Chi Bollocks.

It's highly annoying to discover you've been doing something quite naturally and then have somebody else point out that what you had been doing quite naturally is in fact a big load of new age bollocks. It really funks up the morning of a Fatcat.
Specifically I'm talking about running here. I run long distance, anything from 10k to 50k a week at the moments, and I will be upping that to 60k a week over the next fortnight. I have noticed over the year that I have developed a very distinctive running style, in that I am inclined to run head down and tilted forward-almost running over my knees, so to speak. I do this because gravity being what it is the more weight I put ahead of my stride the easier it is for me to self propel, the easier it is to self propel the easier the run. Not exactly rocket science. Nothing woo about it, right?
Well wrong, because I have since discovered that this is 'chi running' .
Now I no more believe in 'chi' than I do unicorns, to me running at a tilt makes perfect sense, plus I find it much easier on the joints, I could wax lyrical for quite some time about why running at a tilt helps me- the long distance runner-but I can't now because I am in a total and utter bluesy fucking crank. I wanted to impart my learned wisdoms to Andraste and Grims, all the better to avoid knee damage, all the better to avoid aches and pains on the longer runs. I would like to expound on WHY tilt running is brilliant on hills, especially if you hate hills like I do.
But I can't, because everything I naturally learned over the last 24 months has now been CONTAMINATED by fucking woo. I can't really have just stumbled literally into something helpful, oh no, it's a mind body connection of ancient wisdoms and inner harmony. It a spiritual awakening, it's a GIFT, it's a balancing harmonious combination of the mystic and the physical.
Except it is not.
I do NOT chi run. I tilt run. Nothing woo about it.
Woo, I am against firmly it.

I Hate Psychics.

I do.I'm using the word hate here Melvin. I hate them with all my liver. Bullshit artists of the highest and stinkiest order. Fraudulent halfwits and poppycock merchants. Mumbo Jumbo supremos, liars and spoofers, cold reading emotion sucking gonifs who ought to be hog tide in a public square, whipped raw and then blunderbussed with rock salt.
Oh yes, I detest them. I have ALWAYS detested them.
But after reading this, I am going to add flat out dangerous to my other gripes.

Hat-tip to PZ

Pot, allow me to introduce Kettle.

My unbridled hatred of Reiki and mystical woo of any sort is based on my personal belief that woo is a load of codswallop and that people can no more speak to the dead or heal people by pretending to locate mystical powers than I can speak Greek. That people then charge other folk for this quasi healing and death talk further revs up my ire and makes little puffs of steam exit my ears. I hate mumbo jumbo, I DON"T think it is harmless, I don't have any tolerance for it in any way shape or form. Lately I've been bloody well banned from a forum because I dared suggest that people who claim they are psychics or mediums are actually charlatans and hucksters and easily found out. I said on that forum that I would be perfectly happy to go to ANY medium or psychic and see what they can tell me- if they were genuine I would happily eat shit and say so. But of course no one took me up on that and lo, next thing I knew I was persona non grata.
Well I wasn't surprised, folk don't like to be challenged or have their beliefs ridiculed. And I was probably being very bloody sarcastic or something. I can't help it. Something about lying thieving bastards fleecing stupid people out of their own money annoys the living shit out of me. I want to run around issuing slaps. I want to yell, 'Are you for FUCKING REAL!!!?' Quite why I get so incensed is beyond me, but incensed I get. But I try to limit my simmering hatred of woo to my own blog, that way I don't have to suffer gobshites asking me 'what are you afraid of?' on a regular basis. Oh yes, if you think mediums are shitehawks and reiki a load of hooey, the believers automatically accuse you of 'fearing' their particular brand of woo.
But what does make me laugh is when one woo worshiper attacks other variations of woo. This kind of thing makes me actually guffaw out loud.
Observe, from the mystical pages of the Daily Wail.

"Father Jeremy Davies, exorcist for Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, says that activities such as yoga, massage therapy,
reiki or even reading horoscopes could put people at risk from evil spirits.

In a new book, he also argues that people with promiscuous lifestyles could find themselves afflicted by demons.

