Is Day Dreaming the Same as Having Vain Thoughts?

[JLAChild]

I know it is easy for one’s mind to wander, and sometimes I can imagine something, a conversation or something happening and what I would say or do.

I remember reading a while back someone (Christian, but I don’t think necessarily someone Catholic) said that a vain thought is imagining yourself in a favorable position.

I know that I try to stay away from thinking anything sinful, but just imagining a outcome that is good for you, “positive imagery” if you will, or even some situation that is humorous. Would that be considered a vain thought and therefore a sin?

 

[wmw]

I would suspect they mean that day dreaming about being a movie star when you’ve never taken an acting class or made any other attempt to actually become one is being vain.

Day dreaming that if a friend asks you a question you would say or do a good and positive thing and make them happy is good preparation for real life and not vain.

If you mean you should be paying attention to something else and your mind wanders so that you don’t do what you should be doing that can be a different problem.

In general I would say day dreaming does not equal vain thoughts, but vain thoughts can include day dreaming.

 

[someperson555]

no, you misunderstand what 'vain thoughts mean". it does NOT mean daydreaming or fiction. lol by that logic watching a disney movie would be a sin… but then again, i wouldnt be surprised if some people on here would claim that to be sinful. after all thats precious time you could spend watching EWTN or praying! cuz you know, what else is there to do for 24 hours?

 

[sweetpetunia]

I know it is easy for one’s mind to wander, and sometimes I can imagine something, a conversation or something happening and what I would say or do.

I remember reading a while back someone (Christian, but I don’t think necessarily someone Catholic) said that a vain thought is imagining yourself in a favorable position.

I know that I try to stay away from thinking anything sinful, but just imagining a outcome that is good for you, “positive imagery” if you will, or even some situation that is humorous. Would that be considered a vain thought and therefore a sin?

No, that is neither vanity, nor a sin. That books sound extremely scrupulous to me! If we are allowed to ask our Father in Heaven for good things, then we are certainly allowed to daydream about positive or humorous experiences. By all means, fill your thoughts with that which is good, and beautiful, it leaves no room for negative or sinful things

 

[DavidFilmer]

Albert Einstein was going home from work, as he usually did, on a streetcar moving away from the large clock tower in Bern, Germany (where he was a lowly patent clerk). On one such evening, he had a daydream about traveling at the speed of light, and asked himself what would he see if he looked back at the clock tower? (answer: the hands would appear frozen in time). From this daydream, he formulated the Special Theory of Relativity. You may have heard of it - its most profound equation was E=mc[sup]2[/sup], and it was the basis of the atomic bomb.

Later, while sitting at his desk in the patent office and being incredibly bored, Einstein wondered what would happen if he fell asleep at his desk (it was a tempting thought). He imagined that he would fall over in his chair, but realized that, for that split second (at least from his perspective), he would be essentially weightless as he fell. From this daydream, he formulated the General Theory of Relativity (in which acceleration and gravity could not be distinguished from any experiment he could conduct from his falling chair).

Vain thoughts? Sometimes the greatest ideas come from daydreams.

 

[JLAChild]

Sometimes I can hear about a subject and imagine having a conversation about it with someone at work and what I would say that would be witty or funny, then I think, “Wait, is that vain?” because according to that description, there’d be a lot of vain thoughts going through my mind.

 

[sweetpetunia]

No, imaginary conversations are not sinful per se, even if you ‘star’ in them Pax.

 

[Sarcelle]

Albert Einstein was going home from work, as he usually did, on a streetcar moving away from the large clock tower in Bern, Germany (where he was a lowly patent clerk). On one such evening, he had a daydream about traveling at the speed of light, and asked himself what would he see if he looked back at the clock tower? (answer: the hands would appear frozen in time). From this daydream, he formulated the Special Theory of Relativity. You may have heard of it - its most profound equation was E=mc[sup]2[/sup], and it was the basis of the atomic bomb.

Later, while sitting at his desk in the patent office and being incredibly bored, Einstein wondered what would happen if he fell asleep at his desk (it was a tempting thought). He imagined that he would fall over in his chair, but realized that, for that split second (at least from his perspective), he would be essentially weightless as he fell. From this daydream, he formulated the General Theory of Relativity (in which acceleration and gravity could not be distinguished from any experiment he could conduct from his falling chair).

Vain thoughts? Sometimes the greatest ideas come from daydreams.

Einstein’s visualization was called a thought experiment or a gedanken (German). I find it useful to do these thought experiments especially at work were I have to learn a particular scientific or engineering concept.

By the way, isn’t Bern in Switzerland and not Germany?