On being skeptical, politely
At lunch today I was talking with a colleague. She’s cool; I really respect her attitude towards pedagogy and also like her as a person. But our conversation on the environmental dangers of cows led us to talking about lab-grown meat, which then led to a discussion of whether food grown in a lab is any better or worse for someone than food grown in a farm. And my colleague mentioned that she thought the meat from a lab would not have the same “energy” as meat from a farm.
I blinked. “Energy?” I asked, already fearing the response.
“Yes, energy! You know, how everyone has an Energy, and everyone can feel everyone else’s Energy?”
Uh-oh.
So this led us into a discussion in which I played the role of Skeptic and she played the role of Believer, where I insisted I can’t believe in “energy” and she related examples: the way you “know” someone is angry across the room; the way you “recognize” people you’ve never met before; clairvoyance; and reiki practitioners.
It’s always a little awkward when you stumble onto these points of contention with people who are more acquaintances than close friends. I am not a confrontational…