"Thought" world-view (very interesting)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

Actually, I don't put very much stock in the Million Dollar Challenge. Randi has been known for falsifying information and constantly moving the goalposts. Whether "skeptics" want to recognize it or not, Randi has a vested interest in not paying up that million dollars. I had posted an article, a long time ago, that lays this all out in detail. It's somewhere around DV, but I dunno where, at the time. The point is that Randi likes to up the ante on 'arguably positive' results, until he can find away to make them fail, even just once (much like a lucid dreamer saying that they can lucid dream, but then not having one, one night, because whether or not we can l lucid dream - like many things with the mind - isn't always 100%).

Of course everyone always uses that challenge as proof that there are no paranormal abilities, but it's not.

---

I have read a few of the specific experimental setups and requirements, and none of them have seemed to be asking too much. Like one in which a woman claimed to be able to make a key hanging on a string in a closed jar on a table move. It was asked that she send in a video in which there are two jars on the same table with 2 keys, and she only make one of them move. That seems reasonable to ask, to make sure she isn't just moving the table. All of the added conditions I read about were similar. They asked things which made sense and should pose no problem if the person really has the ability. But you might be right, and I'll look into it sometime. The challenge has seemed only reasonable to me so far, but I definitely don't want to continue believing it is if it really isn't.

Quote:

---

This is not according to beliefs, this is observable. What is your definition of a thought? Can you brush your teeth with a thought?

---

According to this theory, any material is a thought. So yes, you can brush your teeth with a thought and it is preferably called a toothbrush.

Quote:

---

Isn't this the whole basis of your theory that the world we live in is built out of our unconscious assumptions and that if we freed ourselves from these assumptions then we could do anything?

---

Not necessarily, I am of the opinion that there does seem to be a default physical law.

Quote:

---

And couldn't there be a God if I believed that there was with this theory?

---

I am not sure, I think it is an assumption that belief can alter things in the world.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by elucid

According to this theory, any material is a thought. So yes, you can brush your teeth with a thought and it is preferably called a toothbrush.

---

What purpose or insight do you gain by calling material thought? What difference does it make? Does the toothbrush actually exist outside of your mind?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by elucid

Not necessarily, I am of the opinion that there does seem to be a default physical law.

---

What causes it?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by elucid

I am not sure, I think it is an assumption that belief can alter things in the world.

---

Isn't that the theory? That you can think something into happening?

Quote:

---

What purpose or insight do you gain by calling material thought? What difference does it make? Does the toothbrush actually exist outside of your mind?

---

A great deal, we can then move on to saying that this whole thing is a dream of a sort, we can then also assume that since material is thought, therefore, when we think, we are creating material, thus the creation of energy. Goes to show how we produce the electricity, the required energy/material for our day to day jobs.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by elucid

A great deal, we can then move on to saying that this whole thing is a dream of a sort, we can then also assume that since material is thought, therefore, when we think, we are creating material, thus the creation of energy. Goes to show how we produce the electricity, the required energy/material for our day to day jobs.

---

Firstly, how do you go from perceiving the world as a concentration of thought to perceiving the world as a dreamlike state?
Secondly, how do you know we are creating material? If material is thought, like you say, then how does it follow that we can create thought for if we are just a concentration of thought, how can thought create thought? And we're not REALLY creating energy because energy, according to you, is just thought behaving in a certain manner.
Thirdly, we don't necessarily 'produce' energy. We convert matter into energy and this energy dissipates.

Particle physics has already determined that the stuff of reality is essentially immaterial. Upon close inspection, the smallest sub-atomic particles cannot be said to actually exist but can only be described by the ways in which they interact with each other, or in other words; what information they communicate. If one were to define thought as the communication of information then this 'theory' of yours would be old news. It is old news anyway since this is essentially the nature of reality proposed by buddhism and other eastern religions/philosophies.