NZ Skeptics Articles

Articles tagged with "sentence"

An evening with the OTO

11 April 2022

This evening I attended a meditation session with the OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis - an occult group made famous by Aleister Crowley). I'm not sure what I expected, but the session was advertised as a welcoming environment where it was okay to attend but not participate. This sentiment was echoed by the host when myself, Bronwyn Rideout and others arrived at the event. We were walked through several meditation techniques, starting with singing a song accompanied by a live guitar - Kiss the Earth by Ajeet Kaur (you can have a listen at the top of this article).

Forum

1 November 2009

In delivering a non-custodial sentence in the Janet Moses makutu case, Justice Simon France noted that expert witnesses considered the perpetrators were not acting out any customary cultural or religious practice. The appropriateness of a non-custodial sentence for manslaughter has been rightly questioned. Of additional concern, however, is that a golden opportunity appears to have been missed to condemn the very idea of makutu, that someone can be possessed by an evil entity necessitating a special curse-lifting ceremony or exorcism. Exorcisms, of course, are not confined to Maori culture.

A Reflection on Changing Times

1 May 1995

The following extract from William Doyle's Oxford History of the French Revolution (pp 64-65) reminds us that things change but things remain the same.