Originally posted by DigiMark007
Subjective reality doesn't mean we can actively influence it remotely via thoughts and emotions. All it means is that we create our inward perception of it. The meaning that we ascribe to it is our own, but not the actual machinations of it.I'll be honest deb: I know you probably end up a lot happier because of this idea, and also probably do a fair amount of good as a result, but the idea itself is dangerous when taken to such extremes.
As evidence, I'll be paraphrasing Ingrid Hansen Smythe's scathing review of "The Secret", a "power of attraction" book that sounds a lot like what you're espousing....as well as inserting my own thoughts.
[b]Limits of Attraction:
Imagine a scenario where a young girl is raped, chopped to pieces, thrown into a trashbag in those pieces, burned, then cast aside. Brutal, no? And the obvious question is: Did she attract that to herself via her thoughts and feelings?
No. Of course not. I doubt you'd say so, and no rational person would. But let's get more nuanced. The everyday occurences that happen to people, good, bad, or even neutral. Are those attracted? Possibly, under the theory. But where draw the line? There isn't one. And does a person only attract things (positive or negative) if they are conscious that they should attract it?
And even in the brutal example of the girl, why throw it out so casually as a refutation? If I can influence a bee via positive thoughts, or a person can bring woe upon themselves by thinking negatively, how is it that we can discard the example of the girl? The answer is, we can't. Saying that she didn't deserve it or that her thoughts had nothing to do with it seems like a monkey wrench in the theory, which has no testable basis on rational grounds anyway.
Coincidences:
We all have at least 1 (probably more) stories of coincidences. This is extremely common. Hundreds of thousands of coincidences happen on a daily basis, made into a rather bland fact by the sheer power of probability, the number of people on the planet, and the staggering number of tasks we complete each day and thoughts that race through our head...each of which is a potential for a coincidence, possibly a very large one. And we are programmed by evolution to be pattern-seeking individuals. We find the coincidences.
And we remember the hits, but not the misses. If a person dreamed of an old friend, woke up the next morning and found out he was dead, it would be hard to convince him that something paranormal didn't occur. Nobody recounts the billions of deaths that went unnoticed in dreams, even of close friends and relatives. But if it happens to one person, say in England next week, my guess is that the newspapers or tv stations will pick it up on a slow day, and a good chunk of the population of England will hear about it (if only as a flippant paragraph or two deep within a newspaper), thus reinforcing the general belief. Then we have media outlets (Chicken Soup for the New Age Soul?) dedicated to perpetuating ideas like this. The odds of such a thing happening are actually very possible, but we only realize it if we take the time to think about it.
Now, combine all that with a person who buys into this system of attraction. Now, more than ever, the person is acutely cognizant of the patterns around them, of the relationships between one action and a subsequent consequence, of the power they have over their lives. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, not simply a reasonable assessment of the world.
"Quantum Thinking":
You alluded to it in your opening post, so my guess is that you're referring to observer-based occurences within quantum mechanics. The idea is actually rather silly. The myth is that reality cannot exist without mind, that we aren't just observing reality but influencing it by the very act of observation. This has remained urban myth among laypeople with a cursory understanding of the theory.
The more elegant reality of the situation is simply that quantum states are notoriously hard to maintain, and that any influence is liable to collapse it. Basically, in any situation where an observer CAN observe a quantum state (say, shedding light on the interaction so as to record it), the quantum state is compromised (in the case of the light, the photons would disrupt the system).
Concessions:
I'm not attacking debbie (who I like as a forum member and respect). I simply felt obligated to talk about something that I see as little more than pseudo-science that panders to our sense of wonder, without taking into account a more logical approach to the idea.
Self-fulfilling prophecies occur. If you are convinced you won't do something, chances are you won't (and yours odds improve with a similarly positive outlook). But be very, very careful how far you take it, and also what kinds of justifications you use to support it.
...
P.S. I play my best golf when I'm angry as hell. The kind of anger that turns into rage, and it hones it into a focus...but at that point I can't even feel happy for the good shots. Whatever I'm angry about transcends it. I suppose I shouldn't try that though when it's raining...I might call down lightning on myself ( 🙄 ) [/B]
You have very good points. But there seems to be aspects of the Law of Attraction that you do not understand.
1) You can't change someone else's reality, only your own. Another person's experiences are thier own responsibility.
2) The Law of Attraction doesn't give people what they deserve. It's not about good or evil, or judgement, or anything like that. It's pure cause and effect.
According to the Law, you attract to you what goes through your mind. The things you fear, love, hate, focus on, are the things you bring into your life through your actions and interactions with the environment and other people.
The girl who got chopped up....what was her life like before that ? How has her mentality always been ? Has she ever had a concentrated fear of being killed ?
Did she demand attention ? Did she commonly find herself in all the wrong places ? Where was she the time she got kidnapped ? Killed ? Who does she hang out with ?
Whenever a person is raped or murdered, others will say They were at the wrong place at the wrong time. As if it was something that happened out of no where, with no causes, just something that happened that no one had any control over.
If I walk down a dark street at midnight and am attacked, ofcourse it's not my fault I was attacked. However, why am I walking down this street at midnight ?
Or let's just say someone gets hit by a car walking in broad crowded day light...well....one can say that it was a total accident, it happened by CHANCE, that its something unfortunate that no one has any control over.
Well....I chose to cross that street, at that time. My choice to walk that street at that time is the result of a series of choices I made before. Cause and Effect.
The driver chose to drive in that street and not drive carefully.
Two people are responsible for this accident. They both committed the actions, they both created this experience.
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Think about it for a second:
Have you ever spoken to a devout Christian who swears that he or she has seen miracles ? Who swears by the power of God ? Even to the Death?
Well...there's a reason for that.
Good things have come into thier life. Thier beleif in God became so powerful, that they expected good things to happen. They may have not sorted out what they wanted, but they expected pleasure and peace to come from thier prayer and Faith.
They attracted good things through thier beleif, then attribute it to thier God. They then beleive even more, and in turn, more good things start to happen, reinforcing their beleif even further.
Buddhists, Muslims, and Hindus will ALSO claim good things have happened to them and thier loved ones because of thier beleifs.
It all comes down to this: Reality is different for everyone. My reality is simply the series of thoughts, emotions, and experiences I have. If a person I don't know dies, it has no bearing on my reality. It's not part of it, because I am not even aware of it, therefore my choices, actions, thoughts, and feelings are not affected.
My reality is different from yours. Anything bad that happens to me today, or any other day, is the result of my thoughts, emotions, and actions of the past.
Sick people who dwell on thier sickness make themself sicker.
If you google carefully, you will see that there are people ALL OVER THE WORLD who have cured themselves of diseases such as Cancer and even HIV !
Through beleif, through meditation, through healthy habits, through different mentality in conjuction with thier medications and treatments. Sometimes, even without.
Your brain has authority over every cell in your body. Remember that.
The only way to control your life is to control your mind first. You learn to control your mind through meditation and practice. Once you take full control of your mind, the rest of your life follows.