To those of us interested in living life to the fullest, the question of age and aging must be taken into consideration. To sociologists, age is a socially constructed trait closely tied to limitations; in traditional Western medicine, aging is an inevitable process of living; however, to the yogi and to the believer in the power of thought over matter, aging is merely a mental virus brought on by social expectations--a virus that can be cured through an "anti-virus" consisting of super-consciousness; and by applying the law of attraction--or the internalization of positive thoughts and habits.

Until recently, this sort of expanded consciousness has been limited to a small group of people. However, after the success of films such as The Secret (2006) and What the Bleep Do We Know it seems that the masses are beginning to seriously consider the connection of thought to 'reality'. With that awakening, there is also the hope that we can affect dramatic changes in our lives. Speaking for myself, this has certainly been the case.

The correlation between thought and reality is the basis for many religions, particularly those which honor the power of silent and positive prayer (or thought) as the basis for their beliefs. The most commonly known established paradigm in the Western scientific community that supports the power of thought is what is still termed the placebo effect (Dr. Henry K. Beecher, 1955), wherein people react to what they believe to be true, whether it 'is' or not. Today, quantum mechanics (QM) and evolutionary psychology apply the power of thought over matter as a basis for further research.

More convincingly, anyone can easily test the power of thought based on your own experiences. Through taking a conscious inventory of any one day or event, you might notice that what you believe or expect will happen, usually does. Further, we usually believe something will happen because of our past experiences, or through the knowledge of a certain natural or man-made law.

For the adventurous, one can also find evidence of the power of human thought as a universal force. One hypothesis to this end is what is known as "The Hundredth Monkey Effect; Environmental Influence and our Habits are also important ingredients in the unfolding of this mystery. The Hundredth Monkey Effect (for those of you who are unaware of its origin) is an observation of a colony of macaque monkeys on the Japanese island of Koshima in the 1950's that suggests that once a certain number of group members learn a new trait, the same trait will show up in members of the same kind without any physical contact taking place (perhaps elaborate a little here). Although the observation and its conclusions are somewhat disputed, our own experience tells us that if a certain critical percentage of the population starts to learn to do something, it quickly spreads to the rest of the society--such as something as mundane as fashion.

As a speaker of English, Swedish, and Czech, and a bi-continental resident, I base some of my acceptance of the power of thought on my experiences learning another language in the countries of origin. Under these conditions, I have been surprised to discover how much people speak without thinking. In fact, when we speak, we pretty much operate only with our intention. The actual process of speaking is a subconscious act. One of these subconscious patterns seems to occur when people are getting to know me. They inevitably ask the question, "What do you do for a living?" and "How old are you?" there it is! Age consciousness. Beware... When I tell them my age, they immediately look at me and refocus their opinion of me. I can see it in their eyes.

So, what are people thinking when they ask what age you are? To me, it seems that most people are projecting a judgment of who you are, who you were, and who you will be. For example, if you look younger than you say you are, they are thinking that you must have good genes--or that perhaps you have lived a life away from the sun, etc. However, if you look older than you say you are, they might conclude that you must have bad genes, or that you have spent too much time in the sun. In some situations, they might even be thinking about your death. In fact, it occurs to me that the subconscious and conscious thoughts and images that we hold related to age are overly prevalent and, almost always negative. Therefore, we must use our thoughts even more energetically to repel negative thoughts or prejudice. In other words, drop age-consciousness and practice positive thinking by applying the law of attraction.

This is a totally different way to look at things, isn't it? Since we know that thoughts seem to hold the most power in our lives than any other factor, could it be that thoughts are the elixir of youth as well? If it's true that everything in our life that we perceive as real is held in our mind, and our mind dwells on it over and over again, shouldn't we examine our thoughts more 'thoughtfully'? You will most certainly find, through such analysis, that your thoughts are full of rules and images that confirm your current reality--as well as project an image of a future.

So, is the mind just reacting to what it sees in the outside world and there is nothing we can do or should do about this? Fortunately, based on my knowledge from a degree in physics, I must say, "No," because in Quantum Mechanics (QM) there is no action-reaction principle. What you have instead is mutual 100% agreement of all parties involved. Every particle in the universe, forwards and backwards in time must all agree that something is going to happen, did happen, or is currently happening. That would include the neurons in your brain. Therefore, if the brain is the instrument holding the images that seem to reflect the reality outside of you, then can you change the images and then the reality outside of you would change also? I mean according to QM, that has to be true and since QM applies to all particles across the entire universe, then this statement must be true. Also, it must transcend time and space as well.

In sum, whether you have truly accepted the power of thought as your most valuable asset, at least give it a 'shot.' At least, as a shot against the "Mental Virus" commonly known as aging.

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought" - Buddha

-Jordan Stevens