Carnival Alert

The 66th Skeptics’ Circle is now up at Denialism, and includes my article On Transcendental Meditation II: Ayurvedic Medicine.

On Transcendental Meditation II: Ayurvedic Medicine

The Maharishi likes to have different fingers in different pies. He has tried to develop TM not just into a relaxation technique, but a way of life, with a rival TM version for all of your every-day needs. In this second article of the series, I will be looking at the Movement’s approach to healthcare, […]

How Do You Know That?

Critical thinking is a complicated subject. You can study structures of arguments, syllogisms, logical fallacies, science, philosophy, epistemology and ontology, all in the name of improving your critical thinking skills. You can learn the difference between an inductive and a deductive argument, contrary and contradictory statements, and a properly constructed argument compared to a simple […]

My Recommended Reading

I’ve always been fascinated by de-conversion stories. I couldn’t even estimate how many I’ve read, I really can’t get enough of them. I’ve always pestered my friend Ellis14 (author of Evanescent), who was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness to write his, but he’s always been reluctant. He has now finally written it, and as soon […]

Challenging experience

Whenever a discussion comes up about God, ghosts, UFO’s or any other strange or supernatural beliefs, how often have you heard someone say “I’ll believe it when I see it” or “seeing is believing”? They say it like it’s obvious. “Why should I believe in God/ghosts/aliens based on your experience?”, they say, defiantly, “I base […]

Astrology – the real ones

Whenever I am getting to know someone new, and I reach the point where we both outline our beliefs, I always ask them if they believe in astrology first. I find that their response tends to give a fairly accurate indication as to where they draw their ‘rationality line’, separating the things they need evidence […]

A Tribute to The Skeptic’s Dictionary

If you go to any internet search engine and type in “paranormal” or “supernatural”, you will be provided, within a fraction of a second, with more pro-paranormal/supernatural material than you could possibly consume in a lifetime. Everything from ghosts to graphology, from Kabalah to karma, from Nostradamus to the Loch Ness Monster. Website after website, […]

Psychic TV

If I manufacture a milkshake and claim in the adverts that it will reduce your cholesterol by 75% within 1 month, and I can’t provide evidence to support that claim, then I will be sued for false advertising and rightly convicted. Now consider the following: “What’s happening at the weekend? Will my marriage difficulties work […]