Earth Day Festival 2014: How was the Woo?

Last Sunday, April 26, I went down to my town's annual Earth Day Festival to check out everything that was there, just like I do every year.

Last year I was appalled by the amount of pseudoscience and alternative medicine woo mixed in with all of the legitimate booths and displays promoting legitimate environmental causes and advice [read about it here] to the point where they pretty much overshadowed what the Earth Day festival was suppose to be about.

The worst offender last year ofcourse was a booth promoting Anti-GMO conspiracy theories.

Fortunately that person wasn't back this year, but still there were people back again promoting the same woo, including the Astrology and Tarot Card reader from last year,

and the chiropractors from last year are back as well,

but I have some new ones for this year, starting with this one:

Now I admit at first glance this one wasn't that bad, even through it had nothing to do with environmentalism.

Creating art can help relax a person and cut down on stress. That's the good part about what's being presented there.

Then there's the woo.

They also promote past life regression and trauma healing, clearing of curses, negative spirits, and other stuff of the like, and how to protect yourself from such things, all while using nature and spiritual energy.

In other words instead of addressing any real things that can cause stress in a person's life, they're just claiming that it's supernatural forces, and use "techniques" they claim to get from Shamanism to "cleanse" a person of these supernatural forces.

The next offender of promoters of woo that I saw there was this booth:

Yes, the stuff that's used to make fake tattoos is also apparently used to heal. Of what, I don't know, and from what I have read from these websites that promote "Healing Henna" they're not sure either. It just sounds like your basic New Age woo mixed with alternative medicine.

While I don't know how Henna tattoos are suppose to heal you, I do know that Henna can cause allergic reactions, and has been banned by the FDA for use on the skin.

So it won't heal you of anything, but it might result in you going some where that can heal you (like the hospital).

Finally, there was this:

That's right. Reiki, that alternative medicine/New Age woo that people who practice it claim they can heal people using just their energy, or the energy from the universe, or another dimension, or from wherever. They do this by  moving their hands over your body without actually touching you and "willing" this energy into you.

Atleast it's nice to know I wouldn't have been charged for this person to do nothing to me.

Over all I have to say that this year's Earth Day festival wasn't as bad as last year's. The New Age Movement stuff and other things that had nothing to do with environmentalism wasn't as bad as it was last year, and much of it was confined to one side street, although there were a couple amongst the main section, and of course there were vendors there selling clothes and jewelry and what have you, but I didn't mind those that much either, as they didn't drown out the booths that were promoting environmental causes.

5 Things I've noticed about... Reiki Healing

Reiki healing. It is a form of alternative medicine that was invented in 1922 by Mikao Usui that many people (particularly those in the New Age Movement) believe that people can focus this energy from some supernatural source and use it to heal people.

While there are a lot of things that I've noticed about Reiki healing, there are five particular things that I've noticed about it.

So here are five things I've noticed about Reiki healing:

5. It's like faith healing without God.

Reiki healing is to the New Age Movement what faith healing is to Christian Fundamentalist: they both are using a source of energy from a supernatural power that is basically far beyond what they can really comprehend (and that they will admit to not fully understanding it) and expect it to do your bidding. Also, practitioners tend use their hands as a way to channel this energy into the "patient".

That is the basics of what both faith healing and Reiki healing is, the only real differences is that with faith healing you at least know where this energy is suppose to be coming from, where as in Reiki healing there can be multiple sources where this supposed energy is coming from (except from God... usually). And that's another thing about Reiki healing...

4. There is no set source from where this energy comes from.

Do you know where your spiritual healing energy is coming from? Well, neither do Reiki healing practitioners.

The range of alleged sources for the energy that Reiki healers claim they get this energy from to do their healing varies. Some claims it's from themselves. Some claims it's from the "patient". Some claims it's all life around us (kind of like the Force from Star Wars). Some claims it's from the Earth. Some claims it's from spirits. Some claims it's from the Sun. Some claim it's from the Universe.

In other words there is no agreement on where this alleged energy comes from. The only agreement amongst Reiki healing practitioners is that this energy is good for you.

3. It should be cheap.

According to Reiki healing practitioners, Reiki energy is all around us and/or inside of us, and if you believe them, it is an unlimited resource that can be used by anyone... theoretical speaking.

Now considering this it should be pretty darn cheap to go to a Reiki healing practitioner and have them try to heal you (hence the word "try") because they don't have to buy anything to do what they do, they're just using their own mental power to force your body to heal.

Most people would think that after considering all of these factors that Reiki healing would be cheap, except...

2. It isn't cheap.

I've done a little bit of Google searching to find some prices on what a Reiki healing practitioner charges, and one website I found that offered Reiki training (which could cost $1,600) said that on average Reiki healing practitioners made between $25 to $60 an hour.

