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A skeptical perspective on the Scottish UFO and Paranormal Conference 2023

Brian Eggo
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A skeptical perspective on the Scottish UFO and Paranormal Conference 2023

In difficult times we all like to bathe in a little nostalgia and escapism. Casting your mind back to when life was less complicated is a form of low-budget therapy that we can all indulge in once in a while. With this in mind, the opportunity for some classic, old-school skepticism proved just too much to resist when the Scottish UFO & Paranormal Conference rolled around in the summer of 2023. At the bargain price of £10, what better way to spend nine hours on a Saturday? Well, lots, but we’re gluttons for punishment. It proved to be an interesting day, and also a telling reminder of the first rule of skepticism*.

Scottish UFO & Paranormal Conference 2023 flyer. Features 9 speaker images, central text reading "Get a Psychic Reading from Ian Shanes!" and details of the event, including "Q AND A, RAFFLE, & TARTAN SKULL AWARD". Source: Brian Eggo
Scottish UFO & Paranormal Conference 2023 flyer. Photographed by Brian Eggo

So, a small collective from Glasgow and Edinburgh Skeptics wandered into Glasgow University’s Queen Margaret Union and sat down among the 70-80 people. It’s disappointing that a prestigious hub of education is willing to rent their room out to peddlers of pseudoscience, but no doubt there are bills to be paid and they’re not in a position to turn down opportunities for income.

In terms of demographics, the audience appeared almost entirely white, with a small male majority, and an average age somewhere in the 40s or above. Suffice to say we didn’t visibly stick out, although we were identified during the day (more on that later).

Before kickoff we were treated to the obligatory view of someone’s Windows desktop view projected in all its glory, after which the MC Gordon Rutter of the Edinburgh Fortean Society got the welcomes and housekeeping out the way with aplomb. Credit where credit’s due, he kept things moving well throughout, and took us nicely through the day’s talks.

LaRae Wilkins: A new message for humanity

It was a bold move by the organisers to have such an ‘out there’ opening speaker. Even by the out-of-this-world standards of the conference, LaRae Wilkins’ content was both hard to swallow and hard to follow. This was not helped by the lack of remote for progressing the slides for the first half of the talk, and her admission that the wrong version of her PowerPoint slides had been loaded up.

The crux of her content was that aliens are here on earth, but mostly ‘hiding’ in the oceans. Apparently, they came here in 1947 because of the nuclear bomb, presumably incurring some travel delays after hearing about Hiroshima on the intergalactic airwaves. The mixed message here is that the aliens came due to the damage we were doing to our planet, but we are somehow to fear and do battle with them.

Cover of "Book Two - The Allies of Humanity. Human Unity, Freedom and the Hidden Reality of Contact by Marshall Vian Summers@, featuring planetary images and solar flare. Source: Brian Eggo
Cover of “The Allies of Humanity” Book two, by Marshall Vian Summers. Photographed by Brian Eggo

She seemed somewhat emotionally fragile, telling the audience that she had started dabbling in spirituality after the death of her husband in 2015. In a traumatic time of her life she came across the writings of Marshall Vian Summers, although in her words he didn’t actually write those words, but ‘channeled’ them. His movement is a strange one that mixes Christianity and aliens, known as Exotheology.

“We are considered a very promising race in the galaxy“.

The good news from Wilkins was that we all have the spiritual power of knowledge, and a deeper intelligence resides within us all. Fortunately, she knows a hypnotist who can help abductees break through the memory repression. We have the power to send them packing. Apparently.

Slides reading "THE BAD NEWS - Greater Community of Intelligent Life. Populated region of our local galaxy. Nature is competetive, competition for resources. GC competition carried in Mental environment." and "THE GOOD NEWS - Spiritual Power of Knowledge. Deeper intelligence that resides within us all. Immune from the Mental Environment. Knows what to do and what is needed". Source: Brian Eggo
Slides reading “THE BAD NEWS – Greater Community of Intelligent Life. Populated region of our local galaxy. Nature is competitive, competition for resources. GC competition carried in Mental environment.” and “THE GOOD NEWS – Spiritual Power of Knowledge. Deeper intelligence that resides within us all. Immune from the Mental Environment. Knows what to do and what is needed”. Photos by Brian Eggo

Alyson Dunlop Shanes: Unholy homicides – Sacrifices, Serial Killers, and Cults

We’re brought back down to earth with a baffling thump next, as conference organiser Alyson Dunlop Shanes almost completely eschews the paranormal, and reveals what appears to be a new desire to add to the already massive cohort of true crime podcasters. We’re taken on a tour of cattle mutilation, human sacrifice, religiously motivated atrocities, serial killers, and superstition-fuelled violence.

The irony of highlighting the harms caused by unfounded beliefs at an event dedicated to them completely washes over the speaker and the audience, but the content is interesting enough nonetheless. Unfortunately, a bad taste is left in the mouth with some extended speculation about the potential identity of Scottish triple-murderer Bible John.

At no point during the talk was any paranormal or alien intervention suggested, which was the biggest mystery of the day.

John Tantalon – Haunted Edinburgh

A white man with grey hair wearing a lanyard stands to the right of a stage, with an image of a stereotypical alien behind him, and a slide projected to his right advertising a book called "Beyond", North Edinburgh Nightmares. Source: Brian Eggo
A man speaks on stage in front of a slide advertising a book, “Beyond. North Edinburgh Nightmares” – photographed by Brian Eggo

This talk would have been much better if we’d been huddled in a tent in the wilderness and John was pointing a torch up towards his face. What we got was a series of ghost stories from John and his counterpart Kerri. The stories came from their book. They’d like to make it very clear that they’ve got a book. It’s available to buy from their stall at the back of the room. They also have a YouTube channel. And they do ghost tours. Did I mention their book?

At no point do we get any evidence to back up their stories, and our colleague Sean Slater from Edinburgh Skeptics points out that every story told included one or more of the following qualifiers:

  • ‘So the story goes’
  • ‘I was told this by…’
  • ‘Supposedly…’
  • ‘Some reports say…’

Starved of any evidence, we break for lunch.

Lunch and a ‘psychic’ reading

After a quiet debrief over a sandwich and an Irn Bru, I steal away from my Skeptical colleagues to get a short reading from alleged psychic, Ian Shanes. I’ve had a few readings in my time but this was the least impressive. Nothing revealing or insightful was brought forward, although there was the common thread I’ve seen in all psychic readings that there’s something bigger and better out there for me. Perhaps it speaks to the wants and needs of their average client: some sense of dissatisfaction with how their lives have turned out, and/or a desperate desire to make a connection with a deceased loved one.

The best I can say is that Ian seemed like a nice person and was keen to tell me what he may have believed I wanted to hear.

Ron Halliday – Bizarre Mysteries of the Sea

A projected slide showing the Penguin cover of John Wyndham's "The Kraken Wakes" featuring a huge octopus-like monster attacking an ocean liner. Source: Brian Eggo
A projected slide showing the cover of John Wyndham’s “The Kraken Wakes” featuring a monster attacking an ocean liner. Photographed by Brian Eggo

By this point of the day, we’d already seen a fair amount of unpalatable speculation about real-life tragedies but Ron Halliday took things up several notches with a tidal wave of nonsensical nautical nastiness, happily swimming over the watery graves of those who have perished in already well-understood disasters.

The Titanic gets a mention of course, with a sea monster slide played for laughs, followed shortly after by suggestions of underwater aliens being a possibility (it was later clarified that these were different from the aliens mentioned during the first talk of the day).

Slide projection: an illustration of the Titanic sailing towards the viewer's perspective from the right with an iceberg starboard of it, and Godzilla swimming below it under the surface. Photograph by Brian Eggo Source: Brian Eggo
Slide projection: an illustration of the Titanic sailing with an iceberg to starboard and Godzilla swimming below it under the surface. Photograph by Brian Eggo

The Bermuda Triangle predictably crops up too, with some special attention being paid to the case of ‘Flight 19’, which has already been explained in detail without the need for anything supernatural (see Skeptoid episode 417 for a good breakdown). If you’re still marking your bingo cards, we also get tips of the hat to the Loch Ness Monster, the Mary Celeste, and Atlantis.

It’s around this point that my resolve breaks and I unleash some scathing Tweets about proceedings. This, combined with Edinburgh Skeptics’ more objective content, along with pictures, allows the organisers to triangulate where we are in the room. For the rest of the day, we have various team members coming over and sitting next to us, presumably to pressure us into behaving ourselves. Ever get that sinking feeling?

