night vision; we use a lot of that. And one thing that's really good to do is to have your cameras [professionally] checked out once a year.
She warned that a poorly-adjusted shutter speed on a video camera can contribute to streaks of light in your pictures, which are sometimes mistaken for spirit activity, and that the overuse of a single memory card in a digital camera can create double images. Well I don't know about that memory-card problem, but she correctly suggested that while out on a shoot, students should take notes on the weather conditions:
If you're outside and it's breezy, or if it's windy and dusty, it could be dust orbs. Or if moisture in the air, you're going to bring that into your pictures.
Excellent! At this point, I'd have to give Debe high marks for providing proper precautions and items of protocol. But then it falls apart; the article says that she considers certain "round orbs" that show up in her photos to be spirits, and wisps of fog-like nature to be "ectoplasm."
Well, Jeff, funny you should mention "orbs." Look at this photo, and count the ghosts, will you? I was just sent this by a lady friend up north. This is a room that she and her husband are re-doing in their home, and we can plainly see that the former — dead — inhabitants of the place are either frightened or annoyed, since they show up in this flash photo taken with a digital camera. Now, if any of you tend to think that that makes sense, I ask you to first examine this photo carefully, then look at the one at the very end of this page, "Orbs #2," and the explanation. Then go to www.randi.org/jr/051002a.html.
Reader Dan Simon writes:
I am thinking specifically of a good friend, in her mid-30s, who, due to her long-time job with cheapskate employer who wouldn't invest in ergonomically decent computer furniture, was stricken with carpal tunnel syndrome as well as other repetitive motion disorders, causing severe wrist pain and inability to use her hands for work. Because she was dissatisfied with the treatment recommendations by the company-appointed doctor (whom I suspect had incentive to provide the lowest-cost treatments possible) she took the advice of her tarot-card-reading sister to visit an acupuncturist.I must tell you how appreciative I am of your continued efforts to promote reason and rationality among people who should damn well know better. We think of ourselves as so "modern," yet it baffles me how many of my friends (as well as our population in general) are so quick to buy into the most medieval woo-wooistic "modalities" just because they are presented with confidence by the scammers and scamettes of this world.
Well, here we are two years of three-times-weekly acupuncture sessions later and she is still suffering and facing continued unemployment due to her disability. During times of less pain she is quick to give all the credit to this quack who harmonized her qi with his magic needles. And when it flares again of course the blame lies elsewhere — with her diet, failure to appropriately "center" herself, lack of sleep, or whatever. Her continued participation reminds me of those Nigerian "419" scams that are based upon our all-to-human inability to admit that we have made a mistake, that we have been scammed. So we keep throwing money into the scammers burgeoning bank accounts and innocently write testimonials to lure our friends into it too, to subconsciously assure ourselves that we haven't blown all this money and time and energy and hope on a hoax. Some victims, as is clear from your weekly column, wake up while they still have the energy, health and financial means to seek more sensible alternatives. Sadly, many do not.
So thank you Mr. Randi. It is truly hard to know how to encourage her to seek science, not faith as the best approach to her problems (though of course there are no guarantees.) Efforts such as yours go a long way toward shining light into the dark corners of the demon-haunted world we live in. At the very least they provide great moral support to those of us on your team.
On the off chance you aren't aware of it, I wanted to draw your (and your readers') attention to an excellent online resource devoted to all sorts of medical flummery, www.quackwatch.org. It is an extremely comprehensive reference to all sorts of health and medicine-related pseudoscience and scams, and (though not nearly as entertaining as your column) has become a regular stop for me in my meandering Internet journeys to find hope and comrades in these Dark Ages.
Just a look at the types of claims made by this acupuncturist (for example www.acupuncturetoday.com/archives2004/aug/08potyk.html) presents a very compelling story indeed to someone caught in a desperate search for a cure. "Why, it cured this person of migraines and that person of a smoking habit and this one of infertility and even brought this dude out of a coma! Maybe it will work for me, too!" If only there was a societal commitment to instill the proper faculty to evaluate these sorts of claims in our children while their thinking patterns are first forming, we would have far more science in this world. But, alas, to this way of thinking, anecdotes are just as good as scientific proof.
