What's the craziest fucking woo you've ever heard?

[laconicsax]

For me, it's Expanding Earth with a slight edge over Electric Universe. What about everyone else?

[Ron Obvious]

1. Expanding earth

By 'expanding earth', do you mean that nutty theory trying to explain gravity by claiming that the earth (and everything else, presumably) is continually expanding, and so falling things are overtaken by the expansion? I don't know how the proponents explain away the accelerating effects of gravity...

[Odin2005]

2. It was an early, idiotic, attempt to explain seafloor spreading.

[Ron Obvious]

4. Got it.

Got it, thanks. I think I forgot how controversial continental drift used to be. Even as late as the mid-seventies, a teacher I had mercilessly mocked a fellow student who pointed out that the continents seemed to fit together like puzzle pieces, and that Britain seemed to fit together with France. He certainly should have known better than that.

[laconicsax]

5. Explained here:

[Odin2005]

3. Google "Edo Nyland".

[laconicsax]

6. Huh

That was interesting...

[SwissTony]

44. There was another Dutchie about 20 years ago

who thought all languages were derived from Dutch.

Weird.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. The Universe is a giant plutonium atom.

From the days of Usenet, and a prodigiously posting netloon by the handle of Archimedes Plutonium.

Although I did recently read that the US Air Force is flying alien anti-gravity airplanes out of underground hangars in Area 51, thanks to the eighty alien races that regularly visit earth. Oh, and their digestive organs have degenerated to the point that they cannot eat regular food, so the gov't is kidnapping children (that explains thousands of missing children every year), harvesting their organs, and smearing their minced flesh, mixed with hydrogen peroxide, on the aliens' skin. All this came out in a public hearing re a land removal in NV. As one witness said, "you can't buy entertainment like this". Try googling "John Lear" for more fun stuff.

[laconicsax]

8. We have a winner!

Last edited Fri Jan 13, 2012, 03:00 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.iw.net/~a_plutonium/

(1) Plutonium Atom Totality theory. According to this theory, there was no Big Bang, but rather progressive growth from a Hydrogen Atom Totality into the present "Plutonium Atom Totality", in which the galaxies are dots of the electron-dot-cloud.

I should also add that according to Wikipedia, Archimedes Plutonium is his legal name and he believes that science is biased towards the Jews.

[Odin2005]

9. That's a pretty open-shut case of Schiozphrenia.

I remember reading that such word-salad incoherence is typical in people with Schizophrenia.

[ZombieHorde]

10. That is definately out there. nt

[ZombieHorde]

11. From those I have known in person when I was often associating with religious cults...

A man said he could heal the sick by laying of hands. He charged people for this "service." I called him a charlatan who prayed on the sick and desperate. He did not like me very much after that.

A guy, who was actually really cool, completely believed in astrology. I thought he was only interested in it to meet women at first, but when I talked to him about it, he got defensive. He was fucking into it.

A guy cast a spell to help him find a house to rent. He said it worked, and I didn't rebut him. He was pretty cool, but I couldn't but laugh at his spell.

A woman thought she was going to become a literal goddess. Fortunately, the other women in the cult told her the gods were metaphor.

One time, I was walking to a party with a man who was a high priest in the Church of Satan, and a few other people, when some random fellows challenged us to fight. The priest pointed at them and cursed them. Fortunately, we were right outside of our destination, so we had over a dozen drunks to back us up, so the fight never happened.

[lazarus]

12. electric universe is up there, but I'd say homeopathy

the idea that diluting a solution makes it more powerful is just so silly...

[lazarus]

13. another one: TIMECUBE!

http://www.timecube.com/

[laconicsax]

14. I'd forgotten all about timecube!

[Ian David]

97. I can't even figure out WTF time cube is trying to say. n/t

[SwissTony]

98. Ian, you're not the only one. Trust me. nt

[Shitty Mitty]

110. F'ing classic

That guy's either the world's most epic troll or a severe danger to himself and others.

[jberryhill]

15. Happeh Theory

[progressoid]

16. Whaaaa???

[jberryhill]

17. Your face looks a little crooked there....

[progressoid]

21. ...

