The ARGNY Blog

Bum Priest or Bum Rap

Someone's getting the bum rap in a priest molestation trial in Boston. But, it's not yet another pedophile priest, it's parapsychology. In 2005, Paul Shanley was convicted of raping a boy 15 years earlier. The 27 year old victim (in 2005) claimed that he began recalling the suppressed memories of the rape after he heard about the other cases of priest pedophilia in the media and from his friends' own accounts. Shanley's lawyers now claim that the evidence presented for suppressed memories was junk science, that came not from scientists, but from PARAPSYCHOLOGISTS! (Group gasp!)  The article states:

"Shaw argued that the scientific communities in which Brown said his theories of memory suppression were widely accepted include people involved with parapsychology and controversial practices, such as the study of apparitions, paranormal activities and "rebirthing" procedures."

Quite frankly, I think that "rebirthing" is a putrid pile of steaming excrement. And it really tans my hide the way parapsychlology is lumped together with UFOs, Bigfoot, crop circles and the existence of Ashton Kutcher's testicles. Like any other field of science, there are good, sound practices that yields good sound scientific results and there's junk science. Just because one is doing research on reincarnation or ghosts doesn't automatically mean it's junk science.

The worst part is that the bias against parapsychologist or scientific paranormal research causes a vicious cycle: respected scientists cannot get research money for paranormal research, so the research is taken up by less respected scientists or lay people, so the results are automatically not respected, so respected scientists distance themselves from the field, etc., etc.

It's enough to make a paranormal researcher want to dig up a body, bring it back to life and teach it to sing "Puttin' On The Ritz.

Bollywood Re-Born

This is a post that I kept meaning to do in December, but never got around to it. In India, ironically, Bollywood films that deal with reincarnation usually bomb at the box office.  That was, however, before Om Shanti Om, one of the biggest box office hits of last year. According to Reuters:

"The film tells the story of a struggling junior actor - played by Shah Rukh Khan - who dies and is reincarnated in the present day.

He tries to solve the mystery of his death and find the lady love from his past life.

Choreographer-turned-filmmaker Farah Khan uses the plot to revive memories of the era's stars and poke fun at their eccentricities."

   Apparently, there's something about being reincarnated that makes you forget how to button your shirt.

104, Broke and a Parapsychologist

Dr. Alexander Imich, a Polish zoologist and chemist, who fled Hitler, only to be arrested by the KGB and sent to a labor camp, then to come to the US, only to lose all his money on the stock market--twice--now lives off his social security checks and medicaid. And I thought sitting here in Newark airport waiting for my 3 hour-delayed flight to London sucked. His story, as told by the New York Times is an interesting one.

Who Ya Gonna Call? Certainly Not These Guys

The SciFi Channel's top-rated show is Ghost Hunters and, as you might imagine, I believe it is well deserved. So, of course, not to be out-done, A&E has launched their own paranormal program, Paranormal State. The main difference between the two shows is that Ghost Hunters is good. The other major difference is that where the Ghost Hunters team looks to debunk reported paranormal activity and analyze what they do find as objectively as possible, the Paranormal State guys seem to find not just ghosts, but demons around every dark corner. Quick explanation: ghosts are the spirits of once living beings, while demons are manifestations of incarnate intelligent evil. Sometimes malicious ghosts are also referred to as demons, but this is not correct. Those are just bastards. Anyway, here's a clip from the show:

The other thing is that there seems to be a religious connection with the group, although this, like many other aspects of the show, goes unexplained. For example, at the beginning of the first episode, before the group goes into the house, they seem to be doing a little prayer circle, but only their backs are shown from a distance. In addition, there are other references to working with the Catholic church, and the group seems to do a blessing over each haunted location as their standard operating procedure. This left a bad taste in my mouth. Unless you're hunting for the HOLY ghost, I think it's best to keep ghost hunting agnostic.

But what really turns me off is that the group comes to conclusions that not only doesn't have evidence to support them, but seem to happen off-camera. I found myself saying aloud, "uh, what?" So, even though I have a good friend that has had a hand in the development of this show, I must say, don't bother. Sorry, Doug.

Show of Hands: Hedgehog or Dalai Lama?

The Chinese government, a few weeks ago, proclaimed that Buddhists were not allowed to reincarnate without government approval, or as they put it, they have undertaken "the administration of the Living Buddha". Interesting coming from a bunch of atheists. "There is absolutely no such thing as reincarnation. So, don't let me catch you doing it!"

In response, his holiness has religiously flipped the Chinese government the bird by holding a referendum on how he should be reincarnated. In an attempt to keep the Chinese government from installing a puppet Dalai Lama, upon his death, he has even suggested that, breaking with Yellow Hat Buddhist tradition, he be replaced with a new Dalai Lama before his death.

Perhaps the Chinese government should stick to overseeing the production of lead-based children's toys and leave reincarnation to the professionals.