These things tend to set it off:

1. Major scientific breakthrough mentioned only on poorly constructed internet site.

2. Something incredible revealed in a dream.

3. Something strange happened in bed whilst sleeping/half awake (sleep paralysis explains a lot of these).

4. "You can't test it scientifically, or indeed at all, but it definitely exists".

5. It's natural and therefore good for you.

6. Something they don't want you to know (whoever "they" are).

7. You can make $3000 a day watching cat videos on youtube.

8. "If people did it x amount of years ago, it must still be a good idea now".

9. I couldn't remember it happening, but then underwent some sort of therapy where things were heavily suggested to me and now remember being abducted by a UFO, or that I was a King in a previous life etc.

10. "It's obvious" with no explanation, even when pressed.


Please add your own!

Some flashing/shaking picture on a sidebar of the screen that say I'm a winner!!!

I've also seen the claims that someone makes a buttload of money from doing practically nothing. Like $90+ dollars an hour or whatever.

"Truly, I say to you...."

"You just have to have faith." Yeah, I've been trying to get past my problems with gullibility over the years, due to being kind of a sheltered kid. Your insistance on clinging to faith without evidence isn't helping.

Modern science is only just catching up with.... (insert bullsh*t)

Yeah, that old thought that the bible has many secrets waiting to be unlocked. Though if it takes centuries of work to figure it out, especially by secular means, then the idea is kind of moot. If it doesn't help anyone in a timely manner, there's no point in it.

When the word quantum is used or quantum phenomenon are invoked as explanations for 'macro' level events.

The anti-vaccine movement is full of 1, 5, 8, and 10.

Anytime someone without a physics background used the word "quantum".

Anytime anyone uses the word "vibrations". Really, "vibrations" means whatever the hell pseudoscientists want it to mean.

(January 31, 2014 at 10:44 am)Cato Wrote: When the word quantum is used or quantum phenomenon are invoked as explanations for 'macro' level events.

Yes, I love it when people tell me how Quantum Mechanics proves the afterlife or other nonsense. Having studied Quantum Mechanics for years at University I don't feel in any way confident to proclaim anything of the sort (QM is not at all intuititve, is pretty complicated and I've forgotten a lot of it), yet without any knowledge of said subject they do.

Having said that there are macro level events that are reliant on quantum properties (e.g. Chandrasekhar limit for star collapse), but in a lot of cases you are right, it is totally mis-used. These is a reason QM is so difficult to comprehend - it doesn't occur at sizes that are a similar scale to us. In the same way, Special relativity wouldn't seem so weird either if we all ran around at near light speeds.