My open mind isn't always so entirely "open" to other people's outrageous theories about life, the universe, and everything. 

I don't believe in the whole UFO phenomenon. 

It's not that I just can't believe that space aliens exist, it's that the people who believe in them really go over board, to the point of worship, and everyone I know who has bought into this UFO stuff has this sort of glazed wide eye kind of look to them, like hippies doing an umbrella dance at Grateful Dead concerts.  I hate it when these UFO people explain something like a dozen or so lights in the sky as an alien ship.  Why go to that extreme conclusion?  Why can't it be something natural to this planet?  Why can't it be an experimental air ship under secret construction by the government?  Why believe it to be space aliens just because you don't know what it is?  I can believe in the possibility that there is alien life on other planets and that our galaxy isn't alone in the universe, but even if alien life is discovered, I won't buy into the space alien craze.  My personal theory about space aliens is that, if they do exist, they won't be that different or more intelligent than we are.  I don't believe they are watching or interacting with us at all.  If they're out there I'm sure they have better things to do other than spy on us.  Human beings just aren't that important, we just think we are.

I can't stand it when people talk about angels being their personal guardians. 

You know the types who do this; girlish women who collect tiny fluffy white angels like some do with fairies and psychics who claim they can speak to your personal angels.  It's bullshit.  I won't apologise to those who buy into this belief.  If you're Christian, it's one thing to believe in angels, yet quite another when you're praying to angels more than your God!  When I was young I made Angelology my hobby and found out all sorts of grisly things about them.  Paraphrasing the mythology, angels were created by God to act as messengers and executors of Divine Will.  Often appearing as forces of nature and, a common image in the world's most mainstream religions (Christianity, Islam, Judiasm), angels mostly appear as beings of pure energy and light surrounding God in heaven.  Sometimes they are beings of fire and are usually portrayed as superhuman, powerful, and dreadful, endowed with wisdom, correct in their judgment, holy, but not infallible.  Even though we're told they are perfect, sometimes these entities fight against each other, and God has to make peace between them. Angels aren't always benevolent towards humans.  They are not the fluffy stuff of fantasy.  Most of the psychics I know who claim to do "angel work" regard angels like some people do pet animals.  I find this to be terribly disrespectful and idiotic.  Any "real" angel called down from Heaven would find this kind of behavior by humans to be insulting.  If you believe that angels are messengers of God, they aren't at your beck and call, they work for the higher power and really can't be bothered to answer questions about your love life or answer your prayer for a higher paying job.  If you have a guardian spirit looking out for you, chances are it's not an angel!  It's most likely an ancestral guardian spirit (the disembodied spirit of a deceased relative) or a nature spirit (an entity who resides within the area of your home or is tied to your family much like an ancestral guardian is but not like a ghost and therefore cannot be destroyed or banished; a spirit whose job is to protect you like it would its own children because, in a way, you are it's flesh and blood).

I hate it when people blame demons for the bad things they do. 

The whole "the Devil made me do it" belief of blame thing is intolerable.  Its humans who are responsible for their own mistakes and bad behavior.  To claim that a demon possessed you to do evil is ridiculous.  If you follow the mythology of angels, you'll know that demons, in the Biblical sense, were once angels who now only work for Satan and most humans aren't important enough to attract demonic forces to work through them.  If you are up to no good, you're just a bad person, not a weak soul taken over by the Devil.  If you do evil against your own will, you are more likely to be severely mentally ill and need medication to combat your urges to hurt others.  I believe that human beings have more will power than they are told they have and can easily drive off supernatural forces they believe are attacking them.  But since people are conditioned to believe they are powerless against such forces, they can be led to be subserviant to forces of this Earth and are preyed upon by human beings who push their will on them.  You can believe what you want to about bad spirits, but it's other people and your own stupidity you really have to look out for!

I do not tolerate the belief that the Universe owes anyone any favors. 

Whether or not I do good in the world, divine reward and punishment does not simply come out of the blue like miracles are supposed to.  Not every good deed comes with a prize.  You can work hard all your life to obtain something and still never get it.  If something doesn't work out the way you want it to, perhaps it's a sign it's not what you're supposed to be doing anyway.  Certain actions and decisions do not always bring the expected results.  Shit happens, as they say, whether you're asking for it or not.  And shit happens whether or not you are thinking positively.  Positive thoughts alone cannot bring you wealth or happiness or perfection.  Most people who say they only want to concentrate on the positive are in denial -- they fail to realize that the world does not operate in polarities of good and bad, that the negative can be used as a challenge to strengthen you not hinder you from a goal.  Sometimes to deny dealing with negative thoughts is to invite shit to happen to you.  I can sit here and think positively about living in a cardboard box but my positive thoughts alone will not prevent my cardboard box from being blown away by a strong wind!  The Universe is simply the world we live in, not a heavenly force up there in the sky existing only to write me a blank check for everything I need.  That bogus book The Secret is the latest New Age gimmick leading people to believe that the Universe owes them favors.  Any true Occult magician will tell you that positive thinking does not cut the mustard when it comes to seeking the spirit realm for assistance.  Rituals, spells, chants, mantras, prayers... these things alone are not responsible for your prosperity or lack there of.  My own actions are the key to my as-yet-intangible successes and failures tomorrow.  Acts of ritual, including the way I think (be those thoughts bad or good), are only means at my disposal to strengthen my resolve and focus my personal power to achieve greatness.  Any obstacles in my way, including bad events, do not happen to me because I am asking for them solely due to thinking negatively.  Perhaps those bad things happen more as a result of conditions in the world beyond my control or as things set before me that I need to experience in order to get stronger?  I don't believe the Universe owes me any favors, however it's not there only to rain shit on me as well.  There are things that happened to me that I never deserved and there are good things that happen to bad people that they didn't deserve, but at some point I have to take responsibility and own my fate, not blame unseen and/or material forces for my want in life.

Being spiritual does not mean you should assume I am stupid. 

Often when I share what I believe in and practice, people of other religions and philosophies will assume I'm open to bullshit.  However my brand of faith, if you want to call it that, isn't about leaving everything up to a higher power to solve my problems for me.  In fact my religion is more about interacting with the world and is far more practical than most imagine.  If you prefer to think of my branch of Witchcraft as the hooky stuff of Hollywood horror melodrama then you are the one who is truly stupid, not me. 

Just because I've experienced ghostly phenomenon does not mean I'm going to automatically believe your ghost story is true.

However, since I am unconventional in my beliefs and experiences, you will be tempted to lead me on a wild ghost chase.  Nine chances out of ten ghostly phenomenon is not supernatural but due to other things going on in nature that you cannot percieve.  In my experience, when something is explained scientifically, more people are prone to fall for a more spiritual explanation.  Even when presented with the truth that the phenomenon was caused by faulty plumbing or some kind of phosphorescence or is just simply human delusion as a result of mental illness, why is it so easy for people to believe the impossible?  I mix my spiritual work with a heavy healthy dose of skepticism, and for some reason this is the very thing people find most surprising about me.