While reading The Skeptics Guide to the Paranormal, I was stunned to find a list of the common indicators that one has been abducted by aliens, only to realize that I could check off virtually every item. Anecdotally, it appears that the aliens have done an extraordinary job of both wiping my memory AND accounting for my lost time. I have also deduced that, by the standards required of numerous historical non-scientists, I am almost certainly the victim of numerous hauntings. And yet a part of me remains wary of either of these near-certainties.

Why do so many people believe such weird things? Part of it is simply a case of willful ignorance. That phrase, “willful ignorance,” is one of my favorites these days. It covers the source of a wide range of social ills, stretching from the simply absurd to the downright evil. It isn’t just the product of delusion (as many alien / poltergeist sightings may be), but the complicit behavior of a “witness” to determinedly look away from the truth, avoid reasonable explanation and force events or ideas to fit inside the improperly shaped box that said “witness” refuses to crawl out of.

I have had many friends and acquaintances over the years who believed in ghosts or spirits influencing their world in a direct manner, and I was cool with it. I gave it a shot when I was promised an introduction to my own spirit guide. I sat with a group that was going through attempts at past-life regression. I’d like to consider myself open-minded about these things. Even if they are total crap. But I only say that after systematically approaching each instance with an open mind, willing to see the perspective being presented to me, before completely dismantling the thread of logic that held it together. And I don’t say this glibly; in fact, I have hurt people’s feelings doing this in a way that I do not enjoy, because it completely disrupts their worldview when they listen and think.

Which I suppose brings me to the question of whether having your worldview altered is good for you. And that, I suppose, brings the further question of where that alteration leads. Is it better to live in blissful ignorance or terrifying reality? But then reality need not be terrifying, even without the help of spirit guides or famous past lives or the understanding that aliens are the root cause of my continued paranoia. As soothing as all those things might be, it might just be worth the courage to accept that some things are difficult to understand, but that we can try, through logic and scientific theory, to make sense of the world and, through compassion, to make sense of the people around us.

So, some will choose the way of the Light, or enlightenment, by opening their minds. Others, of course, will choose to remain willfully ignorant, following the path of Darkness and, inevitably, causing a lot of damage as they continuously bump into things. And that’s a shame, because all around them are lanterns they refuse to see.