Reply #39: Thanks for the Wojcik reference.

[Igel]

I noticed that a lot of secular folk I knew back in the '70s were little different from the religious folk I knew. The difference wasn't in psychology, but in the particular details of their speech or, um ... eccentricities.

Both were convinced that everything was horrible, things were collapsing and would produce woe and grief on a massive scale, and they (and pretty much only they) had secret wisdom. Maybe not enough to save them, but certainly enough for them to feel good about their outrage.

Sometimes the revealed wisdom was zero-point energy, perpetual motion, or something about UFOs. Whatever's needed to upgrade Ego 0.1 beta to Ego 1.0.

Often they believed they were being persecuted by powers in high places. Satan or the Bilderbergers. Or there was great wisdom being kept from them.

The oddest were people that were fundie Xians, *but* espoused the same kinds of ideas seen among the secular folk. They were a hoot.

On the other hand, it was always entertaining to listen to somebody go on and on about this conspiracy or that bit of superscientific fact that only a few know, and that they're in danger because Amoco or the military-industrial complex would kill them if they knew it was public knowledge. I'd call their ideas "out there," and they'd respond, "Hey, I'm not crazy like those Xian creeps. Now *they* have weird ideas."