Do you think that the 20th century physics discoveries are partly repsonsible for New Age silliness?

Before relativity and quantum mechanics, physics, which meant Newtonian physics, was rather intuitive. Even if you do not know the details, it is not hard to understand the law of inertia or that forces act mutually on the bodies involved or that a constant force provides constant acceleration.

All of this changed with relativity and especially quantum mechanics. Even people who understand and work with quantum mechanics say that getting an intuitive grasp of it is impossible.

So what is the layman to make of this? If the basic laws of science strike scientists as flat out weird, doesn’t that open the door to all kinds of mystical interpretations or, perhaps more accurately, misinterpretations? People have a basic need to make sense of things and without the comfort of a Newtonian interpretation is it not understandable that people will seek out alternative explanations? What I find particularly irksome about New Age talk is the references to physics to support statements about how everything is energy or the effect that one person’s thoughts can have on someone miles away.