• Fleur__@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    135
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 months ago

    Lol those losers at cern wasted hundreds of millions of dollars to find out that there aren’t frequencies that alter your energy while I only spent 36 dollars.

    Get real

  • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    75
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    3 months ago

    One day at work, I found out a work friend actually believed the whole “crystal energy” thing.

    Since she was the first person I had ever met who actually admitted to that, I wanted to know more about what her specific beliefs about them were.

    At first she was super bubbly about it, on par with her personality. But then as I asked a couple common sense questions about why science doesnt find anything measurable, and first she got hostile and mad that I would dare question another person’s beliefs, but when I explained I was genuinely curious and had no interest in changing her beliefs she just kind of broke down because nobody ever takes her seriously or believes her about her “personal healing journey”

    The way I see it, it’s for adults who like pretty rocks, but can’t come to terms with the fact that they like something “childish” (because for some reason a lot of adults call a rock collection cringe or childish or dumb, but clearly they’ve never met a geologist) so instead of having a pretty rock and mineral collection, they have “healing crystals”, and eventually it just becomes kind of like part of their identity the way a religion is.

    I will however, 100% giggle at their expense with my wife, later. Because anyone who buys $50 polished selenite drink coaster “charging plate”, and a $200 brass pyramid to “recharge” their $50 “healing quartz wand” while refusing to listen to real science deserves to be giggled at.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      48
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      I will however, 100% giggle at their expense with my wife, later. Because anyone who buys $50 polished selenite drink coaster “charging plate”, and a $200 brass pyramid to “recharge” their $50 “healing quartz wand” while refusing to listen to real science deserves to be giggled at.

      I mean, humans do all sorts of wierd, irrational, ritualistic things. IMO, whatever floats your boat.

      Did you buy your wife a diamond ring? Or at least gold? :P

      • spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        3 months ago

        I think this is the perfect response haha. Ppl find comfort where they can in the world, even if it looks a little whacky. So long as it’s not hurting anyone, let them have their whacky

      • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        3 months ago

        humans do all sorts of weird, irrational, ritualistic things

        lil private giggles about it seem fairly unobjectionable

      • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        3 months ago

        No, I made the ring from sapphire (birth stone) and silver. Jewelry is easier than you might think when you’ve been doing small metalwork for knife handles, pommels, and guards.

    • Kwakigra@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      3 months ago

      In many circumstances the placebo effect is superior to common medical environments. I was completely dismissive of homeopathy until I came to understand its actual appeal. Obviously there is no proven physical mechanism of the substance itself; the water is just part of the ritual. The ritual of being cared for and being paid special attention to by another person who cares that you get better and can do nothing for you but give you that attention you need is 100% placebo oriented medicine and 0% drug.

      I was dismissive about crystals as well, but the reality is that if you are aware of them they are in some way altering your awareness by being present. The way they alter your awareness could be as simple as noticing an interesting looking stone, a reminder that there is a vast unknown and many others trying to find their way as you are, or a meditation weight and focus. I don’t know about crystal effects on vibrations other than to know that mass is literally energy and different compositions of molecular structures could have effects on the immediate environment beyond our ability to yet measure. I’m most comfortable saying that crystals definitely have some effect, definitely have assisted others in their healing journeys in some form or another, and beyond that I do not know many specifics.

      • Azzu@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        I mean crystals definitely have gravity pulling you towards them.

        I understand your reasoning and even the appeal, however I personally just wonder if all of these effects wouldn’t be possible by any other means. Why does it need to be crystals, intentionally overpriced at that. Marketed by capitalistic interests to exploit you. Theoretically, couldn’t you just go out into nature, find a rock you like, and it could have the same effect?

    • Danquebec@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      3 months ago

      Wait, so you’re telling that to not feel ashamed of liking rocks for how they look, they believe silly things about them?

      • psud@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        That appears to be their hypothesis

        I suspect they’re just credulous, and believe in magic

        • Optional@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          3 months ago

          in a young girl’s heart?

          How the music can free her whenever it starts

          And it’s magic if the music is groovy

          It makes you feel happy like an old-time movie

  • tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    61
    arrow-down
    12
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Meh. Placebos affect people so, I let them have it.

    Edit: obviously not to the detriment of real remedies. Calmate

    • Saganaki@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      84
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      3 months ago

      If it “makes me feel better”, fine.

      If it “makes it so I’m not contagious and won’t give you Covid”, no.

