This reminds me a story about my mom. She was a beautiful person, gave me and my brother all she could. She also believed in all kind of pseudo-science. Talking with her I think I gained a deeper understanding of why pseudo scientific things were alluring to her.

I remember one day as I was visiting her. She brightened up, like someone who just remembered that they know a cool new story, and told me that scientist has discovered that some people have their sixth (or sevent?) chakra open! I could not act enthusiastically over this. Tried to explain to her politely that based on what I know about the world that does not sound like the kind of thing a real scientist would or could do. She accused me of having a closed mind, and we left the topic. Better be on friendly terms than having a disagreement ruin the mood.

A few months later I was visiting with my then girlfriend. She was a medical student and my mom politely inquired what kind of doctor she wanted to be. The girlfriend told her that she is interested in specialising in endocrinology. My mom got really upset that we were using complicated words instead of talking plainly. We realised that she might not know the term, so we explained that an endocrinologist measures hormone levels, diagnoses and cures disorders of the hormone system, etc. Once explained thus, she declared that she never would have thought that hormones can be measured.

That was a really surprising to me, because I have clear memories of my mom having an operative understanding about hormones. My grandad had diabetes, and she helped him with stuff related to that. One of her friends had some hormonal disorder and she referred to it as such.

What i realised, that i understood hormones on a deeper level than her. Not the way a doctor would, but like I did know that they are molecules which signal cells in our bodies to do or not do specific things. I understood that molecules are just atoms clumped together. And I understood that atoms are just the lego bricks everything around us is built out of. I don't know how exactly one would measure the level of some hormone in ones blood, but I did understand that they are just chemicals, so through complicated analytical means they can be measured.

And then I realised that if someone doesn't know these things about hormones, then when she reads a pop-science article talking about this or that hormone, then reads a different article talking about chakras they both sound the exact same kind of gobbledok. They sound both mystical and somehow connected to health. One might hear a story about how someone gained weight after their hormones went out of whack, or one might hear a story how someone cured their depression after they unblocked their heart chakra. If you don't know better, how would you know that one is bulsh*t and the other is a measurable, real thing.

In fact here is the thing, the chakras are simpler, easier and nicer. You can see a nice drawing of them! They make sense. Hormones? I know a lot about chemistry, and more than what I would like to know about hormones secreted by the pancreas and even I can't keep all of them straight. There are many of them. They have complicated scientific names. They act in all kind of bizarro complicated ways. Too much is bad, too little is bad. Some are easier to measure analytically, some are harder. Chakras are so much simpler: they can be blocked or open, they have colours, they are associated with organs you have heard of. Simple! Also ... not real in the same sense hormones are.

So I guess now I understand how it was hard for my mom to navigate the boundary of science and pseudo-science.