this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024

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Crystals (mander.xyz)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (3 children)

People will shit on crystals believers in one breath and tell people to 'respect other's religion' in another or gloat about their MBTI assessment. The cognitive dissonance is unreal.

I don't believe in either but at least I'm consistent. If you're not, then you're just finding an excuse to hate on a hobby that primarily attracts women.

This is the same thing that happens to anything that women likes: pumpkin spice lattes, uggs, horoscopes, tarot cards, rose, etc. It's seen as trivial and stupid no matter how banal the average person's interest are regardless of gender.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Have you considered that there's more than one person on the internet? One person can say one thing and another person say the opposite and no one has been a hypocrite.

Anyway, I'd say we should respect people's right to practice what they want, but we can still make fun of it. I probably would say don't do it to their face, but that's up to you.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Pro tip: the difference between faith healers and organized religions and belief systems is that, by and large, priests do not seek out people who are vulnerable, charge them three figures per psychic session, and then try to upsell crystals that do nothing on top of it. You'll never hear someone say "respect their religion" in regards to Scientology.

Also

anything that women like

Bro, have you seen how much people shit on sports, beer, and other stereotypically masculine interests? People shit on basic things because they're basic and some people use them as a substitute for a personality, not because women like them.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

Respecting others' religions and crystals - I'd only recommend not using the fact they believe in things that don't exist against them. No need to indulge them. No need to do things differently for their benefit.

MBTI - in the workplace it's pretty low value and low predictive power. Testing is unreliable. It's easy to hit whatever set of letters you think are desired in your workplace with a little practice. In groups of MBTI fans it seems more useful, but those groups try very hard to place themselves into correct categories, and it does predict useful dynamics in interactions between people of different MBTI types.

Hobbies that attract women - I don't think that's pertinent, where you see more women into crystals you see men more likely to believe in magic devices for cars.

Belief in magic is pretty even between the genders and pretty common

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Top tier shitpost

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I see nothing wrong with this nutritional chart

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

"I did my research"

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

what do you mean by metaphysical

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

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

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.