Hypothetical question.?

Question

So, you know how there is that theory that your thoughts create your reality? how if you have good thoughts, then good things will come, and if you have bad thoughts, then bad things will come? Because each thought sends a tiny electrical impulse off into the cosmos, and somehow someway it comes back to you.(I am not hinting at God in the least)

So what if whatever we believe creates our reality?For example, if I 100% believe that there is a purple pony over in the field, then there actually is a purple pony in the field over there. Now, if i have a friend who 100% believes that there is no pony over in the field, then there is no pony. But what if the pony bends down and takes a bite of grass? The grass exists in my friend's reality, but the pony does not. So would the grass not exist either, because the pony does not and floating grass is impossible, or would he see floating grass?

Please, i dont need to hear im crazy or that this is impossible or that i should smoke less.thx

My apologies for not putting this in philosophy, but up until just now i didnt know where it was.

now i do.

Answer 1

This is the sort of thinking "The Secret" is based around. Quite a few of my friends got right into it, and ended up investing a lot of time & sometimes money in preparing themselves for all the things they were wishing for. Of course none of it happened. If this sort of thing DID work, then everyone in the world would be rich & living interesting, safe & enjoyable lives. It is of course impossible for every person to have what they want or what they try to "think" into being. Any gain available from the universe for the taking, needs to be available to all people, not just the few westerners that have read the book or gone to the seminar etc. It needs to be available to those who are disabled, extremely poor, living in isolated areas etc. The universe is not only interested in the gains of a part of society that is already much more privelaged than the majority of the world's population, but would offer the same opportunities to all people equally. This is why I don't believe in this way of thinking. If you imagine for example, how many mothers in starving countries have wished & envisioned their children eating well & being strong and healthy & safe, yet so many millions of them continue to starve & die, doesn't it seem a little one sided that some already well off guy in New York should get his wish for a good car park space?? No, it doesn't make any sense at all to me that this system exists.

Answer 2

I think that your hypothetical question pretty much obliterated the credibility of this theory.

The theory rests on the premise that truth is subjective to the individual. However we know that there is objective truth in this world--absolutes do exist. And it also defines faith as something tangible--in the form of little electrical impulses, in your question.

The only possible way that this could work is in direct correlation with the existence of some higher power, or universal consciousness.

But since your questions presumes all this to be irrelevant, I suppose I'd better answer...

I would say that the grass would still exist to your friend as it had been. To him, there is no invisible pony to take a bite, therefore the bite will never be taken. Where you see a pony's mouth-sized patch of missing grass, your friend will see full, undisturbed grass.

Answer 3

We can tell if something is there if enough people agree it is. We can do tests to see if it is there, if it is affecting the environment. If many people agree the grass is there, and that it is untouched, chances are the pony isn't real. If they see the grass being eaten and don't see the pony, chances are they just can't see it, but it is there, unless there is some other explanation for it.

As far as thoughts creating reality, it's more perception than physical reality.

Answer 4

Your thoughts do create your reality but not always in the way you planned or the way you expected. And you really have to be okay with this. Let's say you threw a small stone in a lake and expected the traditional roundish ripple effect. But a short way off, there was a larger rock that was hit by about half of the ripples which then made them change shape. So you can have certain thoughts (and we all should try to cultivate compassionate thoughts) but they are dependent on other things either happening or not happening. So there are lots of potenital "realities" out there. We get what we get because of the total interconnection between us all.

Answer 5

Your idea is not new. Quantum mechanics says that reality is a wave function, and that many solutions (i.e. different realities) are possible, but the act of observing causes the wave function to collapse to just one possibility. But this collapse is for just one space-time event, and immediately after that event, reality is wave function again, with many possible solutions, albeit these solutions must be consistent with the past observed space-time events. With many observers, there are more constraints, but the wave function remains open with many ('infinite') possibilities. One science fiction book Blood Music by Greg Bear explores this idea in an interesting way, basically proposing that many scientific revolutions were not discovered but actually caused when a scientist/philosopher was able to imagine a new solution that was consistent with most of the observed past but opened up new possibilities. For example, the universe really was Newtonian until Einstein envisioned special relativity, at which point the universe changed to conform to those laws.

Answer 6

Your thoughts don't create your reality, your actions do. If you want something bad enough, you will concentrate on it and work harder for it. There's no such thing as thought energy as a tiny electrical impulse going off into the cosmos and coming back to you. You have to make your reality come true. Nothing comes to you that you don't create yourself.

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Answer 7

This is discussed in "Wigner's friend" [do a search]

The pseudoscience of "The Secret" [alluded on 1st paragraph] has only the validity that a) it has made author/producers more wealthy b) demonstrates the lack of knowledge of many who accept the claim of "science" c) the need for some to believe in such a concept and who ignore or have not the ability to critically analyze the premise.

Answer 8

If the pony did not exist, the grass would still be there, but would not be affected by the pony which only exists to you.

Answer 9

Your perception shapes your reality simply means that the way you see things affects the way you deal with them and that affects how you function in the world. It's basically a glass-half-full versus glass-half-empty thing. Generally, optimists are happier than pessimists, so if you think positive thoughts and approach life from a positive point of view, you're more likely to be happy.

Answer 10

I agree with the answer Why gave. If I am 100% sure I am going to win the lottery, does that mean I'm a sure thing to win? What if another person is 100% sure that they are going to win? What if I'm sure I'll win but I never bought a ticket? What you indicate does have some truth to it (see the film "The Secret") but I think logic has to come into play too.