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Really there are only 2 positions here: 1. All this spiritual mumbo-jumbo is a crock of shit 2. It's real While it's fashionable to think 1 is correct, it is

Really there are only 2 positions here: 1. All this spiritual mumbo-jumbo is a crock of shit 2. It's real While it's fashionable to think 1 is correct, it is just possible that 2 is in fact our reality. I mean quantum physics shows us the universe is weird. Not bothering to try to find evidence of 2 and dismissing it out of hand is as counterproductive as people who blindly accept 2 with no evidence. No doubt some of you are thinking of replying along the lines of 'well you should waste your life investigating whether an invisible spaghetti monster lives in the sky, or whether it's turtles all the way down, etc'. To those I'd say had there been several thousands of years worth of people recounting their own experiences of either a flying spaghetti monster or turtles all the way down I'd agree with you. I see it as little different to the UFO stuff - mocked for years, but actually if you look into it there's probably something to it, based on the weight and volume of eyewitness reports. But it's just easier to not risk looking foolish and dismiss it out of hand instead of investigating it for yourself, isn't it?

anbende 7y ago
Okay, I'll bite. The problem with "it's real" is that it's unclear WHAT is real. In science, we may start with "does it work", but the aim is to progress to "why it works" and follow the rabbit hole down to underlying principles. "Reiki works" means what exactly? That people report feeling better? That it reduces measurable symptoms in a disorder? I think there's some evidence to support both of those claims. But now if we dig deeper, does it have anything to do with Reiki or is the underlying principle belief, human contact, or something of this nature? If the mechanism is belief/social contact/etc the tendency is to just toss it out. But from a therapeutic perspective, we would then look at whether it does anything better or different than therapy, hypnosis, or some other evidence supported treatments, of which there are many. Honestly "all this spiritual mumbo-jumbo is a crock of shit" is not very useful either. "What parts of it are supported and unsupported?" would be more useful and avoid the false dichotomy you've set up here.
mcv 7y ago
There's a middle ground: the spiritual mumbo-jumbo is a crock of shit, but the treatment still works because of the touching, the patient taking time for this to relax, and maybe the patient believing that something is being done about their pain or other feelings of unease. It's possible that the theory is wrong but the practice still works.

anbende 7y ago

Okay, I'll bite. The problem with "it's real" is that it's unclear WHAT is real. In science, we may start with "does it work", but the aim is to progress to "why it works" and follow the rabbit hole down to underlying principles. "Reiki works" means what exactly? That people report feeling better? That it reduces measurable symptoms in a disorder? I think there's some evidence to support both of those claims. But now if we dig deeper, does it have anything to do with Reiki or is the underlying principle belief, human contact, or something of this nature? If the mechanism is belief/social contact/etc the tendency is to just toss it out. But from a therapeutic perspective, we would then look at whether it does anything better or different than therapy, hypnosis, or some other evidence supported treatments, of which there are many. Honestly "all this spiritual mumbo-jumbo is a crock of shit" is not very useful either. "What parts of it are supported and unsupported?" would be more useful and avoid the false dichotomy you've set up here.

mcv 7y ago

There's a middle ground: the spiritual mumbo-jumbo is a crock of shit, but the treatment still works because of the touching, the patient taking time for this to relax, and maybe the patient believing that something is being done about their pain or other feelings of unease. It's possible that the theory is wrong but the practice still works.