Mark Anderson – AI and Aliens

A slide titled "Sightings" with three sets of bullets under the headings, first "Descriptive Analytics": - Most common Description - Where they are seen - Any Landmarks (Military Bases etc) - Weather - What Trends - Cultural factors. Second "Real Time Analytics" - CE 5 events - Skywatches. Third "Predictive Analytics - Likely to be limited" - Linear Regression Models - Decision Trees / Random Forest. Source: Brian Eggo
A slide titled “Sightings” with three sets of bullets under different ‘Analytics’ headings. Photographed by Brian Eggo

My day job is with a large technology consulting company, which meant that during Mark Anderson’s talk I was worried I’d somehow been teleported back to the office. Mark clearly works in the industry, and is basking in the honeymoon period of expectations regarding what artificial intelligence can bring to the world. His PowerPoints have a corporate look about them too, with a marked difference in format from the rest of the speakers.

Slide titled "What is Data Driven?" with nine points: "Foster a data-driven culture, Define clear objectives, Focus on Data Quality, Collect relevant data, Ensure privacy and ethical considerations, Analyze and interpret the data, Combine data with domain expertise, Communicate effectively, Iterate and refine." Source: Brian Eggo
Slide titled “What is Data Driven?” with nine points. Photographed by Brian Eggo

He does make some excellent points about how bad humans are at capturing and interpreting data, with tendencies for biases and ignorance to tarnish any judgment on any aerial phenomena that are encountered. His proposal therefore was for a more data-driven approach to evaluating UFO/UAP sightings, standardisation of processes, utilization of non-human sky monitoring technology, and AI for interpreting the large amounts of data that would bring.

These ambitious but admirable suggestions were sadly marred by the fact that he’s already come to the conclusion that aliens are amongst us, and mentions of things like dream diaries as potential sources of evidence didn’t help either. This was as close to rationality as we would get the whole day, though, and we had an interesting chat with Mark after the conference ended.

John Cobb – Nazi’s, Reptilians, Die Glocke

A somewhat incomprehensible slide featuring a highlighted area of the image via a red arrow and circle to the right, and a Swastika-branded piece of black machinery to the left. Source: Brian Eggo
A somewhat incomprehensible slide featuring a highlighted area of the image and a Swastika-branded piece of machinery. Photograph by Brian Eggo

My hackles were already up before John Cobb started speaking due to the misplaced apostrophe in the title of his talk. He didn’t help matters by launching into a somewhat disjointed and largely incomprehensible journey through a series of conspiracy theories which somehow managed to be even less credible than anything the previous speakers had been able to dredge up.

Die Glocke was allegedly an anti-gravity ‘UFO’ that the Nazis were working on. There’s allegedly time travel involved as well, with a 2039 Nazi coin being cited as evidence. For good measure we get secret societies and collaboration with reptilian aliens, too. Cobb clearly has some health issues which may have contributed to the rambling nature of his content, but even the most polished of speakers couldn’t have made this sound anywhere near credible.

A slide titled "The Alpha Draconian Dracs." with an image to the left of a "REPTILIAN" complete with description, "Origin: Alpha Draconian, Agenda: Conquer and Dest[illegible], Life Span: 500 Earth Years, Ship Shape: Cigar & Tear D[illegible], Base: Technologies, Note: R". Below the Dracs heading reads "There are several arguments that claim the Sumerian writings are not enough evidence to link to the Reptilians to these strange Anunnaki. What cannot be denied, however, is the many Reptilian theories that have come to light as a result of the Sumerian writings." Source: Brian Eggo
A slide titled “The Alpha Draconian Dracs.” with an image to the left of a “REPTILIAN” complete with description. Photograph by Brian Eggo

Malcolm Robinson – Curses and Haunted Objects

The final speaker of the day is apparently well-known in paranormal circles. His Amazon biography is a work of art in itself (“Malcolm has also seen a pair of levitating shoes fly up into the air and crash through a glass window”), but there’s one thing that it conspicuously doesn’t mention: Malcolm has found the ‘Animations’ pane in PowerPoint. Thankfully, Malcolm addresses that glaring omission by treating the audience to a display of dramatic text gymnastics reminiscent of an Adam West-era Batman fight scene.

KERPOW-ERPOINT!

Slide with text over a black and white image of James Dean wearing a cowboy hat, titled "PRIOR TO THE CRASH". It reads "Eartha Kitt and Dean's former girlfriend Ursula Andress - said that they felt that the vehicle had a malevolent presence about it. Ertha Kitt [sic] is reported to have said the following to Dean while the two were out for a drive the week before Dean's crash. She said, "James, I don't like this car, it's going to kill you," Around the same time, Dean introduced himself to Alec Guinness and asked the actor's opinion of the car. Upon seeing it, Guinness stated that the car was sinister, and said that if Dean got into it, he would be dead within the week." The photo is captioned "James Dean on the set of 'Giant'". Source: Brian Eggo
Slide with text over a black and white image of James Dean wearing a cowboy hat, titled “PRIOR TO THE CRASH”. Photographed by Brian Eggo

His talk continues the day’s grave-trampling theme by heartlessly parroting all the internet-fabricated scare stories about the curse of James Dean’s car. The ‘best’ kind of sensationalism is the kind that seamlessly weaves in the unproven along with the actual facts, and the speaker is clearly adept at this as he takes some well documented aspects of the crash and its aftermath and garnishes them expertly with hearsay and urban myths.

There’s also lying by omission as he talks about the curse of the crying boy pictures; yes, a firefighter in the 1980s did claim (with the emphasis on claim) that prints of the various crying boy pictures ‘mysteriously’ survived house fires (allegedly) unscathed.

Slide titled "Haunted Objects. (Painting)" with an image of a painting of a crying boy and description, which reads "In the 1980's there was a report in the Sun newspaper that there had been several devastating house fires that had claimed lives. Strangely, while the entire house burnt down, only the picture of the crying boy remained unscathed." Source: Brian Eggo
Slide titled “Haunted Objects. (Painting)” with an image of a painting of a crying boy and description. Photographed by Brian Eggo

The pictures are also occasionally blamed for the starting of the fires in the first place. Of course, there’s no good reason to believe these claims, but conspicuously there’s no mention from the speaker about the tens of thousands of these prints that were sold in the UK without incident. There’s also a high probability that many such pictures were destroyed in house fires without being reported, and those that survived fires could have done so for perfectly mundane reasons such as falling face-down onto the floor, the severity and spread of the fire, and the potential fire-retardant properties of varnish/lacquer.

Malcolm also fails to mention that the supposedly (magical) fire-resistant pictures were successfully burned in a bonfire in what appears to be a rare piece of attempted investigative journalism from The Sun. The talk degenerates further from there as the speaker meanders from the well-known (Tutankhamun), to the comedically obscure, with Gillette razor advertising and first-time winners attempting to retain the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre taking the cursed cake.

Q&A and wrap-up

The conference ends with a whimper rather than a bang as MC Gordon Rutter does his best to run the Q&A smoothly despite the lacklustre audience questions, and having more speakers than microphones up on stage (cue some awkward pass-the-parcel type shenanigans). To add insult to injury, I failed to win anything in the raffle despite the fact that there were almost as many prizes as there were attendees left in the room by this point.

*I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that my key takeaway from the event was to remember not to be a d–k. I was rightly called out for my snarky Tweets. I deleted them and apologised.

It’s genuinely hard not to find the ridiculous funny, and not to find idle speculation about genuine human tragedy distasteful, but in terms of the bigger picture of the world we live in right now, the levels of harmfulness were comparatively low; there was no homophobia, transphobia, racism, anti-vaccine or anti-woke sentiment.

There were several mentions of climate change as a real phenomenon that needs addressing, and, most notably, while talking about the Nazis, it was made very clear that they were the baddies – which is by no means a given these days.

There was of course little or no attempt to be objective, to seek the actual truth, or to be intellectually honest, so it wouldn’t surprise me if many people there that day did have some problematic views on more weighty matters, but it wasn’t on display. The only lack of tolerance on display that day was due to the combined forces of my lack of restraint, and my proximity to the internet. I hope we can all do better next time.

