Back in April, Pamela Gerloff posted something on her Psychology Today blog that was pure secular New Thought: You Mean Anything Is Possible? Subtitle: “How to radically expand beyond the limits of your mind.”

She starts, naturally, with an anecdote: a professor of hers named Lester managed to think his way out of a heart condition by “systematically let[ting] go of every negative emotion he was experiencing.” And of course, “after he had attained this state he found that he could heal people and fix objects, such as broken TVs, merely by ‘seeing them as perfect.’”

Stephen Law recently felt compelled to comment:

Are you actually suggesting that if we really, really believe we can fly by flapping our arms, and jump of the roof, then we will fly? Surely this takes the “power of positive thinking” too far?! [...]

One danger of this sort of nonsense is that it leads to blaming people for their own illnesses. If you’re ill, it’s your own fault! Banish those bad thoughts. You just need to *think* your way to health.

Gerloff’s response was largely unhelpful, and ended with the statement: “By the way #2, if people can levitate–as has been demonstrated–then why shouldn’t they be able to fly?”

Walk away, Stephen. Just walk away.