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The tyranny of the cloud: how we became serfs to big tech

Ted Lefroy
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The tyranny of the cloud: how we became serfs to big tech

Technofeudalism is Yanis Varoufakis’ term for the hold that social media, online commerce and cloud computing have over our lives. How they influence what we buy, shape what we think and oversee the world’s energy, transport, finance and security infrastructure.

Varoufakis, who taught economics at Sydney University for over a decade and was briefly Greek finance minister, claims that capitalism morphed into this new version of feudalism in the twenty first century. The feudal lords are Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta and we are the new serfs, freely giving the data that constitutes their raw material with every post and every purchase.

Cover of the book Technofeudalism, What Killed Capitalism, by Yanis Varoufakis
Cover of ‘Technofeudalism, What Killed Capitalism’, by Yanis Varoufakis

In his 2023 book ‘Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism’, Varoufakis argues that technofeudalism is distinct from capitalism as platforms have replaced markets and rents have replaced profits. Digital trading platforms may look like markets but they don’t function like markets as the flow of information between buyers and sellers is restricted. If a seller on Amazon tries to bargain directly with a buyer, in a few keystrokes they’re off the platform. And profits have been replaced by two forms of rent: subscriptions and ‘economic rent,’ the economists’ term for excess profits earned through restricted competition.

The big five profit by capturing, modifying and monetising our attention. The genius of the surveillance business model is that our data informs the promotion of goods, services, lifestyles, political preferences and social values that serve their interests. And as that data is free, Varoufakis argues labour costs are a tenth of those in conventional businesses.

Varoufakis argues two acts of government made technofeudalism possible. The first in April 1995 was privatising the internet, the digital equivalent of enclosing the commons to establish European feudalism under which tenant farmers paid up to a third of their harvest in rent. The second was central banks releasing trillions of dollars to keep economies afloat after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the COVID pandemic, funds that quickly found their way to super profits in the cloud.

For a story of oppression, the style is very breezy and occasionally so are the facts. At one point Varoufakis claims without citing any sources:

“By 2020, cloud rents accruing to cloud capital accounted for much of the developed world’s aggregate net income” (p.135).

But according to the global data website Statista, the value of e-commerce, cloud computing and other cloud services in 2020 was five trillion dollars, just eight percent of the sixty trillion aggregate net income of the thirty six countries the United Nations defines as developed economies. Which raises the question: is capitalism really dead, or is technofeudalism just a more virulent strain, as economist Michel Luc Bellemare argues in Techno-capitalist-feudalism?  

Hyperbole aside, the book’s strength is its lightning tour of economic history, tracing how we got into this mess. From the birth of capitalism to its gilded age at the end of the 19th century to The Great Depression, The New Deal and the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement struck to rebuild after World War II, Varoufakis skates through the big events that shaped the present and draws two conclusions. First that, in times of crisis, national governments are quite capable of working together and making huge investments in the interests of the public good. Second that the door to technofeudalism was opened 20 years before the privatisation of the internet.

When President Nixon floated the dollar on 15 August 1971, it ushered in a series of reforms that delivered what Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz calls a superficial and misguided version of freedom: the freedom of markets over people. By tying the world to the US dollar, Bretton Woods achieved thirty years of stable exchange rates, high employment, low inflation, economic prosperity and massively reduced inequality. But it was based on the unsafe assumption that the US would remain a surplus economy, exporting more that it imported, and when the US started running trade deficits in 1965, the system collapsed.

Financial controls were progressively lifted, currency trading resumed, bankers went back to gambling with other peoples’ money, the gold price soared and along with it instability and inequality. The economics of John Maynard Keynes was replaced by the neoliberalism of Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman.

A man in overalls and gloves walks through a derelict building, patchily lit by the sun, with rusty beams and rubble all around him, back to the black pickup truck in the background. Another man to his right creates sparks as he cuts through the metal.
A collapsed building in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Photo, ‘Taking Apart Detroit’ by Bob Jagendorf, via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0

To correct the trade imbalance, US manufacturing moved offshore on the understanding foreign profits would be invested in the US finance, real estate and energy sectors. But the remedy proved worse than the disease, producing impoverished workers on both sides of the Pacific, the rust belt, a housing boom, the GFC and a disenfranchised middle America seeking revenge through closed borders, economic isolationism and nativist politics.

The road out of serfdom

Varoufakis’ remedy is a ‘cloud rebellion.’ A grand coalition between the traditional proletariat, the cloud proles (exploited big tech workers), the cloud serfs (everyone who donates data), and the vassal capitalists (those forced to rent space on big tech platforms to sell goods and services). The rebellion’s aim is to simultaneously democratise the internet, money, business and politics. A top-down transformation as radical as any of the failed revolutions of the 20th century and every utopia that’s been imagined since Thomas More coined the term 500 years ago.

An alternative that found favour in the wake of the 2008 GFC and again following the 2020 Economic Recession was a new Bretton Woods, proposed amongst others by the President of France, the Prime Minister of Greece and the head of the International Monetary Fund. But the problem remains, how to avoid the fragility of the original that effectively made the world’s economies branches of Wall Street?

Brazilian philosopher Roberto Unger has proposed a less prescriptive approach. He argues that any coalition capable of addressing major global issues from climate change to economic inequality must be voluntary and avoid a one-size-fits-all approach that converges on a single solution. Any attempt to form a global government would stifle creativity and open the door to autocracy. Instead he suggests humanity:

‘…develops its potential only by doing so in different directions, and can be unified only by being allowed to diverge… because our ability to create the new is our fundamental power.’

A willing collaboration that draws its strength and creativity from diversity and preserves national sovereignty not for its inherent value, but because the alternatives are worse.

But what, short of war, can manifest that will?

‘Technofeudalism: what killed capitalism’ by Yanis Varoufakis, Bodley Head 2023

The secret to a year-round tan – eating so many carrots you turn orange?

Alice Howarth
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The secret to a year-round tan – eating so many carrots you turn orange?

Now that Summer is over, those of us who love the sunshine might be sad to see our (responsibly acquired) tans starting to fade. Thankfully, TikTok might have the solution – one weird trick that will let me tan without lying in the sun, in the form of a short video from a young woman holding in her hand… a carrot.

Our heroine begins by telling us, “Don’t make me say it again… three large carrots a day and you can change your natural undertone”, before showing us stills of her as a child to compare the skin tone she used to have to her tanned look today. It’s a very short clip, but it raises so many questions.

Firstly, I’m reasonably pale now but, if I look back at photos of myself as a child, I was even paler. This is because for many of us, our skin darkens slightly as we age. Partly this is because our melanin production – the pigment in our hair and skin – reaches its peak a little after puberty. It’s also likely that repeated exposure to sun throughout our lifetime influences our skin tone. Once we reach older age, our skin tone lightens… but since this was a video on TikTok, it’s safe to assume the lady in our video probably doesn’t need to think about that for a while.

But can we really change our skin tone with food? Those of us who remember cautionary tales from the 1990s will already know that the answer is yes. In 1999, we learned of a four year old girl who was drinking 1.5 litres of the soft drink Sunny Delight per day, whose skin turned a “yellowy colour” as a result.

Sunny Delight, it turns out, contained added beta carotene in order to give it its vibrant yellow colour. Beta carotene is a carotenoid that comes from all sorts of natural sources like pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots and mangoes. In high doses, it can affect the colour of our skin – and in the case of a four year old, it doesn’t take very much for that change to occur. Understandably, this can be quite scary, because the effect is a lot like the yellowing skin tone of jaundice, which can be a sign of liver dysfunction.

A large bottle of 'Sunny D' tangy original flavour (formerly Sunny Delight), an orange-flavoured juice drink.
Sunny D ‘Tangy Original’, formerly Sunny Delight – famously capable of making you orange if you drank too much. Image by Gerald Angeles via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0

The clinically relevant discoloration (called carotenosis) we see from high intake of beta carotene requires an increase beyond 20mg of beta carotene per day. A medium-sized carrot has around 4mg of beta carotene in it. So, it is therefore plausible that eating three large carrots per day could cause notable carotenosis in people with fair skin. However, that does not mean our TikTok skin sage is correct, because there is at least one problem with her advice: carotenosis causes skin to take on an orange hue. It also tends not to occur evenly across the body – it concentrates areas like the palms. So, while it is technically cheaper than at-home fake tanning, it has some of the similar problems in that it can look patchy and orange. Although, carotenosis won’t smell like biscuits as fake tan sometimes does.

Fortunately, carotenosis in this form is completely harmless. It’s just a discolouration of the skin, and doesn’t cause any other known health problems. However, there is another form, called secondary carotenoderma, which can be an indication of some serious health issues. It arises as a symptom of conditions such as hypothyroidism, diabetes, anorexia nervosa and issues with the kidneys or liver.

