Is woo on the rise or just where I live?

[HangingOver]

I permanently relocated to the South West a few years ago after being a long term weekend visitor for about 5 years....and I've noticed the rise in the amount of woo practitioners in the area has totally exploded!

They range from harmless stuff like dancing naked around the forest with no clothes on (but always mysteriously with a photographer on hand for Instagram!) to more questionable stuff like "yoni steaming" and putting their periods on their faces, to the downright alarming stuff like Kambo (if you don't know what that is it's where a lunatic with no medical training burns you then applies this stuff to the burn that comes out of a poisonous frog in the Amazon, and you really violently vomit and have the shots and sometimes your face and skin swells up). There's also a woman nearby who seems to be a sort of doula (sp?) who specialises in helping you to give birth avoiding medical intervention of any kind at all costs....which seems a bit questionable!

I thought I was quite a fuzzy live and let live type but it's starting to annoy me. My lovely housemate who had a traumatic past is into it and it makes me sad that she goes to the legnths of poisoning herself to try to vomit up "bad energy" She's not bad, she's lovely.

Is this just a local thing or are other seeing a rise in "magical" and "goddesses" near them?

Athough on the note of the SW I've just remembered a friend lived in Devon and they threw a lady who was a crystal healer off the parish council for breaking covid rules during a tambourine demonstration against a planned 5g mast in Exeter.

Our area has sound healing, whatever that is, and a spiritual healer who seems to have a collection of weird things on a table in the advert, looks like bells, bad taste ornaments that you usually find in a charity shop, lava lamps, cards, crystals and little bottles of who knows what.

I've lived in the southwest my whole life and I've never heard of any of that! I know of a psychic and a few crystal shops but clearly there's a lot I've been missing out on! This is where being unsociable gets me, I could be out getting burned and poisoned but here I am just watching telly.

I live in brighton. It’s been woo for years. I love the range of yoga and therapies but steer clear of the kombo frog licking crowd.
it might be hippy and transendental
and life changing but it’s still just taking super strong drugs, in an expensive ‘spritual’ package

People saying 'twas ever thus' are dead wrong. These people started coming down to the South West in the 70s. They have wrecked so many formerly nice communities. We had serious culture wars/clashes. To this day they are strongly resented by many 'old locals' or whatever you wish to call them. Traditional industries were hit hard by past recessions and trustafarian types clambered down, turning these formerly quiet places into woo tourist attractions which has continued to attract Britain's biggest oddballs.

Glastonbury Town was once a tiny, safe town that now requires private security ffs.

“New-age travellers have taken over where hippies left off. They include anarchist elements that are more difficult to live with. Caught up in this motley crowd are those who have problems of drug, drink and mental illness and are to be pitied for it. It is difficult to love them all when some are so dirty and behave so badly. They come and go from the town with the weather, phase of the moon and proximity of festivals. Their presence undoubtedly carries the risk of deterring other tourists. Some live in vans and cars, other live rough or in benders . Some eventually get bedsits above our shops and are with us all the time. Low police presence makes control of the situation difficult and has required the introduction of paid security patrols. A major encampment took place at Green Lands Farm, Wick, causing huge inconvenience that took a year or more to sort out. In August 1988 — on the 8/8/88 — a mass trespass and encampment took place on the Tor, requiring the enforcement of the Public Order Act. Wellhouse Lane is now zoned No Parking in consequence"

I think covid reminded us that we all have soft, fragile, animal bodies, so we started grasping around in the dark for anything that could convince us we could keep ourselves safe.

It's my belief (!) that people turn to woo etc. because of an absence of organised religion/belief in their lives.
As a species, not that many of us seem able to be completely pragmatic - we can't help but feel there is "something else" out there, whether it be a god, spirits, mystic folk, magic or whatever - and so if we don't go for one of the mainstream religions, we either go "woo" or cult religion.
Obviously not ALL people - some are perfectly able to live their lives without any form of "higher/alternative power" - but it does seem that a large proportion of the human population feel the need for something else, almost as if they can't quite believe that "this is all there is? Really?"

I'm quite "woo" myself but draw the line at smearing bodily fluids on places they're not meant to be, having anything to do with poisons/venoms from creatures, dancing naked ANYWHERE, and Instagram.

I am a complementary medicine practitioner but don't do the more "out there" therapies - mostly I just stick to massage and reflexology, but also have osteopathic treatments for myself. I like crystals, they're pretty! But have my doubts as to some of the stuff people claim for them. Quartz definitely has energy though - it runs quartz clocks, watches etc...