Auriculotherapy: why poking needles into your earlobe is, essentially, pointless

Edzard Ernst
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Auriculotherapy: why poking needles into your earlobe is, essentially, pointless

The inventor of auriculotherapy, the Frenchman Paul Nogier (1908-1996), was born in Lyon where he studied engineering and later read medicine. His concepts are based mainly on two assumptions: that the human outer ear is an area where the entire body and its internal organs are projected, and that, by stimulating specific points on the outer ear, therapists influence the health and function of inner organs and other body parts that correspond to these points.

The history of Nogier’s auriculotherapy is intriguing. As a young doctor, Nogier observed that some of his patients had a scar on their ear. He was told that an alternative therapist, Madame Barrin from Marseille, had been cauterising a certain spot on the ear (later called the Barrin point) in the belief that this would alleviate the sciatica symptoms of these patients. Nogier was fascinated; after inserting needles in this spot, his sciatica patients seemed to experience improvements of their back pain. If one specific area of the ear could be stimulated to alleviate sciatica symptoms, Nogier wondered, would different areas of the ear be useful for treating other parts of the body?

CostaPPPR, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Source: CostaPPPR, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Nogier soon believed to notice that the “Barrin point cauterisation technique” only worked for sciatica and not for hip, knee, or shoulder pain. He thus concluded that the Barrin point on the ear corresponded to the lumbosacral area where the sciatic nerve leaves the spinal canal. The protruding part of the ear – the antihelix – might then correspond to the spinal column, Nogier speculated.

He soon thought to discover that the outer ear had exceptional reflex properties, and that each point in the ear pavilion was related to a specific part of the body. Eventually, he came to the conviction that the entire human body was sketched out on the ear with the lobule at the bottom of the ear corresponding to the head; the concha in the centre corresponding to the thorax and abdomen; and the cartilaginous portion, the antihelix, corresponding to the spinal column.

To identify the most crucial points, Nogier used an electronic device that allegedly measured cutaneous conductivity. In this way, he managed to develop a detailed ear chart. Nogier became convinced that the ear is energetically related to other parts and organs of the body, corresponding to an upside-down foetus. He also came to believe that, when applied to the outer ear, specific frequencies cause specific effects on the body, and that by stimulating the correct point of the ear, one can treat problems of the corresponding body part. He was further convinced that, through auricular diagnosis, he could identify a range of chronic illnesses.

Even though far-fetched and bizarre, Nogier’s concepts were widely accepted in the realm of so-called alternative medicine. Yet, they were ridiculed by scientists because they were not in line with the existing knowledge of anatomy and physiology. Moreover, the different maps used by proponents of auriculotherapy showed embarrassing disagreements. In other words, the assumptions of auriculotherapy lacked both consistency and plausibility.

But CAM proponents rarely allow the truth to interfere with their beliefs. Today, auriculotherapy is being promoted as a panacea, a treatment for most conditions. One of the first rigorous tests of auriculotherapy was published in 1984 by one of the most prominent researchers of pain, R. Melzack. He concluded that “auriculotherapy is not an effective therapeutic procedure for chronic pain”.

Since then, an abundance of clinical trials has emerged. Their results are confusing and by no means uniform. It is therefore wise not to rely on single studies, but on systematic reviews that include the evidence from all reliable trials. One such review concluded that:

because of the paucity and of the poor quality of the data, the evidence for the effectiveness of auricular therapy for the symptomatic treatment of insomnia is limited.

An in-depth assessment of the evidence entitled “Évaluation de l’efficacité de la pratique de l’auriculothérapie” was carried out in 2013 by Inserm at the request of the French Ministry of Health. It failed to demonstrate the superior therapeutic effect of auriculotherapy compared with placebo for most of the claimed indications. Other authors arrive at more positive conclusions; however, due to the often poor quality of the primary studies, they should be interpreted with great caution.

Contrary to what auriculotherapists try to make us believe, auriculotherapy is not free of risks. The most frequently reported adverse events include local skin irritation and discomfort, mild tenderness or pain, and dizziness. Most of these events are transient, mild, and tolerable. Sadly, this does not mean that auriculotherapists do no harm. Whenever they advocate auticulotherapy as an alternative to an effective treatment for a serious health problem, they endanger the health, perhaps even the life, of their patients.

So, the final conclusion can hardly be positive. The effectiveness of auriculotherapy has not been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt. The treatment is associated with considerable risks. Therefore, its risk/benefit balance fails to be positive.

Ear candling: why putting burning sticks into your ear is actually quite a bad idea

Michaila Passananti
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Ear candling: why putting burning sticks into your ear is actually quite a bad idea

Ear Candling is an alternative medicine meant to remove ear wax, however, it is also believed by some to cure sinus pain, cure ear infections, help relieve tinnitus, and strengthen the brain. Although ear candling is a popular alternative medicine, it has no basis in actual science and has been largely discredited.

Ear Candling starts with a hollow tube around 10 inches long made out of cotton or linen. The candle is then dipped into beeswax, allowing it to harden. Users lie on their side on a towel, and place the candle directly into their ear canal, lighting the opposite end of the candle to let it burn for fifteen to twenty minutes. They then turn over, and repeat with the other ear.

According to proponents, what’s supposed to happen is that as the candle burns, it creates a suction that pulls wax and debris out of your ear. This theory is called the “chimney effect.” Other proponents suggest that the heat from the candle melts and softens the wax, which will fall out over the next couple of days. Ear candling can be performed by beauticians, alternative therapists, or by anyone using an at-home kit.

However, ear candling is not backed by science. In fact, it is completely discredited. In one study, scientists tested the theory that suction is created, which gets rid of your ear wax, by creating an artificial ear canal and measuring the pressure within it during candling. The experiment showed that no suction effect was created during candling, disproving the chimney effect. However, they did find that a powder was deposited on the artificial tympanic membrane as ear candling was carried out.

When the powder was analysed by the scientists using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, it was found to constitute multiple alkanes that are found in candle wax, meaning that ear candling actually left debris in the ear canal.

Another experiment conducted by Health Canada was to examine the theory that the wax in the ear will fall out over the next couple of days after a candling has been performed. Health Canada tested this theory by measuring the air temperature 10 mm from the base of the candle while it was burning. The highest temperature reached was 22º Celsius, well below core body temperature, meaning that it would be impossible for melting to occur within the ear canal.

As well as being completely ineffective, ear candling can be dangerous. The FDA has warned against the practice of Ear Candling since 2010. Negative side effects include a high risk of burning the face, neck, hair, eardrum, middle ear, or ear canal from hot wax or ash, puncturing the eardrum, blocking the eardrum with candle wax, contracting secondary infections, experiencing temporary hearing loss and bleeding.

Despite popular belief, earwax itself is actually good for you. A certain amount can be helpful and protect your eardrums from dust, dirt and debris, as well as prevent the ear from becoming dry and itchy. Without earwax, your ear canal will become dry, waterlogged, and more prone to infection.

However, if your earwax has become a problem, there are safer ways to remove the wax. The first option should always be going to your doctor and getting a medical professional to remove the earwax safely. Earwax removal can be a delicate process. However, if a medical professional is not an option, the best way to get rid of earwax is over-the-counter ear drops.

Another way to remove ear wax is to put a few drops of water or hydrogen peroxide down your ear. Never stick objects in your ear to get rid of wax buildup. This can push the wax deeper into your ear, which makes the problem worse. Although ear candling is a popular alternative medicine, it has no scientific basis and has been proven to not work.

No evidence has ever suggested that ear candling is an effective treatment for any condition, from sinus pain to removing ear wax. It is harmful and if performed wrong, can cause severe damage to the ear – in short, it does far more harm than good.

What, if anything, can cannabis treat, and what does the latest research say?

Alice Howarth
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What, if anything, can cannabis treat, and what does the latest research say?

You might recall a story that got a lot of coverage in the media a while ago, about the use of cannabis to treat epilepsy and other conditions. It all started with the case of a young boy with severe epilepsy who was using cannabis oil to manage his seizures, with apparently great effect. Until, that is, his mother was unable to bring his treatment into the UK and his medication was seized at the airport.

In the UK, cannabis is a Class B drug – you aren’t allowed to possess or supply it and doing so can result in jail-time. This is a regulation under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, however cannabis is also regulated by The Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 which control the therapeutic use of drugs. Under this legislation, cannabis is regulated as a Schedule 1 drug which means it is not available for medical purposes and possession and supply are prohibited unless the Home Office approves.

Cannabis: the sum of its parts

Cannabis refers to a group of plants which produce compounds called cannabinoids. Cannabis plants contain 113 different cannabinoids – so what exactly are we talking about when we talk about cannabis oil?