Beta carotene is itself a precursor to vitamin A, which is why it often comes with warnings like: “overconsumption of carrots may cause vitamin A toxicity, gastrointestinal discomfort, and skin discoloration, known as carotenemia.” Googling ‘carrots and vitamin A toxicity’ brings up a slew of articles about “foods you can accidentally overdose on”.

Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin – when we consume too much of it, we store it in our bodies instead of flushing it out. Vitamin A toxicity is therefore a real risk of taking some supplements and eating some foods – famously, polar bear liver (The Skeptic magazine does not endorse the eating of polar bears). But it’s not true that foods high in vitamin A precursors are a risk, because in their case the body is regulating the production of vitamin A by metabolising the precursor into the vitamin. Those metabolic routes have all sorts of feedback systems designed for keeping everything under safe regulatory control, which means eating too many carrots is not a known risk for vitamin A toxicity.

The issue is when you ingest too much of the pre-formed vitamin A, which you can get from liver and supplements that get used in the body or stored in the liver. This can then cause symptoms including changes in consciousness, dizziness, vision changes, headache, drowsiness, hair loss, sensitivity to sunlight, skin peeling, a different type of yellow discolouration of the skin, vomiting, nausea and bone problems.

Of course, suddenly changing your diet in any way (say, for example, radically upping your carrot intake) can cause gastrointestinal discomfort. Drastically and suddenly increasing your intake of fibre from fruit and vegetables can cause bloating, flatulence and diarrhoea, though this usually settles down once your body adjusts.

Still seeking sun-kissed skin

Ingesting something in order to change the colour of the skin isn’t a new idea. In the late 80s and early 90s, the FDA was required to act on issues with tanning pills, including some which contained a compound called Canthaxanthin. Canthaxanthin is a keto-carotene, which is approved by the FDA for use as a food additive and is typically used as a food colouring. It’s also found naturally in edible mushrooms, eggs and some fish.

In some tanning products, canthaxanthin is deposited in the fat under the skin to cause a golden, tanned appearance. But the doses in tanning pills are much, much higher than would be found in food. Taking high dose supplements of canthaxanthin can cause it to build up and cause damage in the retina, plus liver problems and skin complaints. According to the FDA:

“So-called tanning pills are promoted for tinting the skin by ingesting massive doses of color additives, usually canthaxanthin. When taken at these large doses – many times greater than the amount normally ingested in food – this substance is deposited in various parts of the body, including the skin, where it imparts a color. The color varies with each individual, ranging from orange to brownish. This coloration is not the result of an increase in the skin’s supply of melanin, the substance produced naturally in the skin to help protect it against UV radiation.”

They go on to explain that:

“In the August 1993 issue of American Pharmacy, Darrell Hulisz, Pharm.D., and pharmacist Ginger Boles described this condition – called “canthaxanthin-induced retinopathy” – as “a common adverse effect associated with canthaxanthin use,” adding: “The patient experiencing this form of retinopathy rarely is symptomatic, although decreased visual acuity has been reported.”

Fortunately, the condition is reversible, although it may take two to five years, and in some cases deposits have been detected for up to seven years. Hulisz and Boles also referred to reports of “nausea, cramping, diarrhea, severe itching, and welts” associated with the use of canthaxanthin “tanning” pills.”

So, tanning pills: bad. But maybe ingesting carrots to change our skin tone: not so bad? Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it. You’re likely to look an orangey yellow rather than the golden brown you might desire, and with an uneven and palm-heavy distribution at that.

It probably won’t actually cause you any harm, though it is a lot of vegetables to chew through every day. That said, I’ve used fake tanner before, and that’s no less weird, so who am I to judge?

The real-world harm of nutritional misinformation

Maeve Hanan
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The real-world harm of nutritional misinformation

An inevitable part of modern life is being bombarded with advice and information about food and health. Whether it’s from newspapers, magazines, social media influencers, doctors, family members or colleagues at work, it’s hard to escape these constant messages about what to eat, which foods are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and the latest ‘miracle’ weight-loss diet.

Of course, not all of this information is accurate, and some of it can be downright harmful. But given how widespread diet misinformation and scaremongering is, many people unknowingly follow advice that damages their physical and mental health. This can cause real-life harm, but there are practical tips you can follow for protecting yourself from this minefield of misinformation.

Common nutrition myths and fads

There are countless fad diets and nutrition myths out there. While they come and go and change over time, similar trends tend to reappear again and again, often with a new spin or rebrand.

Let’s take a look at five of the most common examples circulating today that include oversimplified or inaccurate information. 

Anti-Sugar and Low-Carb

One of the most pervasive myths is that sugar and carbohydrates are inherently bad for you. This is nothing new, as low-carb weight loss diets have been around since the 1860s.

Currently, there’s a lot of anxiety around sugar and feeling the need to micromanage blood glucose levels. However, it’s normal for blood glucose to rise temporarily after eating and this isn’t something that needs to be monitored unless you have diabetes.

It’s true that excessive sugar intake can contribute to health issues, particularly in terms of dental and metabolic health, but carbohydrates are a very important fuel source for the body, and the preferred fuel source for the brain. Demonising all carbs can also contribute to nutrient deficiencies, low energy, ‘keto flu’, digestive issues (as the best sources of fibre contain carbs too), hormonal and fertility issues for women, and disordered eating.

Therefore, it’s much healthier for most people to include a variety of carbohydrate-containing foods, especially those that are high in fibre, rather than trying to cut them out or stressing too much about them.

Chocolate bars, crisps, biscuits, cake and other snacks on an Indian food stand.
Processed food snacks sold at a street vendor near Patna, Bihar India. Photo by IFPRI, Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Fear of Ultra-Processed Foods (UPF)

There’s been growing fear about ultra-processed foods (UPF), with many people trying to avoid them entirely. This is a perfect example of how oversimplified, scare-mongering messages about nutrition can be really harmful.

I’ve spoken to countless people who are really worried and stressed about UPFs. Parents have told me how they feel like a failure for being unable to serve less UPF to their kids who also have food allergies and are selective eaters. Sadly, many people have told me about how UPF anxiety has damaged their relationship with food, and in some cases even triggered an eating disorder relapse.

It’s true that some highly processed foods are low in nutritional value and high in added sugars, fats, and salt. But importantly, how processed a food is doesn’t define its nutritional value. Food processing also has many benefits, such as increasing food safety and shelf life, fortifying food with extra nutrients, and improving taste, convenience and accessibility to food. So fearing and trying to avoid all UPFs is much more likely to do harm than good.

‘Superfoods’ and Greens Powders

The idea that certain ‘superfoods’ are a nutritional cure-all has been around for a while, but the term is just a buzzword and it doesn’t actually mean anything from a nutrition science perspective. Yes, foods that are given this title – like kale, chia seeds, and blueberries – are undoubtedly nutritious, but the important thing is the balance of your overall diet over time rather than obsessing about individual foods like this. No single food makes or breaks your diet overall.

More recently, greens powders and superfood powders have become very popular; appealing to busy people, ‘biohackers’ and those who want to optimise ‘wellness’. It’s easy to see the appeal based on the marketing, which boasts that just taking this powder will simplify healthy eating and have a miraculous impact on your health.

Although these powders do provide certain nutrients, they cannot replace the beneficial effect of actual food (often referred to as the ‘food matrix’), they have not all been subject to rigorous safety testing and can contain ingredients that can worsen gut symptoms and interact with medication etc. There are also much cheaper vitamin and mineral supplements available when there are nutritional gaps to fill. 

Fasting Diets

Intermittent fasting has been one of the most popular diets of the past decade, but fasting diets more generally have been used for both religious and health reasons for thousands of years.

There’s some promising research related to intermittent fasting and health, around heart health and diabetes in particular, but overall there’s limited long-term human research available and still a lot of unknowns.

Fasting, even intermittently, also carries a number of risks, such as: fatigue, headaches,  mood swings, increased urination, a potential increased risk of gallstones and menstruation issues. There are plenty of situations in which a regular supply of nutrients are particularly important, such as for pregnant women, children, and those who are very active, malnourished or ill.

It’s also a form of restriction, so it can be very risky for those with a difficult relationship with food, or those at risk of developing disordered eating. For example, fasting has been linked with a higher risk of binge-eating disorder and bulimia nervosa; although the research is limited in this area. Anecdotally, I have had a significant amount of clients who have tried intermittent fasting and this has spiralled into disordered eating.

Intermittent fasting comes in lots of different forms, so some people may find the less extreme versions work for them. But it’s important to be aware of the risks outlined above, especially if you are nutritionally vulnerable or have a high risk of disordered eating. This article goes into more detail about the overlap between intermittent fasting and disordered eating.

