Disenchantment apparently hurts people

I do this show on youtube where I more or less take the mickey out of some weird pseudo-scientific stuff or stuff that is still in the fringes.

So far I've debunked magnet therapy:

and binaural beats (iDosing):

What still is in the pipe line is homeopathy and these new "brain games like, mind flex".


The reactions I get on these videos are two fold: Either people love it (usually my mentalist/magician friends) or people hate it (the floaty/crystal hugging bunch). I am most interested in the latter reactions, not in the least because they make me laugh and I understand why they feel so "assaulted".


We all have this strong psychological ability to enchant our world. Making things look more mystical more mysterious is what we all do -- even the skeptics among us. It makes us feel like a child again and it gives us hope. These "miracles" instill in all of us by simple "cause based thinking". For example, when you told your boss you were sick for work and 2 days later you are indeed sick. This can easily instill the thought that you "think yourself sick". Or that when you accidentally wore your socks inside out and you had the most luck in your life that day, you may think its your socks. So the next day you purposely turn them inside out and you still have luck. Not as much as the previous but still enough to keep you wearing your socks inside out. What you don't know is that you may actually have suffered unbiased interpretation of your "luck".
So when you put magnets against your sore head and the pain relieves it's easy to pull the cause-and-effect conclusion that it was the magnets -- though it may well be the fact that you believe it would work and cause the placebo effect or even just sitting down and relaxing.


But as you can see little "superstitious and pseudo-scientific" things are easily instilled as an anecdotal truth in people. When you debunk those pieces of nonsense for what they are, nonsense. Then you touch these people hard in their comfort zone. It's like telling a 6 year old that Santa Claus doesn't exist, it's the same shock and disbelieve.


Now recently I got a very nice PM as a reaction to the Fringe/Weird science videos, I quote:
"I am Matt I'm a Christian and I believe in God, what gives you the god given right to piss on everyone's believes! You're a dick!"


This really made me laugh first of all: "I am Matt I'm a Christian" made me crack up, I heard in my head when I read this: "I am mad I'm a Christian".
Then he states the obvious: "I believe in God", well that's what being a Christian is all about isn't it?
Then the words: "gives you the god given right" made me cough the sip of water back into the glass.
Now the irony was that I did not even talk about atheism but I think Matt is a clever guy and applied my conclusions to his being religious. And righty so because if you believe you will experience God in some way your brain will also manifest that sooner or later.


My reaction to Matt was: "Well Matt, I am an atheist I do not believe in God, though I don't see the connection between magnet therapy, iDosing and God... But since I don't believe in a God I do not need a 'god given right' to send out content into the free world. 

Cheers, Dick err Ray"

Disenchantment is a painful experience for believers, whether they are hypnotherapists or NLP practitioners thinking that goal oriented visualization works; Even though experiments have proven the opposite. Or when you believe in crystal therapy in which several experiments have shown that the crystal therapist could not sense the healing vibration when the crystal was put in a tiny black cloth bag and mixed with 4 pieces of coal.

You then see the interesting: "toddler response" -- like Matt's reaction. Where they verbally attack the person who disenchants his believes. 

Or you get the "excuses", the black cloth bag interfered with the crystal's vibration. The cameras send out interference... blah blah blah....

These people get more fierce when you challenge their ridiculous excuses, like for example: "the cloth bag interfered with the crystal's vibrations." When you point out to them that during therapy they placed the crystals on places of the body that are fully covered with multiple layers of clothing. You get reactions like: "Science doesn't know every thing! This works I've seen it work! You are just an ignorant skeptic what do you know!"

At some level they realize that their reasoning is off but their psychological processes cannot admit to it. This frustration (and anger) is spilled towards the skeptic.

We as skeptics will never be loved because most people hold deep believes based on enchantments. When we challenge these (faulty) believes we disenchant their world and it's so much nicer to live in a world where miracles can happen. Then again, that would be to live in a lie. The choice is your really but don't attack us because we do not follow you blindly into your enchanted, twisted forrest.