What is death?

Death is no mystery. It is just part and parcel of the natural order of things. Everything that lives dies.
Nothing sets man apart from the other beasts of the field. Supreme in intelligence he may be,
dominating the rest of the natural world as if it were created solely to serve his life, he will yet
surrender, as all else must, to slow decay and ultimately death. From dust he came, to dust he will
return.
How to learn:
Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford, has spent decades demonstrating that one of the crucial
ingredients of successful education is the ability to learn from mistakes. Unfortunately, children are
often taught the exact opposite. Instead of praising kids for trying hard, teachers typically praise
them for their innate intelligence (being smart). Dweck has shown that this type of encouragement
actually backfires, since it leads students to see mistakes as signs of stupidity and not as the building
blocks of knowledge. The regrettable outcome is that kids never learn how to learn.
Do you think you have ESP? Think again!
Our memories are more than just constructive they're also selective. We selectively remember
certain things and ignore others, setting up a memory bias that can give the impression that
something mysterious, even paranormal, is going on. Our selective memories may even lead us to
believe that we have ESP.
A classic example is to be thinking of someone and, minutes later, having them call. Is this sort of
instance amazing proof of direct mind-to-mind communication? No it's just a coincidence. It
seems amazing because we normally don't think about the millions of telephone calls made each
day and we don't remember the thousands of times we have thought of someone when they
haven't called.
Fire walking to Well-Being
For a fee, you can have an amazing personal experience and learn to do an extraordinary feat you
can walk barefoot across a red-hot bed of burning charcoal and not get burned! Yes, seminars are
teaching the art of fire walking. They're promoting the idea that the practice requires esoteric skills
and that mastering them can increase self-confidence, cure impotence and chronic depression, heal
failing eyesight, help people stop smoking, or enhance powers of communication and persuasion.
Anthony Robbins has been a major advocate of fire walking, leading many seminars and asserting
that successful fire walking requires psychic or mental energy that protects the walker from burns.
Science and health writer Kurt Butler, however, disputes Robbins's claims, pointing out as several
experts have that fire walking is actually a matter of simple physics, not psychics:
In response to [Robbins's] skullduggery, some friends and I held a fire walk and invited the public to
join us for free. We received front-page newspaper coverage as well as coverage on local television

news. In that event and others since, our coals have been at least as hot as Robbins's and our fire at
least as long. We have been thanked for our demonstrations by grateful relatives for helping to
dissuade loved ones from continuing to waste money on fire walking seminars and experiences. One
mother said her daughter had already spent $35,000 following her fire walking guru to seminars and
fire walks around the country. . . .
In our events we have no seminar, positive thinking, or praying to invoke special powers or awaken
dormant parts of our brain. In fact, following two minutes of safety instructions, our participants
chant "hot coals" as they stride across the glowing bed. In over one hundred individual crossings,
only one person was ever burned badly enough to raise a blister. Other groups of skeptics, most
notably members of the Southern California Skeptics, have done similar demonstrations of fire
walking. (Nevertheless, we all strongly urge against anyone trying to do it without advice and
preferably direct supervision from an experienced person. Several safety and legal precautions are
absolutely essential.)
Fire walking is a physical feat, not a mental one. It is possible because charcoal, especially when
coated with ashes, does not transfer heat rapidly to other objects. Its heat-transmission
characteristics are similar to those of air. You can stick your hand into a very hot oven without
burning yourself, but if you touch metal in the oven, you can be badly burned. The metal is no hotter
than the air, but it transfers its heat much more quickly. . . .Glowing hot charcoals, of course, are not
the same as hot air. The firewalkers walk (usually rapidly) on the charcoals they don't stand
around. If they did so they would be burned. Each foot is in contact with the heat for only about a
second before being lifted. Moreover, the entire walk generally lasts less than seven seconds. Any
longer exposure and the risk of burns is much greater. Walking on hot coals without sustaining injury
is not a miraculous feat.
Psychic surgeons
"Psychic surgeons can remove diseased tissue from the body without leaving a scar or wound on the
skin." The ability to do such "psychic surgery" has been claimed by several practitioners, notably in
Brazil and the Philippines. The personal experience of watching such a practitioner in action can be
very impressive. Typically, a woman with a malignant stomach tumor will lie on her back. She'll
remain wide awake as the psychic surgeon begins to knead the flesh on her stomach. Then the
surgeon's fingers will seem to plunge into the woman's stomach as blood oozes from the area. The
surgeon pulls out some bloody material, which he says is the tumor. The blood is wiped from the
stomach, revealing no wound. The woman feels no pain and is relieved to see that her tumor is gone
at last.
Such performances, however, have been investigated and shown to be tricks, mere sleight of hand,
in which the tissue (from animals) and blood (either a dye or also from animals) are palmed by the
"surgeon" and brought into view only when their being seen will produce the desired effect.

