If scientists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences are to be believed, the human race is going to have direct contact with aliens in the next 10-15 years, not through radio waves, but through “the power of thought.” For many of us, thoughts are nothing more than routine creations of a functioning brain, a la water flowing from an open tap. However, in taking a simplistic and abstract view of what philosophy professor W D Hart called “the artefacts of an analysis of a mind”, we fail to appreciate the real energy that brainwaves embody.

In fact, the power of thought is no longer limited to the realm of philosophy. An Austrian health care company has invented a thought-powered prosthetic arm, which works based on the impulses from the wearer's brain.

Scientists at University of Zaragoza, Spain, have unveiled a wheelchair that can be steered by the power of thought— the user only needs to concentrate on the part of the display corresponding to where he or she wants to go, and electrodes in a skullcap detect the user’s brain activity to work out the destination.

One of the world’s largest toy manufacturers has already launched an inventive game where players wearing a brain-scanning headset can guide a ball through an obstacle course using the power of thoughts. Researchers from the University of Southampton have used brain-computer interfacing to capture brain signals and translate them into commands that allow humans to control devices and virtual reality environments just by thinking about various actions.

These developments have added a strong scientific dimension to Bhagavad-Gita’s assertion, “You are what you think; hence thought is action, being and becoming; what one thinks, one becomes.” It was the power of thought that Krishna invoked in Arjuna that helped the latter overcome his sorrow.

A study by researchers at University College, London, corroborates that brainwaves have a direct influence on a person’s behaviour. They’ve found, for example, that people can be made to move in slow motion by boosting a brainwave of a certain frequency and location.

“When thought is brought to a focal centre by the use of the will, it acquired a thousand-fold the force it manifests under ordinary circumstances,” writes C. Alexander in Real Inner Secrets of Psychology. “The masters of mental force have learned this truth during the centuries of the study of these mighty energies, and they make it the first great secret of their practice and instruction.”

Be it our health, lifestyle, occupation or relationships, we are what we choose to become. According to Swami Chinmayananda, “Activities gain potency from the power of thought that feeds them.” As James Allen writes in As a Man Thinketh, human mind is “the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance.” By thinking too much about the negative aspects of our life, we end up amplifying the very things that anger, frustrate or depress us. “Our thoughts create our feelings, beliefs, and experiences," writes Louise L. Hay in Affirmation Power. “If our thinking is negative, we can drown in a sea of negativity; if it’s positive, we can float on the ocean of life.”

It is not about living in the fond belief that thinking positive will automatically take care of all obstacles in our way. On the contrary, it is about approaching life with a positive frame of mind so as to let the mind think better. Positive thinking alone may not be panacea for all ills, as the bustling self-help industry would have us believe, but it surely can pave the way to positive emotions that can help us think clearly and move closer to happiness.

Thoughts enable us to heal, harm, create, destroy, love and hate. It is up to us to unleash and exploit that power. If it can help us communicate with aliens, why can’t it be used to communicate with our own selves and guide to glory the actions that define us?