My Less Than Humble Opinion

Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m just bring realistic”?  Have you noticed that most people use that sentence to defend a preceding negative or pessimistic statement?  Have you ever wondered why so many of us perceive reality that way?

Many years ago, I attended one of Shakti Gawain’s Creative Visualization weekend workshops.  One thing she said has stuck with me through the years.  I don’t recall her exact words, but the essence of it was:

All your life, you’ve expected bad things to happen … and bad
things have happened.  Have you ever wondered what would
happen if you expected good things?

Thoughts change Reality

Thoughts change reality.  I base that statement on my understanding of psychology and sociology, my spiritual (religious?) and philosophical beliefs, and my perception of reality.  I’ll get to the psychological and sociological aspects, but want to start with my view of reality and the spiritual beliefs related to that perception.

Definitions/Axioms

One of the better attributes of definitions and axioms is that they simply exist.  Each of us can create our own definitions and axioms.  Yours and mine may not agree but neither is inherently right or wrong.  (For example, because their basic definitions/axioms differ, a “creationist” and a “evolutionist” have opposite answers to the question, “Which came first; the chicken or the egg?”)

The more similar our respective views of “reality”; the more our definitions and axioms agree.  The more our definitions and axioms agree; the more similar our respective views of “reality”.  It works both ways.  Here are some of my definitions:

God is All That Is in the act of Becoming.
What we commonly call reality is a subset of a larger Reality.
Reality is a function of Consciousness.
Time, as we normally perceive it, is an illusion.

We Are Responsible

In a very real sense, there are no accidents and no victims.  By our thoughts and actions, we create our individual realities and our collective reality.  As a part of All That Is, we are contributing to the creation of Reality as well.  Because the essence of what we are exists outside of time and space, even the circumstances of our births was a choice.  We have created this incarnation in this here and now to learn lessons best learned in this subset of reality with all its illusions.  That learning is our individual “becomings”.

The Problem

The problem is that most of our “becomings” are unconscious, sloppy, and haphazard.  Jane Wagner wrote and Lily Tomlin spoke in “The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe”:

Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.

It’s more than just “a collective hunch”.  Each of us is a part of All That Is … a part of God.  Every moment of every one of our lives is a meditation … a prayer.  Every thought; every action of every life changes every level of Reality.  If we focus on the negative things we notice, we lose twice.  We strengthen the negative and lose the chance to notice and strengthen the positive.  This is not a figure of speech.  It is literally true.  (This will sound familiar to those who have any knowledge of the teachings of Seth as transmitted and written by Jane Roberts that began over 40 years ago.)

Even the tiniest bits of Consciousness in the tiniest bits of Life changes Reality continuously.  The more Consciousness … the more self-awareness … a life has; the more responsibility.  We have the power to change the world.  It’s not only time to stop being afraid; it’s time to change our thoughts.

Psychology, Sociology, and a bit of Physics

If the above sounds like “just a lot of ‘New Age’ gobble-de-gook”, that’s OK.  There’s a more “down to Earth” view that makes the same point.

Most of the time, the autonomic nervous system handles many physical functions (heart rate, respiration, pupillary response, etc.). Some autonomic responses are visible to others. (That’s one reason that professional gamblers hide their eyes from their opponents.) Normally, we aren’t conscious that we’re observing another’s dilating pupils or slightly increased breathing. Outside of direct confrontation/competition, our conscious minds don’t care about such things. Our subconscious minds miss very little.

Body language is not autonomic but most of us seldom notice we’re doing it. Others do notice it subconsciously and often consciously. Those who are consciously aware of body language (e.g., entertainers, politicians, scam artists) can use it to great advantage.

Some autonomic responses and most body language are tempered, if not completely controlled, by our thoughts and the feelings that go with them. What others “read” from us will, in turn, modify their thoughts and feelings. What we are “transmitting” is likely to be reflected (perhaps amplified) back to us. “As you sow, so shall you reap” applies to thoughts as well as deeds.

One last thing … In the very strictest sense, science never knows anything.  The most that can be said about any scientific theory is:

In the context of current understanding, this theory explains
what has been observed. Repeatable experiments indicate
there is an extremely high probability that the theory is
the best description/explanation so far.

Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity changed reality. Without Einstein’s theories and the theories from quantum mechanics that grew out of his work, our modern, interconnected world could not exist.

The reality of the quantum level looks quite different from the reality we normally experience. Given our current understanding, is it so hard to believe that Reality is miraculous? In a miraculous Reality, as you believe, so shall it be done unto you; in a miraculous Reality, as you believe, so shall it be.

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