The two important cannabinoids to consider are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). THC is the main part of cannabis that gives its psychoactive effects. It’s the compound that will make you feel ‘high’ if you smoke marijuana although this response is mediated by other cannabinoids too. It also stimulates release of the hunger hormone, ghrelin, which explains why people have an increased appetite when they take cannabis. It does this by binding to a specific receptor on the surface of cells in the brain.

CBD is non-psychotropic and it acts in a very different way to THC. But it might also enhance THC activity by increasing the number of receptors available for THC to bind to. It might also increase the levels of natural endocannabinoids in the body.

In the UK, CBD is legal which means cannabis oils containing only CBD are legally available whereas THC is not legal.

Can cannabis treat disease?

In the UK, there are some cannabinoid based treatments licensed for prescription. Nabilone is used to treat nausea and vomiting in people undergoing chemotherapy. There are other conditions it has been indicated for including IBS, fibromyalgia, chronic pain and Parkinson’s disease however in the UK it is only permitted to help treat the side effects of chemotherapy.

Another cannabinoid based treatment available in the UK is Sativex which is used to treat the symptoms of multiple sclerosis including neuropathic pain and spasticity. Sativex is a cannabis extract which contains both THC and CBD.

Cannabis for epilepsy

When it comes to epilepsy – there is considerable evidence that THC can control convulsions through regulation of neuronal excitability and inflammation. But because it can make you high – it’s not an ideal avenue for therapeutic exploration.

Research into CBD for treating epilepsy is relatively new but initially promising at least for certain types of epilepsy and a new drug which can treat Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome, two severe forms of epilepsy, was approved by the FDA in 2018. But this might not be sufficient in all cases – some patients may require different mixtures of THC and CBD to see an effect.

In January this year, the NHS approved Epidyolex for children and adults with epilepsy after clinical trials showed that seizures were reduced in frequency by 30%.

Cannabis for cancer

Cannabis can be useful in managing cancer-associated side effects in patients. It can act as both a pain reliever and a way to reduce nausea and enhance appetite. But there is early research that it might also kill cancer cells and stop them growing. In these cases researchers have looked at highly purified THC and CBD. Some trials have shown that combining chemotherapy with cannabis might have some promise.

However, we have insufficient evidence to support its use as a cancer treatment either due to small study sizes or the research predominantly taking place in cells in the lab which is just not a good representation of what would happen in humans. We don’t know which types of cannabinoids are most useful, what doses are needed, what types of cancer respond, how to take them effectively and whether they should or shouldn’t be combined with other treatments.

There is an ongoing trial looking into the use of cannabis treatments for a form of difficult to treat brain cancer called glioblastoma in instances when the cancer has come back following initial treatment. This trial combines Sativex with chemotherapy and is ongoing.

Cannabis research

If cannabis is so promising, why don’t we do more research on it to bring it to clinical trial? Cannabis is a Schedule 1 regulated drug, it can only be used in research with Home Office approval. Schedule 1 drugs are so classified because they are not deemed to have medical usefulness. But researchers like Professor David Nutt are concerned that the medical usefulness of cannabis cannot be proven if research is prohibited.

Importantly, media interest in cannabis use as a medical treatment encouraged a UK government review on the therapeutic value of medications based on cannabis, which was undertaken by the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs. In November 2020, it recommended to the Home Secretary that a further period of study was required to assess the impacts of reclassifying cannabis-based medicinal products. In December 2022, the Home Office commissioned the ACMD to further explore how to reduce the barriers to research on Schedule 1 controlled drugs, which might open up research in the near future.

Alternative medicine

In the meantime, it is important to remember that while cannabis holds some promise as a potential therapy for many conditions, it is crucial to always follow professional medical advice when considering medical treatments.

The research supporting cannabis use is limited and there are many questions about safety and efficacy that remain unanswered. For many conditions that cannabis might be useful for, we already have good medical treatments that can be used before considering an as-yet, unproven treatment. Cannabis oils are poorly regulated and might have wildly variable levels of cannabinoids and may even contain ingredients that are harmful.

It is never advisable to buy medical treatments online or take medical advice from someone other than a qualified medical professional.

Ditch the coffee enemas – there’s no health benefit to a caffeinated colon

Christian Chaffee
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Ditch the coffee enemas – there’s no health benefit to a caffeinated colon

Coffee enemas are a widely known alternative medicine procedure that proponents claim can cure many diseases and improve someone’s health. Yet coffee enemas have no scientific evidence to support those purported claims, and they can actually be quite dangerous.

Coffee enemas are a type of colon cleanse first conceived of in the early 20th century by German doctors looking for a cancer treatment. The treatment became popularized to a wider audience around the same time by German-American physician Max Gerson, who advocated for the procedure’s use in his diet plan known as “Gerson Therapy”. A coffee enema is performed through the injection of a mixture of caffeinated coffee and water into the colon through the rectum.

Proponents of coffee enemas claim a wide range of benefits. Max Gerson claimed that it could detoxify the body and cure cancer as the coffee would stimulate the liver. This claim is still believed by alternative medicine doctors to this day – like Linda Isaacs, who claims that people are exposed to toxic chemicals and pollutants through the food they eat, air they breathe, and water they drink. She says that coffee enemas “help stimulate the liver to rid the body of these waste materials and pollutants”.

Other proponents claim that the compound “cafestol” in coffee beans stimulates the enzyme “glutathione s-transferase”, which aids in digestion through opening up the bile duct in the liver. Generally, colon cleansing is purported to increase energy, increase a person’s concentration, assist in weight loss, and boost the immune system. According to Dr. Ketan Kulkarni of Lancaster General Hospital in Pennsylvania, the

rationale behind colon cleansing is the theory that toxins and undigested material build up in one’s colon over a prolonged period of time and eventually are absorbed by the body, resulting in a variety of symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, depression and weight gain.

This rationale follows an ancient medical theory known as “autointoxication”, whose origins can be traced back to ancient Egypt.

Despite these reported benefits, there exists no scientific evidence that coffee enemas (or colon cleansing in general) benefiting the body in any way besides purging the colon of waste – which the digestive system is very much capable of doing on its own. The theory of autointoxication has long since been disproven by the medical community, and research has shown that coffee enemas do not affect the levels of glutathione s-transferase in the body. Gerson’s claims remain unfounded, and he is discredited by the medical community today.

Besides the complete lack of scientific evidence that supports the purported benefits of coffee enemas, there remain many risks, and a real danger, to performing coffee enemas. For one, the ingestion of such a large amount of coffee can cause shakiness, heart palpitations, and dehydration, which can cause nausea and vomiting.

A person with dark skin tips and spills coffee from a cup. The image freezes the liquid in time, with coffee tumbling down through the air over a dark grey background towards the floor. Image by poedynchuk from Pixabay
Coffee enemas. Just a waste of coffee.

Coffee enemas can also cause rectal burns and rectal inflammation, which can lead to bowel perforation, kidney failure, and even caused a case of proctocolitis in a perfectly healthy woman. As coffee enemas are most often performed by people at home, they can cause infections from improperly sterilized equipment.

A reported medical case confirms that a person developed sepsis from doing a coffee enema, and died. Coffee enemas also remove a body’s potassium, which is an essential macronutrient, and can cause electrolyte imbalances in the body. A reported two individuals developed “severe electrolyte abnormalities” following the performing of an enema, and died because of it. Lastly, enema use disrupts the microbiota balance in the body as the procedure harms both “good bacteria” and “bad bacteria”, which can cause dysbiosis, weakening the immune system.

Coffee enemas have various purported health benefits, supporters even claiming that it can cure cancer and rid the body of “toxic chemicals”. Yet none of these claims reflect actual medical knowledge, and such claims often justify themselves with outdated and/or entirely unfounded medical beliefs. In reality, the procedure is quite risky, and can be very dangerous, with a range of ailments and syndromes that, in many cases, can seriously affect people’s health (and even kill), making coffee enemas an alternative medicine procedure no one should try out.

Gillian Anderson misses the “G Spot” with her range of wellness drinks and health claims

Michael Marshall
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Gillian Anderson misses the “G Spot” with her range of wellness drinks and health claims

There must be few people, internationally, more universally loved than Gillian Anderson. She shot to fame in the 90s as the iconic skeptic Dana Scully, played a delightfully-tongue-in-cheek version of herself in A Cock and Bull Story, returned to the small screen in the acclaimed The Fall, and then found a new legion of younger fans as sex therapist Jean Milburn in Sex Education.

