Reiki, Reiki, Reiki, Reiki

[Quakeulf]

Ok, so everytime my mother gets home from work she says "reiki" to herself so that she can get a place to park her car near her home (my town is crowded with cars and lacks sufficient parking space). Every time she says "reiki" repeatedly in her car while driving home she gets a parking space for her car! This has gone on with 100% accuracy for the past couple of months after she started reading about Reiki. She never gets home at the same time either, and the area where she lives is constantly filled with cars. Also, when she forgets to repeat "reiki", she never gets a place to park her car.

1. Could this be because of divine intervention?

2. Or maybe because the queue might affect other drivers taking alternate routes home?

3. ???

4. Profit (1 million $ waiting)

I'm waiting in awe for the solution to this mystery!

[Zep]

Has she actually timed how long it takes to get a parking space after she chants?

[Lisa Simpson]

Is there a reason this thread is in humor?

[Quakeulf]

Has she actually timed how long it takes to get a parking space after she chants?

Oh yes, it's usually around 5 minutes. When not chanting, she has to search for a space, when chanting has been done, she doesn't have to search. It's really magical!

[Quakeulf]

Is there a reason this thread is in humor?
Yes of course there is. Where else would you place Reiki? In science? Besides I find this very amusing myself, especially on the account of accuracy and how it can be reproduced, but I will not consider it worthy of any other mention than it being related to something else than a humorous matter.

[Lisa Simpson]

Well, it might be humourous to you, but it really belongs in General Skepticism.

[Quakeulf]

Please don't take this serious.

You're making me a little embarassed here. I just wanted to mention it for fun. I have to admit that yes, this has happened every time she has said "Reiki" to herself while on her way home from work, but come on! I laugh at it, I find it funny, and I would hope you would too. What is there to prove here?

[Jackalgirl]

Since you're in a skeptical forum, I have to ask this: what kinds of answers are you expecting to get?

[Quakeulf]

Well, it might be humourous to you, but it really belongs in General Skepticism.

Well, ok, but I really doubt there will be anything fruitful coming from an eventual discussion about this.

[Quakeulf]

Since you're in a skeptical forum, I have to ask this: what kinds of answers are you expecting to get?

Just accounts of others having experienced the same sort of "anomality", nothing else. It would be too much of me to demand really lengthy answers.

[Temporal Renegade]

We are now, no longer the Knights Who Say 'NI!'

We are now the Knights Who Say, 'Reiki, Reiki, Reiki, Reiki! Ftang! Zoom-Foing
Mazowza!'

....Ni......

[Quakeulf]

We are now, no longer the Knights Who Say 'NI!'

We are now the Knights Who Say, 'Reiki, Reiki, Reiki, Reiki! Ftang! Zoom-Foing
Mazowza!'

....Ni......

Thank you my good man, for not making me feel totally uncomfortable in here. I must admit this is silly, so please remove this thread if it is unfitting.

[Temporal Renegade]

Thank you my good man, for not making me feel totally uncomfortable in here. I must admit this is silly, so please remove this thread if it is unfitting.

No problem. :)
I've had my ass handed to me a few times for posts (which I've thought were also amusing), so I know the feeling. :)

[MRC_Hans]

OK, I've been know the take joking posts seriously, too. The explanation is self-deluson. It is the same kind of magic that makes every light red when you're in a hurry *), but if you decide you will, e.g., look at the map at the next red light, you have a green wave all through town.


*) I have experienced a bona fide effect of this kind once. I was on a business trip in GB, and drove to London with some local assocates, who took turns driving. One, let's call him A, complained that lights always turned red in fron of him, the other, B, claimed (and A agreed) to never have the problem. As far as I could observe during the several hours long trip, they were right: A was indeed stopped by red lights much more often.

I observed one more thing: A was consistently driving about 20% faster than B. So, while B stayed on the speed limits and benefitted from a lot of green waves, A always arrived ahead of time, and had to sit out the light.

Hans

[Quakeulf]

No problem. :)
I've had my ass handed to me a few times for posts (which I've thought were also amusing), so I know the feeling. :)

If only I could get my superstitious family in here, things could take a nasty (but funny) turn. Too bad superstition and being netwise does not go hand in hand. Seems like the more netwise you are the more skeptical you become, hence none of the psychics come here to read as they simply tend to avoid the internet for other purposes than to look up personal information about their victims.

