#14 How woo are you?

in yoga and in life

The lovely, self-proclaimed “full-woo” Holly Husler. Holly + Adam will be guests on the pod soon.

In a recent conversation with Holly and Adam Husler (podcast coming soon), I asked Holly to explain the modality that she teaches and loves, Sound Healing.

I told her that I took Jason to a Sound Healing for his birthday and both she and Adam were shocked. Jason doesn’t strike them as the type to go for a Sound Healing. Later, when I told them he's always been the aromatherapy guy in the family, they looked like their heads might explode.

Jason and I are both extremely practical and rational, but we can both get woo-woo about things that work for us. I like to think of us as "woo-adjacent," which is a brilliant moniker Emily McDowell made up¹.

I very much identify as woo-adjacent which, to me, means that while I might be somewhat skeptical of unconventional modalities, I’m also open to trying things that are not risky. This means that I have a beautiful collection of little crystals sitting on my desk and when I'm at the shop and the (much more woo) shopkeeper tells me all of their lovely benefits, I can buy-in. But back home, the crystals are just pretty. And if someone told me to put the crystals in my bra and forgo cancer therapy, I would smile politely and hope to never see them again.

My opinion about woo-woo is this: There are so many complementary therapies to try and what matters is how they work for you. How do you feel after trying it?

We are such complex creatures -- informed by our ancestry, our genetic make-up, our environment, our upbringing. I think it makes sense that one person's brain and physiology and gross body might unconsciously feel the vibrations from a sound healing and emerge feeling calm, clear, and peaceful. And another person might feel zilch. 

There might be some science to support a therapy -- for example, acupuncture has some decent studies, but what really matters to me is that I feel amazing during and after acupuncture. Jason hates needles, though, and so acupuncture is irritating for him and (although he doesn't say it out loud), he thinks it is mainly placebo effect.

Who's right and who's wrong? I have no idea and I don't pretend to. I'll keep going to acupuncture while the lady does Reiki over the needles (it feels so healing oh la la)  and he'll keep trying to get me to believe to sniff his favorite rose geranium oil. 

There's certainly a lot of woo in yoga's history (as there is with every mystical and religious tradition), especially in book three of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. Book III talks about the siddhis, or yogic superpowers that can be acquired by adepts. Think: levitating, telepathy, instantaneous travel. 

I'm excited that I'll be talking to Melissa Townsend soon. She has just finished a book that focuses on Patanjali’s Book III, a book that I have largely written off. I don't think she will mind if I say that I think of her as full kook (this is not a jab; it's what my acupuncturist calls herself and I find it adorable) because Melissa is also a psychic and keeps asking me to do an episode about this. Will I do it or won't I? I'm still undecided, but I'm considering it because, well, I think my woo-meter (woo-o-meter?) is more receptive when I know, like, and respect the person, as I do Melissa.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to ask -- how woo are you? Woo-adjacent? Woo-woo? Full kook? Or full skeptic?

For now, I am woo-adjacent. And I reserve the right to change my mind at any time.

Here is my previous episode with Melissa Townsend, where we talked about her art books inspired by Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra:

1. Subject to Change with Emily McDowell (her Substack)