"positive" thinking advocates debate me here....

[Chief]

mate positive thinking is what made Ali the greatest.

being positive is not ignoring stuff, its looking at the brighter side of things and not making a bad situation worse.

negative thinkers bring me down and i defo do not like being around them!!! all they do is bitch and moan!! *cough* virtuoso!

[7even]

Even though you are correct in that positive thinking advocates embrace false assumptions or fallacies, who are you to tell the that they are wrong. The amount of disinformation in the world is so huge that nobody is above it. Look, you yoourself are even a follower of organized religion, Islam even, which is mosdef top 3 kookiest religions. You subscribe to lot's of bullshit, but it works for you. And that's a lot of what life comes down to. Making it work for you so that you are not miserable.

+1

[Elevz]

Your favorite positive thinker has arrived!

Even though you are correct in that positive thinking advocates embrace false assumptions or fallacies, who are you to tell the that they are wrong. The amount of disinformation in the world is so huge that nobody is above it.

You ask who is Infinite to tell people that they are wrong? Infinite is a human being, and he only has his own judgement to rely on. Whether his judgement is correct or not (a lot of people here, including myself, think that he's far off), it's the only thing he can rely on. I guess that's why he feels so comfortable in religion: because he's having trouble making sense of life on his own.

The more perfected you are, the better your judgement is. And at the end of the day, that's all you can base your actions on: your conclusions, drawn from your own judgement.

That's how you become positive as a person: by being confident about your judgement and your actions; about who you are, and why you are; about being in control of your destiny.

1.   Positive thinking advocates say things like "happiness is all in the mind"... or "happiness is a mindstate".   Well, I purpose that happiness is an INVOLUNTARY emotion resulting from bad or good experiences we encounter in our life.

And you don't control the way you perceive things? You don't put things in a deliberate context? You don't give meaning to things? Because that's the number one important thing about life: to attach a meaning to the things you deem important. Things don't have value in themselves - you have to give them that value. Through such subjective methods, you'll be able to control your mindstate. That's why you can spot me smiling like a retard in the most odd occasions. Whether it be looking out of the living room window, or walking through the masses at Utrecht Central Station, but it's always in a brightly conscious moment... Happiness is not beyond control.

If person A is able to go through a bad experience and stay happy and positive that things will get better it is because he has had past experiences where things have gotten better or met or known of others who have overcame or some past event, encounter or knowledge has given him this hope.  I don't however believe that he "willed it" alltogether because I believe it to be involuntary.

Don't let the things that are beyond your control bother you. It's simple as that. Knowing that you've managed to stay well, regardless of negative experiences, gives you a confirmation of personal strength.

2.  Positive thinkers may be neglecting their true emotions or feelings about something, and this could cause wasted energy and time engaging in something that they would be better off leaving.

Positive thinkers aren't specifically neglecting reality; they deal with it in their own way. Are you aware that especially Objectivism is focused at both positive thinking, controlling one's destiny, semantics and perceiving reality? These aspects don't necessarily conflict (even though they can).

3.  Positive thinkers believe it was their positive thinking that gave them success, when in reality, the reason they were able to remain confident in a difficult cirumstance may have actually been because of their abilities in that area.

Are you aware that ability isn't something that comes at birth - that your favorite sportsman had to exercise a great deal to get to where he's at; to make the best of his potential? And where would they be without positive thinking, without believing in all that might be possible, without firm belief in himself?

4.  Positive thinkers may be certain something will happen, and when it doesn't they could be left unprepared for a changing situation because their are always many possible outcomes for a situration that one needs to be aware of.

How about being so negative about yourself that you grant some 'higher power' the authority over your actions, blanking out your personal judgement in the name of Allah? Is that what you call leaving yourself prepared, as opposed to the Objectivist who strives to deal with every day's reality with his full potential, and by means of all that his cognitive faculty has to offer? Aren't you the one who's disarming himself, by submitting to something totally beyond your control and beyond rationality? I rest my case.