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Psychics and the 72 Virgins for Suicide Bombers

Ghazal Omid - 1/10/2006

If the Americans can believe psychics speak to the spirit of their dead father, why can’t Middle Eastern suicide bombers believe in 72 virgins? When I was living in Iran, looking at pictures of Europe and the US and other Western countries, I always believed that the Westerners, particularly North Americans, must have better clues about reality and truth and be smarter than the Middle Easterners to achieve such a high standard of living.

But, as they say, pictures can be deceiving. I now know, they only make smarter choices about choosing the right people for office a greater percentage of the time. The rest of the time, they are just like the rest of us from the Middle East or anywhere else....

A few nights ago, I was watching the debate on Larry King Live between my dear friend, Rabbi Shmuley, and three famous psychics who claim not only to speak to dead spirits but to have knowledge of peoples lives and, sometimes, their death, as well as a cure for diseases, the whereabouts of missing people.....just to name a few miracles....

The question I wanted to ask these kooks is; how come they can only speak to the spirits of people who speak English? If not so, why can’t they get in touch with Bin Laden’s father and ask him where is his son?

Rabbi Shmuley, was fighting passionately and, to his credit, trying to stop the ignorance being spread around by these three charlatans that I like to call the Gang of Ignorance, who have made a celebrity name and reputation for themselves. Ignorant people, rich and poor, believe in them and pay them top dollars to spout their nonsense.

Watching the debate, my blood boiled, wondering how can it be that great nations that can send rockets out into the universe to other planets in search of other existence, even down to molecule level, bring itself down to such superstition? It strikes me as comparable to the 17th century when a preponderance of people believed in witches and psychics and such.

I questioned the situation... are we living in a society that receives comfort from lies? Is believing these con men can speak to someone from the other side not just as far fetched as the beliefs of the man who bombs an Israeli restaurant in order to fall into the arms of his 72 virgins? Although, one is very destructive, isn’t the thought process the same?—The answer is, “Yes, both believe in a lie.”


The charlatans who appeared on Larry King Live have made themselves multimillions. They claim they know when someone is going to be hit by a car.,... I have a little news for them. In researching Islam and other faiths, I concluded that no one but God Himself knows when death will happen because He is the ultimate power. When the time comes for all of us to die and be resurrected not even angels know when or how they are going to die or coming back. So, for these people to claim they have information about the afterlife that no one else does is a direct insult to God Himself. If they know so much, doesn’t that make them God’s partner? In a very strange but similar way, do not their message bears similarities to that of people who teach the bombers to go kill themselves in order to dive into heaven? Why does the suicide bomber believe in the 72 virgins grand prize, even though he knows killing innocents will only jump into hell.

It truly stuns me that people of a great nation such as the United States can listen to a panel of pathological liars who are so good at what they do the we just like to hear them handing us more malarkey. The question is, why do we believe in them, even though deep down we all know they are not telling us anything valuable?....at least no more than what we already know.

Perhaps it is because, as humans, it is easier to believe in an easy, tangible, explanation/ lie than to accept the hard wrenching truth. Real answers and facts are hard to obtain, hard to believe and sometimes make us sweat or even shiver our spines.

We are not as ignorant as we like to pretend. We know these people are useless; the same way we know Santa Clause doesn’t exist, doesn’t have eight tiny reindeers, nor does he come down the chimney. We just like to have a big guy in a red suit to remind us that there is a heaven somewhere up there and perhaps someday possibly we will go there. But, we tell our kids that he exists. .at least for the first 8 years or so of their lives....

I guess it shouldn’t take long, maybe just till the next millennium, to figure out that the psychics are a bunch of liars, and no different than the rest of us. They really don’t know a damn thing and couldn’t find another job paying as well. And, light and extra light cigarettes don’t really exist and don’t give you a lighter, more benign case of cancer. And, contrary to the DaVinci code, Jesus didn’t have a girlfriend, a wife or children. And, 72 virgins waiting in heaven for every suicide bomber is just a myth.

For God, heaven or whatever we believe in, couldn’t we just figure out the answers to all of this nonsense in this millennium so we can spend our time and energy saving humanity instead of chasing ghosts and virgins?