Dan, readers of this page are thoroughly familiar with Dr. Stephen Barrett's excellent Quackwatch page, and we refer to it regularly. I wish your friend would also go there and read www.quackwatch.org/search/webglimpse.cgi?ID=1&query=acupuncture in particular....
Reader Kevin Thurston alerts us:
It looks to me as if someone has put a new twist on the old magnet scams. See www.ecoaqualizer.com/index.htm. I'd love to see you go after these guys. There's too much poor information in the aquarium hobby as it is, we don't need the magnet scam on top of it.
Agreed, but it's a bit out of the way for us. We have a hard enough time trying to protect humans, and fish will have to learn not to take any bad worms....
EDUCATION BARNES & NOBLE STYLE
Reader Brian Gregory is disappointed in his bookstore....
The description read:I was on the Barnes and Noble web site and went to their "university" page. This was a course prominently advertised as "Astrology: Planets and Possibilities"
See what the ancients wrote about the stars millennia ago and how this affects you today. The course discusses the planets, the Sun, and the Moon and how they bestow special characteristics on those influenced by these signs. You'll come away with a new appreciation of astrology and how your life's course relates to the heavens. At the very least, you'll be able to get much more information from the next astrological forecast you read.
Just more silliness to put up with.
We mailed out our blue "Critical Thinker" wristbands to each of the TAM3 attendees, since the bands had arrived too late for inclusion in the Meeting kit. Now attendee/reader Jim Sanborn provides us with a quite unexpected angle....
Thanks for the blue wrist band. I've been wearing one of Lance Armstrong's "Livestrong" yellow bands for months, and I have to tell you ... several times at my gym, I've been asked whether the band "works." When I respond that it's just a piece of yellow plastic, the follow-up has been, "I've heard that it gives you more energy" or "Doesn't it help with your workout?" People just want to believe — and apparently will believe — just about anything! I can report, however, that in the few days I've worn my new blue band, I've noticed a decided increase in randiness!
An unintended effect, Jim. Readers who want to test this attribute, or merely declare their status to the world, can have their very own wristband from the JREF for just $2.50, postpaid. No guarantee of enhanced randiness, but certainly you'll think even more critically!
Here's some fine advice written by columnist Amy Alkon of the St. Paul, Minnesota Pioneer Press in response to a reader who wrote her asking what he should do about his lady friend's dependence on a local palmist. You can read the entire item at www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/10935329.htm. This is an excerpt:
Consider making rationality a requirement in a potential partner — right up there with the ability to walk upright and use utensils while eating. Tempted as you may be to shrug off a compulsion to look to the lady with the gigantic glass paperweight for easy answers, it's hard enough to make it work with somebody whose decision-making doesn't involve third-party analysis of the flesh fold under her thumb. My prediction? You'll avoid a whole lot of misery if you back off — permanently — from this woman or any woman who seriously considers palmistry more than an amusing party game or a conduit to an expert's opinion on whether to switch to a less drying brand of hand soap.
Amy's my kinda gal!