Palm reading or Forer effect?

The phenomenon of believing that a general personality description is unique to oneself, which has
been thoroughly confirmed by research, is known as the Forer effect (named after the man who first
studied it).
Astrology, biorhythms, graphology (determining personality characteristics from handwriting),
fortune-telling, palmistry (palm reading), tarot card reading, psychic readings all these activities
generally involve the Forer effect.
One-time palm reader and psychologist Ray Hyman learned this the hard way. Hyman had learned
palm reading to help put himself through college. He became quite good at it and was convinced
that there was something to it. A friend of his, however, was skeptical. He bet Hyman that Hyman
could tell his clients the exact opposite of what the palm said and they would still believe him.
Hyman took the bet and, to his surprise, found that his friend was right. Some of his clients even
thought that his "incorrect" readings were more profound than his "correct" ones.
Well so much so for NOSTRADAMUS !
Despite the obscure references and conflicting interpretations, Nostradamus's writings are still
considered by many to be prophetic. So much so that he was credited with predicting the 9/11
attack on the World Trade Center. Immediately following the attack, e-mail boxes across the country
began receiving letters containing the following prophecy:
In the city of God there will be a great thunder,
Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures,
the great leader will succumb,
The third big war will begin when the big city is burning.
NOSTRADAMUS 1654
Anyone familiar with Nostradamus would suspect that something is amiss because Nostradamus
died in 1566. Ironically, it turns out that the foregoing prophecy was written several years earlier by
Neil Marshall, a Canadian college student who wanted to demonstrate "just how easy it is to dupe
the gullible." Quite an impressive demonstration indeed.
Of course, prediction is much easier after the fact. What Nostradamus interpreters actually do is a
form of retrodiction,- they take a quatrain and try to fit it to an event that's already occurred.
There's only one quatrain that contains an unambiguous reference to a specific date,
quatrain X-.72-.
In the year 1999 and seven months,
From the sky will come the great King of Terror,
He will bring back to life the great king of the Mongols,
Before and after war reigns happily.

Some thought that this prophesied the end of the world,- others thought it foretold a world
revolution. Both camps were mistaken because no such cataclysm occurred in July of 1999.
Nostradamus's one specific prediction turns out to be false.
When a theory's predictions are not born out by the facts, it should be rejected.
So it should be with the theory that Nostradamus is a great prophet.
Should one be open minded or be skeptical?
The essential tension in dealing with "weird things" is between being so skeptical that revolutionary
ideas pass you by and being so open-minded that flimflam artists take you in. Balance can be found
by answering a few basic questions: What is the quality of the evidence for the claim? What are the
background and credentials of the person making the claim? Does the thing work as claimed?
As for the odyssey in the world of alternative health and fitness therapies and gadgets, often the
evidence is weak, the background and credentials of the claimants are questionable, and the therapy
or gadget almost never does what it is supposed to.
This last point may well be the crucial one. I regularly receive calls about astrology. Callers usually
want to know about the theory behind astrology. They are wondering whether the alignment of
planetary bodies can significantly influence human destiny. The answer is no, but the more
important point is that one need not understand gravity and the laws governing the motion of the
planets to evaluate astrology. All one needs to do is ask, Does it work? That is, do astrologers
accurately and specifically predict human destiny from the alignment of the planets? No, they do
not. Not one astrologer predicted the crash of TWA flight #800; not one astrologer predicted the
Northridge earthquake. Thus, the theory behind astrology is irrelevant, because astrology simply
does not do what astrologers claim it can do.
Funny or Sad Fact?
If we are living in the Age of Science, then why do so many pseudoscientific and nonscientific beliefs
abound? Religions, myths, superstitions, mysticisms, cults, New Age ideas, and nonsense of all sorts
have penetrated every nook and cranny of both popular and high culture. A 1990 Gallup poll of
1,236 adult Americans showed percentages of belief in the paranormal that are alarming (Gallup and
Newport 1991, pp. 137-146).
Astrology................................................................................52%
Extrasensory perception.........................................................46%
Witches................................................................................... 19%
Aliens have landed on Earth ..................................................22%
The lost continent of Atlantis................................................. 33%
Dinosaurs and humans lived simultaneously......................... 41 %
Noah's flood ......................................................................... 65%
Communication with the dead............................................... 42%
Ghosts .................................................................................... 35%
Actually had a psychic experience .......................................... 67%

Science vs. pseudoscience.

