“Individual thought is mostly the result of collective thought and of interaction with other people. The language is entirely collective, and most of the thoughts in it are. Everybody does his own thing to those thoughts. He makes a contribution. But very few change them very much.
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”
Thinking as a verb. Doing. Thought as a noun. You’re free to cash those out anytime.
Your body creates thoughts. You feel bad, perhaps you just ate a massive meal, now you’ve set up hours of negative thoughts. This was a decision. Repeat and feel bad all the time.
It’s a two-way street. Those negative thoughts then counterattack that body of yours. Now you feel bad again. And look rough. They may be internal, but we can’t really hide our thoughts from others, we end up wearing them. Cue the loop.
Now think about all the nonsense you’re watching on TV. Drama, crime, endless politics that go nowhere. Or social media. Can you believe Angie the cheer captain left Zach and is now dating a UPS driver in Naperville?! WHAT!
Are you traveling to some relative’s house for yet another holiday this year knowing a fight will break out over something that was programmed into their mental map by tickling their amygdalas with crime and whooshes and polar opposite contrasting red (hot) and blue (cold) graphics on those huge screens they bought at Walmart?
Tenth year in a row?
Why are you doing this?
This strikes me as sadism.
Perhaps you can stop this instantly?
Try thinking, the verb.
Can you create an entirely fresh universe around you simply by thinking it into existence? I mean that literally.
And if you do create a new universe, will that universe send you something you need at just the right place and time, without “doing anything” – that lands as a complete shock?
Perhaps you’ve been thinking about that very thing – the new universe – for a long time, quietly, and simply didn’t tell anyone. A secret battle. Or wish.
As Jung said, “The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves.”
Michael Talbot certainly did a little thinking.
Syntony: The state of being in harmony, resonance, or tuned to the same frequency as one’s surroundings, another person, or an external system.