And he says that the occult is closely linked to the scourges of ‘drugs, demonic music and pornography’ which are ‘destroying millions of young people in our time’.

The 73-year-old Catholic priest, who was appointed exorcist of the Archdiocese of Westminster in 1986, was a medical doctor before being ordained in 1974.

He has carried out thousands of exorcisms in London and in 1993 he set up the International Association of Exorcists with Fr Gabriel Amorth, the Pope’s top exorcist.

In Exorcism: Understanding Exorcism In Scripture And Practice, which is published by the Catholic Truth Society, Fr Davies compares militant atheists to rational Satanists, and blames them for a rise in demonic activity.


Yoga enthusiasts 'are in danger of being possessed by the devil'

He adds that ‘perversions’ such as homosexuality, pornography and promiscuity are contributing to a growing sense of moral unease.

He writes: ‘Even heterosexual promiscuity is a perversion; and intercourse, which belongs in the sanctuary of married love, can become a pathway not only for disease but also for evil spirits...young people especially are vulnerable and we must do what we can to protect them.

‘The thin end of the wedge (soft drugs, yoga for relaxation, horoscopes just for fun and so on) is more dangerous than the thick end because it is more deceptive – an evil spirit tries to make his entry as unobtrusively as possible.

‘Beware of any claim to mediate beneficial energies (eg reiki), any courses that promise the peace that Christ promises (eg enneagrams), any alternative therapy with its roots in eastern religion (eg acupuncture).’

Fr Davies argues that occult practices such as magic, fortune-telling and holding seances to contact the spirits of the dead are ‘direct invitations to the Devil which he readily accepts."

Yep, a priest who performs exorcisms is railing against people who stretch and meditate and believe in healing woo. Aha, I'm going to go now and make more coffee. I might take a painkiller or two since I am hungover like a goat and about to embark on a month long detox. Then I had planned to do half an hour of yoga. Golly I hope the devil's off busy doing devil stuff, like making more smegma. Feeling crook-like I am- the last thing I need is to be issuing invitations to the horned one unbeknownst to myself. That John Mc Better watch his back too.
Fucking woo.
I AM AGAINST IT!

Christina Gallagher, the anti Robin Hood.

Well now. You know how hot and bothered I get about frauds and 'mystics' and what not right? I would be very firmly against them. And you'll remember be I wrote a piece on that stigmata addled fraud Christina Gallagher, right? And then I got pissy emails from folk declaring her a living saint and insisting I was the embodiment of eeeeveil for even suggesting that ol' Christine might in fact be a bit of a huckster and not the palm bleeding Matrix loving humble servant of the sacred blessed virgin she claims to be?
Right?
Right, so it should come as a TERRIBLE shock this fine morning if I reveal Christina Gallagher is now under investigation from the Office of the inland Revenue. And that several of her followers, namely elderly folk, have been talked into handing over considerable sized donations to fund the 'humble' housewife and her mansion living ways. One poor elderly woman who told the Sunday Times she could barely heat her home had been pressed to part with almost 100,000 euros, having been hounded by Father McGinnity, Gallagher's tame priest. This poor old lady and her husband genuinely believed that the apocalypse was imminent and unless 2 milllion was raised to fund a secret project-asked for by Mary, mother of god, countless souls would would be lost.
She was just one of the few mentioned in the papers.
Gallagher won't be happy about this negative attention. This charming fraudster has built up a VERY lucrative business using the tried and tested blueprints of fear, religious devotion, promised salvation. It takes a lot to convince the devoted they are being conned. Some people will never be swayed. However Our Lady Queen of Peace House of Prayer, the original power base Gallagher operates from has had its charitable tax status removed by the Revenue and the catholic Church has been VERY vocal in distancing themselves from the debacle, including banning their priests from saying mass at the house.
Speculating papers also means Gallagher has taken a body blow this weekend. She can recover from it of course, and as long as the weak and the gullible are promised healing and special favours from Mary mother of god, in return for financial aid, the world of this huckster will still turn a profit. But I truly hope this marks the beginning of the end for that woman.
People who frighten old folk into parting with their life savings ought to be whipped and then blunderbussed with rock salt.
Christina Gallagher, I am against you.