Are skeptics being too rude, insulting and obnoxious in our quest to spread critical thinking? Are our methods and actions demeaning and cruel? Do we come on too strong? I know that I have little patience with all the woo peddlers and my blogs here are usually characterized by sarcasm and a call to arms. That’s where I’m going with Guerrilla and Ambush Skepticism and I make no apologies for taking a stronger stance against the bottom feeders like the phonies I have been putting up here for the last few weeks. But what about the great masses of undecided people who are on the fence? Could the “greater movement” of skeptical thinking be putting these people off? This is probably happening right now – and it’s a shame. I recently received an article that appeared in “Skeptical Inquirer” back in 2004, “Bridging the Chasm Between Two Cultures.” In it, a once full-time new age author Karla McLaren, tells a powerful story of her own awakening, her position on critical thinking and the hard fought trials and tribulations of what some might call an “ordinary mystic.”

The complete article from Volume 3, May/June 2004 can be found here: http://www.csicop.org/si/show/bridging_the_chasm_between_two_cultures/

I was pleasantly surprised to find out after reading this article that a news segment on cold reading that I did was partly responsible for Karla’s eye’s opening to a more rational acceptance of what she was doing:

“For instance, an understanding of cold reading would have helped me a great deal. I never knew what cold reading was, and until I saw professional magician and debunker Mark Edward use cold reading on an ABC News special last year, I didn’t understand that I had long used a form of cold reading in my own work! I was never taught cold reading and I never intended to defraud anyone—I simply picked up the technique through cultural osmosis.”

Karla’s main point is that by being too strident, name calling and other outbursts of emotion that many of us who have been in this movement for so long have finally began resorting to doesn’t work. As much as I admire Penn Jillette, his “Bullshit”style rants only have a small chance of reaching the ears of vegans, people who meditate or think they are psychically communicating with their pets. We get it,but there are thousands – millions maybe – who don’t have a clue. Karla’s expereince has to be one that many other people certainly have when they first read or are exposed to skeptical thinking. In this case, a chance viewing of a television segment turned her thinking around and helped her to get a more balanced picture, starting her on the road to critically realizing what she was doing. Imagine what effect a prime time television production would have if it was put together in the right way. The right way being exactly what Karla wrote about. Multiply her transition a thousand times and skepticality might have a fighting chance.

I remember feeling much the same way back in the 70’s when I was a young magician beginning my endeavors in the world of mentalism and psychic entertainment. I hadn’t made up my mind either way about telepathy, clairvoyance or tha myriad of other strange beliefs that were flowering out of the late sixties environment. I had never heard of The Amazing Randi back then. I was a lot like Karla. At that point Randi seemed to me to be a hard nosed guy who was bitterly down on Uri Geller for some unknown reason. I thought the whole debunking must have been showbiz rivalry of some sort, which was/is so common in the so-called “magic fraternity.” I didn’t know any better. I had no idea of where my interests in what he was doing might one day lead. If I hadn’t been a fellow magician who also saw through what Uri was doing, I might not have been left with any other impression. Slowly, through patient study and seeking out other people who were asking the same tough questions, I had a complete turnabout.

We face the same problem today – only the paranormal and all its offshoots have mushroomed into a billion dollar industry with no end in sight. There are no new Randi icons out there to guide us. The skeptical movement can’t afford to be too vitriolic if we want to reach the merely curious, the undecided and the culture that is springing out of this Pandora’s Box. The lid is off the box and it’s out of control. We can’t be heard by only being naysayers in a crowd.

For my own part, I prefer to take it to the streets. This is because I’ve talked the talk for too long. It’s difficult for me to withhold my rage. I know the tricks of the trade and I’m out to teach these cons to the masses in whatever ways I can. I’m a performer not a scholar and my approach may not be right for everyone. If others can listen and begin to pay attention to Karla’s suggestions – the kind of headway we really want may begin to happen. Another more recent blog from www.theordinarymystic.com/blog/what-does-karla-mclarens-conversion-to-skepticism-mean/ should show us that we are gaining support:

“What Does Karla McLaren’s Conversion to Skepticism Mean?