In Defense of Woo
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
- Walt Whitman
When I was 17 or 18 years old, I had already stopped going to my parents’ church for a few years. They gave me the option of stopping when I was 16 and I gratefully took that option.
I remember talking with one of the youth pastors at the church maybe a year or two after leaving. I think he stopped by our house to check in on me and hear for himself why I chose to stray from the flock.
I told him that I grew up in a devoutly Christian home, followed my parents from church to church throughout my young life, and had finally decided that I needed a fresh start, to begin at square one, to find out what’s really true.
Of course there’s no such thing as square one—we all start embedded in a culture, history, and place. But I did my best to open my mind to what came along (which as a senior in high school were parties, raves, and dancing in altered states of consciousness).
Eventually, I needed something to replace religion and so I became interested in what today we’d affectionately call “woo,” and in those days we’d dismissively call “woo-woo.”
The Oxford Dictionary defines “woo-woo” as “unconventional beliefs regarded as having little or no scientific basis, especially those relating to spirituality, mysticism, or alternative medicine.”
I remember rejecting the first woo that came along (I read The Celestine Prophecy at 18 and was at once incredulous and fascinated.) But eventually, more esoteric and seemingly intellectual woo hit the spot for me, which is a story for another time.
In the intervening 27 years (woah, that’s tough to write), I abandoned woo for a respectable, materialist, academic stance toward the world. And this stance has served me well on one ledger: two PhDs, a book, peer-reviewed journal articles. But it did little for me on another: by my late thirties my lifelong anxiety was only getting worse and I felt like wasn’t the partner, father, friend, or human I wanted to be.
And so I rediscovered woo, slowly but surely. The gateway was mindful meditation. Because it was well-studied in respectable journals, I felt it was respectable enough.
Ultimately, it opened the door to my late-teen love of woo. I began to see that woo has real, undeniable benefits, even (or maybe especially) for the most hardened, materialist. And I now believe that woo is an indispensable part of emotional health and rather than hiding and apologizing for it, I’d like to defend it.
So, here are five reasons we all need more woo in our lives:
1. The placebo effect
A placebo is something that has no known physical way of having an effect on anyone’s health and wellbeing. The classic placebo is the sugar pill used in “placebo-controlled” studies of pharmaceuticals. Placebos are indispensable to research because it’s been known for thousands of years that illnesses often improve simply with the administration of placebos.
We can only know if a drug works by comparing it to a placebo because we humans have an unconscious ability to heal through the power of belief. There are lots of theories as to how this actually works in our bodies. But it’s beyond doubt that belief in and of itself can improve health and wellbeing. Can belief cure cancer? I certainly wouldn’t bet on it. But it can improve IBS, Parkinson’s symptoms, osteoarthritis, pain, depression, anxiety, and other health conditions.
So, those crystals, astrology charts, energy healing, smudging rituals, and so on? If they feel good to you, they are very likely good for you. And the cool thing is that you don’t even have to “really believe” in them for them to work. (There are placebo studies where they’ve told patients they’re taking placebos and they still have a positive effect!)
2. We’re better when we woo together.
As one anthropologist says, humans are the “ultra-social animal.” We have evolved to be deeply connected to other humans. And, most importantly, we evolved engaging in woo together, through rituals such as dance, song, and chanting. Anthropologists and sociologists have long suspected that there are physical and psychological states that humans can only achieve when they’re collectively engaged in ritual.
If you’ve been to a football game and rooted for the home team, or a concert where everyone knows the words to a song, you’ve experience the power of ritual in a group. It’s nice to watch that game from your couch or listen to crystal clear audio in your headphones at home, but there’s something special that takes place when a group’s attention is focused on the same thing and everyone’s moving in unison.
Today, scientists have shown that placebos that have an intentional social component work better. When medical staff intentionally support the belief that a placebo is powerful, it has an even great effect. So, do your woo with others!
3. If the woo is low-risk, the cost-benefit analysis is wildly in favor of woo.
It continues to amaze me how much animosity many scientists, physicians, and other “respectables” have toward woo that is harmless. Their arguments against woo are generally that it 1) diverts people away from proven treatments and 2) bilks people out of their money.
If we accept that most of the people who engage in woo ALSOengage in conventional medical treatments and tend to be financially secure enough to afford crystals and energy healing with little burden, then most woo is zero risk.
And if the risk is zero then any potential of benefit tips the scales in favor of woo. Here’s a matrix I use when thinking about woo. Anything on the right-hand side has a good risk-benefit ratio.
4. Lack of evidence is not evidence of lack.
Science gives us hints and clues. It is almost never black and white. Expert advisory committees and regulatory agencies ultimately need to give a yes or no on a drug or treatment. And this yes or no makes it seem like “Science” has clearly shown that X is the only or best treatment for Y. But scratch below the surface and there dozens of caveats.
Science is ever evolving and almost never renders a final judgment. For example, are SSRIs effective for treating depression? Huge studies say yes, on average they are more effective than placebo. But the caveats are many. And over the long term, there appears to be no difference on overall quality of life between patients with depression who take SSRIs and those who don’t.
Let me pause by saying that it’s a good idea to follow the recommendations of expert bodies! Get vaccinated! But we don’t need to keep our world unnecessarily small by only engaging in modalities that have stood the test of multiple randomized controlled trials and won approval by expert committees.
5. Woo is the language of our emotions and subconscious.
There are many reasons people reject woo but the effect of this rejection is the same. To reject woo is to reject an effective relationship with your inner world. Our minds and hearts speak in non-rational symbols. Their native tongue is one of mystical animals, the elements, alchemy, and magic.
Symbols that come from these worlds might seem utterly bizarre and even frighteningly irrational to the rational, analyzing, and practical parts inside. But they make perfect sense within the world of the subconscious.
As the psychologist Douglas Tataryn says, “Our emotional worlds are not rational, but they are lawful.” The mystical, mythical, and ritual practices we open up to can help us move away from trying to rationally analyze our inner worlds. They can move us into a mode of understanding in which we begin to see the lawful relationships between everything happening inside of us. And this seeing is where the real work begins . . .
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May you woo in peace and good health.