I Have the Secret: Empirical Proof · 23 August 2007

jaz : as we were saying
cog: hello!
cog: i was about to leave.
cog: what's up?
jaz: i have just proven the SECRET!
cog: wait, what?
cog: your toes?
jaz: (do you know the Secret? the law of attraction? new age: "your thoughts are your reality"?)
jaz: my toes??
jaz: no man, i sent don't choose me energy all week to the justice system! i called them just now and i do not have to report for jury service! five days in a row!
cog: BOOM!
jaz: this proves that my thought-power is indeed real. a causal force.
cog: there you go!
jaz: yes.
cog: congrats!
cog: thought power is totally real
cog: i feel you.
jaz: i was surprised they didn't play a little "you won!" jingle at the end of the recording. r said it should be a "you lost" jingle since i don't "get" to play.
jaz: it is real. "thoughts are things!"
jaz: you can take some of the credit though, if you were crossing your fingers for me.
jaz: i got all superstitious just now when i was about to call. cos my odds of selection were getting high, statistically.
cog: oh yeah. i was there.
jaz: like, "am i standing in the same place i was standing the other four days? is the music off like it was before? AM I THINKING POSITIVE THOUGHTS?"
jaz: ha!
cog: okay. okay. amazing. i'm going to go over to the office so that i can focus yet another night of my time here on veneer.
jaz: i actually had the thought that if i didn't listen to my voicemail before i called the jury it would mess things up. because the other days i listened to my voicemail. but this time i just have vm from [edit] and i don't want to listen to it until i’m supercalm. so i TOOK MY CHANCES on that. and positive thinking worked anyway.
cog: i'll be back online in twenty.
jaz: okey
cog: whoa. the superstition comes back to haunt us.
jaz: EXACTLY what i am saying.

Posted by (0v0)        
Categories: self-deception

Comment

1. This made me think of what it was like when we were babies, before we had observed the world enough to arrive at more mature theories of cause and effect, and the hypothesis of omnipotence had yet to be disproved.

   I had the same experience during the Michigan-Ohio State game last year. When I went to get Principessa and wasn’t watching it, they did better. When I returned, they did worse. I thought maybe I should go back out and drive in the car again . . . .

   Posted by: Tim · Aug 23, 06:14 PM · #

2. Magical thinking. I don’t know about everyone else, but I find that I have little impulses toward it (like the one you mention, Tim), quite frequently. Meditating/practicing makes my mind quiet enough that I can hear them — I think they are otherwise lost in one’s general sense of “reality.”

   You want some trippy “create your own reality” stuff, check out “Seth Speaks” (and that whole series) by Jane Roberts. Even if the premise puts you off (in a Castaneda-ish way), it’s fascinating stuff.

   Posted by: karen · Aug 23, 09:00 PM · #

3. Yes, both. Interesting when I glimpse the fact that some of this near-babylike thought process is still at work in me. The other thing that shows up in meditation is the degree to which I do things in my head—even the most mundane things like brushing my teeth—moments before I act them out. That used to bum me out: Why can’t I just do things as I do them, instead of rehearsing everything a second before? Now I’m considering that this could be sometimes basic to the mind-body relationship, just usually buried under static.

   Another thing. Just because one realizes The Secret is an egomaniacal, shallow joke used to justify inequalities (if they’re poor, it’s because of their negative thoughts) doesn’t mean she has to dismiss the possibility of “thought power.” There’s a superstitious, primitive side of this stuff… but that doesn’t have to mean there’s no such thing as transpersonal communication, or changing your mind to change your body, or uncanny powers of intention, or the evolution of consciousness in general.

   But as you know, I do not blog about telepathy, chakras, the tarot, transubstantiation, grail quests, kundalini, spiritual crisis and so on. Ahem!

   Posted by: (0v0) · Aug 25, 01:57 AM · #

4. Jury duty…ughh. How is it that this has become such
   an onerous task to so many in our society? The
   injustice system at work again with its back-asswards
   approaches. One could consider abstaining, civil
   disobedience, or just that the summons was
   supernaturally and miraculously lost in the
   obsfuscating maelstrom and mounds of junk mail.

   Posted by: e&sj · Aug 25, 05:28 AM · #

5. Would it amuse you if I told you the last time I upheld the integrity of the justice system I was arrested for it?

   The Fifth Amendment can be dangerous, but it and the document which it amends can be pretty brilliant.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Aug 26, 10:06 AM · #

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