Friday, February 17, 2006

Auras and Indigo Children

Beliefs in diverse paranormal phenomena tend to show a cyclical character, just like the width of neckties in vogue. Now resurfaced, with a sort of science-like disguise, is one of the most absurd beliefs, yet, one of the easiest to refute: it’s that idea, that first began to gain acceptance in the early 20th century, that we all project an aura of bright colors around our bodies. According to this idea, the aura is a radiating emission, produced by the energy that supposedly emanates from all living beings and surrounds them. The aura cannot be perceived by ordinary vision, only by means of clairvoyance. There are no tests that may demonstrate its existence; and on the contrary, several experiments reveal that those who claim to be able to observe people’s auras, are incapable, for example, of determining with exactitude if there is a person standing behind a table or barrier that only prevents the vision of the contour of the body, but that leaves the zone in which supposedly the aura could be seen free and unobstructed. Yet, no psychic can guess right, above the expected chance levels, whether the experimentation subject is present there or not.

A self professed “medical intuitive,” Caroline Myss (1997), claims that she can describe the nature of all diseases, of any person, just by reading his or her field of energy, and she makes treatment recommendations, both in the physical as well as in the spiritual domain. She calls this "energetic medicine," but she has never offered scientific evidence that would prove her alleged powers.

It’s a new fad in México to supposedly record the auras of small children, in accordance to the criteria of a gifted seer, and those that show a bluish hue in their auras are to be considered what they call “indigo children”: mentally superior child prodigies, with psychic powers. A substantial business has been created thus, dedicated to carefully siphoning the money out of the parents of those so-called “indigo” kids.

Read More of This Article Visit: http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/

4 Comments:

Blogger JDHURF said...

It’s hard to believe that such preposterous ideas and beliefs actually enjoy “comebacks”, this certainly doesn’t say anything good about human nature. The idea of body auras is as ridiculous as they come, psychics, clairvoyance, etc are all symptoms of the irrationality that runs so deep through humanity. How are we ever going to see the remediation of religious belief (especially extremism) when we cannot even keep people from buying into body auras? Carl Sagan hit on this problem in his book the demon haunted world when he was speaking on the media and their biased presentation of psuedoscience and real science, our popular culture seems to inculcate apathy regarding science and ecstasy regarding mythology…..how sad.
Good post.

Friday, February 17, 2006 7:06:00 PM  
Blogger Stardust said...

When I was in Door County Wisconsin a couple of summers ago, there was a tiny shop that said they could photograph these "auras" and print them out. People were actually falling for it! It's all about how they can swindle naiive people out of money.

Some people find an easy income in fooling others just like pastors of churches who ironically are often sons of farmers and laborers and they don't want to follow in their father's toil of the land. (Every pastor who I have encountered comes from rural Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa or some other godforsakenplace.)It's a way to make an easy buck because many people are so gullible.

Saturday, February 18, 2006 5:07:00 PM  
Blogger Rusko Elvenwood said...

I thank you for your comments. Yes it is crazy that people are still so gullible after so much scientific research has basically debunked all of this nonsense. What's crazier is that it's legal to charge money for this crap.
Stardust, I never thought of it that way, most of the preachers I have known are from farming backgrounds, but that may be because I'm from Oklahoma. I wouldn't call it 'godforsaken', after all it is the buckle of the bible belt.

Saturday, February 18, 2006 5:20:00 PM  
Blogger Stardust said...

I live in chicagoland and have attended many churches in my life before and after admitting my atheism, and my family all attend different churches and denominations and all of the ministers are from large farm families (except for one who failed his law exam like Pat Robertson and suddenly received a "calling from the lord" to preach). I thought that was interesting. The denominations are Presbyterian, Lutheran Missouri Synod, Lutheran ELCA, Southern Baptist, Pentecostal, Anglican, Methodist, and United Church of Christ. As for the Catholic priests of parishes of family members, they are all city boys.

(What I should have said instead of sarcastically using the term godforsaken is "middle of nowhere" and I'm not picking on the natural surroundings of rural America because it is quite peaceful and beautiful away from the hustle and bustle of the city. There just aren't as many job opportunities in the boonies as there are in the city areas.)

Sunday, February 19, 2006 1:09:00 PM  

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