Greetings from Tucson!

[SouthwestSkeptic]

Greetings from Tucson, Arizona the capital of WEIRD!

My name is Rose Garcia and I’m studying at the University of Arizona.

I haven’t picked a major yet, I’m just trying to survive the required courses.

My Dad was Mexican and my mom was Tohono O’odham and Yaqui but I wasn’t really raised to be very religious or culturally identified.  I attend a few Pow Wows or festivals a year but I think of myself as more skeptical than mystical.  I’ve never been one for the woo woo stuff even though everyone who looks at me assumes I have genetically inherited some ancient wisdom I just can’t wait to share with them. (Aye!)

The Nation of Aztlan people around here really freak me out. Most Mexican people that I know who are trying to find an alternative spirituality end up settling for whatever New Age crap that someone is willing to sell them.  It’s pretty sad. A lot of the progressive people in Tucson are really into the New Age so it’s not always comfortable being ndn here.

I’m really looking forward to meeting some skeptical ndns.  

Also, I’m really interested in how you go about determining that someone is a fraud.  Is there an ndn better business bureau or something?

send me an e-mail if you think I'm interesting
southwestskeptic@yahoo.com

Rose Garcia
Tucson, AZ

[Barnaby_McEwan]

Hello there; what a happy coincidence! Just yesterday I heard via Trisha about some Tucson-based loons calling themselves Planet Coexist. Apparently able to write without being able to read, one of them asked Trisha to help them find someone to lead a sweatlodge for them, after reading her site. Her warning of potential offense and physical danger was ignored:

http://www.peacecalendar.org/index.php?d=17&m=02&y=2006

At 8am, we will have three separate community sweat lodges (female, male & mixed), running for four 15 minute cycles, where we will enter into a collective intention of resolving personal/collective blocks by using the element of fire. At 9:30am, we will go to the pools and cool the fires with the water of letting go, appreciation and renewal, through a water immersion ceremony. At 12pm - noon - the three-part responsibility ceremony begins with a half-hour time for inner or collective reflection, in a non-organized fashion.

Have you heard of them? Apparently one of their leading lights is a Jewish activist called Tzadik Greenberg. I'd like to nominate their frame-laden site for "most irritating over-use of the word 'community'".

http://www.planetcoexist.com/

Click on 'Coexist Community'.