I have shown him my house imps and he believes in them. Or at least, he believes he has now seen something that he can't explain.
Where do I get me one of them?
Mine are/were only at my Dad's house. They may still be there?
My mum lives there by herself now. (Mum and Dad had separated before he died.) Seeing as she doesn't need my care on a daily basis, I don't know if they are still there.
They would only come out and fuck with your mind when there was no one around to witness. (They were peripheral movers.)
rubato wrote:Do you think it is morally wrong to promote false beliefs, like the belief in ghosts, haunting &c. ?
yrs,
rubato
I suppose it boils down to your definition of "promote'.
If you tell people "this place is haunted", it may be, if you tell people; "this place is said to be haunted", it may not be.
If you make claims which prey on people's gullibility, that is bad, if you present it as a way of people exploring for themselves, that's not a bad thing.
If you are promoting a ghost tour as an entertainment, as in the way people will pay good money to watch a horror movie, then that's fun and good, if you imply some spiritual meaning to it, that's not good.
If you try to convert people, bad, if you use the tour as away for people to make their own explorations, good.
If done as a séance, bad, if done as a cheap thrill, good fun.
If it's playing on superstition, bad, if it has some historical or other educational value, good. ...
All of which I said:
" Fantasy presented clearly as fantasy is one thing. Fantasy presented neutrally or as a fact is wholly another. "
Gob wrote:
Let us not forget that the majority of people who go to these things do so to meet their own needs, they ain't dragged in off the streets to attend.
When push comes to shove, what we are talking about here is far less morally wrong than 99% of organised religion.
I think it is equally morally wrong and for the same reasons. Just one superstition vs another.
The placebo effect just shows that people are suggestible. They can be induced to believe things that are not true. Placebos are a way of measuring a purported therapy to nothing.
The degree to which their self-reported symptoms are changed after taking only the placebo is the degree to which their self-reporting of symptoms is unreliable.
True, but some people achieve what they are after and so the value is 100% to them.
I fully realize that it doesn’t justify the treatment for mainstream use, but it doesn’t dismiss outright the possibility that someone else might also benefit.
A sufficiently copious dose of bombast drenched in verbose writing is lethal to the truth.
Can I say we don't say "This is a haunted place or come and see the ghosts". We tell the stories passed around the community for generations. The stories might contane a haunting or a ghost or something unexplaned but everything must have facts to back them up.
Did you know that the body of Dan Kelly brother of Ned may be at rest in Ipswich? He died at age 94 walking home along the train line. There is alot of everdence to say this is the truth, so much so the the counsel put up a marker where Ryan /Dan was bearied.
This is the history I talk about, then if you want to believe the ghost story Dan's ghost has been seen by the train drivers along the Brisbane Ipswich line for years and these men and women honestly believe what they claim to have seen.
Any and all stories told must have everdence to back up any and all claims. We have to tell people on the tour about the research that has gone into every story. Our boss has collected the stories from many sorces and including government and Police records, local history groups and many interviews with people who have witnessed the unexplaned.
We as tour guides try to give a performance that gives the stories a "spooky feel" but this is done to enterain not convince.
This week we have 20 women from the local meat works. IT is going to be fun as they coming for the entertanment and it is up to us to give them a show not a ghost hunt. If I can build up the atmospheir and get at least one of them to get a chill then I have done my job.
If we see or find something we can't explane then that is good to, just makes the story tell easier for us as guides.
Sounds fine to me then Aardy, and as long as they get what they came for, who's to knock it?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
The placebo effect just shows that people are suggestible. They can be induced to believe things that are not true. Placebos are a way of measuring a purported therapy to nothing.
The degree to which their self-reported symptoms are changed after taking only the placebo is the degree to which their self-reporting of symptoms is unreliable.
True, but some people achieve what they are after and so the value is 100% to them.
I fully realize that it doesn’t justify the treatment for mainstream use, but it doesn’t dismiss outright the possibility that someone else might also benefit.
Self-delusion often makes people happier in the short run. Homeopathy,astrology, palm reading, crystal therapy &c are no different.
That is not a defense of delusion or of supporting delusions in others.
Many people who go through cancer treatment are more likely to reach the maximum benefit if they have the right attitude going in.
On the other hand, moaners and groaners tend to receive the crap they claim to be expecting.
1.
The 'maximum benefit' of a large part of cancer treatment is an additional 3 mos of life.
2.
The opposite of self-deluded is not being a 'moaner and groaner' unless you can only conceive of replacing one form of pathological self-obsession with another. Emotionally adult people are quite capable of facing difficulty with good cheer.
Benefit isn't always living longer, it can be living better.
I knew a neighbor who chose to live with her cancer through prayer, rather than fight it with chemo, and she was happy for a full year.
From a cancer survivor;
I remember saying to a grizzled tough looking man in the waiting room ‘Have a nice day." He looked at me with a combination of a scowl and a smile and replied gruffly, "Any day above ground is a good day" I try to remember that. Always.
