Why People Believe In Weird Things Book Report.

In the book "Why People Believe In Weird Things" author Michael Shermer analyzes how individuals end up with irrational beliefs. One of these is people denying the Holocaust. He talks about this in part 4 of his book. On page 189, he specifically explains what deniers of the Holocaust believe. He also speaks about other things that are paranormal, such as alien abductions, and why they do not make sense. 

My favorite part of the book is when Shermer talks about people who believe in psychics. He hints that ESP isn't real, and people only believe in them because they have high hopes. He talks about this in the very beginning of his writing, page one, called "Next on Oprah.." He specifically talks about a guest start that appeared on Oprah. She was a psychic named Rosemary Altea. She had nothing specific about anyone who had a family member that died, but spoke in general. For example, she said she was getting chest pains and asked if their family member died from lung cancer. The audience member responded it was a heart attack, and Altea claimed that must explain the chest pains. 

Shermer claims that these people feed into psychics because they want to believe, so they over look the things that are wrong. The more I think about this, the more it makes sense.

This relates to our class because it is associated with "paranormal." Many people, including myself have posted discussions about psychics and mediums, and aliens and such. This book is just different, because it contradicts. It claims that these things are not real, or are fake, or over dramatized. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5DE9FfAJjE

This is a video of Michael Shermer on "paranormal."