The Power of Positive Thinking to Reverse Aging!

[JLM]

" We don’t really know when life begins (that is why the prolifers, who claim that life begins at conception, are out to lunch)."

You and prolifers are talking about two entirely different things, S.J. You are talking about life in general terms as part of the cycle of the planet, prolifers are talking in specific terms as it applies to one person. They are talking about the beginning of a specific organism.

 

[countryboy]

I don’t believe in spiritual nonsense, countryboy, there is no evidence for it.

I wonder why you chose to describe spirituality as "spiritual nonsense." I don't think anyone is asking you to believe in anything. People are just discussing their take on things and fortunately, most of them can manage to pull it off without being offensive about it.

 

[JLM]

I wonder why you chose to describe spirituality as "spiritual nonsense." I don't think anyone is asking you to believe in anything. People are just discussing their take on things and fortunately, most of them can manage to pull it off without being offensive about it.

:smile::smile::smile::smile::smile::smile::smile::smile::smile::smile::smile::smile::smile::smile::smile::smile:

 

[countryboy]

Yes, about the open mind. In one of his stories, Asimov very accurately described this ‘open mind’. Near as I can recall, he said

“Now, Cullen was an intelligent Irish man. That is to say, he believed in the presence of fairies, pixies, little folk, leprechauns etc. and kept an open mind about vampires, werewolves, poltergeist and such foreign trash."

My grandfather was Scottish, not Irish, but I remember the time he said to me, "A mind is like an a**hole - if you don't open it once in a while, you're gonna have problems." I think he was right.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

I wonder why you chose to describe spirituality as "spiritual nonsense." I don't think anyone is asking you to believe in anything. People are just discussing their take on things and fortunately, most of them can manage to pull it off without being offensive about it.

If somebody is offended by it, I am sorry. However, I regard spiritually, religion, afterlife as part of superstition, which in my opinion is nonsense.

I don’t believe in these things, how else would you expect me to characterize it? Same way I would characterize Islam, Christianity, Hinduism etc. as silly superstition, as bunk. So by one sentence, have I offended 5 billion people in the world (out of 6 billion)?

Insulting persons, resorting to personal insults is rude, crude and childish, and must not be allowed (and fortunately they don’t, in this forum). Trashing of ideas, calling some idea nonsense or silly superstition is perfectly permissible, is part of the debate and I don’t see anything wrong with that.

It is Mohammed’s cartoons all over again.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

My grandfather was Scottish, not Irish, but I remember the time he said to me, "A mind is like an a**hole - if you don't open it once in a while, you're gonna have problems." I think he was right.

There is nothing wrong with open mind, countryboy. The question is to what idea is one’s mind open. If one’s mind is open to superstition, that is not a desirable trait.

For instance take Astrology. Should one have an open mind to Astrology? Or how about Alchemy? Should one have an open mind towards Alchemy? If not, why not?

Do you have an open mind to Islam, would you consider the possibility that your religion (I assume Christianity) is the false religion and Islam may be true religion? If not, why don’t you have an open mind to Islam?

Or how about Applism? I have propounded Applism in this forum before. Would you consider the possibility that your religion is wrong and Applism is right? If not, why not?

Open mind means one is receptive to different rational, logical ideas. Open mind does not mean that one is open to any superstition, any crackpot idea that anybody will dish out.

 

[JLM]

"However, I regard spiritually, religion, afterlife as part of superstition, which in my opinion is nonsense."

THAT I can accept. It doesn't work for YOU. But it's a little bit self centred to dismiss it as "nonsense" when it works for thousands of others.

 

[countryboy]

Single existence doesn't make sense? Why?

So what you are saying is that life isn't fair (if this is all there is to it). Well, duh. Why should life be fair, who meant to make it fair?

See, right there you demonstrated that you really are quite capable of having faith. Jumping from JLM's statement "single existence doesn't make sense" to your interpretation "So what you are saying is that life isn't fair" qualifies as something well beyond a leap of faith.

And following that up with "Well duh. Why should life be fair..." indicates a need for attention and respect by showing how you are able to size up a situation and come up with the final definitive answer, thus making yourself the final authority on the subject. Sounds downright spiritual to me! :lol:

 

[SirJosephPorter]

See, right there you demonstrated that you really are quite capable of having faith. Jumping from JLM's statement "single existence doesn't make sense" to your interpretation "So what you are saying is that life isn't fair" qualifies as something well beyond a leap of faith.

