I don't watch the Oprah Winfrey show. But while channel surfing the other day, I had to stop and watch for a bit. Oprah had some guests on her show that claimed they could regress people into their past lives. One guest said that the phobias we may have today are a result from something that happened in a previous life. One woman was deathly afraid of dolls. Under hypnosis she recalled herself dying in a car accident while her frightened young children watched. The dolls in this life are the representation of her children in that life. After having found this out she can now be around dolls again. Wow. Sounds compelling. And Oprah agrees, so it must be true.
Hypnosis has many problems. The person being hypnotized already knows that they are to be regressed to a past life. This could cause their mind to make up something (perhaps something they saw on TV) to fit what the hypnotist wants. In turn, the hypnotist asks leading questions and plants memories. They help the subject embellish and fill out their made up scenario. Even if they don't think that is what they are doing. Carl Sagan talks about false memories through hypnotism in his book "The Demon Haunted World". There have been many families ripped apart because a hypnotist has falsely implanted memories of abuse into their patient's minds. If someone could be made to believe something that important and life changing that never actually happened then a little thing like a car crash that never happened isn't that much of a stretch.
Now Oprah promotes a lot of woo. She is well known for her endorsement of "The Secret" and has aired shows that featured Allison Dubois and uncritical views of psychics. I hate to put down my own gender but I think women may be more gullible when it comes to far fetched claims then men. Not sure why this is but since Oprah has a much bigger female fan base then male, she is not helping to turn that around at all. While there were quite a few women at TAM in Vegas, we were still far outnumbered by the huge amounts of testosterone in the room. 29% of attendees were female. Hopefully more women will join the ranks. Go skepchicks!
Hypnosis has many problems. The person being hypnotized already knows that they are to be regressed to a past life. This could cause their mind to make up something (perhaps something they saw on TV) to fit what the hypnotist wants. In turn, the hypnotist asks leading questions and plants memories. They help the subject embellish and fill out their made up scenario. Even if they don't think that is what they are doing. Carl Sagan talks about false memories through hypnotism in his book "The Demon Haunted World". There have been many families ripped apart because a hypnotist has falsely implanted memories of abuse into their patient's minds. If someone could be made to believe something that important and life changing that never actually happened then a little thing like a car crash that never happened isn't that much of a stretch.
Now Oprah promotes a lot of woo. She is well known for her endorsement of "The Secret" and has aired shows that featured Allison Dubois and uncritical views of psychics. I hate to put down my own gender but I think women may be more gullible when it comes to far fetched claims then men. Not sure why this is but since Oprah has a much bigger female fan base then male, she is not helping to turn that around at all. While there were quite a few women at TAM in Vegas, we were still far outnumbered by the huge amounts of testosterone in the room. 29% of attendees were female. Hopefully more women will join the ranks. Go skepchicks!
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