I personally find people who believe they have super powers to be laughable. I do not see anything wrong with that.

[Temporal Renegade]

OK, I've been know the take joking posts seriously, too. The explanation is self-deluson. It is the same kind of magic that makes every light red when you're in a hurry *), but if you decide you will, e.g., look at the map at the next red light, you have a green wave all through town.


*) I have experienced a bona fide effect of this kind once. I was on a business trip in GB, and drove to London with some local assocates, who took turns driving. One, let's call him A, complained that lights always turned red in fron of him, the other, B, claimed (and A agreed) to never have the problem. As far as I could observe during the several hours long trip, they were right: A was indeed stopped by red lights much more often.

I observed one more thing: A was consistently driving about 20% faster than B. So, while B stayed on the speed limits and benefitted from a lot of green waves, A always arrived ahead of time, and had to sit out the light.

Hans

...Maybe their Karma needed a tune-up... ;)

[MRC_Hans]

...Maybe their Karma needed a tune-up... ;)No, they were driving a Shirocco at the time.

Hans

[Temporal Renegade]

If only I could get my superstitious family in here, things could take a nasty (but funny) turn. Too bad superstition and being netwise does not go hand in hand. Seems like the more netwise you are the more skeptical you become, hence none of the psychics come here to read as they simply tend to avoid the internet for other purposes than to look up personal information about their victims.

I personally find people who believe they have super powers to be laughable. I do not see anything wrong with that.

People believe what they want to believe; all we can do, is to try and be understanding. :)

[Quakeulf]

OK, I've been know the take joking posts seriously, too. The explanation is self-deluson. It is the same kind of magic that makes every light red when you're in a hurry *), but if you decide you will, e.g., look at the map at the next red light, you have a green wave all through town.

Self delusion, that's a good one! But does it explain why she gets a parking space every time? I believe we must consult the tooth fairy for further aid. Only answers by the tooth fairy can be sufficient enough.

[Capsid]

OK, assuming you want a considered opinion. You can't discount observer bias. Since she thinks Reiki to herself and does not chant it out aloud then she can easily delude herself that she didn't really think it when she didn't find a parking space and vice versa.

ETA: MRC_Hans beat me to it!

[Temporal Renegade]

No, they were driving a Shirocco at the time.

Hans

Ah; that's different, then... :D

[shemp]

Are these parking spots numbered. If they are, she should sing "Reiki don't lose that number..."

[Quakeulf]

People believe what they want to believe; all we can do, is to try and be understanding. :)

I managed though hard effort to get my mother and some friends of mine to quit smoking. I know that people can change and I know that even if it can take a long while, the end result will be worth it. Thus I am here, to be able to persuade the paranormal crowd I know of in my town to reconsider their current beliefs. I am a man on a mission, and failure is not an option.

[Quakeulf]

OK, assuming you want a considered opinion. You can't discount observer bias. Since she thinks Reiki to herself and does not chant it out aloud then she can easily delude herself that she didn't really think it when she didn't find a parking space and vice versa.

ETA: MRC_Hans beat me to it!

I've been with her on numerous occasions, and she has always said "Reiki"out loud. Though I cannot account for the times I haven't been with her, I do have my sister's and my father's accounts. How well they can remember is another matter...

[Temporal Renegade]

Are these parking spots numbered. If they are, she should sing "Reiki don't lose that number..."

You don't want to park anywhere else...

[Quakeulf]

Are these parking spots numbered. If they are, she should sing "Reiki don't lose that number..."

No numbers. Just "first come, first serve".

When I get back from work I'll look into her Reiki-books. One of them has this older woman on the cover.

[Temporal Renegade]

I managed though hard effort to get my mother and some friends of mine to quit smoking. I know that people can change and I know that even if it can take a long while, the end result will be worth it. Thus I am here, to be able to persuade the paranormal crowd I know of in my town to reconsider their current beliefs. I am a man on a mission, and failure is not an option.

One step at a time; one person at a time.

Resistance is Futile! :D

[Capsid]

I've been with her on numerous occasions, and she has always said "Reiki"out loud. Though I cannot account for the times I haven't been with her, I do have my sister's and my father's accounts. How well they can remember is another matter...
So do an experiment. Get her to chant Reiki only every other day and see if there is a real correlation.