    • Signtist@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      72
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      My mom died of cancer a few months ago because she was convinced that a combination of sunlight’s natural vibrational frequency and some expensive “medical” herbal teas would cure her. Placebos affect people, but if you let them believe that they’re an alternative to actual science and medicine, then they’ll use them as such.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      27
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      3 months ago

      you really haven’t thought this through, have you?

      Not only does this encourage scammers to scam people, which is itself obviously bad, but it also means that some people will buy these things instead of getting actual treatment.

      • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        9
        ·
        3 months ago

        If people are getting their medical advice from a meme post in a meme community on a link aggregator on the Internet, I doubt there is much that actual science, education, and common sense can do to help.

    • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      I feel like with all this placebo stuff you get like 10% increase in perceived well-being vs. a good 10% of the population just going full woo woo about this stuff

    • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      Selling people fake remedies is always going to be to the detriment of real remedies unless they are targeted exclusively at conditions for which there are no real remedies.

      Furthermore, the real issue isn’t about “letting people have their crystals”, it’s about letting people sell fake remedies, something that should be banned unconditionally. Profiting off of pretending to help people while not helping them is socially malignant.

      OP is phrased in terms of attacking consumers because the poster is an idiot, as made evident by their absurd and pandering rhetorical tact.

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    48
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    3 months ago

    I’m pretty sure the anti matter “crystals” it produces can alter one’s “frequencies” quite well. If we had enough of the stuff. In the mean time eating bananas is a good substitute.

  • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    3 months ago

    I forget the YouTube channel name now, but I recall someone testing some of the cleansing bracelets, with “energy” and “healing” powers…

    It turned out that the energy was mostly in the form of radioactive materials, and the only thing you would be healed from by wearing it, was your continued life.

    Crystals, on the other hand, are mostly just inert and harmless. So if someone wants to keep a “healing” crystal or whatever on them or put it in their office or something, okay sure. It won’t do what it claims to, but it won’t hurt you.

    But if I see someone wearing a cleansing bracelet, I’m going to reach for my Hazmat suit (since I don’t own one, I’m just going to keep a safe distance from the person willingly carrying around what is very likely to be radioactive material), and reevaluate my association with anyone willing to buy such nonsense with absolutely no understanding that it’s probably harmful.

    I forget the radioactive material used. From what I recall, it’s not “drop and run” dangerous, but prolonged exposure is probably going to have some unpleasant side effects… Kind of like radon (it wasn’t radon… Radon is a gas with an extremely short half life IIRC, but it can be dangerous to have long term exposure - many years, and it’s in most homes… Buy a radon sensor folks, they’re not much more expensive than a good smoke detector).

    • Katzastrophe@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      Maybe it was “The Thought Emporium”? He made two vids on it, one being a follow-up

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        I looked and that seems right. I watched two videos on it, IIRC, and it was interesting and concerning.

        At the end of the day, I’m not sure how much sympathy I can muster for people who are so superstitious that they’ll buy that snake oil, but at the same time, the manufacturer is being incredibly deceptive. So I’m a bit split on the issue. At the end of the day, one thing I’m not uncertain about is that consumer protection should be stronger for such things.

    • ladicius@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      Crystals maybe help in the same way placebos do. That’s the most I would admit about such stuff.

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        I agree. Placebos can help too.

        Fact is, for it to work as a placebo, you need to believe it will work.

        I’ve had a few coworkers who had stuff like crystals on their desk because their partner believed in it. I understand why that stuff happens, the believer who (supposedly) cares about your well-being, gets benefit from it, and wants you to have the same or similar benefits from the same. But since they’re doing it to placate their partner and don’t personally believe, it’s just a rock on their desk.

        • ameancow@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Fact is, for it to work as a placebo, you need to believe it will work.

          What’s even wilder is you don’t have to consciously believe it, you can unconsciously believe it and it will still work! Doctors will routinely prescribe placebos and be very open about the fact that it’s just a placebo, that there is no chemical compound in the medication.

          And yet, the act of taking a pill from a bottle seems to trigger something. Recent research has actually identified part of this mechanism in rat brains. There really is a part of the brain that can be tricked into releasing a set of chemicals that relieve pain, reduce inflammation and create better moods. Someday we might have a placebo pill that actually has medication in it. Wildly convoluted how the brain works.

          • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            3 months ago

            Placebos is measurement error, not effectiveness. People that believe something works are more likely to report improvements when taking that medication irrespective of its effectiveness. Placebo effect is just misreporting, noise or unaccounted phenomena. It’s literally how we define something doesn’t work.

      • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        3 months ago

        And its been proven that placebos work.

        So as long as you define life changing energy as a subtle psychological buff…

      • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        Allowing the crystal myths to continue only leads to more harmful behavior down the road. Sure, it can work as a placebo, but so can other things that don’t tend to leave someone trusting unproven methods in lieu of proven ones.

      • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        Placebos don’t work. It’s a common misconception. Placebo effect is the error in measuring not any actual effect. It’s literally the barrier we use to define effective and non effective.

        Anyone claiming they have something that provides a placebo effect to help is fraudulent or ignorant.

        In the UK it is illegal to proscribe placebos. Because they don’t work.

    • primrosepathspeedrun@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      the only thing you would be healed from by wearing it

      not actually definitely true! look up ‘radiation hormesis’

      I mean, it’s not what they’re advertising, and I don’t think we know for sure that it’s a thing, but it might be, and this would make it fucking hilarious.

  • Mac@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    31
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    3 months ago

    Short comment:
    Does the LHC explain emotions?

     

    Long comment:
    Perhaps there are other “forces” in the universe than physical forces. For example what is faith but a non-physical force? And yet it drives people to feel certain ways and do certain things. Same goes for love.

    Just like the placebo effect there are many things that affect a person internally even though externally they don’t appear to be doing anything.

    If something so simple as wearing a bracelet brings balance to someone’s troubled mind then I don’t see the issue nor do I see the reason to argue about it on the internet.

    Now, all that being said, these products are just a grift. We lost the plot when we went from
    “pretty rock that eases my mind because I get dopamine from looking at it”
    to
    “this rock has magical powers and you should buy it because of that”.

    Conclusion: people are allowed to feel spiritual and psychological connections with things and it is wrong to take advantage of those feelings for profit.

    • GiveMemes@jlai.lu
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      3 months ago

      Yes. Insofar as our brains are made up of physical matter and interpret electrical signals from our body. Emotions are our meat computers’ interpretations of some of those inputs. If you could know the exact location and velocity of every physical particle, you could know/predict the future based on that information and physics. It’s impossible to get that knowledge currently, but that doesn’t make the underlying principle any less true.

      But I do agree that this is a dumb thing to argue abt and to let people enjoy their little thingies.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    3 months ago

    The premise is flawed. The LHC is looking for specific things, and it takes forever-and-a-day just to look much less decide whether the-thing-being-searched-for is there.

    The premise here is that the LHC found All That Is, and it didn’t find [magical-rock-mystery-waves] so pfffttthh stupid hippies.

    • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Until we figure out just what dark energy and dark matter is, we can’t throw out there being a fifth force that the LHC isn’t even designed to detect in the first place but if you think that humans are affected by things we only tend to notice on the astronomical scale, you’re putting the cart way before the horse. The whole reason we can’t detect them is because they don’t interact with us.

    • zerofk@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      Exactly. LHC also didn’t find that breathing air is good for you. I’m still not going to stop.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    They recently found evidence that not only was Penrose right all along about quantum effects in the brain but there’s these crystaline things in your brain that do quantum shit, not very specific on all the details… but the first thing I thought was

    “Can’t wait for Spirit Science to completely and delibrately misinterpret this to sell more rocks.”

    Edit: Maybe I was jumping the gun a bit about claiming Orch-OR itself was proven

    Source on “Penrose was right”: https://youtu.be/xa2Kpkksf3k

        • milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          3 months ago

          tl;dr Maxwell’s Demon is a thought experiment where an imaginary demon lets only hot molecules into a hot room and cold into a cold room (from each other), thereby violating thermodynamics.


          Maxwell’s demon, a thought experiment of chambers filled with hot and cold gas, connected by a microscopic trapdoor.

          Thermodynamics/statistics shows that on average hot particles will go from the hotter side to the colder more than vice versa, gradually evening things out. That’s increase of entropy (increase of ‘disorder’, because there’s less ‘order’ of the separation between hot and cold regions.)

          Maxwell’s demon sits at the trapdoor and opens it only for hot particles from the cold side to go to the hot side, and cold ones from the hot side to go to the cold side. So the separation gets more; entropy decreases. But the demon apparently isn’t increasing entropy elsewhere or expending non-negligible energy.

