There's nothing with wrong introspection and quiet contemplation, but your experiment is simply an exercise in self-inflicted delusions.
Circular reasoning. This is an experiment to provide evidence for whether or not they are delusions.
The theist sees this as an exercise in perceiving the truth.
As far as I'm concerned, your certainty that these are delusions is just as arrogant as the Christian's certainty that they are real.
Anybody can also try a few "secular" versions. Try to convince yourself that somebody is following you and see if you can't match the evidence to the conclusion. Is the guy sitting on that bench really reading a newspaper? Haven't I seen that woman on the other street? You get the idea.
Or if you're alone in a dark quiet house, try really hard to interpret every slightest sound as the noises made by an intruder. That creaking floorboard? That popping sound? Scary, isn't it?
There's a chance that you'll take these experiments entirely too seriously and it make take a few days to shake it off. Of course, these experiments do not prove or disprove anything about you being followed or an intruder being present; they are designed to showcase the power of self-suggestion and how our cognitive bias leads us to delude ourselves.
Agreed, what we believe influences us.
Here's another secular exercise.
Tell yourself all the time that people who perceive God are deluding themselves. Tell yourself that you are better than them because you "don't need God to be happy." (true statement, by the way, except for being better). Now tell yourself over and over again that what I'm suggesting is an exercise in invention.
Those theists, they seem deluded don't they? That guy who prays to whoever, he seems nutty doesn't he?
It may take you a few days to shake off your delusion. But of course this just demonstrates the power and influence of what you believe to prevent you from perceiving things, like visions of God.
Of course I'm not implying that God ultimately exists. I am completely agnostic on this point. I do believe that normal sane rational people "perceive" God. And whether or not this is based in reality, it would therefore not be a delusion in the simple sense, since non-delusional people perceive "god".
I agree, with your treatise on the power of perception. I see perceiving God as a skill, one that anyone can develop but not everyone has. And obviously, the "delusions" you have right now are shaping your reality.
I know, but same difference.
Ok lol. I don't see how they are similar even, except for the statement "you have nothing to lose by trying" and God is implicated.
the Purple Knight
