[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Arcanum

I'm not sure what the relationship is between 99% space and hypnosis. Does hypnosis work betterer when there's lots of space?

Hypnosis is a specialised way of thinking thoughts and forming & altering beliefs. In turn, "reality" is shaped, created and changed by thoughts and beliefs.

The big difficulty of changing your thoughts and altering your beliefs is that you (or people in general) tend to cling hard to pre-existing notions of what is "real". This clinging (or attachment) makes it difficult for you (or people in general) to change their minds about the various aspects of reality.

For example, Apopohis thinks that a tree is "real". Out of this concept, he builds other concepts, such as how trees ought to behave, and what they can do, and what they can't do. These concepts are so strong that trees will generally behave in ways unsurprising to Apopohis. In other words, trees will behave in a "realistic" manner, in Apopohis's reality.

One way to release some of these limits is to bear in mind that trees aren't actually "real". In fact they are mostly empty space. Like a Zen question that stuns the conceptual mind, the notion that trees aren't "real", aren't even "there", then frees you to select other thoughts and beliefs about trees - thoughts and beliefs which you would otherwise find too bizarre, unusual or ridiculous to accept.

To the extent that you can free yourself from those mental constraints, you will be able to shape your reality as you wish, through your thoughts. Here's an example from Jesus, who decides to kill a tree with his thoughts:

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.

When evening came, they went out of the city.

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"

"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, `Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

Admittedly, not much value in killing a poor tree like that - I wouldn't do it, even if I could.