Changing Our Pasts and Futures By Changing Our Presents

“Like a particle, the universe doesn’t have just a single history, but every possible history, each with its own probability; and our observations of its current state affect its past and determine the different histories of the universe, just as the observations of the particles in the double-slit experiment affect the particles’ past.” Stephen Hawking, The Grand Design

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that some of you who don't have a PhD in Quantum Physics are clenching your jaws and saying, "Nope, he's wrong," to one of the most intelligent physicist of our time, even though most quantum physicists agree with him and not you on that. That being as it may, let me suggest how exciting this idea is. For one thing, it's one more idea that supports the possibility of human travel to the past in order to repair damage done by malefactors or accidents, or just learning more about who we are and where we came from. For another, more down to earth idea, it suggests that if we change our negative and destructive ways of thinking, perhaps we actually repair and improve our own past in ways we may not understand, but from which we profit.

We're probably a long way from the technological ability to accomplish time travel . . . but who knows? Regardless of that, all of us could change our negative, destructive thought patterns, if that were really important to us. For instance, if we're in the habit of dwelling on things in the past that were hurtful in all sorts of ways, perhaps by forgiving those involved, and purposely focusing on happy memories every time our minds continue the bad habit of focusing on the unhappy ones, we would heal that personal history, at least within ourselves and perhaps even in physical reality (if Hawking et al are correct). Jesus seem to agree with that kind of therapy too, right? He was big on forgiveness, Right? 77 times 7 . . . Remember?

Another helpful idea, if you're open to it is this: If we're conscious of some of our negative habits of thoughts and attitudes, all we'd have to do is use some of that free will we may be proud of, and decide to change the way we think and do things. For instance, if we're accustomed to saying too often, "I hate (this) and I hate (that)," perhaps that's not so healthy a way to think. Every time we find ourselves passionately thinking or saying we hate something or somebody (even a fictional person in a book or movie), we could use the self discipline to simply not say it, and to think of such a (real) person's good points rather than why we "hate" them. How might reducing that one negative way of thinking affect our whole outlook on life and our personas. We might even heal our past if Hawking's right. It would have to make us more pleasant to be around in other people's minds. Words have power. Thoughts have superpower. If we turn negative words and thoughts into positive ones it may heal our pasts as well as our presents and futures.

What could it hurt to give it a try?