I and everyone else have already changed the world simply by existing.

I mean, of course, if there is anyone in here that thinks that thinking is the way to discover how to redirect society to improve it.

Or if you think that philosophy's goal is just to understand what happens, not to modify it.

I think man is motivated by survival and unless and until your personal survival is threatened will a person make any meaningful change in their circumstances.

So if you want to change the world you must first make people believe that their personal survival is on the line.

This could also be the survival of your children or loved ones being threatened.

The world is within man himself, so to change the world one must change the world within, this changes my perception (reflection). Our imagination is the most powerful force in creation. The mistake we make is that what we perceive out there, we make ourselves believe what we see is real.
To me what I see out there is a clear reflection of my consciousness. Richard

All thinking and thought is directly connected to all other thinking and thought. So, as the world thinks, so the world goes. All thinking automatically changes the world whether you want it to or not. it's been proven by an experiment. See the movie "what the bleep do we know"

I think man is motivated by survival and unless and until your personal survival is threatened will a person make any meaningful change in their circumstances.

So if you want to change the world you must first make people believe that their personal survival is on the line.

This could also be the survival of your children or loved ones being threatened.

You are probably referring to the Hundredth monkey principle or universal consciousness ?

The Hundredth Monkey

I disagree, while it is true that all our desires are ultimately related to our own survival, saying that all we want is to survive would be an oversimplification. Man isnt that rational =)

You are distorting what I said:

"I think man is motivated by survival and unless and until your personal survival is threatened will a person make any meaningful change in their circumstances.

So if you want to change the world you must first make people believe that their personal survival is on the line.

This could also be the survival of your children or loved ones being threatened."

I did not say that all a person wants is to survive. I said the only way a person makes any meaningful change in their circumstances is when their survival or the survival of their children or loved ones is threatened.

People do all kinds of absurd things not based on survival but those are not meant to make any meaningful change in their circumstances.

Give me any example of a human action that changes their circumstances and I will show you how it was related to their survival.

As to your video I could find nothing on any experiment but if you want to post the link I will look at it and give an opinion.

the world can change if we use our knowledge and understanding to see where the world is now and why , and then use this to see where the world is headed

I did not say that all a person wants is to survive. I said the only way a person makes any meaningful change in their circumstances is when their survival or the survival of their children or loved ones is threatened.

As to your video I could find nothing on any experiment but if you want to post the link I will look at it and give an opinion.

Thought without action and personal responsibility is useless.

I disagree,

I believe we completely know how to solve our own problems but feel powerless and incapable of solving them because we have been taught to rely on others to make decisions for us and not resist or rebel against those in authority!

Give me any example of a problem in your life that you do not already know how to solve ?

The solution may not be easy, may require sacrifice, may require acceptance, may require heroic efforts but any problem is solvable!

---------- Post added 03-14-2010 at 06:24 PM ----------

Part two of "what the bleep do we know" is about perceptions and I disagree with their perception that the Indians that first seen Christopher Cs. ships could not see them.

The Indians were not children without any experiences and perceptions from which to build an understanding.

They had seen things floating in the water, they probably had canoes, and so they would have been able to see the ships and at least identify something large floating object in the water but may not understand what it was until it got close enough to identify people on board. Much the same as if you seen an object floating in the sky that you have never seen before. You would not know what it is but you would see it because you have seen things floating in the sky before like birds etc..

The idea of innocence is built around the concept that children do not posses enough experiences to form a perception or understanding of the world around them.

We are influenced by our perceptions and experiences everyday and that is why I believe we need to continually challenge ourselves with new experiences and challenge our perceptions of old experiences if we want to continue to grow in our understanding.

The idea presented that maybe we are sitting in a chair on a hologram deck just observing our life is ridiculous to me and is just another way to avoid action and personal responsibility for one's life.

The last part of the video discusses how molecules are made up and if their existence is really just a matter of our willing them to be.

Why do molecules hold a specific shape like a chair or do they hold that shape only because we will them to ?

Well, since we can leave a room and someone who has never seen the chair can enter and see the chair and sit in it it can not be our personal will that is forming the molecules into a chair.

Since our bodies are made up of molecules and all objects of this world are made up of the same molecules are all our molecules from the same source ?

If we and all objects are made up of the same molecules does that mean all objects have the same molecular memory that we do ?