[Bolo Boffin]

22. Dear God in Heaven

I want to do a silent stand-up routine while this video is playing in the background. Kinda like the flight attendant safety mime. There will be props.

[DetlefK]

23. Obviously wrong. My face is distorted totally contrary to that theory.

And WTF, where do these numbers come from, that are supposed to be associated with every method of masturbation? (As if those were every...) They mention them once and then never again talk about those numbers and the laws of physics they are touting.

And your whole theory based on a single example? PLEAZE! They totally left out the lefties!

[drm604]

38. That's hilarious

[Cherchez la Femme]

18. Flat Earthers, by far

[sofa king]

59. Meet Cyrus Teed...

Who wasn't the last loon to change his name to Koresh,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Teed

who hatched an amusing frame-of-reference controversy with his "cellular cosmogony" theory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreshanity

In a nutless but totally insane nutshell, the idea is that we live on the inside of an enormous sphere, with centrifugal force--or something--keeping us pinned to the inside walls, while the stars orbit the center of the sphere... somehow. Light travels in circles, dogs and cats live together in peace; it's all f&^ked up.

In some ways it proved annoyingly difficult to disprove, for reasons I dare not pretend I understand.

Apparently the name "Koresh" means "compound-runnin' cult leader." But this Koresh brought his cult to Florida instead of Texas, where his commune is now a state historic landmark instead of burning ashes at the hands of the ATF. The last of the "hollow earth" followers lived into the late 20th Century.

[MicaelS]

19. To me the "craziest woo" is something

A number of believe in, and fervently defend. So by that standards, I would have to say chemtrails is the craziest fucking woo.

[laconicsax]

20. Careful! Are you trying to get this thread locked?!?

[JoeyT]

24. David Icke.

I'm not even sure of his theory's name. I'm pretty sure it's not "Shape shifting lizards rule your shit.", even though it ought to be.

Anything by Alex Jones would be a close second.

[SwissTony]

42. Icke's got a few of them

but I think the main one is his New World Order which includes his shape-shifting lizards.

Did you know Icke was (briefly) a goalkeeper for Coventry City Football Club? He was apparently pretty good but suffered from arthritis and had to retire at a very young age.

[REP]

25. I'd have to go with Scientology

I seem to be some sort of freak magnet, so I've heard some seriously fucked-up woo, but those usually had a following of one - and sometimes were more rational than any tenet/technology of Scientology.

[laconicsax]

26. Religion doesn't count.

[REP]

27. It's a religion? I thought it was a business.

Then I'll have to go with this

[laconicsax]

28. Yeah, it's a religion.

Smart meters? Wow.

[REP]

29. This little gem is well, priceless

Electro-Sensitives Niemoller poem

Details
Category: Position Statements
Niemoller poem

Dear All,

Always remember the famous Niemoller poem:

My personal version would be:

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I didn't speak up;
Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I didn't speak up;
Then they came for the union members, but I wasn't a union member, so l didn't speak up;
Then they came for the Catholics, but I wasn't a Catholic, so I didn't speak up;
Then they came for the electrohypersensitive persons, but I wasn't a EHS person, so I didn't speak up;
And then they came for me, and by then there was nobody left to speak up for me."

So we must speak up for, among many, the EHS persons. That's what we have to do. Always.


Best regards
Yours
Olle

(Olle Johansson, assoc. prof.
The Experimental Dermatology Unit
Department of Neuroscience
Karolinska Institute
171 77 Stockholm
Sweden)

http://www.smartmeterdangers.org/index.php/position-statements/165-electro-sensitives-poem

Smartmeters are JUST LIKE THE HOLOCAUST!

[DiverDave]

55. I agree 1000%

I really dont know what "woo" means, but for shear craziness
those guys have it-barely- over the mormans.

I think I got it...aliens dropped off slave aliens souls on earth and they are the cause of all the bad stuff in the world...

I'll tell ya, that is the CRAZIEST thing I've ever heard, and that people believe it???

I just think of P.T.Barnum and suckers, sigh...

