Why the term “Woo Woo” Is Harmful to Spiritual Traditions & Practitioners of Colour

With mutual understanding, respect, and a deep reverence and caring for the history, we can decolonize ourselves, the yoga-industrial complex, and stage our own ahimsa, or nonviolent revolution of the mind, body and spirit.

- Susana Barkataki

“How Woo are you?” I came across a diagram that shows a meter asking this. It ranges from 100% woo and on the complete opposite spectrum is 100% skeptic. 

Some even claim to be your “Woo Woo BFF”.

When I read these, it makes my skin crawl. I can feel some part of me wanting to vom.

What does “woo woo” mean?

The term "woo woo" is often used to describe beliefs or practices that are considered unconventional or outside of mainstream science or rationality. It’s often used to describe spiritual folk.

The first example shared on Urban Dictionary of how to use “woo woo” in a sentence is: “She's so woo-woo she put a rose quartz crystal and Bach Flower Essences in her cat's water dish.”

* Shudders *

While the term might seem harmless or even funny, it is incredibly dismissive and disparaging to spiritual practitioners of colour.

Why? Because this term reinforces stereotypes and biases about beliefs and practices being irrational or even ridiculous. However, these practices have always been carried out by spiritual practitioners of colour and their ancestors for centuries. These practices include energy work, Reiki, Yoga, Buddhism, Taoism, etc. They have been passed on for generations.

When the term “woo woo” is continually perpetuated, it adds to the narrative of watering down authentic spiritual practices, because it dismisses it as some pseudo-mystic belief. When these practices are mocked or belittled, they become a form of erasure and disrespect towards the cultures from which they originate.

This isn’t to discount science but to acknowledge that spirituality should be allowed to survive and thrive without every single theory having to be proved by science.

Just because it isn’t backed by science doesn’t mean it isn’t true. There has to be respect and a space for both to co-exist. You can be religious or spiritual AND believe in science.

In an article penned by Garima Garg titled The Truth about Western Cultural Appropriation of Eastern Spirituality, she writes “We see that the practitioners in the West repeatedly import practices from the East, package them into something easy and secular for their audiences, and then crop up criticisms that the particular practice is harmful, unscientific, and conspiratorial. This import is more often than not without the consent of or context from voices from the East where such practices originated.“ Mic drop.

Growing up in Hong Kong, spirituality is woven into our way of life. Many Cantonese people who grew up in Hong Kong are aware of:

  • Not stepping on the threshold (the first step) when stepping into a temple we don’t step on the, we step over it as a sign of respect

  • We light incense for our ancestors daily, and many have an altar with their images at home

  • We have ceremonies and pay respects to our deities, especially during commencement opportunities like opening a new store, building, or

  • We sweep our ancestors’ graves as a sign of respect during our annual Ching Ming/ Tomb Sweeping Festival. It’s a grandiose ordeal where we prepare a real feast of pork, fruits, and chicken, buy joss paper gifts, pour wine and other beverages onto the floor as gestures of sending material goods and nourishment to them in the afterlife

I share this all to say that ancestral veneration and spiritual practices are intrinsic to us. Yet if these practices are seen as “woo woo”, it deeply disregards our cultures and the seriousness of our reverence for those who came before us.

While it feels shaky to write this and share this post, I feel that this is incredibly important because people of colour, especially our ancestors have been vilified for too long just for being ourselves. Especially our spiritual selves. We live in an era where sovereignty was never ceded in many indigenous lands. Many are still unaware that during colonialism, Indians were banned from practising yoga. This led to a destructive loss of authentic knowledge of yoga and broke down lineages that have been passed on for thousands of years. Many people are still unaware of the aftermath of colonialism that wrecked the lineages, well-being and safety of people of colour. And how this is still perpetuated today.

I’ve been reading Future Ancestors by the incredible Aboriginal Bush Woman Annabelle Sharman, and I’m marinating on what it means to become a Future Ancestor. As she writes, an integral part of this is that “we each have a responsibility to nurture, protect and restore the balance to our Mother (Earth). We are her… My message about being a Future Ancestor is not just about me being an Australian Aboriginal person or a grandmother, or for my people or my grandchildren. it is beyond that. It is Universal. It is about how we can all be better people and live in a new world, a better world.”

How do we move forward?

  • Learn from spiritual teachers of colour who are doing the work to decolonise spiritual practices. I’m inspired by practitioners who are working to decolonise spiritual practices in the wellness space, especially Yoga Instructor and author of Embrace Yoga’s Roots, Susana Barkataki, the co-founders of the Womxn of Colour Summit, Irene Lo and Harpinder Mann, amongst many other incredible teachers who are reclaiming their culture.

  • Research the history of different lineages that you practice: Especially if it’s Yoga, take the time out to read the classical Yogic texts such as Hatha Yoga Pradipika, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, The Bhagavad Gita by Maharishi Veda Vyasa. As a Human Design Reader, I also want to address that this is a New Age practice I’ve been diving into. Quite frankly, I was turned off by Human Design when I first learned about the modality because of its wacky history. I write more about it here, yet my conclusion is that a lot of what HD is, is based on the ancient Chinese divination text, the I-Ching. I see HD as a gateway to explore the I-Ching more deeply. Practising HD is a stepping stone that has led me to understand my ancestral culture more. My Human Design mentor, Fiona Wong of The Wild Pixel has been a north star in unpacking this. She says, “Part of me believes that if Human Design is a form of cultural appropriation, my existence and work in the system takes it back.” I wholeheartedly agree and believe in this.

  • The last one is the most simple: Stop saying the phrase “woo woo”. Just say “spiritual”

Works Cited

Barkataki, Susanna. “How to Decolonize Your Yoga Practice | HuffPost Life.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 2 Mar. 2015, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-to-decolonize-your-yo_b_6776896.

Garg, Garima. “The Truth About Western Cultural Appropriation of Eastern Spirituality - Fair Observer.” Fair Observer, https://www.facebook.com/fairobserver/, 27 Feb. 2023, https://www.fairobserver.com/blog/the-truth-about-western-cultural-appropriation-of-eastern-spirituality/.

Sharman, Annabelle. The Future Ancestor. Hay House, Inc, 2023.

Yinki Nicole Wong