#bad metaphysics

[creature-wizard]

So basically this whole "magic can never be used for personal gain" rule came from Charmed. It basically existed to make sure the main characters' mundane status quo never changed too much, and it was also deeply connected to the show's extremely Christian perspective on good, evil, and morality in general. Anybody who tells you that this is an actual thing in real life doesn't know what they're talking about.

[bizarrobrain]

"Cube Trap" by XoArK - From "Bad Metaphysics" (2018)

[creature-wizard]

Okay I just remembered that this happened and need to ask someone more knowledgeable than me about it.

So 2019 or so my mom and I are going around the town I just moved to and we decide to visit one of those crystal psychic shops that are in every even slightly big town, just for a silly little fun, and we sign up for a couple of reading also for just a silly little fun. Well they invite us to some group class thing and we're like yeah sure, that sounds like some silly little fun!

Then after it starts the lady "teaching" starts going on about how basically the collective unconscious stores all things everyone's ever done or thought and everyone unconsciously has access to it at all times, and that's why nobody can ever make a mistake that was previously made by someone else ("you're being protected by lessons learned from those who came before you" or some shit) and why the wheel was simultaneously but independently invented in isolated parts of the world (not a historian but p sure that's not true). I start getting really weirded out because I thought we were going to see a REGULAR conperson and not whatever the hell whacky ass bullshit was going on here, but i couldn't just leave because my mom seemed maybe a little too interested in what they were saying, which is concerning because it would imply she was the first and last person in history to ever get conned into marrying an abusive and arrogant dickhead, but I digress.

My question was, I've heard a lot of New Age nonsense through the grapevine, but I haven't heard that specific brand of "wtf are you talking about" before or since. Is that anything you're familiar with? Is there some specific or niche line of New Age thinking that this lines up with? Did I have a run in with an actual cult? Please advise.

This sounds like bog-standard New Age wharrgarbl to me, based on what I hear 'em yapping about on YouTube. "You can't make a mistake someone else made because collective consciousness" isn't something I've heard of before specifically, but it's in the range of bad metaphysical takes these people make.

[creature-wizard]

This is a good article to read if you want to begin to understand why the law of conservation of energy cannot tell us whether the soul exists, much less whether it's immortal. (It describes what the law of conservation of energy actually refers to, as opposed to what New Agey types claim it means.)

To the best of our knowledge (and we literally have no compelling reason to think otherwise right now; and yes, that includes OOBEs) everything that makes us us is biochemically stored in our brains, and perhaps also in some other parts of our bodies.

Also, a lot of people who try to appeal to the law of conservation of energy are overlooking the simple reality that while matter and such cannot be destroyed, it can be transformed in such a way that whatever we consider to be its essence is lost forever.

Let's say for example that we have a diary containing years' worth of personal entries - the writer has encoded all sorts of information in it via their language and writing system of choice.

Now let's set that diary on fire, and let it burn thoroughly.

The atoms that made up that diary haven't disappeared; they still exist. But the fire tore them asunder and transformed them to the point where the text that was once written on the pages is now forever lost.

Plus, we also know that destroying the human brain destroys our memories and such; just look into what Alzheimer's does to people.

So, anyone who tries to appeal to the law of conservation of energy to try and claim the soul is immortal is either engaging in sophistry, or just doesn't know what they're talking about.

[creature-wizard]

If the Law of Assumption actually allowed you to raise the dead, Amy Carlson (leader of Love Has Won) would be alive right now because her followers seriously believed she was going to come back to life. These people kept her corpse around for days expecting her to come back at any moment. However, she's still very much dead, because you can't actually believe the dead back to life.

[creature-wizard]

What's the difference between the law of attraction and the law of assumption?

The Law of Attraction is like, "whatever you think about is what you'll attract into your life. If you don't want to catch COVID, just don't think about COVID. If your boss yelled at you, it's because you thought about abusive bosses."

The Law of Assumption is like, "whatever you choose to believe will become your reality. If you don't want to catch COVID, just assume you're immune to COVID. If your boss yelled at you, it's because you assumed they'd yell at you."

So yeah, they're slightly different, but they're both irrational victim-blaming nonsense.

[creature-wizard]

I've noticed that a lot of really fucked up spiritual beliefs come out of the idea that there's something fundamentally wrong with the world if things don't always make you happy and comfortable.

[creature-wizard]

I think people don't fully grasp how the concept of manifestation/law of attraction/law of assumption implies that there's a bunch of people who don't have free will, let alone minds of their own. Like if you get laid off from your job it's because you had negative/limiting thoughts, not because actual the people who run the company consciously chose to lay off a bunch of people in an effort to cut costs, because capitalism. Like somehow their choices are your fault.