Frasch Ideas—Examine, Inquire, Explore

Easy to exploit our willingness to believe

Posted by Theresa on July 24th, 2006 filed in Book Review, Believe It or Not

Michael Shermer, author of Why People Believe Weird Things, says, “As pattern-seeking primates we scan the random points of light in the night sky of our lives and connect the dots to form constellations of meaning. Sometimes the patterns are real, sometimes not.”

Read the story of how Michael Shermer wowed people with his “psychic abilities” From an article by Linda Seebach.

Michael was a guest on Bill Nye’s show, Eyes of Nye, and spent the day posing as an astrologer, tarot card reader, palm reader and psychic medium talking to the dead.

“With almost no experience in any of these psychic modalities, I prepared myself the night before and on the plane flying to the studio, then improvised live- to-tape in studio, managing to completely convince my sitters that I had genuine psychic powers, reducing several subjects to tears when we ‘connected’ to lost loved ones. It was at this point that I realized the emotional impact that psychics can have on believers, and the immorality of the entire process and industry that has built up around these claims.”

What happens when people find out they’ve been taken in? “My experience with disclosing to subjects that I’ve been pretending to be psychic,” said Michael Shermer, “is not at all positive. No one has ever said ‘Oh, wow, I never realized how easy it is to fake being a psychic, I guess this means I should rethink my beliefs about ESP.’ Instead what I always get is anger and resentment that I’ve tried to take something away, that I’m evil for being a spoiler of a cherished belief, and that it is none of my business,” he answered.

With all of them he ended with the sentence, “You are wise in the ways of the world, a wisdom gained through hard experience rather than book learning.” Every one of the subjects “nodded furiously in agreement, emphasizing that this statement summed them up to a T.”

I just finished reading this book and I loved it. It reminded me of Carl Sagan’s book the Demon-Haunted World which was the book that finalized my doubts of having been taken in by the “Recovered Memories” movement. When compared to all of the other weird things people believe, it revealed to me that it was something that could and did happen to me.

Why People Believe in Weird Things covers a lot of “weird things.”

Communication with the dead

ESP

Astrology

Near Death Experiences

Abductions by aliens

Satanic Ritual Abuse

Recovered Memories

Creation-Science

Holocaust deniers

I’ve believed some weird stuff in my day (who knows, maybe I still do and I just don’t know it yet). Here they are in no particular order, just as I think of them: heaven, hell and an after-life, superstitions I had as a child, that my religion was true and the only one that was true, that I was sexually abused as a child, that I had recovered memories, that speaking in tongues and prophesying were real, Creation-Science, emotional experiences equal reality, that God gives signs from heaven, that God is personally involved in our lives, that we can change his mind through prayer, that demons exist and are right there in our midst trying to trip us up, that I can do anything I set my mind to, if I follow these steps, or these steps or these steps, I will have success at whatever I attempt, if I say things over and over they will come true, that prayer works, that God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and compassionate, knowing what is best for me and involved in my life, that the Bible is the literal, inspired, infallible word of God, being gay is a choice and a sin, that you were going to hell if you didn’t believe the way I did.

Wow, what a “weirdo” I was (probably still am)!

Why do people believe weird things? According to Michael Shermer there are many reasons. One reason people believe weird things is because they want to, it feels good, it is comforting, consoling. Another reason is immediate gratification. Another - simplicity: simple answers for an complex world. And then there is morality and meaning - pseudoscience, superstition, myth, magic, and religion offer simple, immediate, and consoling principles of morality and meaning.

Coming to grips with these things in my life that I believed wasn’t an overnight process. It wasn’t a black and white experience, there were many gray areas as I searched for the truth, or maybe even more accurate, as I searched out what was false.

One thing the searching has done for me - it has made me more tolerant. I know this whole post might rub some people the wrong way. I ask you to be tolerant, be open, and know I am not out to convert you to my way of thinking. I am just telling you where I’ve been and where I am now, a travelogue of sorts on my journey through life.

Why People Believe in Weird Things by Michael Shermer