And following that up with "Well duh. Why should life be fair..." indicates a need for attention and respect by showing how you are able to size up a situation and come up with the final definitive answer, thus making yourself the final authority on the subject. Sounds downright spiritual to me! :lol:

Gee, thanks for the psychoanalysis, countryboy.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

"However, I regard spiritually, religion, afterlife as part of superstition, which in my opinion is nonsense."

THAT I can accept. It doesn't work for YOU. But it's a little bit self centred to dismiss it as "nonsense" when it works for thousands of others.

There is nothing self centered about it. In my opinion it is nonsense, and I am not afraid to speak up my mind. If somebody gets offended by it, well, that is too bad.

So you are careful not to call anything nonsense? How about Alchemy, do you think it is nonsense? Be careful now, you may offend somebody.

Or how about the Flat Earth theory? Do you think that is nonsense?

The fact is, it is perfectly legitimate to trash a theory, an idea, to call it nonsense. I don't see anything wrong with that.

 

[countryboy]

If somebody is offended by it, I am sorry. However, I regard spiritually, religion, afterlife as part of superstition, which in my opinion is nonsense.

I don’t believe in these things, how else would you expect me to characterize it? Same way I would characterize Islam, Christianity, Hinduism etc. as silly superstition, as bunk. So by one sentence, have I offended 5 billion people in the world (out of 6 billion)?

Insulting persons, resorting to personal insults is rude, crude and childish, and must not be allowed (and fortunately they don’t, in this forum). Trashing of ideas, calling some idea nonsense or silly superstition is perfectly permissible, is part of the debate and I don’t see anything wrong with that.

It is Mohammed’s cartoons all over again.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Insults are OK as long they are not personal.

Which means that if I said that the field of cancer research - worked on by thousands of highly qualified people for many years - is nothing but a money-sucking scam because a cure for cancer isn't on the horizon (and probably never will be), that wouldn't be insulting, would it? From a results point of view, cancer research is nonsense. Just stating the facts, as I see them.

However, we digress...the thread is about the power of positive thinking to reverse aging. Does that mean that negative thinking speeds up the aging process? If so, some folks might want to get the hole dug fairly soon! 8O

 

[countryboy]

Gee, thanks for the psychoanalysis, countryboy.

You're welcome. Just trying to help!

And just think - my advice is always free (and worth every penny) :lol:

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Insults are OK as long they are not personal.

Which means that if I said that the field of cancer research - worked on by thousands of highly qualified people for many years - is nothing but a money-sucking scam because a cure for cancer isn't on the horizon (and probably never will be), that wouldn't be insulting, would it? From a results point of view, cancer research is nonsense. Just stating the facts, as I see them.

No that wouldn't be insulting. I don't see why anybody would be insulted by it. It will be a crackpot opinion, certainly. But you are expressing your opinion, you are entitled to it, where does the insult come in?

 

[VanIsle]

I used to think the same from seeing her on T.V. but then I read some books my daughter in law had and I changed my mind a bit. She's got a lot of details that I don't think a phony would go to such depths for. Can't remember the names of the books as it was several years ago that I read them. I don't think she necessarily has everything right, but some of it she just might.

At one time I had all the books she put out too. Or at least all that were out at that time. I think I gave a couple to my sister and I either still have one around here or I may have tossed it. Like you, I believed in her. I thought she was the absolute greatest until she slipped up. We all store certain details and when she changed what she had to say from a year or two before in regard to how we all enter Heaven, she lost me. Then I began to look at her from the real side of life. When I listened with a critical ear rather than a believer, I could see how phony she is. One of the first ways a pyschic gets anyone's attention btw, is to tell you how much they believe in God and to indicate that God is in control of what they have to tell you. She's a loony bin like all the rest. She just does it better.

 

[countryboy]

There is nothing wrong with open mind, countryboy. The question is to what idea is one’s mind open. If one’s mind is open to superstition, that is not a desirable trait.

For instance take Astrology. Should one have an open mind to Astrology? Or how about Alchemy? Should one have an open mind towards Alchemy? If not, why not?

Do you have an open mind to Islam, would you consider the possibility that your religion (I assume Christianity) is the false religion and Islam may be true religion? If not, why don’t you have an open mind to Islam?

Or how about Applism? I have propounded Applism in this forum before. Would you consider the possibility that your religion is wrong and Applism is right? If not, why not?

