Share the story of the first and last time you spent money on woo

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

At one time or other, I somewhat to firmly believed in mermaids, bigfoot, ghosts, many superstitions, the Bermuda Triangle, fortune telling, astrology and the tenets of Catholicism and if we're talking the whole of my life, well, Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy, too.

I also remember finding up a section of books about UFOs in the school library when I was about 10 and half-believing in it and being very scared and excited by the possibility of it.

However, there were only two occassions I can think of where I actually plucked down money for it.

Once was when I bought my sister a pack of Tarot cards for her birthday as a teenager because I actually wanted them myself.

The other was the first and last time I ever went to a palm reader and the last time I put down money for any kind of woo and ever will.

I had a friend in high school who had recently become a Wiccan, which upset me greatly because it's, to this day, the worst BS crap I've ever heard of.

I was still somewhat religious then, but even then Wicca was just like "Come on!". I never understood how anyone could even take it seriously, let alone subscribe to it. Even at 15, I thought it was the most idle, shallow, idiotic, waste-of-time teenage hobby ever invented and yes, that's accounting for Dungeons and Dragons.

So my friend and I were out at a movie and when it was over, since we were in the general area, I suggested showing her my old middle school.

Now, my old middle school was right around the corner from a psychic and palm reader's shop. We used to see this old, obese, bandana-ed crone scurrying around in what looked like her grandmother's nightgown on lunch break from time to time or talking with I presumme they were clients, usually older woman. She used to scare the crap out of us, beckoning us over through the shop window all the time after school. Looking back on it, maybe she was afraid of soliciting under the nose of the custodians and crossing guards during lunch break.

What I remembered vividly about the shop was that it had a ton of glossy and shiny New Age artifacts on display that I was itching to have. I loved crystals at that age. One day, walking home, I stopped in front of the window to gaze at them and looked up to see the old crone's face next to mine, maniacly waving her hand over at me and jabbering at me, trying to get me to come in. Couldn't get out of there fast enough. Think she even came to the door to yell after me. Again, thinking back on it, I was pretty free to gaze on it during lunch break. Didn't even see her then.

Anyhow, I showed my friend the school building but she's less interested in that than the psychic's shop. And my friend had a radar for this type of stuff- just gravitated to it. And yes, wouldn't you know, that same psychic is still there in that same shop.

As a kid, I wouldn't go anywhere near that woman if I could help it but my friend zeroed in on her and was itching to go in and finally dragged me in. She didn't know about my history with that place, she just saw it and went "Ooohh, let's go in!"

I wasn't a "skeptic" at 15, heck, I didn't even know such a thing existed but I really didn't want to spend the money. Though I always sorta believed in various types of woo as concept I couldn't really believe in it practically and not when you had to pay for it. Just seemed like a waste of money and so fake when it was another person doing it for money.

My friend finally persuaded me to go. The psychic saw we were thinking of coming in and came to the door to beckon at us and talked us in. It felt like I finally had kept that appointment from that day I had run away from her.

She sat us down and told us we could get a standard reading for $5 and a more in depth one for $10. I didn't even want to pay for the $5 one but I looked over at my friend and talked it over and decided on the $5 one while she went for the $10 one.

What disgusted me was that this woman's eyes wouldn't leave my hands as I looked for my wallet and as I took out the money. She practically snatched it from me and then rattled off all my predictions with one quick half-glance at my palm. I thought palmistry was suppossed to work by very careful study of the palm so I was suspicious and disappointed. Now, of course, I know she was cold-reading me.

She was pretty much done with me as soon as she had my money and then turned to my friend. Paid alot more attention to my friend and after the 10 reading, got another 5 from her to find out more about something she had said in the $10 reading. "Would you like to find out more about that?".

My friend was hanging on to her every word. Had the most moronic look on her face. She was taking it so seriously. And the psychic was taking it as seriously as she was. Made me want to burst out laughing. Wanted to puncture that atmosphere with a shovel. I was probably sitting there with the most slack jawed, bemused look on my face, just going like "You can't be serious" .

Even though I was suspicious at some moments during the reading, I treated it as an exciting adventure and told everyone all about it and spent alot of time mulling over what she said later. You build up the hits and downplay the misses later even if you were suspicious and aware something was a hundred percent false and very transparent at the moment.

