# What's your secret "woo" fetish? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 7, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796 "2011-01-07T22:12:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/21 "2011-01-08T05:59:35Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I like the whole “natural” medicines. I also am a theist, which many Dopers have lumped in with woo. It’s the woo-ist of them all. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/22 "2011-01-08T06:22:46Z")
I think there’s a reasonable chance that Edward de Vere wrote the Shakespeare plays. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/23 "2011-01-08T07:10:09Z")
Prehuman civilizations and forgotten megafauna are two of my big “Cool!” buttons. If you ask me why I don’t believe in God, I can give you a lot of high brow, fancy pants reasons, but at the core, I just can’t accept that this world was created by an intelligent being who didn’t put at least one lost city filled with intelligent dinosaurs on it. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/24 "2011-01-08T13:32:26Z")
Vitamin D It seems to be a bit of a fad these days. I probably don’t get enough sun, but one guy claims everyone is massively low. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/25 "2011-01-08T14:38:28Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Prehuman civilizations and forgotten megafauna are two of my big “Cool!” buttons. Lost Civilisations (full of treasure!) and Dinosaur Island things are on my “Cool!” list too, even though I’m well aware they don’t exist and even if they did, they’d have all been discovered by about 1928 anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/26 "2011-01-08T14:46:56Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > what the @#!% do we know, anyway? Do not remind me of that “film”. That said, I love religious horror/fantasy movies. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/27 "2011-01-08T16:23:18Z")
Honestly? Luck. For whatever reason I seem to behave as if there is a living embodiment of luck out there watching. I have been known, when something extraordinarily lucky or timely happens, to purchase a lottery ticket or some other extremely improbable thing to pay tribute. ---
**Author:** ![xoferew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e9a140/32.png) [@xoferew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xoferew)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/28 "2011-01-08T16:24:32Z")
When I was a kid I used to get vague impulses to avoid stepping on cracks, or skip every other step up, or whatever, and I went with the impulse on the off chance that aliens were testing me to see how susceptible to mind control I was. That way when the invasion occurred I would be in the slave army category, not the immediately terminated category. However, no alien invasion has been forthcoming. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/29 "2011-01-08T17:29:19Z")
I used to be entirely woo resistant, but after a recent bout with severe insomnia coupled with a brief-but-severe depressive episode, I’ve been religiously taking valerian root. I’m aware that clinical studies have shown it to be near-completely ineffective, but it gave me “something to do” to help with the early insomnia, and now I don’t want to risk stopping. ---
**Author:** ![EmAnJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/30 "2011-01-08T17:38:44Z")
Oh, right, I also fully believe in the karma system. Even if that’s not really how things work, by believing that that asshole will get his, it’s easier for me to let it go. Being positive about my life and the events in it seems to bring good luck to me too. ---
**Author:** ![spazurek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@spazurek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spazurek)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/31 "2011-01-08T17:47:32Z")
I too have a habit of thinking in terms of “karma”, but usually only in a very limited sense. For example, I used to think that if I worked really hard on a given day, the bus home would arrive earlier. In big picture terms, I tend to believe that assholes usually get ahead and the good die young. And yet I can’t bring myself to be an asshole. Dammit! I know this isn’t a forum for debate/debunking, but I have to say that natural medicine woo is the most annoying kind to me. It’s immunology people! Bodies heal! OK sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![scruffycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scruffycat/32/200_2.png) [@scruffycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scruffycat)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/32 "2011-01-08T17:52:29Z")
A couple of things, ghosts and karma. Neither of which can exist, right RIGHT? I beleive that if you treat your fellow man/woman decently it somehow bunces back? Well no, it doesn’t, but then you should treat people that way anyway really, it’s simple. Treat somebody well they will like and remember you for that. I just treat everybody well. Ghosts, Yeah, despite all rational thought crushing against this, I believe in ghosts. Not sure why but I do. Lesson - karma means treat people well, ghosts mean, er be scared or something. Don’t read that much into it. Ghosts, - I like to be scared. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/33 "2011-01-08T18:51:33Z")
> [@scruffycat](#): > > A couple of things, ghosts and karma. > > Neither of which can exist, right RIGHT? > > I beleive that if you treat your fellow man/woman decently it somehow bunces back? Well no, it doesn’t, but then you should treat people that way anyway really, it’s simple. Treat somebody well they will like and remember you for that. I just treat everybody well. > > Ghosts, Yeah, despite all rational thought crushing against this, I believe in ghosts. > > Not sure why but I do. Lesson - karma means treat people well, ghosts mean, er be scared or something. Don’t read that much into it. Ghosts, - I like to be scared. I think karma _does_ have a certain logic to it though. This for the simple fact that people of like minds tend to gravitate towards each other. If you have the mentality to treat people well and you surround yourself with others who feel the same way; the probability of you getting screwed over by someone has just gone down considerably. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/34 "2011-01-08T21:16:49Z")
I honestly can’t think of any. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/35 "2011-01-09T02:51:25Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Honestly? > > Luck. > > For whatever reason I seem to behave as if there is a living embodiment of luck out there watching. I have been known, when something extraordinarily lucky or timely happens, to purchase a lottery ticket or some other extremely improbable thing to pay tribute. Agreed. My family plays cards (Scat, Screw Your Neighbor) and dice games (LCR, Threesies) every New Year’s. Five, six, seven games until like 6 AM the next morning. Even with 15 players in every game, I win at least once every year. This year, I won two of the five games we played. That kind of win stream with that many players in heavily luck-based games is just impossible. So I believe. And I recognize the signs: You don’t look at your cards until you have all of them… You don’t touch money that is destined for the pot… You always offer the person behind you the chance to cut the deck… ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/36 "2011-01-09T05:01:31Z")
What’s it called when you don’t _really_ believe something, but you mentally go along with it? For some reason, I find myself wanting to be on the side of the it’s-totally-real people. Even if it’s a really nasty totally real. Logically, it should be better to live in a universe where there aren’t any monsters hiding in the shadows, but something in me wants magic! and mystery! and there’s some things no one can explain! I am not completely logical. My world view is… well, I’m sure 99% of “psychic phenomena” is hooey. But my world view wouldn’t be shattered if it was really proved that Jane Smith from Kentucky could accurately tell you the details of next year’s stock market, or that the old house on Memory Lane was totally haunted by the ghost of an eighteenth-century dog-groomer. And what does it matter anyway? It’s not like I’m going to base my life on advice from the Psychic Friends people. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/37 "2011-01-09T06:33:33Z")
Karma, for me. It’s less about schadenfreude and more about giving me some kind of hope that always choosing the just/honest path will eventually reap long-term rewards. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/38 "2011-01-09T06:39:55Z")
I can get scared shitless about “ghosts” even though I’ve always been an atheist (although nominally in a French-Irish Catholic family). I haven’t told ghost stories to women in bed with me or even to myself since my mid twenties, b/c that shit freaks me the fuck out. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/39 "2011-01-09T07:13:39Z")
I am fascinated, and hope it ends up true, when someone claims to have spotted a creature that was thought extinct. Not recently extinct, nor dinosaur-distant extinct, but something that died out around 100 to 400 years ago, such as the Tasmanian Tiger, or the Moa. It’s almost certain that any sighting is a hoax or a mistake, but I so want to be on their side when I hear the tales. ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796/40 "2011-01-09T17:24:08Z")
That some hospital staff are a “black cloud”. Rationally know it’s all confirmation bias but when we’re having a crazy night and just getting slammed with trauma I still look at the call schedule and think, “I should have known, Dr. Mohr is on tonight.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-secret-woo-fetish/566796.md?page=3)