A pile of black charcoal powder on a rough, lined surface
Even activated charcoal powder is sold as a detoxing agent and health food. Photo via PickPik

Detoxes and Cleanses

Unfortunately, detoxes and cleanses remain popular despite being debunked time and time again. These diets often claim to rid your body of toxins and jumpstart weight loss, usually through restrictive juicing, fasting or herbal supplements.

However, your body already has a natural detox system, primarily through the liver, kidneys, and digestive system. Extreme detoxes can actually harm your health by depriving your body of essential nutrients, causing fatigue, and even disrupting metabolism and digestion. Hence, the words ‘detox’ and ‘cleanse’ are seen as red flags by evidence-based nutrition professionals.

The Big Picture of Diet Misinformation

It’s unsurprising that we’ve ended up in this place where nutritional nonsense is so prevalent. Celebrities and traditional media have contributed to this for a long time, and social media has really amplified this widespread confusion and obsession with nutrition.

Lots of people feel like they’re experts in nutrition, since we all eat and interact with food daily. If you compare this to other areas of science, you don’t see celebrities, influencers and doctors claiming to be experts in quantum physics or thermodynamics without a relevant qualification! But people often trust people with nutrition and lifestyle advice who are wealthy and seem happy, like the Kardashians and their ongoing promotion of nutrition and weight loss supplements. So this nutritional nonsense often trumps evidence-based nutrition information in the eyes of the public.

Fad diets and over-simplified messages are also really appealing as they prey on our emotions and insecurities. They promise ‘quick fixes’, transformation and a sense of control in an environment that makes us feel bad about ourselves and places a lot of our worth in our appearance.

Even when somebody is doing their best to follow reputable nutrition advice it’s not always easy. For example, in contrast to ‘dietitian’, the term ‘nutritionist’ isn’t a protected title, so anyone can use it to make themselves seem like a nutrition expert (although there are lots of excellent and legit nutritionists too).

Similarly, there are doctors and scientists who seem credible and position themselves as nutrition experts without having any actual nutrition training or qualifications. In fact some of the most insidious nutritional information being circulated at the moment is being promoted by such ‘experts’.

There’s no escaping the impact of the weight loss industry and fatphobia in all of this. The stigma and fear surrounding bigger bodies primes us as a society to try and avoid gaining weight at all costs.

But despite the emphasis there’s been on the obligation to lose weight or avoid weight gain for years, there isn’t good evidence to show that weight loss diets are effective. For example, only around 50% of participants in weight loss studies are seen to lose at least 5% of their body weight (the minimum amount seen as clinically significant) and most people regain a lot of the weight — or gain even more — within 5 years of dieting. This keeps so many people trapped in an endless cycle of going on and off diets for years.

Weight loss diets are also linked with a higher risk of:

  • Disordered eating
  • Poor body image                         
  • Mental health issues
  • Weight cycling up and down
  • Reduced metabolism
  • Lower levels of the fullness hormone leptin
  • Less healthy behaviours

So the message that following a diet realistically leads to weight loss for most people is probably the most pervasive nutrition myth out there, and this trickles into so many other fads too.

How to Protect Yourself From Nutritional BS

Knowing that nutritional misinformation can lead to real-world harm is an important first step in increasing your awareness and arming yourself against this.

Next, you can keep an eye out for nutritional red flags like:

  • Black and white framing of foods as simply ‘good’ vs ‘bad’
  • Miracle cures and messages that seem too good to be true, eg lose two stone in a week
  • Extreme approaches, eg very restrictive, long fasts, eating raw meat or only meat etc.
  • The appeal to nature, eg eat ‘natural’ or ‘like your ancestors’ etc.
  • Too much emphasis on supplements (especially if selling these too)
  • Focuses on appearance rather than health, eg bikini body challenge, skin glowing cleanse etc
  • The words ‘detox’ or ‘superfood’
  • Promoting diet or supplements in place of medical treatment
  • Food sensitivity tests (ie not those carried out by a medical doctor)

If you want to go a step further and protect yourself from diets and diet culture as a whole, it can be really help to reflect on your relationship with food, body image and the fatphobia that most of us carry around from existing in this society.

The books I most commonly recommend to help with this are:

  • Intuitive Eating, 4th Edition: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach by Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole
  • Just Eat It and How to Just Eat It books by Laura Thomas
  • “You Just Need to Lose Weight”: And 19 Other Myths About Fat People by Aubrey Gordon
  • Body Kindness by Rebecca Scritchfield

And if you feel like you need support with this, the first step is often to speak with your GP. If public support options aren’t available for you, which is all too common sadly, there are also private options available (including my own clinic). The UK charity Beat is another great place to find further information and support services related to disordered eating (I use this term rather than eating disorders to be more inclusive of those who may not fit the specific diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder). 

So despite all the never-ending nutritional misinformation we’re surrounded by, it is definitely possible to protect yourself from this and make evidence-based nutritional choices to benefit your health while also safeguarding your relationship with food.

From the archives: Why Do People Believe in the Paranormal? Skeptical happenings in Lowestoft

Jean N Dorricott
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From the archives: Why Do People Believe in the Paranormal? Skeptical happenings in Lowestoft

This article originally appeared in The Skeptic, Volume 4, Issue 3, from 1990.

It was my turn to give a talk at our evening class on the paranormal.

Our experiments on card guessing, hypnotic regression to past lives, reading the Tarot, and white magic hadn’t been conclusive, and I was determined that this time we should have some success.

As I was known to be skeptical about card guessing psi, I told the audience that I’d been looking up other ways of testing this marvel. ‘You can relax while I do the hard work of mental concentration. Shut your eyes and wish, and then focus your mind on two geometric shapes, one inside the other.’ After a brief interval I drew a circle inside a triangle on the blackboard to gasps of astonishment. Nearly half of them had thought of the very same thing or the reverse. Everyone had thought of a circle.

I continued this phenomenal success with number guessing. ‘I want you all to relax again, and to think of a number between 1 and 50. To make it a little easier, I’ll choose a number with two digits, both uneven, like 13, but both different, not like 11.’ When I wrote 37 on the board, again half of them had chosen that very number.

Now I moved on to more complex visualisations. ‘I’m going to think of a simple outdoor scene. I want you to do either a sketch or just make a note of whatever comes into in your mind.’ Then I drew a scene and eventually held it up to them. I had included a house with a tree on each side of it (one coniferous, one deciduous), a stick man walking to a boat on a lake, with hills behind it, and the sun shining above. All these items except the man had been visualised by at least one member of the class, though no one had seen them all. The lecturer decided this was because I’d chosen too complex a scene.

We agreed this was the most successful series of experiments we’d done as a class.

I had joined the evening class on the paranormal halfway through the autumn term (November 1989), with the intention of inserting a little healthy scepticism into the group. This class has been running very successfully for about ten years in Lowestoft, and several spiritual improvement groups have been set up over the years to promote healing in particular. I was impressed by the lecturer’s attitude, which was to respect standard medication etc and to take no payment unless this was offered after healing. The healers present were similarly cautious in their approach, though their beliefs in spirit possession would be damaging to anyone who thought themselves possessed, but I was put down firmly when I made this comment.

Over twenty people attended, and they were all firmly convinced that paranormal events have been proved scientifically. Disbelieving scientists were dismissed as ignorant materialistic sceptics. We discussed various concepts at some length, such as Steiner’s theories, the lost continents of Atlanta and Limura, auras and methods of experimenting with these using Dr Kilner’s glass screen and Adamkenko’s toboscope. The approach was experimental – we were asked to think about a sick person at a particular time, and apparently she felt better for this.

During the spring term numbers dropped, but several members took a good deal of trouble to gather information on their particular specialties, and produce talks for the rest of us. Topics were practical and included witchcraft, UFOs, hypnotherapy, and use of the Tarot, ordinary cards and the I Ching for divination.

A man sitting by a woman lying down on a sofa, resting her head on a cushion, dangles a pendulum in front of her in a 'hypnotherapy' session
Example hypnotherapy session. Image via Malaysia Today, CC BY 4.0

Finally, as resident sceptic, I was asked to do my stint. As my day approached, the time allotted shrunk from two hours to half an hour and then 20 minutes. Undismayed, I prepared enough data for the full two hours, assuming correctly that if I could make it interesting enough, I should be allowed to extend my time. By this time, it being March, the numbers had dropped to eight.

It took me some while to decide how to approach this opportunity. My main aims were:

  1. to put forward the human face of science and the fascination of some of this century’s discoveries
  2. to explain why scientists in general are sceptical of paranormal claims
  3. not to cause upset to any of the people present, and to steer clear of those topics they’d gone to such pains to prepare
  4. to warn them of fakes
  5. to put things over fairly simply, remembering the wide range of scientific understanding among the listeners
  6. to make the talk amusing and provide activities
  7. to provide backup notes for people to take away at the end, including a book list.

