#2301: Susan Stevenson

Founder of the conspiracy theory, New Age quackery, anti-vaccine and anti-GMO site Gaia Health, homeopath Heidi Stevenson, has passed away. Susan Stevenson is probably not related, but she is at least just as crazy (though somewhat less influential). Stevenson is a hypnotherapist who practices past life regressive therapy, and a promoter of angel therapy, a type of New Age therapy based on the idea that communicating with angels is a key to healing. And Stevenson sees angels everywhere: “My life seems to be teeming with angelic connections, and the momentum is building. Have you noticed this in your own life? Angelic reminders that they are with us – ‘whispers’ in our ear, ‘taps’ on the shoulder, brushes of air across your skin or changes in air pressure, ‘flutters’ from deep inside, glints of light and color – all these gentle hints to pay closer attention to their presence. Think back – have you been paying attention, listening, responding? I know I certainly have been. Doreen Virtue, Ph.D. [her “degree” is from California Coast University and not worth the paper it is printed on], in her newest book Angel Therapy [the quote is some years old], says that this increased activity is directly related to the approaching millennium.” Some might suggest that the symptoms she describes would warrant an altogether different kind of response. Stevenson offers instructions on “contacting your personal angels” here.

Stevenson is apparently “a registered and certified clinical hypnotherapist in private practice”, where she offers “private sessions for adults and children,” as well as “workshops and audio tapes on a variety of life enhancing topics.” We do, admittedly, wonder a little bit how she squares her angels with her evident commitment to reincarnation (as per “past life regressive therapy”). More than that, we wonder who on Earth certified her – she doesn’t tell, and California does not recognize any separate licensing category called “hypnotherapist.”

Diagnosis: Yes, they seem warm and welcoming and enthusiastic and positive and harmless, but one cannot help but wonder why such fluffy New Age proponents always feel the need to dishonestly market their skills and qualifications. They are, perhaps, so post-truth that dishonesty doesn’t register any more. Stevenson probably needs serious help making other important distinctions, too. 

Hat-tip: Skepdic.

#1231: Doreen Virtue

Doreen Virtue is a Hay House guru and practitioner of Angel Therapy, and is as such one of only a few people that can “see” and “communicate” with angels, including the guardian angels that watch out over all of us – yes, it’s similar to the same kind of bullcrap pushed, famously, by princess Märtha of Norway, who appears to be a fan – but whereas Märtha tries to teach you how to get in contact with angels yourself Virtue talks to them on your behalf. For a reasonable fee, of course. And they really can help you. Once angels saved Virtue’s life when armed robbers tried to steal her car by telling her to scream, and she screamed. They also help find her a parking place when she is in a hurry.

According to her bio Virtue was a natural clairvoyant even as a child, “seeing and conversing with what many people call ‘invisible friends’ (which are really angels and deceased loved ones).” I am not completely sure that this needs further commentary, but the seemingly desperate attempt at rationalization evinced by the parenthesis is rather telling. Currently she usually refers to herself as “Doctor Virtue”, but her “PhD” is from California Coast University, an absolutely legendarily shoddy diploma mill, whose diplomas are worth precisely as much as your other regular spam.

Numerology

Virtue is also longtime student of numerology – very longtime, as she did, during a past life, study under Pythagoras himself. Numbers have special significance or vibrations or something, and numbers you see on clocks, license plates and the like are really messages from angels (“’Why do I always see the numbers 444 (or 111, 333, etc.) everywhere I go?’ is one of the most frequently asked questions that Doreen Virtue receives at her worldwide workshops”). Angels arrange for specific number sequences to appear around us or subtly “whisper in” our “ear” so we notice particular numbers, and if we keep noticing the same number sequences, it is because the angels are giving us a message through those numbers (not confirmation bias). But here is the clincher: We cannot interpret these messages unless Virtue shows us how, and she does this in the books you can buy (she’s written a stunning shitload of them) – she covered some numbers in Healing with Angels, but Angel Numbers provides an interpretation of more complex number sequences;” that “new book focuses on numbers such as 123, 337, 885, and so on.” She also has a special “Angel Number Calculator” for identifying your personal angel number. Dimly aware of potential conflicts between various forms of bullshit, she does have an FAQ showing how her nonsense is Christianity compatible.

According to Virtue, we’re all also alchemists, though it is not entirely clear what that is supposed to mean.

Healing

Apparently there is occasionally friction between the path that our guardian angel wants us to walk and the path we want to walk, and that manifests itself in a range of psychological and physical illnesses. And of course, Virtue can help “heal” the rift between you and your guardian angel, though the price is pretty steep. Fortunately, there are other “certified spiritual councilors” (CSC) and “angel therapy practitioners” (ATP) who have been certified by the American Board of Hypnotherapy – which is headed by Virtue. And yes, you can take courses and become a certified therapist, too. If you are really fortunate, perhaps you can get a session with Susan Stevenson, a hypnotherapist who practices past life regression therapy and sees angels absolutely everywhere.

Indigo children and their ken

We have mentioned indigo children and crystal children before, and Virtue is excited about them. So excited, in fact, that she has come up with her own designation, “rainbow children.” Since humans evolved from what Virtue calls “ape-like postures,” crystal children prove humanity can evolve further. “Evolution” here means not evolution, though, since it is God who is sending these various children as a gift to us. Like the indigos and crystals, the rainbows are highly sensitive and psychic, and often diagnosed as autistic, but they are really just communicating telepathically instead of using ordinary means. The spirit world told Virtue remarkable things about all these wonderful children while she was asleep, and she consequently published a lucrative, spiritually-informed book about them.

