Essential Oils and Climate Change

To try to win an informal debate, I remember hearing a woman once say, “I don’t care what the scientists say; I just feel better when I eat gluten free.” I also happened to know that this same person took the opposite view on climate change. She was convinced that climate change was a real, impending disaster based on information that the vast majority of climate scientists agreed on the premise.

Furthermore anyone who held a different view on climate change would be condemned, labeled a “denier,” someone whose opinion on that or any other subject should be disregarded because they were stupid. But it was not enough to ignore them. Anyone who disagrees in the least must be branded, cast out, unfriended or otherwise ostracized for the good of the world.

Using the opposite arguments in defense of two strongly held points of view did not faze her or the people she associated with at all. On one hand, science was good; on the other, science was too skeptical of the ancient wisdom or the latest fad.

Speaking of the latest fad, one that has been going strong for the last few years is a belief in the power of essential oils.

Although the name might imply it, there is nothing particularly essential about an essential oil, in the sense of it being necessary for life. The name comes from the fact that the oils extracted, usually by fermentation, contain the essence of a plant’s fragrance.

As this article written by a scientist, professor at McGill University with a PhD in Chemistry, explains, most of the claims about the powers of essential oils are unproven, untrue, misrepresented or exaggerated. For example, promoters claim that “either sniffing the right essential oil or rubbing it on the skin can support the immune system, enhance mood, promote sleep, cleanse the body’s organs, boost the libido, ease breathing, foster alertness, treat kidney stones, oxygenate the blood, relieve pain, reduce anger, prevent constipation and, of course, eliminate toxins, … readjust chakras, harmonize bio-electrical frequencies, cleanse negative energies, drive out evil spirits and promote sexual stimulation.”

He explains that a few of these are backed by evidence, such as using lavender aroma as a sleep aid. Many of the other claims have resulted in warnings to companies by the FDA, but that can’t control all the outrageous claims. “Sales of essential oils are dominated by multi-level marketing (MLM) companies,” who sell to independent distributors relying on commissions. No one can monitor what every one of these sellers promises in private conversations. 

Once again it is so easy to ignore the science, or simply not ask what studies have confirmed the seemingly magical powers. Take it on faith.

Interesting how, in one particular realm, scientific consensus is considered a strong argument in favor, with any minor expression of doubt leading to the accusation of being a denier. Meanwhile, in so many others areas, from psychic powers to performance bracelets to the healing power of magnets to detox cleanses to super foods to essential oils, taking the opposite stance is the favored response. No deniers there! No critical thinking either.

Here Comes the Easter Bunny

In a couple of days the Easter Bunny will visit homes of young children across America delivering baskets of treats. According to this source, the origin of the Easter Bunny may be traced to “early pagan celebrations” of “springtime renewal of life and fertility as well as the goddess of dawn and spring, Eastre." Some of these celebrations and myths were adopted and modified by early missionaries to make it easier to win over converts.

Like Santa Claus and the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny is soon relegated to the dustbin of childhood stories as kids grow up, mature and develop the ability to easily separate fantasy from reality, no matter how appealing and comforting those fantasies might be. Unfortunately, many of their parents persist in beliefs that are equally outlandish long after they have grown up. Somehow the will to believe is so strong that it defies reality.

I am reminded of this when I saw the recent Pew Research report on the number of Americans drawn to “New Age” beliefs, particularly that 41% of adults believe in psychics. Now, I’ve written about psychics before, giving examples of how their annual predictions are consistently wrong, how those who claim to have the psychic power have been discredited again and again, and how they have been convicted for defrauding people. But no matter how often someone explains the techniques of hot and cold readings, no matter how often psychics are embarrassed or proven wrong, the fantasy survives and believers continue to be swindled.

The latest attempt to dissuade believers (February 25) comes from this rather long (21-minute), but quite amusing video from John Oliver. The subtitle on YouTube is “Psychics may seem harmless and fun on TV, but they can make a lot of money by exploiting vulnerable people.” In fact, it’s a $2.2 billion industry. 

This video has had almost 7 million views, and you would think the word would get out. However, when you turn on daytime TV or use a search engine to find out more about psychic powers, people selling the idea that these powers are real overwhelmingly dominate the information posted. As is the case in most social media situations, misinformation overpowers the truth serving up enough credulous customers to keep about 100,000 self-employed psychics in business.

