Summary of Guy P. Harrison's 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True (50 series)

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 We are confronted with paranormal, supernatural, and extraordinary beliefs every day. We must be skeptical of these beliefs, and not accept them as real or true just because they feel true.
#2 Paranormal and supernatural beliefs, which are things that exist or occur outside the natural world, are not necessarily tied to intelligence or education. Most people in the United States and throughout the world are supernatural/paranormal believers.
#3 It is our duty as humans to speak out against irrational belief, as it is a chronic crisis that burdens us century after century.
#4 It is important to be skeptical of claims, and to always remember that the burden of proof is on those who make the claim. Be on guard against stealth beliefs, which are partial truths that swell to include paranormal elements once you let them inside your head.

Sujets

• Culture
• Social
• Anthropology
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Social Science

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 03 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669397977
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Guy P. Harrison's 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True 50 series
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

We are confronted with paranormal, supernatural, and extraordinary beliefs every day. We must be skeptical of these beliefs, and not accept them as real or true just because they feel true.

#2

Paranormal and supernatural beliefs, which are things that exist or occur outside the natural world, are not necessarily tied to intelligence or education. Most people in the United States and throughout the world are supernatural/paranormal believers.

#3

It is our duty as humans to speak out against irrational belief, as it is a chronic crisis that burdens us century after century.

#4

It is important to be skeptical of claims, and to always remember that the burden of proof is on those who make the claim. Be on guard against stealth beliefs, which are partial truths that swell to include paranormal elements once you let them inside your head.

#5

Being a skeptic does not mean you are closed-minded or uninterested in everything that is weird and unproven. The history of science is filled with examples of bizarre ideas that turned out to be true. Humans are pattern-seeking creatures, and we naturally attempt to connect the dots in everything we see and hear.

#6

The confirmation bias is one of the most insidious and persuasive bits of software in your head. It is as much a part of being human as having two eyes, one nose, and two feet. To avoid evaluating the world through the confirmation bias, you have to take conscious steps against it.

#7

Many claimed sightings of ghosts, UFOs, angels, and monsters are a result of the way our vision works. We don’t really see what we look at. What happens when you aim your eyes at something is that your brain tells you what you see, but your brain never tells you with 100 percent accuracy.

#8

The fact is that we can’t be sure about everything we see, hear, think, feel, and remember. This has implications for popular beliefs that intrigue and entrance billions of people around the world.

#9

Appreciation for science goes hand-in-hand with constructive skepticism. Science is not just a collection of facts and discoveries, but the foundation of our modern world. It is through science that we can best determine whether or not something is real.

#10

The skeptical community is made up of people who study and investigate claims of the paranormal. They look for evidence to support or refute a claim.

#11

There is no doubt that people have strange experiences, and millions of Americans may have had a near-death experience. But what causes them and do they really prove that there is a soul and afterlife.

#12

I once had a near-death experience, and it was nothing like I expected. I felt wonderful and at peace with the universe. It is easy for me to understand why people say they were profoundly happy or calm at the brink of death.

#13

The sensation of leaving your body is not that strange. It can be explained by simple experiments with mirrors. The existence of souls or heaven is not proven by the existence of out-of-body experiences.

#14

We know that natural events occurring inside one’s skull can cause all the sensations associated with out-of-body and near-death experiences. Our minds often see and hear things that are not real. They also frequently misremember events.

#15

The idea that these experiences prove that consciousness exists outside the brain is false. People use false science to engender false hope, and this is misleading and cruel.

#16

A cold reading is a method used by experienced psychics to deceive people. It is performed with no prior specific knowledge about the individual being read. The psychic thinks of some information about people in general that probably hits the mark, and then delivers it as if it is a unique and personal insight for that person alone.

#17

The more hits you get, the better. Misses don’t matter as much, since the reader is already convinced that psychics have real powers.

