In terms of daily living does it really matter how you came into existence? Searching for existential answers may be entertaining but it does not pay the rent nor does it prevent colds. What you do need to know is that you have a certain amount of control over life space events that seem to defy the laws of science. The most obvious are those events which are characterized under the heading of ‘placebo effects’. “Belief is powerful medicine, even if the treatment itself is a sham. New research shows placebos can also benefit patients who do not have faith in them...”

You can call it magic, or belief, or communication between photons, or an act of God but it is very real (whatever that means) and at times competitive with external change agents such as pharmaceuticals.

Even if you are aware that the external event is a placebo it is effective. The question that scientist are attempting to answer is if the placebo acts directly on the condition or rather the symptoms associated with the condition.

The point is you don’t have to know how or why it works in order to benefit from it. However, even though a chef can bake a cake without needing to understand the laws of thermodynamics he or she does need to know how to turn the oven on.

What this evidence suggests is that you have a potential for creating change of your physical self by simple conscious thought. Now the question is: ‘can conscious thought also create changes in your life space?’ The evidence for it is not as clear as the placebo effect, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence. This is nothing new in terms public information but like anything else it attracts those who make unsubstantiated claims about having ‘special knowledge’ for achieving success with ‘creating your own reality’. The most common gimmick is the preaching of the Law Of Attraction.  It is the modern version of ‘snake oil’, however it actually does have some validity. The snake oil part comes in the form of convincing you that you need special instructions (for a fee of course) to make use of it. Well there is no secret to it’s use. An excellent source for how to develop skill with the Law of Attraction is in the movie titled 'The Secret'. All that is required is some motivation on your part to maintain clear and consistent messages regarding what you want to attract. If the message is mixed then you will get mixed results. It is that simple.

The problem for most of us is that we are not aware of those emotional strings that lie hidden in the subconscious which mangles the message. Think of it as sending out a clear ‘thought’ message but wrapped in a package with a printed message that says ‘disregard contents’. Sometimes we send out a message that we truly believe is not mixed but the way it is worded produces the exact opposite of our intention. An example of this is the affirmation: “I need more money”. What you are going to get is ‘NEED’ and not money. In other words you are stating you want to be in need of money. Make sure you are devising an affirmation that does not contradict your intention.

The ‘power of positive thinking’ (Norman V. Peal 1952)  is certainly no secret. Does it work? Of course it works because while you maintain an optimistic attitude towards life you will very likely make decisions that push you towards positive results. The simplest example is a person who loses their job is less likely to find a new one if they get depressed and stop looking for a job. The more motivated you are the more likely you will extend your job search without placing limits such as location, pay scale etc. .This is not rocket science; it is just common sense.

Along with a positive attitude there is also the unknown variable of photons communicating across the universe. This is the basis for the law of attraction. The problem is that it cannot be verified any more than the notion that ‘God created the universe’. If you insist on verification you area going to spend a lot of time tracking down pointless esoteric questions/answers. All of this becomes ‘faith based’ and as Charlie Nutall told Rosie in the African Queen, “you pays your money and you takes your choice.” You lose nothing by maintaining a positive attitude while mentally making a request (to the ‘force’ of your choice: luck, God, All That Is, etc.) for a specific outcome within your life space. Historically it has been called prayer, but it does not matter what you call it....the point is to just do it.

What you have to weed out of all the information is any statement that says prayer does not work for changing an event. You cannot prove a negative no matter what the experiment. It is a logical fallacy to claim that something is ‘Not’. The principle of equivalence is not maintained because you cannot measure all possible present and future conditions.

Now you will encounter a whole lot of absurd articles on the net stating that it is possible to prove a negative. Here is a simple experiment: “Prove that Unicorns do not exist..” Now to really appreciate the complexity of existence you need to recognize that in an infinite universe all conclusions are valid even when they contradict each other. So can you prove a negative? At some level of existence the answer is yes...but not in the surface level of the 3rd dimension.

Interestingly there is a passage in the Christian bible which states quite emphatically that ‘man’ has the ability to do what appears to be impossible. “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20)