This is of course just the average, and could in fact cost a lot more than just $60 an hour. In fact it could cost twice that much, or even over three times that much. It all depends on where the practitioner is located and how much you're willing to spend.

Even at $25 dollars an hours it does seem like an awful lot to pay for something that in reality doesn't work, and because of the fact that it doesn't actually work, it means that...

1. It is harmful.

I know, many of you are reading this and thinking "if you're not actually using any chemicals or anything like that, then how can it be harmful"?

Technically speaking in itself Reiki healing isn't directly harmful, but indirectly it is harmful because you are forgoing real medicine for something that neither works nor exists. While this isn't much of a problem if you have a cold, it is deadly if have cancer and you decide to use Reiki healing rather than proven medical techniques that could either stop a cancerous tumor, or even get rid of it.

The fact is that Reiki healing doesn't work, and not only is it a waste of your money, it is a waste of time and your health.

8 Alternate UFO explanations

UFOs, and what they are, have been a subject of debate throughout the world for decades now.

For those who are apart of the UFO community, UFOs are usually considered to be extra-terrestrial spacecraft. For skeptics however most UFOs can be easily explained as either being some type of natural weather or astronomical phenomenon, a mis-identification of a man made object, or a hoax.

Beside the most obvious explanations for what UFOs are, there are a few not so obvious (or in some cases, accepted) explanations for what UFOs really are:

8. Extra-dimensional

Probably one of the far most common alternative UFO explanations is that UFOs (and the alleged beings operating them) are actually from other universes, rather than other planets.

This explanation has become so common among UFO believers that many believers actually try to determine if a UFO in a photo or video is of either extra-terrestrial or extra-dimensional origin (rather than of natural or man made origin).

7. Time travelers

Another explanation for the origin of UFOs is that they are from Earth, just far, far into the future. Just how far exactly is often debated amongst the UFO believers who believe this theory.

Some people believe that they're from a few hundred years into the future. Some people believe that they're from several millions of years into the future. Some people even believe that they're just from a few decades into the future.

6. Angels and Demons

Probably one of the more popular explanations amongst devout and fundamentalist Christians (especially those who don't believe in even the possibility of extra-terrestrial life existing elsewhere in the universe) is that UFOs are either angels sent by God, or (more commonly) demons sent by Satan.

While this explanation is far more accepted with devout and fundamentalist Christians (at least those who actually believe in UFOs to begin with) most UFO believers (and skeptics for that matter) do not.

5. Secret and experimental military aircraft

One of the more common explanations for UFOs amongst both skeptics and UFO believers is that many UFOs are actually secret and experimental military aircraft.

The reason why this is accepted among skeptics as well as UFO believers is because several different kinds military aircraft, back when they were still secret and/or experimental, were thought to be UFOs (i.e. F-117, B-2) and that sometimes the government even used the UFO phenomenon as a cover to help keep certain aircraft secret for years (like with the SR-71).

While skeptics and UFO believers do accept that some UFOs are most likely secret and experimental aircraft, many UFO believers also believe that these aircraft are far more technologically advance than what anyone believes is currently possible, and that the technology being used in them is of extra-terrestrial origin.

4. Holograms

Some UFO believers believe that some UFOs aren't even physically real at all, and that they're actually holograms created by the military.

While the main reasons behind why the military would even do this in civilians areas (if they even are doing this at all) are unknown, speculations from UFO believers vary from either being tests for holographic projection weapons, to being part of a bizarre conspiracy theory called Project Blue Beam.

3. Inner-terrestrial

Particularly popular amongst supporters of the hollow Earth theory, some people believe that UFOs are actually created by beings that supposedly live inside the Earth.

This theory is of course impossible, being that modern science has completely dis-proven the hollow Earth theory, although some will say that there are large areas underground that are hollowed out, not the whole Earth, and that these alleged beings live in those areas (at least those that don't claim that there is a conspiracy to hide the "truth" about the Earth being hollow).

2. Spirits

Some people in the UFO community believe that UFOs are neither of alien, or even of technological origin (or natural either) and that they're actually supernatural in nature.

While the belief that UFOs are actually spirits is somewhat popular amongst those in the New Age Movement, the explanation that UFOs are spirits are usually dismissed by both skeptics and UFO believers alike.

1. Ancient human astronauts

Some people believe (especially those who believe in the myth about Atlantis) that humans were more technologically advanced in the past than we were actually known to be, and that some even managed to build spacecraft and left the Earth thousands of years ago, and that they sometimes come back to Earth from time to time.

While this theory may sound plausible, so far no evidence has ever been found that we are far more advanced technologically in the past then we are today.