Kathleen Meadows

Don't be a lazy skeptic!

July 9, 2014 |  36 comments
Image Credit: Wikipedia I work in a field that draws skeptics in droves. I’m sure most people visiting this site are well accustomed to that skeptical smirk, unless you keep your visits to this site secretive or pretend to be one of them. All explorers throughout time have wondered what makes people resistant to new directions. What is at the root of skepticism and what is the best approach to take when someone expresses skepticism at something we find fascinating and worthy of further exploration?

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

Skepticism has irrefutably played a key role in the progression of civilization. It has forced creators, inventors, spiritual messengers, explorers, and seers to work harder at their craft to prove its validity and viability in this world. At its best it’s an all-in-one set of shears, sharpener and honer that incisively cuts away debris that clutters up the nuggets of truth. It separates the wheat from the chaff. But that doesn’t make it easy to embrace when you’re one of those who is willing to keep an open mind and enthusiastically exploring new vistas in the human condition.

Special Bright Lights Forge New Perspectives

The dark side of skepticism is evident in those people who were destined to go where no one has ever been before. Those special bright lights, who by quirk have that inborn spark in them to forge new approaches and perspectives. Yet due to the oppressive mantle of conformist parents, social convention, and peer pressure, before they’re even out of elementary school, they are so conformist they have little else ahead of them than fierce bowing to the drudgery of mediocrity. In school they are often the victims of bullying and later in life they are treated as pariahs. They die small deaths all their lives until at the end with so little time left, they confess that they lived a life by someone else’s design and it’s too late. That is the very dark side of skepticism.

Some who persist regardless of those skeptics around them are often simply driven to live a life of isolation, loneliness, and despair as they follow their curiosity and unique explorations. Unless they are able to locate their tribe, their lives can become emotionally destitute. Only phenomenal financial and recognition success will redeem them somewhat in the eyes of others. Sadly that reverence often comes along with envy and jealousy! When Skepticism is Not Love

The problem with skepticism is that it is not often energized by love. It is a product of fear and pride. Fear of looking like a fool, an oddball, or freak. Fear of appearing to be naïve, un-discerning, stupid or a dupe. The skeptic is driven by a desire to appear smart, educated and wise. They don’t abdicate their positions very easily however, no matter how much evidence is presented to prove the viability of this new discovery or invention. Experiencing evidence with their own senses doesn’t necessarily lead to believing. They are often mimicking someone powerful in their lives such as parents and culture. Skepticism is generational much like most of our beliefs. There are fanatical skeptics who like their counterparts in religion, believe so fiercely in how it couldn’t be so, that they are blind to evidence to the contrary of their position. Like all fanatics, they are seldom able to carry on an intelligent conversation.

If you consider yourself a skeptic, root out its source discriminately. Are you simply mimicking someone else? Are you afraid others will criticize you for being easily taken in by quacks? Who are you proving your skeptic position to? Are you motivated in your adherence to careful discernment by love or fear? Are you unconsciously one of those bright lights destined to go where no one has in the past, whose unique expression was beaten down and now must fiercely deny that side of yourself so much so that you must appear to others as skeptical? Do you care that much about what other people might think of your beliefs?

The Skeptical Believer

The ideal and loving position to have when confronted with the spirit of invention, exploration and mystery is one of skeptical believer. Be open, explorative and excited that someone is enthused to reveal something new and unique. Offer your help in every way you can to facilitate a clearing of the new path. Become a part of the forward moving energy whereby skepticism for example may aid in the development of better experimental tools. Join volunteer organizations whose purpose it is to examine new vistas with a discerning criteria. Don’t be a lazy skeptic! No one appreciates a critic who is not willing to put equal amounts of work into debunking as the person who put the vast amounts of work into its creation.

Remember that many new directions have taken decades, sometimes centuries to be proven and acknowledged by the main stream. Just because it cannot be proven absolutely to be true today doesn’t mean that won’t change at a future time. Keep in mind too that sometimes the proof does exist but those who have performed the experiments are held to a strict code of secrecy. Sometimes under enormous and rather frightening threat. Our perception of reality is always dependent on perspective and our collective paradigm of reality is shifting so fast that what is true today can be quite literally debunked by tomorrow. Don’t allow yourself to fall into the trap of fanatical skepticism whereby any amount of proof will fail to shift your perception. You will find yourself not a part of the main stream at all but on the fringes just like those you are fiercely determined to reject.

Kathleen Meadows, M.A. in the psychology of religion in Canada, does psychic readings for clients worldwide. You can read more about her at http://www.tarotbykathleen.com.

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If you are interested in the esoteric sciences and psychic ability development you will find the articles on my web site an interesting read. Visit my web site https://www.psychicanada.com/. Comments (36)

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