Along the way, she has been a consistent advocate for women’s rights, LGTBQ rights, and children’s rights, plus she’s an outspoken environmental activist. On top of that, she comes across as down to earth and always willing to poke fun at herself. I think we can all agree, she’s a delight.

Which is why it is so utterly disappointing to see her become the face – and, indeed, the founder – of a new range of wellness products whose marketing is replete with misleading health claims.

The G-Spot range of soft drinks, founded by Anderson during the pandemic, are marketed via the kind of knowing, playful, sexually-tinged wink that has been synonymous with the former X Files actor over at least the last two decades. Their tagline is “Where you do you”. They are called “G-Spot”. The range of drinks has names like “Arouse”. The whole company was launched with a tongue-in-cheek advert where Gillian wears a sparkly jacket and a pair of bunny ears, in a bedroom where the bed is adorned with rose petals and pink fluffy handcuffs, making jokes about how she doesn’t want to read the sexualised script. Instead, she says the product is:

Wellness with a wink. Kind of fun, cheeky, it’s good for you, but it tastes good

She explains that she drinks too many soft drinks and not enough water. So she decided to make her own soft drink, and started talking to people about functional drinks and nootropics, which she says are known for their healing properties and for boosting cognitive function and performance. “Before I knew it, one thing led to another, and I found my G-Spot” she says, while being handed a can of her “Lift” product.

Wellness with a wink is very much the brand, here. Customers are encouraged to tweet about the product using the hashtag “tastesfxckinggood”. Their social media includes posts like “A drink to boost, elevate and lift you higher than your favourite bra” and “GIRL MATH …​​​​​​​​​Naughty & Nice + Sweet & Spice = AROUSE” and “Don’t send me noods…send me a G Spot ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​#soothe”.

Screenshot of a facebook post by G Spot on 25 October at 7 pm. Four image panels have text overlaid in various crafty-looking styles such as tape or torn graph paper. The top left is of wet red cherries, saying "lift - meet the ingredients...". The top right is of yellow fungal growths with text "cordyceps - A highly effective energy bosting mushroom." The lower left is of white flowers with text "bacopa - An ancient herb that helps with memory, concentration, focus, and stress relief." The lower right is of a cream-coloured powder and says "maca - A plant used for centuries to elevate mood, reduce anxiety, increase energy."
A screenshot of a facebook post by G Spot. Text says "Don't send me noods...send me a G Spot #soothe #tastesfxckinggood" and accompanies a photo of a grinning black woman with her eyes closed, wearing a bright green, fluffy collar-and-cuffs leather jacket, holding a green can of G Spot soothe and eating a beef ramen noodle cup. She has red painted nails and is sitting at a wooden table.

This wellness with a wink approach is almost certainly attaching itself to Anderson’s success in the hit show Sex Education, where she plays sex therapist Jean Milburn. In fact, of the four products on sale as part of the range, the most recent is their “Arouse” product, which explicitly has the Netflix Sex Education logo on every can and in every advert. This is brand synergy.

You might think it’s disappointing that Gillian would take the money to put her name to a product like this, but it’s worse than that. She’s the founder of the company. This is her company. G Spot is as much Gillian Anderson as Goop is Gwyneth Paltrow.

What makes this all the more dispiriting is that the concept of “functional nootropics” drinks is based on incredibly shaky ground, at best. Drinks can obviously be functional, but for most commercially-available, non-caffeinated drinks, that function is hydration, thirst-quenching, and sustenance. Some drinks can boost energy, via ingredients like caffeine, or sugar – but these are ingredients G Spot makes a virtue of being free from.

What do G Spot drinks contain, and what do those ingredients do? The answer to that question very much depends on when you asked that question. In early 2023, if you had visited their website, you’d have seen a wide range of misleading claims. For example, their “Protect” product featured the following the ingredient list:

GINGER – Is a powerful antioxidant. It has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties which help support a healthy immune system. Making it a go-to-herb for fighting the common cold.

TURMERIC – Has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for over 4000 years for its immune supporting properties. Curcumin is its active compound and is anti-inflammatory and an effective antioxidant.

CHAGA – Is packed full of powerful antioxidants which help to protect and support the immune system and fight inflammation and infection.

Unfortunately, there’s no good evidence that these ingredients actually have any of these claimed properties. What’s more, even if you could prove that ginger, turmeric and chaga actually had such beneficial applications, there’s then no evidence that those ingredients exist in sufficient quantity in the G Spot product to mean that drinking a can of “Protect” can actually help fight infection and ill-health, which is what is clearly being suggested by the company. Even the product name, “Protect”, misleadingly suggests it offers health benefits.

The same is true for their other products. For the Lift product, its ingredients list claims:

BACOPA is used for its effect on brain function, that it contains powerful antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties it helps to support the Immune system, and that it helps with memory, concentration, focus, and stress relief.

THEANINE can directly impact our brain function by improving sleep, maintaining mood and reducing the impact of stress, in turn increasing energy.

LION’S MANE Supports the immune system, Digestive system and Central nervous system” and “helps protect our cognitive function by improving concentration, mood and memory.

CORDYCEPS – Increases the production of ATP therefore increasing our energy levels throughout the day.

Again, even if those things were true, that doesn’t mean that drinking the Lift product will increase ATP production or energy levels throughout the day. If the company want to say that it does, they have to prove that the product itself can do that.

As for their Soothe product, they claim:

MAGNESIUM has a direct impact on the regulation of our Central Nervous System, helping to ease stress and support mood.

REISHI has been used for centuries for its stress reducing and calming abilities, as well as alleviating symptoms of anxiety. It has been named ‘The mushroom of eternal youth’ for its ability to regulate the Central Nervous System.

ASHWAGANDHA calms the Central nervous system, promotes sleep and is a modern day stress buster!

MACA contains antioxidants and nutrients that have been used for many symptoms including fatigue, hormone regulation, libido, and cognition. Maca can improve energy and reduce symptoms of stress, by calming the Central Nervous system.

Interestingly, the page for Soothe also includes a heath disclaimer:

This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease

Which would be good to see, if it wasn’t immediately undermined by the very next sentence:

Although for many people the effects of the drinks can be felt right away, the full medicinal properties of G Spot’s ingredients are most effective when consumed daily over time.

It seems remarkably disingenuous to argue that this product has explicitly “medicinal” benefits that kick in right away, and get stronger with daily consumption… but aren’t intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent anything.

As is ever the case, the website includes an FAQ where the unsubstantiated health claims continue.

Does G Spot contain caffeine?
No, G Spot does not contain any caffeine – the increased energy felt from Lift comes from the Cordyceps mushroom’s ability to increase ATP production in our cells, therefore increasing energy and alertness on a cellular level, pretty much right away.

Until they can prove that their product actually does increase energy, they don’t get to tell us where that extra energy comes from, nor can they tell us we’ll feel “alertness on a cellular level”.

Meanwhile, descriptions here of the Lift product repeat the claim that it can give a boost to energy and focus, and the Protect product claims again to offer “complete medicinal immune system supporting properties”.

These products are clearly making a range of health claims that are not supported by evidence, and the celebrity endorsement of Gillian Anderson is likely to persuade consumers that these health claims are true, and that these products are worth buying.

Still, that was the content of the marketing copy earlier in the year… but it is not what a reader will find if they head to the G Spot website now. The reason for the change? In June, I made a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority, who agreed with me that there were issues with the company’s wording. They took this up with G-Spot, who dutifully changed their marketing copy to avoid being named in a ruling by the ASA.

Unfortunately, the updated copy isn’t substantially better, and still – in my opinion – contains a range of unevidenced health claims. For the Soothe product, while the explicit claims for the ingredients have been removed, the page now claims that magnesium is “often associated with sleep and mood”, that Reishi is “traditionally associated with mood and stress reduction”, and that Theanine is “mainly associated with anxiety and stress relief” and “increases GABA, serotonin and dopamine levels”.

The implication to the consumer here is clearly that this product has those direct health benefits, even though there is no evidence to suggest that’s the case. It also very much seems that vague terms like “associated with” are being used to continue making health claims about the product, in the hope that they can sidestep the need to provide evidence.

