Imagine, if you will, the entire universe and all of its history preserved on videotape for some higher deity (if your beliefs allow such) to sit back and watch one higher equivalent of a day. Everything on the video is pre-recorded. It can be played at will, rewound, skipped over, and so on. It will always be the same at point x on the tape.

Now imagine that we are on that tape, and that that is how our reality works. Determinism, or whatever the unmangled form of that word is if it's not spelled that way. Our actions, thoughts, feelings, and sock colour are all determined at every single point on the tape. As the tape plays, we go about our lives. We make decisions, have freedom of motion, freedom of thought, freedom of dress. We choose to put on the new red pair with the Dilbert motif. All is well and good.

Extract yourself back to the living room of the gods. Clearly, the people on the tape aren't making decisions. That person was simply *destined* to put on those socks. To them, they felt that they had made that choice. Because they were *destined* to feel like they had made that choice. They don't know what's coming next on the tape, and so as far as they were concerned that had freedom of choice.

With me so far? OK, good. Now pause the video after they've put to socks on. Rewind it a little. They're now about to choose what to adorn their feet with. We know they're going to choose the Dilbert socks. Why? Because they choose the Dilbert socks. The video is a flat, "timeless" entity. It was created all at once, with all of its data intact. No part of it was created "before" any other part.

So which came first, the chicken or the egg? Did they wear the socks because of their choice, or did they choose to wear the socks because they were going to wear the socks? Re-read that until you get what I'm trying to say. Play the tape on a day, and get on to my second example. They think to themselves, "I haven't seen the film Alien for a while." Fast forward. To their utter surprise, a week later, HBC shows Alien.

Now, is this situation any different to the socks? There was a desire (I want my feet to not fall off / I want to see Alien) and an event (Putting socks on / HBC screening Alien). They're essentially the same thing, to us watching the video. To the person, however, one was them affecting the future, and the other was them predicting it. However, we've seen that these situations are the same.

So, in this universe I've created, prediction and whatever-the-word-is-I'll-call-it-sorcery-for-now are the same thing. Predicting that something will happen is exactly the same as making your thought come true.

Now for the shock revelation. I usually refrain from discussing my beliefs in public, and especially near religious types that seem all too keen to banish my immortal soul to warmer climes. Are you ready? I believe in the above system. I believe that our thoughts can, perhaps not consciously and not all the time, affect reality. Or, more accurately, we are occasionally destined to have predictions which are predicted to become true.

There, I've thrown myself on the mercy of the Rinkaudience. Go easy on me.

Matthew