          Therefore violating thermodynamics which, I think Einstein famously said, is basically the only physical law you can be completely certain won’t be violated.

          • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            I think I’m too dumb to get it in general…

            But I do hope that one day we can rewrite all the laws of the universe and invent God, that’s the dream. To one day have a world where anything is possible. Till then we are stuck with the laws of physics.

    • Xendarq@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      I think you just did that as there is no experimental evidence at all to support Orch OR.

    • bunchberry@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      OrchOR makes way too many wild claims for there to easily be any evidence for it. Even if we discover quantum effects (in the sense of scalable interference effects which have absolutely not been demonstrated) in the brain that would just demonstrate there are quantum effects in the brain, OrchOR is filled with a lot of assumptions which go far beyond this and would not be anywhere near justified. One of them being its reliance on gravity-induced collapse, which is nonrelativistic, meaning it cannot reproduce the predictions of quantum field theory, our best theory of the natural world.

      A theory is ultimately not just a list of facts but a collection of facts under a single philosophical interpretation of how they relate to one another. This is more of a philosophical issue, but even if OrchOR proves there is gravitational induced collapse and that there is quantum effects in the brain, we would still just take these two facts separately. OrchOR tries to unify them under some bizarre philosophical interpretation called the Penrose–Lucas argument that says because humans can believe things that are not proven, therefore human consciousness must be noncomputable, and because human consciousness is not computable, it must be reducible to something that you cannot algorithmically predict its outcome, which would be true of an objective collapse model. Ergo, wave function collapse causes consciousness.

      Again, even if they proved that there is scalable quantum interference effects in the brain, even if they proved that there is gravitationally induced collapse, that alone does not demonstrate OrchOR unless you actually think the Penrose-Lucas argument makes sense. They would just be two facts which we would take separately as fact. It would just be a fact that there is gravitionally induced collapse, a fact that there is scalable quantum interference effects in the brain but there would be no reason to adopt any of their claims about “consciousness.”

      But even then, there is still no strong evidence that the brain in any way makes use of quantum interference effects, only loose hints that it may or not be possible with microtubules, and there is definitely no evidence of the gravitationally induced collapse.

  • blaue_Fledermaus@mstdn.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    3 months ago

    Not to defend these things, I also don’t think they work, but the simplest argument is that they work on a metaphysical frequency/energy/whatever, so a physical instrument wouldn’t be able to detect it.

    • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      3 months ago

      Could also be a placebo which has been clinically proven to have some subjective effect. Not worth getting fleeced over, but worth 2 bucks for a nice rock that makes you feel hopeful.

      When I was growing up (granola) everyone in my family had a special little crystal that represented them. I remember when we all picked them out from a big bin. Not to say this kind of thinking can’t have a dark side, though…

      Nowadays I just find “special” rocks while I’m out on a walk feeling a certain way, and like mentally imbue them whatever feeling I need (stability, remorse, etc). Then I keep them around and think of that whenever I look them, until I eventually forget why I even got them.

      Got a nice Jasper that’s flat on one side helping me through some shit with my family atm

      • Chuymatt@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        3 months ago

        I actually really love this. Even as a staunch user of the scientific method and an atheist, I feel that the use of symbolism and ritual is actually quite important for the human psyche.

        Have a good one.

      • ImWaitingForRetcons@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        Metaphysical means that it’s beyond the bounds of normal physics - stuff like ghosts, spirits, religious stuff, etc. Basically, you can cover a lot of hokey with it.

        • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          3 months ago

          Metaphysical is a fun woo woo word, because one definition of it is basically as you have said, a synonym for supernatural (ie, physically impossible), whereas the other definition of it relates to metaphysics, the philosophical approaches to understand the rules that govern or give rise to the rules/laws of physics.

          So you have one contextual usage that means ‘weird unexplained spooky impossible nonsense’, and another that means, ‘logical structures that seek to explain the nature of reality as understood empirically, often by academics.’

          Thus its a perfect word for mystical woo people who love to conflate different contextual meanings of words and pretend they are not doing that.

          • Optional@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            3 months ago

            Metaphysical is a fun woo woo word

            It’s also a bedrock concept in philosophy. How-we-know-what-we-know, etc.

            I mean, it can be two things, but c’mon.

            • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              9
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              3 months ago

              … You are not understanding me. It seems you stopped reading at the part you quoted and disregarded the rest of what I wrote. Let me expand:

              In one context, in one kind of usage, ‘metaphysical’ is an adjective referring to a very technical outline or system of logical reasoning.