After my initial psi success, they were all interested to hear the rest of my talk. I started by explaining that science is a self-correcting discipline, and that scientists are as fallible as anyone else, using Fleischmann and Pons and the fusion fiasco as my example. By use of a very simple demonstration, I explained how controlled experiments are set up. Before the talk I had grown some cress in two metallic pie dishes on paper hankies, watering one from the tap and the other with water in which a quartz crystal was placed. I logged all my observations over an eight day period, and put these beside the cress on the bench. In the four pages of notes I provided for later reading, I also gave instructions on testing claims that crystals improve fuel consumption [1].

Then I explained the importance of the double-blind procedure in experiments with human administrators. There were a lot of questions and interest was considerable throughout.

My second major point was to explain why the majority of scientists are sceptical, using Dr Susan Blackmore’s examples of the unreliability of original material held by the SPR [2]. I explained how little we know of human physiology (for example, effects of stress on production of brain opiates) and psychology – and here I dehoaxed them, amid groans and laughter, on the population stereotypes with which I’d started the talk. Details of these were included in the notes [3].

I handed out copies of Von Daniken’s Palenque ‘astronaut god’ [5], and showed how important it is to study the relevant literature, to avoid misunderstanding the figure. Psychic archaeology was the next topic – how difficult is it to guess where prehistoric remains might be found? For this I had drawn a sketch map of the area around Chichester, reorientating it by 90 degrees, included towns (without names), the sea inlets and rough contours of the Downs. By following simple rules – for example, the Romans made straight roads near the sea along plains if possible; stone age humans tended to use hill walkways and build on easily defended sites, using dewponds for water, etc, I showed how easy it would be for a GCSE student to pinpoint possible sites. They tried this on the photocopies, and later compared their results with the actual map. This experiment didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, as I did not explain the task adequately.

It was now time for coffee, and I knew I was going to have problems with a PK demonstration. For this I’d fixed a horseshoe magnet to my bra strap, and put on a thick jumper to hide the bulge. Apart from the discomfort of overheating, while I was talking the magnet fell out. I retrieved it and debated on a quick dash to the loo during the break. There wasn’t time – I got involved in discussions about visions and second sight. I handed over a compass to our witch, and he attempted to move it psychokinetically. No luck. Several of the others came to try their powers, and I slipped the magnet back into position. Although I have no slight of hand ability, and didn’t attempt to hide what I was doing, no one noticed. Eventually, the group were thrilled by my powers. ‘Wouldn’t it be odd if you, the sceptic, were psychokinetic!’ they exclaimed, crowding around.

‘I’m afraid it’s only a Geller,’ I told them, and they collapsed about laughing as I withdrew the magnet.

Apart from one or two more comments the talk was practically finished, and the lecturer took over to regain a bit of lost ground!

I think that on the whole I was fairly successful in my aims, although I didn’t have time to explain the attraction of scientific discovery.

By humorous and non-threatening presentation, I managed to get across the complexity of the scientific approach, and I hope I encouraged them to look more rigorously at pseudoscientific claims. It alarmed me that believers could so easily be fooled by simple tricks, even by someone they knew to be sceptical. Their knowledge that I had tricked them over the mindreading had no effect on their faith in the PK experiment

Did I make much impression on the class’s beliefs? Discussions at later classes indicated no change, but one has to take the long-term view here. And we parted friends, agreeing that the classes had been most useful for their presentation of varying viewpoints.

References

  1. Lawrence E.Jerome, Crystal Power, Prometheus, 1989. Petrol mileage experiment, pages 1 3 1-134; plant growth experiment, pages 136-1 39.
  2. Susan Blackmore, The Adventures of a Parapsychologist, Prometheus Books, 1 986, the Wilmot OBE case, page 193; the Danvers OBE case, page 194.
  3. David Marks and Richard Kammann, The Psychology of the Psychic, Prometheus Books, 1980, Appendix 1 , pages 220, 221.
  4. Ronald D. S tory, Von Daniken’s Golden Gods, in Kendrick Frazier, editor, Paranormal Borderlands of Science, Prometheus Books, 1981.
  5. Kenneth L. Fed er, Psychic Archaeology: the Anatomy of Irrationalist Prehistoric Studies, in Paranormal Borderlands of Science (see ref. 4).

Acknowledgements

My thanks for backup, help and advice is due to Steve Donnelly who also provided a back number of the Skeptic and loaned me his copy of Crystal Power by Lawrence E. Jerome, and to Mike Hutchinson who also lent me James Randi’s Test Your ESP Potential, and sent four highly useful Prometheus books.

Welcome to the modern American Right – the world that high weirdness built

Aaron Rabinowitz
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Welcome to the modern American Right – the world that high weirdness built

Weird. It’s the word that’s defined the 2024 US presidential election. Democrats are experiencing unexpected success simply by pointing out how incredibly weird the right wing of American politics has become, and they’re not wrong:

There is a reason for the rapidly escalating weirdness of the American right that goes beyond the cognitive dissonance that comes of holding regressive views while society grinds slowly forward. The truth is that everything has gotten weird, because High Weirdness has gone mainstream, and the American right has it the worst.

In his book High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies, Erik Davis defines high weirdness as “a mode of culture and consciousness that reached a definite peak in the early seventies, when the writers and psychonauts… pushed hard on the boundaries of reality – and got pushed around in return.”

Cover of High Weirdness by Erik Davis, depicting mushrooms growing out of a golden pyramid with a stylized eye of Ra on it.
Tell me this image does not convey the vibe at this point. (Book cover of High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica and Visionary Experience in the Seventies by Erik Davis, featuring UFO-mushrooms, a pyramid and eye symbol)

Davis attributes the term to Rev. Ivan Stang’s 1988 catalogue of strange stories, High Weirdness By Mail: A Directory of the Fringe: Mad Prophets, Crackpots, Kooks & True Visionaries.

Cover of Ivan Strang’s High Weirdness by Mail, depicting the title illuminated by white light emanating from a mailbox bearing a logo with the word “slack” below the image of a postal service bird with the church of the sub-genius smoking man logo for a head
Respect the double subtitle (Book cover of High Weirdness by Mail – A Directory of The Fringe: Mad Prophets, Crackpots, Kooks & True Visionaries by Rev. Ivan Stang, featuring a mailbox projecting the title into a starry sky)

High weirdness is fundamentally about skepticism of normie, mainstream beliefs and narratives. It arises from the often-accurate concern that those narratives are legitimising myths that suppress understanding and thereby allow dominant groups to maintain their power over society. The founders of high weirdness, who often called themselves psychonauts to emphasise their goal of exploring the uncharted spaces within their own minds, saw the world around them as asleep, and it was their obligation to wake everyone up.

Picture from the movie The Matrix where Morpheus holds out the red pill and blue pill, representing the choice between waking up and staying asleep.
If you understand this image, the high weirdness already has you. (Still from the Matrix, showing the famous red pill/blue pill choice)

In order to achieve their goal, the psychonauts sought to problematise all things normie through revelations of the weirdness that permeate our universe. For example, when he wasn’t busy cataloguing weirdness, Stang co-founded the Church of the SubGenius, a parody religion that overlaps significantly with Discordianism, an ironic cult that has significantly impacted internet culture. In fact, the counterculture author Robert Anton Wilson helped popularise both high weirdness and Discordianism through his conspiracy-based fiction, particularly The Illuminatus! Trilogy book series:

Cover of the Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, depicting three dolphins jumping over a black pyramid with a human looking eye.
Sex, drugs, and psychic dolphins! (Book cover of The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, featuring The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple and Leviathan. Another pyramid/eye cover, this time on a checkerboard and featuring dolphins. ‘Over 100,000 copies sold!’)

High weirdness has been mainstreamed through the adapting of weird stories from writers like H.P. Lovecraft and Philip K. Dick, as well as through the increasing popularity of science fiction more broadly.

At this point I’m just showing off how High Weirdness gets the best book covers. (Cover of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, “… a masterpiece of sorts, full of demonic intensity.” says Robert Silverberg.)

The psychonauts of high weirdness were inspired by a blend of interconnected sources that all questioned dominant cultural narratives. The precursors to high weirdness include the cosmic horror of Lovecraft the Gnosticism of the Nag Hammadi, the psychoanalysis of Carl Jung, and the shamanism of indigenous and non-western traditions. To open their minds to the weird truths of the universe, the psychonauts were down to try anything, from Ayahuasca to Zoroastrianism.

The result was a lot of insight and a lot of harm caused by transgressive behavior in the name of seeking insight. Along with questioning taboos around drugs, the psychonauts questioned taboos around sexuality, which often resulted in pressuring people into sex they did not want (ie, rape). In their search for the truth, they contributed to the rise of drug culture, anti-government activism, and what we now ironically call the post-truth era.

