Source wrote:Hey,
This is my first post on this site. I am wondering why there is no article on this site, or a discussion on this forum about Baba Vanga. Instead what we have - Santa Claus. While indeed whether to lie to children about Santa Claus is an interesting issue, I'd say that no.1 organisation in the buisness of debunking paranormal claims should take note when a psychic preditcs a World War 3 to a specific date, and on that date there erupts a dangerous conflict. It's quite extraordinary, by any standard. Then we here about her other supposed successes, Chernobyl, Kursk, Stalin's death and so on. And of course, when you read her predictions what would happen during and after the World War 3, some of the stuff is really ludicrous. And only by looking in Wikipedia I saw one of her predictions not coming true.
But she is a serious (if that word can apply to a psychic) deal, and she is becoming new Nostradamus on the internet. And justly so. Even, despite the strongness of her claims, when some psychic gains popularity, the EDUCATIONAL foundation must do a throughout debunking. Because THAT'S how you gain new skeptics. But there is no skeptic answer to her.
And I would except JREF to do what it was ONCE doing, before it became MOSTLY light-weight, a thing that was so wonderful, and what made me a skeptic in the first place. A throughout debunking. The context. The analysis of couple of her predictions to see what is their mechanism. The record of failures. And shedding some light on this most recent prediction, whether there is some story behind it. That is what JREF has been created for, wasn't it? The analysis of paranormal phenomenon. I'm looking forward to it.
P.S. I'm not reading about paranormal or supernatural anymore, I moved on. But after I saw the Baba Vanga stuff spreading all over, I said it's time to check Randi's site after some time, because it really got me interested. And when I went here, I recalled "Ahhh, yes, it's the new randi.org, so instead of reply to a new popular phenomenon, I will find posts about Santa Clause, "Delusion to the point of saturation" and Clint Eastwood movie review. The first things that I saw here (except for "Science-based medicine,which is a good series). In the old "Swift" I would be guaranteed to find it. Anyway, what I really want is just a careful analysis of it. For benefit of all doubters and potential future skeptics, because cases like that after debunking really open eyes, and for benefit of the foundation, because analysis of her might prove very popular and invite new-comers. And not just preach to the choir, like it is doing for some time now.