this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago

If I’m in a mirthful mood, sometimes I will wave my hands in a magical gesture, causing the door to open before me, as I enter the grocery store.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

All the time. I know it's not real, but it's fun to try to predict when exactly the bus is gonna come. It's right after this blue car! ... well, okay, maybe it's right after this white car! oh...

[–] Rhynoplaz 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

There's my people! Forget these party poopers. How do you know you can't spark fire from your fingertips, or make an icicle fall just by concentrating on it if you never try?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

True


you can't prove the thing that already happened had nothing to do with me thinking real hard about it!

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] Rhynoplaz 8 points 9 months ago

Careful or I'll be forced to smoosh your face!

[–] MrJameGumb 6 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

Taking a cat bowl full of water back to its spot on the floor. I remember I am the water, and it gets delivered without spilling.

[–] FenrirIII 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I regularly use my gifts to open grocery store doors.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Made me laugh. Thanks.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Myself never, but there probably ... millions? tens of millions? of tiktok brained Americans that believe in 'manifesting', so being irrationally delusional is pretty trendy right now I guess.

[–] GardenVarietyAnxiety 9 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Manifesting is a thing, though. It's not magic, but it is a way to trigger the placebo effect which is an observed phenomenon.

I can't manifest a jet, but I can manifest a new car. Just by believing I'm going to get one somehow, my brain is going to start doing a lot of subconscious things that are going to add up to getting one. You can manifest a promotion and you will start to work a little harder or more efficiently, maybe add new skills.

Why not just -do- these things? If you can, great! But if not, your subconscious is capable of things your conscious may not be... You could be in a cycle of self sabotage that manifestation can sidestep, for instance.

It's an incredibly powerful tool that people disregard as woowoo because even the people selling it don't know how it works.

[–] Mr_Blott 11 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Did some TikTok dipshit just rename positive thinking? 😂

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It gets renamed about once every ten years. My favourite was when it was called The Secret.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Yes. Its all over Insta as well, though far more common on TikTok.

Its astonishingly popular, and just barely altered, but promoted via extremely effective and enthusiastic social media influencers.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

my brain is going to start doing a lot of subconscious things that are going to add up to getting one

Can hotwiring be subconscious tho?

[–] GardenVarietyAnxiety 3 points 9 months ago

On Ambien, probably! ;P

[–] shalafi 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yep, no hoodoo involved. You can brainwash yourself, make things happen. One time dad lost a shitload of weight after I hadn't seen him for a long time. "I brainwashed myself into believing that being hungry was a good feeling."

I think you're the only person I've seen in forum posts that actually gets it.

[–] GardenVarietyAnxiety 2 points 8 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Wait wait.

Its... an incredibly powerful tool, but people don't know how it works.

But also it works by triggering the placebo effect.

Ok so can you show me maybe something like a scientific study that shows that manifesting practitioners have a 'powerful', measurable, meaningfully different ... any kind of outcome whatsoever, compared to non manifesters?

Is there evidence that manifesting actually triggers the placebo effect, as you claim it does?

You dont manifest a new car. You either make a plan to figure out how to acquire one, and it either works or it doesnt, or maybe you get lucky and you get gifted one by a friend, or you randomly encounter a scenario where you stumble across a great deal.

Compare the number of people who are manifesting that they want a car and end up with a car and the number of people who are manifesting a car and do not end up with a car vs non manifesters who do and do not end up with a car, in a given timeframe.

Im not aware of any studies on something like this because the notion is dubious on its face, not even having a proposed causal mechanism as you say.

But I would be very strongly inclined to believe that if a such a study were done, what you'd end up with is that manifesting has no statistically significant relationship to acquiring a car, and probably something like overall income or wealth and maybe number of fairly wealthy friends/family do actually have observable effects.

Look I totally am for a reasonable amount of positive self affirmation and self confidence.

But manifesting takes it to literally absurd lengths.

[–] GardenVarietyAnxiety 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Its... an incredibly powerful tool, but people don't know how it works.

But also it works by triggering the placebo effect.

The people "selling it" don't know. Or at least likely don't know. It's trendy right now, definitely.

After that, though, you're asking for studies that are virtually impossible to conduct as your bar for proof, reinforced your bias, drew your own conclusion, and dismissed my position as extreme.

I can't provide black and white data for you, with the exception of maybe placebo effect studies. But what I can provide for you is experience and understanding of how our brains work. And you can take it with a grain of salt, as I'm not classically educated, but it really is just breaking down common observable behaviors.

I'm not a "Manifester," but I've used the basic methodology to see change in my own life with things I've struggled with for years. You can call it manifesting, positive thinking, discipline, whatever. It just takes convincing yourself of something. This greatly increases the odds of that outcome by putting your subconscious to work on achieving it.