Her current husband, Steven Farmer, fancies himself a shaman of some sort and calls himself an expert in “power animals.” He also tends to refer to himself as “Doctor Farmer”, and his PhD is from Madison University, an unaccredited diploma mill located in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Diagnosis: I tend to be wary of using it, but it is hard to avoid the word “fraud” given, in particular, how she pushes her fake credentials. Virtue is still a loon, and a particularly insidious one, a parasite feeding on people in trouble or those who have experienced various kinds of psychological or existential crises. A disgusting excuse for a human being.

#1193: Nancy Ann Tappe

Indigo children are children whose auras are indigo in color. That allegedly means that they are somehow aliens or part alien or something and don’t have autism spectrum disorders or attention deficit disorder or anything like those darned doctors might say because they are close-minded. The term “indigo child” was introduced by psychic and aura reader Nancy Ann Tappe, who maintained that “The Indigo label describes the energy pattern of human behavior which exists in over 95% of the children born in the last 10 years … This phenomena [sic] is happening globally and eventually the Indigos will replace all other colors.” (Note the delectable use of “energy pattern”). The concept was further spelled out by our old friend Lee Carroll and his Kryon gang, according to whom indigo children are somehow a next step in human evolution – though since the rest of us are presently unable to recognize them for their true potential, they end up getting classified as attention-deficit instead.

According to Peggy Day and Susan Gale, authors of Psychic Children: A Sign of Our Expanding Awareness (stop for a moment to really take in that title) the arrival of indigo children was foretold by Edgar Cayce, which is a claim it is in practice often hard to argue with for reasons not having to do with what Cayce actually said. Robert Gerard, who runs the Oughten House Foundation, Inc. and sells angel cards, believes – as explained in his book Emissaries from Heaven, that his daughter is an Indigo Child and that “[m]ost Indigos see angels and other beings in the etheric.” There is something almost infinitely sad about that claim.

Gerard contributed, as did Tappe, to the important collection The Indigo Children, where the connection between children diagnosed as having ADD or ADHD and the indigo auras signaling “a new kind of evolution of humanity” was explained hypothesized asserted. Emotion and wishful thinking play central roles in the arguments, and it isn’t hard to see why “my child does not have ADD; she/he has special abilities and is further evolved than the rest of the children” might seem appealing to some. That does, emphatically, not make Tappe and Gerard the good guys.

More recently, the New Age movement has introduced the idea of crystal children, who have “a crystal-colored aura”, though it has yet to offer an unequivocal definition, partially one assumes because “crystal-colored” is a bit tricky to cash out. Crystal children are even more peaceful and magical, and have greater psychic abilities, than indigo children, and they start talking late because they communicate telepathically. Jesus might have been a crystal child (the word “Christ” is afterall like the word “crystal,” sort of). There may also be rainbow children, at least according to Doreen Virtue, whom we will have a chance to revisit later.

It should be mentioned that Indigochild.com says that “just in case you heard otherwise from other ‘indigo’ sources, the designated word ‘Indigo’ has nothing to do with the color of an aura! It is the result of scientific observations by a woman who has the brain disorder called synesthesia.” That woman would be Nancy Ann Tappe. Her scientific observations consist of aura readings, psychic readings and getting lost in metaphorical descriptions of her own imaginations.

Jenny McCarthy used to believe that she was an indigo and her son was an even more evolved crystal child (she even ran the website Indigo Moms), until she decided that her son was vaccine damaged instead. Another self-declared indigo child is Andrew Basiago who can travel in time with the dolphins.

Diagnosis: Though abysmally crazy, Tappe and her ilk also conveys a sense of deep sadness. Indeed, the whole, hysterically insance fluff carries an aura of desperate tragedy; although it is easy to see why their claims may be appealing to some, their efforts are in the long run not going to lead to anything good.

#173: Louise Hay

Louise Hay is the founder of the Hay House publishing firm, whose vision is to make humanity as stupid as remotely possible. It is devoted to publish the most insane self-help authors, woomeisters and gurus (and is financially pretty successful), in addition to sponsoring tours, radio shows and forums. Their area of specialty is quantum woo and the Law of attraction. Among their authors are Sylvia Browne (who has already been covered), Esther Hicks (who will be covered shortly) and Doreen Virtue.

Louise Hay herself made her success with this kind of bullshit, of course (strongly influenced by “researcher” Ernest Holmes, the delusional Florence Scovel Shinn and snowflake Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) most famously with “You Can Heal Your Life”, from 1984. She is a certified practitioner of “religious science”, mixing Christian fundamentalism with the flakiest ideas from oriental spiritualism, such as reiki. The central tenet of “You Can Heal Your Life” is that those who are sick have themselves to blame for it, and if they are unable to cure themselves, it is because of their psychological shortcomings (“we are each responsible for our own reality and "dis-ease"”). A standard and devious strategy for promoting woo, favored by Oprah, Chopra and others. For instance, according to Hay birth defects are a result of bad karma in a previous life.

She also claims to have cured herself of cancer through positive thinking and woo, but no one has ever been able to verify that she even ever had cancer.

Her life has even been made into a movie.

Diagnosis: Seriously deluded crackpot and peabrain who thinks religious-based intuition is on par with evidence. Her tireless promotion of stupidity, and her resources, makes her dangerous even apart from the popularity of her own inane dribblings. Her advice does actually appear to cause concrete, physical (and psychological) harm to real people.