You see, it’s tempting to think of modern skepticism as a reaction to the rampant spread of misinformation, but that oversimplifies the story. It’s more accurate to say that modern conspiracy theory culture and modern skepticism both arise out of high weirdness. As a result, both inherit a messy mix of reactionary attitudes, some progressive, others libertarian.

It’s the skepticism of high weirdness, combined with increased awareness of genuine conspiracies like Watergate, that has created the spaces in our society where conspiracy theories can now rage unchecked. High weirdness won the culture wars, but it came at a cost. Healthy skepticism about capitalist influences on medicine has given rise to alternative medicine as a commodified identity focused on resistance to “big pharma”. In seeking to challenge the narrowness of accepted scientific practices, the psychonauts pried open the pandoras box of pseudoscience and did everything they could to make woo sexy. Flash forward a few decades, and conspiracy theories now permeate our cultural landscape.

The psychonauts have managed to spread their doubting disposition through normie culture, bolstered by the tsunami of information and misinformation brought on by the internet, another child of high weirdness. It’s old hat now to talk about how the pioneers of the internet were often psychonauts, using psychedelics to try to break through their assumptions about how things had to be. Cliché as it is, it’s understandable that the experience of exotic states of consciousness could facilitate the construction of technologies for expanding and extending cognition, and lead to the disastrous motto of “move fast and break stuff”.

In trying to strip away the false assumptions of culture, high weirdness risks stripping our understanding down to nothing, until only nihilism remains. In this way, places like 4Chan and the nihilist black-pilled memetic cultures that fester in the dark corners of the internet, giving birth to QAnons, are also spawns of high weirdness. Everywhere, we see the tentacles of its skepticism altering our world and us with it.

Davis describes his account of high weirdness as a sort of “here be dragons” of the mind. Psychonaut exploration is valuable, but that exploration is always a tightrope between healthy skepticism and a spiral into unhealthy paranoia, between substance use and substance abuse, between the ethical violation of unjustified cultural norms and the horrors of moral nihilism. That is a difficult path to walk, and many of the protagonists of high weirdness like Philip K. Dick to Timothy Leary’s brother suffered from severe mental illness as a result of their drug use. When you take seriously the maxim “question everything”, it becomes dangerously easy to end up in a place where there is no such thing as truth or, even worse, a place where you’re confident you’ve found the hidden truth.

Which brings us back to the American right, a political movement drowning in conspiracy theories. How could it be that American conservatives, who notoriously would have loved the war on drugs even if it weren’t filling prisons with people of colour, have come to embody the radically anti-establishmentarian ethos of high weirdness? As with so much of high weirdness, the primary vector of transmission has been through radio and its digital offspring the podcast:

  • Picture of Rush Limbaugh from his time as host on WABC radio.
    The Grand Dragon of weaponizing conspiracy theories
  • Joe Rogan and Alex Jones recording an episode of the Joe Rogan podcast
    The most famous podcaster in the world promoting the conspiracy theories of his longtime friend Alex Jones.
  • Promotional material for a Tucker Carlson live tour featuring Alex Jones and Jack Posobiec.
    The most influential person on Fox News touring with Alex Jones and the author of a book that claims liberals and progressives are sub-humans.

Promotional material for a Tucker Carlson live tour featuring Alex Jones and Jack Posobiec.

I’ve previously explained how Bill Cooper consolidated much of the libertarian conspiracy theorising that arose out of high weirdness, and provided the source material for a great deal of modern conspiracy mongering, including inspiring the work of Alex Jones.

Talk radio personalities like Limbaugh and Jones took the anti-governmental libertarian strain of high weirdness conspiracy theorising and stripped it of its psychedelic roots, repackaging it for conservative audiences by replacing the blunts and free love with cigars and misogyny. Gone was the talk of social progress, all of that was now part of the system that was controlling you and trying to keep you from returning to the glorious fictional past that fascists fantasise about.

It wasn’t until Joe Rogan became the nexus of audio conspiracy mongering that the psychedelics roots re-emerged. It should come as no surprise that the worst quotes from J.D. Vance, prior to his attempts to instigate a pogrom, were all from him going on far-right podcasts to promote his Dark Enlightenment Catholic weirdness. At this point, in those spaces, anything is acceptable as long as it is framed as owning the libs.

That is how it is possible that a proudly adulterous billionaire reality TV star with an obsession for wrestling kayfabe seized absolute control of the GOP, instigated a violent insurrection through rampant conspiracy mongering, and still remains the Republican presidential candidate. It is why the most popular conservative news host in the country is openly promoting Holocaust deniers with zero repercussions. It is why the Republican presidential ticket will continue to promote racist blood libel style conspiracy theories about Haitian Americans long after it gets people killed.

Much of the problem arises from a mix of epistemic isolation and a wicked persecution complex. The American right has convinced itself that it is a marginalised community beset on all sides by the horrors of mainstream culture, with its theory of evolution and drag queen story hours. Unable to comprehend why they are increasingly perceived as extremely weird in all the worst ways, they have turned towards conspiracy theories to rationalise their losses and further enflame their base with nightmares of the coming multiracial transhumanist hellscape.

Not all blame for our current epistemic predicament falls on high weirdness. The capitalist mainstreaming and commodifying of high weirdness, the normalising of constructing one’s identity around the feeling of being abnormal, dilutes it down to the point where it is about as confronting as a Cronenberg body-horror soft-toy. Instead, high weirdness is now a fun shtick for performance artists like Joe Rogan. Rogan and many of the conspiracy theorists who orbit him, like Graham Hancock, can certainly ape high weirdness but they lack the training and rigor to stay on that epistemic tightrope, leading millions of followers with them as they fall into increasingly dark and dangerous places.

It’s especially depressing that capitalism has managed to swallow and digest high weirdness, since one of its best parts was the attempt to reverse the crisis of meaning that capitalism fosters for the sake of profit. For all its failings, high weirdness was an earnest attempt to fill the void many feel when confronted with an apathetic universe and a regressive society. They had the right idea, using a mix of materialism, mindfulness, and medications to counteract the capitalist mindfuck that equates happiness with endless consumption. Since capitalism can’t abide a threat, it’s unsurprising that high weirdness would end up enslaved to the status quo.

Ultimately, high weirdness is why it is so hard to fit any skeptical analysis into into neat, 1,500 word boxes. Davis calls high weirdness an “infectious project” and it certainly seems to infect much of what I experience. He meant that it’s impossible to study it and keep one’s distance, which has also been my experience, but I think it’s also true that the ideas of high weirdness have become highly infectious even to those who don’t study it. Without sufficient safety measures, that infectiousness has given birth to epistemic horror beyond human comprehension, which is how the GOP finds itself awash in not just climate skepticism and antivaxxerism, but blood libel and Holocaust denial.

Until they can find their way back to accepting at least some mainstream knowledge, they will remain dangerously weird:

Jesse Plimon's character from Civil War asking "What kind of Weird? Renn Faire weird, or menstrual surveillance weird?"
It’s a simple question; What kind of Weird? Rennaisance Faire-weird, or menstrual surveillance-weird?

The “child identifies as wolf” story was only ever about bullying, not ‘species confusion’

Brian Eggo
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The “child identifies as wolf” story was only ever about bullying, not ‘species confusion’

If you ever want to strike fear and inspire outrage in the hearts and minds of the right-wing media and their audience, all it takes is three words: “I identify as…”. It’s like a Bat-Signal summoning a cacophony of caped culture war crusaders, echo-chamber-locating every tiny morsel of perceived ‘wokeness’ they can gorge upon to help spread their misinformation guano.

Those three terrifying words are of course most associated with the ongoing battle for trans rights, so it’s perhaps not surprising that those who are against such things are particularly keen on grasping at examples of identification that fall outside of gender as it helps both their slippery slope argument and the reinforcement of their favourite ‘joke’.

Imagine therefore the number of whispers that must have been passed to prompt what appears to be some classic FOIA request-fuelled muck raking by the tabloids to dredge up the recent story of a school in Scotland that allegedly “allows a pupil to identify as a wolf”.

The story seems to have been copy/pasted across all of the usual suspects: The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Daily Record, GB News, and The Telegraph to name but a few. With the rabble well and truly roused the disbelief and anger reverberated around social media. TalkTV even used it as an excuse to criticize the new Labour government (please don’t lycan-subscribe).

I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that I came across this story because it was shared on Facebook by a friend of mine who should know better (and has been informed of such). Even at first glance it looked questionable – after all, it hasn’t been too long since fact-averse podcaster Joe Rogan kicked off baseless rumours about litter boxes in schools for pupils who identify as cats and was subsequently chastised from all directions, even including the immune-to-irony writers at the Daily Mail. With suspicions of sensationalism, I posted a message about the wolf story on the Glasgow Skeptics Facebook page asking if it seemed questionable. The general consensus in the comments was yes, but this was just the beginning. A few days later an email arrived in the Glasgow Skeptics inbox from a member of staff at the school in question. They had spotted my Facebook post and felt compelled to make contact.