When magicians appear on the stage or on television, they describe what they do as illusions. They are admittedly lying to the audience, trying to fool everyone with misdirection and slight of hand. When the show is over, people go home understanding that it was all a trick but wondering how they did it – what mechanisms, mirrors, technology or fancy moves were involved? What didn’t I see?

When psychics appear, they expect everyone to believe that they can predict the future or can communicate with the dead. When the show is over, people go home, sometimes in shock or with renewed grief, thinking it was real. This is dishonest on the part of the performer and the height of gullibility on the part of the audience. They don’t try to figure out what tricks were involved. They believe!

That’s why magicians are so good at debunking psychics, but how many times will it take? And how will America survive when 4 out of 10 voters are so easily duped into believing in a notion no more real than the Easter Bunny. (Note: Politicians and the news media don’t call it illusion or misdirection either, although it sometimes is.)

The Paranormal

Is there any logical reason to believe in the claims of ESP and other paranormal powers? A few reasons come to mind to support skepticism.

First, I ran across this long list on Wikipedia. It shows a number of prizes offered, past and present, for proof of paranormal powers under controlled conditions. Many of the prizes were in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The last column shows the outcome as “unclaimed” for all but two. The participants disputed those two but still failed to collect the prize.

If people really had psychic powers, you would expect to see a line at some of these tests. It would be easy money and vindication from all the skeptics.

But the catch is that they must show their skills under controlled conditions. That means, among other things, no outside help, no hidden wires or microphones and no hints from testers. The last is particularly frustrating to those who practice cold reading, a technique of throwing out general statements looking for encouragement from credulous customers and letting them lead the reader to a plausible story. Without these aids and distractions, everyone fails.

People also try to assign some magical force to coincidence. Something unusual or unexpected happens and they automatically think the universe is sending them a message. It reminds me of a feature on an Oprah show years ago about a young boy and young girl who were best friends in a Russian orphanage. They were adopted separately but were reunited by accident in a restaurant in Michigan. The audience was amazed, asking themselves “What are the odds?”

Critical thinking tells us that although this particular occurrence was unusual and heartwarming, the odds of the producers of the Oprah Show looking for and finding any such extraordinary situation in a country with a population of over 330 million, each one eager to share stories of notable coincidences, borders on certainty. Social media proves that it is very likely that several unusual coincidences arise somewhere (and get posted) almost constantly. When you dream of a loss and something remotely resembling it happens, it is attributed to ESP. When nothing happens, there is no coincidence, and the dream is forgotten or discounted as just another bad dream. In the case of the “dream-come-true,” it is comforting to be able to feel some sense of control or connection.

Another example is represented by the man in the moon. The shadows on the moon’s surface are interpreted by the brain to resemble something familiar. Other cultures have seen a rabbit, the silhouette of a woman, a frog, a moose, a buffalo, or a dragon, instead of a face. This tendency to reinterpret random shapes as real pictures is called pareidolia. It was responsible a few years ago for the excitement over the face on Mars where a certain rock under certain lighting conditions looked like a human head. The same phenomenon is at work when someone sees Jesus or Elvis burned onto their toast or in a potato chip.

The question always comes up why people with real psychic powers don’t just go to Las Vegas and use their powers to win big at the roulette wheel. The answer provided is that people with those powers are too ethical to use them for such base purposes. They are more interested in using their powers to benefit humanity.

But couldn’t they benefit humanity a lot more by using their roulette winnings to set up charitable organizations? Couldn’t they benefit humanity more by warning of impending disasters? Where were all the psychics when the twin towers were destroyed or when the Mandalay Bay shooter was smuggling guns into the hotel? There must have been at least a small ripple in the ether. Being home to carefully calculated odds, Las Vegas is far more worried about shooters than they are about psychics.

A More Complex World Requires A Wiser Approach

A couple of years ago, CNN began an investigation based on a government mail fraud case against a Canadian company accused of processing payments for many rip-off artists from around the world with millions of victims in the US. “Many of the schemes are remarkably similar. They prey on the desperate, sick and elderly -- sending out letters that trick people into thinking they've won the lottery or found a psychic adviser who will turn their lives around.” Every year the scammers stole millions and laundered it through that company.

As follow up and as research for a book on the subject, they wanted to meet and interview a famous French psychic whose name is at the bottom of letters that appeared to be handwritten and personally signed. Addressed to the elderly, sick and lonely, "the letters promised that Maria Duval would use her powers as a world-renowned psychic to help solve their problems. They could recover from ailments, avoid terrible misfortune, win the lottery.” They only needed to send her money first. “At least 1.4 million Americans fell for the scam.”

