ChatGPT said:

Absolutely — there’s a whole fascinating graveyard of ideas that began life as “woo” and were later resurrected into “wahoo” (i.e., respectable, celebrated, or even foundational). Science often pathologizes early insight as madness, only to later crown it as genius once the culture or method catches up.

Here's a list of ideas that made the leap from fringe, mystical, or ridiculed woo to validated or serious wahoo — complete with what changed:

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🧬 1. Epigenetics

Then (woo): The idea that experiences or environmental factors can affect gene expression — and be inherited — sounded like Lamarckian mysticism for much of the 20th century.
Now (wahoo): Epigenetics is a respected field. We now know that methylation, histone modification, and RNA silencing can all regulate genes based on experience or stress — even transgenerationally in some cases.
Shifted by: New molecular biology techniques + developmental studies.

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🧠 2. Neuroplasticity

Then (woo): The adult brain was once thought to be fixed. The idea that it could rewire itself based on experience sounded like magical thinking.
Now (wahoo): Neuroplasticity is now central to neuroscience and psychology. From stroke recovery to therapy, we recognize the brain is constantly remapping.
Shifted by: Brain imaging, rehabilitation research, studies on meditation and trauma.

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🧘 3. Meditation and Mindfulness

Then (woo): Considered mystical Eastern fluff, inappropriate for clinical or scientific contexts.
Now (wahoo): Backed by neuroscience, psychotherapy, and even corporate wellness (for better or worse), meditation affects attention, stress response, and even gene expression.
Shifted by: Research by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Richie Davidson, and Buddhist-informed neurophilosophy.

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🌍 4. Continental Drift / Plate Tectonics

Then (woo): Alfred Wegener was mocked in the early 1900s for suggesting continents drifted apart. No mechanism seemed plausible.
Now (wahoo): Plate tectonics is the foundation of modern geology.
Shifted by: Seafloor mapping, paleomagnetism, and better understanding of mantle dynamics.

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⚛️ 5. Atoms and Quanta

Then (woo): The idea that matter was composed of indivisible particles was once metaphysical speculation (e.g., Democritus). Quantum mechanics was also mocked for its “weirdness.”
Now (wahoo): Fundamental to physics, chemistry, and materials science.
Shifted by: Experimental physics, especially in the early 20th century.

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🔬 6. The Germ Theory of Disease

Then (woo): The idea that invisible entities caused disease sounded like superstition or magical thinking before Pasteur and Koch.
Now (wahoo): Germ theory is the basis of modern medicine.
Shifted by: Microscopy, experimental proof, and sanitation results.

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🌐 7. The Internet

Then (woo): The idea that we could link computers into a “global brain” was once the domain of science fiction and cyber-utopians.
Now (wahoo): It’s the infrastructure of daily life — for better and worse.
Shifted by: ARPANET, TCP/IP, the World Wide Web, social networks.

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🌀 8. Chaos and Complexity Theory

Then (woo): Saying “the flap of a butterfly’s wings can cause a tornado” sounded like mystical nonsense.
Now (wahoo): Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics and physics; complexity science shapes biology, economics, and epidemiology.
Shifted by: Nonlinear dynamics, computers, Lorenz attractors, Wolfram, Santa Fe Institute.

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🧠 9. Somatic Therapies

Then (woo): The idea that trauma lives in the body and that healing can happen through movement or touch sounded New Age-y.
Now (wahoo): The role of the vagus nerve, polyvagal theory (controversial but influential), and embodied cognition are widely studied.
Shifted by: Research into PTSD, autonomic regulation, and sensorimotor therapy.

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🌌 10. Multiverse / Many-Worlds Interpretation

Then (woo): Sounded like science fiction or metaphysics.
Now (half-wahoo): A viable — though still controversial — interpretation of quantum mechanics, supported by some physicists.
Shifted by: Mathematical elegance, quantum computing, and decoherence theory.

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✨ Patterns in Woo → Wahoo Transformations

• Often begins with intuition or metaphor.

• Lacks tools or conceptual frameworks at first.

• Resisted by orthodoxy because it challenges foundational assumptions.

• Later adopted once experimental or formal tools emerge to clarify or support it.

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Would you like a speculative list of what today's woo might become tomorrow's wahoo? Or an inverse: wahoo that turned back into woo (e.g. phrenology)?