Sunday, March 09, 2014

The Big Lie

Let me begin by saying that I believe each of us affects our own reality, our own life,  not just by our actions, but also by our beliefs and thoughts. For example, knowing what you want (as in setting a goal) automatically helps screen out what you don't want, and shifts your actions in the direction of what you do want.

But there is a Big Lie going on in so-called NewAge circles, and it's this:

All you need to do is think positively, believe positively, and all wealth, great relationships and good health will come to you automatically. If all these things don't come to you, then you are doing something wrong.

There are a couple of problems with this:

First, most of us have a deep belief structure that gets in the way of conscious positivity, at least in some areas of our lives. This structure can be changed. I have written about that a lot in earlier blog posts. Please search this blog for items with the tag "belief" to read those posts. If some specific area of your life isn't working, call me at 888-4-HOLLIS, and I can help you shift a belief that may be getting in your way to something more helpful.

Second, we are co-creating the world and its events with everyone else on the planet. Mass events happen because they serve the ends of so many people. Those of us who join them, do so for our own reasons. Those of us who don't join in, didn't have a need to. For example, I have 2 separate friends who were scheduled to be on large passenger jets that crashed (one on 9/11), but took an earlier flight, and therefore lived to tell the story. They must have needed to live, rather than to die.

We all part of a larger story, rather than separate from it. Believing positively does not affect climate change. But if billions of us each act differently, that might affect it.

Here's how this works on a personal level. A friend told me this story:

"Normally, I'm an 'up and at 'em' kind of person -- I get up in the morning filled with energy, and I want to get dressed and get to work right away. That means really hustling to get on BART -- getting out of the house at 6:50AM, watching the traffic to catch every possible traffic light, walking at a very brisk pace through the parking garage and down to the platform  to catch the 7:06 train.

"But one morning last week, I was feeling kind of tired, like I was fighting off a bug. I didn't really want to go to work, but I wasn't sick enough to stay home. I got out of the house on time, but wasn't figuring every car length in the traffic, nor walking at breakneck pace through the garage and the station. So instead of the 7:06 train, I caught the 7:12, which would still get me to work with 10 minutes to spare for an 8AM meeting. But I kept thinking, "I don't want to go to work."

"Here's the funny part: the 7:12 train had mechanical problems, so we sat in a tunnel for at least 15 minutes, then had to disembark, which took seemingly forever, because some people apparently thought they were exceptions to "everyone off the train", and wait for the next (now jam packed) train. I finally arrived at work 15 minutes late.

"When I explained about the BART breakdown, it looked to everyone else like I was late through no fault of my own. But what I know is this: if I'd been my normal self, I'd have been on the 7:06 -- and would have missed the breakdown entirely."

Did my friend's intention not to go to work create the breakdown? No. But it caused her to join in to a mass event, a breakdown that was happening anyway

We who are here on this planet right now, have all joined a general breakdown. Changing my beliefs about the current corrupt state of our political system will not change that system, at least not alone.