It does definitely accumulate in some areas - not just in the UK, in Australia too - but I quite like those areas because I find many of the shops to be fascinating (although often overpriced).

I Understand your perspectives op, I guess each to their own, now if you come across any potential fox mulders, or Dana scullys, then I'd be very intrigued.

I just made the mistake of looking up yoni steaming.. what on gods earth and why? sometimes I am glad I am poor!

Op thanks so much for starting this thread.

I've had a horrific week and have been pretty down but this has made me laugh so much. Snake dancing woman, cacao, douglas…I honestly think this should be in Classics.

My ex bil is very into woo (he is a psychologist

In our young days he once dragged us all to a woo bookshop in central London, where I spent what felt like years reading a very serious and off the wall book about spiritual sex, then left without buying it. It was full of weird books about witchcraft etc and lots of dodgy-looking pale people wearing black.

I do honestly believe we're heading back to the Dark Ages. Science is over, back to witches and Flat Earth.

I’m in the East Midlands and only have to go 3 doors along from my house in either direction to find reiki, crystals, tarot and mediumship. I read my horoscope occasionally and have a Himalayan salt lamp that I switch on once in a blue moon (despite growing up in the SW I never really caught the woo!)

My area of Bristol has been woo for years, but a couple of new ones have emerged recently.

Urine therapy - drink it, wash with it, moisturise with it, have urine douches and urine enemas. Apparently it cures everything from COVID to cancer. People are asking for people's spare urine on FB as if that's completely normal.

Vagina art - all about celebrating and worshipping the beauty of the vagina. Knitted vaginas, silver vaginas, vagina decorated clothing, vagina Christmas tree decorations.

I mean, wtf 🤣

Actually I've had accidentally Reiki too I think. I was having a ninety sodding quid massage and the woman at one point spent about 5 mins just hovering her hands over me.

I couldn't work out a non pervy sounding way to say "can you just keep rubbing me please" but I was a bit annoyed.

threw a lady who was a crystal healer off the parish council for breaking covid rules during a tambourine demonstration against a planned 5g mast in Exeter

Yikes. A lot to unpack there.

Woo and prescription medication keep me sane - ish!
I love the sense of community and meeting thinkers and dreamers.
However I don't pay anyone for it - other than the odd cheeky Gong bath etc.

Glastonbury is very spiritual and situated on ley lines. I think Bristol is extremely 'right on' and very arty. People are building on an existing tradition.

I think the West Country ( where I grew up) has the ideal combination, for woo, of old money and nature and folklore tradition encouraging a spiritual and non-materialistic culture. I saw a TV programme about an experiment in living without money.......based in Bath, of course. Lots of nice little odd jobs painting Georgian houses and bartering meant being given a nearly new pair of thick and well made corduroy trousers.

Bristol would be a great place to live though - or between there and Bath. The river and boats, university, proximity to the coast and not far to travel to London. Beautiful rolling countryside.

Glastonbury is very spiritual and situated on ley lines

Ley lines were invented by Alfred Watkins in the 1920s and described in his book "The Old Straight Track". He theorised that pre-roman people had set out straight paths of varying distance which were aligned to ancient sites and monuments.

It has been shown subsequently that due to the number of said monuments it is statistically likely that some will align.

The idea was jumped on in the 1960s and re-invented as lines of woo, often under the influence of various mind-altering drugs.

Maybe mibd- altering drugs account for the rise in woo. Interesting about let lines and Alfred Watkins; I've always 'felt' let lines so I must be very auto-suggestible.

I work in a science related field...i like some woo stuff like meditation, yoga, crystals( not for healing though).
However, i am very wary of people who think that natural drugs are superior to pharmaceuticals. I take some herbal supplements but if I'm ill I'm going to go for the big pharma options!

I did wonder what people would move onto when we where all vaccinated and covid was over 😂

Glastonbury or Totnes ? TBH - they have been like that forever.

I’m a teacher and spent the first half of September asking students to remove their crystal necklaces with were apparently doing everything from protecting them from the 4G to “solidifying the grey matter for better memory”

DH loves the aesthetic of a crystal but finding him a non-healing one proved very challenging. I thought I stills have got a discount!

Thanks for posting this. Very enlightening, and not in a crystal or tarot-based way. I also enjoyed the photos of the leaflet advertising the ‘goddess conference’ that a PP posted.

I think with the decline in Christianity, people are turning to other stuff. Humans appear to be hardwired to believe in 'woo'. Even chimpanzees and corvids have been observed to participate in ritualistic behaviour.