              In another context, in another kind of usage, it is a vague catch all term for fantastic things that seem to defy logic and reason.

              Because these two valid but nearly opposite meanings of the word can be switched out, or conflated, woo woo peddlers love to use this term, as it easily convinces those who do not understand that is what they are doing, and sounds grand, wise or profound.

              Its the same with ‘energy’ and ‘frequency’. Both of these terms have valid definitions that are highly specific and empirical in a scientific context, but also have commonly used, colloquial meanings which basically indicate a vague notion of pleasantness or unpleasantness, or maybe enlightened vs unenlightened.

              Woo woo peddlers also love to use these words and conflate their two different meanings.

              Most people think that the phrase ‘good/bad vibes’ means that you feel good or bad about a person or situation’s attributes, qualities or what not.

              But a person who has been listening to too much woo woo peddlers will believe that there is some kind of actual, literally real, energy or frequency surrounding or exuding from a person or situation they find pleasant or unpleasant, because they are so used to the empirical/scientific concept being totally equated to the whimsical concept that they do not understand that there even are two distinct meanings.

              The point I am making is not that metaphysical is a woo woo word that means nothing.

              The point I am making is that there are many terms with nearly contradictory meanings, where one is associated with objective, ordered, rational, logical, complex concepts that can be studied and meaningfully argued over, and another meaning that is fantastical, defies empiricism or logic, and is highly subjective.

              These terms are woo woo terms not because they mean nothing, but because they are often used by woo woo peddlers who jump back and forth between these different meanings to confuse people.

              Quantum is another one. So is ‘AI’, at this point.

              • Optional@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                3 months ago

                That makes sense, I get that you’re arguing a word is being misused or appropriated for unhelpful uses.

                In one context, in one kind of usage, ‘metaphysical’ is an adjective referring to a very technical outline or system of logical reasoning. In another context, in another kind of usage, it is a vague catch all term for fantastic things that seem to defy logic and reason. Because these two valid but nearly opposite meanings of the word can be switched out, or conflated, woo woo peddlers love to use this term, as it easily convinces those who do not understand that is what they are doing, and sounds grand, wise or profound.

                I just disagree that we know what metaphysics is beyond a shared understanding of a basic framework. “It’s what organizes all physical matter” is a terrible definition, but let’s use it for a second.

                If I’m Joe Woo Woo and I say “metaphysically, these a-here crystals will affect your monkey chakras beneficially”, you’d argue they’ve misused the word ‘metaphysics’ in that reading. I’m saying that the woo woo brand of crystals is still following “what organizes all physical matter” and we’re not misusing the term.

                What we’re really talking about is “there’s no physical evidence that the woo woo crystals beneficializes the monkey chakras”. And we couldn’t find evidence, because it’s pre-physical evidence.

                I agree making a “Quantum Fire Pit” or an “‘AI-based’ Sandwich” is a gross misuse of terminology, but those are different from a pre-physical framework. You have to already be in the physical world to have quanta, to have AI.

                Maybe another way to say it is “Sometimes, metaphysics is woo woo.”

                • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 months ago

                  Maybe a more decent definition of a metaphysical theory would be:

                  The rules which give rise to a world which we can describe in more detail with other, more specific rules.

                  Or from another angle:

                  The rules which are followed by all of the rules of physics.

                  ‘What organizes all physical matter’ is just a definition of physics, without the meta.

                  I think you have not had much exposure to more successful woo woo peddlers, and you’re missing still the key point I am making of conflating meanings of a word.

                  Its more than just using the word in a vacuous or spurious sense, as with your ‘metaphysically’ example.

                  It doesn’t really add any meaning whatsoever to just throw ‘metaphysically’ in front of the rest of that sentence (with your definition of metaphysically), beyond ‘whoah, fancy word.’

                  You can just throw on fancy sounding words to a sentence or concept, but I am talking about a different and more insidious manipulation tactic.

                  Repetitive conflation of words with multiple meanings breaks down an ignorant audiences ability to understand that they are being lied to by making it unclear that different definitions are in fact different.

                  Its using a word with meaning A, in a sentence, then in sentence 3 you use meaning B, then in sentence 4 you use meaning A, so on and so on, such that an uniformed or ignorant person who has only heard this word a few times or didn’t pay attention in school is functionally now being educated by woo woo peddler such that they now think the word has a kind of nebulous melding of meaning A and meaning B, and that this is the singular undifferentiated meaning, when in fact this is not the case, there are two distinct, context and domain specific meanings represented by the same word.

