Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln
From: e_p@unl.edu (edgar pearlstein)
Message-ID: <1te9peINN54j@crcnis1.unl.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
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                     THIS EXOTIC WORLD

The world of the really true believer is rich indeed. It is 
populated not only by ordinary humans and animals, but also by 
devils, fairies, elves, "little people", gnomes, trolls, sylphs, 
leprechauns, ghosts, imps, poltergeists, and nine kinds of angels.

There are, in the appropriate locale, the Abominable Snowman, Big-
foot, Susquatch, Yeti, werewolves, vampires, and the Loch Ness 
monster.

Dead people live again through reincarnation, or through voodoo 
magic. Chanelling and seances enable us to communicate with those 
dead people who haven't been revived or reincarnated. Sometimes the 
dead will visit us directly as ghosts.

One has to be careful of many things: the evil eye, voodoo curses, 
possession by devils, harassment by imps and poltergeists, and in 
some cases the curse of an Egyptian mummy. There are bad witches 
who might cast spells over us, but good witches can prevent or stop 
them. We should beware of strangely-acting people when the moon is 
full. Don't fly or sail into the Bermuda Triangle, or you are 
almost certain to disappear. There seems to be nothing one can do 
to prevent abduction to a flying saucer.

We are assisted in keeping our health through the wearing of 
special crystals and copper bracelets, by sleeping under a pyramid-
shaped canopy, and by Chakra cleansing. If these things should 
fail, though, Kirlian photography gives diagnosis of ailments, and 
they can be cured by psychic surgery, vibratory color healing, 
faith healing, or time in an Orgone box.

In order to get an advantage in a competitive world, we use 
telepathy, psychokinesis, precognition, ouija, and the third eye. 
Biorhythms, the phases of the moon, and astrology give us good 
day-by-day guides. Dousing and levitation are sometimes useful 
skills. We orient our furniture in a way that helps assure good 
luck.

For enlightenment on our selves, we have out-of-body experiences, 
glossalalia, astral projection, soul travel, and altered states of 
consciousness. We uncover our engrams through dianetics. And we can 
consult a graphologist or phrenologist. For formal learning we need 
only run some "subliminal" tapes while we sleep. We are subjected 
to, and make use of, various rays, energies, vibrations, auras, 
ectoplasms, and lines of force. Often these can be focussed by 
objects that are shaped like a pyramid.

Current areas of scholarly study are UFO "entities", the lost 
continent of Atlantis, Chariots of the Gods, weeping statues, the 
face on Mars, and spontaneous human combustion. It isn't yet known 
whether the "men in black" are space cops from another dimension, 
CIA operatives, or what.

We get access to The Wisdom of the Ancients through organizations 
like Eckankar and the Rosicrutians. Personal "spirit guides" will 
help us if only we would listen.

For important decisions, and information about the future, advice 
comes through a myriad of techniques: astrology, automatic writing, 
card reading (ordinary and Tarot), cynaramancy, geomancy, I Ching, 
necromancy, numerology, ouija, palmistry, pyramidology, and tea-
leaf reading. The four-hundred-year-old predictions of Nostradamus 
are very useful, as are the contemporary ones of Jeane Dixon.

For one's pessimistic moments, there is an abundance of predictions 
of earthquakes, tidal waves, and the end of the world.

Edgar Pearlstein, Professor of Physics, University of Nebraska