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Magical stones from the mall!
On Monday I was in my local mall and there was one of those gem / crystal shops. I have no idea how these people make rent and salaries, so I figured I'd take a little look around.
I ask the dude for a stone to make me happy and he gives me a few options then suggests this other luck / wealth one; $3! Well, me, being a genius, bought both and immediately bought a lottery ticket.
Wednesday rolls around and I just checked the numbers. After nearly 20 years of never winning anything more than a buck or a free ticket, I won $108 (4 8 15 16 23 42 oh my!)
If we ever do a meet up, I'm gonna be 30lbs heavier with all the rocks in my pocket. I really need a stone for tagging this nonsense post...
Congrats on the win! (And I’d recognize those numbers anywhere 😉)
My friend’s wife is into stones for their auras. I’m not sure if she genuinely believes it or if it’s kayfabe, but it makes her happy, so I guess they’re working!
i don’t know what to believe now! i had a client back in the day that had a pyramid made of string that had crystals and stuff all over it and he’d sit in it every day for an hour or so… i thought he was joking until i saw it.
I say just believe the rock helps you without tying significant real world consequences to it! I think we (here referring to the Tildes general stereotype of the rational, skeptical, thoughtful, western tradition of science crowd) can be far too quick to be dismissive in our urge to be scientific. We forget that the absence of evidence is not necessarily a proof there isn't something happening.
When it comes to charms, rocks, etc, the key part people often forget is how much our physiology responds to our mind and our beliefs. It's literally why positive thinking matters. For a great break-down on one aspect of this, see The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal which was mind blowing for me. You can literally shift your feelings from anxiety to excitement and readiness if you manage your internal framing well enough because both emotions are largely powered by adrenaline and the stress response. So if you feel like it's been making things better for you, it's better.
And then to take it a step further - I'm a big believer that the Chinese concept of Qi is real. I think we just haven't nailed a proper way to observe it, and there are also a large number of charlatans and simple bad practitioners who try and pass off nonsense as the same. I think the trend to view it as driven by the fascia is probably the right path, but I don't think that's everything.
Anyways, I'm rambling here when I really am just trying to say: enjoy your magic rocks man. Life's too short to get stressed about the science and logic behind every habit and belief. If it makes your day better, there's literally no harm!
Positive thinking works, sure, but that doesn't mean you need to go buy a rock to make your life more positive. If you like rocks, by all means, buy rocks, but the thing that's making you think more positively is your own thought patterns. You don't need rocks for that. If you truly feel like you need a totem or something, you could just go outside and pick up the first interesting looking thing you see.
I have very little patience for woo, not because it's offensive or dangerous in it of itself, but because it opens the door to all sorts of "vibe based" thinking. It's the sort of justifications that make people radically alter their diets due to chakras or not take medicine because it lowers their vibrational energy.
Skepticism and rationality is what brought us out of untold millennia of lynching people that acted differently from us because of demons and all sorts of other nonsense based on what feels right rather than what has been methodically proven right.
lately I've decided to just get into everything to give it a shot. I gave Christianity a decade, the least I can do is give some rocks a week or two :)
I went back today and told them and we all had a good laugh.
As for qi -- well over a decade ago my therapist got me into the whole 'tongue-palate' posture or whatever saying that it closed the cycle. I don't know if I totally believe in all of that, but I definitely don't... not believe, if that makes sense. I experienced some wild shit when I was a christian and I figure there's more to it than 'god decided to heal your hands instead of helping those starving kids'... who knows. I'm definitely with you wrt our limited scope and trying to force everything through science. This has been the case with our species and we look back and laugh at them. Future generations will likely do the same. Maybe not for lotto rocks, but who knows.
Big Geology is obviously in kahoots with the regional gaming boards. Don't fall for the okie doke! RollSafetapstemple.gif
Just don't go on any oceanic flights without your walkman.
the real star of the show is Danielle and her knack for taking care of her limited wardrobe.