Finally, another person tells us one can learn to do cold reading without any awareness one has learned to do it.

This person did it herself. Karla McLaren.

Bridging the Chasm Between Two Cultures.

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..an understanding of cold reading would have helped me a great deal.

"I never knew what cold reading was, and until I saw professional magician and debunker Mark Edward use cold reading on an ABC News special last year, I didn't understand that I had long used a form of cold reading in my own work! I was never taught cold reading and I never intended to defraud anyone—I simply picked up the technique through cultural osmosis.

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I knew many psychics and alternative healers who seemed to be very good at what they did, and I directly experienced healings and psychic readings that I couldn't logically refute.

In that period, it would have been wonderful to come upon skeptical and critical thinking techniques, but alas, critical thinking wasn't taught in my high school. I didn't even know the category existed! When I went to junior college, I took geometry and logic for my critical thinking courses and thus I missed out on the subject once again.

My empirical experience “proved” the validity of things like psychic skills, auras, chakras, contact with the dead, astrology, and the like—and I had very little in my intellectual arsenal at that time to help me understand what was truly occurring.

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Growing up as I did in....Marin County, ...The problem is this: In my culture, you can't ...you can't use truly focused skepticism. In my culture, personal attacks are considered an example of emotional imbalance (where your emotions control you), while deep skepticism is considered a form of mental imbalance (where your intellect controls you).

Both behaviors are serious cultural no-nos, because both the emotions and the intellect are considered troublesome areas of the psyche that do very little but keep one away from the (supposedly) true and meaningful realm of spirit.

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The New Age is a complete culture with its own rules, ideals, infrastructure, and social life. When I finally realized that my cultural training had me teetering on a foundation of candyfloss and dreams—and worse, that my work had encouraged others to teeter alongside me, I was inconsolable, yet I had absolutely no one to turn to.

I've made it, I think, through my rage and horror at my own complicity in helping people remain susceptible—and perhaps through my grief and despair (though that’s more cyclical) about my own miseducation. Now I'm considering what to do from here. I've discovered in just the few (less than ten) conversations I've had with faith-based people that skeptical information is absolutely threatening and unwanted. What I didn't understand until recently is that when you start questioning these beliefs, there’s a domino effect that eventually smacks into your whole house of cards—and nothing remains standing.

[webcache.googleusercontent.com]

Note on manners.

It is presumptuous to address another by nickname if that person has not first invited you to do so.

Addressing someone by nickname without first being invited to do so is a boundary violation.

Final comment. It appears Alan Lew had, while giving Ouija board sessions, learned cold reading without knowing he had done so--right in line with Karla McLaren's description of herself as having learned it via 'cultural osmosis'.

Lew described a session where he feared something was going out of control.

"People came every day. It was worrying, and moreover, it was exhausting me...One day some people brought me their mother, an ordinary middle aged housewife. The Ouijda board started telling her not to take acid anymore, and I said to myself, They're going to come an arrest me! I cant be saying this to this woman! But it turned out she was taking acid and this was a problem."

(It was the early 1970s, huge numbers of people were taking acid and experimenting with weed. A lady in her seventies whose husband was a renowned tax attorney was a neighbor of my parents. She told my folks she'd recently tried pot and it had not done her a bit of good. Friends of my mothers best friend flipped out and had to go to psych emergency when they tried weed and it turned out to be stronger than the stuff they'd smoked as beatniks. All this and much more was the 1970s. It was more a matter of who wasnt 'feeding their heads Corboy)

Lew tells us he later realized he could give these same kinds of readings without the medium of the Ouija board. But he still thought he was getting information from "some place" other than his own thought process.

Didnt occur to him he had had the talent to learn a form of cold reading without recognizing it, and was able to develop the talent because so very many people were looking for answers and gave plenty of practice for him.

But Lew did not charge money or ask any sort of renumeration. And discovered he was feeling more and more tired and worried.

"When I would give readings, people would always say, "How did you know that! That's exactly what I needed to hear!"

Lew One Hand Clapping: Spiritual Journey of a Zen Rabbi, p 53

Hello Rod and thanks again for contributing.

You asked if I think it's possible that PHD holders, lawyers, professors etc can be tricked - of course it's possible. In fact, if as you say, you 'unreservedly accept UM's teachings' you also believe it's possible for such intellectuals to be tricked, just not by Serge.

As I noted in a previous post, Serge teaches that all other religious traditions, including the rest of the 'New Age' spectrum (for the record, despite all Serge's teachings of a New Era, 2012 etc. apparently UM doesn't fall under the 'new age' umbrella) and healing modalities have been corrupted by or are the direct work of the 'four pranic decievers' known as The Lords of Form. Since there are professors, PHD holders who belong to a wide range of faiths and it's a strong possibility that there are some who enjoy the results of some healing modality or mediation other than those approved by UM, according to the teachings you unreservedly accept these people have been tricked. Not just by human deception mind you, but by four disincarnated spirit overlords.

Furthermore, Serge teaches that the human mind doesn't form thoughts and ideas but receives them (either from the divine, 'fiery' energy of God or the pranic Lords of Form), thus there is no such thing as independent thought. According to UM teaching anyone who rejects this notion and believes they form their own thoughts has been tricked.

Just for the record, my reasons for discussing the stranger ideas taught by UM aren't bitterness as you suggest, but rather concern after seeing the psychological impact these bizarre claims have on some of the students. Hearing people I care about claim they have found 'the way' and praise the physical health benefits of the UM lifestyle (many
of which I don't necessarily have an issue with) was one thing. Seeing them constantly judging themselves (and
others) for 'falling short' of the standards Serge lives by, and experiencing regular anxiety over 'pranic' energy and
attacks by 'entities' and 'cosmic beings' was quite another.