This would be a good argument for the existence of God as the source and our spirit as the molecular memory.

Without our physical bodies we would have no ability to act on our thoughts. People in comas that paralyze their bodies that come to and are unable to move have expressed the hopelessness and helplessness that comes from not having the ability to do any thing except think.

The last pert of the video talks about why we are not able to effect the past as we do the future and is a discussion of the reality of time.

I do believe we can effect the past in so far as the past is simply our perceptions of our interactions stored in our mind.

We can effect, change, erase, and alter those stored perceptions when we honestly examine those perceptions and see them for what they are and take responsibility for each one.

When you do that you do change the past and the present and the future as all of those events in time are interrelated.

How you responded in the past to some situation will be the way you respond in the present and the future unless you examine and challenge your past perceptions.

---------- Post added 03-14-2010 at 07:14 PM ----------

Part 3 of the video gets into the idea that physical objects do not actually exist and are actually a just energy held together by as yet some undetermined power, thought, or will.

Again, this is a good argument for the existence of God as the energy, power, or will that binds molecules into existence.

The under-theme of this video would have you believe you can alter your reality if you could just see that everything physical does not actually exist which I disagree with or that time does not exist and you can step backwards or forwards or sideways in time if you believed it.

Since our bodies are made up of molecules and the interaction of our molecules with all other molecules has known effects our ability to change the effect of our molecules or those of any other object are limited by our physical nature.

Our physical nature is a reality that must be accepted and anyone that would like to prove they can overcome their physical nature by traveling through time or be in two places at the same time is welcome to try and prove me wrong!

Actions can be thoughtless in the sense that you snatch a child from walking in front of a car without thinking about it.

That is the survival instinct!

Had you stopped to think about it the child would be dead.

So some could argue that a person thought about what they would do in that circumstance before they did it and that in some way prepared them for action.

That is the basis for my thesis on the power of positive self imagery.

The solution may not be easy, may require sacrifice, may require acceptance, may require heroic efforts but any problem is solvable!

The idea presented that maybe we are sitting in a chair on a hologram deck just observing our life is ridiculous to me and is just another way to avoid action and personal responsibility for one's life.

The under-theme of this video would have you believe you can alter your reality if you could just see that everything physical does not actually exist which I disagree with or that time does not exist and you can step backwards or forwards or sideways in time if you believed it.

Since our bodies are made up of molecules and the interaction of our molecules with all other molecules has known effects our ability to change the effect of our molecules or those of any other object are limited by our physical nature.

Our physical nature is a reality that must be accepted and anyone that would like to prove they can overcome their physical nature by traveling through time or be in two places at the same time is welcome to try and prove me wrong!

Part 4 of this video describes an experiment in which 4000 people from around the world went to Washington Dc and asked to meditate to reduce violent crime by 25%

First I would say why did they pick 25% and not 100% which would have been a much more significant and measurable amount ?

Why did they have to go TO Washington to perform the experiment as they could meditate anywhere right ?

And why did the DC police department take on the cause and publicize the experiment before and while it was taking place ?

All of these are ACTIONS that had to take place for the thoughts to take have any effect on the circumstances.

The part of this video I disagree with is the idea that if you did away with all negative thinking and false perceptions you could accomplish things like walking on water.

The scene in the subway about the water in the lake being changed by one persons thoughts is quite funny. Go stare at a glass of water today and tell it you hate it or love it and see if it changes ?

Itsalljustbs said: "But seeing the possibilities is not enough and actions must be practiced first in the mind and then in our physical world to obtain the desired results.
This same principle can be applied to changing the world to be a "better" place when people can reject the prevalent attitude and media hyped vision of what society and mankind should be and mentally see and practice the life they wish to achieve.
Once people have accomplished that change they will set in motion a wave of people that can also now see these possibilities!"
I agree completely. I feel we are on a cusp of evolving consciousness (aren't we always?) that will propel humankind into a new era of social awareness that will reject the notion of money as the only means of survival and distribution of assets.
Without the third party influence of money, and the concentrated power of its influence, we will begin to percieve each other as human entities, rather than human extensions of monetary power source.
The logistics of evolving past the confines of a monetary system are daunting, of that there is no doubt, but evolve we must if we are to establish a status quo that is rooted in the Earth itself, and all the assets of life that eminate from her.
Can the world change? Of course it can!
Where will the change begin? It will begin with you!