Philosophical Questions: Thinking
Jan. 27th, 2024 12:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithPeople have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.
Why are humans so susceptible to magical thinking?
Well, first we have to untangle the insulting mess that is what ordinary people mean by "magical thinking."
1) A majority of the time, what they really mean is wishful thinking, which is to say wanting something without being willing to work for it and thus having no plan to exert any effort. Just wishing it would be handed to them for free.
This is generally a bad habit. It is tempting because it is easy and many people are lazy. But if you don't work for what you want, then you are unlikely to get much, unless you fell out of a lucky vagina and will therefore inherit the fruits of someone else's hard work.
Daydreaming may be pleasurable, but more than a little tends to do more harm than good. (If you can monetize your daydreaming via art, writing, inventions, etc. then it counts as work.)
On the other hoof ... "You may find that having is not so satisfying a thing as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."
2) Sometimes they actually are talking about magic, but they don't believe in it; they don't understand how shaped energy can affect distant things. Well, magic is not so common in obvious form in this world, so plenty of people haven't encountered it. However, there are many forms of magic that are quite concretely real. Thus, there's an instinct for it that is there because it is part of the world; people can often sense something even if they lack the training to do anything with it.
Some of these forms take years of dedicated effort but you can develop superpowers if you really want to -- like Buddhism and some martial art systems. For example, tummo allows skilled practitioners to sit in the snow wrapped in a wet sheet and dry it with their body heat and fire energy, rather than dying of hypothermia the way science indicates ordinary people would do.
Other forms don't require any knowledge at all. They're like guns: you don't need to know how it works, you only need to touch the trigger, or even just drop the damn thing. Blood magic and effigy magic are two types that people frequently cast by instinct, and which can be extremely dangerous, because in addition to the initial spark from the material itself they are also fueled by emotion. I lost count of how many times I cleaned up after an ordinary person accidentally cursing an ex by mangling a photograph, just during college.
Most forms of magic lie somewhere in between, and interestingly, if you look around the world you'll see a lot of repetition as people have discovered similar principles. Just about everyone uses candles, for instance.
The people who say that belief or attention can't change anything? Have apparently not grasped principles like "the observer changes the experiment" which appears in some basic science before you even get into quantum physics like Schrodinger's cat. If you would like to experiment with this type of reality alteration, do the exercises in Prometheus Rising. Carefully, one at a time, because if you rupture your reality tunnel that's a miserable injury and not one this society is well equipped to fix.
But real magic isn't like wishful thinking. It's active, it's powerful, it's directed. It isn't always mindful. It does require some sort of energy.
If you tell people that concentrating on something won't have any effect, that is damn dangerous wrong advice. At minimum, ruminating is a bad habit, it can be a mental disorder, and firing off negative energy because you've been told it won't have any effect can turn into a serious problem. That somewitch will have to clean up after, again, because you know the fuckwit counselor won't be able to.
So to sum up:
* Daydreaming is fine. Fantasizing instead of working has consistently poor results.
* Focused mental attention can have real effects in science and in magic.
* Just because someone tells you that something isn't dangerous doesn't necessarily mean they are right.
Why are humans so susceptible to magical thinking?
Well, first we have to untangle the insulting mess that is what ordinary people mean by "magical thinking."
1) A majority of the time, what they really mean is wishful thinking, which is to say wanting something without being willing to work for it and thus having no plan to exert any effort. Just wishing it would be handed to them for free.
This is generally a bad habit. It is tempting because it is easy and many people are lazy. But if you don't work for what you want, then you are unlikely to get much, unless you fell out of a lucky vagina and will therefore inherit the fruits of someone else's hard work.
Daydreaming may be pleasurable, but more than a little tends to do more harm than good. (If you can monetize your daydreaming via art, writing, inventions, etc. then it counts as work.)
On the other hoof ... "You may find that having is not so satisfying a thing as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."
2) Sometimes they actually are talking about magic, but they don't believe in it; they don't understand how shaped energy can affect distant things. Well, magic is not so common in obvious form in this world, so plenty of people haven't encountered it. However, there are many forms of magic that are quite concretely real. Thus, there's an instinct for it that is there because it is part of the world; people can often sense something even if they lack the training to do anything with it.
Some of these forms take years of dedicated effort but you can develop superpowers if you really want to -- like Buddhism and some martial art systems. For example, tummo allows skilled practitioners to sit in the snow wrapped in a wet sheet and dry it with their body heat and fire energy, rather than dying of hypothermia the way science indicates ordinary people would do.
Other forms don't require any knowledge at all. They're like guns: you don't need to know how it works, you only need to touch the trigger, or even just drop the damn thing. Blood magic and effigy magic are two types that people frequently cast by instinct, and which can be extremely dangerous, because in addition to the initial spark from the material itself they are also fueled by emotion. I lost count of how many times I cleaned up after an ordinary person accidentally cursing an ex by mangling a photograph, just during college.
Most forms of magic lie somewhere in between, and interestingly, if you look around the world you'll see a lot of repetition as people have discovered similar principles. Just about everyone uses candles, for instance.
The people who say that belief or attention can't change anything? Have apparently not grasped principles like "the observer changes the experiment" which appears in some basic science before you even get into quantum physics like Schrodinger's cat. If you would like to experiment with this type of reality alteration, do the exercises in Prometheus Rising. Carefully, one at a time, because if you rupture your reality tunnel that's a miserable injury and not one this society is well equipped to fix.
But real magic isn't like wishful thinking. It's active, it's powerful, it's directed. It isn't always mindful. It does require some sort of energy.
If you tell people that concentrating on something won't have any effect, that is damn dangerous wrong advice. At minimum, ruminating is a bad habit, it can be a mental disorder, and firing off negative energy because you've been told it won't have any effect can turn into a serious problem. That somewitch will have to clean up after, again, because you know the fuckwit counselor won't be able to.
So to sum up:
* Daydreaming is fine. Fantasizing instead of working has consistently poor results.
* Focused mental attention can have real effects in science and in magic.
* Just because someone tells you that something isn't dangerous doesn't necessarily mean they are right.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-01-27 08:57 am (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2024-01-27 09:19 am (UTC)