The fact is that everytime I've tried to engage a UM student in a rational discussion about the more bizarre and frankly fear-mongering claims Serge makes they've consistently avoided the issue, a pattern you have continued
here. Considering that most of these teachings are not communicated clearly on the UM website I felt it was
necessary to post them here so that perhaps people considering UM could make a more informed choice and know
what to expect.

All that said, I respect both our differences of opinion and your choices, and wish you all the best.

I think it's great that Rod posted here, I wish more people who support UM would. That way we are able to engage in debate and learn from each other. Sadly, I suspect he has gone for good, and this seems to be the pattern with UM devotees. To try and engage in conversation with them about what their beliefs are, the origins of them, the benefits they see from them, becomes a very one sided conversation. They state there case and then will not allow that to be questioned. It's this absolute devotion that worries me. There is no critical thinking there, they just seem to have become overwhelmed and then brain deadened by Universal Medicine. Like robots, they spout the words, but there seems to be no passion, no fire left in them. Like frodobaggins pointed out, signing every email "with love", a UM facet, ceases to have any meaning. It's an automatic response.

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MacReady
Just for the record, my reasons for discussing the stranger ideas taught by UM aren't bitterness as you suggest, but rather concern after seeing the psychological impact these bizarre claims have on some of the students. Hearing people I care about claim they have found 'the way' and praise the physical health benefits of the UM lifestyle (many of which I don't necessarily have an issue with) was one thing. Seeing them constantly judging themselves (and others) for 'falling short' of the standards Serge lives by, and experiencing regular anxiety over 'pranic' energy and attacks by 'entities' and 'cosmic beings' was quite another.

The fact is that everytime I've tried to engage a UM student in a rational discussion about the more bizarre and frankly fear-mongering claims Serge makes they've consistently avoided the issue, a pattern you have continued here. Considering that most of these teachings are not communicated clearly on the UM website I felt it was necessary to post them here so that perhaps people considering UM could make a more informed choice and know
what to expect.

I think this gets to the heart of the matter, MacReady. It's certainly why I have continued to post here, and will continue to do so. I have no bitterness towards anyone associated with UM. I just want those within in it, and considering it, so have some of the knowledge I now have about it.

Like you, I respect all people's choices and beliefs, but UM is for me a worrying one, and I suggest people proceed with real caution before getting involved.

I would also like to add that I respect people's faith and belief system. I am neither a believer or non believer when it comes to things like reincarnation. While i respect peoples choices i do have the right (out of genuine loving concern) to highlight dangerous teachings. My issue is not with the people directly who follow it or necessarily the lifestyle changes UM advocates. Some of them are ok in principle but its the baseless claims and scare tactics beneath his advice i have a problem with. These issues have been well documented already on this forum. My issue is directly aimed at Serge and I am greatful this forum exists to raise awareness of his manipulative cult. I encourage more UM members - past and present to share their story. Serge if your reading this I think we all appreciate your story on here. Please bring some proof though to back your claims.

Extraordinary claims require extra ordinary proof.

EG "mind reading" (what if its actually cold reading?), reincarnation, saying alcohol invites astral invasion.

[skeptico.blogs.com]

What are the astral enties? Anyone seen them?

Do they meet the criteria of Koch's Postulates of identifying a specific organism as transmissible and causative of a specific illness?

[www.google.com]

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corboy
Extraordinary claims require extra ordinary proof.

EG "mind reading" (what if its actually cold reading?), reincarnation, saying alcohol invites astral invasion.

[skeptico.blogs.com]

What are the astral enties? Anyone seen them?

Do they meet the criteria of Koch's Postulates of identifying a specific organism as transmissible and causative of a specific illness?

[www.google.com]

The skeptico article is a really good one, thanks for posting. I also enjoyed all the cold reading material. It's amazing what can be done with a little knowledge and the willingness of people to believe. I suggest some people are always looking for answers, and as such are often easily hood-winked by a charismatic speaker who claims to know what's better for them than they know themselves.

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corboy
Extraordinary claims require extra ordinary proof.

Absolutely. And the claims being made by Serge definitely qualify. Essentially he's claiming to have exclusive access to knowledge that completely trumps the bulk of human understanding of medical, scientific and religious issues. Moreover, little to no evidence is provided to support these claims.

It's not enough for Serge to say "suck eggs, Darwinians" (which he has done) while discussing his theory of the origins of human life (our spirits willed themselves into physical form on Earth) when absolutely no evidence can be offered to support that theory.

It's not enough to claim to be able to transcend dimensions (which he does) when he's clearly still standing in the room while making the claim that he's in the 5th dimension.

Child-like shapes printed on paper (supposedly images of the souls of UM students) are not proof that Serge can see what his students souls look like. Yet he makes this claim.

On top of the absence of proof supporting the bulk of UM's theology, there is a lack of internal logic with some of the claims.

For example, according to karmic law as presented by Serge, if a person is sexually assaulted or suffers from some other reprehensible act inflicted by another person, this is because the victim committed a similar offence in a previous life, thus the crime (while clearly unpleasant) is simply a 'correction' - an occurence for the victim to learn from that sets their karmic balance straight.

At the same time, according to UM teachings 'entities' are evil spirits that have seperated from God's love and exist to malevolently influence mankind and keep humanity from re-connecting to our divine source (God). UM theology maintains that murders, suicides and sexual assault are the result of human beings being manipulated by these astral entities.

So apparently, the evil entities that have seperated from God and exist to keep humanity seperate from God, are causing (abhorrent) behaviours that deliver karmic balance to humans, and instill the necessary lessons that people need to learn from in order for our souls to evolve back to God.

Logic suggests then that these astral entities are actually playing a crucial part in the Hierarchy's 'divine plan' and thus nothing to worry about, despite UM's teaching's to the contrary.