This past Saturday I spent some of my time with friends watching a television show called “Bullshit”, hosted by comedians Penn and Teller. During each episode, Penn and Teller pick a topic – often a controversial one – and interview several proponents and a few opponents. I’ve seen episodes covering new age medicine, dolphin language, and cryptozoologly. The show isn’t trying to shed light on the topic, but rather blatantly make fun of it. This kind of entertainment is geared directly towards Cartesians; Penn and Teller fill the role of the voice of reason, and why certain beliefs can’t be right, given the lack of scientific evidence, historical examples, and simply, common sense. For my group of friends and me, this show entertains us, and plays on our “reasonable” way of thinking (and admittedly, cynicism). However, a more important issue is being presented beneath the jokes and absurdity of the show – how do some people actually believe the things they do? Why do some people so firmly belief in crystal healing and alien abduction, when the rest of us laugh because we have “reason” on our side? This is a direct Cartesian problem.
Take for instance my favorite crazy on the planet – Jasmuheen (for shock and awe, check out the 60 minutes interview). She is a self-proclaimed breatharian, and she claims she doesn’t drink any fluids or eat food. Instead, she lives solely off of air. That’s it. She says that any nutrients she needs she derives from breathing and mediation. What is scary about her practice – other than self inflicted starvation – is that she has millions of followers and has a sort of empire, calling herself the “Ambassador of Peace”. Three deaths have even been linked to her teachings. Jasmuheen claims that these people didn’t find the right “light” or divine force to live off of, and died of food deprivation because they weren’t following breatharianism with integrity.
As Cartesians, we know this isn’t right. The body needs food to sustain itself; this is an irrefutable fact. And yet, Jasmuheen and her followers firmly believe the opposite despite overwhelming evidence that living off of air isn’t possible. Jasmuheen herself participated in an experiment where she was taped 24/7 and given no food or water. She claimed she could survive like this for as long as possible. Three days in, the experiment was forced to stop because a doctor said Jasmuheen would die if she were to continue. However, she still preaches her message to willing ear. The mind boggling problem is why do some believe in the impossible, while others - like myself- know it can't? They have air, I have facts!
The only answer my Cartesian brain could reason up is faith. I use faith in evidence and science to rationalize my beliefs, and others believe in something beyond the physical and readily explainable. However, the reason why most of us laugh at Jasmuheen is because most of us believe in science. Common sense, then, can be defined as the most widely accepted belief or faith. Cartesianism, which relies on reason, also requires faith, just like Jasmuheen.
I completely agree with your post and find it somewhat comical too. The "Bullshit" show that you mentioned is a perfect example. I do not understand how people can believe in such irrational things sometimes with no evidence to backup their thoughts. I know that not everyone is always going to always agree on certain topics or think in the same ways, but some things like the breatharian just don't make any sense to me. I think that it is good that Jasmuheen has something that she believes in, but it is horrible that it is unhealthy and she is encouraging others to follow her. How could anyone think that it is a good idea to give up eating and drinking? It is a proven fact that our bodies need food and water to survive. Not everyone is always going to follow the Cartesian way of thinking, but to me it just seems more logical at times.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting part of this phenomena to me is that Jasmuheen is able to convince millions of people that this is a possible fact. I would really like to hear the reasoning behind breatharian logic, because it cannot be Cartesian. I would also like to know what kind of logic they used to explain why Jasmuheen couldn't live off of air to the rest of the breatharians.
ReplyDeleteDoes any one know what part of the world this mainly takes place in?
I'm with Jack here: it's such an easy target. But this is an OLD 'New Age' teaching (goes back to the 'theosophists' in early 20th century (William Butler Yeats was attracted to them). Indians, past lives, ascended masters, mix in some Hindu and Buddhist stuff....
ReplyDeleteThis is an instance of what I call the 'can you believe this shit?' school of Cultural Studies. We can't just look at it and say 'can you believe this shit?' The challenge is to figure out how and why people do. Lots of them.