Science is different from pseudoscience, and history is different from pseudohistory, not only in
evidence and plausibility but in how they change. Science and history are cumulative and
progressive in that they continue to improve and refine knowledge of our world and our past based
on new observations and interpretations. Pseudohistory and pseudoscience, if they change at all,
change primarily for personal, political, or ideological reasons.
Dead man walking.
When anyone tells me that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself
whether it be more probable, that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact,
which he relates, should really have happened.
I weigh the one miracle against the other; and according to the superiority, which I discover, I
pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater miracle. If the falsehood of his testimony
would be more miraculous than the event which he relates; then, and not till then, can he pretend
to command my belief or opinion.
Why Psychics are BS!
Our tendency to remember hits and ignore misses is the bread and butter of the psychics, prophets,
and soothsayers who make hundreds of predictions each January 1. First they increase the
probability of a hit by predicting mostly generalized sure bets like "There will be a major earthquake
in southern California" or "I see trouble for the Royal Family." Then, next January, they publish their
hits and ignore the misses, and hope no one bothers to keep track.
Non Bermuda Triangle.
In the case of the "Bermuda Triangle," an area of the Atlantic Ocean where ships and planes
"mysteriously" disappear, there is the assumption that something strange or alien is at work. But we
must consider how representative such events are in that area. Far more shipping lanes run through
the Bermuda Triangle than its surrounding areas, so accidents and mishaps and disappearances are
more likely to happen in the area. As it turns out, the accident rate is actually lower in the Bermuda
Triangle than in surrounding areas. Perhaps this area should be called the "Non-Bermuda Triangle."
Heaven and Hell.
I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
some letter of that After-life to spell:
And by and by my Soul return'd to me,
And answer'd "I Myself am Heav'n and Hell."
A cult is characterized by

Veneration of the leader: Glorification of the leader to the point of virtual sainthood or
divinity.
Inerrancy of the leader: Belief that the leader cannot be wrong.
Omniscience of the leader: Acceptance of the leader's beliefs and pronouncements on all
subjects, from the philosophical to the trivial.

Persuasive techniques: Methods, from benign to coercive, used to recruit new followers and
reinforce current beliefs.

Hidden agendas: The true nature of the group's beliefs and plans is obscured from or not
fully disclosed to potential recruits and the general public.

Deceit: Recruits and followers are not told everything they should know about the leader
and the group's inner circle, and particularly disconcerting flaws or potentially embarrassing
events or circumstances are covered up.

Financial and/or sexual exploitation: Recruits and followers are persuaded to invest money
and other assets in the group, and the leader may develop sexual relations with one or more
of the followers.

Absolute truth: Belief that the leader and/or the group have discovered final knowledge on
any number of subjects.

Absolute morality: Belief that the leader and/or the group has developed a system of right
and wrong thought and action applicable to members and nonmembers alike. Those who
strictly follow the moral code become and remain members; those who do not are dismissed
or punished.

Morals vs. Natures.

Morals do not exist in nature and thus cannot be discovered. In nature there are only actions
physical actions, biological actions, human actions.
Humans act to increase their happiness, however they personally define it. Their actions become
moral or immoral only when someone else judges them as such. Thus, morality is strictly a human
creation, subject to all sorts of cultural influences and social constructions, just as other human
creations are.
Morality is relative to the moral frame of reference. As long as it is understood that morality is a
human construction influenced by human cultures, one can be more tolerant of other human belief
systems, and thus other humans. But as soon as a group sets itself up as the final moral arbiter of
other people's actions, especially when its members believe they have discovered absolute
standards of right and wrong, it marks the beginning of the end of tolerance, and thus reason and
rationality.
Why should one believe in science?
What separates science from all other human activities (and morality has never been successfully
placed on a scientific basis) is its commitment to the tentative nature of all its conclusions. There are
no final answers in science, only varying degrees of probability. Even scientific "facts" are just
conclusions confirmed to such an extent that it would be reasonable to offer temporary agreement,
but that assent is never final. Science is not the affirmation of a set of beliefs but a process of inquiry
aimed at building a testable body of knowledge constantly open to rejection or confirmation. In
science, knowledge is fluid and certainty fleeting. That is at the heart of its limitations. It is also its
greatest strength.