According to them, the real story is “neither as interesting nor as dramatic as those headlines would suggest”. Unfortunately, it is considerably more depressing and tells an age-old story that we really shouldn’t still be dealing with in these supposedly enlightened times.

In Scotland, as part of the transition from primary to secondary school (ages 11-12) there are handover discussions from representatives of one school to the other. During a very busy meeting there was a passing remark of one child who “identifies as a wolf”, but there was no time for elaboration and mental notes were made to deal with that situation if and when it arose. Many weeks passed in the new school term without any sign of wolf-like behaviour from the pupil in question, but eventually they confided in a member of staff that the bullies who had tormented them in primary school were keeping the momentum going in secondary school.

If you are a young person experiencing bullying, guidance and support can be found in various places such as Kidscape, the Anti-Bullying Alliance, and the National Bullying Helpline. Please seek help if you need it. 

The child is something of a loner, perhaps finding it hard to make friends, which makes them an easy and obvious target for the less pleasant proportion of the playground population. Upon enquiry about the wolf persona, the child struggled somewhat to explain it, but essentially it appears to be some form of disassociation, protection, and perhaps even escapism of sorts.

It’s heartbreaking enough that this is happening, but to have their story paraded across the tabloids and social media for the real baying mob to howl about will surely cause even more hurt, and could even spark an increase in the bullying that possibly led to the creation of this persona in the first place. As for that persona, according to my source “The child has never, in secondary school, exhibited any sort of animal behaviour. Never expressed identity as, affiliation with, behaviour of any animal.”

So, to be clear: The bullied child wears school uniform and not a pelt. The bullied child does not disrupt classes with ear-shattering howls. The bullied child has never bitten any of the other pupils. The bullied child uses the bathroom as normal and does not request to defecate in nearby forests. The bullied child has never urinated near their desk to establish territory. The bullied child has not demanded that the school canteen caters for dietary requirements such as moose, elk, or bison. The bullied child has never made the excuse “Sorry, I ate my homework”.

A bullied child sits on the floor with their head on their knees and arms wrapped around themseves as three other children taunt them from close by, in a classroom
Let’s end bullying. Follow links to resources above if you need some support. Image by Mikhail Nilov, via Pexels

The bullied child’s wolf ‘persona’ has not had any impact on the ability of other pupils to get on with learning, nor has it required any form of special accommodations from staff. All of the images popping into the heads of those who read any of the articles, and all the snarky comments and fury on social media that it generated, were based on fiction. The real problem here is bullying, and not an unconventional child’s desire to find some form of escapism to help deal with it.

The one thing that the papers did get right is that there is indeed no such condition as ‘Species Dysphoria’.  It certainly doesn’t appear in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), although there has been some limited scholarly discussion around the topic using the term ‘Species Identity Disorder’. It’s unclear whether the council involved actually used that term, or whether it has been fabricated by the storytellers. Even if it was the former, it can easily be attributed to a somewhat clumsy but genuine attempt to explain the child (allegedly) being a furry.

Either way, it facilitates an interesting bait and switch in the articles as the headlines start out with “identify as”, then subtly move to “identify with” a few paragraphs down. There’s much misunderstanding about the furry community (you can find an excellent mythbusting article here), and in the vast majority of cases it’s a harmless hobby that facilitates escapism, creativity and self-expression. Despite that, it’s still deemed a danger by the anti-woke brigade. This is possibly because there is a statistical skew away from heterosexuality and gender norms, so the story has an overpowering stench of a sideswipe at the trans community. It’s also notable that furries have an above average percentage of neurodivergence in their community, and it’s thought that being able to create a persona that is very different from your day-to-day one may be helpful in helping you cope with social difficulties, or at least temporarily escape from them.

So, despite the fact that the school in question has not had to make any accommodations for the child’s wolf persona, even if they had it might not necessarily have been a bad thing. The initiative that’s taking a beating for those non-existent accommodations is the Scottish Government’s Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) policy. There’s nothing in there that suggests taking over-the-top measures to incorporate every aspect of every child’s identity, but it’s clearly aware of the diversity of personalities, ideals, problems and passions across a school’s population, and the need to support them all as best as possible during a crucial time in their development. 

There’s certainly no mention of Species Dysphoria and how to deal with it. Even the evidently positive Wellbeing Wheel is displayed with the accusation that it’s being used as a vehicle to usher in some kind of ‘woke agenda’.

Wheel of misfortune – the Wellbeing Wheel has four outer categories (Successful learners, Confident individuals, Effective contributors and Responsible citizens) with eight inner categories (Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible, Included, Safe and Health) that each have descriptions of what those mean. These radiate out from ‘Best start in life: Ready to succeed’.

The Daily Mail unsurprisingly tries to strike an additional blow below the belt as their article concludes with an elongated commentary from Christopher McGovern of the Campaign for Real Education (CRE), and former adviser to the Policy Unit at 10 Downing Street. McGovern uses the story as a springboard to dive into a tirade about “the ‘woke’, politically correct, victimhood industry that currently defines too much schooling”, with a blissful lack of awareness that he’s ranting about something that simply isn’t happening. Perhaps the organisation he represents should consider advocating for digital literacy, fact-checking, and critical thinking on the curriculum. The CRE advocates for a return to a more authoritarian method of teaching, and McGovern’s anti-woke soundbites and opinion pieces seem to pop up in the media with monotonous regularity.

So, now that we’ve unmasked the real villain, very much like an episode of Scooby Doo, we find the culprit to be much more mundane than we were initially led to believe. There are lessons to learn for all parties:

To the casual reader: please be careful when reading ‘news’, as there’s almost always more going on than will ever be reported. Consider what you’re not being told, what the real harm is, and who the actual antagonists are in the story. Don’t eat what they’re feeding you without at least giving it a sniff!

To the news outlets reporting on this, and other similar stories: you can do much better, but I think you know that already.

To the bullies: you will, with great certainty, regret your current behaviour. Get hooked on kindness instead. The dopamine hit is much better, and it’s infectious. There’s even science to back it up! Make amends if you can.

To the young person at the heart of this story, or anyone else in a similar situation: this is not an easy road you’re on, but things get better. Your tormentors will invariably grow tired or grow up. You’re at the perfect age to discover who you are and who you want to be, so go explore and express yourself. You will find your tribe, or will be just fine as a lone wolf if that’s what you want. You do you!

Floral alchemy: the even stranger Brazilian cousin of Bach Flower Remedies

Mauro Proença
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Floral alchemy: the even stranger Brazilian cousin of Bach Flower Remedies

This story was originally written in Portuguese, and published to the website of Revista Questão de Ciência. It appears here with permission.

I don’t usually talk about my old job. In addition to remembering stressful and, on many occasions, embarrassing situations, I felt embarrassed when explaining my duties. But it was a turning point in my career: in addition to forcing me to exercise critical thinking, it allowed me to meet many practitioners and users of less-conventional pseudosciences.

Among these meetings, I partially remember a conversation with a couple of floral alchemists. I had never heard of the subject and they kindly explained to me what the practice consisted of, its daily applications in many patients, and how it could be used concomitantly with other supplements and substances that are beneficial to the body to strengthen the immune system and prevent diseases.

They also advised me, if I was interested, to research Joel Aleixo’s AlkhemyLab, one of the greatest Brazilian experts on the subject. I thanked them, wrote down the information, already thinking about how it could be used in an article, and went back to work.

This happened in 2022, and since much more important news came out, I ended up leaving the topic aside. Furthermore, I hadn’t heard anything about the practice for more than two years, which could indicate that they were no longer attracting followers. Unfortunately, I was very wrong.

In a moment of relaxation, while watching YouTube, I received a notification that Paranormal Experience, a podcast that gives space for interviewees to talk about different religious, cultural and philosophical systems, was starting a live broadcast called “Alchemy’s Look at the World – Joel Aleixo”. Naturally, I took this as a sign from the Flying Spaghetti Monster to watch the three-hour broadcast and delve deeper into floral alchemy.

According to autobiographical narratives found in videos and interviews, at a certain point in his life Aleixo had a mystical, perhaps mediumistic experience, followed by a prolonged period of fasting, and from there he received the power to “read” auras, both of people and plants, which gave him the ability to discover which plant preparations would best serve to resolve the “imbalances” of his patients.

Among intriguing statements that appeared in the podcast, the interviewee claims, with great conviction and based on his clinical consultations, that 90% of the patients who seek him out are sick, and also carry with them a story of sadness.

Based on this, he concludes that diseases are not real entities, but rather manifestations of the patient’s “internal fragmentation.” For example, physical fragmentation presents itself in the form of cancers and tumours, while spiritual fragmentation translates into disillusionment and depression. The role of the alchemist would be to penetrate the heart of the matter, explore this story of sadness, and not restrict himself to treating the symptoms alone.

