woo

A lot of woo is actually true. We just lack the mental capacity, the frameworks, the language, the ease of articulation, and the consistency of evidence to make it philosophically coherent and scientifically grounded. But we will get there. Disregard culture punishing you for taking this seriously. It's just a social fad that comes from the coll... See more

right, so i did not talk about this at all, lemme lay out some stories that seem plausible to me. in more detail, the “minimal but respectful take” here seems to me psychological: that tarot and astrology are two different scaffolds on which to hang intuitive psych reads

@relic_radiation Everyone I've asked to "pretend they can feel energy" can feel it So I think ppl are blocked by either beliefs ("energy isn't real") or just having never paid attention to it, in the same way that some people barely ever use their nose

If you’re looking for a good entry point into woo land, I recommend this book as a practical way to investigate the territory for yourself. It makes no big claims about reality. It just gives you some linguistic games to play that highlight the boundaries of the simulation. https://t.co/gRRXdX3E6Y

my go-to definition, that comfortably dismisses much the nonsense that often gets caught up in ‘woo’, is “experiences that cannot be articulated by the part of the mind that can only understand experiences by articulating them”

when we tell stories about magic but coat those stories with a layer of "btw magic is impossible" we are saying that having power and helping people is impossible

I don’t actually care that you even know about the chakras. I do care that you remember your wholeness. I don’t care if you’re woo or not. I do care that you are moving in a way that creates a life you want to be living as the person you are.

The hippie world & the science world can be reconciled, here's how to do it: 1. Take a break from arguing over mechanism/metaphysical assumptions (HIPPIE: It works because of mystical energy! RATIONALIST: There's no such thing!) 2. Empirically test whether there are *effects* Unfortunately: • Hippies are attached to fancy mystical explanations (r... See more

I'm making a thread of Twitter stumbling on Reichian ideas https://t.co/bUTUcl7QYd

Woo from people who take phenomenology, cognitive science, machine learning, and epistemology seriously of course will hit different. It's vastly more capable of self-articulation, development, testing, and consistency-checks. It's the good stuff.