#18

Cold readings are for professionals only, and I’m clearly an amateur. I felt stupid for even trying. But that was not the end of the story. The woman was awestruck and completely believed that I possessed psychic powers. Simply by throwing out a few guesses, I convinced her that I could read minds.

#19

It was extremely easy for Tauriq Moosa, a young South African intellectual, to convince people that he had supernatural powers. He had been doing it for years, and it was only when he was confronted with the fact that he was just a cheap, unqualified therapist that he realized it.

#20

The popularity of psychics is a strange phenomenon, considering the fact that they are wrong so much more often than they are right and that they never contribute anything of value to society.

#21

Millions of people continue to believe in psychic phenomenon despite the fact that none of the usual psychic claims have been proven to the satisfaction of the world's psychologists and neuroscientists.

#22

The author of this book was a psychic too. With no practice or intense preparation, he aced his debut. It took him about five minutes to convince an intelligent adult that he could read minds.

#23

The idea that we are born with limits that fence us in is false. Our brains can change dramatically based on what they do and what is done to them. Neuroplasticity is a fancy word that refers to the brain’s ability to rewire or physically restructure itself throughout life.

#24

The myth of innate and fixed intelligence has been widely believed for centuries, and is still believed by many, that a person is either born smart or not, that education, opportunity, and hard work can only carry someone so far because most intellectual ability is tightly confined by inherited or genetic restraints.

#25

The brains of infants who are deprived of adequate affection, security, stimulation, and nutrition do not develop as well as those who have those things. Some cultures place more emphasis on education than others. Some parents demand more academic work from their children and help them do it.

#26

While it is true that some people are born with superior intelligence, it is also true that some people work extremely hard to achieve their goals. Family support and expectations are important for both groups.

#27

The idea that races can be ranked based on intelligence is false. While some people focus on average group scores on intelligence tests and cite genetic limitations as the cause, others point to the fact that the groups that score higher on tests and perform better in school work harder.

#28

We must never let the lie of known genetic limits to our intelligence hold us back. We can only measure current ability, and we cannot determine intelligence that might have been or intelligence that could be.

#29

The Bible code is the claim that the Abrahamic god embedded messages into the text of the Bible. believers claim that the coded words include not just the names of important people and events but also accurate predictions about the future. But there is no evidence to support this claim.

#30

The Bible code is a method that uses the letter search algorithm to find hidden messages in the Bible. It claims that the Bible predicts historical events such as the Holocaust, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin thousands of years before they happened.

#31

The Bible code and the Koran code are two examples of postdictions. They are predictions that are discovered and praised after an event occurs. Jews and Christians are not impressed by the Koran code, while Muslims around the world are.

#32

India is a strange country. It is the most intense, irritating, colorful, exhausting, stimulating, bizarre, and beautiful country I have ever experienced. I was able to think deeply about life, death, and even reincarnation while there.

#33

The belief in reincarnation is not exclusive to Hindus. Many Christians believe in it as well, and it is believed that our energy, which is our soul, survives our physical death. But no one has ever been able to show that human energy equates to a soul with thoughts, personality, and memories.

#34

The best evidence of reincarnation is children who remember past lives. But children can fantasize, misinterpret, perform as coached, and lie. They can also learn things and repeat them.

#35

The claim of reincarnation is exciting to imagine and a wonderful thing to hope for. However, nothing suggests that it is true.

#36

The human brain is extremely complex, and it is capable of thinking about the limits of our universe and beyond. However, ESP, or psi as researchers often call it, has been studied for many years now, and still no researchers have been able to produce an experiment that can be replicated and confirmed.

#37

Despite claims of success by some, nothing came of the American government’s efforts to exploit paranormal powers like telepathy and remote viewing to spy on the Soviet Union.

#38

The track record of psychic detectives is poor. There have been many claims made by psychics and their fans, but most can be explained as coincidence, the exaggerated value of vague tips, or the gullibility of a law enforcement person who gave undeserved credit to a psychic.