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What do you think about the explosion of healing crystals? Should society be worried about the rise of pseudoscientific alternative medicine?

16bits

16bits

Member
Apr 26, 2019
2,862
Everyone seems to believe some sort of crappy pseudoscience

healing crystals
Homeopathy
reiki
chiropractic
god
chinese medicine
acupuncture
ghosts
mediums
tarrot
magnetic wristbands
kinesio tape
Fad diets

etc

all the rest are fake, yes, but not that one YOU believe, that's real, right?
 
just_myles

just_myles

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,453
I'm cool with it. What bugs me is that vibration/frequency/manifest shit that's got me fucked up. I what do I to achieve the desired results?
 
FaceHugger

FaceHugger

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
13,949
USA
There's been unscientific medicine for a long time. It ranges the gamut from homeopathy to chiropractors. I think it needs to stop. Even as a placebo it's not effective. I've been working in healthcare for a long time, seen a lot of people come through who were trying to treat themselves with this nonsense either dying or barely living after receiving proper, scientific care.

Honestly I am shocked this junk can still be sold. It's snake oil.
 
Keyser S

Keyser S

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
8,480
Dont care about what these are, but looking at the OP, I now think I want a big dense colourful rock paperweight thing
 
pleaseinsertdisctwo

pleaseinsertdisctwo

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
14,991
[
ToTheMoon said:
Final Fantasy won.

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Lmaoooo I love this thread
 
Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Teyvat Traveler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,082
China
hqdefault.jpg


Some tv channel in Germany is selling that shit along with 100€ tarot sessions, "removing bad karma" for 200€, talking to angels, selling some energy paper cards for 600€ etc.
Those crystals are clearly linked to esotericism.
 
MilkBeard

MilkBeard

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,780
There are a lot of legitimate things to worry about in society. Let people have their goofy stones and trinkets, I say.
 
R0b1n

R0b1n

Member
Jun 29, 2018
7,787
As long as the people who "use" them don't ignore or refuse actual medicine or peddle their beliefs incessantly to anyone they meet, it's pretty harmless and can help with Placebo
 
Senator Rains

Senator Rains

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,338
Honestly, it's no more pseudoscience than rearranging your apartment furniture or getting rid of stuff you don't need. Some people see beauty and comfort in those crystals.

The real problem with them is their marketing as something that's infused with healing, goop, and other crazy lies.. which is really a societal problem.
 
Rover

Rover

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,417
I was really into looking at crystals and precious stones when I was a kid. Hands down the coolest part of the science museum. I made my parents buy me one of those rock tumblers that you'd throw some garden rocks into with some water and some grit, run it for like a week, and then you get a nice polished stone, and my sister and I would make rings and stuff.. Thanks to that affinity I can fly now.
 
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Clefargle

Clefargle

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,120
Limburg
limerobot said:
Everyone seems to believe some sort of crappy pseudoscience

healing crystals
Homeopathy
reiki
chiropractic
god
chinese medicine
acupuncture
ghosts
mediums
tarrot
magnetic wristbands
kinesio tape
Fad diets

etc

all the rest are fake, yes, but not that one YOU believe, that's real, right?
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YAY! I passed the checklist!
 
Pau

Pau

Self-Appointed Godmother of Bruce Wayne's Children
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,838
Rover said:
I was really into looking at crystals and precious stones when I was kid. Hands down the coolest part of the science museum. I made my parents buy me one of those rock tumblers that you'd throw some garden rocks into with some water and some grit, run it for like week, and you get a nice polished stone, and my sister and I would make rings and stuff.. Thanks to that affinity I can fly now.
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Well I'm convinced.
 
Rassilon

Rassilon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,584
UK
I think we've had enough of 'scientists' telling us what is 'real'.

From this week I shall venture freely around town without a mask as I will be protected by a MAGIC ROCK FROM THE LOST CONTINENT OF LUMURIA

 
G.O.O.

G.O.O.

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,089
Alternative medicine is unscientific by definition. And yes, I think it should worry us much more than it currently does, since it works well as a bridge between the environmentalist movement and conspiracy theories.

You also have to listen to some gurus to know how dangerous they can be. Most people who follow them are also willing to apply their teachings to their kids, and that is not funny. At all.
 
SABO.

SABO.

Member
Nov 6, 2017
5,872
pseudo-science has always been around and will always be around.

Remember mood rings?
 
HardTimesFamilyPride

HardTimesFamilyPride

Member
Oct 26, 2017
8,055
Appalachia
G.O.O. said:
Alternative medicine is unscientific by definition. And yes, I think it should worry us much more than it currently does, since it works well as a bridge between the environmentalist movement and conspiracy theories.

You also have to listen to some gurus to know how dangerous they can be. Most people who follow them are also willing to apply their teachings to their kids, and that is not funny. At all.
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Yep a looot of people I know went from talking about crystals, tarot, zodiac etc. to sharing shit on 5G and Bill Gates wanting to cull the world's population once this pandemic went into full swing
 

Deleted member 8166

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
4,075
it's pretty easy.

if you like to collect them etc. cool with me, I did that as a child.

if you believe they have some mystic healing powers or something like that...well. there is the door. I'll not bother you, you'll not bother me.
 

