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Do You Create Your Reality?

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
I just read a thread about Friday the 13th and the full moon and it would appear that there were posters that thought our reality might somehow be swayed by the date or event or the combination of the two.

Do you believe in such ideas as the 'Law of Attraction?' Do you have any influence over what happens to you in this life? If you're superstitious, do your assumptions play a role in your reality? Or in mine?

If so, why? If not, why not?
 

Phaedrus

Active Member
From my perspective, a mind gullible to superstition will alter personal reality to accommodate that which does not exist.
 

George-ananda

Advaita Vedanta, Theosophy, Spiritualism
Premium Member
If so, why? If not, why not?
I do believe our thoughts affect our reality in ways not readily understandable from a physical-only understanding of reality. We are co-creators of reality although from our normal perspective it always seems random.
 

Dawnofhope

Non-Proselytizing Baha'i
Staff member
Premium Member
Quite a few years back and first day on the job in a psychiatry inpatient ward I asked the nursing team if they had noticed increased admissions during a full moon. They were unanimous in their assessment that there was indeed a much higher rate. The only thing is, its easy to study scientifically. One study examined the data over a 10 year period. There wasn’t a jot of evidence to support any association between rates of admission to psychiatric facilities and the cycle of the moon.
 

The Sum of Awe

Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
I just read a thread about Friday the 13th and the full moon and it would appear that there were posters that thought our reality might somehow be swayed by the date or event or the combination of the two.

Do you believe in such ideas as the 'Law of Attraction?' Do you have any influence over what happens to you in this life? If you're superstitious, do your assumptions play a role in your reality? Or in mine?

If so, why? If not, why not?
Through your worldview, your consciousness, is the only way we experience reality. It therefore literally is our reality. Our beliefs, our perspectives, all based on a series of memories and experiences of everything we experienced in life, that's what formed how we perceive things and how we react to things both physically and emotionally.

The world will appear to us as we believe it is, we shape it by our beliefs.

If a black cat crosses your path and you think you're now doomed to an unlucky day, you're more than likely going to have a bad day just by expecting to. You'll pay more attention to the bad things that happen in the day, giving you more anxiety and causing a chain reaction of bad events as you expect it more and more.

The same goes for prayer, 4 leaf clovers, even wishing at 11:11 AM - when you put belief into something, you're also putting a bit of willpower in causing it to happen. The energy from your expectations basically gravitate the reality around you to a small degree.
 

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
Quite a few years back and first day on the job in a psychiatry inpatient ward I asked the nursing team if they had noticed increased admissions during a full moon. They were unanimous in their assessment that there was indeed a much higher rate. The only thing is, its easy to study scientifically. One study examined the data over a 10 year period. There wasn’t a jot of evidence to support any association between rates of admission to psychiatric facilities and the cycle of the moon.
"Despite these many assertions, scientists who have investigated the matter have come up empty-handed. University of Sydney researchers found no link to the moon's cycle in two separate studies, one of violent or aggressive behavior, the other of dog bites that required human hospitalization.

And in an analysis that ought to put to rest any lingering doubts, Ivan Kelly, a psychologist at the University of Saskatchewan, found in a review of over 100 studies of lunar cycles and behavior -- including emergency room admissions and suicide attempts -- nothing to suggest that humans are affected by Earth's satellite."
Full Moon Crazy

Regards
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
I say that most people have more influence over how their life proceeds than they realize.
I want to draw that out to specifics of what exactly "more influence" is, but with it being labeled as "most people," we probably wouldn't have much disagreement in those definitions overall, and we'd necessarily have to get into debates of free will to go any further. With that on somedays I wonder if it should just be called "will," because it's objectively too constrained to be free (and, indeed, people scoff at our "free country" over less when it comes to denying the existence of our civil freedoms but will fiercely defend this "free will" that just is not free), yet question if being aware of how things influence us makes our will "stronger," like an athlete's body that gets stronger with training. And certainly this would be a Nietzschean or Machiavellian way of approaching social interations, a very potent shaper of who we turn out to be.
And then on some days I wonder if we're just fooling ourselves because realistically when it comes to the lives we've lived it's already been done a thousand times over and we all have doppelgangers running around out there. If we can randomly discover random people who are close enough in appearance to fool friends and family, then should it not be probably that we would also randomly find random people who have a similar "operating system and motherboard" when it comes to their psyche and brain structure? Exact details and individual experiences may vary, but if no one is really truly unique in genetics and biology, this would inherently include the brain. After all, we are able to describe a mental illness by presenting abnormal behaviors, and group them based on common symptoms and behaviors. We also find that those of similar symptoms/illnesses often have similar abnormal brain structural development in certain areas. But definitely the brain structure alone does not doom or damn someone to future set in stone. But after our experiences that shape us into who we are, how much of "us" can there really be for us to exert a "will?"
Do we really have any real sort of tangible control, or do we only have an illusion of control?
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
I just read a thread about Friday the 13th and the full moon and it would appear that there were posters that thought our reality might somehow be swayed by the date or event or the combination of the two.

Do you believe in such ideas as the 'Law of Attraction?' Do you have any influence over what happens to you in this life? If you're superstitious, do your assumptions play a role in your reality? Or in mine?
I think it was The 9th Gate, a Johnny Depp flick where the beliefs of this cult come to life in a way, as an elaborate psychological drama that really only exist in their head but their beliefs are so strong it has real world consequences. The Law of Attraction I wish could be purged from all existence, space, and time, but I do believe that general idea presented in that movie can and sometimes does happen. Someone touching the Ouija board thingy is obviously moving it, even if no one believes they are.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
I just read a thread about Friday the 13th and the full moon and it would appear that there were posters that thought our reality might somehow be swayed by the date or event or the combination of the two.

