Tapping the immense power of thoughts

If scientists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences are to be believed, the human race is going to have direct contact with aliens in the next 10-15 years, not through radio waves, but through “the power of thought.” For many of us, thoughts are nothing more than routine creations of a functioning brain, a la water flowing from an open tap. However, in taking a simplistic and abstract view of what philosophy professor W D Hart called “the artefacts of an analysis of a mind”, we fail to appreciate the real energy that brainwaves embody.In fact, the power of thought isno longer limited to the realm of philosophy. An Austrian health care companyhas invented a thought-powered prosthetic arm, which works based on the impulsesfrom the wearer's brain.Scientists at University of Zaragoza, Spain,have unveiled a wheelchair that can be steered by the power of thought—the user only needs to concentrate on the part of the display corresponding towhere he or she wants to go, and electrodes in a skullcap detect theuser’s brain activity to work out the destination.One of theworld’s largest toy manufacturers has already launched an inventive gamewhere players wearing a brain-scanning headset can guide a ball through anobstacle course using the power of thoughts. Researchers from the University ofSouthampton have used brain-computer interfacing to capture brain signals andtranslate them into commands that allow humans to control devices and virtualreality environments just by thinking about various actions.Thesedevelopments have added a strong scientific dimension to Bhagavad-Gita’sassertion, “You are what you think; hence thought is action, being andbecoming; what one thinks, one becomes.” It was the power of thought thatKrishna invoked in Arjuna that helped the latter overcome hissorrow.A study by researchers at University College, London,corroborates that brainwaves have a direct influence on a person’sbehaviour. They’ve found, for example, that people can be made to move inslow motion by boosting a brainwave of a certain frequency andlocation.“When thought is brought to a focal centre by the useof the will, it acquired a thousand-fold the force it manifests under ordinarycircumstances,” writes C. Alexander in Real Inner Secrets of Psychology.“The masters of mental force have learned this truth during the centuriesof the study of these mighty energies, and they make it the first great secretof their practice and instruction.”Be it our health,lifestyle, occupation or relationships, we are what we choose to become.According to Swami Chinmayananda, “Activities gain potency from the powerof thought that feeds them.” As James Allen writes in As a Man Thinketh,human mind is “the master weaver, both of the inner garment of characterand the outer garment of circumstance.” By thinking too much about thenegative aspects of our life, we end up amplifying the very things that anger,frustrate or depress us. “Our thoughts create our feelings, beliefs, andexperiences," writes Louise L. Hay in Affirmation Power. “If our thinkingis negative, we can drown in a sea of negativity; if it’s positive, we canfloat on the ocean of life.”It is not about living in the fondbelief that thinking positive will automatically take care of all obstacles inour way. On the contrary, it is about approaching life with a positive frame ofmind so as to let the mind think better. Positive thinking alone may not bepanacea for all ills, as the bustling self-help industry would have us believe,but it surely can pave the way to positive emotions that can help us thinkclearly and move closer to happiness. Thoughts enable us to heal,harm, create, destroy, love and hate. It is up to us to unleash and exploit thatpower. If it can help us communicate with aliens, why can’t it be used tocommunicate with our own selves and guide to glory the actions that define us?Follow us on Twitter for more stories