Craig Weiler

Craig Weiler is an American conspiracy theorist and parapsychology activist, known for posting anti-skeptic rants on the internet. He describes himself as a "psychic healer".[2][3]

Craig Weiler
Some dare call it
Conspiracy
What THEY don't want
you to know!
Sheeple wakers
v - t - e
Putting the psycho in
Parapsychology
Men who stare at goats
By the powers of tinfoil
v - t - e
“”I regard skepticism as a form of bigotry that most people can cure themselves of. But some people are hard core bigots and they cannot be cured.
—Craig Weiler[1]

Background

Weiler has no education or qualifications in science. His current occupation is working as a handyman.[4][5]

“”I, myself am an older white guy who is psychic, but don't do it professionally. I am currently in transition from being in construction to a career in speaking and writing and I am working on my first book. If you are psychic too, I want you to know: you are not alone.[6]

Weiler admits he hasn't read many books on parapsychology, but that hasn't stopped him from giving lectures on the subject.[7]

Beliefs

Weiler claims that psi and all kinds of woo have been scientifically proven[8] but ignores most of the skeptical literature on it.[note 1] He also claims Dean Radin's The Conscious Universe (1997) contains evidence that psi exists, but if he'd done any research he might have found Radin did not manage the file-drawer effect correctly, made fundamental errors in his calculations, and ignored possible non-paranormal explanations for his data.[9] Weiler is supportive of the bogus mediumship experiments of Gary Schwartz,[10] and has even defended the fraudulent medium Sylvia Browne.[11]

Weiler has worked with Dean Radin, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax and Ben Steigmann in promoting paranormal studies on Wikiversity.[12] These studies were later deleted.

9/11 conspiracy theories
See the main article on this topic: 9/11

Weiler is a proponent of 9/11 conspiracy theories:

I've seen these videos of the towers collapsing for years and all of a sudden I realized that I was looking at something that is impossible by everything I know. Nothing that big comes apart in a cloud of dust like that. Nothing. Never. Ever. It's not possible for structures to fail like that by any known means… look at some videos of controlled demolitions and tell me if truly enormous plumes of dust suddenly erupt from everywhere as the building completely disintegrates before your eyes. Show me any destruction of a large building that looks anything like what happened on 9/11… I'm in construction and I know how buildings are built and how they normally come down.[13]

In 2014, Weiler commented:

For me, the "oh shit" moment came when I watched the Judy Wood video and looked at the collapse of the towers again. With an additional 12 years of construction experience I saw it a lot differently. I got this really awful feeling in my stomach when I realized that there was something really weird about the collapse of the towers that defied absolutely everything I knew about construction. What I was seeing was not caused by any demolition or any other means that I knew of. That is what is so difficult for me to accept. That sort of collapse, the way they just disintegrated right before our eyes, can't be done by any ordinary means, including demolition. Some destructive mechanism, beyond mere demolition had to have been involved. But I don't know of anything that can do that. What happened to those two towers should be impossible.[14]

… Because 9/11 was comparable to a controlled demolition.

Conspiracies of skeptics‎

Weiler is notorious for posting anti-skeptic rants to the Skeptiko forum, the SCEPCOP website, and his own blog, The Weiler Psi accusing skeptics of being atheists, materialists and "pseudoskeptics", especially if they disagree with him.[15][16]

In March, 2013,[17] Weiler accused the TED Talks of being run by "atheists" and engaging in "censorship" after they moved videos of controversial talks by Rupert Sheldrake and Graham Hancock from the TEDx YouTube channel to the TED blog.[18] The TED staff issued a statement explaining, "The reason people are upset is because they think there has been censorship. But it's simply not true. Both talks are up on our website."[19]

Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia
See the main article on this topic: Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia

In October 2013 Weiler published a blog post titled "The Wikipedia Battle for Rupert Sheldrake’s Biography", claiming that Sheldrake's Wikipedia bio was being targeted by a group called Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia.

It wasn't.

Psi Wars: TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet

In November 2013, Weiler self-published Psi Wars: TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet. The book promotes his conspiracy theory that atheist skeptics have taken over mainstream media, universities, scientific organizations and are working together to promote their skeptical views on Wikipedia.[20] The book was negatively reviewed by the paranormal investigator Hayley Stevens who concluded "The only recommendation I can make for this book is to leave it on the shelf unless you want a headache. No amount of reasoning will make a difference here."[21]

In 2014, the parapsychologist Tom Ruffles reviewed Weiler's book for the Society for Psychical Research and supported his conspiracy theories. Ruffles complained that RationalWiki had tried to denigrate Weiler by claiming he works only as a handyman.[22] While a lack of a background in science doesn't discount Weiler's work, it does show a lack of scientific training, which could potentially lead to incorrect testing procedures and results.

gollark: You don't. God DOES. They are omnipotent. Definitionally, they can do and can know anything.
gollark: (this is a different argument to "does said god actually exist" obviously, but the evidence there seems to be bad too)
gollark: I don't think they should be all-judging, and I don't think eternal torture is right ever.
gollark: The Islamic god is claimed to be omnipotent, I think. Thus, they know *in advance* if someone is going to go to hell or not when they're created or whatever. And then create them/allow them to be created *anyway*, knowing they're bound for eternal torture because a system they created makes them get eternally tortured. Just... why?
gollark: I consider eternal torture unethical *anyway*, but given the situation with god it's even worse.

See also

Notes
  1. Weiler does not mention notable publications which have debunked psi claims such as C. E. M. Hansel. ESP: A Scientific Evaluation. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966. Rev. ed. as ESP and Parapsychology: A Critical Re-evaluation. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1980. Leonard Zusne, Warren H. Jones. (1989). Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking. Psychology Press. Terence Hines (2002). Pseudoscience and the Paranormal (2nd ed. ed.). Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. Jonathan Smith. (2009). Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit. Wiley-Blackwell.

References
  1. The Wikipedia Skeptics Problem. Also see Archive.
  2. Biography for Craig Weiler Also see Biographical information at Reality Sandwich
  3. In October 2013, he warned someone on Wikipedia: "if you ever attach the word -psychic- to my name you are to never put it into quotations. That is a personal insult, it is bigotry and I will not tolerate it."
  4. Craig Weiler User Profile "Handyman: the favorite profession of drunks, drug addicts and serial killers."
  5. Here’s a Look at My Day Job: Expert Handyman
  6. About The Weiler Psi
  7. Craig Weiler at Brother, Can You Spare a Paradigm?
  8. The Scientific Evidence for Psi Weiler's Wordpress blog. (Archived).
  9. Victor Stenger. (2002). Meta-Analysis and the Filedrawer Effect. Skeptical Inquirer. Volume 12.
  10. Evidence for the Afterlife (Archived).
  11. Sylvia Browne Dead. Skeptiko.
  12. The Parapsychology article on Wikiversity was written by Craig Weiler, Dean Radin, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax and Ben Steigmann. Also see the talk page.
  13. Weiler on 911 conspiracy theories
  14. 9/11 Discussion Thread. (Archived).
  15. A Critical Look at CSI, (formerly CSICOP), a Pseudo-Scientific Skeptic Organization
  16. Weiler posts abuse against skeptics in the "PseudoSkeptic Fallacies" section of the forum
  17. "The Psi Wars Come To TED"
  18. The debate about Rupert Sheldrake’s talk
  19. TED conference censorship row
  20. Psi Wars: TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet
  21. Review: PSI Wars: TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet
  22. Psi Wars: TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet Reviewed by Tom Ruffles.
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