The astral blockade

 

Cyrus Kirkpatrick, a paranormal researcher and psychonaut, discusses both politics and the paranormal in the clip above. It´s quite long (about 45 minutes) and includes another experiment with the copper rods Cyrus is using to communicate with "Lawrina", the spirit of a departed Turkish woman who supposedly lived in Izmir about 100 years ago. I admit that I didn´t find his demonstration of the rods *that* convincing, since it´s possible Cyrus makes them move subconsciously by grasping them hard with his hands. That is, the very thing that supposedly stops them from moving is what makes them do so! And yes, that´s admittedly an armchair criticism... (Cyrus claims to have independently verified some of the info he got from Lawrina and other communicators.)

Cyrus wonders aloud why many experiments with the paranormal begin very well for the true believer and then gets progressively worse and worse, "confirming" the skeptics. This kind of paranormal fatigue seems to have plagued the field since its inception, making it difficult to make repeatable experiments (at least beyond a certain point). Cyrus believes that perhaps there is a "astral blockade" against sharing too much information. This actually sounds logical (provided the astral exists at all), but it also creates another opening for the skeptics, who can then write off the entire topic as "ad hoc". Lawrina apparently told Cyrus that the blockade is the result of a democratic decision at the other side!

Cyrus also discusses some recent political blow-ups at his forums, revealing that he is a centrist who voted Obama twice (I assumed he was more "based"). He had problems with both fanaticized leftists and ditto right-wingers, but at the moment, the former are the stronger faction. 

Worth watching on a rainy summer day (which it is right now where I´m staying).