Tag Archive for story

Ellen Lundgren | November 21, 2011
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Skeptics Can Champion Mental Illness

Still recovering from a tearful reaction to the last talk of Skepticon IV by my friend JT Eberhard on mental illness. He shared JT Eberhard on Mental Illness. I have to say that it’s the ballsiest thing I could imagine doing, and I am so damn proud that he did that, I don’t even have the words. I’ve also shared my story on my struggle with mental illness on a guest post on JT’s blog just days before this, but writing down a rambling narrative of my story seems pathetic compared to spilling your struggles and emotions and life out to a live audience. But I think both methods are tremendously important as a start to breaking the negative stigma and blaming the victim that happens to people with mental disorders in our society.

We, with mental disorders, need people looking out for those with these struggles because most of the time we won’t help ourselves. We don’t want to be a burden, we don’t want people to think we’re crazy, and we spend a lot of our time blending in and hiding our real feelings. We need you looking for us, making us get help. There may be resistance, but don’t let us hide from assistance when there is a better way to live. No one has to live with depression, anxiety, anorexia, paranoia, obsessive compulsive disorder, any of it. We have the support and medical science to help you live a normal life.

I have to give props and respect to the Skepticon attendees for their reaction of support for JT and it makes me hopeful that we, as skeptics, can take on this cause and conquer it.

So if you have depression, anxiety, or other mental issues, please, read my story, JT Eberhard on Mental Illness, do research on medications, talk to a friend, get the help you need. If you have gone through a similar situation, share your story. Tell friends and family what you went through so we can begin to break the stigma that mental illness means you’re “crazy.”

If you are one of the lucky ones not to have a mental disorder, do research on how to look for external symptoms of these problems. Find out how to help someone who might have these issues. We need to champion this cause in the skeptic movement. We need to show the inhumanity of how we treat those with mental illness and we need to show our humanity and help these TREATABLE illnesses.

Category: Activism, Conferences, Lifestyle | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Ellen Lundgren | September 19, 2011
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My Epic Saga of facing Brother Jed

Many college students know of Brother Jed. Especially those in the skeptic movement. I first heard his name mentioned at the SSA Conference this summer where it was followed by a groan from the whole room of 200+ students. I was unenlightened as to who this man was, but as I will chronicle here, I soon found out.

Last Wednesday, as I was preparing for my panel discussion that night by wasting time on facebook, Dave left me a message informing me that Brother Jed was going to be at my university in two days. I was quickly given the resources to find out who this man was and I immediately sent out a rally cry to my troop of regular members of our chapter of CFI-Grand Valley.

Over the next 24 hours, emails were tossed back and forth between our adult leadership at CFI-Michigan, and myself and other campus leaders on how best to approach this situation. I ended up going with a silent counter-protest of Brother Jed and I spent Thursday night making a stack of posters with positive quotes and sayings including, “You deserve hugs! Love, CFI,” “One Love,” “[citation needed],” “Cool Story, Bro,” and “You ain’t got no pancake mix!” in reference to a semi-famous event that happened at the same spot in years prior and ended up on YouTube.

Thursday night, the facebook event was created, the meeting place was set, and the next morning I woke up after having nightmares about this going horribly wrong. Ever adamant, I checked the facebook event page and a dozen people had confirmed they were attending, with another dozen or so as maybes. Elated, I bundled up for the brisk 50ºF (10ºC) morning, gathered my posters and went to our meetup venue. A half hour passed as six of us eventually gathered, made a few more posters and heard the news that Brother Jed was finally spotted.

I knew that it was going to be a good afternoon when we arrived on location with our posters and cheers and applause came from the small crowd already there.

Our arrival at noon.

Throughout the 4-5 hours we were there, we had this great opportunity to network and speak with the students who were gathered about our organization Center for Inquiry, why we were there and what we are about. A lot of students liked our signs and many of them took our flyer of meeting times and events.

Speaking to students in the crowd about CFI.

