Wow, Andy and Lance hit the jackpot!
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Fresh steaming pile, if you ask me.
“You can’t energy that away,” Dr. Holmes said.
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TIL
Thread
Now that is method acting.
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Astrology, Tarot and Psychedelics
(Sing it) one of these things is not like the others.
I can’t say whether psychedelics have any therapeutic uses and value, but my own personal experience would lead me to believe that it’s possible with caveats.
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I’m not sure about the “now” part. In general psych patients tend to be more into spirituality and other things unscientific. They encounter those first, realise they’re only helping a little or not at all, and then they seek out professional help.
At least, that’s how it worked with me and other people I know.
Tarot decks are great for Jungian archetypes, or for when your brain is spinning into indecision and you need a gut check. Mercury retrogrades give me something external to blame so I don’t get more paranoid than usual. Energy stones are the more durable version of a teddy bear (and look less weird on my work desk).
If you’ve never had the need for any of those, good on you. But when one feels like there’s nothing to hang onto, yes, woo helps, if only because it makes something out of nothing.
It doesn’t matter that it’s woo. It matters that it’s help, often the only help available. Same reason I thank my Roomba when it’s done cleaning the living room.
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Ninja
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I’m sorry for any offense taken!
I agree; they are chemicals, just like any other substance. The government is allowing some research into them but more is needed. There are thousands of chemicals tested for cancer; we need to ramp up psychopharmaceutical research.
I can understand. Our teddy bears are our cats, and they work wonders. We talk to them and answer for them, and are greatly comforted by it.
Psychologically speaking, I wonder if it is more healthy to believe in possibly non-scientific things, just because that seems to be the way we evolved. I developed my skepticism early on, and it hardened (or cured, as in epoxy glue) with age. I mostly posted this for the “You can’t energy that way” comment.
Perhaps I should have posted this in the Possibly Untrue Science News topic, but couldn’t find it on the main page. I should have searched!
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Oh thpppt, it’s not offence. It’s just re-establishing the situation.
I’m not terribly fond of woo types who use it to promote anti-vax and other awful things. There’s a difference between seeking comfort and advocating harm.
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Exactly. There is nothing wrong with a placebo, provided that it’s not used as a replacement for good medicine.
Your energy stones are a great example. They provide comfort, but you know that if you start hallucinating or have more dangerous thoughts, they aren’t going to cut it.
Ritual can be very comforting, because it gives us something that we can control. IMO, Mercury in retrograde is no weirder than “God’s Will”. The words are different, but the effect is the same – something external to blame. None of which is bad until taken to extremes. But a therapist is far more likely to chide someone for believing Mercury is in retrograde than for stating it’s part of “[Major Religion’s Supreme Being]'s ineffable plan.”
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Karla Maclaren has a very interesting spin on “new age” stuff. She considered herself psychic, but was actually just very empathic from terrible childhood trauma. Later she learned to talk about her uncanny skills of picking up subtle clues from people in other terms, but she couches her teachings as “for empaths” because that is how her customers see themselves. There’s a lot of things people attribute to psychic powers which are really just intuition. Reading Tarot cards or astrology or whatever is just a vehicle for a very intuitive person to do their work. I don’t think it’s problematic that therapists take it seriously.
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exactly this.
it’s not about what a patient believes, but why they believe it. some guy seeks therapy because “god is punishing me,” that’s easily understood. but god isn’t really punishing them. the therapist well understands the dynamic in play and can use that knowledge to attack the patient’s problem.
some dude comes in and says “Mercury is in retrograde and it’s fucking with my relationship with my wife.” well, as a therapist, you’d better figure out why they think that is a thing before you start.
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This. Years ago, I had an Egyptian card deck I’d use when I was trying to make tough decisions. In the process of interpreting the results of a spread, I got insight into my own feelings and thoughts on the matter. They were lousy for actual fortune-telling, but they helped me read myself. I still have them, though I haven’t used them in ages.
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I have 4 decks, plus 2 Tarot apps. (Why so many? I love the artwork and the slightly different interpretations that the different authors/designers come up with.)
Out of all the things mentioned, I think that they’re the closest to traditional counseling/therapy. They’re just prompts in images and text to get you to think or talk about different aspects of your life. The spreads are designed to get you to think about how those aspects interact, how they’ve changed over time, and potential future directions. To draw out your subconscious or unaddressed thoughts and feelings about situations and people and help you make those conscious connections.
Of course you can add hocus-pocus to that, and if you were trying to sell readings as a service of course that’s what people expect and enjoy and the part some are looking for. But that’s marketing. The core seems to me a lot like a counseling session or a tool for introspection.
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I’ve learned a lot here.
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This is hilarious. I wish someone would make an appropriate silent-movie-type soundtrack for it. He was given a camera and…well, watch it, LOL!
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This man…yes, he had faults, but not many.
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At first I thought we had found the original post-credit scene.
Then I realized we had found the elusive credits in the middle of the movie.
Quite avant garde
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I know, it’s a bit like “Lobster Men from Mars” in some respects.
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