                  You could conceivably do that with the word ‘nuclear’, by switching between the phrase ‘nuclear family’ and ‘nuclear energy’ to the point that, in a long monologue, you might be able confuse some people into thinking that there is a literal subatomic nuclear strong force holding together families, or that quarks and electrons literally have feelings toward other quarks and electrons in their family/atomic unit.

                  Its basically the kind of phenomenon where you can tell that someone does not actually know what a word means, that they never looked up its definition and instead just read or heard it, assumed its meaning based on context, and just carried on using this word, usually wildly incorrectly, because they do not actually know what it means.

                  It creates an unconscious cognitive dissonance that collapses painfully if one tries to actually suss out what the word actually means, which heavily biases the woo afflicted person toward not attempting to do that.

                  Woo woo peddlers are successful when they can basically brainwash a person into believing an entire alternate worldview, and basically always this worldview is incoherent, contradictory, that ultimately relies on any cognitive dissonance being reconciled by the woo woo peddler.

                  The point is to basically brainwash ignorant or desperate people into a whole lifestyle of mystical nonsense where the ultimate authority, source of comfort, who you become dependent on, answerer of questions, arbitrator of disputes, is the woo woo peddler.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      If they worked at all it would be possible to measure the effects indirectly in a double-blind study even if we couldn’t measure the energy directly.

  • Big_Bob [any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 months ago

    Speak for yourself. My JO crystal is so supercharged I can levitate up to 6 cm from the ground and yell louder than a police siren.

    I have won several fights by blinding my opponent with the flash of the JO crystal as I crank my hog with one hand and swing my crystal with the other.

    My seed has become so powerful, I’m banned from donating semen in 17 countries, including Papua New Guinea and the Pharoe Island.

    I have channeled the unholy energies from my magnetic wristbands and wooden bracelets to erect a dark labyrinth to contain me so I won’t accidentally break reality apart when I crank my hawg too hard.

    Do not underestimate the power of crystals.

  • Bizzle@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    3 months ago

    Now I’m just a humble weed farmer but I’ve seen “A Boy and His Atom” and it looks an awful lot like waves/vibrations to me. And I’m pretty sure some researchers have seen Lithium atoms collapse into waves near absolute zero. And we know that these waves and particles are effected by observation. And I’ve also smoked a bunch of DMT and eaten mysterious varieties of mushroom. That’s why I believe in m⛤gick.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      I’ve smoked DMT and eaten plenty of mushrooms, and I don’t believe there’s anything supernatural. And if I did, saying it’s because of drugs would be a terrible argument for it being true.

      • GiveMemes@jlai.lu
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        3 months ago

        Yeah! It’s a fun experiment to ask why a certain molecule dancing on a serotonin receptor makes such a crazy experience occur, but by no means does it indicate magic to exist or anything like that.

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        I’ve eaten pounds of cubensis (in total) and smoked DMT until I couldn’t physically move my arm to take another hit. I’ve been on incredible, wonderful trips. But, just like you, I know it’s happening inside my brain. Truth is stranger than fiction for real.

      • Azzu@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        I’m pretty sure you’re responding seriously to satire :)

        • Hackworth@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          3 months ago

          As a chaote, it honestly didn’t register as satire. But if it is, it’s spot on.

          • Bizzle@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            3 months ago

            It’s not, I’m a Chaote myself. Let these guys be content with the shadows on the wall. 93/93

            • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              3 months ago

              Crowing about how you have special knowledge everyone else is too dumb to see is a sure sign of a crackpot.

              • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                3 months ago

                Are they though?

                If not satire I think they are fully aware they are crackpot, hence why it sounds like sarcasm.

                Some kind of belief in absurdism? Like a “i 100% know this doesn’t make sense and i don’t care cause neither do you make sense and were both close enough to stay living” is a vibe i get

                I know similar views do exist but i cant actually tell with this guy.

  • freewheel@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    3 months ago

    This concept is just as dangerous as the right wing claiming LHC will open black holes. There’s an implication here that just as soon as LHC was turned on it suddenly gathered information about every unknown Force, particle, and energy in the universe.

    The Large hadron collider took 4 years to confirm the higgs boson; as of today it is only on its third data collection run. LHC is hardly a silver bullet.