Originally posted by Randal Graves: Yes, I saw that. Thank you!
What did you like about it?
It opened up a whole new dynamic for me...a different way of looking at things...I was raised a dogmatic Christian, studied Eastern philosophy Hinduism/Buddhism etc. And now what the Bleep! We make our own reality. We get what we expect. We can change that by chaning ouir patern of thinking. What we think is what we believe and whatever we believe we manifest. Powerful stuff!
Posts: 863 | Location: West Palm Beach, FL | Registered: 21 June 2007
Hey there. I'm relatively new to this site too. I've seen "What the Bleep," "The Secret," and the "Celestine Prophecy." (read that book too.) Also I've read "Ask and it is Given" and some Wayne Dyer.
I'm curious as to what others think of this philosophy. Personally, while I'm intrigued, I've also found some of this positive thinking stuff to be harmful.
For example, I've heard many "Bleep/Secret" advocates say that women who are raped caused it to happen by their negative thoughts (!), cancer patients get sick because of their negative thoughts, people who die, die because of their negative thoughts! In other words, if anything bad happens to you in life, it's your own fault because your negative thoughts made it happen.
I find this notion to be cruel and inhumane. It's also harmful because some people are actually spending their days working on changing their thoughts from negative to positive while real, actual problems that need to be solved are just ignored. I tried this positive thinking method while in career counseling. I visualized what I wanted, believed I'd get it and sent my love out into the world. The result?
I ended up losing nearly every penny I had. The career counselor, however, seems to be doing well.
My view is that positive thinking combined with positive actions and a positive, supportive environment can lead to greatness. But those of us who are poor often don't have the money to take the action steps necessary to improve our lives. It's sad. But it is reality.
If positive thinking were combined with compassion and an understanding that bad things do happen to good, positive thinking people and so we should help others who are less fortunate rather than pass judgment on them (which is what accusing someone of causing their own problems with their own negative thoughts is--a judgment) then I think that positive thinking as suggested by this new age philosophy can benefit our society.
Right now, though, I'm seeing a lot of people using this new age philosophy to make a profit. They prey on those of us who are struggling in this tough economy. We want to believe that something as simple as changing our thoughts can change reality because nothing else seems to be working. Our politicians aren't listening to us and jobs are being outsourced to China or wherever, so we're hoping that the answer just lies within ourselves. Many Jews in Nazi Germany ignored the warnings of Hitler's plan by insisting, "We'll just pray about it. God will save us." It's a similar kind of thinking, that we can just solve complex problems by just praying, wishing or visualizing the solution. If only it were that easy.
In fact, there's a video on youtube about one of the men interviewed on for "The Secret." Seems he's swindled several people out of their money but hasn't even tried paying them back. He just tells them they should think positive and visualize getting their money back... Ha!
Posts: 2 | Location: USA | Registered: 09 September 2007
Originally posted by FreedomLuva: Hey there. I'm relatively new to this site too. I've seen "What the Bleep," "The Secret," and the "Celestine Prophecy." (read that book too.) Also I've read "Ask and it is Given" and some Wayne Dyer.
I'm curious as to what others think of this philosophy. Personally, while I'm intrigued, I've also found some of this positive thinking stuff to be harmful.
**Here's my 2-cents on it: Like most any belief system, these beliefs can also become harmful when people detach from reality and become convinced that these abstract ideas/beliefs are the truth.
Life itself is actually a pretty amazing process, so there's no real need to live in a fantasy world of 'positive thoughts'. One of the main problems I observe with most of the belief systems that end up running people's lives is that they basically try to make life more bearable within a largely dysfunctional system, instead of asking the larger question of: 'Why do we collectively continue to create a social situation that most people wish to escape from'?
When humans occupy their minds continually with getting stuff to make them less unhappy, it tends to leave no space for paying attention to why they feel unhappy in the first place. To better understand the situation of why one feels they need something to feel okay requires 'getting in touch with the actuality of one's life', and that doesn't generally happen if one is continually 'moving away' from our actual situation trying to move to some imaginary 'better place' where we have more stuff.
Living in fantasy is what makes these belief systems harmful. Believing one can get something one wants by putting ones mind to it can and does sometimes result in acquiring some particular desired thing, but by continually engaging in these 'escapes' this behavior simply perpetuates an avoidance of looking at why we feel the need to escape the actual situation we collectively create.
That's how it seems to me, anyway.
Regards - Howard
"Thought works by conditioning. It has to get conditioned. You need conditioning to learn a language, to learn how to write, or to do all sorts of things. When the conditioning gets too rigid, though, it won't change when it should." - David Bohm
Posts: 1211 | Location: Southern California | Registered: 16 August 2002
**Thanks RM. It's always a pleasure to hear from you.
Regards - Howard
"Thought works by conditioning. It has to get conditioned. You need conditioning to learn a language, to learn how to write, or to do all sorts of things. When the conditioning gets too rigid, though, it won't change when it should." - David Bohm
Posts: 1211 | Location: Southern California | Registered: 16 August 2002
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Well said.
