What might be our standard picture of thought? And what, indeed, might be wrong with this picture?

I see three basic propositions:

1. Thought is private. My thoughts are obviously mine and not yours; yours obviously yours and not mine.
2. Thought is largely innocuous. If I’m inclined to woolgathering, then what harm is there? Maybe I might concede that, at the margins, some evil thoughts are, well, evil, but what about all those idle thoughts I regularly indulge? Aren’t they innocuous?
3. Thought is thing-like or inert. The suggestion here is that we seem to believe that thought is “a something,” not a process.

In Thought Power, Sivananda (it can be surmised) takes all three propositions to be false. What would be his counters?

1. Thought is public. What if thoughts are occurring within a cosmic mind that happen to be appearing within 8 billion finite minds but also in the space (so to speak) between these 8 billion finite mind?
2. Thought is wave-like or dynamic. Contrary to the view that thought is like a thing that stays within my finite mind, what if thought travels? If thought travels, then how far might it go? And who might receive it?
3. Thought has ethical consequences. While this might sound like magic, could it be that the thoughts appearing to me aren’t idle or innocuous? As I argued yesterday, thoughts certainly shape my character, yet what if more is also the case? If thought is public (1 above) and if thought travels (2 above), then surely a certain thought (any thought) travels well beyond the confines of this finite mind. If this is so, then who else is coming into contact with this thought? Is it possible that often thinking mean thoughts could already introduce meanness into the public thought-space?

If this new, albeit quite unorthodox picture of thinking is correct, then it gives us ample reason to embrace thought power. One meaning of the latter is surely that one comes to think fewer negative thoughts and more positive thoughts. By virtue of this “retribution” policy, the world is already a better place.