Art's Blog

Are thoughts real?

From a physicist's point of view, everything is energy. Material objects are just a special form of energy called mass. The deeper question of why energy manifests in this peculiar way, is, as far as I know, unanswered. Perhaps, some deep thinking cosmologists have some insight into this, but if so, I am unaware of it.

If one accepts the premise that everything is energy, let's ask this question: What are thoughts made of? The analytical answer, of course, must be that they are some kind of energy organized by the structure and physiology of the brain. Let's go further: Can our thoughts - this organized energy - have any effect beyond ourselves? I think it's pretty well accepted now, in our backward Western culture, that our thoughts have a profound effect on our personal emotional and physical state of being. In other words, mind and body are indeed one. But what about the effects of our personal thoughts beyond our physical bodies? Is their any basis for the assertion that our thoughts can influence stuff outside of ourselves? Or, are they just a transient quasi-organized energetic phenomenon of our brain without sufficient "ummph" to influence anything other than our own moment-to-moment behavior? It occurs to me that a physicist might say that a thought has a very short "coherence length" - it dissipates very quickly and has no effect beyond a certain local realm of influence - an interesting, but localized, pattern of neuronal activity. This reminds me, sort of, of ephemeral subatomic particles. They exist - "sort of". But, for most practical purposes, they don't exist - they can be ignored in our everyday, macroscopic life. Is the same true of thoughts?

Well, I don't think so - at least anymore. Can thoughts be ignored? Sure. Does ignoring them make them unreal? Definitely not. Thoughts are real. Just writing this statement is somehow scary. To me, it implies that we have some measure of personal responsibility for the thoughts that form in our minds and how we deal with this peculiar form of non-material organized energy within us. Where do thoughts come from?... let's defer that question for now.

What if... our thoughts can influence the energy beyond our immediate selves, the stuff around us and outside of us? I'm not talking about phenomena like telekinesis, although this might be a strong interpretation of this assertion. Rather, I'm talking about a much more subtle influence on a similar system. For example, what if... your thoughts can affect the thoughts of another person? Even just a little bit. Could there not be some resonance phenomenon whereby the energy field of a thought influences some suitable substrate - like another brain with already similar energetics?

What if... lots and lots of people are thinking the same thoughts? Is the cumulative thought energy field stronger, might it have a greater influence over distance (or even time)? I'm visualizing overlapping three-dimensional waves interfering constructively with one another - in phase - coherence. Hmmm...

The possibilities that this concept brings forth are myriad. For now, I wanted only to share what, for me, is a new and startling idea - thoughts are real... think about it.