Her predictions for me where that I'd never be successful but that I'd live comfortably, that I'd rent a home but own later on, that I would have a job in a uniform and that I'd never get married but that I'd have children.

She also predicted that the boy I was in love with would ask me out, that I'd have a boyfriend that year and that I'd take a long and short trip and that I'd live to be 92.

I saw through that immediatly and that was my big tip off it was a sham- she saw a chubby 15-year-old girl and assumed she was dying of love for someone who hardly knew she was alive. And normally she would have been 100% right but at that time, there was no one I was remotely interested in at all.

I even remember telling my sister at that time how funny it was that there was not a boy I could think of in school or elsewhere that I'd say was attractive and I could have any interest in and I was sort of looking for someone to crush on. Hilariously, my friend whirled on me asking me who it was and I honestly tried to think of who it might be who she was talking about. "Maybe Julien? I used to like him for a long time." A psychic can even make you second guess your own heart fishing for the connection.

Oddly, I did take a short and long trip. That was a prediction that particularly stunned me at the time. That one really made me feel like this woman had, for a second, looked into my life as I have always travelled very often. And I did have a boyfriend that year- my first one.

But I swear, if I find myself dying before I'm 92, I'm going up there and asking for my money back!

[TX50]

Never spent any money on woo (unless you count the "Holy Bible" I was
forced to buy for RE at the posh school I went to).

[jezzedout]

I don't remember the first time (yes, there were several in my teens and early 20s), but I'll never forget the last time. It was about ten years ago I paid for a psychic reading. This gypsy lady tried to tell me I was cursed (I think they all try that) and wanted me to pay her for some rituals she planned to do for me. I went a second time, but told her I didn't have enough money to pay what she was asking. She got huffy and said she couldn't guarantee the results. I just knew in my gut that she was trying to scam me. I think it was after that, that I started researching psychics and came to the conclusion that they were all deceitful people who prey on those they perceive as weak.

Actually, now that I think of it... I did pay for acupuncture about three years ago when my ortho surgeon referred me for pain management. I didn't believe in it, but was willing to give it a try since I was absolutely desperate for anything to relieve my pain, and my surgeon at the time referred me to someone specific who he was acquainted with. I didn't get any pain relief from it, but did find it relaxing (it releases endorphins, yes?). After four visits with no relief, the acupuncture guy was nice enough to say I should not waste any more money. Believe it or not, my insurance company covers acupuncture. They won't cover birth control, but they'll pay for acupuncture. Go figure.

[RSLancastr]

The first time? Well, the first I recall... When I was in junior high, I went through a phase where I was interested in UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, and that sort of thing. I bought several paperback books on those subjects at the local 7-11 on my way home from school.

The last time? Well, I collect playing cards, and as part of that hobby, I have probably purchased a dozen or so decks of tarot and fortune-telling cards of various kinds. Never used them for cartomancy, just put them with all the other decks in my collection.

Oh, come to think of it, I purchased Sylvia Browne's The Mystic Life of Jesus last December. The majority of her books in my possession I have been given, or purchased second-hand on eBay. But that one I actually plunked down full price, as I wanted it for an article I was writing for the site.

[Orphia Nay]

I have a vague recollection that the first time was buying a second-hand copy of Linda Goodman's "Sun Signs" in 1987 as I had a passing interest in woo at the time.

In the meantime, I muddled along, being neither fully skeptic nor fully woo.

The last time was either a pack of tarot cards or a book on Feng Shui, in 1998, almost at the end of a brief but intense spurt of woo, after which I renounced woo for good.

[pspaddict]

I guess I'm fortunate not to have ever spent any money on woo. I was raised Catholic but was never invested emotionally nor ever considered it to be possible; I just went along with it because of my mother's devotion, not questioning, but not believing either. Fortunately my exposure to psychics was all negative because of the good work of Mr. Randi. I've always had an interest in supernatural stuff like UFOs, ghosts and bigfoot, but merely for entertainment value. I never bought into it. I officially became a skeptic at a relatively young age, 15, and I felt that way for years before I actually learned the word, so I managed to miss out on having to consider wheather the supernatural is real.

