Dear Mr. Randi:   
      
   You've made a name for yourself by preaching that telepathy, astrology, and   
   even mainstream religion, are for kooks and idiots. By this definition, the   
   bulk of humanity are kooks and idiots, because most people have one or another   
   kind of spiritual    
   beliefs. I find this to be a very arrogant stance to take.   
      
   Why do people have spiritual beliefs? The line of some is that it's because of   
   how they were raised; but how did these beliefs occasion in the first place,   
   and why do we see people now, who were raised without any religious beliefs   
   whatsoever, join    
   Christianity or Islam? Christianity, for one, began at the time when there was   
   a lot of knowledge. The Roman Empire had great engineers, excellent doctors   
   and fine mathematicians. How did this belief spread? The people at the time   
   were definitely not    
   idiots, nor were they kooks. There must have been a good reason why this   
   happened.   
      
   In more recent times, the anti-spiritual line has been proven wrong by many   
   people having very real spiritual experiences, and many of them were due   
   neither to schizophrenia nor to drugs. Sure you can call this "anecdotal   
   evidence." What is anecdotal    
   evidence? It is people's stated experiences. It may be anecdotal to you, but   
   it's not anecdotal to people to whom it happens. To them, it is reality.   
      
   I am an educated person, and I started being against everything    
   superstitious." My experiences proved me wrong. Once again, you may call this   
   anecdotal; but it's not anecdotal to me.   
      
   In fact I've known any number of in-good-faith scientists and highly educated   
   professionals who've had very real spiritual experiences and would tell you   
   about this. Do you think you, not being a scientist, know more than   
   scientists? I think not. Most of    
   your followers aren't scientists either. That is because a real scientist has   
   an open worldview and would recognize things as real even if they don't fit   
   into the paradigm of his work.   
      
   As someone who knows a number of very accomplished metaphysicians, I can say   
   that the experiment that you have designed has a flaw in it. Not even the most   
   skillful psychic can reliably reproduce a one in a million result. That there   
   have been people    
   qualifying for the experiment by reproducing a one in a thousand result, shows   
   the wrongness of your claims that all this is nonsense. A one in a thousand   
   result is quite good.   
      
   There is another aspect of this situation that I want to talk to you about. It   
   may sound kooky, but then again you've studied such things as well. I have   
   known any number of people who've been into mysticism or the occult, who then   
   converted to    
   Christianity. Of course they kept the knowledge that they had gained and have   
   been using it on behalf of Christianity. Let me ask you a simple question:   
      
   What would keep you from using your knowledge of the occult to jinx the   
   results of the experiment?   
      
   As someone with some knowledge of the subject, I can say right off hand that   
   intuition can be a very fragile mechanism. In many situations it can be very   
   easy to sabotage it; and I've known any number of people who did just that. So   
   what would keep you    
   from, consciously or unconsciously, sabotaging this mechanism in the people   
   who go for your experiment?   
      
   Yes, I know, I sound like a kook. But you're a magician, so that makes the two   
   of us.   
      
   Are there people who take mystical ideas to wrongful directions? Of course   
   there are. But that does not mean that everyone with mystical ideas or   
   mystical knowledge use these things for ill, nor are all of them kooks. I've   
   known any number of people who'   
   ve helped any number of others with use of mystical knowledge. What have you   
   been doing to help people lately?   
      
   Surely you would say, deconstructing mystical nonsense. Once again, it's not   
   nonsense to people who've had these experiences; and calling it anedotal does   
   nothing for these people. What you have really done is empower thugs, who have   
   been going around    
   maliciously attacking people who've had spiritual experiences or have interest   
   in spiritual phenomena. And that is not any kind of virtue, nor is it any kind   
   of an accomplishment.    
      
   I believe in taking problems to their source, and you are the source of a very   
   real problem.  The movement that you have started has been exceptionally   
   malicious, and these people think that they understand the facts of the   
   universe when they are not    
   even scientists and even regard the scientists who've had spiritual   
   experiences as kooks. Their assumption that nothing spiritual can exist, and   
   that everyone with spiritual experiences is a kook or an idiot, leads them to   
   behave in an extremely vicious    
   and bullying manner, going as far as telling a 15-year-old girl that she is   
   mentally defective. This is the influence that you have had in the world.   
      
   Perhaps as the leader of this movement you would inform your followers to cool   
   it; but I do not expect you to do such a thing. I expect you to continue with   
   your hypocritical and arrogant project of portraying the bulk of humanity as   
   kooks and idiots.     
   Of course this is a lot less for you than it is for people who stand to be   
   vulnerable to the attacks you've been launching. And I hope that these people   
   use these arguments against your followers and anyone affiliated with you.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)