--- In [email protected], "shempmcgurk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "Richard J. Williams" > <willytex@> wrote: > > > > TurquoiseB wrote: > > > > It's just levitating, or flying through the air. > > > > > Shemp wrote: > > > Angel, Lenz, Baba: all fakers. Yet when you believe > > > it, like Barry does, it has a value, especially when, > > > a decade or so later, you still believe the fakery. > > > > > So, you're saying that Angel, Lenz, and Baba are all > > fakers and that Barry believes in their fakery, even > > after a decade or more. > > > > So that makes Barry a True Believer (TB) because he > > believes that Freddy levitated and then flew through > > the air, but the Marshy's Yogic Flyers are just "bum > > hopping"? > > > > I suppose that makes Barry a TBer. > > He is convinced that he saw a human being -- on numerous occasions - - > defy the laws of gravity and fly through the air. He's 100% > convinced of this. And there's no convincing him otherwise. > > Perhaps the moniker "cultist" is more appropriate. Here's the > definition of "cult" from Wikipedia: > > "In religion and sociology, a cult is a term designating a cohesive > group of people (generally, but not exclusively a relatively small > and recently founded religious movement[1]) devoted to beliefs or > practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be > outside the mainstream. Its status may come about either due to its > novel belief system, its idiosyncratic practices, its perceived > harmful effects on members, or because its perceived opposition to > the interests of the mainstream culture. Non-religious groups may > also display cult-like characteristics." > > 1) Barry's belief in levitation and swearing to have actually seen it > qualifies as being devoted to "beliefs or practices that the > surrounding culture or society considers to be outside the > mainstream." > > 2) certainly, no one can argue that levitation is a "novel belief > system". > > 3) I don't know much about Lenz's group, but I assume it constituted > a "cohesive group of people"? > > So, Barry is not only a TBer, he is a cultist.
And I don't intent this analysis as a putdown to Barry. Far from it (hey, I still do TM so who would I be to cast stones?). The interesting aspect to this is that Barry is so convinced that he saw what he saw. He's convinced he saw someone defy the laws of gravity. At least with the term "Unidentified Flying Object" (UFO), the suggestion is that the speaker is not CLAIMING that what he observed was an actual alien spacecraft; only that what was seen was unrecognized and its behavior as yet unexplained. That's not the case here. Barry concludes that what he saw was a specific thing and he doesn't seen to entertain the notion that he was faked out.