Do you believe in such ideas as the 'Law of Attraction?' Do you have any influence over what happens to you in this life? If you're superstitious, do your assumptions play a role in your reality? Or in mine?

If so, why? If not, why not?

One day is pretty much the same as another. A superficial/artificial date is not going to make much difference to it but personal faith/superstition possibly would make it appear a specific date is not to be trusted.

People have influence over what they do.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
Do you believe in such ideas as the 'Law of Attraction?' Do you have any influence over what happens to you in this life? If you're superstitious, do your assumptions play a role in your reality? Or in mine?

If so, why? If not, why not?

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” ― Philip K. Dick

There is no such thing as "your" or "my" reality. We may have different representations of reality in our minds but calling a representation "reality" is a grave misnomer. It is an almost Orwellian approach that leads to the belief that "the map is the territory".
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
I just read a thread about Friday the 13th and the full moon and it would appear that there were posters that thought our reality might somehow be swayed by the date or event or the combination of the two.

Do you believe in such ideas as the 'Law of Attraction?' Do you have any influence over what happens to you in this life? If you're superstitious, do your assumptions play a role in your reality? Or in mine?

If so, why? If not, why not?


It is easier to create the effect because the effect depends totally upon you; the cause may not be so dependent on you.—OSHO


i believe birds of a feather tend to flock together. --- unkown
 

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
It is easier to create the effect because the effect depends totally upon you; the cause may not be so dependent on you.—OSHO


i believe birds of a feather tend to flock together. --- unkown

While I know who Osho is, I have never heard of this "Unkown" person.

But I'm more interested in @Fool's thoughts on the matter than I am Osho's or Unkown's.
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
While I know who Osho is, I have never heard of this "Unkown" person.

But I'm more interested in @Fool's thoughts on the matter than I am Osho's or Unkown's.

i was implying that people who have similar beliefs, interests, tend to congregate in a hive mind.


case in point, this thread, this forum, this website, et al...



love is still a fire
 

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
There is no such thing as "your" or "my" reality. We may have different representations of reality in our minds but calling a representation "reality" is a grave misnomer. It is an almost Orwellian approach that leads to the belief that "the map is the territory".

I really, really tried to walk away from this without comment, but I obviously failed in that attempt.

While you appear to be claiming that there is only one reality (which isn't far from the truth :D), you, yourself, already experience two. You have a waking reality and you have a dream reality. Are they the same reality from the perception of the experiencer?

Let's consider the possibility of a reality that exists outside of or beyond relative reality (waking reality) or that our waking reality exists within an Absolute Reality. Are "we" still experiencing the same reality if this relative reality is illusory in a way that "we" would all be experiencing the same reality in a dream state?
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
I really, really tried to walk away from this without comment, but I obviously failed in that attempt.

While you appear to be claiming that there is only one reality (which isn't far from the truth :D), you, yourself, already experience two. You have a waking reality and you have a dream reality. Are they the same reality from the perception of the experiencer?

Let's consider the possibility of a reality that exists outside of or beyond relative reality (waking reality) or that our waking reality exists within an Absolute Reality. Are "we" still experiencing the same reality if this relative reality is illusory in a way that "we" would all be experiencing the same reality in a dream state?
The difference between our waking experience and a dream experience (or a hallucination or an artificial "reality") is, that our experience of reality is at least inter subjective (at best objective). You can't share and verify your experience of a dream. You can share and thereby validate your experience of reality. Reality is also persistent, i.e. you can check that a real thing is still there where it was yesterday. In a dream it may change while you're "looking" at it.
Your experience of reality can never be "the reality" as a map is only an approximation of the territory. But through investigation (science) you can get a better grasp on reality. You can't get a better grasp on reality by imagining that what is in your mind is reality.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I want to draw that out to specifics of what exactly "more influence" is, but with it being labeled as "most people," we probably wouldn't have much disagreement in those definitions overall, and we'd necessarily have to get into debates of free will to go any further. With that on somedays I wonder if it should just be called "will," because it's objectively too constrained to be free (and, indeed, people scoff at our "free country" over less when it comes to denying the existence of our civil freedoms but will fiercely defend this "free will" that just is not free), yet question if being aware of how things influence us makes our will "stronger," like an athlete's body that gets stronger with training. And certainly this would be a Nietzschean or Machiavellian way of approaching social interations, a very potent shaper of who we turn out to be.
And then on some days I wonder if we're just fooling ourselves because realistically when it comes to the lives we've lived it's already been done a thousand times over and we all have doppelgangers running around out there. If we can randomly discover random people who are close enough in appearance to fool friends and family, then should it not be probably that we would also randomly find random people who have a similar "operating system and motherboard" when it comes to their psyche and brain structure? Exact details and individual experiences may vary, but if no one is really truly unique in genetics and biology, this would inherently include the brain. After all, we are able to describe a mental illness by presenting abnormal behaviors, and group them based on common symptoms and behaviors. We also find that those of similar symptoms/illnesses often have similar abnormal brain structural development in certain areas. But definitely the brain structure alone does not doom or damn someone to future set in stone. But after our experiences that shape us into who we are, how much of "us" can there really be for us to exert a "will?"
Do we really have any real sort of tangible control, or do we only have an illusion of control?
Criminy, that's a lot of words.
By "influence", I mean that we have much control over our lives...more
than most people actually exercise. A friend provides an example....
He often gets into arguments with others, risking escalation to violence
(which sometimes happens). I counsel him about avoiding this.
But he says it's unavoidable. He's committed to it. It's a choice.
And he could choose otherwise.
 
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