Radical Honesty

@Annie Your first point just isn't true. Yes clean water stops people from contracting water borne deseases (which has also saved millions of lives), but vaccines prevent against numerous other diseases. Moreover, antibiotics are extremely effective at getting rid of bacteria. Modern medicine is amazing. It's ok to pursue alternative approaches to medicine, but unless you want to be responsible for someone's death, don't ever advice people to avoid proven cures. Also, I don't see how your point "everything happens for a reason" is relevant? The "reason" most diseases are contracted is because of pathogens who's sole live purpose is to spread as far through a population as possible. Not everything that happens to your body is created by your mind. Believing it is is pure egotism.

@Siim Land Brilliant post! It is incredibly hard to avoid some of these biases. Ill add another one: The Fundimental Attribution Error: We tend to think other people's mistakes are caused by their poor character—as opposed to the circumstances they were in. On the other hand, we view are own mistakes as caused by the circumstances we are in, rather than by our poor character. (And the converse for positive things we have done) One example of this would be assuming other people who failed at starting a buisness failed because they were lazy, unmotivated and stupid. Whereas assuming that we failed at starting a buisness because of the circumstances in the market.

READ THIS PEOPLE!!!

You're right that your mind has a huge influence on illnesses, healing and treatments. However, don't take it too far. Many/most illnesses are not caused our minds, there are real physical issues that cannot be solved by changing thought patterns. I share your concern about the pharmaceutical industry. Many of the drugs they produce and completely ineffective or even negative, but they are still sold because they are so profitable! Yet modern medicine has been extremely effective in preventing deseases and saving lives over the past century. Deseases which used to kill most children before they reached the age of 5 are now irradiated due to vaccines and antibiotics. What you say about 'life vs life': There is nothing about nature that requires it to conform to our human values of health and happiness. It is only from an egotistical and humancentric perspective that someone would think that.

If you want to lucid dream do three things: 1. Get a watch, and whenever you look at it during the day notice it's shape. Then ask yourself, 'am I dreaming'. If you get into the habit of doing this, when you're in a dream you will look down at your watch and see that it's all fucked up. Then you will become aware that you are dreaming. 2. Write down what happened in your dreams every morning. This will help you remember your dreams better and as a result, find it easier to become lucid. 3. When you go to sleep, repeat over and over, "I am going to lucid dream tonight" until you fall asleep. I'm not sure why this works, but it does! Happy lucid dreaming!

@EmilyCook26 Why wouldn't people want to lucid dream. It's like going on holiday to wacky and interesting places every night!

@pluto Life experience is a terrible guide for what is healthy. The placebo effect is far stronger than any change in diet—so even though I'm sure these foods make you feel great, that is most likely due to your belief that they are nutritional rather than any actual benefits you derive from them. Yes it is worrying that the levels of SOME nutrients have been falling in foods (others have actually been rising), but the solution to this problem is not to eat negligible amounts of ridiculously overpriced 'superfoods'. It is to put pressure on agricultural institutions to improve their production methods. Or instead use GMOs with increased levels of certain nutrients. If you can find one study on superfoods without glaring methodological errors, then I might open my mind to them. But as of yet, I haven't managed to find any. Please send me some though, I don't want to be overly dogmatic in my beliefs if their really is evidence that they can be beneficial.

@Wyatt This is true. But some would argue that it's not worth lowering productiveness by limiting fossil fuel consumption now, when we will be able to exploit technological advances in renewables in the future anyway.

@pluto 'Superfoods' are a marketing ploy from nutrition companies who make billions from them. There is no evidence that any of them have any real benefits above and beyond everyday vegetables, fruits and legumes.

@Arzola Don't forget that capitalism and our political system has done an amazing job at eradicating disease, violence, poverty and war. Across the globe people have a much higher standard of living then ever before. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2015/sep/11/graphic-evidence-steven-pinkers-optimism-on-trial

@Annie Do you understand why people use placebo controlled trials? Because personal experience is incredibly biased. I don't know why it would work in that case—but what's more likely: 1) A water droplet with a single atom of a random chemical which hasn't been proven to help the illness cured the child. All of which is based on a theory which makes no sense whatsoever and hasn't EVER been proven to work better than placebo. or 2) The child got cured some other way. Also, it's been shown that even if a patient doesn't know the benefit of a drug, patients with doctors who know what the drug (it was actually a placebo) does recover faster than those with doctors who don't. It seems likely that a similar thing would happen with a parent giving their child a treatment. The question I ask you is, why are you so convinced it wasn't the placebo effect? I don't know anything about Germanic new medicine. I don't know anything apart from basic Chakras. Hmm I'm regretting telling you about the placebo now. It's probably best if you keep believing that the treatment you are using is curing you—because that belief that it is is curing you. (If that makes sense)

@Annie That's great. But it has nothing to do with the drops of water you have been taking (that's literally what they are). You underestimate the power of mind has on the body.

What are the businesses?

@pluto When you have a schedule you can remove all the thoughts about stuff to-do in the day from your mind. It leaves you much more present than going with the flow, where you have to keep these things in your mind constantly.

Doesn't make any difference. The information is exactly the same. Audiobooks have some practical benefit though as you can listen to them on the move.