My son came close to accusing me of having the opposite of paranoia, which is pronoia. Paranoia is a state of mind where you think there is a conspiracy in the world to hurt or bring you down. On the other hand, pronoia is the state of mind where you believe there is a conspiracy to help you win in life.
When he said that, I thought he was joking. But, he wasn’t smiling. He was serious. So, I started thinking about it. Gradually it kind of like fell over me. “Yeah, maybe I possess a little bit, maybe even a lot, of pronoia in my personality.”
In fact, I do believe that humans act in their own best self interest, and create a world with systems that help them survive, get by, and thrive.
In my personal life, I believe nature has evolved to such a point that universal structures have developed to help me get through tough times.
For example, when my personality is overwhelmed with too much stress and anxiety, I have experienced extra sub-conscious thoughts, self talk voices actually, calming me down, and telling and showing me how the tough situations in which I find myself will work out.
Yes, I do believe I have a healthy dose of pronoia. But, I also believe that life is composed of opposites. I admit I have a bit of healthy paranoia. I believe history is cyclical, and repeats cycles of nastiness and cruelty. There are mean, sociopaths out there, who would hurt us if we didn’t put up appropriate security measures to stop them. In other words, I don’t believe people like Hitler ended with Hitler.
Just admitting I have a vein of pronoia running through me, as well as a tinge of paranoia, wakes up all sorts of other stuff inside of me. Like irrational superstions. For example, I’m a little freaked out (not a lot) about admitting I have pronoia, for fear it won’t work anymore if I admit it. I like the idea that the universe works in my favor, but what if it stops because I talked about it? Not logical, nonetheless it’s in there.
With the introduction of one new idea, look at the personal introspection it’s started. Is that bad? No, that’s good. If we’re able to be awaken to new ideas about ourselves, life is definitely more interesting and potentially more personally fulfilling. Perfect.