Young Australian Skeptics

There’s no substitute for actually going to a Mind Body Spirit (MB$) festival.

Elliot, Matt, Catherine, Jack, and I went on a field trip to MB$. Our friends from The Skeptic Zone encouraged skeptics to experience MB$. I could feel the energy. Scary energy. Before I’d even bought a ticket my concession card was scrutinized and I was asked for extra ID. The hired muscle checking out tickets as we entered the Palace of Woo was odd, but not as odd as what was on the inside. In every direction I looked were lovely phrases such as Butterfly Essence, Angelyte, Infinite U, Metaphysical Mysteries, Universal Healing, and T3 Tachyon (What? A Star Trek stall was there?), and the hilarious Nana May’s Magic Hands who claimed to “get rid of your smelly feet forever”.

There were a number of legitimate companies selling legitimate things – Wear Your Goddess, which sold hippy clothes, MBF Health Insurance, someone selling all sorts of food products with lavender oil in them (ergh…), a sponsor-​​a-​​child company, potted plant advice, and “Enchanted Cottage Preserves” which sold delicious fudge, and the owner of which joked about the need to label his product in woo-​​type ways, such as ‘heavenly fudge’ or ‘divine fudge’.

But mostly there was just new age nonsense.

Dream interpretations were offered by a friendly woman from Christocentric Light, along with spiritual blessings by a muscular ‘angel’ with dreadlocks (donations accepted). Matt’s recurring dream of traveling in an elevator always ends up traveling sideways, directly out of the building, was interpreted that his personality was “outside the box”. Catherine remarked that Matt should be pressing the ‘up’ button instead of the ‘sideways’ button.

I asked a few questions at Astrology Charts. Again, the women there were happy, friendly, and enthusiastic to answer your every question (when they knew the answer).
I had to drop the Pluto question. They handled this calmly and said it didn’t matter that Pluto is no longer labeled a planet, because the charts consider all types of heavenly bodies, such as the sun and moon, and the interaction between them. At the discount price of $35 I could have had my Astrological Character Portrait assessed (20 – 30 pages, “recently enhanced and updated!”). Well, it’s good they’re not still living in the Dark Ages.

My favourite was the QUANTUM SCIENCE ™ stall: A BioTech Optimum Energy Program. I was diagnosed via kinesiology to prove that volcanic ash containing 16 different minerals, forged at high temperatures into a pendant, released scalar energy into me when the mineral vectors were oppositely opposed. What, you don’t understand? You may have heard of Tesla, who first discovered this, and something-​​something Einstein and Relatively. Oh, and nanotechnology something-​​or-​​other. It didn’t matter that I said I didn’t feel any difference when I had the pendant or not, and that the water from a “Quantum Science flask” tasted no different than ordinary tap water… but, but, but, it was Quantum Science!

A few of us signed up for the chance of a free personal development seminar and a free alternative medicine course (Reiki? I can’t remember. They’re all the same). I can only assume they’re legitimate and won’t spam the hell out of our email addresses.

Elliot debated some oldies manning the Christian Science stall. And I almost questioned too much about the use of the term ‘energy’ by a couple that could astral travel and claimed to have met mysterious “beings”. We had to remember that we were not there to convert or criticise, but to observe and learn. I wanted to practice interacting in a non-​​confrontational way with believers and peddlers of woo. I tried to be honest yet respectful. I asked about the science behind the product, but allowed them to hold the position of authority.

I didn’t get a chance to sit in on any seminars, but here’s what Terry Kelly, the President of the Victorian Skeptics said about a seminar by the witch, Stacey Demarco, from television’s The One:

She was teaching people how read the “symbology” in the dregs of coffee. The dregs are “oracles” to boost intuition. During her spiel, which included, as an aside, that drinking one (one only) cup of real coffee (not instant) per day would reduce your chances of getting dementia by 80%, she said, and I quote,
“My friend Richard, the Skeptic, admits there is intuition”.
I don’t know how Richard would feel about being used to support evidence for a witch reading coffee cups.
When I asked Stacey why Doctors didn’t just prescribe coffee to everyone (as a way of practically eliminating ‘dementia’) she said, “They do”.

Elliot complained that the MB$ festival made him feel sick, and although I empathise, I have to admit that I thought it was a load of fun!

Tags: Alternative Medicine, Mind Body Wallet, psychics, Woo

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Alternative Medicine, Astrology, Dahli Breidis, Paranormal, Skeptic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.