"Why is it so important to you?"

funny you should ask, Little Hawk...I was just pondering how to explain my tenacity on the subject.

Indeed, some items and situation are trivial and unimportant when looked at in isolation. It really doesn't affect me a lot if some lady in Oshkosh is sure she communes with her granmother's ghost, or if Ellenpoly really DID decide she was channeling William Shatner, or if Two Bears really heals folks, or just convinces them they feel better.....but....(you knew there was a 'but')...

These beliefs, (and I mean the whole spectrum of meta-scientific beliefs, from ghosts to OoB experiences to influencing plants growth to "manifesting the Universal Spirit") represents an 'attitude' that pervades much of human society. When we see something we don't believe in we call it "silly superstition" or "mass hypnosis"...whatever. But if we DO believe it it, we call it "revealed truth" or "extra-sensory perception"...or...whatever.

It is, sadly, easy to point out the problems that arise from mistaken superstitions or gullible belief in charlatans who are reading palms or tea leaves. They extract money, and worse, from people who just don't understand how easy it is to fake phenomena. Currently, horrible carnage is being inflicted by people who are convinced that violence in the name of some 'religious principle' is condoned by some 'spititual entity'.

   The point is, that people's behavior can be seriously altered and affected by what they believe...(how many gamblers really believe in 'luck' rather than simple mathematical odds, and lose their house?)

Now, (trying to shorten this, knowing that you can see my general point), it is my contention that much of the misery in the world is exacerbated, if not caused directly, by confusion, superstition, flawed belief systems, bad 'science', ignorance and general careless thinking. As long as there is no coherent effort to clarify, educate, explicate, elucidate, de-mystify, organize and otherwise 'clean up' the thinking habits of human, we are little better than our ancestors peering fearfully out of caves at the shadows and lightning--except that WE have bigger clubs and better communication in order to deal with the 'evils spirits' we see in those we don't like!

In short...I see any belief that MAY be false, and which is accepted, rather than just investigated, as part of an extremely complex sociological tendency towards simplistic answers and gullibility, rather than the hard job of asking IF that can really be true. This in no way diminishes personal experiences that are intense and clear, it merely alters how one presents the experience for discussion. "I had the most vivid dream last night...I wonder what subconcious feelings I was bringing up" rather than "my Mother came to me and told me to quit eating meat".....it's an attitude that could actually help get some answers, rather than the current stubborn "I saw what I saw, therefore it MUST be real"...

IF it turns out that some astounding things are really true, great! But you know that all the astounding things people believe in this world cannot simultaneously be true..(some directly contradict others!) And much of the world's ills are related to contradictory beliefs.

So, if I seem to be picking on one point, I assure you, it is not personal, but only my attempt to suggest that there are ways to approach experience and debate that can be productive rather than devisive.


"Strive for simplicity, but learn to mistrust it."
               Alfred North Whitehead