New age spiritulity 2012

[trionam]

ok I havent visited this site in a log time but as there are some truly great minds on here,how do you handle someone very close to you believing in the above particurlarly about a theory on polar reversal occuring on 21st december,I am baffled as to how this person in my life could become so hooked on all of this frankly rubbish do I keep my mouth shut or say what I think?I am worried money is becoming a factor in some of this somewhere too.

[NOX]

Ask them to explain it to you and then dismantle their pov calmly and nicely in the spirit of lighthearted free speech. You can't stop people beleiveing something but you can offer them reasons why it's foolish to believe what they do. How they respond depends on their level of ' faith'. Other then that you cant do anything really.

[LazyGun]

Comes down to you, trionam. Generally speaking, it is very difficult to reason someone out of a faith based position, so its probably best to explain as calmly and rationally as you can why such a faith is absurd, and then try and ignore all conversations on the point.

As I get older, I get much less tolerant of evidence-free views, and frankly would probably avoid the person in question :)

[trionam]

thanks for your answers. I normally would avoid such a person but we are talking close family here and someone who seems to have been easily led down this path.It never used to bother me but I dont like to see people being ripped off especially when they really havent got much money anyway,I will try and disect each bit with some rational evidence and see how that goes.But I suspect as Nox mentioned the level of faith might be already too strong for it to make a difference.

[Old_Geezer]

I don't see why you are so keen to prove your opinion is right and theirs is nonsense. after all no one knows when the poles will reverse. Could be a 3pm today for all I know. And as for spirituality, if it doesn't appeal to you, if you see no reason to believe in it, then that is your choice. Let others come to a different decision.

You need not keep silent if you are to discuss without evangelising. But if you feel you can not prevent yourself sneering then best give it a wide berth. Why do you think money is a significant factor ? Do you not spend on what interests you ? Or are we considering thousands £££s here ?

[jake-the-peg]

Well it's not that crazy - just misunderstood.

Firstly the planet is showing distinct signs that another magnetic reversal may be on the cards "soon"

By soon though I mean possibly in the next few thousand years anyone who thinks you can put a date on it like 21st December is frankly barking.

The effects of this may be significant, preticularly for our exposure to UV and satelites and maybe other ways we have'nt though of - not sure about weather but quite possibly.

Ideas like massive tsunamis and volcanoes aren't supported by evidence of what happened when this occured in the past.

So the thing is it's not strictly rubbish, rather grossly exagerated.

OK so people who believe this sort of thing - You have to ask yourself why they believe it because I promise you it's not from a careful examination of scientific evidence.

Believing in this sort of thing fills a need that they have. It gives them a sense of knowledge, of power, of being privvy to information the rest of the world doesn't have.

This is probably due to a bit of a feeling of powerlessness, perhaps a bit of an inferiority complex, a lack of self confidence and self worth.

If you make a big thing of it and they defend it more and more in response when the 21st comes about and it doesn't happen they'll feel really stupid and perhaps agressive or even more defensive and will want to avoid you as you remind them of how they've been taken it.

If I were you I'd try and play it as low key as possible and just not get drawn into it - could be a lot worse this is exactly cult psychology

[LazyGun]

I misread this a little bit- I just the 21st December thing and missed the polar reversal - I was thinking you were talking about someone who believed in the world coming to an end/ Mayan calendar thing. :)

I would agree with JtP and OG that polar reversal is something that has happened before, and will happen again, but putting a date on that event seems strange.

OG and JtP are self- evidently far more tolerant than me ;)

[ludwig]

// I don't see why you are so keen to prove your opinion is right and theirs is nonsense //

Because it's someone they care about and they suspect their head is being filled with doom-mongering nonsense for the purposes of exploitation.
Spritualist con artists are always ready with an armageddon scenario. It usually involves signing a big cheque to the 'chosen one' to help furnish the spritual spaceship that's going to fly you away when the poles reverse.

Trionam is right to be concerned if it's anything like that.

[trionam]

I dont know how money is connected yet but I am keen to find out I had other family members loose thousands a few years back on Tony Quinn Seminars that didnt end well so thats where my concern comes from.I am not bothered what people believe if its harmless and doesnt bankrupt them.

[LazyGun]

@Ludwig ^^^^^ Thats exactly what I wanted to say, only far more elegantly put.I think I need to revisit English 101 - my literacy seems to be declining with age :)

[ludwig]

^ just to clarify, magnetic polar reversal isn't nonsense, but predicting it will happen on the 21st of December most definitely is.

[ludwig]

Thanks LG

[jomifl]

Trionam, you could try pointing out that polar reversal is probably not a spiritual issue since it is known to have happened many times and is recorded in sea floor spreading. The average frequency of reversal is once every 450,000 years and takes about 10,000 years to occur so we won't get migrating birds flying the wrong way or compass needles spinning. Mankind has survived it before, without the aid of iphones so it should be a doddle.

[LazyGun]

If its going to affect myophone, it needs to be banned.

[jomifl]

Perhaps one of our islamic chums could let us know what the koran has to say on the subject.

[Old_Geezer]

Ludwig, I see nothing that suggest a large con; merely a hint about money as an afterthought. Seems to me to be a typical, "i'm right and I need to convince my idiot friend", type of thing.

[emmie]

isn't the 21st December in the Mayan calendar prediction, from something i read recently..

[LazyGun]

@em10 -yes, thats what confused me initially - i thought this was about the Mayan/Incan end of the world on 21/12 thing ;)

[ludwig]

It doesn't look like that to me OG. It looks like a concerned person looking out for a relative.

[naomi24]

Me too.

[trionam]

just wanted to say thanks to ludwig and naomi it is of course just concern on my part,Ive done a lot of reading since and Im not much wiser about what its all about as I am not being given all the info I tought it was about the mayan prediction also but I think its a case of someone picking and choosing which bits to believe in so no different to any other faiths I suppose,All I know is we are all supposedly going to be very confused after dec 21st so this person says, sure Im already confused!!