Thoughts into Reality

June 4, 2006 2:44 AM

I read that "You always get more of what you focus on in life." I am wondering if we can truly manifest what we want in life by first manifesting it in our thoughts/minds.

For example, say you want to make more money. Instead of thinking "Man, I'd sure like to make more money," you think "I AM making more money. I AM getting what I want." The belief behind this way of thinking is that by thinking as if what you want is already happening, it will eventually come to pass in your life.

posted by miltoncat to grab bag (29 comments total)

"I already know if 'wishful thinking' is true or not"
posted by Gyan at 3:03 AM on June 4, 2006

Sounds like a cognitive bias. I'm unsure which one though, Illusion of Control?
posted by TwelveTwo at 3:12 AM on June 4, 2006

Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) swears by "affirmations," which are similar (although IIRC he used future-tense statements). Adams has an interesting point of view, to be sure, and he's often impressed me with his insights into things like human behavior, but that doesn't mean I'll drink his Kool-Aid.

I found this article about Derek Lin's experiences with affirmations via a Google search for Scott Adams' experiences. I bring this up because something very similar to what Derek claims as the result of his job-search affirmations has happened to me. After I got laid off in the fall of 2002, I spent a couple weeks doing e-mail tech support to pay the bills and sending out resumes when out of the blue, someone e-mailed me trying to get in touch with the company that had laid me off. (The company had run out of money and wasn't answering its phones. They Googled the company name and managed to find my blog posting where I mentioned I'd gone to work for them.) They were very interested in the technology my ex-company had developed and, long story short, they ended up buying the whole codebase, opening a Seattle office, and hiring myself and most of the engineers who'd created it. It happened totally out of the blue. The only difference between Derek Lin's scenario and mine I wasn't writing affirmations! Imagine if I'd been doing that too, I'd surely be a millionaire right now. Eh?

Of course it's true that chance favors the prepared mind, but I think that just paying more attention to the opportunities around you and keeping your goals in mind will work just as well as trying to fool your subconscious through elaborate trickery. The book The Luck Factor contains some interesting illustrations of how this can work for you. In one the author they took a self-described lucky person and a self-described unlucky person and orchestrated their days so that they were as similar as possible. For example, they were both separately asked to lunch at a particular restaurant, and the author planted a $10 bill just outside the door to the restaurant. The lucky person saw it, the unlucky person didn't. Clearly if you start paying attention you will find things like $10 bills lying on the sidewalk more often than if you are not paying attention. So, pay attention!
posted by kindall at 3:27 AM on June 4, 2006

It doesn't hurt, and it (the Adams type) has appeared to work for me at times. I do not know if it just made me more inclined to do things that would lead to success, or if it sent a message to the Cosmic Dispenser, causing my desired outcome to fall from Heaven into my lap.

No kool-aid involved. If you try it, and it doesn't work, you've wasted some time, is all.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:24 AM on June 4, 2006

Steve Pavlina is one of the most well known bloggers on this topic, and he has been doing it for years. He even has a project called "The Million Dollar Project" where about a thousand people are trying to 'manifest' a million dollars :)
posted by wackybrit at 5:04 AM on June 4, 2006

For every person that claims to have become successful through the power of positive thinking there are thousands of unsuccessful people you'll never hear about who tried the same thing.

Expect to have to work hard from school to retirement.
posted by krisjohn at 5:36 AM on June 4, 2006

Whatever you fill your life with, you will naturally be expressive with fruits of that effort. For instance, if you opt to fill your life with Nascar shows, you will naturally desire to speak with others about Nascar. If you want to learn french, read books on the learning the language surround yourself with french-speakers and you'll gradually become more fluent. It's not that the thinking will get you there, it's the wildcard that you need to fill of "whatever you're immersed in, you have a tendency to grasp." Not true in all cases, but generally.
posted by vanoakenfold at 5:48 AM on June 4, 2006

This should be pretty easy to test. Flip a coin 1000 times. Each time, say "It IS going to come up tails." (or, after it lands, regardless of whether or not it's heads or tails, say, "Wow! Tails again!")

Record (or have a friend record) the outcome of all the flips and then figure out the percentages. Randomness should get you about 50% heads; 50% tails.

If positive thinking works, there should be many more tails than heads.
posted by grumblebee at 6:39 AM on June 4, 2006

For every person that claims to have become successful through the power of positive thinking there are thousands of unsuccessful people you'll never hear about who tried the same thing.

Thus was developed the character of Willy Loman.
posted by Miko at 6:49 AM on June 4, 2006

"I am beautiful" seems to work better for my ugly friends than "I am rich" does for my broke friends.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:06 AM on June 4, 2006

It's the basis behind Choosing Prosperity, a "game" where you get a virtual check every day and use that to manifest something in your life (prosperity). For the month of May they were doing an experiment about this very thing, with daily exercises (mainly based on focus and thinking); you can see the progress on their blog.

They're based on philosophies of Abraham-Hicks, which is about this very thing.

