What irrational woo-woo things are you into?

[Jean]

What falls under woo in my book, is everything that appears to work, but without a theoretical understanding about how it works, or a proper measurement of it working.

[Cheepnis]

I was at an old coworker's house this past summer helping him with some projects. We were clearing some brush at the edge of the treeline to the side of his house. His well was somewhere back there but I'd never been back far enough to know exactly where. He surprised me and pulled out some divining rods and wanted me to try finding is water service. I was playing along, internally eye-rolling, as I walked parallel to the treeline between the treeline and his house.

I'll be a monkey's uncle but those suckers turned in my hand once I got above his water service. I couldn't keep them from moving. They'd move past parallel as I walked over the line to hit the sides of my upper arms and move back to parallel eventually pointing straight forward as I stepped backward. He showed my where his water service stubs up into his utility room and where his well was and indeed the rods would move as I stood directly in between the two. I marched all over his property after that and those suckers wouldn't budge at any other place.

I don't know what to think of that experience. On one hand I believe that there's no scientific explanation for it and that it's not able to be replicated in laboratory scenarios. But OTOH those fuckers moved in my hands and I don't know how. I've done a little looking into it since then and all the scientific explanation I've found is about states of equilibrium and micro vibrations in diviners' arms and hands is what cause the rods to move and the abundance of underground water + confirmation bias explains how they're often right. But I have not found any explanation for why my arms and hands would micro-vibrate at the one certain place and not any other places.

This is the only experience I've personally had that flies directly in the face of scientific consensus, which I, of course, largely trust. I don't really know what to make of it.

[reepicheep]

@Cheepnis, magic!

[EdithKeeler]

I guess religion. That's old-woo stuff, I guess. I mean, I’m totally a Doubting Thomasina, but I pray, and I believe some of the biblical stuff like “do unto others” and “take care of the poor.” It’s weird because I don’t especially believe in God, the traditional idea of God sitting on a throne I heaven, and I’m really not sure about Jesus....but I do believe in the Holy Spirit. Irrational, but I do.

So that. And CBD oil.

And aliens, sort of, but not really. But sort of.

[fiby41]

Centralized lending, printing of money, in the invisible hand, in the efficiency of Mr Market, trade should be free but credit creation regulated, that people can come together, perform some rituals and breathe life into entities, cut it into parts and parcel it off and many more.

[Ego]

I've believed for a while now that some noncommunicable diseases such as depression, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and respiratory diseases can be contagious. I remember reading a story many years ago about a researcher studying an extremely rare form of brain cancer who eventually died from it that made me begin to look for other stories to confirm my belief.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6475/250

[7Wannabe5]

@Ego:

I agree. That is why I am trying to strictly limit my exposure to grouchy old men going forward in order to maximize my functional happy lifespan. Of course, this practice produces a bit of a conflict since I also believe that regular vigorous sexual activity extends functional happy lifespan. So, I'm thinking maybe just dinner and sex with occasional overnight stay and/or any invitation to otherwise healthy shared activity such as hiking.

[Ego]

@7W, I can appreciate your conflict. After our stint managing Soylent Towers Senior Apartments I began limiting my exposure to people I call DOPs (dead old people). I use "old" not necessarily in reference to age but mindset. Each time we return from an extended sojourn I make a conscious effort to spend more time with certain friends and limit or eliminate others from my life.

But what I was getting at in the post above is that they are studying actual biological infection. Not psychological contagion. So vigorous sex with DOPs is out if you want to keep yourself quarantined from their various problems. At least according to my cockamamie hypothesis (and that paper) that's how it goes. Feel free to ignore.

[BookLoverL]

I have personally spent quite a large amount of time reading about astrology - it was a combination of joke social media posts and my deep love of personality quizzes of any sort that drew me in, and then when I looked at my full birth chart the things that it said would be true about me... were actually true, for the most part? So now I love to find out people's full birth charts if I can. But I don't use it prescriptively, and I don't use it as the primary factor in major life decisions.

More seriously, I also believe in reincarnation, I believe that plants can be just as sentient as animals, and I'm also a polytheist.

[Jason]

When I was 13, I asked my Ouija board how old was I going to be when I died. It came back 67. And I mean a hard 67, like this was an absolute, certifiable, without ephemeral hesitation, no-fucking brainer for the spirit world type of inquiry. My friends remained silent for a moment and then went on with their first blow job time horizons. I felt fucked being that I had two grandparents already older than that and I think I even said at one point to stop complaining at least you made it past 67. This shit has been hanging over me and has informed my life. When I see or hear 67, I don't think social security, I think death. I actually brought it up in therapy. If I make it to 66, I'm thinking of moving to a monastery or something where I can pray and be in safety but I'll probably just get killed in some type of gardening mishap or get Friar Fucked in some type of holy ass manner. Of course I could die earlier, which would also prove it wrong, although it kind of takes the joy out of disproving it.

[chenda]

ASMR.

I think ghosts probably exist in some form, and stone circles give off mysteries energies. And the moon effects menstrual cycles. And pre-cognition is real.

@Jason that it is some serious load to have carried all this time

[7Wannabe5]

@Jason:

Ouija boards are sensitive instruments, maybe it was already honing in on your friends' questions as you asked yours, so all you really got is a prediction that your last blow job will be at age 67.

[Ego]

Operate on the assumption that it is not 67 years old but 2067.

[Jason]

If Serena Williams pulls up in a hearse on my 67th birthday I'll be a man about it.

[7Wannabe5]

My DS31 and I made a pact when he was a little boy that I would live until 2076, because then it would be the Tricentennial and we would be 111 and 88. However, I may be willing to disappoint him if 1988 version Jimmy Smits drives up in a hearse when I am 88.

[daylen]

I think rationality is woo-woo.

[sky]

I believe that there may be an intelligence that exists in the boiling plasma of the sun.

[Lemur]

@Jean

Climate change mitigation....Once you fall into this rabbit hole there is no climbing out. Somehow this lead me to exploring this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

We won't discover alien life or have the chance too because by 2100 we will be at CO2 900 PPM. Not sure at what point we start frying like a egg but likely we will nuke ourselves over the fight for resources along the way anyhow.

Ohhhh well. Trying to convince people this is not irrational could be fun though.

[horsewoman]

@lemur whenever I fall into this rabbit hole I console myself with this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis

[chenda]

The gods like to fuck with us.