[Flo]

Oh yes, it's usually around 5 minutes. When not chanting, she has to search for a space, when chanting has been done, she doesn't have to search. It's really magical!


My mantra is "will any of those people who are - without good cause IMO - using one of those park places finally recognize my legitimate demand for them to move ?". By the time I've finished chanting the mantra, or within 5 minutes, whichever comes first, I get a space. It's worked every single time for years and years, even though Geneva is notorious for its lack of parking space. Of course, should I forget to chant nobody moves. Where's my $ 1mio ?



(no, it has nothing to do with the fact that in any area of any given city, someone will be moving their car within any 5 minutes, and that if you just stop your car and wait, a space will free itself near you, chanting or no chanting ;) )

[Quakeulf]

(no, it has nothing to do with the fact that in any area of any given city, someone will be moving their car within any 5 minutes, and that if you just stop your car and wait, a space will free itself near you, chanting or no chanting ;) )

lol, blindingly obvious!

[malbui]

My mantra is "will any of those people who are - without good cause IMO - using one of those park places finally recognize my legitimate demand for them to move ?". By the time I've finished chanting the mantra, or within 5 minutes, whichever comes first, I get a space. It's worked every single time for years and years, even though Geneva is notorious for its lack of parking space. Of course, should I forget to chant nobody moves. Where's my $ 1mio ?


<derail>

I solved the Geneva parking problem years ago by deciding always to leave my car in my office space up by Nations and take the bus whenever I needed to go into town. I can't stand driving around looking for somewhere to park.

</derail>

[Flo]

<derail>

I solved the Geneva parking problem years ago by deciding always to leave my car in my office space up by Nations and take the bus whenever I needed to go into town. I can't stand driving around looking for somewhere to park.

</derail>


I usually leave my car at Genève-Plage and then ride a bike ... However my chanting method works wonder at Balexert parking or such places ;) .

[malbui]

I usually leave my car at Genève-Plage and then ride a bike ... However my chanting method works wonder at Balexert parking or such places ;) .


I don't even want to think about driving near or parking at Balexert :covereyes.

[JoeTheJuggler]

Please don't take this serious.
I don't understand--are you claiming this happens (as you say, that it's been reproduced with accuracy), or are you pulling our collective leg?

Seems like you keep going back and forth:
Self delusion, that's a good one! But does it explain why she gets a parking space every time?

I've been with her on numerous occasions, and she has always said "Reiki"out loud. Though I cannot account for the times I haven't been with her, I do have my sister's and my father's accounts. How well they can remember is another matter...

It's simply confirmation bias.

Your claim that when she says "Reiki" she finds a parking space faster than when she doesn't is testable, but will prove to be false.

To test it, you'd need some controls, you'd need to time with a watch, and you'd need to define "find a space" (when you see an available space? or not until the car is parked?).

It is the same kind of magic that makes every light red when you're in a hurry
Yup. Or the same reason calling on the intercession of St. Anthony when you can't find something seems to work.

[vexed]

Exactly how many times does "Reiki" need to be said to work? How far away from the desired location is a parking spot considered a good one?

I'm going to go with coincidence, nothing more.

[vIQleS]

Question no one has asked yet:

Why should saying the word 'reiki' over and over work for anything like this?

This is not my understanding of what reiki is or how it 'works'.

[Zep]

Oh yes, it's usually around 5 minutes. When not chanting, she has to search for a space, when chanting has been done, she doesn't have to search. It's really magical!So when she chants, it takes about 5 minutes. And if she doesn't, I'm thinking it will take at least until she counts to 300 to find one instead! MAGIC!



YOU work it out! ;)

[newlyfound]

(no, it has nothing to do with the fact that in any area of any given city, someone will be moving their car within any 5 minutes, and that if you just stop your car and wait, a space will free itself near you, chanting or no chanting ;) )

Exactly! and what happened to the law of probability? ...this added to what time does she arrive, the area and building she lives in, how crowed it is, etc. if the word reiki can cause such thing to occur they why can't the name George Carlin? it is more powerful/honest/significant IMO. From what I know about reiki, it is a collection of specific moves ones does to manipulate the universal energy to help a second party heal. Or so they say. It has nothing to do with unabling someone to park.