[tim]

I bought a copy of the Book of Mormon for 50p in charity shop recently. I have a number of woo books (know your enemy) but I buy them second hand, 'cos I don't want the authors or publishers to benefit..........
I don't know if it qualifies, but I bought a copy of the Qur'an - English translation - I'm too old to learn Arabic - the other week. If some people use this book as justification to want to kill me, I figure I ought to understand why.............

[hipparchia]

First time...maybe a bunch of crystals from the Nature museum's shop. Make a nice collection today, sans woo.

Last time? Bought expensive gift as "voluntary" thanks to a faith healer/psychic some two years ago. Was mad because I still need to visit doctors today due to unsolved problem. Die to faith/stupidity I did not monitor the health issue for some time, so now have to deal with it again. Repress urge to dial up healer lady and scream at her. Otherwise, she did not charge for services- I only had to pay an emotional price, since she is a narcissist.

[Ersby]

When I was a believer, I always got my stuff out from the library, apart from the Osbourne book of the supernatural (all gory illustrations and short explanations).

I did, however, buy the magazine The Unexplained for a while. I remember it was trailed heavily on TV and to my nine-year-old mind it was like a giant book of secrets about how the universe worked. The first issue came with a pack of ESP cards, and I remember running to the newsagent to buy it in case I was actually psychic and should find out quickly so I can put my ability to good use as soon as possible.

(I wasn't psychic, if anyone's wondering)

[juryjone]

As with most others, the first time I spent money on woo was on books: Chariots of the Gods? and Psychic Discoveries behind the Iron Curtain. I was looking for them to convince me, but they never did. Probably because I realized in some way that if they had been true, they would change life as we know it - and yet they didn't.

Last time? I guess it would be about ten years ago, when I bought my wife an "ionizing hair brush". What was I thinking?

[JonWhite]

I bought a new Tarot deck only a couple of weeks ago (but it's a marked deck with which to prove a point to a believer).

Otherwise, aside from UFO type books as a kid I guess my biggest woo expense was on learning TM - repackaged mantra meditation - or most recently on taking an "Advanced Past Lives" practitioner course two or three years ago as part of a hypnotherapy study.

And no... I still don't believe in past lives any more than I do the tooth fairy!

[Kilgore Trout]

The first was probably buying The Necronomicon (the 'Simon' version) when I was in high school. I was going through a huge H. P. Lovecraft phase, and while I understood it was a fictional book, and that the paperback I bought was fabricated, I was hanging on to the "there's so much we don't understand" wooish notion. I never tried any of the "spells" inside or even really read it much; I think I was a bit too afraid it might actually work somehow.

I did buy a crystal (necklace) at a Dead show once, though at the time not for any wooish reasons; I just thought it looked cool. But I did end up using it for wooish reasons, and leads up to the last time I spent money on woo. I was going from being a non-practicing Catholic to (sort of) Deism by way of a bunch of stuff. Towards the end it was Wicca and I transferred energy to that crystal. (The last money spent was on incense.)

[Monza]

In 1997, my brother and I attended a seminar in Phoenix hosted by Richard Hoagland (of the "face on Mars" fame). We didn't believe in any of this woo, but thought it would be a fun night. Richard was spewing something about a major world event due to happen in Phoenix within the next few weeks, obviouly capitalizing on the recent Phoenix lights.

It was a very odd mix of people. Fortunately, ,not all were believers. I think many of the people heard about the seminar from a Bill Knell interview on a local radio moring show. But there were indeed some nutters.

By the way, my brother and I waited patiently but nothing world-changing happened in Phoenix. And Richard Hoagland never brought it up again on his next visit to Art Bell's show.

[Niobe]

The most money on a session of Floatation REST for my birthday (6 years ago), but not so much for the health benefits as I thought it would be relaxing, but it wasn't relaxing in the slightest (I don't "do" sensory deprivation)

Most recent (but still at least a year back) is a tube of homeopathic bruise cream (arnica) which "works" in the sense that my daughter stops complaining about the pain. But I won't buy a refill once it's gone.

[ConspiRaider]

Both times, books:

First: I remember buying: "Two Lost Hours Aboard A Flying Saucer: The Story Of Betty and Barney Hill". I was about 12 years old and it had a major influence on me believing in woo for awhile. Really seemed authentic, factual, true.