To be convincing, the “letters contained personal details, like a recipient’s name, age or hometown” but this information is easily obtained on line. They bought mailing lists of people who would likely fall for such a scam. These people would then send in about $40 for each letter giving them guidance from the psychic along with lucky numbers and magic charms. The total collected in this one operation is estimated at over $200 million.

This continued for more than 20 years, but was only the tip of the iceberg. When they got an interview with the psychic, they found that she sold the rights to her name for a fraction of the proceeds. The psychic letter ploy along with other similar scams had become big business with professional copywriters and marketers scattered around the world and linked together by the Canadian payment processors.

It’s true that not enough Americans understand that psychic powers don’t exist. Those that can’t distinguish coincidence from the universe sending messages (or some such nonsense) are easily taken in. It’s true that some Americans don’t understand that you can never win a lottery that you haven’t bought a ticket for. But that’s not the main point.

There is a broader issue here. More sophisticated Americans, who scoff at the victims of these scams, follow fads and trends, are taken in by advertising for products of dubious value and respond with fear to manufactured crises. 

Their lack of critical thinking is evident and somewhat frightening. On one hand, they argue that climate change is real, based on the testimony of so many scientists. On the other, they will reject scientific consensus on many other subjects like the safety of genetic engineering, glyphosate (brand name Roundup) and irradiation of food. They will buy into the concept that locally grown and organic produce is always superior. They put their families on a gluten-free diet when there is no medical reason to do so. They believe there is something magical about sea salt. They put their faith in all sorts of untested dietary supplements. Experts warning against these actions are considered corporate shills or just mistaken. They buy products based on nothing more than endorsements from friends, strangers or celebrity spokespersons. They flock to purveyors of “secrets” that drug companies, doctors, credit card companies, Wall Street and the government “don’t want you to know.”

All this goes on as the world gets more complex every day. Incredibly fast communications bring real and false offers and threats. Advanced robots, AI and autonomous vehicles lurk in the near future, while hackers try to steal our identities and influence votes. Are Americans ready for the future? Behavior shows that today far too many are struggling, victims of scams and their own poor decisions.

The $3.5 Million Exorcism

Critical thinking continues to grow in importance as electronic media exposes Americans to thousands of sales pitches each day.  The snake oil salesman I referred to last week who pulled into town with his wagon to sell his magic tonic only arrived at long intervals.  Today’s equivalent arrives to our computers or phones every second.  Without a healthy skepticism, questioning before buying or believing, Americans can be tricked into buying all sorts of worthless products and services.

The latest example comes from Reuters, but was all over the Internet about 10 days ago.  “A self-proclaimed psychic who was paid $3.5 million by an elderly Massachusetts woman in exchange for claiming to cleanse her of demons pleaded guilty on Thursday to trying to avoid paying taxes.”  Was the 70-year-old woman a victim of the psychic or was she a victim of that airy-fairy-land that many Americans occupy in their minds, willing to believe in all kinds of mystical, new-age, super-food, and super-supplement mumbo-jumbo?  They develop imaginary allergies and fears of safe foods and life-saving vaccines by ignoring scientific evidence in favor of Internet rumors and unrealistic promises backed by celebrity endorsements.

The first question that comes to minds is:  If she’s a psychic, why didn’t she see the problem with the IRS coming?  The easy, and correct, answer is that she is not a psychic at all.  (No one has ever proven under controlled laboratory conditions that they have psychic powers.)  Anyone who is really a psychic would be winning money at the racetrack or at the roulette wheel.  But they claim they only use their powers for good – good apparently being defined as conning innocent people out of their hard-earned money.  (In some cases the victims of these scams include innocent taxpayers when police employ so-called psychics in crime investigations for fear of being accused of not doing everything possible.

I’m sure some of these people sincerely believe they have some extraordinary power, just like some who work in the media sincerely believe they are journalists doing the work of the people and not just trying to create juicy headlines to sell more airtime, and some politicians sincerely believe they are public servants more interested in the good of the nation than in their own reelection.  These days real journalists and statesmen are rare; real psychics are non-existent.

The second question is:  Where are those consumer protection agencies when we need them?  Obviously, it’s ridiculous to expect government agencies to protect us from our own ignorance and gullibility.  In these days of high velocity, sophisticated sales tactics, it takes critical thinking, a healthy skepticism and the understanding that being open minded does not mean accepting every whacko idea that comes along.

