Today it's a short, but sweet, post.
As my support for Thomas Sheridan shows, I'm not much of a fan of the whackado. While I am well aware that Empire and its Thralls are a bunch of liars and schemers who prey upon us as vampires prey upon men, that doesn't mean that I assume the supernatural as an explanation. Psychology alone is more than enough to explain the presence of mind control, especially once considered in light of the practical applications we see in the craft of the stage magician--a non-predatory use of the con-man's skills for the purpose of delighting, entertaining and (at its best) educating the public in order to proof them against predatory deceivers--and the disciplines of Advertising/Marketing/Public Relations. No need to presume that shapeshifting invisible demons are at all in play when ordinary applied science explains things quite well.
As with "mind control", so it is with many others. Occam's Razor may often cut to Crazytown, but even then there's a certain skepticism that should be applied because there's no need to call upon powerful extra-dimensional entities to move a tea cup when you can just rig it conventionally ahead of time and bullshit the mark otherwise. Aliens, ghosts, demons, etc. should not be assumed to be the case out of hand; be like Sherlock and do what it takes to eliminate all impossibilities- and go one step further to push for confirmation, multiple times from independent entities. Then, whatever remains is the truth, however improbable, because those are the facts and that is the best explanation for them.
Yes, I'm repeating myself from some months ago, but it bears such repetition. This is not to say that I don't believe it impossible for whackado things to exist, but rather that it is wise and prudent to ensure that more mundane and reasonable means to make things happen are NOT in play before breaking out the ritual magic tools and making contact with entites from distant planes.
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