Open mind means one is receptive to different rational, logical ideas. Open mind does not mean that one is open to any superstition, any crackpot idea that anybody will dish out.

First of all, I'd like to offer a thought that is on topic: I don't believe that positive thinking will reverse the aging process. I do believe that positive thinking can help the aging process to proceed on a normal track, by controlling certain external forces that could impede or even shorten the normal process of aging.

I believe that having an open mind on things I don't understand is a form of positive thinking. Take religions (as you pointed out in the post above)...yes, in fact I have a very open mind on religion and find that, at the bottom of it all, they're all pretty much the same.

I don't subscribe to your idea that having an open mind means "...one is receptive to different rational, logical ideas..." as that would mean I have pre-qualified any new or unfamiliar (to me) concepts as being "crackpot", to use your kind and thoughtful term.

Trying to fit new concepts into my version of reality (based on my experiences, knowledge, and prejudices) would be a demonstration of a closed mind.

 

[VanIsle]

No that wouldn't be insulting. I don't see why anybody would be insulted by it. It will be a crackpot opinion, certainly. But you are expressing your opinion, you are entitled to it, where does the insult come in?

Give it a rest SJP. You are not a stupid man and you know exactly where you became insulting. You have attested to being the one who doesn't do such things, for years now so why are you? Don't come back at me with a "show me where I was insulting".
CB is smiling at you. Try smiling back a little. You cannot argue with everyone - especially me. This is not a chat line but a place to discuss things. It's not a place for debating them either. We went through a whole thread about that. Have a nice day.;-)

 

[countryboy]

No that wouldn't be insulting. I don't see why anybody would be insulted by it. It will be a crackpot opinion, certainly. But you are expressing your opinion, you are entitled to it, where does the insult come in?

Well, let's see if we can find that elusive bridge between the "fact" and the "insult"...I submit that at least some of the researchers (and certainly the fund-raising folks) for cancer research might feel a bit insulted that some layman could come along and say that their entire careers have been built on a fabrication of the truth - that a cure for cancer is possible. Taking it further, they might even think I was questioning their skills and credentials. After all, after the billions of dollars have been spent, people are still suffering and dying from cancer. So, lots of money and time expended, with no results.

Of course, if I had used a question like "Why don't we have cure for cancer after all these years and dollars have been spent on finding one?", I likely would have avoided the "insult" issue and simply received information that would be helpful.

In fact, if you carry that to an extreme, if all the "war-mongers" in the world followed that style of discussion, perhaps we would have fewer armed conflicts and much more meaningful discourse among parties/people/nations that disagree on things, or don't necessarily see the issues the same way.

Just think of how much more fun the aging process (an attempt to stay on topic here) would be if people simply chose their words more carefully...i.e., did a bit of thinking about how the opposing person would react to certain key words, before the verbal shots were fired (and came out sounding like insults)...

 

[JLM]

At one time I had all the books she put out too. Or at least all that were out at that time. I think I gave a couple to my sister and I either still have one around here or I may have tossed it. Like you, I believed in her. I thought she was the absolute greatest until she slipped up. We all store certain details and when she changed what she had to say from a year or two before in regard to how we all enter Heaven, she lost me. Then I began to look at her from the real side of life. When I listened with a critical ear rather than a believer, I could see how phony she is. One of the first ways a pyschic gets anyone's attention btw, is to tell you how much they believe in God and to indicate that God is in control of what they have to tell you. She's a loony bin like all the rest. She just does it better.

OK, I don't need any more convincing. :smile:

 

[Sporty883]

Thinking young, acting young, having a youthful outlook on life, works for me... plus daily exercise. For 52 I have no health problems, never get a cold, and just zing through life. I guess having a zest for life is the key to eternal youth.
I date men much younger than me.

 

[JLM]

"How about Alchemy, do you think it is nonsense?"

In the sense that you are thinking, Yes, but if you look outside the box, there could be a lot of truth in it. Of course you can't turn straw into gold , literally speaking, but in a round about way you can. Flat earth? Works well for people who don't venture more than a few miles from home. Placebos are another thing that people turn their noses up at. People have known to be cure after taking them. It's what I call the "drug store mentality"- people who are just generally negative but they think some money can buy them some magic potion that cures all their ills. When they get the potion they are happy and when you are happy you forget about a lot of other crap. You might start doing cartwheels which gets the blood flowing, which gets oxygen to vital body parts. "Illness" is cured.