I can do it, you can do it, anyone can do it. And it. Kicks. Ass.

Look I totally am for a reasonable amount of positive self affirmation and self confidence.

But manifesting takes it to literally absurd lengths.

People. People take manifesting to absurd lengths. Also, you guys seem to be seeing this on TikTok? The app is designed to show you extreme positions that keep you engaged... You're gonna see the weirdos.

[–] angrystego 2 points 8 months ago

I don't have resources either, but I'd like to add that I studied biology and was taught about the mechanism of this at university during some classes. It's a proven thing.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Pulling my dad's finger always made him fart. Definitely not normal to have your finger connected to a pressure relief valve in your ass.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

Only in moments of extreme crisis.

please don't die please don't die please don't die

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I often try to pull things toward me or send out damaging rays but it has literally never worked

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Weekly. If there's ever a time for magical thinking, its during TTRPG sessions. Those funny math rocks will obey me one of these days, then its gonna be nothing but nat 20s until the end of time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Every time I try, I swear I only rolls 1s. In a sense, that's a pretty special ability too. 🤪

[–] OrderedChaos 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

But that'll get boring after a while. Plus people will call you a cheater.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

i appreciate your confidence in my ability to actually wizard up some d20 rolls

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

watch the documentary 'the matrix is broken'.

[–] bizzle 2 points 9 months ago (11 children)

I practice Chaos Magick. Since beginning my practice, I've noticed that things usually go my way. Not always, but I get what I want so often- and in such unlikely circumstances- that it's hard for me to just call it random chance.

The thing about it, though, is that there is no empirical evidence for it. Some people, like myself, have no problem accepting that we can't explain everything with science and data and math. Other people like to call themselves superior because they only believe what they can see for themselves.

It's arrogant to the point of hubris to think there's nothing beyond our physical reality. And, frankly, when all reality really is is a bunch of randomly vibrating particles, I don't think that inducing a change in conformity with one's will is that far fetched.

[–] OrderedChaos 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

And yet people will ignore you just because it challenges their stagnant world view.

[–] Feathercrown 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Just because a change can be made to your worldview, that doesn't mean that it should be.

[–] OrderedChaos 1 points 8 months ago

That is a very deep statement. I partly agree. And it greatly depends on the individual and many other factors we humans mostly don't have the capability to understand or conceive of.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Do you know about confirmation bias? That our brain is looking for positive example for something, and actively ignores the negative examples or gives them less weight?

What would interest me is, if there theoretically was absolute proof that there is no such thing as Chaos Magick, would you stop doing it? Or would you dismiss such proof?

[–] bizzle 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I do know about confirmation bias. Maybe that's what is going on, but from my own perspective I don't think so. Course if it was I guess I'd still feel that way 🤔

If there was absolute proof that it was a waste of time I'd probably keep my decor because it's all black pentagrams and shit and it's metal as fuck, but Bizzle don't dismiss evidence just because it disagrees with my worldview. I'm a weirdo, not a conservative 😂 Fortunately for my practice it's pretty hard to prove that something doesn't exist.

As a counterpoint, if there was absolute proof of things beyond our physical reality- whether it's Chaos Magick or the Universal Consciousness/God or even something as mundane as higher spacial dimensions, would you accept it? Or would you keep your eyes closed to the truth? Honestly the more we find out about the fundamental nature of reality the more convinced I am of the supernatural.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Your senses take in more data that you could possibly consciously process. There is an unconscious portion of the mind that does a first pass on the raw data (excitations of the rods and cones in your eyes, of your eardrums, chemical receptors in your nose, etc), and processes it into concepts that your conscious mind can process (images, sounds, smells, etc), and that you personally find significance in (your friend's face, your favorite song, your partner's perfume).

Confirmation bias isn't proof against Chaos Magick, it's precisely the mechanism that makes it work. The raw data is the chaos, training your subconscious to attach value to particular concepts is the magick. It's nothing more than repeatedly assigning value to something in a ritualistic way, to train the raw-data-processing part of your mind to trigger the conscious part when the object of value is present in a large batch of data.

It's like recognizing your friend's face in a crowd out of the corner of your eye, or when you notice every car on the road that's the same make and model as your own. Chaos Magick isn't about creating something from nothing, it's about training your subconscious to recognize and alert you to what's already there, hidden in the chaos.

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[–] Feathercrown 2 points 9 months ago

A few times a year

[–] weariedfae 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

When I was a teen I was pretty much like Silent Bob in Mallrats but now my spirit is broken.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

May the cosmos revitalize that spirit of yours.

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