I have one more thing to say on the subject, Drich. My sister is a lot like you in her outlook on life, and that's something I never thought I'd hear myself say. She's not a Christian but she does have a have-faith-and-the-universe-will-provide attitude, cosmic ordering I think is what she calls it. She believes in birth charts, sees signs in everything, and puts a lot of meaning in coincidences. She's also heavily into positive thinking and the power of belief and focuses heavily on that in her work as a psychologist. Me and her couldn't be any more different in these regards. Every time she goes into one of her particularly (self-confessed) kooky modes she gets a friendly roll of the eyes from me. That's just our thing. But nonetheless, she is my rock, as a person. I am the opposite... generally depressed, lacking in confidence, and with severe self-esteem issues. My life is defined by a general feeling of hopelessness and hers is the opposite. She invited me down to live with her to help me out of my rut. She is a constant force of positive energy to counteract my negativity.
Because of her outlook and beliefs, she is remarkably resilient, bouncing back from any setbacks because she finds meaning in them. She's just had two major setbacks in her life and after a good cry she's bounced back from both of them much to the surprise of everyone around her. I don't mean this in a bad way against her because I'm genuinely happy for her that she has this effect, however it comes, and to some extent, like Rocket said, I'm envious of it, but what she's done, from my perspective, is take what's happened, find meaning/signs in it, and then shift the goalposts to the next goal. We both talk about psychology, that's our mutual passion, and in regards to my own therapy I try to meet her half way. I can get behind the positive thinking stuff because I understand the theory of it, if not the practice (unfortunately... most of the time). I can also get behind the mindfulness and meditation for similar reasons.
We discuss different therapy approaches and one we're looking at the moment, and which I'm willing to try, involves something similar to what you've said... sort of... faith without investment. The idea in this is to just sow seeds of thought as it were that will come to fruition in the long term. The difference is though, in her perspective it is the universe that will provide the answer when the time comes but in mine, that sowing of seeds just gets the subconscious cogs turning... just - to use my own vernacular - sets up a context which will influence thinking in the future. So I'm all for it if it works essentially as a long term means to implant some useful foundations subconsciously, similar to hypnotic suggestion.
But I can't get behind the cosmic ordering stuff or the birth chart stuff. She paid a lot of money to have this birth chart thing done and the thing was remarkably specific... I can fully understand why she believed in it... and for a second there I believed in it and for a second I wanted to have one done for myself just out of curiosity. But snapping out the trance, the only real curiosity I have left is how it was done. So I'd still like to have one done, but trying to figure out what the catch is, like trying to figure out how a magician performs his trick. It's mostly done by email with a half hour skype chat at the end to deliver it... so I think that's where I think the 'magic' must happen... where the astrologer or whatever they're called reads the client's reactions to what they say.
And likewise for the cosmic ordering. She was 100% convinced that a particular decision was right... it just the felt the exact right time and place for this decision. All the signs converged and some pretty freaky (even objectively) coincidences. She just felt to the core of her being that this was the right decision. And asking for my input, my internal response was the same as always, but nonetheless I suggested she should go with it... go with her gut... because I knew she wouldn't be happy if she'd done anything else. And ultimately that's what I want for my sister - for her to be happy. But anyway, right after she'd committed to this decision the situation went tits up and she was devastated. But there were no 'I told you sos' from the skeptics, me included, because we just wanted her to be happy. She bounced back anyway and found new meaning for what she'd been 100% certain about before... saying making that decision stopped her making this other even worse decision which was related to it. And so it goes... endlessly shifting the goalposts and ignoring the certainty from before from when things turned out to be wrong.
I'm happy for her that she has this effect in her life... it makes her happy, strong, incredibly driven, and purposeful... but I can't buy into it myself. I can't see anything more than the psychology that underlies it and I don't believe in any external force in the universe, be it the stars or god, conspiring as it were to provide any more meaning and purpose in our lives than what we create/perceive for ourselves through psychology.
Because of her outlook and beliefs, she is remarkably resilient, bouncing back from any setbacks because she finds meaning in them. She's just had two major setbacks in her life and after a good cry she's bounced back from both of them much to the surprise of everyone around her. I don't mean this in a bad way against her because I'm genuinely happy for her that she has this effect, however it comes, and to some extent, like Rocket said, I'm envious of it, but what she's done, from my perspective, is take what's happened, find meaning/signs in it, and then shift the goalposts to the next goal. We both talk about psychology, that's our mutual passion, and in regards to my own therapy I try to meet her half way. I can get behind the positive thinking stuff because I understand the theory of it, if not the practice (unfortunately... most of the time). I can also get behind the mindfulness and meditation for similar reasons.
We discuss different therapy approaches and one we're looking at the moment, and which I'm willing to try, involves something similar to what you've said... sort of... faith without investment. The idea in this is to just sow seeds of thought as it were that will come to fruition in the long term. The difference is though, in her perspective it is the universe that will provide the answer when the time comes but in mine, that sowing of seeds just gets the subconscious cogs turning... just - to use my own vernacular - sets up a context which will influence thinking in the future. So I'm all for it if it works essentially as a long term means to implant some useful foundations subconsciously, similar to hypnotic suggestion.
But I can't get behind the cosmic ordering stuff or the birth chart stuff. She paid a lot of money to have this birth chart thing done and the thing was remarkably specific... I can fully understand why she believed in it... and for a second there I believed in it and for a second I wanted to have one done for myself just out of curiosity. But snapping out the trance, the only real curiosity I have left is how it was done. So I'd still like to have one done, but trying to figure out what the catch is, like trying to figure out how a magician performs his trick. It's mostly done by email with a half hour skype chat at the end to deliver it... so I think that's where I think the 'magic' must happen... where the astrologer or whatever they're called reads the client's reactions to what they say.
And likewise for the cosmic ordering. She was 100% convinced that a particular decision was right... it just the felt the exact right time and place for this decision. All the signs converged and some pretty freaky (even objectively) coincidences. She just felt to the core of her being that this was the right decision. And asking for my input, my internal response was the same as always, but nonetheless I suggested she should go with it... go with her gut... because I knew she wouldn't be happy if she'd done anything else. And ultimately that's what I want for my sister - for her to be happy. But anyway, right after she'd committed to this decision the situation went tits up and she was devastated. But there were no 'I told you sos' from the skeptics, me included, because we just wanted her to be happy. She bounced back anyway and found new meaning for what she'd been 100% certain about before... saying making that decision stopped her making this other even worse decision which was related to it. And so it goes... endlessly shifting the goalposts and ignoring the certainty from before from when things turned out to be wrong.
I'm happy for her that she has this effect in her life... it makes her happy, strong, incredibly driven, and purposeful... but I can't buy into it myself. I can't see anything more than the psychology that underlies it and I don't believe in any external force in the universe, be it the stars or god, conspiring as it were to provide any more meaning and purpose in our lives than what we create/perceive for ourselves through psychology.
