Ideomotor effect

The term “ideomotor” was introduced in 1854 by physician William Carpenter to describe phenomenon when we can all too easily fool ourselves. Our ability to fool ourselves is unparalleled, and the ideomotor effect is just one persistent way our own curious psychology can push us towards erroneous conclusions. In the original situation, the discovery of the ideomotor effect was used to demonstrate that there was no mystery underpinning the eerie happenings of late 19th and early 20th century séances – merely the heady mixture of delusion and occasionally, outright fraud. Spiritism fascinated the 19th century public and was furiously debunked by scientists (such as, i.a. the prominent British scientist Michael Faraday) who were exposing trickery and detecting bogus claims. But modern “scientific” incarnations of the ideomotor effect are just as sinister.

People supposedly ‘born that way’

Perhaps the most prominent – and damaging - modern offshoot of the ideomotor effect is the phenomenon of LGBTI/gender ideology. There is no special force or agent at play, and a conclusion can be made that far from being some bizarre supernatural event, acting out same-sex attractions by intercourse with the person of the same sex is nothing more than ‘a quasi-involuntary muscular action’ that can be easily explained within the framework of OCD. The reported cases of ex-homosexuals had revealed there is no mysterious force at play, natural or supernatural, biological or otherwise – just a propensity for men and women to delude themselves. The evidence is clear – believing to be ‘born that way’ is nothing more than self-delusion buttressed by the ubiquitous ideomotor effect. When it comes to homosexual alias sodomical lifestyle, there is no need for the agency of ‘gay gene’ or ‘gay epi-marks’, and the invocation of such agency contrary to Occam’s razor is the sign of a mind not merely unscientific, but also either uninformed, or, even worse, manipulative. Despite the fact that nonsensical LGBTI/gender ideology has no more scientific credibility than spiritism, its spectre haunts us even now. It is still reported uncritically in mainstream media; for example, in 2015, an article titled “'Gay genes': science is on the right track, we're born this way. Let’s deal with it.” popped up in The Guardian. Tragically, the so called ‘LGBTI people’ and their countless supporters are victims of the ideomotor effect. In line with the ABC theory of emotion, they remain steadfast in their beliefs, rejecting the idea that verbose expressions of being ‘born that way’ are nothing more than their projected fantasy, authored by their own subconscious and fueled by gay propagandists.

See Also

Goebbels' maxim