The blurb for this item tells it all:
Life Technology Research International introduces its brand new concept talisman, The Psionic Kabbalah Manifesting CapsuleTM. The Psionic Kabbalah Manifesting CapsuleTM contains four unique elements to make it the most potent talisman or manifesting device we have designed to date. The Psionic Kabbalah Manifesting CapsuleTM contains in printed form a mini scroll of the most sacred magickal formula of Kabbalah, the written formula of the 72 Names of God. The capsule also contains "Aurum Solis" Ormus White Powder Gold (see www.subtleenergies.com) which is a material of powerful healing, spiritual enhancing and manifesting properties which acts as a subtle energy antenna enhancing the transmission and delivery of our intent to the creative centre of the universe. To bring immediate protection to its owner the capsule also contains a fragment of red string from Rachels Tomb in Jerusalem. The device also incorporates a special Ethero-MagneticTM caduceus orgone generating coil which utilises the magickal and sacred "lost cubit" measurement, a measurement so profound that its precise value can not be found in ancient or modern literature. Only select few individuals and scientists are aware of its actual value. It is widely recognised in esoteric science and by academics such as James Hurtak (www.keysofenoch.org) and Stan Tenen (www.meru.org) among others that Hebrew letters through their specific mathematical structural geometry contain information that encodes life force energy, ie it provides a conscious template for natural creative forces. It is these magical primal creative forces of The Kaballah that we harness and focus in the preparation of The Psionic Kabbalah Manifesting CapsuleTM. What is Kabbalah? Dating back to the time of creation, a set of spiritual rules were communicated to humanity in a moment of Divine revelation. This communication was known as Kabbalah. It was passed from generation to generation through a faithful oral tradition. Once the information conveyed in this communication was recorded, it became known as the Zohar. It is the oldest sacred document in existence filled with the wisdom of the ages. The Zohar was recognized as the only method through which the true nature of the universe, and our role in it, could be understood. The Zohar was explicitly intended by the Divine to be a tool of empowerment all of mankind. Early scholars and mystics who studied it determined that it was far too powerful and dangerous to be accessible to people who might not realize its importance. So the Zohar remained hidden from all but a select group of intellectual and religious elite, who made it the focus of intense examination. Those who studied the Zohar were looking to receive the keys to joy, understanding, and total life fulfillment that it contained. But what Kabbalists found far more incredible than the information itself was the tangible effect it had on their lives. The power of the Zohar was like nothing anyone had ever come across. Application of its insights led to remarkable, visible changes such as clarity of purpose, prosperity and remarkable relationships. It explains how we can receive the Light of The Creator into our lives and all the beneficence that comes with that. This is the power that Kabbalah will bring to you. Kabbalah is found to contain specific, divine instructions for creating joy, love, health, and prosperity in the 21st century. Over 3.4 million people have discovered the amazing answer and changed their lives dramatically in the process. Some of the people who study Kabbalah are world leaders, some are celebrities. Some of them are people like you and me. The timeless principles set forth in this program apply to everyone who seeks fulfillment. This ancient spiritual tool has been called the best-kept secret of our time. It is considered to be the key that unlocks all the mysteries of the universe, the secret.
Well, I'm happy to see that the "lost cubit" has been found, and that the "Zohar" is so easily available, and I want you to know that one of the celebrities "who study Kabbalah" is Madonna, so there! If you can stand any more of this drivel, click here see full item description and get crazy....
Reader and colleague Tony Youens, in the UK, writes:
Apostolorum, a Vatican theological college on the outskirts of Rome, for the inaugural session offers a course unlike any sponsored before by the Church. Over two months it aims to teach the priests and aspiring priests who have signed up — most in Rome, others following by video in Bologna — how to banish demons, how to conduct the rites of exorcism that for centuries were part of priestly duties but that have been deeply unfashionable for a long time. Suddenly, after 200 years in the shade, exorcism is back in vogue.
Tony says we can see the full scary story at: http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=613481
This was forwarded to me as an example of how difficult it is to get information from the Internet:
I searched for Patton Pending, I got an American Page. I search Patton pending.canada and got junk, I searched How to patton, I searched patton,how. I searched paton idea.and patton idea, canada. I put as many things I could think of to find a page that would give me information on how to patton an idea. The only one I found was an American, patton agent who only did American pattons. I wish you would make searched easier. I rarely find what I search for. I alway get inappropriate material or material that is for the US only. A search is not much use if you fail to find everything but what you want. I should have been able to put down "patton pending" and get items that dealt with patton information. even if it was information on how to find the right page I want. I am just about ready to get rid of my internet connection. If I'm not going to get the answers I want, then I might as well go to the liberary.query: patton
market: en-ca
Seems like the only solusion....
At the "Most Annoying Web Page" I found a list of the "Most Annoying Psychics and Magicians" showing this ranking:
| John Edward | 94.23% |
| James Van Praagh | 90.78% |
| Sylvia Browne | 83.77% |
| Rasputin | 64.71% |
| Uri Geller | 64.58% |
| James Randi | 22.55% |
Gee! Rasputin — dead for 89 years — outranked Geller! And I guess I'll just have to try harder next year....
This is the same room, only the carpenter is still there, and the dust-motes have not yet settled down, so they're much more evident. Or, perhaps, the ghosts are all out in force to fight off this man.... Your choice...
