In the most basic and understandable way, first we think of something before we can do it. We mull it over in our heads, we contemplate. We envision. Typically, this envisioning process helps us work out a few kinks before we more fully invest in our ideas. A lot of times we think about things first so that we can get used to the idea of them.
Something I often find myself both talking and writing about is the physics of prayer. I’m always careful when using words like “prayer” because people have very strong feelings about the word. People feel conclusively that they know what it means to pray. Depending on your faith, or lack of it, you yourself already have a preconceived idea about the nature, practicality, usefulness, and even the reality of, prayer.
I’m asking you to go deeper than that. I’m asking you to go under the traditions and the words you’ve been taught to say and the stereotypes and the preconceived ideas about what’s occurring when we “pray.” Because the underlying thread is key.
I think it would be unfair to say that the prayer style of one religion works better than the prayer style of another. It would be unwise and un-humble to make assumptions about what God is listening to, or why. It would be equally arrogant to say that God speaks English but not Spanish and therefore English is somehow superior as regards prayer. That doesn’t feel like an idea with any merit, regardless of your belief in God. If God listens to us in all languages—should God exist or listen at all—then how can It not be listening to us in all forms of prayer?
So, if thoughts really do become things, what’s occurring within the physics of those thoughts? What are we transmitting? And when are we transmitting it? To whom are we transmitting it?
The answer to What are we transmitting? is: Everything we are thinking and doing. When are we transmitting it? All the time. In prayer, out of prayer, it’s all prayer. To Whom are we transmitting it? Your guess is as good as mine. As it should be.
Lavender‘s favorite expression doesn’t pass any judgments on the quality of our thoughts or the things which result from them. The axiom of “thoughts become things” merely claims that A plus B equals C. Its own faith is that all consequences are natural, logical and understandable.
That doesn’t mean we always like the consequences of our thoughts, but we must own them if we wish to evolve; if we wish to hone our skills at the thoughts we have closer toward the life we want.
What does a completely peaceful person look like? Do they get bothered by things? Probably. But how much? What would your day look like today if someone stood over you right now with a magic wand, waved it three times, said the magic words (and if you know what they are, please do tell the rest of us) and poof! you became a fully peaceful person?
If suddenly all of your ability to derive angst from a situation melted away, how would you then feel? What would be different about your day? How would you respond to someone cutting you off in traffic? How would you handle an argument with your spouse? Or might the argument never even occur in the first place?
When your inner thoughts shift toward peace and benevolence, what might shift in your outer world? What might change about the field which surrounds you and the nature of the energy inside it? We do have fields around us. Electromagnetic spheres which naturally occur as a result of the polarity in our bodies. It’s not metaphysics. It's observable. But that’s generally where our understanding ends.
We can only hypothesize about what’s occurring in our fields based on the scientific study of field theory, which is still in its relative infancy. But we can infer a few things. We can infer there’s information in our field. We can imagine that our thoughts impact the nature of the information. We know that when we’re having a bad day, it seems to continue relentlessly in an endless stream of bumped elbows and flat tires, adding insults to our injuries. Like a train going off the tracks one car at a time. We feel powerless to stop it.
It’s not that you had a thought, “Gee, I’d really love to have a bad day today.” Maintaining inner peace prevents you from concluding, after you’ve hit your not-so-funny bone just getting out of bed, that now your entire day is going to look like this. It’s all about the positive thought you’re choosing when it would be perfectly natural to have a negative one.
Look, I don’t understand the physics of field theory, or prayer. That’s way above my pay grade as a minister. And you don’t want me to conclude it on your behalf either. You are entitled to your own opinion about that. But I don’t have to understand how an airplane works in order to visit my friends.
I tend to give a piece of advice when people tell me they’re having a really bad day. I suggest to them that they spend five minutes thinking about three things which make them feel grateful. Just pick three things and set the timer on your phone if you must, and then ruminate for a bit on what it is about which you feel such gladness for them.
Consider their details and their blessings. See if you can think of things you hadn’t considered before. Deliberately run out of fingers and toes in counting them. And then resume your day. See if it alters the kind of experience you have. It just might. It works for me.
Based on the teachings of religious and spiritual traditions throughout human history, we might surmise that doing something like this, using the notion that thoughts genuinely do become things, has at least the ability to alter our perception of a day. Our faith may even give us the option of considering that we project a positive energy forward from us, somehow telekinetically altering circumstances which might have otherwise caused us harm. What do you believe?
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