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What is your take on claims that thought, emotions or intention can affect the physical world? Some studies have shown that emotional states can affect the shape of ice crystals, etc. Others propose that intentions or state of mind can influence events such as proposed in books ranging from "Think and Grow Rich" to "The Secret". Is all of this a farce? Are the ice crystal studies bad science? Can non-physical or at least not yet measurable phenomena affect the physical world?

11Novelist 5 Mar 20
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"Is all of this a farce?" Almost assuredly.
"Can non-physical or at least not yet measurable phenomena affect the physical world?" Yes, at least to the 'not yet measurable' aspect of the question--what scientists call Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

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It's a redefining of the power of prayer. It's bullshit and a scam. Those studies you reference aren't studies they're sleight of hand illusion.

JimG Level 8 Mar 20, 2018
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No, thoguhts and emotions do not directly affect the physical world. They can lead us to ACT in ways which impact aspects of the physical world.

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Unproven science?

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It seems the bulk of the audience here believes emotions and thoughts do not impact the physical world. To them I pose these additional questions: What are thoughts and emotions and how do they come into being? Are thoughts imaginary as well or do they truly exist? If thoughts do exist, how do they correlate to the physical actions of the human body? Are thoughts not causal and without the ability to affect internal matter/ biology but simply a side effect? If they are causal and do impact the body's activities, why can they only affect the body and not other forms of matter?
I just want to keep this discussion going.

This is the problem, the so called "hard problem". I think we are body & soul .
inexorably intermixed and co-dependent.

There are things outside of us that we can emotively affect, like my old dog Sid, he knew when I was pissed off. Not so sure when it comes to Quantum Mechanics that tell us that things change when we measure them...entanglement, but explanations of this keep on changing. It is interesting that the heart beats of a group of musicians playing together tend to sync up.

@cava Never considered that. It's interesting. The heartbeat is an involuntary phenomenon, What about something easier to observe for me like when I'm walking through a mall and observe that my step cadence has synced up with the muzak playing over the sound system. I didn't intend it to happen. Then, I look around and can see others, not all, unconsciously doing the same. In both cases. I don't have an intent to manifest those actions so is it a "thought" that correlates to the physical action of the human body as pointed by 11 Novelist above? Or, I could be missing the point. So much to unpack here, at least for me.

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If you're going to believe in supernatural stuff , you may as well believe in an omipresent omniscient being that cares for all of us. That's pretty popular.

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I think it's absolute bafflegab. What's worse, I've seen people use that idea to blame others for outcomes that were outside those others' control. Bad luck? Clearly you didn't want the desired result badly enough.

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I do believe in this fully, We can change our world by getting deeper within ourselves. Premonition, acute awareness and many other items, display the unconcious awareness of things we are not even paying attention too. Mostly my opinion is based on physics. all energy in the universe was created at the big bang or god creation or whatever we choose to call it. This energy remains today and within us, the simple primate on earth. Our atoms , the ones making up our organ systems, our life itself, are all 14 billion years old. And old is only relative to those that are based on time.
so yes the energies are indeed connected but if we wish to fully analyze this event, we need to leave the human person behind.
Yes we can alter our own reality.

EMC2 Level 8 Mar 20, 2018

@icolan If you ask how you have not found it. the mind is capable of inventing anything it wishes within the laws of nature. We are all just a bundle of energy with a brain attached.

@icolan We can make our lives better with a better brain interpretation of the world. We can slow our heart, our body temp. , we can control our outlook, And with these traits we can change our own world around us

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On a related note, "Positivity" has become the drug of the masses. While there is nothing inherently wrong with being positive, it's important to remember that we do need healthy ways of expressing our feeling. Hiding anger behind a veil of positivity doesn't just make problems go away nor does it alleviate the feelings a person might be having. Sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves is accept what it is and just let it be. If you're mad, get mad. Just do it in a healthy, non-life threatening kind of way.

But also accept that the world isn't going to just change because you put on a smiley face and tell youself it's going to be all right and that the world is peaches and cream. Because it's not. Positivity hides the important feelings that make us human and help us to grow. Denying those feelings is denying yourself a moment to do something great with yourself.

@TjallTjallOUTLK Exactly! How can anyone possibly have a good understanding of reality if they hide everything behind a false narrative of "positive vibes"?

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TL;DR- No, but mental states are still important.
I've went from being a fundamentalist Christian who thought absolutely our thoughts affected the world to a skeptic that thought that people were blind and blissfully stupid if they thought their thoughts affect and could improve the world to, now, a person who is still waiting for scientific evidence to validate claims of ESP, psychic energy and the like but still recognizes that what we think and our emotional states, while not changing the external state of the world, do affect to a large degree the way we navigate the world our abilities to manipulate it to our benefit. Like I used to not believe in positive thinking, and I've pretty much been a defeatist my whole life, but learning how to focus and foster positive and productive thoughts have put me on the most vertical trajectory I've been in my whole life. Things aren't easy, but they are MUCH easier for me now that I've changed those things about myself. The truth looks much more like a book by psychological and neurological experts than a book by a bunch of swindlers and celebrities.

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"Some studies have shown that emotional states can affect the shape of ice crystals, etc." Links to the "studies" (or they do not exist).

I have seen a book on this topic. It was nonsensical to say the least.

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High levels of stress and anxiety are well known for their ability to affect an individuals overall health, such as causing headaches as well as gastrointestinal issues like ulcers and acid reflux but about the only emotion that can affect ice is anger... when you smash it.

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Completely unscientific. That being said, thoughts, emotional states, stress can and do have an effect on one's own body.

Prime example, I can control my own physical pain through self-hypnosis.

Secundus: it has been shown that stress can cause epigenetic changes that may lead to cancer, panic disorders, other pathologies.

My oldest brother smoked for about 25 years, died of lung cancer at 62. Chronic worrier, always worried about making enough money, left a fairly affluent widow. I smoked for 40 years (when I first screened for lung cancer, they calculated that I smoked the equivalent of a pack a day for 63 years), but have never been a worrier - I think it is a waste of time and effort. I haven't the slightest trace of cancer. I suspect brother Michael effectively worried himself to death.

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One of my good friends is the executive director of the Rhine Institute in Durham, and they do experimentation on this and all kinds of paranormal phenomena. Some of it is interesting, and they explain some things with the (objectively proven) concept of quantum entanglement. Of course, a lot of it is hooey, but experimental results are sometimes very convincing.

They link it to precognition and distance sensations. And you're right, although the understanding of the entanglement phenomenon is getting better, it's a stretch to infer any kind of causality here. But they have well designed experiments looking at it. I'm for science, but I haven't seen any evidence to support this kind of thing yet.

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if it smells like shit and looks like shit guess what it normally is?

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Emotions cannot affect the shape of ice, that was bogus.

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