How to Study Weird Things

As a science teacher in an interdisciplinary undergraduate program, I often encounter students who want to study topics that many of my colleagues would find nonacademic, and certainly unscientific, such as astrology, Reiki, channeling, Tarot, homeopathy, and ESP. What can an instructor, working within the western scientific tradition, do with such requests? One approach is to clearly explain to the student that these topics "aren't science," and they are not going to learn anything from researching them. I think that this gets a student nowhere, and it is just such an attitude that makes many afraid to pursue unconventional interests. This position also reinforces the students' mistrust of science, professors, and academia, an attitude that they will find no shortage of in the books written on the unconventional subjects of their choice.

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