You are right that we cannot magically will a Lamborgini into our driveway one Sunday afternoon, but I think the idea here is that research shows that our psychology affects how we see the physical world. If you watch the links Anil explains our brain as a predicting device. What you perceive is not reality: it's your perception. That is, our brain does not see light and feel cold. It understands only electrochemical signals and from that it builds a prediction of reality. Now this prediction can be a distortion of reality that hinders you from achieving a physical desire. Molding our (and other's) psychology is, in my opinion, a very monumental assertion. Changing your mindset can change your life in a monumental way - also physically - and this is what materialist neuroscience and epigenetics is proclaiming.
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It's not a monumental assertion. It's a well known phenomenon. It would be like saying that me asserting that "water is wet" is monumental.
You right, I did not catch your use of the word assertion. English is not my first language. I also must say that I do not completely agree with the original post. There is a difference between believing your thoughts can get you what you want and that your thought can hinder you from getting what you want. Despite this, I do believe the assertion Anil Seth makes in his TED talk is not limited to "us molding our (and other's) psychology". It extends to claim that reality is an illusion created by our brains and therefore a hallucination. Reality as we understand it is our perception and our brain therefore literally molds it. This I find is, despite not a particularly new claim, a pretty monumental assertion! If it's true, on the scale of monumentality its right up there next to the Copernicus revolution in terms of how we define our relationship to nature and the universe.
Maybe I'm just a nerd with too much time on his hands, but this isn't particularly ground-breaking either. ;) They've been hypothesising about this sort of thing for thousands of years. If I'm not mistaken the philosophy of Idealism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_idealism) is essentially what he is talking about. I didn't watch the whole video, so I could be mistaken.
Could it be that it is not a monumental assertion to you because you already follow these principles or other similar guidelines?
I think that the fact that these claims are hitting 'mainstream' backed by science is monumental. It is monumental for some, to break through some of the beliefs that hold them back from achieving their goals or desires - both physically and psychologically. Not only that, understanding that the brain is the sum of its parts/inputs and being able to systematically understand this opens the door to more holistic approaches to mental sickness and disease - and that for me will always be a monumental feat.
I can see on your blog that you are an activist? What would you consider to be a monumental assertion from your perspective, if you should make one?
Everything I say is monumental.. :p
I am (well, was) a scientist, so I'm a bit defensive when it comes to claims about science. I accept that it may be a novel concept for some, but to claim that this is new to science isn't correct. Clinical psychology, psychotherapy, CBT etc have been around for over a hundred years.
Epigenetics is an interesting modern extension of genetics but you have to be careful making direct claims that thinking a certain way will necessarily trigger an epigenetic switch. It's certainly possible I'd guess, as 'thinking' is nothing more than a biochemical process in the body, and as such could be part of an environmental trigger. Isolating such a thing, though, would be incredibly difficult, I'd imagine.