Altered reality

reply to post by SwineSlayer


You're touching on a very interesting concept. You ever heard of a tulpa? It's a belief form. Manifested into existence through someone's will.

reply to post by Grifter42


Never heard of it but I'll check it out. I think it's possible to effect certain possibilities based solely on a willingness to believe something specifically. Especially these days where a lot of people are able to convince themselves that their beliefs are actual fact (aka "true") despite History/Science or what have you opposing that misperception.

reply to post by SwineSlayer


This one falls into the probably confirmation bias column, but does anyone ever buy lottery tickets? Well, I seldom to rarely do. Except for one day, when I was near flat broke. I had about five bucks left in my wallet, and was going to get a soda or something. But as I got to the counter, I got a vision in my head, of the scratch off display, but in my head, they were all marked with red Xs, except for one, which in my mind's eye had a green check mark on it.
Well, I bought the ticket that corresponded to the one I was picturing in my mind, and I'll be damned, I won around fifty dollars.

It was weird. For a while, I convinced myself I had somehow willed it into happening, or maybe somehow "saw" it. But it was most likely coincidence.

reply to post by Grifter42


IDK..that's awfully specific not to mention the odds against it merely being coincidence...what with your identifying "vision" especially. It almost sounds as if you had a precognitive "vision" more so than just a random coincidence.

Strange things happen every now and then. Someone's got to get lucky. But little things like that can add up over time to weird a person out.

Originally posted by Grifter42
reply to post by SwineSlayer

 

It was weird. For a while, I convinced myself I had somehow willed it into happening, or maybe somehow "saw" it. But it was most likely coincidence.

Based on what are you assuming that it was "most likely" a coincidence?
I am not baiting for an argument or anything; I'd really like to know what EXACTLY makes it "more likely a coincidence".

Because the other way would be irrational. And the fact that I couldn't do it again. Couldn't replicate the feat.
I wasn't going to conclude that I somehow had magic lottery powers. That would be more than a little bit insane. And I had the good sense to quit while I was ahead.

reply to post by Grifter42


"Irrational" is a very ambiguous and misleading term; and it isn't necessarily a bad thing to be "irrational".
It could mean, and often does, that the person is intellectually and psychologically sound enough to accept the fact that our senses and the computer that computes their input - ratio, the reason - are very limited and often faulty as instruments of cognition.

reply to post by AdAstra


Well, to maintain a modicum of sanity, one tries to avoid becoming too irrational. Still, probability is as probability does. Every now and then, in any set of statistics, there are anomalies.