Recently I watched the documentary film, “Kumaré,” which debuted at the 2012 South by Southwest film festival, where it won the Feature Film Audience Award. The film was made by Vikram Gandhi, an American of Hindu extraction, who was born in New Jersey.

The film documents how Gandhi visited India to research gurus, and came to believe that most if not all of those he encountered firsthand were phonies and fakes of varying degrees. This in turn gives him an idea: Gandhi returns to America, grows out his hair and beard, adopts an Indian accent, and becomes a fake guru.

Inventing his own yoga moves and nonsense names, and a content-free pseudo-philosophy (“Find the guru within you,”), Gandhi transforms himself into a barefoot, staff-carrying yogi dubbed Sri Kumaré. Traveling to Arizona, he begins to gather a small cult of followers, practicing yoga and becoming a human reflection-pond with a permanent smile.

Here is a rundown of the week in psychic scams, several sad cases of believing in nonsense and some truly odd tidbits from the past week courtesy of Doubtful News.

Psychics were caught this week for fraud in Washington  and California using well-worn schemes to get people to give them money to remove bad spirits and curses.

The case of the faith-healing parents that lost a second child is back in the news as the death of their infant son is ruled a homicide.  The congregation they belong to has a history of childhood deaths due to lack of normal medical treatment.  

 A shady midwife in Nigeria prescribes herbs to women whom she convinces are actually pregnant. The babies come from the baby factory. It's more like human trafficking and abuse.  

Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.

Angelina Jolie, radical strategies for cancer prevention, and genetic denialism (David Gorski)  http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/angelina-jolie-radical-strategies-for-cancer-prevention-and-genetics-denialism/ Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a bilateral mastectomy is being criticized, including accusations of “mutilation” and conspiracy theories. She made a rational, science-based decision. Dr. Gorski explains the science and the surrounding issues, including the fact that the BRCA1 gene is patented and one company has a monopoly.

Progressive Mythology (Harriet Hall)  http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/progressive-mythology/ A review of the book Science Left Behind: Feel-Good Fallacies and the Rise of the Anti-Scientific Left. There are anti-science attitudes on both sides of the aisle. The authors call for clear, unbiased thinking about public policies based on good scientific evidence rather than ideology-influenced distortions of science.

 The following case is a published account of a typical person with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

The OCD started when he was about 7 or 8 years of age and has gradually got worse. When he was doing homework in secondary school he was checking again and again that everything was done. This made him lose a lot of time. As a child he used to have phobias of lifts and elevators and thunder and lightning. He got teased in throughout school, because of his anxiousness and behaviours. After finishing school he started working in a job, where he had to make sure that everything was clean and clear, that things were locked up when he was leaving. This made his job very difficult for him and as the OCD got worse he was not able to do his job anymore because he was much too slow. Also he used to have to stay longer hours to check that he had done his job right. He has to think about things in a certain sequence before getting up in the morning. This sequence might delay him for almost half an hour before he is able to get up. The sequence comes again about 3 or 4 times daily. He has to check various things over and over again. When he makes his bed he has to check that it is made in the right way. He has to check the taps are not dripping, making sure that things are empty, making sure that he has put away everything he should, making sure that he has turned things off, closing windows, checking pockets, counting money again and again, he keeps checking that the light is off. When he has a shower it takes him a very long time because he has to get his clean clothes and check them at least 5 times before he can take them into the shower. He has to shower himself in a certain sequence and when he is out of the shower he has to dry himself also in a certain sequence. If he gets interrupted he has to start all over again. This is very annoying for him but also very disabling. Sometimes when he has to check things he talks to himself or whispers to get it all sorted in his head. The thoughts make it difficult for him to concentrate. It also has an impact on his self-esteem; feeling useless, frustrated, irritated, stressed and nervous.