Separating from the TM movement in the 1980s, physician Deepak Chopra began promoting a mixture of Eastern and Western self-help healing philosophies that has come to be called “quantum healing.” The notion is that we can make our own reality, solve all our problems, and heal all our ills by just thinking about them. In recent years, this idea was picked up (and treated as newly discovered) in two highly successful films, What the Bleep Do We Know? and The Secret. In all cases, the proponents claim quantum mechanics shows that human thought can change reality by an act of will.

One of my oldest friends is my massage therapist, someone I’ve seen more or less regularly for a decade now. Naturally, there’s lots of time for conversation in an hour-long session, so we’ve talked about anything and everything over the years. Frequently, I’d bring along a book or DVD I’d referenced in an earlier discussion to let her borrow. Probably a quarter of the music on her computer came from me to begin with. Lots of sharing. You get the picture.
So, one day, she said it wasn’t fair that I kept giving her all this cool stuff and she didn’t have much to share with me. But she wanted to reciprocate. She lent me a DVD. Can you guess what it was? Yes. What the Bleep Do We Know?
Not only did I force myself to sit through the whole thing, I managed to choke out my thanks and claim to have enjoyed it. I mean, what was I supposed to do? This was the first thing she’d lent me! How harsh would that have been, after she’d been so happy with all the things I’d introduced her to, to launch into a critique about what a bunch of New Age drivel it was? Maybe someone with better people-skills than me could have done it, but I just chose to cold-cock my intellectual principles, wrestle them into a storage closet, and lean against the door, whistling nonchalantly as they pounded and kicked and hollered all sorts of hair-raising retaliatory threats against me.
You see what I do for my friends. So cut me some slack the next time you think I’m being too unforgiving of human foibles here. I still have this stuck in my craw all these years later!