13 November 2023
In the social media age the “Am I the A$@&@ole?” (AITA) post sub-genre provides a sincere 'check-yourself' calibration and a moment of schadenfreude. I think it originated in the Reddit dungeons, but has spread across many apps and an endless number of YouTube channels. A recent moral quandary of the AITA variety recently hit me and I thought I'd look for skeptical input.
25 September 2023
September has been an interesting month in ISTA land and its adjacent islands. Motivated by reports that the neo-tantric NGO was resuming activity in Israel and holding a workshop in an undisclosed location, the Israeli Centre for Cult Victims issued an official statement (available in Hebrew and English) on September 8th. The statement outlines, in explicit detail, the content of the first two levels of the ISTA programme and the multiple conduits for exploitative activity, in particular the lack of detailed information that students receive about the workshops (which was also indicated by Morgan Penn in the Sex.Life podcast). While it stops short of outright declaring ISTA a cult, the centre does state that it has taken an interest in ISTA activities and notes that in Israeli penal law, spiritual teachers are forbidden from having sexual relations with students.
12 September 2022
How much would you pay to be led in a chant before drinking a bitter cup of cacao?
1 February 1993
This is a summary of a talk given at the 1992 Skeptics conference by_ Dr Eric Geiringer.