My daughter recently mentioned that a scientist visiting her 1st grade classroom told the students that their brain power couldn’t move the physical world.
I disagree.
Yes, the common concept of telekinesis is unproven. Science has not been able to measure any sort of change to large physical items when a person or group concentrates on that item.
Balls don’t roll. Coins don’t flip.
Those aren’t the changes that an average brain can influence…
(Perhaps there are higher-level people out there that can do these things — there are historical stories of Tibeten monks that could levitate and Catholic friars that could levitate. We don’t live in an era conducive to such explorations, especially on a mass-consciousness level. I’m not ruling it out though.)
Your brain does affect the outcome of more than you might imagine, however.
See, you and I don’t experience reality as it exists. Reality is larger than an individual can handle.
Instead, your five senses send messages to your brain. Your brain keeps the messages that are applicable for the immediate moment and also finds patterns in those sensory messages that match previous experiences (known as confirmation bias).
The patterns that your brain matches may or may not be helpful or even true, and the messages that are applicable for the immediate moment also don’t reflect the whole of reality.
We tend to think of the world in terms of cause-and-effect. I put a quarter into the jukebox, and music plays. This isn’t untrue— it’s just not complete.
What’s the cause of the jukebox being at the bar? Or why am I at the bar? Why do I have a quarter in my pocket? What prompted me to want to hear that song instead of another? How much of the situation, every aspect of that situation, can be attributed to luck?
Cause-and-effect are there, but the whole of the situation is far outside of my control or even understanding. And I don’t need to understand the whole in order to operate within it.
Oh, and what happens to the “not-useful” messages that your nervous system sends to the brain but the brain doesn’t consciously interpret? Background music, wall colors, body language… Even when they’re not your focus, these messages seep into your subconscious and affect your overall self.
Positive messages can keep your brain’s balance on the positive, and negative messages can subconsciously drag you down. Because you and I live with a self-protection mechanism, we’re constantly finding excuses to not try something new, something difficult, something “dangerous”. Overcoming these constant defeatist messages requires a high level of irrational self confidence and positive intention… as well as gratitude for the things we do have (remember this point for later…)
And when you are able to climb past that point of the defeatist ideas, you’re able to see the world is an oyster. Opportunity is there for the taking, because everything is exactly where is needs to be.
And you haven’t used “thoughts” to change the world, you’ve used “thoughts” to change your understanding of what’s possible in the world. And those thoughts fire off neurons in your brain and release chemicals in your body — both of which are physical events happening because of our thoughts.
Maybe that’s not what the 1st Grade classroom’s visiting scientist meant?
Let’s get into Quantum Physics.
Maybe you’ve heard of the Double Slit Experiment?
The Double Slit Experiment shows us that at the atomic level, our very observations of what’s happening changes the outcome of the experiment. Scientists can run the same experiment and get predictably different results just by observing the experiment run.
There are studies which indicate that someone meditating on the outcome will influence the results of experiment.
Those different results happen even if a scientists measures the double slit events after they happen — as if the results are influenced backwards through time!
By having gratitude now for things that haven’t come to pass, are we able to influence events backwards through time?
Now do our thoughts affect change in the physical world?
How about the parent that feels —from a distance— when something has happened to their child?
Or the twin siblings who claim to share emotions or thoughts remotely.
Or the affect of loving prayer for others vs. the negative effect of anger and hatred. The effects of love and hate have been demonstrated with plant health, for example—
Yell at a potted plant, it struggles.
Speak in loving ways to a potted plant, it thrives.
Certainly these all are thoughts that can manifest physical changes in the world.
The world gives you what you put into it. Make sure you’re putting out the positive, loving vibes.
Keep your focus,
Jeffrey
P.S. It’s hard to emit positive vibes when you yourself might not be in a good mood. Emotions regulate most of what you do and often the thoughts that you have arise from those emotions.
Improving your positive vibes doesn’t come from turning off the negative thoughts. In fact, the more you fight them, the larger they loom.
Instead, it’s best to let those negative thoughts slide by. Yep, you had them, and now they’re gone. They don’t define you.
To generate more positive thoughts in your life… allowing you to overcome the negativity around you and the parts of your brain trying to keep you safe… requires an active attempt to harness positive emotions.
Emotions and thoughts drive each other, after all. But emotions last longer than thoughts (because your feelings are a chemical response inside your brain and gut)… so when you get those right, the better thoughts will follow.
Finding freedom from negativity is priceless. And so I wrote an affordable book on doing just that. Click here for more info.