Why Positive Thinking Works?

Why Positive Thinking Works

Mitch Horowitz

So whatever that particle is doing, the very fact that a sentient observer has chosen to take a measurement at that time, place, moment, and juncture creates a whole past, present, future — an entire infinitude of outcomes. A divergent set of outcomes would exist if that measurement were never taken. A divergent set of outcomes would also exist if that measurement were taken one second later, or five minutes later, or tomorrow. And what is tomorrow? When particles exist in superposition until somebody takes a measurement, there is no such thing as tomorrow, other than subjectively.

And what are our five senses but a technology by which we measure things?

Pretty sure this is wrong or at the least arguable. AFAIK any of scientists speaking of a participatory universe, where the observer has a role in fixing reality, don't think the observer actively selects a reality.

That said, this might have some value:

Neville noted later in his life that there could be a substantial time interval between your visioning, your mental imaging, and the appearance of the wished-for thing. He would point out that the gestation period of a human life is nine months. The gestation period of a horse is eleven months. The gestation period of a lamb is five months. The gestation period of a chick is twenty-one days. There is almost always going to be some time interval. You must persist. If you want to find yourself in Paris, and you wake up every day and you’re still far away from Paris, you’re naturally going to feel disappointed or dejected. But if you really stick with it, I venture that you will see that your assumptions eventually concretize into reality, and the correspondences will be uncanny.

But the shaky use of quantum mechanics as justification makes me less convinced, though I suppose positive thinking is valuable even if it doesn't alter reality.