What is this person trying to sell me?

What is this person trying to sell me?

Ask who is making the claim, how they know, and what they are trying to sell. These questions are second nature to us under some circumstances. When you walk into a used-car dealership and the salesman starts talking about how the car in the corner of the lot had only a single owner, a little old lady who drove it once a week to church on Sunday, you are, of course, thinking this way: Who is this person? A used-car salesman! How does he know this? Well, maybe he heard it straight from the little old lady herself. Or maybe, he heard it from the dealer across town who sold him the car. Or, just maybe, there never was a little old lady to begin with. What’s he trying to sell you? That one’s obvious. The 2002 Pontiac Aztek you made the mistake of glancing toward as you walked on the lot.

When we scan through our social media feeds, or listen to the evening news, or read the latest magazine page about how to improve our health, we need to ask the same questions.

In the process of writing this chapter, we read online that crystals “retain all the information they have ever been exposed to. Crystals absorb information—whether a severe weather pattern, or the experience of an ancient ceremony—and pass it to anyone that comes into contact with them.” Now this doesn’t even remotely jibe with our understanding of physics, so it’s worth asking ourselves these three questions about this claim.

Answering the first question is relatively straightforward. Who is telling us this? This text comes from an interview about healing crystals from the website of the lifestyle brand Goop. The interviewee is Colleen McCann, a “fashion stylist turned energy practitioner” and “certified shamanic energy medicine practitioner” who “utilizes a combination of crystals, color theory, chakra systems, astrology, naturopathy, and Feng Shui principles.”

Answering the second question, “How does she know it?,” can be harder to ascertain. In this case, however, McCann’s website gives us enough material to make some educated guesses. In her bio, we learn that McCann “started hearing voices, also known as Clairaudience, in a Brooklyn bodega” and that the “reputable Manhattan psychic” she subsequently consulted “gently broke the mystical bomb to her that she too was psychic. The voices were in fact her Spirit Guides saying hello.” She then “jumped heels first into the crystal-laden rabbit hole with three years of private mentorship with an Intuitive Healer. Her journey then led her to train at The Four Winds Society in Peruvian Shamanic Studies.” Finally, we learn that she “has spent a decade studying with a Buddhist Feng Shui master to learn Crystal Healing and Space Clearing.” Perhaps it was through these experiences, or others like them, that McCann picked up the information that she shared in this interview.

And the third question, “What are they trying to sell us?” Here again we have to guess a little bit, but only a little bit. The Goop company and the interviewee may be selling slightly different things, of course. McCann may be aiming to sell us on a set of ideas or a philosophy. In addition, and perhaps not coincidentally, her website reveals that she also sells crystals and provides services including “intuitive crystal readings,” “crystal gridding,” and “crystal luxtration.” The Goop company, for their part, might argue that they are promoting a lifestyle. But they also sell a so-called Goop Medicine Bag, wherein for eighty-five dollars one receives a set of eight “chakra-healing crystals.” To us these seem nearly indistinguishable from the polished gems and such that you would get for five dollars a bag at tourist shops—but think again. The Goop stones have been “cleansed with sage, tuned with sound waves, activated with mantras, and blessed with Reiki.”

In short, people may be trying to sell you used cars or life insurance or beauty treatments—or they may be trying to sell you ideas, viewpoints, and perspectives. Some sales jobs get you to part with your hard-earned money. Other sales jobs convince you to believe something that you didn’t believe before, or to do something you wouldn’t have done otherwise. Everyone is trying to sell you something; it is just a matter of figuring out what.

Consider the authors’ example of a manipulated photograph showing NFL player Michael Bennett with a burning flag. Who is telling me this? The Facebook group called Vets for Trump. How do they know it? Since the photo appeared only on Facebook and was not reported in any traditional media outlet, the only possible story would be that someone had a camera in a locker room, but somehow the media was either not present or they all agreed not to report on what had happened—and none of the Seahawks players or staff spoke up about it afterward. That seems highly implausible. What are they trying to sell us? They want to convince us that the NFL players who are protesting racial injustice hold anti-American sentiments and may be a threat to the country. Even without the giveaway signs of a poor photoshopping job, the answers to these three questions should be enough to make us question the authenticity of such a shocking and unexpected picture.