Anywhere else, this question would be boring. But I’d be fascinated to hear your answers.
What’s something that you can easily reason to be false, but can’t help believing in anyway?
I have no "woo".
I am wooless.
Didn't there used to be something called "pitching woo"?
@david75090 Yes. It was just another term for "courting".
Woo unto you ...
Some sort of after death existence so that loved ones are still here somehow and I may see them again. I know it isn't so.
UFOs. I love 'em. It was my childhood hobby. I eventually read a skeptical book, and the concept of ration and reason entered into my life and made it awesome.
I have read about every credible UFO report there is. All but a few have come to nothing when approached rationally.
There's a handful of cases left unexplained for me. Disappointing, but hey my fear of anal probes has subsided!?
I know tarot and astrology are bunk but I can't help nodding in agreement when they match circumstances identically.
I collect crystals because they're pretty but I've done a lot of research on their meanings in order to help me better sell jewellery and things made with them and sometimes it rubs off on me.
I believe in love though I have no way of proving it exists.
The easter bunny. I hate that creepy ass thing. Yea I know its not real. But when they show up in costumes at the mall, the grocery store, my bedroom closet.. Yea, I f*cking hate the easter bunny.
As I have mentioned in this hallowed journal before now, my only woo is I absolutely will not step into a fairy ring. I know how fairy rings are formed and I know they have nothing to do with fairies, but my grandmother told me never to do so.
@maturin1919 Yep. According to my grandmother, stepping into one risks ending up in Fairyland - and the fairies in rural Wales where she lived aren't quite as nice as the ones in Disney.
@maturin1919 Utter bastards. She used to leave a saucer of milk on the doorstep for them, then when they appeared she'd stamp on 'em with her hob-nailed boots. Her cats used to catch them on the hill behind her house, too.
That's what went wrong with my life....
Given that I don't believe in an afterlife, I should be able to dismiss ghosts out of hand. However.... My daughter had an experience that shook that belief somewhat. To make a long story short, I had plans to go out of town for the weekend and leave her with friends. My father, who was terminally ill, died on Thursday night. I decided not to tell her until after I came back on Sunday night. When I sat her down to tell her, she told me she already knew because 'Papa' came to her room on Thursday night and told her he had died but that it was ok because he was no longer in pain and he had just come to say goodbye. They were very close. She was ten years old. If he was going to visit anyone, it would have been her. I don't know how to explain it.
I need to add something that I was reminded of this afternoon. Some of you may remember that I wrote about my beloved dog dying this summer. I adopted him from a shelter without even having met him -- just having seen his picture. He had been in the shelter for a year and was very withdrawn, yet when I got in the car to take him home he leaped in, sat next to me and put his head on my shoulder all the way home. Fast forward (ten years) to this weekend. I was to meet a possible new dog who had been treated really badly. He is about five years old and the people (using the term loosely) who owned him never named him and kept him outside all year round in a pen with other dogs. They were used as bait for boar hunting so that when the boars were trying to kill the dogs the hunters could shoot. (This was in Alabama, I believe) In addition to that he had the trauma of being transported north and being exposed to all sorts of new things. So the agency warned me he is very shy and doesn't approach strangers. I got out of the car at the foster mother's house and he came running to me. He let me pet him and licked my hands.
I don't know what makes me lucky enough to have that kind of instant connection with two dogs who have been mistreated. But I'm really thankful for whatever it is!
Dogs have an almost supernatural "woo" about them, don't they?? Much more "humane" as I understand that word than humans typically are.
What the heck is a "Woo"?
Woo is any sort of pseudoscience or other related silliness - for example ley-lines, crystal healing, pyramid power, most conspiracy theories, ouija boards, astrology, ghosts, poltergeists and, arguably, all religions. The term was coined, I believe, by Carl Sagan in his book The Demon-Haunted World.
The book by Dr. Seuss is "Horton Hears a Who."
@LiterateHiker Sigh ... Of course, I know that.
Sometimes I think there's really something to those angel numbers. I see 111 and 1111 in so many places every day. I see it on mailboxes, clocks and watches, house numbers, pages in a book, menus, everywhere. That number signifies change, according to the angel "experts". I'll at least say my life has certainly changed an awful lot lately. I never noticed this number before.
Someone also explained the concept of twin flames to me. Interesting!
I constantly see 1234 in places
That when I find dimes money is about to come my way. I know it isn't true. But, I get excited over finding them anyway or getting handed a bunch of dimes for a transaction. Someone said finding dimes means a loved one who has died is thinking of you...bullshit...it means money. Dead people can't think! ha
Dead people also do not have dimes. Also, if you find a dime money is coming your way. You found the dime, right?
@DenoPenno I find dimes all the time. Dead people do have dimes, their handed to them by god to give to poor people. Everybody knows that, it's written in the bible, in Filopians 3:6
These are some fucking FANTASTIC examples. Wow. Keep’m coming. I love hearing that some of us skeptics and rationalists still dip their toes in astrology or pseudoscience from time to time.
We know how dangerous these things are perhaps partly because we’ve been there.
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio...”
I think that it may be that quite a lot of things that are currently considered woo are just science/physical things that we have not yet discovered. Imagine what the tudors would have made of mobile phones. Witchcraft!
Yup, just think of the Star Trek of 40 years ago. We have most of their tech except transporter and that's being worked on.
Not a fan of Woo "the way a person is when they uncritically believe unsubstantiated or unfounded ideas".