March 06, 2008
Magical Thinking
Matthew Hutson in Psychology Today:
Last year John Lennon went on tour. He visited, among other locations, Oklahoma City, Waco, New Orleans, and Virginia Tech, spreading a message of peace and love at the sites of tragic events. You may not have recognized him, though, covered in scars and cigarette burns. But to hear him, there would have been no mistaking his presence.
On this journey, Lennon assumed the form of a piano, specifically the one on which he composed Imagine. "It gives off his spirit, and what he believed in, and what he preached for many years," says Caroline True, the tour director and a colleague of the Steinway's current owner, singer George Michael. Free of velvet ropes, it could be touched or played by anyone. According to Libra LaGrone, whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, "It was like sleeping in your grandpa's sweatshirt at night. Familiar, beautiful, and personal."
"I never went anywhere saying this is a magic piano and it's going to cure your ills," True says. But she consistently saw even the most skeptical hearts warm to the experience—even in Virginia, where the piano landed just a month after the massacre. "I had no idea an inanimate object could give people so much."
Maybe you're not a Beatles fan. Maybe you even hate peace and love. But you are wired to find meaning in the world, a predisposition that leaves you with less control over your beliefs than you may think. Even if you're a hard-core atheist who walks under ladders and pronounces "new age" like "sewage," you believe in magic.
Magical thinking springs up everywhere...
More here.
Posted by Abbas Raza at 03:31 AM | Permalink
Comments
Immanent, trascendent, stochastic. maybe superstition --- what else?
Freud was not too crazy about it, but Bettelheim was.
It's nice to have fantasy as a resource to ward off overwhelming anxiety --- that's essentially human and helpful as a resource...
Posted by: Felix E. F. Larocca MD | Mar 6, 2008 6:52:27 AM
"It's nice to have a fantasy as a resource to ward off overwhelming anxiety" I love this!
Posted by: eric | Mar 6, 2008 10:17:31 AM
"To be totally 'unmagical' is very unhealthy," says Peter Brugger.
What nonsense! I was almost run over by a cab in Manhattan that went out of control onto the sidewalk. All I thought was how lucky I was. Nothing about fate or God. Is it necessary to believe in magic to experience the pleasure of listening to Bach or Scarlatti or Ravel? I get my pleasure from rational science and art and have no use at all for "magical" thinking.
Posted by: Jared | Mar 6, 2008 10:17:33 AM
Better (more hygienic?) than the knucklebones of a saint, I suppose...
Posted by: Steven Augustine | Mar 6, 2008 10:44:12 AM
Jared, what you've just written is a superb example of magical thinking. No one could come up with a better one even after hours of effort. (Could they?...) For magical thinking to "work" -- that is, to give us a feeling of being somehow protected, made an exception of, or provided for -- we need to buy in with truly astounding assumptiveness, and without a shred of doubt. A purely intellectual appreciation of art and music does not exist unless in the head of Lt Cmmdr. Data. To experience many forms of pleasure, you need to be capable of letting go the string by which you hold onto the balloon, backbreaking labor for the positronic brain.
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Mar 6, 2008 10:54:47 AM
Elatia,
There is a difference between the intellectual and emotional appeal of music or poetry or any art and so-called "magical" thinking. Ravel or Scarlatti or Bach were so good that their work can almost seem magical - but in fact, they were humans, not Gods. It seems by "magical" you are referring to art's suspension of disbelief. This, to me, is an emotional effect and not "magical" in the sense used in the article.
Posted by: Jared | Mar 6, 2008 11:24:19 AM
Jared, I was referring to your first point, and shouldn't have sidetracked us into music and art. Sorry! I meant, considering that one operates in freedom from magical thinking is itself magical thinking. Concluding that you're really lucky when an out of control car misses you is only unmagical if avoiding that particular dust-up is a proven and significant co-factor in why you did not walk into an uncovered manhole in the next block. Dealing with perfectly randomized randomness in our "who'd ever have thought it?" world is rational overload for most of us, hence Dame Fortune and her two faces, the gal who preserved you that day.
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Mar 6, 2008 11:58:53 AM
Abbas:
Thanks for the link to this article.
Jared:
Listen to Elatia and please, please don't turn this into a 100+ comments thread on rationality and religion. It is not the same thing. I say this as a card carrying non-believer who walks under ladders.
Elatia:
Here is another idea for interactive blogging (yes, only you can do it) in the same spirit as the Valentine's Day Broken Relationships post. Ask your atheist / rationalist readers and co-bloggers for their "magic moments." You'll be surprised. Love at first sight, wanting to and having a cup of tea with a total stranger, a baby grasping one's finger moments after birth and then doing the same thirty years later in a dream ... and so much more. You can publish it on the Summer Solstice in June or on Halloween. But why wait? Any day is good for magic!
And Jared, haven't you heard of magic moments in scienc?