[wyldwolf]

30. Applied Kinesiology, specifically, tapping

I know someone who 'thinks' their allergies are being cured by it. She still has allergies and because the treatment isn't covered by insurance, she's several hundred dollars poorer.

[ZombieHorde]

31. This is one of the craziest threads I have read on DU.

The examples I offered were very tame when compared to the other shit listed here.

[Ter]

32. I've been called crazy for believing in the Hollow Earth Theory

It's ok, Galileo was once called crazy too.

[laconicsax]

33. Hollow Earth Theory?

[DetlefK]

34. It means, we live on the inside of a hollow sphere with the rest of the universe at the center.

Last edited Thu Jan 19, 2012, 07:35 AM - Edit history (1)

The earth-is-center-of-the-universe in reverse.

That would mean, the surface of the earth would have a negative curvature (easy to disprove with a telescope, a lake at least several miles long and a ship).
Someone (forgot name) once tried to prove it with an elaborate experiment involving very long rods of measurement. Indeed he was succesful, but he failed to mention the HUGE margin of error included in his method of measurement, which rendered his complete work useless from the beginning.

Are straight tunnels even possible in such a metric?

[MicaelS]

35. Hollow Earth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth

The Hollow Earth hypothesis proposes that the planet Earth is either entirely hollow or otherwise contains a substantial interior space. The hypothesis has been shown to be wrong by observational evidence, as well as by the modern understanding of planet formation; the scientific community has dismissed the notion since at least the late 18th century.

The concept of a hollow Earth still recurs in folklore and as the premise for subterranean fiction, a subgenre of adventure fiction. It is also featured in some present-day scientific, pseudoscientific and conspiracy theories.

http://infinity.usanethosting.com/Heart.Of.God/HollowEarth/index.htm
The Hollow Earth]

[LeftishBrit]

36. As regards woo that I've come across directly...

Last edited Wed Jul 18, 2018, 04:10 PM - Edit history (1)

well, if people know that you work in psychology, you do get treated to the wilder fringes of theories of extrasensory perception; but I think the most extreme and certainly most dangerous woo that I've seen is the faith-healing that a couple of our local churches do on the streets of Oxford:

http://www.staldates.org.uk/content.asp?pageRef=463

I first heard about this from a couple of friends who saw them in action, starring the 'healing' of a man who rose from his wheelchair, supposedly cured of paralysis. My friends reckoned that he was a fairly obvious fraud. We considered informing the police about all this, but then found that it was being done quite openly and legally. Amazing what people can get away with!

As regards woo available on the Internet, I was going to propose cassiopaea.org, but I think the Viewzone forum beats it:

http://cnufos.ning.com/forum

[SidDithers]

37. Homeopathy is my favourite...

because it's accepted as real by so much of society, and the alt-meds get their shorts in a knot defending it, when they're reaally talking about naturopathy.

That said, I also fucking love chemtrail threads.

Sid

[LeftyMom]

39. Spirit and consciousness are in water, which is why life requires water.

Thanks to my ex-boss for that bit of wisdom.

edit: Oh, and a guy at a party once told me that the real reason for the FEMA camps was to maintain a herd of humans for vampires, who were probably aliens. But at least he had the excuse of being really, really high at the time.

[laconicsax]

40. You know, I think I might have to change my opinion...

I just remembered that a long time ago, I decided to check out the crazy talk group on DU2, mixed in among the astrology threads was a thread about how the OP took a 'crystal' polyhedron, covered it in rock salt to 'cleanse' it, and then put it in a wire pyramid or cube on their desk where it will always give off happy light or some other bullshit.

I don't remember who posted that or when, exactly, but I think that'll be my new answer.

Sorry Neil Adams and Archimedes Plutonium, you've been bested.

[SwissTony]

41. The pyramids also used to keep fruit fresh

and keep razor blades sharp. Of course, they had to be aligned in the correct direction (parallel to the great pyramids or some s**t). Had to laugh when two believers got into an argument about this, one arguing that the alignment had to be done with reference to the sides, the other insisting it was the diagonal that was important.

[SwissTony]

43. Homeopathy and psychics, just because they are so popular.

How anyone can believe in either is beyond me.

