We talk about labeling a lot here at Considering the Universe. Usually, we discuss the negative impact that labeling can have on the person being labeled. For example: if a child is constantly told he is stupid, he will usually do poorly in school and generally prove the label correct. Unfortunate as this may be, there are greater reasons to avoid labeling.

Labels are given based on very shallow knowledge of a person or thing, sometimes based solely on appearance. We like to think we can predict the behavior of something based on these shallow judgments. But can we really tell what a person is like by how they are dressed? Can we really guess who lives in a building based on its facade? For every time we find someone whose behavior matches the label we gave them, we will find someone who totally defies the expectation we set for ourselves. Labeling is a lazy habit. It can set you up for failure.

Here is a very interesting article that deals with the labeling of the “South Caucasus” region. The article shows that although the world community likes to refer to Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan as one cohesive region, this is not the case. Though technically neighbors, the countries are often more enemies than friends, each aligning themselves with different international allies. The author of the article also suggests that the three countries are lumped together as a matter of convenience for outsiders who cannot be bothered to get to know each of their cultures.

By labeling these three countries as one region and trying to administer policies for the “South Caucasus” the international community achieves little more than frustration. This is also true in our daily lives when we label others. When you interact with someone you don’t know very well, are you interacting with the person or with the label you have placed on them? Do you treat your waiter like a waiter or like a human being? What about your boss? A bum on the street?

Today, try seeing everyone you meet as a person instead of the first label that jumps into your mind. Like foreigners labeling regions after glancing at a map, we have a tendency to see only uniforms, haircuts, or skin color and forget about the person underneath. Try to treat every person you meet today like they were your peer, that includes those you’ve labeled as being “above” you. It has nothing to do being excessively nice, it has to do with acknowledging human dignity.

I used to be very skeptical of anything spiritual. One of the ideas that got me thinking and helped open my mind was that there are forces out in the universe that we can’t detect, either with our own five sense or with current technologies.

Think about a dolphin. Science tells us and we believe that dolphins use echolocation or high frequency clicks to navigate and determine the location of objects. You and I don’t have this ability. Likewise we can’t hear things a dog is able to hear, we don’t notice the television and radio signals floating around us all day, we simply aren’t equipped to sense certain phenomena. This leads me to believe there are probably lots of things going on out in the universe that we simply can’t sense, which brings me to dark matter.

Dark matter hasn’t been studied in depth, mainly because we haven’t been to observe it well. This article from Wired explains the hunt for dark matter and how close scientists are coming to finding it. Another essay explains that dark matter might make up over 90% of the universe. That would mean that not only are we unable to observe the vast majority of the universe, but that our world and everything in it could be just an anomaly in a universe of dark matter.

Dark matter is interesting because it proves that there are still new wonders to discover in the universe. When you are feeling skeptical about finding higher truths in this reality, think about dark matter, think about how dolphins navigate, think about other dimensions that could be intertwined with our own, just beyond our ability to see.

When you realize how much there is out there to be discovered, nothing seems impossible. Ghosts, fairies, aliens, time travel, who knows? Just because you can’t see it, just because science hasn’t named it yet, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

There are so many great tools floating around out there promising to help you better control your reality. From the Law of Attraction to meditation, all of these mental exercises require the full belief and commitment of your mind in order to get the best results. This can be one of the biggest obstacles. How can we manifest our own reality, if we don’t really believe that it’s possible?

Starting small is a great way to build confidence in your ability to manifest your reality. Recently I discovered a new talent, that I think anyone can learn as a first step to taking control of your reality: stopping the hiccups with your mind.

I discovered my new talent almost accidentally. I was discussing a new article for ConsideringTheUniverse.com with Laura, when I got the hiccups. I was having a hard time talking and concentrating on the conversation because of the hiccuping. I finally got annoyed and said aloud, “I am going to stop hiccuping right now!” I shut my eyes and concentrated, my hiccups stopped immediately. Not even one more hiccup. Laura and I were amazed.

Since then I have consistently been able to stop hiccuping after the first hiccup. Here’s how:

• When you feel the first hiccup, stop everything you are doing.
• Shut your eyes and calm your mind.
• Take shallow, slow breaths, carefully controlling the rise and fall of your chest.
• Think about how your mind and body are one and you are in control of both.
• If you feel another hiccup, disregard it and continue to concentrate.
• When you feel that you have control over the hiccuping, return to your activities, but keep control over your body.
• Your hiccups are cured!

If this technique doesn’t work the first time, keep trying. I guarantee you, it is possible. Once you prove to yourself that you have control over something that seemed to be totally unpredictable, you will gain confidence in your manifesting ability.