Furthermore, the issue is not whether each of these ingredients can be shown to have any of these effects – the issue is still whether them exist in sufficient measure to give the Soothe product these effects. The implication to the consumer, clearly, is that they do – but there is still absolutely no evidence that this is the case.

The same is true of the updated Protect product. The explicit claims for ginger, peppercorn, turmeric, and chaga have been removed, but they’re replaced with the same implicit language of “used in many cultures for” and “revered for” and “used traditionally … as”. Despite this less committed language, the average consumer will still take away from this information the message that ginger works as an antibiotic, turmeric is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, and that chaga is an “immunity booster”. They will also take from this messaging that the Protect product, by extension, has all of those same health benefits – even though there is no evidence for that.

And then there’s the Lift product. Again, the explicit claims for the ingredients have been removed (in fact, the key ingredients list itself has even been changed), but the wording is replaced with the same implicit language of “revered for its association with” and “often used… with the aim of” and “traditionally used for”. And again, despite this less committed language, most will take away the messages that bacopa aids memory and concentration and reduces anxiety, ribose reduces fatigue, maca lifts mood and reduces anxiety, and that cordyceps increases energy and performance. Plus, that the Protect product, by extension, has all of those same health benefits – but there is no evidence that this is the case.

As for the FAQs, G Spot never actually removed the sections I complained about in June, so it still tells customers to drink Life when they need energy, and Protect when they want to experience complete medicinal immune system-supporting properties – properties it has not been shown to have. And it still tells you that the Cordyceps in the drinks will increase your energy and alertness on a cellular level. Which, if it can, G Spot need to demonstrate, not just state.

On top of those three products, since my June complaint, G Spot also launched their fourth product, “Arouse”, complete with its own range of problematic advertising claims. The ingredients list for the Arouse product now claims that:

Butterfly Pea is can increase blood flow and sexual desire.

L-arginine increases “flow” to sexual organs and can improve libido.

L-Citrulline improves blood flow.

Vitamin B6 regulates hormonal activity, reduces tiredness and reduces fatigue.

These are all clearly health claims, and it is not clear that there is any evidence for these claims for any of these ingredients. And, again, even if there were evidence for individual ingredients, it is not clear that the resulting effect is that the Arouse product can have any of these health benefits – which is the clear implication of this messaging.

This product is being marketed as a way of improving libido, sexual desire, as is clear from their social media posts – including a Facebook post that reads:

Date night levelled up. Arouse is filled to the brim of functional ingredients to help you get in the mood, by boosting libido and reducing stress. #arouse #powerofpleasure

Screenshot of a G Spot facebook post from 18 September. Text reads "Arouse is LIVE. Preorder on our website NOW (other stockists coming soon - eyes-looking-left emoji). Date night levelled up. Arouse is filled to the brim of functional ingredients to help you get in the mood, by boosting libido and reducing stress. #arouse #powerofpleasure"

All of which means I’ve sent a new complaint to the ASA, pointing out that plenty of the problematic text hasn’t actually been touched, and that the changes they’ve made don’t actually address the main concerns. I’ll be awaiting to hear what the ASA does next, and whether Gillian Anderson and the G-Spot team decide to change things, or whether their advertising continues to offer misleading information to customers.

So if you’re reading this, Gillian Anderson, please put more consideration into how you market your products. It’s absolutely fine to invent a new caffeine-free soft drink, and it’s fine (fun, even!) to market it with a wink. But when it comes to making direct claims about the health and wellbeing benefits of your new product range, you need to provide some evidence, lest you end up misleading the very consumers you’re seeking to empower.

Perhaps you should take a lead from your most famous role, and be a little more skeptical.

Israel and Gaza show us that humanity and compassion are among the casualties of war

Hadar Rubin
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Israel and Gaza show us that humanity and compassion are among the casualties of war

I’m about as left-wing as they get. I object to the Israeli occupation, to the settlements. I consistently vote for Arab parties in elections. I have decided, quite a while ago, that I need to leave the country in which I was born due to moral reasons.

I was born in Jerusalem on the last day of 1987, during the first Intifada. Of course, I don’t remember that, but some of my earliest memories are from the Gulf War. I remember sitting inside a special protective bubble designed to protect young children from chemical weapon attacks, with a specific children’s book, a bottle of ice-cold water, and bittersweet chocolate. I remember the windows of my bedroom taped and sealed against those chemical attacks. I remember throwing up in a bucket inside the room when we couldn’t get out – I don’t remember why I had to throw up, but I remember having eaten an avocado. I remember thinking how lucky we are because the toilet is so close to the sealed room every family had to set up. I remember people going everywhere with gas masks kits. I was way too young when I learned what Atropine is.

In the summer on 1995 we left Jerusalem to live in the northern part of Israel, about 8 km south of the Lebanon border. My parents wanted to leave the big city, and fell in love with the area. It is, indeed, beautiful. Moving so far away (three and a half hours in a car is a long time for a young child) from everything and everyone one knows is never easy, and we hardly got settled in before Operation Grapes of Wrath began. We spent days in and around the tiny shelter, until my parents decided to send me and my younger brother to our grandparents in Jerusalem, which was safe. I went back to my old school for a while.

Back up north, the English classroom was inside the shelter, so if we happened to be in class when missile sirens went off we felt lucky – we didn’t have to run there. I can’t remember how many times we had to sit there and wait for the buses to take us home in the middle of the day, because Hezbollah were firing rockets. They always played a movie for us while we waited – usually, The NeverEnding Story. I hate that movie, but that’s mostly because I love the book dearly, and by comparison the movie is terrible. I had strong opinions about it even as a 10-year-old: it pissed me off so much that I never actually watched it all the way through, and instead tried to read a book in the dark.

Not very long before my Bat-Mitzvah celebration (celebrated secularly), the IDF left the south of Lebanon. The party was to take place on my parents’ porch – a north-facing porch. Some of the food for the party was prepared by my mother, and some by the owner and staff of a beloved Lebanese restaurant run by Arab-Israelis. We didn’t know if anyone would show up, or what might happen. The restaurant was located south enough to be out of range of the usual rockets that were fired from Lebanon, and we were invited to move everything there, in a moment’s notice, if need be. The need didn’t arise, and our guests did show up.

Later that year, children of soldiers and officers from the SLA (South Lebanon Army, which collapsed upon the Israeli withdrawal) joined our classrooms. Some of them had family members, usually fathers, who stayed and were in mortal danger. Some stayed in Israel; some later left to Europe or the USA.

I hate that this was normal to me. I hate the fact that my experience isn’t unique – I share it with thousands of other children.

One of those children was Gilad Shalit, who was my classmate. We both grew up in Mitzpe Hila, and shared a home-room class. My dad was a teacher at our school, and on the morning of June 25th 2006, he received a phone call from one of his former students who served in an Operations Room. That’s how I learned that something happened to my classmate before it was reported in the news; to begin with, we thought he had been killed, but we later found out that he had been captured.

Every 18-year-old is basically stupid. I don’t know if adult me would have done the same things I did then. I don’t know if I would have stood by traffic lights, giving away yellow ribbons (a sign that one is waiting for a missing loved one away on military duty). I don’t know if I would have tried to get out of mandatory military service for moral reasons (I did, and was denied). Those things did happen, though.

And then another war started. My parents were very glad that my boyfriend at the time lived in the central part of Israel, near Tel Aviv. One less worry for them if I was there. I did go back, though, one weekend, and attended the funeral of my friend’s mother –my English teacher from primary school, the same school where I was forced to watch The NeverEnding Story. She died after a stroke at a very young age; I don’t wish a funeral under missile fire upon anyone.

Many people left their homes to stay with family or friends somewhere further from the fighting. A lot of them left their pets behind. My parents spent quite some time feeding and caring for other people’s pets. They were exhausted, and decided to take a few days away – in Turkey, which then still had relatively positive feelings towards Israel. They just had to take a break. It was a horrible “vacation”.

When we got back to Israel, I went back to my boyfriend’s; by the end of the war, I had a job in Tel Aviv. I never again lived in Mitzpe Hila – I would go there on weekends during my military service. My military service was boring and redundant. I didn’t want to be there, I didn’t want any of this military service. But I decided that I had to do it, and hated pretty much every second of it. As soon as I was discharged, I left Mitzpe Hila for good. I always wanted to leave – everybody wants to live in Tel Aviv – but I didn’t leave on my own terms; the 2006 war chased me away.

