Basics Psionics Training:
Self Affirmations and Confirmation Bias
(By: Metalforever, 2010)
Self-Affirmations: An Overview
Self-Affirmations, within the context of psychic phenomena and Psionics, can be defined as exercises done for the purpose of convincing oneself of the validity and plausibility of psionics or psychic – based phenomena. Outside the field of Psionics, self-affirmation is a theory that suggests that people respond to external conflicts in such a way as to restore their self worth. People, outside of the field of Psionics and psychic phenomena, use self-affirmations primarily as a means to deal with threatening events, rather than resorting to self-defeating thoughts. Psionics is traditionally thought of in a skeptical light, which increases the likelihood of self-defeating thoughts. Since Psionics and psychic phenomena have many bases in subconscious activity, it is very important to maintain a confident approach while practicing. Self-Affirmations are a common method of maintaining a confident approach.
Confirmation Bias
Confirmation bias, within the context of Psionics and psychic phenomena, can be defined as a tendency to believe or disbelieve in psychic phenomena in correlation with one’s prior hypotheses or preconceptions. In layman’s terms, this means that people selectively report evidence supporting their own beliefs, whether or not they remain true. For example, we may return to the notion of Jane, contained in the section having to do with clairvoyance, psionics logs, and statistics. In this section, we described a hypothetical situation where a person(Jane) didn’t have any successes in precognition or clairvoyance for many years, until she “predicted” a car accident. However, statistics tells us that it is possible for Jane to correctly guess the next days events accurately, without psionics abilities, especially if the next day’s events tend to be monotonous in nature. According to chance, Jane eventually would have “guessed” this event correctly. When we consider this scenario in light of confirmation bias, we may conclude that Jane has a tendency to believe in psionics abilities without regard to chance events.
Self-Affirmations Vs. Confirmation Bias
One might argue that self-affirmations, exercises considered almost central to success in some psychic or psionics – based fields, have the tendency to promote the belief of confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is cited as one of the main factors regarding belief in psionics and psychic phenomena by skeptics within the field of parapsychology. Self-affirmation, while promoting belief in psychic phenomena, does so to boost confidence in something one might otherwise have trouble thinking about positively, rather than strengthening beliefs involving confirmation bias, which relies on undeniable belief from the beginning. Although we promote the use of self-affirmations, we advise against confirmation bias and undeniable belief, and ask that beginners take a skeptical approach when confronting psychic or psionics abilities, ruling out all natural possibilities first, before formulating a definitive conclusion.
Self-Affirmations: A Basic Training Technique
Step 1: Identify Whether A Self-Affirmation Exercise is Necessary
One of the main reasons that a practitioner of psionics or psychic abilities would want to perform a self-affirmation exercise is if the practitioner wishes to practice something that is particularly hard or new, for which the individual hasn’t yet been successful. Consider the following scenarios, which detail situations in which a self affirmation exercise might be warranted.
Lets consider an individual(lets call him Joe), who has not yet practiced micro-psychokinesis(the manipulation of chance events) with successful results. Joe is starting to feel less confident regarding the existence of micro-psychokinesis, and as a result, is doing worse than usual. Joe would most likely benefit from a self-affirmation exercise.
Lets consider another individual(lets call her Diane) for the counterexample. Diane has practiced micro-psychokinesis (Micro-PK), and has achieved success before, however, she had an off day. Instead of doing a self-affirmation exercise, in most cases, Diane would benefit more from either A. taking a break, and trying again the next day, or B. continuing with practice, while instead remembering her successful attempts.
Step 2: Become Aware of Problem Thoughts and Form Positive Alternatives
Once you have decided that the self-affirmation exercise is indeed necessary, focus on what you feel to be “problem thoughts”, or thinking habits that potentially impede the success of a psychic / psionics – based practice. After you have identified what you feel to be “problem thoughts”, form positive alternatives to the negative thoughts. An example of a negative problem thought and its accompanying positive alternative might be “I will never succeed at successfully sending a thought or picture to another person”. An example of a positive alternative thought might be “I will succeed at successfully sending a thought or picture to another person”.
Step 3: Ingrain the Positive Thought in Place of the Negative Thought
The process of “ingraining” the positive thought instead of the negative thought can be done in many ways. You may use mindless meditation as a way of ingraining the thought in question, or you can simply focus on the positive thought as a replacement for the negative thought for a period of time. The length of time depends on how negative the original thought is. A reasonable amount of time for a beginner to spend on a self-affirmation exercise is 5 minutes. Be sure to stop if at any time you start to feel uncomfortable.
Citation:
1. Self Esteem Exercises. (n.d.). Affirmations For Radical Success. Retrieved January 6, 2010, from http://www.affirmations-for-radical-success.com/self-esteem-exercises.html