WooWoo Intro

Welcome to the Official WooWoo Scale. Folks, it’s finally down in text.

How did the WooWoo Scale project start? When I moved to Portland in 2005, I made friends who threw around this term, "WooWoo." I never heard of it and was told that WooWoo is a term used loosely to describe something "out there" or "strange." WooWoo is usually applied to belief systems or practices in the area of the paranormal or supernatural. In my observation WooWoo is used lovingly, not as an insult but more in fun. I wanted to explore this term more. I wanted quantification and what it meant to be WooWoo. Friends and I had so much fun that we began to solidify an actual scale. A true, scientific measurement scale to assess the degree of a person's WooWoo-ness. But first for the English lit types, let's lay down a definition:

WooWoo (Adj.) - 1. Term used to describe beliefs outside support of empirical or mainstream scientific evidence. 2. Term used to describe practices that have strong popular opposition, questionable validity, or accusations of being fallacious. Example: "Patty went to one of her WooWoo meetings last night." (Patty was at a UFO channeling meeting). Other spellings: "Woo Woo," "woowoo," "woo woo." See also the SkepticWiki entry entry for another good definition.

Just how WooWoo are you? Follow along, up the scale and see where you max out. Follow the "Onwards to level 0" link below. Authored by Kristopher and Brandon LaGreca. Photos courtesy of wikipedia.org except where noted.