2011-03-20
Explanation
This comic, titled "How 'New Age' Philosophy Works," satirizes the way pseudoscientific and new-age spiritual movements use scientific-sounding language to lend credibility to unfounded claims. In the first panel, a woman pitches the idea that she can teach someone to "see across the entirety of time and space" using "the power of your mind," for a fee.
The man in the second panel responds with reasonable skepticism, noting that he doesn't see how or why the brain would have such an apparatus and asks for an explanation. Rather than providing one, the woman offers an alternative: "What if, instead of explaining, I whispered 'quantum mechanics' and winked knowingly?" The man immediately responds "SOLD!" -- won over not by evidence but by the mere invocation of a scientific-sounding term.
The comic skewers how the word "quantum" has been co-opted by new-age movements as a magic password that shuts down critical thinking. It also pokes fun at consumers who are satisfied by the appearance of scientific legitimacy rather than actual explanations, highlighting how the appeal of new-age philosophy often lies in its mystique rather than its substance.