I sat there seething, torn between wanting to leave and wanting to let the angry verbiage flow. I could feel the adrenaline pumping and my heart was racing. Surely they can all see it's snake oil being peddled?
I am a skeptic. Through and through. When someone want's to sell me something and it has a sales pitch to go with it, my fight or flight reflexes kick in. As a nine or ten year old, I would question if the toy they were trying to sell me on T.V. was as exceptional as I was being told or if it was all smoke and mirrors. Smoke and mirrors would have usually been more fun.
So, half way through our monthly Made In Ojai member Co-op meeting, in the middle of our heated debate about space sizes and the epic, monolithic stature of my new and apparently hated display (it is a tale for another day....) we were asked to listen to a sales pitch. What was being sold? Nothing that I hadn't seen before, but it was being sold in a whole new way. We've all been into the new age shops and seen various crystals touted to protect us and our fragile chakras. The person addressing our group had clearly done this before. What was she selling? "Millions uf specially developed micro crystals, invisible to zee naked eye!" She proclaimed with her beautiful european accent. Where were these millions of micro crystals? "In zee middle of zee high quality resin!" She said enthusiastically as she passed around samples of pretty, diamond shaped pendants. Looking more like large glass tiles, tinted with different colors than the metaphysical device she was describing, I thought "Oh! Pretty!" As they passed around the circle, going hand to hand it was explained to us that a scientist (apparently with many an ailment) developed these to help protect us from EMF's (electromagnetic fields) which make us to unbalanced and cause illness. To prove their effectiveness she asked for volunteers. A woman stood from our group. Mind you we had been sitting at our meeting for about forty-five minutes, the volunteer was asked to stand on one foot, hold her arms out at her sides and resist when when her arm was pushed on. Standing on her left leg, the woman pushed on her right arm and over she went, unable to keep from falling. Over and over again. Now, she asked if she could place one of the pendants on the volunteer and asked her to wait a few minutes while she explained more about them. This is where the smoke and mirrors comes in. The time passed and she asked again, "Stand on one foot with your arms out." This time she pushed on her arm and the volunteer remained solid as a rock, unwavering. WOW! Fantastic!
And this is where I have a problem. She didn't push on the same arm as before. She pressed down on the opposite arm, the one that had the leg firmly planted on the ground. Also, having been standing for 5 minutes her body was allowed to adjust from the sitting to standing position. What does this have to do with emf's? Are you kidding me? "How much?" someone asked. "Thirty-six dollars. That is the wholesale price for you today. They regularly sell for..." are you ready for this..."Sixty dollars." And she said it with a strait face! I asked "Did you say sixteen? 1-6 dollars?" Nope. $60.
She was performing the same demonstration on another member of our group and I was about to comment on what I had noticed, when another of our group got up and wanted to purchase one. At our last meeting, this same member revealed to us that they were fighting cancer. I couldn't say anything. Who am I to destroy that hope? Who am I to say that this thing wouldn't protect them from electromagnetic fields? Maybe they just thought they were pretty?
Who am I?
I hope it does work.