Posted by: Ruchira | Mar 6, 2008 12:02:12 PM
God, what a brilliant idea, Ruchira. We could co-curate this one. If rationalists only fessed up, there would be plentiful tales of their having felt deeply, mysteriously fated as they hurtled towards serendipity, of knowing the crushing sweet thrill of the future's influence on the present, and of personally channeling inspiration that made no sense until it did, and then once more made no sense. It's too late for Easter, the Solstice is all too rational, but there's always the Feast of the Assumption...
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Mar 6, 2008 12:32:56 PM
Elatia,
When you write: "Concluding that you're really lucky when an out of control car misses you is only unmagical if avoiding that particular dust-up is a proven and significant co-factor in why you did not walk into an uncovered manhole in the next block." you are misunderstanding what I meant. I meant that I was "lucky" to avoid being hit not in any "magical" way but simply that I beat the odds in a statistical sense. "Lucky" is probably not the best word to use. I should have said that when I was missed, I felt relieved that the odds were on my side, not that I was "saved" by any special force. This is why I never worry about flying on a plane or being a victim of terrorists - I understand the odds are a million to one. It would be irrational to worry about such unlikely events. I really do feel that I am completely free from "magical" thinking and that most definitely includes religion. I agree, however, that the last thing we need is another 100 post threat on religion.
Posted by: Jared | Mar 6, 2008 12:47:25 PM
Notice the comments getting longer and longer. All that needs to be said is "It's nice to hava a fantasy (such as luck) as a resource to ward off overwhelming anxiety.
Posted by: eric | Mar 6, 2008 1:33:07 PM
Even if those airplane odds are a million to one, the absolute weirdness of hurtling through space in an aluminum tube above the earth requires a ritual with the sacraments valium and bourbon for me.
I really enjoyed this article. Many years ago I had a crush on a girl who took astrology seriously. I bit my tongue about what I thought, but eventually started checking her sign in the paper for potential insight and of course that less than million to one chance that it might one morning say: “you should really hook up with that Taurus dude at the café.” She’s gone, but the habit remains. I read my own and those of some X’s, who I’ve lost contact with as a strange connective device, utterly illogical. But then thank the stars Spock never made Captain.
Posted by: Jesse | Mar 6, 2008 2:37:33 PM
Jared, you did it again:
"I really do feel that I am completely free from 'magical' thinking and that most definitely includes religion."
And I still maintain that the strong conviction that you are free from magical thinking is itself magical thinking. Maybe that day you stood on the sidewalk and thought nothing more than, "Whew! Numerically speaking, it mustn't have been my turn to buy the farm." If so, this is composure, not rationalism. And composure is a good thing, but it is not rationally based or there would be no heroism in battle. And, instead of feeling lovestruck, teenagers would be coolly clucking their tongues and reflecting it was as well to have learned about pheromones in the 8th grade as to make high school a forfeit to lust. Could be you're just extraordinarily resistant to thanking your lucky stars because rationalism gives you the same sense of control over probabilities that gratitude and an appreciation of providence give certain others who fall to their knees after a truly close shave, needing to give thanks, not caring that there's probably no one to thank. Propitiation is about control, no less than a 100% reliance on statistical chance. The truly rational person realizes full well there is such a thing as an appointment in Samarra, and outwits his own acceptance of that, the better to run his day. Just as painter mixes a little green into almost any red you've ever seen, there is a leaven of magical thinking involved in a stance of philosophical rationalism. Where there is not, I will show you denial, not rationalism.
Eric and Jesse, I'm with you.
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Mar 6, 2008 4:19:18 PM
What! Are Dave Ranning and Chris Schoen asleep? This is their beat!
Posted by: aguy109 | Mar 7, 2008 12:54:57 AM
Aguy109, they must be dining late or something. Anyhow, are they desperately needed here on this thread? Or did they already put in their time this week? Magical thinking is in any case within the realm of psychology, not philosophy or evo-devo. It is used by rationalists and believers alike, and is not at all the tool of backsliding atheists who get themselves in a tight corner and need to go Jedi. Nice to hear from you!
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Mar 7, 2008 1:07:56 AM
"Even if you're a hard-core atheist who walks under ladders and pronounces "new age" like "sewage," you believe in magic."
Actually no I don't. Don't drag me into your wanky purple nonsense
And John Lennon sets my teeth on edge, the misogynistic, materialistic, wife beating adulterer. The only way his ratty old piano could cheer me up is if it was on fire.
Posted by: Alvin Lucier | Mar 7, 2008 4:33:25 AM
Alvin,
In no way is your fantasy "wanky purple nonsense". Maintaining a negative image of someone in order to support a positive image of oneself, is actually a very common fantasy
Posted by: eric | Mar 7, 2008 10:24:48 AM
I considered how fun it might be to try to convince Jared he's not actually an android. Sort of a reverse Turing Test. But things are busy at work this week and I have to pick my battles.
Also, I'm still thinking of whether to respond to that stoopid article about women and language.
But I will say that one doesn't have to "believe" in magic to use magical thinking (Alvin). A certain amount of it can't be avoided, given that language precedes rationality, historically. Before we call a spade a spade, we have to call a spade a spade.
Posted by: Chris Schoen | Mar 7, 2008 11:49:31 AM
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