I am a skeptic

I have two identical stickers on the back of my car that say   “I doubt it”. I admit it…I am a skeptic.

Let me explain how it started. The year was 1968 or 1969 and my friend Melody called me on my princess phone. And said “Robin, did you hear, Paul is dead”. I hadn’t heard anything on WMCA so I asked her what she heard. We spent the next two hours dissecting the Sgt Pepper album cover that most definitely had funeral flowers shaped like a guitar but with Paul’s name hidden within the shape of the guitar. We played records backwards to hear John’s ominous voice eerily say “ I  Buried Paul”. But, why would the Beatles not tell us Paul had died? Well, some conspiracy theorists said that since Paul was the most popular Beatle, nobody would listen to Beatles music anymore if he was dead, so they came up with an elaborate plan to hide his death. But, they put clues all over the place, so people could figure it out if they were smart enough.

I was also a fan of Mark Lane, a great civil rights activist who wrote a book about the investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy called Rush to Judgment. Actually he wrote several books about the subject.

My personal life has also been filled with many beliefs that have had little proof of truth, but sure made me and some of my peers feel good. I was macrobiotic for years, with the belief that I could prevent or cure cancer if only I ate a perfectly balanced macrobiotic diet, not too yin, not too yang. Years later I found out the wife of the founder of macrobiotics in the United States died of cervical cancer. Other friends of mine eschewed anything cooked, claiming that cooking killed all nutrients in food and further stated there was a commune somewhere in South America where people lived on only lemon juice and sunshine. Other people lined up at the health food store I worked at for sugar pills, aka homeopathic medicine, Bach flower remedies, and herbal potions that I have since found out could be very damaging to ones liver.

I had my astrological chart done (Leo sun, Virgo moon, Capricorn rising for those who are curious) and praised mercury for good communication or  blamed mercury if poor mercury was retrograde (which for those who are not aware, means that mercury “appears” to be going backwards in the sky)  .

I have had reiki treatments, had my aura read, chakras opened up, been prayed for, had foot reflexology, taken bovine extracts of thyroid or was it pancreas, because a kinesiologist tested my arm strength while holding unopened jars of the stuff, and have even had psychic readings.

And then something happened. I took some science classes in 1981. I learned about one celled organisms and I learned about body systems. I learned and understood some laws of physics and the magic of some chemical reactions.

I realized that the magic of science, which can be observed, predicted and proven or not proven, was much more interesting to me than wishful thinking. Proving causation was much more satisfying than association or anecdotal theories of events.

My life changed dramatically after that and shortly after I became a mother and needed to research vaccines. Now granted the research was not easy back then because it seemed there was only two pieces of information, from doctors or from Mothering magazine, the original granola mommy, baby wearing, co sleeping, anti- vaccination glossy magazine I subscribed to.

I still decided to vaccinate and only after Rebecca developed a very high fever after the second round of shots, did I give up the “p” part of her vaccine. Both my children have received all other vaccines available to them at the time.

Well years of child rearing passed and then came 1995 and we went online. And in 2010 or so Facebook became a regular part of my life and I insisted it was a way for me to know what was going on with my children so far away.

But….I have learned so much more than where my daughter had dinner or my other daughter’s rock climbing adventure.

I learned that our own government planned and executed 9/11.

I have learned that BIG Pharma keeps real cancer cures under wraps because they won’t make much money off it.

I learned that 10 walnuts a day helps cure cervical dysplasia.

I know about poison jet contrails and I know Obama was born in Kenya. I learned that if I drink enough water before bedtime, I won’t have a heart attack and Johns Hopkins did the research on it, so it must be true. I also now know that if I am in trouble, I can put my pin number into the atm in reverse and the police will be summoned.

Some of these claims are innocuous and some may be obvious lies but I worry. I worry about the child whose parents read about homeopathic treatment for strep and don’t get effective treatment for their ailing child. I worry about the man who thinks he cannot be having a heart attack because he drinks all the water Johns Hopkins tells him to drink and I worry about the woman who takes colloidal silver during pregnancy because she was told it cannot harm her or her baby.

But mostly I worry about my friends, who because of confirmation bias hold unwavering viewpoints about politics, health and world events and refuse to discuss and even ostracize others who proclaim to be open minded but only as much as the opinion or belief is supposedly open minded or new age.

I know that those who believe in aura might say mine is black, after all I don’t believe in auras, but if there is another life or a heaven or hell, we can discuss it then!