Another good way to build confidence in your abilities is to pay attention to coincidences in your life. See our article on Nurturing Coincidences for a place to start.

MyProgress is an online application that lets users track their “stats” and compare their life progress with other users in their demographic. Basically, it ranks you based on finance, knowledge, and soon health, which is under construction. We learned about it from TechCrunch.

How It Works

Starting a MyProgress account is easy, you just need an email address and it’s free. When you log in for the first time you are asked to fill out various stats about yourself: your income, assets, how much time you spend on hobbies, etc. Then MyProgress will calculate your “analytics” to tell you where you rank compared to other users.

Evaluation

We aren’t big fans of MyProgress. We think that you don’t need any help being critical of yourself. Most of us are too good at that already. Comparing yourself to others, especially to potentially imaginary others over the internet, is not healthy and will not increase your happiness or well-being. By making this process high tech and using buzz words like analytics, MyProgress has the potential to turn a self-destructive habit into a an addiction complete with widgets to post on your own website. MyProgress adds legitimacy to the idea that a person’s worth is little more than the sums in their bank account, the degrees on their wall, and job title. This kind of hierarchical thinking makes everyone miserable. Those on top struggle to stay there, those on the bottom lose hope that they’ll ever catch up.

We would encourage our readers not to judge themselves based on arbitrary statistics that measure supposed success. No amount of external validation will make you feel successful if you don’t believe it yourself. Rather than wasting time entering nonsensical statistics like the monetary value of your pets into MyProgress, you could be doing something that makes you happy and helps you grow as a person. MyProgress is betting on our competitive nature and addiction to judging ourselves against others. These are probably not qualities you want to nurture with a clever online tool.

The money you make and the things you own do not determine who you are. Don’t let anyone, let alone a ridiculous algorithm tell you otherwise.

Steve Pavlina just had a great post about how complaining is a creative act and powerfully attached to the Law of Attraction (the more you complain the more you attract things to complain about). He illustrates his point below:

Consider that if something unfortunate happens to you, and you’re going to complain about it afterwards, then there must have been some kind of complainer seed within you in the first place… before that negative event took place. You must already have been the kind of person who’s predisposed to complain. And if that seed is there, you can bet the Law of Attraction is going to pick up on it.

Really positive people who are good at manifesting don’t complain. Even when things don’t go their way, they keep directing their thoughts towards the positive side. They expect that things will eventually go their way. They also take action to participate in the positive manifestation. Setbacks don’t make them throw in the towel and curse the Law of Attraction because they don’t harbor the complainer seed. They’re not going to be perfect about it, but this is their dominant pattern.

Interestingly, I ran into this post from the science blog about how complaining gives you a greater risk for developing anxiety or depression. Mere coincidence? I think not.

We’re nerds at heart. So when we read these articles from Cosmic Log and Slashdot about possible quantum tunneling, where particles move faster than the speed of light, we immediately thought of Star Trek: DS9. Although there’s a lot of controversy surrounding these experiments and no one seems to want to say Einstein was wrong, this could be a huge development in quantum physics and the way we see our universe.

Even a basic understanding of quantum physics can change how you view the universe. Try our Introduction to Quantum Physics as a starting point.

Seth Godin and Timothy Ferriss had recent blog posts about ambiguous language. Seth was railing against business cliches, pointing out how easy it is to use cliches to hide or skew the truth. Timothy named the top ten imprecise words that encourage lazy thinking. Language is a key to understanding how we think. Both Seth and Timothy are pointing this out with their thoughtful posts.

Most people will read their ideas and agree, but never really change how they use language. It’s difficult to stop ourselves from using some of these terms or to slow down enough to contemplate exactly what we’re trying to say. Most of us respond in a split second, we don’t even think about what we’re going to say. Especially in social situations, we’re goaded into making our point quickly.

That’s why I recommend learning a foreign language. It helps you communicate more effectively, even in your native language.

1. It forces you to think about what you are saying. You have to be creative with language because of your small vocabulary

2. You have to slow down. You can’t say the first thing that pops into your head.

3. You’re forced to recognize your listener. When we speak slowly or with an accent, people get frustrated and impatient. You’re given a steady stream of social cues to hurry up, be clear and stop wasting people’s mental energy trying to understand you. This social incentive in communication is a powerful way to force you to think about what you’re saying.

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I find that one of the biggest obstacles to personal growth is judgment. Often we criticize others to distract ourselves from examining our own insecurities. Usually the quality we are criticizing in another is a quality we hate in ourselves and perhaps have suppressed. It can be relatively easy to learn to stop judging “normal” people, but what about those who are obviously unusual?