Deleted member 2145

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
29,223
gems are cool. their process is cool. finding meaning in that is cool. earth based spirituality is cool. our lost connection with the natural balance of our planet has been nothing short of devastating. using them in leui of actual medicine or treatment is not cool.
 
dennett316

dennett316

Member
Nov 2, 2017
2,979
Blackpool, UK
Anything that tries to claim a health benefit of any kind should be made to prove it, or get shut down. Saying "Could help with..." shouldn't be enough to cover their asses in any way. Even outright saying "could give you a placebo effect benefit" is too much. Health is too important to allow scumbags to peddle false hope while bilking people of thousands. It's disgusting.

Sell your dipshit crystals on the aesthetics, quit it with the health benefit bollocks. Zero tolerance for that crap, it is actively harmful to allow nonsense bullshit to fester under the guise of it being "harmless".
 
Threadkular

Threadkular

Member
Dec 29, 2017
2,415
After meeting some people who do this stuff, I've grown to accept it. I know a wonderful person who struggles with a lot of mental health issues and she's been through all of the systems and back, and she currently seems to find comfort in this stuff (especially astrology) so I'm not going to be the one to take that from her.

Thinking about it, I don't know anyone who has like stopped doing traditional medicine because of these things. I might think differently if someone did. It does appear to me online that some in this community seems to be gravitating toward conspiracies like Plandemic, evil Bill Gates, and deadly 5G which is where it's very worrisome.

That said, a big thing for me here is "not my monkey, not my circus". Knowing myself, this is the kind of stuff that could rile me up and start responding and fighting with people (especially online) I don't know. Nothing ever good comes from that, especially for my own mental health. Plus I think I'd be helping but likely just being an asshole.
 
Septy

Septy

Prophet of Truth
Member
Nov 29, 2017
4,081
United States
Anything that is pseudoscience should be completely ignored. Because someone that doesn't know anything about it isn't going to know the difference and if it's real. One large piece of pseudoscience I see posted and spread quite often on this forum are those online personality tests. They are 100% pseudoscience myers briggs or whatever else. Yet people just eat that shit up, it's the new astrology.
 
GYODX

GYODX

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,234
If you're spending hard-earned money on these rocks for anything other than the aesthetic, I'll assume you're not all that smart. Like holy shit, imagine living paycheck to paycheck and finding space in your budget for this crap.

Pseudo-science isn't harmless. It's harmful to the people who get swindled into buying these sorts of things for the supposed medical benefits, and left unabated, it eventually manifests itself as a public health concern (see anti-vaxxers and people who forgo traditional medicine for themselves or their children in favor of this bullshit).
 
OP
OP
RastaMentality

RastaMentality

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,127
GYODX said:
If you're spending hard-earned money on these rocks for anything other than the aesthetic, I'll assume you're not all that smart. Like holy shit, imagine living paycheck to paycheck and finding space in your budget for this crap.
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I don't shame how people spend their money especially in this society but I have a friend who does this. And these crystals cost upwards of $30-40. Its a mess.
 

Youta Mottenai

Member
Oct 26, 2017
516
Look, given what I've seen in the last 4 years, if you want to give your money to make some preacher richer because "god told it" go for it. Want to use crystals, reiki, miracle oil, prayers or any other pseudoscientific scam instead of going to a doctor, go for it.

Just some caveats, churches should not be tax exempt; yeah you gonna pay taxes on that fancy new jet "the church" bought, but by god's mysterious ways only you and your family can ride, minister. On the "cures" thing, use them only on yourself, don't deny others, specially children, real medical attention.

I really don't care anymore if people willfully lose their money or life to scammers/scams. I'm too tired of quacks being again and again and again been shown for what they really are, con artists just after money, for people going, again, after them because "this time is the real thing".

All would be fine if these people kept their stupidity to themselves, but no, they need to drag the rest of society to their ignorance black-hole.
 
enzo_gt

enzo_gt

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,299
smileyforall220 said:
I think there's levels of it. The more deep you go in though, you see it becomes a gateway into crazier ideas like antivax stuff
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This is how I look at it too.

Best case scenario is a harmless one where it's basically a placebo for happiness, and not too indifferent to other things people buy for a psychological sense of safety/security. I know a couple people like that who aren't broadcasting it or making a living off of it. In that case, fine, there's plenty of irrational things people buy in pursuit of something it doesn't directly give them.
 

admiraltaftbar

Self-Requested Ban
Banned
Dec 9, 2017
1,889
We now are starting to see alternative medicine like chiropractors and acupuncture being covered by health plans which I think is some dangerous shit. It's especially egregious because in some cases it's becoming cheaper to go to these options rather than going to see actual preventive and acute care professionals. I fully expect if the popularity of this bullshit psuedoscience health stuff continues to rise we will reach a point where your employer provided healthcare covers essential oils and crystals but you are stuck paying out of pocket for yearly checkups and labs.
 
Carn

Carn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,911
The Netherlands
reminds me of:

Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
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Windrunner

Windrunner

Sly
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,487
Let's call it what it is: a bunch of bullshit used to defraud people and make them less likely to pursue medicine that actually works. This isn't some harmless placebo, this is complementary to anti-vax and other anti-science beliefs, it doesn't stop at a pretty collection of rocks.

Lord of Ostia said:
Idk, on the one hand I think it's dumb bullshit, on the other hand crystal healing is primarily popular with women and LBGTQ people and thus shitting on it too hard seems wrong considering why some people may be turning to it given their experiences in society at large and with the medical community in particular.

It's kind of like astrology in that way, like it's definitely BS but as long as it's not harming anyone it's fine and it's fun for people. If you are choosing crystal healing over going to a doctor that's bad, but if you are just doing it for peace of kind who cares.
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I know you mean well but this is really misguided.
 
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