Our purpose at this counter-protest was to provide a positive and reasonable alternative to Brother Jed’s angry rants and raves about us all deserving hell. I think with a mix of humor and pertinent quotes, we got many students to think and see our organization as a good thing on this campus.

The sign that got the most laughs. "Cool Story, Bro" was on the opposite side.

Our troop of CFI protesters providing a background of reason to Brother Jed's rants.

Some people after asking about our posters, asked if they could make their own. I had brought some extra poster board and markers with me so they went at it and joined in our peaceful line of reason.

Other people used our signs and made their own throughout the day.

Brother Jed himself didn’t pay us much attention. He did address many of our signs, but we felt his responses were inadequate cop-outs. For example, when he saw my favorite Ghandi quote, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ,” he just yelled about Ghandi being a pervert and a child molester… completely missing the point. When I was holding the “You deserve hugs! Love, CFI” sign he said that as a young lady I shouldn’t be advertising for strangers to hug me and he essentially called me a hussy because of that. After that I received several hugs from some friendly fellows which I gladly accepted. Because I’m a slut like that.

A few LGBT students also came to watch. One held a printed sign stating “I <3 homosexuality.” Several times men would skip by holding hands or make out in front of him, and the crowd would applaud. Brother Jed would yell, “All of you who clapped are going to hell!” to which we only replied with more clapping and cheering.

Throughout the day the crowd grew and grew and slowly moved in closer and closer to Brother Jed which actually made me a bit uncomfortable until I realized what was happening. There was a close ring of people standing around Brother Jed listening and debating, but those who were standing outside of it were talking to each other. I saw dozens of students, strangers to each other before, now talking about religion and debating the issues of free speech at our school and I think that was a beautiful result.

Conversations with a local area evangelical.

By the request of Dave, I live-tweeted a little bit of the event as well. Search for #brojedwatch on Twitter and you can see some Twitpics of the event in-progress. Please use the hashtag if you see him at your campus as well!

Have you had Brother Jed at your campus? What events have you held around his arrival? Check his fall 2011 schedule to see if he’ll be coming to your school!

Category: Activism, Campus Updates | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Ellen Lundgren | September 18, 2011
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Living without Religion, Living with Anxiety

Two weeks ago, I was invited to be a participant for Center for Inquiry-Michigan in downtown Grand Rapids on their “Living without Religion” discussion panel as coverage of our new billboard. My first thought was, “hell no!” since I’ve been a lifetime introvert and I have pretty extreme social anxiety, especially speaking in front of crowds. But as I thought about it, I realized that I really wanted to speak on this panel and have my story heard on what it’s like to live without religion as a person happy and content with being an atheist. I finally responded with a ‘yes.’

So last Wednesday night, I showed up and sat on a panel with four other active area CFI members and we shared with a room of 100+ people what it’s like to live without religion. The crowd was mostly other CFI members so it was a friendly room, but we have been heard in the community as MLive.com had an article covering the event.

via MLive.com - T.J. Hamilton | The Grand Rapids Press

The comments on the article still baffle me as all of the ones I’ve read have been arguing over the comment about sending their kid to a Christian preschool. Many commenters seemed to miss the point that even though they were atheists, they were willing to pay to send their second child to a private Christian school. They knew that their daughter would be taught about the Christian belief system and they were okay with that. They only thing these parents were “guilty” of was telling the truth by not lying and signing a statement of faith in God. Not mentioned in the article was how Cathy said they were okay with their daughter learning Christian values at the school but when their enrollment was rejected, they said their daughter still learned a different perspective on “Christian values” that day.

No mention of my comment…

…religious history, when looked at from an academic perspective, appears more akin to mythology. [I believe] science offers a better basis for understating the natural world.

Alas, my voice was still heard and I’m happy I did this. Dealing with anxiety has been a long journey for me and I’ve just recently been gaining a better understanding and a better handle on tackling it. I’ve also recently learned that Sam Harris also had a debilitating fear of public speaking and his article here sums up what I have also learned quite well. I am not a great public speaker yet, and I don’t think things would go well if I were the only one on at a podium in front of more than 50 people. But I’m getting better, and I’ve especially become adept at steps 1-4 that he has outlined.