Last: I bought: "The Amityville Horror". That was billed as authentic and I was plowing through the explosion of woo in the 1970s. Basically nodding my head up and down through the Bermuda Triangle, Armageddon, 666, UFOs, Atlantis, ghosts, telekinesis and so forth. So I eagerly dove into Amityville, to read and accept the fascinating account of the haunting of this family over there in the strange country of New England.

I don't know whether it was my clickety-click logical mind asserting itself (finally) or the style of the writing or what. But Amityville seemed hinky. That began my journey of doubt, back there when I was 21 or 22 years old. Soon I'd get The Truth About Uri Geller, and many more such instructive tomes...

[Brown]

During my "religious" phase, I brought some religious junk. This actually turned out to be quite a good lesson for me: in general, material with a religious theme is used for revenue generation, it is often of shoddy quality and is way overpriced.

In grade school, I bought Chariots of the Gods? I was just a kid, but I recognized B.S. when I heard it. This was one of the first books I ever tossed in the garbage. (The only book I ever burned was the vomit-inducing Looking Out For Number One, which had been given to me as a gift. I wanted to build a fire in my fireplace, but I had no newspaper to get the fire started; so I used Looking Out For Number One instead. I never regretted this action.)

I once spent money for some self-help tapes. The seller of the tapes offered some common sense (nothing I didn't already know), but he flavored it with a heavy dose of pseudo-science. I returned the tapes within thirty days and demanded my money back (as permitted), but his group kept my money anyway. So I contacted my state's attorney general, and after writing a firm letter, got all my money back--including "shipping and handling."

Edited to add: I also bought Mark Lane's book, Rush to Judgment, which although not pseudoscience per se, included damn sloppy history, deliberate falsifications and historical revisionism, and pathetic science.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Now that I think of it, I used to go to Barnes and Noble to read books with titles like The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Supernatural and The Book of Fairies in junior high. Don't remember actually buying one, though.

There was one time I ordered a book that sounded like from the Scholastic catalog and it turned out to be skeptical! I read it with a lot of interest, though.

Oh yes, and last Easter I went to church with my mother (her idea, not mine) and dropped about a dollar into the collection plate even though I had sworn to never do that again.

Imagine that, me going to church on Easter!

[strathmeyer]

I once bought shoe insoles that claimed they could make you jump higher. That's it.

[Cactus Wren]

I paid full cover price (in a supermarket) for Budd Hopkins's Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions.

In my own defense I will say only that it looked as though it might be entertaining. And it was. In fact, it was hilarious.

[eir_de_scania]

My husband bought expensive magnetic shoe soles that would be good for about anything. The least they did was keeping your feet warm even if you were standing in a snow drift. Mostly, he bought them -and I didn't put up a fight- because they were sold by a friend of his, who also sold a lot of other magnetic things like bracelets and socks. She of course swore they all worked fabulously, but husband never noticed any difference.

I threw them in the dustbin recently but he hasn't noticed yet. I doubt he ever will...

[TobiasTheViking]

16th january 2007... bought King James V3.

[CLD]

First time, in teen years: Lobsang Rampa books. Highly entertaining, and seemed to be at the time plausible (although his "My Visit To Venus" made me wonder). Last time, a few years ago: "The Day After Roswell", ex-Pentagon staffer Col. Philip J. Corso's tale of UFO technology secrets.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

I'm really worried for the future of the world if even the skeptics are spending this much money on woo!

[Hindmost]

Chariots of the Gods...when I was in junior high. I believed it all too. Embarrassed to be reminded.

glenn

[fromdownunder]

I also spent quite a bit of money (for the time) on several Von Daniken books, the Bermuda Triangle, Nosti apologists and even a couple of Von Daniken apologists. I never actually believed any of it.

Most recent? I still borrow the odd woo library book, just to see what the other side is saying, but I don't buy them any more.

Does visiting the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland count?

Norm

[Jeff Corey]

Years ago, I bought a copy of "Flim Flam". Boy, was I disappointed. I thought it was a book on how to con people and make tons of money. What a gyp.

[Loss Leader]

This story says more about me than I'd like it to, but:

About five years ago, my girlfriend and I went to the Renaissance Festival (shut up, it's fun). She wanted to have a psychic reading for about twenty-five bucks. I told her I absolutely was not going to pay some lady wearing too much eyeshadow twenty-five dollars for anything. She didn't get the reading. A few months later she broke up with me because, she said, I was an opinionated jerk.

