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.

Entering Present Moment Awareness

The Past……

Isn’t real.

Sure, it feels real - you believe you have memories of horrible things…. but if you look really really closely at it, there is absolutely no way to prove it ever happened - other than your memory of it.

Memories are unreliable at best. Even if it really happened, it is unlikely it happened exactly as you remember it happening - and - the event was perceived subjectively - there is absolutely NO objective perceptions.

Once you can except that maybe it didn’t happen exactly as you recall it happening, or maybe it never really happened at all, or if you can even get to a point of saying… “I accept this is how I believe it happened”

then let it go. Like blowing out a candle flame, it just ceases to be, ceases to have effect.

The longer you think about it, the longer you relive it, the longer you talk it to death - the more belief you’ve invested, the more real you’ve made it for yourself NOW. Just accept that you believe it occurred - it isn’t occurring now, it has no effect unless you decide it does.

Change Your Attitude And Change Your Life

The Chant Of The PD Guru’s
Many Personal Development Guru’s chant this mantra unceasingly, yet if this were a straightforward or easy process, well - none of us would have a negative attitude about anything. While most of us have heard this maxim, and probably agree with it in principle, simply comprehending it isn‘t enough. In order to bring about positive change in your life, it must be applied. The first step in changing an attitude is in taking responsibility for it, We must first become accountable to create any real or lasting changes in our reality.

In the following article I look a bit deeper at the source and development of our attitudes and offer tips on how to identify and change them

What Is An Attitude?
An attitude is a mental position we adopt regarding thoughts, ideas, people, feelings, or ourselves. Our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors combine to produce our attitudes.

The Truth About Your Attitude
You can only adopt an attitude about something you’ve judged. Attitudes require a judgment to be placed on a certain thought, person, idea, or thing. We judge according to our beliefs, which are basically the inner truths we’ve formed through perception and experience. Every situation and person we encounter is JUDGED mercilessly, based upon these inner beliefs. Is he/she good or bad? Is it right or wrong? Are they LESS than I am or MORE? Do they love me enough? Are their comments favorable or unfavorable to my truths? Is someone treating me well or not? Each judgment then leads to thoughts, which lead to feelings, which lead to outward behaviors; thus is born an attitude.

The Self Serving Nature of Judgment
Most beliefs are based upon a self preserving premise, so most judgments are self-serving. The ego’s role is to preserve the being it resides in (you), and anything judged to be a threat to the well being of YOU is perceived to be BAD, WRONG, HURTFUL, or EVIL. When we think about people, situations, or ideas in this way, it can only lead to feelings against them and behaviors or actions to preserve our “Rightness”, this attitude is made not because of another person or situation outside our self, but because of what is happening within ourselves.

The Game of Perception
It’s a game of association revolving around perception. If someone or something is helpful or useful, we adopt a good accepting attitude. If something is perceived as threatening, then those thoughts create feelings which create certain behaviors; thus a “negative attitude” is adopted. We each have our own unique set of attitudes based upon our past experiences, thoughts, social conditioning, and perceptions. All attitude is dependent upon the past experiences of the individual who holds it.

Taking Inventory
Our attitudes aren’t wrong or right, they just are. Most are developed without conscious thought, so, in order to change an attitude, we must first take a mental inventory of those we hold. We cannot change anything without first recognizing it within ourselves.

Notice your reactions to people and events in your life. Each time you notice your attitude, try to discover why you hold to that attitude. Do you feel threatened? Do you feel “Wronged” by another? Don’t be misled into believing anyone can cause you to have an attitude or to feel a certain way, it all lies within your own mind, hidden in your beliefs and judgments.

Below are Five Tips For Identifying and Changing A Negative Attitude

1. Try to observe contrast rather than judge - When we judge, we do so out of a need to preserve our “Rightness”. If we can forgo the need to be right, and allow ourselves to just observe the contrast, we can suspend the need to judge.

2. Know what pushes your buttons - Try to notice negative feelings and what gives rise to them. Follow those feelings back to the inner beliefs which produced them. We feel angry when we hold beliefs and expectations that we feel are under attack or intruded upon. Remind yourself that although this is how the Ego was designed to function (self preservation), it has become too rigid in it’s functioning and prevents you from realizing inner peace.

3. Learning to let go - When we release ourselves from expectations and rigid belief systems, we free ourselves to adopt a more balanced and positive attitude. Remind yourself that your beliefs and thoughts are not the thoughts and beliefs of others. Nobody has to be “Wrong“, for you to be “Right”. Everyone has there own inner belief system and inner truths. We do not have to accept another’s thoughts, beliefs, or feelings as our own, we simply have to respect their right to have them.

4. Count to ten - Don’t be quick to respond or give an attitude. Get out of the habit of reacting to other people and situations. Attitude is a choice, and when we take a bit of time to think, to consider the source of our thoughts, and to delay our reactions; our attitudes can evolve and change.

5. Realize it is a choice - Your thoughts and feelings are your own. You must take responsibility for them and for everything they create. Rather than shifting blame onto others or outside of self, try to dig deeper into your own belief systems and change the underlying cause.