6:12
Saint Paul, MN
Reader, this weekend I met with a PRL subscriber to discuss marketing emails that I am writing for his business.
Yep, my first paid copywriting gig!
We bounced around with other conversation topics as well, including my wife’s newfound interest in Reiki energy healing.
<cue eye-roll>
My friends asked what I thought of Energy Healing, a topic that’s looked down upon by science and society as being unconfirmed.
My answer?
Science is the failure.
Our human senses are extremely limited. And even though we’ve found ways to “see” things beyond those senses —consider radio waves for example— we’ve barely scratched the surface in our attempts to understand the universe. We’re running on theories but, as you’ve maybe heard:
the Map is not the Territory
Those theories are the map. But they don’t always align with reality.
Science has changed, at least in the social understanding of its promise.
Science used to be, “let’s explore what we don’t know; let’s try to discredit existing theories.”
These days, science is seen as, “This is the Truth, and if you dare question it…
you are anti-science.”
From my perspective, if someone thinks our current Science (as a worldview) has all the answers, they are the ones that are anti-science (that is, against the ongoing search for greater understanding of the unknown).
Science has largely replaced religion as a way to understand the world. There is little room for mysticism or mystery. It’s made the world a colder place, I think, and has removed a common set of rules to live by.
Then I went home and turned on some YouTube.
Randomly (thanks Universe!) I was offered a video titled The Science Delusion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TerTgDEgUE
This guy Rupert Sheldrake, author of Science Set Free, echoed some of my same thoughts, perhaps with more clarity (and so I paraphrased him a bit in today’s letter).
To branch this into Persuasion, there are two ways to be persuasive.
You can be certain, 100%-this-is-it, no-room-for-doubt. That might work for you. It certainly works for some people. It’s supported by the idea of Authority. Many sales are made with this approach.
Or you can understand there is nuance in the world, multiple variables that we can’t know completely.
When you are open to the possibility of being wrong, open to the idea that you don’t know the full truth, and you readily admit that — you are allowing others to see you as a human with biases and errors. That builds rapport. That leaves room for trust in your relationships.
It also allows you to find mystery and wonder in the world, *|FNAME|*, and that’s where the joy lies.
Jeffrey
PS That copywriting gig I mentioned— the emails start this week. We’ll be testing the send times, responses, headlines… Test test test!
I also spent time looking at ads in the Sunday paper. There are opportunities available to write better ads, especially for a burger joint I know and love. I wonder if they’d be open to offering me free burgers for life (FB4L™) if I increased their response rates?