Secrets of the Psychics
Answer to Last Week's Question: Baer has publicly acknowledged field assignments during his twenty year CIA career in Madras and New Delhi, India; in Beirut, Lebanon; in Dushanbe, Tajikistan; and in Salah al-Din in Kurdish northern Iraq.
The world is filled with magic. Most of it is false; elegant tricks played upon the mind to entertain, to bring some wonder back into a world too grounded in the tedious grinding of reality. But some of our magic is real, based upon the foundations of scientific fact and able to turn the iron laws of nature aside through the hard work of a few courageous men and women. However, many cannot make the distinction. They believe in the trickery, in the conjuring of those who may want to take advantage of them.
According to the recent documentary we watched, Secrets of the Psychics, this phenomenon is much more prevalent in countries such as Russia than it is in the US. There the practices of psychic healing and medicine are common, often serving as replacements to modern medical techniques. I began to wonder if this was not due to America's discomfort with the occult. As a thoroughly religious country (76.4% Christian, 0.4% Atheist in 2001), I believe the reason many Americans refuse to accept the solutions presented by psychic healing, or any version of psychic practices for that matter, could lie in their adherence to their religious beliefs. As psychic practices have been strongly associated with the occult and demonic presences through history, religious Americans have a powerful reaction to exposure to these beliefs (hence the Salem Witch Trails). They cannot experience them, or even know of them in some cases, for an acceptance of them into their society would constitute a breach of religious protocol. Psychics are of the devil, and thus they are shunned. This is different from Russia, a nation where 60% of the population does not practice a religion. They do not share America's religious fervor, and thus they do not share America's cultural repulsion of psychics.
While I do not believe psychics have any command over the supernatural forces they claim to, I do believe they should not be shunned as they are. We are a nation that practices religious freedom. This is their religion, so let them be.
Question: How have psychics or gypsies been persecuted throughout history?
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