[MRC_Hans]

Self delusion, that's a good one! But does it explain why she gets a parking space every time? I believe we must consult the tooth fairy for further aid. Only answers by the tooth fairy can be sufficient enough.It explains why she thinks she gets a parking place. In reality, if she was to make records of the time she takes to find one, it will be random. ... Except, of course that she can influence the result; no doubt she has some, perhaps unconscious, idea of where the chances are best, and at which times. She may be skewing the result by only chanting when she knows the chances are better.

The tooth fairy doesn't do parking places, I thought you knew that.

Hans

[Irish Murdoch]

Ok, so everytime my mother gets home from work she says "reiki" to herself so that she can get a place to park her car near her home (my town is crowded with cars and lacks sufficient parking space). Every time she says "reiki" repeatedly in her car while driving home she gets a parking space for her car! This has gone on with 100% accuracy for the past couple of months after she started reading about Reiki.

What does she think is the mechanism here? Does she think that there are no parking spaces prior to her saying "Reiki", but that when she says it, one or more cars dematerialise? That would be an odd view. Or does she think that her chanting of a two syllable word makes a driver get into his/her car and drive it off at a time that he/she wouldn't have done otherwise? Though not quite so odd as the dematerialisation theory, this is still exceptionally loopy. If it worked, it would be rather unethical, don't you think, short-circuiting a driver's decision-making processes in that way?

If we don't buy any such account of the mechanism (there may be other candidate accounts, but I imagine they'll be equally odd), I'm afraid that we're left with there being no mechanism at all. And that means that we're left with coincidence. Unless, of course, the chanting just focuses her mind in such a way that she is more attentive, and notices spaces that she wouldn't have noticed otherwise .... I'm not sure how that would work, but it's a much less extravagant hypothesis than words making cars disappear.

[Hellbound]

There's another aspect to this that hasn't been considered:

How long does she look for a space first before beginning to chant? Since she doesn't chant all the time, one would have to assume that she tends to do the chant when parking is harder to find...which would mean she'd be looking for a few minutes before starting the chant. So, it may well seem quicker when chyanting, if one only considers the time from the start of the chant to finding a space. This could account for some of the supposed effect, as well; it isn't actualyl getting a space quicker, it just seems that way because you use the time you start chanting as a start point, instead of the time you start looking.

[Flo]

I don't even want to think about driving near or parking at Balexert :covereyes.



Coward ! :p

:duck:

[Quakeulf]

There's another aspect to this that hasn't been considered:

How long does she look for a space first before beginning to chant?

She doesn't look, she starts saying it on the way to the parking lot, which has already been stated by me previously ITT.

[Quakeulf]

I don't understand--are you claiming this happens (as you say, that it's been reproduced with accuracy), or are you pulling our collective leg?

Why should I? I do claim it has happened with accuracy, and I can confirm it. However, at this point (with no producable proof), it is up to you whether or not you want to believe my story.

To test it, you'd need some controls, you'd need to time with a watch, and you'd need to define "find a space" (when you see an available space? or not until the car is parked?).

I'll see what I can do when she gets back from her vacation!

[kieran]

Quakeulf - welcome.

Isn't this all along the lines of when people say .... "it's always in the last place you look for it"? (I can't believe people, in all sincerity, say that out loud like it's some kind of meaningful observation.)

If your mother parks easily and quickly ... the assumption is that there happened to be lots of spaces and the chanting wasn't necessary. If your mother is having trouble parking, then she amuses herself with a little song to while away the time, and eventually she finds an available space. But then, by selective memory, she can claim that the chant always works - this has been termed "confirmation bias" in previous posts in this thread.

So ... for the next few weeks, get your mother to actively record the time taken to park while doing her chanting, and while not doing her chanting. Get her to use a coin toss to decide which approach to use on a particular day. Then get her to look objectively at the results ... Obviously this kind of test wouldn't qualify for the $1M (you'd need to factor in things like the weather on different days, public holidays, whether there are local markets or other periodic events, etc), but it might show her and the rest of you what is actually going on, as opposed to just making up recollections of what is going on.

You never know, if it does appear to actually work, then you could be on the path to a million. With that you could buy a private parking space and never have to chant again ... ;)

Equally, if it doesn't work, you could ignore the results and set up a lucritive business selling courses on Reiki Car Parking Techniques at new age fairs. :D (There you go - I got to a bit of humour in the end.)