Speaking in tongues is one that really gets up my schnizzle.

I used to post in the same USENET groups as Archimedes Plutonium. He was a good laugh. God, he was big on quantity, not so much on quality.

[Jean V. Dubois]

45. Take your pick from the Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense!

I'll throw in another vote for homeopathy, because of the combination of popularity and harm that it does.

[cleanhippie]

46. That a person was dead for three days, buried in a tomb, came back alive, then ascended to heaven.

Can't get much more woo-ish than that.

[zappaman]

47. Feng Shui

Some of the biggest bunch of bullshit I've ever heard, yet people passionately argue it's merits.

[saedi1995]

48. HAARP

By Far this is the craziest shit I've ever heard, a small $30 million totally open for scrutiny government project caused all the earthquakes in the world last year by shooting microwaves at the ionosphere, reflecting them back at the earth and causing the earth to move with less energy than a bomb. Hilarious

[Ter]

83. It's real

n/t

[laconicsax]

84. Please cite your sources. n/t

[qazplm]

87. ha

must not post snarky fake link suggesting his source is crazybelief.com

[onager]

49. 2 from right here on DU!

Both from a long time ago, but I still think about these and smile. Some of the old-timers in here may remember them and correct me on some details:

1. A guy who claimed he was some sort of nth-degree Black Belt in an esoteric martial-arts discipline. He credited his success to the qi or chi flowing thru his body. Which, by dint of hard work and spiritual purity, he had increased!

Orrex fell on him like a ton of skeptical bricks and told him there was no such thing as qi. The OP was absolutely outraged, and went on for post after post about how qi HAD to be real, because HE FELT IT! And if science couldn't find it, by Steven Seagal, then something was wrong with science.

2. Then there was the guy who - with his girlfriend, no less - attended "astral meet-ups" inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. And the sex was great!

I was living in Egypt at the time, and asked him what he could see over the head of the Sphinx while floating around up there. One answer would be - a Pizza Hut, famous for its views of the Giza Plateau thru the windows. He could have also answered papyrus schools, carpet schools, or perfume schools - all tourist traps, and all thicker than camel fleas around Giza.

As I recall, he didn't bother answering at all. Probably because I was still operating on an Inferior Spiritual Plane. Damn! If I had only known about Astral Travel, my company could have saved a bunch of money in airfare.

[MineralMan]

50. For me, it's the belief that minerals and crystals do anything.

Folks were forever asking me about the "powers" of a mineral specimen and about using them for healing. I had a macro in my email client that sent them a few paragraphs on the stupidity of thinking that minerals could heal you or somehow "manifest" anything.

I suppose it cost me some sales, but I just couldn't listen to that nonsense.

I had one woman write to me about a specimen of malachite I had on my website. It was a wonderful specimen and quite expensive. She wrote that she had uterine cancer and that her "healer" had told her to get a phallic-shaped specimen of botryoidal malachite to heal her. As soon as I understood how she planned to use this specimen, I explained that malachite was toxic if absorbed into the body, which it would certainly do if used as her "healer" directed her. I advise her to seek competent medical care, and refused to sell the specimen to her.

It is the use of woo as a substitute for medical care that is the craziest woo I know of. Period. It can kill you.

[slutticus]

51. Oh, that's easy.

Take a gander at this site. Yes, she's serious:

http://www.wiolawapress.com/

[laconicsax]

52. You can tell that she's serious because it's one, very long page

Just like my favorite (and now defunct) Rapture site.

Wayback machine link: http://web.archive.org/web/20110224021934/http://home.flash.net/~evt/rapture.htm

[qazplm]

53. that's kinda sad

clearly she has some artistic talent, and it's stuck in there with what is clearly a whole lot of crazy.

[ElboRuum]

60. I don't think I can eat a word salad like that in one sitting.

Leftovers for days.

[MadrasT]

61. Ahahahahahaha

14)PARIS HILTON REPTILIAN HYBRID OUT OF JAIL!-6-7-2007

Ahahahahahahaha

That is freaking *awesome*.

