Somewhere along the line, fermented tea stopped being an accident best left in the back of your fridge and became a $2 billion industry fueled by Instagram wellness influencers, dubious health claims, and the willingness of otherwise sensible adults to drink liquids that smell like a locker room. Kombucha, for the blissfully uninitiated, is sweetened … Read more
There’s something uniquely horrifying about any place that requires you to wear color-coded robes “for optimal vibrational resonance.” Welcome to the Hollow Valley Spiritual Compound — home of spinning, chanting, dubious science, and more white linen than a Renaissance Faire at laundry day. Hollow Valley, according to the enthusiastically photocopied brochure I was handed at … Read more
If there’s a cheaper shortcut to pretending you have psychic abilities than swinging a rock on a string, I have yet to find it. The concept is simple enough: dangle a pendulum — usually a crystal, a ring, or whatever happened to be lying around in the back seat of your car — over a … Read more
The world, in its infinite descent into half-baked wishful thinking, has embraced energy healing like a drunk clings to the last stool at a bar at closing time. Somewhere along the line, we collectively decided that physics, biology, and chemistry—disciplines built painstakingly on centuries of blood, sweat, and Nobel prizes—were simply too stressful, and it … Read more
Tarot cards are beautiful. Gorgeously illustrated, richly symbolic, dripping with history. A deck of miniature works of art, each whispering vague, universal human experiences. And yet somewhere between admiring the artwork and flipping the final card, we decided that these painted rectangles could predict the future. Modern fortunetelling with tarot follows a simple formula: you … Read more
If there’s anything more tedious than an alleged haunting, it’s an alleged poltergeist. Unlike your standard-issue Victorian ghost — the sad lady in white, the mournful child clutching a toy drum nobody asked for — poltergeists don’t bother with melodramatic sob stories or half-hearted spectral appearances. They just throw things, slam doors, knock over bookshelves, … Read more
If you ever feel underachieving, remember: two thousand years ago, a group of ancient Peruvians spent decades carving enormous pictures into the desert floor — and modern humans immediately assumed it must have been aliens. The Nazca Lines — sprawling geoglyphs etched across the Nazca Desert — depict hummingbirds, monkeys, spiders, and a few abstract … Read more
Every town has its quirks. Greenfield, Georgia has the Blessed Gnome. According to the hand-painted sign propped up in Barb Jensen’s front yard (right next to a sun-bleached flamingo and a “God Bless America” wind spinner), this squat ceramic gnome has granted “over 400 wishes” since 2003. The ritual is simple: Rub the gnome’s nose, … Read more
Once upon a time, calling yourself a witch meant something. It meant clandestine gatherings, serious study, an uncomfortable familiarity with poison gardens, and a decent chance of being set on fire by your neighbors. It was not, I assure you, a lifestyle choice you arrived at after fifteen minutes on TikTok and a particularly inspiring … Read more
There are many glittering examples of mass delusion in human history, but few sparkle quite so tragically — or quite so stupidly — as the great Fairy Photograph Scandal of the early 20th century. In 1917, two young girls from Cottingley, England produced a series of photographs allegedly showing themselves frolicking with tiny, winged fairies. … Read more