When someone calls you “woo-woo” does the hair on your arms stand straight up?

Do you prepare to emit a powerful, energetic wave to dismiss the culprit? Or do you, rather, just smile with your eyes and give a welcoming nod of approval for being part of this secret, outlandish society?

Perhaps some of you don’t know or couldn’t care less.

Yesterday, when someone suggested that my well-researched Hay House book, Winds of Spirit might be considered as woo-woo, I took offense. After all, I consider myself to be “the practical shaman,” which I always thought as redundant, because all shamanism is practical, concerned with the longevity of community, livestock, and weather.

So yesterday, I asked my Facebook friends if I was woo-woo. The insightful answers that poured in inspired me to write this article. It was clear that people were either attached to their own “woo,” or immediately took offense to being characterized as dubious believers of alternative facts. One person suggested I was too practical to be woo-woo, while another said, “Yes , but in a good way.”

I surmised that there must be good and bad aspects to “the woo.” The most complimentary remark was, “You are a totally down-to-earth shaman, who knows how to ride the winds! There are so many people who want to discount the ancient wisdom and healing knowledge we have brought with us to teach and heal others. You deserve to be a little elated, as you worked hard to share this with the world! You go girl! Woot woot!”

During my search for the meaning of “woo-woo,” a term that essentially makes light of and dismisses rituals as unscientific, while beheading other supernatural practices that have been enacted since before the dawn of the written word, I discovered something that resonated. Maybe woo-woo, like everything else, has it roots in the wind. Can you hear the sound of air moving through the night?

Are you “woo” too?

Here are 10 signs that you might be woo-woo.

1. You believe in magic.

You have had an experience in your life that has no plausible scientific explanation, and are 100 percent certain it happened.

2. You talk to animals.

When you’re home alone, you speak to your pet and are positive it understands everything you are saying.

3. You have guardian angels.

You likely had an emotional reaction to the news that Doreen Virtue had become a Christian and denounced her oracle cards.

4. Your shelf has rocks, crystals, totems, and other power-filled trinkets that you’ve collected from sacred places.

Depending on the strength of your connection to each item, you can name and date the place where each treasure was found.

5. You’ve attend Bhakti Fest or other yoga-driven activities

You own yoga pants, a yoga mat, and practice your mantras and chants regularly.

6. You think being woo-woo is cool.

In the past decade, it has become cool to be woo-woo.

7. You color outside the lines.

If you are “super-woo,” you aren’t even aware that there are lines.

8. You are most comfortable in nature.

Like gnomes and fairies, people who are woo-woo find solitude and peace in nature.

9. You are artistic.

Even if it’s just your annual vision board, fashion sense, or writing—you have a certain creative flair and your friends see you as an artist.

10. You got to the end of this article

A non woo-woo person would have stopped long before reaching the end of this article. They likely didn’t even open it.

At the end of the day, I fit all of the descriptions above and consider myself to be a bonafide woo.

What about you?

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Author: Renee Baribeau
Image: Tiko Giorgadze/Unsplash
Editor: Danielle Beutell
Copy Editor: Travis May
Social Editor: Callie Rushton