The View from a Drawbridge

Just the other day, I saw a “reality” show in which someone was using dowsing rods to determine where they should dig their well. Seriously? Come on. We should have outgrown this magical thinking by now.

Dowsing or water witching, faith healers, spoon benders, psychics, psychic surgeons, and stigmatists… all are pure hocus pocus. At the worst extreme are the charlatans who take all your money and give you absolutely nothing in return. And then there are the ones who genuinely believe that they possess these gifts. If only wishing could make it so.

Here’s why I know that these powers are nothing but a steaming pile of b.s. For 19 years, James Randi’s foundation offered a million dollars to anyone who could demonstrate any kind of paranormal power in a scientific, unbiased, provable scenario. And no one, I repeat, no one has been able to do so. Come on, now. If you really had such powers, wouldn’t you swoop in and scoop up that money, even if just to gain credibility and donate it all to charity? Anyone? Anyone?

And James Randi isn’t the only one who has offered such a cash prize, although his was undoubtedly the largest pay off. Organizations have been doing so for nearly a hundred years. And yet, still… no one has cashed in. Doesn’t that strike you as rather significant?

There really ought to be a vaccination for magical thinkers. Oh, but wait. They wouldn’t take it, because they also are under the mistaken impression that vaccines give you autism.

Puh-leeze.

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