麻豆传媒

Psychology goes quantum

SERIALLY reading 麻豆传媒 and The Psychologist led Jonathan Rowles to the notion of quantum psychology. In this, he writes, 鈥渋t becomes possible to perceive oneself as both a great thinker and a feckless nobody, comfortably and at the same time.鈥� He wonders 鈥渨hether I am unique or is this a well-known aspect of the postmodern mediated zeitgeist?鈥�

One click on the 鈥淔ind鈥� button, and lo! the results come back to us through a wormhole in information space 鈥� 68,700 on . The presence of the q-word hinted that we were quite possibly on a path pell-mell to fruitloopery, and our expectations, if not necessarily our inner being, were fulfilled.

So, sorry, Jonathan: you may not, in this respect, be unique. At you will find a video in which Ron Dalrymple promises that his quantum field psychology course 鈥渋ntegrates all prior theories of psychology under a new umbrella and makes it easy for you to tap into the true powers of your mind鈥�. He also plugs his book The Inner Manager. Shyly, he doesn鈥檛 seem to give the price of his seminars.

And then there is , which explains: 鈥淭he Quantum Psychology Project originated with Eddie Oshins鈥� reconciliation of arguments in the psychological literature concerning the nature of schizophrenia as a logical phenomenon.鈥�

Then, sounding rather tired, at Jennifer Buergermeister says she studied 鈥淣euro-Linguistic Programming, Hypnosis, Psychodrama, Yoga, Transpersonal Psychology, Angel Therapy Certification and much, much more, and explored many different methods of stress management鈥� (her emphasis) before settling on her quantum healing practice. It鈥檚 a mere $2995 for a 14-day course that includes a new one on us: 鈥渜uantum linguistics鈥�.

Perhaps most alarming is Quantum Psychology: How brain software programs you and your world by Robert Anton Wilson. That would be the co-author of the Illuminatus trilogy, sold as 鈥渁 fairy tale for paranoids鈥�, but often taken as gospel by鈥� er, paranoid people. Please remember, folks, it鈥檚 a satire on conspiracy theorists 鈥� not a manual.

So Wilson must be playing it very, very deadpan when he promotes his flavour of quantum psychology as a language devoid of the verb 鈥渢o be鈥�. Mustn鈥檛 he?

Each of these people clearly conceives of themselves as a great thinker. Whether they conform to the second part of Jonathan鈥檚 hypothesis is not for us to say.

鈥淥n the A435 road near Cirencester in the west of England a sign reads 鈥淣o access to vehicles over 7.5 tonnes except for access鈥�. 鈥淩un that by me again,鈥� says John Boucher鈥�

Going for a mere 拢66,881,987.65

BIG pricing mistakes aren鈥檛 limited to big business. A colleague in the US went searching for a new sensor for a malfunctioning carbon monoxide detector and found a replacement for a mere $66,881,987.65 at the website of McLendon Hardware, a small chain in Washington state (). They normally sell for about $23. Feedback wonders how many of these mistakes are out there on the net.

CERN relocates to the Czech Republic

INVESTIGATING the peregrinations of Dublin Ferry Port (12 September and 31 October), a colleague came across another bizarre mapping phenomenon. Some kind of mental crosstalk led to him typing 鈥淔eedback鈥� into the search bar of a well-known online map service 鈥� which revealed our location as being close to the central railway station in Sydney, Australia. We are glad to say that whatever glitch led to that has now been ironed out.

On a whim, we decided to try another name that might boggle the mappers. Every incarnation of the same famous online map service that we鈥檝e tried 鈥� in the UK, US, Australia, France, Belgium, Germany and indeed Switzerland 鈥� insists that CERN is not the European Organization for Nuclear Research, outside the Swiss city of Geneva, but is located deep in the Moravian countryside at the crossroads in the settlement of Cernov in the Czech Republic. We cannot think of a better institution to have such a quantumly indeterminate location.

When the sun sets in the east

ROCK band Slade enlivened the 1970s with the exuberant 鈥渘oize鈥� of their many hits. Reader Jayne Hunt believes they were 鈥減erhaps the hardest-working rock group of all time鈥� 鈥� and one of the most widely travelled. In the song , singer Noddy Holder describes the homesick feelings he had when on tour, despite the exotic locations he visited. 鈥淚鈥檝e seen the morning in the mountains of Alaska,鈥� he warbles, 鈥淚鈥檝e seen the sunset in the East and in the West.鈥�

Jayne is puzzled. She wonders if Slade鈥檚 tour schedule included Venus.

Minimum quantity of 1

FINALLY, wanting to know more about the energy-saving possibilities of LED domestic lighting, Ian Cargill checked online at Lemnis Lighting () and was reassured to read that the 鈥渕inimum order quantity is 1 piece鈥�.

To be sure, half an LED light bulb would not be as messy as half a traditional bulb, but what would Health and Safety have to say?