Comments on: Putting the sham in shamanic

By: DaveS

DaveS — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:03:16 +0000

Interesting post. I’m a more recent reader of BABlog, having only been here about two years, now. But so many people criticize Dr. Plait for including skeptical content in an “astronomy blog”, I think it’s interesting that his THIRD posting was a skeptical posting. So by all rights, notwithstanding the perfectly reasonable argument that it’s Dr. Plait’s blog and he can write about whatever the hell he wants, this IS a skeptical blog, as much as it’s an astronomy blog.

Let me tell you a secret, here where nobody will read it. I MUCH prefer the skeptical content to the astronomy content. I like Dr. Plait’s take on the skeptical world, much better than PZ or any of the others. So, here’s to BA(skeptic)Blog.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 03:21:16 +0000

@ 14. Shane Says:

Trying to breath new life into old posts Ivan3man?

And succeeding by the looks of it! Is there anything wrong with that? I don’t think so!

By: DMin

DMin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:37:59 +0000

Mercury in Aries!! : ) LMAO!

If you’re not serious, you’re amazing!
If you were serious – dude, get a freaking real life – get out of this crap!

By: Shane

Shane — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:33:50 +0000

Trying to breath new life into old posts Ivan3man?

By: Ivan3man

Ivan3man — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:32:12 +0000

Hmm… the “<_h1 -h6_>” HTML tags don’t work here.

By: Ivan3man

Ivan3man — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:24:48 +0000

Astrology sucks!

By: Rufus

Rufus — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 22:25:37 +0000

There is more to life than rationality. There are feelings, thoughts, passions, desires…. Have any of you heard of Jung? Ever heard of archetypes? Are all of that knowledge new age BS according to you rational people?

It is obvous most of the people on this blog have the mercury in Aries.

By: Ken Gayley

Ken Gayley — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 01:45:07 +0000

In response to Seamyst, the point being made is that whenever astrology
or new-age philosophy has any meaning, the meaning derives from the way
in which it is interpreted by the listener. In other words, the wisdom is input
by the client, not supplied by the practitioner. So even though it may have
some value in encouraging people to introspect, it’s obviously a pretty good
racket! I suppose some might argue that so is psychology, but at least there
is a great effort there to establish reliable credentials and accountability.

By: ElWampa

ElWampa — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 19:23:11 +0000

Sure, sure!

It’s just the same old & tired, meaningless, new age self help rhetoric that has been re-worded.

It makes the same amount of sense as it originally did. Just step outside the New Age loop, and you will see what we’re talking about.

And just for your information. It only takes a little rationality and intelligence to be a whole and balanced individual, not this trash!

By: Seamyst

Seamyst — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 04:13:58 +0000

“Wholeness is awakening to your shadow as well as your light, balancing the upper, lower, and middle worlds, and integrating your past lineage with your future soul intention. ”

Actually, if you take this apart, some of it DOES make sense. (Please note, I am agnostic. I do NOT believe in all this.)

“Wholeness” – duh, being whole, being complete.
“your shadow” – your dark side. This is in psychology, can’t think what it’s called right now. Some people are more in tune with their dark side than others – this does NOT refer to criminal or wrong acts.
“balancing the upper, lower, and middle worlds” – not entirely sure on this one, except it reminds me of Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
“integrating … soul intention” – combining your past experiences, whether they be in this lifetime or in past lifetimes (if you believe in reincarnation) with your future dreams and goals.

So basically, this person’s saying that in order to be a whole and balanced individual, you need to acknowledge and become comfortable with your dark/shadow side as well as your light side, you need to balance all parts of your life, and you need to both come to grips with your past as well as be aware of your future goals.

See? When you translate it like that, it makes sense and isn’t so bad.

By: Spaz

Spaz — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 16:40:35 +0000

Man, if it wasn’t for my conscience, I would go into that business so fast…

By: Gillian

Gillian — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 04:22:36 +0000

When I was still a college student, the Powers That Be at our school paper decided that having just any ol’ horoscope was boring, so instead, we went for Mayan Cosmology. Much of which made even less sense than that. The other copy editor and I practically arm wrestled to see who was going to be forced to slog through it that week, trying to make some grammatical sense out of it.

By: Maksutov

Maksutov — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 00:01:07 +0000

It’s the result of the age-old conflict between feeling and thinking. Strong feelings are mistaken for proven facts. The mesmerizing mumbo-jumbo of rituals produces emotional reactions that, if not filtered, analyzed, and controlled, are mistaken for real results and actual occurrences.

Then, when the trance is broken, and what actually happened is coolly evaluated, the complete lack of any basis in fact becomes readily apparent. The BA’s quote from “Holistic Happenings”, illustrates this quite well. To folks under the spell of the shaman, those words make perfect sense, but in the cold, sober light of reason, are revealed to be nonsense.

“Your species has the most amazing capacity for self-deception, matched only by its ingenuity in destroying itself.” — The 7th Doctor Who

By: Michelle Rochon

Michelle Rochon — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 23:56:04 +0000

Astrology debunking! Great. I already read one myself, a pretty good one too, in Astronomy Magazine (December 2004 issue, “The truth about astrology”)

I can’t believe some people believes in that… But they’re happy when someone tells them they’ll be happy today because Venus is somewhere in some constellation… Well, suits them.

By: James (Doodler)

James (Doodler) — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 21:41:37 +0000

People who could probably use much more qualified assistance. A lot of people out there, a few I’ve known, are so lost because of some perceived inadequacy or personal tragedy that they’re easy fodder for a smooth line of spiritual jetwash.

By: Glom

Glom — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 13:13:53 +0000

You have to wonder what these gurus are thinking when they write this stuff. Who actually believes this?

By: Michael AKA Mickal555

Michael AKA Mickal555 — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 06:03:01 +0000

Whoa, I’m the first to leave a comment….
Coooool

I’ll say what I said earlier:
Cool, this is going to be awesome.

I’m looking forward to the astrology bashing btw…
It is the most annoying pseudo in my opinion…
Probably because so many people my age belive in it…