[Posteritatis]

54. Timecube by a vast margin. Electric Universe is #2 at, oh, 0.7 Timecubes.

(It's a logarithmic scale.)

[DetlefK]

56. He offers 1000 bucks to anybody who can disprove his "theory" which is just rantings and insults.

I went halfway through his website and found not a single example giving relevance to his world-view. (Apart from, you know, believing in it instantly makes you smart and enlightened.)

[DetlefK]

57. He also claims -1 x -1= +1 to be wrong, which means he doesn't understand geometry.

[frogmarch]

58. John Lear’s insane babblings

His father, Bill Lear, founded Learjet.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/space/aliens-ufos/john-lear.htm

snip:

In recent years new and even wilder strains of paranoia have sprouted along ufology's fringes. Inspiration comes not just from UFO rumors but from conspiracy theories associated with the far right end of the political spectrum. The two major figures in what has been called the "dark side movement" are John Lear, a pilot who once flew aircraft for a CIA-linked company, and Milton William Cooper, a retired Navy petty officer.

According to dark siders, a ruthless "secret government" controls the world. Among other nefarious activities, it runs the international drug trade and has unleashed AIDS and other deadly diseases as population-reducing measures. Its ultimate goal is to turn the Earth and surrounding planets into slave-labor camps. For some time this secret government has been in contact with alien races, allowing the aliens to abduct human beings in exchange for advanced alien technology.

The aliens, known as the "grays" (because of their gray skin color), do more than abduct human beings. They mutilate and eat them as well, using the body parts to rejuvenate themselves. The secret government and the aliens labor together in vast underground bases in New Mexico and Nevada, where they collect human and animal organs, drop them into a chemical soup, and manufacture soulless android creatures. These androids, who are then unleashed to do dirty work for the government/alien conspiracy, are best known to the rest of us as the men in black.With each retelling, with the appearance of each new and expensive book, video, or tape, the dark-side story gets crazier.

In one version the conspirators travel into the future to observe the emergence of the anti-Christ in the 1990s, World War III in 1999, and the Second Coming of Christ in 2011. George Bush oversees the world's drug traffic. The secret government has maintained bases on Mars since the early 1960s. The conspirators employ drugs and hypnosis to turn mentally unstable individuals into mass murderers of schoolchildren and other innocents; the purpose is to spur anti-gun sentiment, resulting in gun-control legislation. Thus, Americans will be disarmed and defenseless when the secret government's storm troopers round them up and herd them into concentration camps.

Can anyone top that?

[MineralMan]

62. Reincarnation and the idea that Angels come to visit us

come close to my top two woo things.

[qazplm]

88. well that's more religion than woo

because I don't think there is any kind of "science" tied to reincarnation or Angels for that matter.

[MineralMan]

89. Exactly.

[MineralMan]

63. Starseed Transmissions, too.

Woo-woo...

[fightforfreedom123]

64. Geez, there are so many

1. T. Rex weren't predators, even though they were built like Grizzly Bears and had hollow bones, long tail filled with kinetic energy and mini lungs inside the bones.

2. After the B I G Asteroid crash, for two hundred years bacteria died off and nothing rotted away so smaller predators could eat. Hmm... that would include the good bacteria in the gut. So plant eaters and meat eaters would starve to death.

3. Will Shaxpure was Willliam Shake-speare.

4. The Twin Towers were downed by explosives.

[fightforfreedom123]

66. There are so many

Last edited Sat Mar 24, 2012, 01:38 AM - Edit history (2)

1. T. Rex weren't predators, even though they were built like Grizzly Bears and had hollow bones, long tail filled with kinetic energy and mini lungs inside the bones.

2. After the B I G Asteroid crash, for two hundred years bacteria died off and nothing rotted away so smaller predators could eat. Hmm... that would include the good bacteria in the gut. So plant eaters and meat eaters would starve to death.

3. Will Shaxpure was Willliam Shake-speare.

4. The Twin Towers were downed by explosives.

5. "Intelligent Design isn't religious! Saying it's religious, insults my religion!". WTF!?

