i'm reading this book entitled "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne at the moment, which basically claims that you can receive anything you want provided you think completely positively. so it follows that our thoughts determine our life experience, and that our successes are the result of positive thinking, believing, and receiving. likewise our failures are due to negativities in our outlooks, which by the 'law of attraction' draw similarly negative energies into our sphere of being.

while i am always skeptical about radical and 'life-changing' information, i do believe in the power of positive thought. but i believe that the process of positive thinking is really more like setting realistic goals.

first, you must set a goal that is positive ("I want to pass all my papers") rather than negative ("I don't want to fail any paper") because negative goals give you no direction to work towards. everything that is attainable should have a unique meaning, and not be defined merely as the absence/opposite of something else. once you set your goal, you must visualise it and believe in it. this gives you the motivation to act in a manner that will help you to acheive your goal, either on a conscious or subconscious level. for example when you want to drive in middle of the lane- instead of being preoccupied with looking down at the lane markers all the time, you focus on a straight path ahead, and use your eyes to guide your steering. our thoughts influence our behaviour, the same way mental and emotional input influence the brain's output to our physical effectors.

anyway i think that this whole business of how our thoughts make up who we are is certainly nothing new. from Descartes (cognito ergo sum) to Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel, there has always been an agreement that because humans are sentient beings, what defines us as individuals are our thoughts and our ability to act on them. on top of this, i like to also follow that our beliefs and values influence our thoughts, and that our values are ultimately subject to a certain innate moral compass that remains somewhat immutable regardless of social trends. which would make it even more attractive to accept Isaiah Berlin's idea of liberty- that we are only truly free when we are able to act in accordance with our thoughts and therefore values, either through negative restrictions which prevent us from acting in ways which defy our beliefs, or through positive empowerments which acheive the moral goal which we subconsciouly want for ourselves, even though it may not be apparent to us at the time.

furthermore i think that if you rationalise, you'd be able to attribute almost all your successes in life to some form of positivity, either in thought, belief or action. then again nobody can say for sure whether or not humans are rational creatures, or the circumstances which trigger us to act contrary to our reasoning. but anyway, i think that you can rationalise everything, and influence your perception on the outcome of any situation based on whether you want to look at it from a positive or negative light.

despite Nietzsche's various fatalistic and depressing arguments on life, i do believe that some of what he says holds true- that Meaning is infinitely interpretable, but there is a reality to which we are subject, of which we are—the reality whose meaning is infinitely interpretable. in a sense this is not proof for an anti-Christ existence, but can be affirmative to the belief in divine purpose. i personally feel that each of us exists to fulfil a certain purpose, and while we have freedom in the decisions which we make along the way, ultimately our actions are only [morally] permissible if they contribute towards this purpose.

as for whether or not God allows us to choose to and act in ways which run contrary to this purpose, i do not know. i often get confused about the extent to which we can determine our lives, and the extent to which they are out of our control. if God permits Free Will, does he also permit us to act in a way that takes us off from the path which was chosen for us? or is our path chosen for us based on our actions? or is there a sphere within which we are permitted to make and act on our decisions, beyond which we are subject to divine intervention?

sigh. i apologise for the randomness of today's post, and for the slew of disconnected thoughts. i'm just in a kinda angsty and righteous mood, and i don't think it is right that we can positively ask for success even if it is morally questionable. should we be able to wish for abundances of wealth, and be entitled to it only because we thought / prayed about it in the right manner? is God deaf to prayers that are phrased negatively? and do people bring illness and natural disasters upon themselves simply because they engaged in negative thoughts?

if so, there is something seriously wrong with this world.