The best explanation I can come up with for peoples' lived experiences is how the sub conscious mind (System 1, as Daniel Kahneman calls it) does "work" in the background and may impact how System 2 changes our conscious thoughts and actions which directly impacts our lived experiences to obtain what we want.
This is the root of it. Soros calls that interplay between action and perception and reaction, reflexivity.
Essentially what it comes down to is the fact that the placebo effect is real, even though placebos are fake. Your perceptions, right or wrong, will impact your choices and your actions. This is how what you believe about your life becomes your actual life.
Well said. I think some day we’ll understand this better and there will be more attention paid to what inputs we allow and which we filter out.