The Power of Positive Thinking

[Winston]

Positive thinking has to be coupled with some realistic life goals, and some real effort to reach them. Only then it makes good sense. This is why I despise New Age-ish life philosophies which seem to be charitable in their aims, but they're just wrong when they still target non-spiritual, materialistic and often unreachable goals.

A typical example is Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret" and all the fuzz and merchandise it generated. The idea of summoning some obscure mystical force that permeates the Universe is nothing but a glamorous New Age take to the notion of praying. Yet all religions and spiritual philosophies have warned us that praying is only effective when done with a pure heart and for a noble, spiritual purpose. You don't pray God or the Universe that they deliver a shiny new Ferrari or a hot partner right at our doorsteps. That's just another name for an undue sense of entitlement, typical of our "right here, right now" societies.

Let me get off subject.

I don't think that "The Secret" said anything about praying to God to get a Ferrari.

"The Secret" talks about the fact that energy comes from your thoughts and how it interacts with the cosmic energy in the Universe to manifest things into your life it's been scientifically proven that your thoughts affects the matter around you.

There's an infinite amount of energy that fills the entire universe as PROVEN by scientists.

And what would be wrong about praying to God for a red Ferrari???

But to get back on topic, the book mentioned in this thread is about something entirely different than what was mentioned in "The Secret".

Oh yes it did. In the documentary called "The Secret" someone does mention that you can get a Ferrari if you focus on it with strong intent for a long period of time and lots of energy.

Sure thoughts do affect matter and energy, but only on a MICROSCOPIC scale, meaning its power is HIGHLY LIMITED. In contrast, The Secret and New Age theories make it sound like your thoughts have unlimited power, which is bogus and bullshit. Try flying or walking through walls with the power of your thoughts.

So what is this book about then?

The book is about learning how to positively COPE with unexpected stresses of every day life so you can be a healthier human being.

Yeah but you if you just want to cope with life, there are many ways besides positive thinking. There are many ways you can delude yourself into believing that everything is all right or to help manage stress. There are hypnotherapy techniques, meditation, visualization, yoga, religion, therapy, pep talk by friends, etc. All of these can help. You can join a religion too. Even if the religion is false or makes no sense, it can help you cope with life and give you a reason to live.

There are many relaxation and meditation techniques to help you deal with stress too. From basic psychology to New Age, there are many healing therapies as well.

What does the "power of positive thinking" bring here that's new?

Anyone can think positive or delude themselves, but it won't accomplish anything. If you ask me to fix your car, I can think positive about it, but it won't help or matter because I don't know how to fix cars. Thus it's a zero factor.

Being positive just for the sake of being positive doesn't accomplish or do anything. This is all BS pop psychology to give people the illusion of control in order to pacify them and distract them. It's just one of the many ways that the Illuminati or TPTB control and distract us.

You know, the guy who inspired me to start this site and coached me on it, is the most negative person I ever met. He is also a misanthrope and hates everyone he meets. Everything you tell him, he spins into something negative. Yet he is highly successful in his business. In his heyday, he was making $800 a day from his medical website. This is because he is a computer programming genius who put in countless hours of hard work, and had the right idea for a medical diagnostic service.

His success had nothing to do with any positive thinking, since he is the most negative person I ever met. Positive thinking had zero to do with it. He simply was very good at what he did and never gave up improving what he had. He had the right combination of skills, genius, good ideas, perseverance, and work ethic to make it work. Being positive would not have made a difference.

So you see, it's all fake hype, this positivity thing. The elite probably programmed this "positive thinking" hype into our culture, so that we would always be positive no matter what shit they put the country through. It's a way to pacify people so they don't complain. That way, the elite can do any nefarious thing they want and get away with it, while minimizing complaints from the population.

A lot of delusional New Age ideas were probably designed for this purpose, to pacify and delude people so they don't pay attention to all the "negative" or bad things that the elite is doing to the world. The Illuminati could very well be behind the New Age movement.

Here is Mark Passio ranting for hours against the New Age movement's false teachings. He says that New Age beliefs suppress the sacred masculine energy in humanity, which the Illuminati are behind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q51l_E8Tlp0

Here is my debunking of "The Secret":

http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/LawofAttraction.htm

[ladislav]

It's easy to propagate positive thinking and law of attraction in America because the country has not been invaded. At least not recently. But with 9/11 it's hard to believe that people inside the towers were all negative on that day. As well as the passengers on the airplanes that rammed into it.

In Europe the people were invaded, bombed, firebombed with totally innocent kids with no thoughts yet dying. Those who had families living through that hell would tell you a story or two.

When Laos and Cambodia were carpet- bombed or when in Afghanistan drones, by mistake, would bomb and kill civilians including kids, how does that fit with negative or positive thinking?

Personally I don't use any positivity or negativity, just neutrality. Goals, solving problems are better achieved with a neutral mindset. I just want to be calm. Not positive or negative. Those have little to do with life.

[Winston]

I agree Ladislav. But I don't think it's just because America hasn't been invaded in a long time. There's a lot more to it than that.

These New Age beliefs about confidence, self-esteem and positive thinking are a fairly recent phenomenon. They aren't natural nor part of human history.

Why is it that in most other countries, people do not hype up such things? Nor do they constantly grapple with self-confidence, self-esteem, or try to pump up "positive thinking" all the time.

Isn't there something unnatural and abnormal about all this? It sure feels like it.

[gsjackson]

These New Age beliefs about confidence, self-esteem and positive thinking are a fairly recent phenomenon. They aren't natural nor part of human history.

Depends on what you mean by "fairly recent." In the 19th century it was widespread in the U.S., particularly New England, and called New Thought Metaphysics. As publicduende wrote, the thinking is rooted in Hindu and Buddhist doctrine. A good scholarly historical work on the subject written in the '60s is titled The Positive Thinkers by Donald Meyer. This type of thinking was very much in the air when Norman Vincent Peale went to college at Ohio Wesleyan in the early part of the 20th century.

As far as human history goes, most people through the millennia have subscribed to some form of idealist thinking, meaning a belief that mind precedes matter, rather than the other way around, which is a much more recent viewpoint. See The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley. If mind is the first cause, it is at least not completely illogical to think that mind can be deployed to affect and even create one's material circumstances.

As to why Americans in particular latched on to this and gave it our particular twist involving cars, houses and other consumer goodies, I like the theory of French sociologist Herve Varrenne, which I've talked about before on here. He contrasts the US with Europe, where community is part of the natural backdrop of life, just assumed, not even a concept there really because it is so un-noteworthy. In the US, however, people are continually in search of community, obsessed with it -- witness this website as an example -- and Varenne believes it is owing in part to a twisted form American individualism going back at least to Emerson, which holds that we must fully realize ourselves as individuals before coming into community. We never quite get there.

[Billy]

Maybe it has something to do with the "pursuit of happiness" which is a foundation of american democracy. Positive thinking might be the "hack" of it, a kind of fast food version of being happy. Doing it with the traditional method that is hard work don´t appeal for the lazy folks.