Hi ,
The following is a personal perspective…
You create your universe. This has been a popular mantra of the positive thinking crowd for the past 100+ years. It is a central tenant of the new thought movement popular since the turn of the last century. And like most philosophical/ spiritual systems that begin founded in sound common sense, the new thought movement has gradually become a new age religion. And like most religions, the common sense of its founders gets lost and replaced with “wish fulfillment” ideology and snappy catch phrases.
Just how badly distorted this philosophy has become was brought home to me by watching a YouTube video of one of the New Age gurus on the subject of “backdrop people”. The upshot of the video was the belief that most of the people around you in your life were not really real people, but just a sort of filler -like extras on a movie set in the unfolding of your personal creation of life. My first thought was “I wonder what the backdrop people feel about that 
perspective?” The depth of narcissism in this perspective gave me a chill. Since I am not a central player in this guru’s story, that means I must be a backdrop person and therefore not really a real person.
From the deep belief that you create your own universe, taken literally, this absurdity makes sense. After all, if all those people were all-powerful creators like myself, then their creation process would conflict with mine. There is no way we could all be all-powerful universe creators, so there must be sub-human non-creators that exist only to serve my needs in my creation process.
Yeah right – get a real life guru…
Yet a lot of the experiences of positive thinkers align with the expectations that flow from the concept of creating our own life. So what gives? What is really happening? I will share my current perspective on this subject. I say current perspective because every bit of new information I experience in this arena modifies my perspective. I see what I see until I see more.
First perspective – you create the experience of your universe. To quote Shakespeare, “Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” An old proverb tells the story of the wise farmer whose son breaks his leg. His neighbor says to him that this must be terrible for him as the son can now no longer help him on the farm. The wise old farmer replies “I can’t say if it is good or bad; time will tell.” The farmer went back to tilling his field. The next day the king soldiers come through town conscripting all the young men to go fight far away in the king’s latest war. The farmer’s son was left behind because of his broken leg. The leg mended and the farmer had his son’s help once again.
The experience of our life is created by the judgments we make about what happens in our life. If we make positive open judgments, then our experience will likewise be one of life being a positive open place. If we decide certain things are terrible, then those things will dominate our awareness as we are always looking for the possibility of these awful things happening again. On the third flip side, if we always live in hope of the best, life will be a continuing experience of disappointment. Things are rarely ever the best we would like them to be.
When we are at ease with what is we maximize the contentment in our life. We are like the wise farmer – accepting what is and continuing to create what we want in life. I have a poster in my office that states that The purpose of day to day life is to maximize the creation of what we want – health, wealth, and love, without resorting to the use of manipulation, power, or control.
Perspective number two – our thoughts create reality. I would say yes with a huge caveat. I can have all the thoughts I want about a pool in my backyard, but if I don’t do something to make that happen, it is not ever going to happen no matter how strong my visualizations are. There are laws that govern this plane of existence. One of them is the law of conservation of mass – otherwise known as “You can’t get something from nothing.”
On the other hand I use the “creative power of thought” to manifest things I want in my life all the time. If I want a parking place right in front of a particular store during rush hour in downtown San Francisco, I put my attention on the spot waiting for me when I arrive in a half hour and it is usually there waiting for me. I have been keeping my practice filled with patients using this process for the last 33 years without ever advertising. How is this possible?
Well lets look at what does not work. I am astoundingly bad at playing the stock market. I might as well use the money to help start the logs burning in my wood stove. I have tried every variation of thought projection and psychic manipulation to pick stock winners and fail most of the time. Why?
Here is my perspective on this – remember all those backdrop people in the beginning of the article? Well we are all semi-powerful creators and their creations conflict with my creations, but before the creations actually reach the manifestation stage. I believe we have what could be called a consensus reality. The reality we see and experience is the result of the combined thoughts, feelings, and actions of everyone.
What happens when there appears to be some amazing manifestation of thought power to my belief and experience is really just a slight shifting of probabilities in the direction of the clear strong thought? The consensus reality is chaotic and full of possibilities. When you invite life to participate with you in a way that supports you while also supporting the rest of life, probabilities shift in directions that support you. 
When I open myself to a busy day at work, I don’t ask certain people to suddenly hurt and need my services. I simply say that I am available to play with anyone who might want to connect for any reason. Then hopefully I will be able to be of benefit to him or her. I open the probability field with my willingness to participate. With getting parking places – the probability is that these spaces will become vacant periodically and I open myself to be guided to arrive at the best time to catch one of these openings.
The stock market on the other hand requires me to fix a price and a time to a stock pick. I can not open myself to freely participate with the movement of the chaos of conflicting desires of the market. I have to demand the market be my way in my time in order for me to win. My creation process is not strong enough to force the entire market to bend to my will and to be what I want in my time. The market is the net result of the blending of the desires of all the players in the market at any one time.
So can our thoughts create reality? Yes, in the sense that a sailor can chart a course on the ocean understanding that he has no control over either the ocean or the weather.
Control is the sticking point that people in the “wish fulfillment” band have trouble with. They want control. They want the magic genie in the lamp at their beck and call to manifest their every wish. Everyone would like that. Can you imagine what the world would look like if everyone had such a genie? The wars and chaos would be immense. Unfortunately, almost everyone’s deepest wish is make others be the way they want. This is not allowed. Each person is sacred just the way they are.
We are given the right to control our life from the skin inward. We can choose what goes into our bodies and how we use our body. From the skin outward is not ours to control, just to participate with. The world is a shared reality.
So do we create our universe? On a very practical level we do. We create our reactions and feelings to what is and we chart our course in life to create what we want. This creates our reality. Is magic available to help us along the way? I say yes. The magic of opening to the shifting of probabilities and possibilities by being flexible in being guided to or letting in what we want. With sufficient belief, practice, and focus this shifting of possibilities can border on manifesting the miraculous. But it is still all within the field of possibilities. It still has to “fit” within some part of the group consciousness of the rest of humanity. Reality is a group effort. None of us creates in a vacuum on our own. We are all connected.
Take care,
David