Stop scrambling online - from Gilad Diamant's book "Sharp Thinking - Between Reality and Illusion"

The book summarizes three years of extensive activity in the field of critical thinking and scientific skepticism and introduces readers to the principles of skeptical-scientific thinking. The book is interwoven with spicy examples both from the world of research and from the author's personal experiences

Gilad Diamant, whose many articles have been published Also on the science site, is about to publish his book "Sharp Thinking - Between Reality and Illusion". The book summarizes three years of extensive activity in the field of critical thinking and scientific skepticism and introduces readers to the principles of skeptical-scientific thinking. The book is interwoven with spicy examples both from the world of research and from the author's personal experiences.
The book will be published with funding from the readers through early purchases, and you can also participate. You can find more details and recommendations On the project page in Headstart.

Here are a few pages from the opening of the book, which cartoonishly paints a worrying picture.
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One day I received a link to a YouTube video from a friend. In it, you see some guys place four mobile phones around kernels of corn, dial them from another phone and within a few seconds the kernels of corn pop into popcorn and hang in the air! What is?! What crazy radiation power these devices have! And this thing I attach to my brain all day? I was horrified and immediately shared the shocking news with all my friends. Unfortunately, it was only after I threw the mobile device out the window that I realized it was In a viral advertisement video for Bluetooth headphones.

A few days later I received an email excitedly announcing that on August 27th the planet Mars will be closer to Earth than ever, and it will be so close that it will look as big as the full moon! Anyone who looks up on this special date will see as if two moons are hanging in the sky! It was further explained in the email that the next opportunity to witness such a miracle will only return in 2287, and therefore we are asked to pass the email on, so that no mortal will miss the rare vision. I immediately shared the shocking news with all my friends.
Then I went over and bought binoculars (of good quality just to be safe), and waited impatiently for the heavenly spectacle. August 27 has arrived. I scanned the sky from end to end. I did not see anything. Neither the moon nor Mars. It turned out Mars is actually on the other side of the sun at that time, precisely at the farthest point from us. It also turned out that this email has been going on for years, August in Augusto, and that Mars has never looked as big as the Moon, and never will. I was disappointed.

Then I read on Facebook something really scary, and even outrageous like nothing else: it turns out that the government is spraying the sky with toxic chemicals (as metrails) without the citizens' knowledge! This has been happening all over the world for years. This is the white trail that planes leave behind in the sky. Well, not every trail, just some - the ones that stay a long time. There is evidence that it is aluminum and barium spraying. They are doing this to change the global climate; or to covertly immunize the population against chemical and biological warfare; Or to - here I almost suffocated - to control the population and maybe even thin it out! I was called to share and inform. Someone needs to be brought to justice for this serious crime!

This time I was already on trial mode. I googled a bit about them as trails, and indeed, I found a lot of material on the subject. Videos, experts talking... indeed shocking! I immediately shared the sensational news with all my friends and tried to remember where I had last seen my Avz mask. I had to find some way to calm the anxieties, and fast. It was of course before It turned out to me that this conspiracy theory is based on false claims, highly imaginative and uninformed interpretations of natural phenomena, fundamentally wrong measurements, drawing baseless conclusions, and above all, a lot of paranoia.

So I wandered on the Internet, and soon it seems that I found what I was looking for - Theta Healing. I read that Theta Healing allows us to meet the world without fear, without barriers, without conditions and without resentment and to express the best of us out of vision, joy, acceptance and love. I learned that it is a wonderful tool that enables connection to inner strength, emotional and physical healing and self-realization. A tool that allows us to pull out blocking beliefs in a moment, change our perception of reality and open a gate to unlimited possibilities in our lives and around us.
And oh That sounds really good! Maybe better than real? I tried to find out who developed this method. It turns out that it was developed in 1995 by an American named Vianna Stable, who managed to spontaneously heal herself from cancer and began to research these healing mechanisms to impart them to others. And oh What power this method has!

I was trying to figure out how it actually works. On the Mako website they explained that in a meditative state of theta waves the person passes through several planes of reality and connects to the highest reality, which is called the "seventh sky" and is perceived by the practitioners as white light. In this situation, the person becomes a part of the creation process and can create his own reality at different levels such as: physical healing, mental healing, developing spiritual abilities such as spiritual vision, understanding the legality of his life and fulfilling a good relationship, money, connection to his personal destiny, etc.

