I wrote this intro in a bit of a downtime, so if you feel to skip it, I'll post a video for you. Mind you, this time we're going deep into complex matters, as metaphysics come into play. For those readers who know little of philosophy, metaphysics speaks about things like who am I, what is the universe, nature and so on. If you're not interested in such topics to begin with, I'm not sure what are you doing still reading this post. Here's a quick link to You Tube, and something of my personal selection to boot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFXNuzuOc2M
Anyway, I was saying downtime because, currently, I don't have a girlfriend. Yeah, I know. How can a good-looking, nice guy like me possibly not have a girlfriend? Well, it happens. More than you imagine, to be precise. Of course, I'm not just speaking about myself either.
Anyway, I was with my comrades in a bar, speaking nonsense, weirdly, with just one beer each. For one thing, none of us has a girlfriend, and they're quite rare in our school. I don't know what do Engineering careers have that scare women away, but we could use some pretty ones.
Ahem...
And then I thought about so many things, and among them, the fact that we're all people of faith deep inside, although I'll probably cover that in another post. Then, when I lifted a small prayer to, well, wherever they go, I thought: "It's nice to think your prayers are worth something".
Well, actually, I just remember that from playing Bayonetta, but still...
That, then, brings me to the point of the topic; thoughts. Are prayers actually worth something? Where do ideas go? Do they simply remain in your brain?
From this point, I should probably warn that this, while makes reference to science and scientific experiments, I myself a not claiming anything as true, hence the category of "Opinion".
So, as I'm getting lazy, shall post some quotes from a friend, which I believe he quoted from somewhere else. This is mostly meant to stir thoughts in whomever reads this blog, if any.
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Our ideas are not ideas about reality – they are a part of reality. We are not separate from reality looking at it, we are part of it. We are part of this universe and our ideas are part of this universe. In effect they are not truly our ideas, they are the universe's ideas and we just happen to be the thinking organ of the universe.
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So, what do you think? Next, was my answer:
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Anyway, I once heard about an experiment where people could influence a completely random event, like flipping a coin, to tend to a certain result just with their thoughts. Statistically, flipping a coin an infinite number of times, should give and equal number of heads and tails, given a chance for those two events to happen is 50-50. However, in the experiment, people could make those events turn in favor of a certain result after a great number of "coin flips".
So, if thoughts can influence in random events, there is a possibility thoughts actually "echo" throughout space, universe or at least our surroundings. At least in my opinion.
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Thus returning to the topic at hand, how far can a thought go? Can simple thoughts influence people? My friend gave some insight on this matter:
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While light travels at the rate of 186,000 miles per second, thoughts virtually travel in no time. Thought is finer than ether, the medium of electricity. In broadcasting, a singer sings beautiful songs at Calcutta. You can hear them nicely through the radio set in your own house at Delhi. All messages are received through the wireless.
"Even so your mind is like a wireless machine. A saint with peace, poise, harmony and spiritual waves sends out into the world thoughts of harmony and peace. They travel with lightning speed in all directions and enter the minds of persons and produce in them also similar thoughts of harmony and peace. Whereas a worldly man whose mind is full of jealousy, revenge and hatred sends out discordant thoughts which enter the minds of thousands and stir in them similar thoughts of hatred and discord."
With this I mean that in the way that your thoughts can portray an ambiance that in inherent to you, they also can and will modify the Universe at your will in a very microcosmic way. There's a little bit of scientific truth to that saying, "If you wish it hard enough, it'll come true." You can't control the Universe macroscopically or immediately, but your thoughts do affect your surroundings in a very subtle, almost imperceptible way - yet relevant enough to make some results change.
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Err... disregard the geography of the text, he quoted that from somewhere else.
Then someone asked, what place does imagination take in all of this?
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To make you aware of what's possible within this realm and what is not. The only way you know it's impractical is to try and make the things you imagine work or attempt to create them. Otherwise, without experience, you just keep wondering and wondering.
Because you are nature and nature is you. You're part of it and not independent from it. You're not exterior to it, the same way it's not exterior to you; you came from it and you will go back to it.
Imagination is there so that you have the slightest perception of how immense the Universe you're a part of is. You'll never fully understand it, but you can definitely comprehend it so that you become synchronized with it. Once you've realized there is absolutely no difference between what you are and what the Universe is, you'll understand the significance of everything that composes you.
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I gave my opinion on imagination as well:
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Anyway, let me address both XG and Kip. First, how does imagination work here? As I conceive it, it works as a force of creation or change. Picture the Big Bang. If one thinks of galaxies as "newtonian" bodies bound by gravity, the galaxies as a whole should be moving away from each other as the universe continues to expand endlessly, as there is no external force that keeps them from expanding. Bur some galaxies behave quite different as predicted by Newton or Kepler, as for example, galaxies that slow down. Those "erratic" behaviors are often associated to dark matter. What is it? No one knows for sure, but maybe one day it will cause the universe to collapse in itself, causing a new Big Bang, and thus, resetting the universe.
Perhaps imagination works in a similar way, as a chaotic force necessary for the old to be destroyed and give birth to new things, to make things change.
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Quite interesting, is it not? However, we don't have any means as to prove this "bold" claims. Once can still think of thoughts as electric pulses racing through the brain, and yet, for those who know a little science, there's the fact that flowing electricity creates magnetic fields. Could this transmit thoughts, like the song, across the universe? Of course, I know the electric currents in the brain are quite weak, and weak currents make weak magnetic fields, so that can be pushing it a bit too far. Nonetheless, you can't help but wonder...
It's nice to think your prayers are worth something, don't you think?
A special thank-you to my good friend Kip, and XGamer for his contribution, as small as it may be. You guys make nice philosophy buddies.
Ha, a nice second Ender topic.
-From Zim's Olde Desktop.