Post by shawnhartnell on Jul 8, 2016 11:30:29 GMT -6
You could say that mages have a sort of positive ignorance. Many people will claim that the universe works according to certain laws (like the laws of physics) that clearly show no such thing as psychic influence can happen between two people. Surely, nobody can be influenced if you imagine “positive energy and good feelings” around a person. Right? The laws of physics say so! Mages don't have this affliction. The mage is a specific kind of person who likes doing something just because it seems impossible.
We understand that we don't understand much, if anything at all. We understand that anything we know is really only our current best guess. We know we'll continue to learn, and that often means learning that what we thought we knew is wrong or incomplete in some way or another. We consider everything with this in mind. We know that we have been wrong, so therefore it's possible to be wrong about anything at anytime, and can never be 100% certain of anything.
In order to deem something impossible, you have to be 100% certain, and as I've said, mages are never 100% certain of anything. The logical consequence is that nothing is impossible. When nothing is impossible, you begin to think in probabilities. Something may be highly unlikely. In contrast, something could be highly probable. Of course, any calculation of probability is nothing more than an educated guess. Something we think is highly unlikely may actually be more likely than we think. Something we think is highly probable may be very unlikely.
Summing up: Having been wrong in the past shows us that we're likely to be wrong at any time. Because we know this, we can't be 100% certain about anything and therefore nothing can be considered impossible. All we can do is make educated guesses given information we have at the time.
Now, let's return to the laws of physics and “psychic influence”. Admittedly, if you open up a physics book, it will say nothing about the possibility of psychic influence. In fact, from the point of view of someone who's mind is dominated by physics theory, the whole thing will look like complete bullshit. On the other hand, if you opened up even a Psychology 101 textbook, you could probably find a few principles, theories or concepts that may be similar to the psychic influence above. It might take a bit of thought, but I assure you they're there. (Yup, you'll learn them in this series.) The fact is that physics talks about particles and entropy, and how they interact. It's completely useless because it's not about people and how they interact.
Even so, it doesn't matter. Most people are stuck in a limited mindset and have no idea what's been studied and wouldn't know what psychology had to say about “psychic influence”. In this case, a mage wouldn't dismiss the idea altogether, “cause physics says so”, but rather think of ways it could be possible. If it's interesting enough to him, then he would find a way to test it.
The next post is about that: testing. Jumping in and finding out for yourself.
BTW, if you're interested in how psychic influence would work as above, I'm not going to go into a full explanation of it right now, but consider this. It's possible to change how you feel about something using visualization. (You'll have to take my word on it for now. Actual exercises will be given in future posts.) Imagining someone surrounded by “positive energy and good feelings” would change how you feel about them. Then, automatically, and without any effort at all, you would change how you interact with them. When someone changes how they interact with someone the other person adapts. Whala! Psychic influence. If you're still not convinced, google “pygmalion effect.” That will give you some idea.
Stay frosty.
We understand that we don't understand much, if anything at all. We understand that anything we know is really only our current best guess. We know we'll continue to learn, and that often means learning that what we thought we knew is wrong or incomplete in some way or another. We consider everything with this in mind. We know that we have been wrong, so therefore it's possible to be wrong about anything at anytime, and can never be 100% certain of anything.
In order to deem something impossible, you have to be 100% certain, and as I've said, mages are never 100% certain of anything. The logical consequence is that nothing is impossible. When nothing is impossible, you begin to think in probabilities. Something may be highly unlikely. In contrast, something could be highly probable. Of course, any calculation of probability is nothing more than an educated guess. Something we think is highly unlikely may actually be more likely than we think. Something we think is highly probable may be very unlikely.
Summing up: Having been wrong in the past shows us that we're likely to be wrong at any time. Because we know this, we can't be 100% certain about anything and therefore nothing can be considered impossible. All we can do is make educated guesses given information we have at the time.
Now, let's return to the laws of physics and “psychic influence”. Admittedly, if you open up a physics book, it will say nothing about the possibility of psychic influence. In fact, from the point of view of someone who's mind is dominated by physics theory, the whole thing will look like complete bullshit. On the other hand, if you opened up even a Psychology 101 textbook, you could probably find a few principles, theories or concepts that may be similar to the psychic influence above. It might take a bit of thought, but I assure you they're there. (Yup, you'll learn them in this series.) The fact is that physics talks about particles and entropy, and how they interact. It's completely useless because it's not about people and how they interact.
Even so, it doesn't matter. Most people are stuck in a limited mindset and have no idea what's been studied and wouldn't know what psychology had to say about “psychic influence”. In this case, a mage wouldn't dismiss the idea altogether, “cause physics says so”, but rather think of ways it could be possible. If it's interesting enough to him, then he would find a way to test it.
The next post is about that: testing. Jumping in and finding out for yourself.
BTW, if you're interested in how psychic influence would work as above, I'm not going to go into a full explanation of it right now, but consider this. It's possible to change how you feel about something using visualization. (You'll have to take my word on it for now. Actual exercises will be given in future posts.) Imagining someone surrounded by “positive energy and good feelings” would change how you feel about them. Then, automatically, and without any effort at all, you would change how you interact with them. When someone changes how they interact with someone the other person adapts. Whala! Psychic influence. If you're still not convinced, google “pygmalion effect.” That will give you some idea.
Stay frosty.