I hate that, despite all of this, I thought that I still turned out “fine”. I never had a fear of loud, sudden sounds; I didn’t freeze every time I heard a car or a motorcycle accelerate with a Doppler-effect screech. When missiles were fired at Tel Aviv for the first time in a forever, I was almost cavalier – definitely the calmest person around. When I was no longer a resident of Tel Aviv itself (but still in its metropolitan area) and before I had dogs, when sirens went off I didn’t even bother going down to the shelter. I stayed in the (second-floor) apartment with the cats. Now that I have dogs I go down immediately – for their sake and safety. But this is not “turning out fine”. That’s just a different brand of crazy, of damaged.

And this time, I’m afraid. I truly am. If that is because I’m now married and have dependents or not, if it’s just growing as a person and realising new things about myself or not, I don’t know. I’m in a relatively safe place, though we have had to go down to the shelter a few times. My loved ones are relatively safe as well. My nuclear family doesn’t live in Israel anymore; my parents left a few years ago, and my brother left recently. I have decided, long ago, that I must leave too – and a large part of the decision was on moral grounds. At some point, one must realise that staying is endorsing, and there’s all manner of things that happen here that I cannot endorse. But so far, unfortunately, I’m still here. And I’m hurting.

This thing I always knew – that this is not normal – is now impossible to ignore. I hate that I didn’t leave sooner, and that I haven’t left yet. I hate the boom sounds I hear from afar even while writing this. I hate that my parents are worried about me. I hate that when my brother was visiting just before he left and we had to go down to the shelter we joked about how this “brings back childhood memories” and “oh, it’s been a while since we spent time in the shelter together”.

I hate that I can tell the difference between hits and interceptions. I hate that now, for what is maybe the first time in my life, my heart misses a beat when I hear a sudden noise or a louder-than-usual car exhaust. I used to love thunderstorms.

I hate that I have so many tips to give to others, and I hate the realisation that some of them are based on things that I remember as a child – and didn’t even know that I know. I hate that the fifth day is easier than the third, that the sixth is easier than the fourth. The same can go for weeks – the second was easier than the first, the third is easier than the second. I hate the speed in which I get used to this kind of a situation. But this isn’t “easy”. It’s just easier. And condemnable.

But most of all, I hate that I feel like I’ve lost something that was always dear to me, an integral part of me: my humanity. The Hammas took away my ability to feel empathy towards “the other side”, my empathy to the people they claim to represent. I hate that, for the first time, my initial reaction was to feel no sympathy for the hurt and pain in Gaza. I hate that it even crossed my mind, for longer than I’m comfortable admitting, that maybe the solution really was to flatten Gaza to all hell. I hate that, for the first time in my life, I felt animosity towards regular Joes and Janes in Gaza – not just towards the Hammas. I hate that, for the first time in my life, it made me feel like Hammas really does speak for, and acts on behalf of, all Palestinians.

I hate it, because I know there’s no way that’s 100% true – look at me, I exist! People like me are always somewhere. But knowing aside, right now I’m feeling. And I hate my own emotions.

And this is a part, or maybe all, of the frustration. The difference between “knowing” or “thinking”, and “feeling” or “believing” is known and understood by most of us. By now, a few weeks have passed since the first draft of this article; nothing is “better”, but the human capacity for adaptation is, indeed, incredible. So far, the circumstances of my life had never managed to wear down my compassion, my humanistic opinions, or my basic humanity. October 7th changed that in a very extreme way. I am happy – truly happy – that the pendulum has swung back again, and my feelings are back to a place I am more consciously content with – but things will never be the same.

No, I do not now support the Israeli government’s actions (or motivations. Or existence in its current form). I still – and will continue to – denounce the Israeli occupation, the building of settlements, and the directing of funds toward right-wing, religious goals; the erosion of democracy, the corruption. None of these have changed, and a day of reckoning will (have to) come. This time, hopefully, not just from “the left” but from anyone and everyone who calls themselves “human”.

This isn’t a political text, though. If it was, it would have contained current facts, statistics, things that might change people’s minds, or my own personal opinion regarding what is happening and what should be done. This isn’t the point. The point is that all aspects of the current situation are horrible, and that many of the aspects of “normal” life here are awful even when it’s under the surface, or when consequences take decades to manifest.

The point is that physical and mental health and well-being aren’t the only casualties of war; concepts are, too. The point is that cruelty can lead to ugliness in every direction, and that it’s important to not forget basic humanity, even in the face of atrocities.

The radicalisation of “Joan”: a true-life account of one colleague’s slide into conspiracism

Anonymous
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The radicalisation of “Joan”: a true-life account of one colleague’s slide into conspiracism

I knew it was time to leave, when I heard her say “Hitler was just misunderstood, that’s all. He was actually a hero if you think about it. The only reason the war happened was because the Jews started it, when Hitler politely asked them to leave the country. He was actually a really nice man, and children loved him.”

I was nonplussed. My head span. My colleague was sat opposite me defending Hitler. Hitler! I didn’t know what to say. I never knew what to say. Over the years I’d come to expect some radical and far-reaching statements, but I never thought she would be discussing Adolf Hitler like he was a rough diamond, like one of Monty Python’s Piranha Brothers: “He nailed my head to the floor, but we has a lovely chap really”.

It didn’t start like this though. Let’s go back to the beginning.

I joined the company because the work looked interesting; challenging but achievable, and I enjoy a challenge. It was well within in my field of sciences and contained a good amount of interesting problem solving. There was no weekend work, which was different to some customer service roles I had been in previously. The wage was great, plus I had use of a company vehicle. It seemed like a really good package.

There was only one downside.

I had to work with Joan. In a career spanning 25 years, I had never worked with anyone like Joan before. To be clear, Joan is not her real name.

“I found out something really interesting last night…”, Joan told me as we took our coffees into our little office together. It was 2016. I’d only been working with her for a few weeks since joining the organisation, but already she engaged me excitedly every morning, like a puppy wanting to show its new toy. “Have you heard of the food pyramid?”, she asked me. I told her I had. I used to run a small organisation that obtained funding to spread the message of healthy eating, and environmental science amongst other things. “It’s a lie!”, she told me triumphantly. “Ancel Keys made up the food pyramid to poison Americans. They killed him for it”. Who were ‘they’ I wondered? I would get to know who ‘they’ were over the coming years.

That night as I was searching around on Netflix for something to distract me, I remembered the conversation. Recalling my previous workshops about healthy eating, I wondered if I had been mistaken in my research, and so did some Googling about the food pyramid. It was devised in Sweden in 1974. I made a mental note to pick up the conversation the next morning back at the coffee machine.

“No – ANCEL KEYS”, she repeatedly slowly and clearly. She stopped abruptly as she saw me tip half a teaspoon of sugar into my mug. “What are you doing? That’s poison!”, she shouted. “It’s designed to kill you, don’t you remember?”. She took the mug and tipped the contents down the sink. I found this a little unnerving. My whole career had been built on researching things and passing on the information in an engaging way. I’d won awards for it. I wasn’t used to someone dismissing me so efficiently.

Joan was a grumbler, at first. Bloody government, bloody this, bloody that. It seemed the whole world was against her. At first, she was very, very Left. Conservatives were scum. Then it was Labour who were evil. Then it was anyone who wasn’t “awake”. I told her I was “woke”, was that enough? It wasn’t.

When Brexit reared its head, she was overjoyed. The thought of all of that money being wasted by unelected European morons was abhorrent, and by leaving we would be much, much better off. The phrase “sunlit uplands” was bandied about. Months later, when it emerged that the campaigns had used exaggeration and manipulation to get the result, Joan was crushed. Looking back, I think this was a big influence on what happened next, and how her behaviour changed.

Such was life working opposite Joan. To be fair, once I had prioritised my workload for the day, she let me get on with it. We had disagreements sometimes about how to do things, and she liked to lose her temper, shout, and throw things, but for the most part, we got on.

Suddenly, and without warning, Covid struck, and Boris appeared on our screens saying we must stay at home. However, given the industry we work in, we were summoned to work the next morning, so people could still have available utilities. Joan immediately went into overdrive, sanitising doorhandles, ordering masks, and generally panicking. I picked up a ringing telephone once, and she ran over, shouting at me for not having sanitised it first. “But it’s my phone”, I countered, “nobody uses it but me”. The phone flew across the room. Our works vehicles were cleaned and disinfected, repeatedly. Masks were bought and used. Work began to be quite stressful, for everyone.

