What exactly is it that you want to stop?
Obviously, I cannot literally "stop" Anita Ikonen (VisionFromFeeling, Alenara) from doing anything. However, I call upon her to retract her claims, pull down her her dangerous websites, and stop doing "readings" on people before somebody gets hurt.
It is irresponsible for VFF to medically diagnose people since she is not a qualified medical professional or even a layperson using reliable data as a source. Miss Ikonen defends her actions by downplaying them. For example, she says that she only diagnoses "close friends" and family. When pushed she says that "close friends" includes people she just met that very same day.
She also says she tells them "mostly harmless" stuff like "your shoulder is tired." However, her own website says that she talks to people about serious issues like heart disease. And she tells them that while she's never been proven wrong, they shouldn't take her seriously. That makes no sense. I firmly believe she needs to stop doing this before something bad happens.
I also hope that anyone researching her background, be it for a newspaper article, doctorate program or job, will come across this site, read her claims in her own words, and decide for themselves based on the fully story. Far too often people like Miss Ikonen hide these crazy beliefs until they receive tenure, then waste valuable time and money doing nonsense research. Worse still, they become medical doctors (she's expressed interest in that), then provide unsound advice based on their medical intuition.
What should I read first?
I recommend going in this order:
1. The Claims
2. The Tests
3. Missing Kidneys? Huh?
4. My Blog
5. The pinned articles in the Discussion Area
Okay, but why make a website?
Why not? It's not hard - I make them for a living.
Miss Ikonen has a website where she is promoting her claims. I'm hoping that people who find her site will do a little research to find out more. When they do, they will find this site. Hopefully they will visit and learn something.
Weren't the JREF Forums sufficient?
In a word, no. I mean no disrespect to the forums or the moderators, but it just wasn't working out. After a while (thousands of posts) the forums at the JREF made it difficult to discuss VFF's claims in a suitable manner. Several of us were unhappy with how the threads got derailed and were either closed or moderated. This site will give us the opportunity to discuss her claims in a way that is no longer feasible at the JREF Forums.
The JREF Forums also contain a lot of information, but it's not organized. One would have to read literally thousands of posts to really understand what's going on. By creating one site it will be easier for people find the information that interests them.
Don't you think this is a bit overkill?
No. Remember, the only people who will find this site will do so because they are interested in reading about Anita Ikonen (VisionFromFeeling, Alenara). It's not like I'm running an advertising campaign. It's simply a site for those who are interested.
C'mon, she's no Sylvia Browne. What's the harm?
I never said she was a Sylvia Browne. However, one day she could be. Some have argued quite vehemently that Miss Ikonen is laying the groundwork to enter the psychic economy. If that happens, this website will already be in place. Her popularity in the general public will dictate the popularity of this site.
With that said, Miss Ikonen does not have to be causing actual harm to someone for me to create a website to debunk and discuss the claims on her website. Critical thinking and skeptical inquiries are worthwhile pursuits.
Most importantly, why wait until she's famous before creating a Stop site? By then it's too late to do much good.
What does she claim?
Oh, where to start...Seeing inside the human body and sensing medical ailments is her general claim. She also claims to be able to identify chemicals by sensing their vibrational information (whatever that means). Then we have remote smelling, remote tasting, detecting what a person just ate, detecting when a person has to pee, detecting color blindness, identifying crystals via ESP, telepathy, reading the thoughts of insects, Vibrational Algebra and being a "star person" rather than a human.
See the Claims article for more details.
Is she serious? It sounds so silly.
If it's a hoax, it started in 2002 when she was Alenara the Breatharian. I think she's quite serious about her claims, if also deluded. She's devoted countless hours, written about a million words on the Internet, and flown around the country, all because of her claims.
Why do you refer to her by name so often?
Search engines. The more often her various names appear on this site, the higher the site will rank.
Miss Ikonen claims you are harassing her? Are you?
No. Look, nobody twisted her arm forcing her to make a website about herself, write thousands of posts about herself in discussion forums, and write comments on numerous blogs. That I response with words is not harassment. When she's quiet, I have nothing to say.
What about her claims that you invaded her personal life?
More lies. She has harassed myself and others by threatening lawsuits, police action, and getting people fired from their jobs. Read this blog and this one to learn more. The only way I "invaded" her personal life was after the IIG issued a press release about her $50K Paranormal Challenge event. Lots of places picked up the press release, so it wasn't like it was private (her website is not private either). At that time I was among her Facebook friends, so I posted a congratulations along with a link, and people from whom she kept her claims hidden finally saw another side of her. I also notified her college newspaper that one of their students was in the news, and they wrote an article about her. That's not invading her personal life.
If you have any concerns, please feel free to register on the site and send me a private message (see the Discussion page) or just ask in the forums. I have nothing to hide.