TUTs Adventurers Club, which does a mailing list of "Notes From The Universe" (letters from "The Universe" that are meant to be affirmative), as well as motivational CDs and postcards and a motivational cruise, also run on this principle.

They've both received positive feedback - there are people who report negatively, but it seems to be working for a lot of people.
posted by divabat at 7:22 AM on June 4, 2006

Check out The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes....He started a movement in the early part of the last century around these ideas...I was a devout follower of those concepts for years and still am and one can manifest in life what one imagines. "Live the life you have imagined for yourself" kind of thing....all the best.

And on second thought, check out what people have written about Ernest Holmes and his ideas....his writing style can be daunting....
posted by jamie939 at 8:05 AM on June 4, 2006

Grumblebee - That'll never work, because you're explicitly trying to falsify the hypothesis by setting up that experiment. If, however, you were to happen upon someone flipping a coin for some other reason, you could believe in one outcome and see what happened. I hope you're good at cognitive dissonance. Having an open mind and being convinced of a certain outcome are pretty hard to pull off simultaneously.

My take on this is that it's simply a motivational tool. Affirmation certainly does work for emotions, and if you're more inspired, you'll naturally be more successful.

It might help, but it can't hurt.

_{unless you become one of those creepy glassy-eyed stare people that remind me of Tom Cruise in Magnolia...}
posted by Mr. Gunn at 8:19 AM on June 4, 2006

Why should it "never work" if I'm really open to the possibility that my mind MIGHT alter the coin flips? (I'm not, but let's say -- for the sake of argument -- that I am.)

I'm not trying to falsify anything, though I am open to the possibility that the mind-control hypothesis might be false -- or true.

My sneaky aim is to get miltoncat and others to clarify the question. What are we asking?

1) Can believing in something -- even something false -- change your attitude?

2) Can believing in something -- just via the belief itself -- change objects/events in the physical world?

I'd say yes to 1 and a provisional no to 2. If you wholeheartedly embrace 2 as true or likely, then you believe in magic. (Not judging, just clarifying.) You are basically saying that can bring tinkerbell back to life by clapping your hands.

But note my word "provisional," above. You CAN (in some cases) motivate yourself via wishful thinking, and your actions DO cause changes in the physical world. So your thoughts CAN change events provided that the change can come about via something you do with your body*.

Yes: wishful thinking --> body movement --> change in the world.

No: wishful thinking --> change in the world.

(*I'm including thinks like "talking" or "changing your mind" as "something you do with your body.)
posted by grumblebee at 8:39 AM on June 4, 2006

I'll be a bit more explicit about my beliefs:

The universe is either infested with randomness, infested with complexity, or both. So NOTHING you do is a guarantee. Bad things happen to good people and vice versa.

But many things that people want, such as getting a good job or finding a mate, are affected by emotion. If you feel worthy of a mate, you'll probably be more confident, which will be evident to other people, which -- since confidence is attractive -- will positively affect your LIKELIHOOD of attracting a mate.

So you'll be more likely to find a mate -- or to find one more quickly (or maybe one more to your liking) -- than someone who doesn't come across as confident.

But you still might not find a mate, because the universe is random/complex. You might just not get lucky. Life is, to a certain extent, a crapshoot. Of course, we can't control that aspect of life (if we could, it wouldn't be a crapshoot), so it doesn't do any good to dwell on it. You can only control what you can control, so you might as well engage in positive thinking.

The only problem with totally ignoring -- or disbelieving in -- the random elements, is that you can get really hurt when get some bad luck and things don't go your way. You can fall into a belief that it's your fault, that you just didn't believe hard enough. Or that the universe is out to get you.

I saw an interview with a woman who came out of a coma. She survived against the odds. The doctors said she had a 2% chance of living. The interviewer commented on the unfairness of this, but the woman didn't think it was unfair. She smiled and said, "SOMEONE has to be in the 2%. Why shouldn't that be me?"

It's hard to achieve, but true mental health stems from a balance between taking control when you can and embracing/accepting randomness when it comes your way.
posted by grumblebee at 8:52 AM on June 4, 2006

I am wondering if we can truly manifest what we want in life by first manifesting it in our thoughts/minds.

No. It sort of astonishes me that people think this way. I agree with the affective component described by grumblebee, but come on, money? Might as well just pray for it instead. At least religion is a superstition that also could inspire you to do good for others.
posted by footnote at 9:09 AM on June 4, 2006

My friend was Allen Ginsberg's assistant for a few years and one day she came to work and said she was through with men, finally, once and for all. He laughed and said, "Then it's the perfect time to make a list of characteristics of your perfect mate" and explained that she should make a detailed list of everything she wanted and didn't want in a man. She kind of shrugged it off a little, but made a list in her journal. A year later, in a good relationship with a man she loved and respected, she went back through her journals and found the list she'd written and it fit her mate to a tee. She said it was very specific and her only regret was that she hadn't been more clear about things like "Can find dishwasher." It wasn't a magical "If you build it, he will come" situation as much as finally clearing your head and figuring out what it is you want. Then, having defined it on paper, she was unconsciously able to find what she needed.
posted by eve harrington at 9:27 AM on June 4, 2006

Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found.