The very next year, I went to the Renaissance Festival (shut up, still fun) again with my new girlfried. As we got near the tent, she asked me for money to get a psychic reading. Like Joshua in Wargames, I had learned from past experience. I gave her the money and she got the reading.

And now that girl is my wife.

She hasn't spent any money or time on anything woo since.

[Gravy]

I bought a book on palmistry about 20 years ago. It was helpful for meeting chicks at parties. Woo has it uses.

[Stellafane]

First time I can remember spending money on woo was probably buying a book on the Bermuda Triangle in college. (Even before I was an out-and-out skeptic, I never really was that big on woo.) Can't remember most recent. A few years ago I almost bought a second-hand copy of Evolution? The Fossils Say No! at (of all places) a Salvation Army thrift shop. Not for edification, but just to see exactly how weak and specious its arguments were. But I couldn't bring myself to pay even a single cent for it.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Originally Posted by EeneyMinnieMoe

At one time or other, I somewhat to firmly believed in mermaids, bigfoot, ghosts, many superstitions, the Bermuda Triangle, fortune telling, astrology and the tenets of Catholicism and if we're talking the whole of my life, well, Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy, too.

I also remember finding up a section of books about UFOs in the school library when I was about 10 and half-believing in it and being very scared and excited by the possibility of it.

However, there were only two occassions I can think of where I actually plucked down money for it.

Once was when I bought my sister a pack of Tarot cards for her birthday as a teenager because I actually wanted them myself.

The other was the first and last time I ever went to a palm reader and the last time I put down money for any kind of woo and ever will.

I had a friend in high school who had recently become a Wiccan, which upset me greatly because it's, to this day, the worst BS crap I've ever heard of.

I was still somewhat religious then, but even then Wicca was just like "Come on!". I never understood how anyone could even take it seriously, let alone subscribe to it. Even at 15, I thought it was the most idle, shallow, idiotic, waste-of-time teenage hobby ever invented and yes, that's accounting for Dungeons and Dragons.

So my friend and I were out at a movie and when it was over, since we were in the general area, I suggested showing her my old middle school.

Now, my old middle school was right around the corner from a psychic and palm reader's shop. We used to see this old, obese, bandana-ed crone scurrying around in what looked like her grandmother's nightgown on lunch break from time to time or talking with I presumme they were clients, usually older woman. She used to scare the crap out of us, beckoning us over through the shop window all the time after school. Looking back on it, maybe she was afraid of soliciting under the nose of the custodians and crossing guards during lunch break.

What I remembered vividly about the shop was that it had a ton of glossy and shiny New Age artifacts on display that I was itching to have. I loved crystals at that age. One day, walking home, I stopped in front of the window to gaze at them and looked up to see the old crone's face next to mine, maniacly waving her hand over at me and jabbering at me, trying to get me to come in. Couldn't get out of there fast enough. Think she even came to the door to yell after me. Again, thinking back on it, I was pretty free to gaze on it during lunch break. Didn't even see her then.

Anyhow, I showed my friend the school building but she's less interested in that than the psychic's shop. And my friend had a radar for this type of stuff- just gravitated to it. And yes, wouldn't you know, that same psychic is still there in that same shop.

As a kid, I wouldn't go anywhere near that woman if I could help it but my friend zeroed in on her and was itching to go in and finally dragged me in. She didn't know about my history with that place, she just saw it and went "Ooohh, let's go in!"

I wasn't a "skeptic" at 15, heck, I didn't even know such a thing existed but I really didn't want to spend the money. Though I always sorta believed in various types of woo as concept I couldn't really believe in it practically and not when you had to pay for it. Just seemed like a waste of money and so fake when it was another person doing it for money.

My friend finally persuaded me to go. The psychic saw we were thinking of coming in and came to the door to beckon at us and talked us in. It felt like I finally had kept that appointment from that day I had run away from her.

She sat us down and told us we could get a standard reading for $5 and a more in depth one for $10. I didn't even want to pay for the $5 one but I looked over at my friend and talked it over and decided on the $5 one while she went for the $10 one.

