The anti woo thread.

[LetThereBeRock]

Can all those who don't believe in homeopathy,ghosts,talking to the dead,reading minds etc,please check in here?

There must be a few of us.

I feel as though I've logged onto allthingswoo.com rather than Mumsnet.com at the moment,and I'm not referring to this particuarly forum,but chat and AIBU?.

And if anyone says anything about how we should be openminded,I'm afraid I'll have to beat you to death with a a stick,one cut from an ash tree by the light of the first Summer moon of course.

I have to confess one of my proudest moments was when, in a drug store in Switzerland I was offered a homeopathic nose spray for DS and I replied, "No thanks. I want something that works."

dihydrogen monoxide you mean?

Now I do believe in the placebo effect,the mind can do weird and wonderful things,but what I detest is when they try to convince people that water has memory,and that the less concentrated a solution is,to the point where more belladonna could be squeezed from a gnat's eye than from their homoepathic solutions,the more effective it is.

me.

Well, yes, I know, but my point is, is it more effective as a placebo because of the pseudo-science, and if so, why is pseudo-science more acceptable than real science to many people?

I dont do Woo. A friend's mother tried to convince me homoeopathy would "cure" my breech baby. Not entirely sure how .
I dont do religion either.

Oh I'm right there with you. Crystal nonsense, dangling tops spinning on string, tarot, mediums, fortune telling. I also despise the 'global warmist end of the world' drivel.

The thing is, and this is really really annoying I can divine water and electric cables really easily, have a powerful effect on electrical equipment(blue static light comes out of my fingers in the dark) and I can see/sense Ley Lines.

I am still seeking scientific explanation.

FGS! I AM A SCIENTIST - THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!

I like woo,it covers it nicely imho.And the purveyors of woo generally seem happy to use it.

Do they? They don't use the word "woo" do they?

I like woo too.

Letthereberock - totally with you on the 'chemicals' thing. My bugbear is random and unjustified use of the word 'toxins'.

Oh yes they do,at least they did,and proudly,on the site I frequented before here,Mothering.com,which has more woo per pixel than almost any other forum.

That's genius Trillian.Ty for the link.

Placebos can work without pseudoscience - if you say 'this is a sugar pill, there's no active ingredient in it, but sometimes it makes people feel better'

I'm with you LetThereBeRock and I feel our pain!

There was a woman on there who was utterly convinced that her deceased rabbit had been reincarated in the form of her new baby.

She also had fairies in her garden,not to mention bats in the belfry.

*your pain!!

Don't really "feel" - can empathise though - just to be clear. I'm not introducing anything woo into the thread

Oh I am SO not woo, may I join in. I also rant in a mad scientist way gently point out there are chemicals in everything. It is up there with the fact that everything legal in food has an 'E' number.

TBH I am a non-believer but I like to dish out a good placebo or two now and then. Happy to submit to bollox therapies if they are free and involve a bit of dim lighting and a nice rest on a couch, Plus I have seen two quasi-ghosts even though I do not believe in them, which baffled me a bit.

The Lord is angry with you all and you will feel his wrath

Aspartame does not do anything bad (to most people)
Neither does MSG (to most people)

People with nut allergies don't go around telling the rest of us that nuts are evil and should be banned and we shouldn't eat them or let our chldren have them.

So just because you have a possibly imaginary reaction to something, don't try to tell me that it is the work of the devil, ok?

Tricky for me.

I do not believe in homeopathy, phrenology, flowerology (I kid you not) religion, and I do believe in evolution, placebo effect, science and various other non woo things, including Derren Brown.

As some of you may know, I am a holistic therapist and I do (largely very accurate imo) tarot readings as a hobby.

surely ghosts are just the brain playing tricks innit?
I hallucinated when I was seasick once. Was on dad's friend's yacht, he had an autopilot thingy that actually turned the wheel so you could see it turning by itself. They called the autopilot Otto. I swear I actually saw, as if he was real, a sort of grey-blue coloured sailor with a beard and a pipe, called Otto of course, standing there turning the wheel.
common effect of seasickness apparently, no wonder ghosts are meant to be common at sea.

You didn't happen to fall into a vat of toxic waste,did you Beta?

I agree with you,Trillian,about the aspartame hysteria. The posts I've read about it on here amaze me.
Apparently it's responsible for every ailment known to man.