Quote:
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Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey
If we believe that we can influence anything by some action or other, and enough people believe that, then for these people, that becomes true. If the desired effect comes to pass, then it has proven that what was done to achieve that effect worked. If it does not come to pass, then the fault must lay with our performance of the ritual---or maybe God simply has a bigger plan, and could not permit it to happen.
Truth is a bit like history---get enough people believing something, and it becomes true.
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Well Alan, i think you know me well enough by now to know (or maybe just believe
) that i have a pretty good understanding of this theory and have, in fact, seen it in action. Seperate realities is a common tool in my personal spiritual practice and i am not trying to throw stones at anyone elses glass houses.
I am not quite convinced that it completely applies in this example though. If i believe a keris is powerful and can help me gain an end to a need or desire and that end does, indeed, come about i might then attribute the power to that keris and that may well be my "truth". I certainly wouldn't agrue this type of "truth" with anyone. Now i might believe that the essence of this power is held within the keris only because of it's meteorite content. Well, i
know the end result came about and it would be awful difficult for anyone to prove that that keris wasn't in some way involved in that outcome. However, if i were, in the cause of science, to destroy that keris to try to find that meteorite content (something i would never dream of doing BTW
) and found no nickel content or even titanium what then? I may have believed that this keris had meteorite in it but it didn't. It was never "true" even though i thought it was. What would probably still be "true" for me in this hypothetical example is that this keris still has power. Afterall, my end result
did come about. That would be an unchangable "fact". Of course, if this were an actual occurence, it would now be "my truth" that a keris does
not need meteorite to be powerful.
In terms of history i see even less use for this theory. When enough people (usually the victors) believe that a moment or era in history occurred in a particular way (even if it didn't happen that way at all but it makes these victors look much better by their way of thinking) i would rather call that an "injustice" than a "truth". I may choose to be diplomatic to with these peoples rewriting of history or depending on the level of the injustice i might feel obliged to stand on the nearest hill top and shout "Liar!" at the top of my lungs. Remember, i am an American and have many years of experience living in a country that has a nasty habit of skewing it's history to reflect the glory of the Homeland.