[MRC_Hans]

Why should I? I do claim it has happened with accuracy, and I can confirm it. However, at this point (with no producable proof), it is up to you whether or not you want to believe my story.


I'll see what I can do when she gets back from her vacation!

No, we don't believe your story. We don't accuse you of lying, but we think you are mistaken.

.. Even if we accept the idea of some supernatural power, how would you suggest it works? How does chanting "reiki, reiki ..." create a vacant parking space:

- Is someone suddenly compelled to rush down and go for a ride? (And is the resultant free space somehow invisible to everyone but your mother)

- Does some car suddenly vanish in blue air?

- Is there suddenly magically a parking space where none was before?

This is one of the problems with so many paranormal claims: Even if we grant the existence of some paranormal power, there are still some rules of logic and physics that need to apply. A vacant parking lot must be created in some way, even if you use magic.

Hans

[malbui]

Coward ! :p


... and proud of it :D .

[Cuddles]

I can confirm it.... no producable proof

:boggled:

[Zep]

Actually, there could be a bit of truth to this!

Imagine! You are in a carpark, and then in drives a woman who is talking away repeatedly to herself while searching for something as she drives around. So you think to yourself...is she a little bit odd? Is she angry at someone and looking for them? Is she someone who prays while she drives and is thus not bothering about other drivers? Is she a complete nutter with a gun looking to get revenge on an imaginary attacker? Is she an Al Quaeda operative looking to car-bomb the place?

You know what? If I saw someone like that driving into my parking lot, I'd drive away quickly too!

:D

[YoPopa]

snip..., if it doesn't work, you could ignore the results and set up a lucritive business selling courses on Reiki Car Parking Techniques at new age fairs.

Oh gracious! We can't have a bunch of trained Reiki masters practicing this black art!

Thinks of the human tragedies or the environmental disasters that might result.

If the mechanism is that cars disappear then resources will be wasted re-building them and the poor owners of disappeared cars will suffer unemployment from not getting to work on time.

If the mechanism is that people are strangely inspired to get in their car and go somewhere then the roads will be over crowded with Reiki-zombies. Will they start smashing into each other or just create a traffic jam so you can't get to that space you just opened up with chanting?

If the mechanism is that new parking spaces are created then perhaps homes or public parks will start to disappear.

Pave paradise, put up a parking lot.

Yo

[Flo]

Equally, if it doesn't work, you could ignore the results and set up a lucritive business selling courses on Reiki Car Parking Techniques at new age fairs. :D (There you go - I got to a bit of humour in the end.)

We could combine that with an equally lucrative Feng-Shui Car-Parking Planning Scheme where places would magically free themselves in front of Reiki-Chanting customers, and courses on using Qi to magically move cars from places customers who forgot to chant covet, not to mention some Qi-Gong-Kung-Fu to magically repulse irate drivers whose car have been deplaced, and let's not forget Reiki Car Retrieving Techniques for huge parking lots (especially those where cars tend to be magically moved a lot).

[petra10]

Welcome to the forum Quakeulf.
Why dont you buy your mum a copy of The Secret,then she can stop all the chanting and just ask:) :) :)

[Quakeulf]

Welcome to the forum Quakeulf.
Why dont you buy your mum a copy of The Secret,then she can stop all the chanting and just ask:) :) :)

lol, but who knows. With her line-up of books in the shelf, nothing pseudoscientific is left untouched.

[Khyron]

As a fully trained Reiki Master* myself, I can tell you that you must immediately ask your mum to stop this! She is obviously self-taught at this point and is causing irreparable spiritual harm to herself and everyone who rides with her. I can, however, give her a new mantra properly tuned to her etheric vibrations that will still get results while simultaneously healing her mind, body and soul. In order to get a proper feel for her vibrations, though, I need her to follow this procedure: go to an ATM, withdraw $300, and count the money with her own hands. Then send me the money; I will use it in a ritual** that will reveal her mantra to me, and will send it back to her telepathically.

* Sadly, I really am a Reiki Master according to the rules they have in place. A close friend of mine gave me the required "attunements" and told me what is supposed to be done. I never actually bought it as working, but I know the techniques and, if it works at all, I am one - the same things that are supposed to make it work make me able to do it because of those "attunements."

