I had a strange experience recently. I went to a talk about a specific type of "Energy Healing". Not that I'm into that kind of thing, but some people I know went, and it was free. I thought it would be a chance to be sociable, and so decided to go.
The process of this "healing" was very strange. You basically raise your arm up horizontally and the "healer" presses down against your arm, and asks a question at the same time. If your arm goes down, then the answer to the question is No. If your arm stays up, then the answer to the question is Yes. Your unconscious is supposedly answering the question.
Yeah, I know it's weird. It'll get weirder.
The assumption is that anyone who has some kind of physical or emotional problem can be healed with the following process (which I saw repeated with about 4 people):
- a healer asks what the problem is. It might be something like back pain. Then (via the pressing down the arm method) the healer determines which emotional blockage is causing the pain. There's a handy chart projected on the wall (see it below), and your arm (i.e. your subconscious) can answer with a yes/no whether the problem is in column A or column B.
- then again via the arm presses, the healer and subject get more detailed about exactly where the problem lies - is it in an odd or even row number
- so then you have the correct square, and the healer goes through the list of the items in that square, say it's square 1A, and the options are Abandonment, Betrayal, etc. (see the chart).
- Once you've identified what's blocking you (say it's Abandonment), to fix it, you are stroked from the top of your head along your backbone 5 or so times. And that's supposed to "release the blockage", which will fix the problem.
Yes, it's as weird as it sounds, but here's the crazy thing - SO MANY PEOPLE are so credulous about this type of thing!
I mean, it's completely crazy to begin with, but even just the number of really obvious red flags that anyone with any kind of critical thinking skills would have seen.
For instance, almost always the emotional blockage JUST HAPPENED to be in the 1A or 1B square (which was the fastest to get to, using this system). It was way more than could happen by coincidence.
Also once the "healer" wanted to move faster and get through more people, he abandoned the whole "press down on the arm thing", which takes more time, and somehow received input from the subject's unconscious mind just with some finger motion (on the healer's fingers).
The whole thing seemed like it was invented by a 10 year old but still, people believed in it. Some really sane and pretty intelligent people that I know completely fell for this healing methodology hook, line and sinker, and were asking for the contact info of the "healing" practitioners.
The friend I went with and I were exchanging glances, like, "Holy crap, do they seriously believe this stuff?"
Of course, I didn't volunteer to be a subject, but lots of people did. The first person who was a subject was a reluctant guy, volunteered by his wife, who had back pain. He went through the healing process with the "healer" 3 times, always saying that his pain had gone down a little (from an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, to a 4).
In my opinion, he said his pain was going away to not disappoint the "healer" and the audience. And then at the end he said his pain was at a 1. I think he just wanted to get away from being the center of attention, and constantly having his back stroked!
But after the guy with back pain broke the ice, lots of people were eager to volunteer to be healed.
I just did NOT understand how people could believe this nonsense. And some of them were people I know and generally think well of. It was definitely to the point where I didn't feel like I could say anything negative about this energy healing, it would have been like attacking their religion. They were THAT invested in it.
It reminds me of an experience I had in school when I was about 14. The teacher was gone for some reason, so we were on our own, and were supposed to study quietly. So we were socializing, and I decided to read people's palms. I was doing this, completely not serious on my part, making up the names of the palm lines, and what they meant.
But the other kids took it SO SERIOUSLY! And were lining up to have their palms read. Like I could really see into their future, by looking at the lines on their palm. And not only that, but I wasn't even keeping a straight face, and they still took me seriously!
What are your thoughts? What makes people so credulous, so willing to believe things that to me are so obviously made-up that I can't even comprehend how they couldn't get it.
