People tend to be very resistant to changing their (our) opinion about things.
I have gotten into more religion / spirituality debates on internet message boards than I can remember and I'll tell you what - I don't know of anyone who has ever changed a deeply-held belief about something by reading something about it on the internet.
In my own family I've found that a lot of people are quite skeptical about things like Reiki and Qigong. This is especially true when they're in groups of two or more; seems like a "mob mentality" kicks in and it becomes more fun to MAKE fun than to discuss the issues intelligently.
My experience has been that it's more effective to let it be known that I am a practitioner and let it go at that. If someone is interested they can approach me one-on-one for a civilized discussion. But even then, I try not to lecture, I give examples - I mention the fact that it's quite common in China to see crowds of people in the parks every day practicing Tai Chi and Qigong.
If they're open I extend an invitation to join me in practice or I'll show them one simple move and explain the benefits.
But getting into a long discussion with a group of skeptics?
No thanks.
It's a no-win situation.
I used to post on a message board for Holosync and the discussion turned toward spirituality. It rapidly degenerated into one of the most hate-filled, intolerant christophobic diatribes that I have ever had the misfortune to read.
As it turns out, as long as you agree with some people you're OK. But if you dare to disagree you become persona non grata.
One good thing about that though, it makes it easy to find out who your friends are.
Last edited by monkbiker; 08/03/08 09:31 PM.