The psychic in question was sentenced to 26 months in prison, ordered to reimburse the woman and fined by the IRS.  Perhaps that will give her time to do a reading or two for herself and enjoy some of the spiritual cleansing and strengthening she was so eager to sell to others.

How Much Consumer Protection is Needed?

We would need a lot less consumer protection if consumers themselves spent more time thinking and researching and less time looking for easy answers and magical products.  Slowing down to think and research relates to the dimension of critical thinking, which promotes suspicion of those easy answers that are so tempting when discipline fails us.

Here is an example of the importance of those practices.  An Australian company is offering for $165 a product called a Geoclense Harmonizer.  (You can order a configuration that plugs into electrical outlets in the US.)  The name itself sounds healthy and friendly, but what does it do?  “The Geoclense is a negative charge resonance field generator designed to balance positive charge resonance otherwise known as noxious, unhealthy energy created by all forms of EMR, RF, Wi/Fi, Earth Radiation and Bioplasmic Radiation to a healthier negative charge resonance.”  That certainly sounds scientific.

The advertising goes on to list twenty-five individual types of "noxious energy" that you will be protected against.  Under the Bioplasmic or Human-generated energy category they include “Negative Psychic impressions/Psychic attacks.”  Under the General category, they include:  “Baby Monitors, Bluetooth Devices and Noxious Resonance from Mould and Fungus.”  You are also protected against stress from seismic faults and drinking water.  All you have to do is plug it into the wall.

Looking at this list, it’s hard to understand what dangers come from all these sources of supposed radiation.  Many tests have confirmed the safety of cell phones, so why would we fear Bluetooth devices or baby monitors?  Should people really worry about the negative psychic impressions floating around the house?  How does plugging a solid block of green plastic resin into the wall protect you from seismic faults, fungus, poor quality drinking water or any kind of radiation?  The website never explains how it works. 

The rest of the website uses testimonials and junk scientific “studies” to confirm the effectiveness.  We hear how people felt so much better after plugging it in and see through Kirlian photography how their aura is stronger.

A real scientific study from an Australian consumer review organization tells a different story.  The power of the Harmonizer is “based on the principles of 'orgonomy', which…was pioneered by Dr. Wilhelm Reich, an Austrian psychoanalyst who died while serving time for refusing to obey an injunction against selling quack medical devices.”  The review team tested the Harmonizer against seven of the company’s claims using simple tools such as a compass to detect the reported effect on the earth’s magnetic field.  In all cases except one it failed to show any effect at all.  Where it did live up to the company’s claim was the fact that “it uses absolutely no power. Hardly surprising for an inert lump of plastic, but it does beg the question as to why you need to plug it in at all.”

This product and others like it try to capitalize on public misperceptions like the fear of power lines that was popularized in the 1980s but has long since been debunked.  Even without the benefit of the above review, it takes a minimum of critical thinking, research and common sense to come to the right conclusion about such products.  We really don’t need the degree of consumer protection that Washington is always trying to enact and re-fund.  We just need a populace with better scientific understanding and a willingness to spend a little time to think it through.  Each $165 saved is an extra $165 toward paying off that mortgage or saving for retirement.

It's Getting Ridiculous

At what point (if any) do we say, “Time out, America will no longer sit by and tolerate really ridiculous behavior, ridiculous sales pitches, and ridiculous statements by serious politicians”?  We could start by not reacting to the outrageous advertising claims, by refusing to reelect judges who take seriously outrageous lawsuits and by ignoring the pandering politicians trying to buy votes to secure their own jobs rather than making the best long-term decisions for the country.  Here are a few more examples.

The food paranoia featured on February 7 apparently goes beyond food.  Printed on a seed packet for flower seeds is the following statement:  “All our seeds are untreated, no GMOs.”  Even if there were some unknown danger to eating GMO foods, it wouldn’t matter in the case of these seeds.  They are sold for planting in the garden and beautifying the area, not for eating.  It’s labeling for image, purely for marketing purposes, to appease and sell to people with the extreme stance of GMO=bad, non-GMO=good.  They are treating us like fools and we are letting them.

