Connection: This article features a collection of past-life stories told by children to their parents. Belief in past-life regression relies mostly on personal anecdotes. While our emotions may tell us these stories are real because of how uneasy they make us, the reality is that children are unpredictable and sometimes downright weird, the opposite of a reliable source. By using the critical thinking process and evaluating the source, the source being a child saying something weird, it is easy to tell that these stories are just stories. There is no concrete reason to believe these children are recalling past lives as opposed to just saying whatever strange stuff comes to their heads.

Connection: Children are taught at an extremely young age that Santa Claus is real. When we are children, we are not taught critical thinking skills, which results in the barrier lack of practice. Because of this, we believe what we are told to believe. As children get older, to “keep the magic alive,” parents tell children not to think too hard about Santa Claus and that they just have to believe in their hearts that he is real, despite our developing brains realizing there is no possible way he can be real. As we grow older, we develop critical thinking skills and skepticism along with it. We eventually realize that Santa is not real and that every adult in our lives has been lying to us since we were babies. This is similar to how pseudoscientific practices work.

Connection:  Buzzfeed Unsolved, one of my all-time favourite YouTube series, is guilty of this pseudoscience watchlist item. Despite the evidence they collected during their investigation being murky at best, they end this episode with "whether or not the Goatman's bridge is truly infested will remain...unsolved." They end every episode with a similar statement, deliberately creating mystery surrounding their subjects and investigations. This could be considered a summary conclusion, but by evaluating the evidence, we can tell that there was nothing infesting the Goatman's bridge but Shane.

Connection: "Ghost tours" are run in hundreds of cities around the world, including Toronto. There are haunted walks, haunted buses, haunted boats, and more. These tours range from $10 a person to up to $50 a person depending on the city and company running the tour. These tours, scripted and rehearsed, rely on anecdotal evidence and stories from up to hundreds of years ago. Groups of people on the tour may also be influenced by the tour guide and their stories, leading to the groupthink barrier to critical thinking. If everyone thinks they're seeing a ghost at the same time because of what the tour guide says, they are likely being influenced by their environment and the information they are being fed. These tours cost so much because they know that, while mysterious things may have happened at these locations in history, there is nothing happening now. The only thing you get out of it is maybe some fun history facts.

Connection: While many people believe in Scientology, the organization makes frequent use of its most popular believer, Tom Cruise, to make them seem more credible. The organization is hoping that people are susceptible to Groupthink, a barrier to critical thinking where people do not think for themselves and instead follow the popular opinion or rely on a trusted leader to make the decisions for them. By using Tom Cruise, the Church of Scientology aims to gain the trust of the public because he is so beloved. Thankfully, many people see beyond this.

Connection:  I will admit to following multiple astrology accounts on Instagram, mostly because I just think they're fun. Sometimes they are strangely accurate, but there is just as much stuff on those accounts that is not accurate to me at all. I am a pisces, which astrology typically defines as sensitive, empathetic, and artistic. These do happen to apply to me, but there are millions of people that are not pisces that this also applies to. If i ignored everything inaccurate and only paid attention to what is accurate, that would be confirmation bias. By paying attention to everything, I am being skeptical and evaluating my sources. Random memes from Instagram are not reliable sources.

Connection: When looking up why essential oils should be used, one of the biggest talking points is that they were used in ancient civilizations. They were used in medicine and during ceremonies. While I believe essential oils do have their time and place, to use them as a replacement for modern medicine is a red flag. Modern science has provided us with treatments that have been tested using the scientific method, proving that they have demonstrable validity in a clinical setting. Most of the evidence for essential oils being a cure are anecdotal. Essential oils are good for some things, but should not replace modern medicine.

Connection: During the recent presidential debate, Donald Trump fought hard to talk as much as possible, constantly trying to interrupt Kamala Harris in order to get more words in. He was fact-checked multiple times but continued to talk in order to seem more knowledgable. Trump relies on anecdotal evidence, notably when speaking about the violence (or lack thereof) in Springfield, Ohio. He does not get his information from reliable sources, therefore making him unreliable. Unfortunately, his followers are susceptible to groupthink and many have a distorted view of truth as their social media algorithms only push content that matches their beliefs in their feed, distorting their perspectives.

Connection: This is an asmr video from one of my personal favourite creators, Jocie B. I recognize my bias because I genuinely enjoy her content and am more likely to believe this if I trust her, but ultimately I do not believe in an energy. In the video, she claims to be healing and cleansing our energy through the video. The obvious impossibility is that she cannot do this over the internet. While ASMR videos do have value as entertainment and relaxation aids, they do not have any value as energy cleaners. Even in person, the methods Jocie uses would not heal our energy because there is no such thing.

Connection: Before connecting to this, I have to recognize my bias because I am a Christian and do believe in God. The numbers in this photo are known as angel numbers. They are believed to be messages from angels, with each number representing something the angels are trying to tell you. In reality, the law of large numbers mean that these numbers truly are random in appearing in everyday life and are probably meaningless, though I do think it is possible to receive messages from seemingly unexplainable sources.

Connection: The story of Annabelle the doll is one that relies on simplicity. Weird stuff started happening after the doll showed up, therefore the simplest explanation is that it was the doll that caused it. In reality, weird stuff just happens sometimes and there is no way that the doll caused it. The story of Annabelle is largely anecdotal and does not have demonstrable validity. Furthermore, the investigators that put Annabelle in the case, Ed and Lorraine Warren, have been proven to be frauds on multiple occasions.

https://www.vox.com/culture/23939024/ed-lorraine-warren-cases-hoax-real-conjuring-amityville

Connection: Pikachu always had a black spot on the top of his tail, right? He actually never had a black spot on the top, only a brown spot on the bottom. The Mandela Effect is a popular phenomenon in which large groups of people misremember things in the same way. It was named after Nelson Mandela because so many people thought he died in prison in the 80s, but he did not die until 2013. Pikachu is just one of hundreds of examples. It has been debunked as a paranormal phenomenon and instead just illustrates how unreliable memory is. By evaluating the true source of our information, we can prove that our memory is unreliable and that we should not use it as our primary source for many things