This post is inspired by a link posted by witchyways: The Importance of Maintaining a Healthy Level of Skepticism.  It’s an excellent article, and I recommend everyone in pagan and new age circles read it.  The writer mentions several things that she considers a tip-off that the person she’s dealing with isn’t all there or is trying to take advantage of her.

Here are a couple of things that I consider to be major tip-offs - romanticism and guilt-tripping.

Romanticism takes the form of statements like:

• “Things were so much better back when more people believed!”
• “True knowledge comes from within.”
• “We can’t fix the world with right-brained thinking; that’s what got us into this mess.  We need to live from the heart.”
• “Believing in vampires and werewolves makes the world more exciting!”
• “Just because you can’t see or feel it doesn’t mean it’s not real.”

Guilt-tripping takes the form of statements like:

• “People like you are why the world is in such an awful state right now.”
• “It’s so awful how nobody believes in anything anymore.”
• “Jesus died for your sins. You’re not going to reject His love, are you?”
• “The world is in such terrible shape.  If you really cared about it, you would join our movement.”
• “Believing in this makes so many people happy.  How could you take away their happiness?”

Bottom line, don’t let anyone rope you in with romanticism or guilt-trip you into believing something.  Use facts, logic, your own experiences, and don’t be afraid to be a skeptic.