I think that Sweetness makes a very valid point! The last couple of years, I have been hanging around with people who who engage in occult practices and psychic phenomena. They believe they have angels and spiritual guides directing them and all kinds of things of that nature.
They will often tell wins, telling people that they asked their guides for a pay raise or to meet a new boyfriend or girlfriend and right away, some sort of sign appeared, perhaps a billboard or some skywriting which they interpreted as a signal from their spiritual guide. They then say that they got their raise or met their new boyfriend or girlfriend and attribute it all to a spiritual guide or to an angel.
If you don't acknowledge them and encourage them, you are going to be dropped very quickly from their circle of friends but perhaps more important, if you just acknowledge cheerfully, maybe just saying, "That's Great!" in a cheerfull voice, the person is beaming. Maybe it is delusional but they believe that their guides are assisting them and they are thrilled about that. Oddly, if a person tends to believe in such things, such things tend to happen to them. If you are very frank and just tell them that what they are saying is garbage, you will definitely bring them down off of their high.
I appreciate what Smila says about not encouraging delusions but one really has to weigh the alternatives. Cheerful encouragement seems to work, at least for the short term. Maybe it has long term damages and will lead to the person becoming completely delusional. Even so, I always give cheerful encouragement. Its the idea that being blunt will cause the person to be depressed PLUS the person will drop me as a friend that keeps me from "bursting their bubble".
Also, there are Scientologists such as "Johnny, The Magic Thetan". He tells wild unbelievable success stories as his S.O.P. I've heard about his 1948 Studebaker going through a space time warp and traversing 20 miles in just a split second at least a dozen times now. The first 2 times, it was exciting and I, along with everyone else present, gave him a lot of encouragement. After hearing it about 6 times, if I know he's starting to tell it again, I just kind of slip out of the room.
About 3 or 4 months ago, my ex wife came to dinner with Johnny, Candy and me. Johnny told the Studebaker story and my ex wife is an attorney and very analytical and she asked him to repeat the part of the story where the car traversed 20 miles in a split second. She said that she did not believe in things like that and she would appreciate it if he didn't tell such stories in her presence.
Johnny did not go come off of his high one iota. He maintained a big smile and said that he respected the fact that some did not believe him but he knows it happened with full certainty and the fact that she didn't believe did not change his demeanor in the slightest. With a guy such as him, he is very strong as regards his beliefs and his system of beliefs and he could care less what anyone else thinks about them. No problem being blunt with him but he is the exception and not the norm. Most people will react badly if you deny their reality.
Lakey