Our minds get information from a lot of sources, and of course the basic purpose of our mind is to sort all of the chaos into usable information. Whenever we get an “easy out” the mind takes it. What I mean by an “easy out” is pre-sorted information.
As kids there is so much going on in our lives we take every “easy out” we can. We take what our parents say as gospel, teachers and other adults fall into the same group. Once we accept the information as truth, our minds take the information and file it away for future use.
As teenagers we start to test the information. We begin to give more weight to information our peer groups provide than our parents and teachers sometimes.
The trick is to understand the sources of this information, where it comes from and how you can fix it.
The Collective Mind
There is a lot of different thought in this area, and for some even acknowledging the existence will be difficult. At one end there is pure instinct, knowing how to breath, have a heart beat and blink. At the other end many believe that we are all connected and that all knowledge exists in the “ether” or the “collective mind”.
Without a full dissertation on the physics of energy, in simple terms we are all just stored and organized energy. Everything you see and can’t see is exactly the same thing, stored and organized energy. Everything is simply energy and space. All molecules are made of atoms. Atoms are made of particles and “empty space”. Many physicists now believe there is more energy in the empty space than there is in the particles.
Look at it this way. When you burn wood, you change the connection of the molecules to get heat, light and ash. Gasoline powered cars do the same thing. When you burn gasoline, a hydrocarbon is split into several smaller molecules like water, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide among other things. From a gallon of gasoline you get enough energy to move a car up to 50 miles these days.
Nuclear power actually splits the atom and changes the particle arrangement. Several thousand times more heat and energy is generated per pound of material used.
A single uranium fuel pellet the size of a fingertip contains as much energy as 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 1,780 pounds of coal or 149 gallons of oil. - NEI.org
Many believe all of the knowledge that ever existed is contained within the energy field that separates the particles of an atom. For centuries in every civilization there has been an a different way to explain the same thing. Some say it is communicating with ghosts, or angels. Others will say “it just came to them”. Since man can’t mechanically get the information out of the “ether” or see it, most don’t believe it.
Call it what you want, the collective mind, the ether, god, love or if you are a big Star Wars fan call it the force. The point is to accept that it exists and your instincts come from it. People who can stay connected to it, are likely to get much more.
If you ever work with small children in groups and some just have the answers or know what to do and others don’t, you might be watching the extended instinct ability of the collective mind at work.
If you get information from the collective mind, there isn’t much you are going to change, and in some ways maybe you shouldn’t change it.
This leaves us with the next two, and very important, sources of thought and belief
Your Mind
As we discussed elsewhere, when your mind encounters unknown information, it will do everything it can to sort and store the information in a usable way. Like a hoarder, your mind has a massive store house of things you likely will never use.
One of the better tools I have seen people use to dissipate incorrect or damaging beliefs is to think through the process and clear the mind of the clutter and cobwebs.
The method goes something like this:
When you are feeling bad about something or things aren’t going your way, ask yourself “What do I believe about that?”
For instance, lets say I am walking into an interview and looking around the room, I don’t think I can get the job. I would then ask myself “What do I believe about getting the job”.
My answer is “Looking at the competition, I won’t get it”
Then the next question to ask myself is “Who told you that?”
Finally I answer “The Mind”
The idea is that by saying “The Mind” I shed the thought and can move forward.
The problem is there may be deeper issues and this quick tool won’t get there.
You have to keep drilling until you find that in fact is was the mind and not your parents (an outside source) saying “You’ll never be good enough for a job like that.”
Outside Sources
This is the third and most important source of bad and damaging information I can think of. Why? Simply put, why would the collective mind give you bad information? Did it teach you to breath wrong? Did it teach your heart to skip a beat, or did some outside stress or information cause it?
Sadly most children grow up in a very negative household. Since the 1970’s the news has turned negative and people now look for the “bad news” and not the good news. Watch any news channel and it is 70% or more bad, scary or negative news.
For most people your outside sources are against your success and they don’t even know it. It is your job to deflect, change and move on.
For example, if you wanted to be an actor, well meaning parents might say something like “Dear, you can do anything, why would you waste your time as an actor?”
That piece of outside information gets set in your mind like cement and says a bunch of things all at once. FIrst it says, “Being an Actor is a waste of your life”, second it says “We don’t know what you will do, probably waste your life”. It doesn’t sound like that but no direction is the worst direction.
If your parents grew up with jealousy or envy they might say “clean up your act or you won’t amount to anything”. or “Who are you Mr. Big Shot to do better than your father and me?”.
Those statements set your mind up for failure. The key to the self analysis tool above is to keep digging until you have a name to answer the question “who told you that?” The mind normally isn’t the culprit in deep seated beliefs.
Once you know the name, you can then ask, “Who are they to decide that for me?” Your answer should always be “Someone who isn’t qualified” so you can let go of the belief. Richard Wetherhill described a similar process it as opening the gates of the mind to let out the false beliefs in his writings during the early and middle 20th century.
Jesus, Buddah and Mohammed all taught similar methods for clearing the mind of false beliefs. Organizations that surround these teachings have changed the use.
Only when you can clear out all of these negative and damaging beliefs will you be ready to move ahead.
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Thank you for your insights.