** The ritual, "Drinking Binge," will use up the money but will open a pathway to mystical forces that cannot otherwise be contacted.

[Khyron]

Seriously, I'm sure someone here could come up with a different (completely meaningless) mantra for her, and could write up an official "Reiki Master" message to her that details why she needs to switch to this one. I would need someone else to do it to prove that it wasn't just my mystical magical reiki parking voodoo at work when the new one works equally well =)

[newlyfound]

If chanting the "works" (LOL.) reiki reiki can do that, then I guess I am going to just start singing it over and over and see if Randi's $1mil is gonna suddenly jump into my bank account :rolleyes: .

And to extend on this lady's hopes and dreams, is she planning on taking that practice to a new level?... let's say for example by chanting "the word" while expecting some un-identifiable force to breath for her among other things?

[blobru]

Two guesses:

#1] The times your mom forgets to chant "reiki, reiki, reiki, reiki" while driving home are times when homeward traffic is heavier and she's much too busy watching the road. Of course heavier homeward traffic will mean fewer parking spaces.

#2] Your mom is only now beginning to awaken to the full depth of her awesome magical powers!!! Best stay on her good side just in case. :)

[fishbait]

No need for chanting if you carry one of these (http://www.reikiballoons.com/images/reiki_balloons_1x5.jpg)in your car.

It appears that reiki is some form of gas.

[I Am He]

A similar thing happened to me. I use to work the 3-11 shift and when I would leave work and drive home I could never find any parking. So drove around the block and low and behold there was plenty of parking. So every night there after I decided to do the same thing, and you guessed it, there would be plenty of parking. :confused:

Now the reason there was plenty of parking after going around the block, was because there just happened to be a Police sub-station located on my block and they would be getting off their shift. I just happen to be getting home just a few minutes before they got off, and by me driving around the block all those parking spaces would be open. :D

I Am He

[luchog]

Isn't this all along the lines of when people say .... "it's always in the last place you look for it"? (I can't believe people, in all sincerity, say that out loud like it's some kind of meaningful observation.)
Actually, that's a quirk of idiomatic English that's often misinterpreted. While the literal meaning is clearly a nonsensical truism; idiomatically, it generally means something more like "The item you're looking for is always in the place you'd least expect it to be.", and hence, the last place you'd bother looking for it before giving up. While the literal value of such a statement is highly debateable; it's actually a somewhat useful expression of human psychology and the associations that people tend to make.

There are a lot of idioms in common use which are like this, which have lost their original form/meaning either due to excessive reduction/abbreviation, or due to language drift. Another example is "The exception that proves the rule", which, again, is literal nonsense since exceptions do not support or validate rules, but rather the opposite. However, the phrase is a holdover from a time when the word "prove", which we typically use to mean "validate" or "establish the truth of", had a substantially different meaning, which was "test" (it's still often used this way in some technical jargon). So using the older definition, the phrase says pretty much the opposite of it's current usage, and makes much more sense.

This kind of thing is one of the reasons that I tend to agitate for the use of Standard English versus idiomatic/idiosyncratic English for clear and effective communication; and dislike the use of these kinds of aphoristic shortcuts for the most part.

[Flo]

Actually, that's a quirk of idiomatic English that's often misinterpreted. While the literal meaning is clearly a nonsensical truism; idiomatically, it generally means something more like "The item you're looking for is always in the place you'd least expect it to be.", and hence, the last place you'd bother looking for it before giving up. While the literal value of such a statement is highly debateable; it's actually a somewhat useful expression of human psychology and the associations that people tend to make.

There are a lot of idioms in common use which are like this, which have lost their original form/meaning either due to excessive reduction/abbreviation, or due to language drift. Another example is "The exception that proves the rule", which, again, is literal nonsense since exceptions do not support or validate rules, but rather the opposite. However, the phrase is a holdover from a time when the word "prove", which we typically use to mean "validate" or "establish the truth of", had a substantially different meaning, which was "test" (it's still often used this way in some technical jargon). So using the older definition, the phrase says pretty much the opposite of it's current usage, and makes much more sense.

This kind of thing is one of the reasons that I tend to agitate for the use of Standard English versus idiomatic/idiosyncratic English for clear and effective communication; and dislike the use of these kinds of aphoristic shortcuts for the most part.

