Flim-Flam! Book Report

For the book report, I decided to read Why People Believe Weird Things: Psudo Science, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer. Michael Shermer is the President of The Skeptics Society and editor in chief of a magazine entitled Skeptic, which focuses on psudoscientific claims. Shermers book is divided into five sections, each of which focus on tackling the main question tackled in the title of the book. In the first section, he primarily talks about the importance of skeptisicm, and why it plays out in understanding what psudoscience is. This comes into play with analyzing the scientific method as well. The second section of the book touches on paranormal instances and many psudoscientific concepts associated with it. He points out that many of these occasions are linked wih cultural connections. The third section talks about creationalism and its impact on the United States. More specifically, he tackles how it has becomer so prominent and a primary counter argument to Darwinsism. In the fourth section Shermer goes in depth and writes about Holocoust deniers, and how their view of this is mainly incorrect. Finally in the fifth section, Shermer ties it all together by saying that even the smartest individuals can be fooled by psuedoscience and false claims. 

Personally, my favorite part of the book was the second section of the book, more specifically when he discussed the out of body experiences. He discusses how trauma, environment, and predisposed ideas can influence how an “out of body experience” can become something that immediately seen as fact or truth. Additionally, many of the things that were talked about in the second section can be viewed in correlation to cultural impacts and beliefs. Based on my own family culture and traditions, I dont believe that out of body experiences would be something that is immediately believed, but I can understand how other cultures could openly adopt this. For example, astral projection is an out of body experience that many religions and cultures identify with, and has recently seen a surge in interest on various platforms of social media. Astral projection involves an individuals “soul” leaving its physical body and entering an astral plain where the soul can temporarily roam freely in search of enlightenment. Since it was trending so heavily on social media at the time when I was reading this book, I found it even more immersing to read page by page. 

The concept of astral projection closely ties with dualism, which is a topic that we discussed in class. Dualism is the belief that the physical body and the spiritual being, or soul, are two different ideas and can be separated. Many believed this ideology and even to this day religions and certain individuals freely believe this idea to be true to its fullest extent. Part of believing in OBE is also believing in dualism, which I found to be very intriguing because I know some people who don’t particularly believe in the concept of dualism but do believe in OBE. 

I think about OBE and what Shermer talked about in his book and I apply it to my personal viewpoints and experiences. I personally have experienced one “OBE” that I firmly believed was one, but upon further thinking knew that it was not. It involved playing this strange game called red door, yellow door. In this game you’re supposed to visualize yourself going specified doors in order to open “the doors of your mind.” When I was young I played it with a friend, and got spooked when I “saw” something scary. The more I think about it though the more I realize it was more than likely me projecting my thoughts into a visualization in my head, rather than a OBE in itself, which at the time I thought it was. 

Below I found a video of Shermer himself attempting a “God Helmet” experiment in Canada. At the time of the video, it was believed that this simulated an OBE, but it was ultimately debunked in 2008.

Video: https://michaelshermer.com/media/out-of-body-experiment/

Debunk: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7887692_Sensed_presence_and_mystical_experiences_are_predicted_by_suggestibility_not_by_the_application_of_transcranial_weak_complex_magnetic_fields

What many perceive OBE to look like.

OBE (Post 2)

During the lectures, the concept of out of body experiences were discussed in the slide shows. I found it interesting that many individuals found it similar or confused it with lucid dreaming. Whats even more interesting is that anesthesia was seen to have an impact on it, which was not the same for me. I recently had a surgery and have had many other instances when I was under anesthesia and each time I did not dream once. For me, the medicine goes into effect and then I immediately wake up, with no dreams or any understanding of what occurred. I have also read that many individuals face an “out of body” experience when faced with immediate trauma or distraction. 

Meet Dopel: An out of body experience

Mediation can be traced back for thousands of years, healing the mind and body. I do not deny that for some mediating can be a relaxing, stress relieving experience. However, some claim an out of body experience while under deep mediation. This subject was first brought to my attention when a close friend of mine told me about Doppel. Doppel is the man that appears to my friend while he is under a very deep state of mediation. Although this is not a complete out of body experience, my friend is breaking away from at least a part of him. Ever since I have been fascinated as to if this could actually happen or if it was simply his over active imagination getting the better of him.

Normal mediation is said to help relieve insomnia along with lowering blood pressure. It is broken down into two different types, concentrative and mindfulness. Concentrative focuses on breathing and pushing all thoughts out of one's head. Mindfulness is the exact opposite. Here a person lets any thought pass through there head without resistance. What about out of body experiences during mediation? This experience seems to be different depending on the person. Some claim they could float around their house and even move objects while in this state. Others say they saw a bright white light and felt peaceful. Fanatics even use OBE to create cults like Heaven Gate. My friend met his doppelganger. Truth is this type of thinking has been around for thousands of years so it is very difficult for people to accept anything else.

Science proves that it is possible to create new, false memories. These experiences even if they seem so real are in fact simply the brain being deceived. It is impossible to think, feel, or reason without the physical brain. Still others claim that there is a separation between the soul and the physical life. However, is it possible to disconnect oneself so far from reality that they in fact can have a full on conversation with another side of him or her? Or is this extension of his self or herself the doing of a mental illness? Ponder the thought and then ask yourself this...

Is Doppel real?

Links

Mediataion

OBE

OBEs: Astral Projection or Asinine Perspective?

An out of body experience is usually described as having the sensation of floating outside of one's body. It can also manifest as perceiving one's self from a place outside of the body. There are different types of OBEs including: spontaneous, near/during sleep, and near death experiences. OBEs are sometimes referred to as "astral projection". Those who support the idea of astral projection believe that OBEs are the astral body's or soul's ascent to higher realms.
According to paranormal.about.com, when Jerry Gross, an out-of-body teacher "wants to travel long distances, he doesn't bother with the time and expense of catching a plane. He just uses a different kind of plane, and travels there astrally." He also claims that everyone leaves their body at night during sleep, they just don't remember it when they wake up. This argument makes sense because, who truly knows what happens during their time asleep? However, this type of argument is also typical of a pseudoscience perspective because it is not testable through empirical research.
So what has research found out about OBEs? Well, Research by Olaf Blanke found that it is possible to reliably elicit experiences somewhat similar to the OBE by stimulating regions of the brain called the right temporal-parietal junction. These elicited experiences may include perceptions of transformations of the patient's arm and legs and whole-body displacements. Further, Henrik Ehrsson successfully induced an out-of-body experience in healthy participants. The experiment was performed as follows:
"The study participant sits in a chair wearing a pair of head-mounted video displays. These have two small screens over each eye, which show a live film recorded by two video cameras placed beside each other two metres behind the participant's head. The image from the left video camera is presented on the left-eye display and the image from the right camera on the right-eye display. The participant sees these as one "stereoscopic" (3D) image, so they see their own back displayed from the perspective of someone sitting behind them. The researcher then stands just beside the participant (in their view) and uses two plastic rods to simultaneously touch the participant's actual chest out-of-view and the chest of the illusory body, moving this second rod towards where the illusory chest would be located, just below the camera's view. The participants confirmed that they had experienced sitting behind their physical body and looking at it from that location." (www.time.com)

Once again: Psychology, 1, pseudoscience, none.