None of this should sound like news to anyone familiar with the most common clichés of health-related pseudoscience – the myth of the “single cause” (all diseases would have a common “root cause”) and the restoration of health by restoring some lost “balance.” This was the common view of human health in pre-scientific times, before the discovery of microorganisms and genetics. Pseudoscientific proposals revive this outdated way of thinking, simply by incorporating modern concepts such as “energy” into the vocabulary.

Aleixo also resurrects the demonstrably erroneous notion that humans use only a small portion of their brain capacity. In the particular version of the myth propagated by him, we use only 4% of our brain, while geniuses such as Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Tesla and Einstein used 8%, due to a brain expansion that allowed them to see a new spectrum where they glimpsed the past, present and future.

During the following hours, other even more problematic misinformation was propagated, such as the therapeutic suggestion of using demineralised water with diamond particles to treat intrauterine trauma (negative information acquired and stored before birth) – we will come back to that.

The new Bach?

Despite many similarities with the Bach Flower Remedies that were developed by English homeopath Edward Bach, the “alchemical” system developed in Brazil is different. According to the Alkhemylab website, the main difference is that the native floral system uses precepts of alchemy throughout the process, from planting to harvesting. Here there seems to be a somewhat eccentric use of the word “alchemy”. Normally, the term refers to the ancient art of purifying, refining and mixing substances that, in addition to a strong empirical aspect – which led to the development of techniques later adopted by chemistry, such as distillation – also involved magical, superstitious beliefs and philosophical speculation.

In the case of alchemical florals, the flowers are grown in mandala-shaped beds, designed to reproduce the patterns of nature. They are harvested according to the lunar cycles. After harvesting, they are transferred to a warehouse, where they are stored in oak barrels and soaked in grain alcohol, remaining at rest for a complete lunar cycle, totalling 28 days.

Four scientists working together in a laboratory. They're all wearing white lab coats and looking at plants in glass specimen containers.
Workers wearing lab coats inspect plants in jars (illustration only; not an image from a flower alchemy business)

After completing these 28 days, the flowers are divided into two distinct destinations: those that will be sent to the laboratory for the production of alchemical compounds in spray form, and those that will be used in the production of subtle florals – vibrational florals that act on changing behaviours and the “soul”. The latter are sent to the chapel, a space specially prepared to contemplate the twelve astrological houses. There, the flowers are placed in copper tubes, allowing them to receive the influence of the astrological sign of the person who will ingest them.

Intrauterine Traumas

If these delusions were not enough to make us look at the practice with disbelief, we can return to something that is taught to students of the alchemy school, according to the content presented in “Module 1 of the Joel Aleixo Floral System” of 25 June 2019, and in the work “Intrauterine Traumas” 2nd edition of 17 March 2016. Students are instructed about ancient alchemists, the history of the practice and exposed to some petty allegories to give them the vague impression that the study of alchemy and florals would be “scientific”. For example, it is suggested that the alchemists pointed out that all matter was made of mercury (related to expansion), salt (stabilisation) and sulphur (contraction), but that in fact this was an allegory for electrons, neutrons and protons.

Students also learn the history of Edward Bach, the creator of flower remedies. In addition, to increase the credibility of the practice, the World Health Organization and the inclusion of flower remedies in the National Plan for Integrative and Complementary Practices are mentioned.

Surprisingly, it is possible to find in the midst of this material a warning that flower remedies do not replace “allopathic” treatments (a pejorative term used by alternative medicine to refer to scientifically based medicine) and that their effects have not been scientifically proven. Also, students are informed that the use of flower remedies is preventive, and that “allopathic medicine” is responsible for treating diseases.

However, the very next page in “Module 1” seems to forget those stated limitations, and turns into a pamphlet to help the future alchemist indicate the products produced by Alkhemylab. Here we find a floral compound for everyday stress and extremely appealing promises, such as the compound “Flower of Life”, suggested for the elderly and patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment (pre, during, post).

Furthermore, when students are instructed about subtle flower remedies, those with “vibrational effects”, they learn that they can be divided into three levels according to their action on the human body and psyche. The explanation of the mechanism of action involves the inappropriate and ignorant use of the word magnetism (in nonsense concepts such as “magnetism of warm colours”).

Even more pernicious, in another work, entitled “Intrauterine Traumas”, it is taught that a woman’s gestation lasts 12 months (3 months of spiritual pregnancy and 9 months of physical pregnancy), and that the mother’s negative experiences throughout the process are “imprinted” on the foetus, as “carbon crystals” encapsulated in the bones. These crystals are said to be responsible for many health problems for the baby, such as congenital malformations and genetic syndromes. Depending on the quantity and severity of the trauma, the crystals can penetrate deeper into the bones, reaching the bone marrow, compromising the immune system, causing anaemia and, in extreme cases, leukaemia.

None of this makes any sense. In practice, what we have here is a pseudoscientific mix of concepts used to construct a narrative that blames mothers for their children’s health problems.

A smiling pregnant woman with shoulder-length hair lies on her back on a medical bed, looking at a screen showing the live ultrasound imaging that a healthcare worker is performing, using equipment pressed to her abdomen
A mid-pregnancy ultrasound scan in progress – these are used to check for healthy foetal development. Image via MedicalPrudens on Pixabay

Stop being picky!

While gathering information for this article, I came across the following on the São Paulo city government website: “Learn more about therapy with alchemical flowers: Therapy is available to employees at HSPM”. According to the publication, the therapy aims to promote a state of harmony and balance through comprehensive health treatment in the physical, mental, social, emotional and spiritual spheres. It is also stated, with the authority of an official communication from the government, that alchemical flowers can help the patient to carry out their life projects, in addition to bringing awareness to the individual’s life process, including daily life, past and future.

Of course, some advocates of alternative practices could argue that, even without scientific support (and, in fact, making claims that contradict basic scientific laws), alchemical flower remedies can provide emotional or psychological comfort, which is true – except, of course, when they blame pregnant women for the illnesses their child will have in the future, which is not at all comforting.

As discussed in the chapter “Does Truth Matter?” in the book “Trick or Treatment: Truths and Lies About Alternative Medicine,” many advocates of alternative medicine point out that even if the practices lack scientific evidence, they can act as a placebo, providing relief and hope for patients. However, as the authors themselves point out, medications with proven efficacy already trigger a placebo effect. Furthermore, it is important to highlight that alternative treatments and practices that operate only as placebos can end up diverting patients from treatments that really work and prevent serious outcomes.

Knowing how much money is allocated to the health sector and how much the sector remains outdated in several aspects, it is imperative that we discuss whether it is a good decision to allocate even a tiny portion of this amount to practices without scientific support. Short answer: no.

From the archives: A skeptical look at astrology

Anthony Garrett
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From the archives: A skeptical look at astrology

This article originally appeared in The Skeptic, Volume 4, Issue 3, from 1990.

The ancient Babylonians believed that the positions of the stars and planets could exert an influence on human behaviour and so, it appears, does twentieth century man. Many people regularly consult their daily newspaper horoscope whilst ‘professional’ astrologers compile charts for film stars, politicians and business concerns. In this two-part article, physicist Anthony Garrett answers some basic questions about astrology and describes a recent meeting at which a professional astrologer confronted professional astronomers.

What is astrology?

What is commonly called astrology divides into two: prediction of personality of an individual from the positions of the stars at birth; and prediction of events likely to befall an individual, given that person’s birthday and the present disposition of the heavens. The second of these is the popular type commonly used in newspaper ‘horoscopes’. Few serious practitioners of the first kind regard it as reliable. Nevertheless it is the type which most people encounter on a day-to-day basis.

Invariably the statements found in popular astrology columns are so broad as to fit – or to be made to fit – almost any recent or subsequent event. Examples, pulled at random from a popular newspaper on the day of writing, include ‘A well-intentioned friend will want to take you on one side and whisper some wise words in your ear’, ‘After the last few days you deserve a well-earned break’ and ‘Just for once forget your aspirations and start enjoying your life’.

The more serious birth-chart side of it suffers from the same problem. Look at this personality sketch:

‘Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary and reserved. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. You pride yourself on being an independent thinker and do not accept others’ opinions without satisfactory proof. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety, and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. Disciplined and controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. Your sexual adjustment has presented some problems for you. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a strong need for other people to like you and for them to admire you.’

