Can people, by mental powers alone, bend spoons, as I appear to be doing?
Can people foretell the future? Are we being regularly visited by beings from other
galaxies? Are these beings routinely abducting humans to perform experiments on them?
What are popular delusions? For now, they can be viewed as beliefs that large numbers of people hold in common (i.e.--popular), but for which there is little or no evidence to support the belief (delusion). Some well-known examples would be astrology, creationism, and reincarnation. The term delusion has further implications: the belief is held in the face of strong contradictory evidence, and occasionally even connotes that the false belief system derives from mental illness. In some respects, the term delusion is more pejorative than is always warranted. For example, is delusional correctly applied to these three belief systems? While there is strong contradictory evidence for astrology and creationism, the evidence against reincarnation is more difficult to assess. Also, creationism and reincarnation are, for many people, tied into a larger religiously-based belief system.
The question we will be asking in this January is this: what do popular delusions tell us about human nature? To find find additional information, click on the desired topic in the frame to the left.
The first person to successfully discover the subliminal message embedded in my wallpaper will win a special prize!
Visit Tom's new Paranoia
page! They'll know if you don't!
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