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Not to mention that since the placebo effect is so real, it can be unethical to explain that to someone. When my mother was going through chemo and radiation and started buying healing crystals as well, I supported her beliefs in that (she was also doing all the doc recommended stuff).

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It has occurred to me that pseudo-scientific beliefs "work" for believers, just not in the way that scientists think of a system that works ("I can make repeatable predictions") but in a social and emotional way ("it makes me feel good"). That's a reason why it's so hard to get people away from them.

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