Your Belief Filter, Perception, and How It Effects Intentional Manifestation
I’ve focused many blog posts on perception, what it is and what it is not. Today I’d like to visit the topic again because it is such a stumbling block to intentional manifestation.
First, just for a moment glance around you, smell the air, touch something near you, listen to the sounds in the background. These are you physical senses, they make up part of your perception but they are not the complete picture. Consider what happens when you look out the window and see a tree shedding it’s leaves, a cloudy sky, or a bird on the windowsill.
Seeing, hearing, tasting, or touching (all physical actions) are only part of perceiving. When you take in a visual image, a taste, a physical sensation, or a sound, it is entered into the brain (database) and run through a program which quickly compares them to those held in memory, contrasts them with other similar experiences, brings up past memories, thoughts, and emotions held at those times and then finally it run’s all of this data through your Belief Filter. Your belief filter is your inner guidance of what is not only true but what is possible. These are the adopted beliefs of your identity.
So as you sit and look outside and perceive the scene you are not only seeing what is now, but a compilation of many many other instances of similar experiences combined with the current information. Any information not in alignment with your adopted belief system is filtered OUT and not perceived. Thoughts & emotions rise depending upon all of this information.
What this means is that you are not perceiving truly. When the brain compares, contrasts, and includes past experiences to you, it actually render’s what is now into what was. The present moment cannot be contained in the past. To see with new eyes, to hear with new ears, or to see with the eyes of a child requires circumventing this packaging of information with past associations and beliefs. It requires that you be completely present & open. This is aptly described in the New Testament as being born again, in this moment. It is a complete release from memory, from mental associations, from beliefs, and from arising emotions. Tolle describes it as THE NOW, and ‘A Course In Miracles’ dubs it the HOLY INSTANT.
One of my favorite quotes about perceptions is found in ‘A Course In Miracles’, chapter 11, section VIII:
The End of the world is not its destruction, but its translation into Heaven. The reinterpretation of the world is the transfer of all perception to knowledge.
The Bible tells you to become as little children. Little children recognize that they do not understand what they perceive, and so they ask what it means. Do not make the mistake of believing that you understand with you perceive, for its meaning is lost to you. Yet the Holy Spirit has saved its meaning for you, and if you will let Him interpret it, He will restore to you what you have thrown away. Yet while you think you know its meaning, you will see no need to ask it of Him.
You do not know the meaning of anything you perceive. Not one thought you hold is wholly true. The recognition of this is your firm beginning. You are not misguided; you have accepted no guide at all. Instruction in perception is your great need, for you understand nothing. Recognize this but do not accept it, for understanding is your inheritance. Perceptions are learned, and you are not without a teacher. Yet your willingness to learn of Him depends on your willingness to question everything you learned of yourself, for you who learned amiss should not be your own teacher.
No one can withhold truth except from himself.
So in essence, we see only what we believe, and most of us believe 100% of what we see. But, the TRUTH or the real REALITY is not our perception of it. Our individual reality is completely our own and is formed by us and fed to us through our belief filter and past associations. Everything we see, hear, taste, smell, and touch is created by and through our beliefs about what is true and real, therefor everything we perceive is a reflection of who & what we are at our deepest level, our ego formed beliefs.
To break away from this circular manifestation cycle, we must enter into the unfiltered NOW, the present moment or Holy Instant. Tolle advocates using your breathe, meditation, and a continuous watchfulness of thought. Similarly ACIM advises to let go of the past, look with new eyes, and ask constantly what it is you are perceiving and what it really means. If we ask ourselves what it means, and allow ourselves an instant to become aware, our perceptions will show us all exactly what it is we truly believe. Each thought, emotion, and perception is the witness to what we hold true for ourselves and our reality, and there can be no change in thought or reality without first a change in our belief filter.
Projection Makes Perception, Vision Creates Reality
This is a quote from A Course In Miracles, Chapter 21 - Introduction.
Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause. And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is meaningless. Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. Nothing perceived without it means anything. And where there is no meaning, there is chaos.
Damnation is your judgment on yourself, and this you will project upon the world. See it as damned, and all you see is what you did to hurt the Son of God. If you behold disaster and catastrophe, you tried to crucify him. If you see holiness and hope, you joined the Will of God to set him free. There is no choice that lies between these two decisions. And you will see the witness to the choice you made, and learn from this to recognize which one you chose.
I like this quote for a couple reasons. First, it really lays it on the line regarding the reality we see. Everything we perceive outside of ourselves is a mirror to our inner state of being. Secondly, everything we choose to project outside ourselves is a choice that can be changed.
Now, keeping this in mind - take a minute to just look around you. What do you see in the world you’ve created? Conflict or Love? Blame or forgiveness? Abundance or lack? Joy or suffering? How much joy & abundance have you created for yourself?
If every instance of suffering we observe outside ourselves is in fact an image of our inner state of suffering - WOW, it appears I still have much work to do!!
My first question then is how do I get rid of it and project a state of peace and joy instead? How can I control my thoughts, take dominion over them and release myself from this world of poverty, hunger, sorrow, and suffering? I want to live in a world of fullness, abundance, joy, and love - so what are the steps necessary to get from where I am now to where I desire to be?
According to the text in the next section of this chapter, it is VISION. Vision is our salvation. When we reject our bodily perceptions and turn within the mind to Vision, we stop the cycle of projection and begin to create from our desires.
This is no easy step, it requires control of our thoughts. To see a situation bodily with physical sight is usually persuasive enough to be considered “Truth” and accepted as fact. When we begin to understand the process of Intentional Manifestation we see there is another way. We realize that what we see with our eyes is the past thoughts of the mind, it isn’t happening NOW, it is a past thought made manifest - so the ONLY way to change it is to think different thoughts NOW. If you see a overdrawn bank account now, know it’s cause is a past thought of LACK. Now think abundance. In this moment you have all the power in the universe to change anything and everything in your life. You hold that power in your thoughts.
Vision is the opposite of Sight. While sight relies on your eyes to perceive the past thoughts you’ve manifested, Vision is the process of perceiving what you desire NOW (which will play out as a future manifestation outside yourself). This is you intentionally imagining or envisioning your future as you desire it NOW.
Our thoughts are images, and when held within the mind with belief - they become our reality.
Everyday, decide to EnVision the person you wish to be, the world you want to live in, and the experiences you wish to have and then make it so.