Hmmm, I wonder, since we use exactly the same expressions in French ("c'est toujours au dernier endroit où l'on regarde qu'on trouve" and "l'exception qui prouve la règle"). Same drift, do you think ?

[777]

How did she start this thing in the first place? The word "Reiki" doesn't have anything that is related to parking space.

[Quakeulf]

How did she start this thing in the first place? The word "Reiki" doesn't have anything that is related to parking space.

If I had any useful knowledge about Reiki, it would have been a waste of time and energy for me!

[nick]

This might help her to see reason:

"Presumably if everyone chanted "Reiki", there would be free spaces for all. How would that work?"

Reduction ab absurdum; it can sometimes strike a chord.

Or not, of course.

[luchog]

Hmmm, I wonder, since we use exactly the same expressions in French ("c'est toujours au dernier endroit où l'on regarde qu'on trouve" and "l'exception qui prouve la règle"). Same drift, do you think ?
I'd say so, since the phrase seems to have an odd derivation from what I have read. There are two different schools of though on how the phrase derived, and what it originally meant.

The view which seems to be fairly common through recent history, in various forms, is that it seems to be equally derived from an old Germanic root which appears to have evolved into similar forms in other Germanic languages -- modern German "prüfen", Swedish "at pröve", Norwegian å prøve, Danish at prøve, and several similar forms; all of which mean, more or less, "to test".

On the other hand, we have a derivation from the Latin "probre", "to prove", by way of Old French "prueve". This is the same derivation that gives us the English word "probe", meaning "to explore or examine".

Thus in English there are three distinct forms of the word: "prove", "proof", and "to proof". The first meaning "tested and shown to be accurate", the second "evidence of accuracy", and the third "to test". If that's the case, then chance are that the French phrase is a reversion of the word from the English back to the French, carrying the Germanic meaning as well as the Latin.

Interestingly, there has also more recently cropped up another etymology; that I've only just discovered. This one asserts that it derives from the Latin phrase "exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis", which is generally translated as “the exception confirms the rule in the cases not excepted”. I found a couple of examples of what, exactly, this means.

Michael Quinlon gives this example: Let us say that you drive down a street somewhere and find a notice which says “Parking prohibited on Sundays”. You may reasonably infer from this that parking is allowed on the other six days of the week. A sign on a museum door which says “Entry free today” leads to the implication that entry is not free on other days (unless it’s a marketing ploy like the never-ending sales that some stores have, but let’s not get sidetracked).

H W Fowler gave an example from his wartime experience: “Special leave is given for men to be out of barracks tonight until 11pm”, which implies a rule that in other cases men must be in barracks before that time. So, in its strict sense, the principle is arguing that the existence of an allowed exception to a rule reaffirms the existence of the rule.

The Latin phrase would have come into English by way of Old French via Anglo-Norman; which would explain the similarites of usage without the complication of reversion; so this explanation is most likely the right one. It's different than what I was taught, but it does make more sense this way.

[777]

Reiki, as far as I know, is like the Chinese Chi Kung. Reiki and Chi Kung, along with many other Eastern practices, existed LONG before the LOA (Chi Kung existed at least 2500 years before the Secret movie or the first appearance of the LOA, probably in Think and Grow Rich). Yet the New Age con artists always find a way to connect it to what they are doing, like using Chi Kung to connect the the "universe." Summery of the ranting: Using the word "Reiki", which means the Ki of the Spirit, to get parking space is like yelling "Karate" when greeting someone.

[osmosis]

lol, but who knows. With her line-up of books in the shelf, nothing pseudoscientific is left untouched.

Oh man, I hear that. As I type, there is a bookshelf behind me with over a hundred books in it, with titles such as:

Vibrational Medicine
Messages from Michael and More Message from Michael
The Body Magnetic
Cosmic Journeys
Widespread Psychic Wonders
Chariots of the Gods? and The Gold of the Gods (mentioned in Randi's Flim Flam!)
The Tarot Revealed

The list, sadly, goes on and on.

On the bright side, I've been working on her for several years now, and she has embraced skepticism. She still has her lapses, but she's come a long way. All those books are at least ten years old, and she no longer does things like leave a jar of water outside overnight to make "moon water".

If you start now, in a few years she might be relatively sane.