Coming out as an atheist as well as being more public about the stress of anxiety has helped me tremendously in both areas of my life. I’m proud to be an atheist, and I’m happy that my passion for this movement is helping me to deal with my anxiety.

Category: Activism, Opinion | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Ellen Lundgren | August 19, 2011
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We are atheism!

This is an abbreviated message from JT Eberhard‘s post We are atheism! over at wwjtd.net promoting the new website WeAreAtheism.com where atheists all over are recording video messages about why coming out is good. Please read his whole post because this is something that I also feel is extremely important for our movement, and I couldn’t say it any better than JT.

Come out of the closet.

Yes, it’s tough.  Yes, there are often social penalties and that sucks.

Come out of the closet.

I cannot stress how important I feel this is. Come out of the closet. Stop being apathetic. It’s worked for the LGBT movement. It can work for us. As JT says, religious people already like us. We’re their friends, coworkers, sons and daughters. We just have to come out so they know who we are, and know that we aren’t evil. We’re normal people just like them.

… If the chronicle of your ascent to atheism is particularly sad, then this may be unimaginably difficult.  Sadly, it is your story with which so many secret atheists will be able to empathize, and so is your story for which there is the greatest need.

Religion does not win by having good arguments – it wins by empty emotional appeals, intimidation/idealogical bullying, and community.  For people to leave religion, there must be a community there to replace that of their religion (or to exceed it).

If you want to tell your story, you can record your own video message and send it to WeAreAtheism.com. Instructions are here. If you are a secret atheist, please come out. There is a community here waiting for you, and you won’t be alone.

Category: Activism | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Alvaro Prieto | August 4, 2011
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Skeptiscale! [movies] – Temple Grandin

“Different, but not less.” That is one of the primary messages presented by Temple Grandin in this biopic of the same name.

The movie takes us through the life of Dr. Temple Grandin, who has high-functioning autism. The film does a great job in presenting the world as Temple herself sees it. Sudden flashes during scenes show what Temple is thinking. For example, when someone said “It’s a miracle!”, she sees an image of Jesus walking on water. When someone “wakes up with the roosters” in the morning, she sees her family (and a rooster) crowing together on top of a house.

One of the most interesting things about this movie is that the real Temple Grandin praised the movie on the accurate portrayal of how she sees the world. She calls it “visual thinking”. There are several scenes with digital overlays of blueprints, angles, distances, etc. that show us how an autistic person might see the world. She explains it as “thinking in pictures, and connecting them”.

In addition to the great (and true!) story, there are many great messages presented. Some examples are “Nature is cruel, but we don’t have to be.” (about creating more humane slaughterhouses) and “I don’t want my thoughts to die with me” (about doing something that will be used and remembered). Bad science about autism is presented, then ignored. Doctors mention some of Dr. Bruno Bettelheim‘s bad theories about how autism is the mother’s fault, and that a child with autism should be institutionalized for life. Thankfully, they are proven wrong by Temple in the movie. (Also in real life, but unfortunately that didn’t make it in the film.)

Temple Grandin is a movie you have to watch at least two times. The first to enjoy the amazing story (and wonderful acting by Claire Danes and others) and the second with the DVD commentaries on. Temple Grandin herself, along with the director, talk about her story throughout the movie. This is where I learned how accurate the film really was, how close Claire resembled her character and how those flashes during scenes accurately represent what Temple experiences. When the real Temple Grandin says “This is the way my mind works. See how these pictures come up? That’s exactly how my mind works.” during the film, you can be confident the film is accurate.

Temple Grandin and Claire Danes

Temple Grandin and Claire Danes

I cannot praise this movie enough. Due to the amazing story and very accurate portrayal of autism, Temple Grandin scores a 9.5/10 on the Skeptiscale!

Scientific Accuracy/Believability: 5/5
Quality of the Movie: 4.5/5

Check out the trailer to understand some of these ‘flashes’ I mentioned during the review.

Category: movies, Skeptiscale! | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,