7. The real Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.

8. Sirhan killed Booby.

9. Jonestown was a Mass Suicide not a Massacre.

10. I am not deaf.

[rexcat]

86. Instant age! nt

[hamerfan]

67. Hi folks!

After looking at the choices presented here, I gotta go with Timecube as well.
I don't get out this way much. Back on DU2, I stumbled into the 9/11 forum a couple of times. Is this group similar to that?

[laconicsax]

68. The 9/11 forum has been renamed "Creative Speculation."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1135

If you're considering participating, be advised: there are some speculations that are considered too creative. The TOS describe what kinds of creativity are considered "crazy talk."

[hamerfan]

69. Thanks for the info, laconicsax!

But if it's like it used to be, I think I will give it a pretty wide berth.
hamerfan

[longship]

70. Sly Stallone's mother

She can psychicly tell your future by... Wait for it...

Reading your ass

As discussed on the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, the normally staid host, Dr. Steven Novella could not resist quipping that she was an Ass Whisperer.

Here's a link about it:

Click here for details

It's laughable.

[laconicsax]

71. New candidate: Anatoly Fomenko's "New Chronology:"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Chronology_%28Fomenko%29

Basically, all of recorded history took place within the last 1200 years and non-European histories are 18th-century Jesuit forgeries.

(Hat tip to Why Syzygy.)

[MadrasT]

72. That's awesome.

I am suddenly envisioning a new career as an author of made-up crazy ass woo.

[muriel_volestrangler]

90. Remember we had a Fomenko fanatic on DU a few years ago?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=214&topic_id=2419&mesg_id=2451

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=214&topic_id=2519&mesg_id=2519

They weren't just saying "it might be possible - just sayin'". They were a True Believer.

[laconicsax]

91. Damn, I missed that. n/t

[JackRiddler]

73. Single male god in charge of universe; invisible hand of the market creates best possible world.

These don't sound as crazy as some other ideas, but they must be unmatched in persuasive power because almost everyone believes them. These are the kind of crazy that grips whole countries for many generations, which is the most important kind of crazy.

[laconicsax]

74. Globally, they aren't as common.

Supernatural celestial dictatorshipists are less than half the global population, and free marketers are even less common.

[JackRiddler]

75. Aren't as common as what?

Almost every country has a powerful "free-market" party (a misnomer) that makes use of the invisible-hand myth. They have spent periods in government in most countries.

While most countries have secular constitutions, the majority of people in most countries profess belief in or at least belong to religions that worship a single-male sentient creator and ruler of the universe.

The craziest crazy is the kind we tend not to notice because it's common as air.

[laconicsax]

76. Sorry, the numbers don't really support you.

The global population is around 7 billion.

Single-male sentient creator and ruler of the universe religions account for 3.3-3.8 billion people. Since that range goes on both sides of the 50% mark, it's certainly not something that a clear majority believe let alone "almost everyone" (which you seem to have backed away from).

Similarly, the existence of powerful free-market parties in most countries (I'd like to see the data on this), in no way implies that "almost everyone believes them" as you claimed above.

[JackRiddler]

77. Once again, compared to what...

I think you're missing the point.

Are you proposing any other "woo theories" that exceed these for global popularity or impact? Are you going to make a permanent issue of my word choices, or can you think of one? (Where do you get your numbers? Did you poll every last Chinese citizen? And what does it matter?)

These ideologies are in power. Many of those who reject them usually feel it necessary not to challenge them directly. Presumably you're writing from the country known as the world's most powerful, where majorities of the people and both ruling parties (one body and soul, the other in practice) are in the grip of these ideologies. Almost all US politicians at least pay lip service to One-God-Theory and the wonders of a "free market" (which has never and can never exist).

Meanwhile, self-styled skeptics, who often fall for one of these two in particular (the invisible hand), congratulate themselves for knocking usually harmless tales about Bigfoot or the totally inconsequential belief in "Time Cube" (held by a handful of people, if that, most of them as a joke).

[laconicsax]

79. No, I understand and agree with your point.

What I'm saying is that as far as I can tell, you made a poor choice of words as power doesn't automatically correlate to numbers.

