Saturday, July 27, 2019
Blog Post 1: Magical Thinking
That video with James Randi exposing Uri Geller and Peter Popoff was fascinating, however the Popoff part made me think about a old presentation I did. Many televangelists in the 1980s believed that they had special powers that could heal people. Just like other televangelists, Popoff used his followers of his ministry, and the television viewers to exploit them for money. Peter Popoff in particular was a con-man. About a decade ago, Peter Popoff had a new scheme which to sell "Miracle Water" which he claimed would protect you from disease and financial hardship. Even after so many years, people still believe in illusions like that. Sometimes it from naivety or simply because they want to believe that it is real.
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Fun fact...the "miracle water" that Peter Popoff sold was packaged right here in New Jersey, in Cedar Grove. It was Poland Spring water, but Popoff actually sends the company "pre-blessed water" to be added to the Poland Spring to give it its "miracle" status. The guy is part genius, part out of his mind...yet still lives in a multi-million dollar mansion in California to this day...so maybe the genius part is more than we think.
ReplyDeleteMy source is a GQ article, and a very interesting one at that: https://www.gq.com/story/peter-popoff-born-again-scoundrel