Having been one of those "horrible, horrible, closed-minded" people, I'd say you don't stand a chance. I would have ridiculed you to no end, and tried to convince you, in a most disrespectful manner, of the error of your ways. Nothing you could have said would have changed my mind.
It's funny how life takes you, really. It's like I've now gone to the other extreme, only without all the needless attachment to proving myself all the time, aggresiveness and all. The most surprising thing is that everything just makes so much sense. It's such a peaceful place to be in. I can't think of any reason to ever go back.
My "conversion" was initiated by Steve. Had it been anyone else, I'd have immediately discounted the attempt. But Steve, well, he had a very good track record with me. I'd learnt a
lot from him, and he had always made a lot of sense. I had come to a point where I trusted his judgement.
My first encounter out of my skepticism shell was when Steve mentioned telepathy in a blog post. It continued with psychokinesis in another post. Very slowly I opened myself up to these things. I still remember my first psi ball.
Holy shazam, is that just my mind playing tricks on me, or have I actually just created a ball of energy between my hands? By the time we reached full-fledged subjective reality, I had already warmed up to the notions of intuition and psychic abilities, and had stopped thinking Erin was a complete quack (it's quite the opposite right now, just to set the record straight). And even so, subjective reality proved too much to swallow for me. It was like Steve used up all his trust credits with me, and they weren't enough. I almost sent him an e-mail to inform him he'd lost it, but out of decency decided against it. I eventually eased in into subjective reality after watching The Secret. I found myself instantly liking and trusting several people in that movie, thus going beyond my trust in Steve alone. Subjective reality just made most sense when trying to explain the Law of Attraction. The rest has just been a natural progression. Once you accept a change as fundamental as subjective reality, it really opens up your thinking.
So anyway, the reason I went into all of this was to show you how difficult it is to convert a hardcore skeptic. Unless you already have a solid trust relationship with that person, you don't stand a chance. I actually think if you'd shown me The Secret back then, I'd have argued how ridiculous it was, and immediately discarded it. Skepticism is a very useful tool in protecting your ego from change.