But then Joan discovered something. She gleefully stumbled across a video that claimed to show deserted hospitals, despite the pandemic putting a strain on the NHS.

Joan stopped using a mask. She said they were designed to make you sick, actually. Sometimes she would call into shops even when she didn’t need anything, just to walk around and smile at people. When challenged, she claimed she was exempt from wearing “face nappies”.

One morning, at the coffee machine, Joan was waiting with another one of her triumphant smiles. “It’s a hoax, the whole thing. There’s no sickness, and the people on TV are paid actors playing sick people. It’s obvious when you think about it.”

We were given boxes of covid tests to keep on our desks, and use periodically. “I’m not sticking that up my nose”, she sniffed, “I read online that they’ve put shards of glass and dangerous chemicals on the swabs to make us compliant and sick. Plus, the tests are fake, you can tell which ones are going to test positive by running them under the tap. Just like passports” she finished, cryptically. I simple had to bite on this one. “You run your passport under the tap?” I enquired. “No silly, the letters on your passport determine what rate of citizen you are, and whether or not you will be stopped at the border. Billionaires don’t have ANY letters”.

All of this was beginning to take its toll on my mental health. Each morning I would have to employ a huge amount of mental gymnastics to entertain (but not encourage) and listen to (but not agree or disagree with) Joan’s monologues. Why? To be honest, it just seemed easier than challenging her. She told me that she spent every evening on her laptop, headphones on (so her husband didn’t talk to her), searching for the truth. It was clear that each link she followed, led to another, even more outrageous claim. The world she thought she knew seemed to be crumbling. Dorothy had spotted the man behind the curtain. In fact, she hadn’t, she had read online that there WAS a man behind the curtain, and that other people had CERTAINLY spotted him for sure, and that the curtain would be pulled back any day now.

Any day now.

When Covid vaccines became available, Joan’s warnings were dire. The vaccine had been developed by evil scientists who had been tasked with reducing the planet’s population to “around 500,00 people, to be used as slaves”. As the rest of the staff became vaccinated, she called them “morons” and “fucking idiots”. She would ring suppliers and ask about their vaccine status, saying she had to ensure the future of the company. She openly discussed the possibility of the business closing, because the rest of the staff were going to die. She said this made her very unhappy, as she would have to find another job; a real pain as she could currently walk to work. The subject of death because a daily topic; who would die next? Who among us was vaccinated? When a colleague’s mum passed away from a long illness, Joan didn’t offer a crumb of comfort. She simply said, “Yeah… was she vaccinated?”.

The rest of the business seemed to run as normal. Staff wore their masks, had their vaccines, kept things clean, and life continued.

Meanwhile Joan was determined to buck the system, and prove the hoax. When a contractor sent a WhatsApp picture of his positive lateral flow test and apologised for not visiting our site, Joan was on the case. “It’s fine, it’s just a hoax, it’s not true” she told him. As he attended our site, coughing profusely, I quietly excused myself and busied myself with a job in another building.

Then came the podcasts. Hour after hour of urgent voices coming from her tiny phone speaker. I would catch snippets as I zoned in and out. “…stealing our children with brainwashing propaganda…”, “…no, there is NO clear evidence that tobacco is harmful…”, “…if you divide the number by 666, you get to the letter D, for Devil…”.

Joan began reading The Light Paper, a specialist newspaper, for Truthers and the “awake”. It was hand-delivered by fellow free-thinkers, and the articles were something to behold. “WAR ON FREE THOUGHT,” shouted the headline, “LOCKDOWNS ARE 1984 WITH BELLS ON”. The latest Star Wars movie got a pasting for having a female lead in it (“woke emasculation gone mad”). The fluoride in our water was designed to kill you. Vaccines turned you gay. As I leafed through it, it was the adverts that intrigued me:

“DIGITAL CURRENCY IS THEFT – BUY GOLD BULLION”

“STAR FOOD – ENLIGHTEN YOUR BODY’S POTENTIAL BY EATING MONATOMIC GOLD, RHODIUM, AND IRIDIUM”

The business making ABDUCTION-PROOF RADIO FREQUENCY PROTECTIVE ALL-IN-ONE BODY SUITS was based in Glastonbury, which I suppose makes some sense.

Things took a turn for the worse when, inevitably, she found QAnon. For those of you who are unaware “Q” is an alleged whistleblower, seated deep inside the real government, not the let’s-play-at-puppet-politics TV politicians, but the REAL, actual group who are at the heart of what’s going on. From this vantage point “Q” shares information about the hidden rings, plans, and manipulations devised by a Machiavellian few; always hidden, always plotting.

At the heart of the plot is a group of evil, scheming paedophiles known as the “cabal”. Q postulates that they have been responsible for anything and everything that has challenged humanity, including HIV, weather manipulation, floods, market forces, pandemics, common illnesses, any and all wars, vaccines, and the corruption of children through Steven Spielberg movies. This information was devoured by a tidal wave of followers, who finally had someone to blame for any and all of their troubles.

The floodgates had been opened. Now, each morning over coffee, Joan would tell me more and more about what she had learned the night before. Chemtrails, cabals, Satan-worshipping Liberal Elites, Tom Hanks’s child-trafficking to Barack Obama’s secret underground chambers, a flat earth, and the fact that the Queen had never actually existed. Neither had the Titanic, apparently.

I was being told daily, and repeatedly, that the world I knew was a hoax. Voting? That’s a hoax. War in Ukraine? Also a hoax. Climate change? Definitely a hoax put about by the Liberal Elite to scare and control you. I imagine this is what propaganda feels like; “Your team have been captured, your country on its knees, give up now, resistance is futile”.

Office documents began to be written in purple ink. That’s nice I thought, she’s found some artistic flair, and added a touch of colour. I was wrong. “They can’t hold it against me in court”, she explained, “purple ink means anything I sign isn’t legally binding. They’ll never get me.”

The trouble was it made working very difficult. Just when you’d gotten settled to process some claim forms or book some hotels for someone, she would want to speak at length about the latest tidbit she had uncovered the night before. “Wow, that’s crazy” I would say, up to 20 times each conversation.

Plato said our silence gives consent. Was this my fault? Should I be stopping her? Or at least asking her to question the reliability of where all of this information was coming from?

I asked if she had discussed any of this with her husband. “Oh no, he’s a sheep”, she would say, “he isn’t a Truther like me.” Her husband worked for a meteorological service as a consulting scientist. “He believes all this nonsense about the changing weather; I’ve given up trying to convince him”. She left him in the months that followed.

When Donald Trump’s presidential term finished, Joan was furious over the election result. Trump appeared on TV, claiming the election had been rigged, and that he was doing to “drain the swamp” of dangerous, cheating liberals. The next day Joan was already out in front of the topic. “It was the Vatican!” she told me, over coffee. “Basically, the Vatican has a network of satellites that they used to beam signals to the Dominion voting machines, causing them to display false results, and electing Biden. Q posted about it last night, it’s common knowledge now, amongst Truthers”.

The Capital Riots elicited a similar explanation. The rioters were true Q-anon followers; the Proud Boys (the all-male, neo-fascists), and other violent, gun-toting, flag-waving ‘Murican’s and Trump loyalists who were taking a stand against brainwashed Liberals. That was until it became clear that some deaths had occurred during the riot – at which point the protestors became actors, paid by the Liberals, pretending to be rioters in an effort to discredit the gentle folk who just wanted election answers.

Soon, Joan discovered she was a millionaire. “We all are, actually”, she explained, “we have trusts in our name that are assigned to us at birth. Somewhere there is a vault with my name on it, full of gold bullion. I just need to access mine, but the government will try and stop me, you watch.”

I left the company shortly afterwards. My mental health was in pieces. I was broken, exhausted. During the week I left, Joan (now divorced) had moved into a little cottage, on her own. She had recently read that taxes and bills were also government hoaxes, and was busy dodging fines, court summonses, and building a large, reinforced fence around her house. “It stops the bailiffs banging on the door, which is Treason. They just hit the railings now”.

As I reflect on my time with her, I realise that she had no-one else to talk to, about anything. I was her confidant, her co-conspirator. Even now, as I write this, I feel guilty for not helping her more, helping her to question what she was reading. But it did make her happy, joyful even that she had discovered all of this, on her own, and that there were other, like-minded souls out there, who knew and understood. A bit like sighting land while drifting around in a lifeboat.

I work elsewhere now. I wish only happiness for Joan. I hope she’ll be ok.

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