What disgusted me was that this woman's eyes wouldn't leave my hands as I looked for my wallet and as I took out the money. She practically snatched it from me and then rattled off all my predictions with one quick half-glance at my palm. I thought palmistry was suppossed to work by very careful study of the palm so I was suspicious and disappointed. Now, of course, I know she was cold-reading me.

She was pretty much done with me as soon as she had my money and then turned to my friend. Paid alot more attention to my friend and after the 10 reading, got another 5 from her to find out more about something she had said in the $10 reading. "Would you like to find out more about that?".

My friend was hanging on to her every word. Had the most moronic look on her face. She was taking it so seriously. And the psychic was taking it as seriously as she was. Made me want to burst out laughing. Wanted to puncture that atmosphere with a shovel. I was probably sitting there with the most slack jawed, bemused look on my face, just going like "You can't be serious" .

Even though I was suspicious at some moments during the reading, I treated it as an exciting adventure and told everyone all about it and spent alot of time mulling over what she said later. You build up the hits and downplay the misses later even if you were suspicious and aware something was a hundred percent false and very transparent at the moment.

Her predictions for me where that I'd never be successful but that I'd live comfortably, that I'd rent a home but own later on, that I would have a job in a uniform and that I'd never get married but that I'd have children.

She also predicted that the boy I was in love with would ask me out, that I'd have a boyfriend that year and that I'd take a long and short trip and that I'd live to be 92.

I saw through that immediatly and that was my big tip off it was a sham- she saw a chubby 15-year-old girl and assumed she was dying of love for someone who hardly knew she was alive. And normally she would have been 100% right but at that time, there was no one I was remotely interested in at all.

I even remember telling my sister at that time how funny it was that there was not a boy I could think of in school or elsewhere that I'd say was attractive and I could have any interest in and I was sort of looking for someone to crush on. Hilariously, my friend whirled on me asking me who it was and I honestly tried to think of who it might be who she was talking about. "Maybe Julien? I used to like him for a long time." A psychic can even make you second guess your own heart fishing for the connection.

Oddly, I did take a short and long trip. That was a prediction that particularly stunned me at the time. That one really made me feel like this woman had, for a second, looked into my life as I have always travelled very often. And I did have a boyfriend that year- my first one.

But I swear, if I find myself dying before I'm 92, I'm going up there and asking for my money back!

Oh yeah, if anyone's wondering, I wasn't rich by any means then and am not now, I rent an apartment, have never had a job in a uniform, I've never been married and plan on keeping it that way, I've never had children and plan on keeping it that way.

Oh yes, and our mothers were both furious we spent our money on a con artist.

[Geckko]

While embarrassed that I once paid money for woo, at least I am proud that my first time was also my last.

A good many years ago my wife asked me to pick up some medication for a chronic skin condition she had been suffering from. Her GP had run out of options and a friend suggest some homeopathic remedy.

I hadn't even heard of homeopathy, so I just thought it was some non prescriptive treatment, like aspirin, and it was stocked by Boots. I went to the pharmacy and asked some advice - the assistant told me with a straight face that the 30C was more potent than the 15C! Unfortunately it was a long time ago and I can't remember whether the person was a qualified pharmicist. If so shame on them.

Only a little while later did I happen on some information on homeopathy, kicked myself and cursed my wife's friend. Never again.

[Robaato]

The first time I consciously spent money on woo was for one of those "B&N Editions" of a Rider-Waite Tarot deck/book box set. (Barnes & Noble occasionally buys the printing rights to various out-of-print works and produces a "bargain book" print run.) Later, I bought the DC Comics/Vertigo Tarot set, just because it looked cool. I remember the music department manager telling me, "Remember, Rob, never buy Tarot Cards for yourself, always get one from friends." I remember this because I often heard this advice and its exact opposite, from people browsing the newage section. (Rhymes with "sewage") (I worked in the fiction section, which included religion and newage, at this particular B&N.)

I also had the palm-reading at Ren-fest experience, and I also went through with it to try to impress a girl. When the palm reader misinterpreted a surgical scar as part of one of the natural lines, I knew I could have fun with this. For the next half hour, I basically controlled the reading by controlling my reactions to whatever this lady said.