I was not satisfied with one source of information. I cross-referenced data with what I found on Ynet's health channel. There it was explained that according to the concept of theta healing our body is built like a computer. Every cell in the body stores our memories, beliefs and patterns, and it is possible to install programs inside it or to extract them from it. In the download operation, just like downloading software to a computer, we can download programs of knowledge into its content, that is, transfer a direct experience to the body energetically and assimilate it physically down to the cell and DNA level. At the same time, you can uninstall (remove) things that hold us back.
Sounds scientific, and more importantly, so simple! The truth is that it made me want not only to undergo treatment but to participate in a course to learn the method. It was not difficult to find therapists and workshop providers using the method (Google returns about 160,000 search results for the term "theta healing course"). I entered one of the first sites that Google presented and discovered that in the course I could learn, among other things:

• Communicate with our Guardian Angels and Spirit Guides.
• read future
•  To return soul particles that we lost due to trauma.
•  change genetic programs of aging.
• to activate dormant particles in our DNA to realize our high potential.
• To know what twin souls are and how to invite them into our lives.
• Understand why some people fail to heal and how this can be changed.

And all this in a course for beginners. I'm afraid to think what is learned in the advanced course. I wanted to make sure again that the course is right for me. I checked "who is the course for":

•  Intended for those who believe that there is a higher power (God, creation, the universe, or any other name) and that the universe operates according to laws.
•  Designed for small business owners who still do not see significant results in terms of money and success and want to attract ideal customers and collaborations with other business owners to the business.
• Suitable for employees who want to generate more income for themselves and maybe a new business.

Indeed an interesting combination of spirit and matter. But such a course where you learn to predict the future, communicate with angels and even change genetic programs of aging and activate dormant particles in DNA surely requires several years of study. Even Harry Potter studied several years at Hogwarts until he reached maturity. I'm not sure I could afford such an adventure.

I was relieved when it turned out that my fears were in vain. It is about three days only, and at the price of a holiday in a B&B. What's more, at the end of these three days, you get a certified Theta Healing Therapist certificate from the Vienna Stable World School and you can start treating people and making money.
that's where I suspected.

the surrounding sea of ​​disturbances
The above description of the experiences I went through and the reactions I gave is of course imaginary, but the examples I gave of the information we are exposed to are completely real, in the sense that they are taken from the Internet and are not a figment of my imagination.

We live in a difficult time, drowning in increasing amounts of information. Most of the information on which we base our beliefs, opinions, decisions and actions does not derive from personal experience, but relies on the testimonies of others, media reports, commercial publications, messages on social networks, YouTube videos and more.

Today's advanced technology allows unprecedented access to information, but at the same time helps spread rumors, urban legends, baseless promises and intimidation, lies and manipulations, with unprecedented speed and scope. A multitude of motives can stand behind the dissemination of information, motives that have nothing to do with the search for the truth.

It is understood that any information distributed by anonymous or private parties should be questioned, especially if there seems to be a clear connection between the information distributed and personal profit that the advertiser can derive from it. Personal gain does not have to be monetary. Personal advertising, spreading an ideology or a hoax may also be sufficient motives.

And what about the media - the mass media? The television, the cable channels, the press, the leading news sites?

We would like to believe that the purpose of the media is to provide us with correct information, but it seems that its main real purpose is to make profits. The way to do this is to provide entertainment to the masses, to sell a good story. In order to sharpen the story, depending on the spirit of things that you want to convey, details are omitted and others are emphasized or invented. Although there is a wide range of degrees of credibility in the media as well, from quality investigators to eccentrics who are invited to be guests on the morning shows, media activity is generally biased towards reducing coverage costs and increasing ratings at the expense of the truth.
Don't let the presentation confuse you. Sometimes we are also familiar with grandmother's stories on the science and history channels. Who produced the show? Who is responsible for the content? Who are the "experts" interviewed there?
What we encounter in the media is at best only the beginning of a serious investigation.
Try to trace the source of the information. Sometimes the task is not easy. One news site cites another news site, which cites a third news site and so on. Follow the chain of quotes. Who was the first to publish the news? Is it supported by any evidence or maybe it originates from a rumor or an invention of the reporter? You may be surprised at what comes up when you start to explore things more deeply.

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So far a few pages from the beginning of the book. Later, the book focuses on the failure mechanisms that operate in the place where we feel especially safe - personal experiences. Topics covered include perceptual illusions, hallucinations, memory illusions, recognizing order in randomness, imaginary meanings, confirmation bias, conspiracy theories, and more. An entire chapter is dedicated to how to check whether treatment is effective; A more complex and challenging issue than it seems.
After equipping themselves with knowledge about the mechanisms of failure and basic tools to overcome them, the book takes readers on a journey full of adventures in the kingdom of the heart's wishes, where they meet ancient occult teachings, miraculous diagnoses and treatments, cosmic life energies and supernatural powers. What do you discover when you examine these issues in a controlled way? What are the mechanisms that led to this belief? How do the believers react to the test results?
The book "Sharp Thinking - Between Reality and Illusion" deals with all of these.
To the project page in Headstart