I do think that belief in a supernatural, celestial dictatorship and Friedmanist free-marketism falls outside the category of "craziest fucking woo," but that may very well be a result of having lived in the US my entire life.

[JackRiddler]

85. Supernatural fictions are only crazy if too few people believe them.

[Odin2005]

78. Google Rupert Sheldrake.

[laconicsax]

80. Odd...it redirected me to the page of a Finnish anarchist.

Oh, well.

[Odin2005]

81. Should be a British woo-woo.

[laconicsax]

82. I searched again and it took me to the Science group.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12286651

[daaron]

94. Something about all plants mutating because some individual plants mutate, right? nt

[laconicsax]

95. IIRC, he's all about "quantum" bullshit and telepathy.

[daaron]

96. That's the fluff I read. Morphic resonance via quantum telepathy.

It was a while back, but I managed to accidentally pick one of his books up and read part of it before realizing it was woo woo.

[LeftishBrit]

99. I'll always remember the time

when I acted as an external examiner for a psychology of language paper at a university that shall be nameless, though I don't think their teaching was responsible for this!

Most of the essays were sensible, competent, and after you'd read quite a few, a bit samey. Then I come to one essay, on how language might affect thought, and the first half of it was unremarkable. Then suddenly it veered wildly, and the second half of the essay was all about Rupert Sheldrake and telepathy. Well, at least it was novel, I suppose!

[SwissTony]

100. Sheldrake also claims one person solving a problem makes it easier for anyone else.

(of course, I'm not talking about making the solution public...but this sort of thing...if someone solves a crossword in the morning, it's easier for someone who tries in the afternoon because it's already been solved).

And that's why I'm an absolutely brilliant guitarist. Jimi, Eric, John Williams, Segovia etc etc etc all solved this problem so that when I picked up the guitar, I was an absolute master within two minutes.

Yeah, right.

[Nevernose]

92. Sean Manchester: vampire hunter/exorcist

Also a self-appointed "Old Catholic" bishop, claims to have actually slain a troublesome British vampire in the 70s. Even weirder? He's actually attracted followers.

[SwissTony]

101. Nothing weird about weird people attracting a following

If I wanted to have a following of gorgeous women who would also give me money, I'd start some sort of cult. Hell, it worked for L Ron.

[daaron]

93. Astrology. No question. Cherry-flavored astrology. nt

[MountainLaurel]

102. Caught an episode of Ancient Aliens this weekend

So now I'd have to say that the craziest woo I've ever heard is the idea that a trickster alien lied to Marshall Applewhite (from the Heaven's Gate cult, who apparently was communicating with said ancient alients) about when the end of the world would be. That's why he ordered a mass suicide rather than being a batshit crazy huckster. (Because if he truly were a conman, he wouldn't have killed himself.) Same for the leader of Aum Shinrikyo -- it was all some sneaky alien playing a puckish joke.

[Phil_S_Stein]

103. its the true beleivers that i love

He's already had a mention but For me Happeh Theory knocks the internet crazy ball right out of the park.

As well as his YouTube vids Happeh also has quite a history on internet forums and has even published some books - sciforums have a nice little piece on him in their wiki

http://www.sciforums.com/encyclopedia/Happeh

Another famous internet wootroll is a dude who goes by the name of OilisMastery - his main obsession is the Abiotic (my predictive text just came up with idiotic for that word- appropriate for once) Oil 'theory' but he's latched onto just about every other woo theory out there with almost equal fervour - expanding earth, electric universe, the theories of Immanuel Velikovski(sp?) and attempts to cobble them together into what he sees as an elegant synthesis
He's definitely worth a look

Oh and don't get me started on carico.........

[Starry Messenger]

104. Breatharians.

People who claim they only need sunshine, air and happy thoughts to survive. Drives me nuts.

[pwhtckll]

105. Yoga

The claim that yoga has some sort of mystical spiritual ability to purify the mind, body, and energy is nothing but woo. Yoga is great for stretching and balancing, and some routines develop core muscles, but there's nothing spiritual about it.

