To tell the truth, it’s not much backed up by Gnosticism or Buddhism either.
But on the quantum physics piece, you know about Heisenberg uncertainty and wave-particle duality, and other such concepts? These two pieces of quantum physics deal loosely with the inability of researchers to pin down the true nature of quantum particles. (Is it a particle or a wave? If I measure it’s speed and direction, I can’t know it’s position.) It then, for some reason, extrapolates this uncertainty into the physical, Newtonian world of everyday life, saying that we also can’t really know what reality is all about, and that things are always in flux among many different possible realities. Another jump in logic concerns the individual as observer. If there is really no true reality, and if everything’s in flux among infinite possibilities, then I can choose which reality to see. I quite literally create my own reality!
It then takes another jump to say that, on a quantum level (whatever that means), we’re all interconnected. (Presumably taking from the concept that spinning particles have effects on each other from a distance, or something.) That we’re so connected, that we sort of form a collective mind that collectively controls the reality of the universe, aggregating the individual viewer’s control over her own reality to the collective’s control over their collective reality.
But don’t worry. The philosophy has some glaringly obvious holes, and has been largely discredited.
Gnosticism and Buddhism both teach/preach that divinity is within. You are the master of your fate, captain of your soul. You choose and create your reality, and hopefully you choose a positive and righteous one. But anyway, let’s not get into a religious debate on our first date.
True, but not to the extent that this Master Key stuff does. It’s a big jump between mastering your own emotions and having Sartre-esque freedom over your life on the one hand, and being able to influence global events through mere force of will and “intention” on the other.
OK, so how about a computer running Photoshop, in which files are combined and permuted so as to create new faces under some algorithm or other? And another algorithm to ignore a portion of the resultant images entirely? These are not “spiritual tools”, surely?
Agreed, but that sounds like only the calculator to me. How about if we introduce a random element, such that one reacts to one’s environment for a while, then does something else?
Gus_R wants us to stop complaining and accept that everything except death* is under our control.
While there is some basis for this (if you don’t like your job, look for another one) he underestimates the forces that act upon us.
If you get cancer and can’t work or afford the best treatment - how is that your fault?
If you get maimed by a bomb - how is that your fault?
If your country is invaded - how is that your fault?
If a tsunami destroys your home, family and living - how is that your fault?
You always have choice, even as a soldier in wartime. Our sarcastic joke about this was that “You don’t have to fly these missions. You can always choose Leavenworth.”
It ain’t much but you must admit that you can exercise free will and choose your poison.
Yeah, really, no you’re not. Here’s how you can prove it; if your claim that all you need to do to accomplish something is to do it, then break the world record for running the mile. Right now.
Can’t? Why? Are you whining that your body isn’t capable of it? But didn’t you just say that you can do anything? Looks pretty much like accepting your enslavement by environment.
I’m all for boosting people’s confidence but you don’t do anybody a favour by blaming people for situations which have affected them which were beyond their control.
We are animals, first and foremost. In times of crisis, our brains go to ‘bypass’ and kick back to instinct rather than rational thought. And we are fragile. The ‘Power of Intention’ philosophy of life does not foster that most beautiful of human traits, compassion for those who have been victims of ‘environment’ through no fault of their own.
When you’ve climbed Everest without warm clothes or oxygen, send us a postcard.
If you could reset the universe and replay all the relevant events and configurations of matter that lead up to that decision, would you make the same decision every time? Is there more to the decision than the electrochemical actions within your body?