The headline reads:  “'Psychic' who fleeced millions from clients sentenced to 10 years in prison."  A 62-year-old Florida woman was convicted of “defrauding clients of her family's fortune-telling businesses out of more than $17.8 million.”  Details of the article include:  “Victims testified that she convinced them she could swap people's souls between bodies, prevent a woman from conceiving via in vitro fertilization and even use her psychic powers to prevent the Internal Revenue Service from going after them for taxes.”  These people are more victims of their own gullibility – the opposite of critical thinking – than of a so-called psychic who makes such outlandish promises.  For future reference, there is no case on record of proven psychic powers.  The reason that more are not convicted of fraud is probably that the losses are small or the "victims" are too embarrassed to come forward.

Finally, a Colorado man is suing rescuers, who saved his life, because they didn’t rescue him fast enough.  When a road washed out, he ended up submerged in his car.  Miraculously he survived in a small air pocket but he was not visible from outside the car.  Now he is suing the county for not posting that the road was closed and the divers who pulled him out of the car and got him to the hospital.  His lawyer contends that any mistake is negligence.  So many of these cases are settled before going to court out of fear that sympathetic jurors will decide that someone suffered and deserves something and insurance will pay for it without considering the ramifications of future restrictions and higher premiums for everyone.  We also reelect judges who allow these ridiculous accusations to get a hearing.

When will we Americans stop falling for it, stop putting up with it?

Don't Be Fooled Again!

By remembering behavior, it is possible to not be fooled or surprised as often.  As I pointed out last June, when I wrote “Hear It Here First,” many of the results (consequences) that I warn of turn up in the news, in one form or another, weeks or months later.  We should have seen it coming.  Here are a few more examples.

On September 3, 2012 and May 6, 2013 (and 9 other times) I warned of and gave examples of the serious consequences of failures in parental responsibility.  When parents don’t do their job it affects education and many other areas, but worst of all, it teaches children to act the same way.  I have shown how, when responsibility is weak, people look for excuses to forgive themselves, and we as a society don’t hold them accountable.  Now we are faced with the claim that a Texas teen “was blameless for driving drunk and causing a crash that left four people dead in June.”  His excuse was that he was pampered by his affluent parents and has grown up not knowing how to act responsibly.  He was sentenced to 10 years probation and no jail time.  Many upset people saw this as a travesty.  Since when is being spoiled rotten considered a disability?  But what else should we expect in a society where people have blamed cigarettes and hot coffee and won in court; where we now consider obesity a disease; where we are willing to label any number of weaknesses as addictions; and where we blame our problems on inanimate objects like sugar, TV, and diet colas.  Blaming affluence for criminal behavior is just another such example.  Based on past observations, it shouldn’t be surprising.

Earlier this year I wrote at least twice (July 5 and September 20) about how Americans are wasting billions of dollars on multi-vitamins and that the best option is to get vitamins and minerals through a healthy diet.  Last Monday’s news reported that vitamins are not recommended for most and have been shown to be ineffective against memory loss, heart disease and other chronic diseases.  This ABC article provides a quote from Annals of Internal Medicine:  "Evidence is sufficient to advise against routine supplementation."  It is clear that the “main nutrition problem in the U.S. is too much fat and calories” not lack of vitamins.  If you think about it, the term used is "recommended daily allowance (RDA)," which is vague enough to indicate that they don’t really know the best dosage, but getting too much is dangerous and buying unneeded supplements is wasteful.

Finally, last month marked the passing of Sylvia Browne, noted psychic.  She was 77, but once predicted that she would live to be 88.  In an interesting test a number of years ago, a researcher/skeptic asked 31 fourth-grade students to guess the outcome of 11 events that Ms. Browne predicted for the year 2005.  At year's end they found that she was correct in only 3 cases.  The students fared much better as one made 8 correct predictions, and 28 out of 31 guessed made more than 3.  Perhaps we should be looking for a replacement psychic in the fourth grade, or instead use our critical thinking to dismiss any claims of so-called psychic powers.  (Also see my comments from June 24, 2013 and September 7, 2012.)

These examples each week are meant to show similarities in behavior so readers can begin to classify them by dimension and see how one particular weakness shows up in many seemingly diverse actions.  Not until we recognize the patterns, can we look for solutions.  It also keeps us from being surprised or fooled by outrageous news stories.  They are usually just another example of failures in one of the same five dimensions, failures that, if not addressed, will continue to lead us on the downward societal spiral that most Americans find so distressing.  It’s also not unusual to see references to the same problems here, months in advance.  Past behavior predicts future behavior.