A good example of such a community is iDollators. These are men who have sexual and even romantic feelings towards their highly realistic Real Dolls (NSFW). Your first reaction to this sort of behavior might be revulsion, giggling, or pity. I would ask you to withhold your judgments and first find out more about the men that own Real Dolls.
Salon.com has a good article on the community here and there is also an interesting video called Guys and Dolls. The video in particular, shows a variety of men with a variety of motivations for owning Real Dolls. Some see the dolls only as plastic sex toys, others treat their doll like a girlfriend of sorts. Sympathetic or not, Real Doll owners can’t be put into one category.

These men are easy targets for judgment, there are a thousand reasons that what they do could be considered “wrong” or pathetic. However, I would argue that by placing judgment on them we are trying to elevate ourselves. They aren’t hurting anyone. They largely confine their activities to their homes. When you make a judgment against them or anyone else, what is your true motivation?

It is very likely that by placing judgment on these people, you are trying to make yourself feel better about your own eccentricities. It might go something like this, “How creepy! I might be into (insert unusual sexual practice here), but at least I don’t have sex with dolls.” Is that constructive? Who is being hurt with statements like that? What if you said, “Look at her. I’m glad I’m not as fat/ugly/stupid as she is.” Think about what you are saying. You are saying I am fat/ugly/stupid, just not to the degree that she is.

When we judge others we are really judging ourselves. If you are secure in yourself, you won’t need to criticize others. If you can begin to accept very unusual behavior like that of the iDollators, you might begin to accept the things that bother you most about yourself.

Yesterday I read an interesting article from the New York Times about reality. The author, John Tierney, seems convinced that the world we know may be nothing more than a computer simulation created by a super intelligent being or our own descendants in the future. As he put it, “it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else’s computer simulation.”

Tierney goes on to speculate on what behaviors would be most likely to ensure survival in a simulation. Maybe the most “interesting” people would survive longer to entertain the creator, maybe those who follow the simulation’s archetypal values would be rewarded. Maybe the simulation functions like a Star Trek holodeck, where the creator gets to join in the fun. Maybe it is a working model to study alternate histories by changing pivotal events. Maybe, maybe, on and on.

Although the idea of a computer generated world is interesting, this article was more useful in proving what we don’t know than giving any real insights. By suggesting yet another possible mode of reality, here a computer simulation which itself has endless possible orgins, Tierney proves that we still have no idea who we are or what our purpose is. We don’t even know the basic format of our universe.

Not only do we not know why we’re here or even where here is, we don’t know what we should be doing. If we are only characters in a child’s computer game, what is the best behavior to ensure survival? What is survival even worth if the finale is nothing more than “Game Over” as Tierney suggests?

The possibility that our world is a simulation only plants us more firmly at square one. What is the meaning of life and how can we best live it? After reading Tierney’s article, I am more convinced that the best way to live is the way that helps you be content and grow. Simulation or otherwise, we don’t know where we came from or where we are going. All we can do is make the best of where we are, which can take a lifetime to learn. If the game is unplugged tomorrow, would you be satisfied with your score?

Marc Andreessen, at blog.pmarca.com recapped the book, Chase Chance and Creativity, originally written in 1978 by James Austin.

Andreessen is an entrepreneur and businessman. His post is about luck/chance and how important it is in business. We think that luck, coincidences, and synchronicity are all parts of the same phenomenon.

Austin described four types of chance in his book:

Chance I is completely impersonal; you can’t influence it.

Chance II favors those who have a persistent curiosity about many things coupled with an energetic willingness to experiment and explore.

Chance III favors those who have a sufficient background of sound knowledge plus special abilities in observing, remembering, recalling, and quickly forming significant new associations.

Chance IV favors those with distinctive, if not eccentric hobbies, personal lifestyles, and motor behaviors.

This description of “luck” or “chance” is the same phenomenon Deepak Chopra talks about in The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire, only Deepak calls it “coincidence.” Deepak’s premise is that everyday coincidences are meaningful and if we notice them, they’ll provide us with insight to ourselves and our spiritual journeys.

Deepak takes a more metaphysical route to describing this phenomenon, but both Andreessen and Deepak are talking about the same thing. Andreessen’s post is a great way to introduce skeptics to coincidences and synchronicity because he is not part of the “new age” community.
We also liked Andreessen’s advice on how to cultivate “luck.” He recommends being energetic, curious and an individual. It’s important to get out into the world, try new things and learn. Luck will find you.