I hope this doesn't sound too snarky, but you'd think that, if wishing could make it so, every casino in Vegas would go broke. Observation suggests that this not the case.
posted by SPrintF at 9:36 AM on June 4, 2006

I've always thought this visualize-the-perfect-man-and-he'll-walk-in-the-door or imagine-yourself-rich-and-you'll-have-sawbucks-to-burn stuff was utter horseshit, but I'm starting to think it's more complex than that. The example above, of the person who thinks he's a lucky guy generally seeing the $10 bill while the sadsack misses it, rings a bell.
I've been reading Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, and some of the experiments on our subconscious he recounts are striking. There's a heck of a lot more going on than we realize and we are aware of the world around us far more than we realize. So while writing affirmations down sounds idiotic, there may be something in keeping positive ideas around in your head.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:46 AM on June 4, 2006

I have a friend who is always positive thinking. It's both good and bad for him. He'll go to an interview and talk about it by saying, "I got a great job today!" He'll say, "I'm going out on a date tonight" without having anyone lined up. He's not lying. That's really how he thinks.

It's both good and bad. He's so positive and sure about the outcome, that you WANT to hire him/date him. On the other hand, when his dreams don't come true, he gets REALLY depressed.

I'm the opposite. I'm negative and cynical. I know that this sometimes dooms me from the start ("I can tell you don't want to hire me?"), but I never feel shattered when bad things -- the bad things I expect to happen -- happen.

The trick is to find a place somewhere between me and my friend.
posted by grumblebee at 10:32 AM on June 4, 2006

I think we can control the world in this manner, but only when we have the power to manifest them physically. A certain frame of mind does wonders for getting towards goals.

Trying to cause "all tails" or other such foolishness is not under your mind's control. But have you ever done that experiment where you control a swinging mass's direction with your mind? My theory is that your hand makes very small un-perceptible corrections, and your focus on an outcome directs these small movements. But it only works when you want it to. if you stop focusing, it resumes stochastic direction changes.

I think life is similar. if you focus on something, focus particular outcome — and that something is under your control — then you can make that outcome "manifest."

Once you realize this, you may start thinking you can influence the universe itself. And when you only pay attention to the successes, you end up in a cycle of confirmation bias.
posted by clord at 10:32 AM on June 4, 2006

Well, having a positive attitude will get you further in life than having a negative one, and being attentive to your surroundings will get you further than being inattentive. I don't think either of those things are especially controversial.

All this 'affirmations' stuff, though, is complete crap, obviously. Like footnote says, you might as well pray for all the good it'll do you. Anyone who tells you different has something to sell you, or has themselves been sold a big pile of pseudoscience. I can almost -- almost -- believe that actually thinking the affirmations were true might help you, but there's no way that mindlessly repeating them to yourself is going to do a thing.
posted by reklaw at 10:51 AM on June 4, 2006

clord: this theory is known as the idometer effect.

I remember that Scott Adams sent out several newsletters in which he advertised an attempt to prove the effectiveness of affirmations by willing his new Dilbert animated series to reach some high ratings threshold (I forget what exactly). As it failed to reach that threshold, he wrote less and less about it. Ultimately, the series was canceled.
posted by Humanzee at 10:56 AM on June 4, 2006

Crap. That should be "ideomotor" effect.
posted by Humanzee at 10:56 AM on June 4, 2006

The book Write It Down, Make It Happen, by Henriette Anne Klauser, is the, well, "writing-it-down" version of this.
posted by oldtimey at 11:17 AM on June 4, 2006

To clarify, the visualization or affirmation techniques are not "wishing" or "praying" in the way that is usually understood.

I vaguely remember Adams's public experiment. Because that was about when I discovered that subscribing to his email newsletter was the reason for most of the spam I was getting, I stopped paying attention. Some people should maybe affirm being less greedy.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:45 PM on June 4, 2006

Read some Richard Bach books. Specifically "The Bridge Across Forever," "One" and "Illusions." He talks a lot about this sort of thing in there.
posted by limeonaire at 2:55 PM on June 4, 2006 [2 favorites has favorites]

Richard Bach rules... you simply MUST read Jonathan Livingston Seagull as well.

My old church had one of those "name-it-and-claim-it" doctrines. "Speak it into existence," they'd say. They also warned against saying things like, "you nearly gave me a heart attack!" or "I died laughing" in case it actually happened. Pfft.
posted by IndigoRain at 7:14 PM on June 4, 2006

I'm in the camp of wishing won't make it so, but its important to remember that fortune favors the prepared. If affirmations or whatever help you focus on what you are trying to achieve you might be more able to spot the metaphorical "lucky $10 note".
Similarly, don't discount the power of the placebo effect, especially if your affirmations are health related or in some other area you can directly effect.
Also, a study on prayer and health outcomes showed those who knew they were being prayed for did the worst medically. This was speculated to be due to the "I'm in real trouble" feeling you would get knowing strangers were praying for you. I found it amusing.
posted by bystander at 7:50 PM on June 4, 2006