[hauweg]

106. ouch

I had the pleasure of living with someone who was a "medium" giving readings on the phone all day as a member of a physic
hotline. He could actually "read" the people on the other end pretty good asking them a few key questions first and then telling them what they wanted to hear. The scary thing was, that he actually was into the thing and believed into his "powers".

[Ter]

107. The woos are the ones who believe the mainstream lies

This group should be pumping, yet we only get one or two posts per week. Come on people, doesn't anyone believe in alternate science?

[trotsky]

108. There's no such thing as "alternate science."

There's "science," and then there's "not science."

[Confusious]

109. Here's what you can do

Make a rocket that takes people to the moon, not using any "mainstream" science, and I'll believe you.

Come up with a cure for a real disease, like AIDS, and I'll believe you.

Build a tower a mile high without using any "mainstream" science, and I'll believe you. (BTW, science could build a tower a mile high, it's just a mite expensive.)

Build a computer just as good or faster then what we have now, without using "mainstream" science, and I'll believe you.


But I really doubt you'll be able to do any of these. Because "alternate" science is bullshit.

[skor584_2il]

111. david icke

a true fruitcake..

[Retrograde]

112. So many loons...

I have an acquaintance who claims to be a successful dowser. He has discovered water on the moon by dowsing. He is now trying to raise the money needed to get one of the private rocket companies to sell him either a vehicle or space on one so he can build an underground hospital/resort on the moon. (Why a hospital? To take care of the swarms of workers who will live in the massive underground cities made possible by his discovery of an unlimited supply of water on the moon). In his spare time he is trying to prove that Ancient Celts or Egyptians settled the Americas (don't ask about the details - I gave up paying much attention) because Native Americans have lower IQs. He wonders why his wife left him.

[Liberal_Dog]

113. "Statues Of The Gods"

This was an article in Starlog(a science fiction mag) back in 1979.

The article actually suggested that the Statue Of Liberty was really built by aliens along with other far out stuff.

To this day, that article is the craziest thing that I have ever read.

[Codeine]

115. That was a parody, actually.

The author called himself Tom von McDonoughkin; he's better known as Thomas R. McDonough.

[Liberal_Dog]

118. I Am Actually Relieved To Find This Out

The article was so outlandish that I thought it might be satirical, but I never knew for sure.

[beam me up scottie]

114. Orgone energy.

Makes Scientology look like rocket science.

Unfortunately the father of all things orgone died in jail and became a martyr for his cause.

[Codeine]

116. When I was about 19 I used to hear about that guy on the radio an awful lot.

KPFK in Los Angeles used to regularly discuss his stuff on a late night show dedicated to UFOs, alternative medicine, incredibly detailed conspiracy theories about Kennedy, ex-Nazis, and Masonic Lodges, and Eastern philosophy. I bought into a lot of it for about a year or so.

What can I say -- I was young!

[beam me up scottie]

117. I wish I could believe in the supernatural but I've always been a skeptic,

I blame my parents.

The world would be a lot more interesting if vampires and werewolves really existed.

Not ghosts, though, ghosts are lame.

[astral]

119. I find the expanding earth idea fascinating

and it seems more plausible to me than not. Look at the shape of the continents, 'continental drift' is fine, but the idea that the continents were separated due to the earth expanding makes sense to me.

The thing about being skeptical about many things, is we need to remember we don't exactly KNOW IT ALL yet, we are learning about the planet we were born on, and our ideas of what is true and what is false changes from generation to generation.

We don't even know all the forms of life that are on the planet yet.

Is the Earth alive? Is the universe expanding?

A real debate on this subject would be fun to read... I have not been online much for a long time due to not having computers around, so just catching up on what you all are talking about these days...

[Anarcho-Socialist]

120. some of my favourites (in no particular order)

1. Britain is the secret ruler of the United States. One of Lyndon LaRouche's anglophobic rantings. I'm sure I read somewhere that he thought the Beatles were a MI6 psyops programme to undermine the morals of American teenagers.

2. The NY WTC was destroyed from space by a directed-energy weapon, from spaaaaaaaace.

3. Icke's shape-shifting lizards.

4. Two serial killers called 'Bill and Hil' prowled small-town Arkansas committing various murders before becoming a DC power-couple.