I find myself torn when friends say things like this to me. I feel that such religious beliefs are overall harmful to my friends and leaving them unchallenged allows believers to promulgate that horse shit to others. On the other hand true believers seem to be so invested in these beliefs that they would be psychologically harmed by any debate that would be strong enough to persuade them. I've never known what the responsible way to act regarding these strange but heartfelt beliefs. Usually, I just let them know that I don't see things that way and leave it at that.
What about transference and counter-transference? Perhaps I've had too much therapy, but they are tangible things. There is a heck of a lot humanity does not understand about human psychology, and it's not all BS. 'Energy' work isn't religious at all either - it could work for some people off the placebo effect.
And if you're an engineer, if something works, then use it. Whatever the 'patient' thinks is ... shamans have to play engineer sometimes, along with priest, psychologist, doctor, PR man, confidence trickster...
but yes, there are a lot of shallow thinking people out there, and not just in the New Age world, who can't grasp metaphors - e.g. the concept of the dead and dying god, who is reborn, as a metaphor for a psychological process.
What's so strange about it? It's some kind of yoga massage social relaxing procedure embedded in harmless ritual fluff with words like 'light' 'energy' 'love' and rainbows and even sometimes 'quantum-entanglement' - you should be excited. Energy healing also undoubtedly involves the wonder of energy. If it feels good to people, then it heals, so what is the horse shit problem here? Do they want you to sacrifice seven goats to their ruthless rainbow-god-of-light for a power-refill while still not appreciating the apollo spaceflight computer as incredible scientific achievment enough?
I find myself torn when friends say things like this to me. I feel that such religious beliefs are overall harmful to my friends and leaving them unchallenged allows believers to promulgate that horse shit to others. On the other hand true believers seem to be so invested in these beliefs that they would be psychologically harmed by any debate that would be strong enough to persuade them. I've never known what the responsible way to act regarding these strange but heartfelt beliefs. Usually, I just let them know that I don't see things that way and leave it at that.