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Shared Vocabulary

Seventhsally

Student
S
Joined
Jul 11, 2007
Messages
38
I am looking for some interesting examples of co-opted scientific terminology in non-scientific names and claims. A few favorites include 'Fractal Healing', 'Quantum Wellness', and just about anything with the word 'Crystal' in it. Please include any portmanteau words of particular woo-age, like my recently discovered favorite 'clairaudient'.

If anyone can point out where Chopra explains how wellness is a quantized phenomena, I think I'd like to read that.
 
Pretty much everything Deepak Chopra puts out has the word 'Quantum' in it, he might be a good place to start looking.
 
Well, all you have to do is combine science words with woo words in a Google search.

For example, fractal aliens brought this up in the top 10:

"The fullverse system thus forms a fractal determined by the will of the hive pyramidal hierarchy which is infinitely few at the top, the largest universe, which never exists and infinitely many at the bottom, the smallest universe, which never exists. The aliens at the top which does not exist control the bottom, the aliens at the bottom which does not exist control nothing but the pyramid under them. The pyramid on the back of the 1 dollar bill is incomplete for a reason, we have not built a universe generator."

And quantum freemasons turned up this as the first hit:

"The entire West is a giant Psychotronic Generator build by the Freemasons to ground the Archon Total Quantum Wave Function. The Enochian chequerboard is the anchor that holds this evil Anglo Demonic Reality in manifestation. The Middle Place is situated in Psi-Space and consists of the streets, buildings of the Anglo Demonic Reality, all linked by the Freemasons to the actual buildings... By putting the Illuminati Freemason Middle Place in Psi-Space the Archons use it to filter out everything the Quantum Wave Function of the corrupted reality of the Anglo Demonic Reality."
 
Huntsman said:
I'm tempted to search for "Quantum psychic fractal herbal homeopathic Chinese magnetic crystal aliens", but I'm afraid it would produce enough woo in one location to distort the space-time continuim and end the universe as we know it.
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Actually, it turns up a skeptical site!
 
OK, this is a bit off-topic but I hate when woo uses scientific terms incorrectly. The #1 word would have to be "energy". Scientifically speaking, energy is the time rate change of work. It has an SI unit, the Joule (Newton-Meter per Second) and can be measured. But woo-ers still think energy is some strange esoteric concept that can used to explain various phenomena.

Other examples are "vibrations", "waves" and "force". Each has a clear definition but is so often misused to be meaningless.
 
Monza- not off topic at all-in fact my original reason for posting.

Other words in my list include: resonance, field, dimension, oscillation, wave, and vibration all of which my engineer brain has some pretty specific ideas about (and which are no doubt narrow, limiting, non life-affirming, and perhaps even communist)

Don't get me started on words like system, theory, hypothesis, assumption, and proof..
 
Huntsman said:
So you mean the quantum vibrations I feel in the mystic energy of my life-force are not producing psychic waves?
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That's a little too good. Are you sure you belong here? :)

Seriously, if you were to post that on certain message boards, I am sure you will get responses from people who know what you are talking about...even if you don't. In fact, it might be fun to see if you can make something up and then see how many people recognize what you are saying.


Seventhsally said:
...Other words in my list include: resonance, field, dimension, oscillation, wave, and vibration all of which my engineer brain has some pretty specific ideas about (and which are no doubt narrow, limiting, non life-affirming, and perhaps even communist)

Don't get me started on words like system, theory, hypothesis, assumption, and proof..
Click to expand...

Yes, as an engineer it is very frustrating to see well defined terms used so inappropriately. Beyond terms, various concept are grossly misused. You already pointed out "quantum" mechanics in your OP. I would also say the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is one of the most popular concepts to find its way into pseudo-science. It is usually mis-stated, mis-understood and then extrapolated well beyond its true limits. What the Bleep Do We Know? and The Secret are two recent offenders.
 
take the word 'Quantum' originally introduced by Planck in a paper in 1900 (don't bash me too hard if that's not exactly right) to mean something like 'a minimum amount of some physical quantity that can exist, and by multiples of which changes in the quantity can occur'. Then it gets applied to things like health, wellness, fitness, healing, etc.. not only which are not constrained to exisit infinite quanta, but which may not even be amenable to specific measurement at all. And then we have terms like Quantum Leap- usually meaning a huge change but which in fact implies a small, finite change (for example an electron transition might reasonable be called a quantum leap) I do not claim to understand the term 'fractal' that well myself (as least in terms of Hausdorff sets dimension) but when I see it paired with the word healing, I want to explode into a billion (small, self-similar) pieces...
 
Monza said:
OK, this is a bit off-topic but I hate when woo uses scientific terms incorrectly. The #1 word would have to be "energy". Scientifically speaking, energy is the time rate change of work. It has an SI unit, the Joule (Newton-Meter per Second) and can be measured. But woo-ers still think energy is some strange esoteric concept that can used to explain various phenomena.
Click to expand...

All I can say is I don't want none of that tainted or sullied energy. When I ascend I want to be a being of pure energy.
 
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