Jul 6, 2007

A Letter From A Reader

From one Mr Lin:
Hi Mr Wang,

Thanks for your reply, and sorry for taking so long to continue correspondence.

About NLP, mindhacking, etc. The more I think about the subject, the more I realise it's one of those "facts of life" that is quietly moved into the metaphorical closet, along with all the other skeletons that mankind hid because they are too "irrational" or too "unscientific".

From young, we are told that we can accomplish anything we set our minds to, which is a very primitive version of mindhacking. However, much like how we eventually grow to learn that Santa Claus does not exist, our experiences tell us that we "can't" accomplish everything we want, because we're very much limited by supposedly natural laws imposed on everyone. We try to rationalize our inadequencies, if only to make ourselves feel better and accept the situation that we are in.

Eventually, humans reach a stage in their growth that they cease to believe. They sneer at those who choose to continue to believe, instead choosing to be cynical (or as they claim, scientific).

Which leads to your current predicament, if I may call it that. While you are trying to expose and expound on a "truth" you've discovered, a truth that many successful people use to reach their current positions in life, people are calling heresy because it sounds about as concrete as castles on clouds.

It leads me to think that maybe humans are just not ready. The Jews supposedly condemned Jesus to be a heretic because He claimed to be the Son of God (because the concept is just too far out from their mainstream ideology). Galileo was called a nutcase for suggesting that the Earth was round (again, because they weren't ready yet).

A hypothetical wager, maybe? If mindhacking had been repackaged into self-motivation, if a couple of other auxiliary concepts such as hard work and perseverence were thrown in to smoothen the rough edges, I dare say that there would be less people who would contest you, but more who would say that this is old news.

Interesting that humans would believe that success needs to be exchanged, but fail to grasp the idea that the key is not hard work, but the simple belief (true, unwavering belief) in oneself's success.

When one has true unwavering belief of something, one has a direction and a goal. If it is a real true unwavering belief, that person needs no other motivation to act on that belief. If so, that person would naturally put in the hard work required, and succeed.

Even in the past, Leonardo da Vinci wanted man to fly. He put in hard work, worked around our physiological issues, and created the first flying machine (based on design, anyway). The Wright Brothers too had that dream, and put their determination into action and made it work.

We can't fly, not by our own bodies anyway. We are highly doubtful of psychics and mind reading now, because it seems so implausible. But if someone had enough motivation to dig into flying and work around problems to result in the jumbo jets of today, who's to say it's impossible for us to work around our current problems to reach psychic mastery?

I doubt my interpretation of mindhacking and NLP is accurate, but I feel that it's a stepping stone. A middle ground, if you will. I just feel that what's happening to you right now is the reason why hermits stay far away from other human contact - because only those who can accept will approach them for advice, while the rest will simply ridicule or slander him.

............

A question: people claim that many people go through life without ever knowing their direction, and end up doing fine still. How true is that? I find the idea of aimlessly floating through life both wasteful and scary... :(

4 comments:

HanSolo said...

To be honest mr wang, most readers have no problems with your beliefs.

It's only when you attempt to justify them with flawed science and reasoning that they protest.

If you truly believe thoughts affect reality, by all means go ahead. But you shouldn't try to validate them using quantum mechanics etc.

I believe you have offended and disappointed a lot of readers by forcing your arguments through in the last few postings.

It's the nature of blogs to have the occasional nasty comment. You just gotta live with it. Or why not try thinking a different reality, since that's what you truly, deeply believe in?

cheers.

Anonymous said...

Some errata.

1. Galileo did not discover that the Earth was round. That was more or less discovered by the Greeks more than 2000 years ago. What is commonly attributed to Galileo was the theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun, and not the other way round. However, even that is not true. It was first proposed by Copernicus, but Galileo's famous for championing it (and suffering for it under the Church).

2. Leonardo did design a flying machine (although not built). However, based on his design, the thing would never have flown. Largely 'cos he could only depend on human power. The Wright Bros got their's to work by sticking in an engine.

3. Regarding psychics and reading mind, just want to point out that latest developments have come close. Scientists have embedded chips into the brain of a quadraplegic and by reading the brain waves, able to send signals to machines and control them.

Anonymous said...

Click me is spot on. I like reading this blog and Mr Wang's insight into socio-economic issues. However, this latest foray into pseudoscience is somewhat disappointing. I believe Roger Penrose, Carl Sagan and many others have written extensively on this. For one thing, we are not near a singularity, such that that our thoughts and realities take on a new and different quality.

Scientists are usually very careful with their wording as words do not do scientific research justice. However, readers tend to make hasty conclusions.

Writing down goals and trying to make it happen is an admirable, organised and achievable aim. However, moving objects with your mind and regeneration, even if possible, is going to be hundreds of years away, and in a manner which we cannot imagine or expect today. Even that would be built on the foundations laid by generations of scientists and researchers. Hardly what one would call making reality with thoughts.

Please do not forget that the human scope is very limited by our experiences. That is the same reason the aliens we see on TV are usually a combination or permutation of some existing terrestrial creature.

So it doesn't really matter at the end of the day what you think. The universe is exactly the way it is, irregardless of what you think it is.

Ned Stark said...

Mr Wang,
With regards to your last point, I guess it really depends on what the person wants. If the person wants to live day to day aimlessly then he would probably be happy. But I guess few people are like that. Most people tend to be a victim of circumstances.