Can we have a proper 'woo' topic?

They all ready do eau

If we do get this woo/unexplained/aliens/angels topic, will unbelievers such as myself be welcome to start threads about unexplained events and come up with theories for rational explanations? Or will it just be a serious topic for people who believe in chakras and whatnot?

Regarding hypno, it totally depends on how receptive you are to it.

While on holiday, myself and my friend got on stage to join a hypno show. I got asked to sit down but my friend was allowed to stay. She ended up eating a large raw onion, while after being told it was an apple.

She reeked all night and it seriously hampered her copping of capabilities ah those Ibiza summer days

Having a topic would simply brigade the threads into one place (and perhaps bring tumbleweed, as has done so for so many other topics).

It does not - as MNHQ have pointed out so many times on other subjects - make any part of MN a "safe space".

Those who want to decry will still do so, whatever topic the thread is posted in.

Unless of course you want to change the whole nature of MN.

Maybe "worked for many " was wrong.. I should have said. It's a method which millions of Asian people use in their daily lives and still will do after your long gone. Lots of GPs are suggesting complimentary alternatives OR to run along side current medication.

Your right about your last sentence though, just because you don't believe in works doesn't mean it's fake. Maybe you should ring up all the universities that study and teach this that's it's all a sham.

Idontsee - Hypnotherapy didn't help DH quit smoking, but maybe the practitioner wasn't very good. I have seen some benefit from it after birth trauma.

"Practiced for centuries" doesn't mean it works. Tarot has been practiced for centuries. Homeopathy has been practiced for centuries.

"Worked for many people" is anecdote. They have not worked for the vast majority.

Placebo effect is real. The mind is very powerful. That is why you need large scale placebo-controlled, randomised, double-blind trials to test the effectiveness of a remedy. Acupuncture & homeopathy fail those.

When you say this on woo threads, you get accused of derailing the thread and disrespecting people's beliefs.

I don't think you can throw acupuncture out the window so easily. It's been practised for centuries and for many many people it does work.

It's widely used in fertility treatments where I came across it.

However Cote it would be good to be able to be able to ask questions about how something worked for somebody who has tried it: interestingly you brought up hypnotherapy, not strictly wooish I agree but I'm considering trying it to help me stop smoking. Getting the benefit of someone else's experience would be useful without another poster jumping in with 'it's all shite', which is what usually happens and was my original point way up there somewhere^.

" it would be arrogant from a scientific stance to suggest that we have all the answers"

I don't think anyone is claiming that, but we have many answers.

Where those answers contradict the woo, is it unreasonable to expect people to re-evaluate their convictions on the basis of the evidence?

Acupuncture, for example, has been shown over and over as being no more effective than placebo, and haphazard sticking of needles by people who know nothing of acupuncture is as 'effective' as what is done by professionals. There is little doubt (none, really) that it is pseudoscience, with no physiological mechanism of action.

It would be interesting to talk about meditation, mindfulness, hypnosis - how and why they work. Their effects are well-documented and they are not woo, though.

It would be fantastic if we could talk about the evidence and discuss whether or not some of that "borderline woo" might work or not. The problem is that those discussions never happen because their proponents are not interested in anything other than "this is my belief, it worked for my mum's dog" etc and they would never change their minds even when presented with incontrovertible proof that it doesn't work.

I think a subject like aliens straddles many areas.

Even ( or especially) the most hardened scientic would suggest that life on alien planets is highly probable. Unlike many religious who would suggest that life on Earth is God given and unique.
So in some ways Aliens are nor "woo" at all.

Alien abduction however is a different thing.

Right, had a think about this at 2am when youngest was trying to talk to me. I think that the problem with having a 'woo' topic as requested by Indigo would be a bad idea so I can't support it in the form that's been discussed. Mainly because every damn thread about it turns inevitably to homeopathy which then gets a little heated , it then gets completely derailed and ditched when those of us who want to talk about the original subject get bored and wander off.
It's an all encompassing subject, so much more than what gets discussed here and can be pretty fascinating to delve into but it almost always ends up in Chat and turns into a bunfight instead of just shared experiences and a chance to ask questions and maybe even learn something about another persons beliefs.
Garlic: anybody who tries to blame you personally for something out if your control is a twat of the highest order and would still be a twat whatever belief system they follow. I despise people like this and unfortunately they can usually be found on some Pagan boards. Most of us avoid them like the plague. Please don't think we're all like that.
This is a bit of a convoluted way of saying I think we should stick to the philosophy boards to discuss certain topics, maybe if more us us 'woo' believers went in their we could keep threads bumped a bit!
Sorry Indigo, I take quite a dim view of anybody using people's beliefs to make money (this is all beliefs, including the Christian church), it sits wrongly with me and the path I follow. I'll stick to the other forum I think.

Where would alien discussion fit in?

I think it's a great idea! Set one up HQ!

Thanks, FFA. I've reported my post so that MNHQ will see it.

well said boreofwhabylon.

"woo" is so ill defined though. "I havre fairies at the botom of my garden" may be easy for most to dismiss.

There is a lot of borderline "woo" however that is very difficult to unravel.

Things like accupuncture, meditation/mindfulness, reflexology. Alexander technique, hypnosis, osteopathy,even ritual- a particular interest of mine from a Jungian/anthopological perspective.

Although I am an athiest it would be arrogant from a scientific stance to suggest that we have all the answers. Yes we need to work with hard evidence, but if we are too quick to dismiss all "woo" then we may thrwo a baby out with the bathwater.

Have I got this straight? An OP who states on another thread that she makes money from charging people for 'energy healing' and that she can and does use her gifts to 'find missing children' now wants a dedicated topic where this sort of thing can go unchallened?

And MNHQ are considering this? Really???

Third - The God debate is different fan woo debate, because there is no way to know whether there is a God.

Woo topics, however, are generally demonstrably false. Homeopathy doesn't work - proven through many studies - and it can't work because it's theory makes no sense, for example. It's not a question of "I believe this, you believe that, let's be respectful of each other's beliefs" etc.

Woo is the name of all that stuff on MN.

If we had a topic for fanjos, the topic would be called Fanjos, not Vaginas.

I've never particularly seen the need for a dedicated topic for woo-sters.

But I'd join in.

There's a lot of puerile stuff around on MN. I want to crash onto every thread asking me and the MN masses what brand of pushchair to buy and scream "who fucking cares?" but I don't. I find it hard to believe that there is thread after thread, year after year about Eastenders and god forbid anyone post the storyline before it's been on telly.

Puerile is everywhere. like angels

Some of the beliefs are puerile. I think 'woo' is apt.

Oh, definitely, a woo topic is a fantastic idea.

Then I can hide it.

nope, still calling it woo.

Garlic, I am sorry that bad things happened to you. I am sorry that someone made out to you that it was down to something that you didn't believe in. I'm sorry they tried to deflect the blame. That person wasn't me or Indigo or anyone else here, was it?