The Dream: S2 E2: A New Kind of Party

December 17, 2019 10:25 AM

Take a walk and find a crystal. Who knows, it might just heal you.

Jean and Dann walk through their neighborhood, which is a wellness space in transition. Crystals and Jean Marie's own medical history.

posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit (6 comments total)

I had some mixed feelings about what she puts in the bullshit/"wellness" category - I usually think of yoga as a thing people do to improve their flexibility with some meditative elements. Seems more measurably useful than crystals, though for all I know Jane loathes gyms the same way.

I saw a truck with a giant CBD water ad on it the other day and couldn't help thinking it probably supplied her spot in Atwater (which is one of the most hipstery/trend-driven areas of LA, for the non-natives.)
posted by tautological at 4:56 PM on December 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

The discussion of crystals got very real there for a bit. I have several friends who carry various crystals depending on mood, but I have never had a long conversation about my own mineral needs.

The section about migraines and Jean’s accident explained a lot of the frustration with trying to find a treatment that would actually work. My science teacher in high school also had vicious migraines and I remember her quitting her meds cold turkey when she became pregnant. My own headaches seldom make me puke but I have developed a survival mechanism to go to sleep when one starts.

There was an episode of Sawbones last month talking about mail-order bloodwork and screenings you can order, feels like it could have been an episode of this show.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:19 AM on December 18, 2019

It was a little interesting to see how much Marie's own ideas about these things are clearly more based on the image of the thing as much as anything. Not to say that crystals work, but it kinda seemed like what Dann was reaching for was that he mostly likes pretending they work. The thing about yoga is how much, even if you go into it with fully pragmatic goals and no believe in the religious aspect of it, you're still going to have a hard time finding resources out there that don't veer into woo. On the other hand, therapy is theoretically a science-based treatment, but I was talking with some friends this evening about our experiences with therapists and how completely hit-and-miss they are, and how many we've personally encountered that seemed to be a long way outside the realm of proven treatments.

When you get into stuff that says it'll fix things that have real medical treatments, these things are a problem, especially if they're mostly saying that to make somebody money. On the other hand, I'm not sure the woo things are always dumb, or that the seemingly-not-woo things are always better, and I'm very interested to see where this goes with that.
posted by Sequence at 9:37 PM on December 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

Is there as large a market for pseudo science health in countries that have socialized medicine?

I enjoyed how much shit she gave Dan in this episode because I would never dare to talk like that to the people important to me. But, yeah. Please don't tell me your crystals are anything other than attractive.
posted by rebent at 10:25 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

There's a shit-ton of homeopathy in the UK, and they have the NHS. (Including a pretty good Mitchell & Webb sketch)

Though I think some of that is that the royals were super into it? Not sure about other counties...
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 5:55 PM on December 21, 2019

I enjoyed how much shit she gave Dan in this episode because I would never dare to talk like that to the people important to me.

Indeed. When talking to my relatives, nearly everyone I care about goes to some lengths not to push the issue. Including me. Nothing they do is dangerous or ruining them financially, as far as I can tell. (The colloidal silver is on the edge of dangerous, but probably not in the way it's being used at the moment) Aside from giving a little bit of money to vendors who are almost certainly scam artists, it doesn't really do any harm. So, I don't confront them. And they don't demand that I pretend to believe.

I'm curious what would happen if I had a real, entirely honest discussion with my friends who genuinely believe in astrology. I'm guessing we might not be friends any longer. But, the same is more or less true of the people I know who believe in mainstream religion. That discussion has happened twice that I can remember, with very close friends. (One is a theology scholar and the other a scientist, which helps, I think.) Nobody was convinced of much, but it was really nice to have a genuinely sincere discussion of the topic with someone I didn't already mostly agree with.

So far, both seasons of this podcast have really impressed me with the host's ability to be simultaneously kind and honest.
posted by eotvos at 11:41 AM on December 25, 2019