The Gravity of Thoughts

“What if a thought is an actual thing, a measurable entity, with a measurable mass?…Well…if a thought has mass, then a thought exerts gravity and can pull things toward it.”

— excerpted from Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol

I’ve been wandering around in my daily life for the last five days staying open to ideas about this new post, and doing my best to let go of a self-imposed deadline. Many, many thoughts came, and went.

Then on this lazy Sunday morning, husband and dogs and tea and coffee close by, I settled onto the sofa to read Dan Brown’s book. There on page 76 was the above definition of the creative power of thought that finally struck me on a visceral, core level—so simply put, and thus so accessible, in the unexpected guise of a dialogue between fictional characters in a novel.

That thoughts have tremendous power isn’t a new idea. One can read about it in books ranging from ancient texts of many of the world’s religions to the most cutting-edge scientific writings. Perhaps most convincing is that as individuals, we can field-test the power of our own thoughts by watching what happens when we actively and mindfully choose them. What do I want to pull toward me?

Scientifically measured, the mass of a thought would be enormously lighter than the feather pictured above. Yet that thought attracts circumstances, people, and energy toward it as surely as moths flock toward a lightbulb at night. Enough well-chosen thoughts, like enough well-placed feathers, and flight is possible.

Photograph by Gerri Davis