I failed to get the girl, though. The fact that she spent half an hour after her reading trying to write everything down kind of made me re-think some things. (not that it mattered, since she wasn't interested in me as anything but a friend anyhow. And even less than that, not long after.)

The last time -- I occasionally buy good-luck charms at Japanese temples and/or shrines, mainly because they look pretty...

[Humphreys]

I buy tons of woo books. They're entertaining.

[ThatSoundAgain]

Originally Posted by Humphreys

I buy tons of woo books. They're entertaining.

Me too, but only second hand.

The only thing I can think of is a couple of years back I bought a ginseng tonic and test-ran it for about a week, as a remedy for being generally tired. It had the usual disclaimer that you should wait 90 days before evaluating if there was any effect, and I'm still not sure if there's any consensus on its (in)effectiveness. I gave it up for another reason - I realized the alcohol content of the tonic made it much like having a spoonful of port with my breakfast.

[ConspiRaider]

Originally Posted by Gravy

I bought a book on palmistry about 20 years ago. It was helpful for meeting chicks at parties. Woo has it uses.

I don't read this as your being facetious because, as other men have indicated, woo rejection carries the risk of rejection by prospective women who might otherwise be a terrific match. Very true.

I'm in the Hollywood community and to speak against astrology in that circle, or palm readings? Especially around women? Hostility abounds. You might as well have announced that doctors discovered you have incurable leprosy. You don't even want to go there. It's not called Hollywood for nothing...

[alfaniner]

I bought the book The Runes several years ago, not because of any belief in it but just because it was on sale and I was curious (and prominently displayed at B&N).

The last time I can remember buying something woo (and thinking I was actually getting something for it) was buying the chance to name a star from the International Star Registry. I had just finished a book I had really loved, and as a thank you to the author(s) I named a star after one of the characters. I got the certificate and sent it to the authors. Never heard anything back from them as they were probably wise to it at that time. Well, it was over 25 years ago...

[Redtail]

Originally Posted by Humphreys

I buy tons of woo books. They're entertaining.

Yeah me too. For some reason I get a big kick out of "woo as truth" so to speak. I remember one a while back that put forth the theory that the Great Pyramids are actually 100,000 years old and are not tombs but are in fact "energy focus points that allow one to see any point in history (well since the pyramids were finished) during meditation. Priceless.

[grunion]

In 7th grade my English teacher assigned Chariots Of The Gods and we had to go out and buy it. I lost my copy after the first couple chapters and refused to buy another. But I remember being able to fake my way through the class dicussions so easily without even having read the book, and writing a 30-page report on the Loch Ness Monster after having read a three-paragraph encyclopedia article on it (this was in the primitive pre-Google days) and just making the rest up. And getting an A.

I have a few more recent book purchases expounding some rather, erm, unorthodox theories as true like The Big Book Of The Unexplained and The Big Book Of Conspiracies, mainly because they are graphic novels and I enjoy some of the artists.

But the last actual financial contribution that I have knowingly made to the Dark Side was purchasing two movie tickets to What The Bleep Do We Know because the poster looked interesting. I was so pissed off by that movie that my friend and I had to sneak into the movie playing next door (The Bourne Supremacy as I recall) just to feel that we were getting something for our money.

[TjW]

Originally Posted by Gravy

I bought a book on palmistry about 20 years ago. It was helpful for meeting chicks at parties. Woo has it uses.

So you bought woo to woo. Sounds reasonable.

[CynicalSkeptic]

Does it count if my wife spent the money?

Her mom is visiting from another country, and doesn't have health insurance for American Doctors. She fell and twisted her ankles while chasing our toddler up the jungle gym. My wife heard through a colleague that there are "doctors" in Chinatown that can do X-Rays for $30. Seemed reasonable to rule out anything worse than sprained ankles. Well $250 later she got acupuncture and chiropractic back adjustment that she's happy with. My wife wants to bring her back for another visit.

The last woo thing I bought personally was a book. I think Intelligent Design by Dembski.

Quote:

But the last actual financial contribution that I have knowingly made to the Dark Side was purchasing two movie tickets to What The Bleep Do We Know because the poster looked interesting.

Ooh, does it count if I rented that crap? It was through Netflix, so it was part of my $20 monthly plan anyway, it's not like I actually spent extra money to watch it.