Brilliant stuff.ladislav wrote:Positive thinking is an unproven religion. It is not mainstream science. It's just a theory with no scientific back up. Some experiments show that negative thoughts influence health. Yeah, when you are sad, you feel lousy and the immune system may go down. But there are no Nobel prizes on that and no mainstream study.
It also does not explain why it is that so often evil comes when you are happy and relaxed and bang! Or when you worry and brood but nothing bad happens- everything turns out OK. This is MY experience in life.
Most of the things I got in life were from angry determinations and intense efforts plus patience. My mind is that of a warrior. Positive, negative, it does not matter- I just make efforts. Positively, negatively, who cares?
Thoughts have some power but not a lot. You can have negative thoughts but if you take positive action, then the thoughts matter little. Also, many of these philosophers are comfortable people who live in 1st world countries and who have obviously never known wars, famines and horrible governments. And they are the ones who have the time and money to publish all these books.
They cannot explain a tsunami in Japan or Chernobyl or war when a huge cruel army enters your city and kills, rapes and tortures people in it.
They also cannot explain sufferings of children hundreds of thousands of whom die in bad places without having any thoughts yet.
So, people who have had the fortune to be living under rich democratic governments with little or no crime, good medical care, plenty of food and no war going on, will only need good thoughts and then possibly good actions to reach out and change something for an even better thing.
There are causes which are much deeper than thoughts for the rest of the world.
I lived in Kuwait and met many sullen, arrogant Kuwaitis who were pretty hateful people. Nice cars, great jobs, many wives. Next door you have Iraq with all the war and bombings.
Do women get raped because they are thinking they will? How about it happens most unexpectedly?
Positive thought gurus get only a very partial picture.
A positive thought is different from a determined thought which leads to a strong action in the direction in which you want to go.
ps. I wrote a book recently and was very rah rah about it and very positive it was going to make me cash. It was a great idea and so were many others I had. The response was very negative and not one copy sold. I was also involved in a very interesting art project which I was sure would succeed. I was totally positive it would. It was a disaster. So were many other great business ideas I had.
otoh, I was very negative and fearful about working in Saudi Arabia and was constantly afraid that I was going to be attacked by terrorists or that other bad things would happen to me. Nothing bad happened. The whole experience is now nothing but great memories and plenty of money.
I was going to Iraq though and was not thinking any negative thoughts. But suddenly I did not pass my medical and was turned down. Did I expect this to happen? Nope. Did I have negative thoughts? No.
Realities of business markets, job markets, love markets as well as laws and rules out there in societies exist independently from positive or negative thoughts. So do disasters, and good things.
I remember I got fired from my job when I was feeling totally positive and happy and thought my contract would be extended. Another person became my manager and she cleaned out the shop.
Please post anything else you have to say in this vein.
Or write a book?