Talk:Mind over matter

Stub status
(The following two early posts date from 2004-2006 when the article was shorter.)

This article admittedly may never be much larger than a stub. It references a phrase once widely recognized and used in popular culture. It would have been a proper redirect to extra-sensory perception, or to psychokinesis, or to responsibility assumption. However, because there is no way to redirect to all three, it was instead created as a stub article textually pointing to all three. --Gary D 06:46, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Please note that original research and speculation, or indeed your own metaphysical opinions, are not the right content for Wikipedia. DJ Clayworth 14:52, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * IT is a hypothesis that the mind controls you NOT matter. If you 'do' books here on wikipedia, there is a book by Heather McQuillan called Mind Over Matter. 202.124.104.192 03:55, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Origin section
I used some of my material, with some revisions, from the former deleted Wikipedia article "Cultural references to psychokinesis and telekinesis" to provide the origin for the phrase. So if anyone should claim that it was copied from another website, no, it's my writing that originated on Wikipedia. 5Q5 (talk) 18:03, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure "mens agitat molem" means "the mind drives the mass", not "the mind is driven by the mass". It also makes much more sense this way, since in the text it is given as an early variation of the "mind over matter" proverb. Fixed. 08:49, 11 October 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.191.230.96 (talk)

Definition
Re: "Also, "self-help" personalities such as Tony Robbins claim that, through the power of concentration and "positive thinking", people can walk on hot coals without getting burned." Do we have evidence that Tony Robbins has actually made this claim? The refutation of the claim is cited but not the claim itself. How do I add "citation needed" to the actual content? (Earl) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.208.70.38 (talk) 04:47, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

The Outer Limits - Mind Over Matter
There is The Outer Limits episode called Mind Over Matter, should it be somewhere referenced to (like in 'see also') https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_over_Matter_(The_Outer_Limits)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kenorb (talk • contribs) 17:09, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

Meaning of Mind Over Matter
cognitive Neuroscience Operates between two boundaries: Psychophysiology and Psychology, the relation between the Brain and the mind.

The perceptive thinking of mind over matter can be phrased to represent minds attempt to understand itself as matter41.141.144.92 (talk) 08:23, 9 March 2021 (UTC)

Earlier predecessors
While not matching the phrase exactly, it is hard not to think that Mind over Matter is not derived from Benjamin Franklin. In 1743, Franklin proposed the establishment of an American Philosophical Society, in part to consider "all philosophical Experiments that let Light into the Nature of Things, tend to increase the Power of Man over Matter, and multiply the Conveniencies or Pleasures of Life." He used the same phrase in a 1780 letter to Joseph Priestly "It is impossible to imagine the Height to which may be carried in a 1000 Years the Power of Man over Matter." This latter quote (or something similar that has been lost to history) was subsequently mis/re-quoted, twice, by William Godwin in book 8 of his 1793 Enquiry Concerning Political Justice: "It was in this sense that the celebrated Franklin conjectured, that “mind would one day become omnipotent over matter.”" I find it hard to believe that Lyell was not drawing on one or more of these earlier quotes.

I don't know if this is a level of detail appropriate to this wikipedia article but thought I would mention it. I find it interesting that the origin of the quote lies in thinking about possible futures, rather than the past. 131.111.5.151 (talk) 15:37, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

In Religion
For example, Christian Science teaches that "All is Infinite Mind," and that in order to free one's self from the illusion of sin, disase and death due to the error of "mortal mind", one must pray for reunification with that state of Infinite Mind. [I had to believe this, so someone else can source it. :-) ] Jimmy Hers (talk) 15:33, 13 June 2024 (UTC)