I expect that this fits you well. It came from a standard horoscope and was used by Bertram Forer in 1948 in a demonstration of astrological susceptibility. Forer’s subjects were individually told that the sketch was custom-made for them, and were asked to rate it for accuracy on a 0-5 scale. 16 out of 39 gave it a perfect 5, the mean was 4.26, and only five rated it below 4. Thirty years later the same profile produced almost identical results. This typical example of how most people view themselves, together with the crucial but subtle fact that we notice coincidences but ignore non -coincidences, accounts for the popularity of astrology. Its predictive methods are not even consistent: one technique is incapable of assigning horoscopes to anyone born north of the Arctic Circle. (This hasn’t done Eskimos much harm.) Two other, popular systems – sidereal and tropical astrology – are based respectively on the constellation and sky sector in which the sun falls at the time of birth. They frequently lead to opposing predictions.

In personal consultations, the latitude of horoscopes like Forer ‘s can be combined with information gleaned from other sources. For example, it is likely that someone with a constriction about the base of the third finger of the left hand has been married and is presently unmarried (why is the ring off?), and face-to-face statements about’ traumas concerning one who was close to you’ could hardly fail to impress. Appearance gives more away than we generally realise. Then there is verbal fishing for information, a technique known to stage magicians as cold reading, which is quite extraordinarily convincing to somebody not in the know. Consultants may not even realise they are using this technique.

There exists no remotely plausible explanation of how astrology might work. While this does not rule it out – most effects are observed before they are explained – it provides strong corroboration. And before trying to construct a theory it is as well to be sure there is something to explain. Recently a ‘double-blind’ test of astrological predictions has been undertaken. A double-blind experiment is one in which the tester does not know in advance the’ correct’ result, and so cannot cue the subject in on it unconsciously. This protocol was essential, as unconscious cueing has proved responsible for spurious results in many fields in the past. Equally important was the involvement at every stage of some of America’s leading astrologers, so that there could be no cry of ‘foul’ after the event. The result (published in the leading scientific journal Nature, 5 December 1985, volume 318 pages 419-425) was decisive:

‘We are now in a position to argue a surprisingly strong case against natal astrology as practised by reputable astrologers. Great pains were taken to ensure that the experiment was unbiased and to make sure that astrology was given every reasonable chance to succeed. It failed. Despite the fact that we worked with some of the best astrologers in the country, recommended by the advising astrologers for their expertise in astrology… despite the fact that every reasonable suggestion made by the advising astrologers was worked into the experiment, despite the fact that the astrologers approved the design and predicted 50% as the ‘minimum’ effect they would expect to see, astrology failed to perform at a level better than chance (33%). Tested using double-blind methods, the astrologers’ predictions proved to be wrong. Their predicted connection between the positions of the planets and other astronomical objects at the time of birth and the personalities of test subjects did not exist. The experiment clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis.’

Some astrologers nevertheless defend astrology using the very weak correlations apparently found by Michel Gauquelin between certain physical attributes (such as sporting prowess) and the position of Mars at birth. But it would be surprising if there weren’t correlations between the positions of some planets and some professions, in view of the number of each; and this may be the true explanation. (This is not the same as testing against chance levels within any one profession.)

Even if Gauquelin’s correlations prove to be statistically significant, they are very selective and bear no resemblance to astrology, whose practitioners set great store by its validity for all. And a far more plausible explanation would be the effect of the weather in very early life-which is of course correlated with time of year. Moreover, the Nature result still shows that astrologers cannot do what they claim.

In 1975 a who’s who of 192 US scientists, including 19 Nobel laureates, signed a statement Objections to Astrology. Why did they feel it necessary? Is astrology not just harmless fun? The answer is no: astrology fools people, and is potentially dangerous. In one of the superpowers, the last President’s schedule – including summit meetings on whose outcome depends world stability – was drawn up with the input of astrology. A court case involved an astrologer who had advised against a needed operation for a child; the child died. Companies increasingly look at the birth charts of job applicants: you could be the loser. Once enough of an electorate believes in it, astrology will become part of political manifestos. Undoubtedly most astrologers are not dishonest, merely deluded; but the more astrology becomes part of the fabric of life, the more important will be the decisions taken at every level based on nonsense–to the detriment of everybody.

A Truly Astronomical Lunch

On Thursday, 1 March, a lunchtime forum on astrology was held under the aegis of Glasgow University Astronomical Society (GUAS). Originally two astrologers had agreed to attend, but one-a leading local practitioner-withdrew at short notice, pleading unforeseen pressure of work, and the forum was re-arranged such that the other, Jane Ridder-Patrick, gave a brief initial talk on astrology followed by a lengthy and lively question-and-answer session, concluded with summings-up from Ms Ridder-Patrick and Dr. Alec McKinnon, an astrophysicist at Glasgow University.

Ms Ridder-Patrick’s willingness to address a potentially hostile audience was greatly appreciated. Few of the audience will have been aware, though, that her colleague’s late withdrawal was part of a common pattern. It happens frequently at meetings of this sort, and while I know nothing in this case to suggest that withdrawal was due to inability to sustain the argument, it is plausible in general. Certainly this is a systematic effect, and has a systematic cause.

Ms Ridder-Patrick’ s address distinguished between ‘hard’ sciences like physics and chemistry, and ‘softer’ ones like psychology, sociology and arguably astrology. The major difference is the greater ability of ‘hard’ science to screen each effect out from others, and study it in isolation. However, the distinction is irrelevant as soon as a testable prediction is generated: whatever be the causes, the prediction can be tested, and confirmed or disconfirmed to whatever accuracy the experiment is capable of. Do astrological birth charts generate testable predictions? It was difficult to determine Ms Ridder-Patrick’s view, for this depends on what is meant by astrology, and getting a clear definition proved impossible. As discussed in the first section, however, leading American astrologers exhibit no such reticence: those nominated by the astrologically respected US National Council for Geocosmic Research, to advise in the joint astrologer-scientist test published in Nature were clear that astrology does generate testable predictions.

This test was important for two reasons: it was performed by scientists and astrologers cooperatively rather than antagonistically; and it was performed double-blind to prevent unconscious cueing by experimenters of subjects. No other test has combined these elements, and the outcome was clear: astrology performed at chance levels and was unable to sustain its predictions. I queried Ms Ridder-Patrick about this experiment She had heard of it, but had not read the write-up, despite professing great interest. (I know of no coherent field of knowledge in which a test of the foundations has been met with such silence by its practitioners. Nature is available in most public libraries.) Initially she expressed generalized doubts about the protocol, but when it was pointed out that this impugned the competence of the astrologers involved, she changed to a polite version of ‘no comment’.

There is more than one astrological system: Ms Ridder-Patrick referred several times to Hindu as well as to Western astrology but, as mentioned above, their predictions differ. Moreover, astrological predictions changed in the past when new planets were discovered. Rather than regard these as inconsistencies, Ms Ridder-Patrick suggested that as more Sun-orbiting bodies were discovered, their incorporation improved astrology. This highlights a difference between astrology and astronomy: the latter has mechanisms telling us how strong are the effects of one body on another. Astrology has none, and consequently every grain of dust in the asteroid belt might be as important as Mars or Jupiter. Moreover the inner workings of astronomy have been reversed in the past to actually find new planets: a situation inconceivable within astrology.

Ms Ridder-Patrick’s notion of astrology was concerned with helping people to come to terms with themselves. This worthwhile aim is shared by the psychotherapeutic community, and Ms Ridder-Patrick was quite at ease with the suggestion that a birthchart merely acted as a psychological focus for astrologer and client to tune in on. This being so, one wonders why a few lines on a piece of paper, constructed according to where a few planets once were, is such an effective focus. One also wonders at the therapeutic facility of astrologers, for while acute intuition is part of the make-up of a good psychotherapist, knowledge of the interplay between conscious and unconscious is another facet, in which many therapists-unlike astrologers-are systematically trained. With psychology an infant science having potential for abuse, it is disturbing that anyone can practice it through unregulated astrological means.

Most incredible was Ms Ridder-Patrick’s statement that she ‘didn’t believe in astrology’. This was later qualified by her assertions that ‘it doesn’t matter what people believe’. In the sense that, out of a given set of hypotheses competing to explain some observations, the extent to which the observations favour one hypothesis over another is irrespective of who believes it, it certainly doesn’t matter. (Truth is truth whether people believe it or not) But people holding different beliefs may allow them to modulate their preferences for one hypothesis over another (prejudice), and may also conceive of different hypotheses to start with. What we believe certainly does matter. I doubt that Ms Ridder-Patrick tells her fee-paying clients what she told us: that she doesn’t believe in astrology. In this statement and in her acceptance that birthcharts may be nothing more than psychological foci, she is very atypical, and it is important that others who meet this branch of astrology be aware of it.

Practitioners of astrology tend to be more intuitive, less analytical. Both facets are important to one’s make-up. And if one can inform the other, as did Carlson’s experiment, it cannot reasonably be ignored. Like GUAS, I am grateful to Jane Ridder-Patrick for airing her views before a sceptical audience in a forum which at all times remained good-natured. In view of the preceding facts, though, it is difficult to regard them as tenable.

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