Believing in pseudoscience is often harmless, and if it does affect anyone, it's usually limited to the believers themselves. However, things take a different turn when those believers turn out to be licensed healthcare professionals who are supposed to actually help people.
As one Redditor shared, she found it wildly inappropriate when she discovered that her radiology station coworkers believed their patients were sick because of the so-called 'bad energy' they 'put out into the universe.' And yet, when she confronted them, they had the nerve to take it up with the managers. Scroll down to read the full story!
More info: Reddit
Being a pseudoscience believer usually does no real harm as long as you're not a licensed healthcare professional who is supposed to take care of patients
Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)
A woman worked as a radiology assistant and was tasked with guiding the patients as well as cleaning and tidying the station
Image credits: Helpful_Run_1984 (not the actual photo)
All of the woman's coworkers were into "The Secret," which said that people get back what they put into the universe, implying that their patients' illness was their own doing
Image credits: Mizuno K (not the actual photo)
The woman found it highly inappropriate and tried to confront some of her coworkers, but the situation didn't change
Image credits: Robert Bye (not the actual photo)
The coworkers started disliking her for it and decided to complain to their managers, accusing her of improper attitude and throwing out their "The Secret" books and materials
Image credits: Manglewood
The woman was called into a meeting, which concluded with her being forbidden to touch anyone else's stuff, which meant that she would no longer have to clean for them
The story occurred around 2008 when the OP worked as a radiology assistant in a mammography unit. Her tasks involved guiding and instructing the patients, as well as keeping the station clean and tidy.
At the same time, a pseudoscientific thing known as "The Secret" was being promoted by Oprah Winfrey and was at the height of its popularity. To put it briefly, it states that you get back whatever you put into the universe, and you can get anything simply by visualizing and asking for it. This applied to both the good and the bad.
The poster was not surprised by the popularity of such a thing, as stuff like that happens all the time. However, what did come as a shock to her was that all of her coworkers were very into it, too, despite being licensed healthcare professionals.
She found it terribly wrong to believe that the breast cancer victims being treated caused their own illness by thinking negatively, so she tried to confront a few of them, but it led nowhere.
One day, the believers decided to deal with their nonbeliever coworker by seeking help from their management. The woman was called into a meeting where she explained herself and was even defended by one of the managers.
However, among all the complaints about her attitude, there was also one about the way she handled their "The Secret" magazines. In response to that, the assistant was forbidden from touching anyone else's stuff. But for her, that was an absolute win-win situation, as it meant that she could no longer tidy the radiology station, and thus, the believers would sit in their own mess.
Most of the commenters agreed with the OP, saying that while positivity is a great thing, "The Secret" was not about it at all. It made people think that they deserve good things just because they think good thoughts and that those who suffer are inferior to them and deserve what they get, which is wrong, even if you're not a doctor.
Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)
Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but there is a fine line between faith and delusion. Healthcare professionals blindly following pseudoscientific tales like this would likely put off most rational-minded people, but for the OP, this also went on a personal level.
"Their obsession with 'The Secret' bothered me for personal reasons beyond what I felt on behalf of patients because my mom and I have systemic lupus," u/Manglewood, also known as Molly Hodgdon, opened up when Bored Panda reached out for an interview.
According to Molly's ex-coworkers, her and her mother's disease was a form of cosmic retribution for having so-called 'negative energy.' "Whenever I tried to talk to any of them about it, they would just say the whole conversation was an example of the negativity causing my genetically-influenced autoimmune disorder. It was truly outrageous victim blaming."
After the events of the story, the woman didn't linger in her ex-workplace for too long, leaving after roughly half a year. However, it seems that her disbelief in "The Secret" left a deeper mark on her workers than their belief left on her, as they were still gossiping and making up stories about her even after she no longer worked there.
"Now that I'm old enough to have annual mammograms, I dread the possibility that one of them might be my tech, but I also look forward to the opportunity to ask incredulously, 'You're still working here?? I thought you guys were going to use 'The Secret' to become millionaires!'" Molly shared.
Having finally shared her story online, the OP was very surprised by how positively it was received, as, unlike most Malicious Compliance stories, this one did not have any kind of stunning culmination or crazy twist. "Usually, there is that contingent of compulsive internet contrarians who feel the need to pipe up oppositionally [on] everything, yet there were only a couple of comments mildly defending some aspects of 'The Secret.' It felt quite vindicating."
So, in the end, just because someone is a licensed professional doesn't automatically mean that they'll act that way. It pays to judge people equally, regardless of their titles in our society, because even the most educated people can fall for the most ridiculous promises and vice versa.
What did you think about this story? Have you ever dealt with anything similar? Tell us all about it in the comments below!
Most of the commenters were very supportive of the poster, saying this kind of behavior from trained healthcare professionals is absurd
