Post Secret is a website where people send in postcards revealing, anonymously, secrets about themselves. It is incredibly compelling. I haven’t checked up on it for a while, but BABloggee Brandon Swift reminded me, and I’m glad he did:
This doesn’t count as evidence, of course, but it’s interesting nonetheless. (S)he didn’t sign it "Sylvia", though.
"Well respected". Heh.
Nuts. Rebecca beat me to it. Oh well.
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
 | ||
 | Bad Astronomy was chosen as one of Time.com's Best Blogs of 2009. |
 |
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
Copyright © 2012, Kalmbach Publishing Co.
Privacy - Terms - Reader Services - Subscribe Today - Advertise - About Us
October 1st, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Swift, not Smith…
October 1st, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Wouldn’t more than one medium be “media”?
Or maybe “crooks” would cover it.
October 1st, 2007 at 6:22 pm
[...] Izgleda da na ovom svetu postoje i iskreni, proroci, vracare, astrolozi i tome slicni. Upoznao sam neke i sam, ali veceras mi je paznju privukao jedan post na blogu BadAstronomy. [...]
October 1st, 2007 at 6:31 pm
That particular postcard seems to have struck a collective nerve… I’d posted it too. You are right, it proves nothing, since anyone could have sent the postcard in.
However, these ‘psychics’ do incriminate themselves often enough on camera (making statements about people that aren’t dead, falling flat when up against an audience that doesn’t respond to cold reading techniques etc.) that I’m willing to bet the postcard is genuine.
If you haven’t already seen it, there is a great series of clips on YouTube by mentalist Derren Brown that shows how easily people can be fooled by someone with no psychic ability (and, as James Randi’s bank account attests, no one has ever established that they have genuine psychic ability). Have a search under ‘derren brown messiah’ for the clips.
October 1st, 2007 at 6:51 pm
[...] a great find from Phil over at Bad Astronomy. The website PostSecret allows people to send in anonymous confessions or secrets to be posted [...]
October 1st, 2007 at 7:30 pm
I thought the same thing squid, apparently “mediums” is either an acceptable alternative or the preferred plural for anything except something that is paper.
Everybody who uses a Medium’s services knows deep down they are fake. Just like everyone knows there is no heaven or hell.
October 1st, 2007 at 9:18 pm
If only that were true Troy. If it were only a form of entertainment, then it would be no more harmful than a movie or a magician. The reason magicians aren’t harmful is because everyone knows it is fake. The key is that magicians admit it; they say it is fake, so no one takes it seriously. If they said it was real, some people would buy it, cause that’s just how some people are.
October 1st, 2007 at 10:02 pm
D’oh! Sorry, Brandon. Fixed.
October 1st, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Just watch the South Park about John Edwards, it’s brilliant!
October 1st, 2007 at 11:40 pm
I had the ouijia board when I was a kid. I used it as part of an art project in college and my professor, a well-respected” artist, expressed concern about the bad vibe I could be inviting by “desecrating” the board.
Uh. Huh. Okay.
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:19 am
Troy said “Just like everyone knows there is no heaven or hell.”
Just try telling that to the Irish and Welsh rugby teams at the moment…
October 2nd, 2007 at 4:40 am
Ha. Well that’s a surprise.
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:25 am
The “Post Secret” link is not quite safe for work!
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:36 am
My postcard would be
“I am the ghost of a famous and well respected historical figure. I have never been contacted by a medium or anyone else with supernatural powers. No other ghost I have met has been contacted either. Mediums are all fakes and liars.”
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:34 am
My postcard would be
“I am scientifically trained, a sceptic, and a long term atheist. Yet i have had visions of the future which came true, clairvoyant experiences and once contact with a ghost. I am not deluded about these things, to the best of my knowledge, but I don’t expect anyone to believe me. They happened and I have no explanations or excuses. As a teenager i regularly had visions of future events. I have never told anyone about these experiences and never will. That is all.”
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:45 am
How about …
“I lie about everything when I write postcards.”
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:19 am
I read that postcard over and over and keep thinking of Fox Mulder’s poster: “I Want To Believe.” What other things would we love to believe?
“I am a respected [har har] Creation scientist [hee]. I fully admit that there is no evidence to my claim outside of a book first maintained orally, then written in a plethora of Semitic languages and dialects, then written again in Greek, then transcribed by hand post-translation until the version I call the true word of God was commissioned by an autocrat to prop up his divine right. My agenda is purely to have my God recognized as ‘fact’ and ‘science’ without evidence, and all my statements to the contrary are boldfaced lies.”
“I am a television producer who almost single-handedly (I had the help of a writer) drove a science-fiction franchise decades old and strong into the dirt. I, and my writer friend, are both total hacks and we apologize to our fans for simultaneously throwing continuity out the window, resorting to cliche, and insulting their intelligence.”
“I am a movie writer/producer/special-effects man who started believing his own press. I’m sorry I strayed from serialized adventure fluff into poor attempts at political commentary, and I’m sorry I said that a movie with multiple ‘traumatic amputations’ and someone getting set on fire was for kids. I’m especially sorry for going back and erasing the original prints of my first movies because I was in the tight spot of people wanting to see the original releases over my improved productions.”
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:14 am
Centipede, which movie are you talking about last in your post…not sure if I’ve seen it
Pete
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Wow. Compelling, like you said, BA, and what a saddening group of things to read… I hope my daughter never experiences some of those things as she grows up (except that thing with the shot glass would be fine, so long as her partner treats her well). That’s quite a reminder how good I have it in this life.
OTOH, the “medium” thing almost makes up for the rest–that’s hilarious!
Just think, though, that MarJoe might not have made his documentary if PostSecret had existed back then…
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:13 pm
> Centipede, which movie are you talking about last in your post…not sure if I’ve seen it
Hint: It’s got the word “Sith” in it.
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:52 pm
This confession certainly puts on the heat. Will we be seeing mediums well done? (Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!)